disposability

It's really been bothering me that people are not willing to pay for quality. I think the culture of disposability that has developed in the US in particular has done a lot of unconscious harm. At the risk of sounding like an old lady, people rarely seem to value quality; if I can get 4 shirts for the price of 1, why would I ever pay for the 1?

I would like to think designers can be instrumental in making products a) last longer, b) age better, c) have smaller components that can be changed out if the consumer gets bored or it gets worn out. 

How can we instill a sense of attachment to objects? Isn't this what design is about, anyway? Making someone desire a thing or a service should not stop at purchase. Somebody (unfortunately I can't remember who) once gave the example of musical instruments. People form attachments to the intricacies and nature of instruments and if they don't keep them, they resell them. Dents and age tell a story, and value increases over time. A lot of research goes into trying to get one that fits a personality, lifestyle etc. There is also the understanding that you have to pay for a good instrument. 

What can we learn from instruments or wine and apply to modern design?

It's been a while...

I have been bad and haven't updated this at all, so here is a few shots of my work from this year:

The top is part of a system I made encouraging women to think about the chemicals in their beauty products and do something about it. The last is a book cover I did with the font I designed :)

and in tradition: 

• L / the go find, styrofoam, the notwist, death cab
  
• R / finished: east of eden, sharp teeth, persuasion, a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, different hours working on: the count of monte cristo
• T / My post undergrad job is going to be sexy. Pride. Never growing up. Doing what you please and what you want. Suffering out, rather than suffering in. Morning crits are going to be more fun again. Happiness and loneliness. Mandates are such self-induced delusions (next book?? will have to think about it). I am a baby, so young.

[Dave Eggers signed my most favorite book! but photobooth flipped it...]

L // Margot & the Nuclear So & So's / Beirut / Imogen Heap

R// Roger Sessions (something about writing music) / East of Eden 

T// The lone wolf persona / Where is my 8 am Friday quiet / Utility isn't everything / People are like planets (design and life) / Love in the Time of Cholera / When I thought I was getting tired of school, I am not / I would be nothing without my tea

Youtube "triops" and get the one with a few more dollars theme. I'm hatching those babies in studio.

[I made this in 3dStudio Max! with a tutorial, of course, but the orange is all me...]

Listening to:

Margot & the Nuclear So & So's

the Decembrists

Broken Social Scene

Reading:

John Dewey's "The Art of Experience"

Thinking about:

Dave Eggers' lecture, 826 Valencia and What is the What: I want to do that...

Apathy isn't that pervasive, just ignorance in terms of scale

Loyalty is dead, someone please kill cold intellectualism instead

Restlessness

Learning to keep calm and carry on

The intricacies of poetry

tuesday

Listening to:

Beirut

Broken Social Scene

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Reading:

East of Eden

John Dewey

Thinking about:

Putting more focus on situation and environment

Everything is human centered design...it's just a matter of it's good or bad

Just keep swimming

Predetermined-ness

What makes a person really admirable

today

[This is a mailer/experiment thing I was toying with...]

Listening to:

Kings of Convenience

Broken Social Scene

Reading:

East of Eden (still)

John Dewey

Thinking about:

stress stress stress 

power of being a designer (and obligation to do good)

actually having a kid with "danger" as his/her middle name

the wild west + westerns

dropping the "communication" off of "communication designer"

the smell of tablesaw burnt wood

keeping a dream diary would be good

spatula

Listening to:

   The Go Find

Reading:

   East of Eden

   Print Magazine

   Design blogs

Thinking about:

   Parallax! and astronomy

   In another life I would have gone ID instead of CD

   Living in Brooklyn or getting student housing

   If I had 2 months just free I'd finish my book

   Is it better learning to think or make for this summer

   How many more words I can learn and use before turning into 'that guy'

   Bringing my A-game tomorrow (!)

   Beauty has a lot of ideas behind it

the lowdown

Listening to: 

Vampire Weekend

Beirut

Sufjan Stevens

Imogen Heap 

Reading: 

East of Eden by Steinbeck

Thinking about: 

Contributing to society

Tesla

Life as narrative rather than problem solving

Buying a new pair of boots

Lying on the grass doing nothing (soon)

Internships

Layers as a method of creating hierarchy and interest

  Din is the new Helvetica?

inspiration, gilliam, time, rant.

1) Genius steals? Watch La Jeteé. Point proven, Mr. Gilliam.

2) Don't be terrified of being strictly concerned with function or strictly concerned with form. You should fear being at either extreme equally, and around here I think people fear the latter a bit more than the former. It's getting better, though.

3) I'm finding great satisfaction at having time to work on my own projects, as well as time to sit and contemplate the universe.

I'm about 4 chapters through the book I'm writing and it makes me happy. I think we as a school sometimes forget our other passions. While it's necessary and optimal that school be demanding and make you sweat for the knowledge, you can't live in a basement and get your assignments through the door. No matter what you major in you should be a person of the world in some manner, shouldn't you?

I've heard complaints in the past of not being able to get inspiration...hitting a rut is horrible and that most definitely happens to everyone, but I never thought it was a matter of inspiration. It's a matter of energy, of interest. If you aren't interested in a kind of content, how do you expect to design for that information? Understanding takes some bit of interest, and if you don't read you sure as hell won't be able to design a good book, and if you don't know how to cook you sure won't make nice utensils unless it is an accident. 

Why Bembo sucks

Interesting.

Don't let the title mislead you. Thanks Mattt :)

fuschia

...Thank you, Mr. Hoefler!

Now, random quotes:

"The secret of ugliness consists not in irregularity, but in being uninteresting" -Emerson

"It is every artist's fantasy to run things. I know personally, I'd be happiest as dictator of a small island. The problem is that romantic artists are usually too disorganized to run their own lives, let alone societies. And most societies are too sensible to let them try it." -Brad Holland

ps: new site up.

does this font make my ass look big?

I'm going to be doing an independent study on type this semester and I am expecting it to be an enormous challenge. This is Hoefler & Frere-Jones Acropolis and I fell in love with it last night. 

You can look at it here:  Acropolis

Right away you can tell it has historical roots but it doesn't look quite like an old font and doesn't look cheesy, like it's trying too hard. Effortlessness! Isn't that what we are all striving to look like we have?

During my stint at Atari I tried to make just two characters (3 and 5) on my own and it was ridiculously difficult. My letters looked lumpy and strangely proportioned, no matter how much I sketched and refined and refined again, again, again. I'm see the reason why type design isn't covered in our curriculum--it would take another 4 years to start to get it right...While I keep saying I don't think I want to go to grad school I feel like I might have to at some point to really delve into the things that get me.

Talking with a very cool alum from CMU who was kind enough to respond to me, I definitely think type design would be something I want to look into. From what I hear it's definitely something you have to be crazy about, so I guess this semester will be a good indication of whether it's for me. At -least- it will give me a more critical eye.