Comparison and Contrast

In the beginning, the bicycle looked ridiculous.

It was the ride of the rich! It got people places, not only faster, but "in style". The overly large front wheel and the laughable small back wheel made many people question the functionality of this object, but it was efficient, and people soon grew to like the bicycle so much that they dedicated the time and effort to redesigning it. So, the image of the bicycle grew from this:
to something more modern, to something that would perhaps look like this twenty years form now:
As insane as this may look, the evolution of the bicycle has changed somewhat. There were gears added, different types of metals tested and used, different bar placement, different handlebar placement, everything was questioned. Would the bike seat be comfortable for males, or would it only suit females? Are the bars in the way of easily getting on the bike, or, heavens forbid, they prevent one from getting off the bike easily? There are many different things that designers had to think of to not only streamline the bicycle, but provide a leisure version, and a racing version as well. Now, the bicycle has many options to choose from, if one needs more visual imagery, please step outside, or travel to Davis...

Design as Conversation

Design is a universal language, in every culture and country there exists some type of design, and they all look different from each other. Architecture in Japan looks different from architecture in America. However, even then there are similarities that allow design to be understood across the world. Most designers have a common goal, whether it be becoming more eco-friendly, to being more aesthetically pleasing, since design is a very visual language. Without sharing the same oral language, people can communicate via images and PowerPoint’s, through common ideas of what is most economical to produce, to what would reach out to the most people.

Design as conversation also reaches to non-designers. Something that was made in Japan could have just as much relevance in America, or the other way around. There are no words that are needed in order to have an expression of ideas. If something is not done well, people will notice.
Whether the designer likes it or not, the public forms an opinion of his product or idea at sight. Thus, it turns his or her design turns into a conversation! Through the public rejecting or ignoring his work, the designer knows that he/she is not on the right track, and needs to change his direction. The designer controls what the public receives, the public controls what the designer creates—in this way they have a wordless conversation, or a give-and-take relationship.
Fortunately, this kind of trade often works out for the best. The public is satisfied with the new product, and the designer is usually satisfied knowing that he or she made something of value to the public. Sometimes this is not the case, as opinions vary widely, but in most cases the results are positive.

Textile Design

Textile design is an interesting major, as it is part fashion design, part interior architecture design. Though many would just disregard textile design as a strange major, it is actually a very interesting course consisting of looking into fabric textures, patterns, and materials.
Fabrics are used for everything, from home furnishings, to clothing. Everybody has their opinions on what they wear, to what they’re always associated to. Fashion design is something everybody thinks they can do, and thus they always have strong opinions about it. However, if one thinks about it, it’s actually one of the hardest majors out there. Not everybody will appreciate one’s sense of fashion, or even what one thinks looks good. Even the models are subjected to criticism.
However, textile design is much more than that. To major in textile designs, one must know how to keep with the trends, not only with colors and seasons, but with fabric type and indoor furnishings. One must have an excellent sense of color coordination and also must possess the ability to read people’s personalities. Psychology also plays into this major. Plus, don’t forget biology! With the new craze of “green”, organic materials are also more prized and considered higher in fashion. One would have to factor in the biodegradable factor of everything, and make it look good as well.
Textiles play into every aspect of our day-to-day lives. From the chairs you sit in to the clothes you wear, there was a designer that thought the cloth would be suitable for the chair, the shirt, the shorts to be manufactured.

Creativity from Without

Many artists pull inspiration from the world around them, and not from other artists. They find their own style, their own approach to the world—they are innovators, entrepreneurs, people who have gone where nobody had ventured before. They start the trends, they instigate.
Most artists learn from others first. They pull on the styles and trends of the past, or the current hip look. We all start off learning from teachers, or gaining inspiration from other finished products. However, the truly amazing can pull ideas from pieces, and put those together for a style that is completely their own and never seen before.
Everybody is confronted with a need to pull an idea from nowhere at sometime in their lives, regardless of what job they pursue. Especially since copyright issues are inevitable, people start thinking in different directions from the norm, something that possibly nobody else would have thought was plausible.
Throughout history, there were people that realized the need to create something to simplify others or their own lives—they are often called the inventors.
Oftentimes, pure genius is born out of selfishness. The need for a certain item induces the need to create something to satisfy the need—and ta-dah, the public finds themselves also wanting to use the product to simplify their everyday lives.
The selfishness, in this case, was beneficial to all the people around them. In some ways, it can seem quite incidental, but in some cases it always ends up for the best.

Stone Soup

Much like the children’s book this event was named after, the Stone Soup event allowed our group to talk to each other and find our strengths and weaknesses, then create a project through a collaborative effort. In most cases, this collaborative effort often ends with positive results. This also allowed our team to bond a little more. Through this teamwork, we found something that represented each of us. Although the final product might not have looked visually cohesive, we all helped put it together, and in this case, the art representing the ideas and feelings, rather than just for aesthetic purposes.
This project allows us to glimpse at what professionals have to endure—conflicting ideas and sometimes too many ideas, which ones to choose and which ones to exclude. In fact, even if we end up not majoring in design, this project would be a great way for people to learn how to work together, to see what other people are like. This gives us the corny life lessons that we all need to learn at one time or another.
This project also allowed us to see other personalities, and it lets us picture what we would face in future work environments. This is also a sort of test to see how well we would fare in our future jobs, and possibly even what type of jobs we should pursue.
I enjoyed working with my group members, it also helped me extend my social network, which is invaluable in college and in the future.

Greetings!

Hulloa! I hail from the Bay area, or otherwise known as “not that far from Davis.” I’m a freshman this year, and I’m majoring in Design. I hope to end up majoring (so far, anyway) in Visual Communications, which seems to fit my various interests best.
I’ve always been interested in art, from the time I picked up that grape-scented silly marker, to now, when I doodle all over my notes and white boards in the dorm.
I have a love of looking through magazines and websites that feature revamped items like chairs, cars, anything from everyday life. I love how simple items become useful for everything, how that chair can become a table, and how that paper case for your chopsticks can become an object that lets you rest your chopsticks off the table.
I also love the aesthetic aspect of design. I love messing with typography and creating eye-catching powerpoints, trying to mix in as many bright colors I can into one painting, the simple exploration and experimentation of design—the search for the best result.
I hope to continue in design regardless of circumstances, and in any case, it’s already integrated itself into my everyday life, it would be hard to distance myself from design now.
In the end, all I hope to do is create something that simplifies life in a big way, like the discovery of electricity or the invention of the easy chair. I have simple desires and needs, I like to think simply (though this happens not nearly enough), and I am, hopefully, simple to like.
Nice to meet you too! :3

Inspiration Everywhere

Please name something off the top of your head that you need every day. Perhaps you’d like a seat while you do that? Or how about you put down that cup of coffee on this table that was just a chair. No? How about lounging then?

The one item that amazed me was the multipurpose chair. It is such an everyday item, and our preconception of chairs often turns into the regular four-legged wooden chair with a straight back. However, when we turn our eyes to the amazing world of design, we are often greeted with amazingly elegant pieces of work.

The new sleek design was incredible to me, and it particularly struck me that not all chairs needed to look the same. I developed a love of looking through furniture magazines, not because we needed a new chair, but to see what people were doing with their creativity. That chair doesn’t need to be stuck as a chair, it can be a bar stool, or a coffee table, or a mini-lounge—many doors have been opened for chairs.

I find the fact that such an ordinary item can be twisted into something else—it’s almost symbolic for human lives. We need not live by the stereotypes we are sometimes defined by, we can adapt and develop different skills.

Why stop there? Why not create a fold-able multipurpose chair, or something with wheels? Something for the masses, or something we can use at home to just conserve space. What humans need, humans make.