Jesse James Garrett on design

"Problems with visual design can turn users off so quickly that they never discover all the smart choices you made with navigation or interaction design." -- Jesse James Garrett (http://quotesondesign.com/jesse-james-garrett/) . I found this quote to be particularly interesting because I think it is a very truthful and honest drawback about being a designer. Most people tend to be judgmental based solely on visual interactions, but this tendency is intensified especially these days with all the advertising around us. We are constantly bombarded with ads and propaganda trying to sell us something or tell us what we should or shouldn't do. Our only defense against stimulus overload is to block out everything which doesn't appeal to us. This is a concern for designers, because their job is to make products appealing, to be the ones who sell to us and tell us what to do. Therefore, if when trying to be the best and appeal to everyone they should make a visual blunder, their viewers will immediately disregard whatever else the design offers since it is not worth their precious time.

Typeface

If I asked you to identify the brand name to the left, I bet it wouldn't be too hard for you to do so. But, just in case anyone isn't catching on, I'll give you a little hint: they usually make very colorful products which people of rather small stature and young of age use to create visions of artistic chaos, usually with near seizure-inducing colors. Still not getting it? I'll help you out a little....











Voila! It's Crayola Crayons! If you're like most people and you immediately realized the logo of one of your favorite (or most dreaded) childhood art supplies. They use bright colors to attract the attention of their main audience - children in elementary school - who delight in these basic aesthetic qualities. The Crayola logo has remained virtually the same for decades; this is a purposeful tactic on Crayola's part, because people trust products they've grown up with and recognize. Their easy-to-read child-like font is appealing both to kids and to adults as a trusted and self-tested product which has been an established house-hold object for as long as any of us can remember.

David Choong Lee

David Choong Lee's exhibition at the University of Arizona School of Art is one of the most dynamic and fascinating compositions I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. His collection consists of ordinary boxes, such as cigar boxes, intricately decorated with geometric patterns, portraits, and drips of paint. The boxes form a color coordinated matrix wrapping around the room and giving the composition three dimentional diversity with the way he stacks the boxes. He fascinatingly combines portraits of mostly African-American influences, such as rappers like Snoop Dogg and the Reverend Al Sharpton. He combines these icons with every day media like actual parking tickets painted into a piece, and street signs in the background of others. His work truly flows in both its color and the arrangement of the boxes, and tells a story of his life with so many dimensions and thoughts going through it with a tangible artistic underpinning which truly defines this artist's life.

Reflection On What Makes Advertising Tick

Advertising has exploded into a virtually inescapable force in the United States in recent times, dominating the media market and influencing the daily lives of millions. Regardless of the consumers’ conscious awareness, advertisers bombard the audiences of televisions, radios, newspapers, and magazines everywhere with creative new persuasions to buy their products. There are fliers, billboards, signs, and commercials promoting endless new products by trying to catch and hold the public’s attention better than their competitors. They tend to remain focused on one simple point they can communicate as quickly and efficiently as possible, with the intention of appealing to a larger crowd who wants to keep expenditures minimal. For example, more universal commercials (such as food) tend to use more slang terms and avoid using complicated or confusing vocabulary in order to cater to a more prolific audience in our society. Conversely, the more expensive products advertised sometimes use more intellectually advanced vocabulary and formal language to invite a more elite crowd willing to spend increasing amounts of money on more enjoyable and catered experiences. All these factors come into the design process, from the creation of the product to the type of advertising used to promote it, hundreds of decisions about design were fabricated, rejected, and made into reality with the aid of form and function.

Mind Mapping Design

In order to mind map "design," I decided to focus on four main categories that I thought were the key foci of the topic. First I focused on function, which is the actual purpose of the design. I highlighted three main areas which use functional design; First, the design is used to convey information such as road signs, legal documents, text books, and so on. Design is used for commercial purposes in all types of media: television, movies, magazines, bill boards, just to name a few. Design can also have cultural functionings, such as choreographed dances or prayers, as well as specific arts and crafts special to certain cultures.
From there I considered the importance of form of design, breaking the topic into two parts. In the first, 3 dimensional design, I focused on uses such as sculptures for aesthetic purposes, but 3D design also often produces items that we use every day. Also, since there are three dimensions in which to work, there is more physical diversity to be explored. 2D design on the other hand offers just as much to society, with the appeal of literature as well as popular media (i.e. magazines, TV shows, news, etc.). However, since 2D has only a flat surface to work on, it must find ways to be diverse and convey its use in different ways.
The designer's meaning can be apparent in its approach, such as road signs, pretty pictures, and designs intended for sheer shock value. Often designers look for shock value in order to make a strong point, for example anti-war campaigns featuring gory pictures. They can also try to be more mysterious about their meanings, perhaps to teach the audience a moral, or to covertly criticize their targets without being overtly obvious.
Lastly, I focused on a couple concerns associated with design. One must consider the role of the audience when designing, and be careful not to offend anyone with what you create; not only out of concern for losing your followers, but for the sake of their psychological well-being (i.e. see case about anti-war campaign). If one is appealing to a certain audience for a product advertisement, designers must also beware of to whom they are appealing as well as the best media and designs to best do so. Finally, designers must be conscious of the costs of their designs, and choose wisely the paths to best express their desired outcomes.

Egocentric Earth: Life In the Universe

The existence of life elsewhere in outer space has remained a captivating and widely debated subject throughout human history. One need only look at the diversity of life on our own planet to discover the array of creatures with various means of adapting to severe environments, an ability which gives confidence to those optimistic of finding life “out there”. Imagine for a moment you had not been exposed to the different kinds of animals found all over our planet. The vast array of our planet’s species, each with their own distinctive physiology, would seem to more alien than even Hollywood’s most extreme creations. This sentiment is supported by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who rationalizes, “On this single planet called Earth, there co-exist (among countless other life forms), algae, beetles, sponges, jellyfish, snakes, condors, and giant sequoias. Imagine these seven living organisms lined up next to each other in order of size. If you didn't know better, you would be hard-pressed to believe that they all came from the same Universe, much less the same planet.” The ability for organisms to adapt to extremely harsh environments remains one of the most convincing pieces of evidence in the argument for the proliferation of life through the Universe. The detection of extraterrestrial life will help us understand whether our existence came about as a result of pure chance and that we solitary creatures will remain the singular illustration of a phenomenal event, or that we simply happen to represent a particular example of the development and diversity of life which proliferates through our boundless Universe.

Bruce Mau's "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"

Here are several points about personal growth made by Mau which I find particularly empowering:

4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child). Joy is the engine of growth. Exploit the liberty in casting your work as beautiful experiments, iterations, attempts, trials, and errors. Take the long view and allow yourself the fun of failure every day.

I particularly like this point because it teaches you to love the mistakes you make. I find this fundamental to personal growth, because in loving your mistakes you not only find the good in what you may have thought was bad but you also learn to love yourself more as a result. By hating what you create, you essentially hate a part of yourself, for whatever you create you put a little part of who you are into that creation. However by loving your creations no matter their faults you learn to love yourself just that much more, and loving yourself is a true step towards growth.

16. Collaborate. The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.

The idea of working with others is a corner stone in growth, because it allows you to see things through others' eyes. Without others' imput, you view things in a static way, with no new ideas or perspectives to sway your stagnant way of seeing things. However when you work with someone, no matter how well or how poorly, you learn to see things as someone else would and can better see all aspects of something. For without additional input, without changing the filter of the lens, all things begin to take on the same stark tone.

26. Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.

This point made me laugh, because I completely agree with Mau's sentiment here. By entering an award competition, not only are you conforming to a prescribed image which is viewed as better than any other, you are lowering yourself to the opinions and judgement of others. By competing for an award, you allow other people who are no better than yourself to compare you to others around you and tell you whether you are better or worse than them. We are all different and beautiful and good in our own rights, and for someone to tell you that you are not the best isn't just wrong, it's bad for your self love and personal growth.