Colburn L. Jones
Plastics for Designers is a basic survey of the industry of plastics specifically written to address the questions and needs of the industrial designer. It is interesting that most people understand and are much more familiar with materials such as wood, metal, glass, stone, etc., than they are with plastics. This is quite amazing when we consider how much we surround ourselves with the very substance of which we are so ignorant. For the industrial designer this unfamiliarity with plastics is an especially vulnerable position as the number of products specifying the use of plastic grows exponentially. It is therefore the purpose of this document to present to the student industrial designer a concise course on the history, chemistry, properties, design, and use of plastics in society.
Plastics have become part of a society which has accepted and often taken for granted the role that these material plays. Our homes, schools, offices, and industry rely heavily upon plastic parts for building materials, furnishings, electronics, automobiles, and many other products too numerous to list. It might be said that we have entered the age of plastics. With plastic, form is limited only by the imagination of the designer. The textures and finishes achievable with plastics are as numerous as the forms they might describe. According to the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), production of plastics by volume will surpass that of steel and all other materials by the year 2000.
Plastics employ a number of properties not available in other materials, they also have their limitations. A solid knowledge of these useful characteristics as well as the detrimental properties will help make a better designer. The information presented in Plastics for Designers is really only the tip of the iceberg. There exist many aspects of the plastics industry that were only briefly touched upon or completely omitted.
Much of the information presented in the guide was obtained by interviewing directly with professional designers in the San Francisco Bay area. They provided tips on content as well as creative materials for inspection by the student on problems they had solved in the professional arena. Still some information including numerical data and process definitions were obtained by study of various published materials such as The Modern Plastics Encyclopedia published by McGraw-Hill.
Writing Plastics for Designers was an incredible learning experience as well as a difficult challenge. Classes seemed to constantly conflict with the schedule I had set for myself to complete the booklet. Integrating graphic images into the document proved the most difficult in regards to software conflicts and crashes. Finally when all was complete a great sense of accomplishment and achievement rewarded me for my efforts.