hcde210winter19-blog

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Someone Please Validate Me Before I Have an Existential Crisis

Success is weird because no matter how well I do, it’s never enough. In our ideation sprint, I was actually, dare I say it, proud of myself. I spent a lot of time considering ways in which I have personally observed issues in accessibility and thought a lot about how I think we as a society could be more accommodating. Still, I write this just before our workshop studio (should I be writing this now? I don’t know, probably not) and I am terrified to show people my most promising idea. We have discussed critique and I understand the benefits and even necessity of it, but still what if people think my ideas are bad? I didn’t receive distinction for this particular sprint which I feel okay about but it still drives home that insecurity that whatever ideas I have are probably wrong or not good enough. I am not sure how to resolve this inner conflict, probably suck it up or perhaps, therapy, but my point here is that this concept of success is so much more than the grade, it’s not just about receiving the distinction it’s about pride in myself and also pride in my work. I am proud of myself for the considerations I made but I am not proud of the work I put out and I don’t think I fully realized that I wasn’t until I thought about showing a room full of people it. If I want to live up to my standard of success, I think I want the grade but more than that, I need to feel content with my process and work enough to welcome some external #validation, and of course feedback. I said this is my last reflection but it still rings true, I want to make something I am proud of, something I want to show off.

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Designed with formal design principles in mind, this typeface, named “Space”, explores the effect of positive and negative space on the letterform. The eye searing stripes are at times hard to enter but in most cases the letter’s lines push the eye to the edges of the composition and offer relief.

Although the design focuses primarily on individual letterforms and not so much the interaction of letters to form words, the back of the cards do pair a word starting with the letter on the front of the card to demonstrate the legibility of the typeface. A photograph of the word (repeated to form a pattern) is also included.

Specs: 4x4 in single sided on 110 lb card stock, front and back glued together.

Designed by Gabe Tiller

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Across the Quad (Lunch Break), 2018

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Angles in Light. 

Instagram: itsderrickyo

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VIVIENNE WESTWOOD ON CAPITALISM (2014) 

A short Guardian video interview with the designer.

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HCDE 210: Engineering Empathy

Prior to taking HCDE 210, I didn’t really know what it meant to practice responsible human centered design. I could make some informed guesses, but this is a subject I can safely say I have never encountered in a classroom before. And as it turns out, I found that these values were something that I was already passionate about. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life but I have found that all of my interests revolve around increasing this sense of awareness and appreciation of human value in everyday life. Particularly, accessibility and designing solutions for all is something I hold close to my heart, a relevant issue in my life, and I think something I want to pursue further.

After a car accident that rendered my older brother quadriplegic, I watched his entire completely change from learning to hold a pencil again to eventually learning to drive again. I sat in during his occupational therapy sessions and often assisted in his physical therapy; these experiences and observations are what have given me a greater investment in accessibility and the motivation to improve upon our current standard of it. In our ideation sprint, I felt challenged to finally confront my passion and use it to find some solution, feasible or not, in accessibility. Because of this, I thoroughly enjoyed this sprint but felt as if I needed to hold myself to a higher, almost unattainable, standard in trying to develop solutions that were creative, but also practical. I wanted to come up with ideas that would improve my brothers quality of life and things that given the opportunity, would actually want to use. I don’t know if I succeeded in this, I would even venture to say I definitely didn’t, but I approached the designs in the only way I know how, with empathy.

Human centered design is rooted in empathy; if you’re not designing for everyone, in all honesty, you probably shouldn’t be a designer. HCDE 210 teaches you to consider the implications of each of your actions in an attempt to promote responsible practice and I think even more than that, what it means to be responsible, not for the sake of consequences, but for the sake of bettering our world. Practicing responsibility should not be done in fear of the worst case scenario but rather, in the hope of uplifting and uniting people. And that’s what I want to do for the rest of my life, I want to practice empathy, for my brother, and for everyone else who isn’t always considered in the design process.

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by michelamonaco.art

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Brand Identity for Veikko Kähkönen by Kobra

One of the main challenges was how to transform the conventional notebook into a more intriguing and compelling object, that would fascinate and amaze. It was also important that the book didn’t come across as a portfolio, but rather as an artistic object and introduction to Veikko Kähkönen’s work.

We took an unconventional approach, considering the subject matter, by hiding the photographs behind a “veil”, using slightly transparent paper and a Japanese binding method. This way each spread holds a hidden secret behind the pages that can be discovered, while the book still keeps its functionality.

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Kobra is a designer driven creative agency. They create strong brands through research, insight and vision, delivering innovative, aesthetic and long-lasting solutions that work.

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[hcde210winter19-blog]

Is my mom proud of me? and other ponderings

Typically I would define success as my mother’s, and father’s, pride in me but coming to college across the country means my parents have no idea what I’m doing at any given time. This is fun, but it does leave me a little lost when it comes to school because you see, pride is not reflected on a transcript, nor has it ever been, yet in high school, our proximity to each other meant they knew my schoolwork and they were, usually, proud of me. So now, I have to adjust this loose definition of success and try and find some other motivating factor to strive for it. A GPA is plenty motivation, sure but will the absence of it leave me disappointed in myself for years to come, it’s up in the air. But for the moment, it’s what I’ve got, so as far as grades in this class go, I guess I’ve been successful, in a painfully average way; I am not failing but I haven’t received distinction, nor do I have a perfect grade. I am successful in having pushed myself to explore avenues I had never thought about, such as if you could adopt a dinosaur, really why would you? Further, if you were going to adopt a dinosaur, what would you need to know about it? Yet, I struggled with designing an effective layout to display the information. So, I’ve had some, minor, successes but I have failed myself in refining my ideas to an extent that my mom might really be proud of. I think for the future, success may mean creating something that I want to show off, to my mom or to my friends, and beyond their pride, I want to be proud of myself.