Apple: The Revolution

I've talked about companies and corporations going green and the one I cannot miss upon is the Apple company. They have reformed all their products to little to zero plastic waste. In fact, many of their products that they use now are made of aluminum.

Compare the two keyboards:

Older generation

Newer generation



You can see in the first image, the keys are bulkier, thus, it would've required more resources to produce. But in the second image, the keys are almost not apparent at all. I've actually used the keyboard and it types very, very well. Apple has yet again, figured out a way to use less resources and make a light-weight and easy design for their consumers. They have replaced their plastic resources with aluminum. Aluminum is much easier to recycle and it produces less waste.

Other than the keyboard, Apple has also pushed its green initiatives with the iPhone 3G's packaging, using potato-starch based products and avoiding plastics altogether.

With all the rave about the iPhone's these days, Apple has successfully created a popular, high-tech object while still keeping it's promise to our planet.

World's first e-motorbike.

GRACE Bicycle.

German company GRACE produced the world's first e-motorbike. It might look like a futuristic version of a regular bike, but it is actually the world’s first e-motorbike that you are allowed to ride on the street. The bike is handmade in Germany, using euro-fighter plane parts and formula one parts and will be coming out this month. All controls are included in the handlebars, such as lights, battery management, & alarm system. The grace can be ordered now for prices starting from 5877 EUR + VAT. ($8,800 USD)

Perfect for the Davis community, don't you think? Just when you think the world couldn't get any greener. Again, sustainability and design has taken another step together. What I like about this design is that the creators re-used different parts from of a plane to create it. A very successful and sustainable design. The best part of this bike is that you don't need to buy your own bike light. While you are riding the bike, the pedals that are being pushed by your legs are charging the batteries for the night-life. It's too bad that this bike is worth more than a year's worth of rent. So I probably won't be buying it anytime soon.

A Skater's Dream

House in Dominican Republic.

By A-cero Architecture.

This house is every skater's dream. I'm not sure if it was intended for a skater to skate around but it's definitely very intriguing. I love how the exterior has no straight walls that face down to the ground. Rather, the walls slide down with the floor like a slide. Not only is it a skater's dream, it could also be an amusement park for kids to slide down (I kid).

And in the second image, the roof reminds me of the Japanese pagoda's where the roof flares out. Maybe the residents could have a picnic up there or some star-gazing. Perfect for a special date.

I believe this house is successful because of several reasons:

- The similarity of the colors, I didn't post pictures of the interior but everything inside is the same creamy, white color as the exterior

- If you look at the night scene, the lights on the outside create a beautiful shadow along the edges of the walls

- There is also a sense of continuation where the walls flow down the ground. There is no distinct edge to end of it

What is good fashion?

Professor Housefield once said, "To stand out, you must be unfashionable." Some great examples would be the infamous pop-singer, Lady Gaga.


Although her outfits may seem ridiculous, people love her for it. In fact, people know Lady Gaga because of her weird sense of fashion but you can't help but appreciate it. She once said that she got her inspiration from random things everywhere. One time, she was dressed as Minnie Mouse. You may think Lady Gaga has her own unique sense of fashion, but everything she wears comes from something else. This kind of relates to the etymology of design. Design comes from something that has already been made or used but you may vamp it up to make it even better. What's in now is skinny jeans and plaid but 10 years ago, it wasn't. I have a feeling that in the next couple of years, we'll be following Lady Gaga's style.

Of course, great design must come from something. Would you consider Lady Gaga to have a good design?

Guest speaker: Nathan Shedroff

Today in class, we had a guest speaker, Nathan Shedroff, a designer and a businessman. He emphasized that now in the 21st century, design, sustainability, and business cannot exist without each other. In fact, they cannot be successful without the understand of at least some of the sphere within each other. He also posed three important questions that we had to think about:

- What does a more sustainable world look like?
- What's a more meaningful world look like?
- What's a post-consumer world look like?

You can probably figure out some of these answers by comparing the different societies in Cuba, India, and Brazil.

What I got most from his lecture is his opinion on the term "green." Whenever we tell someone to be "green," they think of us as extremists who would hug trees. He suggested that we should refrain from using that term and try "sustainable" instead. Sometimes, when people think about being "sustainable," they think about not spending money on anything and being completely frugal. It's ironic that Cuba is the most sustainable country in the world, yet they are so poor. But Shedroff sheds a light that we don't have to be frugal to be sustainable. Curutiba, a city in Brazil has reformed their commuter system by having their underground train system on top of the ground. Now, most of the citizens commute by bus and it's very efficient.

Objectified

Today in class, we watched a movie called Objectified which showcased how form and content can work together to last for a long time. Many designs become successful because there is a purpose to why the design was created in the first place. What these designers support and believe leads to a beautiful creation. There is a purpose behind every good design. When there's an objective, the designers can create innovative designs.

The film interviewed a lot of designers and these people many things to say about the role of design in the world. Sometimes, they can ramble on and it might be hard to understand but you can see how detail-oriented they are about their design. I think it also reflects a lot on the design process that relates to the scientific method mentioned in class:

- Field research
- Understanding the problem
- Ideas
- Making a prototype
- Getting feedback
- Repeating the process again

The reason why some of the designs work today because they follow the design process. Of course there will always be failures but that's how designers learn from it and make it better.

Skyscrapers 2D + 3D

A place I went to recently was Hong Kong, and I was very much amazed with everything I saw there. Especially the skyscrapers. If you had viewed the enormous buildings like I did, I am sure you would've felt like a small person in awe of this huge world. I had also noticed that there were many Gestalt principles applied to these huge skyscrapers. One building that appealed to me is the fourth building pictured on the left. The use of symmetry is so apparent and it creates a very lego-like feel to it. In fact, I believe that it's the most interesting building out of all 6 buildings there. But what I want to point out is that it looks so different when drawn 2-D.

Now let's look at it in 3-D. When you are just a person who's standing right below it, the building just looks so much more majestic. The Gestalt principles become more apparent with the focal point in the sky but geared towards your focus, and the lines of the building spread out making a mountain shape. The proximity of building becomes more apparent since the tip of the building gets smaller up on the top, emphasizing the height, space, and difference. I am certainly more appealed by 3-Dimensional designs.

Arrowhead

I'm not sure when Arrowhead began this transition but they had switched from the older bottle design (shown on the left) to a more, ergonomic, environmental-aware design (shown on the right). As we continue on in the 21st century, our society is becoming more and more aware of the global climate change and our culture is revolving around being green. I had taken AP Environmental Science in my high school years and I learned that plastic contributes to a lot of waste. Even if you were to recycle plastic, only parts of it can be re-used again to make more plastic bottles. That's why activists encourage people to stop using water bottles and instead, drink from re-usable water jugs/cups instead.

Now, Arrowhead was not going to shut down their business by halting their production of water bottles. Instead, they took a less greener approach and revamped their bottle design. Apparently, the new bottle has 30% less waste of plastic with an ergonomic "wavy" design for the person to easily hold. Comparing the two designs, the new one is clearly more sophisticated and appealing. The curves and bumps on the bottle are not straight anymore but curve around the bottle, making it easy to slip your fingers and place them perfectly on the ridges to hold it. Also, the curvy, bell shape leaves a space for your palm to rest upon.

But not only has the bottle changed, Arrowhead had decided to change their label a bit too. I like how designer of this bottle decided to make the colors relate a little bit more in the new one. If you look at the old design, you see a more prominent use of the green in the trees with a brighter red in the background. However, in the new label, the designer almost completely eliminates the green trees and makes the red a little bit more maroon color to relate to the blue. The similarity of the colors makes it more appealing.

I may not support Arrowhead for their plastic production, but I support their design.

Quilts

The Nelson Art Gallery at UC Davis is currently hosting an African American Quilts exhibition from September 24 - December 13, 2009. I did not take any pictures but I remember looking at this quilt (shown on the right) in the gallery. The first Gestalt principle that pops out in my head is similarity of colors. The vibrant colors of red, maroon, purple, pink and the different hues and saturation shades from it combine to make an aesthetically-pleasing design for the quilt. Also, the vertical and horizontal lines used in the quilt makes it easy for the viewer to distinguish the different squares amongst each other. But what's interesting is that the lines are not completely straight and horizontal and vertical, they are wavy. It somewhat creates an illusion effect that the quilt is draped with some flowy dimension to it. If the designer of this quilt had used completely straight lines, then the quilt may have had more of a 2-dimensional aspect to it. But because the lines are wavy, there is a somewhat 3-dimensional aspect as if maybe the wind can be blowing on it.

It's a shame I did not bring my camera because I saw many beautiful quilts. I noticed that not all the quilts were ever the same. Some were very different, and some were similar. I also noticed that the Gestalt principles play a huge role in all of these pieces. There were some that had similarity in color and there were some with different kinds of colors to distinguish space. There was use of repetition and continuation as if you could put the quilts next to each other and make an even bigger quilt. Overall, it was a great learning experience for me.

Paul Rand

As part of my Typography class, I had to do a little presentation on Paul Rand. When I looked him up, I found his biography to be pretty fascinating. It turns out he's the designer for a lot of famous icons that you see today. Some of them include:






I learned that Paul Rand was not too much into great details. According to Rand, he pointed point out in A Designer’s Art that “ideas do not need to be esoteric to be original or exciting." He really believed that by making the design simple, it still portrayed a powerful message to the viewer. For his ABC logo that he created in 1962, it really epitomized that ideal of minimalism while proving a point that a logo “cannot survive unless it is designed with the utmost simplicity and restraint." Even Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, claims that Paul Rand was the greatest graphic designer of all time.

Looking at Rand's works makes me realize that design can work with restraints and rules. When you life those restraints, your mind can run endless on different possibilities but sometimes, those ideas can be too much and might make a confusing design. But if you're given a set guidelines you have to follow, your mind learns to work with it and create things you might have never thought you could've done.

Happy Slip

Today was one of the best classes I've ever been to. Christine from Happy Slip came to visit our Design 1 lecture class today. I felt I was looking at a celebrity. She was a very chill and relax person and she even brought her mom too. Professor Housefield did the honors of singing "Happy Birthday" to her mom.

When I told people that Christine came to my Design 1 class, they all wondered "Why design?" or "What does Happy Slip have to do with Design?" Even Christine herself wondered why all these design students would want her to guest-lecture in our Design 1 classroom. I replied to everyone that Happy Slip is a designer like all of us. However, she's a famous designer unlike the rest of us. In fact, anyone who's a user of Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace... etc etc is a designer because we create and design how these social networking sites work. Think about it, these sites rely on social networking and communication of internet users. Therefore, the users are the designers because we create the business for them, we shape the way how their sites work. I'm on Facebook a lot and I notice that the site goes on frequent updates with new changes. The reason they do that is because they're trying to cater to their users to make their site more efficient and receive feedback for it. Without us, the users, these sites would not be in use and shaped the way it is today. This is part of "social media."

Introducing the "Rewrite" desk by designer GamFratesi. This is a prototype desk that's in the GamFratesi’s solo show at The Danish Museum of Art and Design.



Here are my pro's and con's about what I feel about this new prototype desk.

Pro:
- It's nice and secluded. Perfect for anyone who likes to have their own space and not be disturbed by anyone in the same room.
- It has a very ergonomic design which is very nice and fit to put inside a room that does not have a lot of space.

Con:
- I am disturbed by the cave-like shape it's in because someone could possibly bump their head if they are not paying attention.
- The "hovering" of the cave-shape blocks out any natural sunlight to hit. In fact, if the sunlight were to hit it on the other side, it would create a very dark shadow effect for the user.
- The small space makes it inconvenient for a person's arms to spread out.

Overall, I feel that the design of this table can be efficient if the top portion gave more air-space so it would not feel so secluded from the area around it. The seclusion makes the space very tight and no sunlight can shine on it. Perhaps GamFratesi was not looking to create a space for air-room but was looking to create an efficient space for a cramp room. Other than that, it's a very interesting design.

Apple Logo

Back in the 90's, 80's... or before that. The Apple Company based their logo off of this:





Now, their logo looks like this:




So you know what I've learned? Simplicity is the key. In the 21st century, people are drawn to sophistication and simplicity. I remember as a little kid that many logos had different colors to them to draw the audience's attention. But now, the public is looking for change and less tacky colors. If you looked at the newer logo, Apple clearly wanted to make a statement that they were a newer, better, and reliable company. The apple is a shadow with light shining in the background to emphasize something new and enlightening. It's almost like a "Hallelujah" epiphany for someone to unveil their eyes to a logo with the light shining there. Even Burger King and Jack in the Box have jumped on the bandwagon and changed their logo. All I can say is that it works.

Simplicity. Less is More.

Inspiration

So what inspires me for my inner creativity? Many things inspire me actually, and I don't even know where to start.

When I start on design projects, I get a lot of my creativity from what's been going on in my life so far. I would say it mainly comes from what I see, hear, and feel in my everyday life. Today, I saw a dead squirrel and that inspired me to research about the food chain. It turns out that owls like to eat small rodents (like squirrels) so I just ended up drawing pictures of owls in my sketchbook. And all the random sketches I do in my sketchbook come together for a possible project for Design.

I also get my inspiration from peers. If I ever have a design-block, looking at other peoples' works can give me inspiration too. Some people think it might be plagiarizing, but I don't copy peoples' works. I just take an idea and I take a different approach to it. Of course, everything I do, I give credit to other people.

Another cool thing I found

Guess what this is???




















Isn't that rad?? I don't know what you call it but I would definitely like to have these in my room. Who would've thought that you could just roll up shirts and stick up in this little cabinet against the wall? Saves space and it looks cool! Whoever designed this is ingenious. I just love how little space it takes up and the concept of placing and storing shirts in little rolls just amuses me. I could probably fit my whole wardrobe in there. Design is so rad.

Circles. De Young Museum (again)

I thought I ought to show you what it looks inside the De Young Museum during that special event for Friday Nights they host. It caught my eye on how a wall of circle net "thingers" can really make the walls look really interesting and alluring. Just add a bunch of music, colors, and different lights and you got yourself an awesome concert. Note to self: Add my own wall of circle net "thingers" to spice up my room too. Maybe I ought to invest in some color lights too.

Really gets me thinking that simple items can make any wall or room look interesting. If you just slightly tilt your picture frames and add a bunch of colored paper around your room, you got yourself a groovy 70's room. Forget the expenses on colored lights. Grab some colored saran wrap and cover your light for a different feel!

King Tut Museum

This past Friday night, I went to the De Young Museum to visit the King Tut exhibit. It was pretty awesome as the De Young Museum hosts these Friday night events until 8:45 p.m. with free food, music, concerts, and crafts. I thought I ought to visit the King Tut exhibit to not only fulfill my Design 1 requirement but to embrace myself in this cultural experience.

Since picture-taking was not allowed in the exhibit, I will post pictures from the internet that I remember that was in the exhibit.

If you look at the picture above, that's actually not the real coffin King Tut's body was in. In fact, it's a little small coffin that stored his organs. Probably about a little taller than my MacBook. What's really interesting is how you can just zoom in and take a picture of the head and easily mistaken it as a huge artifact. This little small coffin is embossed totally in gold with beautiful minerals and stones adorned as decorations. It's very impressive to see that the face does show realistic human features. Something very different from the hieroglyphics and pictures on the walls in ancient Egypt. If you look below... there's an example:


The Ancient Egyptians were great artists in sculpting 3D and drawing 2D. Their usage of color were very versatile. Bright, vibrant colors to decorate their items and gold was something they could not leave out.

From reading the McCloud book, the Ancient Egyptians purposely made their 2D drawings look like cartoons from the side, yet they made realistic human features on their sculptures. It's just very ironic on how different yet similar their 2D and 3D artwork are.

Typography

This quarter, I'm taking Design 115 on typography. Now, as an aspiring designer, I never thought about type, letters, or font. In fact, I never thought it was really important. If you mention typography to someone, they'd probably be wondering what it is too. I can say so far that I am learning a lot. Taking this class has definitely made me more aware on how letters and fonts are used on posters, books, brochures, advertisements, etc.

Here's a very good example of typography from one of my favorite stores:




This is now Saks Fifth Avenue's official logo on their shopping bags. What the designer did was he/she spelled out the whole name on a grid and cut it up and arranged it differently. It's quite interesting actually. I never thought that it could look so beautiful and it really emphasizes the different characteristics of the particular font being used while using minimal letter forms. Very unique, and very Saks.

I realize that typography is very, very important because it emphasizes whatever it represents. For example, big letters on an ad would show that it's a huge deal of some sort. If the font was smaller, it would exaggerate something less obscure.

Typography is design.