Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Ross Lovegrove

Ross Lovegrove- his philosophy is DNA- Design/ Nature/ Art. He is the translator of modern technology to the products we use everyday using mostly organic materials and related them beautifully with nature.

He believes in paying respect to the things we dig out from the earth and use them wisely. He even thinks of making things with flower, sugar, polymer, wood chips or even human hairs. This is a very interesting idea because if human can use all organic materials in making products, then the pollution problem will be resolve. He also look into the details of everything: the structure of the bones, how plastic molecules are form, the structure of the silicon etc. Just like how nature design by taking away everything it don’t need and let it develop it maximum beauty. Ross tries to create energy in invention in his studio everyday to deliver new idea to the world. He deems that passion for design is very crucial to the success as a designer. That is true, because no great achievement can be achieve without the injection of passion in it. There aren’t many designers like him who will follow his instinct in developing idea. Ross work purely with his instinct, even if he known with the currently technology, some shapes, form or products are not possible to create, he will still create it if his instinct tells him that it is possible. This might make Ross create some fabulous and unique products but it also makes him a bit unrealistic sometimes. For example, when Sony asked Ross how to beat Apple, Ross tell them to get into bio-polymer and Ross idea was denied. Because with the high cost of bio-polymer, the products make from it will be more expensive and it will not help to compete in the market.

Overall, Ross is correct that designer shall follow their instinct because instinct has no limit and boundaries, design is about uniqueness and special and instinct is one of the elements to achieve that.

Thursday, 10 September 2009

Peer Comments

1.Susanna Li
2.Claudia
3.Jennifer Widjaja
4.Lucinda waters
5.Greg Shar

Saturday, 5 September 2009

Project 1: Experience Enrichment

Poster

Mood Board



My target users are children who love to do some fun in the kitchen.

This is a special spoon which can let people use it informally. This spoon is quite different from the others. The spoon has two components which is the spoon head and handle, because it has two design features which can use it left-hand side and right-hand side. the spoon head can be take it out and twist to the opposite side, that can make left hand side user feel more comfortable and relax to use it. The handle has arc shape that make us feel comfortable when people use it, also to improve the normal appearance.

The shape of my spoon looks like smile shape. This is the main thing why i designed this spoon. For example, children like to eat food in different ways, and this spoon can let them to feel like devour with fun. Also for the housewife, they spent most of their time to stay at home,cooking,cleaning,etc.This is the reason why most of the designers start to design utensils, because this is the most important tools in out life. And i have changed the traditional shape to this smile shape, because i want people to feel very happy and refresh to use these tools and make their life comfortable, relax, easy and fun.

This spoon can use in any ways, you can use it to eat food, also you may use it to bit your boyfriend, or you can just personalize it, and makes really yours.

Tuesday, 25 August 2009

Yves Behar: Designing objects that tell stories



Yves insisted that the design is not about designing the skin to suit the technology. Design shall be designing the skin as well as the inside, the body and function. We have to ensure that the function of the object is useful and user friendly, it shall not just purely be an extra function. So design shall be working from the inside out, to bring the most unique, comfortable feeling and best visual experience to the final user.

Yves believe on being original and unique to give a new experiment on the design. For example, the mini cooper watch that Yves designed, the display of the watch can change to vertical and horizontal just by moving your hand. Another example is the 100 dollars laptop. Yves had help in designing this affordable laptop for children in developing country, so this laptop has an attractive appearance and useful function of a real laptop.

Also, the design has no boundary; it can go to any type of products. Yves has design a condemn distributor machine which is catchy, streamline, comfortable and easy to use.

Just like what Yves had said, “If we keep in mind the value of the work we do, we can change the work we do, we can change these value, we can change the company we work with and eventually, together maybe we can change the world.”

Image: http://www.dezeen.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/2b.jpg
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGn8F4j6pH8

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Don Norman: Emotional design


Don bring out a very interesting idea which said that the ability to personalise something make something yours. If you can’t personalise something, which is to use the thing your way, then you are just using something common and ordinary, not special. For example, Don shows a juicer, but asks not to use it as a juicer as it will damage the gold plate of the juicer. So one of Don’s friends use the juicer as a hat hanger and personalise the juicer. In today society, where most people want to personalise things and they did so by getting expensive and exotic goods, but Don is suggesting an easier way to achieve this- use the things your way and you will personalise it.

As the car user nowadays want more and more features in the car, the switches and function controller in the car is getting very complicated- so carmaker like BMW and Mercedes tried to simplify it. They did so by making the exterior looks neat and clean, but the controlling of the actual function is not as how the exterior look. Instead the controlling of the actual function is getting more complex. For example, BMW claim to come up with an “easy” way to simplify the function of the car, which is a screen and a knob that can control 700 functions! We don’t even know that our car have 700 functions! Another example is the Mercedes, it also claim to have a more simplify design, whereas just like BMW, the exterior look perfectly clean and organise, but it is a disaster when come to the actual functions. In order to adjust the volume of the radio, one has to go the screen and select Menu - Entertainment System - Radio - Volume, that is a total of 4 steps before one can adjust the volume!! So Don is pointing out that designers are doing a bad job in simplifying the car, a good design not only need to look perfect, clean and neat from the exterior, but it must also be user friendly, easy to operate and safe to use.


Image source: http://www.sd.polyu.edu.hk/de2008/images/day_images/don_norman.jpg