Saturday, April 17, 2010

Universal and Communication design: Universal Travel Manners

This book gives me a firm grip on the theory and practice of communication design. It inspires me to look outside the box of aesthetic development. It mentions how the human’s mind interprets both visual and verbal messages. And also tell me how design is used in service of information.

Notes:

- Principle #1: Simple and intuitive use

- Principle #2: Perceptible information

- Principle #2: Flexibility in use

- Principle #4: Reasonable use



Work cited:

Frascara, Jorge. “Communication design: principles, methods, and practice”Allworth Press, 2004. New York


Joyce Kozloff



Final project for Graphic Design 4 class is about " journey".

Here I found an artist , Joyce Kozoloff, who create art works that will take you into a personal and introspective journey through information and imagination.

She collected information and statistic in certain subject matter , and by using the map she connects the information in a unique way.

This is a good start for me to start thinking different deliverables for my thesis proposal.


Work Cited :

Symphysis, Kinnari Thakker's Personal Blog,

http://symphysis.wordpress.com/

Information design and advertising development for colour-blindness

Find this book in the library. It is very useful for this thesis proposal. This book provides information about the several types of colour vision deficiency and how they are passed from generation to generation. And also describes the difficulties that color-blindness has experienced in everyday life. Plus the problems that they will be encountered at work or at school.

Notes:

Colour-blindness is an illness that the patients have inability to distinguish particular colours. This is a very common illness which two to eight percent of the male population and less than 1 percent of the female population (D. A. McIntyre). There are many types of colour-blindness. However, the most common are red-green hereditary photoreceptor disorders. Colour-blind patients are hardly recognized but this illness can give them many troubles in the regular everyday life (Dr Alex Wade). For example, they often get confused with the red and green apples, they may also confused by the traffic light colors; the red traffic lights will see as a yellowish orange; the green traffic lights will see as white.


Work cited:

D. A. McIntyre, “ Colour blindness: causes and effects”. Dalton Publishing, 2002. New York

Information design and advertising development for colour-blindness


The Information Design Handbook

This book provides essential design principles and tips about creating effective information graphic, and it teach us how to integrate different types of information design.

Work cited :

Jenn Visocky O'Grady, “The Information Design Handbook.” F & W Pubns Inc, 2008. New York


Saturday, April 10, 2010

Jacob Cass, he is a graphic designer who is the founder of the ‘Just Creative Design’. There is a page that shows all his recent project on the rebranding. It provides me a brief idea about how rebranding will benefit the business which needs a new identity.



Here are some logos that show the before and after he re-build the identity of the company.

Work Cited

Information and pictures are downloaded from
-Jacob Cass,JustCreativeDesign, Homepage, 2007-2010
http://justcreativedesign.com

Identity Design: Re-branding Suncoat’s organic nail polishes

Notes from article: Best Toxic-Free Nail Polish Brands by Tamara Hardison

A carcinogenic ingredient is an ingredient that has been shown to cause cancer. The three carcinogenic ingredients in nail polish are toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP).

Toluene is a clear, colorless liquid that is also found in paints, thinners, and inks. It makes nail polish smooth and makes it dry quicker.

Formaldehyde is a carcinogenic preservative and is used in nail polish as a nail hardener. It also keeps the polish from chipping. Breathing in formaldehyde fumes irritates the lungs, eyes, nose, and throat. It also causes headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and immune dysfunction.

Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) is found in plastics, personal care products, paints, and pesticides. It's used as a plasticizer that makes plastics soft and flexible. In nail polish it acts as a binder to make the nail polish last longer. Phthalates are also known carcinogens, are known to cause birth defects, and damage the reproductive organs.

Water-based nail polishes are the most natural nail polishes on the market. However, because the water evaporates, the polish must be removed after wearing it for one week. The longer you wear it past a week, the harder

Water-based nail polishes are the most natural nail polishes on the market. However, because the water evaporates, the polish must be removed after wearing it for one week. The longer you wear it past a week, the harder it is to remove. They dry in the same amount of time as other mainstream nail polishes, but it can take 4 to 6 hours for the polish to reach maximum hardness and become scratch resistant.


Work Cited

Tamara Hardison, “ Best Toxic-Free Nail Polish Brands,” Beauty 22-Jan,2008, Life style , Homepage, 2010 http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/

Identity Design: Re-branding Suncoat’s organic nail polishes

Notes from article - Nail Polish manufacturers remove potentially harmful chemicals

By Simon Pitman, 30-Aug-2006

Three major nail varnish manufacturers say they will begin removing chemicals linked to cancer and birth defects from their formulations, lobbyists at The Campaign For Safe Cosmetics claim.

The move is the result of a long-standing campaign by the lobby group that has targeted specific brands of nail varnish that are said to contain ingredients including phthalates, formeldahyde and toluene - ingredients that have all been scientifically linked to health-related conditions in humans.

OPI and Orly have said they would remove DBP from their products but would continue to use toluene. Likewise OPI still uses formaldehyde in some nail products.

The campaigners have pointed out that the three ingredients are on California's Prop. 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.


Work Cited

Simon Pitman, “ Nail Polish manufacturers remove potentially harmful chemicals,” Formulation & Science 30-Aug-2006, Cosmetic Design, Homepage, 2000/2010 http://www.cosmeticsdesign.com/Formulation-Science/


Sunday, March 28, 2010

Thesis- idea # 1

Fashion vs Sustainable materials


Sustainable materials at H&M

Respecting the environment is important both for us and for our customers. That's why we are already using sustainable materials in our goods - and why we are testing new ones all the time.

H&M's most important sustainable material right now is organic cotton. Organic cotton is cultivated without the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers, which means it is better for the environment and for the farm workers. H&M has been selling clothes containing organic cotton since 2004, and we are still continuing to invest in this initiative. The aim is to increase the use of organically grown cotton by 50% every year until 2013.

Hear what H&M's Henrik Lampa, Mathilda Tham from Beckmans College of Design and Marcus Bergman from the Swedish School of Textiles in BorĂ¥s, Sweden have to say about sustainable fashion and organic cotton – and what you can do to minimise your impact on the environment.

In addition to organic cotton, H&M also sells clothes containing a number of other sustainable materials. Here is a selection of those you will find at H&M in 2010.

Organic wool
– is wool that comes from sheep that have been bred with organic feed and chemical free pasture, and haven’t been treated with synthetic pesticides

Organic linen
– is linen that has been grown without the use of hazardous chemicals

Recycled cotton
– is cotton made from textile remnants in production

Recycled polyester
- is polyester made from PET-bottles or textile waste

Recycled polyamide
– is polyamide made from fishing-nets or textile waste

Recycled wool
– is wool made from worn-out woollen garments and remnants of fabric

Tencel
- silk-like, renewable material which has been produced with minimized environmental impact.






Work Cited

HENNES & MAURITZ AB, homepage,2010
http://www.hm.com/no/materials

Monday, March 22, 2010


Etch-a-Sketch 3D

o2 Creative Solutions is an "experience design firm" that seeks to combine design, communications and technology. Up above is their Etch-a-Sketch-inspired Sketch-3D tool (featuring Core-fave Mike Doyle!):

Sketch-3D is an interactive, integrated software/hardware system that enables users to create their own anaglyphic 3D drawings. By using a ubiquitous interface metaphor (the "Etch-a-Sketch"), Sketch-3D allows anyone to participate in generating stereoscopic imagery in a way that is simple and engaging. In addition to the personal experience, Sketch-3D can be scaled to work with any output device from large scale projection to plasma displays to an integrated LCD. This versatility allows for Sketch-3D to be tailored to fit a wide array of installation environments.

No word on how to erase it, but we're guessing you have to get two people to rip it off the wall and shake it vigorously.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Notes from-Fitzgerald-BuryDesign

“to make the world a better place.”

Most theory—whether it is “academic” or “practical”—also comes down to procreation: assuring the creation of more professional design.

Untrained design can make inroads into information design. This might be considered the branch of design impervious to unprofessional interloping. But we should consider the example of Edward Tufte, as practitioner and in practice.

If we imagine graphic design as an individual, we must explain why it doesn’t affirm its desired identity, then breed wildly. My explanation is

Freudian: design has a death wish. It constantly seeks to eradicate itself.
- Designers will instinctively reject this notion. We’re fighting for our lives! Indulgent clients are at a premium.

What is significant is that designers look outside their professional standard to a source considered pure and immediate. And, often—from hand-drawn and painted signage to ‘zines to desktop horrors no designer would uphold—distressingly effective.

The notion that design is an on-the-job learning experience continues to dominate. Students enter with a vague interest in text and image—often, not even that—and are channeled wholesale into professional design making. A successful design program is defined as one that (re)produces more professional design and designers.

Gordon Salchow wrote “Graphic Design is not a Profession”
- He pointed out design’s resemblance to literature and music, calling design a “...fundamental humanist communications discipline...its peers are the Liberal Arts.”
- Design Education as a Liberal Art: Design and Knowledge in the University and the ‘Real World’,”

Andrew Blauvelt
- “Design as a field of study without practical application is unlikely and undesirable...it is the practice of graphic design that provides the basis of a theory of graphic design.”

Designers claim their activity is all about ideas—not software, not formal facility. Educators are called upon to foster a critical sensibility: a questioning mind capable of intellectual discipline. Design’s vital aspect of craft is a product of a
cognitive awareness.

Thesis consideration

1-Illustration- about children
2-Branding, about nature or organic
3-Graphic Design

Another option : fashion

Notes from- Bierut_designers cant think

“Swiss” schools and “slick” schools

“semiotics” (Swiss) or “conceptual problem solving”(slick)

-To the portfolio schools, the “Swiss” method is hermetic, arcane, and meaningless to the general

public.

Process schools-favor a form-driven problem solving approach.

-To the process schools, the “slick” method is distastefully commercial, shallow, and derivative.

aim: to provide students with polished “books” that will get them good

jobs upon graduation.

The problem-solving mode is conceptual, with a bias forappealing, memorable, populist imagery. The product, not process, is king.

the portfolio schools are staffed largely by working professionals who teach part time, who are impatient with idle exercises that don’t relate to the “real world.”

-East Coast corporate identity firms love the process school graduates; anyone who’s spent six months combining a letterform and a ballet shoe won’t mind being mired in a fat standards manual for three years. On the other hand, package design firms are happy to get the portfolio school graduates: not only do they have a real passion for tighter-than-tight comps, but they can generate hundreds of stylistically diverse alternatives to show indecisive clients.

-Without the benefit of intensive specialized programs, the pioneers of our profession, by necessity, became well-rounded intellectually. Their work draws its power from deep in the culture of their times. Modern design education, on the other hand,

-Modern design education, on the other hand, is essentially value-free: every problem has a purely visual solution that exists outside any cultural context. Some of the most tragic victims of this attitude hail not from the world of high culture, but low.

Monday, March 8, 2010


Bastardised, is the culmination of Bunch’s global
identity project.

The book showcases the wealth of creativity, beauty and humour
found within 289 of the Bunchisms specially selected from
750 contributions.

Notes from reading 03

Successful Thesis Proposals

1. Start with what interest you. What are you obsessed with? What are you passionate about?

2. Make sure you have a point. What are you arguing?

3. Do not base your proposal on the obvious

4. Shorter is usually better

5. Think through your claims. Are they true? Logical? Do you believe them? Will others believe them? If they are true, what are the ramifications?

6. Do not make sweeping statements for dramatic effect or without supporting them with documentation.

7. Define your terms.

8. Do not claim that you will prove anything-we are designers, not cold -fusion scientists.

9. Please be aware that you will revise your proposal as your research dictates and your process evolves.


Research

1. Let your topic dictate the type of research you do, and have an idea of what you are looking for.

2. Maintain a level of cynicism

3. Consult with an expert mentor in your chosen field of study.

4. Develop a system for note-taking as you read.

5. Footnote your sources.

6. Avoid reading pseudo-science.

7. Interviewing all of your friends about your topic is not research of intellectual merit.

The Thesis Project

1. Do not have preconceived ideas about what form your project will take.

2. Create a written outline of your narrative/argument diagramming your core and secondary messages.

3. Give your audience "multiple access points" to your content.

4. The visual language of your thesis should be appropriate to your subject/content.

5. If you are unfamiliar with your chosen medium-video.

6. Approach the idea of creating an installation with some trepidation.