Monday, March 29, 2010

The 11th Hour

This movie documentary sends out a pretty strong message about the environment, laid out in an easy manner to understand and in a way hard to ignore through the strong images they reveal. The environmental neglect shown has instrumental effects and they are not isolated incidents in the media like they mentioned. Incidents happen all over the world whether they are big or small it eventually adds up to the total of damages.

The documentary started off with something that really caught my attention this was when he said everybody is talking about saving the environment, but the fact is the environment will survive and we will eventually die. That is strong stuff so we ourselves as people are committing suicide we are not looking after our surroundings as well as we should, our planet is our only home they are mention.

Also saying people were separate from nature but we are part of nature in reality, we are nature. Humans act superior than everyone else as it mentions hogging all the resources from everything else, too many of us using too many resources too fast. There are people out there who are stupid! Thinking global warming is a belief it is not! Its evidence as they clearly cover this.

As industrial designers we do not know the future but we know the past, we can learn from it and at least try to make it a better place. Creating a culture where the surroundings are around us and us not damaging it. We have to consider materials that’s vital to redesign. The time is right now we have a choice!

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Charette 1: Lifetime Optimization




Our groups final solution to the chair problem was a simple one! by adding a sliding table underneath the chair it provides the user of an added experience. Eating away from the table has at times outnumbered the times at the table so having a chair and table is convenient for the user.

From charette 1 i learnt alot of things it can be hectic when just given a short amount of time to generate ideas out, so we have to think fast and pump those ideas out. With everyone inputting different ideas an ideal outcome will eventually arrive


This particular activity has shown an importance how a product can become to the user so having just one use can never be enough for the users. Having different uses can make the product a more used thing and also a more useful thing to have therefore making user happier experience.


Designing beyond the original product was a fun thing to do! Adapting the product for another use was a good objective to partake in.


If you were to design a piece of furniture from scratch, how would you do it differently?

If i were to design this from scratch i would take my time and iron out all the kinks before having a solid concept, if i was to do this again i would take my time on solid concepts rather than rushing some not flashy ones.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Objectified

Society doesn’t look into everyday objects too much, just looking into a simple object wouldn’t equate into any deep meaningful thoughts surrounding it. I think the perception is simple equals easy to make. However, the fact is designers think to a great degree in designing this object so it is simplistic in nature. Like what Alice Rawsthorn mentioned “Many of the best examples of industrial design, are things that people don’t think that were designed at all, like the post it notes”. She goes on to say that the moment we wake we are surrounded by things in their world that are designed in one way or another. One of the examples that caught my eye was the Japanese toothpick, this toothpick means something different culturally to the Japanese to say someone from America. They would not understand the meaning towards it, this shows that every object has a story of its own to tell. So some of these designs are improving our daily lives without us even thinking about it.

Another point which stood out from this was What happens afterwards? The example of the washed up toothbrush shows that once used it can literally end up anywhere! So the sustainability factor is very important for to know about, in this case one of their concepts were one handle for life which would create meaning.

From this video, I’ve learnt that we have to look into things in heaps of different perpectives. Like Marc Newson, “dreaming of buying things that don’t exist” and designing for “what’s going to happen and not what’s already happened”. So looking through their eyes we take note of the objects surrounding us in everyday life. Also, people are never satisfied!!


Monday, March 8, 2010