Foldable Kitchen Chair

People often take the daily objects they use for granted, such as the toothbrush they clean their teeth with, the utensils they eat with, and the chair they sit on. Most people do not necessarily analyze these objects in order to form an opinion on it; they simply like it, or dislike it. However, there are particular subconsciously judged elements that influence people’s experience with a particular object and its design; it is its ergonomics.  

 Photos take by Diane Wu

                I never realized, before, how much work had been put into the designing of the folding chair I sit in everyday, as simple as it may be. I appreciated the convenience of the chair in its storage abilities, but always disliked the instability of the chair and its tendency to slip out from under the person if he sits too close to the edge of the chair. I am young, so falling out of the chair may not injure me severely. However, it may be a potential hazard for my grandparents who are in their late eighties; they cannot afford the fall. As a result, the design of the chair does not meet the safety requirements for people of all age groups, thus, limiting their potential group of buyers.

                Although my height and leg length fit the chair rather well, the chair lacks support for the lower back. People with back problems or who tend to sit for a long time will not find comfort in this chair. The edge of the seat also has corners that often scrape against my legs and leave a red line mark after sitting for a period of time. According to comfort, these chairs are not made for sitting for a long time. They are simply used for temporary convenience such as eating in the kitchen.

                These folding chairs are very light and easy to fold and store away in cabinets. They are portable and slide smoothly into their positions. The wood has a smooth finish, therefore, it a good kitchen chair because it is waterproof and easy to wipe clean with a towel when there’s a spillage. It functions very well if used correctly, for example sitting completely on the seat rather than the edge, so its performance is acceptable.

                The simple design of the folding chair gives it a minimalist feel. The light color of the wood finish decreases its visual weight, making it appear even lighter than it already is. It has formal balance meaning that the chair is symmetrical on both sides, which creates harmony and unity to the overall look of the chair. The proportion and form of the chair fits comfortably with the human bodily proportions, thus, meeting the function of the object as a chair.

                Although not the most comfortable chair in the house, the foldable kitchen chair meets the functional requirements. Its safety is acceptable for younger people who can quickly recover from a fall. It is lightweight and easy to store away. It is also aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, its ergonomics is acceptable, but there are improvements that could be made, thus, designers must not forget the design process of doing and redoing.       

McDonald's Logo

http://saleshq.monster.com/nfs/saleshq/attachment_images/0003/0943/mcdonal_max200w.jpg?1232051378

Designing logos for companies and industries is a very important and painstaking process that incorporates slight adjustments and constant changes. McDonald’s, one of the biggest fast food industries has the famous globalized “m” sign. This graphically-designed logo originally came from the architectural construction of McDonald’s buildings that included two golden arches at the entrance. Now, this logo replaced the architectural construction, but is still recognizable to anyone at first glance.

The addictive quality of McDonald’s food is not the only role that played behind the success of this logo. The artistic design of the two golden arches is highly influential in attracting guests to eat at the restaurant through the use of yellow and red colors because they are the most vibrant and eye-catching colors easily be spotted from a distance. Red and yellow mentally increases a person’s appetite and heart rate so that they will eat more and eat faster in order to leave quickly and open up more space for the next costumers. The logo’s form has a formal balance, meaning that it is symmetrical on both sides when cut by a vertical axis straight down the middle, giving the logo harmony and unity. The flowing design of the “m” creates a sense of movement that leads the viewer’s eyes from the left to the right side of the logo’s shape. McDonald’s also sometimes uses orange along with the yellow and red in their logo design, making their color theme analogous, which is very pleasing to the eye. McDonald’s also uses the artistic element of scale to attract attention. For example, the McDonald’s in Wal-Mart has two large golden arches as its entrance, which draws a lot of attention, inviting people to enter the restaurant and buy food.  

Street Art: Edgar Mueller

Art is not only found in Museums and showrooms. It can be found anywhere, even on streets we walk through every day from home to work. Edgar Mueller is a street artist who creates anamorphic images, which are carefully constructed distortions that can be viewable only from one spot. Therefore, in his work, perception is very important because it is able to bring his 2-dimensional drawings on the ground into 3-dimensional images.

http://www.metanamorph.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_i-can-fly.jpg

Mueller worked with 250 square meter of open pavement when he created The Crevasse. In his painting, he used blue as the monochromatic color that brings visual unity to his painting. The Crevasse uses one-point perspective through the incorporation of repetition with lines that leads “downwards,” or closer to us, towards a single vanishing point. The repetitive use of lines create a visual rhythm, bringing harmony to the overall painting. Mueller also created lighting by painting the “top” of the crevasses lighter, and then gradually darkens the blue color as it reaches closer to the “bottom” of the crevasses, mimicking the effects the sun would have on an actual 3-dimensional crevasse. The area closest to the vanishing point is painted black, and thus, encourages the viewers to use their own imagination in creating the illusion of depth. The asymmetrically balanced or informally balanced painting, which has a well-distributed visual weight, brings equilibrium to the overall effect of his work.
It doesn’t matter whether passersby are armed with artistic knowledge of the principles of design or not, we can all agree that Edgar Mueller’s anamorphic images are simply amazing.

Here is a Youtube video showing the process of his artwork:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SNYtd0Ayt0

souces:
http://www.metanamorph.com/albums/userpics/10001/normal_i-can-fly.jpg
http://www.metanamorph.com/displayimage-album,4,pos,0,3D%20Pavement%20Art-Ice%20Age-The%20Crevasse.html

Inspirational Posters: How Word and Image Work Together

The general format and design of these posters were originally created to inspire people, hence the name “Inspirational” Posters. These posters are created by juxtaposing a motivational word under an amazing photograph taken from basically anywhere in the world. The principles of arts incorporated into the photograph are methods that further strengthen the message of the poster.

 http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/36/3633/Z2MEF00Z/posters/bloom-steve-courage.jpg

In this photograph, the juxtaposition of the image and word conveys a feeling of kinesthetic empathy that draws an emotional response from the audience. Seeing these cute little penguins in nature fearlessly dive head-first into the ice water inspires human to feel that if such animals can have enough courage to leap so far down, we can do it too. The poster quotes Mark Twain, “Courage is resistance to fear, mater of fear- not absence of fear” which supports the image and is used to strengthen and give a more direct message to the reader. This photograph is remarkably taken due to its monochromatic background of blue. The vertical positioning of the photograph creates a feeling of strength and power that can further motivate people to take a leap of faith in whatever they are trying to achieve. The left-most penguin on the ledge that is about to dive into the water exemplifies the use of psychic line. The positioning of his downward-angled head guides viewer’s eyes towards the single penguin, the focal point emphasized by isolation, that is about to hit the water. The visual balance of this photograph is also striking because even though the huge block of iceberg is shifting the visual weight to the right, the leftward movement of the penguins drives the image to equilibrium. Overall, the success of these inspirational posters is mainly due to its use of both images and words to convey an idea and emotion.

 http://www.listicles.com/wp-content/upload/brains.jpg

Many people, as a result, imitated the format for these posters, and instead of motivating people, used it to draw a more humorous response.

Mom's Cancer

On November 2, 2010, author Brian Fies visited our Design 001 class to talk about his comic-style book Mom’s Cancer. Fies explains that he wrote his book about his mother’s cancer in a comic-style because he wants make this hard and personal experience more relatable to other people whether they’ve experienced the struggles of fighting cancer or not. Comic is basically a mixture between art and literature. The words are equally as important as the images drawn, making them interdependent.

On page 10 of Fies’ book Mom’s Cancer, he depicts his mom’s experience of literally “drowning” in words when people try to explain to her the facts and process of cancer treatment. In this case, rather than seeing words and images, the words have basically become the background image for this particular strip. The form of the words and the images makes full use of the kinesthetic empathy, evoking our sense of emotion, to communicate to the audience a sense of being overwhelmed. The reader can try reading the background words, but the words do not form complete coherent sentences, thus further contributing to the content and idea of confusion. Fies allows his mother to become the center focal point of this slide simply by surrounding her with the mass jumble of words, making her the only “picture” used. Even though this slide creates mental disorientation, the repetition of the background words creates an allover pattern, a technique called crystallographic balance, and a sense of rhythm that brings harmony and visual unity to the overall context. Fies also uses only black and white hues in his comic on most of his pages to ensure that the audience focuses more on the content of the book rather than simply the aesthetics. There is also movement in the way Fies drew his mother; as a reader, we can imagine her drowning, and struggling to stay afloat.

Sources:

Fies, Brian. Mom's Cancer

Fruits and Swimmers

Grabbing a fruit from the Dining Commons after every meal eventually resulted in an amassed pile of fruits on my dorm table. Not knowing what do to with them, I simply decided to arrange them so that they would look nice. But before I even started, I noticed the effect of gestalt at work.

Photo take by Diane Wu

The arrangement of the two apples with the banana created a face! As Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics would say, “We humans are a self-centered race. We see ourselves in everything” (32, 33). Fruits have no relations to humans, and yet, I was able to see a face and project my emotions onto the fruits; the fruit looks very happy! Through such a simple placement of fruit in a way that looks like part of the face, we are able to use gestalt and assign a personality to the fruit and create many other assumptions about it.

 http://www.rehabdesign.co.uk/talk/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/swimmer.jpg

Gestalt can be applied to countless designs found all over the world, one of which is in London titled Swim. It is a sculpture of a giant man swimming in a large field of grass. Although passersby only see the exposed left foot, the right shoulder, and arms of the swimmer, people immediately assume that the rest of the missing body parts are hidden under the grass. However, that is not the case since the commissioners did not even manufacture the rest of the body. This immediate assumption is due to gestalt; people tend to see everything as a “unified whole” when they are only given parts of a whole. This is an interesting concept designers must keep in mind. Oftentimes, what we don’t see requires the use of our imagination to fill in the empty gaps; the imagination portion of the design may be even more important and interesting than the actual object displayed for viewers to see.

Sources:

http://www.rehabdesign.co.uk/category/art/ 

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics.

Industrial Design

The most conspicuous object in my room is undeniably the giant, bright yellow mug that sits next to my computer. I see it every day, drink from it every day, and set it aside whenever it is not in use. I saw it as a functional mug and not an object that was industrially designed, until now.

 Photo by Diane Wu

This mass-produced object of industrial design is monochromatic with different intensity in the color of yellow. The rhythmic pattern of circular yellow dots that encircles the mug and the handle conveys a sense of repetition. The dot patterns also slightly use gradation with the smaller circles at the bottom of the mug, and larger circles closer to the rim of the mug. Each dot conveys a theme of nature that includes the sun, which explains the incorporation of the dominant yellow color. The suns are depicted in a rather cartoon-like image with wavy lines representing the rays emanating from the sun, conveying a sense of movement. Each sun has an individualized face that displays a particular emotion such as sadness, happiness, or uncertainty. These faces, however, are very simply drawn, so it allows us to project ourselves into the image of the sun, making the mug more personable and relatable. Through the rhythmic repetition from the circles, the mug was able to bring unity with the variety of sun images. Although the mug has a formal balance due to its symmetry in form, the designs on the mug has an informal visual balance due to the differences in the images in each circle. The form of the mug, similar to an upside-down cone where the rim is wider than its base, determines the function and content of this mug. The size of the mug, its form, convinced me to bring it to college because it influences how much water I can pour into the mug, which is its content.

It is remarkable to note that humans are able to make so much judgments and analysis from a single insignificant object.

How Form and Content Intersect in Objectified

The documentary Objectified introduced us to the world of industrial design, which is a branch of the design industry most people often overlook. Industrial design focuses on redesigning the shapes of everyday object people use to make our daily lives easier and more convenient without even realizing it. As a result, Objectified showed that the form of the objects we use everyday affects the content of our happiness and convenience.

The redesigning of the hedge trimmer handles sets a perfect example for how the form and shape of the gardening tool can affect the content of our gardening experience. Simply adjusting the form by adding curves and a bulb to the tip of the straight handle allows people to have a better grip without putting more energy or effort into their trimming work. Although this may seem like a small feat, it could mean the difference between whether or not the gardener will have a strained and sore arm when he wakes up the next morning, thus, affecting the worker’s overall gardening experience. It is all these little unnoticed things in life that can add up and define our day.

The Apple Company was one of the earliest companies to realize that the designs encasing their products may sometimes be even more important than the function of the product themselves. As a result, they hired the genius designer Jonathan Ives, whom basically launched the Apple Company to success from his designs. Computers before the late 1990s were all box-like, chunky, and neutral-colored, so Jonathan Ive probably thought to himself, “What would make the computer experience more enjoyable and aesthetically pleasing?” They came up with the iMac, which gave the apple computers clear, bright casings that stood out from the rest of the computers during that time. By simply adjusting and redesigning the form and color of the computer, the content of the user’s experience is dramatically more enjoyable and uplifting; computers brought not only function, but also pleasure to their users. As a natural instinct, people often gravitate towards designs and objects that are aesthetically pleasing.Therefore, the Apple Company justified the fact that the design behind their technology is just as important as the technology itself.

http://images.macworld.com/images/news/graphics/135017-imacbondi_376.jpg

Sources:
Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit
http://www.macworld.com/article/135017/2008/08/imacanniversary.html

Comparison and Contrast: Impressionism v. Photorealism

From the time of the Renaissance up until the invention of photography, the goals of many painters were to paint images that looked real and life-like. However, after the invention of photography, many artists became disillusioned in painting life-like images because what takes them days or even weeks to paint, will simply take a few hours for a picture to develop. 

 http://www.mrdowling.com/images/704mosalisa.jpg

 http://library.thinkquest.org/27927/Centur4.jpg

Eventually, a wave of art movement called Impressionism appeared in Europe from 1867 to 1886 to counteract the invention of photography and its ability to create exact replicas of the world around us. Impressionist painters’ works basically look like actual paintings rather than replicas of the real world by bringing unmixed colors straight onto the canvas. Impressionists paint with small series of strokes in order to create an overall effect when viewed from far away. From close-up, the painting seems like a messy mixture of random colors; however, each step back the viewer takes creates a different experience, and eventually, once the viewer is standing far enough, the human eye will automatically mix those individual colored strokes together and a recognizable overall picture magically appears.

 http://cdn0.mattters.com/photos/photos/579685/photorealism_056.jpg

A century later, the desire to create realistic images with paint on canvas appeared once more. This new movement, photorealism, actually worked with the technology of photography by painting from photos. Photorealism artworks are actual paintings that resemble pictures taken from a camera. The lighting, color, and texture of the items or people depicted in the painting are so accurate that it often requires people to give a double-take before realizing the artwork is in fact a painting and not a photograph.

Impressionism and photorealism relate in that they both focus on being innovative and different from the dominant art movement before their time. They are not afraid to think differently from prior art styles and create their own movements in the art world. Both styles also have a strong focus on texture. Although both styles of paintings are directly affected by the invention of photography, the end results of the artworks are at opposite ends of the spectrum; impressionism revolves around painting sceneries and events with the idea of abstract colors and painterly strokes, while photorealism focuses more on the minute details of specific objects or people.

sources:

Pioch, Nicolas. "Impressionism." Ibiblio.org - Storytelling. WebMuseum, 19 June 2006. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/impressionism/>

"Photorealism." Art Cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. <http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/photorealism.html>

Design as Conversation

Design is not solely based upon the aesthetics; it can often be used as a method of communication to convey the artist’s belief and ideas about a certain issue to the public. As a result, it would require its audience to understand the designer’s intentions so that they may respond to it; this is exactly what a conversation is: a method of communication in which both the designer and the viewer interact together. It is the most important step as a designer, being able to communicate the idea to a broad range of audience, because design is often a collaborative work. In order to work together, people must understand the purpose or goal for which they are working towards.

Interactive art is a style of art that allows art to speak out to the public and have its viewers participate in response. Rather than “tell” the audience what they should do or believe, interactive art allows the public to join in on the idea and participate right along with it.

http://www.blackrockarts.org/scrapeden/Compost-spiral-pttp.jpg

An example is the Composting Contraption created for the ScrapEden project in San Francisco, whose main goal is to educate everyone about the joys of composting. The Composting Contraption is basically a manually-powered machine that uses the science of kinetic energy to turn the barrel for a composting bin. The materials used to make this machine were either recycled or reused, which is a wonderful way to stay green and help reduce the trash in our environment. This mobile compost design will travel through the area, educating children and adults alike, to enlighten them about composting methods and ways to recycle. They hope to maintain San Francisco’s zero waste goals.

Sources:

ScrapEden SF 2010 — Black Rock Arts Foundation." — Black Rock Arts Foundation. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. .

Rediscovering Design

Even when confined inside a building, one can still find creativity from the limited surrounding. I feel that I often find my creativity by being spontaneous. I take whatever I find in front of me, think of what I can do with it, and begin working towards the first idea that appears in my head.

 Photo by Diane Wu

As represented by the photo, I created six cubes from scotch tape, and began arranging them in certain patterns. It wasn’t until I placed them inside a clear rectangular container and shook the cubes into different arrangements that I remembered Kostas Terzidis’ article on The Etymology of Design: Pro-Socratic Perspective. He states that “design is about the derivative of something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact,” meaning designers never create something new because it already existed before, the same way a fact will always exist. Designers simply arrange and rearrange certain things so that it may appear different or innovative. However, it had already existed before.  We simply rediscovered it once more.

My six cubes in a clear plastic container replicated this idea by showing that no matter how much we shake the container and rearrange the cubes into different patterns, these patterns are not newly created by the designer. These limited arrangements have already been discovered before, but human memory can only live so long. When the new idea is forgotten, it will be rediscovered in the future as something “new”, and the cycle continues into the future. No matter how creative or original a designer may seem, a design similar to theirs have probably been already used in the past, but in such a small scale that the original idea of the past designer was soon forgotten.

 Photo by Diane Wu

 Photo by Diane Wu

Sources: 

Terzidis, Kostas. "The Etymology of Design: Pro-Socratic Perspective." MIT Press Journals. 5 Oct. 2007. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?sid=mit&genre=article&id=doi:10.1162/desi.2007.23.4.69>.

Finding Creativity From Our Surrounding

It is October, and I can already see the leaves on the trees changing colors from green to yellow, orange, and red. The warm breeze of the wind animates the trees and brings them to life, lifting the already-fallen leaves off the ground and sending them into a spiraling frenzy. The fallen red and yellow leaves reminded me of Andy Goldsworthy’s Rowan Leaves Laid Around a Hole, 1987. Goldsworthy is an excellent example of an artist who was able to find creativity from his surrounding and the things he sees.

http://prettisculpture.typepad.com/photos/other_artists_3/andy_goldsworthy_rowan_leaves_with_hole.jpg

Although I admire all his artworks, I am especial awestruck by not only his creativity, but his ability to create the Icicle Star, which he pieced together with saliva. Each icicle stick he carefully collected, in the shape of a long cone, is delicate and perfectly straight. Goldsworthy created an illusion, make the star appear to stand or float on its own in the picture. It is truly amazing to see how by simply using only nature as a source of inspiration and medium, humans can tap into their artistic gift and create something so beautiful. Sometimes, going back to the most basic inspirations, we are able to create the most beautiful artwork.

 

http://brandonk10.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/icicle-star.jpg

So for those who are artists or designers, the next time you become frustrated at the inability to think of something creative, simply a stroll through the forest or in nature as a way to relax from the stress. You might just find the inspiration you were searching for.

UCD ASID (American Society of Interior Designers)

I recently attended the first UCD ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) meeting held at Walker Hall last Tuesday, and although I understand that there are very few Interior Design students at UC Davis, I was still rather sad to see how few people showed up for it. To my astonishment, the club president seemed rather impressed by the turn out, mentioning that this was more than she had originally expected. This furthered my disappointment.

However, besides my opinion of a small turn out, the club itself seems very active. ASID has a clear goal to focus on its members and help provide them with resources for their future career. The officers are also very helpful and welcoming. During the first meeting, we were shown a PowerPoint which introduced the important design professors whom we already have or might have in future classes. And although I am still only a first year, ASID not only provided us with a list of excellent graduate schools that has a strong Design focus, it also listed the requirements to get into the schools. Knowing the requirements early is extremely beneficial so that we won’t accidentally miss something when the time comes. 

 Slide from ASID Ppt

ASID is also already looking for potential future officers to train so that those who graduate in 2011 will be able to leave ASID in strong hands. So for those of you designers reading my blog and interested in applying for ASID officer position, email them at ucdasid@gmail.com for an application, and turn it in before October 17^th!

And for those of you reading this blog, whether you may be a graphics design major, a fashion major or not even in the field of design, you are all welcome to join ASID. Who knows, they just might be handing out free cookies like the first meeting that I went to!

Stone Soup

I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Stone Soup Fable since childhood about a soldier coming home from war and trying to make soup out of a rock. Eventually, curious town folks pass by and each decide to add carrots, lettuce, seasoning, and other foods into the pot; thus, the stone soup is made!

Inspired by this old story, students from Housefield’s DES001 class were assigned to bring random materials and objects from their homes to compile together and create a “stone soup,” although this one is not actually edible. My group brought glitter, glue, paintbrushes, cardboard, feathers, scrapbook paper, and a soda bottle. Without a clue of what we were going to make, we simply picked up the pieces and began assembling it all together. And this is what we created…

All photos by Diane Wu

Staring at each other, we had no idea what our creation was. Eventually someone blurted out, “It looks like a dead parrot that crashed into a tree.” As a result, we named our artwork Parrot’s Funeral. It is interesting to see how by sticking completely random and irrelevant objects together, we can create a work of art. This “stone soup” project didn’t require us to portray a specific idea, but after completing the activity, our group leader Cody Torgersrud, explained that as an artist, no matter how ridiculous our work looks in the end, the most important skill is to have the ability to explain and defend it. There will always be people out there critiquing an artist’s work, thus, as a designer, one must refine our ability to speak and acquire the skill to sell our work to the public.

Self-expression

Design can be thought out, but it can also be spontaneous and random. According to the article Etymology of Design: Pre-Socratic Perspective by Kostas Terzidis, the word “design” in Greek means incomplete, about, anticipation, and unfinished; even the definition itself is rather ambiguous. Even something as insignificant as the arrangement of multi-colored pins on my wall is design and I am the artist because I was responsible for the random placements of the pins. Design is simply a form of self-expression.

 Photo by Diane Wu

This is exactly why so many artists in the modern world are often misunderstood by the public for their creations. The modern mentality of artists is to use art as a form of personal self-expression. Many artists ceased to create art to please the public; rather, they create art to please themselves. Although many modern arts compared to the arts of the Renaissance seem much more simplified, it is still design.

Jackson Pollock, one of the many misunderstood modern artists, painted using the technique of splattering paint from a brush into a large canvas laid out on the ground. Although he did achieve fame during his lifetime and was accepted as an artist, critics often claimed that his paintings were not art. They argue that any uneducated person can splatter paint into a canvas and achieve the same result as his work. However, Pollock’s paintings were not about whether it can be reciprocated, it was about his ability to express his emotions through the colors that he uses and to engulf himself and be actually part of his painting. His paintings bring him joy and individuality, which is exactly the purpose of art and design.

  http://www.arthistoryspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/painting_jackson_pollock.jpg

Sources:

Terzidis, Kostas. "The Etymology of Design: Pre-Socratic Perspective." Massachusetts Institute of Technology 23 (2007). Print.

Prehistoric Designs

Originally, I chose the class Intro to Archaeology simply to fulfill my General Education credits, and also because it sounded interesting considering I had taken AP Art History back in high school. However, after a few classes, I realized how artifacts left behind by prehistoric humans could provide modern humans with clues to their past. Past human designs managed to build a bridge for us to rediscover a world long forgotten.

Archaeology, put simply, is the study of human history. Thus, archaeologists appropriate a large portion of their time excavating for and interpreting artifacts, which are objects modified by humans. A few examples of artifacts archaeologists may find are arrowheads, potsherds (broken pottery pieces), and stone tools. These objects are all designed by prehistoric humans, and archaeologists note that the designs for these tools become more complex and intricate over time. As a result, archaeologists are often interested in studying everything design-related in order to establish an overall picture of past human history.

A site that most fascinates me is the Lascaux Cave located in France. At first glance, once sees paintings of animals such as bulls and horses on the ceilings of the cave, not very impressive. I’m sure we’ve all been able to draw animals since Kindergarten. Most archaeologists reacted the same way when these paintings were first discovered, ignorant of the origins of these paintings. A few years later, other archaeologists took interest in these cave paintings, and after scrutinizing and testing the accumulated dirt on the walls, they realized that the animals were painted about 17,000 years ago! This is one of the earliest paintings ever discovered so far!

http://www.frenchfriends.info/g2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&amp;g2_itemId=708&amp;g2_serialNumber=2

The desire for humans to create and design has been imprinted into our genes since the beginning of time. Despite the hassle and extra effort to simply mix the paints by scavenging different colored materials to grind up, prehistoric humans put aside the time to hunt for food in order to express and draw what they see. It is amazing to see how even thousands of years ago, humans had the ability to scrutinize the make-up of particular animals and understand enough of its structure to recreate a three dimensional animal into a two dimensional painting. In the modern world, design has truly taken a step further every century since the paintings in the Lascaux Cave. Now, we have created a world overwhelmed by human designs.

Sources:
Kelly, Robert L., and David Hurst Thomas. Archaeology: Down to Earth. Fourth ed. Davis: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.

The Slinky!

Sitting alone in my dorm on a Sunday afternoon, I can’t help but look around me and notice that the only object not considered “design” are the half-wilted yellow flowers plopped in the clear cylindrical vase on my roommate desk. However, even that is design if we consider the arrangement of the flowers and the way the florists had cut them. Design is all around us, whether we notice it, or simply take it for granted. The forks and spoons we eat with, the bed we sleep in, the video games we play, they are all design.

My greatest fascination with design occurred when I was about four years old and my parents bought me my first Slinky. At first glimpse, the rainbow-colored circular coils did not impress me very much, but curiosity led me to hold out my fingers and lift the coils up by one end. The movement of the coils back and forth, up and down, created a wave that blended the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violent colors of the rainbow together; in certain parts of the slinky, the colors disappeared and turned into shades of gray. I was too young to realize that by mixing colors together, I could create a new color; I thought it was magic!

My older brother, who was then six years old, had apparently played with the Slinky at school before, and demonstrated the “walking down the staircase” trick. I did not understand that it was gravity that allowed the Slinky to “walk,” and became even more fascinated by this mysterious toy. I must have spent the entire day pulling, tugging, and throwing the Slinky like a whip, mesmerized by the vibration of the back and forth movement of the coils and the high-pitched “slink slink” sound it created. Every night, before putting the Slinky away into the toy box, I would compact the coils together and rub my index finger up and down the corrugated surface listening to the soft “zzzzzttt” sound it created.

Although I grew up and eventually lost interest in the Slinky, I continue to be fascinated by the mysteries of color and the genius designs humans were able to discover in this world. I hope that in the future, I will also be able to make my own discoveries and leave an imprint in the world of design.

sources:
http://www.sz-wholesale.com/uploadFiles/upimg8/Rainbow-Slinky-Spring-1318.jpg