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.