Published on
March 25, 2009 in
What Up.
Yeesh, long day in ID. Good day, though. Our group made some breakthroughs with the bed project, and Matt, Peter, and myself knocked out the IDSA Conference display. The design took around 2.5 hours (piecing together all the submissions we got from ID folks) and the plotting took about 2 hours. Could’ve been worse. Time to wrap up the portfolio and pass out. Tomorrow we leave for Boston.
The poster below is 4×8 feet and will be going to both New Orleans and Boston. I hope to come back with great photos, a sweet report, and (cross the fingers) an entertaining video. Schweet.
Published on
March 23, 2009 in
What Up.
I’ve been working on a lot of stuff. Haven’t had the time to put it up. After conference perhaps? Here’s some sketch action from the portfolio: Lemme know whatcha think! Harshnasty critique welcome! If someone was actually reading this, it would help a lot.
Published on
March 16, 2009 in
What Up.
Found a schweet quote today.
“We have an economy where we steal the future, sell it in the present, and call it GDP” – Paul Hawken
At first I got him confused with Stephen Hawking and then I realized he’s one of the guys that wrote the Natural Capitalism book I’m reading now and realized I’m an idiot. In Nat. Cap., they (the 1999 theys) support their extremely optimistic visions of sustainability by citing facts such as: “by the spring of 1998, at least five automakers were planning imminent volume production of cars in the 80mpg range” and other dangerously optimistic claims about “Hypercars” (TM Rocky Mntn. Institute) that ended up remaining hopelessly false, a decade later. I’m still reading the book, but with skeptical reservation.
I decided today that I’ve got to supplement all my tree-huggin, design-lovin blogs with some Obama-hatin, gas-sippin blogs to balance out the opinions.
Also found some awesome info design blogs today. Great infographic from good.is:
Okay, I had to write that to wake up. Now worky time.
Published on
March 14, 2009 in
What Up.
Last night, our 2009 graduates presented their college work to an audience of students and guest judges. The judges retreated to the underground judging bunker for about an hour.
They returned with a ton of great critique, and announced the winner: Chris Owens! He’ll be recieving a TBD wad o cash to attend Southern District Conference, and represent NCSU!
Many thanks to the judges :
- Warren Ginn of Ginn design,
- Allen Nelson from Lowes
- Rebecca Pezdek from Human Centric
- Ty Hagler of Studio hagler.
And the presenters (in order of presentation):
Here is a summary of the critique the judges offered. Please note that this is my interpretation of the critique, and by no means encompasses all of the critique, or is a completely accurate duplication of their comments. That being said, I hope you find it helpful.
Warren Ginn on Student Merit: It’s a great exercise. Showing your work and recieving critique is cruicial. Show your work to anyone who is willing to look at it.
>>Chris Owens
- Time lapse showing process (masking tape exploration of form) was great to see. Maybe could have shown a wider variety of exploration?
- “Process was great”
- Jeep laptop- could have shown clearer progression from sketches to final model. Great to see that you reworked it after the initial model didn’t quite turn out
- Going back to old projects when you feel they are lacking in a certain area=great, shows initiative and critical mind
>>Patrick
- Could have used more physical models- 3d print a project and test it in context if you can! Sweet renders only go so far.
- Modern look of “Edi”, might not completely match more traditional aesthetic
- Bike helmet: that thing is crazy, really nice sketches
- “Hair” direction: went way out there-great to see. We just didnt feel like you brought it back to reality with a perfectly realistic solution. ”Way out there” direction is especially good since older designers like to have young designers come in and stir things up.
- Glasses/ “Edi”- print them out and try them on your friends/ ceiling fans
- Great story and narrative
- Cree light project showing utilitarian, practical design with no aesthetic considerations: shows technical aptitude, don’t be apologetic. It’s great to see that you can handle the other side of design.
>>Sean
- Tell a story- yours wasn’t clear. IE: these are the things I find important, and this is the work I did in that context.
- Field research: if you can, buy a competitor’s product, take it apart, return it once you’re done.
- BMW projector: branding was a little too literal
- Chair- needs some sort of proof of concept that demonstrates fabric stretch. If it’s a non-stowable chair- state it and your reasons for doing so. If not, does it hide away/ stack for when you don’t need it?
- Time frame of projects can be your friend: if it was a short project, mention it, and state what loose ends you weren’t able to tie up in the time frame.
- Phase 2- the work you do to a project after it is done, goes a long way to show you care.
>>Mark
- Connect research to project. Show how you carried over your findings into product considerations. Better transistions.
- Not sold on ergonomics
- Show product fits 5th-95th percentile
- Great that you thought about the context of where it is being used (home)
- GUI- it was nice! (Most ID student GUIs suck) Show it more, and show it in context of the entire bike. Always be careful with interface design, since it’s a discipline it itself
PS: one thing we learned setting up for student merit. Just because you make a reservation in the IT lab a month advance, doesn’t mean they’ll actually have the stuff for you. Make sure you keep your reciepts and check back. Especially in the case of projectors
Published on
March 12, 2009 in
What Up.
Quick poster whipped up for IDSA.
Published on
March 9, 2009 in
What Up.
I’ve been researching coffee for the past couple weeks for a top secret project aimed at blocking out the sun’s rays with enormous amounts of coffee shade trees in a diabolical plan to stem global warming. Kinda. But hey look! I made a pretty picture!! :
Published on
March 8, 2009 in
What Up.
No fancy chairs, just cool + useful design stuffs. Check out the tutorials. Sweet, now you don’t have to read this crap anymore.
http://adam.theoherns.com/category/blog/
Published on
March 8, 2009 in
What Up.
Just finished tweaking the portfolio. Did some shuffling, added a couple in-context renders.
Now for 5 page religion midterm paper, coffee research, and maybe a little riding on little wheels.
