Shift Happens

Well, it does! The world is changing every second: life and death... but we (I mean human beings) started the technological advancements and its monstrous change is inevitable. It is amazing how fast it is evolving.

I went to the Bruce Mau speech last month and he mentioned the technological changes we're experiencing are the advancements for more than thousands of years... Our technology is advancing double every 12 months, so doubling the double... I can't even imagine how our world would be in 5 years time.

The video "Did you know" shows a very small section of how our world is changing and almost controlled by technology. Amazing how it showed long it took us (humans) to reach 50 million people with radio (38 years), Tv (15 years), Internet (4 years), iPod (3 years), and Facebook (just 2 years). This is the "doubling the double" effect that Mau mentioned. Wow.

The video also mentions that by the time it's 2045, we (humans) would have built a supter computer that exceeds the intelligence of the whole human race! Now that's just depressing. We wouldn't need to exist anymore! Our whole planet would be run by computers, we'd be slaves and servants to the computers... It's like a horrible sci-fi movie.

Though that might be the worst case scenario, I feel that as technology is advancing, we are choosing to live as if back in the good-old-days. More and more people are living minimally, growing their own food, and making things for themselves... But from a design point of view, since technology will be advancing so much that computers (not designers using computers) will be making such extraordinary things that designers are not needed anymore, handmade/handcrafted items will be more valuable and treasured in later years.

Can computer really outsmart us? Maybe, and you could say it already is. But good design is not just the initial pleasing aesthetics, a design is good also when the concept/idea behind it is good. Can computers one day develop concepts and ideas (in other words, think)? I don't know.

Copyright issues - problems & solutions

When I design stuff at work, I always had to rely on the limited photo choices I had, and since they don't want to spend money on stock photos (even if it is only a few bucks apiece) I had struggled to find quality images to work with. I had heard of creative commons before and totally forgot about it! There are so many CC licensed work out there for both commercial and non-commercial use, which is great!

Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit group created to give free licenses to anyone who wants to share their work, maybe completely free or some restrictions. Unlike copyright items, other people can use and create something new. If it weren't for CC, many creatives would have limited resources.

One of the founders of CC is Larry Lessig. Lessig is a law professor at Stanford who focuses on copyright laws. He gave a speech on the issue at TED. The speech was about finding a balance between copyright and free-use work for the public. Although he didn't (couldn't) mention CC in his speech, it did make me curious to see his solution—CC—and I think it is great.

As of March 21, 2009, more than 100 million flickr images are CC licensed. Pretty amazing. Now, we can have more and higher quality image choices for our work, school or commerical work, without having to worry about the copyright issues like we used to.

Check out their site for more info! And start licensing your work with them.
creativecommons.org

Finished movie

I finished this movie at 7:30am Friday morning. I tried to submit it to the scholarship show, but the file is too big for the server.... I saved it somewhere else and left a note. I was in such a hurry that I forgot to downsize it for the server. Stupid me... I guess it wasn't accepted. Anyway, here's the full version on you tube.
Please let me know what you think. Are some of the elements too fast? Too repetitive? Too boring?

Type Animation

It's not quite done, only 2 short sentences left. Let me know what you think.
I'll also post the finished one soon, so when you see it, also leave your comments.
You can be as cruel as you want. I won't mind.
Thanks.


P.S. The video quality is really low!
The finished one will be on YouTube.

Found type

I was googling for images for another project when I came across loads of cool found type.



Here are more typography photographs from this site. Very cool images.
Another one from the same photographer. The photographer's name is Richard Roche. Love the texture!



This "Pianos" photo from this blog site. I love old, peeled off signs.


3 years ago I had to do a similar project for my Graphic Design class. We had to walk around town and capture images of found type and then make a book out of it. I have no idea where the photos are, and the book is all smashed up... My point is that, everywhere has type! Even if it's not man-made, there is still type. Just look up (if you in a crowded city) and you might just find a letter...

Thanks for that post, Rachel. I never knew this could happen.

Design Matters

Design Matters is a radio talk show broadcasted every Friday from 3–4 p.m. ET. It is hosted by Debbie Millman with a guest designer.

Debbie Millman is the managing partner and president of the design division at Sterling Group, one of the leading branding identity firms in the United States.

The talk show I chose to listen to is the one with Stefan Sagmeister in July 2007. In my earlier blogs I had to listen to one of Sagmeister's "happiness" speech and I found it extremely useful. This talk show with Millman is also about how to be happy and perhaps change to be happy.
She mentioned one of his AIGA postcards that she just loves very much. It was a list of things Segmeister wants to do before he dies. It's in rough handwritings on a piece of torn (and dirty) notebook paper. It is quiet interesting. Segmeister is so great at using handletterings. Too cool.



Millman's introduction of Sagmeister was his 1999 AIGA poster. I guess he really marked himself (and his assistant) the letterings on his body using an xacto knife... I can't imagine he was happy when he was doing it...



The more I learn about Sagmeister the more I am inspired to do something good (to the public and to myself). If you're happy, your work will show.
I think today design students (myself also) use the computer too much. Everything designed seem to be computer generated and it is aweful. Maybe that's why I like Sagmeister's work so much because he uses real actual things to make type and projects. I stumbled upon one of his posters and I find absolutely in awe and beautiful—posters for Levi jeans. It was given away free if you buy a pair of Levi jeans. What Segmeister did was to actually shread the jeans up into its parts... Again, very cool.



For Segmeister, to be able to come up with ideas when the deadline is still far away with no pressure makes him happy in design. And traveling (and driving a motocycle without a helmet somewhere...) makes Segmeister happy in life.

I think it is important for us, as designers, to be able to be happy with our design and our life.
And to finish off this blog, I'm quoting one of Millman's guide to her personal happines that she mentioned at the beginning of the talkshow:

"People are like plants; they need a lot of water."

First, I don't drink enough water, so I have to bear this in mind. But second, and more importantly, is that people like plants need care, nutrients, and the sun; for designers to grow, we need understanding/learn/acceptance of others strength and weaknesses, expand our knowledge, and a creative source... That's what I think and will try to remember.

For other podcasts, here's the link to both the podcast list and the live show link.
(I didn't think they'd have commercial, but... they do.)

Sagmeister’s full list of 20 maxims in his book Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far:
1. Helping other people helps me.
2. Having guts always works out for me.
3. Thinking that life will be better in the future is stupid. I have to live now.
4. Organising a charity group is surprisingly easy.
5. Being not truthful always works against me.
6. Everything I do always comes back to me.
7. Assuming is stifling.
8. Drugs feel great in the beginning and become a drag later on.
9. Over time I get used to everything and start taking for granted.
10. Money does not make me happy.
11. My dreams have no meaning.
12. Keeping a diary supports personal development.
13. Trying to look good limits my life.
14. Material luxuries are best enjoyed in small doses.
15. Worrying solves nothing.
16. Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.
17. Everybody thinks they are right.
18. If I want to explore a new direction professionally, it is helpful to try it out for myself first.
19. Low expectations are a good strategy.
20. Everybody who is honest is interesting.

John Maeda

Wow. He is a pretty cool and smart person!

John Maeda is currently the president of the renowned RISD (Rhode Island School of Design), appointed to that position just last year in 2008. Maeda was also the Associate Professor of Media Arts and Science at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

As a computer science student at MIT, Maeda was torn between his passions for both computer science and arts. One day, his instructor Muriel Cooper persuaded Maeda to follow his arts & design dream. And good thing she did because Maeda is truly a great designer and his teachings/thoughts really change one person's point of view on design.

He went on and got both his BS and MS degrees from MIT and PhD in Design at Tsukuba University Institute of Art and Design in Japan. He's written books on computer media designs and his most recent book was The Laws of Simplicity.

The Laws of Simplicity outlines 10 rules of simplicity. Some are contradicting the other rules, so what really are the laws? Or is there even one definite rule to simplicity? If Maeda can't even be sure of it, then I doubt I can. However, his 10 rules are pretty good "guidelines" to want to make simple things/designs.
If I have to live by one of his rules, it would be "Simplicity and complexity need each other." This statement really says it all—the whole simplicity business is not really simple and nothing can live without it's opposite. So in a design, it needs to have both simple and complex information.

Perhaps to make a good design it need to achieve a balance in simplicity and complexity, or maybe not, because that might be too harmonious and prove to be too boring...
Then again, one person might see one thing in simple whereas another sees it very complicated.

I don't know what to say now. My thoughts are both simple and yet too complicated to even describe them in words... Anyhow, Maeda is a very important contributor in the 21 c. He didn't get those honorary awards for nothing, you know.

He's pretty funny too, which makes him even more interesting. Here's a speech he gave for a TED conference and I enjoyed it immensely.