Thursday, September 27, 2007

Architecture: Frank Lloyd Wright's- Falling Water

One of the most influential residental structures in American history was designed in 1935. Here is a video animation of its construction.



Photos

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Mid-Atlantic Conference: NeoConEast

If you are in the Washington DC/ Balitmore area you might want to consider checking out the tradeshow focused on the built environment (interiors and furnishing) and more.

Focus on Design (FOD), a DC based non-profit programming aim is to promote and empower design students and professionals, has invited Dr. Elizabeth Tunstal to share her insights on Wednesday October 17th at 2PM.

NeoCon East Conference Link

Forum:Designing Experiences

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Redesign of the Five Dollar Bill

In an attempt to stay a few steps ahead of counterfeiter's America's paper currency is being overhauled.



Video

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

What Does it All Mean? Fashion (Week) Design

Last week in New York was the star studded affair called fashion week.

What I fail to understand is the disconnected reality within which the industry exists. The continuing criticisms: 1) the absence of people of color - notably excluded from those chosen to strut down the cat walks and 2) the inappropriate garments that do not consider "real people".

The point of interest for me was seeing the rapper LL Cool J (aka Todd Stephens) sitting front row at a number of shows taking notes (figuratively). Specifically, it was the contrast of his personal aesthetic to the models and designers on show. So what I see is the power of a hip-hop aesthetic coming to fashion week to provide some diversity to this fantasy land of fashion.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Adobe CS3 Video Tutorials

The Adobe Product tutorials are brief and informative. They can be an aid in understanding how to use key features offered in Photoshop, Illustrator etc..

Adobe Tutorial

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Auto Design: Small and Attractive

The Frankfurt Auto appears to be a significant show for the industry based on the quality of the vehicles introduced there over the past week.

The number of beautiful forms coming out of this show demonstrates a new level of consciousness about proportion that results in very attractive cars, even when it length is less than ten feet like the Toyota iQ concept. The shape of the iQ provides this micro car with the appearance of girth and a stance that is really very nice.

The smooth flow of lines are reminiscent of BMW's approach of using the vehicles lines to connect and unify its parts into a whole.

Toyota's iQ

Video Review

Monday, September 10, 2007

More On Parking Meters

I am encouraged each time I come across an article that reinforces the ideas embedded in my graduate research project. It means that my proposal is inching closer to reality.



NYTimes Article

Cities Abandoning WiFi

Graphic Design: Developing a Magazine Cover

The New York Time's real estate magazine includes a slide show of the thought process that led to its cover design. The influence of the client on the final design is an interesting detail not to be over looked.

Slide Show

John Meda

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The New iPod's have Arrived

After many years (3) of faithful service my 4th generation iPod died. In meantime what has happened to the competition? The Sony Walkman once king of mobile music players is surprisingly absent from my view. Microsoft's Zune does not seem to have captured the imagination of many,or it is just me?

And so I am left to select among the expanding varitions of the iPod for one that best suits my needs. This is something I will do gladly, partly because Apple is "pushing the envelope". In other words addressing the needs of consumers (me) with products that provide a level of freedom/independence that the other industry leaders refuse to trust consumers (me) with. As music companies had before itunes, now cell phone providers are resisting the desires of consumers to be free...


NYTimes Review

Apple.com

CrunchGear.com