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Week 15-Final Thoughts

Design has already come unbelievably far and I do expect it to go farther and to be able to do things that are currently unheard of. The technology that we have now is able to save lives, let us travel across the world, and many other spectacular things. It is hard to think of something else that the design of a product would be able to do, that we already have.

 Maybe someone will invent a design of a new type of communication. Something that will be so smart that all would have to do is say their name, and it would let us video chat with them, as if you are having a face to face conversation with them. We could get a special type of glasses that has a projecting camera on it to show your face, and then you could see their face through the glasses' lenses. Although we do already Siri, she does not offer the video chat without actually having to take out your cellphone and using the camera on there.

Perhaps someone will also design a car that drives itself, and knows how to interact with other cars and things that may come out into the road. Someone could just get in  their car, plug in their destination, lay down and take a nap, and they would be at their planned destination when they woke up. This would reduce the amount of accidents but not letting people drive drunk and tired and it could reduce the amount of accidents related to distracted driving.

Design could even go as far as virtual concerts. Like virtual reality, you would put on some glasses to display the image, but you can choose the song you want to hear through your headphones and it would play it as if your at a concert when the band is playing that song. It could go back in time to concerts of old band that broke up and don't play anymore.

It is exciting to hear about new inventions in design when they are released or come out. Personally, I like to think "wow, what does design have for us next?" and that it could go farther.

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Week 14-Your Choice

Although technology has come a very far way in terms of design, like almost everything else, it can always go farther and improve some more. Many people do not notice how much design is actually in their daily lives. From when their alarm clock goes off, designed to wake you up, to going back to bed, a bed as designed somewhere to comfortably sleep, almost everything one does, they are doing it with a design. If I were to start a discussion, I would want it to be how to make people realize how much design is actually in their lives. I would like to make them realize that almost everything they own, was designed, or serves a purpose. I now realize that my life is almost completely revolved around different designs and that they do actually make my life a lot easier. In my experience, as a result of my greater awareness of what design exactly is, memory foam mattresses are the best mattresses to ever be invented and designed. They are designed to be comfortable and perfectly support your body while you lay down. Memory foam pads for a regular spring mattress are comfortable, but one does not get the full support and comfort as compared if they were using a whole mattress entirely made out of memory foam. I own a memory foam mattress at home and when I come home and lay down on my bed, I literally feel my spine pop back into place. I also own a smaller memory foam mattress pad for my bed in my dorm room and it does not nearly compare in comfort to my actual mattress at home. With this type of mattress, one is more likely to be able to get a full night of rest, without tossing and turning trying to get comfortable in the night.

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Week 13-New Media

Digital aesthetic is a resurgent idealism that is a hybrid style that is inspired by the theme of science fiction, video games, and technology. The designers of the new digital aesthetic focus was to avoid the awkward “primitive” look and favored a reductive, and textureless look. An aesthetic look that of a virtual world of a video game. Design that is influenced by the acceptance of a technological look was driven by what was thought to be the infinite potential of digital technology. Many artists had expected to that this new age would have been very much welcomed and that people would be overjoyed at the prospect of a coming “technotopia”, but it never exactly was welcomed like that. A few of contemporary examples of digit aesthetic would be the “Wired” magazine, and techno type, and how advertising was transformed. The “Wired” magazine had designers that designed images with a kinetic visual punch that is shocking. That also had a blend of fragmented forms that showed how the grunge and technological aesthetics overlapped in layered designs. Techno type was quickly adopted by commercial forces that wanted to appear futuristic to the consumers. It used a lot of pixel art that is that the image is made up of unadulterated single points of light. Then, advertising was transformed by the complexity and the interactive and viral elements of contemporary marketing campaigns. The contemporary marketing campaigns are indicative of the dramatic changes that are at present transforming the advertising industry and the field of graphic design. 

Eskilson, Stephen J. Graphic Design A New History 2nd Ed. 2012, Yale University Press.

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Week 12-New Media

Interactive design concerns the way people interact with products and services. In simple terms, it is the design of the interaction between products and its users. The main goal is to design products to allow the user to be able to use the product for what it is designed for in the best possible way. Interactive design involves elements such as aesthetics, or the philosophical study of beauty and taste, motion, sound, space, and more. There are five dimensions interactive design that are introduced. Those are 1D-words or symbols that are easy to understand, 2D-visual representations, 3D-physical objects or space, 4D-time, and 5D-behavior of the users because of this product. Time refers to media that changes with time. All of these dimensions are important to consider if the designer wishes to make a useful product that will sell easily. There are many questions that interaction designs ask when designing a product. What can a user do with their mouse, finger, or stylus to directly interact with the interface? What about the appearance, including color, shape, size, weight, etc., gives the user a clue about how it may function? Do error messages provide a way for the user to correct the problem or explain why the error occurred? What feedback does a user get once an action is performed? Are the interface elements a reasonable size to interact with? Are familiar or standard formats used? These questions are important because they would help the designer look at and consider all of the dimensions of interactive design. Siang, Teo, November 11, 2017. Interaction Design Foundation, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/what-is-interaction-design

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Week 11

According to Contemporary Graphic Design by Stephen J. Eskilson, a citizen designer focuses on confronting the most pressing problems of contemporary society instead of always looking at the company's problems and issues and making sure that the company benefits out of a sale. Citizen designer is defined as a professional who attempts to address societal issues either through or in addition to his or her commercial work. A citizen designer is trying to 'connect' to their clients or consumers of their products on a more personal level. A couple of examples of problems of contemporary society ranges from the climate change to treating and preventing sexually transmitted diseases. The concept of a citizen designer makes the concept of design wider by making it more personal to people and fitting what certain individuals find to be a problem. This concept connects an individual's personal life to that of everyday commercial products and designs.

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Week 10-Graphic Design

One interesting thing in typography is how the letters are designed to look in the decorative typefaces in the historicist design style. The words almost look like they are designed to express an emotion related to the actual word. Page 47 shows an example of the decorative typefaces in the historicist design style of type. Another interesting typeface is blackletter type. It is also called Franktur. How it is designed to look makes it look illegible to read because it of the small spaces between words and between lines of text. However, it is designed to fit the orthography of the German language. The Swiss style of type has a bit of historic background connected with it. After the Nazis had suppressed geometric abstraction in favor of blackletter type, and then roman type, the Swiss style of type was the perfect vehicle with which to convey "anti-Nazi" modern sophistication, according to the book, Graphic Design: A New History. A picture on page 416 shows the bits typeface. The bits typeface is interesting because it almost looks like the designer found random objects that looked like letters and designed the typeface off of those objects. For example, the uppercase "E" almost resembles a paper clip. There are many different fonts in typography and more will most likely be designed in the future. Although the font of Times New Roman is eligible and easy to read, a different font may be designed eventually that will be found easier to read. Typography is ever evolving and will continue to evolve.

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Week 7-Architecture

Two key principles of universal design is the design being simple with intuitive use and the design must have size and space for approach and use. The simple and intuitive use of design is the principle that says that a user will be able to understand how to use the design easily, regardless of how much experience the user has. A design must follow a few guidelines to fit this principle. The guidelines are: to get rid of unnecessary complexity, be consistent with what the user expects and their intuition, and to accommodate a wide range of literacy skills. The design must also arrange information consistent with how important it is, and it has to provide efficient feedback and prompting during and after task completion. An example of showing simple and intuitive use might be a vacuum. Almost everyone knows how to use a vacuum and would learn how to use their personal vacuum effectively with use.

 The second design principle is that a design must have size and shape for approach and use. This principle is saying that appropriate size and space is available for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of the user. The guidelines for this principle are: a design must provide a clear line of sight to important elements for any seated or standing user, a design must allow the user easy access to all components comfortably, it must accommodate a wide range of hand and grip size, and it must provide enough space for the use of assistance or assistive devices. An example that shows this design principle may be a stove. Counter-space around the stove would allow the use of different assistive devices and there is adequate enough space to allow more than one person to stand in front of a stove for personal assistance.

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The buildings in Milwaukee are very different from one another. They fit in many of the movements in art and architecture. For example, the Pabst Mansion is designed to fit in an older art movement than most of the skyscrapers in Milwaukee. The Pabst Mansion would be thought to be designed during the Gothic art movement while many of Milwaukee's skyscrapers would be thought to have been designed in the modernist or post-modernist art period. Many of the simple buildings are most likely thought to have been designed in the modernism or post-modernism period.

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Week 5-

The Bauhaus movement shaped many designs. It was established in 1919 and was shaped around the idea that design could make the world a better place. It surrounded the thought that less is better with being honest in the materials that were used to build the design so if something was made out of wood, it would look like wood. Many thought that the Bauhaus was the point where the old world ended and the new world began. The Bauhaus movement also brought the idea that the form of the design should follow a function. For example. a chair should look like a chair and should not be covered in a big, thick layer of paddings. This movement also focused on mass production.

The De Stijl,1917 to 1931, movement was another design movement that had occurred. This movement mainly focused on the vertical and horizontal planes with very limited color. The De Stijl movement only used the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow, and then black and white. De Stijl typography mainly only used straight lines, without any curves or organic lines. De Stijl was also referred to as Neo-plasticism.

The Dada movement's design was all collages, made from clippings of newspapers in order to form a new message. It was not about making something aesthetically pleasing. The Dada movement only cared about the message that it was conveying. This movement was a counter movement against the industrial revolution that was taking place.

References

Graphic Design: A New History, Stephan J. Eskilson, 2007. 2nd Ed, Yale University Press.

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Week 4-Found Object

While going for a walk, many people come across the design of a cemented sidewalk. It is designed to make walking to a destination easier than walking on an unpaved surface. Many people probably do not think of it as a design because it is so common, but it is a design by it being provided to make walking easier. It can also be used for biking through a park, if there is no bike trail, or for people who have to push strollers or wheelchairs.

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7.) A TV remote because it helps people switch TV channels, control the volume, etc. without having to get up and go to the TV itself.

8.) A dictionary because it helps people spell a word correctly and look up the meaning to a word.

9.) Sunglasses because it blocks out most UV rays from people's eyes to allow them to see better on a sunny day.

10.) A microwave because it heats up food quickly and easily without having to use a stove.

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Week 2-Design Thinking

I would define design as creating something for a reason, either to solve a problem, or creating something that is aesthetically pleasing to look at, A few examples of this is a couch, a door, and a bookshelf. The couch can be designed to fit the aesthetic of the room and it could be designed to be comfortable to sit on.

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Week 1-About Me

I am a sophomore at UWM and I am in the college of letters in science with a major in Anthropology. I took this class to get the credits that I need in art and because I do like art so this class sounded interesting. I do not have a lot of experience except from the art classes that I took throughout high school and my one art class that I took my freshmen year. What I believe to be good is what inspires me. One purchase that I recently made was my backpack. I could either buy a larger one that had a pocket for just about all of my materials or I could buy one that I thought was cute but smaller. I bought the larger one because it was designed to fit everything that I need.