If you haven't already seen 'Objectified', go now and watch it. The movie focuses on designers and their impact on out society--however subtle it is. They interview a few prominent designers and delve into their design process and how they perceive what design is. If you are a designer, this is great insight into the minds of great designers.
Head over to: Objectified Image courtesy of Objectifiedfilm.com
Finally having sometime to take in the City of Davis, I've realized that there is a growing number of longboarders on the UC Campus. This came as somewhat of a surprise, as the majority of college students where I came from did not. But I suppose this is all besides the point of this blog.
As a designer, I'm always itching to make something, it doesn't matter what. Not to long ago a buddy of mine and I decided to start making longboards. Both independently scheming and then finally stumbling upon our common interests. We set out to make the press for the boards and bought all the materials. And so began our journey into the art of making longboards.
To date I, personally, have made more that a dozen or so boards and documented most of them. The fact of the matter is that, when the operation gets up and going it is cheaper to make your own boards than buy the mass produced ones. Albeit you do have to spend time designing how the board responds but, that is all part of the creation process and the 'bonding' of the object and its owner.
I will have a website up shortly with a catalog of my boards and t-shirts hopefully by the start of the new year. Be sure the check it out if you happen to still read this blog.
On November 18th, 2009, Nathan Shedroff came to speak about 'sustainable design'. He led with Design being the problem in sustainable design, because naturally, as designers we create for the future. We create that desire to have something new, with new features and styling. Thus this creates a huge waste problem, and we are unable as a nation, and society to responsibly get rid of this 'out-dated' equipment.
As an emerging artist/designer, this is a major concern to me, and from what I hear a lot of other designers. Our job as the next generation of designers is to take into account the fickle society we live in. When things become useless we discard fervently, just as when something we perceive as new and 'in' we feverishly try to buy it.
In our industrialized nation there are no more connections between objects and owners. I think this will be a step towards a more sustainable society--bringing the connection with an object and its owner back.
As a college student, I think one part of being a student is being broke--or close to it. This is, however, a good thing at times and a bad thing at other times. When I finally transfered to the University, I was confronted with the dilemma of living with a roommate and having half the living space. I knew I would need a desk, a bed, closet space and just room to move around. The entire room was around 14.5' x 11', my roommate had already moved in and took most of the space with his desk and bed. Long story shot, I got the shaft.
So to recap, we both had full-size bed (approx 6' x 4.5' times 2) and one desk. Thats already 54 sq ft. taken of 159.5 sq ft. that leaves 105.5 sq ft. for two desks and room to navigate around. In a moment of clarity, I began drawing plans up for a full-size loft. Generally, lofts made by major manufactures run upwards of $400.00USD to $500.00USD, without the ability to personalize it. All in all when the project was completed it cost me around $150.00 to $200.00USD. Not to mention that the loft was build by me, for me, but I was able to add things to accommodate my situation.
I should have an instructable up with in the week, but the process is rather simple and straight forward. This was a fun project and learning experience. Not to mention that I am benefiting from building for my own needs, I used most of the scraps for miscellaneous parts, like the ladder. I'll update this when the instructable is up. For now enjoy a few photos, and if you want, try it out for yourself by heading to instructables to get an idea of how to start designing basic furniture on the cheap!
While, browsing a website I frequent, I came upon the "eyeWriter". This device enables paraplegic people to 'draw' or 'design' with just they eye. The amazing device can be made under $50.00USD and paired with open-source software (free, but contributions welcomed). This tool was brought to reality by a group of people, mostly graffiti artists:
The program isn't a pixel based drawing software, like Photoshop or The Gimp, but rather a vector based--or something like that--software, like Illustrator or Inkscape.
The EyeWriter is allowing artists who have thought they lost the ability to create with normal means, by utilizing an ir (infra-red) led and a PS3 EyeToy and a few miscellaneous items. It would seem as though the difficulty in constructing a pair isn't hard either, basic soldering skills are needed at most.
Josef Albers discusses the Interaction of Color and how it is perceived by humans. His book utilizes paper diagrams to help emphasize theory. The basic theory of 'Vibrating Boundaries' is when complementary colors are placed on top of each other they tend to 'vibrate'. This is because the colors help emphasize each other.
As you can see by the example to the right, the cyan text and the objects seem as though they are popping out of the red field.
This theory can be used in a quick design where attention is needed to be drawn. The harshness of complementary colors applied on top of each other naturally draws the eye to it. However, as a designer we must be aware of this and avoid it as it is not necessarily the best tool to gain attention.
We have all seen the works of M.C. Escher. Whether it be in a classroom or a book, you have to appreciate the ability for Escher to play with the figure/ground to create shapes and images. The seemingly unstable image should been seen as a bistable image, that can reflect both a set of black birds and a set of white birds.
Escher has an ability for creating illusions of space. Are the birds black or are they white? A seemingly novel trick, this ability is useful for many graphic artist and designers today. Understanding the properties of Gestalt, is like learning to use your hands to draw.
Even if you did not understand the properties of Gestalt, you probably know them without even knowing it. We use them everyday as designers and artists.
Image courtesy of http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2000_tsur03.shtml
