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The Manifesto of the New Designer

http://www.notesondesign.net/inspiration/design/the-manifesto-of-the-new-designer/#more-1600



I have read couple of manifestos while researching for my socially oriented Thesis.
Even though I love "manifesto" as an idea, I can't see the quality of earlier manifestos. For example http://www.xs4all.nl/~maxb/ftf1964.htm the manifesto so called "First Things First" written by Ken Garland was at least more aggressive and motivating. I say that because there is this sense of unity, "we". This happens with the new version of this manifesto http://www.emigre.com/Editorial.php?sect=1&id=14. I am just not sure how this help. It is a paper with some nice motivating sentences but when I talk with people of my generation I do not see where this is going. I am kind of jealous of the previous generations that would gather together and discuss about likely solutions. Now, people mostly communicate through social networking websites, which is good, but i do not see change coming only from a computer screen.



Encouraging Visual thinking (What is Visual Thinking?)

http://vizthink.com/blog/



I went to this Vizthink workshop last Wednesday. It was good.
These people are trying to encourage visual thinking as a practice for creative thinking, I guess.
Talking about visual thinking what I think they had in mind is the iconic or visual representation of thoughts. There is an effort they make help people think "visually" so they can best organize their creative processes when it comes to solve a problem. The problem could be a really simple one like what "what should I eat today". They proposed 6 different thought processes in order to solve this problem. In general the whole procedure was really inspiring and helpful but I feel that each individual builds up its own process for problem solving. On the other hand I am not sure if this is necessary for people that are not visual and/or creative. I mean that designers in general are creative and visual from their nature (or at least they should be) and I am not sure if that should apply to everybody. It occurred to me that it is mostly about visualizing the data and information we have in mind to keep them in order and easily processed.

Time Machine Pictures.

http://sergey-larenkov.livejournal.com/

Maybe it is really personal but time-machine is one of the inventions I would love to see for real. For Now I think the work of the Russian Artist Larenkov gives a great sense of this time travel back to the Stalingrand battle (65th anniversary of the Siege of Leningrad) aiming to bridge "now" and "then". Even though I am not Russian I can feel this nostalgia emerging from the combined pictures. It looks alive even though it is only an image successfully mixed, in a way that makes you feel like being a part of it. I can imagine how vivid could that be if there was a virtual three dimensional installation to experience this time travel and experience actual events of the past.
(I bet a HIstory class would be much more interesting and memorable.

Blublu.org> Stop Motion Imagination

One of the most successful stop motion videos. The painted characters are literally moving around changing places, daring to go everywhere, climb, transform. As discussed before, a great place where art meets craft and basic technology for a magic result.

http://blublu.org/sito/video/muto.htm

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Are Engineers, Scientists And Mathematicians Enemies of Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

In this article there is an interesting argument emerging : Scientists, Mathematicians and Engineers may even obstruct innovation. According to the author, "Innovation is about social applications of inventions, not about the inventions themselves. Engineers, scientists and mathematicians don't get this. It's not part of their culture." The author finally argues that what we need more is anthropologists and sociologists to work with engineers and scientists "to develop services, products and experiences that people need and want". In addition there is a need for managers in companies to understand what these inventions do and enable their doing. I would add that this whole idea of invention and innovation seems like process (likely for designers to work on as a design process or designers could also built the communication channel among engineers,scientists anthropologists, etc to work together and communicate successfully the needs for a successful outcome that will promote the invention and support an innovation.

MIT Media Lab

http://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/object-based-media

A great source of inspiration for thesis or for general perspective research and projects. Especially considering the fact that graphic designers seem to get transformed into any kind of designer apart from "graphic" with the old meaning.

Animation Spotlight: The Chimney Sweep

By Maria Popova

What a paper airplane has to do with the quiet art of being human.

I have an emotional internal antithesis considering art and technology.
I think if I could I would do anything by hand and some other times i feel like technology has now its own design and puts aside the old aesthetics of hand skills.
This video is a great example of combining the old with the new skills and the craft with the latest technology. Stop-motion videos in general have a specific way of promoting this idea of combining technology (audio visual) craft (character making) and narrative/concept.





PicoCool - Stop-Motion Spotlight: The Chimney Sweep

Articles review (4)

The Secret oF Happiness

The Secret of Happiness from Maria Popova on Vimeo.

Multimedia Spotlight: Vocal Improvisation Animated

By Maria Popova

How a laptop and a highway play together, or what geometry has to do with music.

the link http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/category/multimedia/

http://www.theturn.tv/ ---> and the original website of the artist Fredo Viola.

Improvisation 2 from Fredo Viola on Vimeo.

A more experimental way to approach the new media possibilities and opportunities which maybe closer to art rather than design or communication, but otherwise creativity is encouraged and I think this website and video are a great inspiration for people who are interested in. Personally whenever I have this opportunity I feel excited like a kid who is discovering the first toys.

Futility Paints Utility: Wikipedia Reproduced

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/06/11/printed-wikipedia/

A smart way to express the importance of digital information in comparison to the analog one : going the other way : instead of replacing the analog with digital , pick an example (Wikipedia) and produce it in analog form. As mentioned in the article "the project is a testament to the digital convenience we’ve come to take for granted."

The project was an idea of a student named Rob Matthews and its name is Wikipedia reproduction project — a 5,000-page tome containing all of Wikipedia’s featu(red) articles.
The question was "what happens if the same immense pool of information (wikipedia) were available, only in a much less user-friendly format?"

American family's web photo ends up as Czech advertisement

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jun/11/smith-family-photo-czech-advertisement

Even though I am an huge internet fan I still have concerns about online safety especially with whatever relates to pictures' copyrights. This story is about a family picture that randomly ended up from a blog to an ad in the Czech Republic.The mother of the picture describes this incident as "Interesting. Bizarre. Flattering, I suppose. But quite creepy."I would say can be indeed flattering but mostly creepy. Because this picture was an acceptable one. But how do you control where and when you will find one of your pictures?

An interesting excerpt of the article is the following : "The smiley Smiths have now gone global. The site has registered 180,000 hits but Danielle writes that she is blocking the small percentage "who are commenting only to say that a member of my family (or all of us) are ugly". Sounds a little arrogant comment to me and maybe a little blinded by the popularity that this sudden fame provoked.


HISTORY MAP




http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/EMPIRE17.swf

When I first saw this map (apart from the fact that Greece is covered by most of the empires) I thought that would be a great example of how to teach history at schools.
History is considered as one of the most boring classes (at least in my country) and I think this an example of how there are way to make it more interesting and appealing to students through visualization of the information and interactivity.


EXPERIMENTAL AND KINETIC TYPOGRAPHY

I think this new "fashion" of using the letters and words as visuals is really effective. I realized that I am caught by the words in a way I do not need descriptive visuals or at least I don't feel like they are missing. I also feel like I pay more attention in the context of the dialogue and I am more focused in realizing what is being said and what that means without getting distracted by another visual narrative I have to follow as well. It feels like there is the quality of the radio where you do not the person behind the voice, and at the same time the typefaces and sizes and colors do not lack any of the mood of the piece.
(either it is dialogue from movie or a musical piece visualization).












Banksy's secret exhibition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8094839.stm




World Statistics updated in real time

http://www.worldometers.info/fr/

Statistics updated in real time. An interesting website showing in real time important statistics as births, deaths statistics about new media. I found it convincing as it is helps you realize the numbers that when they are still may not look that real. The ones that were really exciting were the ones of blog posting and e-mail correspondence.

Articles review (3)

Discovering how Greeks computed in 100 B.C.

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

On Social Design (blog)

http://www.socialdesignblog.org/2009/02/do-good-be-bad-to-yourself/

Do good: Be bad to yourself

A self criticism about what means "to do good". "So much for social design. I say kick yourself in the ass for not doing what you are capable of doing. That’s how you do good." I think this quote summarizes the idea of this article : I consider that every time I think about social change. Indeed, by working for a non-profit organization will not change the world but it may give you the sense that you are trying. Finally it seems that there has to be a really personal commitment that you aim to pursue. And of course you need to push yourself, from my experience this always works.

In-Formed Visualizations with everyday objects

http://www.oberholtzer-creative.com/visualculture/2009/05/in-formed-visualizations-with-everyday-objects/
It seems that I got really interested in infographics but here is an even more convincing way of visualizing data by making a direct connection to the subject matter. I borrowed this image from a blog and then there is more about the designer who had the idea to use everyday objects as visuals to represent information. http://nadeemhaidary.com/informed.html#
At least from my point of view the connotation is more powerful when using everyday objects to connect with ideas because we are more used to them. It is obvious that a spoon relates to food as the given example.

Nadeem Haidary is the developer of these case study about everyday products like the fork and about his process he mentions:

"Statistics like these may be striking when you first read them, but without context or placement in the physical world, they are rarely remembered and rarely change people’s behavior." What if this kind of information crawled off the page and seeped into the products that surround us? In-Formed provides three case studies in embedding contextually relevant information into everyday objects.

GOOD Transparencies Archive

http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodmagazine/sets/72157618896371005/ a link redirected from http://www.core77.com/blog/object_culture/good_resource_for_infographics_13647.asp



I am often struggling with information design : how it can be more attractive and successful in order for people to pay attention and absorb only the important information.
The Sprint interactive visualization is effective but we do not always have the chance to work with video. So, i think this is a good source/inspiration for infographics usage.



Quirky - design products online from sketch to store

Posted by Xanthe Matychak | 1 Jun 2009

http://www.quirky.com/--- link to the original website

This is a collaborative on line tool that gives designers the chance to create a concept (just by showing sketches) and then you can upload it and it becomes reality. Interesting tool and in my opinion declares a new and easier way for designers to show and promote their work and their ideas that remain useless.

CTRL + ALT + DELETE

NYC artists combat illegal street advertising.

http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/new_aesthetic/ctrl_alt_delete.html

An interesting reaction to New York's illegal ads. Dozens of New York artists started a guerrilla graffiti project in order to cover all the illegal billboards that stand in NYC. Some of these ads (posters and billboards) have not the appropriate license since 1940. "Mobilized by Jordan Seiler and the Public Ad Campaign, the 24-hour direct action replaced nearly 19,000 square feet of illegal advertising with original, anti-corporate street art."

“Outdoor advertising is the primary obstacle to open public communications,”Seiler explains and I think that this is the main point of the campaign. The following link has more information about illegal signs and a video . http://illegalbillboards.org/

FAIL OFTEN PROJECT (ITP student David Steele Overholt)

http://failoften.net/about-failoftennet

A really interesting community + creativity website. The name is "fail often" and it is created as a Thesis Project and now is online and real. According to the statement of the creator the website "is based on making creativity a habit. Take risks, show us your process, your progress, what you learn, when you fail, and when you succeed." The way it works is that you create your own account (like I have already done) and then you set a personal challenge for every day, week or month. Then you can upload you work and it becomes a matter of discussion. This idea of making creativity a habit is very important. It keeps you awake and motivates you to go further.

Spring Kinetic Infographics

It was probably the first time that an ad with so much information captured my attention. And then I realized why that happened : The use of realistic visuals to represent the percentages gives another dimension to such information. Information is more convincing and sticks to mind as it is also more comprehensive as you visually perceive the quantities.

http://www.atissuejournal.com/2009/05/sprint-kinetic-infographics/#more-1210