Design is Dangerous

There are many objects that were designed with a specific purpose or function. However, there are always unintentional side effects to the design of those objects. An example would be the function of traffic lights.

There are many beneficial ways traffic lights can have on society. However, there are also dangerous effects of a traffic light.

http://www.topnews.in/smart-traffic-lights-may-help-speed-journeys-220580

The function of a traffic light is to direct the flow of traffic. It helps warn drivers on when it is safe and not safe to drive.

In addition, the use of colors for a traffic light is yellow, green, and red. These colors on traffic lights do not change because of how universal traffic lights are used. This makes it easy for people to understand what color on the light means.

A dangerous problem with the design of traffic lights is the overall dependency on traffic lights controlling the flow or traffic for us. In the unlikely circumstance that all traffic lights go out, the roads become extremely dangerous. Also, when traffic lights go out, dangerous weather conditions are usually the reason, making roads much more dangerous.

The circumstance would seem unlikely, but in the event that it does; humans try to prevent it by making it a rule to know how to deal with the flow of traffic.

Traffic lights are also dangerous for those that are color blind to colors used in the traffic lights.

These elements of danger concerning a traffic light are unintentional, but the benefits of this object usually outweigh the dangers of it.

Netbooks: A Utopian Design

In Designs, Designers are always finding ways to improve on the functions and designs of objects within society.

When we look at the first computer, each machine took up its very own room. As time passed; and as technology improved, the design of the computer evolved. Now a days, an average computer can run faster and more efficiently than past models.

On this chart, the evolution and design of a computer can be seen.

http://diveintoosx.org/page/2/?s=mac

Computers used to be big, slow, and overall hard to use. We see the size of the desk top become thin like our modern day LCD flat screen televisions. This serves as a function for saving room in the area it is being used in.

Now, Presenting the Net Book:

http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/17-03/mf_netbooks?currentPage=all

This is one of the newest designs of a computer. If you think Laptops were small, light, and portable-- you haven't experienced a net book yet. This is one of the most portable computers ever to be invented that still retains an efficient ergonomic function for users. In addition, one of the five areas of research in ergonomics is performance. The net book may be small, but it has many functions and performs well. The net book on average, has a longer battery life and runs just as fast as a desktop. On the comfortability area of the research on ergonomics, the net book weights less than a laptop and makes it more comfortable for users to carry around.

Designs are always being improved in society all around us, the net book is one of the many Utopian designs designers are constantly helping out with.

Color Transforms

http://www.clker.com/clipart-6863.html

Stop.

What is the first thought when people look this image? "No. Stop. Bad. Danger."

This symbol is universally known for these words.

As a result, the color red in this symbol became synonymous with those meanings and words.

There are different intensities of colors that can be used to express different emotions or symbols, and the bright humid hue of the color red on this stop sign gives the feeling of negativity.

In a previous post analyzing the color of a "angry" painting, a major color used to convey the emotion of anger is red. Although, the hue of red is a darker red compared to the red used in the stop sign.

According to Albers, It is "accepted in Western tradition that normally blue appears cool and that the adjacent group, yellow-orange-red, looks warm." (pg. 59)

This is true for traffic signs and stop signs. The red on a traffic light tells drivers to stop, and in addition, the stop sign with red signals a driver to stop. Fire on electric and gas stoves signal red when hot warning others not to touch it as it is danger, the red is the same hue and brightness as the stop sign.

As a result red in most objects, most obvious on a stop sign signals danger and stop to warn society from them.

Many different colors and intensities of a color can show different symbols and meanings to people. We associate the red in stop signs with the meanings and warnings that tell us danger is coming.

Black & Decker Rice cooker--Ergonomic?

The 5 areas of Ergonomics Research are Safety, Comfort, Ease of Use, Performance, and Aesthetics. And earlier this weekend, I was given a Black and Decker Rice cooker as a gift so it was the perfect object to analyze in regards to ergonomics. So overall, after the third use of this object, I've concluded that this rice cooker contains the 5 aspects of ergonomics research.

https://www.samstores.com/store.asp?CtgID=150

Compared to many other brands of rice cookers, it can be concluded that the Black and decker rice cooker meets the standard of safety. Past experiences with other brands of rice cookers (mostly Japanese brand rice cookers) tended to heat up on the back area of the rice cooker while in use. This made it dangerous or painful to touch. As a result, after using these Japanese brand name rice cookers, I would have to wait until it cooled down or I would have to wear an oven mit to handle the object. Alternatively, when I was able to use this Black and Decker rice cooker, the outer shell was heat resistant. It was safe to touch while in use, and the water from the steam did not drip down and burn my hands.

This American brand rice cooker can also be considered to be a comfortable object in comparison to other rice cookers. Despite the fact that the rice cooker was made of metal, the rice cooker's material enabled it to be very light to carry. This element is very helpful for people with back problems and are unable to carry or lift heavy objects. This rice cooker was so light, that a 7 year old boy (as tested by my baby brother) could lift it with one arm. In addition, the rice cooker is very small, so it is much easier to move around and easier to fit into smaller spaces.

Many Japanese brand rice cookers (including the one I previously owned) did not have handles. This made it hard to carry or move the rice cooker around. The Black and Decker rice cooker included two handles on the side like that of a regular pot. This made it so the rice cooker was very easy to move around and increased its portability. This aspect, I think satisfied the ease of use element of the research of ergonomics. The very clear label of what the rice cooker is doing at the moment makes it very easy to see when the rice would be done. The cover for this rice cooker is clear, so it makes it really easy to see how the rice is cooking.

Many rice cookers are very effective at doing its job. The performance of this Black and Decker rice cooker performed just as well as any rice cooker I've used before. The interior pot of this rice cooker contains a non stick surface, so after the rice was cooked, it did not stick to the bottom as it would if the rice was cooked in a standard pot over the stove. The rice was cooked in less than 20 minutes as opposed to the 30 minutes usually spent on cooking rice on the stove top.

When I think of the brand name "Black and decker" the first image that appears is something black and white. This is true of the black and decker rice cooker-- the rice cooker was black and white. It is a very aesthetically pleasing design as every aspect of this rice cooker has a function in its design. The light on the rice cooker blinks red when it is being cooked, thus signalling the cooker that it is not done. When we see red stop signs, or red traffic lights we think to stop. The red on the rice cooker serves the same function-- it tells us to stop, and not touch it when it is being cooked. Again, the clear cover of the rice cooker gives the cooker the benefit of seeing how the rice is being cooked. It seems that the this particular rice cooker is designed to relate to more audiences. The design of the Black and Decker rice cooker is an imitation of a crock pot or a regular pot--this appeals to a wide audience instead of just Asian Americans.

Overall, this Black and Decker rice cooker meets all 5 aspects of Ergonomics Research. This rice cooker has many aspects that appeal to wide consumers.

The Importance of Typography

Countless times have I seen self proclaimed "designers" make one mistake when designing logos, slideshows, or anything that contains words or text.

Designers put in lots of effort into the design of a product, on the image itself --spending hours upon hours on the placement of the image, the timing of a picture slideshow or video seemed to be the main focus. However, I see the one downfall of these designs--the text or typography. Many designers do not realize the importance in aesthetics typography really makes when it is present through any medium.

There are different types of font and letters to match different occasions.

When we go on youtube.com we commonly find picture slide shows with captions and subtitles that do not match the theme of the slideshow at all. To make things worse, when people attempt to be fancy and use fancy fonts for designs, they use designs for the wrong occasion.

Within a comic strip, graphic artists do not use the font " Times New Roman" for their text. Instead, many use fonts with a lighter comedic font to convey their messages. A common text used for comics is the "comic sans" text.

When artists create designs that are meant to have a comedic effect, the "Times New Roman" font would not usually fit the theme.

Many designers do not pay attention to the importance of what type of font or typography can do for the aesthetics of a design, but luckily more popular designers do not that have such a problem.

Typography in general is very important and can be a design all on its own.

The Design of Technology

There was always that saying--what was it again? Oh yes, "Bigger is better".

Well it seems to me, that now a days, bigger is not always better. In fact, the design of technology is quite frankly, proving to be the exact opposite.

Why are smaller technological objects better? Well, there are several for that. Smaller creates better portability, does not use as much power, it often creates less heat and it there is just general efficiency.

Not only is smaller better, thinner is better for technological objects. Back in the day, computers were gigantic-

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/lecy0013/architecture/

Computers use to take up the an entire room, but now portable net book computer laptops are thin and can be as small as 10 inches. In fact, computer functions now exists on cell phones which are TINY.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10217642-64.html

Although smaller objects seem like they cant hold as much, the fact is electronics are advancing so that more can be stored in less space which allows designers to create smaller designs that are even more powerful that their larger counter parts.

For example, cell phones use to be very big and blocky, and only has one function- which is to make and take phone calls. Modern cell phones are now much more compact in size, sleeker in design and may have several functions. Cells can not surf the internet, text, make video calls, send documents, or even play games.

Of course, there are still several ideas that utilize the idea of "bigger is better" If one has a 24 inch Flat screen T.V., a 72 inch T.V. sounds a whole lot better. Also, who doesn't want to live in a bigger house?

Word and Image in Advertisements

Advertisements in general incorporate the use of word and image to illustrate a point.

Advertisements can include all kinds of media, mostly ones of posters and television commercials.

There is always a certain amount of interaction between text and image(s) throughout kinds of advertisements, but I noticed especially that the television advertisements against the use of drugs use the interaction of word and image to show the viewer how bad drugs are. Many of this anti drug advertisements consist of silent teenagers either succumbing to doing drugs because of peer pressure or silently walking away from drugs then a black screen of very few words. Some are very simple like "say no to drugs", or "we don't need drugs" stuff like that. If television ads just had the text of "say no to drugs" than it would not be as effective. When we pair a simple message like that with images of children that both parents and other children can relate to suddenly the anti drug words seem to make a bigger impact.

Another example of the interaction of word and image on anti drug posters are ones like these:

In these posters, it is evident that without the interaction of both word and image it changes the meaning being conveyed altogether. Without the texts on the bottom of the image, the point being conveyed is completely opposite. The cocaine being spread on the notebook that says awesome, without the text on the bottom it would seem that the poster was conveying just how "awesome" using cocaine is.

This the same the other way around. Without the image of "cool" written with the cigarette butts, the text on the bottom would have less of an impact of what the poster is trying to convey. Without the image how would the viewer know exactly how we "just ruined" our body.

WORD & IMAGE

When Brian Fies author of Mom's Cancer came into our DES001 class to give us a talk about many design concepts in relation to his experience as a graphic novelists I noticed that a big chunk of his lecture was focused on the subject of the interaction of word and image.

Brian places an emphasis on the interaction of word and image for his word; in particular- Mom's Cancer. I noticed, for example in this one strip that Brian showed us he explained to us how without words with the combination of images, the strip would not be as successful. This was the strip of when Cartoon Brian was talking on the phone with his father about his mother's condition. While the conversation between his father and him seemed like they were talking about one thing, the panels underneath the words were of dark images coupled with the underlying honest conversation they were actually having. If the dark images below the conversation were not present, the point of illustrating the two faced conversation would not have been as successful.

Another effective image that conveyed Brian's use of word and image was the image of his mother hearing her options on how to treat the cancer.

Brian Fies, panel from Mom's Cancer (copyright Brian Fies)

On this panel, Brian's mother is shown as walking on a tightrope. As the panel progresses towards the right, more animals and objects are added onto her balance beam- making it hard for her to balance over a pool of alligators. Certainly Brian's mother was never really walking on a tightrope but the message being conveyed was how Brian's mother really felt as she kept hearing her options and possibilities of treatment. It is really effective in illustrating just how scared and terrible she felt as the text on the panel was depicting what was happening in reality.

Finally another huge panel that effectively illustrated the interaction of word and image is the image of Brian's mother suffering.

Brian Fies, panel from Mom's Cancer (copyright Brian Fies)

During the presentation Brian was illustrating how this panel came into existence. First he was just sketching his mother laying in bed with messy bed sheets to convey how she felt. But as Brian was coloring, he ended coloring everything but his mother's body parts black. Surrounding his illustration were text boxes of just how much pain she was in, but the dark picture of his mother in pieces really reinforced and illustrated just how much pain she was in.

Brian concluded the lecture by letting us know that the interaction of word and image was why he chose to be a graphic novelist. The combination of words and images are just more effective than one or the other. Novels with books don't make it immature.

Design Aesthetics

When compared between art and design, many say that design has more of a "function" where is art is purely aesthetic.

However, there are plenty of designers that design objects that may not have any function at all, unless you count sitting on the table as a center piece, a function.

I think the function of an object and the aesthetic of an object are both very important in their own ways, especially to the consumer.

Of course, there are always extremes, some consumers may prefer a watch that is not aesthetically pleasing because if has several useful functions, whereas some (I notice as usually the rich) would maybe choose a watch that was expensive, very beautiful but only functions as a watch.

Although, most consumers and designers look for a middle area of both extremes.

For example, modern designers look for the best qualities when designing televisions. Televisions are an example of the best common ground between functionality and aesthetics. Nowadays, higher end televisions are sleek, smooth, and shiny all the while functioning as a high definition television with a thin LCD body to fit snuggly mounted on a wall.

Aesthetics play a big role for consumers of technologically. We see that refurbished goods are usually goods that are perfectly functional- just like the new product of the same model. Usually refurbished goods are sold at a lower price simply because a scratch or a dent was put on the product. This goes to show how aesthetics matter a lot parallel to functionality. Many consumers "trade up" from an aesthetically pleasing laptop to one that has faster or functionality.

As designers, we attempt to design objects that are both aesthetically pleasing, and possesses functionality.

Form & Object in Water Bottles

Dating back into history, people have been using bottles or containers of all sorts to carry water around for drinking.

Even thinking about it now, I remember how water bottles looked like when I was a child:

http://www.indyposted.com/9110/chemical-in-plastic-water-bottles-may-pose-health-hazard/

Bottles used to be big and hard to carry around, but even looking at a typical bottle, we can see the content and form of the bottle already being improved or transformed by designers.

A couple years back, plastic bottles were the biggest resource for a travel sized refreshment. It seems that even as the water bottle got smaller just so it was easier to carry along, there were other problems found as a problem of the form and content of a water bottle.

These are what plastic water bottles look now a days:

http://greenlongisland.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

Designers found a problem with the content of a water bottle, so they improved on the form of the bottle. Now, as well as carrying convience, people also like to look at water bottles as a problem for the environment so a plastic water bottle is now referred to as a "ecobottle," with the plastic being a hundred percent recyclable, the label is now 30 percent smaller, and many other features.

In addition to designing a "ecobottle" designers have also started a trend of using refillable watter bottles that are BPA free. They have transformed the design and form of a water bottle by discouraging the use of plastic bottles.

Designers have taken the previous idea of hand grips, and smaller waists so it was easier and more stable to carry around. In addition to moving over those features onto the refillable bottles, there are also rings that make the bottle even easier to carry or even different bottle heads so make drinking easier or more convenient.

http://www.welchsports.ie/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=15&sort=20a&page=2

There are many mass produced manufactured goods that are produced with the same sorts of purposes. Whether we know it or not, designers are always improving and changing the designs of our everyday objects. If someone has a problem with the form or content of a object, there will be a designer there to help improve the experience or usefulness of an object.

Content & Form in Objectified

According Lauer in "Design Basics" Form is "purely visual aspect, the manipulation of the various elements and principles of design." and Content "implies the subject matter, story or information that the artwork seeks to communicate to the viewer.

http://gizmodo.com/5177138/objectifieds-wonderful-gadget+filled-movie-poster

The documentary "Objectified" we explored many different aspects of form and content in various scenes from the documentary as well as the documentary as a whole and by itself.

I think the content of the documentary focused on the idea that everything is the result of design, in that everyday objects, regardless of whether people realize it or not, are designed for people. In order to convey the content and purpose of the documentary, the filmmakers utilized the form to convey the content.

In the documentary, we open to a scene of a manufacturing facility and the idea that when people see objects, they think of how much it object is, what it is, and what it does and etcetera. In the content of the documentary, they also emphasize how all objects were designed a certain way for a reason. The form of this idea was also conveyed in the introduction of the documentary. When we looked at how this chair was made we were shown how every part of it was created, the shaving of the chair leg and the puncturing of a hole on the back of the chair.

So, why was there a hole in the back of this "air chair"? Well, since it was a air chair, maybe the chair was designed to be light, so people can move it around easily. Maybe the hole on the back of the chair could allow the chair to be hooked onto something for stability or even for decoration.

We also see the interaction of form and content within the documentary. A big example shown was that of the vegetable peeler. When a design company heard that a typical metal handled vegetable peeler was not ergonomically comfortable, the company set out on improving the design of the vegetable peeler. They replaced the metal handle with a handle that was ergonomic. The handle was thicker, so the grip on it is more stable, there were grip ripples on the handle as well, and it curved to fit into the hands of average hand sizes.

Weekend Design

There are many ways t-shirts are made with different designs. http://shirt.woot.com/ is one of the biggest t-shirt producing companies based on the internet. This websites hosts weekly/montly competitions (a.ka. Derbys) for designers to submit a design on a t-shirt that matches certain criterias.

The reason why I am blogging about this website is because this weekend, I've had the pleasure of designing and submitting a design of my own to the website.

What happens during derby is there is a theme to each derby, and the designer has to follow certain requirements to submit a design. Some examples include submitting the design that has the correct theme, it has to contain less than 6 colors, it has to be a certain size, and NO STAR WARS designs. Then those who have a woot account may vote for the design, and the top three voted will receive 1000 dollars and a additional two dollars for each shirt sold.

This week's theme is "phobias". If you had a chance to look at the website you would see that there are A LOT of designs. It was really interesting to scroll through each design submitted because each and every individual design was unique. There were different styles of design present- seen through different use of colors, line formation, line thickness, and of course the design itself.

So, heres is what you guys have been waiting for- MY DESIGN! SO! If you guys happen to have a woot account please vote for me :D

What inspired this design was actually from my roommate. Hes had experience with his pets being afraid of the vacuum cleaner for some odd reason.

I didn't realize this at first, but the main colors used in this design were Primary colors! The reason why I made the vacuum cleaner red, was because that color was associated with Satan, evil, etc... And Blue- the opposite. Blue is light, happy, associated with heaven/sky.

Also, if you take a better look, the puppy is coming from a door that has yellow light- a happy place. The placement of the picture on the t-shirt also makes it look like the puppy was coming from the heart. In Lauer, he mentioned that designers tend to go for symmetry in their design. I noticed that I unconsciously did the same with my design.

Comparison and Contrast

There are many things and life that can be compared and contrasted. When I think of comparing and contrasting a design, my first thought are dresses and clothing. Many dresses look alike, but are different in their own way. The same goes for everything else, whether it is writing style, drawings, paintings, furniture, photography- anything.

When thinking about blogging a compare and contrast piece, I started to search for yellow dresses. There are so many yellow dresses in the world, all in different price ranges- so I thought I'd write a piece on how I can take a expensive several hundred dollar dress and compare it to a similar 40 dollar yellow dress.

This proved to be quite a challenging piece to blog about so I looked for different inspirations. Looking at my very last entry I looked at the two paintings I posted. The paintings that expressed anger.

This will be referred to as Painting A

And this of course, Painting B

Again these images were found on http://www.expressivehearts.com/art_gallery.html, a very interesting and awesome website by the way.

When I first glanced at these two paintings, I immediately thought that it accurately conveyed anger. Although both of these paintings convey that feeling, there are many differences and similarities between the two paintings.

The first similarity I noticed between painting A and B is the use of "fierce" bright colors. For some reason, I feel that the designers of these paintings, like me thinking of these colors as "angry colors. The obvious differences between these paintings are the actual colors- Painting A being all red, and Painting B being orange, brown and black. The strokes on Painting A, to me seem a frustrated violent anger as the strokes are rough, as if the designer is sort of rapidly, stabbing the paintbrush all over the canvas. In painting B, the designer seemed to have more of a contained anger. The brush strokes are a lot more smooth, less rough and planned. The splashes of black show a bit of sadness mixed in.

There are many other elements that contribute to differences and similarities of these two pieces, some more obvious than others. Some differences and similarities can even be seen by others that can't.

Design as Conversation

Design can be a conversation, a type of communication from the one person/object to another. This can be between the designer and the design, the design and an audience, or the designer and an audience or in other words, a cycle of communication.
From experience I believe that design is a conversation. During times of frustration and anger I noticed that I personally drawing, write, or create things that reflect my feelings.

This painting found on http://www.expressivehearts.com/art_gallery.html is similar to what I tend to express when feeling angry. I find myself being really rough with a brush and I choose bright "fierce" colors. This example can be an example of a conversation between a designer and the design. It in turn can also include the audience in the conversation. Maybe the audience can understand what the design is trying to say or how the designer was feeling when it was created.
A setback to designing with a feeling is that it does not last. The conversation can be cut off abruptly when the feeling the designer started out with is no longer there. I may have started off the design with a feeling of anger for example, but if the design was left unfinished, it can be hard to finish the "thought" again. Many unfinished piece of design remain as a result. Alternatively, if the conversation is continued- even with a different feeling, the conversation may suddenly switch topics. This is typical in human conversation as is design as conversation. Looking at one end or one angle of a design can change the feeling or meaning being communicated to the audience or design.
A very good example of design as conversation is a piece designed by multiple designers. My group's stone soup design can be an example of conversation.

Because every piece of this design was created by a different person and ultimately put together, different views and angles of this piece convey a different feeling or idea. Every designer did not have the same exact feelings that day, so maybe every unique piece says something different to someone. Not only that, a completely different conversation can occur over the same object with the same angles, it really does depend on the person, their individual thoughts and feelings.

Designer Labels

Now a days, there are only some clothing and accessories that are terms "Designer Labels." Why is that?
When referring to "Designer Labels", people usually mean expensive, "fashionable" things such as DKNY, Dior, Gucci, Coach, and other such labels.
Since we are taught that design is everywhere and can be anything; I would like to assume that every article of clothing and accessory we own is in some sense a designer label.
A designer label is like a signature clothing someone has created and design as their own. So, the pair of 15 dollar P.E. shorts I am currently wearing is in a sense, a design label.
What really intrigues me is how something can become a popular "designer label."
When a designer is successful in the fashion industry their products' net worth start to rise. How does this happen? How can a simple pair of shoes be worthed up to 500 dollars? Sure, the material used could be really high quality material, but it can't possible be that expensive can it?
Its so strange that society can be so judgmental on a person depending on what they wear.
Even at a young age children are conditioned to judge their peers based on their clothing and accessories. As an example, Let's go back to a childhood memory of mine:
In the 7th grade I remember receiving a pair of tennis shoes from payless because my parents were not very rich people. These shoes were nice; they were basically imitation shoes of the Addidas brand tennis shoes. I never had a problem wearing payless shoes- it was cheap and it served its purpose. This was not the thought of my classmates- I was teased countless times for being poor and wearing payless shoes. My classmates knew that the Addidas brand name shoes had 3 stripes on each side of the shoes and my shoes had 4. That one extra stripe on my shoes told the world I was poor and that I could not afford the popular Designer Label of Addidas.
There are many reasons as to why something may be referred to as "designer label", whether it be the quality, the style, or the name, but I think everything is a designer label- clothing and accessories were designed and created by someone. This is their "designer label".

Creativity from Without

Creativity from without is when artists do not find inspiration from within themselves, but when they can effectively design from their surroundings.

In my previous post "A Stone Soup Garden" I talked about bee- the landscape designer who does just that. Her "Stone Soup garden" was inspired and designed from the ability to utilize materials from local areas to design her garden. Bee is just one of the many artists who can create from "without".

A very interesting Designer that I will be blogging about today is Adriana Bertini.

While Andy Goldsworthy's inspiration is through Nature, Bertini's inspiration is from condoms.

Adriana Bertini is a 35 year-old Brazilian artist who creates "condom art" to help raise AIDS awareness. Bertini designs dresses, skirts, suits, pants from rejected condoms that did not pass the quality control test for proper use. In this respect, similar to Bee, Bertini's designs are environmentally friendly. The rejected condoms would be thrown into the trash or be incinerated if is was not for her. When the rubber is incinerated the sulfur that results from this process may end up in Landfills as well. She is able to successfully do this with the help of preservative companies.

These condom designs are very interesting in color. Modern condoms now have different colors and textures, Bertini was able to effectively utilize quality rejected colored condoms to create colorful designs.

Bertini uses "beautiful" inspirations to create her art from. In these pictures, it can be seen that Bertini successfully created condom dresses and a beautiful Asian condom lamp with the use colors and light.

Not only does Adriana Bertini create clothing out of clothing, she also made sculptures, pictures, and even figurines. Currently, Bertini is working on a line of condom clothing for men and also working on a house called "Venus' House"- which is a home with condom art furniture and condom art persons. The purpose to "Venus' House" is to endorse easier and more communication on the subject of sex within families and even easier communication to people in general.

Bertini is the not only "condom artist" out there, many more all over the world are getting into condom art as well.

Images found on http://www.guidespot.com/guides/funny_condoms_clothing_gifts

Condom Art Fashion show in Asia

Works Cited in Blog:

Campos, Gloria. "Would You Wear This? Bertini’s Condom Couture."Inventions, Innovations and Interesting Ideas for the Inventor in All of Us. | InventorSpot. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.

Stone Soup Experience

According to our class reading: "The Etymology of Design", we see that the Greek root of the word "design" is "schedio" and derived from the Greek root "shedon" which means "nearly, almost, about or approximately. So essentially in design, we strive to achieve ambiguity. We don't plan everything we do. We go through three steps when designing:

1. Thinking

2. Doing

3. Looking

We all go through these steps, and not necessarily in this order. The concept of stone soup is designing without planning. We all contribute something to create another something. This is exactly what our Design 001 class got together and achieved.

This was the "trash" that each and everyone of our group brought to use in our stone soup project.

The process of this project was very fun in that everyone of the members pulled out their sketch books in an attempt to plan out what we would build out of these materials, but ultimately scraping that idea altogether. We looked at the materials and proceeded to jump straight to the "doing" step of the process in designing.

Each of the members started taking parts of the pile and building. What we learned from Housefield and Lauer was right. We cannot help but employ the three steps when it comes to deign. After building separate parts of the stone soup project we had to employ the "thinking" step to eventually bring our contributions together, thus creating this:

It was clear that this object was the work of several creative minds, as if we look at different sides and angles of this design, there are very different textures, styles, and materials used.

If we look at "creativity from without" in a different light-one that does not consist of museums, and popular art like that of Andy Goldsworthy's inspirations from Nature; but instead remember that Design is everywhere and always around us- we can see this element all around us and throughout history. The main reason as to why our class did this stone soup project was so that we as designers can understand and learn how to design with things all around us.

Look at those who won the Nobel Prize this year for the creation of Graphene. As Housefield has pointed out- this was the result of their little stone soup project. they worked with things they had as a side project. this was a very interesting experience and I feel that most designs are like the the children's story "Stone Soup"- we can craete designs inspired by anything and everything around us.

Et Voila,

All the Photography by Minh Chau or yours truly.

A Stone Soup Garden

The two concepts of “stone soup” and “creativity from without” are related to one another in that artists/designers create and design not through ideas that were predetermined but instead; through influences from their surroundings. Both concepts are analyzed and shown through the evolution of what I will refer to as a “stone soup garden” created and designed by Bee W. (Real name not provided)

Bee is something I would call an environmentally responsible landscape designer; one who utilizes local materials that others would otherwise discard into landfills. Upon looking at Bee’s “stone soup garden” and further discussion of how this garden came to be, I quickly figure out that most of the materials are recycled goods. While the artist Andy Goldsworthy creates works of art through the influence of nature, Bee creates and transforms her garden with the influence of her neighborhood.

When this garden first started out, Bee confessed to me that her initial intention was to have a typical suburban garden designed like those of the 70s, but it slowly transformed into a garden meant to attract wildlife (i.e. birds, bees, etc…) One of the biggest impacts that led to the creation of this environmentally friendly garden was the acquisition of free mulch from an arborist.

If one were to take a walk around her garden, they would be able to find mulch everywhere- the front yard, the side yard, the back side yard, and of course the back yard. The mulch has since served three main purposes:

1. It reduces weeds without the use of chemicals

2. It decreases the need for watering because it retains moisture

3. It creates compost, resulting in improved soil.

In addition to the mulch, many other parts of Bee’s “stone soup garden” were the inspired and influenced by the resources surrounding her. Since Bee had been given more mulch than expected, she further expanded her garden by building an urbanite wall surrounding the mulch. This wall was created as a result of a local resident removing his patio and giving away the concrete. Though the pieces of concrete were not idea, Bee effectively created a wall with the pieces by spending hours chiseling the concrete pieces into the desired size.

Many garden designers do not utilize the concept “creativity from without” as recently, garden pathways are built from fancy materials specially ordered and made for that purpose. Bee was able to create a tasteful walkway from pavement pieces.

There are many more areas of Bee’s “stone soup garden” that are influenced from materials locally. There are many designers who create stone soup projects with not really any purpose of meaning to it however, Bee was able to create a stone soup garden that not only has a purpose- be environmentally friendly- but the garden can actually create soup as well! Her garden yields many fruits and vegetables including corn, squash, tomatoes, figs, basil, mint, lemons and much more. This stone soup garden is one that is a unique design all on its own that gives back to the environment and society.

All Photography is by yours truly.

First Encounters with Design

Long, smooth, black, cold.

This object that creates sounds by blowing air through it, allowing sound to resonate through the body and through holes. The man-made clarinet.

image source: http://www.fredmooremusic.net/yamaha.html

The elements and design of this instrument has its impact in my memories; although I do not actually use this instrument anymore, memories of it may be triggered through various senses.

Sound can be created in  various ways, one can simply create sound just by vibrating sound waves in or on objects. This video below is an excellent example of how simple a clarinet can be made and how sound or music can be created with simple objects.

Even so, the design of a typical clarinet has purpose. The cold metal rings that lay on top of the cut holes in a clarinet allow different sounds to be made. The reason why the metal keys lay so close to the body of the instruments is to allow ease of movement. Fingers move rapidly when different sounds need to be heard. The wide horn end allows sound to exit into a wider range.

When a squeak is present, people commonly are quick to think that it is annoying. My ears quickly take me back to my memories of squeaking when a note is not played right in the instrument. The smell of old rags take me back to how the mouthpiece of the clarinet smells when I was too lazy to clean out the spit created after blowing air through a practice session.

And last but not least, like muscle memory, when Classical music is played and the clarinet is present within the musical piece; my fingers cannot help but tap up and down the air as if I was once again sitting in my chair on the stage playing.

Design is Communication

Communication is defined as the process of exchanging information or messages through a system. This can include but is not limited to  symbols, text, verbal communication, words, drawing, eye contact, touch, music and even body language. Design is communication; similar to language but is not specific or defined.

Typically, language is unique in that it originates from a specific region in the world. For example, if one should go to Italy they would commonly find the natives primarily speaking Italian. The same goes for China, Japan, German, Brazil, and etc... However Design is not born from a specific place and does not "evolve” from something else. Design to me, just appears and is global. Design is everywhere and is able to communicate with people from all walks of life. Certainly not every single person will be able to see or understand what designs are communicating all the time but communication in design is present.

The ROO chair- Image found on http://www.lekkerhome.com/?CollectionID=361

The ROO Chair (Pictured above) is a effective image that shows communication through design. What do you see when looking at this chair? The design of this chair is to convey comfort. The man sleeping on the chair looks to be so comfortable that he is asleep on it. When we as designers see or sit in a chair what thoughts cross our minds? Some chairs are designed to be comfortable, some to be stylish, contemporary, or even luxurious. When I, as a Designer sit in a chair that is very uncomfortable or unsuited for me, I think of ways a chair can be designed and created to suit my needs. So, when there is design present (which should be everywhere) what does it communicate to you?