Design is Dangerous: Cell phones

There are useful designs, such as the recycling bins, and there are dangerous designs. Most times, designs aren’t meant to be harmful, since designs are made by humans for humans. A design can be useful and dangerous at the same time, such as: a cell phone.

 The cell phone does not have to be dangerous, but with each additional updates with cell phones, the device gets more and more tech savvy that sometimes people just cannot put down the phone, and that's when the cell phone gets dangerous.  

Danger #1: People text when they drive. It's so dangerous to engage in this activity while driving that it is illegal in California to text and drive. When people are texting, their attention is turned away from the road to the small device. Depending on what is going on around them, they are increasing their chances for a car accident.  It is most likely not the intention of the designers of text messaging to create such a dangerous situation people. In fact, the creation of text messaging was most likely intended to make communication easier between people. Who would have thought that people would text and drive?

Danger #2: Cell phones emit radioactive waves that can potentially cause cancer.
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/cellphones

Danger #3: In general, people are spending money uselessly to buy hi tech gadgets, like cell phones, when they don't really need them. In this ever growing capitalist consumer society, these kinds of technology is getting so much attention, when money earned from these gadgets could be spent somewhere else, for something much more helpful.

Color Transforms: Andy Warhol

The secret behind Andy Warhol's wonderful images is the way he plays with color. In the image above, Warhol is playing with the "camouflage" pattern. The original pattern and color can be seen in the upper left panel.  When he changes the color of the original camoflouge design, a different feeling and response is evoked from the audience. 

In the original design, with the green and brown colors, the intent was to have the person wearing the design blend in with a natural environment, so that people and animals do not see the person. So the colors chosen for this specific camouflage reflects colors one would normally see in nature; for example, green for trees, brown for dirt. But once Warhol changes the colors to blue, green, and pale yellow, the image that is produced in the viewer's mind is no longer one of forestry nature, but rather, a cold wintry one. Therefore, if someone was to wear this camouflage, it would not be in a forest of any type, but probably in a snowy place.  

But if Warhol changed the colors even more, for example, using the bright pink and yellow colors he chose for the bottom left one, the camouflage design becomes useless for anything related to the environment.  Bright pink is not a casual nature color. Therefore, this design would probably work more as a decorative design.

One of the tricks with color that Warhol manipulates in design (as so does the original camouflage design) is the optical mixture concept.  This concept asserts that when colors are places closely together multiple times, our perception blurs the two colors together, causing us to process that mixed color, rather than perceiving each color individually. With the creation of the original camouflage, that was the intention. If soldiers were to wear the camouflage design in the forest, hopefully the enemy's eyes would fall into that trick and not see the soldier.

Design in Society: Recycling Bins

                There are many things that get designed into society, billboards, clothes, sculptures, houses, laptops, musical instruments, and everything else out there. Most times, people don’t realize that a group of people had to go through a design process to create that object, whatever it may be. Some designs are useful, others useless. Recycling bins are one of those useful designs that many people tend to overlook.

                Think back to the time when recycling bins didn’t exist. How is life different?  Recycling bins allow us to use our resources intelligently, reusing whatever materials we can, and disposing of the materials we can no longer use again.  With recycling bins, the three R’s are reinforce: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  Anyone can be asked to reduce, reuse, and recycle.  But truthfully, not many people will take the extra time to initiate a recycling system into their daily routine.

With the advent of recycling bins, taking the extra step to help the environment just got easier.  The smallest contribution in helping save the environment can go a long way. Recycling The Aggie every day or just turning off the faucet as one brushs one’s teeth can be more helpful than one can imagine.

At UC Davis, there are recycling bins all over campus. Better yet, there are actually two types of recycling bins scattered around the campus: one for bottles and another for paper. Both are recyclable materials. Having two separate bins further encourages people to differentiate between the two and recycle even more.

                Visually, recycling bins make the streets prettier. If recycling bins didn’t exist, papers and bottles would go into the same bin as trash and garbage. That would cause those bins to fill up much faster. Once those bins start to overfill, the things inside the bin might start falling out, becoming litter on the floor.

Ergonomics Research: a Chair

In terms of ergonomics research, this chair would receive high remarks. It succeeds in each area of ergonomics really well by taking into consideration safety, comfort, ease of use, performance, and aesthetics. The chair is simple, but through ergonomics research, one realizes the extensive thought and effort put into the process to produce such a successful object.

            Safety is probably one of this chair's main concerns. People like to sit on chairs and not worry about whether it's going to break on them or not. The main safety support comes from its base: the wheels.  There are 5 wheels. This amount of wheels allows for a very firm and solid design as a base. The stronger the hold, the more weight the chair can support before breaking becomes an issue.  In addition to that, the use of metal as the main material for this chair also allows the user to not concern themselves with whether the chair will break on them.  Metal cannot be easily broken or bent. If the user was concern about the chair breaking, it would not be in the production process, but more so in the assemblage process.

Comfort would follow as another top priority. The comfort of this chair comes from the material used as padding for the seat and the back rest. Furthermore, the shape of the seat and back rest contributes to the level of comfort the chair provides.  The slightly concaved oval shaped seat and back rest is structured to receive the body of the user.  The cushion padding adds additional comfort by being soft, and by further shaping the seat to the person's body, if the concave oval doesn't already do so.

This chair is really easy to use. There are no hidden secrets or tricks.  With a simple push of a lever, the chair seat can easily move up or down for further comfort adjustments. The wheels are made of some sort of plastic material.  The plastic material against any sort of carpet for hard floor rolls easy. Therefore, moving around a room would not be a problem. If one wishes to change the seat covers, the replacement covers slip easily off and on, with the use of a zipper.

This chair performs well, especially since not much is asked of it. It provides a strong support and hold for the person who sits on it. In addition it provides a comfortable seat to sit on. The wheels slide easily on floor and carpet therefore mobility is simple. With that, its mission is accomplished.  If assembled properly, the chair is really strong. The back rest will not wobble or fall off. As a result, it provides good back support to the consumer.  The lever allows for an easy adjustment of how tall the user prefers the chair, creating additional options to comfort. 

Aesthetically, the chair is pleasing to the eye. Its basic color is black, but interestingly, the producers have made an additional cloth cover, so if the consumer wishes, they may change the color of the chair. They have the option of choosing a pink cover, or a blue cover. Changing the seat color is simple. Just place the cloth on top of the original black color one and zip it up. It’s a simple process; that’s an extra plus.

Following the five areas of ergonomics research, this chair is a successful product. It’s safe, it’s comfortable, it’s easy to use, it performs well, and it’s pleasing to the eyes. Overall grade: A

A Universal Mug

This mug would succeed in terms of ergonomics research. It would score rather high in all categories, but lets consider the first one: safety.  When designing consumer products, safety is always a priority, no matter what the product may be. If it's safe, then it's more attractive to consumers, and is probably better and will probably last longer than something that is not as safe.
When people think of mugs, some people might think of ceramic mugs, some may think of coffee mugs, and others may think of travel mugs. This mug here, would probably be a travel mug and safety for a travel mug is definitely a concern.  This happen to be a concern that this mug tackles well.  The mug here is not made with ceramics, but rather, it's plastic.  Travel mugs usually have two different layers, but in this case, both layers are plastic--a thick kind of plastic.  Plastic works well for a travel mug because it doesn't absorb the heat, as does the ceramic mugs. Therefore, if people wanted to carry it around, they would not have to worry too much about burning their hands if they were to grab at it. In addition to that, there is a handle. So they have the option to hold the mug by the handle and not have to worry about holding something really hot at all. The option is theirs.  The lid is a pop on-pop off.  Initially, people might not think that the lid could effectively keep the liquid inside, but it actually does.  Once the lid is on, it secures the liquid inside almost like an airtight seal. Another safety precaution that mug displays is the phrase: CAUTION. Contents may be Very Hot.  Nothing can be more simple then simply stating the possibility that the mug can hold hot things inside.
As shown, a lot of thought was put into making sure the mug can be used and not potentially burn anybody that uses it.  The material used to make the mug, an optional handle, and a precautionary phrase all contributes to making sure the mug is safe to use!

Treason of Images

Magritte's Treason of Images illustrates well the way words and images must work together. Without one of them, the entire meanings shifts. "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" translate into "This is not a pipe." If those words were to be take out, this image would be the same as any other image of the briar pipe. What makes this image distinctive and unique are those words.  Not only does it differentiate this image from other image, those words are provocative. It stumps the audience, since it contradicts what is seen.  If the drawing there is not of a pipe, then what is it?
In this situation, the words and image are in juxtaposition. What the audience see is a pipe, but the words immediately contradicts what the eyes see. As a result, the audience would start to question themselves.  This really forces the audience to think outside of the box, in terms of art and design.  Of course that is not a pipe, but rather a drawing of a pipe. Magritte was getting technical.  In other situation, such as the panels of Brian Fies, the words and images, don't juxtapose, but rather compliment one another.
To decided whether the words and image should compliment or juxtapose relates back to the intention of the piece itself. For Fies, it makes sense if his words and images related to one another, since he had a story he wanted to tell. For Magritte, he didn't have a story, but rather was playing with the possible responses of the audience.  Intention is different, and when intention differs, the way words and images relate to one another is different.

Word+Image: Brian Fies

Guest lecture, Brian Fies, discussed his comics, Mom's Cancer, and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow.  He tied his work as a comic book artist to many of the ideas and concepts presented in McCloud(?).
One thing that he presented was his design process and the specific elements of comic book creation that was important to him.  One aspect of comic book designing that was important and essential to him was an interaction of words and images.  He did not want his words to exist without the images, and visa versa. It was important to him that both the words and images function together to produce a stronger effect in the reader.

Words and images presented a way for Fies to express experiences that other mediums did not.  One example of this is Fies usage of metaphors, such as "drowning in scientific terminology." If Fies was writing a novel, he could have easily written "The scientific terminologies that the doctors used drowned my mother. She could no longer understand what was going on with her anymore." But rather, he understood his mother's experience to be much more than anything that could be expressed through words alone.  He found the answer is visually presenting the experience, through words AND images. With just a few panels, not only will he be able to say so much more, he can also depict the psychological and mental effects the cancer was starting to have on his mother.

One metaphor that I really enjoyed was the tightrope walking one Fies used to exemplify his mom's struggle in balancing her medications. It really captures the difficulty of the experience.  Not everyone can be a tightrope walker, but in this case, Fies' mother is metaphorically forced to be a tightrope walker.

Words and Images: Perfect Two

Youtube users love to create little music videos for songs that they love to listen to. Many of them are probably unaware of the fact that they are unconsciously working to create a necessary connection between the song and their video.  What I mean by this is, their video exist because of the song and its lyrics. If the sounds were to be turned off, the video would probably not make a lot of sense because most of the time, the images in the video reflects the lyrics.
The point of this song is that the speaker and his/her lover are meant to be, just the way peanut butter and jelly goes together for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; the same way you apples are necessary to make an apple pie. You can't have one without the other and expect to create a whole. The lyrics of the song can easily convey that. But once the song was integrated into the video also and images were used alongside the certain phrases of the words, the video cannot exist without the song.  This emphasizes the significance of the interaction between words and images.
Definitely the video here, Auburn's Perfect Two, since the lyrics has a lot of word play in it, such as "You can the peanut butter to my jelly." At this line, the video has a picture of a jar of Skippy peanut butter and then a jar of Welch's grape jelly.  Seeing those two images doesn't say much, and no one would know the message that the video was trying to send if the music was to be turned off.
Even some of the images used in the video itself depicts the whole interaction of words and images. For example, one of the images used during this video illustrates two pieces of a puzzle. One of the puzzle pieces says "You" and the other one says "Me." These two pieces fit together, as shown in the video. If the words were missing from the two puzzle pieces, the strong message that the two pieces truly belong together would be missed.  The words demonstrated that that the image could become something more than just two regular pieces. Once the words were added together, it demonstrated this natural sense of belonging between two people, a 'you' and a 'me.'

Objectified's Form and Content

Objectified is a documentary film focusing on the designs of our every day objects and the way objects in general have impacted our society today.  Gary Hustwit, the director, examines fruit peelers, Apple products, etc. He doesn't only focus on objects with obvious and visible impacts on society, but only focuses on other more simple and casual designs that we sometime forget as design and as having an impact on our lives.
Hustwit expertly uses form and content in his film to project his bigger idea about design and its impact on society. With the manipulation of camera angles and close ups, he really emphasizes the design of the object, such as the function of it and the work process involved in producing said objects.
A team designer Hustwit focused on were the Bouroullec brothers, Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec. The point reason behind interviewing them was to emphasize the difficulty that designers can face while designing something. Sometimes they have problems with communicating with their clients, other times it's difficulty between the designers themselves.
Another designer Hustwit focused on was Marc Newson. When interviewing Newson, Hustwit doesn't showcase the design process that Newson engages in, but rather films the various objects around Newson's room. For example, when Newson speaks about the various materials he picked up along the way since he thought they were interesting, the camera would zoom in on the same items as to allow the viewer to also see the reason why Newson had kept such an object or material.
Like pointed out earlier, Hustwit didn't only focus on big name designers, but he also focused on the no name designers, such as people who worked together to shape that toothbrush one uses every night as they brush their teeth. People may not think about it, but a lot of design goes into creating the toothbrush, from the brush itself, to the handle. When Hustwit focused on the objects, he focused his camera work on the objects itself, and less on the designers as they discussed each other their creations. But when he wanted to focus on design as a bigger idea, he would interview big name designers and have them discuss their thoughts and ideas about where design was headed, in general.
Objectified examines designs in our everyday life. By working with these different designers and manufacturers, Hustwit's mastery of the interaction of form and content interestingly presents our society as one that has been "objectified."

photo courtesy of psfk.com

Cars

Mustang. Porsche. Honda. Nissan. Hyundai. Ford. The list goes on and on. There are many different brands, models, and types. But what makes cars so attractive? Why are people constantly producing cars and releasing new designs every year? There are many things to take into consideration, such as the engine and mileage, but lets take a look at the visible design of the car's outer layer and the potential of those designs in attracting customers.

photo courtesy of treehugger.com

Focusing on this specific model of a car, what makes this car more attractive, visually, than other cars? Things to consider are the color, the shape and size of the car, the way certain parts of the car is shaped, and the relative size of each part of the car to the whole of the car in general.  To begin, the way the light bounces off the car is an important factor since it adds visual effects--effects that the car produces when in static motion. The lighting produces the idea that the car is fast and swift and looks "cool." Many people look for "cool" looking cars, and as the car sits at the dealership, the car must say "I'm cool, fast, and right for you" as quick and easy as possible.  The shapes of the windows and headlights contributes to the "cool, fast, and right for you" idea. Rather than having bulking square windows, that are aesthetically unpleasing, people would prefer smooth looking windows that are more pleasing.  The size and structure of the wheels follows the same reasoning. Rather than have big thick wheels, the wheels on this car is smaller since it adds to the effect of being "cool and fast." When people think of speed, being fast and swift, the image conjured in their mind is probably some blurry image of the object in action. So the smaller wheels, to some extent, contributes to this factor. We've discussed the individual aspects of the car, so considering now the shape of the car as a whole, people can see that it's an oddly shaped ovally rectangle.  This weird shape adds to the effect of being a speedy car and is taken from that image one would think of when someone thinks of a speeding car. All these different elements help sell this car and makes the car attractive.

Before and After

Payless recently redesigned their logo, emphasizing more on the word "payless" and less on the entire phrase "payless shoe source." Not only that, they even added a little icon/symbol to the logo. In their old logo, shown on the left, it simply reads "Payless Shoe Source;" there's nothing that pops out about the logo, apart from the solid "o"'s. The font was a very standard font, possibly a Times. The yellow color of the letters did add a little spunk to the logo, but nonetheless, the old logo of Payless was stale and didn't attract a lot of attention.  The new logo, on the other hand, looks more modern and hip, and emphasizes the word "Payless." Overtime, people refer to Payless Shoe Source as "Payless." No one really refers to the store using its entire name, so the new emphasis on the "Payless" reflects that attitude. Not only does it reflect this attitude of society, but it attempts to attract buyers buy focusing on "Payless." Consumers are always looking to "payless" and get more. This emphasis is done through a large size of the word, as compared to the other two words, which are located in a small corner of the design, right below the word "less." Not only is a new design layout used, a new font is used. This new font is less standardized. It's still nothing fancy or crazy, like Zumiez, but the letters look less restricted and more free flowing.  The designers shifted away from the yellow color and instead decided to employ the use of orange and a sky blue.   The sky blue is incorporated through the new circle logo. The sky blue color here plays off well with the orange, since it adds a new twist. If the new logo had been entirely in orange, it would not have been any better than the old one, since there's nothing new with just a change of font and an rearrangement of the words. Adding the new circle symbol and the small color of blue adds a modern and funky twist that works!
  
Logos are always changing.  By changing the logo, the company itself is saying that something's changed about themselves, whether they've adapted better styles, or is just better than the old.  Sometimes a change in logo is needed--just to attract more attention, since they old logo has gotten familiar.  Sometimes the change works well, like this Payless one. Sometimes they don't, slike the Gap one that released recently, but was quickly revoked.

(photo courtesy of wikipedia.org and mytidewatermoms.com)

Compare and Contrast

The UCD campus contains a few special sculptures, such as the eggheads and the abstract by Tio Giambruni.  Each sculpture is different in shape, size, color, and intention, but nonetheless, all deserving of their space on campus.

There are 7 eggheads scattered throughout campus.  Each egghead holds a different expression and is positioned differently. For example, The one in front of Shields Library has it's nose stuck in a book, the one behind Mrak Hall facing the library, is flipped upside down on it's head, and the one by Dutton is flipped onto its back. When I first saw these eggheads back when I was a little girl visiting the campus, I immediately wondered why the eggheads were there. Reflecting upon my first encounters with them, I realize the answer: to have people stop and wonder about the reason why the eggheads were made in the first place. There is no real reason as to why the eggheads exist, they just do.  Even though I make that argument, I think that to some extent, the expression that each egghead has is influenced by its location. The egghead in front of the library was sculpted with its face in a book.  Adding a book to the sculpture is most appropriate since it's located in front of the library, a place where there are tons of books and where students will come to put their face in a book.  It would be inappropriate to have such a sculpture in front of Mrak Hall.  Consider the eggheads in front of the drama theater.  One egghead is down on the side, the other one isn't.  These expressions are appropriate for a sculpture outside of the drama building, since drama is all about movement and acting. It's as though the egghead themselves are acting.

Unlike the eggheads, which are rather simple, the sculpture by the art building done by Tio Giambruni, is more complicated, in the way that it's not something someone can look at and say "Hey, that's a  -------." Giambruni helped expand the sculpting sector of the art program, so the sculpture probably exists to commemorate his contributions to the art program. To some extent, I do believe that the sculpture is supposed to attract attention, and make people wonder about it, but in a different way than the eggheads. The  Giambruni sculpture only intends to make people wonder about what it resembles, since it isn't anything in particuluar. So I think it pushes its audience to wonder about its shape, its form, and all that it resembles.
Sculptures exist everywhere. The reason for them is up to you to decide.

Jar of Hearts

When I think about how these blogs are about "design in society" I immediately think that I must go out into the small city of Davis and pick something out that relates to design.  Since design is "everywhere" surely I should be able to find something in Davis that is "design" and talk about it. But this time around, I decided to go beyond the whole world of Davis and take a look at the music video for Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts.



You cannot deny that there was a good amount of design that went on in the production of the music video. One obvious element of design was the overall dark hue of the music video.  The gray colors of the music video reflects the overall gray tone of the speaker in the song. I see the song as a revival song, a song sung after the speaker has gotten over the pain of being hurt by the person s/he loved. But the images used in the lyrics are very dark, and the dark imagery comes to life in the use of the gray overtone throughout the music video. The director of the music videos also manipulates the black, white, and gray colors in the music videos to further enhanace the mood of the song.

To some extent, there is a hint of resentment and bitterness towards the ex-lover. Those feelings are projected through the choreography of the dancers. Towards the end of the music video, all the women that the man tries to catch fights back vigorously against him. He'll pick her up, but she'll fling her arms and legs, causing him to release her.  These moves relate back to the tone of bitterness and resentment. She no longer wants to be with him, since she sees him for who he is; and he is someone who's heartless inside.

Design as a conversation

Design aims to create dialogue with its audience.  It wants to evoke some sort of thought from them.  Even the simplest form of design provokes the mind.  In class, the conversation was seen between Lady Gaga and Yoko Ono—a music-based conversation.  There was a back-and-forth response between the two artists, and in a conversation, one of the most important thing is a back-and-forth flow between people.

But design and conversation does not need to be as complex and as abstract as that.  Designs carry messages.  If that message is sent successfully, then already there was some sort of conversation going on. Take for example, poster ads.

Poster ads are meant to sell their product to the viewer. Ads are supposed to spark interest in the potential customer. Once they’ve been hooked, the conversation starts. For example, imagine a flyer advertising an Open House.

This flyer is supposed to catch the attention of people walking by. The bright colors, such as the yellow on the cupcake, fulfill that purpose.  It’s as if the yellow is shouting “Hey, look at me!” Once the attention is captured, the flyer must say all that it needs to say, as simple as possible, without loosing the interest it had sparked.  If that is successfully done, the viewer may walk away thinking “Yes, I will check out the Open House,” rather than not think anything about the product at all.

Lady Gag and Yoko Ono was a conversation between two artists.  Design speaks to people. It creates dialogue and thought. In Lady Gaga’s and Yoko Ono’s case, it was a musical design. Rather similar to that of Einstein on the Beach by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson.

Creativity from Without

What does this have to do with design??

Designers...artists...people...everyone eventually hit a point when they are in need of some sort of inspiration or motivation--you know, that extra boost to send them flying. It's only natural. Sometimes, when people do things for so long, their drive runs dry; when that happens, they seek a refresher to keep them going.

So where do I go for inspiration? How do I become "creative"?

The simple answer: Artbooks

Yes, I am one of those people. If the topic isn't directly related to art or design, I do start to question "What does this have to do with anything?"--or better yet "Can we starting talking some sense?" Hahaha It could be because I'm naive, but I like to think it's because I'm still in my developmental stage with art and design.  Whenever I look at artbooks, curiosity sparks up, since I'll see things in ways I've never seen them before, or it'll interest me to try something, artistically, that I wouldn't have dared done before.

To some extent, it's a way that I share ideas with artists--in this case, artists that have themselves artbooks.  It's as if I'm having a conversation with the artists as I'm looking through their works.

To another extent, I'm still exploring this realm of art and design.  So whenever I look for creativity, I like to look at what other artists and designers and have, and through their works, I can see where their inspiration for creativity came from.  From there, I can attempt to find my own inspiration for creativity. This works as a discover and learn from previous artists and designers.  If I see some cool, crazy, exotic creation, I'd be inspired to be a cool, crazy and exotic creator myself; it's as though I'm feeding off their creativity in hopes of finding that crazy creator within me.

Artbooks aren't the only things that sparks my creativity. Traveling to new places excites the creative creature in me; along with children books and anything related to childhood, in general.

The Nelson Gallery

I didn't get to attend the artist guest lecture last week, but I did manage a trip to the Nelson Gallery.  This quarter's theme was "WONDERS"--photographs inspired by Riis.  Other times that I've visited the Nelson, usually paintings were being showcased, but this time it was photographs, so I was rather excited!  Photographs, as I've come to understand it, is all about aesthetics--the way the photographer intended the audience to experience the photo.  Design is only 10% aesthetics--whAt?! In all my experience with art (and design)--and everything I do--I thought it was all about aesthetics, especially when it came to being creative.  To think that design--which is so much intertwined with art--is almost not about aesthetics at all, is almost mind boggling.

The photos at the Nelson played along the idea of Riis' photography.  Riis used flash photography to present his subjects, though human, to appear like objects.  For example, he would photograph an old lady beside a wooden plank, therefore making her resemble that plank, making the viewers connect her to the plank--the object.  The subject-object response was the aesthetic response that Riis intended for his viewers.  Does design have set aesthetic responses like Riis' photos and that's why design is only bases 10% of itself on aesthetics?

When I look for inspiration, maybe I rely on this aestheticisim to keep me creative.  The way I interpret a photo, picture, or image may be different from the way another person interprets the same image.  My experience is entirely my own. I can assume that maybe someone else has had a similar experience, but I will never truly know or understand someone else's experience, since its their experience alone.

Stone Soup

The creative process.

This whole experience was very interesting and fun.  One idea led into another, which led into another. It was like an endless dot-to-dot game.  Even though our creation was a person, there was always something more we could add to make our creation better than it already is.

In the book Stone Soup, the end product was supposed to be a soup.  With this activity, there was no set end product, and I was amazed at the results everyone had.  My group ended up making a person/scarecrow, someone we decided to name Emo. Even though we had so many materials to work with, we actually didn't have t utilize all our materials. One thing I will say was quite a bummer on our part was the fact that a few of us though we were going to be doing something 'artsy,' like spread paint onto a canvas and go crazy. Instead, we ended up doing something more hands-on--which was a total pleasant surprise!  So I think the group did a WONDERFUL job with what we thought we were gonna do, and what we actually ended up doing.

When I think about the process that we went through, it makes me think about sustainability.  Sustainability is still a vague term for me, but this whole process of using what we had, very inexpensive, everyday items to create something new reminded me of the sustainability idea.  It also made me think that design isn't a one-man thing.  It took a collective effort to create Emo. I'm not saying that it takes two or more persons to be a design, but rather, design can become a group thing.  A designer can work on his/her own, but s/he should realize that there are other options available also. It is good to engage with fellows designers, and mix ideas, to see what one can create as a group sometimes.  Coming together does not need to happen all the time, but it's an experiencing worth having.

First moments with Design

(image credit: http://www.wpt.org/hmong/language.html)

Paj ntaub (pronounced pa dao) would be my first encounters with design. Paj ntaub is bascially Hmong embroidery that tells a story. I am Hmong, so this type of embroidery has been around ever since I was a little girl.

The story that the paj ntaub tells is usually related to the way Hmong people lived. Sometimes it will depict people farming and other times it will depict a Hmong celebration, such as the New Year’s festival. Usually the cloth is as big as a canvas in which an artist paints. And rather than hang paintings on the wall, some Hmong families hang the paj ntaub, for display and decoration. Each figure sewn onto the cloth is a composition of many small strokes of yarn, all done by hand. In the paj ntaub shown above, for exmample, the men's black pants, are filled in with many single strokes of yarn.  Not only is the handwork such an amazement, the use of colors are outstanding too.  Most of the colors used in making Hmong clothing are bright vibrant colors. Those bright colors are reused in this paj ntaub also. Bright colors usually imply beauty, like flowers.

Looking at this specific piece of paj ntaub, it reminds me of comic book paneling. This paj ntaub depicts the Vietnam War. There are four main parts to the story the embroidery shares, reading top to bottom.  Most paj ntaub do not contain words, since Hmong people initially didn’t have a written language. So to understand, one must normally look at the drawings sewn onto the fabric and interpret it themselves.  The paj ntaub depicted everyday activities, so understanding the message of the images were not difficult.

There is a physical touch to the paj ntaub. The pictures, since made of yarn, take a physical form on the fabric. The fabric itself is a thin cloth, so when the figures are sewn onto the fabric, it is easy for the year to pile on top of one another and create that physical form.  Being able to feel and touch the figures on the paj ntaub adds a feeling of realism to the experience of the embroidery.  One may not understand the situation on a personal level, but having the pictures be more than just a print allows the viewer to interact with the events that go on in the embroidery.

Hmong people are mountain people; we don’t have any other form of art, or process in which we can visually display something.  Essentially, paj ntaub would be our form of art, since it is more permanent that doodles that can be done in the dirt or sand.  It’s also a form of storytelling.  Living in the mountains, Hmong people lacked the materials necessary to create a “book.” Without a written language, stories were told orally and through the paj ntaub, as visual presentation.

design is...

Design is you.
Design is me.
Design is that billboard.
Design is that building.
Design is your shoes and my shoes.
Design is the page in which these words appear.

So what IS design?

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, design is a noun representing a particular purpose: a deliberate planning or a mental project or scheme.  But that's just what the book says. Truthfully, design is everything and anything. Design is what you want it to be.  There's no 'real' set definition of what it is, since it means differently from person to person.

Everyone is familiar with 'art' and the way the definition of art differs from person to person. Some people may think that Andy Warhol's works should not be considered art, while others simply adore his work.
(image credit: lateboots.blogspot.com)
Therefore, in the same way that art cannot be specifically defined, design cannot (and should not) be strictly defined either.  To define design would mean to limit the things one can do with it.

Sometimes when people think about design, people think of something "creative" and complex--such as the printing on a T-shirt.

And, of course, that is design! But design is so much more in addition to that! Design is the size of the shirt, the color of the shirt, the way it was sewn together!

Lets take a look at my alarm clock as another example of design in places we don't expect to see.

People may look at it, and just see it as that--an alarm clock. But if they were to stop and think about it, they'll see that there was a lot of design that went into creating the clock.  For example, consider the light of the clock. It's blue, rather than red or yellow or green.  And take a look at the shape of the alarm clock. it's an odd triangular shape, rather than a traditional rectangle.

In this example, I once hit upon color and shape as being part of design. But in general, design is a dense term! It encompasses color, size, shape, line, texture, value, and so much more!

Design's roles

(image credit: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/ )
Is design important as an element of commerce, or are there other ways to conceive of design's role?

Design has become an important element of commerce, yes, but there are other ways to conceive of design's role, thought commerce may be it's main and most obvious role.  Design has been integrated so much into the world of commerce and commercial art that it's hard to think that it can be anything else. But it can and is!

When people think of "design," they think "designers" and when they think designers, they think fashion and everything related to fashion and big name brands, such as Calvin Klein, Gucci, etc.  The designs they release into the world run right alongside that of commerce and commercial products, no doubt. But to some extent, that's just the stereotypical role of design.  Design can do so much more, since design IS so much more than that.  That's why, for example, the University of California, Davis, offers more than just "fashion" as an emphasis in design.  There's the visual communication, the interior design, and the exhibition aspects of design.  Each emphasis represents another role of design.  Some may have more overlaps with it's commercial role, but design is not entirely about commerce.

The ways we can conceive of design's role relates directly to what we ask design to do. If we do not know what we want design to do, then we cannot recognize the roles design has.  Whatever we ask design to do, it does.