I wanna be on TV!!!!

(So Philipe Starck is the inspiration for all my blog posts I guess.)

And if you guys have become aces in product design over the last couple of weeks...

Philipe Starck is looking for young designers for his new reality television show 

design is the "in" thing now i guess. It should be fun to listen to kids argue as passionately about if form or function is more important as the real world people argue about who slept with who and who drinks too much.

Class is over, and I don't care

This is still a pretty cool article.

"Being a professional...

...means to put aside one's personal reactions regardless of the situation and to carry on. Prostitutes, practitioners of the so-called oldest profession, must maintain an extreme of cool objectivity about this most intimate of human activities, highly disciplining their personal responses to deliver an impartial and consistent product to their clients."
-katherine mccoy, in "design as a social and political force"

sound familiar? thinking back to the "2-points of view" project, how does this make you feel? consider also the "stereotype" of the high priced prostitute that made its way onto the collaborative poster. many excuses were made as to why the 2pov project was undertaken, despite contrary beliefs. many were in the name of education, getting a grade, a degree. what excuses will come when a $3000-a-month paycheck is on the line?

i recall hearing more than once, via the blog, personal discussions, or in crit, the notion of objectivity or impartiality that kathy mentions above. is that possible at all? should designers strive for it regardless? is it unethical to editorialize as a visual communicator, as a citizen designer?

i wonder if being a designer makes us think differently about what we are allowed to do/say as citizens, as if our professional status disqualifies us from making personal, opinionated statements for public consideration. don't we elect politicians because of their personal stances on issues? don't we gravitate toward a specific hairstylist because of their personal flair and opinions about fashion?

Where R the Future Designers?

Jamie shed light on this great message by Dan Staffer about my senior degree project. It starts questioning where all of our future designers will be if we keep forcing them away from abstract thinking. It's a hard question to ask. I think the most important element is to let the kids have fun. As simple and vague as a solution as this is, it repairs the motivation to learn that often gets lost.

A Brief Message: No Child Left Behind is Leaving Designers Behind

Maybe this semester can be summed up...

... by a post on Speak Up.

youtube it!

alright kids...

i didn't see a post for this yet

so here it is. post your youtube links hurrrrrrrrrr

(sadly, mine won't convert the video this time.....and it's an mov....wtf mate?!)

yours,

Tina

Target: Design for All

Target: Design for All?

this article brings up a couple interesting points...

first of all, i question their labeling Target as a"designer" department store. actually I am unsure what defines something as a "designer" product. is it something that is designed by a designer? and isn't everything technically designed by someone? i think that Target is just really good at marketing products that are trendy for younger generations and that sets them apart from other places like walmart or kmart. 

"Is Target only committed to profitable design ventures?" 

Yes, as they should be. If something isn't profitable, customers aren't buying it, and if customers aren't buying it, it's probably because they don't like it, don't want it, or don't need it. But I would probably enjoy some of the more "edgy" products as opposed to the more generic ones.

labor day / may day

from wikipedia, labor day page, the "controversies" section:

"The Knights of Labor organized the original parade on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 in New York City. In 1884 another parade was held, and the Knights passed resolutions to make this an annual event. Other labor organizations (and there were many), but notably the affiliates of the International Workingmen's Association, many of whom were socialists or anarchists, favored a May 1 holiday. In 1886 came the general strike which eventually won the eight-hour workday in the United States. These events are today commemorated as Labor Day in virtually every country in the world, with the notable exceptions being the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. With the Chicago Haymarket riots in early May of 1886, President Grover Cleveland believed that commemorating Labor Day on May 1 could become an opportunity to commemorate the riots. Thus, fearing that it might strengthen the socialist movement, he quickly moved in 1887 to support the position of the Knights of Labor and their date for Labor Day."

i think it's telling that we are one of four countries in the western world that have kept this celebration a safe distance from its actual intent -- to celebrate the advances everyday people have made in improving their lives through fighting for better working conditions that we enjoy today. do you think the same motivations and values might be behind why we don't sign the kyoto treaty or recognize our own wartime atrocities as terrorism?

2 points-of-view project thoughts

i'm interested in the ethical implications of the work you did. comment here on the following questions:
how did you feel when you were assigned the subject matter?
why did you do the work?
did you ever consider not doing the work, or the ramifications of refusing it?
how would you respond in a professional setting to this type of project?

Post Video Links Here

Post your video links for our assignment here

ecologicly friendly advertisments

heres a link to some a list of ads which came out recently from both greenpeace and wwf.

http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22355/48254-green-ad-effect

some of them you may have seen, but it's fairly thorough, unfortunately the author knows nothing about design, and doesn't talk about it at all. look for the chinese car emissions guerrilla piece, it's the best one...

links for two-points-of-view project

here is what i showed in class:
mainstreaming children with disabilities p.s.a.
inconvenient truth trailer
james victore, graphic designer
what barry says and taking liberties [in projects section]
wal-mart info graphic
free range studios - video section
the story of stuff

a new one:
the ronin go to motion > "the truth about food" titles

a greenpeace video about dove here. this story is part of an interesting blog.

This doesn't necessarily have to do with design. But it definitely falls under the category of advocacy of "art". This story has been going around on the net and I just needed to share it somewhere. If you're an animal lover, beware, cuz this story is pretty sick:

In 2007, the 'artist' Guillermo Vargas Habacuc, took a dog from the street, tied him to a rope in an art gallery, and starved him to death.

For several days, the 'artist' and the visitors of the exhibition have watched emotionless the shameful 'masterpiece' based on the dog's agony, until eventually he died.

Does it look like art to you?

But this is not all... the prestigious Visual Arts Biennial of the Central American decided that the 'installation' was actually art, so that Guillermo Vargas Habacuc has been invited to repeat his cruel action for the biennial of 2008.

It takes a second to help put a stop to animal abuse. Sign the petetion to stop this asshole by going to http://www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html

What is propaganda?

"While propaganda influences the behavior of individuals, it is important to bear in mind that it is only one of the means by which man’s behavior is influenced. There are other forms of inducement employed in winning assent or compliance. In limited or wholesale degree, depending upon the political organization of a given country, men have used force or violence to control people. They have resorted to boycott, bribery, passive resistance, and other techniques. Bribes, bullets, and bread have been called symbols of some of the actions that men have taken to force people into particular patterns of behavior."

I enjoyed this because it addresses the bad connotations often associated with propaganda. Is propaganda really all that bad, or is just because we often associate it with historical events such as world war?

what is propaganda?

Designer of 2015

I was on the AIGA site and stumbled across this article. It mostly talks about what t-gal brought up in class today, but i thought there were some good incites. Its pretty much insane to think that the end of our careers will be somewhere around 2060. that freaks me out to think that far into the future!

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/initiatives-designer-of-2015

barcodes don't have to be evil?

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/04/japanese-creative-barcodes.html

above is a link to a blog entry somewhere about barcodes. but wait theres more!

apparently certain creative types have taken the package designers worst enemy and juxtaposed it in ways that actually make it an integrated design element. some of these you have seen before, but the list gets much more experimental the farther you go down. maybe next we can set our sights on nutrition facts.

No Logo: No Jobs

Sometimes I really have to rethink what made me want to become a designer in the first place, and readings like this latest one definitely keep me questioning what it is I'm doing. There's a reason why I try very hard to make sure what people think I do is not solely marketing driven. I know that the odds favor that I'll end up working in some design firm or another advertising consumer wants, rather than society's needs, but I still stand by what I said in the earlier post about the Beirut reading. I want to do what I can to get to the point where I can design for things that are meaningful to me. I know this doesn't really say all that much about the reading itself, but if you've read it, you'll probably understand my frustration. So many of today's corporations are falling into that Nike mode of being entirely a branding company, but at what cost?? They spend millions in order to make millions, but to make sure they keep their profits as high as possible, they try to skirt around paying those factory workers in the Cavite zone their $6 a day! Anyway maybe I'll add more if we discuss the reading in class, but I just had to vent some frustrations while it was still fresh in my mind. Thanks T-Gal for assigning a depressing reading! However things like this are important to keep in the back of your mind so you try not to forget what's really going on in the world, design related or otherwise, so it was definitely worth the read.

Design is a dreadful form of expression

That's what Philippe Starck is now saying. But I agree that design should start being focus on more than just fancy, cool looking consumer goods. But those should work well also.

I wonder if he would have said that before making his millions? not just when it's time to retire.

Jerk

Bitch.

Is it possible to be a socially and politically active designer without having a good sense of the things you believe in and/or stand for?

This is an article I came across about a year ago that addresses the issue of women's roles in society. It is an article that I keep in my journal when I need justification on being an opinionated, passionate, and for the most part, strong female. Some might see it as a cliche feminist article, but to me, it is a pivotal reminder of the power women can hold in a professional world. Whether we are writers, musicians, or in our case, designers, we shouldn't shy away from expressing our thoughts and/or opinions for the fear of what others might think. When we have confidence in ourselves, the possibility to bring about change becomes endless.

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."

Who are you calling a bitch?

No logo Reading: No Space/Alt. Everything

I guess this is what its going to come down to, our culture is bought up by corporations and sold back to us. It's nice to be aware of this fact, yet our generation still runs with it as normality, they know bands sell out to pepsi, and buy up the newest fashion, jeans, soundtrack to the newest indie flick put out by fox searchlight, i know, because I'm one of those individuals. I do feel quite in the dark about the newest age of cool, i feel it must be riding the wave of the last couple of big movies, or newest artists to hit itunes. I remember when bands hit the radio that never would of dreamed making it otherwise, all because of a little film called Garden State. The movies soundtrack launched a wave of cool, the quasi-indie bands because staples everywhere you went, you heard them, saw them on SNL and in Time. I think in some ways, it is good for our culture it make it out to the outskirts and back again, in a way the youth get exposed to so much, and its their decision to accept it, but wouldn't you rather find it yourself?

Guerilla Girls in KC!

For anyone interested, the original founding members of the guerilla girls will be giving a lecture at YWCA Black Box Theater on Sunday, March 30th at 2:00 P.M. Tickets are $5.

If you can't afford the tickets, they will also be doing a free workshop the day before their lecture [on saturday, march 29th] at UMKC. Call to reserve a spot, only 20 or 30 are available: 816.235.1638.

Should be awesome!

what do blogs mean to YOU

Around the beginning of this academic year, the kcai design department began to institute a mandatory policy of creating class specific web-logs as a tool to keep students up to date with ongoing projects easily. These free yet canned websites, basically serve as virtual bulletin boards for the on campus design community. This was probably a good idea in its initial spirit, because they can help clear up confusion amongst students and allows for a convenient platform to disseminate information. However, this “original spirit” has become so illusive that it does not even exist anymore.

Teachers have begun to mandate more and more activity on every blog from students. This normally wouldn’t seem like a ridiculous requirement even for me, but only if there was a point to this online activity at all. What has happened is that students are for the most part commenting on readings or links which we have already discussed in class. This is the embodiment of useless busy work, which is something that I am not paying a ridiculous amount of money in tuition to participate in.

The other thing which teachers instruct students to do on these blogs is to create “discussion starters.” If you think about this phrase for a solid minute within its context you’ll be lucky if your brain doesn’t explode from the shear absurdity. The idea that real discourse can happen through 12 pt Arial (notice this is not set in Arial) on a blog when people are posting hours apart based on how they’re interpreting an out of context statement that someone else wrote is impossible. If there is something worthy of a discussion starter, then it should be discussed, this means face to face in person, in class or just whenever in the studio. There is no substitute for a real conversation, no matter how saturated this generation gets with myspace I think that even the other students would agree with this statement.

As I said before, I appreciate the service that these blogs can provide, however they have been tainted by how we are forced to use them. More and more I hear students complaining about these bulletin boards and I know for a fact that they posting just to post. There is no thought behind it, no reason, no desire. Posting has become something students do simply to fulfill a grade. My hope is that the entire community can reevaluate what these blogs mean and what is their purpose. If this is supposed to become an archive for future generations of students to view, they will be very disappointed by the monotonous posting which was done out of nothing other than necessity to “Get ‘er done,” as Justin Ruggieri would say.

If you have made it this far, please feel free to respond as much as possible with whatever comments you may have. But of course, since this is only a “discussion starter,” these comments are limited to this online bulletin board only.

vote 08, and kyoto conference

just got this in an email from aiga, they're asking for members to submit objective (nonpartisan) posters to help raise voter turnout in November.

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/get-out-the-vote

also got a new set of sustainable guidelines taken from the kyoto conference for design principals or something....

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/kyoto-design-declaration

Design Observer: Swastika Humor?

There is an interesting article on the swastika by Steven Heller and how it functions in cartoons. I thought it would be good to check out for those who studied the Nazi Propaganda Movement and also just for this class in general.

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/033744.html#more

KCCG group post

This is a blog for posts from the Kansas City Community Gardens group.

glaser on propaganda

check out this transcript of a milton glaser talk at a propaganda conference recently. i'm curious what you all think of it. does he have good insights? is there any good info here?

propaganda alert!!! links

I just wanted to invite everyone to post their links to their ads so that everyone can get a closer look and be more familiar with each of our ads. I assume I'm not the only one that had a hard time seeing some of the ads and understanding what it was people were trying to do. Here's mine in case anyone wanted to get a closer look.
axe commercial
beer commercial

Looking Closer readings: Bierut and Mau

A quick note on the Mau reading... although it made some good points, I really did not see a lot of room for contextual elaboration. It was all pretty much cut and dry, good practices to adhere to, so if you haven't read it yet, you should.

The reading from Michael Bierut on the other hand was likely the source for much dispute, just as the original "First Things First" stirred up 45 years ago. Having read from both sides of the debate, I understand why he would argue that the public has just as much right to a well designed dog biscuit package as they do a socially conscious poster for some non-profit organization. However, there are those designers out there that would make a conscious decision to focus their own efforts towards something they strongly believe in, even if it means less potential "bread and butter" work that makes it easier to pay the rent. I think the issue really just comes down to each designer's own personal standards. Take for instance Beirut's BAM client, which (assuming everyone reading this attended his lecture here a few years ago) we all know is probably his favorite client just by the way he always likes to use it for reference. This is the first time I've heard that BAM is greatly supported by Phillip Morris (a.k.a. "the devil", lindsey will know what I mean). As much as I am sure BAM is a wonderful non-profit to work with, I personally, in knowing now that they are backed financially by Phillip Morris, would have to choose not to work with them. Granted I wouldn't say a negative word to anyone else about taking up the job, and if I were ever in that position I might even go as far as referring another good designer for the work. But there are certain personal moralistic standards that would keep from allowing myself to promote them knowing that there is an affiliation with P.M.

I don't think it is any designer's job to judge or demean the choices of others out there, even if they do not agree with them. So as much as I respect some of the work the authors of these opposing writings, I do not entirely see cause for the argument in the first place. All we can do is present our information the best that we know how, and let people make their own decisions. It is up to each and every designer to decide where they want to draw their own lines, if they even choose to do so.

Some one owes me lunch!

Okay so right now everyone is thinking it's cool to the cold. I'm trying my hardest not get sick with everyone else. So I've gone and scanned in the reading for tomorrow and the reading after that. I will be scanning in all of the reading we have due before spring break after that you all be on you're own again. The readings will be in my public folder on the server. If you can not get on there then one you suck, and two e-mail me at lsouthwood@kcai.edu, and I'll try and send them to you. But remember I'm doing this cause I don't want any of your germs you can keep those to your-self. But some owe me lunch, you all discuses we that should be with the comments below.

Peace, Lindsey S.

more peace and flowers

that was a secrete message

did you get it?

class cancelled

hello seniors. i'm quite under the weather today, so we'll push critique back to wednesday. download the new project sheet "propaganda alert" and start working on that. i'll have to figure out how to adjust the schedule later on.

check out some more guerilla design, sort of like the propaganda we're studying, but new

http://weburbanist.com/2008/02/05/15-ingenious-humanitarian-subvertisements-creative-advertisements-that-advocate-global-causes/

friday march/rally

here is the latest info i've seen if you're interested:

... we are gathering at Revolution Church (one block north of the hurricane) at 4:00. At 4:20, we will begin moving out and will have a joyous time, showing the City of Kansas City that we do NOT welcome racism and xenophobia to our Community. After the short march and prayers for the Minutemen and our City, we will return to Revolution Church around 5:30 for a Celebration, Music and a time of sharing. The evening will conclude by 6:45 - so get down there early. We're hoping for a MASSIVE turn-out - even in the cold.

tyler

welcome seniors

well, you've made it this far. only four months to go in your kcai career. this is the place where you'll hopefully engage in lots of thought-provoking discussion. don't be afraid to voice your opinion, and dissenting viewpoints are encouraged. have fun!
tyler