Scavenger Hunt

Team members: Danny Pizzo, An Huang (http://marshmallowdesign200.blogspot.com/)

We worked together to figure out our first destination, then split the clues up to figure out the most efficient route from the fine arts library. After we had discovered where we needed to go, we went about taking our photographic documentation of the answers. 

Clue One

Barcelona Chair by: Mies van der Rohe

The design is said to inspired by ancient Roman folding chairs.

Clue Two

The Red Blue Chair by: Gerit Rietveld 

The chair was originally painted gray, black and white, but changed to mimic the color work of Piet Mondrian.

I'm reading an issue of Design and Funtion.

Clue Three

Wexner Center for the Arts by: Peter Eisenman 

Controversy surrounds the building's appropriateness as an art gallery, as issues concerning the effect of poor air filtration and high light permeation on artworks in the building have been brought up. 

Clue Four

The Math Tower and SEL by: Philip Johnson

Architectural detail which caught my eye was the use of very geometrical shapes on the outside of the structure, particularly patterned circles and semi-circles throughout.

Clue Five

Thompson Library by: Acock and Associates

During the renovation, workers had to remove 1010 tons of limestone and re-install 770 tons inside and outside the building.

found faces

course response

The lecture about accessibility raises a lot of good questions in design that have yet to be answered. Products for people with disabilities are many times limited in their effectiveness, and bothersome to operate. Being about to design products specifically aimed at this target audience is a very important goal, but one that is difficult to realize. Expense is often an issue, as new technologies are often key in the improvements. class covered a lot of good material and examples of current products. Scavenger hunt was great because it got me to see the inside of the architecture building, which i always thought was ugly from the outside. the interior of the building was amazing, and I'm pretty jealous of all the architecture students that get to work and study in there everyday. thats all for now

Reading Reflection 4

Chapters 7 and 8 seemed to deal with the subtle pervasiveness of design in everyday areas of our lives. How design is used to shape the identities of companies that consumers come in contact with daily, and how it directs interactions with one's environment. An idea that is recurring throughout the text is that of cultural preference, and how tendencies from nation to nation dictate what type of design is successful, and which designs can be marketed to a nearly universal population. The book's example about professional identities and makeovers gone awry was particularly relevant when looking back on BP's recent oil spill, a company the book mentioned in question of corporate identity. The chapters provided a lot of good examples, some which i was aware of, others not. It helped define the types of ways that design can be seen across a number of fields.

10 Things Everyone Should Know About Hans Hollein

Born in Austria in 1934.


Architect and designer, receiving degrees from schools in Vienna, Chicago, and Berkley before embarking on an illustrious career.


Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1985.


Has been featured as an artist on numerous occasions, and has works included in collections at the Mueseum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the National Museum of Modern Art in Kyoto.


Architectural works include: 


Museum of Glass and Ceramics in Tehran

Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt, and many, many more.


Apart from his architectural endeavors, works as an established product designer. 


Examples of his design:

Examples of his artwork: 

Currently lives and works in Vienna

sources:

http://www.hollein.com/index.htm

http://www.art-directory.info/design/hans-hollein-1934/index.shtml

Dieter Rams: In depth investigation

        Good design is innovative. It is aesthetic. It is unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, and thorough down to the last detail. It makes a product useful, understandable, and environmentally friendly. Good design is as little design as possible. A deceivingly simple set of rules.

Dieter Rams legacy as a designer lies not only in his definition of good design, but in his ability to create products which fit this definition over his forty year career. Rams’ influence in the field is undeniable. His designs for the German electronic devices manufacturer Braun are celebrated in museums internationally: objects as simple as record players and coffee makers. Rams has received prestigious awards for his work, and is highly regarded in the design community. 

Rams’ principles of good design have allowed his products to maintain a longevity which is rare, especially among consumer electronics. As technology evolves, electronic device design is quick to become obsolete and antiquated. Simply consider brick-like cell phones of the nineties, or massive tape decks of decades past. However, Rams’ designs of record players and film projectors from the sixties still maintain a modern elegance. It would even be difficult to place them in a certain time period if presented without context. 

Rams’ abilities and insights into the design world set him apart from many of his colleagues. His prestigious career, savvy design principles, and long lasting products have cemented his legacy. The following are examples of the works which have helped him build up such a name in the design community: 

Basic facts about Dieter Rams:

Born May 20, 1932 in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Studied Architecture at Werkkunstschule Wiesbaden throughout the 40's and 50's .

Began working for Braun Electronics in late 50's, where he would stay as head of design until 1995.

Recieved 'Kölner Klopfer' prize in 2010 for his influence in the design world. 


sources:

As Little Design As Possible: The Work of Dieter Rams
by: Sophie Lovell

http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/dieterrams

Syd Mead

I came across this designer after seeing the film Tron, which Mead worked on extensively (the original, that is), along with other notable movies such as Blade Runner and Aliens. Mead was born in Minnesota in 1933, and has since become well known for his conceptual futuristic designs. Apart from work in sci-fi Hollywood productions, he has worked for motor companies, electronics manufacturers, and a variety of other companies in need of his unique design skills. He launched the company Syd Mead Inc. in 1970, and has been working in a plethora of design fields since. However, he is still best known for his work in conceptual and futuristic designs. Some of his most important works include:

Conceptual designs for the following films: The Island, Tron, The Jetsons, Alien, Blade Runner
Work for Ford Motor Company and PHILLIPS Electronics
Gundam Robot Design

sources:

Syd Mead's Sentury II by: Syd Mead

http://www.sydmead.com/v/10/splash/

course reflection

The design process: while probably very important to know, I found it kind of boring and monotonous to follow. However, when exemplified through the video The Deep Dive about IDEO, it was brought to life a lot more and was a very interesting look at the processes which are used to create the objects all around us. What struck me first in the film was the diversity that the design team was made up of, including at least 6 different professions, many that I might not have even connected with design to begin with. Secondly, how quickly they were able to design and build a prototype for a new shopping cart, which seemed to make improvements on almost all aspects of a traditional cart, made me think of how many other products exist on the market today which could be markedly bettered if they were put through IDEO's process. the video gave me a much better idea of what goes into evaluating and designing both old and new objects.

reading response

In chapters 4 through 6, Heskett delves more deeply into the three major disciplines of design: product, communication, and environment. I came across a lot of topics and ideas which I've never really thought about or been exposed to, which is always a good thing. for example, designers infusion of their own egos or aspirations into products above consumer's needs, the changing philosophies regarding offices and workspaces, and how to utilize them to maximize efficiency and creativity, etc. Even though I'm usually most interested in the industrial design field, I was captured by the chapter on environments more so in this case. I guess i've always had some lingering interest in buildings and spaces because my dad is an architect,  so considering all the different attempts by companies to reevaluate their work environments caught my attention. It also tied in to the video we watched in class about IDEO and they way that they operate when coming up with a new design, which is the kind of place I can only dream about working one day. Some of the material in these chapters was a little dry, but enjoyable and informative overall once again!

found patterns

 found: friend's flannel @chipotle. I love flannel patterns in general, which drew me to photographing ^

 found: multivitamins in my room. convenient and unique pattern

 found: buddy's house on friday night. i liked the composition, and curvilinear stripes.

 found: shirt i was wearing.

 found: laundry basket after i folded my laundry. i was drawn to the pattern behind a pattern: stripes within mesh basket.

 found: poster in living room. too trippy of a pattern not to include in this collection.

 found: kitchen tile. pretty basic pattern seen almost everyday that people tend to ignore, but exists all around us

 found: hanging from gutter @ home in cleveland. trying to capture at least 1 pattern found in nature

 found: ventilation. both ugly and beautiful at the same time

found: pair of boots i recently purchased. combination of both a flannel pattern (which is difficult to make out in this photo) and that of the lace holes.

course reflection 02

This week in class was a lot more historically oriented, and seemed to overlap quite frequently with the reading assigned for the week. Not necessarily a bad thing, in fact I feel like its very important to understand the history of design if I wish to pursue it. The lectures went into depth about a lot of subjects which I had zero knowledge about prior to, particularly the challenges designers faced when creating completely new products during the industrial revolution. I was probably most interested in the slides about the different chair designs which we went over at the end of class. For some reason I've always been interested in chairs. At the same time I feel like almost every possible design for a chair must have been done by now, seeing as virtually every designer/design student is required to create one. Still, it got me sketching up some potential designs and thinking of ways to build a sitting device which had yet to be discovered.

Reading Reflection

The first few chapters of Design: A Very Short Introduction opened my eyes to a lot of the historical aspects of the profession of design which I had never truly considered. The broadness with which the term "design" can actually be implied lends itself to a wealth of history, and including ancient tools, artisans, and craftsman in the category is only logical. I was perhaps most interested by the discussion of the globalization of design and the struggles which emerge as a result of cultural discrepancies concerning form versus need or desire in a certain area of the world. It led me to think more about the possibility of world-wide standardization of design, and if it is even possible, which products it could apply to. Food for thought. also, The example about the Japanese toothpick seems to be coming up in a lot of design books/films I've seen. Anyways, The first three chapters of the book were packed with a concise design history, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the text.

Danish State Prison Design

I read an article about the winning design for a new Danish State Prison. It's a plan which really challenges traditional ideas about not only the layout and architecture of prison facilities, but the entire concept of incarceration. The article (which can be found here) details the proposal, which is planned to be completed by 2016. While one would normally think of a prison facility as a bare bones, metal and concrete cage meant to contain and punish the deviants of society, the Danish government takes a much more liberal and innovative stance towards rehabilitation. They hope that their approach to socializing inmates in a much more human environment will lead to a lower rate of repeat offenders, which is a big problem across the globe. Although critics point out that criminals should not be "coddled" in luxurious facilities, studies have shown that the current systems in countries including the United States are not effective at rehabilitation of inmates. Overall, I find the debate rather interesting, and can agree on certain points with both sides. The article really gave me something to think about, and the architectural proposal was pretty sweet too!

Course Reflection 01

I'm taking this course as a potential industrial design major, fingers crossed. I'm interested in pretty much all areas of design, so I'm hoping to find the class engaging throughout. I heard about the class through my advisor and because its a requirement for my major as well. I'm excited to see what type of material we'll be studying, and am looking forward to reading Cradle to Cradle too.


Danny

Journal 01

Hi! I'm Danny Pizzo, a sophomore design student here at OSU. I'm originally from Buffalo, New York, but have lived in Cleveland almost all my life and love the city. I like to snowboard in the winter and play volleyball in the summer. I'm interested in almost anything related to art and design, and also love cooking, eating, drinking, playing cards, and exercise! If I were to major in anything other than design, it would probably be architecture. I watch too much TV, particularly Mad Men, Entourage, Dexter, Californication, and The Office. My new years resolutions are to smoke less, exercise more, gain weight, and not spend money compulsively. thats all for now!