The Role of Color in Design

iPods have gone a long way since the first iPod was released in 2001. Not only has its technology advanced, its design changed as well. From the first two designs being all white, by the third design, they started earning some colors. The iPod mini's were the first iPods to receive another feature to help them look aesthetically pleasing. Not only does the addition of color to these devices answer to aesthetics, it can define the consumer as well. It is known that some people would identify themselves with certain hue's. Most of the time their favorite color can reflect ones personalities, or even vice versa (some people sometimes feel they have to act like their favorite colors, using their own imagination of course).

The variety of colors that these iPods come in nowadays can also influence someone to purchase one. I've had multiple experiences where a child, around the age of 11-19, persuades his or her parent or guardian to purchase one of the new iPod Nano's from Costco (since I work there) just because its either purple, red, blue, or any other color this child associates themselves with. These colored iPods distinguishes themselves from the rest of the colors, forcing its owner to feel more like the color that represents them. The power of color in a design is strong and can greatly influence product sales.

What if, instead of colored, iPods they remained white like its first design. Sure, everyone would probably still buy it because of the advanced technology and improved features, but think about how much more people would buy it if the iPods broke out of their plain white shells and revealed their mysterious inner colors. Variety helps increase product sales. The person who never liked iPods because they hated how “plain” white looks now has the whole spectrum of colors to choose from.

Dangerous Design

Sometimes, people take advantage of design that the idea of it being dangerous is overlooked. A design can be in ones lives for so long that they trust it enough to believe nothing can go wrong. This can be seen in cases where one would move into an apartment and trust that the walls are completely harmless, only to find out that asbestos, a cancer causing agent, hides within hallow walls and affect everyone else present in the room. One wouldn't know for sure until they dug behind the walls to check for signs of its presence. But just recently, an interactive design that has been banned and become a state law because of how much of an affect it now has on human safety and now even it's population. The technology of texting, first incorporated into cell phones in 1995, has already been around for about fifteen years, yet just now becoming a concern for automobile drivers.

Texting is a form of communication that acts like one is passing notes to another, or SMS (short messaging system). Although texting might sound ridiculous to some, especially the older generations, it does have it's benefits. For one thing, a person does not have to physically talk to someone to deliver a simple message. Also, it is less of a hassle to deliver a text message than having to call, wait, and hope that the person on the other line isn't too busy to answer the phone. One of the main reasons most people love to text is because its basically exchanging subtle messages to one or more people, and sometimes more than one person at once.

The worst part of texting, though, has become more public just within the past few years. In the June 2009 car section of the New York Times, an article by Richard Chang stated that, “Texting is More Dangerous Than Drunk Driving” (Chang; “Texting is More Dangerous Than Drunk Driving”). Their studies were based on Car and Driver Magazine's experiment with two individuals texting and going through a course, the same way they would text on the road, versus the same two individuals driving through the course intoxicated. After the release of the results, there was no question that the title was revealed to be true. Texting has just recently become a dangerous activity, designed by whoever was involved with the cell phones interactive design, and now slowly taking lives. Texting is the perfect example of a design that has become dangerous.

More in depth information about the Car and Driver Texting While Driving Experiment: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/texting-is-more-dangerous-than-driving-drunk/

Utopian Design

One of the greatest problems people have everyday is the idea of getting from point A to point B. Sure, they can easily drive their cars or take mass transit, walk if its close enough, or bike if they're in Davis. But major car industries and a rapidly growing interest now ultimately care more about how you get there.

Before the use of cars, horse drawn wagons were used to travel short distances while while Leland Stanford's trains carried people and cargo quicker than the average mule would. In 1769, the first moving vehicle was invented by Nicolas Cugnot, creating steam into kinetic energy. The final invention of the car was the giant leap society needed to improve their transportation problems. The use of cars were more convenient than waiting for a train. Henry Ford boosted the production of vehicles with assembly lines, then came the four wheel drive (power going from the engine to all four wheels at once) car from Ferdinand Porsche, which, in fact, also introduced the first gasoline-electric series-hybrid by 1900.

Even though we haven't started seeing these hybrid cars on the road until the 21^st century, the ideas of Porsche seeing ahead into the future, using alternative fuels other than gasoline powered vehicles, is an aim to Utopian design; the kind of utopian design that aims to improve society in any way possible.

Vehicle technology, as we see in the next wave of new models, always aim towards utopian design. Today, solar powered vehicles and all electrical vehicles are what society is hoping major car industries would start releasing, hopefully ending the problem of oil consumption and never have to worry about the price of gasoline. But even if that ever happens, the government and car industries would for sure increase the prices just because the demand for the new utopian design would be high.

http://dvice.com/archives/2008/12/dictating_terms.php

STEELCASE

Last week, me and a gang of UC Davis Interior Architecture majors stormed to the city of San Francisco last Friday afternoon to meet up with a former UC Davis Design student named Alison, who is now employed by one top design firms in the nation, Steelcase. She was nice enough to take time out of her busy schedule to show us around her work place at Steelcase and give us a personal tour of the showcase they have there. I learned that there is way more into design than what meets the eye. For example, Steelcase does plenty of psychological research when producing new products, covering all variables that could potentially affect the quality of ones work, such as privacy levels or even color choice. While some employees value privacy more than others, Steelcase offers plenty of options when working with their clients. A lot of their working environment products are either adjustable of versatile, perfect for adapting to any type of situation to fit a companies needs. She even showed us their furniture solutions for recent studies of how people feel when one might want to have a meeting with another but does not want to talk for more than seven minutes; there are tables at Steelcase for that. Major research goes on at Steelcase which is most likely why they are such a successful company. Society views design mostly for aesthetic reasons but little do they know there are reasons for why a lot of designs are the way they are. You would have to get down under the skin to start thinking why do people feel this way, which is exactly what Steelcase have been successful with and are able to make adjustments to make incredible products for clients who look for almost anything Steelcase has to offer.

Teague's Arduino Water Meter Saves Lives!

One of the global issues today is the scarcity of water in certain areas; mainly areas in Africa and Asia. The interaction design team from Teague, a company dedicated to help distribute good clean water all around the world in areas where its needed the most, had conducted an experiment at their own kitchen of their studio. The experiment was to test how much water their workplace uses every time the faucet has been used using their very own water meter (Arduino Water Meter). Once the water meter had been installed, one would think there would be a change in water usage now that the faucet has been equipped with a blinking LED light at the opening and two visible electrical wires. This possible change toward conservative water usage can possibly be from of the idea of feeling insecure now that they are being watched, monitored, and experimented on. Surprisingly, stated Teague, it didn't change the behavior of water usage at all. The water meter measured about two gallons of water every time one would wash their hands. This was the case until they placed an Apple iPad displaying the data the water meter was putting out. This helped with the awareness of how much water is being wasted every time anyone casually washed their hands.  

TEAGUE Give Water from TEAGUE on Vimeo.

As you can see in the short video, Teague's Arduino water meter works; it works like any other similar water meter connected to any household or business getting a water bill. The functions of this type of water meter is measuring the fallen water coming out of the nozzle of the faucet, collecting data, and sending it to their program which stores it into its own data base. Its as simple as that. But although it seems like its such a common and simple design (come on, its a water meter), problems always come up; they need to in order to work out the kinks. Such problems would be like wireless connectivity of the meter to the program (in Teague's case, an iPad) to collect and store the data, the longevity of the meter (notice the difference between a standard household water meter versus the Arduino water meter [which is per faucet]), it's versatility (will these meters fit on any given faucet), or its durability (how much force does it take to knock off the meter from the faucet?).  

The Arduino meters appear to be very usable; all you do is turn on the faucet and monitor how much water you're using. I'm not sure if what they used in the demo was an iPad app that they had approved by Apple Inc., but if that was the case, then that would hurt a lot of peoples pockets just to monitor how much water is wasted per use. This means that the cost for having this system installed into your home or business, if an iPad was required, would cost at least $500. This is almost guaranteed to scare off potential buyers from purchasing this meter unless it is offered in Apple's iPhone app form as well; but even though, one would need an iPhone  The idea of trying to get people to understand how much installing at least one of these in their homes would impact those in desperate need of water might not be the hardest part to do when persuading someone to buy a these water meters, but the cost of how much would force consumers out the door.

Teague's Arduino water meter is definitely something that can change the world.  Now we can all find out instantaneously how much water we are using and adjust our behaviors to where we want our water usage level's be.  This will not only help those who pay the water bills but also those who don't regularly receive the proper amount of water each day to at least survive each day.  Although the Arduino water meters aren't as aesthetic as most of us like them to be, its function and and usability is what will save the world from being thirsty.

Instructions for the DIY Arduino Water Meter can be found at Teague Labs.

http://www.teague.com/
http://labs.teague.com/?p=722
Hierarchy of Design Needs

Lost in Sofa

 As I was strolling around through the usual design blogs, I came across this awesome sofa. At first glance, it looked like a sofa made with maybe the structure of molecules in mind, or even some kind of solution to what three dimensional pixels would look like. But when I noticed objects sticking out of the crevice's of the sofa, I thought this was the perfect couch.

Titled “Lost in Sofa”, what first caught my eye was the type of gray Japanese architect, Daisuke Motogi, used for this multifunction furniture. With its many cubes, which are maybe about 3”x3”x3” all over the couch, that are somehow stuck together, it created more than one color of gray because of how the light hits the sofa. With that said, the shadows it casts confirmed texture, a texture that you can immediately identify just by looking at it. “Lost in Sofa” served as seating for one person as well as a storage for somewhat thin objects such as remotes or books. In the photo to the left, it even reveals some foliage sticking out of the side. I don't think it comes with a spot specifically for plants but maybe stiff dead plants that still have their color would work perfectly fine for a few days or so.

Although this sofa looks so cool and seems like such a cool idea, there are some flaws I would like to point out. If your key's or coins fall out into the sofa, you would be looking through each crack to find your fallen item; unlike the usual couches where you would lift up one or two cushions and find fallen treasures easily. Also, the sofa itself does not look too comfortable. I don't know the softness of the couch but from my experience with box type sofas, I see that this one would be a temporary seating sofa. It doesn't follow some curves of the body which doesnt help with the relaxation aspect of it. It doesn't support the upper back of most human beings and it doesn't look like the squares are interchangeable. Why would they be interchangeable? Why not? For variety; to give the decision of what color it should be to the consumer. Although the idea seems great, it might not actually be a good idea since there's maybe a hundred or so squares focused in this interesting sofa. Good luck with the sales, Mr. Motogi.

http://www.dskmtg.com/work/sukima.html
http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/12075/daisuke-motogi-lost-in-sofa.html
http://www.contemporist.com/2010/11/06/lost-in-sofa-by-daisuke-motogi/

Words + Image = Love

The kind of chemistry that the concept of word and image have together is one that everybody wishes they can experience with the opposite sex. They work really well together by supporting each other in many different ways. The image of a red octagon triggers the mind to stop or do not proceed past this point until advised to do so. The actual word “Stop” will obviously also trigger the mind to stop, or at least think about stopping (some people don't follow directions too well). When one takes the common image that represents the verb to stop and pairs it with the actual word “Stop” (basically a Stop sign), they have been hit with two different forms of the same message and more than likely that person will follow those orders. Lets look at the image that I've found that shows how words and image can work together to help understand the message it is trying to convey.

As shown above, a little child is carrying a yellow balloon with what looks to be a smiley face printed on it. The smiley faced balloon masks this kids whole head, indicating that maybe this child is expressing a happy emotion. The older crowd behind him might be making him feel happy that he's hanging out with the big kids, partying it up and is excited to take the next beer bong; who knows? But then you realize that it is just two oval black spots on a yellow balloon with the link of a website placed underneath both ovals, curved into what one might mistake it for the mouth of a face. The use of curving words to form what would act as the mouth of a smiley face is the relation between words and images working together. We all know that two similar shaped objects with even just a line looks like face to us, so it is no surprise that we would think this link underneath two black ovals would appear to be a smiley face. Its just another game that words, images, and our mind play without us noticing unless we really think about it.

Words and Pictures

 Last Tuesday (November 2, 2010), we had a guest speaker come and talk to us future designers about his comic book about his mom titled, Mom's Cancer. Author Brian Fies walked us through his journey developing his comic book through the design process of creating Mom's Cancer, and beyond into his second book, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? Both works done in a comic book form, Fies uses the concept I'd like for you to focus on which is the correlation of words and images in a design setting.

In the first photo above (top), there are clearly more text than the second photo below it, yet both are easily read and understandable.  In Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5: "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Universe", we see Scott announcing to the world, in four panels, that he considers himself the best twenty-four year old ever.  The next picture shows Scott Pilgrim's awareness heightens as he is about to get punched in the face by a speeding robot. He manages to sneak in one word, "Hey-", and you can imagine and connect in your own mind how that scene went all within just two panels. We can even switch it around to have the second with more text and the first with less. To make a good comic, where either word or image leaves off, the other should pick up. This means the words and image in at least two juxtaposed panels have to have a their own correlating percentage to send an understanding message. You usually cant have one without the other to get the full meaning but there are exceptions.

In this example, these juxtaposed panels show all image and no words. The message it is trying to communicate is that over the years, as television sets became thinner and smaller, man evolved into a more obese human.  It requires more strength to move a big T.V. than to move a smaller T.V., therefore ends up not requiring men do as much work as before.  Sometimes you do not need words to send an accurate message, or vice versa. An all word communicator is just text but an all image communicator is what C.S. Peirce calls a Semiotic, the making meaning out of marks. These marks would be either an icon (a readily understood pictorial), index (a direct physical relationship to the viewer, such as a fingerprint), or a symbol (an indicator distanced from the actual object, such as a cross to represent a certain religion).

When Light Peeks Through

One of the emphasis in design I really would love to get into is lighting. I stumbled upon these laser cut lampshades in a design blog I check daily. The form of these lampshades are cylindrical but the content is what blows my mind. Along the sides are laser cut patterns or images that illuminate once its dark enough to turn on. This type of lampshade tends to mainly light the upper and lower portions around the lamp, but maybe its because of what Deiter Rams had said about what good design is: “Good design is minimal design.”

What I also recognized is that when it is too bright out and there is no need to turn on the light, depending on the color of the lampshade, the laser cut design appears darker than the lamp itself, creating a contrasting pattern against the material. Sure there's very little positive space when its too bright to light the lamp, but the positive space is enough to see a pattern against all the negative areas. The focal points of the lampshade are the laser cut designs themselves. The different representational and abstract patterns guide you through the whole lampshade, not only when the light is on. Some of the representational designs were of owls or butterflies.

Going deeper, past one of my favorite blogs, and into the Stellavie website, you can find many more of their work, and each one is more mind blowing than the next. If you click on the Products tab up top, you can find many more of their designs. From what I see, this company plays with form and content, repetition, and maybe even monochromatic colors from the different tints and shades of light these designs are illuminated into, especially on the sizes of the lamp if you' were to look at it from the sides. The way some of these repetitive designs have to be cut, you can sense a psychic line made that is needed in order to make these patterns work.

I think these lampshades are a great way to present what future lampshades should look like or they should at least start thinking about the direction lampshades could be headed.

http://www.contemporist.com/2010/10/30/lasercut-lampshades-by-stellavie/#more-22143
http://www.stellavie.com/home/en/

Mass-Produced Chairs of Industrial Design

One mass-produced item I've always been interested in is the chair. The functions of a chair is to relieve our legs from holding our upper body upright, let off some pressure on our feet, or even to help us relax and rest our bodies. The importance of building a successful chair relies on many factors.

Most chairs that we would feel comfortable in are usually symmetrical. If an arm rest is available for your right hand, another should be available for your left. If not, something else should make up for it and complete the balance of the chair. Some designer chairs are also considered bi-stable, meaning it has two multiple functions, or maybe even forms. It can be a chair that you never touch but put out for display, or a chair that you normally sit on. Whichever way you look at a chair, you've already seen the chair and made an opinion on it.

The design of the backs of the chair can really effect one from purchasing this chair. Although there are designs of chairs we do not like, this wasn't the case in Egypt. In Egypt, the best chair of the land was used by the current pharaoh in the form of a throne. No one was worthy enough to sit on or have anything similar to his or her gold laced throne. The chairs of ancient Egypt had carvings of many different animals, maybe some wings on the back of the chair, and the legs were even designed to look like an animals feet. Overtime, through many generations, the chair evolved into this cubic object and finally started to take in some more organic shapes in the 60's.

Modern chairs today now have that element of unity, even when they no longer look like objects you would usually sit on anymore. There is a large variety of chairs today compared to a few years ago, ranging from size, shape, form, reclining or not, and now even what material the chair is made out of. Times have changed in the design world but the strive to make the new now has always been there. 

Objectified Content and Form

In the movie Objectified, by Gary Hustwit , there was too many great information and inspirational ideas to take in in one screening. One might have to watch the movie more than twice to receive and understand all the ideas and thoughts of each designer that was featured in this film. The movie is really intense if you're definitely a design geek. But even if you aren't, this movie can open your eyes to the design world and hopefully appreciate good design. All these great characteristics of the film is what you would call the interaction of form and content.

For the first three minutes of the documentary, a chair transform from what looks to be millions of small plastic pellets. A voice then mentions that within a matter of seconds of seeing an object, one will immediately judge it and make assumptions about that object. This amazing fact sucks in the viewer to learn more about what they subconsciously do. In the documentary, form and content play around, jumping back and forth. When designer Dieter Rams stated in the documentary that, “Good design is minimal design,” that is the message he ultimately would want you to hear; this is the one of the contents of the film. There were other determinants of what “good design” was to him, but the flag that particular quote raised was the one with a bit apple on it.

John Ive of Apple explained how they efficiently design their apple desktops; they do not waste any of their materials. With one slab of aluminum, they can create a whole desktop casing along with the essentials of the keyboard, which in fact includes the busses and mounts for everything needed to get things running. Nothing is wasted. This is considered the form of design mentioned in the film; the shapes and sizes designs come out to be. In this case, Apple responds to two determinants Deiter Rams had mentioned earlier in the film. “Good design is minimal design,” which we can find evidence in Apple's products. And “good design is environmentally friendly,” which is also found in Apple's way in developing their products (their desktop, for instance).

Form and content can be found everywhere and in everything. Understanding what is being said and how it is said is the fun part of understanding art and design.