Final blog post!

Has this course, Design in Context helped you to synthesise various themes and issues relevant to the history/theory / and practice of design? Has this influenced your own approach or position as a designer? Have you found Design in Context to be a helpful class – why or why not?

Design in Context has helped me to have a combination of ideas and analyse various themes and issues relevant to the history of design and how we use them in the practice of design today.

This has influenced my own personal approach as a designer as it has taught me to think differently whenever I look at an object. It gets me to start thinking about the ways it had been designed and who the design has been influenced by from design history.

I have found Design in context to be a very helpful class as it has taught me the major points and turns in history where design was a major factor in the change of history. I used to be a commerce student then switched to design school and had very little knowledge about the history of design.

This course has taught me a lot about design and has taught me to think differently as a designer would. Now days I always synthesise various themes and issues relevant to the history, theory and practice of design.

blog 9

This week’s reading discussed the cultural, social and aesthetic shifts in Britain in the late 1950’s and 1960’s. These shifts have caused a major part in our design culture today.

Postmodernism and Remix techniques are a vibrant part of our design culture today. This 3D image of a coffee table is a perfect postmodern example of contemporary design.

Created by Martin Gallagher, it is based on cylindrical forms and utilizes ornamental eclecticism and manipulations of scale as a technique. At first look the image does not even stand to look like a coffee table until the details have been read. This is a good example of a Remix technique.

assignment 8

What kinds of political or ideological messages inform design or the branding of design today? identify one example and describe in what ways it expresses larger cultural, political or ideological beliefs.

In the late 1940's the role of design in the reshaping of Europe lay in consumerism. The reconstruction of the industry would generate increased demand for consumer goods.

Critic - Henre Lefebure defined Americanization as that ideological commodity imported in the name of technical progress called consumer society and the mass media. Ideological messages inform the branding of design today through the use of media.

Advertising through tv and campaigns is the role of media design for consumerism. The use of the media design industry in todays time would generate increased demand for consumer goods.

blog 7- sensitive and unsensitive pictures from cuba street

Sensitive Designs

I found this poster while walking down Cuba street outside a tattoo shop. For me, all the tattoo designs in the poster represent sensitive designs as each of the tattoos have meaning behind them. For example the Maori art designs on the bottom of the poster have Maori cultural meanings behind the design therefore they are sensitive as designs.

As our readings says, Manos Nathan and Collen E Waata-Urlich are two of many Maori ceramic artists and practitioners in other media, who are extending the range of Maori art and design.



Insensitive Design

This tattoo design would be an example of an insensitive design as there seems to be a lack of meaning behind the artwork. It shows 'love' on one hand and 'hate' on the other.

There aren't any cultural meanings to this design as there are on the designs shown above therefore this design can be classified as an Insensitive Design.

Assignment 6: Bauhaus design

Bauhaus School of design had always taught design to students in a way that let them explore and emphasize the quality of non produced materials. The Bauhaus school of design was founded by Walter Groupius in 1919. It has been over 90 years but his theories of design remain consistently similar in this age of time. The theories taught in the school were to experience many different aspects of design before going into the area of specialization. These were taught in the first semester of the design school, also known as the Vorkurs.

The same theory is used at Victoria University campus. all the aspects of design are taught in the first year of study then in the second year we move into our specialization area of study e.g media, industrial or culture in context. The Bauhaus theories are still used as of today and has not been forgotten.

assignment 5 Mordern Vision

In this weeks reading, Benjamin argues, to an ever greater degree the work of art reproduced becomes the work of art designed for reproducibility. From the photographic negative, for example, one can make any number of prints; to ask for the authentic” print makes no sense.”

I agree with Benjamin as the evolution of technology we see as today is changing as a very fast paced economy. For example watching a movie at the cinemas is one of the best quality pictures you will see as it is authentic. When Dvds release later on, the work of art gets reproduced into millions of copies.

Blu ray Dvds however is the latest technology which does offer a very clear high definition output and it does come close to the quality of the authentic print of the movie. Over time as technology advances our reproduction prints will become as clear as the authentic print so therefore asking for the authentic print will make no sense.

assignment 4 Craft vs Design

The fine art of gold craftsmanship has been around for as long as craft itself. Craft was invented and has been around since the periods of 1150-1600’s. Craftsmen have been using their fine craftsmanship into making these types of jewelleries. The fine art of hand crafting jewellery, example, gold, used to be sold for an expensive rate and only the rich could afford it. These days it is more easily affordable as the wage rate increases over the decades. The goldsmith would craft the gold into these type of bangles which were worn by woman and still are worn mostly by woman in this period of time. This type of craft jewellery is buyable but at a very high price depending on the level of gold used into making it. Jewellery is something that we cannot resist buying and wearing them therefore the craftsmanship for jewellery will always be there.

Assignment 3 Beauty and Utility

Here is an example of a decorated construction. Creator: unknown

In the grammar of ornament in 1856, Owen Jones argued that ‘construction should be decorated, decoration should never be purposely constructed’. Owen Jones argued this is as during the first half of the nineteenth century industrialists, merchants, and professionals took interest to shape the values of a more complex and diverse society. Such attitudes took a variety of forms including the role of art in the decoration of construction.

Decoration should never be purposely constructed as it will be an imitation of nature and an inappropriate decoration for function ornament constructed which is a false principle. Construction should be decorated as it is the appropriate ornament for object and use for abstraction in representation which counts as a true principle.

I agree with Owen Jones as I think if decoration is purposely constructed it will look pretty ugly in terms of design. Constructions can be easily decorated into any appropriate ornament.

Blog 2 The Continuing Curve

Made by Jack Olive in 1971

What is the “sensuous impulse” in design? Where do we see it manifest, today or historically?

Artworks that are created with the contrast of styles which are pleasing to the senses are known as the sensuous impulse. The sensuous impulses in designs are often exceptional works in a designer’s oeuvre that encompasses more traditional creations from nature, feminine and floral curves. Though widespread and vigorous at the turn of the last century, sensuous creativity was trumped by the intellectual asceticism of modernism during the 1920’s. The sensuous impulse in design has manifested historically as there was still a perceptible softening in aspects of modernist design in the 1930s and 1950s.

Reference: The Continuing Curve by Penelope Hunter-Stibel

blog assignment 1

Rex - the robotic exoskeleton

Richard Little and Robert Irving have been working on a Robotic Exoskeleton called the "Rex" for seven years. The "Rex" is used as a pair of robotic legs for disabled people who would normally be confined to a wheelchair. It enables the user to stand, walk, climbing steps, going uphill and downhill. I think this is an important excellent design even if it is in the early stages of development. It gives a new hope to the disabled who once had a dream of walking with their own feet.