Aesthetics for PSA

PSA Examples

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0T8dLAyT6I&t=18s

Deadpool Breast Cancer PSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT8lw1Rl-WM

Suicide Prevention PSA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Er_HugcPmJ8

Sandy Hook PSA

My three examples are the Deadpool Breast Cancer PSA which is an informative PSA for women on how to properly self-examine themselves for Breast Cancer. The second PSA was about teen suicide prevention, it aims to bring awareness to teen depression and suicide prevention. The third one is a little more relevant to the problems of today concerning school shooting and looking out for the signs of school shooters and attempting to prevent them before they happen.

Reading Response 2/6/18

I found the article to be very interesting because they are trying to claim that the movie looked like crap based off of unsolved research. I’m someone who likes to look at the facts to try and understand a problem and if there aren’t real facts or science to back something then normally I won’t believe in it. To me a higher frame rate doesn’t seem bad at all. I actually think it enhances a movie. I’m not a director or a movie maker myself but I feel like the more info I had packed into a second the better it;s gonna be, kinda like a computer. So for me saying a higher frame rate movie looks bad just cause it doesn’t fall into the standard that some would want it to fall into seems biased. The responses to the article though were just straight nonsense. 

Example videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIvdk6T5SUw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hbEahyuhL0

My two examples are from youtube. The first example is just a short video shapes turning into the elements of summer. It relates more the to example shown in class in that just a few shapes expand and morph into different elements such as shorts the sun or the beach. The second video is more abstract driven where crazy shapes, lines, and even brush strokes combine to form shapes and elements of the world.

Motion Graphics Post: Expressive Videos

https://vimeo.com/130635635

http://thisisdk.com/work/fx-networks/man-seeking-woman

The examples I decided to post are one about the company Wonderlust and a ad for Man Seeking Woman. The Wonderlust video I added because of it’s over all wonder seeking tone. It really aims to get the viewer to be in awe of this company and dream that the sky is the limit with them. The way they show the different ways they work especially the connecting the world but really felt like it stood out to me as a part that created a strong visually expressive visual for what they were trying to verbally say. The Man Seeking Woman Ad I added in because of the way it shows each character in the show with short very expressive icons that give a very general understanding of each character. 

Website examples

http://www.nightmaresfest.com/index.html

http://sdfilmfest.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1pb698yY1wIVBgeGCh3-YgvuEAAYBCAAEgK83PD_BwE

These two sites will be my inspiration for the client site. The first is nightmare fest its a horror film festival site that kind of  works towards the non-linear design aspects the second the is the San Diego film festival the inspiration I’m drawing from that site is its organization the way its set up makes the site easy to navigate.

The Design of Everyday Things Ch. 7 Reading Response

This chapter seemed to ficus on the future of innovation ant the changes to the things we use. It seemed to me he wanted to cover the idea of not trying to create a new product but re-invent a existing product or service. He focused a lot on the idea of the everyday life and what technology and innovation have done to everyday life. It seemed as though he was almost pushing us to change it subconsciously. Though I could be wrong, he could’ve just been mentioning those as examples of where design and innovation could look next. Its only natural though. The evolution of anything in life changes the way humans act or preform a task. Just like the typewriter the simple layout of the keys was everything and made typing much faster which added to work being done faster which made the human a bit lazier in a sense. But that right there is a change brought on by innovation. I agree and disagree with the thought that technology is making us weaker in a way. I feel it does help us become stronger for example new medical technology can help us become stronger as humans and allow our bodies to do new things. Technology makes us weaker though because we allow it to control much of what we do. We have become lazier and want the information to come to us rather than we go to it. I see it all the time our phones have made it so that we get information directly to us but its only information that we look at the most, when we want something new it doesn’t come to us so we don’t seek it out. We now have the world’s history in our hands but I still have people ask me ridiculous questions instead of using their phone to seek out the information. Maybe that could be a new way of changing people, by making them seek out the information rather than provide it to them directly.  

The Art of Innovation ch. 9 & 11 Response

Chapter 9 seemed to focus on overcoming barriers. I get that. Its hard for some people to get away from their traditions or from social pressures and work with new devices. For example take the Iphone. Instead of just being the newest leader in mobile technology it has also become seen as a status booster among millennials. It has come to the point where some feel inferior to others just because they have an Iphone and that makes it impossible for them to switch to a different brand or device. That would be a social barrier. Other barriers such as traditional ones keep people from using other products or brands because they have become comfortable with the brand or product they use now. It has become a part of their daily lives and switching to a different product would make them feel uncomfortable and would likely make them switch back. When they talk about watching the borders I thought about how much more advanced Japan is in terms of technology and fashion. Where we might see them as a head of us we still wouldn't immediately change due to the fact that there is a cultural barrier tho we might think it looks cool we wouldn't accept it because it hasn't been adapted to fit the American culture. It would still seem out of place. So I understand why barriers are such a big topic because they can make or destroy a product and cause a lot of problems for designers in the future as we move onto a more connected society.

Chapter 11 though was a nice break from long readings and had a fun side to it. I enjoyed reading about the races they had and how they continued to change design. The huge thing I took away from it was prototyping and testing. Right now our GPS stand is in the early phases of prototyping like finding materials and different products so it seems good in theory when we talk about it but we don’t know how well it will work. Just like the car that was designed by the sports car designer it all seems well until its put to the test then it either passes or fails. The more testing you do the better the product should be.

The Art of Innovation Ch. 6 & 14 and The Design of Everyday Things Ch. 6 Review

These two readings went hand in hand. It was almost like reading the same thing over again other than a few differing subjects. Prototyping seemed like the main point though. I agree with the Art of Innovation in that prototyping can be much more interesting and helpful than images and design specs. It helps to have a physical object that I can hold and work with. I feel you can find more flaws in the design that way. As it stands we’re working on our stand now and we having been drawing it out and talking about it but now we want to get to the mechanics of it so that we can see how it works and make sure its practical and functions well. We can’t do that from drawings because a drawing will work in any way we draw it. The other big pint was time management and a budget. One of my biggest problems is time management I always seem to fall behind and have to do an all out sprint to the finish. I guess a good way to end that would be act like I have no time at all. Now working with my team we’ve been able to get a lot done and thought about and we have a good idea of where to go with our product but we can really do too much because of our financial situations. I really want to build a prototype but can’t. So I kinda get the idea of the budget being a real killer of any product but I understand that in a real company the scale is much larger. Again it all seems somewhat overwhelming but knowing it would be handled by different people is helpful unless its a startup then you’re kinda screwed like the creator of amazon. I’m amazed he figured it out.

The Art of Innovation Chapter 12 & 13 Response

Basically what I got from this weeks reading was, 1 Learn from your mistakes because you’re gonna have a lot of them. Be smart use those failures as a stepping stone then you know you shouldn’t try that again. But that’s been said since day one. Everybody who is successful says that. Micheal Jordan said “ I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. Twenty six times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Other things on failure I’ve seen were about presidents or some of the greatest figures in the world like Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates they all failed at some point. So I get it. Plus the breaking the rules and coloring outside the line bit was nice. We’re always encouraged to break the rules as designers and think in a way no-one has before.  And 2. Keep the product simple, easy to use, and easy to understand. No one likes an overly complex device that requires you to read a thousand steps to understand how to use it. Everyone just wants a 1, 2 , 3 kinda thing. The newest phones and devices are becoming so easy to use and understand (at least for the younger generations) that when we get the newest device we have already figured out what does what in a day or two. Easy! They’ve gotten so easy to use that changing anything about them would actually hurt the product to consumer relationship ultimately resulting in a failure and a jump back to point one. So in the end, learn, make it easy, and keep it simple. It’ll sell itself. 

Design is a Job Response

What I picked up from the reading was that I should stick to my design method no matter what. But I should also work with my client. I feel like this just leads back to how the world views design. In the past we’ve talked about some industries and people seeing graphic design as unneeded because they fill that designing a logo is easy and anything will do as long as it gets the point across or in some companies cases doesn’t. Creating a successful logo or brand takes time and patience. I know I hate being rushed with a project so I couldn’t imagine a company rushing me being that its their money I fill like that would be a huge pain and cause many mistakes. It will suck having to turn down clients because of design differences but good work requires a good state of mind and having a controlled process would mess all that up. 

Reading Response: The Art of Innovation ch.8 and 10

I enjoyed this reading assignment. Thinking on it timing really is everything. Sometimes the best new products or ideas are created based on whats going on in the world. Take social media for instance, it blew up at a time when phones, computers, and tablets were becoming widely available to the masses. It made the growth and use of social networking explode and now even the president uses it (though not very wisely). The cross-pollination idea seemed very useful and almost necessary. I felt like that is the only way to become a great designer and innovator. Expanding your talents can help you think outside of your field and see problems that you never knew existed.

When reading about creating an experience I thought about some of the places I’ve been like Dave and Busters or Glow Putt (a Hawaiian glow in the dark putt putt course) The Dave and Busters experience is about adult fun. It’s more like an adult playground than a restaurant, that’s their experience. Overall solid read.  

Reading Response Ch. 5,5,7

Human error is almost unavoidable. Even if all the steps are met there could still be one mistake and a whole system would crash. The problem though could be the design of the product or system right? So why do we blame people. Just like the case of the pilot it wasn't necessarily his fault, without oxygen he passes out so why blame him why not blame the creators of the plane for not realizing this problem. While I was reading I thought about this and I kinda figured out that no one likes to be blamed so the best thing to do is blame the first person working on it. The book talks about designing for error but how do we do that. I mean there could be a million different errors for one problem yes we can definitely put them out on the table but we will miss many until its seen in action but by then its too late to do anything about. That’s my biggest problem with this. I know the book mentions a thousand ways to handle this problem but still there is now way to cover everything. Like how do we design for the most outlandish errors. Things we think couldn’t happen but do anyways. I just feel like anything we do will still result in an error so what can I do to fix this. 

 For the second part of the reading I enjoyed reading on how teamwork is the most important part of the design process. I actually never realized Thomas Edison had a whole team to help him with his work. At the end of the chapter they talked about the different roles that each member plays and that got me thinking what part of the team I would be and I’m still not sure what I would be. I also really enjoyed the part about making an environment that would benefit the entire workplace. I’ve always seen places like google, bungie, and other tech companies have really fun and interesting offices that keep their employees happy I’m hoping I can find a job like that in the future.

Bug List

I couldn’t think about my bug list too much some things for me seemed like enough. Though I was able to think of a few things

1. Trashcans at bars or restaurants 

I work at a bar and every night we end up emptying tons of trash and we always end up with liquid at the bottom that we have to empty out so I thought why not open them up at the bottom and allow it to drain freely or have a catcher that closes and traps the water to dump later.

2. beer caps

Along with trashcans i’m always cleaning up beer caps. Its not the bartenders fault they are usually crazy busy but they do leave a mess I just thought maybe there was a way to create a new bottle opener that gabs the caps so they don’t get thrown everywhere. 

3. Twisting ankles

I am an athlete and have twisted my ankle many times but I also watch people step off of curbs or steps and twist their ankle. So i thought what if there was a way to prevent this so people don’t get hurt and be able to apply it to any shoe. 

Reading Response

I don’t if I’ve really ever thought of brainstorming as a tool of design. More like an exercise to wake up. It never occurred to me that brainstorming can actually make the entire design team more excited to work. We’ve done smaller brainstorming exercises in class but never to the extent they talk about in the book. It was interesting to read about how brainstorming actually worked and see a little bit of it in the movie we saw in class. Though I felt like it can get really confusing since it has no real order. Its just kind of like an open discussion. I like that brainstorming is open for everyone though. I feel like having it be entirely open makes everyone feel like their idea is valuable or worth while. This to me helps create a better environment for everyone to work. 

In chapters 3 and 4 of The Design of Everyday things I was opened to the idea that we don’t think about what we do for the most part its kinda like instinct. The whole penny thing had me laughing I never thought about the design of a penny but when I read that I realized I had no idea what the design of a penny looked like I tried to pic out the natural design in the book and I was wrong. So I thought about it. Something designed well will become an object of memory to people. The more they use it the less they think about it. That goes for mapping too.

Something else I never really thought about were constraints on projects. I never thought about designing for them. I guess that’s just because I never want to limit a project. I want it to be as great as it can be but obviously it can’t be perfect. There will always be something I have to take away or add in to make the product work as best as it can. Honestly I never considered half of the things I read about, to me designing was just kinda like designing from scratch and saying that’s what its gonna be. I never thought about the things that will limit it and the changes I will have to make to create a great product. Kinda mind blowing.

Designers and Developers Response

This post was a little eye opening. It got me thinking about my future in design. I feel it called me out in a few ways. One being that as of late I have always wanted to be that “unicorn” designer, that one in a million. I can’t be that. Not that I couldn’t if that was my ultimate goal but that I shouldn’t, there’s no point in it. I will always work with other designers and developers on projects. Instead I should focus on what I like about the design process such as coding, or designing, or sketching, or whatever it may be for me. I should specialize in this field because it’ll open up other opportunities for better work.

Another thing this post opened me up to was the idea of collaboration and understanding. Learning to work with others is much more productive than learning everything and trying to do it all myself. Someone will always know some skill I won’t know or have some idea I won’t have. So it would be better to listen and learn how they work and teach them how I work and design so that we can sync in a way that is better for the idea and ultimately better for ourselves.

One issue I had this summer was thinking about what I should learn to help improve my skill and it bugged me so much that I ended up not learning much of anything rather just reviewing what I already know. This post helped me understand that reviewing was probably the best move. After reading this I now have an idea of where I should go with my design development from here. I really enjoyed this post and want to read more like it in the future.

Reading Response

I was a little surprised at how little I knew about design for everyday use. I never could have imagined how much time and effort goes into creating something as simple as a door. Affordances, signifiers, all the different design teams just for one product that might not even make? That’s crazy! Although the more I read the more I began to understand why. The more people that work on the product the better the design is and the more problems it solves. 

Some things were familiar though, such as understanding the market you are going into with research. Product testing, giving regular people the chance to try out the product and observing the way they interact with the product. Then continuing with research and redesigns. After reading I was a little inspired to stop and look at my surroundings and look for some problems that I normally would stop to think about. I think I’m ready to get to work on the next billion dollar idea.