RR08

Chapter 10 of Heskett was one of the more interesting chapters in the book since it dealt with issues related to the future of design. One questions posed in chapter 10 I particularly enjoyed was regarding to the future of design/designers with regard to the commercial world. The book raised the question, "Will the future pattern of what is produced, and why, continue to be primarily determined by commercial companies, with designers identifying with their values; or by users, with designers and corporations serving their needs? There is much free-market ideology claiming the latter to be the case, but the realities of economic practice make it plain that in many respects the former still dominates." (131) While I believe I understand what this quote was trying to get at, questioning whether the decisions behind what type of goods are produced will continue to be developed primarily by companies rather than designers, I think this quote/question is mistaken in its assumption that the things produced by corporation aren't already determined by the needs of consumers/users. To this end, I also have questions about the excerpt in chapter 10 that says, "Idealistic claims by designers, however, that in some innate manner they represent the standpoint of users is clearly unsustainable, especially given the number of designers servicing the needs of conspicuous consumption in wealthy societies, while basic needs around the globe remain unsatisfied or not even addressed." While I can understand the author's frustration with this reality, I don't feel that it is fair of him to say that designers cannot say they represent the standpoint of users simply because they are simply they are choosing to represent the standpoint of the minority of users that best patronize them.

J08

Links to my A05 teammates' blogs:

http://oliviajonesdsgn200.tumblr.com/

http://laurennkelley.blogspot.com/

http://kbranscum-dsgn200.blogspot.com/

Although we do not currently have a lot to show for it, the state of the project as a whole for our group is good right now. We have been working on brainstorming the idea/product we want to bring in to the Coleman Home Goods line. Even though as of my writing this we have not decided on the actual concept we are going to work on, we have created and eliminated many good ideas, and come the next work session in class should be able to finally narrow it down and get the project moving along. We have decided to come back to class Monday with our thoughts on which/what object each of us thinks would be the best to work on. Out initial concept was for an indoor version of an outdoor grill, built onto a stove/oven. This idea, however, proved overly complicated and not very feasible which is why we are currently still in the ideation phase and do not know exactly what we are doing.

Everyone in our group has done a good job fulfilling multiple roles. Thus far in the project, I suggested a few of the ideas that our/were on our list for consideration, I have tried to help navigate and steer the conversation in a constructive direction, and have also done a (very) little sketching of some of our thoughts/concepts. I feel that I could try to help myself as well as the others in the group build on eachother's ideas more so that we are able to develop some of them further, but all-in-all I am happy with how we are progressing to date.

Some of our work so far:

CR07

The presentation by the 3 students who had been through the design program at OSU was enjoyable because it was nice to get a feel for what the program actually entailed, what sort of design skills it will help you develop, and what kind of work graduates of a design program can attempt to get involved with. Although I am only pursuing the design minor, it was still worth while to get get a feel for what people who are pursuing design full time are capable of and what their aspirations are. It seems that there are very few entry-level positions available for "Designers" out in workforce. Moreover, the positions that exist do not fall under one distinct umbrella category, which makes it difficult to compare the types of jobs that individuals with design skill sets actually get involved with. Design is a concept that is very mysterious and foreign to those individuals that do not have a direct interest in it, which would be the majority of the world/U.S. For individuals to truly learn what design is, what designers do, and what they are capable of requires them to have some exposure with someone from a design related field. It was nice to see how some recent design graduates were putting their skills and abilities in use around the Columbus area, and to see how they were attempting to market and describe their services to clients. It was also neat to see the kind of projects they worked on while in the program here, in part because it showed what some of the more technical and specific design skills individuals learn outside of the generic intro classes are, and then also because it gave the class a slight feel for how the presenters went about tackling a design problem.

RR07

Chapter 4 of Cradle to Cradle really seemed to get to the heart of some of the most important issues the book is attempting to convey. The idea that waste equals food is one of the central messages that sustainable design addresses. As put by the book, "Nature operates according to a system of nutrients and metabolisms in which there is no such thing as waste." (92) If industry and society were to operate in this same manner the world would likely be a much healthier and cleaner place, and we would not have to face any/many of the environmental challenges we face today.

One of the ideas within chapter 4 was regarding the societies in which the Industrial Revolution began. As it says in the book, people personify goods/products by projecting their own vitality and mortality onto them. The book then poses the question of, "What would have happened, we sometimes wonder, if the Industrial Revolution had taken place in societies that emphasize the community over the individual, and where people believed not in a cradle-to-grave life cycle but in reincarnation?" (103) I found this section of the book interesting because I had never really considered the origins of the Industrial Revolution in this way. To me the industrial revolution was an inevitable result of progress and population growth, but to stop and consider how much differently the revolution would have played out and how much differently the world would be today had its origins been in a more collectivist culture poses many interesting questions. To this end, the industrial revolution was not just some cataclysmic event with one possible outcome for the way in which it would change the world. The  means through which it did so were directly representative of the cultures from which it came.

J07

Links to websites of 5 manufacturers or retailers of outdoor camping/recreation products:

http://www.coleman.com/

http://www.campingworld.com/

http://www.rei.com/category/4500001

http://www.campmor.com/

http://www.theoutdoorsource.com/

Links to websites of 5 manufacturers or retailers of indoor home goods products:

http://www.homegoods.com

http://www.homeindoor.com/

http://www.potterybarn.com/

http://www.ashleyfurniturehomestore.com/

http://www.homedecorcenter.com/

Indoor Home Good: Any of a host of items intended for consumer use within a dwelling in order to increase the overall aesthetics, comfort, or utility of said home.

A04

A

C

E

F

H

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J

L

m

o

p

x

Z

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J06

The topic I chose to write on from the five provided was Design and the Environment. Essentially, design and the environment means considering all of the possible environmental effects and influences that a product/building/process/etc. will have, and trying to minimize or eliminate all of the negative effects. Design and the environment means trying to design things in such a way that the impact that the designed item has on the environment is minimal, or ideally, non-existant. Design and the environment is a topic that was overlooked and neglected somewhat in the past due to an illusion that the earth and its resources were infinite, but I chose to write about this topic for the J06 post because of the recent surge of attention environmental design has been experiencing. The topics relating to environmental design in class were good, but I feel that the 5 sources below expand on programs/areas of environmental design that were not touched on in much detail.


1
http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/formulat/label.htm

The above link will take you to a page that summarizes the EPA's "Design for the Environment" program. The page describes how if a product meets certain standards set by the EPA, it is allowed to have a DfE (design for the environment) logo placed on the products, so that consumers so it was designed with consideration for the environment in mind. The site details the rules and rationale behind this EPA program, and is a great place to visit if you are looking for information on what the government is doing to promote and acknowledge environmental design in consumer products.

2
http://www.npd-solutions.com/dfe.html

This site goes into more detail on three major elements of design for the environment than we covered in class. The three areas they cover are design for environmental manufacturing, design for environmental packaging, and design for disposal and recycleability. This site is a great resource if you are looking for some detailed and specific information on any of these 3 topics.

3
http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=1988

The above webpage and associated website describe what the LEED program is. It provides information regarding what LEED is, what it measures, what it delivers, how to achieve it, as well as many other things. One great part of this site is that there is a section which describes why LEED certification makes good business sense, which is something that will be important to know should you ever find yourself trying to convince someone to pursue LEED for the construction of a new building. This site is interesting if you are looking to get some more information on how architecture and larger scale products can be designed with the environment in mind.

4
http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm#sustainability

The above webpage provides some detailed information defining and describing sustainability. For anyone considering environmental design, sustainability is crucial. Sustainability is an essential component of large scale, big picture environmental design. Although hard to define, this webpage provides an easily understandable definition on sustainability, and also has links to many other related topics and areas if you are interested in knowing what the EPA is doing with respect to sustainability.

5
http://www.apple.com/environment/

This fifth and final website outlines and provides statistics for Apple's environmental footprint. Individuals can talk about environmental design and sustainability all day, but this would be useless were companies not actually trying to put environmental design to the test. This site is a great resource because it provides a specific example of a company that is environmentally conscious, and lists all the information behind their products and the effect they have on the environment. Companies need to be help accountable if they are going to make claims saying that they design their products with the environment in mind, and this is a great example of a company letting consumers exactly how environmentally friendly their products were designed to be.

CR06

The "Rip!: A Remix Manifesto" video shown in class was definitely informative. I found myself agreeing with some areas and claims in the video while also being skeptical of others. I thought the statement/information describing Walt Disney as a remix artist was interesting. I had always heard/known that a lot of the Disney videos/characters were reincarnations of past fables and stories, but using this widely known and popular series as an example served to back the claims being made in the video very well. The main part of the video I agreed with was the notion that the future should be allowed to build on the past and the past's accomplishments. If you lock any and everything ever produced/constructed/conceived away and label it "unchangeable," you will halt the flow of progress, innovation, and prosperity severely. Many of the best and most important ideas of our time have come about as a result of some sort of collaboration with or modification to existing designs.

Where I disagree with the video is on the extremity with which it seemed to think the present was entitled to use the creations of the past. In the case of the video's opinion of Girl Talk, it seemed to me that the general consensus was that Girl Talk should be able to do whatever he wants with any kind of music and play it however he wants and claim it as his own. While I agree that he should be able to use the music, because sampling is something that is inevitable in that industry, it seemed a bit selfish/arrogant of the video to imply that all of the genius and appeal of his music came from the work Girl Talk put in manipulating his tracks. If there had never been any music or songs ever created or recorded Girl Talk would not be able to do what he has become famous for doing. In that respect, he should at the least do something/do more to acknowledge the artists which supplied him with the help and inspiration to create his original mixes.

RR06

While there were many noteworthy observations to be found within chapters 1-3 of McDonough, one of the more interesting sections of these chapters to me was the part titled "One Size Fits All" within chapter one. In essence it talked about how the industrial revolution led to a push to achieve universal design solutions. During the initial years of the industrial revolution, there was a push towards universal design because of a desire to replace unsanitary conditions and inequitable housing. Yet even with its initial good intentions, the movement evolved into something less favorable, a, "bland uniform structure isolated from the particulars of place--from local culture, nature, energy, and material flows." (29)

What I took away from this example is the fact that even objects or processes designed with the best of intentions, if left unaltered, can become something negative. When a design works or creates a favorable outcome for individuals, such as universal design did at the beginning of the industrial revolution, people will tend to stick with it and blindly ignore adverse effects that may be piling up on the side as a result. Additionally, it would seem that this example conveys that it is easier for people to create and accept a brand new design than it is for them to accept modifications or changes to something currently in practice, especially if those modifications correct one problem while exacerbating another.

J05

50 Things noticed while on a walk in my neighborhood:

House
Windows
Door
Door knob

Neighbor on porch

Porch steps
Small pumpkin on porch steps
Ice
(Oak?) tree
Squirrel
Grass
Beer can in lawn
Recycling Container
Side yard fence
Car
Broken car mirror dangling from car
Stop sign
Sidewalk
Crack in sidewalk
Road
Salt on road
Dead porch plants
One dirty black glove
Alley cat
Alley
Traffic Barrel
Dumpster
Doritos bag outside dumpster
Pizza box outside dumpster
Guy on bike riding down a road that is too icy to be riding a bike on
Bike
Railroad tie(s)
Trampled orange party fence
Lawn gnome
Red solo cup in pine tree
Beer can in pine tree
Pine tree
Porch planter box
Porch rail
Decorative glass bottles
Excessive amount of of lawn ornaments
Patio furniture
Grill
Spray paint tag on garage
Broken glass
Oversized/out of place rock in middle of lawn
Broken gutter
House that should definitely be condemned
Ivy all over house that should be condemned
ADT Security sign
Red white and blue ribbon tied to porch pillar

CR05

The video clips showed in class on Wednesday showed the importance of the role that design plays in sustainability initiatives. Getting from the processes used in the production of today's goods to closed loop, cradle to cradle process cannot be done without design thinking. The growing momentum behind creating more environmentally conscious and sustainable practices likely bodes very well for growth in the amount of opportunities available in many design related fields in the near future. The concept mentioned in the videos that was the most interesting to me was what William McDonough termed, "technical metabolism." I thought this was a very good term for describing the goal of sustainable design practices. Getting modern industry to implement cradle to cradle processes is one thing, but this term helps to convey the goal of these programs very succinctly while also creating a standard that could be compared across different industries. In addition to this, I thought the video/person talking about the biomimicry website was interesting because that would be such a beneficial tool for designers/inventors/engineers looking to find quick and easy examples of how a problem they are facing is already solved by nature.

RR05

Finding a book that discusses environmentalism and sustainability from a design perspective well can be challenging. After reading the introduction to Cradle to Cradle I have high hopes for this book. Although founded with good intention, the original environmental activists only saw industry as the enemy, and thought that there was no place for industry and big business in a environmentally conscientious society. In the introduction to Cradle to Cradle, the authors acknowledge this fact. While their are reasonable arguments that can be made for both the environmental and industrial sides of this argument, the conflict between the two makes it impossible to effectively move modern society past its current destructive consumption habits. Proper design thinking a focus is the missing element that could bridge the gap between both sides. With cradle to cradle processes in industry, both sides would win. Goods would be designed with their termination and deconstruction in mind, so that all of the materials used in their production could be infinitely recycled. This would decrease the amount of raw materials used significantly, an outcome which both environmentalist and industrialists would enjoy. The introduction of Cradle to Cradle essentially serves to illustrate how important design thinking is going to be during, "the next industrial revolution."

A03

Clue 01: Barcelona Chair

Designed by Miles van der Rohe. Fun Fact: Although many architects and furniture designers of the Bauhaus era were intent of providing well-designed homes and impeccably manufactured furnishings for the "common man," the Barcelona chair was an exception. It was designed for the Spanish Royalty to oversee the opening ceremonies of the exhibition and described by Time magazine as inhabiting "his sumptuous German pavillion."

 Clue 02: Knowlton Library chair-Bertoia Chair

This is me in the Bertoia/Diamond chair, designed by Harry Bertoia. Bertoia designer this chair in the 1950's while under the patronage of Hans and Florence Knoll. I was reading the magazine seen below in  the picture.

Clue 03: Wexner Center, designed by Peter Eisenman

An interesting/controversial fact about the building is that the Tower like features seen on several parts of the building are meant to replicate those on the building that stood on the spot where the Wexner Center now stands, the Armory (pictured below), which burned down in the 1950s because the resin/material used to coat the floors in one of the main rooms caught fire.

 Clue 04: Math Tower designed by Phillip Johnson

The interesting architectural feature of this building is the two arches inside the building that give it a tunnel like feel.

Clue 05: Thompson Library designed by Acock and Associates.

Something interesting about the construction of this building is that, like all buildings on the Oval, it is considered a Historic Ohio Landmark, and cannot be torn down, so the front side on the Oval had to be left the same when the interior/rest of the building was renovated recently.

Also, although it is hard to tell that is me fist pumping at the top left of the stairs/steps

My partner's blog for this assignment can be found here: http://kbranscum-dsgn200.blogspot.com/