Harmony...

Two elderly or two young adults? Well, I will leave it to you to find out. But, this picture is a creation of Octavio Ocampo, whom named it “Solo para Siempre,” which translate, will say “Forever Always.” So, then how is it that we always end up trying to figure something out? Why we as thinkers always try to related something so it makes sense? Why not just erase the image from our minds and move forward? Well, that question was answered by a concept in psychology: Gestalt. In this concept unity helps us to visually relate what we are looking. In this picture unifying different line weights and colors Ocampo was able to create the allusion of two elderly and two young adults enjoying their time.

Unity is one important composition in designs. It is a designers’ job to create this phenomena where the viewer, in this case the society, will find the last puzzle piece for the image and relate it to the final product. There are different ways to achieve unity, but the one this blog is going to focus in order to extend this unity explanation with the picture will be proximity. We can see in this image that the artist used closeness/proximity in his composition helps us to choose what we want to see. It also helps us to create a relationship of what we are seen. Thus, connecting this relationship with designers, advertisements do the same thing.

Advertisement designs need to have a sense of organization. Designers need to walk their audience through what their main point will be. Through unity we can achieve the viewers’ attention and time to appreciate are work. If no organization or unity can be found in the work, most likely the advertisement would not have effect in the society at all. Therefore, no message will be delivered and then the designer will no longer have its job. On the other hand, architecture follows the same rule. For example if an architectural firm is designing an apartment complex in a neighborhood. They will probably want their structure to stand out and by doing so promote the apartment complex as well. In this case unity plays an important role in maintaining the similarity in their architectural structures, buildings. Same patterns, same colors, same windows, and so on. Thus, the most important thing is that we, as designers, need to connect with our audience/viewers. Maintaining not only the unity in our composition is crucial, but we need to maintain our viewers interested too.

Reference:

The photo was borrowed http://www.unoriginal.co.uk/optical_illusions/illusion5_7.jpg

Love a critique!

Have you ever received a critique and not like it? Do you wonder why do we need to critic at someone’s work? We, as human beings, do not appreciate to be pointed down. But, we need to learn that everything we do is a learning process and receiving critiques is the best way to improve. For design, as well as for art, it is crucial to receive feedback for the final products we design. Critic is one of the most resourceful ways to improve your technique, research, or even imagination.

As Lauer and Pentak wrote on their book Design Basic: “ the goal of critique is [to] increased understanding through examination of the project’s successes and shortcomings.” In other words, we need learn to appreciate other perspectives, because at the end of the game our final products are done for clients, for other people, not for ourselves. We, as designer, have to take criticism as are best judgment tool that will help us to reach the complete satisfaction of our audience and/or clients.

Additionally, during our design thinking receiving feedbacks is indispensable. One example is the company IDEO, where they created a new shopping car prototype, where the main goal was to improve the customers’ experience while shopping. The first step they followed was to do some research in groceries stores, then they started to study the problem, followed by creating new ideas, where they obtained the central idea for the new prototype that will enhance the utility. Later, after creating the new prototype, they needed to test their final product, see if the customers’ liked it, they needed feedback. If the critics received by the customers was positively they would repeat the same process, if not, they would need to repeat it and make some arrangements.

As you can see, receiving critics is important, because then designers can know what is good and bad of their designs. This obviously influences they way we as a society live day by day. Every final product of anything goes through a process of feedback/criticism that leads to how we live. For example the way we dress, the stereotypes society has created. Thus, don’t forget to appreciate any critic, do not take it personally, and instead work over it. Make it better!

References:

** The picture was borrowed from the Penguin Creative blog

http://blog.penguincreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/critics2.jpg **

Sustainability at schools

What do we learn when we attend school? How does it affect us? Do we really change? Are we being unsustainable because schools do not teach us how to be sustainable? Sustainability has become one of the answers to solve the problems our society has caused: climate changes, depletion of the earth natural resources, and so on. Therefore, educating ourselves about sustainability is imperative. One of the series of the conference was hold at the University of California, Davis on October 21^st, 2009 by Doctor Geoffrey Chase. The main topic of this conference was “Sustainability Across the Curriculum: Stories and Strategies for Change,” which is seeking to educate the society more about sustainability.

Dr. Chase emphasized his conference in the importance of designing the curriculum so that students became more aware of sustainability. Then, why is it so important to emphasize it? Well, sustainability is not a topic that can be cover only through architectural buildings or sites. It involves more; it encloses economic, social, and environmental impacts. It can affect the society in two complete opposite ways: positively or negatively. Every person can be sustainable by allowing themselves to learn how to be more sustainable, like for example instead of using plastic bags for trash, they can change those plastics bags to paper bags, which will disintegrate in a shorter amount of time in comparison with the plastic bags. Then, by doing so they will allow the cycle of compost to process faster. Thus, little changes that a person can do can help to improve slowly the damage we have caused to the earth, which is the main goal of this conference.

It is important to understand how by designing differently the curriculums of schools it will influence the way current and future students can be more sustainable, which directly affects the society. Then, by re-designing the curriculum, like Dr. Chase it will be the “largest multiplier effect” because the students will influence in each homes and then the communities in where they live. If the design of the curriculum does not change and it keeps to be the way we have it, the world will be further more deplete the earth’s resources and we, the society, will destroy the planet and ourselves by doing so.

References:

The poster was printed out by UC Davis, Design department

Umbrellas!!

It is raining again! In my way to class, the air turned the umbrella inside out and one stretcher broke because of it. As I walked to my second class my jeans were completely wet and the umbrella was no longer functional. I had to hold the stretcher that broke in order for me to “not get wet.” I put it under quotation marks, because innocently I thought I would not get soaking wet. At the end, I had to go buy a new and bigger umbrella. Thus, this blog is in honor to those dysfunctional umbrellas that were meant to protect us from getting wet from those raining days.

Then, who thought we needed umbrellas? How did the design thinking started? Why its design is the way it is? Well, according to the article The History of the Umbrella, written by Abby Eyers, the umbrella was invented 4,000 years ago. Its primary function was to provide shade and it was an item that only high-class society used and “the larger the umbrella, the greater the wealth of its owner.” As we moved through time different places around the world started to understand the problem society had with not sheltering themselves from the rain. People got sick more often. Thus, the function of the umbrella started to change; society gave it the purpose of protecting us from water.

The ideas and prototypes were taken from past centuries, so the only thing that was need to be done was to find a permeable material and the strength of a material that would be able to fold and “hold” the umbrella in that inverted u-shape. But, it was not easy for people to adapt to this new protecting device. Man at first did not agree with the idea of using what was meant for only women use.

On the other hand, the umbrella’s design needs to change because it does not provide enough protection. And the stretchers need to be stronger so the wind does not turn it inside out. But, I’m sure someone will change the prototype and we will find the perfect protection against rain. Like this one:

**The information and the picture were taken from this website: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26690/the_history_of_the_umbrella_pg2.html?cat=46**

** The video was borrowed from youtube.com**

**The information and the picture were taken from this website: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/26690/the_history_of_the_umbrella_pg2.html?cat=46**

** The video was borrowed from youtube.com**

Nature in Art

I am an artist that values, above all, the ability of art to move me emotionally and psychically. I make art that makes me question, that derives its power from being vulnerable to interpretation, that is intuitive, that is beautiful. 

-April Gornik

Aesthetical pleasing and the impact the art on the audience is important for April Gornik. An artist who’s inspiration is nature and cares for her audience reactions toward her art. Gornik’s art influences her audience feelings. She designs her art respecting nature and admiring it. She gives live to each printing with different mediums. She uses from 3-5 colors in her lithographic printings and with this media she gives a unique personality to her portrait and her audience can clearly perceive it.

One example of how engaging her paintings can be is “Sky Through Trees,” each silhouette has its own form; there are no repetitions or patterns. It resembles each human being, every single one of us are unique. Her inspiration (nature) is turn into a passionate and uniformly tone in a printing. Going back to the example, this printing is on a grayscale. The trees pop out of the page by simply being black under a gray tone background.

Being in a society where the majority of us no longer appreciate nature, April Gornik creates a nice job at bringing us back to where we started. She helps us to realize the beauty of what we need to preserve for future generations. There’s no need to have a compacted design that will enclose a lot of details, it only needs to be balance and make sense.

** The pictures and the quote were borrowed from her web page: http://www.aprilgornik.com/book.html**

Another way of use for colors.

Are make-up artists considered to be artists? If so, are they considered to be designers? I think they do, because they create new trends every time they work with colors and brushes each season. It is like painting, but instead of having a white canvas, they have a face, and the art does not last more than a couple hours. One artist is Salina Marie, whose inspiration is color. She mentions in an interview that color gives her the urge to “experiment with different colors [and] made [her] want to do more with tools,” and not just painting.

Color was her main inspiration to actually become a make-up artist. She plays with a range of tones in order to achieve a satisfactory make-up. And it obviously varies with each skin tone her clients have. It is not a simple task to do, combining the right colors and tones for the occasion takes practice. Additionally, each season the trends change and therefore the color tones and techniques will change too.

This make-up process takes the action of thinking and imaging how the end result is going to be. As the process of brushing the color into the skin, it requires the artist to stop for a second, look at their process, and make corrections before it’s too late. The artist goes back to their project and then the client will critique the artist’s work. Finally, if little corrections have to be done in order to have a satisfactory result, changes will be done.

Nothing in life is easy to do. It takes different levels of processes. But it does not mean it is impossible to do.

** The image was taken from http://ferenc.biz/archives/painter-make-up-artist-salina-marie-interview/**

Cell Phones Evolution

Have you ever look the progression of the cell phone’s designs? Back in 1990’s, I remembered having a Nokia cell phone, 5 inches long and almost an inch wide. It looked like a tiny brick. Designed only to make phone calls and few text messaging, with an ABC writing format, which means that you would click several times the same key in order to have the letter you wanted to be shown in the cell phone’s screen. But, back in 1980’s the first cell phone was even bigger and, according to the eighties online, it was actually referred as “the brick.”

In about ten years the cell phone’s design changed dramatically, the size was smaller (not smaller as some phones we have now) than it initially was. Then, as time progressed cell phones got increasingly acceptable and versatile. Size no longer determined the functionality of the cell phone. There were cell phones even smaller than someone’s palm with the entire programs and options of another cell phone.

Then how design influenced this “human’s necessity?” Well, when cell phones started to be invented society was not as much dependent on technology as we are today. As time progressed, society needed more convenient and compact goods. Nowadays, there cell phones, like Iphone, Blackberry Storm, and so on, which no longer have keyboards in it. Society is requiring more condensed and multifunctional accessories. There is no need to waste that extra money to create the plastic keyboards. The cell phone screen can be set up so that responds to one’s touch. The same goes with how new computers designs are being made. Hewlett-Packard is one company that has changed their computers designs the computer screen to respond to the users’ touch.

The cell phones, these contemporary societies have, are created and designed so that it can hold different programs on it. We not only can do primary services of this product: make phone

and send text messages, where we no longer need to click several times in the keyboard, the cell phone now will know the word we want to use, but also can send e-mails, navigate on the web, take photos or videos, and even find our location in the world. And cell phones are going to keep evolving, it might become even thinner, compacted, and convenient and designers will play an important role in deciding how the new image of the human’s dependency will be.

***Photos were taken from the internet, the references: ***

http://www.eightiesonline.com/eighties-news-and-information/the-first-cell-phone-call-25-years-ago-in-1983

http://www.gearcrave.com/2008-12-02/the-history-of-blackberry-six-rims-from-black-to-bold/

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/image/g_iphone.jpg&imgrefurl=http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/07/0717_idea_winners/23.htm&usg=__6jgn_vOFUYqUzyRX5x8a7Ha5gOE=&h=350&w=600&sz=81&hl=en&start=4&sig2=4b-0Eu2hRYMN64VTbmQZ2Q&um=1&tbnid=myl9OArKbYSAXM:&tbnh=79&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Diphone%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=JVPSSojjGIbatAOeuOzvCw

http://i.testfreaks.es/images/products/600x400/81/panasonic-gd55.24657.jpg

Designing a Community

Village Homes is a well-known site at Davis, California, a lovely place where nature and society have the same level of importance. The main theme that surrounds the location is sustainability. Judy and Mike Corbett are the designers of Village Homes. They combined the ideology of creating a sense of community like the 80s; where people will know their neighbors, communities were gather together, and where kids could play outdoors with enough security they will come back home safely, and focusing in society’s needs. One example is that they narrowed the streets, so indirectly the drivers are forced to drive at a low speed that as a consequence provides safety to pedestrians to walk in streets.

The place is considered to be sustainable because most of the houses use alternative ways to obtain energy: solar energy is one example, all the houses are ori

ented north-south and have solar panels attached to their homes. Additionally, it offers alternative ways to transport like pedestrian and bike paths. It also contains natural drainage where the water can be reused and recycled to water the green surroundings.

The design of the site not only provides functionality and

practicality, but it also provides an aesthetical environment for the residents at

Village Homes. These aesthetical views are mainly made out of edible landscape, where residents have the opportunity to plant a variety of fruits, and it also contains two open spaces, parks, where the community can gather together.

Village Homes is an example of a community where nature and society can work hand in hand. Unfortunately, there are few places around the world that considered people’s needs more than automobiles. Now, streets are construct wider to, supposedly, prevent traffic, and do not considered the danger of pedestrians crossing those streets. Hopefully, as new generations of Landscape Architectures and Architectures come the new designs will follow Village Homes principals.

References:

http://www.villagehomesdavis.org/public/about

http://www.rte50.com/2007/07/village-homes.html

Typographic Art in society

(This image has been retouched)

Typography art is an art not well known by the audience. In this art the artist uses typed letters in order to create their design. At the University of California, Davis two Korean artists, Hyunju Lee and Phil Choo, are holding a design exposition called Typographic Exploration in Hangul. Lee and Choo used the typography design to portray their Hangul origins.

One of the printings is called “Gghot – A flower” and it is an Inkject Print on a Hand Made Paper artwork by Hyunju Lee. This art resembles the woman’s search for love with a flower. Two different tones of green color makes the petiole and leaves, bright and colorful tones make the petals of it. Some of the petals are falling to the end of the page, resembling how fragile life is. Also, the artist lightly drew several petioles for the flower, making an allusion to different decisions and choices we, as a human being, make. Some of those strokes are lighter than the central petiole showing the importance of those decisions. Moreover, unlike the rest of the printings, “Gghot – A flower” is printed under a hand-made paper giving it a different importance to the rest of art shown in the exhibition. The quality of the paper is so fragile that characterize the importance of love in every society, but it also represents the how breakable relationships between people can be.

Overall, the design resembles the society’s search for love and the fragility of each individual’s search. The composition of the printing is lovely, delicate, but the arrangement of the printing could have been better. Due to the light colors the printing has it was difficult to distinguish the different color tones of the art. It would capture more the audience attention if it was better lighted and if the location of the painting was centered rather than be in the corner of the room.

Some future references:

http://designmuseum.ucdavis.edu/