Thursday 29 October 2009

context v ied

After our brainstorming session on how The Power of Context and IED relate a poster/new mind map developed. When i was reading the Tipping Point I found The Power of Context chapter one in which i kept finding myself relating to IED - interiors and the environment.
Our context.
Our surroundings.
During the brainstorming session and afterwards my brain kept going, thinking through this deeper.
Our personalities.
Our thoughts.
Our feelings.
These are all impacted.
Our experiences.
Our emotions.
Our culture.
US.

When we enter a building or musuem or even a room, we can often leave a completely different person. We have also just finished a project on Exhibition Design - another area of interiors that people often dont consider to be part of Interiors, but one that can have a massive effect on a person.
As there are so many different aspects that can be broken down even further iIdecided to create a simple mindmap showing these ideas. This is something I will continue to develop as more and more thoughts trigger.

Saturday 24 October 2009

boom boom boom


ideas - an eruption of crazy thoughts. brainstorming - slightly forced thinking of ideas.



This week we had a brainstorming session with others in our year who had completed their mindmap on the same topic from The Tipping Point. Our topic was The Power of Context. We related this is interior and environmental design. We literally let our ideas flow and there was indeed an eruption of crazy thoughts!
It took a little while to get the ball rolling as such, but once we had overcome the fear of saying totally random thoughts in front of eachother it was actually pretty fun and very inspiring. It was a great way to get thoughts and ideas from eachother, those that we would not usually have related but as the discussion developed they made perfect sense. It proved really useful in opening up our mind to thinking outside the box and into the realms of the unknown.

Monday 19 October 2009

admiration

Ive just been having a little browse on Johanna Basford's website and blog after hearing about her work in a lecture. She is one of the new and few and upcoming artists and designers who are using their iniative to get themselves "out there". Her work is amazingly beautifully, but what catches my attention most is her ideas and ways of making herself big and known. She is using twitter and blogging in a creative and imaginative way. We are being encouraged to do this as new and growing designers, but looking at others and how they have done this, such as Johanna, has filled me with admiration. Seeing how she got herself comissioned by CR through blogging and her latest printing design completed by the public throught twitter and the world of tweeting has filled me with excitement of what the potential is out there in cyberspace!!
Its taking a while to get used to blogging my thoughts and ideas, but im slowly getting used to it and seeing how others do this has made me want to improve my blogging and tweeting skills! Social networking is the way forward - how many hours do we spend/waste on facebook?! we all know its far too many. If we can use facebook to network with our freinds on a daily basis then why cant we do the same with other designers, companies, people of inspiration and knowledge. So yea, i just decided to blog about my thoughts on blogging in the hope that it will improve my blogging skills. That is the purpose of space - so watch it! The thoughts are coming...


http://www.johannabasford.com/blog
http://twitter.com/johannabasford
(its only right to give the lady herself some credit!)

Tuesday 13 October 2009

build an igloo


Yesterday a few ied students attended a video conference on environmental sustainability:
As we are all aware the worlds resources are increasingly running out. This is obviously a problem to designers in this era. We are going to making new creations, which are going to have to be more and more sustainable - designing for the present without compromising the future. As a student I sometimes feel inadequate in how i could possibly change the world as one single person. But if we all have this attitude nothing will change and the worlds resources will run out. do we care? thats the question. or how can we impact the world? or the people we design for? its a difficult situation. More and more products and materials are being made that are sustainable making it a bit easier - is this enough? what about the lorrys and aeroplanes that have to transport these specialist materials across the world? what about the factories producing these? what about the child labour thats involved in making these? so many questions.
I think that this issue is something that designers need to start taking seriously, but also realise the extremes that it can be taken to. If everyone has a small input surely there can be some form of impact?
it was suggested that we should all just build an igloo. perfect insulation. it melts. turns back into ice. another one is made. zero impact.


?

Wednesday 7 October 2009

mind map



I have just finished reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcom Gladwell. "How little things can make a big difference" This book was recommended reading as part of our design studies lectures in uni. The book is essentially about tipping points in live - points in which an epidemic takes a turn, begins or grows. Gladwell uses many examples to explain and exagerate the different aspects of tipping points. Whilst reading the book i found myself looking at points in my everyday life and design work that are tipping points giving me a new perspective on how simple things can have a dramatic impact and influence on our design work and our lives. Malcolms use of examples of such epidemics in the past helps to see how we can apply this to our lives now and in the future. So often we think that our designs become known by being in the right place at the right time with the right design but this book has made me realise that this is not always the case.



I have drawn up a mind map in more detail of the "power of context" chapter from The Tipping Point. This really interested me after my thoughts about being in the right place atr the right time. Our environment and surroundings have a massive impact on our lives and therefore our designs. Changes in our lives effect our designs - this can be for the good or bad. Gladwell uses many examples to explain this such as live in a prison cell and how this impacts a person. The people we interact with also effects our lives greatly, this is something we are not always aware of. The kind of poele who we socialise with can change our personalities and outlook on life - we have sensitive characters. We often think that this only relates to children but this is not the case. Our tendencies and habits are very changable - this is something i feel is important when designing. We can sometimes have a narrow outlook on our work, but if we interact with the right people, those from different fields of design our opportunities can become endless!

Monday 5 October 2009

running the race

So yesterday i completed my first 10k race - its something I've been wanting to do for a while and I'm very glad i did. During the race and since finishing it, I've been thinking about how there are aspects that reminded me of parts of The Tipping Point book that we have been reading for Design Studies. For example, when running in a group everyone is trying to get past the next person, the person in front - some may say this is like a form of epidemic. Everyone is trying to do this and so it keeps continuing, nearly like dominoes collapsing - only instead this is causing everyone to move further and faster instead of falling over! Its a continuous process until the race is finished.
The second I finished the race, my first thought was 'marathon next!!' and also that i want to do another 10k, only faster. When speaking to a fellow runner in my class about this - her reaction was "you addicted now Karen, that's what happens." Which is very true, we are always wanting to aim higher, do better and keep moving forward. Again another form of phenomenon, epidemic - one you pop you just cant stop!!

Friday 2 October 2009

think big?

Today our design studies lecture was from Mike Press, the Dean of Design in DOJ. Titled THINK BIG. This caused many thoughts to start triggering in my brain, so often i feel that many of us just enjoy living life in a bubble, floating along and enjoying the world. As design students, this may involve the odd little perk or shift and then we float along some more. But the world isnt really like that, we need to shift ourselves. To get somewhere in life and achieve something i think that its so important for us to get out there and do something about it. I suppose, think big! It easy to get into the mind set of someone else is doing it, or it has already been done. But this is just ourselves trying to take the easy route.
Personally i feel we need to be constantly looking at how we can improve ourselves, push ourselves and aim higher. Maybe this is just my nature, but i feel its important in the current way of the world. Recently ive been thinking about where or what i want to do with my interior design course after uni, this sometimes feels like its a long time away, other days i know that it will be in no time at all. Origionally coming from an architectural background i think that i have quite a wide perspective of what can be done with interiors, from small scale architecture to furniture making - but i know that the list is endless. This is something im hoping to look into, probably blog about. Things that im interested in and skills that i would like to develop while at uni. Its the time to do it after all!
Mike ended the lecture using the sigmoid curve - we should be constantly looking to strive for the best, to reach that peak and to THINK BIG.
rant over.

Thursday 1 October 2009

atelier brueckner


http://www.atelier-brueckner.de/


this is an exhibition/interior designer who i found when looking for precedents for our project. i really like the variety of his work and the use of lighting. i like how he uses our sences to fully experience the exhibitions and think is something i would like to look into further, the idea of fully using the human mind and body to experience the exhibition to the maximum. I think that this is important in design as it then has a strong impact on us, leaving us with many memorys in other ways than just the visual sense.