Blog
Leading in Sustainable Design – William McDonough
It has been an incredible journey so far, since starting my Masters at Kingston.
We were introduced to William McDonough and his life changing book ‘Cradle to Cradle’ by our lecturer and course director Paul Micklethwaite.
This book – the great collaboration with chemist, Michael Braungart has changed the way people see the world today.
It’s closed loop life cycle thinking, it’s biosphere and technosphere approach to the way we design and reuse, are all great examples of how we can live in a more sustainable way. What frustrates me is why it has taken so long for us humans to figure this out.
McDonough states, that we are looking at China as the worlds biggest polluters, but we shouldn’t forget UK was up there only 60 years ago and USA was also there 50 years ago. China are moving quickly, so he is hopeful that they will also resolve this quite quickly. William is currently in talks with senior ministers of China, and they are working hard together to get it right.
Here’s a short interview where William talks through some of his great work.
Tim Brown – From Design to Design Thinking
Tim Brown is the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, taking an approach to design that digs deeper than the surface. Having taken over from founder David E. Kelley, Tim Brown carries forward the firm’s mission of fusing design, business and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas — they call it “design thinking.”
Courtesy of Ted.com.
In this video, Tim Brown says the design profession is preoccupied with creating nifty, fashionable objects — even as pressing questions like clean water access show it has a bigger role to play. He calls for a shift to local, collaborative, participatory “design thinking.”
Michael Bierut – Designer as problem solver
Here’s a great clip on renowned designer Michael Bierut at the 99% Behance conference. In this talk, Michael Bierut talks about his process for using graphic design to solve real world problems. Suggesting that he is “not a creative” he emphasizes five key points to consider when engaging in design work.
FHK Henrion – A centenary celebration, one of Britain’s best graphic designers
Back in January I had the honour to go to a very special event: FHK Henrion (1914-90): A centenary celebration…
Grids with Wim Crouwel
You cannot mention grids without mentioning Wim Crouwel. His career spans six decades and covers an extraordinary journey from designer, teacher, curator to museum director. Crouwel had a fascination with grids and a systematical approach to design with post modernist principles. His work showed how his logical process filtered a subject down to its very essence, and achieves great impact and purpose in both exhibitions and print.
Below is a short clip of Wim Crouwel talking about some of his legendary work.
Google I/O 2013 – Cognitive Science and Design
Cognitive science is something I studied at University, and has impacted the way I look at design today. I think its fascinating the way some psychological theories of the human mind actually play a deep role in the way we interact with design subconsciously.
Here’s a presentation by Alex Faaborg
Alex talks about human perception and cognition, and its implications for interactive and visual design. Specific topics include: edge detection, gestalt laws of grouping, peripheral vision, geons and object recognition, facial recognition, color deficiencies, change blindness, flow, attention, cognitive load balancing, and the perception of time.
Principles of Good Design by Dieter Rams (Braun) and Jonathan Ive (Apple)
Dieter Rams gets a salute twice a day. Yep, my Oral-B Triumph 5000 is a great gadget, credit to Mr Rams. A legend and pioneer of design, who resonates across platforms influencing designers like Jonathan Ive at Apple.
Ive talks about clever well thought out processes involved in design, tooling and machining aluminium apple products.
He also proves he has a sense of humour as you get to the end of the video….
Richard Rogers
Rogers has consistently worked with themes that are far wider than conventional architectural thinking, articulating them as a spokesperson, writer, politician and activist, as well as an architect. I’m alway inspired by hearing Richard speak, a creative with such a wide span of knowledge and practice. Now 80 years old, but still sharp as a razor and so down to earth with his views on social impact of design.
Below is a video of a Time Lapse of one of his projects:
“Oxley Woods achieves something which should have happened sixty years ago. This is mass factory- produced housing, erected in three days, incorporating top technology, top energy performance, varied house designs, a choice of cladding materials and a wide variety of estate layouts. It is radical, innovative and an outstanding step away from the tradition mud and mess of the domestic building site”…
Design for Manufacture – Oxley Woods from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners on Vimeo.
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners — in conjunction with housebuilder Wimpey — has produced a prefabricated house which can be assembled on site in less than 24 working hours. This is part of the Government's 'Design for Manufacture' initiative. Up to 145 properties of different types are being built on a site at Oxley Woods in Milton Keynes, UK. (March 2008) Film Production: hijack
For more information:
http://www.richardrogers.co.uk
Design for Social Change
Design for Social Change has been buzzing around for many years now. The rewards of actually being involved to make…
Massimo Vignelli OFFSET 2009
Massimo Vignelli talked at OFFSET 2009. As many designers know, he is one of the great pioneers of modernism in the postmodernist era. A firm believer of less is more, and structured grid systems.
“I like design to be semantically correct, syntactically consistent, and pragmatically understandable.
I like it to be visually powerful, intellectually elegant, and above all timeless.”
Massimo Vignelli
