Week 03 - 2D

Class Format

After a review of last week the class consisted of a group exercise and a practical. A fair amount of group discussion occurred while evaluating the results of the group exercise.

 

Group Exercise

Creative Thinking - Combine Ideas

1. Choose at random two words from the lists below.
2. 
When you've selected two words, think about the words. Get clear in your mind what each represents.

3. In a Word doc., do a rough mind map of each word and figure out what each means and represents to you.
4. Combine ideas. Think about how the one thing relates or could relate to the other.
5. 
Each person creates TWO 2D Design OPTIONS based on the chosen word combo.

Our groups 2 words are 'Cherry' and 'Skull'. Associated words with 'Cherry' : Red, Ripe, Sweet, Succulent. Associated words with 'Skull' : Death, White, Decay,

These drawings were completed in class with illustrator. The first one is obvious - I have shaped and coloured a pair of skulls like cherries. With the second drawing I took the idea of decay and applied it to the cherry. The purpose of this exercise was to recognise the value of random input in the creative process. It also demonstrated a system by which this input could be evaluated and collated via the collaborative process.

 

Practical

Draft a range of 3 excellent design concepts for your exhibition portfolio. Use any tools you wish. Put the results and a paragraph of description in your blog. Invent 2 different options for each of the 3 designs. Describe how each of these options differ in OR any 3 criteria of your own choosing – list these criteria clearly.

• Shape
  - Square, round or other. Top navigation, Side navigation of floating.
• Media
  - CSS, Spry media or Flash.
• Style
  - Minimal, Dynamically Interactive.

I chose to look at the design options for my online portfolio. Beginning with a sketch my initial design concepts were concerned with the layout for the navigation menu. These were Top, Side and Floating (an icon follows the mouse pointer revealing the menu when clicked). Shape parameters varied where the overall layout could be described as square, rounded or irregular. Media varied where the code could be executed in Spry, Flash or regular HTML and CSS. Style varied where the content could present itself as minimal or interactive. This exercise demonstrated a process by which individual design concepts could expanded upon through a criteria based interrogation.

 

Research

Video

After completing the creative thinking exercise we all had a look at each others results. Some interest was generated in the class in regard to how I had completed the drawings above in Illustrator in the allotted time. This youtube video gives away the secret to the seemingly magical trickery. My tips for using youtube tutorials include; be specific - tailor your searches to a specific task or program, follow - when you find a specific publisher that appeals to you subscribe to their feed & keep them - download videos you find useful keep them as a reference. There are add-ons for the various browsers which offer the the ability to download videos from youtube, although I have had mixed success with these. I prefer to open the activity window in Safari (common/option/A), locate the largest file (usually the file before the one ending with 'crossdomain.xml'), press option and double click. The video is put in your designated downloads file as 'videoplayback', rename it something appropriate and add the extension '.flv'. The video will now play in VLC or is ready for conversion to your preferred format.

Images

The 'Rational Alphabet' by Gustaf Lord came to me via an RSS feed from Design Taxi. A simple, clever and completely unusable font. From his website, 'By combining every two letters into one the number of letters used in total will drop by half. This will decrease paper usage, ink and toner as well. 
The only downside of using this font is that some unreadability will occur...'. At first I liked Gustaf's website, the index page is clean, well laid out and has a muted palette. Then I had a look around and two things really bugged me; the placement of large text saying, 'Oh, dear Lord!' at the bottom of every other page and his usage lurid pastels in the background of those pages. In his defence the colour choices are not completely incongruous as the tones may be found in the projects they are behind. Below is a swatch of the offending pastels, the first one being from the index page.

 

Reflection

I took from this weeks lesson an appreciation of the ideals of expansion and retraction in relation to idea generation (not bad, I got 4 '...tion' words into that sentence!). The process of ideation followed an expansion route through random input, elaboration and collective discussion with the first exercise. Then a broadly formed idea was concentrated through the application of defining parameters in the practical. When forming ideas the human brain is a remarkable apparatus as both of these approaches and more occur simultaneously and with little or no interruption to conscious thought. This occurs in the part of the mind I think of as preconscious, in line with Freudian psychoanalysis. These ideas then pop into the conscious mind through what many consider to be miraculous inspiration (reference to 'The Ancient Model of Inspiration' here). At this juncture I briefly considered a lengthy diatribe on the ridiculous nature of this notion, but reconsidered in light of the requirements of this body of text (...I will have my rant one day though, oh yes I will). Todays exercise and practical was about using conscious interpretations of preconscious processes to move ideation forward. Developing these techniques is important for any creative who has faced any kind of 'block' and especially so for the designer who usually faces more restrictive timeline requirements as our work is inherently collaborative. 

Week 03 - 3D

Class Format

After a review of last week the class consisted of a group exercise and a practical. A fair amount of group discussion occurred while evaluating the results of the group exercise (apart from this the PDF relating to this portion of the class received only cursory reference which I will address more thoroughly in 'Reflection' below).

 

Group Exercise

Creative Thinking Exercise

In small groups and based on the concept of REDUCE, brainstorm one design concept for an eco- friendly form of personal transport. Brand your design with a catchy name. Enter sketches and notes directly into your blog.

What positive thing can I say about this exercise in the allocated five minutes. The purpose of this exercise was to elaborate on the term 'reduce' as it relates to transportation. The intention was to inform ideation through collaboration. The result is a pair of shoes with springs on the bottom called 'Less-Steps', Cherill had some ideas as well.

 

Practical - Design Options

Individually draft a range of 3 excellent design options for your group’s eco- friendly form of personal transport. Brand your 3 design options with a catchy name. Use any tools you wish. Put the results and a paragraph of description in your blog. Describe how each of these options differ in the criteria below OR any 3 criteria of your own choosing – list these criteria clearly.


• Function
  - make walking easier
• 
Materials
  - shoes, springs
• 
Style
  - whimsical

See picture above.

 

Research

Video

This was shot and edited with an iPhone. It really has no relation to this weeks topic except to show that I am experimenting with different sources for video entry. On the technical side the video was created with two applications, Reeldirector & Action Movie FX. As with most video production this one minute was distilled from about half an hour of footage. Being the first time I had combined the use of the two applications editing time was around six hours. Rendering various edits consumed about a third of this time. At about 90 MB upload took about twenty minutes on my connection. After reviewing it looks like Blogger has automatically compressed the video for web optimisation. Co-star is my wife Lisa-Marie.

 

Images

I discovered  Jean-Paul Bourdier via an RSS feed from My Modern Met. I am including this here because I see elements of Bourdier's work as challenging notions of 3 dimensional space. I also appreciate his use of the human form and the counter balance created between camouflage and contrast. I also have a bit of a thing for rangas with silver skin.

 

Reflection

A quick note about my blogger experience first as I experienced some data loss recently. When you create a post the buttons to the right of the post title are; Post, Save, Preview & Close - auto save is automatically enabled with the inclusion of the save button. When you go back in to edit a post these buttons become; Update, Revert to draft, Preview & Close - there is no auto save. So if you (as I did) close a tab which is not in front with changes that you have not applied the 'Update' button to you may lose those illustrious words of wisdom. This it seems is system specific as I just tried to duplicate my error at home and pop up told me I had unsaved changes on the page (the data loss occurred on campus, I also just updated Safari which may or may not have something to do with it). The thing that irks me about Blogger is that when you hit the update button it takes you back to the post list, what if I just wanted to save my progress and continue editing?
On the cursory reference to the 3D element of the class, you may have noticed that the 'Exercise' and 'Practical' sections of this post were a little thin when compared with the post for 2D. The reason for this is quite simple, I like writing this blog while in class - particularly those sections. Half the work is done for the entire post via copy and paste (as was suggested from the beginning of semester). When a separate (?) PDF for 3D is summarised in the remaining minutes of class this can not happen. At best we have time to copy/paste the template for the post and the questions posed by the exercise/practical with no actual content. There are two solutions to this problem. The first is to cut off presentation of the 2D PDF at its delimiting time prescribed within it at 10.45. This may however have adverse effects on delivery of the prescribed content. The second is to follow Maeda's second law of simplicity, by blurring the distinction between 2 & 3D conflate the PDF for both into one. Thereby streamlining delivery for both the lecturer and the student.

Week 02 - 2D

Class Format

Todays class consisted of gathering, evaluating and collating information as a group exercise. We also looked at design choices with regard to customisation of this blog. The focus was on working collectively and collaboration.

 

Group Exercise

Access Sources of Information

The class divided into two groups which then collected a list in general information sources. The purpose of the exercise was to also gather sources specific to our own practice and interests. Following is a list of the gathered general sources and a couple of links specific to the individuals in our group.

• You can visit a librabry to look at magazines, books – Michelle Turner is the creative arts library specialist at CDU
• Forums and discussion boards
• Industry specific websites
• Local Galleries
• Communicating with other artisit and using web sites like:
• Youtube.
• Whitepapers.
• Eyemagazine.
• International Journal of Design.
• Graphis. - Cherill.
• The design files. - Queenie.
• Design You Trust. - Me.
• My Modern Met. - Me.
• Kat Vond. - Andre.

The goal of this exercise was to gain an appreciation of evaluating and collating resources. In my own practice this organisation occurs at two levels, as the information comes in and where it ends up. My RSS feeds for example are catorgorised as design, art, technology, science and news. I think of this as a top level organisation of information. Resources are then collated in specific groups and types. For example collected video tutorials are sub catorgorised according to the program they are related to, likewise with document tutorials. Other resources like brushes, patterns, samples and articles are similarly sub categorised.

 

Practical - Design Choices

Create a background design for your blog. Use any tools you wish. Put the results and a paragraph of description in blog. Address these 3 points of difference in both designs;


• Shape
  - Cover the top half of the browser window.
• Media
  - Photographic
• Style
  - Realistic, static (does not scroll with the content)

This was is one of the first things I did when I set up this blog. The image is one of mine  and I like the way my cropping and placement situated the lightening bolt beneath my about image. Of course this is more clearly revealed when the user scrolls the content up. The other thing I did straight away was alter the eppearance of links in all of their states (inactive, hover and visited). I found an issue when trying to make my image cover the entire top half of the browser window from the blogger template window - it just does not seem possible. At least not wide enough to cover the enormous monitors in front of us. 2560 pixels across seems to be outside the limit of the underlying template. Custom CSS can be written into the template, which I would assume falls inline and thus over-rides any external style sheet. But, I am yet to crack that little bit of code which is placing a 930 width pixel limit on the on the entire 'content' or 'body' tags. Again with the assuming, I would say the limit would situated with one of these tags. Anyhow, from a design perspective I have gone for a grey palette, keeping the format neutral and emphasising the content. A dull white text is perhaps not the best choice for for large bodies of text on a black background in terms readability and possible eye strain. Cue the sardonic giggle.

 

Research

Video

 

Here is a video about customising your blogger layout. The audio is horrible and difficult to understand. The customisation is limited to the blogger template editor and as such did not solve my problem detailed above. The author is using some nice screen capture software, which honestly is about the only positive thing I can say about this video. Do not watch '...and everything'.

 

Images

 

Here and here are some examples of bloggers who have the same problem as me. A problem which I have elected to ignore for the time being. Not many people expand their web browser to the full width of their screen and less have 27 inch screens in front of them. Besides which the blogs look as I intended on my machine at home - a 21.5 inch iMac.

 

Reflection

The focus for this semester is biased toward collaboration which is taking the form of group exercises at the moment. Further to this, the term 'collaboration' may be sub-categorised as how information sources are gathered, assessed and organised. Assessment requires evidence of this occurring both collectively and individually.
Working with templates I have always found frustrating as there always seem to be hidden limitations lurking beneath the surface. Part of my motivation for undertaking this course was to fine tune my web development skills as I do not want to rely on the use of templates. Designing for the web brings the control freak out in me.

Week 02 - 3D

Class Format

A brief recap of last weeks lesson. Practical exercise - interpret brief and respond based on specified parameters. Collect, evaluate and collate information.

 

Group Exercise

Practical

Create a design for a CDU Design Student Shoulder Bag. Use any tools you wish. Put the results and a paragraph of description in your blog. Address these 3 points of difference in your design:

• Shape
  - Small, body fitting, multi functional.
• Media
  - Canvas and elastic.
• Style
  - Holster.

Sketch for design student shoulder bag. Based on a holster style bag and intended to carry a tablet device, mobile phone, a small sketch book, a pen/stylus,  usb storage device(s) and solar charging device.

 

Research

Video

Anamorphic Typography from Thomas Quinn on Vimeo. This came through RSS from My Modern Met, who made a brief post about the work. This is kind of like using a 3 dimensional space to distort a 2 dimensional space.

 

Images

This also came to me via an RSS via Better Living Through Design. Created by Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack somewhere between 1919 and 1933. I think of this as another example of a communication between the 2 dimensional space and the 3 dimensional. Here the 2D theory of colour is expressed with a 3D form.

Found this while looking for bag design inspiration. Nice steam punk aesthetic and a design I have borrowed heavily from.

             

Reflection

To avoid duplicating anything I am about to write for the 2D entry, I will instead reflect on my own interests in relation to 3D design. My drawing practice has a solid foundation in representing 3 dimensional forms. In actual 3 dimensional space this interest has manifested in my art practice as sculptural pieces constructed from found objects and re-purposed old tech. As a visual example of this to the left is an image from a series of pieces which I collectively titled 'Cyber-Cherub' 

(photographed in motion for your added pleasure). Shortly after that i discovered plaster of paris and dental alginate (a fast setting silicon compound used to make extremely accurate casts of human teeth). Deciding to use this product with other parts of the human body, another example should include a piece titled 'Clock', pictured again to the left. This is where the sculptural pieces gained a functional purpose and perhaps showed an interest in the nature of a visual pun. Between the eyes of the face emerged the accurate hands of a clock, a slider re-purposed from a toaster on the right side also controlled the intensity of the back light. From there on things moved on toward the macabre as demonstrated by the close up shot of the piece below playfully titled 'Untitled (t.v. zombie).

This piece included a functioning stripped down television (... and slightly out of focus L.E.D's in the background for your extra, added pleasure). I screwed up the layout somewhere here, will investigate

Week 01 - 3D

Class Format

This unit of the course, BSBDES303A: Explore and apply the creative design process to 3D forms shares contact time with BSBDES302A: Explore and apply the creative design process to 2D forms. Thus, each week in this blog must include entries for both 3D and 2D. The unit information reads pretty much the same as that for 2D, replacing 2D for 3D as evidenced by the unit titles. This weeks class consisted of group discussion and research followed by a critical analysis of the gathered data.

Group Discussion

While discussing various elements of 2D and 3D design, Steven drew our attention to the machines sitting in front of us. The iMac was put forward as a good example of 3D design, here is a picture of mine at home...

The design follows most obviously John Maeda's first law of simplicity, the law of reduction. Over the years Apple have continued to simplify the look of their flagship machine. I came accross an iMac from around 2009 the other day which made me take a second look, here is an image of one.

Aside from the obvious ratio change of the screen, it took me a moment to pick the aluminium edge around the screen. Unnecessary and even a little distracting once noticed this is now gone from the current models. The base also has a slimmer front facing profile and the back is now all aluminium, bringing its overall appearance more in line with Apple's entire product range. These changes were subtle and simply subtracted the unnecessary.

Research

Video

While this is not strictly speaking a video or an actual 3 dimensional thing, I like it and it does not really fit anywhere else. It is in fact an animated gif, an under-rated and often abused file format. This is a logo I designed for a friends framing business. I created it in Blender, an open source cross platform 3D creation tool with an extremely steep learning curve. His initials are M & M and framing is mostly about making square-ish things, so he thought he was very clever when he came up with the name. I deliberately left the skin off the back of the piece so that when it rotated the underlying framework could be seen, so I also thought I was very clever

Images

Thinking about what to make in 3 dimensions, this is an initial sketch for a clip on table leg system. the idea being that any flat surface could turned into a small table. Construction could either be in timber with a metal clip at the top or my preference one length of bent metal dowel about 5 mm in diameter.

Problem is, I think it may have been done and sure enough with a little research...

Here, they have not only done it , they did it better. This design simplifies things so that two legs are one clip. However, this is the type of thing I would like to design for this element of the course. A simple elegant solution. I just need to come up with a different problem.

Reflection

Being the first week, I am sure the class will find its feet a bit more next week. In the absense of a task outline for this blog I have followed the same format that I have used for Exhibition (CUVCOR04B & BSBCRT402A). I would describe my strength when working 3 dimensionally as having the ability to pull things apart and then reconstruct them differently. Mostly though, I like to pull things apart.

Week 01 - 2D

Class Format

Likewise with most classes this week, the first half of this lesson was consumed with the logistics of what we would be learning, how it will be delivered and what evidence is required at the end. This blog is one of the core evidence components along with an online portfolio and an exhibition at the end of the semester (which to my surprise is sponsored by Coopers!). The course desrciption is suitably vague, "Explore and apply the creative design process to 2D forms", with todays class consisting of a group discussion and research followed by a critical analysis of the gathered data.

Group Exercise

Splitting into pairs we were tasked with finding good and bad examples of 2D design (web pages). Cherill was my co-conspiritor as she was sitting imediately to my right. We chose Pets Online as our bad example and The League of Movable Font as our good example.

Bad Design

Logic (flow):
Too many options to choose from.

Legibility (readable/ Clear):
Navigation buttons too small.
Too busy, cluttered – font size too small.

Information (Organisation):
Again too cluttered.

Artistry (Execution/ Appeal):
Colours are bland
Buttons with font and drop shadow seem dated.

Good Design

Logic:

Simple navigation.

Clear information.

Legibility:

Clear easy to read font.

Information:

Clearly presented on one page

Artistry:

Floating layout, so screen size doesn’t matter.

Presented an eye catching font example first, this draws you into the site.

Research

Video

I like Steven Johnson's final comment in the above video, "Chance favours the connected mind". The video is essentially a distilled visual introduction to the ideas espoused in his book of the same name. Johnson is a popular culture and media theorist based in the U.S. - synopsis and links to his books can be found on his website. I think it is important when thinking about thinking to cast a wide net, a clever animated info-graphic also never hurts.

Images

Further to the group exercise, I am impressed with the design of the Apple website in recent years. Simple, clean and easy to navigate. At the same it maintains a strong relationship with Apple's physical products and hides a vast amount of functionality beneath an elegant hood. My only misgiving would be that it can feel a little like a rabbit hole when explored in greater depth.

This is also pretty classy, found while looking for this (lecturer Steven Moore's website).

Reflection

Good and bad design is of course relative. One man's silk purse is another's sow's ear (oops - mixed metaphor). The more I get into this it seems that a designer's job involves a lot of balancing between the needs and wants of the client with what we can put out there with good conscience as our work. I would characterise my own work as favouring the clean and simple. I generally have a clear and logical approach to problem solving. This is also what I consider to be a core task of the designer - that of solving problems. Problems which exist between the idea and its physical actualisation.

Welcome

This is my first post so that something will show up in the blogger dashboard preview. Here is a picture from the archive. This image was shot in my backyard with a Nikon D5000, standard lens, automatic macro mode at around dusk. I'm not sure what kind of flower it is, if you do - please leave a comment.