Astro Bound

This post marks the absolute last thing I turn in this quarter. When I click the "publish post" button, I will no longer be in school, and will officially be on my way to Astro in San Francisco. Poor Mike's probably thinking to himself that this should have been the first thing I turned in, given it was assigned at the beginning of the quarter and technically due yesterday. For that, I apologize. :)

I'm a bit intimidated by Astro; I know it's an intense, fast-paced environment with ridiculously high standards and a ton of talent. Non of my half-assing or bad attitude will be on display while I'm on co-op. It will all be meticulously hidden behind layers of enthusiasm and late nights at the office. I've been told that the office is very sketch heavy and almost everyone who works there emerges a sketch ninja. We'll see if that's the case with me. Either way, I'm very excited and can't wait to check out the design scene in SF. I hoping to bring back some solid skills when I return to school in the summer.

Design Goals

Every co-op I do this. With the prospect of some free time on my hands I feel absolutely invincible and proceed to assign myself 5 years worth of work to accomplish over the next three months. Of course, I never complete more than 5% of what I had hoped to finish, but without the optimistic goal-setting I don't think I'd ever get that 5% even started.

Last co-op I was at Kaleidoscope. Of course I was thinking I'd bust out several side projects, get my portfolio packed and ready to go, bring world peace to the universe, and so and so forth. The only thing I did was establish the layout I wanted for my portfolio. This wasn't much, but that head start really helped me churn out the best portfolio I possibly could.

My main goal for this co-op is to get a web site up and running. Of course, that probably means that I'll just kind of start one, but all the same, that's my focus currently. An online portfolio makes so much more sense then these silly PDFs that need to be completely redone every three months. Sites like wix make it look easy enough. We'll see if it actually is...

I'm happy with my work this quarter, but I'd really like to spiffy up the happy cup work and submit it to thedieline.com. Once again, I'll probably not even think about it after I post it. But it's a nice thought. I'd also like to dabble in vray or some other comparable rendering software that's not totally imbecilic when it comes to interiors (hypershot and photoview: you both disappoint me. So very, very much) As time goes on I'll keep y'all posted on what actually gets accomplished.

Beautiful Illustrations, Pt 2

Leonardo Rodriguez

Beautiful Illustrations

Top 2: Dmitry Ligay. Bottom: Calavera Comics

Jack of All Trades

“ A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Robert Anson Heinlein

Areas of Focus

I love my studio. We have such specific interests and areas of focus that really make the work different and dynamic. We have Allen, our beloved amusement-park guy (also the deliverer of amazing oral presentations) Jon and Matt, our concept artist guys, T Spence, who loves his shoes, James, who also love shoes as well as anything sports or medical related, Katherine, who has an eye for trends, and so on and so forth. It's great to see such a wide variety of projects. It's also heart-warming to be reminded that our industry is so multi-facceted and diverse. At times it seems you can graduate in ID and work on almost anything in the future if you make it a priority to do so. The passions of mine that I have discovered so far are as follows:

-Anything macro and conceptual: I hope one day to become a project manager and work more with the big picture rather than each and every detail (Yes, yes, Charles Eames, I hear you: design is not "in the details", design is the details) Using these reports and interviews, I have identified that the chair needs hand rails and that said hand rails must function in xyz capacity. I don't necessarily want to be the one to CAD model them, though.

-Experience Design: I love the idea of applying design principles to small business. I keep on having daydreams of opening a bakery or a specialty beer shop that's designed just so...

-Medical Design: yes, a medical instrument will end up in a landfill even faster than anything else we could design, but it performs such a crucial task during it's short lifetime that you're contribution is hard to question. Sometimes it's hard to feel that way when you're working on, say, Tupperware.

Constraints

If I were to sum up design in a single, concise sentence, it would have to be art executed within constraints, within a budget, and on a deadline. No matter how grandiose our visions, things always have to be sacrificed for cost and for the realities of the market.

"The design brief stated that cost was not an issue" Declared a student at our workstation critique on Tuesday, in response to some criticism about the feasibility of his project.

"Cost is always, always an issue," laughed a juror.

Even when we're told not to, we should consider things like cost and feasibility. It's what we do, as designers. No project has a limitless budget and few constraints. If anything we most often drown in the constraints we're asked to work within. The more accepting we are about the realm we've been given to work in, the more successful our work will be.

This quarter I- or should I say, my circumstances- presented me with certain constraints to work within. We were asked to build an eighth-scale model of our workstation. I, in short, didn't want to build one. Because I'm lazy and on a budget. Also, there are valid reasons to be skeptical of the merit of such an endeavor; it my time in the field, limited though it has been, I have never seen or even heard mention of such a model being built. Ergonomics can't be analyzed with an eighth-scale model, and what does it tell you that a slick rendering doesn't? I'm sure there are reasons for building such a model, but I chose to take what little justification I had for not doing so, as well as my limited resources and bad attitude, and half-ass the requirement. I spent- literally- less than $20 and 5 hours on my model. Other classmates spent upwards of $300 and god only knows how much time.

I'm shocked at how well received my project was. Ultimately, I feel as if the story was solid, the solution was well thought-through, and people chose to focus on the giant-ass 40x60 plot I had hung up rather than the model.

Victory.

This summer quarter I've decided to put similar constraints on my chair project. Students have spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the chair project, but I will be working within different constraints. I'm going to build that chair for less that $250, swear to god.

Sounds like I should start sketching stools....

Eleanor

Eleanor is an artist/designer I've been absolutely enthralled with ever since I started Daap. Her minimal yet dynamic interpretation of recognizable animals and shapes never ceases to amaze and please. Her color palette is always sophisticated and appropriate for the subject matter at hand. I ripped off one of her prints in my ob/gyn render, so I figured I'd better give credit where credit is due.

Ob/Gyn Workstation

There are few things dreaded more by female patients than a pelvic exam. Besides the inherent invasiveness and discomfort of the procedure, the current exam room and chair are sterile, intimidating, and uncomfortable to use.

Working with a fourth-year resident gynecologist and twelve patients, I identified the innovation opportunities present in the current workstation. Two one-hour interviews with Dr. Leanne Olshavsky informed me that comfort was even more important than I had expected; many patients don’t feel comfortable being completely open about their sexual history, and some will choose not to go if at all possible. Feelings of discomfort associated with the examination often times discourage women from getting screened for cervical cancer, and unscreened women are at highest risk of cervical cancer.

Dr. Olshavsky also informed me that the less intimidating the room, the better. That means that the speculums, pap smear vials, and any other intimidating medical equipment should be stored out of sight when not in use.

Cleanability and a place to store and warm instruments like speculums where top priorities for her. Lighting and using a mirror to show a woman her anatomy where things that frustrate her about the current workstation.

The patient’s interviewed stated that a more home-like environment would put them at ease and allow them to relax prior to and during the examination. They requested a warm examination room, a place to store clothing and personal belongings, and an examination chair that didn’t look like a lego block. The expressed frustration with the fact that reading material is routinely kept on the other side of the room and requires them to walk across the room in a state of undress.

The proposed solution features storage units that resemble furniture patients might see in their home. Speculums, vials, and waste disposal are kept in the storage module in the credenza and are easily accessed by the physician while hidden from view from the patient. The physian’s stool is equipped with a snake light and camera that wraps underneath the seat of the chair and allows hands-free lighting without requiring the entire room to be harshly lit.

A dresser is available for patients’ personal belongings, heat lamps and light boxes warm and gently light the room, while the chair allows for heightened comfort and usability.

Things that suck

There are certain things that somehow stand in defiance to mankind's progression- things that for some reason, despite free markets, discerning consumers, and lots and lots of healthy competition, refuse to improve. Why the following haven't progressed at all is beyond me:

USB drives: This isn't necessarily a problem with any one particular USB drive, rather, the industry's refusal to introduce a standard as to which way the damned thing goes in your computer. On some drives the squiggly sign faces up, whereas on others it faces downward when inserted into the computer. WTF.

Cereal Bags: The big econo-bags get it. Why don't boxed cereals have easy open bags inside? After ripping countless cereal bags clear in half I've resigned myself to using scissors. I resent this.

More to come.

Happy Cup Chocolates

This is the final image board and sketches for our Descom Final. Happy Cup is a line of chocolates meant to be enjoyed with coffee and enhance an afternoon cup of joe. Our professor was extremely flexible with our projects this quarter; the original project brief was to design a teapot. Students picked topics that were in line with their specific interests, be it concept art, shoe design, or, in my case, branding. I think this type of flexibility always results in stronger work and an overall happier class.

Foreign Media

These early ideations were done in illustrator, at the request of our professor. At first I wasn't too worried about using illustrator- it used to be my drug of choice, after all, ages ago- but 15 minutes into the project I was ripping my hair out over the damned program. It's funny how utterly dependent we become on the programs we prefer. Those programs won't always be there; computers crash, licenses expire, sometimes clients prefer methods that simply aren't our preference. Fluency in a wide variety of mediums is the best way to ensure quality and consistency.

It doesn't look it, but these stupid concepts took me hours and hours and hours. I could have modeled them and rendered them in 20 minutes. But it was good to revisit illustrator. Even though it's evil.

Kate Spade USB Charm

Kate Spade USB Charm. Sterling Silver with exchangeable mini memory drives. The casing offers an easy, elegant solution to remembering and carrying around a flash job, and can hold a wide variety of different flash drives. They are available in 2, 4, and 8 GB.

Bleh

So here I am, 8 am last week of finals week, finishing up my blog. Not too impressive, if I say so myself. This quarter has been an odd one, in terms of trying to juggle school and work, staying on top of things, getting excited about what I would normally get excited about naturally. Anyways.

I think this entire blog has been about how behind I am on said blog. I'm sure that will make for a riveting, fascinating blog.

Anyways. Today I'll be posting my work this quarter, which all turned out surprisingly well once I rigged it all together last minute. I just realized that all of my descom stuff was on a desktop computer that has been disassembled and put in storage. The descom stuff, therefore, you will not see much of.

Yes.... Let the posting begin....