Rachel Wahr: Design, Culture, Technology

Design Thinking; Designing Standars

As designers there are many different types of regulations, and standards that we are required to meet.  Some of those standards have different groups,organizations, or even laws behind them. A few examples of these are the ADA (American Disabilities Act, OSHA, BIFMA, and ANSI.

 The ADA is the American Disabilities Act that was placed to make sure that everyone is given equal rights and privileges, and to make sure that those with disabilities are  getting their needs met. That people need to design around and in mind of everyone who may use or come to the building or exhibit. Those with disabilities should not and will not be discriminated against.

OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This regulation started back in 1971 and was placed to make sure the employees and their employers are working in safe and healthy environments. The placement of this was to created better working environments, to decrease the amount of injuries on the job, and to help create programs within a corporation to also help lower injuries and illnesses in the workplace.  

The BIFMA is the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturer’s Association. They are a non-profit organization that helps to increase and develop the standards of the institutional furniture industry. They help to create better and healthier furniture and equipment to make better working environments for employees.

ANSI is an organization that was placed to make sure that what the consumers are getting is safe and healthy for them. Making sure that products are meeting the expectations of consumers.  

Deisgn Practice; Michael McDonough’s Top Ten Things They Never Taught Me in Design

This blog by Michael McDonough is very interesting but kind of intimidating. Something I am glad to have read because those types of things are things that people should be aware of as they enter the “real world”. It is rather intimidating however because it makes the real world sound pretty scary and challenging. Even though you might have a good education and able to do anything regarding design you still have to have basic knowledge and understanding of the common sense things in the world. You also have to be able to understand that you are going to have to put up with work that might not be “fun” you will have to put up with grunt work. I enjoyed number 4 with was about not overthinking a problem. This one is definetly one as a student I can relate to. We often times spend so much time working on a problem that we might have already come up with a solution that is actually very good but we didn’t see it because we were trying to think beyond what we have already done. This sometimes causes a lot of stress because we hit a block and don’t know where to go or what we should do about a design. I also think that as students it was important to read number 6 about not fogetting your goal. Once again as students we do get discouraged or even desperate for any job once we graduate, we might not be thinking about getting into the exact type of firm we want to work for one day so we need to always remember our goals and what we want to achieve in life so that we do not settle for less. This goes for individual projects, jobs and in life in general. I think this site was a great one for us as seniors in the design program to look at and read over because we will be out in the real world soon and need to know this type of information.

Design Thinking; Tangoes

Tangoes is a fun, interesting and thought provoking game of putting shapes together to create a specific design. The game of Tangoes is much like the way in which we work in the design field. We played the game as a group, and had to work together to form the shapes and images that we saw on the card and had to use all of the shapes that were provided for us. We as designers have to be able to work in groups to achieve a final design. The design on the card is a good representation of a client and what they want from us. We have to put together the pieces that the client gives to us and create them in an interesting but also working way to achieve the end idea the client wants.

As you start the game it is also like starting a new project, you have to try many, many options and explore many different ideas before you come to one that will work. Once you get that one, much like getting parts of the pieces together to look like the image, you then move on and work on another part and you keep doing this “process” until you finally get to the desired end image.

Another aspect of the game Tangoes that is used in the deisgn field is having to use all the pieces. Everything that the client wants to have portrayed in their design must be thought about and placed into the design you are making for them. If you leave out a key element that the client wants to portray or have in their design then the design will not be complete and they will not be pleased with what you are presenting to them.

At the end of the game we realized as a group that sometimes even though we put something together that appeared to be right, really after all wasn’t, and we had to go back and fix what we had to achieve the exact design.

Design Thinking; Design and Business

We got the opportunity to go down to Grand Rapids and visit with several different informational and inspirational speakers. The people that I got the chance to talk with were Ryan Vandyke who works for Carnevale ID as a web designer. Dalin Clark a writer/strategist. Bill Holsinger-Robinson COO of Spout. Also, the chance to talk with several employees and the owners of People Design.
Ryan Vandyke is a recent grad from the Ferris State University Graphic Design program. He talked to us about what life is like after graduation and at your first job. He talked about how he has grown and changed as a designer. He also went over the first types of jobs he was given to work on.
Dalin Clark was the writer/strategist that came in and spoke. She was a very intelligent and helpful person to get to talk to. She gave a lot of tips and ideas about the best way to have a great working relationship with a writer and or strategist from a designers point. She gave us a lot of insight into how she goes about coming up with what she does. How she goes about doing and completing her work, and the types of clients she prefers to work with. It was such a great experience to talk with someone who isn’t a designer, yet understands them and works with them.
BIll Holsinger-Robinson is a COO for Spout. This is a company that works with independent films to help them get more noticed and more people to notice them. It is a huge networking site that they run. Like Dalin, Bill is not a designer but he works hand in hand with them and understand how important design is. He spoke with us about his company and how it came about but also about the design history of the company as well. It was again very interesting and great to hear from another person we as designers will be working with.
People Designwas the design firm that we visited while in Grand Rapids. This was a great experience to visit a design firm that is basically in our backyard so to speak. Viewing their work and talking with them. The firm had much the same feel as those we spent time at while in New York. We were able to talk with several employees and the owners of the firm. All gave us great information about time management, both as students and as future designers, portfolio and interview information, what to focus your attention on as students, and how might a first day at a firm may go. They were all very helpful and very interesting people, some of which had been with the firm for years and another who was in his second year with the firm.
Visiting the Grand Rapids area was a great experience, and getting the opportunity to talk with and hear from professionals who are not in the design field but who work along side a designer was very interesting and beneficial.

Design Thinking; The Big Apple and Me

The one thing that inspired me the most while in New York City was our visit to the agency Carbone Smolan. They were so inspirational and made it feel as if working and living in the city might not be as bad as we were all thinking it might be. Nina especially was inspiring when she talked about her experience and told us to keep all ideas open because we never know might work for us. She was very positive in her message to us as graduates from college and soon to be on the look out for jobs. This was also the first design agency that seemed very relaxed, one that even Nina mentioned didn’t treat its workers like robots or machines. I personally have been very discouraged in the idea of thinking that you are not allowed to have much of an outside life or family once you get into the design world, but both Paul and Nina gave me hope and excitement to get out into the design world. I also found that this type of firm would be exactly the type of place I would one day hope to work for. A place that, like Nina and Paul said, is like a family atmosphere, where you work and get ideas and give suggestions to all levels of designers.
Also from this agency tour, it made me think that one day working in New York City or even a larger city would not be so bad. I might actually enjoy working in the type of environment. I really liked the fact that when you walked into the agency it was a whole different environment then I had gotten anywhere else. That this office could be located anywhere, it was so sleek and fun in the design and in the feel of the place, it was like walking into a whole different world.
All in all, I really took a lot from the interaction with both Nina and Paul. They helped to get me excited to graduate and start working in the design field.

Design Thinking; Visiting New York

While in New York City we got the chance to visit with two design agency’s and take a tour of the AIGA National Office. The two firms that my group got the chance to visit with were Metropolis Magazine, and Carbone and Smolan.
Our first tour was at Metropolis Magazine with Criswall Lappen. We entered the agency on a day where we had the chance to learn a lot about the upsets that can happen at any point and how you still have to get done what you had on your list of things to do, no matter how important the problem, you have obligations to meet. Criswall Lappen then told us a little history on the Magazine and about himself as a designer. He brought in different examples of the old design of the magazine and the newer redesigned magazine by Paula Sheer. As a group he asked us about the pros and cons a redesign for a firm or magazine. We talked about how to overcome those cons and focus and get the most attention onto the pros to the public.
We also spent a great deal of time talking about the cover of Metropolis Magazine, and how just this past year they have decided to hire outside of the firm, and ask another designer/photographer to create a cover for the magazine. The way they go about this is rather different then I have ever heard done before. They actually have the outside designer create a cover and they also inside the firm create a cover as well and then as a group they decide which cover they think is working for that months issue of the Magazine. Since they have started this process they have had about 4 covers as theirs and 4 covers with another designers.
The most surprising part about Metropolis was that with such a large magazine and so many deadlines to meet, the firm and the number of people was very small and most all of the work is done inhouse. I assumed with such a large, important and well known magazine their would be large numbers of people working on production.
The second agency we got the change to tour was Carbone and Smolan. Here we got to talk with Nina and Paul. Carbone and Smolan is an agency of about 20-25 people. The agency interior was really calming and relaxed, very light friendly color. They spoke about how the environment there was easy going and they are like a family. They also have a wide variety of projects they work on as an agency
During out meeting with them they each showed us projects that they had worked on. Nina got to redesign an identity for a company called Bideawee. While Paul talked about his work on the W Downtown Hotel, a concept design and presentation.
After they talked about CSA and we did a little question and answer about them and the agency, they talked to us about getting a job and finding a job and some tips and ideas. They really wanted us to consider jobs and places we might not have thought about and to not be afraid of taking some risks and making contacts.
We also got the chance to visit and tour the National AIGA office while in NYC. David Hall, the member experience manager, gave us a very nice tour of the office and talked to us about AIGA. He talked about the different conferences that go on both in NYC and with other chapters. He also told us about the different benefits that AIGA offers to its student members and the professional members. We also got to hear and learn a little bit about the history of AIGA and the building that is used as the national office.

Design Thinking: New York Museums

While visiting New York city I visited three museums. The first was the Cooper-Hewit Museum, the second was the Guggenheim museum and the third was the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA).
The exhibits that were going on at the time of our visit toCooper-Hewitt were the IDEO selects, Piranesi as Designer and Provoking Magic, Lighting of Ingo Maurer. These exhibits were all very thought provoking and interesting.
Upstairs in the Museum was were the Provoking Magic exhibit was. This was like something I have never seen before, the way he used lighting to create different and dramatic feelings was amazing. He used lighting in ways that have never before been used. Some of the rooms made you feel as if you were in or looking at a whole new world.
Downstairs in the museum was the exhibit on Piranesi as a Designer. This part of the museum also had several rooms to it and flowed through out the life and projects that were completed by Piranesi.
In the final part of the Museum, they had an area dedicated to the IDEO selects. The main question being asked and then answered by the exhibit was “What design means to us as individuals and as communities.” IDEO selects seemed to answer this question with three main design thinking ideas, empathy, intuition, and inspiration. The concept of empathy was based on images and the benefits from these images to people through design. The inspiration concept was based on how a designer responds to the changes in time. And the concept intuition was based upon intent behind a designer and how they produce designs communicating their intent behind the design.
The Guggenheim Museumwas the second one we visited. This museum was built in the most interesting way. Something very different for a museum, but made the exhibits flow very nicely throughout the museum. The floor plan also had other rooms that branched off on each floor with other exhibits in side, While the main exhibit traveled along the rounded, spiral. The main exhibit that was going at this time was based on color and text. Some of the sayings were humorous some were thought provoking, some risky, others were hard to understand. All in all the Guggenheim left you with a feeling of inspiration and understand of art and design on a very different level.
The MOMA was a rather large mix of all types of design and art. Each level was separated by style. The MOMA was so very interesting, and it was very cool to see some of the same works we see on screen and in books in our design classes, in real life, right in front of us. There was a lot or learning, art, design, and inspiration to take from the MOMA. Everywhere you looked there was something that could provoke thinking and inspiration to our design projects both ones we worked on in the past and are currently working on.

“Design Thinking: Value”

Pill bottles have had the same design since before WW II, that is until Deborah Adler was working on her masters in Visual Design. She decided after hearing the stories of not only her own grandparents but also many others who have had problems with mixing up medication. So she then decided to take the large undertaking of redesigning the pill bottle for her masters thesis.
She started off by looking a pill bottle and picking out all that she noticed wasn’t convenient, or badly designed. She also did a survey as research to see what people thought was the most important to have on the bottle. Adler did enormus amounts of research so that her redesign of the bottle would fit the needs of all customers.
Her design for the new medicine bottle was such a great hit that when she graduated and got a job with her mentor Milton Glaser. Glaser fell in love with her design for the medicine bottle and shared it with fellow designers. While showing it off to other desiners it landed in the hands of Minda Gralnek, the creative director for Target. Target loved the idea of the new medicine bottle and went right into the plans to start to make the bottle work for them. They had to make a few adjustments from the prototype because of regulations, but in just about a year the bottle was established as the target pharmacy bottle.
news link to an article about Targets new medicine bottle design.

Design Practice: Photography

Portraits
Marc Montplaisir
Portfolio
Client: Plaisie de vivre

Environment Photography
Colin Faulkner
Portfolio

Tabletop Sets (objects)
Geoffrey Moore
Portfolio

Clients: Two Five, Inc, Haiplay, Lulu and Mac, Prism Business Media

The relationship between a designer and a photographer can be one of high creativity. Working with a photographer requires that you follow a certain criteria regarding legal, ethical, and creative. From the very beginning of your work relationship there needs to be an established contract that the two of you go over and have signed. There are two types of these contracts, one is an all rights and the other is a work for hire contract. The all rights contract is one that means that the work is reserved for only certain people, and the work for hire contract is one where all the work that is done belongs to the creator. You also need to work together to form a payment plan. A common plan works out so that the photographer will be paid sometime in 30 days after the work is done. One key thing to remember is that every agreement or arrangement that is made needs to be put down in writing. Also if you are working with an editorial or a non profit job then you need to give credit to the photographer, work done for advertisements or corporate assignments are less likely to have credit given to photographer on the final piece. As a designer you also need to remember if you are using a photograph of a person, model or not, there needs to be a release signed by that person. There is also the option of using stock photography, with this you have to be careful with the licensee agreement, and how many times you are allowed to use this piece. If you have to exceed the licensee then you need to contact the person/site where it is posted and get the correct permission. Also, you have to keep in mind that since it is stock photography that others are allowed to use the image as well, so the image will not be completely unique, and there is nothing stopping anyone else from using the image.

Some sites to check out for stock photography are Shutterstock and Moodboard

Design Practice: Specialties

Environmental Design; Gensler design firm is a great example. Some of their clients include: Gap, ING Direct, Apple, American Girl, Burberry and many many more.

Makelike Design is a design firm that did an editorial piece for Suede Magazine. They have worked with other clients such as Old Navey, Nike Brand Design, Tri-Met and many others.

Grapheon is a corporate communication design firm that designs identities, packaging, marketing tools, information design, and advertisments. Their main focus as a firm is on communication from the client to the people. Clients of their’s include The BTA, Comcast, Hammer and Hand and the list goes on.

MetaDesign is a design firm that has some focus on brand identity systems. They want to help businesses progress for a better future. They provide their clients a combination of research, analysis, technology, and design to visualize new changes for their business. Clients of theirs include; Adobe, Apple Intel, Nokia, MacWorld, The Weather Channel and many more.

CD Design Sagmeister Inc. New York
Clients include: True majority, Lisbon and several others.

Goodby Silverstein and Partners is a design firm that prodives many good design advertisments. They bring long lasting and deep value to many brands. They believe the best brands on based on the truth. Clients whom they have worked for include; Doritos/Frito-Lay, Adobe, Sprint, and Hewlett-Packard.

Package Design;Pentagram Design Inc.
Clients include, Godiva Chocolate, Tiffany & Co., TDK and so many more.

Experience Design Garden Digital

UNITRUST is a design firm that offers work with web design, graphic design for press, 3D modeling, and illustration for books, magazines, and video/DVD production. They have many good examples of informational design. Some of their clients are with Napa Municipality, and Paralimni Municipality.

MINE is a multi-disciplinary studio. They provide design for corporate, enterprise, and nonprofit organizations. They promote the highest standards of excellence. One of their designers Christopher Simmons worked on book design. Some of their clients are UCLA, AIGA, San Fransisco Symphony, and HOW design books.