Use visual communication techniques to generate design ideas
This standard is an external assessment (submitted portfolio work marked by NZQA) worth 3 credits. Students use drawing and other visual techniques to come up with and explore design ideas in response to a design brief. The focus is on how well you use visual tools — sketching, rendering, digital tools, models, etc. — to think through both how a design works (function) and how it looks (aesthetics). You do not write essays; you communicate through visuals.
You show a mix of 2D and 3D drawing approaches and communicate some functional and aesthetic qualities. Your ideas are fairly predictable or closely based on existing examples, but they are recognisable as design ideas rather than random shapes. You give them context — for example, by showing a person using the design — so the viewer understands what the design is for.
Your ideas are more interesting, unexpected, or non-literal — they go beyond copying what already exists. You explore ideas in more detail using a range of visual methods. You clearly show how people interact with the design and demonstrate a good balance between how it looks and how it works. Your visual communication makes your thinking easy to understand.
You comprehensively explore both function and aesthetics in depth, including finer details like texture, lighting, construction specifics, and human interaction. Your ideas are bold or original but still grounded and practical. You show multiple viewpoints and a variety of techniques. You revisit and extend chosen ideas through further development or iteration. Your work is clear, easy to follow, and genuinely communicates your design thinking throughout the whole process.
Standards typically taken alongside or after this one. Same subject, grouped by level.