tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71035042664960546712024-03-13T13:36:01.095-07:00Mike Ray Herbert Mike's Design Thesis BlogMike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-38319503869867062892013-10-22T12:43:00.004-07:002013-10-22T12:43:41.300-07:00Cadillac Thesis Film: The IntroductionThe first film produced about the project! The ball is now rolling, the script has been put to paper, and now it is time to start producing the final film and designing the pieces!<br />
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<br />MikeRayHerberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10177429624819020684noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-37695390447227874652013-09-18T19:48:00.000-07:002013-09-18T19:53:54.349-07:00Video Sketch Two: Learning After Effects and Shooting Styles!<br />
I've been busy at work learning After Effects over the past two days and have gotten just enough experience to give a shot at tracing lines over a car! So far, I've had many conversations discussing the need to develop a way of communicating over video that will translate what goes on in my mind when I look at a Cadillac. I've learned that the project should turn into some film or visual media that will basically help other people "see what I see," and that is a hard thing to communicate. The goal has been to find a way to shoot video of a car that will help an audience experience a car as realistically as possible. Here is a second attempt at this. The quality is rough, but I've already learned a lot from it.<div>
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Here's some views of Cody's 2007 CTS:</div>
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<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/74895806" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/74895806">Cadillac Study Test Two</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user6758788">Mike Herbert</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-3367713705660669122013-09-10T11:22:00.000-07:002013-09-18T19:42:52.604-07:00Cadillac Design Evolution PreviewLast spring I began my study of Cadillac's brand language and styling by creating a styling evolution video that shows sketches of a Cadillac sedan from one of its earliest iterations, such as 1917, and show it "grow up" through the years until its current design in 2014. This is a preview of the work in progress:<br />
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<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/74227117" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/74227117">Cadillac Design Evolution Preview</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user6758788">Mike Herbert</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-80334731049774690352013-09-10T11:10:00.002-07:002013-09-10T11:10:29.060-07:00Off Topic: Albania TripLast summer I spent a month in Albania filming videos for Josiah Venture, we have many videos being edited from the trip, but here are some of the ones we have done so far!<br />
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Here's our site:<br />
http://www.filmgrace.org<br />
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/71152645">60seconds</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user19737162">Grace film crew</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://vimeo.com/71149002">The Stories - JV Albania</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/user19737162">Grace film crew</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a>.Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-89125534130082360452013-09-10T10:12:00.000-07:002013-09-10T10:12:57.349-07:00The Story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The first semester of my final year of school has just begun! Lots of research, experiences and learning behind me, and much more ahead, only now its time to start doing something with all of it. Over the course of the next 3 months, this will be the place where my story is recorded. In the world of film we have something called "raw footage." Its usually flat-looking, not inspiring and still needs to be fixed, but its fresh and exciting because its new and genuine. This is most likely how this blog will look to most people, photos may not be edited, videos may be rough and drawings may need to be fixed, but my hope is that its interesting.<br />
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<b>The plan for the semester is to be working on a film that works as my design thesis.</b> Design thesis projects at Columbia College are very problem-solution oriented, and they generally always involve a product that will result at the end. My project is a little more ambiguous than this, because I'm hoping to blend my two majors - Product Design and Film/Video - into a solid project.<br />
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What I'm planning on doing is to make 4 different things, and create a film project that not only explains it all, it becomes as valuable as the things I've made themselves.<br />
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The projects may be mainly a styling exercise, but <b>the film should illustrate the styling exercises in such a way that instructs us all what styling and designing is</b>, as well as serve as an engaging film in and of itself. Just like Batman! (actually, not really like Batman, but hopefully more of a story than most car commercials)<br />
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-68522344375068652792013-06-06T22:08:00.000-07:002013-06-07T14:21:09.499-07:00Object Lab Day 4 - Object Lessons and The Last Day at ChipstoneEverything we had been experiencing and learning all week came together today into a nice connective picture. The first thing we did when we got to the house was getting introduced to three different decorative arts and material culture scholars from Yale, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and University of Wisconsin Madison. Just as the three men and women introduced themselves and told us their stories of what they do and how they got there, I realized I wanted to ask them so many questions about design and meaning but had no idea what questions to ask.<br />
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What we started doing this morning was followed each scholar to a different object they chose throughout the house. </div>
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We first revisited the 18th century side table one of the groups blindly analyzed on day two,</div>
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What was so interesting was how much significance this piece could have even though it was not exactly a craftsman piece. It was a hodgepodge of material and detail choices, much like how people mix and match their features on a new automobile they ordered. </div>
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It was so cool to look into the story that this piece told as we dissected what it was made out of and how the manufacturer ran his furniture business and how that met the tastes wealthy New Englanders from the 18th century had for custom furniture and a creative blend of neoclassicism and mythology symbols. This picture shows the bronze leafing painted onto the ebonized wood, and how the designs reflect in the mirror.</div>
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We learned that these tables would never be put in a dining room because the Lyre communicates the atmosphere of music and hospitality, intended for a parlor.</div>
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When do you ever get to turn a museum furniture piece upside-down?</div>
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After doing that we discovered the continuation of neoclassical themes down to the imitation bronze feet, and the various ways gold leaf can be done with different underlays (the feet's leaves are grey underneath whereas the swan/lyre has yellow under it)</div>
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After that we went upstairs to analyze a Massachusetts Card Table,</div>
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There were many amazingly interesting levels to this piece, but some of the coolest things I took away from the analysis was the social act of playing on a card table like this, where the shape of the table effects the social context, and how the multiple lives of this table relate to the design (which came in handy later in the day).</div>
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We were told to all sit at the table as if we were playing a card game (4 at a time)</div>
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And then as we sat in the various seats, we realized how the leg placement creates a social hierarchy and automatically sets up relationships around the table. If you look closely you can see everyone sitting on the sides (right and left) is looking towards the person at the top of the table (bottom right, where the folding leg comes out). This also set up the realization that candles impacted the design of table tops, as this table has square corners with depressions carved for candles to light the game (since it would be used mainly at night).</div>
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Next we went downstairs and sat around a tea table.</div>
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This was especially insightful because we got deeper into the social context of the table. We looked at this table in many ways, through its craftsmanship - the amazing mahogany wood grains (from its cellular structure) and perfect carving artistry, as well as what it was like to own a tea table. We learned how much etiquette played into the use of this piece of furniture, and it had potential to impact a person's life either negatively or positively.</div>
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At the tea table, etiquette graces could either banish a country bumpkin from the family name or bring a woman into the social elite of the neighborhood.</div>
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Along with the hierarchy of whoever had the role of pouring the tea (the woman who held the teapot had command of the situation), the tea table also was the way wealthy women in early America could reach genteel status in society. Also, just as we had discussed with the card table, the way this table was formed impacted the experience of using it. If tea was served at a nighttime occasion, which was common, the way a center candle would light up peoples' faces and reflect off of shiny ceramics on the table brought a deeper drama to the personal experience of having tea with people. Even though we kept the room lights on, Ann opened our eyes to realize that light has a large impact on our experience of furniture and our social interactions around it.</div>
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After lunch, Sarah gave an inspiring presentation on Object Learning, and showed us that it had been what we were doing all week long at Object Lab. Basically we had been learning concepts and relationships with larger things by studying objects, and she set up the strategy of what we were doing all week:</div>
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Step One: Basic Descriptions and Initial Observations (Experienced at the Milwaukee Art Museum when we sat in chairs and took in the whole museum)</div>
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Step Two: Description of Physical Qualities (Experienced from the blind touch observations and sensory purchase at the antique store)</div>
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Step Three: Investigation of Associate Qualities (Historical and Metaphorical, experienced at the Koehler Art Center and This morning's workshops with the scholars)</div>
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Step Four: Classifying and Arranging (Experienced at the MOWA museum, where a reinvented art museum shows us how they classified their art exhibits purposefully)</div>
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Step Five: Synthesis (this was the next step, to explain the significance of what we observed)</div>
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We then were told to go outside for a little while while the filmmakers got ready to make short films about our object lessons. When we came back, we were grouped in threes and brought to our objects. Ours was this extremely intriguing table,</div>
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Which folded open!</div>
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We then went crazy with analyzing and observing it. Going through each step, we uncovered meaning after meaning, and discovered the material, function, age and even region and type of owner this table belonged to. What Peter (our overseeing scholar) kept asking us was "what is this thing?" and we kept dismissing the question for deeper discussion on its symbolism and architectural relationships. Once we started to realize it reflected a mannerist, literary mindset, we realized it could have been a desk. At that moment, Peter told us to open the drawer (which was concealed), and what we found was ink stains!</div>
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The whole process will be explained in the video, but what we basically came to was that this table was a 17th century writing desk that would have been owned by a very wealthy governor or someone living in a city like Boston in New England.</div>
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After filming, Peter told us that this table was in fact one of two known surviving American desks or livery tables from the 17th century, and would have been owned by the thin upper crust of New England society. Its quite a valuable table, apparently the only other one is on display at the Met, and we were touching it and moving it all around the house! Afterwards, we were all reflecting on how being able to interact with the furniture in very real ways helped us really understand it in its entirety.</div>
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Apparently thats one thing that Chipstone really likes to do when they educating, which I think is amazing. Sarah asked us what we learned from the week, and it was really great to start to see how we figured out how to observe and analyze well, as well as find a deep appreciation and understanding of Early American Decorative Arts.</div>
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After we talked about the week, we went to the carriage house garage for a BBQ, but first, we found finished spoons John had made. These were really cool to see, and each one had its own personality, which John said comes from observing the wood after its split. I'm definitely planning on making some spoons for fun when I get the chance. Apparently its a nice relaxation activity.</div>
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Overall, the week was really an amazing experience, and I'm so thankful for Chipstone for giving me the opportunity. We all really bonded well over the week, learned a ton, found a great camaraderie in our similar passion for art objects and history, and I think we all could say we came out of it pretty transformed in ways of seeing things. </div>
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Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-66526144467790560982013-06-05T20:39:00.002-07:002013-06-08T07:24:11.445-07:00Object Lab Day 3 - Exciting InterpretationsToday we seemed to be acting primarily as art curators in two different museums in Wisconsin. The first was the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, and the second the Museum of Wisconsin Art in West Bend. It was a less photographic day at Object Lab, because they didn't allow cameras. So I'm pulling images from websites.<br />
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When we first visited the Kohler Art Center we were instructed to go into three different installations to pull three words describing each art piece.<br />
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My group first explored this installation:<br />
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We came up with the words "Frozen, Swelling, Gathering" and a few others. We thought it looked like a sea swelling and shooting out waves of water, as well as movements of earth plates that create mountains and valleys. It was amazing to be in the space.</div>
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After coming up with names, we were told the name of the artists and the title: Rush to Rest by Kavanaugh and Nguyen. Here is a video from the museum's site about the piece:</div>
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The next installation was this large glowing, white Tyvek and metal thing:</div>
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At first we were completely drawn into the sculpture. We stood inside its tentacles and talked about how it felt like we were in a sea anemone. Eventually, we came to the three words "Protecting, Resting and Exclusive." </div>
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Later on we were told the sculpture was made by John Grade and is titled "Capacitor." It had a complicated mechanism that was supposed to create gentle movements, but the machine had broken down. What came out of the experience was an insight of how natural organisms, like the cellular coccolithophore can defend us against the perils of weather. </div>
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This is a coccolithophore:</div>
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Apparently it was what this sculpture was inspired off of.</div>
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Sometimes they can be seen inside boats... actually no, this is just another artistic interpretation from somewhere on the web. </div>
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The next installation we explored was this one:</div>
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I found this sculpture amazing. When we walked into the room, (to the left) all we saw was black grass, then we followed the grass and found this room full of black flowers, ponds and ribbons. Then, the next room had tall black flowers all perfectly straight and in same height rows to look like a cube. (sorry, I couldn't find a photo)</div>
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After taking in the piece, I started to feel a sense of dread and grief in it. I started to notice the contradiction with the black flowers. Once I realized that flowers should be happy and colorful, I realized this garden must be grieving. It also must be like a person who has to live with death all around them once a loved one dies. My words I came up with were "Grieving, Sprawling and Frenetic." There were many other ideas I was pulling out of the piece, but it made me think of how I noticed the tendency of some people fighting for control by becoming frenzied with making things "okay" in life. This of course doesn't apply to all, I started to notice that struggle inside this part of the garden, as if the person was trying to cope with an over-abundance of "joy" that may just be disorderly and unrested. Ever experience that feeling? What was even more interesting was how the cube of carnations in the next room contrasted with this garden. It seemed to reach rested consonance with the presence of black. It still carried it, but it was at peace compared to this middle garden.</div>
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What amazed me was how different the real intent was, yet how much it could still relate to the process of grieving. The Artist's name was Lauren Fensterstock, and the name of the piece is "Celebration of Formal Effects, Whether Natural or Artificial." The installation told the story of how unnatural the phenomenon of modern gardening and lawn-keeping is. It was about the contradiction between control and things you can't control. The grass represents the manicured American Lawn and the middle part tells the story of 18th century British "Ruinous Gardens" that are controlled vegetation intended to be "more beautiful than nature itself" (from the description).</div>
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Black covers all of these paper plants because it is the one unnatural color we find in plants, besides a few details here and there. As I started to take in these explanations from the curator, I started to see how this all relates to my own personal narrative I picked up. Of course black wouldn't be a natural color, and of course we would relate it to death, its all about the absence of color and light! Thinking about this, as well as the story of the fight for control that the piece was telling, I tied together the thread of how unnatural death actually is, and how nature might even tell us that. </div>
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If this piece is telling me that the control of nature in unnatural, and this piece also made me walk through what it is like to live life in the wake of loss and death, then a second narrative that points to how we weren't meant to experience death in our lives wouldn't be too far fetched, right? The only reason why this wouldn't seem completely crazy is from the biblical theology that points out that our world is in its broken state. When Christians refer to "living in a fallen world" this is what they are meaning: things aren't the way they are supposed to be when the world was originally created. We can see glimpses in how the world should have been, through good relationships, great food, etc. but there is still an element of brokenness, be it terrible storms, sickness, loneliness, etc.</div>
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Here is a video about the garden installation:</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AjYiXQtJHUU" width="560"></iframe>Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-67590118316325096142013-06-04T21:34:00.000-07:002013-06-07T14:04:38.614-07:00Object Lab Day 2 - Million Dollar Chairs and ClayToday we spent the majority of the day at the Chipstone Estate.<br />
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First we went into a hollow beside the house,</div>
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Once situated on a really old rock wall, we read poems and quotes from very different parts of mankind. Starting with the biblical passage of Jeremiah 18:2-6, going through mythology all the way to scientists saying clay could scientifically begin life, we realized the relationship between humans and materials - specifically clay.</div>
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We then went to the house, and learned that the house was actually built in the early 1950s by a couple named the Stones who collected Early American furniture and British ceramic ware. </div>
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They clearly caught the Williamsburg/Colonial-bug and wanted to relive the 17th and 18th century.</div>
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We learned about how ceramics and porcelain began in the Western world, originally as earthy clay ceramics made in Britain and fine porcelain made in China. </div>
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What I found so interesting was seeing the defining characteristics this long ago (16th and 17th century) that carry over to cultural ideals. I started thinking about the delicate-ness of Asian refinement. These bowls actually were examples of real China imports and fake British made Chinese look-alikes. Something we aren't at all used to today.</div>
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Then we went into a room full of some million dollar chairs. Some were worth less, but apparently museums have gotten really jealous of this collection. </div>
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As we started talking, I realized the greatness of the ornamentation of these types of furniture. It may have been the biggest insight of the day, but as a designer I've been indoctrinated with the Bauhaus mentality that all ornament is unnecessary. This modernist-infused thinking has come from an industrialized society that copies ornament for the sake of sales. However, these chairs had ornament for better reason than just marketing. They were way more involved in the status and personal life of their owners than we may view our furniture today. This could be a class thing - for all these chairs were owned by the upper class, which as we know think very differently than the middle class - but ornament and the way shapes were formed into each chair told a story about its owner. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NB4mjy7qeDI/Ua6w0V3RWmI/AAAAAAAAAtM/oDO_WerQFyM/s1600/IMG_0184.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NB4mjy7qeDI/Ua6w0V3RWmI/AAAAAAAAAtM/oDO_WerQFyM/s400/IMG_0184.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Each one of these chairs were owned by an 18th century American - So they lived in Philadelphia or Boston in the 1700s, actually before the Revolutionary War. So, what was going on in the minds of these Early Americans was establishing themselves as "new British Elite" with the clout and legitimacy that their neighbors at home had, or could marvel at. So, at this time, what could make people marvel at you? Well, first by what you were able to afford, and second probably by how impressive your possessions are. So, logically we discovered that the chairs with more carvings cost more than the simpler ones. Actually, chair customers would pay per carving! </div>
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The other really significant thing I realized about ornamentation during this discussion was that these chairs have symbolism in their detailing that tells artistic meanings about its owner. Vase shapes in the center back, shells and dragon-and-pearl-claw feet all call symbolism to classical culture, using literature and mythology references like Venus to reflect femininity and even the power of beauty.</div>
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We then talked about some earthenwares over coffee</div>
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Actually held the first porcelain cup made in America (or one of the first, its worth a ton of money and has a cool story)</div>
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Then, we got into groups and were blindfolded and brought an object to figure out. </div>
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We then tried to describe it to each other, and then came up with a creative description for it as if it were in a museum - only we've never actually seen it.</div>
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We named ours the "Treehouse Chair" and described it as the King of the Forest's throne that he hewed out of a tree, more on this later...</div>
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Then we shared our descriptions</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ufR2qKceYR0/Ua6w43QCelI/AAAAAAAAAuA/W4epIyxLjcY/s1600/IMG_0203.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="426" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ufR2qKceYR0/Ua6w43QCelI/AAAAAAAAAuA/W4epIyxLjcY/s640/IMG_0203.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Our description was:</div>
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"The Treehouse Chair: If the King of the Forests claimed a tree as his throne, he would carve a seat out of a sturdy trunk and the back of his chair would be shaded by leafy foliage. The Treehouse Chair, with its sturdy tree trunk-like three legs, its simple hewn timbers, this piece of early American furniture exemplifies how true organic craftsmanship mimics nature and its honesty to material."</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kC_VdTkY_UM/Ua6w5J0DHZI/AAAAAAAAAuM/3HfBLpNcZuA/s1600/IMG_0209.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kC_VdTkY_UM/Ua6w5J0DHZI/AAAAAAAAAuM/3HfBLpNcZuA/s400/IMG_0209.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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This table was originally meant as a dressing table for a bedroom.</div>
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The group thought it had earrings. </div>
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Makes sense!</div>
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We then were given buckets!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJl4ZVGzBUs/Ua6w7fg6XRI/AAAAAAAAAus/L82Ma7Oy_l0/s1600/IMG_0213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MJl4ZVGzBUs/Ua6w7fg6XRI/AAAAAAAAAus/L82Ma7Oy_l0/s400/IMG_0213.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And then went to the carriage house,</div>
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And found lunch!</div>
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And we got to eat like 18th century people, which got us on a discussion about how societies eat and find nutrition. It was fascinating, people who worked back-breaking hard labor pretty much just ate this, and didn't get much nutrients...</div>
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We also talked about how unnatural eating bread and milk-based foods is to the human body. Which was interesting to ponder... We might want to make sure we're eating balanced, and this was quite refreshing.</div>
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Then we went to an antique store! We were given 20 dollars to find a treasure that spoke to our senses, and basically we went wild</div>
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Later on we talked about how our treasure actively and meaningfully engaged us (and our senses)</div>
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And we had many interesting things, ranging from corn teapots to cast-iron elephants</div>
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and my deco-expressive pot-thing I found. (I think its a casserole dish...)</div>
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I thought it was particularly engaging because of how strong and expressive it was. It seemed like it wasn't afraid to let its energy loose, but it also had a beautiful orderliness that made me think of the speed lines found in the expressions of art deco architecture and even how the ocean's sea foam layers itself on the beach.</div>
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Also today we learned about making things!</div>
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Randy over there is an expert furniture maker,</div>
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He was showing us how to plane wood, hand-drill holes and do all sorts of furniture making like the early Americans did, without machines.</div>
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We also did pottery turning!</div>
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A hand turned lathe too!</div>
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In the end, I started to carve out a spoon, and didn't get it finished just yet. But isn't that yellow wood cool?! </div>
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After everything today, I briefly sat down to read and found this cool quote that I think relates to what we were learning about how objects can relate to our humanity. We were learning about what ornamentation did for early Americans artistically, and if what that particular way of beauty was a personal achievement symbol or artistic expression of achievement, what implications does a thought like this have on the world of designed objects?</div>
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"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">And it is the brittleness and bitterness of contemporary debates about civil matters that Wolfe feels the 'intuitive language of the imagination' can and must positively contribute to. Art does this not by avoiding difficult things and emphasizing feelings, but by being an alternate mode of reasoning and understanding. Wolfe believes the arts can counterbalance the pragmatic and utilitarian ethos of political efficiency with 'the necessary contemplative space that pulls us back from the realm of action in order to send us back wiser and more fully human' [22]." </span></div>
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This quote is from a larger post written by James Mccullough on an arts, culture and theology blog called Transpositions. The full article, which is a review on a book, can be found here: http://www.transpositions.co.uk/2011/10/beauty-will-save-the-world-a-review/</div>
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-66082150803026035282013-06-03T20:57:00.003-07:002013-06-06T23:02:34.563-07:00Object Lab Day 1Today was the first day of the Chipstone Foundation's Object Lab!<br />
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I've been able to have the opportunity to go to Milwaukee and study objects, such as decorative arts like furniture and ceramics, and art curation and history with a group of other students from all over the country. Today, I was sent by train to the Milwaukee Art Museum and grabbed my camera and started to take photos:<br />
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Getting off the train...</div>
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And to the museum!</div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">When we first arrived, we read and discussed the poem "A Sort of Song" by William Carlos Williams</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Let the snake wait under</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">his weed</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">and the writing</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">be of words, slow and quick, sharp</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">to strike, quiet to wait,</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">sleepless.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">-- through metaphor to reconcile</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">the people and the stones.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Compose. (No ideas</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">but in things) Invent!</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Saxifrage is my flower that splits</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">the rocks. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; line-height: 1.5;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">We began to tour the museum, first to see the Chipstone Exhibit Space</span></span></div>
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The first thing we found about the Chipstone Exhibit was that all these chairs were out on the floor to sit in!</div>
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See any famous chairs? (designers, you can pick them out.. right?) What was really cool about this is they had us all sit in them..<br />
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We then talked about how they felt to sit in, and what each meant to that person as they experienced the chair. Mine (the white lounge chair of course) felt "springy"and made me think it was somewhat risky.</div>
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These we decided were somewhat oppressive chairs, only the one on the right was more like a Dwarf King's chair than an Emperor's throne because of how quirky it was.</div>
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We then talked about this pot.. </div>
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which was made by a slave named Dave from the old plantation days! Not only was that bit of history cool, but he also was a crazy genius with poetry, and knew that the stories he wrote in the poems on his pots would matter someday later in the future...</div>
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We then went into this exhibit that creatively teaches us about the original museum: the Cabinet of Curiosity</div>
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This cabinet was reflecting its foliage virtues, basically how a cabinet comes from nature</div>
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Here the cabinet seems to imitate nature...</div>
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We noticed that the feet really give that away (not to mention how it looks like these animals are hanging around a tree)</div>
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Doesn't that look like a tree? From a Hitchock movie or something... but what was really intriguing was that those animals were all taxidermy...</div>
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That whole taxidermy thing made us think more about cabinets...</div>
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Because then with this last one we figured out that the Cabinets of Curiosity were ways for humans to fit their role between creation and the divine by studying it and sharing it with others. (That may sound outdated...but thats another discussion, it also fits in with the era these existed) This really helps to reflect on our call to wonder and fascinate on the world around us, and how we've done it in the past! Look how this piece of furniture even looks like the one with all the birds on it, only these are real wood. </div>
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That made me think about ornamentation and why it exists...</div>
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Anyways, we move on and look at other objects in the exhibit</div>
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And find a human-like chair, with arms and legs as explicit as you can get,</div>
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and this was all part of an exhibit that tells the human relationship stories of furniture pieces</div>
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which had mythology uncovered in its tables (these were owned by bankers and businessmen-symbolizing strength and stability with griffins and so on)</div>
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Then came the display that made me think the most: the narrative of death found in puritan era furniture. What I thought was so amazing was that these puritan age people were so accustomed to the idea of death that they didn't mind living with furniture pieces that specifically reminded them of it! What was interesting is that this topic is suppressed in our modern time, but it seems to have been embraced, and even emphasized back then. Some people said it was because puritans were always sick and were very serious, but I'd say that they also had a strong anticipation for the "new heavens and new earth" that was to come after their lives on earth was done. It all has to do with how since Christians are saved by Christ, they aren't afraid of death and actually look forward to it because they'll be finally with Christ and away from all the sickness and pain of the world.</div>
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That was a really cool discovery today.</div>
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This was a cool curvy chair</div>
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And this was a really great glass exhibit that I thought was such a perfect contrast to the medieval riches surrounding it</div>
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This was exciting...made of felt!</div>
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amazing abstracts...</div>
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Then we talked about it all! We also discussed in depth thoughts about the success of exhibits, curation, museums and other arts and culture things. It was so interesting to find out that museums (after the cabinet of curiosity) were used by governments to instruct the country of the standards of living. Basically the idea of being quiet in museums came from the 19th century high standard of conduct, and all the subject matter was of art and artifacts that established cultural values and ideals. At least this is to the best of my knowledge from our discussion.</div>
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Then we went to dinner!</div>
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More posts to come, tomorrow will be jam packed with new and amazing things!</div>
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-74715873823124097292013-04-01T13:37:00.005-07:002013-04-01T13:37:53.828-07:00The Language of Things - Final Reading Notes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Throughout his book, <u>The Language of Things</u>, Deyan Sudjic visits many interesting aspects of how everyday objects have a hold in the world. He began by explaining the different experiences through designers and movements in design, from Raymond Loewy to Philippe Starck. Though each hot shot designer has seemed to give the world an opinion about what design should really be, designers mainly can only provide different opinions instead of absolute truth. Through his first section on Language, I discovered that the world of design is driven by many different ideas, and each idea has value in an ever-changing world of product consumption. In this first chapter, what I found interesting was how those ideas can work well as language. Each form has a different linguistic property that communicates different ideas and perspectives. Sudjic writes: </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“...You might look at the Soviet and American space capsules that docked in Earth orbit, and which now hang in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, and see two different national mentalities rendered in physical form. They are two objects designed to do exactly the same thing, in the most extreme of conditions. And yet they look utterly different, and reflect with shattering clarity two utterly different political and economic systems. One looks as sleek as a Harley Earl limousine, the other seems to belong in the world of Jules Verne, of brass portholes and mahogany fittings.” (Sudjic, 42)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">In his next chapter, Sudjic explores the phenomenon of archetypes in design. These are objects that would be considered as the “quintessential work lamp” or “ultimate safari vehicle.” Archetypes have an identity that define their category. If one looks at a box of tissues, many societies will address that box a “box of Kleenex” because it has become an archetype of disposable tissues. The chapter talks about how these archetype languages impact a product’s emotional connection. Because the Anglepoise lamp is known as “The Work Lamp,” it has an emotional engagement revolving around work. “To switch on an Anglepoise and move it into position is, both literally and metaphorically, to suggest that you have started to work. It is like opening the shutters of a shop, or raising a curtain in a theatre. All the senses are involved, sound as well as touch. The click of the switch is like putting up a ‘Do not disturb’ sign.” (Sudjic, 56).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Then Sudjic spends time explaining Luxury and how high society has defined itself first through employing craftsman and artisans to acquire possessions, and now has evolved into a modern style of consumption. The language of much craft luxury has been that a wealthy person had the money to have someone skilled and valuable make their things. Their things would be incredibly valuable, because the level of quality and artistry they had were far more costly than what any normal person could afford. However, now in our modern industrialized society, the level of quality and artistry has become greatly democratized because of mass production, so luxury has had to define itself in different ways. Sudjic says “Contemporary luxury depends on finding new things to do that are difficult. Ii can be using more of a material than is strictly necessary... Before the newest technologies made complex forms easy to make on the production line, luxury cars came with curves that were difficult to form in metal, and cheaper models tended to have boxier silhouettes, or simpler curves: the difference between the original Citroen 2CV and the complex multiple curves of a contemporary Maserati.” (Sudjic 120).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">As he explains the different examples of how luxury has changed in society, it becomes evident that luxury comes down to spending more money than others. This can be a very useless thing to some, but in other realms of society, it is an important aspect of their lives. Sudjic closes his chapter saying “Luxury in our times revolves more and more about the details that persuade consumers to spend money. But another definition of luxury - one that is closer to its original meaning - may prove increasingly pertinent. IT sees luxury as the way to provide a sense of respite from the relentless tide of possessions that threatens to overwhelm us.” (Sudjic 129). So, basically it comes down to special-ness.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The last two chapters in his book are on Fashion and Art. These both were extremely revealing, in that many designers hope to be artists, and both fashion and art have a powerful status in the world. As Sudjic puts it, fashion, which began as a craft and now has turned into an industry, uses image and art to create business. It does not have a set format of rules, as the old perception of luxury had when it appreciated fine craftsmanship, but it constantly changes its rules in order to make business. Fashion does not only make money, but it also defines social statuses. “If fashion is about defining those who belong and those who don’t” Sudjic writes “then so is a uniform.” (156). Uniforms define the character an army or police force wishes to convey. Just as the Marines have a dress uniform and a camouflage uniform to define different situations or actions, the type of clothing worn defines the character of an individual and how they want to be perceived. This also relates to the planned obsolescence phenomenon fashion depends on. When something goes out of style, then that person is perceived differently than if they wore something that was in style. The same thing drives other industries.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The chapter on art explains the roles of art and design in objects. Designers can sometimes make art, but since art is basically defined as being something that is useless, it is very rare that design becomes art. What was interesting is that art has gone through a serious evolution that has redefined the role of art in the world. It also has been an important part of other creative areas, such as furniture and advertising. What has evolved is a conflicted line being drawn in the sand between art and design. It is conflicted because of how both fields are creative, and each one has the capability to feed into the other. However, Sudjic suggests that the complicated interaction between both fields will cause a new category to emerge. He says “the ideology of design has been intimately bound up with problem-solving. Now we are being offered an entirely different category of object. It is not one that is likely to do much in the short term to shift the relative positions in the social hierarchy of art and design.”</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">What has been helpful from reading this book is how it has provided a deeper knowledge of what design is. There is a responsibility that any creative person has when taking on any of these different fields, be it fashion, product design or art. One should know what he or she is doing just as much a person should when in a conversation with another person.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sudjic, Deyan. "Chapter 1: Language." <i>The Language of Things</i>. London: Allen Lane, 2008. N. pag. Print.</span></div>
Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-68139623001216778782013-03-08T09:19:00.002-08:002013-03-08T09:20:31.342-08:00Art Deco Study Analysis Here is the presentation I put together from my first round of analyzing the images I've found inspiring. I took the photographs I took of art deco building around Chicago and studied the line properties of each image, finding similarities to the images I found in Tumblr.<br />
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Here's the link to my <a href="http://mikerayherbert.tumblr.com/">Tumblr</a><br />
<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-91012134272261546722013-02-16T20:19:00.001-08:002013-02-16T20:21:47.544-08:00Gold and Futurism: An Initial Study of the Designer's Eye<br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The first formal project of the independent study on styling was to critically analyze what catches my own eye. Everyone’s personal taste is different, though there are similarities, and knowing one’s own eye is a monumental step in being a creative person who can be confident in their ideas. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first thing for my independent study was to create an inspiration blog on tumblr.com to gather evidence of what my eye is drawn to. I began grabbing exciting images from everywhere, and many of them reached into the realms of fashion and old urban photography. After making this blog, I discovered that there were similar patterns in my images that reflected the art deco style of architecture. This led to doing a photo shoot of my own to search out how to critically analyze my own designers eye. </span></div>
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(link: http://mikerayherbert.tumblr.com)</div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Because there were similar elements in my selected photos and art deco architecture, my advisor Kevin Henry suggested to take my camera out into downtown Chicago and sketch my own images through architectural photography. We decided to target iconic art deco buildings in Chicago, because then the only remaining variable should be how I interpret the deco forms through my camera angles. On a cold February morning, I whisked my camera out to LaSalle street to get shutter happy in and around the Chicago Board of Trade building, The Bank of America Tower and the One North LaSalle Building.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first thing I did was take photos of the buildings, targeting anything I liked looking at. This ranged from the overall shape of the building, </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">to decorative details inside the lobby.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After taking these photographs, I then set for home to pick out the good shots and edit them into a nice album. While on the train home, I realized part of what might be grabbing my attention are repeated parallel lines. Kevin mentioned that he realized that the organic curved lines of Mid-Century Modern has always grabbed his attention, and after taking photos of art deco architecture, I couldn’t help but realize the straightness of these all these lines.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Once I put the photos on my laptop, I dropped them into Adobe Lightroom and began to pick out the ones I liked the best. As soon as I got to the 2nd or 3rd round of decision making, I started to add filters and adjustments to photographs I decided were my favorites. Once I whittled down the photo selection to about 30 images, I then began to play with each image to enhance its dynamics. Some images looked best in fairly original condition, but others looked much more exciting when pushed to extremes of contrast and desaturation. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Photos went from this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: center;">To this:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Or this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">To this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">And this:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">To this:</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In photography, editing is used to enhance the emotion of a sight that has been captured through the photograph. In wedding photography this is especially effective because of how an aesthetic effect can impact the mood of a memory. Here, I used editing to bring out the dynamics of the forms in the image. Particularly in the third example, I worked with the depth of the blacks and vividness of the whites to bring emphasis to the art deco details. All of these photographs can be seen on the blog.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">After editing, I then began to do the critical analysis of the images. Because I had edited the images to capture the essence of the building’s forms, the elements of the designs were more ready to interpret. In conjunction with reading about the fundamentals of design in </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Appearance and Reality</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><i> </i>by Stephen Hogbin, I began to see how vertical and diagonal lines began to create depth and dynamism in these images of art deco. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Here is an example of the analysis:</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-syOkP0vGvd0/USBaT_33hnI/AAAAAAAAAiU/xyTpLkCN9_E/s1600/Study1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-syOkP0vGvd0/USBaT_33hnI/AAAAAAAAAiU/xyTpLkCN9_E/s640/Study1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">This particular sketch is of the Chicago Board of Trade building. This building is one of Chicago’s premiere examples of art deco architecture, and has been featured on many deco railway advertisements from the late ‘30s. A personal favorite of mine, I wanted to pull apart what made it so special. After editing the image, I saw the vertical stripes created by the window sills to become part of the building’s essence. The other elements I noticed were staggered tiers along the side of the building tapering towards the top. Both of these elements create decoration within the overall form. All of these seem to add visual depth to an otherwise huge flat wall. To me, that depth makes the building impressive, but not domineering, it pulls you more towards the sky than it would impose itself on top of you.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Deco has many interesting design cues that make it unique among other modern forms. Unlike high modernism, it is a format of ornament, but also has a progressive mentality to it. A common theme I’ve found when reading about art deco architecture is how the form emerged out of the depression as an expression of hope for a financially frustrated country in the midst of one of the most influential industrial turning points of our designed world. Understanding this history is also helpful in understanding why the form may be so interesting.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">“In the 1920s and 1930s, with its urbanity, its sophistication, its wit, and above all, with its unabashed advocacy of beauty, Art Deco helped to make New York City and the lives of those who dwelt there a delight.” -Lowe, David Garrard. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-decoration: underline;">Art Deco New York</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">, pg.11</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">More image studies to come...</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-17133923994147096732013-02-09T15:29:00.001-08:002013-02-09T20:50:47.693-08:00Art Deco Building Photo SketchFriday, week 2 of the independent study, I visited some Art Deco landmarks of downtown Chicago, the Board of Trade Building, the Bank of America Building and One North LaSalle. The goal is to take photographs of Art Deco architectural elements and then critically analyze them.<br />
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-47692085632216226692013-02-07T08:38:00.001-08:002013-02-07T08:39:56.833-08:00Reading The Language of Things, Ch. 1: Language<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Objects are themselves stories. We may not see them in the same way we see a narrative film or children’s book, but each object, whether a MacBook Pro or a KitchenAid toaster, has a story about itself. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Deyan Sudjic’s </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Language of Things</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> is a very insightful read on the phenomenon of designing. Only reading the introduction and the first chapter “A World Downing in Objects” and “Language,” I’ve gained a more thoughtful perspective of what designing really does for our world. Being someone like Jonathan Ive at Apple really has a lot of responsibility to it. He isn’t just picking out what Mac products can look the coolest, he is actually creating narratives and meanings through his material, formal and semantic decisions. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I appreciate the author’s honesty in his writing, in the first chapter he looks past the epic nature of design icons and points out realities. He refers to many well known designers’ examples, and doesn’t get hung up on any of their legacies. This is very helpful in understanding the language of design, he explains how a designer like Raymond Loewy basically added streamlined shrouds to machines to make them sell better, and then designers like Dieter Rams strove to make the quintessential designs of his electronics, like the perfect calculator, which quickly regenerated to more complex designs or digital iPhone versions. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I think where all this understanding of design icons is helpful is how much it evens the playing field. Yes, their excellence is important, but they are in no way kings of design. Leaders yes, but not gods. Design students can easily get either annoyed or caught up in the legendary nature of famous designers. Instead, they are storytellers. Because of the ever changing nature of design reception, as well as format (like emerging technologies and manufacturing capabilities), Sudjic says,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“What the designer is left to deal with is the surface, the appearance and semantic shades of meaning that allow us to interpret and understand what an object is trying to tell us about itself. These messages range from what an object does, and how much it is worth, to how to switch it on. They are far from trivial issues, but they turn the designer into a storyteller. And, while it is certainly true that design is a language, it is only those who have a convincing story to tell who know how to use that language fluently and effectively” (Sudjic, 34)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is very helpful with understanding the value of designers, as well as the call they have to the world. They aren’t mere hotshots that are very creative, but they are to help us understand our objects better. We use objects for reasons, and we buy them for reasons, and those reasons can be a wide range of needs, interests or emotions. Emotions and interests are sometimes just as valued as utilitarian needs. This was an interesting thing to understand from the chapter. Language and identity have much value that we may not see in scientific, technical minded environments. Sudjic writes </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“If you question the premise that objects mean anything beyond the utilitarian, just think for a moment about all the emotional content so far beyond legibility that we can read into the minute nuances that shape a typeface and give it a personality. The fact that it’s called a ‘face’ at all is certainly not a coincidence. Type is fully capable of showing the character and personality of the human face.” (37)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Seeing a human face in text is very important for writing. It gives the writing a presence, as does a conversation with a real person. If we lived in environments that were purely machine, we would have nothing to attach our humanity to. Just as with art, design has cultural value. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Design is the language that a society uses to create objects that reflect its purposes and its values. It can be used in ways that are manipulative and cynical, or creative and purposeful. Design is the language that helps us define, or perhaps to signal, value.” (Sidjic, 50)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Both aesthetics used for emotional value, as well as semantic value seem to be important to design. There is much more to understand in the area of design language, and this chapter begins to scratch at the surface of a huge reservoir of potential. Design styling and aesthetics may have more substance than purely a selling point like in the days of Raymond Loewy. In the conclusion of Sudjic’s chapter, he seems to mean that this deeper purpose has to do with semantic communication,</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Design is used to shape perceptions of how objects are to be understood. Sometimes it’s a question o direct communication: to operate a machine, you need to intuitively understand what it is, and how to make it do what you want...This is the language that evolves and changes its meanings as rapidly as any other. It can be manipulated with subtlety and wit, or heavy handed obviousness. But it is the key to understanding the man-made world.” (51)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This is a very solid conclusion about design language, and I think it also must be understood with the previous quote from page 50, where “design is the language that helps us define value.” </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">page 50, where “design is the language that helps us define value.” </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Sudjic, Deyan. "Chapter 1: Language." <i>The Language of Things</i>. London: Allen Lane, 2008. N. pag. Print.</span></div>
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-49690164715435864852013-02-03T15:23:00.000-08:002013-02-16T16:42:57.268-08:00Cars Might Develop like how Babies Start Winking (First Readings Part I)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Design in objects relate infinitely closer to our humanity than we may think.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Objects are all around us, and objects have all been plotted out, or designed for specific purposes or meanings. This semester, I will be conducting an independent study at Columbia College Chicago to dig deeper into aesthetic decisions in design. My first two readings for my independent study on aesthetics and styling have been a chapter called “Turn Signals are the Facial Expressions of Automobiles” from Don Norman’s </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">Living with Complexity</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> and the first chapter from Deyan Sudjic’s </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px; text-decoration: underline;">The Language of Things</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Some things I noticed about this first reading is that it related evolution in nature to the evolution of designed objects. I was surprised at first to find that we have a lot of comparisons to draw between the development of designed things, say the shoe, the raincoat or the personal computer, and the development of nature. Some may have contrary points of world view, but in Don Norman’s eyes, a large part of the endlessness of design is the endless improvement illustrated in the theory of evolution. Our bodies and minds are said to be the result of countless years of adjustments and improvements, which bring us to the understanding of communication though expression. Our designed machines, on the other hand, are a product of only a century or less of adjustments and refinement. What has matured over ages is now attempting to communicate with something that is practically a baby. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">His argument makes sense about how designed objects lack necessary communication that humans have after years of evolving. </span></span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; letter-spacing: 0px;">He primarily discusses the need for our ever-increasingly complex machines to function more like humans do. Our computers are frustrating because they do not provide feedback that people innately give us, and we cannot read the machine or gauge their status like we read weariness in our dog. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Unfortunately, the machines have no way of learning from the experience, you can't spank them and send them to bed, nor is there the equivalent of a note to the parent. As a result, when trouble next strikes, the same rowdy behavior reappears” (Norman 156)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Norman goes on to say that understanding intentions is an important part of communication, and this is effectively done through turn signals on cars.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">“Social interaction is enhanced when the participants know not only what is happening at the moment, but what will happen. Of all the signals of the automobile, only the turn signals announce intentions.” (Norman 156)</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">His writing seems to call out the need for social harmony between people and objects. This was referred to as “graceful interaction.” In a purely functional way, turn signals are a large step towards graceful interaction between machines and humans. This was interesting in regards to semantics and user interface thinking. However, I didn’t really learn much about the aesthetic qualities of things beyond their purely functional aspect. I think there still is some more to study in regards to the emotional expression of designed objects. Its one thing to have a turn signal to use, but what determines the graphic form of it? Is it even important to think about, or is it irrelevant in the grand scheme of priorities? I’m sure we could do without fancy taillights, just as long as the communicate their use. But what happens to creativity? Is there any link between the beauty of a person and the beauty of communication with them? Could I get shivers from talking to a woman who does modeling and also get shivers when a new Ferrari pulls up behind me at a light? I don’t really know. Is that even important?</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Well, as I think about it, what happens when one gets shivers from talking to a beautiful woman, is there some meaning behind that nervousness? Perhaps there is a weight when beholding that person, especially when you hold their attention. Its like a glorious thing is beholding your existence, and you don’t know whether or not they like that you exist. Its very pessimistic, and yes it is an issue of acceptance, but also it is basically using that other beautiful person for your own success as a person. </span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Just thinking about it this far makes me realize that no, you could never get shivers in the same way by being in front of a Ferrari, because that car has no way of accepting you or not. However, the way you view the woman can be compared to how you view the Ferrari. You may feel a shiver when seeing a Ferrari because you want to be worthy of the success it brings to you the same way a model would bring, but, it itself will not express acceptance. Its one thing to impress a beautiful woman and have other people impressed that you impressed her. Its another to impress a car. That is an impossible thing. However, you can use the car to impress other people like you used the impressed girl to impress others. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">Bibliography: Norman, Donald A. "Chapter 11: Turn Signals Are the Facial Expressions of</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;"> Automobiles." </span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">Living with Complexity</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2010. N. pag.</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">Jnd.org</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 32px; text-indent: -48px;">. Web. 2 Feb. </span></div>
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Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-19226515496262390922012-12-23T18:21:00.002-08:002012-12-23T19:15:26.413-08:00"Vail Chair" contest entry for GroovystuffHere is the final presentation board and model of the chair for the contest entry!<br />
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Sketches!</div>
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Building the model</div>
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-74853472874306822142012-12-21T20:44:00.000-08:002012-12-21T20:44:00.066-08:00Manufacturing: Hat Rack (attaches to a wooden post)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-90695143558046706562012-12-21T20:36:00.001-08:002012-12-21T20:36:52.481-08:00Product Design V BlogCheck out one of the largest projects I worked on this Fall 2012 semester! The Marbles The Brain Store fidget toy competition:<br />
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http://marbles-ink.blogspot.com<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PbpOjM2vIz0" width="480"></iframe>Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7103504266496054671.post-87783626498388509842012-12-06T18:30:00.000-08:002012-12-06T18:30:08.824-08:00Manufacturing Class Project Post #1: Keychain Casting<h3>
Welcome to the blog!</h3>
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This is where I will be posting projects I've done, and am doing, and here is the first post! It's a project that was done this semester for Manufacturing for Product Design class. It was a project to make a machinable part, in this case a keychain, and then cast in different ways.</div>
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<br />Mike Herberthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11353030424771986879noreply@blogger.com0