Abstract:

In the contemporary panorama of design, digital is becoming more and more an essential tool to define not only design tools but real design processes. Especially in the period of lockdown due to the Coronavirus, the definition of new didactic and design methods and models have defined experimentations for possible new teaching trajectories able to define hybrid design tools which, despite the two-dimensionality of the screen, are still valid to define spatial concepts.

The deconstruction of the space and of meanings deriving from the use of images and the construction of "digital spatial moods" have built a new abacus at the base of didactic experimentation implemented during the lockdown period.

New methods have been developed, in order to open new design possibilities to redesign the didactics without losing the defined intended learning outcomes (ILOs).

The paper aims to present the experimentation, realized within a course of communication and fashion design of the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano, a design workshop developed in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom for the definition of graphic languages to be applied on personal devices. A workshop born from the concept of personal space, its visualization, and characterization.

The learning objectives, even in the ongoing changes of the tools implemented due to the COVID-19, were to work on space as a design tool as a spatial synthesis of shapes, colors, surfaces, and finishes, which could not only convey a concept but also become a mood for design inspiration. From the methodological point of view, traditional tools of visualization were translated into the living space, stimulating students to read space and its elements (furniture, lamps, walls, and decorations) as part of a coherent system of aesthetic languages. To then become a projectual reference for the design.

Space becomes in this context the surface to be used as a three-dimensional mood through which to define innovative visual languages. The use and development of digital design methods, related to the use of software for image editing, have supported the process by defining new approaches able to stimulate the creative process, and to support all the design phases. The results of the experiments were presented during a live event at Deutsche Telekom's headquarters in Bonn and in the Digital Milano Design Week.

Keywords:

Fashion Design, Communication Design, Meta Design, Design Processes, Graphic Software.