Designing a shopping experience

Many store now are creating an overall experience that extends pass the checkout. Victoria secret wraps your underwear up in colored tissue paper and places it in the coordinating bag. Steve Madden now puts purses in reusable shopping bags so you will use them again and think of them often. Upscale purse stores package your purse in a box and put your receipt into a small folder. During the holidays many stores have switched away from plain white gift boxes and create their own specialized boxes. Why are companies spending so much money on these seemly unimportant things? Because executives realize that these designs contribute to an overall feeling. By designing an experience it is more likely to get people to return. The executives have come to understand the value of design from what order they place the merchandise to the moment you exit the store. The field of design is growing daily as a society whose needs are meet we have moved to designing for wants.

designing for the workplace

The process of designing for ones professional life can be very sticky. I find myself faced with this dilemma now. I need to start creating a portfolio of my work for when I begin interviewing in January. One does not want a portfolio that has no personality, just blank white paper. On the other side of the spectrum however, I have seen several girls who have gone before me whose portfolio looked more like a do it yourself scrapbook page than a professional tool. When we are designing these books it is important for us to remember that as recent graduates we need to set forth a more professional appearance in order to be taken seriously. Therefore we need to design these books with the message that we are competent professionals. We must strike a balance between personality and professionalism. In order to do this I think it is a useful tool to look at businesses and the designs they choose. We should do this because many businesses have paid a great deal of money to have someone design something that not only shows they culture of the company but still let the viewer know they are serious.

My design project

My first attempt

Recently I as looking at some wrapping paper I had relieved and there was a very cool flower design on it. I wanted to do something with it but it was a small piece and I wasn’t sure what I could do. I do not have a talent for drawing. But figure it I could draw the flower I could make it the colors I wanted. I combated this by photocopying the paper and then tracing the image with a makeshift light box. I then went and got various other pictures of flowers and followed the same process. I am trying to pick flowers with similar characteristics. This way they will look like they may have gone together even thought they are from random places. After doing a few test runs I decided the marker was not the right medium it ran on the paper ad you could still see some pencil lines underneath the ink. I have now decided that I am going to go down and get a canvas and give it a shot with some acrylic paint.

Blog #9

Don’t design for everyone. It’s impossible. All you end up doing is designing something that makes everyone unhappy.
— Leisa Reichelt
I found this quote to be very appropriate after watching the Maya Lin video. I found it on designwashere.com. It is from Leisa Reichelt, a designer who specializes of User Experience and User Centered Design. I find that often when I am working on a craft project I have people putting in their input as to how I should make something or how I should have done if differently. I understand how frustrating this can be since often the people putting in their input do not know how to knit or crochet. It can be aggravating trying to explain you have to do it a certain way because otherwise the rest of the pattern will not work. Most people became interested in design because they get something out of it. When you start designing for other people it can take the joy out of the process. Though it does not apply to my crafting it can also destroy he message the designer is trying to convey. If you design something that one group likes and you try to change aspects of it to try to please another group you may loose the qualities the first group liked in the first place. I think designers should take a cue from Leisa and design for themselves if someone else likes it great but no one else does at least you can stand behind it.

Can something be mass-produced and still be individualistic?

I would say yes. After my group discussion project I found myself pondering this question. I thought of interior designer. For the most part, they pick a paint color which someone at the paint company designed. They pick furniture that others have designed and built, pictures others have painted and so on. There are many other careers design fields that require people to compile things others have made, such as costume and landscape designers. While they may not themselves have the skills to drawn, paint of sculpt they express their individual opinion through their ability to make a cohesive whole out of many parts. So why is it that if I go to chain stores and purchase pieces of my wardrobe and I thought to be unoriginal? I picked the pieces and designed a way to make them a cohesive whole. I feel this theory can be extended to all consumer products. Does my refrigerator have to match my cabinets? No, but doesn’t the fact that I want it to show my personality?

blog #4

This picture was accompanying an article discussing the environment. I particularly like the way the artist likened the fragility of the balance of people and earth with an egg. The artist took a large scale problem and brought it down into an everyday object that is incredibly accessible. The artist may have chosen to use an egg because there is some debate as to if the Earth is actually egg shaped. I also find it interesting that the artist chose to set the yolk on fire. The spilled yolk within itself could represent a loss of life, the loss of all of our lives if the planet were to become inhospitable. The fact that he set in on fire gives it a more dramatic flare, it is not only the end of life but the total annihilation. I am curious if the artist set the yolk on fire to represent the magma spilling out from the cracked Earth. In this picture the egg does not looked like it has been internationally cracked but more like it was dropped. This shows the how suddenly the end came.

Universal Design

As part of my degree I have been required to take classes on disability, where the issue of universal design has been discussed. In the video “Maya Lin” Maya speaks about how important it was to keep the integrity of her design, perhaps this desire prevents other designers from accepting the idea of universal design. This point was even brought up in the video when some veterans complained the original design would prevent those veterans in wheelchairs from being able to access the site. Maya spoke a lot about creating the site for the veterans so it seemed odd to me that it would not be accessible for some of them, especially since I’m sure the topic of assessable buildings and the ADA act must have been covered in the Harvard architecture classes. While it is understandable that older buildings are not accessible it is surprising to see newer buildings still are not. While a building may have a ramp or elevators it is still not enough for some people. In the increasingly poplar shows about little people we see the difficultly they encounter on a daily basis trying to interact with the world around them. Take something like a water fountain for example there are usually two, a “regular” height and a “wheelchair” height. If there was to be a third “little people” height it would also be accessible to children. Many accommodations benefit “able” bodied people as well so perhaps it would behoove designers to begin embracing some of these elements.

Blog 3

Blog 8

An example of one of the forms of advertising from Frederik's blog, it is a cloth business card.

One of the design blogs I frequent is http://www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/. Frederik is an artist specializing in designing for businesses ranging from web, brochure, packaging, and stationary design as well as branding and advertising. His blog is usually a commentary on advertisements and why they are successful or not, occasionally dotted with a random rant. He does a good job at scouring the globe for both visually pleasing and effective advertising. Some have used several of his posts as backgrounds for my cell phone and computer. This blog addresses how the design of each ad makes it successful or not. Another blog I watch is http://www.logodesignlove.com/. This blog is devoted to logos. It is run by a graphic designer named David Airey who is deeply interested with news and features from the logo design industry. He also has a section of resources for other designers. He also discusses how technology is helping to change the world of design. The blog and the comments it inspires are from a mix of designers and lay people just interested it the aesthetic appeal of the logos that punctuate their lives.

blog 7

The thought of propaganda brings two posters to mind. The first is “Rosie the Riveter” and the second is “Uncle Sam wants you.” I feel these two posters were very well designed because they have been able to withstand the test of time, in searching the internet for the images I came across “Eat more cottage cheese.” I feel my grandparents and other alive at that time would even remember that poster. Both Rosie and Same are a character and saying against negative space, this helps draw the viewer’s eye to the person and the message. The color choices for these posters are also very significant, Sam is composed of red, white and blue meant to evoke a sense of patriotism. Rosie’s bright yellow background is meant to draw in a viewer and provide contrast from her blue coveralls, drawing the viewer to her uniform. Both characters faces are very somber, these expressions inspire feeling of resistance of the enemy as well as strength. Some have also argued Rosie’s exposed bicep is meant to magnify these feelings of strength since at that time a woman was automatically deemed somewhat weak. These posters are illustrations of how something that appears simplistic on the surface actually brings a lot of meaning in what is present as well as what is not present.

Thought generated from blog 6

I feel that Emil Ruder make a great point in discussing the connection between typefaces and foreign languages. I believe this to also be true about the characters a foreign language uses. The specific example it brought to mind for me is several years ago products with Chinese characters on them became very popular and many people began getting them as tattoos. When asked what these characters meant they would respond love, hope, peace, tranquility, or some other Zen like utterance. When accused of conforming to popularity many would argue these words were a personal motto. I would argue that if these were in fact a personal motto why would they not have it written in their native characters? Would that not be more personal that a foreign language? I feel these words gained much of their significance and meaning from the fact they were Chinese, a culture associated with enlightenment, Zen practice and intelligence. Also feel the flowing lines and brush strokes lend significance. The characters look painstakingly thought out unlike our native standard Times New Roman lettering. I feel that the connotation a language and its typeface or written language gives of what is being read adds a great deal of the implicit message. For example if you got a business memo written in a script like font you would be much less inclined to take it seriously and might even mock it to coworkers.

Blog 6

This typeface is based on North American Fingerspelling. One does not see this typeface often but as someone involved in the Deaf community it is one I see quite often. While it would be too rough on the eyes to type a paper or article in this font it is used to show readers that this text is from someone who is knowledgeable about deafness, signing and American Sign Language, ASL. This font carries a lot of meaning because of its connection to the Deaf community. Relatively speaking the Deaf community is still new. Many people do not understand the members identity or struggles because they as seen as fellow Americans. This is why many people who see this font associate it with someone who understands. I picked up a professional publication I receive and gave it a quick look many of the ads in this publication use some variation on this font as part of or in addition to their symbols. They use this to help grab our attention because they know as people working in this field our eyes will gravitate to it. This is also true for a not for profit agency I work for who works for the deaf. Our logo (it is a four letter monogram) it is print as well as in this type face. This serves two functions, to make us appealing to our clientele, and to make sure they clients clearly know what the card is for since many have trouble connecting signs and letters. For this community the use of this font evokes feelings of connection.

blog 1 correction

One more thing about the picture for blog 1, I must have missed it when I was cutting a pasting. That picture is the sign for art. The white streak signifies the hands movement in creating this sign.

blog 5

I think Bruce Mau’s sixth tenant, capture accidents would be the most helpful to me. I have never had any formal art training but I do craft. Often I will find a mistake in my knitting or crocheting that no one would know unless they inspected it and new the pattern. Yet I still can not leave it there, I will rip out row after row to remove the mistake. I think it would be interesting to see how a project turned out if I didn’t try to stick so closely to the pattern. Even if I decide to make up a project I will take parts from other patterns and agonize about the small parts I make up and if they fit the pattern I am basing it off of. I also feel this may be a reason I am not involved in more classical forms of art. If I try and paint something I will obsess over the small line I feel I have crossed instead of just embracing it and moving on. I feel that it is ruined before it is even half done. I think is why I prefer my crafts, because they are not as permanent as other forms of art. Yarn or thread can be pulled out, scrapbook pictures can be laid out first and pulled up and repositioned. I think I need to take some risk and let the mistakes fall where they may!

blog 2

On HillmanCurtis.com there is a film about Milton Glasser. He feels that design united people, in that if they both like something they have something in common. This common interest helps to unite them and makes them less likely to hate each other. He feels art gives people the opportunity to open themselves to others because they are all connected by a common experience. Glasser feels his graphic design is a form of social commentary because it is depended on the audience and the time in which it made and will be its most relevant. He also feels working in the arts provides him with the constant opportunity to learn from the world around him. Glasser is thankful he is still interested in his work and that it and the world around him continues to astonish him.

Blog 1

The function of this photo is to show the beauty of signed language. It was used for the poster of a deaf art exhibit.

Design is the method in which one goes about creating a form, as well as the result of this process. Design may be the arrangement of items or fixtures for the purpose of aesthetics or function. Design may also be the physical appearance of a form after creation, such as wallpaper.

Culture is the beliefs, goals, rituals, language, and history shared among a group of people.

Language is a systematic means of communication using of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks with an agreed upon meanings.

Design, culture and language all influence the other. Our designs are influence by how we live our lives. For example homes are designed differently in the US than in Japan. Design influences language because art and design have their own specific vocabulary which may not work in other context. Many cultures have a focal vocabulary where words to describe things that are important in their culture, for example the Inuit Indians have many words to describe snow because it is an important part of their survival. Languages can also influence design. The Deaf community has their own form or art which is great influenced by their native language of ASL and their struggle to have it accepted as a language. (See above) Culture can be influenced by art as well. The American education system includes art as a requirement in general education for many reasons, in part because it gives us a picture to how cultures wee different in the past.