what is a good design?

Good design catches human interests.

How does color transform design?

How does color transform design?

Color as a design element has its significant power to control and change the entire completion. There are many theories and rules about the study of color, but professor Albers suggests people to learn how color works by experiencing. Along with this idea, designers could try to leave the theories and rules of the color systems behind, instead, observing colors by the visual experiment.

Color Study #1. BW VS. COLORED

The experience of seeing black and white pictures compare to colored pictures would help designers knowing how color can transform a design. For example, there are two pictures with same contents, one is in blank and white, and the other one is colored. The out come is they would deliver a vast of distinct feelings to the viewer. Historically, the development of film or animation started with black and white. Later on, as the technology improved, color produced. But what does this change effects people’s thinking is that people automatically receive the concept and understanding of “color represents time”. This also becomes a reason of why do we still have black and white pictures and films today. Color has the ability to create the atmosphere and environment of the old time. As a result, This is the understanding of color for every body by their visual experience.

Color Study #2. When varieties of color mixed together.

The short film “Logorama” is an example of how different colors join together and create rhythms and harmony in design. In the film, the producer used hundreds of well know logos to present a story. As an illustration, logo design requires simplicity and clearness; a logo design usually does not have too many colors. The main reason is these simple styles would easy for people to remember and recognize. Thus, by presenting hundreds of logos on one picture, the design would become more dynamic. A single logo will no longer like when it normally displays, instead, each logo becomes a part of the entire picture, like the building blocks on a structure. They play their own roles to reflect the idea of unity. Meanwhile, by zooming out, there are rhythms and harmony interpreted and built up a wonderful design. This is extremely the fascination of color in design.

Design Utopian...

A design utopian aims improve the society.

The term “utopia” originally addresses the idea of “a dreaming world”. According to its etymology, “U” means “not”, and “topos” refers to “place”. What does “ no place” mean? The interpretation might be some idea like an ideal place, or it could also be associated with the word “perfect”.

When this term uses to descript a design, it essentially denotes a perfect design that contains idealism and unassailability of its design in both aesthetic value and functional usage.

To detail it, mobile phones are the examples of utopian design that improve the human society. If somebody throw a question like “what can cellphones do?” there would be a long list of the answer answered by almost every human beings who lives on earth today. Mobile phone design has a long history of its development. There was not too much design on its shape when it was first invented. The earlier cellphone models were designed in very basic geometric forms, with plain color, mostly were black. But as time goes on, especially nowadays, more and more people start to pick on its aesthetics. Mobile phone design in the 21 century is becoming a lot distinguished than it was in the 90s. Today, cellphones are not only for making calls, but instead, it shows fashion, conveys performing functionalities. We can see the change of color, shape and materials of its design, and these changes have evaluated and improved day by day. As a complex design, mobile phone also requires the perfectness of design ergonomics as well. Consequently, it truly does improve the society, makes people’s lives more and more convenience. Predictably, in the future, cell phone would get more use in different ways because our designers will deliver the concept to a real completion to the world soon.

a DaNgErOuS Design.

A dangerous design

In the field of design, there is not always success. In fact, Failure designs exist. After learned the design ergonomics, I can somehow use it as a tool to measure a design whether succeed or fail in the five areas (safety, comfort, ease of use, performance and aesthetics).

The examples which could be sometimes considered as failure design are women’ dresses. Women love beautiful dresses is a common understanding upon the human civilization. Fashion designers normally tend to show their brilliance and passion when designing a lovely dress to attractive the audience’s eyeballs. Due to these reasons, sometimes designers are too focus on the beauty but lack the genomics on one entire design. For instance, some women’ dresses look good by the audience, but they are not truly comfortable for the person to wear. Furthermore, some really bad design could even cause danger to people’s health. I’ve read some reports about women who wear a 12 inches high-hill for a certain while and get their vein pressured and been sent to emergency. Also, there are some performers who wear a fantastic dress but got themselves exposed by unaware. The well know singer Lady Gaga, who always love to wear some crazy gears when she is performing, also reported by news about the defective design of her clothing that caused her some health problem.

Accordingly, dangerous designs are produced by the lack of ergonomic concerns. Designers should not only focus on the one part of a design, instead, a well considering of design ergonomics would help designers to succeed. This also can be associated with the idea of “gestalt”, the design criticism is to view a design as a whole and try to avoid focusing on one part.

Cell Phone Case Design.

As technology develops, cellphone become an essential to every of us. For fashion needs or asserting individualities, many people like to customize their cell phones in order to be different and unique from the others. Thus, a type of product: cell-phone case is getting more and more popular lately.

Cell phone case is design. It is type of art conveys expression form the creators. There are many artist have their work on the cell phone cases, it on one hand gives people varieties of choice to pick the one work they like and show their interest and taste. On the other hand, it also gives the designers self a chance to introduce and present their work to the world. This is somehow reveals the impact of design in the society.

In addition to its artistic values, cell phone case also can be designed personally and private, Then, for some people who like to have a memories storage, they would make a case with a family picture on, for this propose, the design can be considered as a monument. Thus, design becomes the happy element in people’s lives.

Another example is there are some gaming fans that would like to design a case as an icon to represent their team and show off their support. Those cases with logos and flags would tell other people the owner’s passion and sprit, which has also demonstrate design as a conversation. As a result, a cell phone case is a design that has capacity to tell a story. It moreover becomes a design media in human relationship, contains art, human interest and personality.

Five [五] Areas of Ergonomics in Design.

The topic “Basic of Design Criticism” requires five areas of ergonomics in a design or product, they are:

1. Safety

2. Comfort

3. Ease of use

4. Performance (productivity)

5. Aesthetics

These five areas of ergonomics would help define what is a good design and what is a failure. They are listed in this order because safety is always the most important point for a design to pass the quality certification and get into industrial production. Then, we start to measure a design from its comfort through how it looks.

A great example that reflects this theory is the iPod. By this year, Apple already has their iPod series into the 6^th generation, and the entire line is in its 10^thyear of production. The consumers have witnessed the changes and evolution of the iPod product for a decade, and who also has enough authority to experience iPod in the five areas of its design ergonomics. The result is, at some level, the huge demand of iPod on the market tells that iPod is a good design that meets the design ergonomics in the five areas.

First, the iPod media player is satisfied with the safety issue. It is built up with ordinary industrial standard materials like the other electronics. In addition, because iPod uses metal as the material for some parts, the design of its form is seemed very considered and proper, for instance, the design avoids the sharpness edges of the materials and with some parts of frosted surface as well; this also directly transfers into the second point: comfort. For a handy portable electronic device, iPod is well designed to handle, especially for different ages. Designers have also reduced the weight and size of the iPod through the generations in order to meet the comfort standard. For instance, the oldest version is about five times thicker then the latest one. Then, the “use” part, moreover, can be associated with its performance. The simple way to control and setting the iPod is an extraordinary experience compared to other similar products; Both the classical “Wheel-Control” circle on the older models and the modern touch screen gives users a convenient feeling, likewise its performing functions. The iPod today is not only a Walkman; Instead, it contains many functional abilities for entertainment. The designer creatively made the small piece of metal as a media player with Internet accessing, gaming, camera and other functions in a one, which is one of the biggest successes to make a design to attract customer’s desire. Finally, the discussion goes to the aesthetics of the design. Color seems to play a big role in this area because of many reasons. The most significant usage is how the color would give the costumers a variety of choices, which helps the product get a good number of the market share. As a result, the designer helps to run the economy by designing a popular product.

In conclusion, the ergonomics in a design is influential. Each of the points needs to be scrutinized carefully, then the all of the five areas can predict whether a design succeeds or fails in the consumer market. Designers should always remember the ergonomics of design as a criticism rule.

How Words and Images work together in a Design setting?

There are many design forms applies the combining of words and images. A good well know example is the comic books.

Comic book is a media or design form that existed in our lives for a long time, the history about comic books are from long ago, it has discussed in McCloud’s book. When Egyptians created the wall paintings, the concept of juxtaposed images had born. Then it has developed upon time. Until people discovered that by using juxtaposed image with words, the combination has a chemical reaction for an importance use which is “story telling.”

Our guest Brian Fies has a speech about his works and design experience in class. He introduced to us how he uses comic books to tell his own story (which is his first book about his mother’s cancer, it is very a private family story he shared with people by using comic as the media) and also the design process he has had. He stated that comic “transcends words and drawings” in order to “illustrate things” and most specifically, it “tells stories.” Thus, I have found reflection to our earlier topic, “design is a conversation.”

Comic is a design form and also as a conversation, it uses simple drawings in a juxtaposed way with few words to tell the readers a long and complicated story. The exchange of message between the creator and the readers is successfully built a conversation. In this setting, images and words are the elements to fill-in the design structure or form (the book), and then the completion (comic) becomes the media to deliver the message. This is how words and images work together and have a fascinate impact.

LOGOs.

If we look around and pay a little attention to our dally lives, we can find that the logos are around us everywhere. Logo is a type of design that not only affects but also as a part of people’s lives. As a design, logo could tell a lot more then what we see within the essay geometric shapes, by thinking deeply, I discovered many things about it in behind.

First, logos are simple because it asks for. Companies use logo to show their brand in an essay way for people to recognize, this would also help people to remember. For instance, the world well know fast food company McDonald’s use its capital letter “M” as its logo, it is almost a pure form of letter without any decoration, but it is enough for people to recognize and remember.

Secondly, logo is a design form of visual communication; still, McDonald’s example would interpret this well. Drivers on freeway would always find and stop by the restaurant when they see the “M”.

Thirdly, logo requires two important design elements, shape and color. This is a study lesson for designers rather then the viewers. Besides McDonald’s, there are still many companies use letters or words as their brand logo. To show the individuality and unique, designers have to design the font or the shape of the letters, in the process, there might be hundreds of plans based on the very few letters. This is the potential of design, which is to seek possibilities. In addition, color is also important, especially in a logo when a design with very limited usage of elements. Color has different temperatures; these temperatures create emotion and feelings. Designers have to choose the right color to make a logo that represents the company and products in a proper way.

In conclusion, I think logo is a tough design subject. Although the completion is simple, but in fact, there are meanings, representation and other design concern in behind. Designers have to think about the stories and learn the way to manage elements from the successful logo designs.

Learn Color in Design

The Christmas ornaments and decorations are good examples to show the significant usage of color in design. During the holiday seasons, we can see these kinds of carnival look design in many places, there are colorful and vivid in order to build a happy atmosphere over people.

Color is a big subject in design, and also an ordinary substance in our lives. In the book “Design Basics”, Lauer states, “our world today is marked by bold uses of color in every area of ordinary living. We can make color choices for everything from home applies to bank checks.” Therefore, color absolutely plays a role during the holidays. For instance, red and green are always the primaries for Christmas, in addition, orange and black are automatically lead people into the Halloween atmosphere.

If we question that why and how can color tell season and holidays? I think it is because the ability of color can affect our visual understanding and feelings. Color has temperatures in order to control our emotion through our vision. There are basic three categories of color, warm, cold and neutral. Different degrees of color would put people into different mood; for instance, red gives a feeling of passion and blue would create calm. However, designers have to learn and study color because color is a big matter of visual communication. To make a successful design, the color selections are a concern for designers to interpret. In other words, designers should use the right color form the field to meet their needs, and to present it effectively.

How Form n Content Interact? in "OBJECTIFIED".

There are many designs around us in life which hold both functionality and aesthetics. Rather than just being an object with dutiful practicability, a good design has to have a fine surface too; this is why people study design.

The mass-produced industrial design I have found from the film is the Macbook computer form Apple. As we know, Apple is one of the most successful companies in the world, especially at nowadays; their products sweep into people’s lives in many aspects. If we think about the reason of the huge demand of Apple products by consumers, we will find that they are wonderful designs work in the ways of both functional and aesthetic; in other words, Apple smartly knows how to use materials to build up their design form in order to present the content, which means the daily usage of a computer.

There is an interview of Jonathan Ive, who is the industrial designer of Apple Company, in the film. He talks about the design of Macbook during his interview. According to him, the idea of his laptop design is to let people feel it is “undersigned” and just “naturally in this way”. He than explains how he choose the materiel and put them into the producing process. This interview shows how Ive think and care about the form of design. Fortunately I’ve got a latest model of the Macbook Air days ago, which is also designed by Ive. I have found another interview of him talks about his new work in the introduction video. The Macbook Air is the thinnest laptop in the world today; this accomplishment has made this laptop a lot distinguish from the others. To be more specific, in this case, the content of design is very simple, a laptop, which ordinarily uses by students to do their home work, or for businessmen to do their management. On the other hand, the form of design is the appearance, the look of a laptop; it is about the materials, the color, the shape and even the weight. Consequently, the form becomes more important of presenting the content in here. When a designer conceits the form cannily, the distinction is oblivious.

In conclusion, I think the form of a design is a very significant element works for the content. At the time when it presents the content of a design, it also makes a design special; much more interesting, it would asks more views to love a design.

Learn to Play

We have learned that good designers also have to “play well” from many experienced designers or artist like Tom Friedman, which I believe is very true because design asks us to do so. “Play” is important, it gives designers inspiration, metaphorically like open a door for designers to seek which we normally can’t see in the books but many possibilities of making a design.

I have just experienced it with the candy I got for Halloween. First of all, if we could think carefully, the colored gummy bears are just ordinary objects, like table, chair, bike…etc. but when I try to play with and observe it, the gummy bear becomes a good material for a good design. Secondly, by puzzling the gummy bears around into shapes; I experienced much posibility of applying design principles. For instance, by putting the bears into different shapes and forms, I found out it could affect the whole composition; by gathering and separating the color spectrum, it changes the harmony and rhythm of the design. This “play” is verily like a lab, for me to learn and see how design develops in a process.

In conclusion, I think “play” provides a vast field of possibility and puritanical of creativity for designer to dive in, there is always new ideas and inspiration come to our mind when we play. Designers have to play and also play well.

by Resource Furniture. Design Content and From.

Furniture is an excellent example to interpret the interaction of form and content in a design. A piece of furniture is a completed form of its content (which is its functionality). Furniture plays a significant role in people’s lives, it helps people organize stuffs, provides them living environment in everywhere, from public to private. The list of furniture’s function is endless, but a good design would only use one piece to convey the unnumbered functions. In other words, a good design is a product of concept, idea and plan.

This video is about a series of conceptual furniture design by Resource Furniture. It shows how their furniture is designed with abilities to transform its forms and shapes into different usage in situations. The major point is to give a piece of furniture unlimited potential of functionality within a limited space. For instance, many of their furniture are designed as chair or couch in their regular form, then people can easily pull out the parts (which are normally as a wall shelf ) and fold them into a bed. This great idea helps many small house hoods rationally used the space. Meanwhile, these transformable furniture pieces also have numbers of function in one which recalled the idea of putting ideas into a form.

In short, this clip of conceptual furniture interprets both the process and results of putting design content: ideas, plans and concept, into objects (forms) which is the interaction of content and form.

Design as Conversation: the Signs

“Design as a Conversation.” I interpreted this idiom as saying that design is the bridge between the creator and the viewers. Without verbal language, a design should tell the viewers the story that the designer wants to deliver. In other words, I believe that design is a very strong tool for people to communicate with each other over the society.

The designs I’ve found which apply the usage as conversation are the signs and icons that appear almost everywhere in our lives. The design of signs is essential because the functional purpose. There is no verbal exchange between the sign and the reader, but there is still conversation between the designers and the receivers. The road signs and the restrooms signs are good everyday examples.

First, the function and responsibly of the road signs are to let the passengers and cars know their direction and warn them of environmental conditions. The design is usually very simple, with basic but representative shape and form of an object. For instance, when there is road construction, the sign may portray a pile of rocks and a shovel. Or, the curved lines always appear on the signs when warning the driver of upcoming loops or winding roads. Furthermore, the color choice for the signs is also a important element. Red and yellow are often used because they are highlighting colors and stand out from the surround environment, easily attracting people’s attention. To create conversation, designers use very basic elements to send out the message of importance so that the receivers can easily comprehend what the sign is communicating, and respond to it. This action in between is a well applied interaction and conversation. Without verbal language, the designer has successfully organized a dialogue

Another very useful design which hosts a conversation is the restroom sign. Apparently, the restroom signs convey gender. The importance of the restroom signs is that it helps people across the country. Although some frequent travelers may speak or have learned more than one language, there are still people traveling among countries for work, business or other propose, who don’t know another language well. Consequently, the restroom signs in the airports, restaurants, hotels or other public places are play a very important role in directing people. Pointing out a very simple and clear message, it saves people time, words, and is very convenient to foreigners. At this point, design becomes a globalized communication tool, and has a vast impact.

The design of signs is part of iconography; it looks simple but requires much social knowledge and design skills; it uses very basic elements to build up a very powerful and convinced concept. This concept will become a non-verbal conversation between almost every single person who lives on the earth. By experiencing this application of icons and signs frequently, the conversation of design will be passed on and on.

shoes.

This is an interesting design, I like the idea of combining feet and shoes in a transform way, it look very photorealistic. Besides the creative part of this pair of feet-shoes, they also make me think of a story behind.

People wear shoes when walking, this habit has been continuing until today since the civilizations. The shoe manufacturing has growing larger and larger. For instance, when you walk into a shoe store, you will probably brows more then hundred of shoes. Women love high hills for their dressing style, men take the sinning Leathers as their business essentials; and, there are also shoes for sports, for children…etc. although there is fashion needed, but if we think about it deeply and ask ourselves, do we really need that many shoes? Maybe the answer will be varying, but at least, some people would say “we don’t.” In addition, as the shoe manufactories found the value of their loyal costumers, there are many super expensive shoes begin to put on the market. I do not think this is a good idea to mark a pair of shoe with a lot zeros on the price tag because over all, the purpose of shoe is just for walking.

This design has leaded me back to the original purpose of shoes, when I see the naked human feet; I discovered that shoes are just a adding to our life, we walk with our feet but shoes. If we can really get rid of the complexity and the slicks，we will back to the origin and nature.

I also learned that when an object is being spoiled too much, it will lose its original function and purpose; instead, it would have some negative impacts to out life.

Comparison and Contrast: Mona Lisa.

This fat Mona Lisa shows that as a design element, scale is very important; it has the power to change the whole composition and meaning of a design. By changing the scale of Mona Lisa’s face, the picture has been given some sort of humor, and the aspect goes very far from classical. Apparently, the original Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci has a super powerful meaning on the art history; it represents the classical art even as an icon, and the accomplishment of its aesthetic has been lauding to a top level until today. On the other hand, when I look at the fat Mona Lisa, I fully get rid of the classical feeling of the original painting, instead, I want to laugh. Yet, the impact of the new design comes more obvious, by changing its scale; the new Mona Lisa leads the viewer to a very different way.

However, although scale changes the picture a lot from the original, but the dress, background and other element still makes the viewers to recognize the woman in the picture is (or transformed from) Mona Lisa. This shows that design is built by many elements, those elements work together to puzzle a whole. Depends on how much change a designer wants to make on the original, the much distance will be built. These changes will always create some new meaning.

Introducing the PlayStation®Move

As a design major student who is also a gamer, I always associate art and design with video games, also movies and music as well. I believe design is not about immobility: motion coexists as a part of design like always. Today, I am so excited about the new invention from Sony, the motion controller for Play-Station, the Play-Station Move!

The notion of a video game motion controller emerged back several years ago, when the world’s top gaming company, Nintendo, announced their Wii console, the revolution of a new age gaming experience began. And apparently, Sony is behind a little bit, but when it’s ready to join the revolution, it brings the world a new idealized gaming experience which I think is a lot better then Wii.

I like the design of the Play-Station Move because of many reasons: the major one is the light ball on the top of the stick controller. When the controller is powered on, the rubber ball on the top of the controller will light on, blinking slowly and transmitting colors. How cool the design is! I can even gaze at it and watch the colors change for a few minutes in dark.

Another cool fact of its design is that the gamer can see their self in the game. The idea of combining real live capture with the game is so fantastic. For instance, in the game “Start the Party,” the gamer’s movement and surroundings are captured by the camera. When it turns to the TV display, the game combines the real background and the gamer self with built scenes, and the controller will become different tools and weapons held by the gamer, it creates the illusion for feeling you are really placed in different scenes as what you can see on TV display. This is impossible for the gaming devices in the 90s. Of course, the motion controller still has many other cool functions beyond. However, the idea of its design is very creative and interesting, both the Wii and Play-Station Move give gaming a new distinct aspect compared to the traditional gaming experience.

From this example, I can see that design is really changing the world in different realms. The new gaming experience is leading the entertainment up to a higher level. And we all enjoy the change, the innovation that design “does” and “is doing.”

Stone Soup Activity

Today, we spent most of class time doing a very exciting activity- making a stone soup. This is an outdoor activity, taking place outside of our classroom, which has a more serious atmosphere.

First of all, I think the benefit of taking an activity outside of the classroom is being able to relax easily. While we were sitting on the grass and making our stone soup, we also enjoyed the nature: sunshine within an unlimited working space. Secondly, it also taught me that the working space is very important for an artist or designer to gathering their inspiration.

The piece we made today is a figure that has a bald ball head with funny face expression. Because of our ethnic materials, this figure has a very Asian look. It also gave us a sense of how to extend the design within the theme. Consequently, we added the surroundings and background included the traditional Asian fringe flags, Japanese bamboo umbrella, and bento lunch box with chopsticks, etc. to our lovely body. In the process of this design, I learned how to incorporate the design element into a specific theme, and choose the decorations to match it. Indeed, there are plenty of elements and materials we can pick to make a design, but how to use them effectively and correctly is the question for designers. To answer this question, I would say team work.

The stone soup activity taught me the importance of team work, the benefits we can get is a lot more then we think about. First, when a group of people works on a design project together, it means the team would have an infinite amount of inspiration. It would help the design be more successful. Next, advice and discussions would help every single person in the group to avoid getting stuck at a dead end. Finally, based on my experience, group work also helps to manage and organize design elements and materials. The very last point: this experience really conforms to what doctor Housefeld said in class earlier, “designers need to work in a team.”

Creativity from Without

One day, a friend asked me to go to an art supply store to get some paper for her class. And of course, I went with her.

After we returned to her apartment, she started to peel off the bar code tags which were sticky on the back of the sheets. She then put those tags one by one on the table. When I saw them, they were kind of connected and all rolled together with a certain height like a little structure. After she peeled off the last piece, she wanted to throw them away, but I stopped her.

I observed them arbitrarily in different angles and asked myself if this can be considered as a design, and I am sure to say, why not. I think this is an example of creativity from without, just like Andy Goldsworthy did with the track lines on the onion leaves. The similarity I found is that both of the designs are innovative. They used not only very ordinary but also very cheap materials which we normally do not associate with art. It teaches me the unlimited possibility of design: everything can be transforming to an art work by design. This is the fascination of design, and it convinces people in its own way.

Furthermore, I discovered that designer should observe the world frequently, because everything around us can be use to make a design. Like mentioned in the article “The Etymology of Design,” design is not only about “novelty” or “trendiness”; in the process of designing an existence into a new form, there is always an innovation or a new life emerged.

funny- little- finger- bodies.

Many of us have played this: drawing on the fingers. But the very interesting part of this series of pictures is the combination with the background. I really like this idea.

First, it is a smart way to extend spaces for a design, and even recreates the shapes and forms. In the pictures, the arms and hands of those little bodies are drawn on the background paper, which have perfectly connected to the actual objects. It is a great applying which I want to keep in mind when I design. In fact, more then 90% of time, we separate an object and the background in a work. But art works are unnecessary to be in this way. This design has taught me to try something new, and not too boring.

Secondly, this is a good example that reflects the reading “the Etymology of Design” by Kostas Terzidis. I think the analyzing of design and creation about novelty in here is interpreted very well. Basically, the finger is a frequent design that appears in a lot of places. In this piece, it is the "origin" of the design. Then the creative part is the drawing on the background added to the finger bodies. I unscramble that is kind of novelty which is based on an existing, original design.

In conclusion, I think design is a fixable job. A design can be an base, and also could be an addition to an origin. It is hard to define it philosophically; in comparison, artists can always have their own definition of design.

我认为这一组图片真的很有意思，它吸引人的地方，完全在于创意，利用了物件本身和背景的结合。这样有趣的想法，是一个很好的应用，利用好玩的设计，逗笑了观赏者。

DES01是我来到UC DAVIS上的第一堂课，它并不像以往我所上过的课那样靠近STUDIO ART的范围，而是用概念的形式，让我思考，到底什么才是DESIGN, 设计的创意？设计的概念？设计的应用？…etc. 这也是我自己，第一次，花这么多时间，去想，去思考，深层的东西，关于我的科目。

第一个星期结束了，3堂课的学习经验，是我慢慢了解到了，DESIGN是一个很大很大的题目，是我以前并没有认识到的一个程度。这样的概念，是我觉得刺激，好奇，想更深入的了解，我们的思维，创意，设计到底能给我们自己以及这个世界带来什么样的改变。同时，也让我感受到压力，其实DESIGN是一个很严肃，很需要责任的功课，是一个严禁，认真的态度。

作为一个设计人，我还需要去做很多的功课，DEEPLY，探索，学习，研究，体验，经验。DESIGN不仅仅是艺术，它还是一门学问，是魔法，是改变。

COOKIE.

Cookie, with design! This picture inspired me not only because the special design of its form, but also the color scheme and the picture quality. Many thoughts come to me when I see it. I first start with the heart shape in the middle that is very recognizable. Then the sand sugar surrounding it has creates the illusion of clear crystal snow, with those shinny dots. I get the sense of fairytale, an innocent world built by pure love. Going further, the dark blue background could be read as sea. Then there is an icy world floating on the sea. At this point, the composition of the picture is becoming very important and successful, because the object feels raised out of the picture, visually making the viewer feel that the picture is a zoomed part of the entire space. The unlimited space tells the viewer there is more going on around the picture, even it is not physically portrayed. Consequently, back into my understanding, the sea would be a lot huger then what we have in the picture; I can even imagine it stretching as far as my eye can’t see.

Moving away from imagination, what do I see here? A cookie. It is still a piece of cookie. But the point is, when I think about the design, and look at it deeply, I start to explore ideas and travel into them farther and farther, this is the magic of design. And of course, this magic is everywhere rather than on a piece of cookie. Design is a world of imagination, and everyone can experience it as well.

Childhood Favorite!

The pinwheel is the design from my childhood that impressed me a lot. It’s hard to think of it like this in modern times because the idea and design of the pinwheel is so simple, but at the same time, it’s a lot of fun.

Technically, the toy windmill is an artificial object which utilizes physics. It implies the wind force as we know. As a child, I did not know this much about physics. Instead, all that interested me was the design and novelty of it. In addition, I believe that children who were born in the 80s might all experience the magic of this toy pinwheel because of several reasons. First, it is very easy to find the materials to make a toy pinwheel. You may use any kind of paper as well. For me, I remember that glossy magazine pages were my favorite. The process of making the stick by rolling the paper is very fun too. Finally, in addition to the paper, you just need a pin for finishing the pinwheel.

Another great thing about this toy is that it is simple to make, especially for children. Not much technical skill is required, and the construction process is quick. After a couple of easy steps of cutting and pinning, it’s done.

Overall, I think the design of the toy pinwheel is very great. Although, it is hard to make a comparison between this old fashion toy with what children are playing today, the idea and the concept of this design brings impact to the society. It has been brought children a lot of happiness in their childhood. Personally, I love the design just because it’s simple and fun.