looking back

Overall I found this course pretty interesting and certainly informative. Coming from a landscape arch background and having already taken several design courses at OSU, some of the material was more like a review for me, but there was plenty of material covered that was brand new to me. The assignments were all pretty fun and made me think about things differently. I was a big fan of Cradle to Cradle, but not so much of Very Short Intro. Also, as a minor in design, I feel like it's important to note that there is a lot of overlap between this course and design 230 (the course specifically for minors, which I also took this quarter), but that's not really a huge deal. I think this course must be pretty difficult to teach and make interesting with such a large number of students, but I think it was executed well. All in all, definitely a course worth taking.

J10: in closing

Overall, I feel good about our project. I think we had a good idea and were able to execute and explain it pretty well. Our team worked well together, no one stepped on anyone else's toes and we split up the work load as equally as we could. As far as personal contributions, I focused mainly on executing the redesign of the logo as well as the majority of the packaging design. I contributed a fair amount to the development of the product, but I feel like I could have done more as far as the kiosk design. I also took on the first phase of putting the presentation together, which we got together and finished as a group. I definitely think there were some areas where our project was lacking, but given our time frame, varying levels of experience and skill, and the fact that we were given a pretty rigid framework we did our best.

links:

J09 
J08 

adam 
carl 
stuart 
telina

coleman for the home, finishing up

I can safely say that our group will be more than ready to present our project later today. We finalized everything (aside from some last minute finishing touches) last night and we are all happy with the finished product. The team has worked very well together. We haven't had any major conflicts and everyone has contributed an equal amount. As far as my contribution, I ended up focusing mainly on the packaging aspect. The packaging was what I was most interested in from the get go, so I'm glad that I got to spend most of my time on it. I also set-up the first draft of our presentation, which we edited last night as a group. Below are some images of our progress:

Final logo concept

Final packaging concept (ended up being changed for final)

 links to teammates' blogs:

adam
carl
stuart
telina
 

progress

Our group spent last week mainly brainstorming ideas for our project. We started with the idea of a storage locker that would be able to deodorize its contents, which would be useful for both outdoor gear and other products, such as clothing, pet care products, etc... After some research and discussion, however, we decided to switch and focus instead on a product that would help keep houses warm during winter. This product would essentially be an improvement upon current heating solutions, specifically plastic sheeting used typically to cover windows in older houses, preventing cold air from coming and warm air from leaking out. We realized that there haven't really been any advances made in this type of home heating for some time, so we feel that this idea is worth exploring. So far we've been working pretty well together, aside from some minor disputes about what our focus should be and which of the ideas we've brainstormed are worth dedicating a significant amount of time and effort to develop. On Monday, we briefly discussed who would be focusing on which aspects of the project. I'm more interested in visual design, so I have been and will be contributing more to the packaging and overall appearance of the product and exhibition booth. I've been doing some work on making a new logo (see sketches below), but I think maybe I could be contributing more to the development of the product itself. I've also set up a dropbox location for us to use, which ought to facilitate collaboration quite a bit. At this point, I think we just need to divide the workload and focus on our respective contributions and, later in the week, put everything together for next week. Overall, I'm feeling good about this project and I think we can produce something really great.

Ideation notes and logo sketches

links to teammates' blogs:

adam 
carl 
stuart 
telina 

very short intro, ch 9-10

The last two chapters of this book brought up some very interesting points. The bit about small and medium enterprises was especially interesting to me. I think it's strange that big companies can get away with selling lots of poorly designed products, but smaller companies can do just as well selling fewer well-designed products and services. It makes sense in the reading, but I had never really thought about why that is before. I was also really interested in the role of design in government. I was unaware that a relationship existed between governments and design, let alone that these relationships have such a long history. I have to say, I'm not all that surprised that the US doesn't have the same type of government promotion of design as other countries. The final chapter was interesting as well. I definitely agree with the statement that drawing is an irreplaceable skill for designers, no matter how much computers advance in the future. All in all, I found this book very informative, but I must say, not all that exciting of a read.

week 7

The marshmallow challenge... really? I know I'm biased because, as I said in class, it's the third time I've had to do it in the past year, but I feel like the marshmallow challenge is old news. Aside from that, the Cobego presentation was pretty interesting. I always like to see how people in design fields operate in the real world. The projects they showed us were all pretty cool and I've looked at coroflot a few times since and seen some nice projects on there too. The Eames videos were also pretty interesting. It never ceases to amaze me how productive those two were.

cradle to cradle III

After this week, I can certainly say that this is one of the most interesting and informative books I have read in quite a while. There were a few parts of this reading that were of particular interest to me. The idea of biological and technical material flows bought up a good point. I used to think that if every product could be made out of biodegradable materials, it would solve the problems associated with many products. The idea of technical nutrients, however, points out that it's not really about what products are made of, but rather how many times they can be reused that determines their environmental impact. As a side note, I recently found out some interesting eco facts while doing research for another class, which relate to the idea of technical nutrients. First, I found out that asphalt is actually a pretty great material ecologically, as it can be recycled countless times without using value, and it can be recycled on site or off of site. I also found out that Ohio is actually one of the best states when it comes to recycling asphalt; 90% of our new roads and road repairs are made of recycled asphalt. The concept of products of service was also very interesting to me. I think it might be difficult to implement, however, as it would force a lot of people to change their ideas about what products fundamentally are. I was surprised that LEED certification was not mentioned in chapter 5. I know that a lot of forward thinking architects and landscape architects take issue with LEED. I, for one, am not a big fan of the LEED program, as it has historically been exploited by construction managers as a way to earn tax breaks. The results may or may not actually be more eco-friendly and, more often than not, have little or nothing to do with aesthetic sensibilities. I was also pleased to learn in chapter 6 that Nike is pursuing more eco-minded production methods, as I just bought my first pair of Nike's ever a few months ago. Chapter 6 also brought up the issue of genetically modified produce. I just saw a documentary called The Future of Food which brought up similarly disturbing information about GM plants (i.e. the fact that they are probably not 100% safe for human consumption, but they are very good at competing with non-GM plants). Overall, I really liked this book and found it both inspiring, and a little bit scary.