Sidenote Post 3

This is a quick painting by Barontieri, a Massive Black artist – the painting is sped up and done what I’m pretty sure is Open Canvas, a raster painting program – I love seeing simply paintings done quick, especially from these dudes whose knowledge of light is way beyond mind – definitely worth a minute or so of your time

Assignment 20

3/11 Evaluate Design Comm. Talk about both successes and ways to improve the course.

This DesComm class was extremely beneficial to me personally this quarter as I was able to tailor the projects to benefit my career goals and work up my mechanical and storytelling skills.

Being able to be judged based on the career path that I am following helped me much more than having to do work that was exclusively for class and for a grade.

While doing the portfolio portion of the course, I think it would be beneficial to find portfolios from designers and artists that are not from our school, and potentially not from our major. This I think could expand our visual palette from the style of portfolios that we are most used to seeing, and strengthen our skill in story presentation.

The course was well-paced, and crits were always the right length and purposeful. Breaking down portions of some of the later projects into smaller group critiques was also helpful and kept the pace of those projects moving.

All in all, the course has been extremely helpful to me.

Assignment 19

3/9 Evaluate Your Work This Quarter and list your goals for the next quarter

I was in generally fairly happy with the work I was able to churn out this quarter. I was allowed to take virtually all of the projects in my own direction, which helped very much in only my design theory, but also in pure mechanical skill practice.

I’m still not fast enough at the work I want to create. I often have to do steps that deserve much more time and attention too fast in order to rush out a final concept or concept set. This is something I want to continue working on over this next co-op (both in my job and free time), and in the next school quarter.

I need to create quality “workup” concept art that I am as equally satisfied with as the final concept that I end up completing.

For next quarter I also need to stay in keeping with this quarter’s policy of wasting as little time as possible sketching products and product designs and working on my concept art skills.

Assignment 18

Assignment 17

3/2 – Evaluate the use of blogging as a communication tool for design.

I think blogs work much better as a tool for displaying sketches and process shots than for presenting your thoughts and ideas, merely because the formatting is so basic. I know that’s the whole point (the ease of posting/commenting and basic formatting), but being unable to present text data in any way other than in an endless stream of text can be very limiting. I find myself even on the artist’s blogs whose work I am very interested in still scrolling through any text and looking straight to imagery, unless the images posted are a process book or tutorial of some kind.

I think that designs and art are still best communicated online through websites, where there is room for personalization and better structured for presenting information.

Assignment 16

iPod Shuffle

I’ve always had around 500 gigs of music, so there really hasn’t ever been an iPod that can hold it all, and that would be stupid anyway. Enter my iPod shuffle, purchased late in my freshman year of college and still going strong. I’ve done everything but eat it and it still works great, and I’m thinking about eating it and then using it later just to say I did.

I’ve driven over it, dropped it a few stories, washed it, and even left it outside in the elements accidentally several times. Also, the thing doesn’t have an LCD, so it uses virtually no power. I forget that I even have to charge it because I have to do so rarely, even with frequent use.

The Nintendo 64 Controller.

Yeah, yeah I know, it looks like a wad of bananas with buttons. But, despite its goofy appearance, the way this controller could be utilized by multiple age groups and for multiple types of gameplay comfortably makes it my favorite. The controller can be used by toddlers because it sits upright on a flat surface or floor, and the buttons can be utilized without gripping the entire controller. It’s one of the more functional in multiple types of gameplay settings than most that I’ve used, and additionally is a little less frightening to less frequent players. I always thought it had a more natural feel than most systems of the period and definitely trumps a few of the systems’ standard controllers that followed it.

My straight razor

I started using one occasionally to shave, because there’s nothing cooler than shaving with a razor that can cut your head off. After using it for a bit, I realized that while there is definitely a learning curve in learning to use it, the tool itself is very simple, well-balanced and easy to hold. The learning curve is entirely technique and not really how to interact with the tool itself.

The carbon steel blade dulls very easily but this is due to the extreme malleability of the metal, so it’s easy to sharpen again, and will be able to be

resharpened to its original edge many, many more times than stainless steel blades.This is one of my favorite designs/products because it was around before things we’re designed to intentionally fail and be replaced. If I take care of my razor properly, it’s likely I could use it my whole life and not replace it. Even Volvos don’t last that long.