Mixed Media

I think using multiple tools to create a design is something that can be very beneficial to creating a great looking design page. Furthermore I think it is something that can be beneficial in CAD using Alias for those crazy forms and SolidWorks to keep it simple. Overall using all the tools at your disposal as a designer can make things look better and cause their creation to be faster as well. Above are a few good examples of mixed media pages.

Work Ethic

Recently I have really been pondering the amount of work and time that goes into being in DAAP. Is it worth it? Am I really giving up having a life outside of DAAP during the week. Right now I'm not really sure. I think that I have to learn to moderate. Example I refuse to pull an all nighter this whole quarter unless there is completely emergency. I shouldn't have to do that. Really what it comes down to is I need to manage my time better. I need to organize and have a plan for how I am going about doing things. That is really how I am going to get the most work done, also I have to schedule time to have outside of DAAP. A career is very important to me however from my visits to nursing homes last quarter nobody was really giving me advice on how to get a job or an important way to earn money, it was all about living life. Even though many people think that it is crazy to listen to them they probably realize what is important after being through it all. Maybe I really won't know until I go through it all. Anyways I got a lot of work to do and I'll probably be up all night, peace out.

USB Final Designs 2

USB Final Designs 1

USB Sketches

USB Design

To start off this project we surveyed 113 people about USB drives. From what I felt was the most important results I made this research graphic.

Inspiring Designer

Honestly it is hard for me to say that I follow any designers. I realize that this sounds strange and that like any aspiring athlete I should look up to another athlete. However I have never really had one designer I am a huge fan of and it's not that I choose to do this I have just never done it. My inspiration more so comes from looking at design sites and checking out all different kinds of designs. I think I guess one designer that I do consistently look at and the only one who I can really name is Spencer Nugent who runs a site called sketch-a-day as well as idsketching. I think he does a really good job of using contour lines and through quick and simple design communicating the shapes exactly how they are. Furthermore I think he creates really interesting layouts to sketch pages. Check out his sites at

http://www.sketch-a-day.com

http://www.idsketching.com

Information Design

Definitely one of the hardest parts about showcasing a project is how to get across what you learned from your product research. Ultimately what you learned from your research is very important because all of the features and the design is general should revolve around a quality solution to the problems you found in your research. So the best way I think to do this is through an interesting and simply visual that really gets the point across of what you found to be the most important results of your research. Honestly who likes reading graphs and statistics, not many people, this is why you need an interesting graphic that coincides with your research and helps to further emphasize what you learned or what topic you researched. Here are a few good examples.

Here is a good link

http://www.colorful-data.net/

Communication through Film Trailers

I like to consider myself an avid movie fan. There are some great movies out there, however it doesn't always relate to a great trailer. To many times I see trailers predicated on what others are saying about the movie in newspapers and magazines. Other times you see trailers that just simply summarize the movie and leave the ending to question, trying to entice you to pay $9.50 just to find out what happens at the end. The point is there are a lot of bad movie trailers out there. To me what makes a good trailer is rather simple. It gives you a sense of what you are going to experience. The cinematography, emotions, and a hint to the plot line. It is really all about creating an emotive response in the viewer that is what they will experience when they go see the actual movie. I think I found a perfect example in a trailer for No Country for Old Men. It gives a great look into the dark and exciting action thriller that will ensue without destroying any of the story really. Furthermore it chooses great music and narrative clips from the movie itself not some hollywood narrator with a deep voice. Essentially it isn't showcasing anything other than the movie itself. Anyways here is the link enjoy.

http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/miramax/nocountryforoldmen/

Choose the one that says TRAILER

New Portfolio

Hey check out the new portfolio. The link is on the top right of the page.

I am pretty excited with how this has turned out. My portfolios from the previous two years have I feel just been a struggle and a learning process to how to really create a portfolio. I think my problems previously have been simply how to showcase my projects. I felt that I had good designs but I wasn't communicating their features and the work that I put into them. This is one that I finally feel proud of. I think there are still some things I could work on, but hey the more portfolios I do the better they will get I guess.

Inspirational Brand

The inspirational brand I have chosen is Nixon. As a designer I can appreciate the extreme attention to detail that is put into each design. This goes behind engineering details and small design details. This is more about an understanding of the emotions evoked by a product and a full understanding of the customer. I think Nixon is a strongly emotional brand and not afraid of polarizing themselves. Personally I don't think that is a bad thing. You can't appeal to everybody so don't make your product dull by trying to, you will have greater success if people hate your product because in turn somebody will love it. They know who there consumers are and aren't afraid to alienate the rest of the market from them. Furthermore when they design a product like the 51-30 Gunmetal as pictured above they take it to heart. The emotion and feel of the product really relates to the name and I think I don't need to say anything about the marketing image. Nixon is simply a really cool company and if you hate them well they don't care.

What Makes a Good Portfolio?

There is much debate around what makes a good portfolio and how to best present your products to a viewer. Simply put I think that a good portfolio needs to do one thing only. Highlight your designs. This can be done in many ways and be prevented in many ways as well. When I say highlight I mean it shows off the strong features, process, and idea behind the design. This is essentially showing off your skills without but it shouldn't come off that way it should come off as showing off the product. Highlighting a product is very easily ruined as well, which often can make a good project come across as bad. This is done through distracting layouts, bad organization, clutter, and bad storytelling. So in saying there here a few examples of solid portfolios or portfolio pages in my mind.

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=162066&portfolio_id=866808&

http://www.coroflot.com/public/individual_file.asp?individual_id=72279&portfolio_id=1295709&specialty=4&sort_by=6&c=1&

http://www.uc.edu/propractice/ind_design/Mueller_Oliver_11.pdf

SPEAKING OF I REALLY NEED TO UPDATE MY PORTFOLIO SOON TO COME

Back to the Grind

Once again I find myself back in Cincinnati. Once again I face the endless nights of work without sleep. Aside from these facts I am excited to be back. I am really happy with all of my classes and excited for the potential work that may come of them.
Currently our main design studio is revolving around designing a workstation. I have chosen to design an ice fishing hut. This is something I feel is very lacking in design features and I'm not really sure if there is many out there for purchase. This should make for an interesting project and hopefully something that I won't get bored of easily.
Also interviews are coming up quicker than I am ready for and I really need to spend a lot of time getting my portfolio ready for hopefully a solid consulting firm. This is not made easy by the fact my computer is broken.
Anyways just a quick update of things starting back up at UC and I will try and post as much as possible.

Model Making

CHEEEESSSEEEEEE

Munich

Sorry I haven't been able to update the blog I've been pretty busy lately. So about three weeks ago we went to Munich to experience the Bavarian area of Germany. It was a lot of fun because one of our best friends from school is studying there so we got to hang out with lots of people from Cincinnati. Best part of the area was by far the Englischer Garten which is in the previous video. Very huge relaxing park lots of kids hanging out swimming in the chillingly refreshing river. Munich definitely had more of the stereotypical German appeal that us Americans think about when we think of Germany. Quick summary; we saw the contemporary art museum, a man who had alien vs. predator statues in front of his house, visited some bier gartens, hung out in the englischer, visited the local soccer stadium, and just did lots of walking.

Munich

We stumbled across this while walking through the Englischer Garten in Munich

Hopefully Final Form More to Come

Looking for a final form

Paris Pics

Paris

So last week we took a trip to Paris. It was fun getting there. We rented a car which ended up being a lot cheaper as well as allowing us to drive on the autobahn extremely fast in the six speed car the dealer hooked us up with.

First day we were they we walked around in the parks by the river for the most part. Really nice and relaxing. Then we went out for a nice dinner in St.Germaine. After dinner we were looking for somewhere to go for the night and found a bridge with around 300 kids sitting on it just having a spontaneous party. So we decided to simply sit on it and we spent the night there hanging out with the young locals.

Next day was the busiest tourist day I have probably ever experienced. Walking taken to a whole new level, also while running on very little sleep. In the morning we went to the Musee d'Orsay which was one of my favorite museums we have been to. Then we walked around through the parks some more, and went to Notre Dame, which was pretty amazing but I have to say the Dom in Cologne is more impressive. From their we headed to the Modern Art Museum which has all the usual inner components of the building on the outside of the building. The museum had some really cool stuff and some pg-13 stuff that was a little weird if you ask me. From there we went to meet up with my roommates parent's for dinner. This was proceeded by us going to the Louvre until it closed. The Louvre way to big to try and see in three hours we basically walked through it saw the Mona Lisa and would stop occasionally to look at something we found interesting. Then from there we went over to the Eiffel tower and stayed there until that shut down. Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest. On the third day we tried to go to the catacombs but ran out of time. It was time to head back and cruise on the autobahn. Short trip but a good one overall.