I found this post by Andreas Markdalen (twitter.com/youthprojects) on Frog Design’s The Visual Design Dept. blog on design mind quite interesting. Here he discusses how design and design thinking can benefit from Chris Wallace’s (aka Biggie Smalls) creative process in constructing his raps.

In his post, Markdalen outlines five areas that designers can use to create a five-prong strategic process. They are:

-Create “A Central Theme”
-Create “A World of Context”
-Rehearse and Repeat
-”The Non-linear and Organic Process”
-”The House of Cards”

You can read the full article via the link below. What are your thoughts?

What Visual Designers Can Learn From Biggie Smalls | Blog | design mind.

Charles and Ray Eames are clearly two of the most influential designers of the previous century. This film looks not only at their pivotal work, but also looks at their personal relationship and how they collaborated on some the most important designs of the 20th Century.

It can be seen in theaters and on PBS.

[via Fast Company: http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665403/the-eames-studios-inspiring-history-and-unknown-dark-side]

Designing for Mobile | AIGA SF Interactive Chats

Okay, here’s my tribute to the genius of Steve Jobs and thanking him for being a pentacle of the “think different” principle.

By creating the Apple Macintosh computer, he and Steve Wozniak changed my life, turning me into a geeky girl, and moving me into the world of graphic design, which I easily added to my early work as a performing artist and educator.

In the summer of 1989, I decided to take a basic computer class at Laney Community College, in Oakland, CA. The computers used in this class were Macintosh 512Ks. The 512K was released on September 10, 1984, and retailed for $2,795.00. (Source: Wikipedia) In this class we learned Microsoft Word 4, and Hypercard. I was hooked from day one.

Upon completion of the class, I found someone selling a used Mac Plus for $1000.00 (less than 1/2 the retail price) which my dear mother gifted me. The seller threw in a, now get ready, 20MB hard drive/power console combination unit. The operation system was version 6, and came on 6 floppy disks. I had a friend help me install it onto the hard drive, and imagine my delight after booting the machine and drive to see that I not only had MS Word 4, but Aldus Pagemaker and Freehand, Adobe Photoshop 2 and Illustrator 88. Hypercard was, at that time, part of the system software, so I had that too! I was totally hooked then and have stayed a loyal Apple Macintosh user.

After the Mac Plus (which I still have), I moved on to the Macintosh II Si, Quadra 800 (the first Mac tower), the iBook G3 (the white square one), the Power Mac G3 tower, the iBook G4, the G5 (dual processor), Macbook Pro (Intel Core Duo), Macbook (Intel Core 2 Duo), and as of last summer, the iMac (i3 processor, 20.5″). I still use the G5, Macbook Pro, and Macbook as well as the iMac.

In spirit, thanking you again Steve Jobs for being one of my examples always inspiring me to “think different.” May I too, inspire others.

And please support cancer research and all those working toward the eradication of this disease.

Think Different Ad

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My iBook G4 arrives. Mr. Big Fluff was more impressed by the box it came in.

It is always good to step back and reassess where one is in respect to the design process. This is a good post followed by good comments. Enjoy.

Recently, a couple of things happened in my design career that have made me sit down and reflect a bit on where I’m at and how I can improve what I deliver to my clients and their users. I’d noticed that my source of inspiration had changed and that I was being inspired more by clever solutions and ideas than by visual flourish.

Like many designers, my RSS feed of inspirational websites is full of great work and posts. I’m also active on Twitter, and I meet up with other designers regularly at local events. But I find that at a basic level, I actually don’t draw that much inspiration directly from these things anymore.

The full article can be read here or via the link below.

via Design is About Solving Problems | Design Informer.

Blessings to Sylvia’s family and community at this difficult time.

Citizen Research and Design

http://citizenrd.com/tribute

And a few of the tributes shared on Citizen Research and Design:

Cultural Boundaries

http://bit.ly/pkmAut

DesignObserver
http://bit.ly/ntCsAg

AIGA
http://bit.ly/mVWLJW

“I’m a little afraid of design as art, of moving away from the client and creating your own content. Rarely people are good at both. Design and art are in the same neighbourhood, but they should not be in bed together. But, I am also curious about this border crossing.”

Sharing an interview with one of the most influential (in my opinion most certainly) designers and typographers. Enjoy.

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/blog/wim-crouwel-conversation

I’d like to know how you feel using it in respect to the following:
Interface ease of use
Stability
Why Chrome over Firefox

Please post a comment letting me know how you use and like Chrome. Thanking all for taking the time to share your insight in this matter.

ayana

Some gems from her insight:
Be a good listener and facilitator.
Build fun into your organization and a bit of spontaneity.
Treat everyone as a contributor
Make sure your company is iterating and evolving on a regular basis and that your employees are part of that evolution.
You want to turn your naysayers into your strongest advocates.

You can catch the full interview here: http://bit.ly/h6RlYG

My students are asked to take a look at them, and share their thoughts on how the principles of visual hierarchy and the rule of thirds are being used. Feel free to do the same here.

P.S. Thanking Julie for the shots. Note to self: Don’t forget camera.

Posters: Visual Hierarchy and Rule of Thirds.