Why another Design blog?

Because it gets your creative juices flowing.

It helps to organize and refine thoughts and to solidify them in your life.

I think blogging for design students and for professionals is a great way to really cross pollinate with other like minded thinkers around you, but to also spur new ideas and to think critically in areas of you life that may have been untouched and untapped. The cross between professional working in the field and students studying at the University have much to learn from one another, but that all depends on the individuals willingness to share, and of that to be influenced by others.

"Designed" aspects of my life

Going to school is the first thing that comes to mind. And at the moment it is the most influential. I also think that I take this most for granted at the moment. I look at it as taking up too much time and dictating my every move, but I should be looking at it differently, I should be devoting all my time to it and energy because when I graduate I will use theses skills I have used to be more productive and efficient and useful in my job. But life is a constant balance and we learn as we go, so here I go.

Find an emotion

illicit emotion.

No one better than the automobile industry.

BMW for example has one of the biggest names in the arena of cars, and it brings such emotion to the table for everyone involved. Owning a BMW is obviously the height of the experience, but they are not the only ones that get enjoyment from the automobiles.

Just seeing one on the street attracts attention and illicit's an emotion of excitement, and it could be parked, thats power.

Hot trends aren't as effective anymore

But they shouldn't be ignored either.

I was learning about make up trends from some of the girls at work when I was employed by Aveda. I was in a position were I wanted to know what the hottest make up trends were and how to spot them, and more importantly how to stay away from old out dated ones.

What I learned from my coworkers was not what I had expected at all. Make up is married to Fashion in my minds, and their are trends that are Hot, and well things that are Not. But what I was thought was that trends of makeup, no matter how hard you tried didn't work for everyone! go figure right, you mean a mask doesn't appeal or look good on every age face!

This is a "mask" in the runway, you know, where trend is born from!

They taught me that yes, at one time there were different trends for make up, in the fifties it was RED lipstick, in the eighties it was BLUE eye shadow. You want to know why it was a trend? because it looked like crap on 90% of the patrons. Now you want to make the make up compliment the natural features, to enhance the beauty within. But then again, this could all just be a trend too! lol! blew that idea!

Most important in Design

Color? Line? Form? Texture?

None of the above.

The most important thing in design are two symbiotic elements. Emotion and Reflective value. These two branches do not live with out one another and therefore need to be discussed together.

Emotion is what drives a person to buy a product, even if they don't have the means at that time in life to purchase it. It drives them to do anything necessary for them to acquire their new obsession. Secondly is Reflective value. What does this product say about me to people that I will meet in the future, and how does this product add to my reflection of self values I hold myself to.

Deep stuff, we could talk all night.

All the different skills

Skills, for designers, are sets of tools used by a designer or someone in their craft to explain to others their ideas and thoughts in a mainly visual way.

I think by having the education that we do being so standard, that it is impossible to say that we have different skill sets, the biggest thing that I can deduce, and many others as well is to identify those skill sets that best fit a designers need at any given time, or is best for them to accurately explain ideas to others.

Some can do it with thumbnail sketches, others with CAD modeling, and yet others marker renders. its up to you, the job at hand, and how the audience your talking to will best receive it.

Single most important skill for a designer.

DRAWing comes first, then your brain.

Okay, so you see an attractive individual across the room, your intrigued. Maybe a little intimidated, but you have the erg to know more, to seek them out, to get to know them or at least understand them. You are ultimately attracted to them.

So you take a chance, willingly. You walk over. You strike up a conversation and quickly realize that they are not who you were hoping them to be, maybe they were the most un-intelligent person you now know on earth. But for a moment you had them captivated.

Now think of your drawings as the attractor to your ideas. If you have horrible drawing skills, but a fantastic mind and wonderful ideas about what should be, no one will give you the time of day or want to look at all into who you are or what your proposing as a designer.

The drawings and sketches will bring people to you, they then will help you sell your ideas to the masses, and then the mind behind it all will get the chance to do it again and agian, it will bring them back for more every time.