Design and Technology Tilly @designandtechnologytilly-blog - Tumblr Blog

Digital design studio

GSA Digital design studio - 17.03.16

Dispite the 3D glasses giving me a headache all this new 3D visualisation made me go “coooooooooool” quite a few times. The ability to produce 3D visualisation is a massive advancement in technology and seems totally out of this world. During our session at the design studio we were shown inside a 3D human body and we flew through a ruined Indian temple - not something you see every Thursday morning!

I was interested in the world of 3D visualisation and found myself taking it one step further and researched virtual reality. The idea of virtual reality once seemed far off in the future is now at our doorstep. With professors at universities developing such technology who know what could happen in the future. However, the main draw back with virtual reality is the cost. To allow someone to connect with objects and space in a virtual world is an expensive task! So perhaps its a while off until we will all have our own individual world.

The future of virtual reality does slightly terrify me. With advancements in nanotechnology we can push the boundaries: maybe one day our human body could enter the digital world... we could upload our brains onto a computer... our body may die but our mind could live forever...

HELLO !

I am Design and Technology Tilly and welcome to my blog!

With this blog I aim to reflect upon our weekly design and technology class at The Glasgow School of Art. The class is full of presentations from designers, fascinating documentaries and interesting class discussions!

GENERAL

Robert McCaffery - 25.02.2016

I was very inspired by Robert McCaffery’s talk - I would go as far to say it was my favourite Design and Technology class. He was bursting with excitement he is so passionate about what he does - I found him so inspiring to watch.

One thing he discussed was the importance to think about who you are designing for and understanding how they will use the design. He used this example in the image above - where the street is designed in a right angle yet everyone cuts across the grass to take the shorter route. The design and the user experience do not match up. This is an example of not very good design as the designer did not consider the scenario and that users are keen to take the shortest route. Its very important to understand who you are designing for.

Robert is also very passionate and excited about products that have an additional use. For example he spoke about a rubber door knob that you could take apart and use as a door stop as well. The door stop is the point of contact between a person and the building and making this a pleasurable experience is important.

SPECIFIC

“ I design shoes “

Robert is at a very very very exciting stage of his shoe adventure and it was an amazing opportunity to hear about his work at this stage. He is about to launch his first collection of shoes.

His passion for designing shoes started when he once cycled to work with his work shoes on and it was a terrible experience. His shoes get ruined during his cycle; this was his inspiration to design smart mens shoes that you could wear whilst cycling. They looked very smart and beautifully made. They were able to be used for cycling by having a rubber section on the sole and a reflective flap at the heel of the shoe. This links to his fascination previously described of products that have an additional application.

He also had some great profiling examples of potential users. They were very detailed and he had a great understanding of who he was designing for. This was reflected throughout his design process and working so closely with his users shaped his product into what it is.

I was very impressed by Roberts understanding of design and his ideas behind it. It was inspiring to see how his views of design influence his work and it was great to see a designer who loves what he does.

FAIL

Matt - 18.02.2016

failure /ˈfeɪljə/ noun 1.lack of success.

When we were at high school I had a friend who was good at everything: A’s in every exam, unconditional offers to Universities and sport medals coming out of her ears. When we all hit seventeen we all started to get driving lessons and gradually we were all passing. It was her big day and unfortunately she did not pass her test - she came into school and she looked like it wasthe end of the world. We could not understand why this was such a big deal but we soon worked out: this was the first time she had ever felt failure. And it hit her hard.

Life is full of highs and lows. All things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites, for example dark-light, hot-cold and failure-success. And with regards to emotions the only way to experience one is to experience the other; in order to be happy you must feel sad to compare it too. No one enjoys experiencing the negative opposites but without feeling failure you will never feel success.

Failure is something we cannot avoid. And although we are all terrified of it sometimes failure is what we need. Once we have failed something, of course we feel emotional about it but what we forget is once we have failed we come back stronger and determined then ever before and succeed. Sometimes failure can lead to even great successes.

Failure is also a wake up call - there is a reason that you failed something. Perhaps it was lack of effort, interest or attention? This then leads to the underlying question of is what your doing right for you?

My friend eventually passed her driving test, fourth time… And this experience of failure changed her. It made her defeat her fear of failure. It also highlighted her successes, it made her appreciated them a lot more.

#fail #success

Fuseproject [Yves Behar] - Design Process

- 10.03.2016

Hey, have you heard, this guys a super star. Well, why is he a super star?

Yves Behar is a swiss designer based in San Francisco. He is the founder of an industrial design and brand development firm called Fuseproject. What I like so much about this guy is his design process and methodology. He designs in a way that address the users full experience of objects, primarily by constructing a narrative around it. According to Yves “Industrial designers were just stuffing hard drives, creating features and products without considering the experience of using them” There is truth in what he is saying and its refreshing to see that he does not think like that.

Lack of attention to a products context is exactly what Fuseproject design process seeks to reduce. The process is as follows:

1. Imaging a narrative for each product - This includes considering the consumers reaction and feelings associated with the product. It is important to focus on these as the design evolves.

2. Storyboarding and brainstorming. This allows a scenario for products to be in and allows ideas to be shared.

3. Scripting. This step answers important questions such as how to achieve the idea behind the concept and communicate it.

4. Drawing. Drawings that directly respond to these questions

5. CAD models.

Each iteration of the design process produces a framework for branding and product development which could be applied to a new product or an existing one. This design process brings stories to life: physical objects, and the experience with them, is the way we create lasting experiences.

Yves understands that we are still in the early stages of integrating technology into our lives. Tech companies do not know how to create simple products and don’t know how to connect emotionally - this is where Yves comes in. He aims to promote technology that is intuitive rather than intrusive, customised rather than depersonalised and evolving rather then static. “I believe as designers we have responsibilities to look for solutions and improvements in people everyday lives”

I think he has a very interesting design process and methodology that is completely user centered. I think his ability to bridge the gap between technology and everyday lives is inspiring.

Technology & Tradition

Craig Whittet - 14.01.2016

Is technology taking over tradition? With the decline in traditional manufacturing methods comes an exponential growth in technology. In terms of industry this may be due to the fact that in the UK manufacturing apprentices are being paid roughly £7000 a year. Compare that to a call centre advisor with a salary of £12800-£17000 a year and its a no brainer. People are leaving apprentices to get more money elsewhere - and who’d blame them?

The world was shocked when David Hockney announced he was using an i-pad to create artwork. A skilled artist turning his back on tradition and using technology to create his work. We forget that technology has been taking over tradition for years, its natural progression and if an artist wants to use an i-pad to create art then great! We cant be forever stuck in tradition. The paintbrush didn’t always exist and when it was invented it was an advancement in technology; like an i-pad. I guess when paint brushes were invented the prehistoric finger painters felt the same way do about the i-pads.

However, tradition is not something to be forgotten. The Bellrock Lighthouse built in 1811 by the Stevenson family is a revolutionary design. The lighthouse was built with true grit and endeavor, engineering used to be a much more hands on profession. “Engineering was not a science then. It was a living art, and it visably grew under the eyes and between the hands of practioners” - Robert Louis Stevenson The philosophy that the Stevenson family possessed is what makes the design so amazing - they were not interested in intellectual property and they believed everything should be shared (knowledge) and it was not all about making money. This is not a philosophy regularly followed in our current day and age but its a reminder that sharing knowledge makes us more powerful on the whole.

#traditional #design #technology #tech #product design

Material World

Rachel Sleight - 11.03.2016

Rachel Sleight is someone who is fascinated and enthusiastic about the world of materials. She talked about new and exciting materials and she believes that in the world..

‘We should look at what we have around us and maximise it!’

As designers the world of materials is one we are very familiar with. And when designing products there are many considerations to make when selecting materials. Our position in the world of materials may seem like a stable one but unfortunately its got to change. We cannot rely on the materials that we so depend on at the moment as in the future we will use up all of the resources or create more waste than produce.

When did we become a plastic society? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9znvqIkIM-A

For example Petroleum-derived synthetic polymers are the materials of our age. They contain non-biodegrable plastics and will stay on this planet much longer then any of us. Our dependency on these materials is huge. Everyday we come into contact with products made from them; food packaging, carrier bags, bottles... When is it time we start taking responsibility for the mess we have created?

The way I see it there are a few solutions: encourage society to change from the convenience and disposable culture we live in. Another being develop and manufacture sustainable materials to replace the harmful ones. As well as targeting the root of the problem which is: everyday more and more of this material is being manufactured for a disposable purpose. Why on earth do we use materials that will take centuries to disappear for a plastic bottle someone will use for five minutes of their life?

Encouraging society to change is tough. Scaring the public with these far off apocalyptic predictions will not affect our current lifetime so why care? I think the way to get the message across to people is not scare them about something that might happen in 1000 years time but make it relatable to their every day lives.

We are incredibly wasteful and we do not think about the consequences of our actions. We are all guilty of it and arguably its not completely the individuals fault. Its very difficult to live in the twenty first century and not divulge into our convenience culture. I mean when you think about it, it is madness. You get a coffee everyday for the same machine in the library yet every coffee you have has a different paper cup? You know your going to have a coffee does it not make sense to have a refillable coffee cup? Of course, it makes sense, but its effort.

Effort is what we need to change our disposable habits. Recently incentives such as paying 5p for a shopping bag encourage us to make the effort to reuse shopping bags. At first a rule like this causes slight out rage and everyone gets caught out with having to pay. But eventually we all realise that no one wants to spend 5p every time they shop so people will start to take action and before long it will be in peoples routines to take a reusable with them whenever they go shopping and this will be the ‘norm’. Hence, the need for plastic bags will diminish. Creating cash incentives is one way to encourage society to change; altering peoples daily routines and normality. Perhaps, next step is charging for paper coffee cups?

I think incentives like these do have a positive impact but I do not think that they are going to completely diminish our disposable dependence. Also, there are some cases where there are perhaps things need to be disposable and one use. Food packaging for example, we need to package food. But, how can we do this responsibly? This is why it is also important for us to develop new sustainable materials that we can use for a disposable purpose. For example this new material being developed called “Spilk” is the combination of shrimp shells and spider milk proteins. It is a ‘biodegradable replacement for world choking plastics.’ (https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22429900-700-wonder-stuff-shrimp-plus-spider-kills-plastic/ )

Spilk is a good example of looking around and seeing what surrounds us and maximizing it to its full potential. Also, with advancements in technology available to us the creation of new sustainable materials is endless.

Recycling is another possible solution but one does always wander how efficient is it? Recycling also does not solve the problem, it almost encourages it. For example, someone might by a water bottle and use it once and recycle it and think that there is nothing wrong with that because its going to get turned into something new. When in fact there is something wrong with that because recycling should be encouraged as a last resort - once the products life is completely over then it should be recycled - not products that have been used once and can be used again.

I think we have a long way to go to become more sustainable and environmentally aware. I think when designing a product it is very important to consider the sustainability of your creation and take responsibility for what will happen to it when its life is up.

Good designer are geeks

Marc Newson documentary - 21.01.2016

Marc Newson has designed almost everything.

Lockheed lounge - Marc Newson

Lockheed lounge is when Marc Newson’s career as a designer took off. This lounger is a very iconic piece of design and I can see why: its a beautiful combination of interesting form and exciting manufacturing techniques. It is the most expensive piece of furniture to be sold by a living designer.

I would however argue that this is on the verge between design and art. Would you call this a sculpture? Its is “so valuable that you cannot sit on them” and it does not look very functional or enjoyable to use but instead something to admire. So, it doesn’t really fit all of the criteria you would expect from a lounger. But I think its been called a lounger because then when people look at it they have preconceptions of what they expect from a lounger and then something like this blows their mind. And detaching it from the idea that it is a lounger would make it loose context and rise the question what is it? Well, its a perfect synthesis of design and art.

Ford 021C Concept Car - Marc Newson

I think this car Marc Newson designed with Ford is one of my favourite pieces of his work. You look at it and think ‘aw thats a cute lil’ car’ - which is it. Marc wanted to create a car that was simple, likeable, and fun. And it ticks all of those boxes.

I think this design shows that technology doesn’t have to be complicated and complex it can be user friendly and simple to use. The vibrant colour is spot on and reminds us that it doesn’t always have to be grey or black to be sophisticated and cool. The fold out doors are welcoming to the user. I would love to have one of these cars!

Qantas First Class Lounge, Sydney International Terminal - Marc Newson

This airport lounge is stunning. With a natural looking interior the space feels open and bright. The shape of the room might make you feel a bit wobbly, but then thats what air travels all about. Its a bit disorientating but is a unusual use of space - the panels create a cosy and intimate space whilst being in a big open space at the same time. The wooden panels perhaps makes one feel nostalgic and allows them to romanticise about the early days of aviation.

Everything. The amount and diversity of work that he has produced is impressive. And he has definitely got a recognisable and unique style that is prominent through out his work. However, when watching the documentary I couldn’t help thinking has he just found his ‘style’ and is now just applying it to literally everything. Once you have developed a style and have been recognised for it you can just keep applying it to lots of different objects? When looking at Newsons work I do not see a progression in terms of style and ideas, I see a constantly growing product range with the main inspiration being himself.

I think with some of this products he does what he wants. Which is arguably a respectable path to follow - you got yourself a reputation of a good designer, who ya gonna design for? Yourself. Cool, why not? My initial thought was is he an example of self centred design: main motivation for design is down to what he is personally interested in. Some of his products are not examples of useable and universal products designed for a wide user group to use. It’s more like ‘Ah thats a car in the style of Marc Newson, oh now he’s done a potato peeler in the style of Marc Newson... Whats next?”

He came across as a very passionate man and in a motivated manner - he gets very excited about his work. I always enjoy seeing people that are excited and passionate about what they do and Newson is definitely enthusiastic and proud of what he does. He is also a massive geek, and I think good designers are geeks.

Maths is fun

Talk from Ben Craven - 11.02.2016

Maths is fun. Said no one. Ever. Well this is perhaps what my past narrow minded self thought in my naive high school years. I remember the main question we used to ask ourselves when sitting at the back of the boring maths class was “When on earth are we going to use algebra in our lives?!”

Well, our session from Ben Craven woke me up and reminded me of the importance and fun element of maths. Maths is very important from a designers point of view: having figures to back up your design is a necessity. At class in art school we are all perhaps guilty of making sweeping statements about the mathematical relevance of our design, without doing the actual calculations to work it out.

Not only did this session highlight the importance of figures to back up your designs but also it amazed me that you can do calculations about absolutely anything! This got me excited. Maths feeds our curiosity and also puts things into perspective. In the session we did a calculation on “How far could you drive a car for the energy equivalent of heating the water for a cup of tea?” We derived the answer of 60m, but what does this really mean? : The energy you use to drive 60m in a car is equivalent to that of boiling water for a cup of tea. Are you shocked? Is this an answer you expected? What emotion does this answer make you feel?

I think maths does have an emotional influence and the ability to shock by putting scenarios into perspective. With regards to the cup of tea calculation it shifts your perspective on the situation. We are constantly reminded to only boil the kettle with enough water that you exactly need and to be conscious of the amount we boil - ya’ know like its a BIG deal. But when put into comparison we are never ever consider that driving an extra 60m in our car uses just as much energy... 60m is not far at all. So surely, the BIG deal should be about how far we drive as opposed to how much tea we drink?

The potential to create mathematical problems (however bizarre!) is endless. Maths allows us to be creatively curious about anything. Just with a bit of simple maths we can find out anything - which is a fun thought! I have a collection of unanswered questions I’ve imagined whilst spending many hours day dreaming in our PDE studio and I thought I would attempt to answer some of them...

How many bananas will it take to fill the Reid building?

I mean good question, theres plently of big white spaces in the Reid building lets see its potential to fill up with bananaes. Initially I estimated the dimensions of the Reid building to be 60mx25mx30m, which gave me a volume of 45000 m3. I then measured a banana and got rough dimensions of 0.2mx0.05mx0.05m, then I calculated the volume of a banana by assuming it was a cylinder. The volume of a cylinder is found by V=πr ²h which came to 0.0392m3. By simply dividing the volumes I came to the solutions of 1147959 bananas

It would take 1147959 bananas to fill the Reid building. (Crazy! thats a lot of bananas!)

How many head to toe Hughs can fit around the planet earth?

After a quick google I found the earths circumference to be 40075km. After a long discussion with the PDE class we can to the conclusion Hugh is 5″10 (sorry if this is wrong!) which in meters is 1.8288m. Putting them both in the same units and doing a simple division the answer was obtained.

It will take 21913276 head to toe Hughs to go around the planet earth. (Woah, imagine that many hughs!)

How much would it cost to make our PDE class out of Halloumi?

I’m not going to lie this calculation was around lunch time when I was dreaming of halloumi chips waiting for me down in the Vic. This calculation also shocked me the most. If we seriously wanted to do this we would definitely need to consider scaling us down...

So I’m talking life size halloumi models. Our class consists of 7 girls and 5 boys. So with using the average weight of girls at 70kg and average of boys at 80kg and with the density of a human at 985kg/m I calculated the volume of our class. Then with these volumes and a density of halloumi of 1090kg/m I found the total mass needed to be 984.33kg. If we were perchasing the halloumi for Sainsburys then it would cost £8.80/kg...

It would cost £8668 to make our class out of halloumi. (How big is our degree show budget..?)

How many pints of Tennents can be pulled in the time it takes to walk from The Univerisity of Glasgow to The Glasgow School of Art?

According to Google maps the two establishments are exactly 1.0miles apart. And the average person walks at a pace of 3.1mph - so with a simple v=d/t I worked out it takes 19.35 minutes to walk to art school. After asking my friend who works on a bar (and kindly timed herself at work) it was found that it takes 17 seconds to pour a pint of Tennents. This works out as 3.5 pints of Tennents every minute. Doing some simple maths the answer was found.

69 pints of Tennents can be poured in the time it takes to walk from GU to GSA. (nice couple of rounds for the class, eh )

If these calculations don’t prove that maths is fun then I don’t know what would. Maybe at school they should encourage us to get creative and dream up mathematical scenarios that are relatable to our lives. You can literally calculate anything!

#maths #mathsisfun #design #fun

Yves Behar is a superstar

Pitchi Kitchi Presentation - 10.03.2016

Y is for Yves Behar, Who is a swiss designer, Fuse Project is his firm, And he looks good with a perm, Yves Behar ain’t a looser, His main passion for design is for the user

V is for Vibrator, All your needs does it cater, Users can take it in their showers, On one charge it can last seven hours

E is for Eydn Garden sensor, Designed to eliminate gardening unknowns, By communicating data to an app on your phones

S is for learning shoe, Designed just for you, It collects data about your feet, So all your design needs it can meet

B is for boxers, This product reduces packaging waste, Put through the wash and the packaging is gone without a trace

E is for eyes, These specs can change in shape and size, Adaptable to the users style, They can be redesigned after a while

H is for health care, If the doctor is away, By testing you this app can say, What is wrong with your and what you should do

A is for Avo, A phone inspired by an Avacado, Making the product organic, Yves believes technology should be evolving rather then static

R is for rolling, Scoot is designed for the commuters, It’s compact and sleek design, Allows the users to get to work on time

Yves Behar is a super star, Designing to improve people everyday lives, Creating an emotional experience through story telling, It must be working cos his products are selling!

#yvesbehar #superstar #design #designer

Remember forever to forget

Into Eternity - 28.01.2015

Into Eternity is a gripping documentary that sucks you into the snowy forests of Olkiluoto, Finland. Here lies Onkalo which is the world’s first permanent nuclear waste repository. The nuclear waste is to be buried deep into the earths bedrock and left there forever. Onkalo is currently being built and will be decommissioned in 2100. There is currently about 100,000 - 200,000 tons of nuclear waste in the world. And we have no idea what to do with it… One of the main points in this documentary that shocked me is how passive everyone was about who is responsible for dealing with this nuclear waste? Of course, no one wants to be held responsible for it but I think this is a reflection on how as human beings we are curious and work hard to find out about this world - however this is dangerous. During the documentary I very soon realised that we are not in control of nuclear waste - it is in control of us…

Onkalo claims to be a permanent waste repository – which suggests the nuclear waste will stay there forever. Although how can you guarantee forever? This was one of the main concerns in the documentary – how to ensure Onkalo will never be opened. It’s a very interesting topic and there is no correct answer as we cannot see into the future.

Uncertainty. The documentary screams uncertainty at you. This is terrifying. When the documentary interviews the “experts” of this operation they seemed clueless and helplessly optimistic. “Do you think Onkalo will be discovered in the future?” - “No.” No justification, just no. Their faces blinded by fear falsely convincing us everything is going to be ok… I guess a main question that came into my head is how did we ever get this far… How have we managed to create so much nuclear waste without thinking about what to do with it? Why when we have 200,000 tons of it and we start worrying about it now? Is this a lesson for mankind to think about consequence before action?

Curiosity is human instinct - we crave knowledge. If Onkalo was to be marked this may only encourage future generations to look inside. Curiosity is how we discovered nuclear energy in the first place and thanks to curiosity we are in this predicament. Perhaps this can be seen as a lesson to carefully indulge curiosity.

Another idea was to just leave Onkalo unmarked and hope that future generations will “remember forever to forget”. This is rather powerful – the idea that it will never really be forgotten. You are not in charge of the act of forgetting. We love control. Something as beautiful as forgetting, letting things slip away forever makes us feel out of control. It may be a good idea but I do not believe that forgetting about Onkalo could ever work as our minds could not deal with the lack of control.

I believe as human beings we like to concentrate things - concentration is in our nature. For example we concentrate knowledge, we concentrate ourselves in cities, concentrate chemicals that would never be found in such high concentrations naturally etc. Uranium is a naturally occurring element in the earths crust, however Uranium would never naturally exist in such high concentrations as we use it for nuclear power. This is all very good but has our species learnt how to dilute? This one way process is exciting yet dangerous once we have created something how do we get rid of it?

I think as designers this is relevant. We must consider not only the functions, benefits and the life of the product but also what will happen to it in the end? We need to take responsibility for our creations : we need to be as good at creating as un creating.

#nuclear #nuclearwaste #design #technology

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Design and Technology Tilly