It is said that a good design/idea is often the simplest one – but they also have to be simple in implementation.
Syringe Redesign
Saturday, October 24th, 200910/GUI
Saturday, October 24th, 200910/GUI is a proposal for a new type of human computer interface that has been getting a lot of publicity on design blogs recently. It offers a unique perspective on both the hardware and software of future computer interaction.
I think that it elegantly solves the problem of body/neck strain that would undoubtedly exist with minority report types of touch interfaces. I am not as convinced by the software solution even though it is creative. It seems that expose on Macs seems to solve all the problems that they present already. Luckily, the hardware and software proposals can easily be separated.
I also couldn’t help but think that that Apple’s recently released magic mouse is definite a step towards this direction.
Information Is Beautiful
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
David McCandless is a “data and visual journalist” based in London. I think he makes some very compelling visualizations. More often than not, I see information designs that dress up the information but don’t particularly make a concept any clearer or easy to understand. McCandless has really done a great job to clearly illustrate a particular point with his work. I especially like his graphic about the safety of the HPV vaccine.
Designing White Space in Logos
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
It has always been said that the key to good typography is the ability to deftly design white space. Here’s some great examples of white space design in logos. This one also reminds me of my Enigma Twist logo. Sweet.
The Living Principles
Wednesday, October 14th, 2009
A primer by AIGA on graphic design and sustainability. It was a major issue at this year’s Better By Design Conference and here it is again. I’m really glad that the design community is embracing these ideals. I hope someday my work will revolved centrally around this theme.
Project: Ivy Film Festival 2009
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
The Ivy Film Festival is the largest student-run film festival in the world. Every year, they receive hundreds of film and screenplay submissions from undergraduate and graduate students from around the world. The Festival has also featured prominent and acclaimed speakers such as Martin Scorsese, Jack Nicholson, Adrian Brody, and Oliver Stone.
In 2009 and my senior year of college, I was contacted by the festival and asked if I would do them the honor of imagining a visual theme that year’s festival. Given the popularity of festival as well as my own interest in cinema, I graciously accepted.
Project: Enigma Twist
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
Back in the days when I was a student at Brown, I always used to look forward to reading the Brown Daily Herald. One reason was because my friend, Dustin Foley, had his own daily column called “Enigma Twist.” Enigma Twist was ambitious project to come up with a new type of puzzle every day but somehow he pulled it off for my entire senior year.
Recently, Dustin has decided to make Enigma Twist into its own website. He asked me to help him to make a logo and I was eager to help. When sketching out ideas, I wanted to make something that would embody the attitude of his puzzles. The puzzles were really more about being fun and clever than looking fancy or professional. His puzzles and his website seemed to fit right in with the comic culture that seems to be evolving with today’s youth. Think dinosaur comics or xkcd. I decided, instead of trying “professionalize” enigma twist, I should embrace this new interesting style.
A Better World by Design
Sunday, October 4th, 2009
I spent my entire weekend this week volunteering and sitting in at events for the Brown/RISD joint conference, A Better World by Design and, I have to say, I enjoyed every moment of it. Not often enough have I felt this sense of community where everybody was on the exact same page and here to discuss the same issues.
I love design but I often think about to utility of its service. It is so easy to get lost in the mess of commercial product design and feel that design only perpetuates this colossal consumer culture. Perhaps because I have drowned in this sentiment so often, it was invigorating to hear what inspired people and organizations had to say about what they were doing to help the world – from Project H’s redesign of the Hippo Roller to Ken Banks’ open-source FrontlineSMS project. In addition to specific projects, it was also simple refreshing to see and meet so many professionals and students that felt the same way I did about design and were compelled to change the status quo. It gave me hope for the future of design in our world.
Considering this was only the second year for the conference and many of my classmates were involved in putting it together, I feel very proud of how well it turned out. Congratulations!
Aristotelian Aesthetics
Sunday, September 13th, 2009When I took a course on information design last year at RISD, my professor, Krzysztof Lenk, introduced in the first class the idea of Aristotelian aesthetics. He described this notion as the ability of good design to evoke intense emotion in its audience. He said this reaction should not be caused by the design of embellishments but by good design of the information itself. Good information design both structures the information itself in a way that is easily comprehended and, perhaps more crucially, has a singular thesis. When these two principles are achieved, we can achieve a beauty in the Aristotelian sense.
I have often recalled this one moment in class and I think I have finally distilled how intricate this one bit of advice is. Intrigued by this discussion, I went to try and fully understand what Aristotle’s philosophy of design was. Unfortunately, a initial google search brought nothing up on the matter – Aristotle never did have a stance on visual design. After a little bit of research, the closest literature I could find on the matter was an essay that Aristotle wrote on literary aesthetics.