‘Design Thoughts’ : rjslade

Where have I been – BUSY And when that happens this sad excuse for a blog ends up on the bottom of the heap of thing to do. Not that I stop collecting stuff for it – I do daily, but they pile up as images and web addresses in my ‘Blog Stuff’ folder on my desktop – Right next to the folder that says Italian lessons, reminding me I have to do that as well.

I’m going to start today with the material in my Commentary folder.

First up – after 28 years I returned to my Alma Mater in London, UK – The Royal College of Art to see the Spring Graduation Show. Sure the technology has changed – Apple MacBooks on most desktops, but the range and diversity of ideas is equally exciting today, as it was then. Was I really that young when I was there!

There are a number of sites that show the work of the students in the various disciplines, such as the ‘Communication Art and Design Show 2009‘ In 1981 I was in the School of Industrial Design and that now appears to be supplanted by Design Products , RCA/ICL Industrial Design Engineering (ICL stands for Imperial College London ) and Industrial Design Engineering Projects. Two current students that caught my eye were Emma Caselton who has created her own web site and managed to get her products featured in other design blogs such as Gizmodo, and Giles Miller , also with his own web site. The opportunities to get your ideas ‘out there’ have definitely multiplied since my time, but they have to, there were only 16 of us who escaped 28 years ago. Some of us have retired by now, and like RJSID have sites that show what we did do, and others are obviously still active, such as Daniel Weil and Dale Bevington.

I pass through London quite often but this is the first time since those bygone days that I have spent time there, wandering and revisiting old areas that I used to haunt. The images below are some of those I took while there this time.

There are a few other names I would like to mention. Attending the International School of Painting, Drawing and Sculpture , which is located here in Monte Castello di Vibio, Umbria, during this summer of 2009 were many talented folk. One was Vaydehi , a young photographer of Indian origins, who has a web site of her work at www.camerawaali.com

Another persons work I really liked was Hilary Pollock , an Austrailian artist who was returning to the school, having attended a previous session here. She is a painter, Illustrator, printmaker and sculptor – her work visually crosses those boundaries.

The last single person I will mention in this posting is Ailsa Rollo, a young and very talented fashion designer who has recently relocated to Brighton UK. Below some of the creations that she showed during theBrighton Fashion Week 2009.

Click on the images to the right to load them, there are a total of seven outfits that illustrate her talent.

Enough about what I like and mentioning single individuals. Onto web sites that provide what I feel is interesting commentary or thought provoking material

The first is another work in progress by the code monkeys of Google – This one called Google in Quotes – There are different editions (4, plus custom) and different individuals that can be paired commenting on a range of subjects. Politicians must hate it, it is a classic example of a past statement coming back to bite you.

The other site of quotes is called Quotes on Design. While more specific, it is a wonderful repository of pithy phrases. It has the added ability through a provided api to add these to a personal site, and provides a rss feed and the ability to suggest other quotes that you have found.

If you are or want to be an optimist, ‘The Optimist Conspectus‘ may be a useful destination. With comments from different parts of the world and different genders it can be a nice pickup after reading the news of the day.

But if that doesn’t cheer you up, then surf over to the article on the ‘New Scientist ‘ web site that shows some instructive graphics in an article titled. ‘Where is the remotest place on Earth ‘

As a designer there is nothing I like better than an elegant solution – be it a product, a piece of art or and infographic. And the tools we have to hand these days to present previously opaque data, in meaningful ways with the added dimension of time or motion are wonderful. If one thinks of the data sets that were analyzed for the images in the article above… Two other great infographics are below. The first is ‘The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions‘ – something we are to well acquainted with in real life but have not often seen illustrated. It is one of the many infographics displayed/explained on the site ‘Information is Beautiful‘

Another interesting infographic is this from Interbrand which is dynamic, actual a Flash file that while presenting a lot of data alters to make particular points stand out. What were the top brands a decade ago, which are there now and how have the faired in between

And a level deeper for designers is how products have changed over time. In this graphic by the UK paper the Guardian , the Fifties to the Noughties (I did not come up with that name for the millennium decade – they did), the Changing Face of Everyday Design . The images are displayed by decade and six categories – clicking on the category leads you one layer deeper, to larger images of each category. A great resource. This infographic reminds me one one of my favourite design source books, Crosscurrents, by Tony and Claes Lewenhaupt (I see that the book is still available via Amazon or from High Valley Books amongst many sites), which compares Art fashion and design spanning 1890-1989. Design is so much more powerful when seen in context.

As many of you know I am a news junky, reviewing a broad range of news site on a daily basis, exploring the various angles different interests present the same news. On of my weekly visits is the Economist – a great site that allows you advanced access to if you subscribe – you can do so either to the web site alone or in conjunction with the printed magazine. While a bit deeper than an infographic I found this sub site of theirs, called Think Space which explores individuals inspiration very fascinating.

I have in previous entries mention the people at Trendwatching , and their free monthly newsletter that covers a variety of marketing trends, that may impact of you design decision. I also regularly receive an e-news letter from the people at The Cool Hunter which reminds me to visit their site and explore the articles more deeply.

There is another type of site that is quite interesting – those detailing new business ideas or business/causes that you can get involved in. Springwise and Kickstart are two that I found interesting and have added to my already too long list of bookmarks. http://www.springwise.com/

As if it is not already getting hard to make a living as a designer, with clients supplying solutions they want you to tidy up, stock agencies giving away images – or nearly so – and design competitions created by clients to troll for cheap design solutions, this week I got an email from a Stock Photo agency wanting submissions of logos if you please – Give me a break! CreativePro in their newsletter CreativeProse clarified iStockphototo compensation policy and provide links to forums where the issue was being discussed. Logo design, good logo design, is not easy – The broad range of media that the result must work in, if it is going to be successful, can complicate the transformation of a cute idea into a workable reality. Touching on the assorted aspects of this particular type of design is Logo Designer Blog

I have mentioned the SmashingMagazine design website many time – An great mix of useful reference material and inspiration along with a dose of design history. I am eagerly awaiting my copy of their new design book . They recently had a great article on the Bauhaus the ’school’ that has had such a huge impact on architecture, product and graphic deign.

Another favourite web site, mentioned frequently is TED. If I were still working full time I would attend one of their seminars at the drop of a hat. But they are not cheap! – thankfully they are constantly adding material culled from the conference sessions to their web site. Another site that I recently discovered was Academic Earth , a repository of videos on diverse subject that is course material from some of the leading universities in the world. You are never too old to lear or revisit a subject from your younger years and see how it has progressed.

And that is it for this entry – I have stolen time over the last three days to post this and there are other things I had better get on with. Hopefully I will get onto the other folders in my Blog Stuff Folder ( Applications / Font Stuff / Books / Mac computer stuff/ Photography, Images and Ads / Web issues / Products) I want to thank those who have found things that they thought might be of interest to me and the wider audience.

I close with one more individual, Ben Cooper . A young photographer, working with NASA, who gets some unique photo opportunities others never get.