Saturday, April 9, 2011

What is design anyway?


I came across this website, and I thought it was perfect for this class. They are all different design posters about, well, design. Some of them are really cool. Here is the link to view more:

POSTERS

These sort of got me thinking about my project, and what I would like to explore about design. I came to the realization that there are so many definitions of design and different opinions about it. I wondered if anyone really knows what design is. I certainly can't say for sure, so I thought it would be wise to try to get a better sense of what it can be.

I'll start with what I already know about the basics of design. In our studies, we work mostly with print and video or web, the 2-D space of paper and monitor. We use our sense of sight to absorb this information, which is one thing designers take advantage of. We can be tricked into seeing something if it is cleverly disguised as something else. Shapes can seem to be without beginning or end, like Escher's staircases.

However, in the realm of 3-D, much more is possible because of a certain level of interaction that doesn't exist in the second dimension. Though we rely heavily on our eyes and ears to make sense of things, our tactile faculties are more sensitive. We extend our definition of truth to what we can touch and feel. But unlike the second dimension, 3-D is limited by the boundaries of physics; it is not possible to create a cube with no beginning and no end.

I figured there could be more to go on here, so I will make this the subject of my project and see what else I can learn.

17 comments:

  1. That is a really interesting topic to bring up. I think that it could be really cool to see how this would come together for the final project. I would love to see the optical illusions that you create by playing with physical boundaries.

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  2. If you decide to continue this for your final project, I can not wait to see how you show what design is about on your personal views and how you apply them to your everyday life.

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  3. It sounds like you're laying groundwork to start playing with 2D and/or 3D optical illusions.

    Also: "Good design is all about making other designers feel like idiots because that idea wasn't theirs" is now my wallpaper.

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  4. I think the dialogue you are having in your post is a great start towards filtering your thoughts down to something you can believe about design.

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  5. It is a pretty nice dialogue. I'm curious, though. One of the posters says "graphic design was here before pixels." Would you be interested in doing a project on the before, present, and future of design? It could easily fit your 2D to 3D study, but it may go a bit beyond too with whatever you believe the future holds.

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  6. Sheri's comment on creating optical illusions that play with physical boundaries... so cool! I would love to see that in a movie short or something.

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  7. I love those posters! I vote that we have those printed out and hung in our computer labs and in the hallways of our floor.

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  8. The posters were great and a good inspiration for your capstone project. Taking design and making it 3D is interesting since it does act as a puzzle for most designers until we have come up with an idea to solve that particular problem of what we are trying to design. I feel like you are going through that process now as you decide what you are going to do for your final for this class. I am interested to see how this turns out!

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  9. Some of those posters are really hilarious! I like the fact that your are going to explore the 3D, adding something new to the world of design.

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  10. I think it's great to add sculptural elements to design. Sometimes a flat image is great, but other times it gets boring. I'm excited to see how you play with the third dimension.

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  11. My favorite one is the "Good design makes other designers feel like idiots because it wasn't their idea" it reminds me of the quote/idea:
    Modern Art + I could do that = But you didn't

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  12. I love Katie's comment with the Modern Art reference. I feel that that any one who is in the field of Fine Arts has experienced this in one way or another. I loved almost every poster on that website and my wallpaper is also the "Good design makes other designers feel like idiots because it wasn't their idea"!

    I can't wait to see how you project develops!

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  13. I too am working with both 2-d and 3-d elements for my project. It's a great experimental process and I feel like the outcomes and the supplies are so vast when using 3-d that the capability of creating something really cool is just as great as using 2-d methods.

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  14. i always thought design was putting together different unrelated, (or related) elements together to recreate a new composition. but it can be anything.

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  15. love this poster, I would order it if it were for sale. also, I feel design can be very cheeky because of the need for illusions, while it is still constrained within a 2D surface.

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  16. I also love the posters on this site. Great find.

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  17. I agree with you that 3d design had a bit of an edge because it allows designers to take advantage of motion. However, I believe that for the most part, the same principles apply to this discipline.

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