Wednesday, February 16, 2011

letterform Seek and Find

"M" Its the SEL 

"O" The well on campus
“O"


"N" The bicycle on campus

"N" SEL

"H" Its the bench in the oval 

"L" The Bench in the Oval 
"U" The two trees and the ground formed a U

"V" 

"V"

"W"

"V"

"W"

"c" the branch of the tree and the ground formed a C

I think it can be either "F" or "E"

"E" the branch of the tree

"N" 

"T"

"V"

"T"

"U"

"Y"

"I"

"C"

"W"

"F"

"T" in the elevator 

"M" the corner of the elevator
"N" took from church
"Q"


Sunday, February 13, 2011

Design and color

    Color is one of the most important element in design. Different color has different power, it can give people different feeling depends on where we use it. It is really interesting for use to look at the color psychology that is used in design product. For example, here are some powerness and the effect of different color below:

Black

   Black is the color of authority and power. It is popular in fashion because it makes people appear thinner. It is also stylish and timeless. Black also implies submission. Priests wear black to signify submission to God. Some fashion experts say a woman wearing black implies submission to men. Black outfits can also be overpowering, or make the wearer seem aloof or evil. 

White

Brides wear white to symbolize innocence and purity. White reflects light and is considered a summer color. White is popular in decorating and in fashion because it is light, neutral, and goes with everything. However, white shows dirt and is therefore more difficult to keep clean than other colors. Doctors and nurses wear white to imply sterility.

Red

   The most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing. It is also the color of love. Red clothing gets noticed and makes the wearer appear heavier. Since it is an extreme color, red clothing might not help people in negotiations or confrontations. Red cars are popular targets for thieves. In decorating, red is usually used as an accent. Decorators say that red furniture should be perfect since it will attract attention.
The most romantic color, pink, is more tranquilizing. Sports teams sometimes paint the locker rooms used by opposing teams bright pink so their opponents will lose energy.

Blue

The color of the sky and the ocean, blue is one of the most popular colors. It causes the opposite reaction as red. Peaceful, tranquil blue causes the body to produce calming chemicals, so it is often used in bedrooms. Blue can also be cold and depressing. Fashion consultants recommend wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty. People are more productive in blue rooms. Studies show weightlifters are able to handle heavier weights in blue gyms.

Green

   Currently the most popular decorating color, green symbolizes nature. It is the easiest color on the eye and can improve vision. It is a calming, refreshing color. People waiting to appear on TV sit in "green rooms" to relax. Hospitals often use green because it relaxes patients. Brides in the Middle Ages wore green to symbolize fertility. Dark green is masculine, conservative, and implies wealth. However, seamstresses often refuse to use green thread on the eve of a fashion show for fear it will bring bad luck.

Yellow

   Cheerful sunny yellow is an attention getter. While it is considered an optimistic color, people lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms, and babies will cry more. It is the most difficult color for the eye to take in, so it can be overpowering if overused. Yellow enhances concentration, hence its use for legal pads. It also speeds metabolism.

Food for thought 

   While blue is one of the most popular colors it is one of the least appetizing. Blue food is rare in nature. Food researchers say that when humans searched for food, they learned to avoid toxic or spoiled objects, which were often blue, black, or purple. When food dyed blue is served to study subjects, they lose appetite.
Green, brown, and red are the most popular food colors. Red is often used in restaurant decorating schemes because it is an appetite stimulant.



Here is the Website that talks more about the color and how it works in the marketing. It is really fun to read these fun fact. And they are use widely in our life. 
http://www.precisionintermedia.com/color.html

This web talks about how does color affect our life. Different formation of color can give people different feel. It can also form illusion. 
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=19382&ca=29


As we know that color is everywhere in our life. There is a fancy video, which shows the color and the patter of the stain glass window. It has a lot of different style of the window. Most of them are really colorful and create a feel of fantasy.
This video is fun to look at. The producer change the common color that we see during our life. For example, it makes the restaurant become blue, and specialize people with yellow. At first, you might think the video is uncomfortable, but it is fun to look at.
To whom really interested into fashion design. This video below talks about the different use of the color can make people looks totally different. It compare the different picture of the same picture and also explain the color effect in the fashion industry.

Cradle to Cradle chapter 1-3

The first chapter of the book is "A question of Design". It talks about the brief history of the industrial revolution. During the revolution, those huge machine, which produce tons of pollution and consumes a lot of natural resource, seems inevitable at that time. It took shape gradually, as industrialists, engineers, and designers tried to solve problems and to take immediate advantage of what they considered to be opportunities in an unprecedented period of massive and rapid change. I like the idea that the author was talking about the cradle to grave model. All the furniture, diapers, papers, wood and so on are designed on a linear, one-way cradle to grave model. They are not recycle-able neither environmental friendly. So then, the designer and the architects came up with the idea of One size fit all. Basically, the architecture will use the basic affordable materials. So that there is no distinguish between the rich and the poor.
The second chapter talks about why being less bad is no good. At first, it talks about the different role the environmentalist play during the decade. They were not interested simply in preservation but in monitoring and reducing toxin.Declining wilderness and diminishing resources merged with Pollution and toxic waste as the major realms of concern.The book also talks about the four R's: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, and Regulate. At the end of the chapter, the author said that less bad is no good. We cannot just cut back people 's need on the product, but have to think a new way to make the industrial become more eco-efficiency.
The third chapter talks about the eco-efficienty. It talks about most of the product that we were using now is non recycle-able. We should come up with designs that can use in cycle in our life.

CR06

This week during class we watched a movie: Rip!: A Remix Manifesto. It talks about the illegal download music in the United States. The story starts with Girl Talk. Girl Talk remix the famous songs and he takes out part of the song and remix them to make a new song. The movie told us that this behavior is actually illegal, and we can get into prison for five years and also get a huge amount of punishment. Currently in the United States, many people download music illegally. And many people use those illegal download music to create their own art. Whether should we put up a strict law on downloading music brings up a discussion in the society. 
well, I come from China. As you know, in my country, we don't have a complete law on downloading music. People don't have the conscious to pay for their music. The music industry is at their low point. My favorite band is called MAYDAY. They are really popular in China, and even when the music industry is not prosper right now, they still made a lot of money. And had concert every year. This year, they had a new record come out. When the news reporter ask him how the illegal download on the internet. He said that he cannot prevent the illegally download music, but if people do download free music online, he wants them to download the whole album and listen to the whole album in its original order. His words make me think that good music should not be restrict by forms. It has nothing to do with the business and money. Music is a form of art. Obviously, people should pay for their music, but we can also be creative with our music. The government should not punish the artist like the Girl Talk.... 

Sunday, February 6, 2011

CR05

   We watched four video on class. I watched it again when I went back home. The four videos are Janine Benyus's 'Biomimicry in action'; Michael's 'water filter turn filter water drinkable'; Jane chen's 'Warm embrace that save lives'; and William McDonough's 'cradle to cradle'.


   In conclusion, these video are talking about how design relate to our natural resource and lives, and how can design products can save our lives. I like the idea from Jane and Michael's video. Jane and her group design a warm embrace, which can save the life for the unhealthy new born baby. Especially in the poor country in the world, people do not have advanced medical facility, this easy product can help the baby to keep warm, and it is really easy to cary can used. As for Michael, he designed a water filter machine. This can be used especially when the earthquake and serious natural desaster happened. People can easily get the drinkable water from their place, but not waiting for the government to get clean water from other city.  William McDonough with the Cradle to Cradle concept talks about choices and provides 'Love of all children of all species for all time' as a postive conscious choice. He provide us a method to save the world and reduce the pollution by designing the right things in our life. It make me think that design is not only for merchandize or making profit, it should improve our living environment and the benefit to the creatures that around us. 


   As for the lecture on Monday, we talked about the color. I think the Bezold effect is really interesting. And it can apply to a lot of places. I remembered that I had read a book about the color and the psychology. It talks about how color influences people's mood. For example, the fast food usually use red or orange for their wall. It is because red and orange make people excited and eat faster. These examples and applications are really interesting. 

Cradle to Cradle Introduction

   Before reading this book, we watched the video in class. William McDonough, in his speech, said that our goal is a delightfully diverse, safe, healthy and just world, with clean air, water, soil and power- Economically, equitably, ecologically and elegantly enjoyed.
   As for the introduction of this book, McDonough use many examples to illustrate that most of the designs  around us are made of many materials that cannot be "recycle". In other word, the recycling process may have introduced even more harmful additives that a conventional product contains. McDonough decided to use plastic resins and inorganic fillers to print his book, instead of wood pulp or cotton fiber. In this way, we can save a lot of trees, and the materials that are used in the book can also be recycled easily. McDonough suggested that there should be a new industrial revolution, which can make both industry and environment prosperous.
  I like Bill's theory in the book. He said that "I was tired of working hard to be less bad. I wanted to be involved in making buildings, even products, with completely positive intentions." Bill has worked in different part of the world. People use different materials into design according to their different culture and environment. Japan use paper as window, and they also created the dripped garden. Bill's story also make me think that, sometime, "environmental friendly" is just a title in the industrial world. We add advanced technology to our previous product, yet not think about the original problem behind the product.
   The story of shoe industry also surprised me. The shoe industry use toxic chemical in their product, and the labor who work for the factory will get cancer in 20 years. So the factories only hire labor who is over 50s. Pules, Michael said that "leather" shoes are actually a mixture of biological materials and technical materials. Think about how many shoes do we own in our life? Do we need that many shoes? These "leather" shoes cannot dispose on earth. If we design things do not only think about its profit economically, but also considered the environment, our world will exist much longer.

50 things about Thompson Library

  1. People choose to sit on a chair with table instead of the sofa.
  2. All the books are in roll. 
  3. The books in the library are arranged by the name of the author and the name of the book. 
  4. The study room are build by glasses, so that everyone can see the people inside. 
  5. Each floor plan is mostly symmetry. 
  6. If you take the elevator from 4th floor to 10th floor, you will see the similar figures when the elevator is opened. (A big book shelf, and some computer)
  7. There is coffee shop on the first floor. When you go into the library, you will pass by the coffee shop first.
  8. Every morning (around 7-9), there is a long line in the coffee shop. 
  9. The glass which used as walls in the library. It makes the library become transparent, and also makes the interior of the library become bigger. 
  10. There is a big white board and a LG television in the group study room. 
  11. There is label of the room number and the function of the room on each part of the library.
  12. There is also labels on each book shelf. 
  13. The tables in the library are all wood and yellowish.
  14. The sofa in Thompson Library is pretty simple. Not like the sofa in KSA library.
  15. In different room, the material of floor is different. (They use mat in the study room and wood in the aisle)
  16. There are plugs everywhere in the library.
  17. All the book shelfs are parallel.
  18. There are televisions on the wall of the coffee shop.
  19. The bathroom on the 11th floor is only used for conference. 
  20. I think the elevator in the library is not that efficient, there are only two elevator in the library.
  21.  If you are going from 1-4th floor, you can go through the open stairs.
  22. There is a fire exit stair in the building, from 4-10th floor, if you do not want to take the elevator, you have to use the stairs.
  23. There is a series of portraits on 3M floor. All the head master's portraits are hanging on the wall. 
  24. You can eat in the library. 
  25. There is no vending machine in the library. 
  26. There are always a recycling bin beside the trash can.
  27. The basic color of the library is gray and yellow, there is not a lot of bright color used in the interior of the library.
  28. Study room in this library is limited. Usually, you have to make an appointment in order to use this room.
  29. People use computer to search for the book they want, they won't search the book from the shelf initially.
  30. If you want to use the computer in the library, you have to log in. Otherwise, you cannot use the internet.
  31. The internet speed in the library is very fast. Even though, there are a lot of user in the library. 
  32. All the lighting in the library is white. 
  33. There is a label of the alphabet in the elevator. 
  34. There is a small exhibition on the their floor. (Some glass cabinet)
  35. All the computer are monitor but not laptop.
  36. There is a big plant on the first floor beside the information desk.
  37. It seems that all the objects in the library are square but not circle.
  38. The library use the same type of clock, which is black and white Visiplex (brand name). It is very simple and easy to read.
  39. The boys room and the girls room are next to each other. (In some building the boys room and the girls room are on different floor or separate.)
  40. Some people use their cell phone in the bathroom, instead of the common area.
  41. All the stuff room are kinda invisible, or covered by the wall. All the common area are open space and visible to everyone.
  42. There is light on under the open stairs from the first floor to the forth floor.
  43. Every time when I entered the library, I hardly see the stuff in the library. The most people I see is the students who actually study in the library. 
  44. There is a special door for the disability on the first floor. 
  45. There is an announcement half hour before the library is closed. 
  46. All the magazines and the big collections are not allowed to borrow. 
  47. There is not a single window that can open freely. (All the windows are closed can cannot open manually.)
  48. People low down their voice when they enter the library.
  49. There is a buckeye bar on the basement of the library that you can fix your computer for free. 
  50. The whole building is using central air conditioner. In each private room, you can adjust the room temperature by your self.