La Finale

Cleaning images, messing with depth

Think+make Reading response

Our readings seemed to be concentrated primarily on defining and explaining design in general, showing its breadth, and ultimately saying little more than cumulative summaries of what design theorists have said in many ways. While possibly giving the totally unexposed individual a greater understanding of the breadth of design, this seems to silly to me (as I sit and right my own opinionated summary).  Design cannot be put in a box—unless, paradoxically—it was designed for that purpose, yet we try to quantify it as a mixture of applied systems, creative unorthodoxy, and solution first thinking. Ultimately, in my opinion, the design process is a basic element of human nature that we choose to compartmentalize. Mathematical systems were all designed from creatively using symbols to represent ideas in naturally occurring patterns. Rooms are arranged through forethought of daily routines and the trial and error that comes with living in those environments. If you have never designed at some basic level than you have never lived. Just like fine art, design professions are only different from this basic human condition in that time and energy are purposefully spent to precisely and efficiently represent a creative idea, just as Monet incarnated a fleeting impression, or Einstein simplified our physical existence. To define design one can only show design, and recognize it’s permanent incompleteness.

A Response to Don Normans TED Talk

http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2003/None/DonNorman_2003.mp4

Don Norman takes a self acknowledged turn from his normal train of design thought in this video as he expresses the value that emotional reactions have in design. His argument is that while function is often first in his mind, emotion and aesthetics can control functionality. The example of depth focus, triggered by stress, assisting in working on a singular task was strikingly familiar to a student used to using every minute before a deadline. On the other hand the breadth focus, initiated by pleasantry and relaxedness, helping in brainstorming and creative thought illustrates that different kinds of work thrives under different circumstances. The same can be applied to design. Astronauts do not need pretty control panels because launches are impeccably timed procedures with little room for very broad thinking, but in applications where total focus is not necessary an objects “prettiness” works actively with reflective thought to  create a more holistically pleasant experience.

Pyrex poster part deux: le rough draft

A couple of Pyrex poster ideas

Some color theory bits and pieces

I was tempted to drop all of my notes from my color theory lecture directly into this post with examples, but for your sake I'm sticking with the interesting bits.

Some terms you may never need to know (but that you probably should)

- Hue: Family name of a color, holds colors symbolic value (orange, green)

- Value: amount of black or white in a color. Holds about 90% of visual information.

- Chroma: saturation, intensity, brightness of color.

Balance/Unity Either for aesthetic or directive purposes, these are achieved through the contrast or harmony of Hues, values, or chroma.
Harmony via consistent, weak chroma:

 Balance via contrasting value:

Unity via contrasting Hues:

Keying the color:   attempted by instagram filters, but perfected 
by water, clouds, sunsets, and sunrises, keyed color is when one hue affects all the other hues in an image.

Why projected images don't look right:

Computers use additive mixing of primary light colors (red, green, and blue) to project an image directly from the screen to our eyes. Images projected onto screens, walls, horses etc, on the other hand, are a result of that same light, formatted in the same fashion, being reflected off of an imperfect surface. This surface reflects or absorbs light we didn't expect. This is why blacks are not black enough and colors seem distorted. Moral: test your presentations and see if you can format for such surfaces ahead of time.

Methodology comes from experimentation and time. To create a doctrine without extensive trial and error is to limit one's ultimate potential.

http://vimeo.com/7917568

 "It is not the spectacular things that are important, but the unspectacular things."