Post Turtle

This made me laugh...and it is so true...

"While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.

Eventually the topic got around to Sarah Palin and her bid to be a heartbeat away from being President. The old rancher said, 'Well , ya know, Palin is a post turtle.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a post turtle was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a post turtle.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know she didn't get up there by herself, she doesn't belong up there, she doesn't know what to do while she is up there, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put her up there to begin with.'"

What is Product Design

What is Product Design: Part I - Issues by Laura Slack

Product design is "the creation of an object that originates from design ideas - in the form of drawings, sketches, prototypes, or models - through a process of design that can extend into the object's production, logistics and marketing."

Slack asks the question, "Is it the a designer's responsibility to be designing for our future and to find new and effective ways of producing what people want?"

A timeline chart of the history of design shows how it is directly related to worldwide economic development. (p. 14-15)

Part I also highlights hybrid products, functionality, decoration, and design as a statement.

Marcia Lausen Lecture

Marcia Lausen came to Towson University to talk to us about election design and what she's doing to change it. I learned so much from listening to her speak. What struck me as the most interesting part of her lecture was in the beginning where she talked about text and how making small changes to it can make a huge difference in how something is read. For example, she showed us a ballot she redesigned with lower case letters which were more legible than the older example with all caps which formed hard to read rectangular shapes.

Another example she gave was how center type is being eliminated because it is too decorative. We read left to right and usually when we are creating something we want the reader to be able to decipher quickly what is written. So the redesign that Marcia made was to change text from center to flush left.

A third example I found to be interesting was that she said to keep font size, weight and any other variations to a minimum. I would have thought that lots of variation would be more exciting, but when she showed an example of complicated versus simple, the simple was much clearer.

I was surprised to hear that the most important information on a design needs to be black. My first instinct tells me to put important information in red or a bright color to catch the viewer's attention. However, she showed us how black is the most legible and pops off the page unlike any other color.

I am in the process of designing business cards for myself right now and this lecture came at a perfect time. The information I learned from Marcia has helped to completely change and improve my design.

AAR for Deconstruct/Reconstruct Project

Sustains:

What I think I did well was I took a risk by incorporating a lot of curves into my die forms. I also worked very hard at coming up with a form I liked and went through about 16 pages of sketches until I came up with something I liked. I did a lot of sketches on how I would alter the form I finally chose too. In the end, although my edges didn't meet up the way I would have liked, I was very pleased with the shapes I had. It also helped having extra time, so in order to make sure I have some extra time for the next project I plan to jump in IMMEDIATELY to allow myself some wiggle room.

Improves:

What didn't work so well was my time management. Next time I really need to create a project management sheet where I plan out ahead of time what I need to get done each day. I also need to work on my chasing a little bit to make sure that the edges are completely flat so that they will meet up when the form is cut out. I know what I was doing wrong now (hammering waaaay too hard) so I think now I just need to practice.

What Ifs:

The project could have been more successful not only if the edges would have met up, but if I wouldn't have used so much glue. The glue made the pieces look a little messy. I also learned after I turned my project in that my I'm filing all wrong. So I think the forms could potentially look a lot better if they were chased correctly and I got some more control when filing. The good part about my project what the overall shape of each form.

Design Techniques and Materials by Raymond Guidot

Designers have to coordinate the engineering and technical requirements of manufacturing, and the use and appearance of the object from the client's perspective. Past materials and methods as well as new innovative materials and methods are outlined - from the Industrial Revolution's use of coke to mass produce cast iron to the development of semi-synthetic materials (ebonite, celluloid, etc.) and the first totally synthetic material (bakelite) that contained different marbling effects in pieces produced in the same mold (differentiation in mass production) and aluminum. Phenolic resin used to mold cases for appliances (record players, cameras, radios, etc.), pressed sheet metal, and steel were used to create many iconic designs of the World War II era.

Military research resulted in mechanical welding replacing riveting and the development of many synthetic materials - thermoplastics such as nylon, plexiglass, Tupperware, polyethylene and polypropylene, PVC, polystyrene, and ABS. Two that made particular impact in the 1930's were polyurethane and polyester (especially fiberglass-strengthened polyester).

Composite materials (reinforced plastics, laminates, reinforced concrete, metal alloys) are based on natural structures.

CAD (computer aided design) and rapid prototyping are described, as well as ecological design, as well as choice of materials.

Life Now: National Design Triennial 2006

In the first chapter on "Intelligent Design," Barbara Bloemink discusses how modern designers are using natural laws, materials, processes, and appearances as their main subjects. Designers like Hitoshi Ujiie, Jason Miller and David Wiseman bring natural forms into the interior environment. In the recent past, we turned our backs on the natural world, preferring technology. But now, we're turning back to the natural world for solutions to specific problems. She examines the interplay between technology and engineering and nature in several venues - the life-like animations created at Pixar, the self-organizing and adaptive iPod, the robotic vacuum cleaners that closely resemble animals foraging for food, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab's Mars rovers - Spirit and Opportunity, and the many ways robots mimic human behavior.

The second chapter on "Craft and Community in Design" has Brooke Hodge examining how the design process encourages community - thinkers and doers coming together to create - whether physically or virtually.

In the third chapter on "Design and Social Life," Ellen Lupton writes about design as a social activity - designers collaboration with client, fabricators, suppliers, retailers, editors, art directors, schools, etc. and designers forming their own social networks. She examines blogs from the design community and the many aspects of collaboration.

The final chapter by Matilda McQuaid is called "Transforming Design" and summarizes the work of the 87 designers in the National Design Triennial exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2006, and the ways that these 87 different design approaches transform and revolutionize our lives.

'Studio Multiples'

(for some reason it won't let me post the last page so i'll try again later...)


'Studio Multiples' by Donald Friedlich and Bruce Metcalf

The curators describe the "Exhibition in Print" in Metalsmithing 1997. Works represented in their portfolio were selected according to the following criteria - metalsmith work by production artists which had been produced a minimum of five times in a small studio setting and was original to the artist.


Production Metalwork Today by Donald Friedlich

Don discusses the responsibilities of academia versus the perils of the marketplace - the push and pull between production work and one-of-a-kind work, the inherent struggle between leraning, growth and innovation and financial success. He details production's contributions to the field by bringing a large quantity of work before the public at various prices. He concludes by noting, ironically, that despite all of the technology available today (commercial photoetching, laser cutting and CAD-CAM), the most frequently used production techniques are casting and fabrication.


When Production Had a Good Name by Bruce Metcalf

The author discusses the evolution of production from being considered cultural pioneering (modernist ideology and the Bauhaus model), to the current feeling that production represents selling out to the marketplace.