hey with product design presentation
sheets there are a few simple tricks to
convey materials to help sell the idea
behind your design and make your work
look instantly more professional in this
episode we're looking at detail and fast
if the designs you create could be
unique but the materials you use will
already exist they will always be prior
art somewhere we're surrounded by it
each material comes with a set of rules
to how it behaves how it reacts to light
a lot of these rules if we thought about
them we already know shiny material
surfaces will have reflections with hard
edges and matte or rubberized surfaces
we'll have a larger diffusion shine and
a sharp edge will be slimmer and tighter
than a curve depending on the light flat
plastic surfaces on an angle will not be
one color they will have a subtle
graduated tone and bright colors will
reflect near or against the white
surface producing a settle glow here
rather than create a freehand drawing
I've created a perspective drawing for a
toaster design in pencil just using a
ruler which is something anyone can do
whether you're good at sketching or not
taking the sketch there's an easy way to
make your presentations look more
professional Photoshop I currently don't
have a scanner so I photograph this
sketch using a standard camera chosen an
area where there's a lot of light and
try to make sure my camera is a space
onto the sketch as possible
then I have ported it into Photoshop
I only use a few simple techniques to
quickly build up a presentation based on
a simple principle base color effect if
necessary shadows and highlights I want
to make the base a black matte material
so using the magic wand I select the
area I want to render create a new layer
and fill the marquee area with color to
create a base I might adjust the opacity
on this layer or create a gradient on a
new layer in the direction I decided the
light is coming from using the airbrush
tool I can add a highlight and if it's
too harsh lesson it using the opacity
slider then on a new layer I can add
further highlights to get the effect I
want a great trick for showing a split
line or chamfer is to create a new layer
and fill the same selection with color
I can then nudge or drag my marquee down
and when I use the cut tool everything
within the marquee is removed leaving me
with a black edge I can repeat this with
a light color and then using the rubbing
tool erase any areas that would be in
shadow you can see how fast this is in a
few minutes I can easily and effectively
render a material and I'm still able to
undo or adjust it later
I have this stapler on my desk and work
and I want the metal finish for the
other part of the body this stapler has
a good mix of hard angular edges as well
as curved surfaces so it's really useful
to have a round for working out
reflections it's often easier to do
presentation sheets like this at home
rather than in the office because you
have access to more products with
different materials I don't need to
represent this finish exactly I just
want to do enough to convey as essence
so to save time I need to simplify it
and an easy way to simplify materials is
to squinter them this removes their fine
detail and allows you to quickly see and
extract their strongest elements
wherever possible I have the object with
me so I can move this around and see how
its materials behave in the light using
the same photoshop tools i had a base
layer duplicate it and add a noise
filter then i build up lighter and
darker areas adding shadow and adjusting
the opacity adding highlights with an
airbrush tool and using a rubber to get
a hard edge it's very quick and easy to
do
an advantage of Photoshop is that not
only is easy to undo mistakes but I can
merge layers keeping the highlight
separate and change the color to
experiment with different variations as
I've come this far I'm not going to
leave it floating in space
I want to ground it with a shadow adding
a background helps bring your rendering
to life but maybe a plain background in
this instance is too simple so I can
quickly and easily fill in a marquee
with black adjust its opacity rotate it
slightly and duplicate it to make a
background bring the graduated tone up
behind it and lessen its impact slightly
and job done so you can see that by
quickly gathering up materials with
similar forms to what you're designing
observing their qualities and
simplifying their traits you can add to
the professionalism of your
presentations here I've sketched a
simple perfume bottle because my found
objects are similar in form to my design
it's easy to render something quite
realistic
but what if I want to add something I
don't have a reference for a top
sculpture on the bottle I could search
the internet for an image but in this
instance I can guess where the
reflections are and I have a good
indication of the colors so I just
repeat the process adding and
subtracting until it looks right and
here's the key message for this video
when designing drawing and rendering I
often don't know what's right but I have
pretty good sense of when something is
wrong so all I do is just keep making it
less wrong until I get to a point where
there's no wrong things left this is all
your doing InDesign keep making things
less wrong and you will always be
getting closer to right this perfume
bottle is okay but again to really make
it pop I need to add a background let's
try a graduated backdrop it's okay but
to make it more believable it should
have a dip tube maybe it should also
hold some perfume and it's going to need
a shadow to ground it mmm something's
still missing a bit of branding maybe
yep that'll do with both these
renderings I went further than normal
are they better than this style or this
or this they do slightly different
things there are no rights or wrongs but
they should always be driven from the
idea just consider what story you want
to tell in the time you have with
presentation sheets a lot of the time
you're not putting your designs in their
environment because it takes longer and
you want everyone's focus on the product
not on the background but reflective
materials like chrome only prove
themselves reflected when they have
something to reflect so my top tip here
is department store catalogs they are a
great resource especially when it comes
to reflective items the photographer's
when photographing these items don't
want you seeing their faces or the
camera or the background so often
they're photographed in a lightbox which
means their reflections are simplified
which means they're easier for you to
copy and get
results sometimes reflections are put on
to objects to make them look more
realistic even though the reflections
fairly impossible the reflection on this
screen is impossible to get by looking
directly at it again you'd see the
camera but using a reflection that you
get by holding the screen on its side
fools the brain and thinking it's
realistic so as you can see with a few
observations and a photo editing package
you can quickly and easily improve your
presentation sheets and your portfolio
sometimes when presenting it's best to
split the functional form into two
presentations look at these simple
presentation sheets they're not really
communicating the form just a functional
idea then when the client has agreed
which idea they'd like you to explore
you can go away and do a series of form
presentations if you include everything
in your first presentation and there is
one little thing that a client doesn't
like or rizzo to place a color or shape
often that's all they can focus on they
become obsessed by the thing they don't
like and struggle to see past it to all
the good stuff I know I've got a brand
plague stuck to my nose you can see how
distracting one little thing that isn't
right can be so here I'm just presenting
the idea I'm getting form and material
and texture out of the way to let the
idea show its beauty because ideas are
beautiful how many businesses have been
started by the simplest of sketches on
the back of a napkin this is one final
thing that I'm going to cover in this
episode for you to start to consider
lots of companies have a brand language
that incorporates stylistic cues that
have values associated with them do
their products have details that make
them look tough and rugged because
that's what their brand is all about or
are they sleek and sinuous to make them
look feminine once again you have to do
your research look at famous brands and
extract the stylistic cues they use to
enforce what their products communicate
then incorporate not add them to your
design
this example is a bit obvious but say
I'm designing a new tough and rugged
action camera I've looked at products
that have tough and rugged styling cues
and extracted them now look at this cube
it looks pretty tough but I wanted to be
tougher so I'm going to add a chamfer to
all its edges so it's faceted like a
diamond and diamonds are tough but this
isn't enough maybe I need to strengthen
its corners give it some shoulder pads
like an American footballer cool let's
give it some color black is always tough
like a bear but I need a contrast yellow
wasps are black and yellow and they're
tough plus black and yellow is used in
hazard strips as a warning not tough
enough I'm going to need some rugged
texture so I could make this grip area
textured like the tread on a tractor
tire or the skin on a raptor Jurassic
Park turf adding the perception of
strengthening ribs will make things
tougher still it's waterproof it's got a
lens I could seal that lens on with
screws like a deep-sea divers mask for
screws not tough enough no screw is as
tough as a hex head bolt that's tough
I've got details
I've got color now I need a name to
enforce the brand values it's small and
goes underwater what about little fish
not happening or you stick it to the
wall what about wallflower get out what
stuff military tanks bears sharks rhinos
raptors diamonds what's rugged action
adventure grit battle lumberjack
introducing the Rhino action camera with
diamond tough lens protection and Raptor
skin coating the toughest camera for any
situation made by double are dink ready
for anything
free parachute with every purchase now
say in the future this company want to
diversify into other products I can take
the styling cues that form part of the
brand and use them to inform the look of
other products face
the shadows coming next make things less
wrong you're closer to right just don't
forget the highlights
don't forget the highlights don't forget
the ice don't forget the ice that just
would be right base effects the shadows
coming next make things less wrong
you're closer to right just don't forget
the highlights
don't forget the highs don't forget the
high lights don't look at the high
that's that just right never forget to
consider a branding area what's
important to you may be making your
designs look beautiful or rugged or
functional but often for the client one
of the most important things to them is
telling their customers who it's by if
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thanks for watching
you