Back from Break. Onward and Upward.

Halfway Through and Moving Forward

Welcome back from Spring Break with another edition of Ted Tuesday. This week featured the words of Rogier van der Heide speaking on the functions and concerns of light in our lives and the importance of the interplay between light and darkness.

The comparison of sunlight to artificial lighting is of particular intrigue as you consider how artificial lighting constrains, forces, and unifies the world we have created for ourselves. There was a time, after all, when people lived and worked by the cycles of the sun – at sunset your work was over for the day. And yet now we take our artificial lighting with us everywhere, extending our days as long as possible into the night until fatigue forces us to sleep (or just to drink more caffeine). In this sense light becomes seen as a source of productive hours rather than health and healing.

James Turrell was brought up in the following discussion as an artist whose work focuses on light as it pierces through darkness.

James Turrell. Roden Crater.

James Turrell. Sky Pesher. Walker Art Museum.

His open spaces bring a sense of peace and meditation when the viewer sits in the dark to experience and focus on the light that extends inward. But it is the duality of existence between light and dark that makes this calm possible – alone darkness can bring tension and anxiety of the unknown, and the over-stimulation of light (especially artificial light) can be harsh and wearying after extended hours.

It reminds me of a coworker who once complained about the fluorescent lights required in her basement level office until she was able to replace them with a softer, more ambient lamp. Her daily headaches have stopped, and her office really is now the nicest in the building.

Onwards Towards New Projects

As always, though, class moves on, and since we wrapped up the team design projects before break, it was time to dig into a new topic. The project this time: design a website. And remember:

The user is your guide.
and
The content is the focus.

Each of us was to choose any topic for a site that we felt well versed in explaining and exploring. What are your hobbies? Your interests? What do you want to spend your time talking about?

After a good deal of frustrating brain wracking, I ended up choosing jewelry design – a site focused on providing information, advice, and interaction to potential jewelry designers looking to begin selling their work out in the world. As a jewelry buyer for a retail store, I’ve seen a lot of amazing work:

laser cut architectural earrings by Molly M. Designs

cranberry bronze cast necklace by Silver Seasons

recycled and interchangeable lockets by Olive Bites Studio

as well as a lot of not so great work and designers with really bad price points, technical skills, and selling abilities. So let’s make a site to give people some of that quick user guide info up front! Or just some inspiration and awareness as to who the competition is out there.

But There’s Always a Twist

In the real world, you don’t usually get to design for yourself. So partner up and trade sites. Each of us is now a client – and my jewelry site is now in Annie’s capable designer hands. I provide her the content and information on the topic, and she makes the whole thing look gorgeous.

So What’s Next?

We whipped up content outlines for our designers in class (hopefully), so each designer needs a working site map ready for Thursday.

And review UX chapter 6 as we’ll be needing user research options too.

This time through, the weekly Thursday quiz will feature the only the Krug book: chapters 10, 11, and 12.

And a very special guest speaker for the night – Nick Zdon – so have your questions ready!

Thursday March 3rd 2011 (Making Bacon)

Hey everyone,another blog post is here for you to read and enjoy my thoughtful words and well in case you missed class i guess?

For Starters.

We had out usual Thursday quiz on our readings. That went well everyone scored about average considering some people didn’t read the readings. (me) These are the books we’re reading. If you need to get a hold of them they can be found in the CVA library.

Second.

We talked about the expectations for the current assignment and reviewed the previous assignment. We talked about the things that were successful in the previous assignment that we should continue to do or even expand on. Some of those points were to have all the boards unified and have a standardized layout with titles on each board, hand in the assignments in 17″ x 22″ envelopes with out names on them, make sure craftsmanship is pristine, use backing boards (Bristol) when mounting, have a complete documentation of research and inspiration, and also show some exploration into different approaches or ideas you had. Here are some great examples from the class.

Annie's Groups Tskflow

Christina's Homepage

Adam's Groups Wire frame

Christina's Recipe Page

Lastly.

Continue to work on the current assignment and have more layouts, wire-frames, and designs to show for class. Document all research and exploration and try to make something that will wow everyone. The final mounted boards are due on Thursday this week (03.10.11). After that we’re free to enjoy a well needed spring break and relax for a week before we come back and finish up the semester.

Here is a very well illustrated and thoughtful video on what motivates us. I thought it might tie in nicely because its talks about how what motivates creative ideas, and since we’re all creative people here I thought you all might enjoy it.

.

Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.

Gallery Opening Night and Paul Rand

If you’re going to have the conflict of a night class the same night as a design event opening, it’s certainly of great fortune to have that  class also be a design class, along with the benefit of a teacher who supports the attendance of said event. Which of course is what resulted in our Feb. 17th class starting out at the Paul Rand Brands opening at the CVA gallery.

CVA Gallery Exhibit Postcard

 

So with a slightly restructured class on hand, we spent most of the evening exploring the featured work and the legacy of Paul Rand – first through the gallery exhibit, then through a few short videos Liina presented back in class, and wrapping fully around with each of us whipping out a quick reaction paper to the event. Because, really, experiencing a great seasoned designer’s work and advice does come down to how each person individually interacts with that work. In that, it was quite pleasant to show up a bit earlier than scheduled simply to absorb and internalize what resonated with just me and my needs and reactions. As such, here’s a few of the pieces I found of particular draw:

all images care of http://www.paul-rand.com/

 

Obviously, there’s the appeal, amusement, and natural nostalgia of the vintage style – even down to the actual products and the aged and faded papers of original display purposes. But Rand, as are all of us, was also subject to his own time and influences. Thus, what we experience and learn from his work should go beyond the playful vintage aesthetic – it wasn’t vintage to Rand, after all.

For example, I recall hearing that even within the huge variety of Rand’s designs and varying clients, there are only a scant few fonts he ever used. Logical of course, given the lack of digital output of the time, but still, in our time of an explosion of typography ad choices due to digital output, it could serve well to remember that more isn’t always better or as effective.

Also, as an aside and to prove myself as a child of the technological world – can you possibly imagine not having digital? What would people even do with themselves?

Video Extras

But to wrap up on the Rand, here’s the short clips Liina showed in class. As points for the digital side, there’s an immense collection available for easy picking on YouTube, but let’s focus on the class results for now, shall we?

On to Class Time and Quizzes

Beyond Rand, it was still Thursday, and, exhibit or not, it was still quiz night. But quiz night this time with an added twist featuring a question beyond multiple choice on providing an example – with back up reasoning – on how a company’s design strategy fits with its business strategy. How’s that for added application of reading topics rather than simple passive absorption?

Plus a Journal Check-In

Still, answers were all in good humor – a gallery opening apparently has the power to add a little relaxation and good playful humor into late night studies. And that ease of mind carried nicely over into journal checks; you have to appreciate rolling with the flow, after all, and it lends to a much more entertaining discovery of the good and bad explorations of usability applications.

From PearlBrite’s bouncing navigation and hypnotic music,

to the MN Unemployment Department’s completely unreadable purposes,

and the Catholic Church’s new Confession App available for only $1.99,

there’s always room for usability evaluation.

Moving Forward…

Oh, and let’s not forget that next Tuesday is the big due date that’s been creeping up on us. Whether you’re feeling under control or are shooting for that last minute panic push, just don’t forget any pieces at home Tuesday night! For those keeping lists – because why wouldn’t you keep a list? Life feels better when you get to cross them off! – the pieces to consider include:

-mounted Personas
-mounted Wireframes
-mounted Mood Board (or two)
-mounted Design Boards (minimum of three screens)
-research documentation
prepared PSD and JEPG files for the server

Good luck to all!

02.08.11 TED Tuesdays!

Hey guys!

TED TUESDAY

Well another TED Tuesday has come and gone and this week we checked out Emily Pilloton: Teaching Design for Change.

If you watched the video above then you probably do not need to read this overview. But in case you’re an odd person and you’d rather read then watch an awesome video, be my guest.

In February 2009, Pilloton and her Project H partner Matthew Miller began working in Bertie County, North Carolina, the poorest and most rural county in the state, to develop a design-build curriculum for high-school kids, called Studio H. In August 2010 they began teaching their first class of 13 students. Read about their experiences in Design Mind. Designer Emily Pilloton moved to rural Bertie County, in North Carolina, to engage in a bold experiment of design-led community transformation. She’s teaching a design-build class called Studio H that engages high schoolers’ minds and bodies while bringing smart design and new opportunities to the poorest county in the state. (Citation: http://www.ted.com/talks/emily_pilloton_teaching_design_for_change.html)

Final Assignment Overview:

Next we talked about the final assignment, and the requirements and expectations that went along with it.We discussed the grading criteria that will go along with the assignment and all the fine details of the assignment. You can get further information from the PDF below.

Project: iPad App:
Visual Recipe Book Final Project Deadline:
Tuesday, Feb 22, 2011
All project deliverables due 7pm at beginning of class

Assignment1

Photoshop Tutorials

Next we had a crash course in photoshop. We talked about the proper sizing for the iPad and the screen resolution (dpi) it should be at for the final assignment. (72 dpi and 9.56″ x 7.47″) We learned some helpful shortcuts on the keyboard. We talked about “smart objects” which let you create outlines of the images or type that you’re working with and move it independently. Finally, we talked about creating the typical ipad “button” and how to create that look. The photoshop tutorials were very helpful, and would of been nice to have gone through before we jumped into the creation of the iPad design. Now that we have done some intro photoshop I think we are all more confident in creating the design aspect of the assignment.

Our teachers wonderful app design.

Make sure you steal all the work already done by Apple and apply it to your own apps!!

Journals?

I thought that this class required a journal entry, so I will give mine as an example. I found a website that I think is designed very well and it fun and easy to use and navigate. Check it out and let me know if you agree with me. TOKY Branding and Design

Final Conclusion

Class last Tuesday was informative and educational. The TED video was very interesting and I think made us all feel excited to be going into the design field because of the opportunities and interesting places and projects you can either start or become involved in. Being able to discuss the assignment in full and receiving a hand out with all the requirements laid out was extremely helpful. The photoshop lessons helped everyone and we all clearly appreciated the tutorials. Keep um coming! The class had ample work time and left me with not much to discuss or talk about on here, but I think everyone would agree that we all greatly appreciated the work time and being able to ask questions as we worked.

Funny video of the week. Usuability in the classroom!

Final Note

Make sure and check out Dribble.com =]