Philippe Starck: Design for Life

Again, I don’t like much about Philippe Starck, French man, or talent show but I watched the show.

The matter in every step was so funny and all about jump out of your origin world and think straight to a new tried and true one.

They also called the show Philippe Starck is evil, that is much too right. Unlike The Apprentice, which I saw a bit later, this show kicked off with the evil Philippe Starck on leather glove, shout and knocked on the TV(computer) screen saying in French way of HELLO before introduction. Well open your brain and it’s funny and true.

Though I never think his laced chair or gun lamp have some function more than art pieces the show do show other ‘useful’ thing in industrial design. Anyway, I love guns and there are guns in his new playful office, a list of guns.

Philippe Starck is the most French French man I have seen on BBC show which put me thinking that did English man really allow French man appear in their TV boxes? He was speaking French English, thinking French and the show took place in France. My lips went French but not British and my nose smell wine though there is in studio or supermarket.

Honestly, I can’t understand why a French man thinking about that and I feel rudeness when evil Philippe Starck doing something which those idiots even I agree with the judgements, but that shouldn’t be sent out like that. I also saw confused on the students face more than refused when they get some strong reflection.

Well, there is difference between cultures. I am Chinese myself and I have my own culture background. Those 12 geniuses are chosen because they like Philippe Starck or we can say, in some way, understand this well-known designer’s way of thinking. However, they still got freshly different idea in almost all things. But they still can do it by themselves. They can chose to comply with dear Starck and won the favoure, or just be themselves and surprise them. It is interesting that, which is a kind of experience of deal with future clients.

On the other hand, evil Philippe Starck is always destroying their ideas, and there are not always arguing about that. Perhaps Starck believes that without destruction there can be no construction, we could see better result came out after the cruel destruction. And that is still some Philippe Starck philosophy.

In addition, I feel happy I could look around a new studio of a famous designer.

Gary Hustwit: Objectified

The film is a mixture about design and products someway.

I think it’s a good film for people who do not have the back ground of design, or for who have already gave a touch to design.

Compared with Helvitica which also directed by Gary Hustwit, the director did not dig deep enough to show us a clear thing about how and why.

I cannot say something bad when I saw those designers who I don’t like appeared in the film but I felt confused about some designers speaking.

Anyway it is a happy film.

I felt happy to see so many workshop, studio, office and home of famous designers. Obviously, we need a background to present the style and characteristic of a designer. So in the picture there are many tiny little things that show the detail of the designer’s life. However, when I concerned about the chairs appeared in the film, I thought most of them are beautiful but I won’t buy them, even if I have enough money.

One reason is that, I don’t like the style, or it appeared too many times on the magazine so I got bored. But what about those things those are called classical or antique? People still like them that are why fashion always goes back to decades ago.

However, for i am a beginner in ID, i also learned something from the film.

There is no summarize or same view point in the film. As it is called 'Objectified'. We took around and heard a buntch of idea and finally just think about it, but not simply learn followed someone. Though it is said that simple is better or less is more, the film show as a more complex angle of view. The word is complex and the way you design, the philosophy is various.

I saw designers being themselves even though there are somebody i don't like. The film is about being, but not about how to designer for human being.

Peer Comments for Project 2

User name as: Phonomo

Zhang Ke： http://cocodesignforever.blogspot.com/2010/10/project-two-upcycling.html#comments
Eunbi Yoo： http://eunbiyoo.blogspot.com/2010/10/project-two-upcycling.html#comments
Zhang Xiaoya: http://momentjj.blogspot.com/2010/10/project-2-upcycling.html#comments
Yang Jieyun: http://viviensides1013.blogspot.com/2010/10/project-two-upcycling.html#comments
Wei Qianwen： http://akiwei.blogspot.com/2010/10/project-two-upcycling-unwanteds.html#comments

Project 2: Upcycling

Rationale

Material:
Coffee bean bag, natural fibre (straw) woven
Sample of Clothes

How to Use:
1． Use like a magazine rack or container
2． If you like, fill it with horticultural soil, wood fragment and grass seeds. Water it fully and put it under stray light. Green fur will cover the Softy Monster 3~5 days later.

Concepts:
Straw woven bags are chosen for its degradability under the condition of gardening use. It also can be PP woven bags but not for gardening.
People wove the bags for fair trade coffee, and the bags were left over after the beans were taken away.
I treated the bags as a kind of clothes for there were some beautiful prints on the bag. The texture of bags is unique. Bags which are in same colour were chosen to join together.
To make it naturally, I make it like an animal but a Monster at result. I filled it with wast plastic bag just because they are strong enough to maintain the shape.

Comments

The user name is PHONOMO

Eunbi Yoo: http://eunbiyoo.blogspot.com/2010/09/project-one.html#comment-form
Wei Qianwen: http://akiwei.blogspot.com/2010/09/project-one.html#comments
Zhang Xiaoyang: http://momentjj.blogspot.com/2010/09/project-1.html
Yang Jieyun: http://viviensides1013.blogspot.com/2010/09/project-oneexperience-enrichment.html#comments
Zhang Ke： http://cocodesignforever.blogspot.com/2010/09/enrichment-poster.html

Project 1

Rationale - ‘The Box’ Pepper Shaker

Material
Leftover material of wood: Pine in particular

Size
130 × 65 ×48 mm

Manufacture access
Spare parts: Machine cut
Assemble: Hand made

Usage
Separate the two parts and fill pepper or whatever you want
Assemble the two parts together, and pour the pepper out from holds.

Task5: Design Confused

The Story of stuff

It is a general description on how stuff made and where stuff go.
But the video is the clearest one that I have seen.
Generally, it is a little objective.

The talk is more about the economy and some kind of criticism.

At the beginning of this vicious circle，is about resources.
Resources are gone away because of financial actions. When people recognize there running out of resources in their own place, they move on to take away others. That how resources extracts lead to wars and other displace.

The manufactures not only takes away those physical resources, but also use the labour from other cheaper place. Its chilling to hear that the whole industry not only take away their land, but also take away their health. It’s a pity that those workers health are hold in a few people how control the industry.

The toxic things come out during the production is not the news. It was an inevitable problem till today’s level of technology. However, the safety of the products which is on using can be guarantee if we want to. It is horrible that the toxic will go into the body when using it. Every one is the customer in this age and, of course, if you have money you can buy a better one. Hence, if you do not have enough money and you are working in that kind of factory, it means that you live in a poison place and work with toxic and use poisonous products, and that means you are being killed by the vicious circle of industry.

It shows a irresponsibility. Few of us get the benefit, and most of us pay for it.

It is funny to hear that the products are design to be thrown away, and it could be a subject to study with. It is so smart to make people keep shopping to maintain the cycle working. It past time, maybe several hundred years before, we committed ourselves to make everything last as long as possible. Now we call these things antiques, and put them away or display them in glass exhibits. Advertisement plays a big role in keeping us shopping and making trash. We could say this make a new culture.

I will not blame the cultures which just like fast food, and we could not say that is somebody’s fall. But it is the time to get the odd circle stop.

The sustainable is being put on the table for decades but we still do nothing with turning the revolution up.

Donald Norman: Emotion and Design

The talk was totally about the fun other than function.

The so called "beauty" is a kind of property that made the user satisfied, but not simply a good appearance.

Donald Norman presented three levels of emotion, visceral, behavioural and reflective.

For me it’s easy to understand the first two levels.

The juicer gave out a good sample of good appearance but less function, but it still make consumers feel happy to have one with them, though it can't do anything.

Apart from talking about function, the ping-pong table designed by Hiroshi Ishii is another kind of "useless". It needs players' behaviour to interact with it. Though it is not a good ping-pong table, it is surely make a positive emotional reflect and do make user willing to use it.

The design concerned on being's emotion might about how to attract people's attention and led them feel comfortable when using them. Norman mentioned the experiment held by Alice Isen. The experiment showed that people may work better when relax and lighted; on the other hand, there would be a worse outcome when people are in a stressful atmosphere. As a consequence, if a product brings a right influence on emotion, even though it is not so friendly to “use”, we might say it is a good design.

So, looks good and behaviour good is so important to make users, what about reflective?

The reflection of appearance may say, comes from the first glance of the object. When a person feels happy to do something with it, he or she may go on to the next step, that’s called the start of behavioural level. However, the reflective is not only about think twice before buy something. It seems about a more complex physiological concept.

I thought about classical things while came across the sample of car and watch. The well known thing surely give people a reason to have one and always being picked out by others. This course of motivation, operation and reflection may be a case of reflection.

Say motivation, could be variety, and the emotion also be variety. It’s hard to achieve a balance in funny and function, but harder to achieve the balance in several emotion.

But the emotion is funny.

Task4: Design Excllence

Samsung Hard Drive
Got award for its Halogen free material.
Fresh colour with toy like outlook, looks attractive and relax than other portable hard drive. However, still at the original shape. Not so outstanding on design.

Powerhouse Museum Sketch

Review for 'David Kelly: Human cerntred design'

It is a great fun to see the video in which designer talking about why they design in this way other than that way.

For I think design is to make the life better, I am interested by the concept of human-centred design. And what Kelly showed here is not only some concept statement but a bunch of real products. Though the video was filmed several years ago, it still looks a bit of futuristic, and that’s why they make me curious. On the other hand, some technique that mentioned in the sample have already used in the real life, such as the liquid crystal wall which can obstruct the like if necessary. And these give us a massage that the design is changing the life, positively.

The design shown in the video is somehow a kind of novelty thing but beyond the novel.

In my opinion, the design is more concerned about the motion of the human than the function. For example, the Prada store system makes both customer and seller easier to attach to the fashion good and save the time. The humanness details in this design make the users feel comfortable being in the store. These tiny details make are improving the motion of the customer, but not a specific function which make the store easier to use.

Another sample about motion and human-centred is the test of making the cubicle better. The topic is not about making the cubicle more ergonomic on physical way, but in psychological.

Apart from these, another product is more functional. The pump under the ApproTec project is such a exciting design which satisfied the believe of making the life better. For the residents who live with rich resource of water, it is hard to imagine the life in the environment which is desperate of water, let alone come up a idea to design such a low cost pump to help people. The design does not need high technology, but is so practical, which amazed me a lot. The living example shows how the human-centred design can change people’s life so much.

The third point I got from the talk is that, David Kelley is also thinking about pushing the design deeper into company, to make the design a indispensable power in production. Only when the company know the importance of design very well, can the designer’s product be used by someone who need the product. It is not about how to earn more money, but to be more concerned about human life.

My Design Career

Now it is hard to explain why I choose to study industrial design.

As an international student, I had studied industrial design in China for almost a year. However, at that time I had never considered about study overboard or think about the question such as what should I do for my job after my graduation. The only reason I choose to study the major was that I hate Math and Physical Science. On the other hand, as I was not a so called 'art student' I can only choose industrial design while other design subjects need some extra training experience.

What I really interested in is animation and Japanese manga. Nobody had encouraged or discouraged me whether I should develop the ‘hobby’ to a career in future. I studied design in UFY years and hesitated when I finally had to figure out which subject I should study in undergraduate years. The Animation still has strong attraction on me. The reality shows that the animation industry is not as prosperous as it was in past ten years. As I was never a person who dares bet for dream, to be an expert in the field won’t make me happy in future.

So I keep the Animation as a pure hobby and make a choice which I will accept willingly in the future four years. Perhaps the reason why I picked out industrial design other than graphic design or something else is that I love products. Goods displayed in store made me so curious that I wanted to know the detail of process of production.

However, actually, for I have not be trained on drawing technique, industrial design may suit better on me but still give me chance to do something with my animation hobby.

For why I choose UNSW, maybe the reason is that the university is more concerned on practicality then other college. In addition, Sydney is a cosmopolitan city and is abundant in resources and information. There are more opportunity for a student to learn more about the field.

I have no idea about being a successful designer in future. Actually, what I need is a good job to supply my daily life and get enough money to deal with my spending on animation and Japanese comic. But it is good to see if something I designed change a number of people’s life. I believe that the responsibility of a designer is making the life better.

In Sq House

Smell