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.

Social and Technological solutions

Is there even a difference?

We are to write about the difference about designing solutions for social issues and technological ones.

I am not going to sit here and act like i have a clue about solving social issues like aids, hunger or clean water, nor will I pretend to know about technological ones either.

But one thing could be said about both, is that they will definitively share some of the same basic assessments, which I may have something to say about.

Whats the problem? Loaded question. Just like taking prescription drugs for some instances of depression, there is almost certainly an underlying problem, or root of it that needs to be addressed. You can take pills to make you feel better and to live a "happier" life, but can those pills heal the emotional pain of an abusive relationship?

Who's effected. Tricky little statement. As human beings it is our nature to think of ourselves first and to think of others second, even when you think your "helping others". I think ministering to the world about faith in a higher power is important, and even rewarding to those who participate, but take a closer look into the realm of missionary works and one will need to rethink the phrase "give a man a fish and feed him for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime". Powerful.

How will they be effective. I am sure that this stage will be the true solution, what it is is up for debate.

The examples I have given are mainly social ones, but I think you get the idea.

Design style

Yikes.

I believe at this stage in the game a particular style is definitively being harbored, but I am not sure I have landed on anything I can place my thumb on just yet.

I believe the best way to think about my current style is one of systems. I love to design groups of things, that all work together. They do not have to have the same form factor, or company logo, but rather an underlying relationship to one another that makes for a better sum of the parts over an individualized piece.

The best thing that comes to mind at the moment to put a product line in your minds that does this would be a power tool company and the standardization of the battery packs. I think it is brilliant. How long did it take to get a battery from one company power many different types of tools? too long.

Strategy of design

Can you manufacture design strategy? IDEO would say yes, I believe inventors would more likely say no. Why? Because IDEO is out to sell a service of ideas, while an inventor is out to sell an idea as a service. I believe in the latter of the two thoughts.

I believe that a good design strategy is born from free, unrestricted inspiration. I have a place in my mind for inventors really paving the way for designers. on the spectrum of the Industrial design field we have two schools of thought or areas. On one side we have stylers, meaning people with the ability to take any current technologies or products and them bring them together through form and application. On the other hand you have inventors, individuals creating new technologies, reinterpreting the human experience into something different. I believe that the inventor is sparked, agitated, fueled by life, trial and error, and most importantly by their experiences.

My design strategy is to live, and to react to situations that cause the thoughts of change and reinterpretation in our everyday lives.

Technology Driven

Rapid prototyping has influenced many different areas of manufacturing, and is starting to influence some unlikely areas as well, like jewelry design. Here Doug Bucci creates origanal pieces of design by creating first CAD models of them and then having them made through the means of rapid prototyping. These types of forms and delicate shapes were once impossible until the recent rapid prototyping technology had come to be.

Intelligent design

This may not look intelligent, or work very intelligently but it gets to the root of a movement really sweeping the nation and world right now, particularly in the realm of running.

Its the barefoot movement. Born from the idea of running with no shoes is better than running with them has given birth to many different barefoot shoe options for the daily consumer but also to runners.

But this isn't really a "design" but rather a school of thought, one that I have been pondering for a while. Its one born from this new notion that shoes are hurting, not helping us. but i have learned since then that its not the shoes at all, but rather the surface we walk on.

One can easily make the connection between the the light padding in shoes to that of the gentel cushioning by the grass laden earth beneath our feet. But since we have left our primitive roots and have given up plains of grass fro the concrete jungle, we were led naturally to the design and development of shoes by becoming sedentary people and abandoning a life or roaming the earth.

So here an interesting, next step, in the thought of shoes, or rather the next advancement of a new surface.

Design Funnies

It may look a bit strange, but its a totally new approach to the age old Umbrella. I just got done watching the product demonstration video and had a good chuckle, but it really does work and is a very interesting concept.

The main thing that has always gotten me about Umbrellas in general is that they rarely keep the bottom half of your clothing dry and focus primarily on your face, shoulders and chest.

Graphic Inspiration

Graffiti

The graphic visual compositions can be a great source of inspiration. Something that us ID individuals sometimes overlook is the fact that we have a be a little bit of everything in the creative world. One of those areas are the boards and inspiration images that we have to put together for presentations and for getting us excited and motivated for new projects.

The graphical work on these boards are crucial to getting points across to individuals, for catching peoples attention, and for holding it.

I feel that this is essential what graffiti tries to do on a regular basis, and just as different things grab our attention over time, graffiti does too, because it is always vying for it and knows that it needs to change and evolve over time to remain effective.

So here is a basic evolution of graffiti and how it changes for the times, and more importantly the people.

Product break down

The product I use most today would be my Chrome messenger bag. Given to me as a gift from my best friend Dana that lives in Bend Oregon. This bag has become my go to bag for my computer, to traveling around the country, to carrying drawings and sketches.

Everything fits in this bag. It has enough room to carry 13x19 (standard US size) paper, glimpse into the intended use. But the bag is brilliant in its simplicity. There is one large compartment, two medium pockets, and two smaller compartments, one with a zipper. I love the layout of the bag because its really open for interpretation, and doesn't demand for you to put certain objects in certain places, its free to be used how I best see fit.

The construction of the bag is really killer as well. Really thick and durable canvas lined with a waterproof lining for those rainy days.

And the main defining feature of the bag would have to be the belt buckle strap, which really gives you a sense of sturdy construction.

ICFF

The 24th annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair.

May 19th-22

No pictures have been released yet from the show, and finding pictures of things going to be in the show are impossible to find at the moment, I will update later when pictures are posted.

Product Videos

Videos get your heart racing, they get your attention, and they inject great meaning and drive into the viewers in a short amount of time. Of all these things the most important element would have to be the music. There is something quite magical about music and how it effects us.

Good Design / Bad Design

I think one of my favorite websites is www.baddesigns.com. it is a compilation of designs that are serioulsy flawed, or just don't quit make sense. in these examples there is almost always a proposed solution to the problem, and almost all problems are real life examples.

So instead of posting Good vs Bad design, I am posting this body of work for everyone to enjoy.

www.BadDesigns.com

NotCot

#40565 #40553 #40542

DIY

I think the main thread of these post are the do it yourself attitude sweeping the nation, and the secondary theme here is really, doing things FOR yourself. From making your own Lemon juice based household cleaner to creating a lamp out of old bourbon fermentation tank, to making ties from reclaimed wood.

Favorite Things

I think my favorite chair is the Ludwig Miles lounge. Its really comfortable and is a very clean and simple design. The Barcelona chair is great for reading or taking a cat nap.

My favorite lamp is the the old school lamp that they use in the pixar intro. I love watching an inanimate object really come to life and have such a great personality in just a brief amount of time.

My favorite phone was my Kyocera slider phone form like 7yrs ago, it was light, small and compact, fit nicely in my pocket, and it did two things, really well, make calls and send text messages.

My favorite car is the Lotus Elise, born from a light weight racing mentality its like a little go-cart. It uses a 1.6 litre supercharged Toyota engine, like the MR2 used to have. But its really about how the car and its company focus on the bare essentials of driving, a real race enthusiast car, no cup holders, no air conditioning.