Utopian Design - Prepackaged Food

I recently worked on a project in Web Design class where students were challenged to invent a product that served a vital purpose in a developing country. The product must be made from a material that is sustainable and readily available in the country of use.

It was so exciting to see what kinds of products people came up with; some as mainly concepts to some that could feasibly work if given the right amount of money & support. Ideas ran the gamut - solar satchels’, t-shirts that grow with the owner, a wagon that can be easily created and is easy to transport. We were all trying to improve society, conceptually, and hopefully some of these ideas will eventually be implemented and tested.

I came up with a design for a double-layered can which heats food after the user fills the in-between with water. The idea is already used around the world in the form of pre-packaged meals (Called MRE's) that are used in the armed forces as well as food items for people in developing nations. Pictured (right) is an image of what the US service troops get to eat.

The design of these pre-packaged meals makes them easy to transport, low cost, and useful in many avenues of food consumption. The design follows the idea of "utopian design" putting consumer situation & need at the forefront of design production.

Image Credit: http://modernsurvivalonline.com/homemade-mre/

Color Transforms

When choosing color for a product, designers select based on many conditions. Some choices are based on natural elements while others are chosen based on a specific meaning that adds to the product.

While it is possible to shape the way a design is perceived based on the various color hues that are combined, many designers rely on intuition and popular palettes. In Albers’ “Interaction of Color”, the methodology behind color theory is examined in a science based way. Albers argues that past color theorists suggested meanings for colors, and well, I agree, theorists can sometimes be partisan. He goes on to explain that perception of color doesn't deal with emotion or mood, rather with light and the way individuals' eyes' react to it.

My favorite scarf comes from the GAP clothes design company—it’s 84% acrylic and 16% wool. It sits on my neck and keeps me warm behind it’s cream, light gray, dark gray, and accent yellow knit self. Since the designers at GAP design with popular fashion in mind, they choose colors which reflect what people are wearing in the world and are not necessarily concerned, with scientific reasoning behind their choices. I personally love the combination of yellow and gray which makes up my favorite scarf. No two people see color in the same way, so when others look at my scarf they may see shades of yellow and gray which are displeasing to them; in fact, some people may even see lime green and black, depending on how the light receptors in their eyes are shaped.

All in all, color theory has shifted from the first accounts explaining color in terms of feeling and mood to a scientific based logic which goes into depth about eye structure and effect of light.

Consistency and the Airport | Dangerous Design

An airport is a point of connection; between bus and plane, between plane and train, between car and shuttle. Often orchestrating all of these connections are designed signs which try to precisely describe direction, location, guidelines, etc.

I am currently sitting at the Sacramento International Airport waiting for my flight to Albuquerque, and it became apparent that the way-finding system of SMF would be the theme

of my next blog.

Once off the freeway, the friend who was driving noticed that the airline I was flying with was listed on a large red sign next to a blue sign, encouraging her to drive in the right lane. Approximately 10 seconds later, the red sign had switched places with the blue sign now confusing us into changing lanes. Another 10 seconds later and the signs had yet again switched places, finally directing us to the appropriate area.

This confusion of signs could have caused an accident while we were driving. The last thing a driver want's to be responsible for doing is deciphering a complicated signage system that confuses rather than explains.

It isn't enough for informational signage to be in a readable font or to have a color that differentiates it from it's background. It must be accurately placed in the line of sight as well as correct position in order for people driving between 20-30mph to understand in a very short amount of time.

I guess I'm trying to say that there is good signage and there is bad signage. Way-finding systems should be thought out with care and must be just as consciously designed as the buildings that house them.

Texture & Fashion

I was walking around in Walker Hall this morning and noticed these beautiful hand drawings from a fashion design class. I especially admired several drawings done by a girl who had paid special attention to detail in her near photo-realistic renderings. Drawing classes teach people how to look at objects as form in light and dark shades. One aspect to hand drawing that is particularly difficult to master is mimicking texture.

The contemporary fashions that adorned the hallway explained a lot about the intention of the designers because of their use of texture. The photo-realistic ones that I mentioned not only showed the texture of the garments [i.e. the fabrics & furs], but also expressed movement & flow in the way they sat on the models bodies.

Designers must master the skill of representing their ideas on paper effectively. If a designer cannot draw or mock-up a design idea it is to their detriment; designers should practice and perfect texture replication, visual hierarchy, line thickness, etc. Texture is especially important to express because it corresponds with the first aesthetic seen by potential clients. Clients won’t be able to envision what the designer can unless the designer can produce an accurate example.

Canon PowerShot S95

Canon creates photography equipment that becomes increasingly user-friendly with each design-iteration. The PowerShot S95, released in late August of 2010, flaunts many technical and aesthetic implementations that make it a very precisely designed ergonomic experience.

Safety is an important factor for the Canon S95. The camera has two options for placement of a safety strap, one on the top right and one of the bottom left. The strap is extra thick – making it hard to compromise the camera’s safety. When the camera isn’t being used, it is stored in a padded Lowepro soft-shell carrying case. The case is comparable to ones used to protect laptops and other expensive electronic devices.

As a high-end point-and-shoot camera, all of its interior specifications are housed in a compact and comfortable body. It is a simple rectangle with no extras or vestigial obstructions allowing it to sit in the hand easily and safely. It’s shell is made from a durable composite material that deals well with rugged conditions. The flash pops up on the top left side and then sets back down inside its streamlined niche. In the same way as the flash has its niche, so does the top-camera zoom function & the top mode-dial. With a 3" screen, anybody from child to elderly can operate this camera with ease while capturing all 10 mega pixels worth of image.

While interacting with the S95, users find the technology is intuitive to learn and relatively easy to teach ones self. Different modes are explained in concise prose and easily adjusted with minimal layers or steps to go through. The same experience occurs when connecting the camera to a computer – usability is at the forefront. It interacts with the computer to find a program to download its images into, whether it is a Mac or a PC, the camera has been programmed to interface over a broad range of computer platforms in 16 different languages.

The camera performs with quick response to adjustments. Whether manually changing the settings or executing a staged photograph, the camera is able to accommodate with lightning speed. It includes the option to zoom either automatically or manually with the built in 4x zoom. The incredible RAW or JPG images load to a computer or external hard drive in second; this is the caliber of a Canon digital camera. Not only are the images of the highest quality, so too is the video recording technology. This camera can record up to 5 hours of HD video with Stereo sound at 720p.

Aesthetically speaking, the camera is a piece of beautifully planned design. The sleek black body of the camera compliments its high quality performance. The black color is even throughout and reminiscent of the analog predecessors to the contemporary digital camera. This relationship to the past is also present in the ability to switch between automatic and manual zooming. This piece of design has no harsh angles making it easy and comfortable to hold and to look at.

This camera is beautiful, functional, easy to learn, easily adapted to many platforms and suitable for anyone.

Ø Å Æ

Last summer right after my car broke, I started taking a class about typography. Letterforms and kerning and leading, oh my! I had never in my entire life thought about type-faces in such a complex way. I had never even considered that someone spent months if not years creating fonts as a career.

What is so important about different fonts? Many people take for granted that before computers had thousands of different vector based fonts to choose from, printers [yes the human kind] used varying sized metal letters to manually create sentences which were then stamped onto paper. This process of "typing" took skilled type-setters [yes people again - with their hands] a lot of time to set.

I recently downloaded some new fonts from dafont.com, a website full of type-faces which are free to download and use for personal use. One font I particularly like (above) is called "Wired". It is a simple sans serif font which has been transformed into a sans serif wired font. It's as if the font was sculpted from barbed wires.

Although the font is new and interesting, it comes with certain downfalls, for example, the character choices are very limited. It hinders me from using some of my favorite letters like æ, å, and ø, and makes it impossible to write anything that has any—special grammar markings.

Word & Image

In the exhibition setting the relationship between words & images is extremely important for relaying information. My DES 185 partner and I are designing an exhibition about breakfast foods from around the world. We have been working on rendering what the interior of the space will look like, and we have been trying to pay special attention to where the written information should go, in order to best tell the story we are trying to tell.

You can see in my rendering (left) I created a white information banner that is hung on the right wall of the area in our exhibition exhibiting Swedish breakfast traditions. This info-graphic will have enough information to cater to those who simply glance and walk by and a bit more in depth for those who wish to stand and read on.

If there were no words to go along with the images and artifacts within our exhibition, it would be exponentially harder to comprehend the context from which they come. The words, interlaced with the images create an understandable staged environment as a point of learning. Visitors can choose to spend more time to read and examine images more closely to understand at a higher level, but all who come through the exhibition should connect what they see with what they read.