grounding

designing is a complicated process [well for me anyway], i keep telling myself to have 'fun' but designing objects at an architecture and design school means exposure to some very in-depth theory about 'why' we should and shouldn't design and build things. this elevates the designing process to a level that can sometimes become overwhelming because the bigger picture is big, very big and the expectation is to design objects that reflect this bigger picture. for some this is too big of a burden to carry but for those who take it on it enables you as a designer to firmly ground your object and place them confidently within a world already flooded with so called 'designed' objects. 


[right] a 1:5 scale model of my current project which explores concepts of human capital. the 'fun' part was cutting out a 2 dimensional image of myself and placing it within my object to give it scale. the coffee cup ring at the bottom of the image helps to give it some real world size. 

light

Thursday is my major hand in for design workshop and for the first time in my life I'm not going to make the dead line. This doesn't sit too well with me being that I've been trained to be an 'on time' finisher. But half way through this semester I had to make a decision; do I stop researching my theory studies that underpin the project and simply start making, or do I keep researching? 

I chose the latter. 

There are many levels to design, one is to have a very deep understanding of 'why' something should or needs to be designed. It's not enough to simple touch on the ideas of, commodity [design must function], firmness [design must be long lasting] and delight [design should provide joy]. The design process should be totally immersed in these ideas, with outcomes that provide multiple layers of interpretation that touch our sub-conscious.

Aesthetically pleasing forms should be the given never the sole driver. I can design the most visually pleasing, user considered, sustainable produced, multi layered object that touches our very core but in the end it accounts for nothing because it's the sun light coming through the window that illuminates the space within my object that provides the real reason for why someone will want to use it. My object  is just a prop to help someone find warmth and light, two of the most basic needs humans have.

la guns

it's getting to the pointy end of the uni semester and my work days have turned 18 hour long. it's all workshop [making] in the daylight hours, and with my 80's glam metal head band to keep my brain from freezing over, it's design research, graphic panels and drawing at night. to sum it up, it's all BIG hair 80's glam rock at night, and high-vis fashion during the day.  

what's in a system?

Project Management, for some it's a chance to assert some authority and impress the powers that be, for others it's about getting things to work efficiently. In a past life I would be positioned in the second category. I really enjoyed organizing things and making them run smoothly. I never really understood the true consequences of my charts and what impact they had on the people who followed them. Instead the job at hand was to focus on achieving the mile stone, nothing else really mattered. But PM is much more than just milestones, budgets and work orders, it's about creating a system that shapes the way people are. My working life has exposed me to routines and qualities [some good, some bad] that have shaped who I am today and they are apart of me and who I am. To truly understand Project Management surely one needs to look past the obvious and dig a little deeper, past the figures and task, down into the areas that analyse the human elements. It's in these areas that a PM might truly start to design a program which could highlight and influence positive human capital.     

scale

Designing works on many levels, and there is no right or wrong way to go about designing things, the only wrong [in my eyes] is not acknowledge the need to address the vest range of issues spanning from the micro level to the macro. The complicated part is understanding what the issues are and knowing at what level they need to be address. Prioritize one before another at the wrong time or being ignorant can lead to a design falling over pretty quickly. My design process sees me constantly juggling between the micro and the macro scale, zooming in and then back out. A designer needs to be aware of all the issues and has a responsibility to address them the best they can. Some designers do this way better then others.  

story time

layouts. everything is subjective. everything.

i'm currently working on an early draft for a portfolio and with endless ways in which to communicate information it becomes a process of elimination and what the core message is that you are trying to get across. my aims with these panels is to communicate the design theory behind the object as well as the making process. it's important to show the viewer the deeper levels of thought that go into the projects as well as the making process. it's not about producing highly rendered 3D images to sell a product, for me it's more about people and the process. the 'real' story behind the object.

questions

Although writing is not one of my strong points, I still enjoy the process that goes into producing an essay. This time round I was able to re-write the essay question so that it could align itself with my research for my design project. You might think that being able to do such a thing would make your life easier, but it's never that easy. The lecturers know the standard question topics inside and out and if you start to deviate from the plane [potentially outside of their field of knowledge] then you might be setting yourself up for a fall. I guess time will tell if I managed the risk successfully.  


Essay question: 
Through examples projected to us by writers, directors, poets or artist,explore the relationships objects convey within their works. How do these reflect on the dimensions of ‘home’ and our relationships to others and the world?

training

'Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking'
Albert Einstein


I'm not sure what other design theory students are exposed to in other design degrees [industrial design, product design...], but I did a group presentational last week that raised issues regarding the current system of design education, a system that looks to on the surface support a society geared around terminal consumption. In our design theory lectures we are pushed to look deeper and not just become designers with a skill set aimed at conforming to the current system [we have enough 'yes' men and women with those skill sets in the world already]. It's funny when so called professionals talk about craftspeople and trade professionals as only being 'well trained', yet I see the vast majority of university educated professionals in the same light. This might be part of the reason behind the current 'design thinking' trend that is taking place. The idea of getting people to think differently from their current training... welcome to the the world of design.  

design law

one of my subjects this semester has a law component attached to it and as designers it is made very clear in our lectures what our responsibilities are and what we are held accountable for. risk management plays a big role, and i find it somewhat puzzling that most of the case studies shown during the lectures tend to indicate that once money is offered the idea of risk management is somewhat thrown out the window [the key word in this statement is 'offered']. it would seem that the legal responsibilities of the designer can sometimes become a distant afterthought when it comes to winning projects. the key point that i took away from the lecture was a pretty obvious one, yet it is one that is somewhat overlooked every day... hold onto your calculators because some of you capitalists are not going to like this but it's the ground breaking idea that you can and should refuse work.

post degree thinking

'Design that is only about appearance, or margins, or offerings and market segments, and not about real people—their needs, abilities, desires, emotions, and so on.—that's the design that is the problem'.

I found this quote in my email drafts folder the other day and I can't remember how it got to be there? Regardless, it made me consider the many diffident types of  'designers' we have in the world. Most of the designers I read about and talk to proclaim to be all about the needs, abilities, desires and emotions of the user but I rarely see any evidence of this within their work. My greatest fear is that I will turn into one of these designers when I finish my studies. 

measured

my current project focuses on reflection,  reminiscing,  memory and space. my design looks to do this on a sub conscious level aimed at the things that trigger reminiscing and the emotions linked to those memories. for this to happen i needed a prop, an artefact that would promote human capital , i needed to design and make an object that could be the incubator for the memories, a space within a space. because from this object all things would be measured.  

design theory

Consumption for pleasure at the hands of recognition.... An idea not purely based on objects alone but the consumption of people’s recognition to obtain pleasure... In the same way people purchase objects for pleasure, people also consume pleasure through recognition of self from others....‘terminal consumption’... not only of objects but of recognition of the self.


The above excerpts are from a theory essay I'm currently working on. The focus of the essay is on objects and people. 

more

another week = another presentation.
so far this uni year I'm averaging one presentation per week! my next presentation is a group [well to be more accurate, pairs] assignment relating to the future of design. in total it must go for 1/2 an hour and during this time we must put forward a scenario of what design might be and of course what part designers might have in it.

the graphics shown all relate to aspects of our presentation and provide visual cues for use when presenting. Our focus is on how design can look to push our current western society away from the consumption of objects for pleasure. 

ad

for me design is not about selling products, it's not about advertising and it's not about providing a product that will solve the western worlds problems. the thought of mass producing another object in a western world already full of objects makes me want to break my pencil in half and throw my sketch pad on the fire. but surely this is what design is all about, making money, solving problems... selling products that tap into our fears and exploit our feelings of self [now throw away all of those school desks and buy our new earthquake proof desks, if you don't then your child might be killed in an earthquake and then you will have to live with the guilt of knowing that you could have prevented it from happening]. It appears that 'design' has been and continues to be moving in a direction i don't want to be a part of. [as someone suggested, surely a new desk is not needed, but a new system for early detection?]  It's hard not to get sucked into the advertising and the cool graphics, but as i get closer to graduating it's my responsibility to question products and their true relevance.        

understanding

it might appear that I've been a little inconsistent with my posting of late, but with 3rd year uni well under way my window for posting is somewhat limited. Explanations aside, my first semester design project is slowly moving from the research stage into the modeling and prototyping stage and yesterday i had a 15min interim presentation outlining how my research relates to the design brief. the panels shown formed part of this presentation. the key issues of research are as follows:  

researching routines linked to supporting human capital [education, family, community].

question? where might this be found and under what circumstances?

analyzing the links between place, object and memories.

identifying the connection between objects and memories that support mental well being and encourage ‘flow’activities’, [through reminiscing and learning].

supporting the possible need for more private spaces and child scale spaces.

researching information and forming an understanding behind routines [not just designing for the routine itself, but designing around an understanding of the sub conscious levels of thought behind actions linked to the routine].