Product Design is....

Video: STATE OF MIND: THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN AND MENTAL HEALTH

Personal wellness impacts designers and the work they produce.

Video: A journey through the history of Braun Design

International Style and Mid Century Modern

Modern architecture embodied progressive ideas and sought to address housing shortages of the time.

Design Research and Prototyping in Practice

The process of innovation and product development includes user research and product interation. The video below shows how user research can improve product solutions:

NYtimes Article: Is this the future of Mask

The Future of Design Education

The challenges of redesigning how design education prepares students to become professional designers is being undertaken by one of the best known design researcher/philosophers Donald Norman. "The vast majority of college design programs still focus on the surface appearance of artifacts, despite declining employment in this type of practice. These conditions triggered this initiative to rethink design education for the 21st century." The Future of Design Education

Concept: A Ring that Allows Individuals to Protect Their Privacy in Public Places

 This concept is a extension of a proposal I design in design school, but address direct the current challenge of privacy and not communication as was my project. Very cool!

Privacy Ring

Product Design: Kitchen Aid Mixer

 A product that has maintained its value and increase in status over decades. An symbol of home, comfort and family.

New Logo: General Motors Questionable Update

Hmmm! The electrification of GM's product line follows the introduction of a new logo. see link to CES Keynote presentation: GM Keynote

Article: General Motors New Logo

 

A New Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Logo

For most organization's updating a logo is a very serious undertaking, which was certainly the case for the CIA. See the link below on a what some think.

Article: The CIA New Logo 

Article: Design for all Americans: How Biden’s design team helped defeat Trump

 Biden like Obama harnessed the power of a unified design philosophy to communicate a message that speaks to the time and the aspiration of the American public.

How Biden's Design Team....

The Company that led Biden's Digital Campaign

Video: Sir David Adjaye – Building Transformative Narratives | The Hour Glass

 

Article: Ten New Rules of Design

The design industry has been caught up in Eurocentric ideas for too long.Leading experts from MIT, Twitter, and more, offer ways to help break the spell.

Article: 10 New Rules of Design

Book: Race After Technology

 

Amazon Link

Video: How this award-winning Architect designs homes

 

Havard School of Design: Black in Design 2019

The 2019 Black in Design conference, “Black Futurism: Creating a More Equitable Future” explores pathways to liberation through a design lens, considering the historical past and present structural oppression of black and brown communities locally and internationally.

 

Industrial Designer: Enzo Mari (1932 - 2020)

Enzo Mari, who passed away from complications related to coronavirus on 19 October, has an extensive and varied body of work including art, furniture design and children's toys created over a prolific, 60-year career.

Around 250 of his designs are currently on show at the Triennale Milano museum as part of a retrospective entitled Enzo Mari curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli.

Article: Nine designs of Enzo Mari

Design in Dialogue #14: Stephen Burks

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/417304081" width="640" height="361" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/417304081">Design in Dialogue #14: Stephen Burks</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user23606518">Friedman Benda</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Stephen Burks - Home as Project

Videos: Bruce Mau on Designing Massive Change and Judy Wert

 

Videos: BBC - The Genius of Design 1 of 5 (Legendado)

 

The Future of Cities - Considering the Impact of Covid on Cities

 We can see the immediate impact on how life in the city has shifted but what will be the longer term changes?

Dyson Strike Again with a Useful Task Lamp

 One of the impacts of the pandemic is a desire to have a comfortable and functional home environment. To this end I have been sending a significant amount of time in my home office, and the needs for improvement have been made very clear in term of a office chair, home printer and better lighting.

Dyson new lighting product would be a wonderful addition?

Graphic Designer: Paul Rand

An American graphic designer Paul Rand.

Documentary: Architecture, art and design - 100 years of the Bauhaus

 How has the Bauhaus school of architecture and design, Germany’s best-known art school, shaped the world we live in today?

Design in Africa - An African-American Builds a School of Design In Ghana

Renee Neblet, founder of the Kokrobite Institute is also an artist and designer.

By creatively using discarded materials new products are created, this laboratory of sustainable innovation is inspiring.

 

Designer Video: Recycles Denim For Fashion

Design Management Institute Talks with Designers

DMI has made available talks from there series of webcast with notable designers.

DMI Web Talks with Designers

A Graphic Designer is:

The role of designers with Milton Glaser, Paula Scher, Seymour Chwast, Steven Heller in their own words.

Interior Design: How to Design Rooms and a Demonstration

How to Design a Great Flag

Mississippi has past legislation to remove the confederate reference from its state flag. The results will be interesting I am sure, hoping that something much better emerges.

Good Flag Bad Flag, How to Design a Great Flag

Kayne West Continues to Reshape Design

Most know the rapper turn mogul from his work with Nike and then Adidas with his brand Yeezy. This week the Gap announced a ten year billion dollar deal with the Yeezy brand.

Article: First Look at Kayne's Website


Nick Knight on designing Kanye West’s YZY SPLY

Architectural Advancement - Thinnest Skyscaper

Architectural advancements continue to shape New York's skyline. The world's narrowest super skyscraper is scheduled to receive occupants this year.

Unfortunately, it is a symbol of the equity in society which is more significant than it's height.

Graphic Designer - Milton Glaser

The only graphic designer to receive the National Medal of Freedom died on Friday at 91 years of age. The designer best known for the I Love NY poster to encourage tourism.

NYTimes Article: Glaser's Final Interview

Architectural History: The Crystal Palace - Video

A defining structure build to house the exhibition of 1851 showcase the United Kindgom manufacturing prowess.

Creatives Respond to Historic Events

A local area theatre closed for in person plays and performance found an innovative way to make use of playwrtiers and actors to recreate the experiences of 10 local residents taken from one-on-one interviews into monologues performed by actors and filmed to share via digital media platfoms.




Another example of art speaking to the times, is Dave Chappelle took to his platform to share a raw reflection of the events surrounding the murder of George Floyd at the hand of those that are charged with protecting and serving us.

A Successful Protest Graphic

One of the most successful graphic was utilized by the City of Washington DC to communicate powerfully to the White House, the need for representation as a state, claiming a space on the door step of the White House for peaceful protest and acknowledging the issue of police brutality.



Article: Charolette Follows DC with BLM Street Graphic




Graphic by artist Eric Yonkers

Fashion Brands Response to Social Unrest Causes Some to Reflect

The street  protest engulfing cities through America, has brought attention to the desire creating aspect (marketing) of major luxury brands that propels many to target and loot their stores.

The major brands who have borrowed heavily and profited from marketing cultural coolness of the marginalized communities that are the targets of police brutality and systemic racism.



Article: What Luxury Brands Can Learn...

Virgil Abloh one of the most recognize designer of the last ten years was caught flat footed with a tone deaf response as described by many on social media for not fully acknowledging reasons for the civil unrest.

I ask myself is this the cost of working within the belly of the beast?

Article: Virgil Responses to Criticism



Article: Fashion's Racism is Out of Style

Face Mask Designs will Improve as a result of Covid-19

From homemade to big brands everyone recognizes the opportunity to offer solutions to protect people from airborne containments.

The best solutions are conscious of style and function this category will eventually be dominated by the large athletic wear corporations like Adidas and Nike but until then there are lots of ideas being offered by  homegrown creatives.

Article: Things to Know About Mask in the Time of Covid-19

Article: How Face went from Necessity to...

Article: Reeboks Fitness Mask

Design Thinking for Africa's future I Bosun Tijani

The creator of one of Africa earliest technology innovation spaces to seed and assist societal and economic development on the continent by leveraging the tools of the 21st century spoke of the tremendous opportunity for doing things differently and with more equitable outcomes through design.

Co-Creation Hub Website

100 Great Designs of Modern Times 2020 - Fortune Magazine and Institute of Design

Article: The greatest designs of modern times 2020

Article: 100 Best Designs 1959

Redesign of Fast Company Magazine

What does a successful redesign of a magazine look like?

Article: Fast Company Magazine Redesign

Designs for Africa - Are They Really Designed for Africans?

The Yomma's solar refrigerator is not a bad idea, but the unit does not appear designed for the African users of conditions. My guess is that the standard products have been brought together to address the lack of current refrigation options. I get it, but the opportunity is to truly consider the needs of population.

To this end mobility not to mention the aesthetics do not account for any form of decoration to communicate the the users.

Article: Solar Refrigerator

Article: Who Gets Investment Moneys?

What is Design Thinking?

The video describes the process of Design Thinking focusing of five steps:

1) Empathize/Research
2) Define the Problem
3) Ideate/ Explore Solutions
4) Prototype/ Create Models
5) Test with Users

Design Indaba 2020

Once again I had the wonderful opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by the power of design being used to change the world.

Information Design in Communicating Covid-19 Impact on the Economy

The power of a single graphic to communicate the impact of events was demonstrated in a recent NY Times front page which depicted the number of workers who filed unemployment claims in the past week.

The scale of the families who will dealing with making ends meet for the months ahead and the weakness of our economy is immediately understood.

The Impact of the Covid-19 on the American Psyche

The need to shelter in place, the official response and directive to the worldwide pandemic has raised for many new issues and revealed limitations of the spaces they call home.

Article: Homes Need to be Practical Now

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The Gutenberg Printing Press

The first overtures towards printing that began around roughly 800 AD, in China, where early printing techniques involving chiseling an entire page of text into a wood block backwards, applying ink, and printing pages by pressing them against the block. Around 971 AD, printers in Zhejiang, China, produced a print of a vast Buddhist canon called the Tripitaka with these carved woodblocks, using 130,000 blocks (one for each page).

In 1436 Johaness Gutenberg, a German goldsmith, began designing a machine capable of producing pages of text at an incredible speed. By 1440 Gutenberg had established the basics of his printing press including the use of a mobile, reusable set of type. In 1454 Gutenberg put his press to commercial use. The following year he printed his famous 42-line Bible.

Furniture: No. 14 Broke with Tradition

New production techniques and new distribution channels led to the rethinking of the chair resulting in Thornet No. 14. A revolution in its simplicity: number of parts and unadorned appearance.

Article: The Sleek Curves That Reshape Furniture Design

History: How the U.S. Government Influence 20th Century Design

THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES was the first centralized foreign intelligence agency in the United States, the O.S.S. (or the Coordinator of Information, as it was originally called) was established “to collect, analyze, and correlate information and data bearing on national security.

Article: U.S. Government Influence on 20th-Century Design

The 14 most important design ideas of the decade...

Some the ideas list in the link below are not surprising but others are revealing.

Article: The 14 Important Design Ideas for the Decade