Industrial Design of the Week: TOPIC SUGGESTIONS

[Nismo]

A device for knocking out tanks.


MUST be ballistic weapon
CANNOT be rocket-propelled
CANNOT be guided
CANNOT be thrown
NO lasers!

-think recoilles rifles, high calibre rifles.

These need to be carried, and fired by a team of no more than two soldiers.

Recoil is a bitch with high calibres so you need to think of a way to minimise it (think muzzle breaks).

This gun needs to be able to take out a main battle tank.

Also you must design the ammunition. What types of round will you be firing? HEAT? Sabots?

[Nismo]

Flechettes are small darts (fin-stabilised).

Their advantage over traditional bullets is they can potentially penetrate much further, due to their small diameter.

Design a gun used for firing these rounds. What will the bullets look like?

[Nismo]

Weapon used to incapacitate a target without causing fatal injuries.

Eg: Glue guns (Ghost in the shell SAC Series 1 ep 2)
Beanbag/low velocity shotguns
sonic weapons
blinding weapons
syringe gun (tranq gun)
net launchers

[Nismo]

Full scale battleship or carrier zeppelin: big guns, point defenses, capable of launching marines, fighters, bombers...

For inspiration check out the anime Last Exile...

[Sig.NAL]

exoskeleton / spacesuit for manned exploration of planets with higher gravity

[Relhob]

I'm with Klevr and nismo, Exoskeleton or some type of spacesuit and a nice battleship would really make it.

[Jonas Heirwegh]

I would pick something like a device or transportation thing.

spacesuit is again character stuff, we have enough of that here on ca.
I would say something with propellers, doesnt matter what. Can be an airplane, one man vehicle, huge ship to transport heavy things, just anything.

Inspiration..

[ATAnderson]

Why not do something similar to EOW and take descriptive passages from books. find a cool scene and pick some elements that could be designed. This gives a brief that has some restrictions but also some freedom (more like a real job).

I don't know how well recieved this idea will be but if people resond well, they could start posting the passages they would like to work from.

Just trying to have an idea that's more than a 2 word brief. I have no problem with the 2 word briefs but doesn't hurt to push the boundaries.

ATA

[mackerman]

CNN reported a contest from the US Military to design a powered suit / load reducer to lighten the weight that infantrymen carry:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/07/16/w...ize/index.html

i can think of a bunch of different interpretations for this one

edit - the cnn link is down but the general concept was as follows:
the increasing amount of technical gear carried by each individual soldier demands the development of a system that can either: A)provide large amounts of electrical energy while remaning lightweight (to replace the 50 pounds of batteries currently carried by troopers) or B)synthetically enhance the load bearing abilities of the wearer... some sort of exoskeletal musculature that enhances the user's abilities.

[Norsehound]

How about designing a Super Robot?

Something akin to the 1970s giant robot anime craze. Must have fantastical attacks, but no restrictions on how comical one can go with such attacks (So long as it's family friendly)

[darthnader]

self replicating robot- makes copies of itself or makes ones of another design.

swarm drones- smaller then your hand, but travel in swarms. used to attack and patrol and can be dropped in packs onto enemy bases from a bomber. must have mele weapons

goobot- a robot whos main structure is a type of jelly, and the only solid thing on it is a small chip for a brain.

portal door- nuff said.

[Hideyoshi]

I'd really like to see some down-to-earth topics, simple ones but screaming industrial design all over. You could still add additional briefs in the description to make it more interesting. But I feel, these kinda topics would attract people.

-Medic Droid (e.g. as seen in STAR WARS)
-Street Sweeping Machine
-Hover Tank
-A Submersible of some sort
-A Transformer!

[grenogs]

boogey extracter

leg shortening machine

san fransisco mono rail

intergalactic flea tranceporter

[D-Holme]

I've been through the pervious comments but after awhile they do seem to blur together so I apologize if I'm repeating anything that has gone up before.

Hyperspace probe: an automated device to go beyond the reaches of manned travel – how is it equipped to deal with what it might encounter (including possible alien contact).
Mass-public-transporter: A vehicle that carries hundreds (or thousands) of people around a city and can easily deposit each at their required (individual) destination.
Alien-creature capture – either a vehicle or device to capture live alien specimens on distant worlds for study.
(+edit)
Gold-Ship - Circa 1550 the Spanish Empire need a new design of vessel to transport the large quantities of gold and merchandise they are extracting out of the new world whilst protecting the valuable cargo from English and French Privateers.

Current EOW inspired - 'an Ark' (or even 'the' Ark)


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Potential for conventional items but with an alternate twist, eg:
Aztec car/tank/aircraft – what might have been if the Americas had remained undiscovered.
English Rebulic (post Cromwell but without the restoration of royalty, therefore very-puritan religious) – something of now but with the strong puritan bent.
Or the alternative, a strongly-religious design ethic where state religion influences every aspect of design coupled with the grandeur of old-Byzantium or Rome.

Other eras/aesthetic – 50’s America, 20’s retro, Norse/Scandinavian, Celtic, Victorian (much done), Punk, Wild-west (less of a defined aesthetic), Classic Rome/Greece.

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Random shorts:
WW1knight templar armour/equipment (maybe too CHOW)
Deep-space pirate vessel
Battlefield decoy holographic system
Hydrofoil Yacht
Extreme sport device for the next century (beyond zorbing/wake boards/power kites)
Mobile city (without becoming an EOW)
The Great Harvester - (edit: could give a lot of room for interpetation).
Titanic II

[sanman]

How about a Colony Ship? Must be capable of transporting a sizable population of inhabitants to colonize new worlds. Or some artificial space habitation.

There's no room left on Earth, or its no longer livable, etc, etc.

[sanman]

A giant boring machine is being built to tunnel all the way to the planet's core, in order to harness its energy.

[sanman]

A giant asteroid is on a collision-course with the world, but a means has been found to stop it.

[sanman]

If the Nazis had finished this super-weapon, they would have won the war...

[robmorfin]

"Solepow"

Machine to absorve and store Solar Energy (not the inefficient solar panels that we on earth use), I'm talking about super power.

[Legato]

im writing these down as i think of them

super hauler cargo ship (something to allow the transportation of vast amounts of freight over water)

'interceptor' class coast-guard craft in 50 years

ahhh! my class is moving! i have to relocate!

[mikedee]

helicopter concept

helicopter is a kind of a sky car, isn`t it? So why not to make concept-heli or show-heli as we do with cars for every car show?

[yoitisi]

I've seen a couple of suggestion in here that I like to do in the future, so if any of you have more suggestions please feel free to add them.

Also, round 50 is coming up, should we do something special for it? I tried a suggestion in the discussion forum but didn't get much response there. I was thinking of doing something for an IDW avatar maybe? On page 1 or 2 of this thread someone also suggested to do a sort of series, where the goal was to create a series of vehicles and stuff that had the same overall style and background etc. I'd like to try that one time (maybe start at round 50?), as it makes for great portfolio stuff I think.

However, I would like to know what you think about it. Other suggestions are welcome as well of course

[Legato]

I've seen a couple of suggestion in here that I like to do in the future, so if any of you have more suggestions please feel free to add them.

Also, round 50 is coming up, should we do something special for it? I tried a suggestion in the discussion forum but didn't get much response there. I was thinking of doing something for an IDW avatar maybe? On page 1 or 2 of this thread someone also suggested to do a sort of series, where the goal was to create a series of vehicles and stuff that had the same overall style and background etc. I'd like to try that one time (maybe start at round 50?), as it makes for great portfolio stuff I think.

However, I would like to know what you think about it. Other suggestions are welcome as well of course

i certainly wouldn't mind an avatar edition, but unlike cow the tricky part would be doing a topic that could be representative of industrial art as a whole. maybe have a generic topic such as "over industrial" or "industrial overkill" and just crop out a part of the winner's image... other than that, keep on pooping out topics and i'll try my best to carve out time to do them

[Mark Bot]

I've seen a couple of suggestion in here that I like to do in the future, so if any of you have more suggestions please feel free to add them.

Also, round 50 is coming up, should we do something special for it? I tried a suggestion in the discussion forum but didn't get much response there. I was thinking of doing something for an IDW avatar maybe? On page 1 or 2 of this thread someone also suggested to do a sort of series, where the goal was to create a series of vehicles and stuff that had the same overall style and background etc. I'd like to try that one time (maybe start at round 50?), as it makes for great portfolio stuff I think.

However, I would like to know what you think about it. Other suggestions are welcome as well of course

you have some good suggestions here. Though i agree with legato that ID related stuff might not make too great of an icon as a whole considering the mechanical/industrial scale of things that are fun to draw. HOWEVER i guess it could be possible to do a mini icon related topic that's not really all that serious and is instead purely focused on creating a kick ass icon that boldly states INDUSTRIAL. DESIGN.

as for #50, it could be cool to do a series of objects that relate to eachother. Say an 'interplanetary resource gathering system' or work off of a theme: 'Everything Cyberpunk', or 'Steam powered Renaissance' perhaps even be a little more literal and do a series of topics to create a 'line of sanitation systems and machines for the year 2207.' ... it's really up in the air.

[LORD M]

The epic story about martians invading earth with their tripods is one of the most important sci-fi books ever given out. To honour Orson Welles I thought that I should suggest that we make one of his tripods - by our own deign, not the Stephen Spielberg ones which have somehow gotten credits as how the tripods really should look like.
There have been several versions of the tripods, for example Jeff Waynes and Pendragons.

This is something I would love to see, because this is a great community with many creative minds. I would love to see what you guys could come up with - if this was to be accepted.

[Legato]

just something that came to mind, but we do lots of undead stuff, probably because i think its easy for us to make stuff that fits molds we have seen, but it might be really interesting to design something heavenly... maybe even bio mechanical, like an angel troop transport or something of that nature :/

anyway, the idea is out, thats as far as i am going

[form2function]

I think it might be nice to come down to some more realistic and semi-mundane stuff, after the rounds we've had lately. We've had several transportation themes, including two in a row now. Perhaps not that many weapons beside the rifle, but those while fun don't exactly push us to think as much as they could.

So I'm suggesting more on the angle of personal objects, with twists to make them interesting. A good way to pick those is to take something mundane and severely exaggerate one of its aspects. Off the top of my head as I'm writing this, some examples could be:

-Interstellar cellphones for space travelers
-Subsonic speakers for canine training or the hearing impaired
-Self-adjusting watches for time-travelers
-Nano-tech skeleton keys for future locksmiths
-Objects with immutable and everlasting properties for family heirlooms

And so forth. The goal of these isn't to push our rendering skills as much as our thinking process. Which is 90% of what makes a great concept designer. Anyone can learn to draw well, given time and practice. Talent can speed that up, but let's not kid ourselves. What separates concept designers is their concepts, not their execution.

So... Think it over, discuss it, and if it doesn't happen in IDW, considering doing it yourselves on your own time. Try to pick the topics arbitrarily, without having a design in your head first.

All for now, back to designing my tank.

[Mr. Natural]

I think we should come up with a world and then do series of products, devices and vehicles from that world. Figure out the baselines for the world's tech, then go nuts.

I also like the idea I saw back in this thread of doing some topics from a book. Any Richard K. Morgan fans up in here?

[yoitisi]

Form2function: I'm with you the only problem is that for such a topic to be more or less succesfull is to come up with something that still catches everyones imagination. Over at EOW, Chaosrocks is doing something likewise with the topics to get them out of the usual Dark Tower etc stuff, which I really appreciate. The only problem is that a lot of people seem to think it isn't fun or interesting to do so. I don't want that to happen here, so before I try such a topic as you suggest I have to think it through for a bit (and I didn't have that 'bit' the last couple of weeks ) I'll keep it in mind for next week I think.

Mr. Natural: Yep, that was the idea for a series of sorts. Again, I didn't really have time the last couple of weeks to think it through, so it'll have to wait for a future round.

[Dekus]

form2function "-Interstellar cellphones for space travelers" Thats a cool idea.. i would like to see cellphones like that..

I also had a few ideas...

- Design some ordinary, everyday use, item so that the design would be a mix with some transportation design.. for example, a hairdryer with design inspired from a sportscar..

- Design an asteroid metal harvester. A spaceship, driven by one human, made to collect minerals from asteroids. Even in extreme conditions..

- A space-corvette from the year 2500. A superfast Chevrolet Corvette coupe in space..

- Design a luxury yacht for Bill Gates.

- Design a Gas station in space for all kinds of spaceships.. small and bigger ones.. The station would also have a mini hotel, shop and a little restaurant for space travelers to relax..