Winning by Design: The Methods of Gordon Murray A Research Paper by Nigel Cross & Anita Clayburn Cross A case study of the working methods of one particularly successful designer in a highly competitive design domain - Formula One racing car design. Gordon Murray was chief designer for the very successful Brabham and McLaren racing car teams in the 1970s and 1980s. His record of success is characterised by innovative breakthroughs, often arising as sudden illuminations, based on considering the task from first principles and from a systemic viewpoint. His working methods are highly personal, and include intensive use of drawings. Personality factors and team management abilities also appear to be relevant. There are some evident similarities with some other successful, innovative designers You need to make the step forwardDrawing the bitsLike designing things for the first timeWonder PlotsI never have engineers that aren't designers+7 More design
Co-Evolution of Problem and Solution Spaces in Creative Design An Essay by Nigel Cross & Kees Dorst www.researchgate.net Between the two spaces What the prototype tells youSolution to evaluation and back againIn terms which must be alteredPrimitive design
Some Remains of My Heroes Found Scattered Across a Vacant Lot An Essay from Every So Often a Talking Dog Appears by Smiljan Radić To prove it in purityRaindrops leaving an erratic trail euphony
To prove it in purity The series of photos of the 1959 model ends or stops with the photograph in which Kiesler triumphantly shows us the shell of his house like the remains of a creature taken from the seabed, a kind of Moby Dick harpooned and finally captured after the obsessive pursuit of a project that has taken up ten years of the life of the architect. "I think that everybody has only one basic creative idea and no matter how he is driven off, you will find that he always comes back to it until he has a chance to prove it in purity, or die with the idea unrealized." — Frederick Kiesler creativitylifeobsessionpassion
Raindrops leaving an erratic trail They do not walk, they drip down the surface of the pictures, they are raindrops leaving an erratic trail, drifting down the paper, as described by Asger Jorn and Guy Debord in their psychogeographies. The driftPsychogeography