Friday, April 16, 2010

Design Portfolio Activities-Period 3

Blog about which activities you tried and the results.

24 comments:

  1. Well, I tried the "Participate in the 'Third Industrial Revolution'". What I did was I designed a steel toed Nike Shoe. It actually looked pretty cool. It was nice, had some cool lace design, and it had steel toed edges! I also developed a font that looks like it should be used in pet collars and engravings. I also designed a house on a boat in the sea. It looked really cool, but it was kind of extreme.

    I also did the "Be Choosy" activity. I chose what clothes I should wear for the day. I will probably never do that again. I'm not a guy who chooses his cloths. I only did it for today only.

    I guess it was pretty cool to see what designs I could come up with in such a short amount of time.

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  2. The first activity I tried from "A Whole New Mind" was "Participate in the 'Third Industrial Revolution'". I went onto the nike website and did the nike id activity where you can design your own shoe and customize basically however you want to. It was really neat that I could just go onto the computer and put together the perfect shoe for my personality. It showed really how far we have come. Instead of just having to buy the same style and pattern as every body else you can put together a shoe that expresses you. The other activity from the book that I did was "Put It on a Table". I took a stuffed animal that I have had my entire life and I put it in front of me and really looked at it. Just like the book said it would, I started to remember past experiences, who gave it to me, and how it always made me feel happy while looking at it. Also, doing this activity I realized that it is true that everything has a design. It isn't always the most complex thing, but it always seems to have some sort of design to it.

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  3. The two activities that appealed to me the most from the "Design" portfolio were the "Third Industrial Revolution" and "Put it on a table." For the industrial revolution I went to Vans.com and customized a pair of shoes. Vans are one of my new favorite shoes and being able to design them in a way that appealed to me even more was fantastic. I love the way shoe stores are appealing to right-brained thinking even more by allowing the customer to become their own designer. It proves the points given in the book about our culture changing. The item I chose to put on my table was an old soccer trophy. It truly reminded me of my old “rec” days and where my love of soccer came from. Just seeing it brought up the memories. The feel of it brings back the memory of receiving the trophy for the very first time. The sensory clues represent the way I feel about it.

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  4. The first activity I chose to do out of the poetry portfolio was to keep a design notebook. Instead of using a notebook, I took pictures on my phone. I focused on the covers of books, movies and TV show seasons that I found around the house. The first thing I noticed about the covers was the colors. The covers of two war movies I found, "Pearl Harbor" and "To End All Wars" both had covers that were at least half gray/black. On the other hand, I found two happier movies, "The Princess Bride" and "The Sound of Music" which had covers that were mainly light blue and other lighter colors. This was also similar in the book covers I looked at. I compared "The Book Thief", a WWII novel to "Charlotte's Web", a children's book. The moods/tones are opposite, and colors of the covers reflect the same. "The Book Thief" had a cover of brown ad black, and "Charlotte's Web" had a cover of white, organge and blue. Movies or books that were mostly sad or ended sad had darker colored covers.

    The second thing I noticed concerned the TV show season. I took a sequence of pictures of four "Smallville" season, seasons 1,4,7, and 8. The coloring for season 1 was blue and green in the background, much brighter than the 8th season, which was dark reds and browns. I also observed a similar effect for season of "Stargate Atlantis" when I photographed seasons 1, 4, and 5. The background of the cover of season 1 was blue. The background of season five was dark gray. This correlates with the plot of the season. Both "Smallville" and "Stargate Atlantis" get darker and more serious as the seasons progress. From studying covers, I decided that the shade of colors often correlates with the plot/mood of the movie/book/TV show.

    The third thing I noticed about colors had to do with the age of the book. I compared books in the "Dune" series. I photographed two of the original books "Dune Messiah" and "Heretics of Dune." Both uses dull and less bright colors. I compared this to two of the more modern books, "House Atreides" and "House Harkonnen" which both had covers containing bright blue, gold, black and red. I also compared an original "Trixie Belden" book to a the modern version. The older version, like with the "Dune" books, was duller and had less bright colors.

    For the second activity, I chose to look at design magazines. Since I could not get any house design magazines, I used magazines with clothing in them. I focuses on dresses in particular. Dresses, while many have a pretty design, are often not well design for practical purposes. They are hard to move in and uncomfortable. From this activity, I drew the conclusions that Americans often sacrifice comfort and function for beauty.

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  5. While reading the design portfolio, I discovered some great new ways to look at life. i decided I am going to continue to carry around a small camera in my phone to take pictures of cool designs. this helps to enjoy the little things in life and view life in a different perspective. It helps soothe my emotions and calm me down if I am angry, a funtional form of therapy that is easy and free. I also decided to continue sending ideas to businesses that contain items that annoy me or could do better. This is a functional way to channel irritation towards inanimate objects and also helps tame anger or other outrageous emotions. In addition to this, it helps to let the business leaders know what the customers don't like about their establishment and they can fix it to the customers needs. This is somehow relieveing to know that you are being listend to every once in a while, another theraputic way to channel anger and irritation, this is a very functional excercise for me.

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  6. For my two portfolio ideas I chose “Participate in the Third Industrial Revolution” and “Put It on a Table”. I went on to nikeid.com and created a really cool shoe. Using their design feature I was able to not only choose what colors I wanted the shoe to be, but I was also able to chose the material and if the shoe was going to be for performance, training, or both. In the end I chose a both performance and training shoe. I made some of the shoe the Nike classic leather and some of it breathable cloth. The colors I chose were black, gold, white, and gray. This was a very cool experience because I was able design my own shoe that no one else has and be very unique in my own style. For my second portfolio idea I did the “Put It on a Table”. For this I chose an old blanket that I have had my whole life. I set it down and looked at it for a while and just thought about some of the things I did with it that I could remember. I have a lot of memories with it and some of the most memorable where when I was sick or when I used to watch movies with my dad when I was little. I then thought about how it affected my five senses when I was a little kid. I remembered the smell of when it just came out of the wash or how it felt so soft. Looking at it again reminded me of why I liked it so much. I liked it cause it was blue, which is my favorite color, and the fact that no matter how cold it was it always managed to keep me warm. Both of those reasons were due to its design. The most important thing that these portfolio ideas have taught me are that everything has a design and it is that design that makes people like them and makes them unique.

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  7. Of the many activities I could choose, I decided on the "Third Industrial Revolution" and "Put It on the Table".
    For the Third Industrial Revolution i went to Nike.com and designed a pair of soccer cleats. They were bright green with accents of blue and yellow. They were really bright and that is what i really like about them. I don't know if i would ever play in them but still it was really fun!

    The second activity, Put It on a Table. For this activity I choose my dog's old collar. This collar means alot to me because my dog past away a couple years ago. We were the same age so that's what made his death even harder. Looking at the collar made me sad and made me miss him more. The way his collar affects my five senses is unique. When I smell it (kind of weird but okay) I can smell him. When I see it I miss him. When I touch it I remember what it was like when he was here. I can only listen to it when I jingle it. I hear his tags clicking together and remember what it sounded like to here him run around the yard. I won't taste it.
    The connection I have made is a connection to remembering. That may sound silly but I remember my dog better just looking at his collar.
    These were the two activities that appealed the most to me.

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  8. This Sunday, my Mom and I were walking around a wealthy residential neighborhood near Cherry Creek. We happned to come upon an open house serving as a benefit for Childrens Hospital. This house featured different desingers that all took on a differrent room. The first thing I noticed was that some of the rooms were very forced. The designers are trying to get new clients, so they try to make thier space stand out; as a result, the rooms were unique but not inviting. Some well thought out design was evident in the kitchen, den, and living room as the designers focused on making it feel comfortable and inviting.
    My dad is an architect/interior designer, so I flipped through a number of his design magazines as well. I folded down the pages that i thought displayed good design and in the end i saw a trend. I was generally attracted to the rooms that were cozy and homelike.
    What I learned from these activities is that my ideal home is one that appeals to the senses. An inviting home that is comfortable will always catch my attention.

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  9. Of the activities provided in the Design Portfolio, in 'A Whole New Mind'. by Daniel Pink, I chose to participate in the "Third Industrial Revolution" and I chose to C-R-A-P-ify a design.

    For participating in the "Third Industrial Revolution" I designed my own Nike shoes. I found it was a great way to express yourself and design something that fits your personality, or your style. I made a shoe that had a white base, with light blue and purple all around it. It was a unique design that nobody else has created.

    My second activity was C-R-A-P-ifying a design. Since I am into photography I went around taking pictures on my digital camera. When I got home, I uploaded them onto my computer and started to play around with the different elements of the pictures. One of the pictures I took was of my sister walking our dogs. I played around with different contrasts for it, making it darker and lighter. I also played around with the exposure levels, the shadows in the picture, and changed some of the colors in general. I think that although being able to change the picture around is fun and great for design, it takes away some of the artistic creativity.

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  11. For my two activites, i chose "A Third World Revolution" and "Put it on the Table". For "A Third World Revolution" I chose to go to Vans.com and create my own shoe. I spent atleast 45 minutes on creating atleast 5 different pairs of shoes. It was very fun to express my inner "designer" capabilities. I really liked how many different options they provided, it helped make sure you could get that "perfect look".
    For the "Put it on the Table" activity i chose Lemonade as my object. I chose this because every summer we always have lemonade, and I am drinking it constantly. And everytime I drink it, it reminds me of the summer days, with no school.

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  12. For my first activity, I chose the "Put it on the Table." The object I chose was my piano, which couldn't be put on a table, but I focused on it just the same. Every time I look at it, It made me think of the music that it produces, and the art involved in the instrument. I especially like viewing the strings and observing each individual string as the mallet strikes it and carries out a note from paper to the ears. I also feel attached to it because it has been in the family since my mother's childhood. As much as I would enjoy a brand new, perfectly tuned piano, the significance of the one I have is too great to even think of getting rid of the piano. The design of the piano also appeals to the sense with its sleek but traditional lines, and the some what out of tune sound it produces, and the feel of the keys under your fingers has you strike them. Overall, it is an object in my life that appeals to me with its design and aesthetic, as well as its significance in my life.

    The second activity I did was designing my own pair of Nike Shox on Nike id. I like how I could have options to choose from and create a shoe that was to my taste and not some designer's at Nike. I also like how everything was so easy to design the shoe. The design of the shoe and the website are both really good which helps with the overall design experience.

    I believe by participating in these activities, I now see the multiple dimensions of design. It's not just about the look of something, but how it functions in your life and how it emotionally and physically appeals to you. It helps you see the use of both sides of the brain. Both activities made me see the details of the objects (left brain) and the overall feeling and appeal of the objects after looking at them (right brain).

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  13. The two activities I decided to participate in were the “Keep a Design Notebook” and “ Be Choosy”. I went to the Colorado Avalanche game this Sunday and was very excited because we were in the first row of the 3rd section and would have a great view. Unfortunately, there was terrible design. My seat was right at the end of the stairwell and for some reason there was about an extra foot of railing right in the line of sight. I was bobbing and weaving my head around every second trying to find the puck. Another bad thing about the stadium was the seat spacing. There is only an inch at most from my feet and the railing and the chairs were only 12 to 14 inches wide. Another design I noted as I was putting my trampoline together this Saturday was the circular frame. What an awful idea! The worst thing about it is after the 6 months of storage over the winter, the frame gets slightly warped and bent differently and does not go together correctly. It took my entire family and about 1 hour to put this architectural disaster together. Every time we got one part together, we tried connecting it to another piece and it just fell apart. Luckily we finally got it with a little help from a half of a can of WD-40 and a rubber mallet to hit it all into place.
    The second activity “Be Choosy” appealed to my more creative side. I am very particular about my baseball gear and I only make a decision after reading all about it. Recently I got a new glove and needed it broken in ASAP. I went to a sporting goods store and saw an entire wall of oils and creams claiming they are all the best. I read the directions and the effects it had on the glove. I chose one and it was broken in within 20 minutes of getting back home.

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  14. For my two activites from the Design chapter of, "A Whole New Mind" by Daniel Pink, I chose to do "Third Industrial Revolution" and "Put It on a Table."

    To participate in the "Third Industrial Revolution", I went to nikeie.nike.com and desingned my own shoe. It was a great way show my personality and design a shoe to my liking. I was able to choose the type of shoe, I went for speed, rather than strength, the color scheme, and nearly ever aspect of how the show was put together. I chose a Flywire base with black, gold, red, and orange colors. It was very fun be able to design and create my own shoe fit to my liking. Nike Id is a great way to express the "inner designer" within someone, being able to create a unique shoe to fit each individual.

    For my second activity, I chose to "Put it on the Table." For this, I chose my old snowboarding helmet. Just looking at it brought back memories from years ago, from when I first started boarding. I remembered some of the first times I had ever gone, and how the helmet saved me from serious injury when I was just a beginner. Thinking about it made me remember some of the old, incredible fun experiences I've had with the helmet. It was very functional, I never had a concussion through my falls as a beginner, and was designed aesthetically appealing as well as well working. Great design must appeal to both the left and right sides of your brain to catch attention, it seems.

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  15. The first activity that I participated in was the "Third Industrial Revolution". I went onto Vans.com and designed my own pair of shoes. It was interesting how you could choose the type of shoe you wanted and then
    the pattern and color of each specific piece of the shoe. I think its really fasinating how shoe companies and many other companies as well are allowing their customers to design their products. This helps people practice their design skills which therefore sharpens their right brain thinking.
    The next activity I participated in was "Put it on the Table". I put an old stuffed animal that was a rabbit on the table, and it started reminding me of where I got it and what was happening when I recieved it. This thinking then led to muliple other memories I had of that time and other times that were similiar to it. This activity was an especially helpful exercise for my right brain becasue when I looke at the stuffed animal, it helped me remember specific details that affect my five senses. Overall both were good exercises to help trigger right brain thinking.

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  16. The first activity I did was “Keep a Design Notebook”. At the time, writing down the design of certain things was difficult, because I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. But once I figured out how to look at things and judge their design, it became a lot easier. I noticed things about certain objects that I had never really paid attention to before, like a computer mouse, and how the sides are curved to fit comfortably in your hand. One thing I noticed about bad design, was my dad’s Blackberry. The buttons are very tiny and close together, making it hard to push the correct one. According to him, you get used to it after a while, but to me it just seemed like bad design.

    I also did the “Be Choosy” activity. I am very particular about my hockey gear, especially my leg pads (I am a goalie). When I go and get new ones, it takes me very long to pick out the perfect pair. One pair had awful design because in the knee-bend there was mesh-y material that prevented my knee from being able to turn, and if my knee can’t turn, then I can’t slide across the ice. One would think that the manufacturers would know something about designing a good leg pad, but it makes you wonder if they do when you come across the badly designed ones.

    Overall, from these activities I learned that design is crucial in the lives of human beings. It really made me think about how everything had to have been designed. Things are designed in order to fit people’s needs, and if it is not correctly designed, the product is often times useless, because people will go out and buy the better product.

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  17. The two activities I took part in were the “Participate in the Third Industrial Revolution” and “Put it on a Table”. Both activities were actually extremely fun, especially the “Third Industrial Revolution”. For this activity, I went onto both nikeid.com as well as personalizationmall.com. I love making shoes, I’ve done it before and it is very fun. I love how I’m able to express myself through something as small as shoes. I’m able to put myself directly into the shoes. It made me feel as though I have some power as to what I want the shoes to look like. On personalizationmall.com, I was able to create a picture frame that was mine, and insert pictures of my own in the frame. This activity was tremendously fun and incredibly cool. I felt as though I was able to make my own memories and make something for myself, friends, or a family member that represents something. Putting my pictures directly on their symbolically represented something for me. It showed that those memories are there to stay and they won’t go anywhere. It also brought back those great memories that made me smile and laugh.

    With my second activity, “Put it on a Table”, I chose to use my stuffed animal my best friend gave to me. It’s a turtle named Squirt. It’s something that’s extremely meaningful to me. When I looked at it, I thought of the Christmas that she got it for me; it was the Christmas of 2008. That New Years eve, we had our own party and we did on that Christmas as well; it brought back some great memories. It affects my smell and touch because it smells used, but not bad, and it’s really soft. When I tried it with other objects that didn’t mean as much, I didn’t have much of a connection with it. I felt as though the object was just there and as though I was just staring at a toaster or something insubstantial. Both these activities were way fun!!

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  18. The activities that I participated in were the "Third Revolution" and "Put it on the Table". For the "Third Revolution", I visited both the websites nikeid.nike.com and www.vans.com and tried customizing the shoes. I thought that it was really cool how you can customize shoes so that they are a representation of you, your creativity, and your sense of design. I liked it because it allowed people to be creative and invent something of their own and it helps to show that people are combining the usage of the right and the left brain. On these websites there was a balance of creativity because there was a basic guideline of the company’s signature design but people can choose the colors and put words on the back of it.

    For “Put it on the Table”, I looked at a stuffed animal that I liked to play with when I was little. I started to think about the memories that I have of it, and I remembered when I got it. I thought about how I can apply my five senses to it and I looked at the design and the physical appearance. I thought that the five senses was a creative way to look at the design of something that you have memories attached to, because you think about it more. When reading the portfolio, I also thought that it would be interesting to keep a design notebook or make a photo album of pictures of designs that I like. I think that it would be interesting if multiple people tried it and you compared the different notebooks to see the different senses of design and opinion that people have. You could compare the notebooks of more right-brained people and more left-brained people and see the difference between the designs.This would further show the individual creativity. This chapter and its activities helped me see the significance of design in everyday life.

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  19. The first activity I did from the book was the "Third Industrial Revolution" I went onto the Nike website and designed my own pair of shoes. It was exciting because it was a design of my own, a design unique to myself. My pair of shoes happened to be black and blue, while somebody else would prefer a white and red pair. With all the different designs around us it becomes possible to critique and make changes to other designs fitting your own style.

    The next activity I chose to do was "put it on the table" I chose the hockey jersey from my first year that I played. I don't remember that much about that season: how many games we won or who was on it, but I do remember my first goal.I remember standing in front of the net with the puck and all the other players just seemed to watch. I felt my stick move back and quickly forward, releasing the puck over the goalies arm into the back of the net. I was no more than 7 at the time but I remember it perfectly, I got this overwhelming feeling of excitement as I threw my hands and stick into the air. I half ran and half skated around the net until I hit the side boards. I couldn't stop talking about it for the next couple of days and I never forgot that moment.

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  20. I selected “Participate in the Third Industrial Revolution” and “Be Choosy.” For the first topic on the industrial revolution, I chose to visit the Nike website and create my own shoe. (I really want this shoe). This was a great site to visit that shows various designs that fit every persons likes. The designer in you is revealed when you create something of your own, like these shoes. This kind of creative activity is so much fun.
    I also chose “Be Choosy.” I decided to talk about how a person could spend their money. My family decided to spend money on my sibling’s graduations and also to send me to summer camp with Younglife. The memories of these graduations and summer camp will endure and be important for us for years to come.

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  21. The first activity I participated in was "Participate in the Third Industrial Revolution". I went to nikeid.com and designed my own basketball shoe. I chose the most recent Air Jordans and gave them some awesome colors. I made them Lakers colors, white, gold and purple. I think that this concept of personal design will become more common in the future because consumers demand products that fit their individual needs and desires in terms of design and functionality.
    The second activity I did was "put it on the table".
    The personal item I chose was a red white and blue mini nike basketball. It really brought back a lot of memories. I immediately remembered getting the ball when I was seven on Christmas along with a new low rimmed basketball hoop. I remembered dunking on the hoop for hours on end and hanging on the rim after thunderous slams. Not just the sight of the ball, but the smell of the rubber also helped bring back these memories of spending summer days thinking up new dunks. This speaks to the personal appeal certain products have on consumers and the effectiveness of this selling strategy.

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  22. For my portfolio activities, I did ‘Put it on a Table’ and ‘Be Choosy’. For ‘Put it on a Table’, I choose my favorite teddy bear. My friend won this for me at Elitches last summer. It made me think of summer and all the fun memories I have with that friend. It is a comfort item for me and I take it anytime I go somewhere for a while. For touch it is soft and fuzzy and has a blue sweatshirt that it wears. The smell makes me think of my friend and of home. I think that it inspires all of my senses because of all of the emotions and memories hat come through just looking at my bear.

    I also did be choosy. I sat down and planned out the room I would want if I could have anything I wanted. Although it was pretty unrealistic, I still enjoyed making according to my style and according to what is most important to me.

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  23. I live right across form a neighborhood of massive beautiful houses. It's called The Preserve. I love to longboard through and look at all of the houses. I point out the ones that are very cool and appealing. The difference between these and the ones I dont find as cool or interesting is design. I saw that i found most of the white or light brown or yellow colored houses very cool and appealing. I like to picture what would make the ugly or less appealing houses better. Like maybe adding in a patio or paint color or even driveway. The design of a house makes a huge difference between selling a house or not. And even a difference in what people think of you.

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  24. For my two activities I chose the "put it on the table" and the "participate in a third revolution." For the first one I put my first guitar on the table. I looked back on when I first started playing and how bad I really was. I thought back to how bad the guitar is, and was, but how much it meant to me and how excited I was to learn my first song. I also thought about how much joy doing one activity could bring to me.
    For the next activity I decided to go onto vanscustom shoe website and design my own shoe. I made two different pairs of shoes and made them different. I used one that was sort of matching and colors I sort of liked, while the other one I made my favorite colors crazy and not matching. The shoe I ended up liking more was the one that the colors weren't my favorite because the contrast in the colors complimented each other much better.

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