Massimio Presentation (I forgot to sign in...Shoham said to write about it to redeem the "absence")

When Massimo came to speak at Grant auditorium it was completely packed i was sitting in the back so it was hard to hear him. He was quite humorous and despite his old age still very sharp. I enjoyed how the presentation went through each decade and he began each decade with a photograph of himself and his wife. He has always been a favorite designer of mine so I'd seen much of the stuff he showed. My favorite part was when he said "the best design is invisible design" I think about it almost every time I'm creating a design for fun or for an assignment. It makes sense that Massimo has more or less lived by this because some of his oldest designs you'd never guess weren't created yesterday! If the design is invisible then it's essentially timeless which I think is the goal of almost every high end designer out there.

Who's responsible for this?

SO Chris made a comment the other day at the end of class after we talked a little bit about global warming and waste and recycling. At the end of class he asked "Is anyone pissed off? Do you guys blame older generations for making this mess that you all are stuck with now?" I thought about this for a while. I'm well aware of global warming I've seen documentaries, read articles in magazines, but never really felt pissed off until Chris asked. I am pissed off. It's not news that pollution and waste have been affecting the world we live in in a negative way. People don't care is how I feel or they didn't know enough about the problem and then didn;t care quick enough to help prevent. There have been so many cases-- one that's right in SU's backyard-- like Onondaga Lake where large plants have supposedly unknowingly been dumping seriously hazardous waste into a lake thats surrounded by wildlife and homes with families. Things like this that happen all over the world. That adds up and creates a large problem that I feel like my peers and I should be angry at.

Some things that inspire me.

Yoga Add

Woven Glass

"Tomatica"

World Trade Center

"Seatub"

"Cheap Floor"

"Lobster Chair"

"Shadow"

Covered in Fabric

Wall Art

Clever Reminder

Patterns in the Sky

Who wouldn't want one of these?

"Swarm"

"You Look Good In That"

Out of nowhere

Sweet Grafiti

Pretty cool huh?

Monet

Ten thing I can't live without...

Limerick:

My converse are always my first choice

They could tell my store if I had no voice

They've been through a lot

But they'll never be shot

To me they're better than a Rolls-Royce

POP Tech

Marian Bantje-

I chose Marian because we saw her work in class (100 Valentine's Day cards).

"Stop working for money...start working for love". I really love how passionate Marian is about her style of work. She talks about how she does what she loves and what makes her happy. Her attitude and style of work changed as she was faced "with her own mediocrity". I can relate to this, I feel like a lot of artists can who aren't sure yet exactly what their purpose is or what exactly they want to do with their talent and love for art and design.

"The more time we spend on something the more we honor it" because "sacrifice a part of ourselves for it".

"If you can create wonder... you've inspired curiosity"

Heather Fleming

Design thinking applied to global development.

"Engineers without borders". This video was about designing and getting useful technology to people who don't have access to this kind of design. There are thousands of engineers and designers who want to essentially do good design, who want to be involved in humanitarian work but their opportunity is limited to volunteering. Heather gives a short and to the point presentation. I think its important to get the ball rolling with something like this. Imagine if those thousands of designers and engineers and people like us got together and were able to design problem solving ideas and things for people who dont have much to use and benefit from.

Marije Vogelzang

This presentation was so great. It was so interesting and creative and inspiring. Marjie is a food designer she has her own company called Proef. She started out designing how the food looks and wound up creating art and installations that are edible. I think its brilliant. She is inspired by where the food comes from, who eats it, how its prepared. She talks a lot about a project she did in Lebanon and also how food can emotionally effect someone. So interesting she played off the concept of children not liking vegetables and how they have a negative feeling associated with food, so she created something thats a lot more appealing something that's more fun.

TED Talks

Sir Ken Robinson: Schools kill Creativity

Funny guy, takes a lighter approach but makes it clear how important creativity and our younger generations are. We have no idea what the future holds. When are you most vulnerable to creativity? When we don't know what the future holds for us. Creativity is equally as important as literacy. I love how he thinks adults should think more like children because children aren't afraid of being wrong or making mistakes. I also agree with what Ken believes about school focusing primarily on the left side of the brain and not enough on the creative side. "We are educating people out of their creative capacities". If every person were to take a bit of Ken's advice I think things in the world would change.

Rachel Armstrong: Architecture that repairs itself?

"The only way possible to construct sustainable homes and cities is connecting them to nature".

Rachel talks about using actual living "metabolic material"..protocells that grow and effectively benefiting architecture. I think its quite interesting that new technology like this is something that is actually so old and was here before we all were. I think this is a good example of doing good design and good design thinking. The example she uses is putting protocells that use carbon dioxide to create limestone. This type of process it similar to natural reefs and other natural occurring architecture around the world. Venice which is now a busy part of Italy built and running on wood on the sea. Something like these Protocells that Rachel talks about could fortify that wood and have other benefits other than just making sure the city doesn't sink one day.

Robert Full: Learning from the geckos tail.

We can learn a ton from nature. From a very close look at the way a gecko climbs up 90 degree surfaces, Robert Full creates a robot that can climb up walls and other surfaces. Pretty brilliant, there are so many ways to learn and create from what nature has already created for us and around us.

COLAB stickers

thoughts on "do good design"

"Do Good Design" takes a shocking look into both the corporate and design world. Berman's bold introduction to the book-- which is something along the lines of "I don't really care if you read my book, however if you do, learn something from it and practice it"-- immediately grabbed my attention and I obviously proceeded to read. His style of writing raw and factual but somehow it grabs you, probably because he brings to notice some pretty outragous things that are effecting the world right now and more importantly effecting our future. He focuses on the "good" in designing something. To me design has always meant creating something, maybe its useful or maybe its not but it always served a sort of purpose, and in he corporate world design is meant to sell to consumers. This booked raised a lot of questions in my mind about the actual purpose design serves. It's amazing to think about the election Berman talks about in the beginning of the book. The design of the ballots had such a direct effect on the election and in turn everyone in our country. It's rediculous that someone hasn't designed something thats universal and simple to use when it comes to something so important. That is terrible design if you ask me no "good" in it.  Designers have such a powerful impact on consumers. We can manipulate the way people view product and design and then what they buy and use.

It's disturbing how much false advertising goes on and how huge companies such as coca-cola advertise advertise advertise in places where people can't even afford to buy their product. It's just wasteful, people already consume too much. As new designers that will be breaking into the industry this book inspired me not just to design or create a physical thing but something that has 'good' in it or is beneficial to consumers and ultimately to the world we live in.

Estate Sale/Garage Sale

Bad Design

Good Design