J08

Personal Documentation of Coleman Project
Our team of "5's!"
Aaron
Allison
Ben
Hannah
Leah

Unfortunately, I have had the flu so I had to miss the past week of classes. So I have not been able to contribute much to the project so far. Luckily, I stayed in touch with email and phone in order to keep up with my group. We have decided to design a home good of a refrigerator for Coleman with a portable freezer. We want to appeal to the mobile type person with the portability of a freezer that can become a cooler and yet also sell to many homeowners with the functionality of a well-made kitchen/freezer. I though that this was a very good idea, and something that has never been though of before! However, since we spoke with Gabe today, I am worried that we need to refocus our target group so that it gets away from outdoors-y people completely. We all work great together and get along well. We build ideas off of each other and when someone doesn't understand someone else's concept, we ask them to draw it which usually clears everything up. I am excited to work with my group of "5's" and to design a really awesome fridge! This project should be a lot of fun :)

J07 - Online Scavenger Hunt

Outdoor Recreation Retailers
http://www.rei.com/
http://www.cabelas.com/
http://www.sportsmansguide.com/net/Main.aspx?
http://www.gandermountain.com/
http://www.campmor.com/

Outdoor Goods Trade Show Examples

 Here is a walking stick exhibition booth.











This is a booth from a trade show that took place inside of a Cabela's store.

This gutter company set up their exhibition booth with a frame made of gutters.















Indoor Goods Retailers
http://www.crateandbarrel.com/default.aspx
http://www.ikea.com/
http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/default.asp?
http://www.lnt.com/
http://www.potterybarn.com/

Trade Show Examples of Indoor Goods

This fabric company is displaying how their product can be turned into curtains.

Here a company gives an example of an interior.

This woman's exhibition booth is to sell pots and hand-painted gourds.
















Definition of Indoor Good
I believe that an indoor good is an object that the consumer uses inside a home, work space, or any building for interior activities or decorations.

Pictorial Examples:

Couch

Bookshelf

Pillows

RR08

Last reading...finally! :)

This week we finally finished "DESIGN a Very Short Introduction." They involved the role design plays in businesses and governments and how design might evolve in the future. The chapter spoke about design councils that reside in other countries such as the UK and Germany, yet the US doesn't have one. At first I was a little upset that the United States didn't have our own council! However, then I thought, what does a design council even do? Further study of the book realized that it is to promote design as an industry and to stimulate exports. Here, maybe we don't even need that! We have designers for every aspect of life! Anytime there is a problem that needs to be solved, design is the answer! But, the book mentions that some Americans think that design is "something superficial." This is a difficult concept that especially affects me since I have trouble convincing my family of doctors and science-majors that design is a real major and requires a true artistic talent! Our world is made functional, beautiful, and environmentally-friendly because of designers! Without designers, we would not have today's most modern technology and transportation advancements!
Overall, a very good, inspiring collection of reading for this class. I enjoyed reading about this industry that is so new to me. I am excited to pursue my studies further!

CR07

This week in class we listened to recent graduates from OSU's design school. It was really inspiring to see designers not much older than us who had been in the same seats we were at that moment. It shows what can come of hard work in undergrad. I was not too fond of the marshmallow/noodle exercise because group projects make me nervous, however I had fun listening to the results of who normally wins those challenges, kindergartners! I wish I would have had more say in my group because I have done exercises like that before and I played with k'nex growing up, so I know that triangles are the most sturdy and you need a good base in order to create any height. Nevertheless, we did our best (even if I was too scared to say anything) and managed to totter in at 17inches! On Wednesday we watched videos about the designers Charles and Ray Eames. The pointless, solar-powered wind decoration was pretty! And quite amazing mechanically how it all worked together from the one solar panel! Also, I loved the Eames' home! I  had seen pictures of it before and I love that main entrance with the huge paper lantern and full length windows.

RR07

We finished the book! And boy, was Cradle to Cradle an informing read! I feel so different than when I started it! I think it opened up a new way of thinking for me.
I want to mention some interesting points from chapters 4-6. First, I enjoyed the anecdote about the textile factory that agreed to be chemically cleansed. Bill came in and replaced all of the toxic dyes and fabrics with safe, natural ones. As a result, the workers didn't have to wear protection, there were empty rooms in the factory that could be used for recreation, and the effluent water from the factory was cleaner than when it came into it! I thought that was amazing! I had no idea a factory could be so clean! It really opened my eyes.
Another interesting fact I read was on page 129, a tid-bit about the 1998 building that had windows that opened. It was a low-point in contemporary architecture because they had to make such a big deal about what should be considered normal. This hit me because I love my windows. In the summer, I hate the air conditioner and will be the first one to open all the doors and windows for that breath of fresh air. To think that buildings are designed without this simple pleasure is preposterous!
Overall, the last chapters summed up the main ideas just as the first three chapters started them. I feel that the authors did a great job of getting the point across because I am now constantly thinking of ways to reuse goods. So many things in our throwaway society needs to be redesigned!
While reading this book, I feel like I need to do something! I couldn't help but wish I was still in landscape architecture so that I can do something for our poor suffering planet! I mean, I'm in interior space design now, but is that a field I can really make a difference in? I'm sure there are ways, and maybe that field needs someone like me to think outside the box. After all, a filter starts in the designer's mind, not on the end of a pipe.

A04

Letter Forms!

capitol L in chip on ceiling

 capitol Z in fire escape

 capitol D on electric socket

 lower-case r I found in my pretzels!

 capitol U in bathroom pipes

 lower-case b formed by this modern lamp in my room

 capitol T in gas station support

capitol J in waterspout

capitol A on side of bench

 capitol H in fence

 capitol Y seen in this tree across the street

 (had to crop it, that's why it's so blurry, sorry!)

lower-case i on soundboards in large McPherson lecture room

J06

Color (:

Importance to Design

Color is one of the most important elements of design, if not the basis of all of it. If you are designing anything, you need to put effort and thought into your color scheme so that it looks pleasing to the eye and brain. After all, you are designing to improve something. Color is very powerful in design. It can set the mood the instant you walk into a room. It is also used to communicate basic ideas, such as the red in stop signs. Likewise, word associations can be recollected from the visual stimulations of color such as red, white and blue should be reminiscent of the United States, or branding of companies like green Starbucks and blue Facebook. Lastly, color is important for designers because it used to create hierarchical statements in visual communications by making certain words or elements stand out against bland or monotone palates.

Excitement from Lecture

I was very excited from this lecture because I love colors! A lot of times in my life, a determining factor if I like or hate a painting, TV show, house, or even a whole city will be if there is enough colors in it! I am also really interested in the science behind colors. How they affect the human brain and psychologically associate to different moods. The physics of the light waves is rather amazing, also. The prism divides white light into its spectrum by nanometers, who knew that rainbow was hidden in the seemingly transparent white light!?

Sources of Further Information

1 - Website

Color Perception Is Not in the Eye of the Beholder: It's in the Brain

Here is a study done by the University of Rochester that claims color perception all occurs in the brain and is swayed because of our experience in the world. Everyone's retinas can vary up to 40% from each others, yet we all agree yellow is "yellow." Furthermore, they conducted a study using colored contacts for several days to weeks on participants who still continued to label colors properly. A very interesting article for those interesting in anatomy behind color!

http://www.rochester.edu/news/show.php?id=2299

Jonathon Serwood

University of Rochester

2 - Video

Can Colors Affect Your Mood

This brief video gives some interesting facts regarding how color can affect test results. Using computer screens, test participants were subconsciously subjected to blue or red screen colors which in turn seemed to affect how well they performed. Furthermore, this informational video also gives some more test results of how color affects men and women's interactions.

 

3 - Website

A Guide to Choosing Colors for Your Brand

This blog is interesting because it is aimed towards an audience of companies attempting to create a successful brand/icon. It gives a chart of colors and their mood associations along with examples of popular present-day companies. This site gives tips in choosing a brand color, such as "choose the opposite color as your competitor!"

http://www.usabilitypost.com/2008/09/29/a-guide-to-choosing-colors-for-your-brand/

4 - Book

An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

This book is a collection of seven unique neurological mysteries. The chapter that is relevant to our color research is entitled The Case of the Colorblind Painter. It is an account of a painter that is unfortunately involved in a drastic car accident. He survives with only a concussion that leaves him in a fog for several weeks, however he lost his vision of color. What is amazing is that he did not even know this for months! As a painter, he shows a dramatic change from before and after the crash in his choices and organization of colors in his works of art, often making messy, blurry paintings. Before the crash, he created perfectly contrasting and organized colorful art pieces. The artist still paints today with color and is learning to overcome hardships through adversity. This story is a wonderful tragedy of the colorless life of a colorful person.

http://www.amazon.com/Anthropologist-Mars-Seven-Paradoxical-Tales/dp/0679756973/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297678289&sr=8-1

5 - Website

The Absolutely Scariest Colors Imaginable

This article is interesting since it speaks of common phobias and the colors associated with them. For example, the fear of needles and the associated colors include dark and blood reds along with silvers and grays. It is also cools because it touches upon the fear of colors! Who knew?!

http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/11/11/the-absolutely-scariest-colors-imaginable/

RR06

This reading assignment was the first three chapters of McDonough's "Cradle to Cradle." It was quite an intensive read, filling me with guilt as I was introduced to the world's industrial pollution problems. I look around my room now and feel that I am getting poisoned by all the cheap, plastic, disposable junk in here! And all the electronics that will soon be replaced and thrown "away" when the next best thing comes out. And where is this away at? (I guiltily glance over at my full trash can...) Yet, McDonough and Braungart also claim that even if you try to help out by recycling and such, may be even worse than doing nothing! It's confusing but quite a reality check for how terrible our manufactured goods actually are! They say, to be "less bad" is a failure of the imagination.


I wish I could do something to stop this tiny particle emanating from our products that is killing us and out world. But it seems like a radical revolution would have to take place! If so much has to change, how come I have never heard about these new ideas? And why hasn't anyone else spoken up about how recycling isn't really solving anything? I am going to try to communicate McDonough and Braungart's ideas to my friends and family but I feel that I am not informed enough to be able to educate them enough. At least I will try my best!

CR06

This week we delved into the legal issues surrounding the design field. We were forewarned that it would be the most boring lecture of this class. As much as I hate to say it, I'd have to agree. The law is so monotonous to me! It is all memorization of pety little things with no passion or colors. Nevertheless it is necessary to protect artists' original work, time and effort. The movie we viewed, "Rip!: A Remix Manifesto" was such a good documentary! The maker did an excellent job with portraying his side of the story and presenting it in a really good film! The whole idea of copyright really hit home when he had to cut out the girl talk concert's audio because he had played it to make a point and then filled in the silence with music from the pubic domain, a classical piano concerto. It was such a contrast from the picture to what was being shown. After this week I am noticing more and more copyright elements like signs of businesses on high street and youtube videos that have been removed. Something about this video also made me really want to go home and download some music, probably encourages by the rebellionistic attitude of the old cartoonist man that fought disney to draw a mouse. However, this time I decided to be a good citizen and not "steal" any music off the internet. Although, its not like any of the money gets to the artists anyway! The giant music corporations gobble everything up. How frustrating to live in a completely private and corporated society.

J05 - Documented Visit to Library

Fifty Sensed Things While Walking Through Thompson
1.Freezing cold air as I walk in a gloomy, silent world toward the side doors, my feet crunching ice and salt on the brick patio.
2.A gush of warm air with the opening of the door.
3.Overpowering smell of coffee, warm foods. Cappucinos being made with loud hisses, my stomach churns in hunger.
4.People everywhere!
5.Colors! Clothes, purses, advertisements on walls, tvs running, lighting, colorful lunches on tables, laptop screens, books open.
6.Long line for food, wraps around the waiting line ropes. People wait facing same direction, silently.
7.People at tables eating, some nervously looking around between large bites, others indulged into their studies while subconsciously nibbling/sipping.
8.Walking by main doors: wind blowing, bundled up people scooting outside, wet floors, food smells becoming faint.
9.Dark scrutinizing eyes of security guard bore into me as he nonchalantly leans on counter.
10. High-pitched ring of walking between security sensors.
11.Open ceiling of main room! Bright, can see several floors up, hustle-bustle of people everywhere.
12.All chairs occupied.
13.Walk up on see-through stairs.
14.Room of unorganized seating. Red, orange, and black square, low chairs all over room.
15.Plop down in vacated orange cushy chair.
16.Bumpy texture, not soft on skin. Dry skin and calluses stick to fabric fibers.
17.Girl on phone in midst of silence. Others notice, annoyed by disturbance and shift in seats.
18.Contrast of bright orange chair to gloomy outside through windows.
19.Walking on shiny floor. Tiny tiles with sparkly silver connector lines running through.
20.Stairwell: dark, concrete, low ceiling.
21.Odd recesses in walls randomly along stairs.
22.Red bricks, concrete unfinished floor.
23.Shifting light as move up through levels.
24.Out into bright level 3
25.Smell of old books.
26.Bright wood walls give off golden hue along with golden corrugated wood floors.
27.Very tall skylight ceiling.
28.Rows of gray metal cabinets, handles form converging lines.
29.Janitor across open floor, fixing lamp. I can hear his cart and the jingling of lamp being fixed.
30.Reflection of silver and gold book titles on shelf.
31.In the stacks: low white ceilings, unfinished concrete floors, rows of primary colored books.
32.Ringing and whirring of elevators.
33.Elevator interior similar to microwave-silver, bumpy, & square. Loud dings, robotic woman’s voice, crowded with people in it, dirty floors, cute little overhead recessed lights.
33.Out into level 7 (more of the stacks): snowy/rainy oval with tiny, slow-moving, students trudging across.
34.Books! Dusty, old, beaten up series of solid colored books. Smell like dust, learning, and the flipping of yellowed pages.
35.Modern books regarding psychological issues, smell like plastic. Colorful covers.
36.Guy hunching over computer with legs crossed. I want to straighten up his posture!
37.Books left out haphazardly on cart attract my attention. I want to pick them up and touch them but resist urge so I don’t mess up workers’ tasks.
38.Blue title labels on series of books reflect light flowing in from outside through wall-size window.
39.Lit-up red exit sign hurts my eyes.
40.A man is walking towards me, looking at me as I approach him. I dodge down aisle of books to avoid contact with him.
41.Attracted to light-teal argyle cover design with a beautiful Arabian language on it.
42.Loud wall vent about 4 feet tall. Surprisingly no air blowing or being sucked through for how loud it is humming. Neither a source of heat or coldness.
43.Boy sleeping at table now sits up in a daze, staring out window with open notes in front of him on table.
44.Down elevator to level 2M. Several empty shelves remind me of a structure from starwars! Looks odd seeing racks without the normal blanket of literature. Floor feels empty and stiff.
45.Murmer of study partners, male low voices. They look at me and pause in conversation when my presence is noted.
46.Looking back out to that larger open interior, once again seeing those low, square orange chairs in reading room.
47.Once at level one again, the chatter of indeterminable voices is noticeable along with movement of people in all directions.
48.Clicky/clacky of computer lab with its studio lighting and worried students that can’t properly print their documents.
49.Girl next to me on phone just got accepted into her summer program. Very excitedly exclaims “yay!” in her conversation.
50.See my friend Scotty and initiate a quick friendly chat, he is so nice!
51.I begin to blog as the world of osu students surrounding me constantly changes with the clicks of computer transactions and low conversations of passing couples…another pleasant trip to Thompson Library.

CR 05

This week in class we talked about being environmentally-friendly in our designs. I loved it! I didn't realize that interior design and visual communication had ways to be green, whereas industrial design seemed obvious (using green materials and recycling). In visual communication it was interesting how you have to watch how you advertise. In interior design, I forgot how much a designer has to think about heating, insulating, lighting, materials, ventilation, etc. I hope someday I can make a difference by designing green interiors.
We watched a lot of really cool movies this week! They were about recyclable products, electric cars, portable baby incubators, water filters, and bio-mimicking! All of them had the same concept: change our thinking to help the world. Most of the time we as humans try to help but end of worsening the situations. If we rethink, like the man who invented the water filter, we can help so many more people.
On Monday I decided to donate blood, but unfortunately it took longer than expected so I was really late to class! Thus, I read the slides about color on my own. I really liked the lists of colors and their associations. I never really noticed certain feeling from rooms of those colors. However, looking back I guess my green bedroom did give me some rest, well-being, and balance of order! (:

RR 05 McDonough Introduction

I believe that "Cradle to Cradle" is going to be the coolest book I have ever read! Not only is it encouraging all of us to have a green lifestyle, McDonough and Braungart are presenting it in a whole new light. They are saying not to reduce waste, completely eliminate it! And to produce goods that are safely burnable instead of banning burning. I think their ideas are excellent! I feel that I am constantly in battle against people that waste and pollute. With McDonough's ideas, we don't have to fight so much. We can redesign our world so that the "non-green" people can continue living their life with non-harmful goods instead of harmful ones!
The only thing I have a problem with is that it seems beyond my intelligence to produce these goods that are so green. To me, plastics are plastics. In the book McDonough hints at negative plastics and ones that are good. Also, how could anything that burns be environmentally acceptable? I don't understand yet, but hopefully after reading more of the book I will.
I love that it isn't made of paper! How cool!!!

A03 Scavenger Hunt!

Partner: Allison Holderle www.alh18.blogspot.com

My partner, Allison, and I didn't divide any of our work during our search for clues. We both took turns photographing each other and researched information together using my smart phone. After we parted, we both did our own information search for whatever was needed on our own blogs.

Clue #1
Barcelona Chair

The Barcelona Chair was designed by Mies van der Rohe. His signature is stamped into every single handmade chair. It was designed for the Spanish Royalty to sit on to oversee the International Exhibition of 1929. It is said to be inspired by folding chairs from ancient Rome.

Clue #2
"Pastille Chair"

Here I am posing in front of my chosen piece of furniture, the Pastille Chair by Eero Aarino (1967). I think it looks like a huge, crushed M&M! This chair was described by New York Times as ""the most comfortable form to hold up the the human body" and online you can purchase this designer chair for anywhere between $1600 to $2000! I am reading  the magazine entitled "Modernism" which is a quarterly journal about 20th century modernist design.

Clue #3
Wexner Center

Peter Eisenman designed the Wexner Center on campus. There was controversy when it was built because the skylights let in too much light which was damaging the artwork and it had a poor climate control system. Luckily, it underwent major remodeling and was reopened in 2005 with the problems fixed.

Clue #4 Math Tower

Philip Johnson designed the Math Tower and the Science and Engineering Library on campus. I chose to be photographed in front of the math tower because I like how all the doors are surrounded by a brick arch. It is an interesting architectural detail that sets it apart from other buildings on campus and invites the user in by drawing the eye to the door.

Clue #5

Student Academic Services Building

The Student Academic Services Building was designed by the local architects Acock & Associates. It is a very green design, with windows that are highly recessed for maximum shading. Also, in order to make it so this large, rectangular building woudn't be overwhemling to pedestrians, fenestration patterns were designed to give it texture.