Boards and a few pics

Here are my other boards, will need to try out my new laptop by processing these other renders of mine ... Ooh, and these pics have let me practice photoshop, which is always a good thing. Try the adjustment layers, they're ridiculously powerful in terms of on the fly adjustments of pictures.

The AsiaLine picture was a pamphlet I picked up at the Youngblood market. Quite interesting because it had a warmth I was desiring for my product in urban tribes, with it's rich reds and warm browns. The Zen bar photo was cut out of an MX (these things are awesome, the same with Epoch times, I'm poor and can't afford designer mags, though I should invest in them) and it was for me a mixture of the warmth of wood with the modern feel from the slick geometries. Could just be me.

Question - Why do I suck as a designer? A penny for your thoughts.

Process Rant

There are the pictures of my foamies and the final product. It's more of a technical package formed into the form of a photo frame, and although people may argue that the form needed to be more developed let me put this to you. Over the countless eras we've been through, the traditional photo frame form has not changed dramatically, in fact, if you look at today's digital photo frames, they use more modern materials but retain the universally accepted *rectangle*. And whilst you may say, why don't you change it, if you look at the products out there, there has to be a reason why they've made it, that they're actually selling products. The rectangular form works.

If you choose to give it a lovely organic shape, in my view, it detracts from the core purpose of the photo frames, and that is do enhance the display of the photo, not compete for attention.

To the boards, my camera was having a little trouble with the lighting is what I'll say but those are placed on the back of my Piranesi board (that brings back memories) and so that's A1. There's 3 of those boards. That's not including the research and word smithing, mind mapping, feature analysis, personal Q&A about the product that I did. So to all those who think there's not much going on in this little head of mine, there probably isn't, it just happens to be on the paper.

/end Rant

Here is the A4 poster. It's kinda cool, decided to aim it at an emerging niche market, with emerging technologies targeting a hole in the market. Overall comments for the project: lots more detailing is needed, probably need to do more of an analysis for materials with design for assembly and disassembly, tweaking the form more so it's more finished, and a load of other tiny tidbits which eat away at the overall validity of my design.

Such is life

PS, link outside blogger, it has trouble handling colour, process photos will be uploaded later

Mmm, I haven't posted for a long time but I've had some curious thoughts about Design.

Thoughts that have been floating:

Design methodology in the formal aspect provides us will a fall back structure to aid students in their struggle to design, AND IT IS A STRUGGLE! For the amount of lecturers who say we're crap, clearly we're struggling.

We're being asked, or rather thrown in the deep end and made to develop our own approach to designing. This of course is rather hard having very little experience, but I suppose trial and error would be a way to go non? Too bad, you could be trialing and error'ing the whole of first year again and again until you get it right, or decide to move on.

Having said that why don't they have rudimentary FORMAL design methodologies taught in first year. Yes, letting us tiny children loose in the design will yield shit results, obviously this is the case as many of us probably have the potential but lack the structured design approaches that are gained from experience (but what experience?!)

Then again, teaching formal methods could be a total waste of money and resources considering the drop out rate from the culling season for first year, first semester. I wonder if the Japanese could match their whaling rate with the aforementioned culling rate ...

I think I heard something about knowing too much about detailing, engineering, materials and what not and how this restricts us in terms of creative design. And yet, if you think about it, there are two ways this could work. More restrictions could mean a more driven path of design, or it could mean that the designers would have to think out of the box and actually PROBLEM SOLVE.

Mm on another rant, I also heard from a former student that it's not about the marks, it's about the skills and if the skills are there, it will reflect the marks. But, if you don't care for the marks, then what position are the skills in then? It is about the marks, like it or not. The marks are a reflection of the skill level.

Speaking of reflection, how does one separate themselves from their designs and remain unattached. They say, that people criticise the product aspects, and that they're not criticising you. But the product is an innate reflection of your personal style of designing, the way you think, the way you solve the problem, it is YOUR design. It is a reflection of you! How then are we supposed to divorce ourselves of this aspect when we strive so hard to design and make the product work, to put our heart into it and then say, there it is, I'm free from it now. Elaborate.

A curious thought, that each design is a new slate. You've got nothing to lose, you either move towards your goal a little or a lot, there's no moving back since you're starting from scratch. This one needs more ponder time.

Maybe I just think too much. Or in some cases too little. Curious-ne?

Few pointers to learn:
1) Concept boards should be concepts, no need for computer renderings. Hand renderings, exploration of internal thought processes, hand annotations (neat) and exploratory renderings are much more appreciated.
2) If you want to get ahead, on any project, think through every single detail, even if it is only concept stage, that way you'll get the most thorough feedback concerning the viability of your concepts
3) At this point in time, it's all about the process, and a good portion on the finished product and rationale, but mainly the process.

Apple has undoubtedly one of, if not, the best Design teams on EARTH!. As I was waltzing through some E-Paper articles, I came across a video which enlightens us as to the difference between Microsoft and Apple in terms of design.

How Microsoft would redesign Ipod Packaging.

The epitome of excellent marketing.

Now I've been on the search for items that are either storage furniture, or photo displays. On my search I happened to pass by this. Ikea, is selling this piece for $49.



This takes the cake.

Golden Oldies at their Prime

Golden Oldies

At Home and on the Road.

Iconic Pictures - Deeper Meaning

Environment of the Goldies's R&R space

Relaxing at home, as a couple, enjoying the hard earned comforts of life

Exercising, bicycling in the natural environment, shows that they want to get out into the open

A transaction in cash - food

Tech Savvy - They want to share memories, keep memories of themselves and all that is around them

Organising pills and supplements - to maintain their health and general well-being through adequate nutritional supplements


Courtesy of Getty Images.
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Golden Oldies and their Retreat to Creature Comforts

Old Biddies in the comfort of their home, enjoying the otherside of retirement, resting, recuperating for their next journey.

Courtesy of Fotosearch , Flickr and Istockphoto.

Oh and an article on how Retirees live it up.

User Scenarios

Some sites I surfed through for some user scenario examples.


User Scenarios - A Centre Point for User Learning - (infomanagementcenter.com, J. Hackos)


User Scenarios for Reports - (oerl.sri.com, OERL)


Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design - (uiaccess.com, S. L. Henry)

On another train of thought, would these golden backpackers live in a retirement home or their own home? If they lived in their own home, would they have anyone house sitting, or would they leave it unoccupied for extended periods of time? Having said that, what makes up a retiree's home, what's in their home of "rest and recuperation before another backpacking trip"?

What if they lived in a retirement home? However, if you think about it, these old biddies would be independent enough not to live in one of these. Or more to the point, it would be more probable that they would live in a retirement village or apartments.

Then again, they could be living with their children whilst they're not away backpacking.

Where and how they live will definitely influence the type of products they surround themselves with. That and whether they leave their homes in the care of others.

Product Mapping - Urban Tribes

Product Mapping - Urban Tribes

Now here's a thought. As backpackers, this group is usually traveling for extensive periods of time. They carry their 'life' on their shoulders, and usually it'll be the bare minimum, with an allowance of maybe a few luxuries.

We "are to investigate the 'tribes' lifestyle, and products that they surround themselves with." Alright, no problem since that'll be everything on their backs and their environment.

But here's something to ponder about. If everything they surround themselves with is carried with them or on their back, what's another part of their lifestyle that we could design a product for? Old biddies naturally would rest periodically from backpacking wouldn't they? They would go back to their normal retired lifestyle to think about what their next backpacking destination would be. Hence, wouldn't we be able to design for that "rest period" of their lifestyle as it is a different aspect? This 'tiny' loophole could potentially mean we could design a family of products for any set of parameters we designated. Hmm, a penny for your thoughts.

Golden Backpackers

Courtesy of
Fotosearch and Flickr