tktk

reflection, reaction, relation.

[wenqian22-blog]

Task 3 Process + Final Exhibition + Reflection

P  r  o  c  e  s  s

Name list

1. Sophie Hulme - Originally from London, Sophie graduated in 2007 from Kingston University with Student of the Year and Best Collection awards. She set up her own label two months later.

Sophie Hulme is not one of my favorite designer, but also my favorite brand. I had been wishing to have a Sophie Hulme bag since 2 years ago. Not many people around me fancy Sophie Hulme, but for me, I really like the design of the bag. “Clean, tailored silhouettes with masculine and feminine influences. There is an emphasis on hardware and detailing.”
 is what Sophie Hulme had been persuaded all these years of starting a designing career.

2. Vera Wang - Vera Wang began a sweeping makeover of the bridal industry in 1990 in New York City. The Vera Wang brand reflects her vision to create a lifestyle that goes beyond core bridal and ready-to-wear, and into publishing, fragrance, beauty, accessories and home.

Today, every girl wish to wear a Vera Wang to their wedding. Nobody doesn’t want a Vera Wang wedding dress. I think Vera Wang’s wedding dress had not only showing the most beautiful part of a girl but also, every wedding dress is telling a story, a story of how a little girl wanna be their lovers’ wife and be happy together forever.

3. Pawel Nolbert - an independent artist, illustrator, and designer that working in Warsaw. He has his own studio. He creating visual work, design, and art for brands like Google, Adobe, Nike, Sony, Polaroid, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, Red Bull, Squarespace, Disney and more through interactive, posters, animation or branding materials and others.

4. Sun Jiayi - a young illustrator born in 1995 currently studying in University of Arts London.

5. Zhu Yiyi - my primary school student. We haven’t seen each other for many years, but we were friends since very young, we drew together, and played together. It would be so great if I can interview my old friend because I had been admiring her drawing ability since primary school.

* To see more please refer to my previous posts.

*The fifth person Zhu Yiyi was the one that I interviewed at the end. We had the conversation on Wechat, and she sent me the interview’s response by email. She also shared her artworks with me via Google drive. 

I was really glad Yiyi as my friend and interviewee that support me so much and I know it is about her final as well during this period of time. And she was still so generous that take time to give me the responses in 1000 words as well as arrange her artworks for me. I am so touching and gonna cry……..

Interview questions

1. Where is your inspiration coming from (the source of creation inspiration)

2. What quality do you think successful artists should have?

3. Tell me you most satisfied artwork.

4. Have you ever thought to give up? What makes you keep holding on?

5. Why is your artwork mostly your self-portrait?

I had also including some basic interview questions such as introduce yourself, What do you think the impotence of owning individual style for artists, What do you want to be in the future… Considered the word limitation that can be put on one page, also the quality of the response, I pruned the answer selectively. 

* The response will show in below as well as the hardcopy that I handed in.

Form decided

I decided to do a poker card eventually. I get this idea from a Tumblr post by goodtypography. I determined one day I will make my poker card just like that. Therefore, doing a poker card had been added to my form decision list from the first day. Here is the link of my reblogging from goodtypography.

http://wenqian22.tumblr.com/post/144199041268/goodtypography-work-by-graphicdesignblg

I had also considered of doing a magazine, but I think there will be a lot of people doing that, I wanted to do something different. I had also considered doing a stop-motion video, but that is actually time-consuming, I had only 1.5 weeks left since I received interview response from my interviewee. Craft book is another thing that I can think of, but I am making things really slow, I might not make it before the due day. 

So it came to the last option on my list - to do a poker card. I think it is interesting. As my interview is my primary school student. She is still studying and not so professional yet, but I do admire and respect her. I think if I do something relax and interesting will probably suit her identity and I believe she will be happy to see her response and artworks display on a poker card.

Working in Process

My basic idea is to insert artworks into each page, as well as the interview response. After the first day exploring the layout and composing, I printed out to see the effects. I had printed two copies one in A4 and one in A5 to see which one is better. I found that the “cards’ on A4 is quite cute because they are so small. I would like to keep A4 but the characters on A4 sized each card showed not so clearly. Therefore, I choose to print on A3 size. I think it would also help with my further poker card making since I do not have worried about the font size on each page. 

I actually made a lot mistakes during the printing process. I actually went to Officeworks 3 times and that was really making me cry… The first time I went there, the staff there saying my file cannot be open. I had no idea before that the adobe reader can only read on mac. Therefore, I had to walk back home and alternate it. My file was extremely huge that was about more than 1G. I have to save as pdf each time and combine them together again. So I went Officeworks again. Luckily the file can be open, but… Since I wanted to have a poker card look, so it should be double-sided. I made a mistake to the second page which is the poker card’s back . I did not flip them to correct space, therefore, the from images and the back images were actually not aligned together. I had to go back to correct it and back. The third time I swear that I will make hundred percent before I go to print. So I printed the mock one at home in B&W and then go back to officework again WITH my laptop just in case I have to change again. And then I succeed just before they closed the door! It is a story with full of complications. 

After I get back home, I started to cut the edges along with the black outlines. It took me around three hours to do that. I was happy because It started to look like a poker card. :D I did not do the case design with the poker card design was because I have to measure the thickness, width, and height of the poker card putting together. After everything had been cut, I started to make the poker card case. 

The day after I went to OFFICEWORKS again to print the poker card’s case. The material that I choose is Silk 300 something. That was the thickest paper for A3 that Officeworks can offer. 

F  i  n  a  l   E  x  h  i  b  i  t  i  o  n 

With the case

R  e  f  l  e  c  t  i  o  n

I am grateful that we can have this opportunity to make something out of limitation. I had a lot of idea in my mind but sometimes it is hard to find a method to make it real. So by the time I heard that we can do anything with the interview I was really happy. 

So I really enjoyed the process of doing the whole thing. From getting the name list, to interview people. From thinking of a format, to actually get it done. The whole process was smooth and well-off. My friend was soooooo amazing that she offered me anything that I need. We had time difference from Melbourne to London, but she was like always there for me to solve my problem. Whenever I need her, she was always there. I was so glad that I am a friend of her. And she is really talented compare to me undeniable. :D 

Although it is an enjoyable experience, but I still met so many troubles and made so many mistakes. I am recording this down for myself not make it wrong again next time. Firstly was that I actually make everything in one folder, so when the workload more and more, my laptop cannot handle it anymore and illustrator had been forced termination several times. I could not even save the file before it terminated unpredictably. Next time, I will not put all my egg into one basket and I will save my file frequently.  It was so risky to not save anything and do other things.

And then was the printing thing that I just mentioned. Next time whenever I need to print anything, I will double check my files and make sure bring my laptop with me.

For the poker card that I made, there are something that can be improved. Firstly, I did not realise that the numbers in the corner are actually one above and one below. I did not realise that until I started to play with my cards. I will be more careful next time, check everything before I get it done.

Secondly, it quite close to the last minute work, so I was a bit hurry with the design and packaging making. The final looks a bit rough. But that has a bit of reason with the paper, the paper was not the actual material for poker card, so it is hard to fold and easily broken. 

I hope my friend Yiyi will like my special gift for her. I will post to her and give her a surprise. Overall I am satisfied with my work, hope my next project will be a high-quality work but less trouble make.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Really cool! 

[imtommykuo-blog]

Ask Me Anything - reflection

This Ask Me Anything project was definitely a challenging yet rewarding experience. In the beginning of the project, there were so many creative individuals that I looked up to and wished to interview. However, many of them did not respond back which made me lose some motivation. The first person that accepted the questions was Josh Perrett, a photographer and videographer based in Bristol, UK. I wanted to personalise my questions to him, so I designed my questions specifically for him. Though he took a week to reply back his answers, I found that he put thought and effort into it which made the wait bearable. Now having his answers, I wanted to present the interview in a unique way, which also reflected his style and domain. To me, utilising instagram as a medium was a great choice. Since he is most known on this site, it made sense to present his interview here. It was challenging to lay out and plan each panel, as the upload order and sizing must be correct - on top of acknowledging how Instagram divided each picture differently across Web and Mobile. I aimed to make the presentation short and sweet, easy to flick through and browse like most successful instagram pages. When uploading the images, one challenge I faced was hitting instagram’s unknown upload limit. By my 40th photo, I wasn’t able to upload any more - instagram disabled my upload ability. Shocked, I had to wait 24h to re-upload the remaining images. Now knowing this, I will upload the pictures across a longer period of time. After showing Josh the results, this was his response:

Hearing this, I was thoroughly pleased and satisfied. I feel like this project gave us a great insight in how to contact and sought information from people within the field. I would recommend this project to all students.

[christiehdesign]

InDesign and Dreamweaver had a child and named it Muse

what i thought when i first tinkered with Adobe Muse CC 2014 (via christiehdesign)

Dreamweaver x InDesign - could have been DreamDesign

[imtommykuo-blog]

Tumblr reflection

The inclusion of Tumblr as a journal to be accessed has been an interesting experience. To break it down simply:

Pros:

Enables users time to structure criticism and conversation, which is not readily available in the spontaneity of live discussion.

There is so much content and inspiration form students and professional bodies, you could spend days looking at just typeface designs.

It’s free, thank god.

Cons:

Although we have a tumblr list document, it’s difficult to take in all the work everyone is doing. There are so many posts by everyone in the course, it can be overwhelming to see.

In the rubric, there is a row for “Frequency”. Seeing this, it makes me feel that I need to have more quantity than quality. To fix this, I suggest to remove this row. 

Interesting:

Interesting to observe other people’s views on particular topics and discussions. Although the continuous ‘reblog’ works as a discussion tool, it might not be the best out there. Nonetheless, discussion is always interesting.

It’s online, and “permanent”. 

Overall, I do recommend it to future students. I think Tumblr is a great tool for the course, but there are some minor points that might want to be addressed to improve the entire user experience.

[repartism-blog]

reflection.

I struggled a little with posting in the beginning because I have a personal tumblr with nearly no original posts at all. It can be difficult to put your content out there, especially because, despite this being social media, we have no real anonymity to hide behind.

But it can also be difficult to have extensive conversations with people during workshops or lectures, and tumblr was a great way to connect with other people through their work.

Having to reflect on a topic after having heard about it definitely helps to put that topic into context, and thinking about it in relation to myself. Overall, tumblr was a useful tool, although I don’t think I maximised its potential. I have gotten a little less anxious about making original posts, though.

[imtommykuo-blog]

“I have gotten a little less anxious about making original posts, though.”

Tumblr has made you more confident? I personally think this is a fantastic outcome. I think its important as designers to be able to have a great communication skill set, and it’s good to hear that it has been improved through a school assignment. Well done! 

[imtommykuo-blog]

Ask me anything - his answers

As mentioned in my previous post, Josh Perrett was willing to answer the questions I gave him. Here they are, as seen in the Facebook chat:

hi sorry for the late reply again. I seem to have no time atm as I'm setting up a media company

Ill do my best with the answers now.

A1: Food... Besides photography (and filming) the other things in life that I love are food, music and weather. I really like cooking and learning how to make everything form scratch. If i didn't want to be a photographer I would  start a pop up bakery. Music is a huge part of my life and I'm fascinated by the weather. Chasing and filming storms would be my ultimate goal in life.

A2: Disgusting! haha... If my style were a flavour it would be a mix of something earthy like mushrooms and something sour like lemons. I cant make up my mind on what style of photography I like. Its either natural earth tones or neon bright lights.

A3: Robin Williams... and everyone would dress as people from the lost boys in "Hook"

A4: I flew a drone up to take a photo of a rainbow. The drone decided it wasn't going to play ball and it flew away over the city. I had to get my sister to drive her car with me leaning out the window trying to get signal on the drone back to my phone and eventually it crashed into a telephone wire and smashed to pieces. frown emoticon

A5: Some days the creativity is just there, some days I get to a location and I just want to go get some food instead. sometimes i don't go out for weeks as I loose interest, sometimes I cant find enough time to film / take photos. Its odd haha

A6: The best advice, which I found out the hard way is, "never get obsessed with emulating someone else. Take inspiration yes but don't try to emulate. You will only develop your own unique style when you stop trying to be someone else. Just do whatever your doing purely for the fact that you love doing it. If you want something enough, you will not stop until you have done everything in your power to get it. But most importantly, enjoy what you do "

I hope that helps buddy.

Reading his answers already gives me ideas on the presentation of the project. Personally, I’m really happy and content with the answers he has provided. He’s given great detail and has elaborated on topics that cannot go without. I’m very satisfied, there are lots of ideas in my head already. Thanks Josh. 

Also, I recommend everyone read the last answer. 

[imtommykuo-blog]

Ask Me Anything - interview

Josh Perrett was kind enough to reply to my message and take on the interview. This is what I had sent him via Facebook. 

Hi Josh, here are the questions I have for you! I would really appreciate if you took your time to answer these thoroughly, as it would help me so much for my project. 1) Besides photography, what makes you happy and why? 2) What would your creative style taste like if it were edible or drinkable? 3) Alive or dead, who would you invite to an intimate dinner party? 4) Tell me about a time when a creative project didn’t go the way you wanted. What happened? 5) How do you get into your creative ‘zone’? How important is it for you to be in a particular state of mind when doing creative work? 6) What is the best advice you can give to a fellow creative?

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it, you're the man!

rationale: 1) I wanted to have a ‘warm-up’ question to set the tone. Ideally, something easy to answer that makes the recipient think about the question relating to them, and give reasoning behind it. I had to make sure that it was an open-ended question. I think everyone likes to talk about what makes them happy, so I went with this question. 2) Something that I wanted to gain from the interview was about how Perrett viewed his own creative style. By posing the question in a fun and creative manner, I think they will not be able to give me meaningless ‘buzzwords’, and thus help me gain more insight into the topic.  3) Another curiosity I had was who Perrett values in life. In the question I have posed, Perrett is unlimited to who he can choose to be with and talk with, and so I can determine what kind of person he values the most. If he mentions a family member or a friend, I can assume that he highly values these people. If he names an influential figure, I can assume that he is a knowledge seeker, and is a naturally curious person who values mastery of a craft.  4) I wanted to know about a negative experience in Perrett’s life, in regards to a creative project. Specifically, I want to know if and how he overcame a sticky situation. I think that by learning through other’s mistakes, I will gain their experience and learn from them in a constructive way.  5) I always find it fascinating to learn about another person’s technique, especially if their craft is of a high level. In this case, I want to know if Perrett needs to be in a particular state of mind to do creative work, and how he can get himself in ‘the zone’. From this information, I can try new and different ways to get myself in ‘the zone’.  6) In a more direct way, I simply asked for his advice. I’m willing to accept any advice he will give to me, whether it be about creative work, relationships or life. I think it is also a great way to complete an interview, as it has a ‘final words’ feel. 

[number3-design]

Font Name: SWIPE LOCK

This is my most recent completed typeface created late 2015. The inspiration behind the design is something we all do every day… The phone swipe lock.

Each character uses the nine dot pattern in a single swipe.

Swipe Lock completes my font archive upload. To see a lot of good shit, go to www.number3.co

#Typography #Typographics #Typographer #TypeDesign #Fonts #FontDesign #Typeface #Alphabet # #fuckyeahtype #swipelock タイポグラフィ #III

[imtommykuo-blog]

Wow, I’m stunned that all letters and digits could be recreated using this method. Genius in theory, and very well executed. 

[number3-design]

Typeface : S83 A clean modern font from Number 3. www.number3.co

#Typography #Typographics #Typographer #TypeDesign #Fonts #FontDesign #Typeface #Alphabet # #fuckyeahtype #modernshit タイポグラフィ #III

[imtommykuo-blog]

I really like this example of typography in a grid. I’m curious to see how the whole set looks. 

[sozakunixe]

Update on my Honeycomb typeface previously shown here (you can see the orientation change, i still have the ones shown here just not in the .OTF) its a useable typeface now I’m so happy *cries*

Right now its uppercase only Will add later: “Lowercase” (hexagon orientation 90degrees but still uppercase, see above) Numbers ATLEAST 2 more font weights Punctuation (some)

[imtommykuo-blog]

Excellent example of typography in a grid! Each letter is legible in its own way, even though the basic form of each character is very similar. 

[these-go-to-11]

Instagram’s New Logo

What do you think about the new logo?

My initial response – hate it. I think the colours are a hot mess. There is no consistency in the colours. Why the orange in the bottom left??

But the more I look at it, and trying to understand it (and watching the video above), the colours are from the previous logo, the more I appreciate the thought put into this logo. Is it effective? Yes. Does it work well on small screens? Yes. Will it be recognisable amongst the sea of icons on that metal rectangle? Maybe.

I’m starting to appreciate the new logo. And that it’s moving away from the skeuomorphic icon (finally).

[atticusnicolai-blog]

Im a lover and a hater of ‘chroma’ design. Sometimes it looks like the designer couldn’t decide on a colour theme so to fix that they used the whole wheel… Here I think Instagram did a fairly sophisticated job of incorporating a rainbow in their little square canvas, but i still get annoyed when i look at it. The thing that annoys me the most is that they buckled under the command of flat design! The universal trend that doesn’t require an imagination and is being so overused that its started to lose its potency; just like helvetica.

As a side note, I have vowed not to use flat design in any part of this course

[yusacui-blog]

Agreed, my reaction was just as same as when I saw Starbucks new logo came out that I am sort of dislike it. Maybe the new designs indeed are more effective and obviously simplified, but at the same time it’s just losing its nostalgic style. Wonder if there is a day where flat design is the only thing left in the industry would there be another revolution for those realistic and complicated design?

[polguth11]

Repost: Instagram’s new logo

I was the same - I didn’t like the new logo. Instagram seemed confused about it’s own identity. But I think I feel this way because it I am too accustomed to the old logo and it just doesn’t have that reassuring familiarity of the old icon. However, I definitely appreciate the logo now that I have seen the process. I feel that it was very influenced by trends. This kind of links with a question I wonder about (@isa-i-mcgrath ) - ‘what is timeless design?’….what is the value of adhering to current trends? - such as the use of Chroma colour schemes and the ‘flat’ - 2D appearance.

I feel like this new logo was influenced strongly by the graphic changes happening in the social media world around it (i.e. how websites feature a flattened version of the (old) instagram logo to link it to their instagram site).

I suppose the video is it’s kind of like how we use the 'rationale’ in our projects. Perhaps (as well as the flat trend) it’s the new context of the Apple Watch that has created a need to modify the logo.

@yusacui I wonder this also - whether the progression of design is simply becoming reductive? i.e. “How minimalist can you go?!” I found this interesting diagram you might want to check out! http://www.dailybri.com/wp-content/uploads/snygo_files-013-logoevolution.jpg - This shows what the Apple logo might look like in the future. Kinda funny - just a circle basically. I suppose there will be enough brand awareness by that stage that they could adopt such a logo.

I also wonder if we will have a post-minimalism movement in which we totally reject minimalism - i.e. have an 80’s retro colour pattern revival. That would be super cool.

[yusacui-blog]

Thanks for sharing me with the diagram :) It’s interesting to look at, and I also like your idea about the possibility of post-minimalism movement! I just talked to one of my designer friends about how does he think of the logo, and he thrown me a straight answer of “it’s ugly”. It kind of reminds me how most people judge whether a design is good by simply distinguish its appearance instinctively. And actually although the chroma color is very eye catching, but if the logo was put among the same types of apps without its name, it sort of loses its identification. 

[imtommykuo-blog]

What an interesting video, thank you for sharing! I find it particularly interesting how many of the people here seem to have initially disliked the new logo, but were more appreciative and accepting once they saw how it was made. 

My first reaction to the new logo was: okay, this works. I like she shapes, and the line thickness. They are round and thick, but still denote a defining structure for the analog camera. It’s also to note how easily we know it is a camera, extremely well executed using simple shapes and line. However, as like many of you, I am currently not a fan of the colour. In conjunction with the app, it seems like Instagram lost direction in how colour enhances the usability of the app. In the app, it’s now monochromatic, where previously the blues were more highly contrasted with the white background, making it easier to identify links. This fails in the way that some users may not have perfectly calibrated eyes, and may not identify similar shades of colour easily. I think they should have kept the original shade of blue to enhance usability, particularly for disadvantaged users. Yes, they used the colours from the previous logo, but they did not use all of them? There is no hint of green at all, unless it was blended with a different colour for another hue. But this is just my opinion, in terms of the colours, I think they have room for improvement. 

[ash-mads]

Gender Inequality in Design

Today in our lecture, was the mention of the gender inequality within the design industry. Something I found extremely interesting. At first, I suppose my ignorance drew me to thinking that this can’t be right. I have a 50/50 split in gender of design teachers, and every one of my classes is female dominant, in fact, sometimes I’m the only male in the room. However when talking about Bauhaus and the gender inequality there, and the fact that many highly successful designers are male, everything became a little more clear. 

In society, we have this “new age” idea that women can be anything. That they should be allowed to be whatever and whoever they want to be. And in my mind, that’s 100% correct. If you want to be the prime minster, feel free. If you want to be a stay at home Mum, feel free. If you want to be CEO, feel free. If you want to be an escort, make sure you’re well paid ;) My point is, society at this current stage, puts into the minds of young women that they can be anything. And they’re told to idolise the women who have been successful. However, in practise, I don’t believe this is correct. This isn’t realistic. I truly wish it was. But for some reason, our society is fine with women working behind a desk, but not fine with them going any further. And it’s quite disgusting actually. We say “yes! go women! Be successful!” but then we don’t let them. It’s quite strange.

Over the time frame of this semester, I’ve been silently taking note of all the conversations had in class, and who is the leader in them, who is the most dominant person. I mentioned it to a few people in the first week of class actually, and I think that the realistic answer of who dominates the conversations in class, isn’t that surprising. Think about it. We have 2 lecturers, and who does the majority of the talking in class? Andy. Or if we’re tasked with starting a group activity, I’ve physically seen men become the predominant talkers. Who leads the group activities? Think back to all of the group activities we’ve had. Who dominated? In Week 1, we took things out of our pockets and made a typeface. On our table, Sam lead the group. In any class topics with David, I’m usually the one questioning things and putting my opinion across. If we’re ever talking about a theoretical topic, Atticus is always there adding in a view point. If there’s ever a discussion had in a lecture, Tristan seems to always have a great viewpoint on things. Is this subconscious or is it somewhat biological? I don’t know. Is it a mans physical strength and deep voice that asserts dominance? I’m not too sure. But I just found it curious that as a class, we were talking about the outside world as if was disgusting and should change, but I don’t think we are much different at all. 

During a discussion about gender inequality in design, in a room dominated by women, very very few (like, 2) actually voiced an opinion. 2 women that seemed like they knew what they were talking about and had definitely had discussions about feminism in the past. But why were so many women sat back and not talking? I don’t know. For once in my life, I didn’t join in on the discussion, but it was interesting to sit back and listen.

I do think that Atticus had a very good theory. What if we deleted the gender walls, and paid less attention to biological sense, and introduced everyone as a person and not as a penis or vagina? What if we stopped dividing everyone, and brought everyone together as the human race, by not labelling everyone and making everyone tick a “male” or “female” box. Why are we so dependant on gender? Although it’s somewhat unrealistic for this modern day and age, it’s a good question. What if?

Perhaps I should start wearing high heels to Uni in protest. Hm.

[yusacui-blog]

And today’s topic and discussions really evoked me a thinking: Objectively, are males really masters of any domain than women are? As we can observe that not only in the design industry, others like music, arts, literature and cook… Most masters in these domains are males. Certainly it has historical factors and influences as in old days women’s ability in workplace were greatly restrained in the patrilineal society, therefore less chances for them to develop and confirm higher status in most industries where males have been practiced and domain for thousand of years. But I am questioning, whether it is because men decides almost every thing (well, in old times), that for a long period of time our standards and system of appreciation on design is potentially developed and built up based on their mode of thought? In other words, female and male are essentially different in both mental and physical aspects. If all requirements and standards of been a master in a field towards a foundation of male thought, this can even refers to their gene, then does it possibly mean females can never reach as high as men does because they are radically different? Alternatively, I started to wonder if it was women who domain the society, would all of our recognition and appreciation towards design radically changed as it would based on female thought? would it be a parallel because it is not comparative as two totally different structures? 

(Sorry for my poor English, I am trying my best to explain such a big topic XP)

[imtommykuo-blog]

I like this perspective! To drive even more conversation, what are some of the genetic mental and physical differences that you’re referring to that may have influenced how things turned out in history? 

Your english is very good, by the way. 

[fuckoffyouasshole-deactivated20]

Google just did something very ironic…..

[sodesign-blog1]

as if we needed any further evidence of how embedded gender inequality is in design history :/ ok this is a bigger question than i had anticipated, and deserves more attention.

[updatetooltip-blog]

That’s absolute gold, right there. It’s not only a confronting depiction of gender in design and art history, but by extension a comment on technology and its own (arguably even more pronounced) struggles with gender inequality. Google was founded by men, is run by men, is largely designed and engineered by men, and in that sense it’s almost fitting that it should return a man when the user asks for women.

[these-go-to-11]

Indeed. Just right here, http://www.google.com.au/diversity/, 30% of Google’s employees are females.

At least female designers do return an expected result.

[imtommykuo-blog]

“and in that sense it’s almost fitting that it should return a man when the user asks for women.” 

I’m not sure if that’s how the algorithm of Google’s high end search engine works. Google is not a man, or a person. Why would it make sense that it comes up with a man? This is just a rare failure in the algorithm, nothing to do with Google’s developmental history.   

[updatetooltip-blog]

Technologically speaking, I agree in that it is a rare failure in Google’s algorithm, and that it has nothing to do with who wrote that algorithm. But I didn’t mean it made sense, I simply felt that it was rather ironic that a product largely designed by men should in fact regurgitate such a perfect depiction of traditional male dominance.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Ah, I see what you mean and how you feel. If you searched for "women Bauhaus designers" , the results are quite different. Have a see for yourself.

[ash-mads]

Gender Inequality in Design

Today in our lecture, was the mention of the gender inequality within the design industry. Something I found extremely interesting. At first, I suppose my ignorance drew me to thinking that this can’t be right. I have a 50/50 split in gender of design teachers, and every one of my classes is female dominant, in fact, sometimes I’m the only male in the room. However when talking about Bauhaus and the gender inequality there, and the fact that many highly successful designers are male, everything became a little more clear. 

In society, we have this “new age” idea that women can be anything. That they should be allowed to be whatever and whoever they want to be. And in my mind, that’s 100% correct. If you want to be the prime minster, feel free. If you want to be a stay at home Mum, feel free. If you want to be CEO, feel free. If you want to be an escort, make sure you’re well paid ;) My point is, society at this current stage, puts into the minds of young women that they can be anything. And they’re told to idolise the women who have been successful. However, in practise, I don’t believe this is correct. This isn’t realistic. I truly wish it was. But for some reason, our society is fine with women working behind a desk, but not fine with them going any further. And it’s quite disgusting actually. We say “yes! go women! Be successful!” but then we don’t let them. It’s quite strange.

Over the time frame of this semester, I’ve been silently taking note of all the conversations had in class, and who is the leader in them, who is the most dominant person. I mentioned it to a few people in the first week of class actually, and I think that the realistic answer of who dominates the conversations in class, isn’t that surprising. Think about it. We have 2 lecturers, and who does the majority of the talking in class? Andy. Or if we’re tasked with starting a group activity, I’ve physically seen men become the predominant talkers. Who leads the group activities? Think back to all of the group activities we’ve had. Who dominated? In Week 1, we took things out of our pockets and made a typeface. On our table, Sam lead the group. In any class topics with David, I’m usually the one questioning things and putting my opinion across. If we’re ever talking about a theoretical topic, Atticus is always there adding in a view point. If there’s ever a discussion had in a lecture, Tristan seems to always have a great viewpoint on things. Is this subconscious or is it somewhat biological? I don’t know. Is it a mans physical strength and deep voice that asserts dominance? I’m not too sure. But I just found it curious that as a class, we were talking about the outside world as if was disgusting and should change, but I don’t think we are much different at all. 

During a discussion about gender inequality in design, in a room dominated by women, very very few (like, 2) actually voiced an opinion. 2 women that seemed like they knew what they were talking about and had definitely had discussions about feminism in the past. But why were so many women sat back and not talking? I don’t know. For once in my life, I didn’t join in on the discussion, but it was interesting to sit back and listen.

I do think that Atticus had a very good theory. What if we deleted the gender walls, and paid less attention to biological sense, and introduced everyone as a person and not as a penis or vagina? What if we stopped dividing everyone, and brought everyone together as the human race, by not labelling everyone and making everyone tick a “male” or “female” box. Why are we so dependant on gender? Although it’s somewhat unrealistic for this modern day and age, it’s a good question. What if?

Perhaps I should start wearing high heels to Uni in protest. Hm.

[s3380770-blog]

So interesting. I think from a young age girls are praised for being ‘pretty’ while boys are rewarded for their confidence and involvement in things. So naturally guys are more comfortable voicing their opinion or  taking the lead role while girls might feel as though it’s not their place. Men are validated for success, women are validated for beauty. :( . Personally i hate being complimented on my appearance because its not talent and it’s out of my control. Plus it means the person has completely overlooked my other USEFUL abilities. Never compliment a woman for her beauty! I loved this post by Sean though and i think it hits the nail on the head in many ways

[imtommykuo-blog]

Your perspective is insightful and well said! I think it is common for many girls to have been praised for being ‘pretty’, but it isn’t the case for everyone. Therefore, I don’t think that it is fair to generalise that girl’s feel like it is not their place. There are many female leaders in the world, and the number is ever increasing. 

It may be your own personal opinion that you do not wish to be complimented on our appearance, but it isn’t fair to say that you should “never compliment a woman for her beauty”. Different people value different things, and in your case, people’s compliments don’t align with your values. In other words, here. 

[ash-mads]

Gender Inequality in Design

Today in our lecture, was the mention of the gender inequality within the design industry. Something I found extremely interesting. At first, I suppose my ignorance drew me to thinking that this can’t be right. I have a 50/50 split in gender of design teachers, and every one of my classes is female dominant, in fact, sometimes I’m the only male in the room. However when talking about Bauhaus and the gender inequality there, and the fact that many highly successful designers are male, everything became a little more clear. 

In society, we have this “new age” idea that women can be anything. That they should be allowed to be whatever and whoever they want to be. And in my mind, that’s 100% correct. If you want to be the prime minster, feel free. If you want to be a stay at home Mum, feel free. If you want to be CEO, feel free. If you want to be an escort, make sure you’re well paid ;) My point is, society at this current stage, puts into the minds of young women that they can be anything. And they’re told to idolise the women who have been successful. However, in practise, I don’t believe this is correct. This isn’t realistic. I truly wish it was. But for some reason, our society is fine with women working behind a desk, but not fine with them going any further. And it’s quite disgusting actually. We say “yes! go women! Be successful!” but then we don’t let them. It’s quite strange.

Over the time frame of this semester, I’ve been silently taking note of all the conversations had in class, and who is the leader in them, who is the most dominant person. I mentioned it to a few people in the first week of class actually, and I think that the realistic answer of who dominates the conversations in class, isn’t that surprising. Think about it. We have 2 lecturers, and who does the majority of the talking in class? Andy. Or if we’re tasked with starting a group activity, I’ve physically seen men become the predominant talkers. Who leads the group activities? Think back to all of the group activities we’ve had. Who dominated? In Week 1, we took things out of our pockets and made a typeface. On our table, Sam lead the group. In any class topics with David, I’m usually the one questioning things and putting my opinion across. If we’re ever talking about a theoretical topic, Atticus is always there adding in a view point. If there’s ever a discussion had in a lecture, Tristan seems to always have a great viewpoint on things. Is this subconscious or is it somewhat biological? I don’t know. Is it a mans physical strength and deep voice that asserts dominance? I’m not too sure. But I just found it curious that as a class, we were talking about the outside world as if was disgusting and should change, but I don’t think we are much different at all. 

During a discussion about gender inequality in design, in a room dominated by women, very very few (like, 2) actually voiced an opinion. 2 women that seemed like they knew what they were talking about and had definitely had discussions about feminism in the past. But why were so many women sat back and not talking? I don’t know. For once in my life, I didn’t join in on the discussion, but it was interesting to sit back and listen.

I do think that Atticus had a very good theory. What if we deleted the gender walls, and paid less attention to biological sense, and introduced everyone as a person and not as a penis or vagina? What if we stopped dividing everyone, and brought everyone together as the human race, by not labelling everyone and making everyone tick a “male” or “female” box. Why are we so dependant on gender? Although it’s somewhat unrealistic for this modern day and age, it’s a good question. What if?

Perhaps I should start wearing high heels to Uni in protest. Hm.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Well said, and what a great discussion. It’s interesting how you equate communicative leadership with status leadership. You have named many males that dominate the conversations in class, but can you accurately say that this pattern occurs because of gender? I won’t name any names, but many males within the course are more conservative and reserved. Also, this leadership may come from the people you have mentioned because these individuals may simply enjoy engaging more with the class, and enjoy facilitating an intellectual conversation, much like yourself. 

Your follow up questions are excellent. We can see each other as ‘people’, and not labelled to a particular gender. It ultimately starts with the individual observer’s mindset to see things with equality. If this can be achieved with multiple individuals, why can’t it be achieved as a cohort? Or an even bigger group? Your questioning is excellent, I think we should always ask ‘What if?’. 

[updatetooltip-blog]

Very well said, indeed. I absolutely agree with your observations on the most active contributors to class discussion (which isn’t a criticism on people’s involvement) in that they do seem to be predominantly male. 

Unfortunately, it seems to be more than anything down to heritage—the emotional, societal and cultural baggage we’ve inherited from the innumerable generations before us. Women have faced thousands of years of being told that they are, and likewise have been perceived as, inferior, and that’s not something we can forget overnight. It carries through into the modern world, because it’s not going to dissipate overnight, and shows when it comes to large groups and speaking up. We’ve seen it painfully clearly in the production of the 100 questions book, where (rather unfortunately) the only three men in the group have come to dominate and direct the group. We men are by no means more talented, intelligent, insightful or mature than our female (or other) counterparts, but we have history on our side and that, I think, makes all the difference. 

As a model (whose name I cannot remember) put it, we men are “the winners of a genetic lottery”, born into the more privileged gender. It’s analogous with race, with sexuality, even with religion—society is inherently biased, both through the very human fear of difference and of the “other”, and through that aforementioned heritage. 

While I agree with Atticus’ idea that we should strip away with gender, perhaps even go further and strip away race and appearance and leave nothing but the individual, it seems to me that an extremely important part of that individual is their identity, how they relate and fit in with others. Kate mentioned it today, and it shows through in everything we do, from our friendship groups to our language—we need diversity, paradoxically, to belong. And while stripping away gender would solve problems of inequality, we’ve got to ask ourselves, “what else we’d be stripping away?” In jettisoning our heritage and the the inequalities and biases that come with it, what else would we be jettisoning?

In short, in attempting to solve these complex issues, what else would we lose?

[imtommykuo-blog]

Instead of stripping these qualities of an individual, why don’t we embrace them and move forward from them? 

e.g.  “Yes he is a man. Who cares? Does it matter in this conversation?”  “Yes she is has a particular appearance. Does it relate to the work she is showing?”

An excellent leader also leads by example. Show equality. Show mindfulness. 

[ash-mads]

I never really thought about it like that.

If we strip away all of our labels, are we going to become a race of (practically) robots? With no names, no genders, no races, no sexualities? Just a race of people that are completely the same? Or would we become a race that treats everyone 100% equally and everyone is free to be who they want to be. It’s a curious topic.

This also is a curious question with the idea of colour in society. Pink for girls, blue for boys. I’ve been thinking a lot about it since our Image and Identity colour swatch tasks. We’re told that we need to design pink things for girls and blue things for boys, but aren’t these things exactly what stops kids at a young age from exploring who they are? It took me many years to except pink as a plausible colour for me to wear, and for me to be comfortable in it. This is because of past designers. They influenced my entire life by feeding me what colours to like and to wear from the day I was born.

So if designers can have such a profound impact on someones life, are we as designers, to blame for such a thing? Are we negatively impacting society by influencing girls to wear pink and boys to wear blue? I think so. I would have loved to have been raised as completely gender neutral and not forced to be a certain way or like certain things. 

Can we as designers, our generation, can we change this? Can we be the ones to gain equality by designing things equally? Are we able to create a design movement? Or should we follow in the footsteps of our design predecessors? Are we the gender generation? The Genderation? I hope so. I think we can make a difference, if we ask the right questions and design the right way. The way things should be, not the way things are.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Woah, a little different from the previous topic, but a great discussion nonetheless. 

But firstly, why should we strip away labels? Is the objective of this to make everyone the same? This can be achieved another way …

As a global culture, we celebrate difference. As we all know, everyone is already different to the person next to them, including identical twins. Everyone is made up of different backgrounds, have their own experiences and identities. Shouldn’t we be celebrating our differences instead of removing them? What would the world be like if we were all exactly the same? Have you seen ants?! Even they have a hierarchy. 

When everyone is different, nobody is. 

[ash-mads]

Did you just semi-quote Syndrome from The Incredibles?

[imtommykuo-blog]

Of course, my hero. 

[ash-mads]

Gender Inequality in Design

Today in our lecture, was the mention of the gender inequality within the design industry. Something I found extremely interesting. At first, I suppose my ignorance drew me to thinking that this can’t be right. I have a 50/50 split in gender of design teachers, and every one of my classes is female dominant, in fact, sometimes I’m the only male in the room. However when talking about Bauhaus and the gender inequality there, and the fact that many highly successful designers are male, everything became a little more clear. 

In society, we have this “new age” idea that women can be anything. That they should be allowed to be whatever and whoever they want to be. And in my mind, that’s 100% correct. If you want to be the prime minster, feel free. If you want to be a stay at home Mum, feel free. If you want to be CEO, feel free. If you want to be an escort, make sure you’re well paid ;) My point is, society at this current stage, puts into the minds of young women that they can be anything. And they’re told to idolise the women who have been successful. However, in practise, I don’t believe this is correct. This isn’t realistic. I truly wish it was. But for some reason, our society is fine with women working behind a desk, but not fine with them going any further. And it’s quite disgusting actually. We say “yes! go women! Be successful!” but then we don’t let them. It’s quite strange.

Over the time frame of this semester, I’ve been silently taking note of all the conversations had in class, and who is the leader in them, who is the most dominant person. I mentioned it to a few people in the first week of class actually, and I think that the realistic answer of who dominates the conversations in class, isn’t that surprising. Think about it. We have 2 lecturers, and who does the majority of the talking in class? Andy. Or if we’re tasked with starting a group activity, I’ve physically seen men become the predominant talkers. Who leads the group activities? Think back to all of the group activities we’ve had. Who dominated? In Week 1, we took things out of our pockets and made a typeface. On our table, Sam lead the group. In any class topics with David, I’m usually the one questioning things and putting my opinion across. If we’re ever talking about a theoretical topic, Atticus is always there adding in a view point. If there’s ever a discussion had in a lecture, Tristan seems to always have a great viewpoint on things. Is this subconscious or is it somewhat biological? I don’t know. Is it a mans physical strength and deep voice that asserts dominance? I’m not too sure. But I just found it curious that as a class, we were talking about the outside world as if was disgusting and should change, but I don’t think we are much different at all. 

During a discussion about gender inequality in design, in a room dominated by women, very very few (like, 2) actually voiced an opinion. 2 women that seemed like they knew what they were talking about and had definitely had discussions about feminism in the past. But why were so many women sat back and not talking? I don’t know. For once in my life, I didn’t join in on the discussion, but it was interesting to sit back and listen.

I do think that Atticus had a very good theory. What if we deleted the gender walls, and paid less attention to biological sense, and introduced everyone as a person and not as a penis or vagina? What if we stopped dividing everyone, and brought everyone together as the human race, by not labelling everyone and making everyone tick a “male” or “female” box. Why are we so dependant on gender? Although it’s somewhat unrealistic for this modern day and age, it’s a good question. What if?

Perhaps I should start wearing high heels to Uni in protest. Hm.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Well said, and what a great discussion. It’s interesting how you equate communicative leadership with status leadership. You have named many males that dominate the conversations in class, but can you accurately say that this pattern occurs because of gender? I won’t name any names, but many males within the course are more conservative and reserved. Also, this leadership may come from the people you have mentioned because these individuals may simply enjoy engaging more with the class, and enjoy facilitating an intellectual conversation, much like yourself. 

Your follow up questions are excellent. We can see each other as ‘people’, and not labelled to a particular gender. It ultimately starts with the individual observer’s mindset to see things with equality. If this can be achieved with multiple individuals, why can’t it be achieved as a cohort? Or an even bigger group? Your questioning is excellent, I think we should always ask ‘What if?’. 

[updatetooltip-blog]

Very well said, indeed. I absolutely agree with your observations on the most active contributors to class discussion (which isn’t a criticism on people’s involvement) in that they do seem to be predominantly male. 

Unfortunately, it seems to be more than anything down to heritage—the emotional, societal and cultural baggage we’ve inherited from the innumerable generations before us. Women have faced thousands of years of being told that they are, and likewise have been perceived as, inferior, and that’s not something we can forget overnight. It carries through into the modern world, because it’s not going to dissipate overnight, and shows when it comes to large groups and speaking up. We’ve seen it painfully clearly in the production of the 100 questions book, where (rather unfortunately) the only three men in the group have come to dominate and direct the group. We men are by no means more talented, intelligent, insightful or mature than our female (or other) counterparts, but we have history on our side and that, I think, makes all the difference. 

As a model (whose name I cannot remember) put it, we men are “the winners of a genetic lottery”, born into the more privileged gender. It’s analogous with race, with sexuality, even with religion—society is inherently biased, both through the very human fear of difference and of the “other”, and through that aforementioned heritage. 

While I agree with Atticus’ idea that we should strip away with gender, perhaps even go further and strip away race and appearance and leave nothing but the individual, it seems to me that an extremely important part of that individual is their identity, how they relate and fit in with others. Kate mentioned it today, and it shows through in everything we do, from our friendship groups to our language—we need diversity, paradoxically, to belong. And while stripping away gender would solve problems of inequality, we’ve got to ask ourselves, “what else we’d be stripping away?” In jettisoning our heritage and the the inequalities and biases that come with it, what else would we be jettisoning?

In short, in attempting to solve these complex issues, what else would we lose?

[imtommykuo-blog]

Instead of stripping these qualities of an individual, why don’t we embrace them and move forward from them? 

e.g.  “Yes he is a man. Who cares? Does it matter in this conversation?”  “Yes she is has a particular appearance. Does it relate to the work she is showing?”

An excellent leader also leads by example. Show equality. Show mindfulness. 

[updatetooltip-blog]

Aha! I think you’re onto something. Such qualities are not relevant, and should be treated as such. Unfortunately, like Sean said, it’s rather unconscious and almost inbuilt—but again I think you’ve definitely got the right idea in that we should consciously try to subvert those predispositions and biases, and from there influence the subconscious. 

[imtommykuo-blog]

It’s okay for it to be unconscious! Because your consciousness can always come back and out-logic your unconsciousness. We can change who we are, how we are built inside. We shouldn’t stray away from problems, we should adapt to them and even build from them. 

[ash-mads]

Gender Inequality in Design

Today in our lecture, was the mention of the gender inequality within the design industry. Something I found extremely interesting. At first, I suppose my ignorance drew me to thinking that this can’t be right. I have a 50/50 split in gender of design teachers, and every one of my classes is female dominant, in fact, sometimes I’m the only male in the room. However when talking about Bauhaus and the gender inequality there, and the fact that many highly successful designers are male, everything became a little more clear. 

In society, we have this “new age” idea that women can be anything. That they should be allowed to be whatever and whoever they want to be. And in my mind, that’s 100% correct. If you want to be the prime minster, feel free. If you want to be a stay at home Mum, feel free. If you want to be CEO, feel free. If you want to be an escort, make sure you’re well paid ;) My point is, society at this current stage, puts into the minds of young women that they can be anything. And they’re told to idolise the women who have been successful. However, in practise, I don’t believe this is correct. This isn’t realistic. I truly wish it was. But for some reason, our society is fine with women working behind a desk, but not fine with them going any further. And it’s quite disgusting actually. We say “yes! go women! Be successful!” but then we don’t let them. It’s quite strange.

Over the time frame of this semester, I’ve been silently taking note of all the conversations had in class, and who is the leader in them, who is the most dominant person. I mentioned it to a few people in the first week of class actually, and I think that the realistic answer of who dominates the conversations in class, isn’t that surprising. Think about it. We have 2 lecturers, and who does the majority of the talking in class? Andy. Or if we’re tasked with starting a group activity, I’ve physically seen men become the predominant talkers. Who leads the group activities? Think back to all of the group activities we’ve had. Who dominated? In Week 1, we took things out of our pockets and made a typeface. On our table, Sam lead the group. In any class topics with David, I’m usually the one questioning things and putting my opinion across. If we’re ever talking about a theoretical topic, Atticus is always there adding in a view point. If there’s ever a discussion had in a lecture, Tristan seems to always have a great viewpoint on things. Is this subconscious or is it somewhat biological? I don’t know. Is it a mans physical strength and deep voice that asserts dominance? I’m not too sure. But I just found it curious that as a class, we were talking about the outside world as if was disgusting and should change, but I don’t think we are much different at all. 

During a discussion about gender inequality in design, in a room dominated by women, very very few (like, 2) actually voiced an opinion. 2 women that seemed like they knew what they were talking about and had definitely had discussions about feminism in the past. But why were so many women sat back and not talking? I don’t know. For once in my life, I didn’t join in on the discussion, but it was interesting to sit back and listen.

I do think that Atticus had a very good theory. What if we deleted the gender walls, and paid less attention to biological sense, and introduced everyone as a person and not as a penis or vagina? What if we stopped dividing everyone, and brought everyone together as the human race, by not labelling everyone and making everyone tick a “male” or “female” box. Why are we so dependant on gender? Although it’s somewhat unrealistic for this modern day and age, it’s a good question. What if?

Perhaps I should start wearing high heels to Uni in protest. Hm.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Well said, and what a great discussion. It’s interesting how you equate communicative leadership with status leadership. You have named many males that dominate the conversations in class, but can you accurately say that this pattern occurs because of gender? I won’t name any names, but many males within the course are more conservative and reserved. Also, this leadership may come from the people you have mentioned because these individuals may simply enjoy engaging more with the class, and enjoy facilitating an intellectual conversation, much like yourself. 

Your follow up questions are excellent. We can see each other as ‘people’, and not labelled to a particular gender. It ultimately starts with the individual observer’s mindset to see things with equality. If this can be achieved with multiple individuals, why can’t it be achieved as a cohort? Or an even bigger group? Your questioning is excellent, I think we should always ask ‘What if?’. 

[updatetooltip-blog]

Very well said, indeed. I absolutely agree with your observations on the most active contributors to class discussion (which isn’t a criticism on people’s involvement) in that they do seem to be predominantly male. 

Unfortunately, it seems to be more than anything down to heritage—the emotional, societal and cultural baggage we’ve inherited from the innumerable generations before us. Women have faced thousands of years of being told that they are, and likewise have been perceived as, inferior, and that’s not something we can forget overnight. It carries through into the modern world, because it’s not going to dissipate overnight, and shows when it comes to large groups and speaking up. We’ve seen it painfully clearly in the production of the 100 questions book, where (rather unfortunately) the only three men in the group have come to dominate and direct the group. We men are by no means more talented, intelligent, insightful or mature than our female (or other) counterparts, but we have history on our side and that, I think, makes all the difference. 

As a model (whose name I cannot remember) put it, we men are “the winners of a genetic lottery”, born into the more privileged gender. It’s analogous with race, with sexuality, even with religion—society is inherently biased, both through the very human fear of difference and of the “other”, and through that aforementioned heritage. 

While I agree with Atticus’ idea that we should strip away with gender, perhaps even go further and strip away race and appearance and leave nothing but the individual, it seems to me that an extremely important part of that individual is their identity, how they relate and fit in with others. Kate mentioned it today, and it shows through in everything we do, from our friendship groups to our language—we need diversity, paradoxically, to belong. And while stripping away gender would solve problems of inequality, we’ve got to ask ourselves, “what else we’d be stripping away?” In jettisoning our heritage and the the inequalities and biases that come with it, what else would we be jettisoning?

In short, in attempting to solve these complex issues, what else would we lose?

[imtommykuo-blog]

Instead of stripping these qualities of an individual, why don’t we embrace them and move forward from them? 

e.g.  “Yes he is a man. Who cares? Does it matter in this conversation?”  “Yes she is has a particular appearance. Does it relate to the work she is showing?”

An excellent leader also leads by example. Show equality. Show mindfulness. 

[ash-mads]

I never really thought about it like that.

If we strip away all of our labels, are we going to become a race of (practically) robots? With no names, no genders, no races, no sexualities? Just a race of people that are completely the same? Or would we become a race that treats everyone 100% equally and everyone is free to be who they want to be. It’s a curious topic.

This also is a curious question with the idea of colour in society. Pink for girls, blue for boys. I’ve been thinking a lot about it since our Image and Identity colour swatch tasks. We’re told that we need to design pink things for girls and blue things for boys, but aren’t these things exactly what stops kids at a young age from exploring who they are? It took me many years to except pink as a plausible colour for me to wear, and for me to be comfortable in it. This is because of past designers. They influenced my entire life by feeding me what colours to like and to wear from the day I was born.

So if designers can have such a profound impact on someones life, are we as designers, to blame for such a thing? Are we negatively impacting society by influencing girls to wear pink and boys to wear blue? I think so. I would have loved to have been raised as completely gender neutral and not forced to be a certain way or like certain things. 

Can we as designers, our generation, can we change this? Can we be the ones to gain equality by designing things equally? Are we able to create a design movement? Or should we follow in the footsteps of our design predecessors? Are we the gender generation? The Genderation? I hope so. I think we can make a difference, if we ask the right questions and design the right way. The way things should be, not the way things are.

[imtommykuo-blog]

Woah, a little different from the previous topic, but a great discussion nonetheless. 

But firstly, why should we strip away labels? Is the objective of this to make everyone the same? This can be achieved another way ...

As a global culture, we celebrate difference. As we all know, everyone is already different to the person next to them, including identical twins. Everyone is made up of different backgrounds, have their own experiences and identities. Shouldn’t we be celebrating our differences instead of removing them? What would the world be like if we were all exactly the same? Have you seen ants?! Even they have a hierarchy. 

When everyone is different, nobody is.