The Value of Design

It all started with William Morris, a socialist with the notion that beauty wasn't just the right of those who could afford to pay craftsmen to produce it for them, but was also the privilege of ordinary men and women in average homes. This thought gave rise to the Arts and Crafts movement and the explosive emergence of design in every aspect of Victorian daily life.

His idea was that things which were produced in a factory could be designed equally as well as individual 'craft' works and this led to the first commercially produced fabrics, wallpaper and furnishing. Morris also realized that the value of design went beyond decoration into functionality and this idea was the foundation of the modern post-industrial design movement. Today we are surrounded by mass-produced design in every aspect of our daily lives, from furniture, fabrics, household products and appliances, to cars, clothes, the mass media and almost every facet of living you care to mention.

Every design has a meaning that goes beyond pure decoration. Design tell stories and communicate with those who interact with them. This is equally true of product, graphic, fashion, environmental and media design. A Tag watch is about performance, the Nike logo about winning, an LV bag about luxury, Haach studio about relaxation and MTV about youth and energy. We live in a world of sound bites, so stories these days have to be short and to the point or they simply get lost in the background noise. This is a good metaphor for the challenge facing contemporary design.

Simplicity has always been effective in communication and design. The Shell logo, Coca Cola bottle and Porsche 911 are all icons of effective simplicity. They are powerful mnemonic designs, which are quickly identified and lodge easily in the visual memory that occupies over half our brain capacity. However this recognition is only powerful because of the stories they represent and the social, cultural and historic spaces they occupy. No design can exist without this context and designers cannot design effectively without understanding the context and objectives of a design. This is why design is a sophisticated, complex and intellectually demanding discipline. It is more multi-deimensional as a thinking process than the law, engineering or accountancy - and incidentally adds more value to businesses than any of these. What then is the true value of design?

Much contemporary design seems to have lost this focus on simplicity of message and in many ways the emergence of modern technology has fostered this. Computers are easy to use programmes mean that anyone can play at being a designer and the craft skills that used to differentiate qualified designers have largely disappeared. Anyone can switch on a computer and pick up a mouse to produce a design that is colourful, neat and clean, with type that is lined up and as many drop shadows, graduations and wizzy effects as you can imagine. This has devalued the role of the designer in the minds of many clients and the world is now full of amateur art directors who all want to have a share of the designer's pie. It has also resulted in much contemporary design being over complicated, confusing and uncommunicative. The approach seems to be 'he who shouts loudest gets the share of the voice'.

This syndrome comes mainly from a lack of understanding of the design process and the role of design in the cultural and business framework. An understanding of the thinking process is what differentiates designers from those who pretend to practise design or see design as an 'add on' for their product or service. As Morris said, design is about more than just decoration, it is driven by functionality and the context in which it is created.

It is almost impossible to value design in quantifiable terms. Design is not just about outcomes, it's equally about the design process, which influences many other factors in a business or organisation beyond the product or communication. Often it is difficult or impossible to extract the value of the design from the product it is intrinsically part of, but there are iconic examples of the value of design. Alessi produces many products in its range, some sell thousands and other hundreds of thousands. The main difference between them is the design and it's meaning to those who choose to buy the product.

Importance of Business Card

Namecards / Business namecards are of great importance nowadays as sometimes when meet people we do not have a great deal of time to build a immediate rapport, Even when you do have time to talk, people are not always going to remember everything they learned about you.

People you meet everyday — clients, other students, parents, and accqaintances — may not know things about you that you'd like them to know. When business people meet they exchange business cards. These small pieces of paper usually contain a person's name, the name of their business, and a title or description of the work they do, and a way to contact the person, such as a phone number or address and email addresses.

Create a business card for yourself. Your card should help others know and remember you. Ideally it should convey a sense of who you are, what you do, or your interests — cheerleader, class president, avid reader, or the only boy in a family of seven girls!
A business card generally focuses on a single facet of an individual or business. You may be a cheerleader who also raises rabbits and tutors younger students afterschool. Create a business card for just one of those aspects of your life or extracurricular activities.


Steps
1.First, decide what you want your business card to tell others. Do you want to focus on your activities with your hobbies or do you want to announce that you are a professional in a particular field? It may help to list everything about yourself then pick one topic.

2.Describe yourself. After deciding on what aspect of your life or activities that you want to focus, make a list or write a description that tells about that part of your life.

3.Decide if you want a "serious" or formal card or something more light-hearted or informal.

4.Using the Business Card Checklist, list the major components of your business card. Mark out any components you wish to omit from your card. If appropriate, come up with a title for yourself. To put everything you want on this small card you may need to come up with different ways to say the same thing. Look for shorter words in place of long ones. Use a single word in place of two or three different ones. Experiment with abbreviations.

5.Look at sample business cards you or your class have collected. Identify those that have a style you might like to imitate or borrow.

6.Sketch out some rough ideas of how you want your business card to look — including any graphics you think you want to include. (Your software may come with a collection of clip art; if you have access to a scanner you may be able to scan artwork from clip art books; if you have access to graphics software you may be able to draw your own graphics.) ( My suggestion is to always consult someone from the design field to maximise the professional namecard look.) Exchange business cards with people you meet

When you give your business card, attach the following checklist with your answers.
1.What is the focal point of this business card, part is supposed to catch the reader's eye first?

2.What job, role, or activity does this business card describe?

3.Is this supposed to be a formal (serious) or informal (casual) business card?

When you exchange business cards with others give them the following checklist to complete.
Business Card Checklist
Many of the items in this list are optional. You must decide which ones are appropriate for your business card.
-Name of Individual.
-Name of Business or Organization.
-Address.
-Phone Number. -Fax Number.
-Email Address. -Web Page Address.
-Job Title of Individual.
-Tagline or description of Business or Organization.
-Logo.
-Graphic Image(s) (including purely decorative elements). -List of services or products.

The items listed below are to aid in designing your business card. Some may not apply.
-Horizontal or Vertical Layout.
-Emphasis on Business or Organization (name and/or logo).
-Emphasis on Individual.
-Emphasis on Title of Individual.
-Emphasis on a particular part of the contact information (phone, address, email, etc.)
-Size of Logo or other graphics — large (dominant) or small, etc.
-Number of Colors.
-White space (blank spaces) toward the middle or toward the outer edges.
-Conservative typeface (such as those used in the stories in your textbooks) or Fun, Informal typeface (such as crooked letters, funny shapes, odd sizes, or type that looks like handwriting) or a mix.

1.When you first look at this business card what catches your eye first? (the graphic, the name, the color, etc.)

2.From reading this card, what job, role, or activity do you believe this person does?

3.Is the business card easy to read? Is the type large enough? Is there too much information or not enough information on the card?

4.Do you feel that this is a formal (serious) or informal (casual) business card?

5.Do you like this business card? Why or why not?

Conclusion
"The business card... is kind of an extension of yourself. It's a little bit of giving yourself to someone else."— Ken Erdman, founder of the Business Card Museum, Erenheim, PA

It is not easy to condense yourself down to the size of a business card but doing so may help you to focus on the most important aspects of yourself. It can also help to develop your vocabulary as you search for new words to describe yourself. It should also be clear that it is almost impossible to tell everything there is about a person from a single piece of paper.

Silkscreen Clint

When you put a silkscreen concert poster up on your wall, have you ever stopped to consider the amount of work that goes into it?

I happen to come across Texas-based designer Clint Wilson site (www.clintprints.com) - he conceived and done posters for famous bands such as Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Coldplay and Duran Duran. Having gone through silk-screening production procedure myself in the past, We think you will have a new respect for those posters after you see how much blood, sweat and tears are expended in order to make them. It take pretty much effort to layer out the colours. You can also view more of Clint Wilson here: http://idnworld.com/creators/?id=ClintWilson

Bless (Paris, Berlin) and Abake (London)

Bless is one of the hottest and most unusual fashion labels around. It was formed by Desiree Heiss and Ines Kaag, who met as fashion students in Paris and found they had a lot in common, so they formed Bless (named after a favourite Berlin bakery) in 1997, which they run together despite being based in Paris and Berlin respectively.

Click http://www.bless-service.de/

Set up in 2000 by a cosmopolitan quartet of graphic design graduates. Abake is probably best known in Asia for a logo it made for AIR and a sleeve design it did for a Daft Punk release. But its members would really rather talk about Sexy Machinery, a magazine they edit with a couple of architects and a textiles designer or Kitsune, a record label they co-own with 2 french guys.

Click http://www.kitsune.fr/

The Hire, a BMW Digital Film Series

Since 2001, BMW has worked with Hollywood talent to produce a series of short films called "The Hire." This innovative marketing approach has won critical acclaim, and will be ending on October 21, 2005. The films featured Clive Owen as a driver-for-hire in a series of sticky situations. There are in total 5 digital short films showcasing the works of some of the best filmmakers around the globe. All films are executively produced by David Fincher and include the work of internationally acclaimed dierctors such as John Woo, Ang Lee, John Frankenheimer, Wong Kar-Wei, Guy Ritchie and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu. Don't be fooled into thinking that the project is solely an attempt by BMW automobiles to promote the art of cinema. Every short involves a particular make of BMW in an intelligent mould of product placement. Other than this fact, the productions are very skillfully and tastefully created as with filmmakers of such calibre.

If you've never seen these films, do yourself a favor and check them out at the read link. 'Star' is probably one of my favorites, both for comedic value and the stunt driving.

View them here: http://www.chasingthefrog.com/BMW_Films/bmw_films2.htm

Flights effect on our world

Project name: Polar Bear
Client: Plane Stupid

Do you know that even Short-haul flights have impact on the climate ?
The agency used Polar Bears because they’re a well understood symbol of the effect that climate change is having on the natural world.

Creative agency: Mother
Planner: MotherAgency
Production company: Rattling Stick

Tokyo's 6 Storey Gundam !!

I remember growing up and watching Gundam on saturdays.
But now imagine seeing a 1:1 replica of a Gundam robot, at 59 feet (18 meters) tall, weighing 25 tons!! at your neighbourhood.





Check them out!
Regards
J. Lee