#weeklyassignments

The last discipline I can use in the future is to use design thinking. As I said earlier, we need to change the way we do things and design can play a part in doing that. We need to stop being conservative and worrying about what other people think and just start creating things. There are a lot of designs that people thought were crazy or unrealistic, but still are used today! The world needs designers in todays world and I am glad that I will soon be part of that. 

Over the last 15 weeks I have learned about all kinds of design and what they all mean. I think the future of design continues to work on more of the useability for the consumer and not just the asthetics. With the way things have been going I also for see a lot of the technology continuing to grow along with the amount of things that are touchscreen. For me I plan to major in marketing and math along with a minor in graphic design/visual arts. This means for me design will continue to change everday. The way we appeal to the eye and the way design leads a consumer across a page or draws them into a store is going to be a very large focus of mine so I will notice that more. Also one of the other things I will notice with my job field is the interior design aspect of things since I will be working in a n office setting. The usability of an office is something that will also affect me for the rest of my life. One thing that I have noticed about myself after taking this class about design and really looking into things is that I love old vintage advertisements. I do think this connects to design because it is that idea of design asthetics and such.

I don’t think I have the eye to be able to put design in my mind all the time I have a very business orientated mind. I am design orientated when it comes to colors and how I lable for my classes like green makes me think science or blue makes me think math. Then there is the way I display things in presentations I have to have it appealing to the eye or the colors have to make sense or the graphs have to be perfect. When I look at advertisements I look at how and why they attract consumers that is when my design parts kick in, I think about the colors and how they affect us and if that’s why we feel a certain way when we look at this advertisement over that one. But when I look at a company I don’t look at their outfits or the way the menus are displayed I look at the way the company is run. When I see a commercial or hear something about a business the first thing I think is how many times have I seen this commercial is this a waste of money for that company because ive only seen this once and I will never remember it after tomorrow. So in a sense I will always have that design outlook on my profession but in the long run I have to much business and strategy running through my head to develop it in all parts of my profession.

Brooks Stevens was born here in Milwaukee in 1910 and he was in the field of industrial design. I think that it is hard to leave a place you were born or grew up in and so I feel that that influenced a lot of why he stayed here but also because Milwaukee had and still to this day has so much potential for industrial design and so much inspiration for work. Stevens followed closely in his fathers shoes and one of his interests lies in motor cycles. I find this a conicidence because one of the larger Harley Davidson museums is here in milwukee. Brooks Stevenes was a big part of Milwaukee and the industrial design field and I think that for him his hear just stayed here in this city.

John Heskett wrote a book called Design a Very Short Introduction. The word design can have a hundred and one different meanings, its all how each indivicual sees it and wants to interperate it. That’s the beauty of design. In the reading he begins the book with “design sits uncomfortably between these two extremes. As a word it is common enough, but is full of incongruities, has innumerable manifestations, and lacks boundries that give clarity and definition” and I think that that fits perfectly with how I see design. One thing that we can all agree upon whether we are designers or not is that design is to help make life more usable, more appealing, and more enjoyable as a whole. Design is such a important part of our everyday life, for example my laptop that im typing on or tumblr in which this is about to be posted on; all parts of design. Even this text; the way the letters look, without the little feet on the T or the M, this is the most basic and used text “Helvetica”.

Social design is what imporoves human well-being and livelihood. So I think that social design is yes about asthetics still and making things appealing to the eye but mostly to improve useability. So for example the way ipods have evolved over the years, the ipod with the circle in the middle at the time we thought was easy to operate and use but now the ipod touch makes it much eaiser to tap on what we want versus scroll in a circular motion. To me design for social good is just that designing to help out and its for the good of the consumers. This would fall more towards useability versus the asthetics. Then design for social impact, I would say that this would mean that usability doesn’t matter as much as lets say selling and appealing for consumers to buy it.

Digital aesthetic is the way things apper to us in the digital form. For me this is going to be huge since I am specifically taking design classes to use toward advertisements and that kind of thing to appeal to consumers to get them to look at our products or services. So I see digital aesthetics to be a huge part of life especailly the way we use technology in our every day life. For example the way Oldnavy.com is layed out would be an example of digital aesthetics, so their red banner that changes themes to go with whats going on. So right now they have snowflakes on it since its winter time and that will go back to solid red when its not festive times. The way that they have models trying the clothes on and making them into outfits and that these pop up at the top of the page so it’s the first thing a consumer sees; intending the typical thought “oh gosh that’s cute together I need to look at those” making it easier to visualize yourself in these outfits. I think it has changed the way we use digital technology though as well. When internet had first become a thing it was for research games ect. Not the online shopping we all do like crazy now, so it has made a big shift to make it all about the consumer and how to get them to buy. Shifting now our internet and online services to be all about the sale.

Saturday: On Saturday I focused on my computer as it was time to do my homework. I was looking at the design of the keyboard on the computer and how the letters don’t go in alphabetical order or anything similar to it but do create a easy to use method.