Research Question
How is the packaging of a product as important as the product housed inside?
• Taking into consideration the idea of packaging something that is not typically housed within a package design:
- Trees
- A car
- Rain
- Elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water)
• Sustainability and environmental capital
- Affects and factors such as shipping, size, safety, etc.
• Application of sensory branding
• What are the factors that go into packaging (Shape, size, raw materials, etc.)
• Sensitivities within packaging (Ethics, cultures, connotations, etc.)
Monday, March 29, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Semiotics: A Primer for Designers
Semiotics: A Primer for Designers
by Challis Hodge
“Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to understand the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.”
I read Roland Barthes' "Mythologies" last year in my Humanities class. The short stories and thoughts in Barthes' were very interesting and intriguing and allowed me to understand even more about semiotics and the study of signs.
Semiotics helps us not to take reality for granted as something that simply exists. It helps us to understand that reality depends not only on the intentions we put into our work but also the interpretation of the people who experience our work.
by Challis Hodge
“Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to understand the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.”
I read Roland Barthes' "Mythologies" last year in my Humanities class. The short stories and thoughts in Barthes' were very interesting and intriguing and allowed me to understand even more about semiotics and the study of signs.
Semiotics helps us not to take reality for granted as something that simply exists. It helps us to understand that reality depends not only on the intentions we put into our work but also the interpretation of the people who experience our work.
How Professionals Think in Action
The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action
by Donald Schon
The three principal doctrines of Positivism:
• First, there was the conviction that empirical science was not just a form of knowledge but the only source of positive knowledge of the world.
• Second, there was the intention to cleanse men’s minds of mysticism, superstition, and other forms of pseudoknowledge.
• Third, there was the program of extending scientific knowledge and technical control to human society, to make technology, as Comte said, “no longer exclusively geometrical, mechanical or chemical, but also and primarily political and moral.”
The example about the construction and building of a road was very interesting in this reading, and made it somewhat easier to understand after reading a bunch of historical garble that I did not seem to understand what it had to do with the article.
This example about the road building, "they deal usually with a complex and ill-defined situation in which geographic, topological, financial, economic, and political issues are all mixed up together." Yet when they perhaps reach a neighbourhood, all of the issues arise yet again and problem solving and problem "setting" take control.
There are actions, recognitions, and judgments which we know how to carry out spontaneously; we do not have to think about them prior to or during their performance.
We are often unaware of having learned to do these things; we simply find
ourselves doing them. In some cases, we were once aware of the understandings which were subsequently internalized in our feeling for the stuff of action. In other cases, we may never have been aware of them. In both cases, however, we are usually unable to describe the knowing which our action reveals. It is in this sense that I speak of knowing-in-action, the characteristic mode of ordinary practical knowledge.
by Donald Schon
The three principal doctrines of Positivism:
• First, there was the conviction that empirical science was not just a form of knowledge but the only source of positive knowledge of the world.
• Second, there was the intention to cleanse men’s minds of mysticism, superstition, and other forms of pseudoknowledge.
• Third, there was the program of extending scientific knowledge and technical control to human society, to make technology, as Comte said, “no longer exclusively geometrical, mechanical or chemical, but also and primarily political and moral.”
The example about the construction and building of a road was very interesting in this reading, and made it somewhat easier to understand after reading a bunch of historical garble that I did not seem to understand what it had to do with the article.
This example about the road building, "they deal usually with a complex and ill-defined situation in which geographic, topological, financial, economic, and political issues are all mixed up together." Yet when they perhaps reach a neighbourhood, all of the issues arise yet again and problem solving and problem "setting" take control.
There are actions, recognitions, and judgments which we know how to carry out spontaneously; we do not have to think about them prior to or during their performance.
We are often unaware of having learned to do these things; we simply find
ourselves doing them. In some cases, we were once aware of the understandings which were subsequently internalized in our feeling for the stuff of action. In other cases, we may never have been aware of them. In both cases, however, we are usually unable to describe the knowing which our action reveals. It is in this sense that I speak of knowing-in-action, the characteristic mode of ordinary practical knowledge.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Text Talk (pt. 2)
Continued from: Text Talk.
Research Question
How has the growth in technology and the introduction of "text talk" and "emoticons" affected the communication and design aspects of typography?
This could entail in the exploration of:
• Pictograms
• Hieroglyphics
• History of communication through design
• Technology development and growth
• Communication through technology
This graphic design forum thread asks a similar question and the replies are interesting. A lot of it also relates to the argument about whether the computer has been a positive or negative influence on the graphic design field.
Research Question
How has the growth in technology and the introduction of "text talk" and "emoticons" affected the communication and design aspects of typography?
This could entail in the exploration of:
• Pictograms
• Hieroglyphics
• History of communication through design
• Technology development and growth
• Communication through technology
This graphic design forum thread asks a similar question and the replies are interesting. A lot of it also relates to the argument about whether the computer has been a positive or negative influence on the graphic design field.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
I Come to Bury Graphic Design
I Come to Bury Graphic Design
by Kenneth Fitzgerald
Design is everywhere and on everything, and with the access to so many programs and computers and other things, it seems like anyone could be a designer if they feel like it.
This applies to design as well as art. Sure, anyone could probably put together a simple CSS/HTML web design for their own home-run company, but there is just something about these "self-made" designers that make their work look like they weren't designers.
But as the saying goes, "Everyone can draw. Not everyone can draw well."
by Kenneth Fitzgerald
Design is everywhere and on everything, and with the access to so many programs and computers and other things, it seems like anyone could be a designer if they feel like it.
This applies to design as well as art. Sure, anyone could probably put together a simple CSS/HTML web design for their own home-run company, but there is just something about these "self-made" designers that make their work look like they weren't designers.
But as the saying goes, "Everyone can draw. Not everyone can draw well."
Why Designers Can't Think
Why Designers Can't Think
By Michael Bierut
"Swiss" or "Slick."
Process, lengthy projects. Or portfolio pieces.
Combining the two would probably be most ideal.
To me, I think that OCAD has some sort of grip on combining these two. I feel that some classes are all about the process work; they're one huge project lasting the 13 or 14 weeks of the semester. They make you think, work through problems, reach a result, but that result doesn't have to be the be all and end all of the piece. There are other classes which feature three or four different projects throughout the 13-14 week period of the semester. These smaller projects are to be completed within a certain deadline and are to be seen as outstanding portfolio pieces.
By experiencing both ends of the spectrum, it allows us as graphic design students to learn how to better educate ourselves about topics that we are not familiar with and also prepare ourselves for starting a career after graduating.
By Michael Bierut
"Swiss" or "Slick."
Process, lengthy projects. Or portfolio pieces.
Combining the two would probably be most ideal.
To me, I think that OCAD has some sort of grip on combining these two. I feel that some classes are all about the process work; they're one huge project lasting the 13 or 14 weeks of the semester. They make you think, work through problems, reach a result, but that result doesn't have to be the be all and end all of the piece. There are other classes which feature three or four different projects throughout the 13-14 week period of the semester. These smaller projects are to be completed within a certain deadline and are to be seen as outstanding portfolio pieces.
By experiencing both ends of the spectrum, it allows us as graphic design students to learn how to better educate ourselves about topics that we are not familiar with and also prepare ourselves for starting a career after graduating.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Graphic Design Thesis: A Survivor's Guide
Graphic Design Thesis: A Survivor's Guide
by Michael Vanderbyl
Graphic Design Thesis is designed to define the complex intersection between personal voice, conceptual understanding, and the ability to conduct and use research effectively in the service of creating a compelling, finely crafted public communication.
Four major components:
• Thesis proposal
• Research
• Thesis project
• Process book
The Thesis Proposal
The thesis proposal is a proposition or argument - usually based on original observation - which you intend to support through research. The proposal might detail your anticipated investigation or address the potential implication of your proposition.
The Research
The purposes of research are many:
• To understand how to evaluate what you see and read
• To develop your own opinions and critical frameworks based on informed judgments - not simply on what you like and don't like
• To acquire the critical skills to discern reliable/useful sources from the junk
• To evaluate your own work in light of what you learn through research
• To develop your own understanding of the relationship of history/theory to practice
• To have the chance to explore a topic that interests you in a more in-depth fashion
The Thesis Project
The thesis project is a proposition or argument explicated by design and supported by research. Your thesis project is the physical manifestation of, and the conclusion to, your thesis proposal. The for it takes should be determined by the nature of your proposal and its content.
Process Book
A bound record of your thinking and design process. Your process book should include your writing, research, design investigations, successes, and failures - in short it should document how you got from point A to point Z in 15 weeks. It should include all steps, even abandoned topics. It should also include footnotes and a bibliography.
by Michael Vanderbyl
Graphic Design Thesis is designed to define the complex intersection between personal voice, conceptual understanding, and the ability to conduct and use research effectively in the service of creating a compelling, finely crafted public communication.
Four major components:
• Thesis proposal
• Research
• Thesis project
• Process book
The Thesis Proposal
The thesis proposal is a proposition or argument - usually based on original observation - which you intend to support through research. The proposal might detail your anticipated investigation or address the potential implication of your proposition.
The Research
The purposes of research are many:
• To understand how to evaluate what you see and read
• To develop your own opinions and critical frameworks based on informed judgments - not simply on what you like and don't like
• To acquire the critical skills to discern reliable/useful sources from the junk
• To evaluate your own work in light of what you learn through research
• To develop your own understanding of the relationship of history/theory to practice
• To have the chance to explore a topic that interests you in a more in-depth fashion
The Thesis Project
The thesis project is a proposition or argument explicated by design and supported by research. Your thesis project is the physical manifestation of, and the conclusion to, your thesis proposal. The for it takes should be determined by the nature of your proposal and its content.
Process Book
A bound record of your thinking and design process. Your process book should include your writing, research, design investigations, successes, and failures - in short it should document how you got from point A to point Z in 15 weeks. It should include all steps, even abandoned topics. It should also include footnotes and a bibliography.
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