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.