Design Process Reading -1 Preface

by Karl Aspelund

Wednesday's reading homework consisted of reading up to page eighteen starting from the front cover. I was surprised at how lengthy and well divided the table of contents is. You would have no trouble figuring out what page something is with a table this well organized. The majority off the reading is the preface and the acknowledgments. 

The preface is a very detailed and informative look at the entirety of the book...as most prefaces are. I enjoyed that it was simply enough to understand, as someone who has  a very short attention span, its nice to be able to follow along without getting lost in unnecessary big word. The writer explains the steps that they set up as the stages of design. The seven steps are Inspiration, identification, conceptualization, exploration/refinement, definition/modeling, communication and production. This alone taught me something new already. If I had been asked to write down steps I believed to be in the process of designing I wouldn't have come up with seven. He then goes on to very briefly define each of the steps to get the general idea, since each chapter will go very into dept into the subjects as we read on. 

In the acknowledgments the author thanks the people who's contributions where important to his book, including his children, who's illustrations are included in the book. 

I was surprised I wasn't bored with the reading, as I mentioned before I have a short attention span, and this was a good read. I really like that the book comes not just with the process and explanations of the steps, but as the preface mentions, it comes with information of designers starting from the 1800's as well as postmodern culture and similar subjects. Flipping through the book I can easily see it contains lots of interesting pictures from sketches, fashion designs, to architectural drawing. As it is also mentioned its nice to have a book specifically set up for design students. The author mentions he also never found a book that dealt with specific subjects crucial for designers such as sources of inspirations. 

My first impression of the book is that this will be one book that I will have through out the rest of not only my college education but hopefully through out any future job as well.

What if...Concept Developement Class started a couple hours later?

Today's class topics ranged from Web servers to interpretations we compose from imagery in pictures we see.
As expected all of our topics in today's discussions, as random as they may seem, lead back to developing ideas, thoughts and all that great stuff.
First of all, we changed class rooms. While this may seem uninteresting and unrelated, Jimmy manages to tie it in. Our perception of the class can change, I sit in the back right hand corner now and I can attest that my entire view has shifted. I can hear him less, and I have a limited vision of the professor, I used to sit in the front where I wouldn't miss a thing. Even back in the front, however, it was difficult to fight off sleepiness, that is impossible to combat in any part of the room though.
After a small discussion on Web servers, IP's and templates, among other things, I was still not completely sure what a web server was, but I understood the over all meaning of templates and the rest of the stuff. I feel its unnecessary at the moment since the rest of the class was far more interesting. We were required to sit in alphabetical order from out first name. I thought it would take a lot less time than it did because I believed that most people were going to readily ask names to figure out the order, but as it turned out only the front row did. Admittedly, I was used to being seated as such but according to my last name which is always at the beginning. During out discussion I thought that perhaps this had something to do with why it took so long, but now I doubt it. It was clear in our discussion that Jimmy had made us do it to change our perspective rather than to see how we would solve it and to "break the ice" as everyone suggested, I wouldn't have guessed it would have to do with perspective. If I am still wrong, please correct me!
We discussed the difference between a thought and an idea. I do not recall a direct answer, but thinking about it at the moment it seems difficult. A thought is already like an idea, it is created in the mind and can be anything anyone can imagine. An idea I would describe almost exactly the same, perhaps its more likely to become a physical object but it does not have to. Who knows maybe they're the same thing. I wouldn't want to give a definite answer, because frankly I am not certain of it. I will try and remember to look them up and compare.
During the Middle of the class we each got to come up with a 'What if..' question. I've always had interesting discussions stem from these type of questions. Sadly we didn't have, nor do we have the kind of time for getting to talk about each of our questions. The professor mentioned after that most of our questions were very limited, mine included. To be honest I am the kind to think of much more interesting questions but at the moment I don't quite feel completely comfortable with the class to just blurt out my silly 'What if', thinking about it now in this class it wouldn't seem as silly. I have to start organizing my thoughts and come up with better answers before being called on. These questions tied in with story telling (and our homework) and what makes a good story. The answer is a premise. Questions like the those we proposed can be developed into stories, or so I understand.
We finished the class with reading imagery. We are to look at an imagine and take information from it, not develop interpretations as many of us did. I seemed difficult for some to understand the deference between taking visual evidence and making interpretations.
Our homework is to draw, in however way we choose to, our decision to come to college and how it was influenced. I seems like a very difficult task for me, I do not have a clear answer to it. I think its a good opportunity to figure out why I choose to and the reasons for it.


The professor is indeed funny, I'm not sure why others don't laugh, too sleepy perhaps.

First Day of Developing Concepts

Concept Development seemed like a simple enough phrase that I half expected the class to be a breeze. I couldn't have been more wrong, and yet I feel that for the first time in a while I am actually being challenged. I didn't once think that the process of developing a though or idea would involve so much physical work, but as I learned today, I never put that much thought into anything, at least in the way we did today. I look forward to process of it all, from the assignments to the outcome after the idea has been thought out. 

The first interesting part of the class is Jimmy Moss, a very energetic individual, admittedly, I'm jealous of his ability to be so upbeat so early,  I was still trying to figure out where exactly I was! I was so used to waking up late in the morning. The first thing we learned today? Do not be late. There is a great deal of information that can be missed and more than likely it will be important. The professor does not like to repeat himself as well, something I can relate too. I will do my very best to avoid being late, I can imagine the frustration. 

We were asked to write down what we thought the class would be about, and what we would learn. My answer was that we would likely be taking simple ideas and using techniques to fully develop them. Perhaps brainstorming, and try problem solving. I was sort of right. Jimmy explained through the rest of the class this in a much better and longer way. 

We learned perception through observation of a mandarin and how difficult it actually is to describe the fruit. We also learned random bits of information which would all tie in back to developing an idea. A good example was how cellphones developed. Lastly we went through the syllabus and got to know several things we would be going through, such as assignments and lectures.

It was an interesting day, too warm though.