doodles

My highlighter leaked on a stack of papers. I enjoyed the chromatography that sneaked out- so I cut the corners of my papers off and arranged them in this pattern. I like the idea of this gradient for visual design and for creating texture.

I was on the train and decided to see if I could capture the essence of my neighbors' portraits in a simple line drawing. At first I didn't think I was successful, but after shading in the different values (either skin or hair) I find that these quick snapshots are enough for me to relatively accurately visualize most of these peoples' physiognomies! I especially remember the two on the upper right, the middle two on the right, and the bottom right ones. It's actually fascinating that something so basic can really trigger a clear image of their face in my mind. It makes me think that we have so much stored up there, we just need something to bring it to the surface. I need to keep this in mind when I design. I feel like there's a lot of potential here.

This is truly a doodle. But I enjoy what differing line lengths can do- in terms of movement and emphasis.

Straight vs. curvy lines- how do they affect the mind- what do they remind of us- how do they affect our moods. Does any of this matter in design? I definitely think so.

designs that make me think

An ongoing collection of designs that make me re-think certain assumptions and will serve as an impetus to think "out of the box"

DESIGN CAN CREATE TIME

The design itself is so simple, it's genius- the pot inside a pot notion with water in between, creating a mini-fridge, I believe because of the evaporative cooling. Regardless of how it exactly works, my favorite part about this design is the effect it has on the user. The designer notes that because of the device, women can keep their produce longer (more than a week) rather than rushing to sell within a day before it goes bad. This allows them to attend school and do other tasks in the newly generated free time. Amazing. 

DESIGN RECOGNIZES AND MAKES FRIENDS WITH GRAVITY

The first time I read about this rolling water idea I loved it. It puts the task of carrying water into the hands of anyone (child, elderly, etc.) who can pull a rope. It doesn't require the energy or strength or balance that carrying water on the head does. And I imagine the movement- constant swashing around- keeps the water from getting stagnant. Just the general idea of working with gravity- or at least considering it when designing- seems so obvious yet can generate new solutions to current design problems. Or can provide improvements to designs that you may not even realize are design problems...

Does all design have a designer?

Reflection:

I was thinking about this notion and the general assumption that design has a designer. This really seems like a chicken and the egg type of question. I pondered nature as an example- and the fact that nature exists without a "human" designer yet it clearly produces designs. For instance, the vascular system of a plant- it's an ingenious solution for water transport and defies gravity and is so effective- yet no person figured this out and made it, of course. The design emerged from its surroundings and the necessities of of what existed. 

Does that mean that design just emerges eventually, with time and evolution? Certainly designers have expedited this process. Therefore, from the perspective of a human thinking in terms of generations, not eons, I think that most design has a designer but some designs can just emerge based on circumstance.

I think it usually takes a designer to notice what is emerging and make it into something though. A user can practically generate a design- which would imply that anyone-- not just designers-- can design. For example- a baby grasping onto a chair and pushing it while walking practically designs itself into a baby walker- but an adult watching this must translate this action using creative powers into something feasible and thus the baby walker is born. Then, on the other hand, there are designers seeking out possible designs to make- they are searching for problems, and poor user-interface, ugly objects, and dysfunctional design. And with discovery, they are able to focus on an idea and make or improve a design. 

Here is my mind-map relating to the question of design having a designer.

Design Project 1

The second ME 313 design problem deals with designing an emergency relief shelter.

There are many specifics

noted, such as:

a) the shelter should be able to be deployed by an illiterate population or a child

b) the shelter has to be more durable than a tent

c) the shelters should be able to stack and allow for food/water rations

d) consider long-term use of the shelter- ie. after the emergency is over. * I think this point is interesting to brainstorm *

There are so many more things to consider. Such as- what type of emergency is it? Flood, terrorism, civil strife, hurricane/wind. These all affect the type of structure we design (durability, safety, temperature control, flatness of ground).

Karen and I are teamed for this project. We started out by brainstorming the essentials- structure, disaster type, deployment options, etc.

We brainstormed ideas- I'm researching origami for folding material- Robert Lang's designs for airbags, heart stents and 100 meter diameter lenses for space telescopes- all of which fold up relatively tiny- serve as inspiration.

We also discussed the idea of two elements rather than one- a main structure and then a roof. This seems potentially more achievable to design than a one-piece structure.

In the end, we decided on displaced people and refugees of civil strife to be our target user group for the shelter.


Design goals:

1. Self-Assembly- simple and safe deployment- (so that children can easily put the shelter together and it has a slow, expansion-type deployment so they are not be injured when it pops open).
2. Reinforcement for long-term use- (because many of these shelters together turn into communities that last long after the initial displacement- potentially for years).
3. Construction transparency- (so that the shelter can be easily taken apart after the disaster and used for parts- i.e., foam roof for bedding, aluminum bars for new structures, etc.)

Design features:
a. airflow under the roof
b. protection from intense sun- separate roof and dark/light colors of shelter help regulate temperature throughout the day
c. color- UN blue
d. size- can stand under it, sleeps 2+
e. single- action deployment
f. shape allows for formation of community of structures- ideal for safety, weather protection, and extended families

The following are a few images from our final presentation. (The model is 1:2.5 scale- the real thing would be more than twice as big- roughly 8ft tall and deep, and between 4 and 5 feet wide- depending on which part of the shelter you are in)

Design Project 0

This is the first design project for ME 313. It has to do with the overload of digital media we face in modern society and asks you to develop a potential product or experience solution to this issue.

I "mind-mapped" ideas about about my feelings about analog vs. digital photography.

Then I got to the root of the question which was,

"why do we even take a photo to begin with?"

I decided that we:

a) want to preserve our own memories and feelings, and

b) want to share these with others

My design solution was to tackle that initial moment when you take a photo, rather than deal with the aftermath. My "flick : slide : squeeze" camera:

1) captures the visceral response of the user and matches this to the importance of the photo (ie. the flick is a photo with little value, just a quick capture; whereas the squeeze is of utmost importance and, seeing as these "squeeze" photos will take up a lot of digital memory, the camera's squeeze mechanism records the accumu

lations of squeezes so that you are aware of your decisons. The "slide" photos fall between the flick and squeeze)

2) this device can be taken to different levels of specificity depending on the user

3) the images end up in different places- this saves time and makes it easier to share.