Words are an essential part for humans to convey a message a person is trying to reach out to people. Yet, not everybody can be a sponge and instantly get what that certain individual is trying to tell them. Take for instance a Photoshop or illustrator book in which a person is trying to acknowledge how to use that program. The lucky ones can instantly get what the author is trying to tell the audience just by words alone. But many of us like myself; need more that just simple words, we need visuals to help us grasp a better understanding of what is going on. It is with the combination of both words and images that brings the best of both words in terms of communication.
Paris, je t'aime is a 2006 French film which depicts eighteen short stories which relate to the common theme of love. The design of the film pays tribute to one of the most romantic cities on earth Paris. The nice thing about the design of the film is because the whole movie is based on eighteen short films the viewer is able to see the great scenery of Paris and all its architectural marvels. Yet, in form of communication in the use of languages, the film composed of both English and French. During the French part of the film there are English subtitles which thus communicate to the audience of what the actors/actress are saying in the film, but more importantly I believe is that if the film did not combine both dialects then it loses the originality in which the film presents.
When studying the cover/ poster of the movie, how the layout is arranged is interesting. Although some people seem to think that the image is always the most important aspect of design (although true in some cases) the type of text/ arrangement is important as well. The image of Eiffel Tower is the most iconic image of Paris with the heart tells the audience what this film might be about. The text is arranged in a slanted way to maybe point out that things do not always have to be straight or perfect for things to work or hints that some type of chaos or distortion in also implied in the film. It is these small arrangement of words and images which makes this design work really well.
Design is an on-going process in which designers come up with ideas, form, concepts which tries to appeal to the consumers and most of the time improves the lives of everyday people. In the documentary Objectified, director Gary Hustwit introduces the audience to the world of design and shows how people encounter some basic items people use in their day-to-day lives: the list includes vacuums, chairs, toothpick, toothbrushes, and even the famous Apple Macbooks. Throughout the film the design process can be readily seen like that of design thinking which follows six steps of field research, understanding problem, idea, prototype, feedback, and repeat. One item which they did focus that did follow this step in detail was that of the peeler. One of the designers spoke about a friend who was having difficulty with arthritis in their hands in regards to the pain in using that metal handle peeler. Here the design looked at field research, understood the problem and thought of an idea of using a rubber handle which helped arthritis victims relieve the pain. It is these ideas/itemas which sometimes make the best designs. Davin Stowell one of the designers featured in the film stated that “What we’re really always looking for whenever we design are ways we can improve the way people do things or improve their daily life, without them really even knowing, ever thinking about it.”
The most important problem or lesson for designers is a scene in the film which showed thousands of unused products being trashed and disposed of leaving a huge ecological footprint on earth. That the main problem isn’t coming up with great new designs, but how to make designs in which is environmentally sound. Karim Rashid a designer could have not said it any better than stating “If the average shelf life of a high-tech object is less than eleven months, why on Earth does anything have to be built to be permanent? It should be all 100% disposable. You know, I think my laptop should be made of cardboard, or my mobile phone could be a piece of cardboard, or it could just be made out of something like sugarcane or bioplastic(www.objectifiedfilm.com).”
Ever since Henry Ford’s invention of the conveyer belt, the production of a product would never be the same. Now these everyday products could be mass produced in minutes, packaged, and sent to a consumer on the other side of the world in a matter of days. In this blog entry we will at an everyday product with is widely used in the computer world to store data and that product is the USB.
Now of course not all USB’s are the same ranging from many sizes, shapes, and materials, but Marvin the Pirate by Jacopo Rosati is one of the many designs which sticks out. The form of the object is that of a cartoon pirate which at first glance appears to be a figure of a toy. It is not until you pull on its head that the true function of the product becomes clear in the usage of the product to be used as a USB memory stick.
Just by looking at the design, a person can find many distinctive qualities about it. The designer uses three basic colors which constitute the piece by using black, white and only one of the three primary colors red. There are a lot of curvilinear lines going on throughout the product and only having one rectilinear line towards the bottom on the piece (excluding the metal piece of the USB which connects to the computer). The primary purpose the rectilinear line is so the item could stand on its own, giving it an additional function in regards of a display piece in a room. The haptic part of the piece appears to be smooth to the touch having no rough or jagged edges.
Its official, baseball season has officially ended with the Giants winning the World Series, but after that is said and done, basketball is just around the corner. In the latest news, the NBA (National Basketball Association), ban’s its first shoe based on “unfair advantage.” The shoe created by Athletic Propulsion Labs is said to increase “a player's vertical leap" The league's ban on Athletic Propulsion Labs' (APL) Concept 1 confirms the company's claims that the shoe, with it's Load ‘N Launch TM Technology, performs as advertised (slumz.boxden.com). As many people know APL is not a well known basketball shoe company when compared to large companies such as Under Armor, Adidas, or even the largest giant of them all Nike. Yet, what this shoe provides is that extra boost in performance which well other shoe lines try and advertise to make an athlete perform better. Take for instance the many commercials of Michael Jordan playing against other opponents and dunking on them claiming that part of the reason for such great skill can be contributed to the design of the shoe, ending the commercial with “Just Do it”. Of course if big name brands Nike or Adidas say their shoe will make you perform better, why can’t it be used in the NBA if other products are suppose to have design technologies which try to beat their opponents. Although banning a shoe from a sport is wrong, the company APL can gain something positive in this, that maybe the technology does work maybe too well causing the everyday Joe who can’t dunk with regular shoes finally perform like the pros.
Although the shoe is said to perform well, at roughly $300 for these pair of shoes. Aesthetically, to basketball shoe enthusiasts and athletes, this particular shoe is very appealing to add to any collection! The shoe comes in two colors black/green and white/green. The Green’s color being a neon type color pops up at the viewer which then becomes lively. The material looks light because of the carbon fiber look it contains which is relates to being light weight and fast.
In our everyday world we can see design almost everywhere, but usually the most powerful ones are those that do not rely on excessive amount of words to convey a message, but ones that are straight to the point and at many times are iconic. Take one of the most famous architects Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe could not have said it any simpler than saying these three words that "less is more."
In order to understand how design is used as a conversation we need to first understand what conversation means. In context a conversation is usually a message or ideas from one source which communicates towards multiple individuals through the act of speech. Typically good conversations are getting your ideas from point (a) to point (b) without having any confusion in between which at many times acquits to the awkward silence and that "what are you talking about look" on a person's face.
In terms of design, the designer puts out a concept or message to communicate to the audience what he/she is trying to portray. Take for instance a commonly seen object such as the restroom sign. The intent of the object is to direct the audience to the correct restroom area by using a sign with a figure of a man within a triangle which is meant for men and a figure of a person with a dress enclosed in a circle to represent female.
Yet, not all conversations end up with one simple solution or answer that a person obtains from a piece. Sometimes in order to create a deeper conversation there are no right and wrong answers, but instead open interpretation. Take Marina Abramovic 1974 work entitled Rhythm 0, in which Abramovic placed 72 items that the audience could use and perform any acts at their wish with theobjects while standing still. Some of these items ranged from objects which cause pleasure, while others were used to inflict pain such as a gun. For example at one point in the performance a person took the gun and placed it at her head. The act of putting her at gun point was one of the many responses as well as the act of another person taking the gun and throwing out the window. The point of this performance was a conversation between theartist and audience in showing what humans would and would not do given the situation.
Sight is probably the most important function in terms of our five senses we as humans are gifted with, especially towards designers. It is from sight that we can take a whole image and it down to its basic conceptual elements which an image presents such was shape, line weights, color, size and even texture. This then translates n our minds the cognitive distinctions and similarities an object or piece has. Two pieces of art work I would like to compare and contrast are those from two famous pieces belonging to Edvard Munch “The Scream” and Vincent van Gough’s “Starry Night”.
The comparison
Each image although different, have many similarities which are interesting to point out. For starters, each have a fluid brush stroke style which gives that distorted look to it and motion seems to be prevalent in each piece. Also when analyzing the two, it seems that the main focus seems to be the environment/background instead of the foreground. Although it is easier to read from “Starry Night” due to its title and the focal point being the wind, Munch’s piece seems to be a lot harder at first because people tend to focus on the person first, when in reality the lines/ focal point points out to the background. I remember in a past Art history class I took at a community college one of the lecturers talked about Munch’s piece stating that it really the person screaming or is it really the natural environment (the sky) screaming at the person; hence the individual covering their ears.
The Contrast
Differences are distinguish in paintings and are easily more identifiable than that of the similarities. Other than one having no entourage in them and the use of cool and warm coolers being more prevalent in comparison, when looking closely at the style there is indeed a big difference. For instance, the brush strokes are more smear like in Munch’s piece where as Van Gogh has more of a pattern to his texture, using a repetitive type motion.
During last week lecture and quiz, one of the artist/designers that stood out to me the most was Takashi Murakami. Due to his cartoonish style that he uses which are similar to that of Japanese anime but also using a vast array of flashy, bright colors and use of repetition. Looking at his piece “Killer Pink” which portrays the use of smiling flowers varying and colors/size, the image bothered me for a while because I knew I saw this type of design style in somewhere in our everyday life and that it became iconic in my mind. It wasn’t until I got home to my apartment that I went to my CD collection and picked out my Kanye West Graduation album that the album art cover and the” Killer Pink” style were similar. After researching I was indeed correct in my theory that Murakami did in fact design the album cover.
In looking and reading some of his works I have to say I am pretty impressed at what he has done so far in his career. Just like the story of “Stone Soup” as to the basis of how designers normally work together to create something great, Murakami can be seen in relation to this because of how he worked with such designers to transformer their designs a step further. take for instance Kaye West's iconic bear symbol which are incorporated in some of his music video, Murakami used his design approach in creating the bear which you see in the album "graduation". In addition, he has done many collaborations with popular clothing brands such as Marc Jacob and Louis Vuitton. Below are some of his famous works in which has influenced main stream pop cutlure.
