Final Blog

Final Blog

I was really excited to start this class because I thought we were going to be given different situations and we would have to come up with a solution for them. But the first assignment was force fitting which is something I never tried to do. Making a chair with the inspiration of an elephant and an apple was a fun project for me. My group brainstormed and we came up with some really unique designs doing that. We learned different ways to approach a problem and then how to solve them. Although I had the right assumption about the course, I learned more about different ways to approach the problem. The different process to approach and solve a problem is something that will be very useful later in my college classes as well as in the design world. Each project starts with a problem and I have to come up with a solution. Brainstorming is something that will come in handy.

The bonefish diagram helped identify a problem starting with the effect. Then moving into the cause, which can be many things. You have to think about the kind of people the design is for and what they will get out of it. The next is the environment where it will be and if it’ll be used and withstand the use. Next is the design process, showing how you got to the finished product. Next is deciding on which materials will be used for the design. It’s important to use the right materials for the job to make sure it’s the best.

I learned quite a lot about sustainability in this class and that is something I want to take into the design world. More and more buildings following LEED requirements and that is something I want to continue improving on. I think it’s important to care for the planet so a place I can do my part in is designing buildings that are created with recyclable and sustainable materials.

Learning more about how the left and right brain works can really help in communicating with others. I am very much a right-brained person. I’m very creative and passionate about what I do and love. I’ve always had a desire to learn and experience everything I can. Most of my family is left brained people. They enjoy familiar things and are always so strategic. Growing up around left brained people really gave me a chance to learn how to work with them. I work best in chaos but having someone who is organized is something I really enjoy. I like to make lists which is something I can share with a left brained person because they tend to be more organized. Finding similar characteristics like that can help get my ideas and creative process to another person who doesn’t think the same was as I do.

A few concepts I really liked where…

Design and Thinking

Design Thinking is thinking then understands a users needs, then with a group brainstorming. Then they create a prototype and improve from that until you have an end product. I really liked when it was mentioned that there are no bad or wrong ideas if it gets you to a good idea. One of my favorite ideas was making something custom, like a pair of shoes or a bike, anything. It’s perfect for designers like myself that want to see every new color and pattern design people can come with. I like seeing how other people can take the same object and make it different. Another topic that was mentioned was social entrepreneur, which is where a person benefits the society, environment, and world in general. When people are thinking outside of the box where architects are reaching out to biologists to create 21^st Century ideas. What I think was the most rewarding information from the video was that being creative isn’t about preforming to achieve positive results like in class, it’s about the experience and knowing that it’s not failing when it gets you to a good idea.

CPS Activity 1

The first activity was to design either pants or a chair from the inspiration of an elephant and an apple. We were told to come up with an original idea and think about why the product would be received by the target market. As group we started to brainstorm right away and we all had different idea which made the process much more interesting. In the beginning it was difficult to start thinking outside of the box from the start. Force fitting two different items together isn’t particularly simple. When you get creative minds working together, it’s not so difficult .

CH 4 WNM

This chapter really taught me how much the world needs designers. Its something I never really thought about because that wasn’t a deciding factor in my choice to be a designer. Design is utility enhanced by significance. An example the book used is how a furniture designer must craft a table that stands up and supports its weight, that would be designing for utility. To design for significance, the table must also possess an aesthetic appeal that transcends functionality. Today design is more accessible than ever which allows people to partake in pleasures and become connoisseurs of what was once specialized knowledge. My favorite quote from the chapter was Frank Nuovo saying, “Design in its simplest form is the activity of creating solutions. Design is something everyone does every day.” In my opinion, today I think more people are creating solutions rather than properly solving the problem. I think about it as knowing the roots of a problem to solve it, rather than just fixing it.

A few TED talks that I really enjoyed were…

Ron Finley

Food is the problem. Food is the solution. Ron Finley is so passionate about his gardening and considers it his art and the plants are his paintings. Also, he gets food out of it, which he said, is like, “Printing your own money.” Having all the fresh vegetables for his children is also a plus. He had expanded his idea and has started to build gardens at homeless shelters. With the help from the people staying there, he gets to learn about their memories of gardening with their mothers or grandmothers. He understood a problem and took action.

Ross Lovegrove

Ross Lovegrove believes in DNA, which stands for design, nature, and art. When he starts a new design he starts with impressionism influences in his sketches. Then he uses that inspiration and turns it into something useful. His first example was a water bottle. He started with a loose sketch of water then molded it onto a bottle. It turns into an icon of water. It’s truly unique and each one is different. The unusual shape also makes it easier to hold, especially for people with arthritis and for children. He finds a lot of inspiration in nature, from the structure of plants to water droplets. He saw two water droplets and was inspired to create a car that ran on solar power. His ideas are truly endless.

Janine Benyus and Biomicicry

Janie Benyus had really opened my eyes about the design of nature. She discussed the idea of Biomimcry and how it’s the lives in nature, all the different eco systems. She gave the example of designing spring. The timing and coordination that happens every year, it keeps its promise. She gave an example of how she saw wasps were building a nest on her porch and she just left it. It progressively got bigger and bigger. She looked at it and saw how precise and architectural it all was. It was so well done that people might think that human may have done it. She then discussed how humans aren’t the first ones to build, process cellulose, make paper, and work with small spaces.

Tom Wujec

Tom Wujec discussed how each person describes the process of a task differently. He used the example of making toast. He had a vast number of people draw the steps they take to make toast. Different countries make toast differently where Europeans make toast using a frying pan while Americans make toast using a toaster. Other people drew the mechanisms of the toaster and how it makes toast or they drew the process of eating the toast. He then let the people draw out each step on notecards and had the people arrange them in the most logical order. He called this Nodes + Links = System Model. Presenting the steps of the physical object produces more nodes which in turn can help create a universal system model with different points of view when a large group is arranging them (doing it in silence gets it done better).

Sketch

For my sketch I wanted to try to do my own copy of one of my favorite artists works. I picked Andy Warhol’s banana print because it brings attention to an every day object. That’s something I like about his art subjects, he made prints of things you see every day. I had a banana lying around and I used that for inspiration. Since I don’t have silk screens to make a print, I just used my design markers.