Objectified Video Relfection

Objectified Video Reflection 

The other week in class we watched the documentary Objectified. Here's a trailer of it: 

It was a really interesting documentary to watch. I really enjoyed hearing about all these different aspects of design. The different designers and concepts of good design aided in capturing my attention. Some aspects of the video that really resonated with me was that everyone makes assumptions about an object. Every object, intentional or not, speaks to who put it there as well as to who sees it. I feel every object tells a story. From the beginning of production, to brainstorming, prototypes, reinventing, and eventually mass production; there's always a story. One of the main goals of industrial designers is to create a better experience for people. Designers need to look at the extremes of humanity and their target market to create the best solutions to please everyone. There are 3 phases of design from form giving, to symbolism of the object, to looking at it in a contextual sense. Also, some designs can look so beautiful that people would rather put them on display than use them for their real purpose. Design can really be about giving individual character to something being produced. Within the film all these passionate artists give their explanation of the beauty of design and their interpretation of creating lasting designs. It also was fascinating to see some of the designer's actual process in forming a design. 

Writer's Tool Box~ Reflection

Writer's Tool Box Reflection 

From the reading assignment Writer's Tool Box, I felt I learned a lot about the history and usage of the mind map, concept map, free writing, as well as the whole brainstorming process. It truly was interesting learning about Leonardo Da Vinci's use of  precursors to the mind mapping of the modern day. Also, the fact that many other well-known educated individuals through history used their own versions of mind mapping to understand and create the complexities of the universe. A graphic mind map is very similar to a verbal one, but the addition of images and sketches aids in the overall connection of ideas and associations. Concept maps are very similar to mind maps, but focus on system thinking and investigate the connections more thoroughly. Also, concept maps show the relationships between subjects. Although personally I prefer mind mapping, because concept mapping has a more scientific and structural background. Mind mapping allows a person to seriously think about a certain topic from every angle with as little criticism as possible. It helps to create the flow of ideas and create new connections between words that otherwise wouldn't have a connection. I also really like free writing, yet it really is hard for me to do. Free writing aids in many of the same ways mind mapping does. It provides the thinker a way to get everything out and then refine their ideas. Brain writing seems to structural and solid for me. The worksheet example made this idea solidify. From personal experience, I also really like word listing because it's fascinating to create connections between two separate words on this list. All in all I feel the Writer's Tool Box reading provided great information on the brainstorming process and enabled me to more thoroughly understand the different forms of creating ideas for a project. 

In Class Brainstorming

In Class Brainstorming for the Whisk 

Today in class we broke into teams to improve a badly designed object. There were quite a few badly designed objects in my group from a terrible stapler, tape dispenser, soap wand, and so on. We ultimately chose David's terribly designed whisk. 

It's really unconventionally designed. The handle is too short and forces the user to whisk from their wrists. It also is terrible to clean. On the whisk itself, there is rust not only near the top where the metal intersects, but where it connects to the handle as well. 

We had a serious brainstorming session trying to solve a number of the problems the everyday whisk had. Some of the ideas we came up with were a little out there, but that's what made it fun. 

The entire brainstorming process was a really good experience and it helped create a lot of ideas in a quick amount of time. By the end of the session we also had created a few solid ideas to start branching off into. 

IDEO- The Deep Dive

IDEO- The Deep Dive

In class today we watched a short informational video about the inner workings of the IDEO design company. It really was an eye opening video, even though it was published over a number of years ago. At IDEO, they do not really have a hierarchy, and work together, eclectically, to create good products. The number of backgrounds was astonishing. One of the group members was actually a psychology major. Although, IDEO has had a number of successes over the years, they have had failures. They have learned more from these failures than their successes. So one of their motto's is fail often, to succeed sooner. Another fact is that within their brainstorming process, a number of crazy ideas are formed. IDEO encourages this thought process. They want to see these types of crazy ideas during the mapping stage of a design. From this craziness, a really good design can be achieved. Chaos can be constructive. The greatest thing about IDEO is people do things on their own first, rather than getting permission. This way of thought encourages people to think outside of the box and without the fear of reprimanded for this. IDEO also treats their employees as if they were all on the same level. No one is superior to their fellow workers. All these innovative ideas about the inner workings of a business is what has made IDEO so successful over the years. 

Color Police

Color Police 

"The Good, Bad, & Ugly of Design" 

Cat Tin

This tin has a terrible color pallette. It tries to use the contrasting hues of red and green, but the fat grey cat as well as other bright colors make it all the more confusing. The eye focuses in on the cat and then drops down to the horrific stripes of red and green. It causes the eye to get lost and not find a place to rest. Although I love this piece, because of its ugly appearance, it uses color for all the wrong reasons. 

ParaNorman Poster 

Although this poster has a lot going on, it also really targets its audience. The film is family oriented and is meant to be slightly scary. It uses the hue dominance of green to portray this reasoning. Also, the large amount of action in the ad gets children's attentions. All in all, for its target audience I feel this poster really utilizes color to get their message across. 

Work in Progress #2

Work in Progress #2 

Here is my poster in complete digital. It took a lot of effort to just get here, but there were numerous mistakes about shading that had been created from going digital. At this point I didn't know what to think about this poster. It was soon noticed about the shading problems and even the direction of the blender near the strawberry, in real life the blender would not look this way. Thus, the piece developed a surreal appearance and numerous little mistakes to fix. After a lot of work, I felt overwhelmed at times and staying up late at night did not help the situation. It took mainly time and focus to get this piece looking better. I played with the surreal idea a bit in my final piece and was able to learn a number of ways to shade and make gradients.  

Works in Progress #1

Works in Progress #1

Here is my first try at placing the objects together. It looks okay, yet is missing a lot of color and background. The whole floating background does not work and there's an inconsistency between the medias used within the piece. I feel like I really held back at this point and tried to limit the amount on this piece. I was truly trying to make a simple look, but the simplicity actually caused more problems than solutions. Also, I was trying to avoid the surreal and make it realistic, yet the floating objects read the exact opposite.  Although this composition was very much a failure, it taught me a lot. My drawing skills were actually a lot better than I thought and the values on the whisk were really well done for myself. Also, just from drawing the pieces over and over again I practiced drawing objects from sight. This is something that I continuously need to work at, but the fact that I'm slowly making progress really makes me happy. At this point, I also had no idea how to place the title and it had really become an obstacle to resolve throughout the process. But, I knew that my final piece would look completely different from this!

Don Norman Video- Reflections

Video:

Don Norman- 3 Ways Good Design Makes You Happy

I was a bit hesitant at the start of Don Norman’s video, but after watching I feel more understanding of art and design. Design can be about making things neat and fun. Even feelings can help influence a design’s outcome. Norman mentions numerous examples of beautiful designs and how they may be faulty, but people still enjoy them. Also, how people will purchase things just to impress others or attract attention. I really liked the scientific example about the relation to out of the box thinking and happiness. A person that is too nervous and focused will have a harder time thinking out of the box. It makes sense that I get more “off the wall” ideas when I’m happy rather than sad. Yet, a balance between both focus and out of the box thinking is needed to complete any project. I also really liked how Norman brought together the levels of the mind and its relation to happiness as well as design. Except whenever he mentioned reflective I kept thinking of Jiminy Cricket. It was really fun that Norman loved talking about Design. It made the entire video more fascinating as well as exciting. I felt my illustration major was completely awkward in the design world, but after Norman's video I understand the importance of all forms of design working together for the best solution. His enthusiasm about design made me happy and inspired to try my best in design as well as thinking from different perspectives.