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• Inspirational models • Ways of thinking • Processes Students explored case studies to enhance their understanding of the broad spectrum of opportunities with a degree in creative disciplines, refined their creative process and outline possible career path.
Contributors: • Emily Bryson • Justin Choi • Ariel Chung (Minyun) • Sayuri Cox • Anastasia Dumenjich • Frankie Fu (Huaiyu) • Jayde Garcia • John Jourdan • Julianne Keller • Adrian Martinez • Anthony Skuta • Wmily Sybert • Daniel Visintainetr
EMILY BRYSON
EMILY BRYSON INSPIRATION JOURNAL #1
NOTABLE PROJECTS I find these projects notable not only because I believe the design solutions are great, but because I personally believe they are worth the time and energy that design often requires. The
IDEO is a global design company that is based on human centered design, and commited to creating a positive impact. IDEO has studios in North America (Cambridge, Chicago, New York, Palo Alto, San
food system project tackles issues of overbuying, buffets and transport of unused food. The Health insurance enrollment project
Francisco), Europe (London, Munich) and Asia (Shanghai, Tokyo), as well as project spaces around the
reflects the belief that it is never the consumers
world, this global aspect is important to me because understanding different cultures is integral to
fault, it is always the fault of the design. I believe
understanding the consumer. IDEO is unlike other companies, I believe that they are pioneers in design because they do so many different things and there is so much collaboration involved in IDEOS projects. Some work they are involved in that particularly inspires me is their work towards building learning platforms, tackling systemic challenges, implementing human centered design strategies, creating services to empower communities, and connecting technology to design to evoke innovation in unexpected ways. I resonate with their mission towards using design to create large scale, systemic change. I think design can be incredibly powerful but great design cannot be created in isolation, great design exists because of collaboration and combining the unexpected. Social Impact design is a practice that is in its very early stages, but IDEO is one of the companies today that is doing this in the best way.
this too. Though these are not all traditional Industrial design projects, I think it is incredibly important to think big picture.
JUSTIN CHOI
SAYURI COX
“Good design is when I can explain my ideas to my grandmother or to a young child” - Oki Sato Cutting-edge design by Nendo. Simple. Minimalist. And always unexpected. The creations from
Oki Sato named his studio after the Japanese word for modeling clay. Nendo designs showrooms
the Japanese design studio break with convention. They create that ‘wow’ effect. And are easy to
for international brands such as Puma and Louis Vuitton. I find Nendo fascinating because of the
understand. Nendo was founded by Oki Sato. Born in 1977 in Toronto, Canada. After completing
wide range of projects they have worked on. Many of these projects are very unique: glass
his degree in architecture, he established his Nendo studio in Tokyo. At just 25 years of age. This
furniture, interior and exterior design of a ship, jump rope, etc. I’m drawn to their design thinking
was followed three years later by an office in the European design metropolis of Milan. The
of “giving people a small “!” moment”. It’s a playful ideology of making life interesting and fun.
studio's portfolio includes a wide range of projects, from product and furniture design to
Going back to the projects, many are simple and straight to the point, but look and feel
architecture, interior design, and branding. Nendo has been awarded with Dezeen, Wallpaper and
sophisticated. Nendo also works on creating designs that have a sense of humor to them. I find
Red Rot Design Awards among many more.
myself interested in this kind of thinking and what I call “cute products” :-)
ANASTASIA DUMENJICH
EVA ZEISEL Eva Zeisel does not like to be called an artist or an industrial designer, but rather a maker of things. She has explained that the strongest force behind her work is her constant “playful search for beauty.” Eva Zeisel is a ceramicist who’s work brought her own interpretation of the clean, casual shapes of modernist design into middle-class American homes with furnishings that inspired a postwar desire for fresh, less formal styles of living. Zeisel’s "things" are meant to bring beauty and pleasure to everyday life. Her trademark is a striking sensual modernism with curves that make everyday objects unique and emanate a warmth and familiarity. “I make curves because I am curvaceous,” she remarked humorously when asked about her trademark forms. But curves mean so much more to Zeisel than a pure reflection of her own form. “Angles appeal to the intellect. Curves speak to the heart.” She always creates families of pieces with forms that compliment each other rather than repeating a form in different ways. Zeisel herself refers to some relationships within her designs as mother and child. What I love most about Zeisel’s work is how effortless she makes it appear to design stunning and timeless tableware that was for the masses, for everyday people to use at their own tables where families gather. She went on to design dinner sets that were exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art while simultaneously for sale in the Sears Roebuck Catalogue, the go-to of working class consumers. She always remained true to her gloriously playful, physical, and sensual sense of design during a time when the modernist movement took hold. She found it cold, undesirable, and restricting to a limited vocabulary of lines and forms. The rules of modernism that dictated what good and bad design was aimed at silencing communication between the maker of things and the user, and things subsequently lost their magic.
JAYDE GARCIA Truly, I am not inspired by contemporary designers, but rather the themes that are explored in more classical pieces traditional pieces of work. I know we were supposed to choose more contemporary traditional sort of designers, but I realize that I never really connected with what contemporary designers create. However, at the same time I don’t believe that anything is completely original- and many designers draw inspirations from the common themes of the human condition. The pieces I chose are from my two favorite creatives, Gustave Courbet the master of realism and Leonardo Davinci who is the Godfather of design, art, and anatomy. Leonardo broke the rules and was a revolutionary of his time. He explored humanity through anatomy by dissecting the physical vessel of bodies and applying these teachings for entirety of humankind to better understand science and what we are made of. The application of creating and document reality also shows up in the themes of the realist Gustave Courbet. Courbet was “ Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and the Romanticism of the previous generation of visual artists.”(Wikipedia) I enjoy how both of these artists depict the realistic part of humanity, even “taboo” subjects such as death and reproductive organs. Why does this matter? This inspires me constantly to create things that might actually matter in the world. I enjoy developing products that are not only these “romanticized” car photoshop rendering but rather tools and products that impacts someone life. (hopefully in the positive) However, not many people are accepting of change. I enjoy designing and creating things that push boundaries-that are little crazy but revolutionary. I know it’s a very naïve way to look at design however what’s the point of creating, if not to make some sort of change. Even though minute, I believe that small change is still valuable change.
JOHN JOURDAN
RICK TOONE - Luthier
Starting off this first Journal I'll be honest. It's pretty hard for me to find an artist or designer that I actually like to follow or look up to these days. With Pinterest and Behance and the artist on Instagram, there are so many beautiful examples of design that I pretty much get overwhelmed with option paralysis on which artist to choose. Sometimes I even feel like the modern design theme that we are in currently, Produces a lot of copycats or pieces of art that looks like it's done by the same person. What I mainly describing here is a lack of personality in the design. I understand that we must build off of the other designers that we respect but I feel that it's a very important thing to add your aesthetic twist to make it your own. And I feel without a doubt that Rick Toone achieves that goal. When it comes down to guitar design or instrument design I feel that most people box themself in way too quickly, and Rick's instrument design is pretty much the definition of breaking out of that box. There are so many intricate and well-thought-out details in his guitars that really show the love for craftsmanship and design. But the biggest thing through his design is the complete freedom he has. I respect and love the work because it shows an artist not being told what to do or feeling pressured to fit into the norms. This is an artist truly letting out his full potential and I respect that deeply. And even if the designs are off-putting to lots of guitarists it doesn't matter. Truly being free to your design is being very truthful to yourself and that speaks through his work. Also, I can't lie that some of these designs kind of remind me of scoops and curves on a car. There's an aspect of transportation design that is inside of these guitars even though Rick probably didn't have that in mind. And also there's a real beauty of tamed wood. Sometimes in a few of the guitars that are made by Rick, he just lets the natural wood aesthetics still be left inside the guitar and has other parts tamed out for the product to come through. Which in turn creates this hybrid between product and nature. This relates or reminds me of the yin-yang/chaos in order. That bridge between those two aspects really makes the art speak for itself. Rick tone is a designer I look up to you because of the freedom and expression in his work. His pieces of work have something to say and stand for. Rather than trying to fit into a mold set in by society he lets the artistic spirit truly breathe through his products. Video of one of his guitars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEVH7vtfeM8
JULIANNE KELLER
I am constantly looking for new inspiration, however recently I discovered a designer that inspires me today is Oki Sato. He is a Japanese designer based out of Tokyo. At first I did not know that the designs I was looking at were from his design company, I just liked how simple and creative the design aesthetic was. Doing further research on him and the design company, I came to appreciate the design process and the philosophy that surrounds each design. One thing that stood out to me was Sato’s design ideology: that if you can not explain your design to your mother, then your design is too complicated. This really struck a chord with me because I like the idea of simplicity and instant understanding of a product. When looking at Sato’s creations, they are so minimalist and easy to comprehend. As a young designer, this ideology inspires me to mimic simplicity and clean design into my designs as well. My overall goal as a designer is to create simple products with the goal of effectively communicating the design intent. Knowing that there is a way to properly communicate such an idea has inspired me. Another reason why the Nendo design company that inspires me is their design process. They create based off of a single sketch and then turn to making mock-ups of the design. This catches my attention because I am a person who needs to hold and feel the design in order to fully understand the product. The process is more often overlooked and the only thing that stands out is obviously, the product. An example that depicts the process as the final product is Oki Sato’s “Cabbage Chair”. This chair was made out of scrap paper that otherwise was going to be thrown away. The commission was to make a chair out of the paper, and in the process of discovering how a chair could be made, Sato cut and peeled the layers of the paper back. Repeating this process, he came up with what looked like a chair. He presented the chair to the client with the intent on making a more refined/ redesigned version, but the client said that it was already the final product. This design process inspires me to create more without an end goal in mind and that often the first idea is the best, most simple design. This way of designing opened my eyes to the near endless possibilities that can be created through simple design. I think as a designer at CCS, we are taught to design with more developed sketches and ideas and once those are finalized, then we create the final product. But I think it’s more important to have mock-ups made and letting those small creations be more important than the sketching. I really enjoy finding new ways of learning design and Nendo is the perfect design company to inspire future designers.
ADRIAN MARTINEZ
ANTHONY SKUTA-SULKOWSKI
Since I was young, one company had always consistently peaked my interest: McLaren. The automotive company makes some of my favorite high performance sports cars. The amount of design and thought put into the interiors is by far amazing. Being the interaction point of the user, i think the interior of a vehicle is almost more important to design around. Like you would design the buttons on a kitchen appliance, the control panel and instrument panel in a vehicle need to be designed to make the experience for the driver simple, but enjoyable.. At McLaren, they share that design idea, designing the interior around the most important aspect of a vehicle: the driver. I like to think that a product design would make for a good automotive interior designer as we most often design around the human interaction with a product. Although interiors would be my main goal, McLaren also puts a lot of thought into the exterior of the vehicles. Quoted straight from the company, “No restraints. No limitations. We don’t simply push boundaries. We completely rethink them.” Innovation is all I can think of hearing that. I would love to be able to design something, like a car interior, that the user interacts with everyday, and give them a better experience. Aside from super cars, McLaren’s design portfolio extends beyond the automotive to groundbreaking design in fields from swimwear to the medical field. I admire the diversity in their design teams, and would love to see myself as a part of their design team in the future. The satisfaction of designing something that changes someone’s life for the better, and give them an enjoyable experience, or a beautiful design that they enjoy looking at, that is what i want to strive for in my professional career. With that, working with a company like McLaren would be one of my biggest accomplishments if i could manage to join their design team. I hope they continue to do great things, and design beautiful road cars.
EMILY SYBERT
{JACK ROUSH} Roush Performance Engineering was founded in 1976 by a Ford engine development engineer named Jack Roush. With a passion for drag racing, Roush formed his own team. After winning multiple championships over the course of -ve years, Roush began selling his engineered designs across a wide array of motor enthusiasts. Before long, Roush’s solutions were of substantial demand amongst on and o0 the track competitions. Roush’s success continued to grow, allowing him to claim a magnitude of manufacturer’s and national championships. Challenging himself even further, Roush implemented his solutions amongst the world of NASCAR racing, beginning with a single-car team. His remarkable reputation for driver development lead to the organizations most celebrated success, the multi-car e4ciency model. Within a few years, Roush Fenway Racing was formed, uniting two iconic organizations.
Today, as an American engineering icon, Roush Fenway Racing maintains its premium NASCAR track status, o0ering renowned technological and safety advancements. O0 the track, Roush Performance o0ers world-wide automotive
product development services, specializing in individual Ford performance parts, performance package upgrades, body kits and engines. For several consecutive years, Roush’s drive for success has landed him in the Automotive Hall of Fame. Undoubtably an inspiration amongst automotive enthusiasts, I was blessed with the opportunity of touring Livonia’s Roush Performance headquarters alongside Jack Roush. Throughout the tour, I was taken behind-the-scenes of professional design, engineering and manufacturing methods. Concluding the tour, Jack guided me through the Roush private collection warehouse, educating me on each vehicle’s history. As a product designer, who embodies an innate passion for automotive performance, there was only one word to describe my experience. Exhilarating! With a disciplined work ethic, unremarkable attention to detail and an intense desire to rein supreme, Roush has left me to realize the talent is within the individual. Additionally, perhaps more importantly, always strive to be unique while creating e0ective, e4cient products and solutions.
DANIEL VISINTAINER