With the final project due in a week and a half, and with thanksgiving break intertwined I am nervous, excited and energetic about the presentation of the final product.
The lighting options we are researching and thinking about are innovative, not in technology, but in marketing. As we did our needfinding for this product we used our findings to drive us into many different directions trying to solve the issue of over consumption of electricity, and now specifically light and passive lighting.
Without getting all green on your butt we created a product that improves daily life, image and style and just so happens to save you energy on the side.
Well it does in my mind anyway.

Human-Centric Design

Designing products is so complex but I am so incredibly amazed by the ideas people come up with. Watching videos from TED (Technology, Environment Design) I came across David Kelly's design of a store for Prada. Its amazing how truly into the mind of the customer they got. The dressing rooms with video delayed projections so when you turn around you can see your back and know what you actually look like from all 360degrees.
These types of ideas are what takes design to the next level. I am continuously learning to develop my design skills but I truly appreciate those who are already designers. When you come across a design that makes you say, "Wow, that is just what I always wanted but never realized it," you know you have really come up with a great idea. A young designer can only really hope that they get the opportunity to come up with something that great.
I think about my small ideas and these things that I think would make a good design, or a make good concepts but never know if they would really excite people. I suppose a designer really just needs to believe in themselves, keep an open mind, and continue to really watch and understand people in order to have a chance to make something outstanding.

Tomas Maldonado

"Comfort is a modern idea."

Domestic life is changing and developing at a crazy rate. The bar for comfort is always being raised by new technologies, products and services. This has only really taken off at these speeds in probably the past 50 years. Comfort is strived for differently by people...but one thing that is common is that everyone thinks they deserve it. They work hard and come home and expect their comfort.
Comfort is a perception though. It is created and built up by media. Why do I think that I need a couch? Its just normal right? This is affecting how people spend their money, live their daily lives and how they interact with people. The mindset that you have a right to comfort creates an aura of elitism.
This obsession with comfort could possibly be linked to the use of energy. If you could change what comfort was percieved you could change how people used energy.

Drawing for Designers

For my birthday last week, my friend Rachel sent me a book, Drawing for Designers by Alan Pipes. I'm starting to further understand my design capabilities and with it comes an increasing need to be able to sketch out my ideas to help convey them to my professors, teammates and others who play a role in the design process.
What the book has shown me is that there is a complete range of drawings. Its ok for things to be messy as long as I am getting ideas onto paper and out of my head. There is a time for in depth technical prints or 3D renderings, but there are also a place for quick 4 line sketches that show a shape or general idea. Sketching is something that takes practice and I'm certainly up for the challenge.