Final Paper Light

Paper Light Construction

Reflection of Photos

When constructing our letters we wanted our letters to gradually get bigger so that we could place the letters further in space and they could still be visible. We thought putting the letters further and further back in space it would fit the definition. After creating the letters we realized they even looked cool next to each other because you can’t tell the extension as the letters progress in the word which also matches the definition. Another idea we had was to find a hill to place the letters close together on and photograph it from below extending into the sky. All of our ideas turned out well and we are happy with our results.

Reflection of team dynamics

I had a hard time with this project because I had to miss a couple of days due to being ill. Catching up wasn't much of something I could do because I couldn't make up the class. My team had to make decisions without me being present and inform me on them when I returned. When it was time to construct the letters it was hard to find time that every single one of my teammates could meet up. We took turns on working on the letters and I feel it was evenly distributed.

Reflection of Project

During the process of doing this project I've learned that it is not easy to construct 3D 3-6ft letters. This project was very time consuming and stressful. I found myself getting burned out after working on the construction of the letters for hours at a time. Listening to music helped to pass the time. The amount of space available to construct the letters was very minimal due to all the other students working. This made the construction harder to complete. When my group and I went to place our letters around campus we encountered a problem with weight. The wind was not our friend and we couldn't manage to keep our letters standing. To assure that our letters weren't damaged or stolen a group member stayed behind. We picked a nice bright and not windy day to complete the photographs of our letters around campus and got beautiful results.

Photograph Essay

 

This essay opened up my eyes to the importance of photography in the world. Without cameras I wouldn't know what my great grandma looks like. Photographs give individuals the opportunity to experience the visual aspects of things they otherwise would've never seen. Without cameras you would only have memories. Photographs give you a visual memory of a certain time and place. Photographing can be for fun or to capture special moments. Photography is an art. You can express your life through photography. Every photo means something different to each person that looks at it. Photography is a special kind of visual communication that cannot be expressed any other way.

Parts of the Letter

The Alphabet has been along for forever it seems like. This powerpoint makes me think of how language/typography was even invented. The alphabet is harmonious and complex. Whoever made the alphabet must've had some resoning behind the symbols. I never paid much attention to the fonts used in the world around me before reading this powerpoint. I now know that the font gives off visual communication.

Descrition of Project 3

This project focuses on typography in 2D and 3D and the way its placement and content emphasises meaning. In this assignment we are to come up with a way to express the meaning of a construsted word through size, placement, spacing, and environment. After you portray the meaning through the construction of the letters you must place them in context and photograph it. You will also create a photobook that shows the work and progress through photos.

Final Poster - Comfy Cuts

Extend Definition

EXTEND

 

transitive verb

 

1

: to spread or stretch forth : unbend <extended both her arms>

 

2

a: to stretch out to fullest length

b: to cause (as a horse) to move at full stride

c: to exert (oneself) to full capacity <could work long and hard without seeming to extend himself>

d (1): to increase the bulk of (as by adding a cheaper substance or a modifier) (2): adulterate

Photos from interviews

Interviews on how to improve bad designed scissors

Interview #1: This is an eight year old little girl. She holds this pair of scissors how her second grade teacher taught her the correct way was with the index finger outside of the longer finger hole. She makes a comment on how the scissors are heavy for her and that makes it harder for her to control. This pair of scissors are in fact too big for her petite hand size. This makes me realize that not one pair of scissors can perform to its best with just one style.

Interview #2: This interview was with a sixteen year old female. She is slender in size and has boney hands. This girl uses the pair of scissors by placing all four fingers into the larger hole of the handle. For hands of her size the size of the holes in the handle for fingers is just right.

Interview #3: This interview was conducted with a 39 year old woman. She uses scissors with all 4 fingers in the larger hole. The problem she has though is that all four fingers don’t fit on the main base of the hole without being crammed. For a person of average full growing development the scissors base for the four fingers is too small of a space.

Interview #4: This interview was with an 18 year old female. She uses the scissors the same way as the woman before and encounters the same problem with her fingers becoming crammed. She comments how uncomfortable that is and that she wishes they made a bigger bottom hole so all her fingers could fit comfortably.

Interview #5: This interview is with a 19 year old male. He uses the scissors with his index finger in front of the larger hole, closer to the blade. He never really paid attention to how much more work that left his three fingers in the larger hole were left with to pull open the scissors.

Interview #6: This interview was done with a 38 year old man. He uses the scissors in his left hand and puts all four fingers into the larger hole of the handle. For a man’s hand of this age the fingers are very crammed and it begins to become uncomfortable very quickly. He suggests that scissors be made for all different sizes of hands and people.

Interview #7: This interview is done with a 63 year old woman. With her petite size all four fingers are placed evenly in the larger hole of the handle. The scissors are uncomfortable and tiring for her hand because she has had carpal tunnel surgery in the past. The scissors don’t form to her need of relaxation in the muscular movement.

Interview #8: This interview is with a 25 year old male. He is fully grown and as well has a hard time fitting his finger comfortably in the larger hole of the handle. He comments on how the plastic of the handle is uncomfortable and rough on his hands.

Interview #9: This interview is with a 27 year old woman. She suggests that scissors should be more comfortable for people who use them for a long period of time. Possibly rubber groves separating fingers could solve this problem. She also comments on the lack of room for the fingers to place on to. The handle could be wide enough to cover the inside base of all fingers.

Interview #10: This interview is done with a 45 year old man. His finger position is limited in the handles larger hole. He suggests having finger holes for each individual finger to create more space. He also suggests making the handle thicker to grip on to.

IDEO Deep Dive Reflection

While watching IDEO Deep Dive, I learned that there’s a difference between invention and design. Inventors simply invent an item without thinking fully of the user’s needs. Designers’ have all intentions of the user’s needs and develops solutions to each need into the object. The way designers’ best come up with ideas is to work together. No designer is higher than another designer in terms of ideas. Designers start off first by studying the product and from there they don’t limit themselves on ideas and creativity. Usually the crazier and wilder ideas have a huge impact on the final product. For everything that is designed goes through this process.

IDEO "rules"
-- think of your product in terms of verbs rather than nouns.
-- concentrate on one conversation at a time
-- stay focused
-- encourage wild ideas
-- go for quantity (no editing)
-- be visual (visual words or sketch)
-- defer judgment (no stopping to say that isn't going to work, isn't a good idea...)
-- build on the ideas of others

Before watching this video I couldn't establish the difference between inventors and designers. I know have clear thought as to what each have to offer. I also learned that nothing in esign is too crazy or out of the box, actually the crazier the better for the overall development of your product.

Mind Map

Sketches of Original Objects of Bad Design

 

 

Air freshener, Staple puller, and Hole puncher.

Preliminary Prototypes

Sketches of Ideas

Choosen bad object to redesign

Class work on how to improve objects of bad design

3 Bad Design Objects

The Writers Toolbox

Writing can serve many helpful tools. Mind mapping, concept mapping, free writing, brain writing, and word lists are all good ways to enhance your creative thoughts. These techniques should reflect your thinking process and the relationships words have with one another. Writing can help organize thoughts and turn them into ideas. Writing is diverse enough for different styles of thinking and learning. Creative geniuses in the past have been noted for making mind mapping skills similar to the ones we use today. A mind map is putting a visual form to words that create ideas. The purpose of using this method is to come up with new ideas. You make connections with words that relate to your main words by circling the words and drawing lines to connect them. This is a good way to explore, expand, or understand a topic. A concept map is analysis of relationship and meaning of the main word. This technique includes propositional links to ideas that relate to each other. This is a step further than mind mapping by focusing on systems of thinking. Free writing is letting words flow out of your head on to your paper. This is a good way to bring hidden thoughts to words.  Free writing can help you develop a more critical and creative evaluation of your main idea. This is similar to journaling because you can write whatever comes to mind. Brain writing is also what a lot of people refer to as brainstorming which is a quick way to generate ideas in a group. By listening to the members of your group more ideas rise. Word lists are words that relate to your topic and precede each other down on different lines of the page. This technique is appealing to the eye and is a quick technique.

I personally find many of these tools helpful. The most helpful of the tools to me is mind mapping. I like mind mapping because of its ability to make connections and branches on to ideas. Mind mapping clearly shows thought process and relationship. I enjoy the connections mind mapping makes because it helps me make clearity of my idea. I also like using word lists. Word lists are helpful to me because it is quick and it is a good start to generating ideas.

Description of project: Design for 5 Bucks

This project is aimed to get us future designers into thinking more of how design is used in the world around us. To understand what good design is we must know what bad design is as well. This project specifically is getting us to look at what bad design consists of. We are to find object of bad design and find a way to improve it. Improving upon an object is a part of design too. We will show how to improve upon our object to make it a better design and present it through a poster, movie, creation of the new product, and a process book.

Objectified Reflection

Most people don’t realize it but, mostly everything in this world has been designed. Design is often overlooked by the viewer, especially things used in everyday life. These people unconsciously don’t notice the design of something is until it is improved by a designer who noticed its faults that could be improved upon. Design is all about making an object better for the people’s needs. Design is a search for form. Design is about mass production. Design needs to please the people. Design changes the world. Designers see no reason to have bad design in the world. They improve upon an object or system until it’s to its best potential. Being a designer is about expressing your thoughts and ideas through how you view the world. The thinking and creativeness of a designer isn’t given enough credit

I can relate to this movie because before coming to design school I too didn't pay much attention to the design of products that i use on a daily basis. I viewed these everyday products to be as if they were pre exsisting and no one had ever put thought process into why we needed it. Now I realize the importance and significance of all of these everyday products.

Final poster of good design

Reflection to Good Design Project

This project taught me how to organize my thoughts and ideas. Without being able to use words I was forced to become creative and come up with a way to show my idea of how this backpack was a good design through visual communication. Before this assignment I had never used InDesign, Photoshop, or Illustrator. This was tough but a good way to learn the basics of these programs. My poster demonstrates good design because it is very organized, it’s simple, and it has hierarchy. The bubbles are a zoomed in view of the features that make the backpack a good design. The multiple views of the backpack are good design because it shows different perspectives of the object of good design. The backpack views are in a larger scale than the features because it is the main focus of what the good design is. My poster demonstrates good color usage because it follows the color unit strategy use of neutrals. I tried to keep my poster straight to the point by using colors that weren’t distracting to the viewer. My idea about design did change because it’s not only about how the object has good design but it’s about how you design your poster as well.

Color Lecture Reflection

The color lecture was mostly over things that every person already knows about color. It went over basic color schemes and the color wheel. However what I did learn in this lecture was the Three Dimensions of Color, Principles of Color Design, and the Color Unit Strategies. The three dimensions of color are Hue, Value, and Chroma. Hue is the basic name of a color. Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Chroma is the purity or grayness of a color. The Principles of Color Design are harmony and contrast. Harmony is colors similar to each other that create harmony. Contrast is the difference between two colors that create interest. There are six Color Unit Strategies, they are limited palette, soften the contrast, weaken the chroma, Transitions in hue, value, chroma, use of neutrals, hue, value, or chroma dominance, and Key the color. Limited palette is using few hues to create unity. Soften the contrast weaken the chroma is when strong chroma hues are reduced to create better movement. Transitions is hue, value, chroma is when strong jumps in color are eliminated to make the overall picture easier to look at. Use of neutrals is the balance between many colors with the use of neutral colors. Hue, value, or chroma dominance is when one color’s brightness is in control of the scene and all of its surroundings. Key the color is the tint of the photo that creates a feeling towards the scene.

Collapsible flower bouquet

I got this paper flower bouquet in the mail the other day. I really think this is a unique, cool design. Recieving this in a thin envelope adds to the excitment when you open it up.

Rough Draft Poster

 

Sketches for project of good design

Here are the sketches i did for my project of good design.

Prezi

Today was my first Hallmark Symposium class. The guest speaker was Mark Moskovitz. I really enjoyed his presentation. What I like most about it was that he used prezi, the power point documentation. I believe this will soon be a very popular trend as i've only seen it used a few times. Prezi is a uniqe way of making powerpoints connect and create a better visual map. The thing I will take away from this is when he was talking about how our greatest success comes not from just our successes but also our failures.
Prezi.com

Pinterest

Loved this website before I started this class. Love it even more now! excited to use it more and more.
pinterest.com

What is design?

After my first week of design classes in college, the main focus has been what is design? As i've learned design is a very tricky thing to explain let alone understand. Design has many levels and mediums of thought. The more i think about it the more I start to see it. Design is everywhere we look and everything we see. Design can be very simple but yet very complex. The backpacks on our backs, the shoes on our feet, the buildings we live in, the food we eat, the landscaping outside, like many many other things were all designed

Color Theory

This is a photo I found for my Color Theory assignment. This photo to me best describes the Color Unit Stratagy, Key the Color. Almost everything in this photo seems to be in the hue of yellow.

Here is another photo I found for my Color Theory Assignment. This photo represents contrast hue. The colors red and green are on opposite sides of the color wheel. The distinction between the two colors makes this image look interesting.

Don Norman

Design grabs your attention when its attractive or beautiful. Most people tend to find good design by its looks. Fear changes the way you think about things. When you’re happy you tend to do more out of the box thinking and show more creative and interesting work. Color, shapes, fonts, ect. All make us have different feelings about an object. Almost everything we do is subconscious. Cognition is about understanding the world; telling us what’s good or bad. Emotions tell us how to react to the world; protecting ourselves from our fears, to be safe. The reflective part of the brain has no control of what you do; it’s the little voice in your head that talks to you.

http://www.ted.com/talks/don_norman_on_design_and_emotion.html
I enjoyed this video a lot. It opened my eyes to why we think of things the way we do. This clip motivates me to work hard on all the assignments and excited me to do so right away.

Reading 1

In Think and Make Reading 1 the main concept to be learn is that design is a process of making things right. Each object of design should be able to speak on its own of what it is and produce its function. The world is shaped and constructed by design and is all contently changing. Society however has a disagreement on how important design is. My opinion is that design has a huge impact on society and all the improvements we have today. It’s hard for me to see how people say that design has no value when nothing in our environment is natural meaning that at one point everything had to be designed. Without design we wouldn’t be where we are today. Design is essential to the quality of human life. The concept of design has so many different views and levels that it comes off as a confusing matter. There is such a wide range of practice in the design world. Design results from the decisions of human beings. The two ways of thinking of design are creatively and analytically. Design is problem solving. Design is a never ending cycle that will continue to grow in the future.

Dieter Rams

Dieter Rams “Ten Commandments” of Design give a very general outline for what good design really is. For an object to have all design commandments is the goal but takes a lot of thinking. The commandments help me in my search for the best design object I can find in my object choice for my upcoming project. These set of rules help me understand exactly what good design is and the many forms it comes in. This list pertains to my major of Interior Design by stating how to make the best design out of space and interiors.