Journal #4

Who is Bruce Mau?

Bruce Mau is a visionary and world-leading innovator who is the chief creative officer for Bruce Mau design.

What has he done?

Since founding his studio in 1985, Mau has used design and optimism to originate, innovate, and renovate businesses, brands, products, and experiences. Bruce Mau is recognized as an author and publisher of award-winning books, including the celebrated Zone Books series and S,M,L,XL in collaboration with Rem Koolhaas

Why is he interesting to us?

His Incomplete Manifesto for Growth guides thousands with his articulation of design strategies and motivations for unleashing creativity.

34. Make Mistakes Faster

Throughout my process for my projects I make so many mistakes and they are usually close to the end of the project. I need to start making them faster, so my end result is better. As well, I can have more time to fix them. I also need to start making less mistakes on my projects, so I can come up with the great solutions to the problem.

Journal #3

TED conference: Stefan Sagmeister, yes design can make you happy

First, Sagmeister discusses his superstitions when he landed in Hong Kong and realized that he had a terrible time in Hong Kong despite what the billboards said.

Being happy while designing- look at the authors photographs.

Visualization of happiness

Arcadia

Nirvana

Desire

Harmony

Realized the pieces in the exhibition were about the visualization of happiness and not things to evoke happiness.

Advertising or movie industry have a bad reputation with representing happy.

Designs that can evoke happiness:

Designers who did their own version of the subway signs.

The PS1 sculpture the room that has a retractable roof that opens and dusk and dawn. Cannot see horizon line, just different colors of the sky.

The 55,000 speech bubbles, where the designer put them on posters around new york and other people fill them in. The way it works so well is because people get to express themselves, the designer gets his project, and the advertisers get people to look at their ads. In the end, he made a list on what he likes about his job and what to do to be happy. For example, not staying behind a computer for too long, working without interruption on a single project, and having things come back from the printer done well.

How Good is Good?

Priorities:

1.)Strive for happiness

2.)Don’t hurt anybody

3.)Help, other ahieve the same

Changed the priorities to:

1.)Help others

2.)Don’t hurt anybody

3.)Strive for happiness

Bad design can harm our lives and make the world a more difficult place to live in.

Design can unify- Francis Hopkinson designed the American Flag

Design can help us remember - The towers of light by Julian Laverdiere and Paul Myoda

Design can simplify our lives-

Metro card to ease the way around the city

Design can make someone feel better-

He wore a shirt saying, “Dear Mom! Have a great Birthday” and wore it during the interview, which made her happy and feel better about him not being there for her birthday.

Design can make the world a safer place:

Cipro pamphlet can inform quickly and efficiently about when to take it and the side effects.

Design can help people rally behind a cause:

The poser series in the 80-ies showed others that there were others who were not happy with the administration. Only picked the ones that were actually pasted on the street because the rest of the prints go to design competitions and only helps the ego of the designer.

Design can inform and teach

Geometric signs and graphs in New York Times, designers give us a better understanding of the issues.

Design can raise money:

Breast Cancer symbol which made an impressive amount of money for cancer research

Design can make us more tolerant:

Troika poster by Andrey Logvin.

Uncle same is commercial Art, the American Flag is graphic design. Commercial Art makes you BUY things, graphic design GIVES you ideas.

Journal Entry #2

Dieter Rams: Ten Principles for Good Design Summary

1.) Good design is innovative: Innovation cannot be exhausted because technological development is always offering new opportunities for innovative design. They always develop together, so innovative design can never be an end to itself.

2.) Good design makes a product useful: The product has to meet a specific criteria and has to be functional, psychological and aesthetic. As well, it clearly defines the usefulness of the product and not adding anything to it that will take away from it.

3.) Good design is aesthetic: The beauty of the product is necessary to the way it works because it reflects the person and their well-being. “Only well-executed objects can be beautiful.”

4.) Good design makes a product understandable: The design makes the product talk and be self-explanatory to the users on the functions of the object.

5.) Good design is unobtrusive: Products that are fulfilling a purpose should not be/are not decorative objects. The design should be neutral and restrained and should leave room for self-expression.

6.) Good design is honest: It does not try to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept. The design must not make the product seem more powerful or valuable than it really is. Overall, not making the design just to manipulate consumers.

7.) Good design is long-lasting: The design of the product should avoid being outdated in the near future and last for many years. It must also avoid being fashionable because it will soon be out of style and be thrown away quicker.

8.) Good design is thorough, down to the last detail: Accuracy and care is essential in the design process because it must show respect towards the consumer. It must not be random or based on personal urges.

9.) Good design is environmentally-friendly: It does not use as much physical and visual pollution through the lifecycle of the product. It must contribute to the care of the environment.

10.) Good design is as little design as possible: Using less materials, which is better. The product must be simple and not overloaded with non-essentials. Simplicity is better.

Don Norman: 3 Ways Good Design Makes you Happy

Visceral

It is attracted subconsciously to a certain product by the way it is presented/looks. The only reason why the people like the product is because it is beautiful and are drawn in by colors or the fonts on the product.

Behavioral
Subconscious attraction that is automatic and users are unaware of it. The design allows the users to feel in control with the usability and the feel of the product. It interperpates the emotion.

Reflective

It looks over what is going on and describes what type the objects are attracted to . Shows what products will draw attention and it is all about going pass the person's superego.

Thoughtful Question:

Could reflective fall along side with Visceral or Behavoria for the same storyl? How often is the behavioral theory successful?

Audience Personas

Jill is a 42 year old high school teacher who teaches English and Journalism classes. She lives in the suburbs in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jill has been in charge of the yearbook and newspaper staff for twenty years. She constantly forgets where she puts her car keys and has an unorganized desk. Jill is married to a journalist and has two teenage boys, one is 18 and the other is 15. She buys her clothes at JcPenny’s and buys groceries at Wal-Mart. Jill likes to read girly books that either have a happy or sad ending, which usually makes her cry. She usually goes to bed at 9 p.m. every night and spends her nights either watching soap operas or reading a book.

Anna is a 17 year old girl who is currently a junior in high school. She plays on the volleyball and softball team and works after school at the YMCA daycare. Her mother is an elementary school teacher and makes Anna read when she has nothing to do. Anna likes to go to the movies at least twice a month and shops for her clothes at Forever 21 and Old Navy. Her favorite restaurant is Panda Express and her favorite class is Weight Training. Anna has a younger sister and an older brother and her entire family enjoys going to sporting events together. As well, Anna hangs out with many different types of people and enjoys going bowling with her friends. Lastly, Anna likes to read non-fiction love stories that usually have a sad ending.

Kara is a 67 year old retired accountant. She has six grandchildren and enjoys to read different genres of books. Kara shops at Cosco for her groceries and buys her clothing from Kohls. She has been a widow for four years and lives in a house by herself. Kara lives close to all of her children and they visit with each other constantly. She got a masters in accounting from the University of San Diego. Currently, Kara lives in Coburg, Oregon. She rarely watches television and likes to do puzzles on a weekly bases. Lastly, she hates science fiction books and books with happy endings.

Journal Entry-#1

The Writer's Toolbox Summary:

Writing can be a powerful tool when you are creating visual projects. From initial notes and sketches to free writing and mind mapping, writing can help generate lively, lateral thinking. Writing helps to work through the process phase of a visual project, and can also serve as a reflective tool once a project is completed. The Writer’s Toolbox serves as a guide in using writing to enhance the creative process, both for visual and verbal projects. It presents approaches that use writing to generate ideas, support process, and reflect on finished work.

Mind Maps: it gives visual form to ideas. It helps initiate information that is pushing the limit of the concept that is being designed. Some mind maps can include color and images.

Concept Maps: Concept maps are similar to mind maps except that a concept map allows for a more thorough investigation and analysis of conceptual relationships and meanings. As well, they show relationships of concepts in a hierarchical order, from general to specific.

Freewriting: Freewriting is the process of writing down words that come to your head while ignoring the usual rules of typical writing. It is similar to a journal but it focuses on a specific subject. Overall, it may just be a simple question that the freewriting is focused on. Most successful free writes would be to write for 5 minutes straight without picking up your pencil.

Brainwriting: Brainwriting is the written equivalent of traditional brainstorming. It is used to develop new ideas for a project. Brainstorming is done in a group and it allows those less comfortable through speech to be able to write their ideas. A common template to follow is 6-3-5. Which is 6 people in a group each write 3 ideas for 5 minutes and each idea should be written as a complete, concise sentence.

Word Lists: The are concise, and the quickness in creating one allows a variety of associations to develop in a short time. Lists group words in distinct categories, and enable a divergency of ideas to occur.

Freewrite:

Concept Map:

Mind Map:

Word List: