Last weekend I had the opportunity visit an amazing postmodern house in Pebble Beach. In a neighborhood filled with giant monstrosities of architecture, lives Lee von Hesseln. She was kind enough to show us around and tell us all about the special materials, glass, rock, and solar power, that make her house actually "earn" credits from PG & E (Pacific Gas and Electric).
The best part is that she designed the house herself. It is part of a Northern CA. solar home tour. Read more in the Monterey Herald Article.
Links:
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/living/6875665.htm
http://www.norcalsolar.org/tour/
The NextDesign Leadership Institute was created out of the need for the design discipline to address the changing business climate. They will target design eduction and graduate programs to begin preparing future designers to develop more robust problem-solving capabilities needed in the design marketplace.
NextD is discipline agnostic and focused primarily on HOW (Process) rather than WHAT (Content). We work at the level of foundational pattern language for problem solving. That language and the interconnected toolkit can be adapted to any problem condition. Knowledge of that pattern language can inform all specialized problem solving process types, including Industrial Design, Communication Design, Environmental Design, Experience Design, eBusiness Design, Organizational Systems Design, Strategy Design, etc.
Link:
http://www.nextd.org/front.html
Virginia Postrel has written an article at Wired about the next killer app: aesthetics. She argues that companies can not rely on price and performance alone to set them apart. Instead new products and services must appeal to the senses and emotions of customers filling and satisfying legitimate needs.
We must abandon our prejudices regarding the sources of economic value. The production of wealth comes not simply from labor or raw materials or even intellectual brilliance. It comes from new ways to give people what they want. By matching creativity and desire, the economy will renew itself.
Link:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.07/view.html?pg=1
"Your Choice"
Documented briefly at designboom, Droog pieces comment on consumption and issues of brand/identity in latest show.
Not much information available, but a few images of this exhibition from the Milan Furniture Fair 2003.
Links:
http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/milan03/index.html (MILAN FAIR)
http://www.designboom.com/snapshots/milan03/droog.html (DROOG)
UEDesign log/Notes 1 year old.
CCAC has launched a web log covering a variety of product and environmental design topics. Also see the "brain food" section for other related resources.
Links:
http://www.ccacid.org/blog/index.html (web log)
http://www.ccacid.org/brainfood/index.html (brain food)
The "Do Normal" design retrospective at the SF MOMA, October 20, 1998 was a great introduction to the Droog design collective. Originally a Dutch design collective it is now a more international bunch. The playful/functional aesthetic is still refreshing and indicates that the true nature of modernism is alive and well in places.
Renny Ramakers' new restrospective "Less + More" offers a decent overview of Droog work. I especially like that works are displayed within context of the original newpaper, magazine, and exhibition clippings. Not sure if available at Amazon, but copies exist in SFMOMA bookstore and online at Cambium books.
Droog co-founder Renny Ramakers unravels new developments in design and applied expression, using many examples from all over the world as well as from Droog itself. The ideological freedom designers have gained over the past 15 years, combined with new insights in materials and all design-related fields, leads to playful experimentation and unprecedented propositions. Design is spreading its wings.
Links:
http://www.droogdesign.nl/index1.html
http://www.cambiumbooks.com/books/design/90-6450-457-1/
http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/exhib_detail/98_exhib_do_normal.html
Recently (Dec 12 2002) passed through JFK and noticed the new airport signage produced by Paul Mijksenaar. His style often immitated at airports around the world.
I first noticed his design at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport in '97. Soon after I picked up a copy of his Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design a great introduction to information design and a good complement to a set of Tufte books. Clear and understandable, his signage provides travellers with easy path and way-finding.
"New York airports were among the most confusing in the world," said Paul Mijksenaar, the 57-year-old Dutch designer, who has been brought in by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to redo the obtuse airport signs. "There was no system. They resembled — how do you say it? — the apocalypse."
As an information designer, Mr. Mijksenaar's specialty is taming chaos. Over the last two years, he has begun to turn the perplexing welter of signs at Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark into an orderly series of transitions that will ultimately replace more than 5,000 dated and confusing ones, easing the way for some 90 million travelers each year.
His Amsterdam-based firm, Bureau Mijksenaar (pronounced MIKE-sen-ar), is responsible for the signs at Schiphol Airport in the Netherlands, which is consistently rated by travelers as the most well-organized airport in the world.(From NY Times article)
Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/07/living/07AIR.html
http://www.mijksenaar.com/index2.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/...
Such a nice and simple interface design to this design related community site. Discussions on a range of design topics, Projects, Career, etc.
All valid HTML 4.01 Transitional too!!
Link:
http://www.yayhooray.com/index.cfm
The recent re-launch of wired.com is notable in that they and designer Douglas Bowman went with latest w3c compliance using xhtml 1.0.
XHTML allows for more control over positioning and presentation layer through use of style sheets (CSS). This allows design and positioning changes to be made in one location, the style sheet to make global site changes. powerful.
Links:
http://www.stopdesign.com (Douglas Bowman's site)
http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2002/wired-interview/ (Interview with D.B)
http://www.wired.com/
Nate Shedroff: User-centered Design is an approach (with many variations) to creating experiences (whether products, interfaces, events, or other media) for people with their needs in mind. Usability is one of the primary focii but only one of several. Others include usefulness, desirability, legibility, learnability, etc. The benefits are that these experiences are often easier to use and learn; more appropriate in terms of functions and use, and more compatible with existing processes.
Good overview article on UCD process. Also, some info on benefits and shortcomings of heuristic reviews.
Link:
http://www.digital-web.com/interviews/interview_2002-10.shtml
In the Northwest corner of Puerto Rico lies one of the best stretches of surfing in the Caribbean — indeed in all of the Atlantic. The small village of Rincon area boasts several world class waves, including Trés Palmas. Rincon also supports pristine reefs, sandy beaches and is a haven for humpback whales and sea turtles.
Terry Gibson-surfermag, Chad Nelson-surfrider, and notably Leon Richter-surfrider show us how community involvement can help build/design a better place to live.
Check it:
http://www.surfermag.com/features/oneworld/prmarinereserve/
Link:
http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/bib-01.htm
Great piece of design writing at the International Herald Tribune. Ayse Birsel, designer of Herman Miller's *Resolve* system and other artefacts.
Today, Birsel works out of a studiothat is the home base for the design consultancy she founded as Olive 1:1. She is known as empathic, intense and decidedly unconventional. Beauty seems to come naturally, but being "user-centered" is fundamental to her work.
In the late 1990s, the company invited Birsel to undertake a major project: Rethink the cubicle system that has ruled the open office for 30 years. The request was a leap, since Birsel knew little about office furniture. But Herman Miller was hoping for innovation. Birsel responded with new materials and a human-centered design.
Link:
http://www.iht.com/articles/67483.html
This brings me back to the days of CD-Rom development 6+ years ago. Nice article by Sam McMillan at Design Interact on the development of the new and improved game/cd-rom for "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego? Treasures of Knowledge". By Broderbund.
Remember them?
Link:
http://www.designinteract.com/features/
Nice interface for showcasing client work at Huge.com.
Link:
http://www.hugeinc.com/workbook/
Update to his original on how and when aesthetics work with product design.
Link:
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/Emotion-and-design.html
Keep an Eye on this program. http://bid.berkeley.edu/index.html
Professor Sack
Also see description of John Canny's work at: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0502/bid.html
and his web page: http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/0502/bid.html
Main page for AIGA experience design community.
Similar TOP Nav treatment as International Herald Tribune. As page scrolls, TOP Nav as layer follows down the page to maintain position.
The Ganzfeld (or the Wholefield, as the few of us versed in German call it) is the most compelling and intelligent collection of visual stories I've seen since RAW.
Stefan Sagmeister
Great piece on early graphic design in the US.
