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Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is being able to generating ideas or new solutions to a problem. Something that has not been done yet or so often. Being able to come up with unique ideas is an important part of creative thinking. One of the reasons why most designers generate hundreds of thumbnails and rough drafts is because of creative thinking. Creative thinking will often look unusual but effective. Creative thinking can be a little similar to human-centered design because they are both considering the user with the design.

The article used is from an interview with Steven M. Johnson, a proprietor of the Patent Depending press. Johnson is considered as a futurist because of his unusual inventions made through his cartoons. It all started when he received an assignment to create 16 futuristic RV’s and ended up creating 109 detailed ideas. From this point he saw his love for inventing “imaginary products”. Johnson admits that inventing thrills him because of how it affects his feelings about social issues and consumerism. All of his inventions are either really intelligent or impossible to recreate.

Johnsons cartoons and sketches are great examples of creativity because of how out-of-the-box it is and how most of it are just out of this world. But even with these inventions that serve no actual purpose, they create ideas from other people about real things. Because of his creativity, new real ideas are being stirred up.

Overall the use of creative thinking is important with the design life. With the rise of hundreds of artists, it can be easy to have the same design with someone else. Even by generating ideas that does not make any sense at all, for the sake of creative thinking, it is necessary to create as much ideas as we can.

Human-Centered Design

The concept of human centered design is a form of creating a solution that is specifically made with a human perspective and caters the needs of an individual. This allows the human and the design to have a friendly interaction between each other. Human centered design is carefully processed through conceptualizing, researching, and different ways of brainstorming in order to find the needs to be met. This concept is like being in someone else’s shoes. In order to fully understand the situation, deep immersion to the situation is needed. Through the consistent observation and critical analysis of the human needs, this method of creating a solution provides a result that has safety, compatibility, comfort, and efficiency. This form of solution is essential into creating a design that is seeking to provide an effective product that will help humans because it allows them to see their needs in all angles.

The Tolerance Project is about a collection that showcases over 133 different posters that has the theme of tolerance. Mirko Ilic, a New York-based designer, is the one who organized this whole project that was inspired from an earlier project he did for a fundraising effort at the House of Tolerance in Slovenia. The Tolerance Project is held in different nations and each nation has designers and artists invited to participate in the project and create a poster that will be showcased. The main purpose of the project is to send a message about social acceptance within the nation that its being held at. The artists that are invited are only given instructions about the dimensions of the poster and that it should have the word “tolerance” in their own language. The project received a lot of negative responses from the viewers and have been through hardships because of the different cultures that it encounters. Some cultures lack in tolerance because of how much hate they put into that posters that are being posted. Difficulties with the production is also a problem that they faced because of the limited resources that nation provides.

This is a great example of human centered design because it uses not only different individuals but also different people groups. Human centered design has a specific target and this project succeeded because it allows different artists from that nation to show what tolerance mean in their country. By having a person that is familiar with their own culture and norms, the perspective of tolerance is achieved much greater because the designer is much more immersed. Either with a negative or a positive response from the viewers, the project was still successful because it targeted the heart of the issue of tolerance.

The human centered design is basically being mindful of what the audience is going to be, who will be interacting with the design, and how will the viewers receive it. The Tolerance Project showed the human centeredness because of how each nation had artists from their own nation. Artists that knows about the issues happening in their country. The viewers reacted according to what the designers are expecting them to be. Either their hearts were touched because of the truth or they are offended because of the subject of tolerance. This design solution is very effective because it gathers information about the certain people group and uses it to relate to them.

-Riego

Article from Design Observer: https://www.designobserver.com/feature/tolerance-spreading-the-word/40121

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PROJ04 - Vernacular Type

Store shops on an old historic road from a small town imply a feeling of wonder and excitement. The poster uses different line structures and layering. The diagonal lines create depth as the lines merge in the middle of the composition. The lines create movement as it leads the viewer around the composition which shows the important elements of the town, the street, name of the town, and the stores.

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PROJ03 - Opposing Forces The concept is merging two environments, inside/outside, a bedroom and a bus stop. A bedroom represents the inside where it is more of a private space in contrast to a bus stop where its all crowded. They relate to each other by having the same activity done in different places. We kill much of time on a bus stop on our phones and likewise when we’re on our bed resisting to get up and be productive. Three images have been combined in this project. An image of people waiting, an image of an empty road and the bed with a person.

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PROJ02 - Objects & Letterforms

The typeface used for this project is Futura for “R” and Century for “a”. The structure of “R” is sharp, stiff, and at the same time it is also dynamic. The character of the scissors has movement and sharpness that relates to the “R”. The qualities tie them together as a whole. With the simplicity of Futura, the scissors are illustrated with simple shapes with sharp edges. The structures of “a” is fluid and intricate, the banana peel share the same qualities with the form as it is flimsy and detailed.

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PROJ01 - Pictograms

The pictogram is categorized by their habitats. Forrest land, aquatic, grass land, and dry land. Repetitive use of lines and shapes are made to make a cohesive whole. They are inspired by an origami style illustration where the proportions are almost accurate but parts of them are simplified like their limbs. The diagonal lines that is formed through the figure-ground relationship creates movement. It creates a dynamic effect with the pictograms face towards the right to implement movement.

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Exploring and using geometrics styled pictogram and heraldry styled pictogram. #ComDesFoundations

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“Focus” hand drawn typography by Jenna Bresnahan

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minimaletic

Steve Wolf

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Since starting this class, I have started looking at everything as art. The art of cooking. The art of meditation. The art of essential oils. The art of organizing. I feel as though everything we do needs some sort of design thinking whether it’s the form of your running or the form of a clay sculpture. We are constantly thinking about how we can change things for the better and be creative. Though I could be wrong because I am a design student. I am here because I do this in everyday life. I am constantly trying to arrange things, build things, make things, ect. This makes me wonder what design really means and are there two different types? Natural vs. unnatural design.

I think most people can cook and make a beautiful meal whether its spaghetti or sushi. But can they create a new sushi that hasn’t been made before. I think the cooking by knowing is natural design but to invent something entirely new is unnatural and takes a much bigger process.

Don’t you think everyone’s natural design Is at a different state? Some people could wake up and design the perfect building while other would have to go through 10 years of architecture school to even make an okay building. Those that can just design are often said to have “the eye” for these types of things. But really what does that means and where does this design eye come from? Does it come from your childhood experiences? Your genes? Education? Who knows, I think it’s different for everyone.

Saying someone has “the eye” is just silly, I want to know about them and where they acquired their talent. You don’t just wake up one day and become the best designer even though it looks that way sometimes. I do believe there are design geniuses, but they still have a story and a starting project. You cannot learn from people that just have “the eye.”

I think people that are not used to design get discouraged because they think they need this magical “eye” or to be born with come sort of design gene. I think the stigma around designers needs to be put down and everyones story needs to be put forth. I think that would encourage everyone to develop these design skills and make the world better one small design process at a time.

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