Video Reflection - Story of Stuff

I personally find the video very useful, cause what Annie taught me in this video is that we have to think more when we're making products. We shouldn't just think about making products that are "trendy" products that have an expiry date, that people can just like for a short amount of time, and then throw it away cause no one is using it anymore. We should create something that is timeless, that people can use over the time. We also should focus on the environmental side of how the product is made, and to make sure that it doesn't destroy the environment, also make sure it is easily recycled.

This video is very useful cause industrial designers usually don't care about the environmental side of how the products were made. We should think about our planet and the consequences that it could get if we couldn't care less about the environment in making product.

Video Reflection - Ross Lovegrove

In this video, Ross Lovegrove has opened my eyes of what beautiful shapes and textures nature can helps you create. The designs that he created are also beautiful, especially the water bottle and how it was created. It's very interesting for me because I don't think I ever did include nature or using sustainable materials that are eco-friendly in my designs.

This has certainly inspired me, and I bet it does also inspired designers to to use more eco-friendly materials. He has also taught me that simplistic-minimalistic forms create the most vision of elegance compared to others.

Video Reflection - Designing Dream Machines

This video shows us that ommunication between client and designers is a really important factor in designing. The process shown from start to finish clearly highlights the message that they are trying to convey, which is that.

There has to also be a process in designing a product, which is started off by brainstorming session, that is to list every idea that comes to mind that they want to sell to the public market, and then after few of the best are then selected. Drawing or sketching the idea is the next step, as it's important for us to be able to know what we want it to look like -- hand-drawn (will be explained further in next paragraph). The real model is then made, with people commenting on what should be improved. Critiques and opinions are then taken into account and then it is improved until everyone agrees on it. After it's fully done, consumers are asked and surveyed whether they like it or not.

Knowing what target market likes and responds to is also a key to making a desirable product. Surveying the target market is a vital thing, an example of that would be the scooter. The fact that one went to India to complete the survey about what would be appealing to Indian people amazes me. That really showed determination and hardwork, all in just to create a product.

Another factor that designers should take note of is that, although nowadays technology seems to be taking over everything else, the best way of a designer to be able to think about a concept and develop it is by hand-drawing it instead of relying computers to do it. It gives designers an insight and there's nothing clearer than drawing it yourself, as ideas will just pop up when you're drawing it by hand.

This video really helps new designers in knowing what they have to prioritize in order to be able to come up with good inspirations and have a good career in design. Not only do we need to have the skill to create the product, we also have to be able to know what consumers want, since if they're not buying our products, why bother making them? Also, communication, being able to get opinions from people to improve our products is also important process in making a product.


Image from: http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/DCImages/Case%20Studies/Aqualisa/R_Seymour_&_D_Powell_Sm.jpg

PEER COMMENTS - Project 3

1. Sam Whipp

2. Kate Barclay

3. Hyo-Ju Cho

4. Emily Soares

5. Jen Jun Zhu

PROJECT 3 - UPCYCLING: Rock the Casbag (Cassette Bag)

For this project, I chose to make something that is different, that celebrates the use of recyled materials. I chose tape ( the total of 30 ; 24 gold and transparent and 6 black tapes). Making the project for me is really exciting, since I get to experiments with materials that isn't usually used to make a bag.

I chose to make a bag using tapes, because the tapes I found in reverse garbage has a very lux color-- the base part is transparent and the circle-y thing in the middle colored gold. When you line them together you can really see that it makes an interesting and unusual patterns.


I experienced several difficulties making these cause the tapes are very wobbly and it falls apart when I touch it. I like the use of the black, medium size lace as it gives more edge to it. The thing that I could work on is the construction of the prototype since it's kinda rough, although I have to say decent effort is put into the construction-- maybe other materials should be chosen instead of the ones I chose to use. And also, I had a problem between deciding how to make it so that it doesn't look like a briefcase-- and it kinda shows by the construction of the sides.


Oh, and about the poster, I actually changed the name of the product to Rock The Casbag (Cassette Bag), just for fun since XOX Handbag sounds dull haha.

My target market for this is girls who are artsy --dare to be different and into fashion -- That's why for the colors, I chose mainly gold transparent and magenta for the sides.

PEER COMMENTS for Project 2

PEER COMMENTS:
- Jason Vergara

- Nina Harcus

- Cori Eom

- Julia Ruyu Xiao

- Fiona Lee

PROJECT 2 - POSTAL PRESENT

PORCU CD HOLDER

PORCU CD Holder is an easy to set-up CD Holder. It is inspired and modeled after porcupines, as is seen by its shape. For this project I chose to make this because I want to make something that I can use, and not only me -- I want people from all ages to be able to use it as well. I made the shape looks modern and contemporary, yet make it subtle and classic as well, using tinted-black colored perspex. I want the CD arrangement to look elegant when put in the CD holder, that's why I made it so that the CD can have different height arrangement.



I chose perspex for the material because I want it to have that tinted/ transparent look so that when each parts are slotted, it's gonna look better than if I'm using solid color. I wanted to use MDF, but then it's gonna look cheap compared to perspex, and it wouldn't be able to have that transparent look. I chose black because black goes with everything in almost everyone's house, and I personally like the color as well.

The shape is chosen because for my last project (Experience Enrichment) I already did a butter dish which resembles a toaster, so for this project I want to try to make something more elegant and abstract, yet is inspired by something. I want it to have curves, but not alot of them, so that it is still elegant, and is visually beautiful when seen with CDs in them.

It's made so that it's easy for people to set-up, because there's nothing more pleasurable for people than being able to set up their gift just in a matter of second and able to display it beautifully--and is functional as well.
For the packaging, instead of a normal C4 envelope, I want the receiver to know that this is a special gift so a special envelope is used as well.