I also believe that design can do more than sell products for clients and it can play a bigger role in solving societal problems.
2.24.2011
Critical Debates in Design - task 4 : CSR
This billboard for South African Nedbank actually has solar panels on it that generate electricity for the kitchens of a neighboring elementary school. Meanwhile, most companies talk about their social responsibility programmes but this powerful message shows it in action and emphasises Nedbank's by-line - "make things happen".
I also believe that design can do more than sell products for clients and it can play a bigger role in solving societal problems.
I also believe that design can do more than sell products for clients and it can play a bigger role in solving societal problems.
2.23.2011
Critical Debates in Design - task 3 : Animation
The pioneers of animation include Winsor McCay of the United States and Emile Cohl and Georges Melies of France. Some consider McCay's Sinking of the Lusitania from 1918 as the first animated feature film.
Early animations, which started appearing before 1910, consisted of simple drawings photographed one at a time. It was extremely labor intensive as there were literally hundreds of drawings per minute of film. The development of celluloid around 1913 quickly made animation easier to manage. Instead of numerous drawings, the animator now could make a complex background and/or foreground and sandwich moving characters in between several other pieces of celluloid, which is transparent except for where drawings are painted on it. This made it unnecessary to repeatedly draw the background as it remained static and only the characters moved. It also created an illusion of depth, especially if foreground elements were placed in the frames.
Walt Disney took animation to a new level. He was the first animator to add sound to his movie cartoons with the premiere of Steamboat Willie in 1928. In 1937, he produced the first full length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
With the introduction of computers, animation took on a whole new meaning. Many feature films of today had animation incorporated into them for special effects. A film like Star Wars by George Lucas would rely heavily on computer animation for many of its special effects. Toy Story, produced by Walt Disney Productions and Pixar Animation Studios, became the first full length feature film animated entirely on computers when it was released in 1995.
Avatar was a movie which has virtually changed the face of the movie world. The film used cutting edge animation technology which gave the characters a more lifelike feel and most of all used a very advanced form of 3d animation.
This is where avatar innovated the movie industry. The film did not try and capture the audience's attention by showing off the power of the three dimensional capability but rather worked the element into the move subtly to enhance things like flying fight scenes. This made it so that the audience essentially forgot about the 3d dimension and was simply better immersed into the film.
This type of technology has been so popular that most of the major television manufacturers are scrambling to make televisions which can support the new media format.
In the future, the animation industry is about to take another leap forward in the development quality realistic images and animation, however, the content or the story is still more important than technology.
Early animations, which started appearing before 1910, consisted of simple drawings photographed one at a time. It was extremely labor intensive as there were literally hundreds of drawings per minute of film. The development of celluloid around 1913 quickly made animation easier to manage. Instead of numerous drawings, the animator now could make a complex background and/or foreground and sandwich moving characters in between several other pieces of celluloid, which is transparent except for where drawings are painted on it. This made it unnecessary to repeatedly draw the background as it remained static and only the characters moved. It also created an illusion of depth, especially if foreground elements were placed in the frames.
Walt Disney took animation to a new level. He was the first animator to add sound to his movie cartoons with the premiere of Steamboat Willie in 1928. In 1937, he produced the first full length animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
With the introduction of computers, animation took on a whole new meaning. Many feature films of today had animation incorporated into them for special effects. A film like Star Wars by George Lucas would rely heavily on computer animation for many of its special effects. Toy Story, produced by Walt Disney Productions and Pixar Animation Studios, became the first full length feature film animated entirely on computers when it was released in 1995.
Avatar was a movie which has virtually changed the face of the movie world. The film used cutting edge animation technology which gave the characters a more lifelike feel and most of all used a very advanced form of 3d animation.
This is where avatar innovated the movie industry. The film did not try and capture the audience's attention by showing off the power of the three dimensional capability but rather worked the element into the move subtly to enhance things like flying fight scenes. This made it so that the audience essentially forgot about the 3d dimension and was simply better immersed into the film.
This type of technology has been so popular that most of the major television manufacturers are scrambling to make televisions which can support the new media format.
In the future, the animation industry is about to take another leap forward in the development quality realistic images and animation, however, the content or the story is still more important than technology.
2.10.2011
Critical Debates in Design - task 2 : Sign system
Pentagram’s Paula Scher has designed graphics for a Midtown Manhattan garage that make sure drivers never forget where the car is.
Signage as backseat driver: typography throughout the building directs drivers what to do and where to go.
Supergraphics are installed on the elevator doors.
In Scher’s original concept, she wanted to fill the windows of the non-descript structure with the question “Did You Remember Where We Parked the Car?” City zoning, however, required more traditional signage on the façade, which Scher has rendered in elegant neon. The interior signage acts as a kind of backseat driver as one moves through the garage. Set in Verlag, the typographic pileup includes instructions for drivers—“Slow and steady wins the race,” “Don’t stop here, continue,” etc.—and supergraphics identifying parking levels and elevators.
This is a really stunning sign system idea as being a backseat driver. It can better communicate visually with a driver than just a direction sign (arrow), however, it does work only in a few times then after that people would simply ignore due to its excessive detail when driving.
Signage as backseat driver: typography throughout the building directs drivers what to do and where to go.
Supergraphics are installed on the elevator doors.
In Scher’s original concept, she wanted to fill the windows of the non-descript structure with the question “Did You Remember Where We Parked the Car?” City zoning, however, required more traditional signage on the façade, which Scher has rendered in elegant neon. The interior signage acts as a kind of backseat driver as one moves through the garage. Set in Verlag, the typographic pileup includes instructions for drivers—“Slow and steady wins the race,” “Don’t stop here, continue,” etc.—and supergraphics identifying parking levels and elevators.
This is a really stunning sign system idea as being a backseat driver. It can better communicate visually with a driver than just a direction sign (arrow), however, it does work only in a few times then after that people would simply ignore due to its excessive detail when driving.
2.03.2011
Critical Debates in Design - task 1 : Typeface
1.FUTURA
Following the Bauhaus design philosophy, German type designer Paul Renner first created Futura between 1924 and 1926. Although Renner was not a member of the Bauhaus, he shared many of its views, believing that a modern typeface should express modern models rather than be a rivial of a previous design. Futura was commercially released in 1927, commissioned by the Bauer type foundry.
While designing Futura, Renner avoided creating any non-essential elements, making use of basic geometric proportions with no serifs or frills. Futura's crisp, clean forms reflect the appearance of efficiency and forwardness even today
Futura had the honor of being the first typeface on the moon, chosen for a commemorative plaque left by the astronauts of Apollo 11 in 1969.
Futura (and its variants) have become an extremely popular typeface for countless corporate logos, commercial products, films and advertisements for years. In fact, so popular that certain art directors had began boycotting its.
2.FRANKLIN GOTHIC
Franklin Gothic and its related faces, are realist sans-serif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton (1872–1948) in 1902. “Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif.
Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a high profile, appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards. Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of such European faces as Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since.
The Franklin Gothic typeface is the primary influence for nearly all MoMA materials; it’s the basis of our logo and our official font “MoMA Gothic,” which were both created by Matthew Carter. We were happy to see that MoMA used a version of Franklin Gothic as long ago as the 1930s.
Following the Bauhaus design philosophy, German type designer Paul Renner first created Futura between 1924 and 1926. Although Renner was not a member of the Bauhaus, he shared many of its views, believing that a modern typeface should express modern models rather than be a rivial of a previous design. Futura was commercially released in 1927, commissioned by the Bauer type foundry.
While designing Futura, Renner avoided creating any non-essential elements, making use of basic geometric proportions with no serifs or frills. Futura's crisp, clean forms reflect the appearance of efficiency and forwardness even today
Futura had the honor of being the first typeface on the moon, chosen for a commemorative plaque left by the astronauts of Apollo 11 in 1969.
Futura (and its variants) have become an extremely popular typeface for countless corporate logos, commercial products, films and advertisements for years. In fact, so popular that certain art directors had began boycotting its.
2.FRANKLIN GOTHIC
Franklin Gothic and its related faces, are realist sans-serif typefaces originated by Morris Fuller Benton (1872–1948) in 1902. “Gothic” is an increasingly archaic term meaning sans-serif.
Franklin Gothic has been used in many advertisements and headlines in newspapers. The typeface continues to maintain a high profile, appearing in a variety of media from books to billboards. Despite a period of eclipse in the 1930s, after the introduction of such European faces as Kabel and Futura, they were re-discovered by American designers in the 1940s and have remained popular ever since.
The Franklin Gothic typeface is the primary influence for nearly all MoMA materials; it’s the basis of our logo and our official font “MoMA Gothic,” which were both created by Matthew Carter. We were happy to see that MoMA used a version of Franklin Gothic as long ago as the 1930s.
1.21.2011
1.20.2011
Critical reflection
I decided to work on the project giving and getting from RSA which is interesting and related to a basic principle of Buddha although I am not a very good Buddhist. In my opinion, that it makes a good sense in terms of living because people should give first before they expect something in return or it would be even better to expect for nothing which is the way of generating generosity and it will make this world a better place even though it sound like doing it for free. However, we are living in the capitalistic world that everything is a transaction and we are familiar to it.
I started the project by searching an internet in a term of generosity that helped me to understand the way people think about it. There are many kinds of generous people in today world. Someone pretended to be for business opportunities, someone did it for being interested and someone did it for their believe in next life but I still believe that some people are genuinely generous person.
My mapping of the project had two alternative ways: one is to change people’s mind to make them believe in doing good things and the other is to follow the trend of giving for something. Then I found out it is not easy to change people’s mind in just one campaign or one print ad, in other words, it will take much more time to convince and create awareness of social concern to them. Therefore, my research has been scoped down to find the alternative solution that could draw people, especially new target audience who have never donated and supported any charity before, to participate with donation.
I tried to find the way to reach the new target audiences through facebook which basically contains a long list of various friends but my experimental project was not successful to convince them. However, it gave me some interesting ideas about their daily lifestyle, that is, most people prefer to spend money for a cup of coffee rather than to donate for charities.
So I came up with the question that why the charity not make something related to people’s lifestyle in order to connect to them easier. Actually, Save the children in London has retail shops and I went to visit and survey some of them for a couple times. I think that the places are not interesting enough to draw an attention from people on the street and the locations are very quiet.
Coffee shop is probably the best solution and is a great chance to gain money from people, furthermore, it is also the best place where many people like to come to talk and discuss to each other. Moreover, fundraisers on the street mostly fail to persuade people to support their campaign as they are in the rush hour and do not have time to speak to.
Nowadays, coffee shop becomes more popular in urban areas and is a good business to invest as well because the fact that it can obtains 300% profit per one cup of coffee. This leads the coffee shop industry to be very tempting for everyone who desires to succeed and make money in business. In addition, most people are incredibly addicted to coffee even though the price is unreasonable but they still need a few cups of coffee everyday. And from my own experience, I always choose to pay for one cup of coffee during a day rather than a meal, if I have limited money.
In conclusion, this opportunity is a long-term campaign that will be sustainable and gain a lot of money to the charity. It can create awareness from people perfectly. And they don’t have to worry about next year budget from the government or any other organizations. It would be great if the charity could live on their business, which means they can achieve success of their campaign easier with their own money.
For the next project, I will pay more attention to people’s insight and other alternative opportunities as much as I can. Especially, in terms of research that I will look for new sources of information and I will try an experimental project for the best solution in the project.
References
Grist, Matt: Steer: Mastering our behaviour through instinct, environment and reason (RSA June 2010)
Mark Tyrell, Creative Director: Uncommon Knowledge on generosity
Pathways through participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship? See specifically Policy Brief No. 10 – testing the effectiveness of pledging and publicity in encouraging charitable donations, also interesting information throughout.
PDA: The Digital Content Blog: Charitable giving including an entry on a British Red Cross online game showing where tsunami donations went (guardian.co.uk 2009)
Mapping the public policy landscape: Charitable Giving and Donor Motivation ESRC Seminar Series
Fritz, Joanne: Charitable Giving by the Generations: What Fundraisers Should Know About Donor Generations (About.com: Non Profit Charitable Orgs)
Anik, Lalin; Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.: Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior (Working Paper, Harvard Business School 2009)
Piper, Greg; Schnepf, Sylke V.: Gender Differences in Charitable Giving (IZA Discussion Paper Series 2007):
I started the project by searching an internet in a term of generosity that helped me to understand the way people think about it. There are many kinds of generous people in today world. Someone pretended to be for business opportunities, someone did it for being interested and someone did it for their believe in next life but I still believe that some people are genuinely generous person.
My mapping of the project had two alternative ways: one is to change people’s mind to make them believe in doing good things and the other is to follow the trend of giving for something. Then I found out it is not easy to change people’s mind in just one campaign or one print ad, in other words, it will take much more time to convince and create awareness of social concern to them. Therefore, my research has been scoped down to find the alternative solution that could draw people, especially new target audience who have never donated and supported any charity before, to participate with donation.
I tried to find the way to reach the new target audiences through facebook which basically contains a long list of various friends but my experimental project was not successful to convince them. However, it gave me some interesting ideas about their daily lifestyle, that is, most people prefer to spend money for a cup of coffee rather than to donate for charities.
So I came up with the question that why the charity not make something related to people’s lifestyle in order to connect to them easier. Actually, Save the children in London has retail shops and I went to visit and survey some of them for a couple times. I think that the places are not interesting enough to draw an attention from people on the street and the locations are very quiet.
Coffee shop is probably the best solution and is a great chance to gain money from people, furthermore, it is also the best place where many people like to come to talk and discuss to each other. Moreover, fundraisers on the street mostly fail to persuade people to support their campaign as they are in the rush hour and do not have time to speak to.
Nowadays, coffee shop becomes more popular in urban areas and is a good business to invest as well because the fact that it can obtains 300% profit per one cup of coffee. This leads the coffee shop industry to be very tempting for everyone who desires to succeed and make money in business. In addition, most people are incredibly addicted to coffee even though the price is unreasonable but they still need a few cups of coffee everyday. And from my own experience, I always choose to pay for one cup of coffee during a day rather than a meal, if I have limited money.
In conclusion, this opportunity is a long-term campaign that will be sustainable and gain a lot of money to the charity. It can create awareness from people perfectly. And they don’t have to worry about next year budget from the government or any other organizations. It would be great if the charity could live on their business, which means they can achieve success of their campaign easier with their own money.
For the next project, I will pay more attention to people’s insight and other alternative opportunities as much as I can. Especially, in terms of research that I will look for new sources of information and I will try an experimental project for the best solution in the project.
References
Grist, Matt: Steer: Mastering our behaviour through instinct, environment and reason (RSA June 2010)
Mark Tyrell, Creative Director: Uncommon Knowledge on generosity
Pathways through participation: What creates and sustains active citizenship? See specifically Policy Brief No. 10 – testing the effectiveness of pledging and publicity in encouraging charitable donations, also interesting information throughout.
PDA: The Digital Content Blog: Charitable giving including an entry on a British Red Cross online game showing where tsunami donations went (guardian.co.uk 2009)
Mapping the public policy landscape: Charitable Giving and Donor Motivation ESRC Seminar Series
Fritz, Joanne: Charitable Giving by the Generations: What Fundraisers Should Know About Donor Generations (About.com: Non Profit Charitable Orgs)
Anik, Lalin; Aknin, Lara B.; Norton, Michael I.; Dunn, Elizabeth W.: Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior (Working Paper, Harvard Business School 2009)
Piper, Greg; Schnepf, Sylke V.: Gender Differences in Charitable Giving (IZA Discussion Paper Series 2007):
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