DESIGN SEMINAR
ZHENSHAN DENG
Naoto Fukasawa
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Naoto Fukasawa is one of my favorite Japanese designer. As designer of MUJI, his products are very popular in China.
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Naoto’s designs are simple without any decoration. Customers do not need to think how to use his products. He take the simple design to extremes.
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The reason I admire him is he absorb “ Zen” in his design. What is “ Zen”? Generally speaking, “Zen”means Static,windy,intangible. Reflect in Naoto’s design, we can have a simple and plain feeling. This also is Japanese values and philosophy.
Jonathan Ive As a industrial designer or product designer this man’s name we must to know- Jonathan Ive.
Apple products all are epochal product. These design demonstrate his unerring for future design. Jonathan brought us to a new digital era. Back to 8 years ago, nobody could image our cellphone would be something like iPhone. But Jonathan did, he and his team designed the first iPhone. I think Jonathan not only have a great skill and idea about product design but also have accurately judge about the direction of the future development of the user experience. He makes me understand a good designer is not just about his skill, the more important thing is the forecasting of the market.
Tinker Hatfield If Jordan is the God of all basketball fans. I have to say Tinker is the God of all sneaker designers. His inspirations are from everywhere. He can use a new perspective to design a pair of shoes. Such as the inspiration of Air Jordan 5 is from Jet fighter and inspiration of Air Jordan 11 is from cropper. To me he's unique design perspective is what I admire.
Because of his jumping ideas. His designs always are very controversial. Some people can not accept such fresh ideas, some people like these unique designs. But through the verification of time and market reaction we can find out his designs are very successful
Michael Forbes Product Designer at The Henry Ford Innovation Institute College for Creative Studies Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Industrial and Product Design 2006 – 2011 This week Michael Forbes was invited to have lecture in this class. I am very appreciate he shared his experience with us. In his lecture, I found out a important word in his lecture which is “research”. I had a great impression about Hyrbrid Surgical Retractor project. This project is aim to design a surgical system that transitions efficiently from Laparoscopic surgery to open surgery. This project need a great understanding about surgical operation. They not only need to research process of operation and also need to know different tool for operation. Therefore they did a lot of investigation even they went into operation room and watched how they work. This case makes me know, a good design is not just about fresh idea. Research also is a very important point
College For Creatives studies Students In this class Prof. Iavicoli invited 5 excellent students to share their internship experiences with us. Everyone told us a good story. The most impressive one for me is Paul’s shower project. I really like his concept about shower. Let people integrate into shower just like integrate into the nature which can help people to take a more comfortable shower. And the process about how to create a shower environment also is very impressive. He made different models to discuss his idea which is very useful. For me,
I more focus on how to do a nice sketch, and how to create a beautiful shape. From his presentation I noticed product design is not only to create a fresh and pretty design. For a real company, they need a design not only beautiful but also can executing.
Greg Verras Watch Designer Shinola — Detroit, MI, USA College for Creative Studies B.A, Industrial Design 2005 – 2010 This week Greg Verras came to our class and shared his some interesting design works and his working experience to us. It is very helpful. In this conversation. He mentioned a word “corporation” which means how to work with not only you teammates but also some people from other department. In my opinion, this is a good point for us. As student, we may not have a lot of chances to work with group people for one project. But when we graduate and join in a professional team. We must to learn how to corporate with different people. Working in a professional team we will accept numbers of ideas and find a balance point or best solution in these ideas. In this process we can not avoid discussion even agreement. Therefor we need to learn how to tell people your idea and show your advice in right way. And design in a company, we also will work with different department such as engineering, marketing etc. This also will be a challenge for fresh design. Because different work will have different logical thinking ways. How to convince them is a skill we must to learn. That why I think “ corporation” is very important in our future design career
Philippe Starck
Ross Lovegrove
I am very enjoy these three videos. These three videos are not only just talk about design but also more focus on aesthetic and technology which are more higher level design. Why I say these are more higher level design. In my opinion, right now as a student we are only focus on a nice shape of our design or better function of our design. But Ross Lovegrove in this video showing us how to bring design to a higher aesthetic level. I really agree with what he said in this video. Nature made the most beautiful shape in this world. He also showed some fantastic pictures in this video which are very inspire me very much. Sometime we always out of ideas, but we do not recognize nature has already made these for us. The only thing we need to do is to find out just like what Ross Lovegrove did. Move to technology. Pranav Mistry’s lecture also impact me a lot. In my opinion, I do not think
Pranav Mistry
Pranav Mistry is a designer, I prefer to call him as a inventor. I really like his idea which is connect real world with digital world. Although I can not make a technology like this. But it does not means we do not need to know about it. As a designer especially who may do user experience design in the future. This technology will bring a evolution into industrial products. I am really looking forward this technology come out and reales to public user.
Joe Vichich
College for Creative Studies Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Industrial Design, Graphic Design 2006 – 2010
This week Joe Vichich joined in our class. And I think he is the most special designer who shared their working experience in this class. Why I say he is very special ? The reason is his job. Before he came to class. All of designers are doing product design. But Joe Vichich is a user experience designer working in Ford. This is a very interesting design area. Because user experience design is very wide design. Designers’ goal is to help customers have a better feeling or experience. Therefore designer can use any way of design to achieve this goal. I set car as a example. How can user experience designer help customers have a better experience from one car. There have a lot of ways. Basic way is according to interaction design to improve graphical interface. Or improve instrument to help customer can more easy to see signs from cars. Any way there will have plenty ways for designers to improve user experience. But choose which way also is a problem. Therefore before starting design there will be a lot of research need to do which Joe Vichich has showed to us in class. From his experience I think user experience may will be a hot design in future. And this kind of design is not just about product but also include graphic or interaction design. It is a wide but interesting design area. And we also need pay some attention on this kind of design in future.
Astro Studios This week designer from Astro studios joined our class. It was a very impressive speech. In this class he showed different design work from Astro Studios. They were not just products design but also include UX design and advertisement design. From this class I found out Astro Studios is a very professional design studio. Here are a lot of different kind of designers. And this also gave me a good inspiration. My MFA major is more focus on user experience design and interaction design. But my future direction I want to do product design. After graduate I want to do a job which is I want to do but I also want to absorb my MFA major design absorb in my job. So sometimes I will feel confused about my future. I want to find a balance point between my interesting and my major. Astro Studios give me a direction. This kind of design studios is a good choose for me. They do different design in studio. Therefore I not only can do product design in studio but also can do user experience design or UX design.
Paul Hatch This week Paul Hatch brought a fresh but interesting speech to our class. In this speech he introduced people how to see things. Just like these two pictures I showed. One totally same picture if we see in different ways , it will gives us different feeling. He explained our brains how to control us to see things. In his opinion we only need to do little change which can make people feel different. This is very helpful for designers. Because if we figure out people how to see things. We can know how to make a change on our design and give customers a better visual feeling.
In Paul’s speech he just introduced basic concept about the way of people see things. But it provide me a good way to learn some fresh thing which can help me to improve my design.
Mike Moceri
CEO of Manulith Company
This week we was invited to visit Manulith Company which is a company provide 3d print service. And the CEO of Manulith Mike Moceri also give us a really nice speech about how he started his business and what is 3d print. It is a surprise that Mike Moceri is 23 years old young man. But he has already started his own business and he did very well. He gave us a lot of advises about how to start your own business and how to well organize your company. I also feel impressive about his choice. 3d print is a fresh but hot area. Right now it seems not very common in our life. But I believe in 5 or 10 years 3d print will come into our life like iPhone. Mike is really forward-looking. And I think when process of 3d print get more simple and the price of 3d print get more cheaper. There will be a great marketing for 3d print not just for manufactory. Just like Mike said he trust in the future, 3d printer will not only just print product but also can print cloth even food. And when 3d print become more and more mature. It also help designer to finish our final model more easier. And I also believe Mike and his company will get great improvement in the future.
Stefan Sagmeister, Richard Seymour This week we watched ted videos about design. I think I have more deep understanding about design. I believe designer is the most interesting but also is the most tired job in this world. Because the most interesting and difficult part is to think out fresh idea. Because a design career is not just create 10 design works, they may will think out more than 300 design in their whole career. Therefore designers need to experience different things. From Stefan’s speech I find out. as a designer you need to hard work, but this do not like math or some other objects. Design has no regular answer. So designer also need more fresh air. It means designer can not always stay in their studio. They need go out and get something new. Just like what Stefan did. Every 7 years he will spend whole one year to have a vacation for travel or do something he like. For most people think it is waste times but I think this also is the other kind of design work. I called “inspiration collection”. Which is important part for designers. And Richard’s speech “How beauty feels” also is very impressive. I really like this word “feel”. Just like the example he said the BMW light was designed to turn off very slowly. This design makes him feel very comfortable. This example makes me understand a good design is not just for a beautiful shape but also is for better feeling for users. Just like he said “ Form is function”. I think this is the best words to describe design. Because a design can absorb it’s shape into it’s function this design not only can bring a good visual feeling but also can bring a better physical feeling . This means this is a very successful design.
Tad Toulis This week we had Skype speech from Tad Toulis. It is very wonderful speech that Tad Toulis share his design work and his understanding about design. The most impressive point he said “ a designer need find out his design voice�. I think he means that we need find out our own design identities. Of course it is not very easy. he also costed a lot of time to find his design voice. From his design work we can see his design voice. They are clean shape but give us very functional feeling. It may be too early for me to find my own design voice. But he give me a way to work out. Besides finding out your own design voice. he also noticed your attitude for design. Designer is a not very easy job. We always need
to work very hard to find out solutions and also need improve our design again and again. But he said working may be very boring but creating things is very interesting. Therefore we need to enjoy the process of designing that can more help to inspire our ideas.
Thomas Meyerhoffer This week we had a Skype speech from Thomas Meyeroffer. He is a very cool designers. From his video and his design work I can see he is a very talented designer. He showed us the surfboard which is produced by his own surf brand “SUR FOR WRD�. I think he redefined the surfboard. His work is not only very simple shape but also very functional. From his video, we can see his surfboard works very well. From his experience, I learned about if you want to be a good designer. You need to something rare. you need more fresh ideas to support design. A fresh idea can einvigorat and in some cases resurrected well known brands and redefined entire product categories.
Thomas Heatherwick , David Kelley, Emily Pilloton I think these 3 ted talk videos talked about designs in three different perspectives. Right now here are a lot of creative design came out. To be honest, it is very difficult for designer find out more fresh idea. But from Thomas’s video I learned about how he to do such a great design. As a human, I believe nobody can do one thing in perfect. Therefore, I think it is hard for design to design a totally new stuff. But designers can do some design to improve these products which are exist in this world. Just like Thomas did, he think the way how to open bridge a beautiful thing that had broken. So he designed a bridge and changed the way to open it. And this a very successful way to improve bridge design. It looks more beautiful than before. From his video I find out this also is a way to do design. Design is not only to create new things but also is to improve old things. David’s video is not talking about how to do design. He is talking about design in psychology. He point out the reason why the number of creative peoples is reducing. Because we are loosed the confidence of creativities. The way to help us to rebuild our confidence is thinking. Thinking about the things we really want. Just like design, when we have no idea to do design we need to stop and think what kind of design is what I want to do and what kind of design is what my customer want. This not only can help us to come out different idea but also can help us to rebuild our confidence.