CDES 102

Last lecture, some TED talks

 

 

Here are links to the five videos we watched are below. They fit some of the overarching themes for the semester: Collaboration, Perception, Creativity and Innovation, and Design Thinking. These are videos we couldn't quite fit within our regular topics, but they also form their own nice litte collection of communication design related ideas. Enjoy. They are all from TED.

Steven Johnson on how design is a form of thinking and problem solving; how it is a process, a network, and an accumulation of ideas that needs the right environment to thrive.

Emily Pilloton on design as a catalyst for social change.

Adital Ela on design for sustainability and bridging ideas.

Marcin Jakubowski on open source and collaboration in service of problem solving, sustainability, and object creation.

Pranav Mistry showing a possible future in technology and human/computer interface. This, too, is of the open source philosophy.

John Hockenberry (video not yet available) also has an engaging story about designing, and living, with intent. 

Byron and Alan

Final quiz study guide

Here is the study guide for the final quiz which is next Monday, May 14, at 8:00 PM in our regular classroom. It will be multiple choice, 30 questions. Please bring a pencil. We will bring everything else.

Download CDES 102 Quiz 3 study guide

Byron

The brain and metaphor

Have you ever wondered why metaphors even work? How about jokes? Well, here's an interesting article about the relationship between the human brain and metaphor.  

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/this-is-your-brain-on-metaphors/?hp

Enjoy,
Byron

 

Data Eye in the Sky

I do read things other than the New York Times, but it is filled with so many articles relevant to things we discuss in class that I have to cite it frequently. Here's a fascinating article about data mining - a close cousin to infographics. The basic premise is that there's so much trackable information about people, it may be possible to predict behavior in the same way that meteorologists predict the weather.

I'll follow this posting with another more recent article from the Times that elaborates further. I cited it in lecture last night. It's the one where Target, among other companies, use data to anticipate consumer behavior.

Byron 

Gestalt in use, project three

Remember our discussion about figure-ground and our comment that there was a peculiar sign here in town that many find baffling? The sign in question is for the gas station on First and Mangrove. The Mangrove sign is on the left. The designer/sign maker started with the original logo that is on the right. Something went terribly wrong.

The visuals for tonights lecture can be downloaded here: Download GestaltInUse-Data&Metaphor2

The university system is still down so I can't post your next project as I normally do. For now, you can access and download it here: Download Metaphor&Data S2012 Once the system is back up, I'll provide a link at left to the same document.

Byron

A tambourine, a scribble, cloudy skies, boredom, fear, and a missing ruler

Here are six selections from last night’s quick exercise in which you wrote, in exactly three sentences, about the most useful constraint you’ve ever used in your own creative activities.

In high school I was in a design class where we were learning how to silk screen but we ran out of screens. Due to my lack of materials, I went home, fixed a broken tambourine, used a pair of ripped stocking as the screen, and used mod podge as the filler. It actually worked really well and many people admired my resourcefulness and creativity.

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The most useful constraint I have ever encountered is never having a ruler handy. It has forced me to determine the spacing I want in my various projects and developed my eye for distance and space. Using random objects as rulers has also led me to integrating new materials into my projects.

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In designing the front page of the newspaper, The Orion, I made it a goal to never do the same design twice. It has forced me to try new things and research more. I haven’t been comfortable or bored since.

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The most useful constraint I’ve ever experienced when attempting to be creative is probably the weather when making pictures. As a photographer, the weather greatly influences how my pictures turn out. Sun or rain has drastically forced me to be creative, even if I don’t choose to be.

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When drawing a picture for an art class I started with a quick scribble. I gave myself the rule that the scribble could not be erased. It forced me to incorporate it and come up with something I never thought I could.

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Fear is the most useful constraint I use with creative projects. Whether it be an assignment or personal goal, fear of not performing to my greatest ability makes me work harder, and faster. Granted, it’s not so much fear or something bad happening as it’s fear of not creating something to be proud of.

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What do all of these have in common? Embracing the constraint and finding a way to incorporate it into the creative activity. I suppose that it’s making lemonade out of lemons, to use a trite aphorism.

 

Everyone who submitted their exercise at the end of class will be getting four points extra credit.

Questions or comments? Please use the comments link below.

Byron and Alan

 

Art & Copy

 

The video we watched on Monday was Art & Copy. Alan placed his copy on reserve in the library for you to review (it's listed under his name). It is also available as an instant play on Netflix.

The study guide questions I wrote on the board will be included in a posting after next week's lecture.

Here's a snapshot of our discussion.

Byron

Project Two: A model

The TED talk whe showed in class can be found here.

Here is Scott Ledbetter's project that we reviewed in class on Monday. It's a model for how you should format your project, and the care that you should exercise. Scott still has to do a little more proofreading and writing revisions, but it's a good model of a strong project: Download Sample Project

Some common tips that will apply to most projects:

While you should pay attention to all the points outlined in the project handout, but based on reading the early entries, three important things to be especially conscious of are:

a) Thorough and thoughtful writing - have it proofread by at least two other (critical) readers.

b) A clear and accurate explanation of each term at the beginning of a section.

c) Informative illustrations that communicate the elements you discuss.

Byron

The Experimenter, Cross-Pollinator, and Prototyping

Process graphic from Quirky

Here's the link to the Quirky web site we reviewed in class. There is a more thorough description of their process, inlcuding FAQs.

We also showed Kickstarter - "a new way to fund fun and creativity." As Alan described in his discussion about that very cool pen, many of the projects are more about "labors of love." This New York Times article New York Times not only describes what the site is about, but has an interesting critique of some challenges users have faced with seemingly successful projects. It's worth a read.

Here's a link to an article in the NY Times about rapid 3D prototyping. Another great video about a different printer is here: 3D Printer - YouTube. The printer I brought into class is called the Makerbot Thingomatic and is here.

If you're thinking about designing an app for the iPad or iPhone, you might like this blog article about prototyping interactivity using Keynote (or Power Point).

Did I forget anything? Please use the comments link below.

Byron

The Collaborator is missing from the study guide?

Angela wrote to ask about The Collaborator. It's missing from the study guide. That was an accident and an oversight. But you'll be relieved to know that I derived the study guide from the test, so there aren't any questions on that chapter from the book.

Byron