Design Essay: Digital Design

Outside of the car design community there’s a popular misconception that cars are designed by computers. If you look around a modern car design studio it is easy to see how this misconception could occur: the traditional image of a design studio has rows of draughting tables with manual sketching and technical drawing on paper, in a modern car design studio almost every desk has its own PC workstation and graphics tablet. Designers now spend the majority of their working day using software such as Alias or Photoshop as opposed to drawing on paper.

Computer aided design (CAD) has been around since the 1960s where it was developed and used in the aerospace industry as it was ideal for use in the development and engineering of large, complex, high cost, objects such as aircraft. Being able to switch from thousands of paper based 2D drawings to a single definitive, accurate digital model was a significant advantage in spite of the very high costs of the specialised computer systems at the time. In the 1970s and 80s with the rapid development of computer technology and software, the use of CAD was increasingly applied to the car industry as an engineering tool for the same reason. However, the idea that computers could be used by car designers and modellers to develop their ideas in 2D and 3D was viewed up until recently with suspicion - that somehow the designer’s ‘art’ would be lost in the move from paper to digital media.

Several things started to change this view. The advent of the Apple and Windows based ‘point and click’ software greatly simplified the operation and use of computers making them much more intuitive to use for designers who were not particularly technically orientated. At the same time 2D graphics software that used digital pens and graphics tablet interfaces started to appear which allowed the designer to use their traditional analogue drawing skills to create digital images. And new software such as Photoshop allowed an existing image to be manipulated and altered, so the designer could produce and show many variations on a theme without having to constantly redraw these on paper

But the greatest changes came in the form of usable 3D design and rendering software such as Alias in the early 1990s. These had been specifically developed for designers and modellers as creative tools to both generate complex 3D surface data and interface with the systems already being used by automotive engineers. The designer was now able to look at 3D engineering data, overlay a 2D scanned or digital sketch idea and then construct a 3-dimensional CAD model over this. The design data could then be rendered or animated to show an accurate representation of a design proposal, ideas could be discussed around a computer screen and changes made before any physical property was made. As all that had been produced was simply ‘data’ this could then be sent to another computer or display screen for evaluation or review. In a global car industry with design, engineering, supplier, production and management groups spread around the world, the benefits of producing digital data became compelling.

In spite of this potential advantage, initial experiments and applications of digital design processes carried out in the 1980s were only partially successful. Companies had to spend large amounts of money on the new technology and then train staff to use them. There was a pressure to use new, expensive CAD equipment as much as possible. Understandably, problems arose as the limitations of software, hardware and the initial work processes became apparent. Many designers, used to working on paper were reluctant or resistant to change. The initial few designers using CAD could produce beautiful images on a computer screen, but when translated into 3D the surfaces either looked basic and naive, or forms became over-exaggerated.

As more knowledge was gained of what was possible and the numbers of CAD users and specialist modellers increased, these issues have been gradually overcome. Now virtually all car designers have some knowledge of, and regularly use some form of CAD.

This has led to an interesting issue. Where the designers’ role in a project has traditionally been separated from management, engineering and modelling (based as it was principally on manual 2D drawing skills), the introduction of CAD into the studio environment has changed this. The designer can now operate closer to both engineers and modellers, producing more relevant and accurate data. And the digital designer’s role has significantly broadened to at least partially cover these other disciplines as well.

The designer being an ‘information manager’ has come to the fore as they now take in more and more data from external sources, as well as feeding information back out from the studio. Showing concept options and making alterations to a design are easier, understanding and influencing engineering changes is quicker, and many designers produce CAD data that is directly turned into 3D forms using CNC milling and rapid prototyping technologies. The car designer’s role in developing a product has therefore broadened, as has their power to influence and control a design.

The idea that the computer is the creative element in design is obviously wrong, but the advent of CAD has dramatically affected the car design process. The design tools, methods and knowledge required of car designers today is significantly better than those of even two or three years ago. The requirement for us to work faster and more effectively simply will not go away. The real issue, as with any creative process or medium, is how to use it to maximum effect.