My Manifesto

Last week in class we have talked about Manifestos. We looked at Bruce Mau’s manifesto and I have found it inspiring to see some of his beliefs because some of it I also strongly believe in. Listed below is my own set of manifesto.

Surround your self with great designs - being surrounded by great designs helps you to become a better designer.

Be Proud – being proud of your design helps your design to look a lot better, even if you don’t feel all that confident about your work

Ask for opinions – what you feel as great design but may not work for others. Ask your mom, dad, brother and colleagues what works and what doesn’t.

Be aware of your surroundings – research trends, and popular designs that people are in to at the moment. But be careful not to follow them all the time. Breaking trends might work in different situations.

Less is more - some designers (including me sometimes) feel as if doing more means better design.I find that simple designs are a lot more interesting that complicated once and simple designs easier to remember that complicated once.

Have fun – I find it hard to design when I am struggling with problems. Ideas come faster when you are in a good mood. If your not having fun, then you’ll probably have to rethink being in the field of study.

Mistakes are great – mistakes lead to better design, we eliminate what doesn’t work and what does work. That is why we need to value the time for critiques.

Appreciate Process – I find that many of my ideas come from rough work that I would have never though I could use. So keep drawing/writing those ideas, you never know when it might come to use.

Don’t be a default designer – don’t use default font, default colour and stay in same design style. Learn to challenge and seek for a collective of different styles. You do not want to be labeled as the guy who can only do a specific style.

Stay true to your self – we all have moral beliefs, learn how to take a stand and say no to things you don’t believe in. Do not be a conformist, if you don’t agree on something say NO even if gives big bucks.

Superbowl Ads Analyss

Commercials have always been annoying for me.  Disrupting my limited TV viewing time just to see pointless ads about things that doesn’t relate to me. Not till going to college is when I actually do pay attention to commercial airtime and analyzing how the try to hit their consumers mind. The ones that seem to catch my attention are the commercials that have humour and brilliant concepts. This brings me to the Superbowl ads.

After watching most of the ads on the Superbowl Ads commercial, one thing stuck to mind, humour. All of the ads were interesting and even more interesting because I wondered why companies such as Pepsi, FedEx, and other alcoholic beverages would spend millions of dollars to air a 30 second slot commercial that in my opinion are all stupid even if it was funny. While watching I don’t feel as if their target are being hit unless they are intoxicated Though they are very humourous I believe the commercials lacked concept but not all.

The commercial, in my opinion had a great concept combined with humour is the tide to go ad that gets a message across clearly and straight forward. Showing the benefits and convenience of carrying a Tide to go sticks. This in my opinion is a more effective way hitting a wider target compared most other commercial aired during that day, in which in my opinion are targeting intoxicated people rather that the sober consumers.

What is design?

Design in my opinion has many meanings and cannot be condensed into one broad description. But I believe that Gyorgy Kepe’s description of design also best describes design. Design as the “language of vision”, communicating with visual elements that carry across a message or a meaning.

Translated in workplace description, design is a translation in which we are trying to communicate words in a visual way without losing the meaning that designers like me are trying to get across. Just as there is a language translator, we are visual translators which I believe where design comes into play.

I f I were asked what design as a whole I believe that design is every thing that is physical and can be see. Like what I said in my previous post I believe in an intelligent designer who created every living thing. Now, I believe design can also be described how art is described an expression of our inner feelings into something visual. That is why I also believe that there is not such thing as a bad design for design opinion is biased.

A Designers Responsibility

This is a late post from last week because I have overlooked the question. The question is as a designer what my responsibility is.

I believe that I many responsibilities as designer, a responsibility towards myself and the people I am communicating to. As cliché as it sounds as a designer I believe that one my most important responsibility is to be the best designer I could be and yet not distorting or compromising my morals as a born again Christian. To always speak of the truth, honesty and with passion through my designs that has developed.

Responsibility towards viewers, I believe that another important responsibility is to properly communicate a message towards a viewer to translate a visual message properly. In other words to be a masters of visual language just as Gyorgy Kepes would describe design.

The Future of Print

In-class assignment

Consumed Media

Applied Arts 

Metro News Paper

24 News Paper

I do not consume print quite much because most of my information are from the internet. But from time to time I would pick up the daily news paper from Subway station stands. Only to consume the travel time on the bus for most times I only look at the ads and interesting news to read, like hockey news, design news and or electronics advertisements.

How will the current state of the design world change the form of print media?
Looking at the design world today, observing how print is now I have noticed that print have become more visually pleasing to the eye making it easier and alot interesting for those who are more visual to read. Myself specifically, find that it is a lot easier to read a article when a visual is co-inside with it. It makes it alot easier for me to visualize a story that I am reading. Where we are now compared to 100 years ago, people are alot iletrate because people are reading less, not saying that people do not read anymore, people still do but readers reduced drastically.Because of the new technolgiy being invted today, I believe that print will still be greatly reduced. Who knows the next big thing might be a video visual book so words are not needed in order to get a message across. Let's face it, this generation are not technologically based and this is a generation where print is not highly appreciated. People would rather read news or get information online, it is just way faster than searching a specific news in a newspaper or a book when you can just Google it. But I believe that no one can be really sure where print will be in the future, a lot of things are unexpected. One thing is for sure print will not die.

Will print die?
Off course not, as I mentioned earlier I believe print is here to say. Yes, it is not as valuable because all information are online but it the end some people would much rather have a piece of print on their hand to get information from. I myself find it a lot easier to have a assignment sheet on my hand to read from. Than having to look online for it. There is just something different from having a hard copy of something rather than digitally. For my print seems more official to me than having it digital since there are a lot of bogus material in the internet.

iLove my iMac

As a designer, I believe that it is almost impossible to choose one favourite design object. There are too many wonderfully designed objects to choose from, but while thinking if I really did have one, I came back to my all time favourite, an iMac. Not only because I have one but I believe that it really defines what design is, it is by its simplicity.

The reason why I chose iMacs as my favourite design object is because this computer is mainly targeted for designers like me. From the time that it first launched I thought design wise, is very astonishing and nothing I have ever seen before. Since 1998 Apple has always been consistent in how they have designed the exterior of an iMac. They were thinking, innovation by having the computer do what people wanted and with no extra mumbo jumbo.

Its simplicity, one of the main things I get out of iMacs is its minimalist design which also Apple’s essence. Being a simple person, and no to technologically advanced person I believe that iMac would be the best choice for me, when the price is not put into consideration.

Distinctive, out of all brand name computers/technology out there, I believe that Apple wins almost by a mile with brand recognition. Apple has done a great job to differentiate themselves from other with their trendy styles that they set. As a designer I believe that being distinctive and differentiating is important to being a successful graphic designer in the field

Overall, I believe that iMac is a great example what designers of today should be. That is also why iMacs are one of the most proffered computers by designers for its simplicity and innovation.

The Apple Revolution.

Apple Inc. has truly changed the ways of design. I believe that since 1984, Apple has directed where the world of digital design. Apple since then has been speaking to many designers with their innovative computer designs that helps designers improve on what they do that Is why I believe that Apple will continue to do so.

When I think of Apple, I think of design that is because of their simplicity and their easy to use innovations. Till now Apple has continued to surprise many with their continuous supply of surprise with technological innovation. They had taken what people want and used it to their advantage, compared to complicated PCs that people dread about for its complication to those who are technologically illiterate and packaged “FUN” along with their new inventions.

Though I was not able to witness or even see when the first Macintosh computers came out. It is not a surprise to me that Apple really did start the design revolution when their Superbowl commercial aired in 1984. They differentiated themselves from their competitors which as designers is our goal. To differentiate ourselves from other co-designers to be able to make a difference and I believe that apple is a great example.

In terms of future of apple of and design, I truly believe that Apple will continue to rock the world of design, with their simple and innovative ideas and will continue to cause long line ups on all their stores all over the world. I believe that Apple will continue to be consistent with their strategy on supplying the desires and interest of the common people.

Presenting Mr. Neto

Michael Neto. Analyzed.

Everyday we send signals to people when we talk to one another. Now, each body movment, tone of voice, and eye movement could give different impressions or communicate different things to others. In this post ill be analyzing a friend of mine Michael Neto, and also a part of my HW assignment.

Vocal
- Monotone and often serious when he talks.
- The tone of voice often sounds that he is engaged in the conversation.
- likes to talk often, and be first and last to speak.
- When he talks eye to eye contact is made.
- Voice raises when interesting subject is being mentioned.

Visual/Visual Cues
- Very laid back and comfortable showing that he is laid back person.
- By looking at his surroundings and the way he dresses, Michael gives an impression that he is very simple person who does not care much about change in fashion. It shows that he is happy on what have.
- Sits very comfortably on his chair.

Tactile
- Arms crossed at almost all times.
- At most times keeps still to his sit.
- Keeps a good breathing distance during conversations.

Olfactory
- No smell. maybe I my nose was stuffed that day.

Media is My Life

So I have tried to keep track of my media use this week. It was nothing suprising, but only an actualization that I am in need of more book readings. But none the less the results were not surprising but I wonder how different things would be if I was still back in my country were technology was not so dominant over people's lives.
Reading
Books = 30 min
Newspapers = 10 min
Magazines = 3 hours

Listening to the radio:
1 hour car radio

Listening to music:
15 hours (approx.)

Watching T.V:
10 hours

Watching movies on DVD/Internet:
0 hours
10 hours

On E-Mail:
10 hours (35 emails recieved/2 replied to)

Online surfing:
20 hours

Playing video games:
2 hours

Time on cell phone:
5 hours (talking)
30 min (text messaging)

TOTAL = 67.10 hours