Course Reflection 04

The last four design 200 classes have been spent by getting into our Coleman for the home groups and working on our project. Being able to use all four of these classes to come together, talk about our ideas, and distribute roles has been very helpful for our completion of the project. As a group, we have generally almost always agreed on our ideas for the project after talking through everything. Therefore, the in-class time has been a great way to make sure that everyone is on the same page before leaving class and working on our individual parts. I am very interested to see how our presentation goes on Monday and if everyone else likes our ideas.

Reading Reflection 03

“Cradle to Cradle” by William McDonough and Michael Braungart analyzes the authors’ point of how we, as humans, need to work together with ourselves and the environment to re-create a world that can sustain itself for an infinite amount of time, instead of the slow path to an unpleasant ending that we are currently on. Chapter one begins to illustrate their point by giving a summarized history of the industrial revolution and its bullet-pointed goals to design what would create a disgusting environment to live in. The two authors give examples from many different types of inventions and industries ranging from thread spinning wheels, all the way to cars. McDonough and Braungart state that the problem with early industrialists, designers, and engineers was that they did not see their designs as part of a larger system, outside of an economic one (page 24). A quote from page 27 “Everything else is designed for you to throw away when you are finished with it. But where is ‘away’? Of course, ‘away’ does not really exist. ‘Away’ has gone away,” reminded me of the video of William McDonough speaking that we watched in class. It was very neat to see it all connect back to what he was talking about in that lecture.

Chapter two begins by talking about how today we try to fix the problems that we have created by reducing, avoiding, minimizing, sustaining, limiting, and halting (page 45). However, only minimizing and limiting is simply nowhere near enough. Recycling, or downcycling as it is sometimes referred to as, can put more harmful chemicals into the environment than anyone would have ever guessed and can even lead to more negative consequences than positive ones. A quote on page 50 says “Recycling is an aspirin, alleviating a rather large collective hangover…overconsumption.” In the end, as the title of the chapter reflects, eco-efficiency and minimization is only being “less bad” and is not a good enough goal. Page 67 states that being less bad is really only accepting things the way are as the best that humans can do. McDonough and Braungart call it a completely “failure of the imagination.”

Chapter three starts out differently from its preceding chapters by analyzing the components that are put together to from three different books and how they are or are not designed any better for the environment. The only thing that I really didn’t like about this chapter was the way that Braungart and McDonough present themselves and their book in relation to the third, completely eco-friendly book. Although this would be a great achievement, the authors seem to present themselves as very “stuck-up” and somewhat better than everyone else. However, outside of this, my favorite part about this chapter would definitely have to be the authors’ description of a community of ants’ daily activities and how they work together with their surroundings to create a completely sustainable environment. It’s sad that we, as humans, are being shown up by a bunch of ants. The community of ants exemplifies the cradle-to-cradle cycle of nature that the book was titled after.

Chapter four continues to show mankind’s faults in this subject as the authors explain how many countries and cities began by being more environmentally sustainable than they are now. Everyone is beginning to become more like the United States…and that isn’t always a good thing. Page 96 states “Humans are the only species that takes from the soil vast quantities of nutrients needed for biological processes but rarely puts them back in a usable form.” The chapter later goes on to an in depth explanation of the two discrete metabolism processes – biological and technical. These two completely differing views on sustainability were actually very interesting to read and composed a large part of the chapter. However, my favorite part of the chapter was the long quote in the very last paragraph about insanity and negligence. The last two sentences read “ Now that we know, it’s time for a change. Negligence starts tomorrow.”

Chapter five works very well to explain how necessary interdependencies are in our environment. “The vitality of ecosystems depends on relationships: what goes on between species, their uses and exchanges of materials and energy in a given place” (page 121). I also learned about how beneficial local sustainability can be beginning on page 123. “Using local materials opens the doors to profitable local enterprise. It also avoids the problem of bioinvasion” (page 125). The chapter later then goes on to talk about how ultimately, we want to be able to design “processes and products that not only return the biological and technical nutrients they use, but pay back with interest the energy they consume.” This point is illustrated effectively through the authors’ soap example a few pages later. As designers, we would want to ask the question what kind of soap would the environment want to have?

The last chapter of the book works very well to wrap everything up and bring it all back together. The chapter begins by referring to Ford and his company just as McDonough and Braungart had in the beginning chapters. It then moves into the authors’ five steps to rethinking and redesigning and process or product in order to make it eco-effective. I really like how simply all of these ideas were laid out for the reader. The authors make everything sound so simple, almost as if it’s harder to be un-efficient or un-sustainable in the environment that we live in than it is to just be sustainable. The very last paragraph of the book was obviously very well planned out and was extremely well written. The last sentences “What would it mean to become, once again, native to this place – the Earth, the home of all our relations? This is going to take us all, and it is going to take forever. But then, that’s the point,” does a perfect job of finishing off everything that was written about in “Cradle to Cradle.”

Journal 07

After reading some of Golnaz's most recent posts on her blog, I found that I agreed with many of the points that she made in her third course reflection assignment. I really liked her point of how the Charles and Ray Eames movies showed their perspective on design as a lifestyle and not just a job that they have to do. Charles and Ray truly seemed to enjoy what they did with their lives. I also agreed with Golnaz's point that the Cobego design group presentation was a good idea in the sense that it shows us what life/work can be like after graduation. Sometimes as students we can get too caught up in the "here and now" and we don't think must past what happens after these four to five years are over. The Cobego design group presentation was one good example of what some graduates did with their degrees and experiences. Lastly, I also liked Golnaz's letter "Z" that she found for the letterforms assignment. I like the angle that she took the picture at and the creativity of the image. You can view the rest of Golnaz's blog HERE.

The second blog I viewed was Kris's, which is always very interesting and funny to read. I'd have to say that Kris's online scavenger hunt post was one of his wittiest yet, which was impressive since the task was a pretty clear, cut-and-dry assignment. The second thing that stood out the most to me on his blog were his letters from the found letterforms assignment. Kris chose to go slightly above and beyond on his post...I think he had almost every letter in the alphabet including doubles or even triples of many. Some of my favorite shots that he got were the "J' from the umbrella handle, the "O" from the life-ring, and the "A" out of the swing set. Click HERE to see all of Kris's blog.

The last blog on my face value group in Joseph's. Unfortunately, Joseph hasn't posted any of the required assignments since the last found faces post. However, if you would still like to view his blog you can do so HERE. In order to make up for this, I decided to view another random classmates blog from the list. This led me to Alicia L's blog. I really like the layout that she chose to use for her page as well as the color scheme. I definitely had to agree with her on the Rip! A Remix Manifesto video being my favorite part of the last few classes as well. Lastly, Alicia had a lot of really great images on her page for her found letterforms post. I'm not sure that she took them all herself, but many of the images were very creative and shot at great angles in order to capture the letters. The rest of Alicia's blog can be viewed HERE.

Assignment 04- Letterform Seek and Find

Found letters! The Q, P, and A are my favorites.

Letter "Q"

Lock on door turned sideways

Letter "P"

Found on a handrail

Letter "i"

Door handle with keyhole/lock

Letter "D"

Over-the-door rack

Letter "V"

Down arrow on an elevator

Letter "Y"

Tree branch

Letter "U"

Bike rail turned upside down. This picture could also be for a letter "n" if not turned upside down.

Letter "m"

Handrail

Letter "H"

Bars in opaque window

Letter "L"

Piping on the ceiling

Letter "T"

Handlebars for the top of the "T" and the actual frame for the stem of the letter

Letter "X"

Bottom of a table

Letter "O"

Wood grain

Letter "A"

I think this is part of a sawhorse for cutting wood - I found it outside of my dorm where all of the construction is taking place.

Journal 06 - Online Scavenger Hunt

Links to the websites of 5 manufacturers or retailers who specialize in outdoor camping and recreation products:

1.) http://www.easyoutdoorsstore.com/

2.) http://www.campmor.com/

3.) http://www.backcountry.com/

4.) http://www.rei.com/

5.) http://www.outdoorrecwarehouse.com/

3 images of trade show / exhibition booths from the outdoor recreation and sporting industry:

Links to the websites of 5 manufacturers or retailers who specialize in indoor home:

1.) http://www.wshome.com

2.) http://www.waterloogardens.com/products/indoor-decor

3.) http://www.lehmans.com

4.) http://www.homegoodsstore.us

5.) http://www.crateandbarrel.com/decorating-and-accessories/

3 images of trade show/exhibition booths from the indoor home goods market:

A A working defintion of what an indoor home good is:

I would define an indoor home good as a product that can be useful, beneficial, and/or desirable to a person in a home environment.

3 images of different types of possible home goods:

Images From:

http://www.blavish.com/the-interactive-refrigerator-from-lg-electronics/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chicaandjo/3250958112/

http://home-and-garden.become.com/factoryrefurbished-eureka-4704pnkr-maxima-lightweight-bagless-vacuum-cleaner-pink--compare-prices--sc1115974520

http://www.zimbio.com/Exhibition+Booth+Design/articles/jQ7p-tdxOf5/trade+show+booths

http://blog.qnet.net/2010/09/the-sports-sponsorships-booth-experience-at-v-malaysia-2010/

http://www.aspectexhibitions.co.uk/outdoor_exhibition_stands.php

http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/products/6191095/Display_rack_exhibition_booth_exhibition_stand_trade_show_stand.html

Course Reflection 03

My favorite part of the last 4 design classes was definitely the "Rip!: A Remix Manifesto" video that we watched last Monday and Wednesday. Some people commented that they didn't like the somewhat unorganized way that the movie was presented in, but I think that was one of its strongest points. It portrayed the creator's point in a unique and creative way that kept my attention over the two separate days that we watched it. I had heard of "Girl Talk" before in the past, but never really knew exactly what they were all about and was amazed at how much work goes into creating a simple few seconds of a remixed song. Also, I have always known that copyrights can really seem to be over-the-top with things in the creative world (music, art, etc), but this movie showed how they can also inhibit further creativity and even scientific discoveries such as a cure for cancer. I'm glad that we were able to take the class time to watch this video.

The second two classes on May 2nd and 4th were also interesting, but not particularly important to me as the guest speakers really tried to persuade us to consider a major in the design field. Personally, I am already set on my goal to major in marketing and minor in graphic design, so learning all about the entrance exam for design majors wasn't of great importance to me. Still, it was very intersting to hear about all of the different projects that the two different groups of guest speakers have completed in their experiences as designers.

Journal 05 Peer Dialogue 02

The farther we progress into spring quarter, the more interesting everyone's blog posts become, and Kris D's is no exception. His witty posts are entertaining to read and I really like the way that he sets up his pictures in slideshow format instead of just posting them to the page. My favorite part of his blog would defintely have to be the captions on the found faces slideshow..."You're going to open another one?!?!" on the can-opener picture (link).

The next blog I went on to read was Golnaz's. I enjoyed reading many of her posts and found that I agreed with a lot of the things that she said in her last course reflection post. She also really liked a lot of the videos that we have been watching recently in class and had many good points to go along with her statements. I definitely had to agree that I would love to work in an environment similar to the one in IDEO as opposed to a typical, traditional office style. I also liked the way that Golnaz sectioned her "found faces" post off into different sections such as cars, buildings, home appliances, and miscellaneous. My favorite picture of hers was the second image under the "buildings" category because the house even looked like it had teeth on it. You can view all of Golnaz's blog by clicking here.

The last blog in my face value group was Jocef L's. For me, the most interesting part of his blog was his last course reflection post. His opinion was a very intersting side to hear from and I liked his statement about how we keep continuing to give our world a "plastic surgery makeover." He obviously also very much enjoyed the videos that Golnaz and I chose to post about as well. Lastly, you definitely can't view Jocef's blog without seeing his car mustache photo! I can't believe that the snow actually melted on his car so perfectly just like it did! This assignment was a great time for him to get to use and post that picture. To view these posts and the rest of Jocef's blog, click here.