sx: made for you

Jessie and I have finished building our model, so now we're moving forward with the exhibition branding.

Since beginning this project, both Jessie and I have realized the importance of the quotidian aspect of Dieter Rams' designs. As functional and rational as he approaches his designs, the ultimate goal is to relate the final product with the people he designs for. The concept of people and their everyday lives is what resonated deeply with us; our inspiration for the exhibition can be gleaned from this quote:

You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people; design is made for people.

Design is made for people. Design is made for us. Design is made for me. Design is…

Made For You 

There you have it. Our exhibition title: Made For You: A look into the 10 principles of Dieter Rams. 
Each of Rams' principles addresses the issue of sustainability; however, he addresses the principles more as a call to action. By adhering to these "guidelines", your designs can properly be made for people, made for you. After all, Rams' lifework was dedicated to designing things made for you.

We're still in the process of exploring the logo/branding but here are the explorations we have so far.

And the stylesheet of course:

We are going to use the Univers Lt Std family. The various weights echo the flexibility of Rams' designs, especially that of his 606 shelves for Vitscoe. Our secondary pops of color are used sparingly, as Rams would approach his products. We are also going to take a lot of inspiration from the shapes seen on his products; this is not limited to circle patterns, rhythmic line work, and varying modular shapes. 

 Quiet, comfortable, understandable and, most importantly, long lasting.

It's often said that "Home is where the heart is". Okay so maybe it's beaten over the head, but it's still a universal truth. Rams' work seeks to improve the home life it would seem. His work fits a certain lifestyle, one with the attributes seen in the quote above: quiet, comfortable, understandable and, most importantly, long lasting. This is why we've decided to replicate elements of a home in the exhibition. The home shapes us as people.

We plan on having interactive elements within typical home furnishings. This is not limited to tables, wall screens, and even picture frames. Below is an example of a possible environmental wall graphic. 

An example of an interactive wall space would be the 606 Shelves. Images of his product and even just like, house plants or books will fade in and out. We are proposing an iphone tour guide that offers extra information. In this case, the iPhone would provide more information about the razor seen (it wouldn't repeat plaque information, unlike how it's currently shown in the example below)

Another interactive feature would be on the tables; an interactive timeline of Rams would be accessed. What we will show is his period of works during his time at Braun. We're thinking of titling it "Brains + Braun". The famous navigation wheel would be used to control the kind of information being shown in addition to the swiping gesture. 

We also have a shower head idea that we'll get to in a later post. So there's the wrap of Spatial so far! Now we await to hear ram(s)ifications of our current designs!

Wk 9: Howlin' Wolf, Back Cover, and Collection Logo

This week I went back to the first cover, Howlin' Wolf's self-titled album, that I had tried the transparency process on. I applied my technique/process of blind serendipitous overlaying that I developed in weeks 6 & 7. I also concretely defined some rule sets I had been playing with for these albums. The protagonist character must always appear in blue in the same location on each cover. Elements that are shared between songs must use the same image and color for each cover. For example, the words heart, rain, and sun are used in multiple songs. 

I also started to work on the back covers of the albums. I used this space to clarify the album titled since it had been brought up that the text was difficult to read on the front cover on some of the artifacts. I'm also using the back to give information on the artist and their historical significance. To bring this collection together and make them appear like a legitimate set of artifacts put out by a real entity I created I logo to apply to the back. The acronym BRR stand for "Blues Record Revival." BRR also references the feeling of the blues as a cold feeling, which is described as "a low-down shakin' chill" by Robert Johnson in Preaching Blues. 

To add further realism I created a method of creating serial numbers for the albums. The serial for Howlin' Wolf's album is V# HWC2.10325. The equation for this is V# + artist initials + C (for cover) + version.iteration + date as mm/dd.

3/5 albums done 

don't look at the quotation marks.
they have been fixed. :)

digital and with printed dot matrix

SX: P2 Wk 4?

After starting on a model based on 1/4 scale we have switched to 3/8. We are currently trudging along on that. 

Wk 7: Presentation & Refinement

feedback from midterm crit

patrick: photographed on the light table? or scanned? the layering is more obvious maybe on the table. 

matthew: is the type printed? the images and your treatment are really refined, but your type feels a little like an afterthought.

patrick: does the vinyl cover have these layers, or is it reproduced flat?

abby: i'd love to see what happens when you project something.

lillie: is each image at a different opacity? play around with that… maybe not make an entire transparency the same opacity, like maybe the transparency could vary, like the crowd of people could be at different levels.

marty: if it's not in your final ruleset to use all 11 pieces, maybe use fewer.

patrick: have you ever experimented with transparent bases and screenprinting? multiplying ink instead of transparencies. or running it through the konica multiple times. 

marty: i think this is a really interesting process of formmaking. go back to the analog type of the dot book… try out different sizes and collages and changes. 

jw: colors? archetypal objects and colors?

collin: it's already pretty psychedelic, so watch out with the type… keeping it plain might speak to the blues roots more than doing too much, but try to balance for variety.

moving on
Moving on from this I started to look at my treatment of type in the next album cover with the intention of applying any new techniques to last weeks cover. The cover was created in the same way with overlaid transparencies but this week the type was also included. The artist name and album cover were split onto their own transparencies and given hierarchy. The artist name is quickly read but the lighter album name does not appear as suddenly.

process

death letter redone type

SX: P2 Wk 2

This week we looked at the style guide, the interactive shelving unit that will appear in the front room, and reevaluated what items would appear in our minimalist household rooms. we also looked into what functional screens would be needed to interact with objects.

style guide

interactive shelves with rear screens

first floor

second floor

Self-Assessment

Designing for a spatial experience has brought back to me my old love of designing objects. In the last project this was the signs and miscellaneous objects such as the lightpoles. I find it easier to work on these objects to tell a narrative then it is to work on screened based media.

wk 6: process experimentation & printing fun

After picking out concepts last week for how to tell the stories, this week I focused on the process in which I plan to make these album covers. Specifically looking at how the transparencies look when overlaid and how to bring them from being black & white laser prints to colorized layers.

Down in the Bottom

For Down in the Bottom I printed off my elements in a wide variety of sizes and then created the collage by hand and taping the pieces down. After this I scanned the collage as a whole image and as the individual pieces. I colorized these pieces, printed them off on separate transparencies, and scanned them all together again. 

Death Letter Blues
Trying a similar process but with more serendipitous play I printed off my elements and then rescanned them back in at 800 dpi to get the dot matrix print pattern. I once again colorized these layers, but when I created the collage this time instead of knowing exactly where everything touched I placed the image in the frame and moved it till it felt "right" in the frame. After this I turn off the layer so I couldn't see it anymore and then repeated the process ten more times. I printed the layers off one by one and didn't see how the elements interacted until i overlaid the transparencies.

SX: P2 Wk 1

Concept 1: Mobile Phones

Mobile Phone interfaces have evolved very quickly and drastically. 

concept:

The user interface of these objects sometimes exemplify the design principles of Rams. Others seem to completely ignore them. 

For this exhibit we are proposing to take the visitor on a trip of the 10 principles showing examples of phones that do & the ones that do not. In showcasing them next to each other we are making the visitor aware of the bad design decisions they might not be aware of, convincing them of the importance of Rams's principles.  

Along the trip the visitor will, using their smart phones, design their idea of a perfect phone as they learn the principles. 

story:

Functions of the phone integrated in our life.

Its the journey through the day from the point of view of the cellphones and showcases how designed objects are used to make the user's life easier or not. 

• which cell phones make it through the day
• does its bad design become a hinderance to itself?

functions throughout the day:

1. Waking up (alarm clock)

• useful
• little design as possible

2. Listening to music while showering

• aesthetic
• understandable
• honest
• unobtrusive
• little design as possible

3. Checking emails/socialfeed/gaming/entertainment

• useful
• little design as possible
• thorough down to the last details

4. Build of the cellphone

• innovative
• environmentally friendly
• little design as possible
• long lasting

Wk5: Initial Analog Sketches and Collage Preparation

Initial Concept Sketches

This week began with initial sketches where for each song I produced 5 sketches. The first two sketches were straight collage, the third showed sequence using lines and numbering, and the fourth was set up like a math equation where the protagonist was added to the problem. The final sketches were complete geometric abstraction of subjects.

Moving on from the small group critique I will be using the first, third, and final sketch concepts to explore telling narrative. Also from the critique came the idea of creating collage that were more than just flat overlayed transparencies but were actually made in space and then photographed. I will be exploring both methods. 

sans color background

Collage Elements

While snowed in my house I prepped my collage elements, the images and lines, for the first album to be ready to print as soon as I get back to studio to hit the ground running!

Wk4: Image Kit Collection, Lyrics, And Initial Photoshop sketches

This week I transcribed the lyrics of the five chosen songs. Not surprisingly not a single lyric website had a perfectly transcribed song and thus required multiple listening and rewrites. Recordings of old slightly mumbling men from over fifty to sixty years ago aren't exactly crystal clear. 

After this I went through the songs and picked out nouns and ideas that I could visualize to tell the narrative and created a folder for each one. The next step was to start amassing my kit of imagery for each song. 

Starting to sketch in photoshop proved frivolous and my next step is to start analog sketching for each song. 

Lyrics Link Posted Separately to Save A Little Space

Lyrics

Image Kit

songs

Death Letter Blues

Down in the Bottom

I'm Alone Because I Love You

Preaching the Blues (Up Jumped the devil)

The Sun Went Down

Sample Images

"If you see me streakin' by, bring me my runnin' shoes"

It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead"

It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead"

It said, "Hurry, hurry, yeah, your love is dead"

Initial Photoshop Sketches (Down in the Bottom)

bad, utterly bad

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