It all starts with a design brief.

To mark the first UK show of artist Henri Barande, graphic designer Christoph Stolberg and German studio Schultzschultz have created Henri Barande.

To write an industrial design brief, you should start by clearly defining the goals of the project. What do you want to achieve with the design? What are the key features or functions that the product must have? Once you have a good understanding of the goals, you can start to flesh out the brief by including the following information:

  • Company overview: Provide a brief overview of your company, including your mission, values, and target audience. This will help the designer to understand your company’s brand identity and the context in which the product will be used.
  • Product overview: Describe the product that you need designed in as much detail as possible. Include information about the product’s purpose, features, and intended users.
  • Design requirements: List the specific requirements that the product must meet, such as functional requirements, performance requirements, and aesthetic requirements.
  • Technical requirements: If there are any specific technical requirements that the product must meet, be sure to list them in the brief. This could include things like material requirements, manufacturing requirements, or regulatory requirements.
  • Budget and timeline: Let the designer know how much money you have to spend on the project and how long you have to complete it.
  • Deliverables: List the specific deliverables that you expect from the designer, such as concept sketches, 3D renderings, and prototypes.

Once you have written a draft of the brief, be sure to review it carefully and make sure that it is clear, concise, and complete. You should also share the brief with other stakeholders in the project to get their feedback and input.

Here are some additional tips for writing an effective industrial design brief:

  • Be specific. The more specific you can be in your brief, the better. This will help the designer to understand your vision and to deliver a product that meets your expectations.
  • Be realistic. Be realistic about your budget and timeline. It is important to give the designer enough time and resources to create a high-quality product.
  • Be open to feedback. The designer may have ideas that you hadn’t considered. Be open to their feedback and be willing to make changes to your brief as needed.
  • Be collaborative. The best industrial design projects are the ones that are collaborative. Work closely with the designer throughout the project to ensure that you are happy with the direction that the design is taking.

By following these tips, you can write an industrial design brief that will help you to get the best possible results from your project.

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One touch of a red-hot stove is usually all we need to avoid that kind of discomfort in the future. The same is true as we experience the emotional sensation of stress from our first instances of social rejection or ridicule. We quickly learn to fear and thus automatically avoid potentially stressful situations of all kinds, including the most common of all: making mistakes. Researchers Robert Reinhart and Geoffrey Woodman of Vanderbilt University refer to this phenomenon as the “Oops! Response,” which is the product of the adrenaline-fueled, threat-protection system in our brain that not only governs our fight-flight-surrender response, but that also enables us to learn from our mistakes. This response is important for our ability to learn from mistakes, but it also gives rise to self-criticism, because it is part of the threat-protection system. In other words, what keeps us safe can go too far, and keep us too safe. In fact, it can trigger self-censoring.

This response is important for our ability to learn from mistakes, but it also gives rise to self-criticism, because it is part of the threat-protection system. In other words, what keeps us safe can go too far, and keep us too safe. In fact, it can trigger self-censoring.

Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.

That immediately brought to mind one of my fondest memories, involving my daughter when she was just a toddler of one: taking her with me on the short walk to check the mail. I live in a small enclave of homes in which all the mailboxes are together in a central location, less than a minute’s walk from my front door…when I walk alone, that is. When I would take my daughter with me it was easily 20 minutes. Everything along the way, to and from, fascinated her: every pebble, ant, stick, leaf, blade of grass, and crack in the sidewalk was something to be picked up, looked at, tasted, smelled, and shaken. Everything was interesting to her. She knew nothing. I knew everything…been there, done that. She was in the moment, I was in the past. She was mindful. I was mindless.

Defaulting to Mindfulness: The Third Person Effect

Part of the answer is something psychologists refer to it as self-distancing, a term coined by researchers Ethan Kross and Ozlem Ayduk. What spurred Ethan Kross to investigate the concept in the first place was an act of mindlessness: He accidentally ran a red light. He scolded himself by saying out loud, “Ethan, you idiot!” Referring to himself in the third person made him wonder if there might be something more to this quirk of speech, and if it might represent a method for changing one’s perspective.

The short answer is yes. According to Kross, when you think of yourself as another person, it allows you give yourself more objective, helpful feedback.

Both of these assumptions, of course, could be entirely false. Self-censoring is firmly rooted in our experiences with mistakes in the past and not the present. The brain messages arising from those experiences can be deceptive. And if what our censoring self thinks it “knows” may in fact not be true, then automatically accepting it as some sort of inert truth is indeed mindless and self-defeating. Langer agrees: “When you think ‘I know’ and