Rainbows and Compassion

Today I watched a great video of Swami Saraswati, urging people to bring more compassion into their lives. The message is beautiful. I found the video by way of the Compassion talks on TED, which are the work of Karen Armstrong, former Catholic nun and TED Prize winner. She developed the Charter for Compassion, which collaborates among many partners to create a peaceful global community.

What I was most impacted by in the video however, was this backdrop behind the Swami. It is a gorgeous rainbow of banners blowing gently in the breeze. The colors are bright and peaceful at the same time, and the range of colors evokes an all-inclusive global organization that provides for all types of people, and probably incorporates many different perspectives into their activities.

See the entire video via the link below:
Fetzer Institute | Resources | Swami Dayananda Saraswati: The profound journey of compassion

First Day of Color Workshop

After our first Color Workshop class I checked out a lot of the links on the course website, and had so much fun playing around on this cool site. I love how this software makes it easier to find five colors that relate to each other in an interesting way.

Most of the time, I have NO IDEA what colors to choose for a project, and usually go with what appeals to me/what seems appropriate/my favorites at the moment. I understand the basics of color theory from courses I’ve taken in the past, but really would like to go deeper into how to make great color choices in my work. I’m working on product designs for an etiquette company right now and so far we have four different color ways: bright orange/pink, blue/aqua, neutral/brown, and gray/silver. I got a lot of inspiration from the Jonathan Adler products after the client mentioned that she liked his aesthetic. Jonathan Adler is an interior designer turned design mogul whose wise advice for couples regarding interior design decisions: The wife is always right… unless the husband is gay. Thank you Jonathan!

The needlepoint pillows are the cutest

This is #8 in his 10 commandments for a happy chic home:
#8
Thou shalt not be afraid of orange.
Thou shalt use orange copiously in thy interior, whether it beeth in an orange breakfast room or via the zing of an orange lacquered box. Thou might even consider painting thy front door orange to pique thy neighbor’s curiosity. Thou shalt also covet chocolate brown.

The best part is that the type is written in orange on the site! A friend of mine in London is studying the healing effects of color in interior design, and I would love to know more about how color affects us emotionally/physically. For example, I chose a light buttery color to paint the inside of my apartment because I thought it was an inspiring color. I hope that’s true!

Dichotomy in the fashion world

It was bad timing for H&M recently, getting caught trashing bags of clothing in the middle of a really bad recession and ridiculously cold winter. Throwing the clothes out in trash bags wasn’t enough for this global retailer – they feel the need to slash the clothing so that they will be less enticing to wear and therefore steal (from the trash). How much more wasteful can you get? Apparently, The New York Times tried to contact them multiple times about donating their leftover clothing to charity, but haven’t heard back…

The other side of the coin is the current exhibition at Pratt: Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion. Curators Francesca Granata and Sarah Scaturro had the brilliant idea to show how American designers are trying to keep clothes and textiles out of the waste stream, involve fewer sweatshops and less pesticides. Ahhh… refreshing. The exhibition is on the 2nd floor of the Pratt Manhattan building on 14th street. Been out of town for a few days but I plan on checking it out once school starts up again. There are a few larger department stores jumping on the green bandwagon – I have an organic cotton tank top from Barneys Coop. Toms Shoes are made out of canvas and super eco-friendly, and best of all they have a beautiful program where they provide a pair of shoes to a child in need with every purchase. I wear my navy Toms practically every day in the spring and summer, right around when the weather is in that in-between phase.

Here’s a fun recycled fashion idea – wear your old recycled maps.  And recycle them when you’re done!

At least there are people trying to reverse this culture of extreme consumerism and waste. A Dutch design firm created ‘fragmented’ clothing that can be snapped together and replaced in separate components, thereby reducing the amount of waste. “Made from Cradle to Cradle-certified wool felt in a range of vibrant colors, the Fragmented Textiles are based on jigsaw-puzzle-like zero-waste patterns that are designed to use every last scrap of cloth.”

Homage to the Eameses

It’s my first post since the end of my first semester at school, and I’m still figuring out how to transition the blog from the classroom assignment to something new. The fact is, I enjoyed writing this blog so much that I don’t think I’m going to change much at all. I will continue to read my daily blogs and other sources and post reviews and opinion on design-related things that I find interesting.

My latest project has me working on a chair for a logo, so naturally I gravitated towards two of my favorite designers, Charles and Ray Eames. I found a beautiful video of their creation on YouTube.

The music definitely gets kinda creepy – not sure why they chose that soundtrack – but the film is beautiful for a long-form advertisement/product demo. It’s also really enjoyable to see such a retro device look shiny and new in the video that introduced the technology to the world. Also timely since Polaroid is reintroducing the polaroid camera due to popular demand!

Charles and Ray Eames were a married design team that created painstakingly modern, useful and efficient designs. I drew their chairs while exploring ideas for my current project:

Their chairs were first introduced to the public through an exhibit at MOMA, and were afterwards mass produced for retail sales. They are ubiquitous designs now, but at the time were groundbreaking. They changed the face of the design world and to this day have a strong influence on graphic, industrial, and interior designers, not to mention artists, filmmakers and architects. Charles was trained as an architect and Ray as a painter.

One of the most intersting projects I’ve heard that the Eames were commissioned, through an Indian classmate, was the India Report in 1958. The Indian government invited the design duo to visit the country to analyze their design programs and suggest improvements. The report culminated with the creation of the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad.

Ed Fella on the art of everyday things

Ed Fella talks about under the radar design in this interview with Little and Company. He shows a scrapbook of his substantial collection of everyday items that fascinate him. He admits that professional designers probably didn’t even design these things, like take-out menus, ticket stubs, etc but he describes them as a vernacular of everyday design.

These small printed pieces don’t get our attention, but we see them everyday. This is why they’re under the radar, and Fella has gained an appreciation of something that so many of us take for granted. Although it makes me realize something about design in general – you’re not SUPPOSED to notice it. I mean, designers will notice it but not too many other people will notice the placement of type that you slaved for 8 hours over. Is there some design that is more important than others? Is the website of Barack Obama more important than the Metro-North ticket stub that some people use every day? I know for a fact that not much time went into the Metro-North ticketing system, but they probably weren’t working with a huge marketing budget.

New Homes made out of Shipping Containers

The Daily Green has a bunch of really great examples of shipping container architecture. Yes, that means new homes built out of discarded shipping containers… the ones that litter the American landscape in coastal areas, and that progressive artists like Chris Jordan have documented in their work. For many years, people living on the margins of society have appreciated the shelter from these containers, but now it’s becoming an intentional design element in many architectural plans. Here are a few of my favorites… I find it incredible that these are people’s homes, and the Illy coffee shop is brilliant example of portable retail space. Shipping containers could be the next trend in ‘pop-up’ retail stores because they are cheap and very portable (with access to a flat-bed truck of course).

Most branding design on TV comes from Troika

In case you were wondering who does all the great branding graphics for TV, look no further than Troika Design Group. This large design firm based in Hollywood works with networks such as Fox, CW, TNT, ABC, Oxygen, Starz, Animal Planet, HGTV, E!, Food Network, etc… the list goes on. They do brief motion graphics to introduce the network as a brand, such as the one for TNT below.

I was looking around on Lynda.com while researching for my Flash project, and found their ‘creative inspiration’ interview and tour of their studio. What I find most interesting about their creative process is that most of the graphics they create need to be one or two seconds long, and they manage to create a compelling and layered visual that speaks profoundly for the brand.

The Designers Accord and sustainable design

The newest trend in design is anything related to sustainability and helping others, which is a very good thing. A few years ago I volunteered with an NGO in Thailand, providing refuge and vocational training to women, and have since volunteered my time to a few organizations in the US. I love helping people, and would love to use my design expertise to help those in need. I think designers have so much potential to have a profound effect on the world, and as long as we are paired up with the right team (i.e. social workers, international NGO’s) great work can be accomplished. However, there needs to be collaboration between these distinct fields in order for constructive change to happen. This is the intent of Valerie Casey, who founded The Designers Accord. The Designers Accord is a coalition of designers, educators and business leaders who adopt the five guidelines of the accord to agree to incorporate sustainability into their work.

GUIDELINES FOR DESIGN FIRM ADOPTERS:

1. Publicly declare participation in the Designers Accord.

2. Initiate a dialogue about environmental and social impact and sustainable alternatives with each and every client. Rework client contracts to favor environmentally and socially responsible design and work processes. Provide strategic and material alternatives for sustainable design.

3. Undertake a program to educate your teams about sustainability and sustainable design.

4. Consider your ethical footprint. Understand the environmental impact of your firm, and work to measure, manage, and reduce it on an annual basis.

5. Advance the understanding of environmental and social issues from a design perspective by actively contributing to the communal knowledge base for sustainable design.

The most recent case study on the site is on Vers, a wooden sound system.  The product designers conducted a hands-on sustainable material selection process, implemented an 100:1 tree-replanting program, and incorporated an integrated take-back system for responsible e-waste recycling.

This is a great example of design that improves lives: FLAP – A shoulder bag conceived to help nomadic people in urbanizing places, by providing them with an integrated solar-powered light and the potential to charge electronic devices, shows how iteration can prepare a bold design for the market. From Design Observer

How cool are these recycled metal sneakers

We know how much we love anything made with found objects or recycled. Here’s a another great example! American artist Gabriel Dishaw recreates his favourite sneaker designs using old circuit boards, copper wire and other bit and pieces.

‘Using found objects from typewriters, adding machines and old computers, I take the items people no longer have use for and I carefully disassemble these items and then reassemble these together using metal wire creating my junk art. I begin each sculpture with an idea of how can I take these found pieces of useless metal and insignificant objects and create something that everyone can understand and relate to.‘ GD

Probably not that comfortable though..