04

I haven't been very diligent about posting my thoughts relating to my project, but I will so do from here on!

This post is going to be about my reference list. Although it is not yet very long, I hope to make some notes here about the books/articles I read and videos I see so that I have a small amount of theory on record.

1. Design as Art: Bruno Munari

Although it was written in the 60s and therefore could be considered dated I found this book immensley useful in 'releasing my creativity' so to speak. Having done me undergraduate degree in a mechanical engineering department we were instructed to have fully realised ideas about function, material processes etc. perhaps before the actual form of it. I therefore fell into a very functional rut, and Munari talks about his 'useless machines' which he had designed purely for the sake of it, because they looked a certain way or made him feel a certain way, despite being useless.

2. It's All About the Bike: Robert Penn

This is a book that I had read before starting this project, but I revisited it partly because it's a good read,  but mainly to give myself a refresher on the history of the bicycle (velocipede etc.) and some of the key players in bicycle component manufacturing. The thing that struck me the most after reading this book, though, was that the bicycle hasn't changed its basic form (by this I mean the frame) in over 100 years, the same cannot be true for many products, especially ones which are so highly mechanical as a bicycle.

3. If She Can Do It: Mark Brent and Kat Sweet (video on Pinkbike)

Admittedly the first thing that watching this made me want to do was get on my bike and do some jumps it also reinforced my feelings about the market of women's mountain biking and how many opportunities there are for design, and customers to use these designs.