A02: Short Post of Designer (2)

Charles and Ray Eames

• Charles worked for engineers and manufacturers, where as Ray was fascinated by abstract qualities of ordinary objects.
• They had an office together (Eames Office) in Venice.
• Married in 1941, during the time of war. However, during this time period, it inspired them to do low-cost furniture.
• Charles studied architecture for 2 years at Washington University.
• Charles was a design instructor from 1939-1940, and Ray was doing weaving, ceramics and metal work in 1941.
• They were into filmmaking and made over 85 films.
• They started to create furniture designs in the 1970s.
• They helped design art museums, such as the Smithsonian Institution.
• Charles was in the National Council of Arts.
• Ray was in "The Arts, Education, and Americans" set up by the American Council of the Arts and Education.

Sources:

http://www.eamesoffice.com/charles-and-ray

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/eames/

Picture Source:

Picture

J03: Survey

I surveyed my friends that are all undergraduates here at The Ohio State.

I asked simple questions like, would you rather be this or that.

Nothing should affect my results because they all responded back,

and since my sample was a small group, it was easy not to lose accuracy of my results.

A02: Short Post of Designer (1)

Architect: Chris Downey

As I look around the library in Knowlton, I find myself intrigued by a magazine called Form Pioneering Design - Designing for t

he Senses (with a braille blueprint of a building layout on the front). I immediately wanted to learn more about how this was possible since being blind in an architecture or interior space design profession sounded quite impossible.

I turned to page 14-15, to learn more about Chris Downey. The article is titled, Sight Unseen and it talks about how Downey lost his sight from surgery after 20 years of being an architect.

• During his rehabilitation services, he got an embossing printer. It prints embossed drawings on sixteen-inch-wide rolls, and it's basically like Braille. He then uses a PDF of the drawings that the stuff workson and takes that PDF and printsit out through the embossing printer. The line-work becomes a series of dots, so therefore, this gives Downey information through his fingertips (Kurlander 14).
• Other techniques that helps him are Wikki Stix, which are little waxed sticks children use to draw. Downey uses this directly on his embossing drawings and it's his away with interacting actively on his design (14).
• Acoustics help him understand space because he hears the echoes to tell how large a space is. Downey realized designers can think of design elements as visual, but they can also have tactile value (15).
• Downey is a design consultant to SmithGroup in association with The Design Partnership, LLP, on the VA Rehabilitation Center for the VA Health Care System on the Palo Alto, CA, campus (15).
• Downey is working on projects types that canbe difficult for blind users that associate with transit centers, airports and museums (Fogg).
• Earned a bachelor in environmental design in architecture from North Carolina State University and a masters in architecture from the University of California.
• Award Winning Projects: custom residences of Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth, MN and MIT's Rotch Architectural Library.
• Registered architect in California.
• 
  Wikki Stix (Fogg)
  

Braille (Fogg)

Sources:

Fogg, Don

2010/9/23

Architect Chris Downey finds Second Sight

http://archpaper.com/e-board_rev.asp?News_ID=4814

Kurlander, Caren

Sight Unseen (14-15)

Form Pioneering Design - Design for the Senses

Magazine

J02

I took pictures of patterns around Ohio State.

Evans Lab: The pattern when you step outside

into the cold weather. It uses squares and curve

sided squares.

This red, rubbery, grip tile on the side walk

has a pattern but also serves to help people from

losing their balance.
SEL Ceiling: The patterns for the lighting feature

and ceiling element provide a pattern.
SEL Chair: Wooden chairs always have the natural

patterns from the tree itself. I love looking at the

tree patterns.

Pocket Pouch of my Backpack: I found it interesting,

that my backpack has a lot of different patterns on itself.

Curtain of Science and Engineering Library: The blinds serve as a pattern.

I never thought it could be a pattern, but it is with all the horizontal lines.

Thompson Library: This is the main carpet on each floor of the library.

Although it may look dull, there is some color variation.

Ground tile on 17th: This pattern is where all

the bikes were on the bike racks.

I find it interesting that some goes horizontal

and others go vertical.

Outside of Hitchcock: A lot of buildings

have this same pattern going on. I find it

rather repetitive that Ohio State has this same

brick pattern.

Outside of Stillman: I picked this because

there happens to be a lot of these around campus.

Knowlton: I love the exterior of the architecture

building, and you know there will be patterns on

this building.

CR02

Last week, we learned about the history behind design, like which historic events made design it is today. There were pictures on the slides to show you the first toilet, steam engine, etc -- to show how much innovation and technology progression we went through. Everything lead up to Modernism, from changing aesthetics, new patterns such as curvilinear and rectilinear, simplification and abstraction, to perspective and rationale. It helps after you read Haskett, it's easier to look back on what we learned earlier because the book gives it a more in depth thinking and understanding. When I think of design now, there's so many more factors and influences it does to the society that it makes me want to become a designer even more because I want to influence the world.

RR01

Leah Choi

Chapter 1

Summary

In the first chapter, it talks about what design is. A lot of people have misconceptions or wrong connotations of what design is. I could relate to this because a lot of my friends who find out that I want to go for Interior Design always ask me if I could design their homes. But little do they know that, interior design is different from interior decorating so they get this misconception that it’s all about fun and not so much the design aspect behind it. Design’s unique definition is human’s capability to shape and better the environment. From this definition, I realized that it was so true that human beings are able to communicate, think, and design things in our world. With our intelligence we were able to advance technology and use what we have around us to create something to benefit our lives.

Chapter 2

Summary

In the second chapter, it talks about the history of design. It’s interesting to have a compacted history of design because I couldn’t imagine how many innovations our world went through within decades. With that being said, it talked about during the times of Industrialization or war, art and the industry combined together made great designs such as the automobiles. An interesting statement I got out of the chapter was after the Second World War; designers start to think about form and the fundamental importance to clients’ businesses. It also talks about the technology advancement in our society because of design. Japan, although a small country with few natural resources around itself, the people there have succeeded of making so many designs that helps better the environment. In the end of the chapter, it talks about how interactive design for electronic media helped navigate large and complex bodies of information. New markets, new businesses, new technology will constantly changing and the question that every designer should ask themselves, is whose interest is it going to serve?

Chapter 3

Summary

In the third chapter, it talks about “form follows function.” The two important focuses were utility and significance. Utility is efficiency, where as significance is expression and meaning concept of design. After reading some of the examples in the chapter, I didn’t realize that people in different cultures could affect the meaning of something. That the role of power and technology is a problem and it can become a threat when we don’t know if it’s useable or comprehensible. But the cool thing about design is that you can make of it however you want with what culture you grew up in. Everyone has their own set of beliefs and interests, that when something is designed, it’s going to help out someone either way.

Reading Reflection 01

Link: http://designcorner.blinkr.net/the-water-vapor-project/

I found an interesting blog about The Water Vapor Project, which is an attempt to hydrate the desert landscape of Africa. A group of designers have come up with an innovative plan to use simple basics of water vapor. The article gives you a background of how much desert and dry land Africa's landscape is, which is 60%, and only 10% of the soil condition is suitable for agriculture. They show a diagram of how cold air and warm air meet, the temperature decreases, and the element has a smaller volume, which turns to water vapor. The project looks like a wind power generator with solar heat panels.

I'm glad that people are thinking of ways to help other countries that struggle with agriculture through design. It's always interesting to learn about how we can make the environment better with the creations we have already built/manufactured in the past. I think people would find this interesting, because I'm sure people are aware of the unfortunate agriculture and lifestyle that most people in Africa have to go through.