Music in Design: Playbutton

The Playbutton is a device designed to not only play music at your command, but also play the role of a common button of a certain album of whatever band had chucked it to you at their concert. The picture to the left shows that the model has chosen to wear the button of a band who features a fake bird one of their albums. The back of the button conceals the buttons: back, play, and next. It really looks like a common button, except it has headphones connected from the bottom of the button to your ears. At first glance, you wouldn’t know what was going on. As you begin to have conversation with the button, and hopefully the person wearing it as well, you'll begin to realize this button is really an mp3 player.

Some of the things I like about this product is just the idea of the button itself. This is a really great way to advertise your band's music without throwing those annoying Cd’s that require CD players to play. Another plus for me is how instant you can start playing with it. All you need is headphones and you're set. The batteries do run out, but have no fear, these buttons are rechargeable. Also, since a lot of our countries youth wear skinny jeans now a days, it is one less thing they don't have to carry around in their thin pockets. They can have a whole library of bands pinned onto their flannels, switching of from button to button, rocking out to their favorite Blink 182 album. It seems like they did some good research in designing this musical button.

The Logo's of Tomorrow

Comparing and contrasting two or more objects are one of many great ways someone can use to find out physical characteristics without doing much research on them. It is a great stepping stone before going any deeper into it's guts. Sometimes just using your five senses is all you need to compare and contrast. It also serves as a conversation starter between the viewer and the designed piece itself. The two things I'll be comparing and contrasting are the logo's of Apple Incorporated during 1976-1998 versus today's current apple logo of 2010.

First off, the shape of the apple and it's floating leaf at the top are similar in shape, including the mysterious bite that everyone wonders about (I'm not entirely sure there is an explanation for this yet but I'm sure further research can get me closer to a more solid answer). Even though we do not see the leaf physically connected to the apple, we know there is a connection due to our past experiences of seeing leaves connected to apples at some point of its lifetime. Even though the colors of the two logos are completely different, one being multicolored and the other monochromatic, they seem to project the same idea that they are about the advancement of technology, during their time. The multicolored Apple Inc. logo during the late 70's till the late 90's present itself as how much they are not conformed to one setting or generation of technology; that they're constantly advancing to next generation technology just as if they're advancing to the next color on the color wheel. The silver color of the 1998 to 2010 logo tells it's consumers, and potential followers, how futuristic they are. The use of a metallic color relates to something futuristic, such as robots or any other advanced technology.

On the contrast side of things, even though the shape of both versions are similar, the newer version is a bit narrow. This might derive from the idea that they're more noted for their products to have a sleek and compact design, something that consumers admire now a days. Speaking of sleek, the current logo even appears 3D by the use of some shading and a gradient effect from the lower right of the logo to the upper left, versus the older logo which looks very much 2D. It shows consumers that they're all about the next generation that even their logos appear to be popping out of the canvas.

Design as a Conversation

Design as a conversation, to me, means interacting with the audience, viewers, or listeners, just like any other conversation. Without interaction or response, there isn't a conversation.  A good conversation, as I've learned from my peers who have experienced good conversations before, might include learning something new and interesting, finding out different perspectives of ideas, and possibly create connections of joy, similarities, and future growth.

I realized out of the Yoko Ono's pieces that design is another form of conversation. Some of her art pieces required audience participation, similar to a verbal conversation between two subjects. Her art needed participation from the viewers for her art to carry on the conversation she is trying to have. When anything designed receives reaction or feedback from others, a conversation was there, verbal or mental. Even simple gestures or communicative faces that expresses ones feelings toward a design can feed the conversation between human beings and the design, and possibly back to other humans around. It wasn't until now that I realized what I've been so passionate about for the last thirteen years also is considered using design as the form of communication, with music as my medium.

To connect my musical ideas with the audience and hopefully receive positive reactions, or even constructive criticism, I use turntables as a brush and I attempt to paint a representational picture of a good party using music as my paint. Since every party is different, these representational attempts always turn out to look abstract; I really let the brush do its own painting. As the party carries on into the night, I become disconnected to the turntables because the crowd becomes the artist. It's that connection between me playing music, the audience interacting to it by dancing or standing, and me feeding off their energy; similar to what Yoko Ono and Lady Gaga were doing when they performed “The Sun is Down”.

Design as a conversation essentially means a back and forth interaction between human and design; whether its a physical participation or a mental thought about the design, even a spark of an idea or question, would technically be a conversation, a back and forth exchange of ideas. The design will always be talking, its up to us viewers to carry on the conversation.

The Fall and Rise of Bessie Carmichael Elementary

Walking out of Design class last week, I ran into Amanda at the stairs. She's an SF native artist that was in the same group I was in for the Stone Soup project. We chatted for a bit but when she mentioned she was from San Francisco, I realized I needed to blog as soon as possible. Hey, we're all different type of procrastinators; it just took me time to receive photos from an old friend from my elementary school in SF.

I attended this school for a short period from preschool till the end of 2^nd grade. The architecture of this school seemed pretty out dated, even for the years I was there. They were long one story buildings with numerous wings with a long roofed balcony in front of the each room. There were three different yards, two of which were used for play and the other a courtyard, usually used for pictures or some kind of class activity. The school was pretty open to the outside natural environment but of course fenced in for our safety.

Years later, back in 2009, I came back to check out the school, only to find out that my old elementary was turned into a public park, but, luckily, the school had just moved right next door. The design of the new school blew my mind.

The green tint they used for the buildings and the wooden panels used on the benches, stairs, railings, and possibly around the other side of the building, no doubt, screams, “Eco Friendly Friends Found Here!” It seems like they've kept the long roofed balcony to honor its predecessor. The composition of the straight and sharp flats and edges give it that architectural look versus something that looks abstract.

From what I thought was the end of my childhood elementary school actually turned out to be the birth of a newer, more technologically advanced building (I was there when they had those old Apple Macintosh computers at the computer lab with the green and black screens). Design will always die down, yet always spring up from new ideas. This forever cycling of design is what keeps most of us motivated and, hopefully, moving forward.  

I left my Spoon in San Fran-Jell-O

Before moving out to Davis, I use to watch this show on the Ovation channel called Designer People. It featured designers from all over the world, talking about their emphasis of design, how they started, the obstacles they've faced, and what they're up to now. Of course they would also include how much they love design, where they feel design is going, and all that juicy stuff we all want to hear more about (Direct TV had the channel; I'm not entirely sure Comcast or AT&T U-Verse support Ovation). In one of their episodes, they featured a San Francisco native artist that goes by the name Liz Hickok. In a project done in 2007, Hickok didn't chose a medium that was commonly found in an artists bag of art supplies. She found her medium in whatever isle Jell-O is on.

She doesn't only create the architectural elements of San Francisco to scale but also the unique landscapes that the city is built upon. Using molds she carves by hand, she fills them up with various colors (and flavors) of Jell-O and waits for the magic to happen; which usually takes an hour and a half or so for it to become firm. The reason why she chose jello as her medium is because, when illuminated from underneath, the buildings become a three dimensional mosaic, potentially representing rare jewels in the form of the city of San Francisco. According to Hickok, the Jell-O doesn't have a shelf life as long as usual sculptures or paintings, which gives her pieces some sort of life when mold begins to grow upon it.

The curvature of most of the Jell-O buildings add an interesting effect since we're not use to seeing unstable buildings; I'm sure its against some building and safety codes. The use of color truly adds character to the Jell- O city which you can possibly connect to what kind of city San Francisco is – a highly flamboyant and groovy place to be.  

Hungry for Stone Soup!

Stone Soup is generally a story about the coming together of a village, each bringing one ingredient from their homes, and combining them in a big pot, making a delicious soup for everyone to enjoy. Of course this is just the gist of the story, but if you'd like to read the actual story, you can find a similar (though not the original) version of the story here. In class the other day, we were assigned to bring our own arts and crafty ingredients to contribute to our own group's stoned soup. What I got from this exercise is that collaborations will always a guarantee in design, whether its between a large group of 7 or more, or as subtle as just one artist influenced by another.

Collaborating can be either a good or bad thing for artists. When working with others, one can learn or share new techniques, ideas, information, and even overcome any issues quicker with the power of two or more minds collaborating together. Others can see problems or solutions that one might have missed simply because they usually see things from a different prospective. As for the bad part of creating a stone soup with a client or colleague, it is possible for you to veer away from what you are used to or what you've been taught, even if its against some kind of rules or you liking. After you get over the idea that some solutions won't always look like what you'd expect, you can think about your chance to incorporate your ideas, your artistic mark, your own ingredient to the soup.

Our recipe to our own stone soup included paper, tape, a t-shirt, cardboard, a hanger, more tape, safety pins, a rubber band, lovely heart eyes, and finally, a bunch of artistically creative cooks. There were so many ideas being tossed in the air (and into the pot) that I couldn't keep up with what everyone was suggesting. Finally, we all agreed that since it was October, we can work out a scarecrow out of our materials, I mean ingredients, we brought to the chopping board. The legs were made of paper cylinders, the body was a cardboard box, and a paper stuffed plastic bag wrapped in some type of cloth made up it's head. I was pretty happy with what my group had cooked up.

Learning a New Language

On the very first day of my Introduction to Design, Professor Housefield suggested we all should learn a language. Not a language like Mandarin or Vietnamese, but a language of art, such as painting, color theory, sketching, etc. I thought about this and realized learning a language would do nothing but to broaden my ideas and hone my skills as an artist. I picked up this sketchbook from the UC Davis bookstore (smaller than the one required for class [5.5” x 8.5”] so that it wouldn't be such a hassle to carry around) and figured starting off with one sketch a day would be good. As months or weeks go by, hopefully I get more sketches in there a day and eventually I'll be sketching like crazy everywhere I go. It doesn't help so much that I'm not in a drawing class right now, but hey, its something productive right? So if you see me with my sketchbook around campus, sketching away, it would be lovely if you joined. It would be fun sharing ideas :)

Heads will R...eflect

The latest post on TheCoolHunter.Net reminded me of what I've seen around my campus, UC Davis. Although these art pieces don't have the exact shape of the egg heads around the school, it does not mean they are not egg heads. I, personally, don't look at them as egg heads because if you use your imagination, they can be whatever you want them to be, which is what the mother-daughter duo hoped their audience to do. According to Tuija Seipell, a writer from The Cool Hunter, Mischele Deiters and Bibi van der Velden created these heads to capture the light and textures that it surrounds it, as well as hoping their viewers create their own ideas of why they chose to present their pieces the way they are. The heads are shaped to appear as if they're weightless but I think its up to the viewer to decide if the organically shaped art interprets it to be hollow or solid.

Seipell, Tuija. "The Cool Hunter - Mother and Daughter Artist - Michele Deiters and Bibi Van Der Velden." The Cool Hunter - Welcome. 30 Sept. 2010. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. <http://thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1800/mother-and-daughter-artist--michele-deiters-and-bibi-van-der-velden>.

Vacuumed into Design

 I've always liked colors since I can remember, but it wasn't until my second year in college that I realized I didn't understand color. Being attracted to an object or even just certain color but not understand it's origins, process, or story, is one of the amazing aspects design because of because if you make the effort to do the research, you can follow the lines of production all the way to when it was just a spark in the artist's mind.  If you make an effort to open its doors, everything will hit you like a brick to the face. After taking a Design and Color Theory class at my junior college, color is important to me as much as the object itself. The one object that finally sucked me into the design world was a couch titled, “Pixel Couch” by Cristian Zuzunaga, that I found on TheCoolHunter.Net.

The Pixel Couch is a blocky couch that consists of rounded right angles, big and thick frame, and thin cushions. I've never sat on the couch myself so I wouldn't know if the cushions are either thick and heavy or light and soft, but the design of the couch's structure makes me want to not only sit on the cushions where it is appropriate but also either on the armrests, the back side of the couch, wherever. This couch can be used as an 'all-over' couch.

The one characteristic of the couch that really had me sold was design of the pattern on the couch, as well as the colors chosen to represent this couch. Multiple colors were used on this couch and the simplistic design of different colored pixels all over the couch made me realize design doesn't have to be one single color, or even a combination of two or three colors; just as long as it looked and felt “right” to the artist and hopefully to their audience or consumers as well. Feeling “right” can either be being balanced, extract the aimed emotions, or just feeling finished.  What might look like a random splash of colors on a couch in the shape of squares all actually have some type of connection related to color theory. This couch was the single object that made me want to get into the design and show the world what makes me feel right through the objects or rooms i design myself.

Evans, Lisa. "The Cool Hunter - Christian Zuzunaga - Mr Pixel." The Cool Hunter - Welcome. 5 Mar. 2009. Web. 05 Oct. 2010. <http://www.thecoolhunter.net/article/detail/1248/christian-zuzunaga--mr-pixel>.