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.