Acumen: Insight into the Design Process - Spring 2011 by Master of Arts in Industrial Arts, SF State

Acumen vol. 2, no. 1 Spring 2011

> Insight into the Design Process

Acumen

Acumen > Insight into the Design Process

Edited by Steve Jones

a publication of the MAIA Graduate Program Design and Industry Department || College of Creative Arts San Francisco State University

Spring 2011

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

student name and title goes here

Acumen > Insight into the Design Process

Edited by Steve Jones

a publication of the MAIA Graduate Program Design and Industry Department || College of Creative Arts San Francisco State University

Spring 2011

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

student name and title goes here

Contents Copyright ÂŠ2011 Department of Design and Industry

Welcome || Mission Statement

San Francisco State University / 1600 Holloway Avenue / San Francisco, CA 94132

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space by Todd Wilkinson

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura by Eva Rogers

Light on the Beautiful Life by Wei-Ting Fu

Bridging the Gap Between Spandex and Haute Couture by Zsofia Gutvill

The Architecture of Healing: an interview with Linda Mahle and Terrie Kurrasch by Mara Finley

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make Those Ramps!: an interview with Gretchen Anderson by Elnaz Davoudi

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the Department of Design and Industry, San Francisco State University, excepting brief quotes used in connection with reviews, written specifically for inclusion in a journal, magazine or newspaper.

Inquiries can made to: Steve Jones, Graduate Program Coordinator College of Creative Arts Department of Design and Industry San Francisco State University

sajones@sfsu.edu http://design.sfsu.edu

Designed and Edited by Steve Jones, Department of Design and Industry Acumen: Insight into the Design Process was typeset in PMN Caecilia 8.5/12

Printing: www.Lulu.com Printed and bound in the United States of America

Contents Copyright ÂŠ2011 Department of Design and Industry

Welcome || Mission Statement

San Francisco State University / 1600 Holloway Avenue / San Francisco, CA 94132

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space by Todd Wilkinson

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura by Eva Rogers

Light on the Beautiful Life by Wei-Ting Fu

Bridging the Gap Between Spandex and Haute Couture by Zsofia Gutvill

The Architecture of Healing: an interview with Linda Mahle and Terrie Kurrasch by Mara Finley

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make Those Ramps!: an interview with Gretchen Anderson by Elnaz Davoudi

About the Authors

Acknowledgements

Inquiries can made to: Steve Jones, Graduate Program Coordinator College of Creative Arts Department of Design and Industry San Francisco State University

sajones@sfsu.edu http://design.sfsu.edu

Designed and Edited by Steve Jones, Department of Design and Industry Acumen: Insight into the Design Process was typeset in PMN Caecilia 8.5/12

Printing: www.Lulu.com Printed and bound in the United States of America

Welcome to Acumen: Insight into the Design Process. Acumen is a student publication created by the Department of Design and Industry at San Francisco State University. Through the critical examination of design related topics, these selected works, written by graduate students concentrating in Product Design and Visual Communications, aim to promote the exchange of communication and knowledge between students, educators, practicing professionals and experts in all creative disciplines. By establishing an open forum for analysis and discussion, it challenges the design community to examine their relationships with people, objects and environments to better understand the role of design in society. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Elnaz Davoudi, Mara Finley, Wei-Ting Fu, Zsofia Gutvill, Steve Jones, Eva Rogers and Todd Wilkinson

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

andreas stavropoulos macro view, micro space by todd wilkinson

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

andreas stavropoulos macro view, micro space by todd wilkinson

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Workspace within the 150 square foot Airstream re-design.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

There I was, late one night, searching the web for some local designers with innovative concepts for small living spaces. One might ask, designers with a specific interest? As a graduate student at San Francisco State University, my interests lie in how our living spaces, especially here in San Francisco, will evolve in the years to come. Population is increasing and urban density will only continue to rise. Although San Francisco does not have the population density of Hong Kong or Tokyo, I believe that we should be looking at how our living space, structures and the products incorporated within those structures will be changing. During my design investigation I came across the landscape architect Andreas Stavropolous, who is engaged in creative work with small, mobile and modular spaces. The first project that caught my eye was his interior redesign of a 1959 Airstream. With 150 square feet to work with, Andreas created an efficient live/work unit with a modern sensibility. Looking further into his work I came across his 60 square foot mobile office trailer, which allows him to work anywhere. After seeing this project I was convinced that Andreas would be a great designer to meet and share ideas. A few days later, Andreas and I decided to meet at his design studio XS|LA Land Architects in Berkeley, California, an area well known for its green and sustainable community. As I walked up to his address I was intrigued by the vintage building (which I learned is a farm house converted into a design studio). Walls covered in sketches and mindmaps showed work in progress and explorations of ideas. He gave me a tour of his workshop and showed me previous projects before heading to a nearby café. While we waited for our food, I asked Andreas about his design background and what compelled him to pursue work in the field of design. He explained that he began college with engineering studies—he was drawn in by its problemsolving and design aspects. He continued his undergraduate studies by combining an earth science education (he was interested in surface processes), and finished with a degree in geology from Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth while studying geology, Andreas directed his creative energy toward the wood and metal shops. He ultimately landed a job with the theater arts set building workshop. I asked if his experience with set building informed his designs for the airstream and office trailer. He explained that he learned a lot from working with set builders, lighting designers and electricians. He continued in stating that, “In a theater setting your task is to create different environments with different visual effects. You have to use various materials, finishes, and lighting techniques to make objects/spaces look real and be easy to set up and take down. It’s a really diverse experience working in theater. There’s exposure to metalwork, fabric dying, electricity, hardware and carpentry. I frequently go back to the skills I picked up while working in theater.”

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Workspace within the 150 square foot Airstream re-design.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

I didn’t think it would get much exposure… but the reason why I think it (Airstream) is so well received is because it represents this idea of freedom. Whether it’s freedom in the form of mobility, creative process, freedom from what everyone else is doing or even economic freedom. I think people really gravitate towards that. Those ideas Airstream sleeping area and kitchen.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

have been picked up and echoed.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

have been picked up and echoed.

I suppose all the things that I do bring me closer to things I find interesting. Whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a piece of land Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m designing, bringing me closer to the subject so it is not quite so far away. The things that make sense to me are the things that I can touch. My mind works best when I am surrounded by things that can be touched. When I do this creates Andreas enjoying his surroundings in the entrance to the 1959 Airstream.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

better results.

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

better results.

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Andreas continued in sharing other experiences in college that shaped his approach and choices in design. One of these areas included living in a teepee (in a friend’s backyard). He was in desperate need of housing and had access to excess materials from a recent theater show. He created the teepee to fulfill his low cost housing needs without any motives for a profound experience. This began a closer relation to the earth—which Andreas defines as, “having the light of the day regulate your life patterns.” I found this interesting as it seems to be the precursor to his future small space projects. After living in a teepee, I wondered how he decided to become a landscape architect, and what brought him to Berkeley. Andreas explained that he is interested in natural systems while designing. He understands that architecture is going in this direction, but landscape architecture has been doing it for a long time. Landscape architecture allows one to learn and understand natural processes while creating designs that improve with age. There are rare cases where architecture incorporates these ideas, but this is what makes landscape architecture so interesting to Andreas. He fulfilled his interest and education by finishing his graduate work at UC Berkeley in Landscape Architecture. My primary interest in Andreas’s work is his 1959 Airstream project. Within 150 square feet he is able to combine both living and workspace. Much of his design process occurred during the demolition and deconstruction of the original interior. Andreas states, “I spent a lot of time observing the space and designing in my head. This is when a majority of the design happened.” Much of this time included taking everything out, polishing, painting and more polishing and painting. I asked Andreas why he thought the Airstream renovation receives so much press, “I didn’t think it would get much exposure… but the reason why I think it (Airstream) is so well received is because it represents this idea of freedom. Whether it’s freedom in the form of mobility, creative process, freedom from what everyone else is doing or even economic freedom. I think people really gravitate towards that. Those ideas have been picked up and echoed.” If he were to do the Airstream again, Andreas said he would approach the project differently. Since the Airstream’s completion four years ago, he feels that he has changed a lot as a designer and part of him already understands that space. There is a maturity and experience that comes into play, and he could do it faster because he has gone through the process already. Since there is such little space inside the Airstream, Andreas found it hard to divide his living and workspace, “I tried to make one end for each activity, but in the end it didn’t really work out, the line was kind of blurred, and it became my living space, not a full blown workspace.”

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Andreas sketching on site in his mobile office.

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Andreas sketching on site in his mobile office.

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Our conversation transitioned into the relationship between these small living spaces and the local community. Andreas believes that if we have access to significant resources, quality parks, community centers, places to gather— the demands on large personal space will decrease. This will make it possible to have a smaller private space. If we have greater public wealth, we can live in smaller private spaces. For example, living in the Airstream in Berkeley, he had access to a lot of opportunities and resources: a great community of people close by, a university, library, and more. All of these make it possible to live in a small space. A related aspect that Andreas mentioned is the Japanese idea of a borrowed landscape called shakkei. Andreas explained that, “shakkei allows one to incorporate objects, like mountains, from your view port into your space by creating visual access even though they might not be in your yard. I like the Japanese way of framing this idea. I think it is very poetic the way it is laid out.” If viewing the mountains is not good enough for you, Andreas’s mobile office allows him to work on the mountain itself. I asked Andreas how the idea for the mobile office came about and what was going on in his life at this time. “I was inspired to build the mobile office because I really didn’t like the way I was working in an isolated bubble, far from the project site (while working at a design firm prior to founding XS|LA).” During his process of building the office trailer, half of the design firm, (including Andreas) was laid off. This was the impetus for Andreas to finish the office and see where he could take the trailer and where it would take him. When asked how he would do the project again he mentions that he would like to keep a similar material palette, but to possibly make one out of a box van or moving van. This would give him more carrying capacity and the advantage of one unit, but he is still happy with the mobile office that he created. As we finished our lunch I found it interesting that Andreas is focused on the idea of connections in his projects. In addition, his projects provide a glimpse into possible solutions for future dwelling. Living in the teepee gave him connection to the earth, the Airstream to the community, and the mobile office to the jobsite. In closing I asked him about his design philosophy with small spaces and his ideas about connection: I suppose all the things that I do bring me closer to things I find interesting. Whether it’s a piece of land I’m designing, bringing me closer to the subject so it is not quite so far away. The things that make sense to me are the things that I can touch. My mind works best when I am surrounded by things that can be touched. When I do, this creates better results.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Speaking with Andreas gave me some insight into how living and working in small spaces can expand and simplify one’s life. Through incorporating local surroundings beyond physical structures, living spaces grow in a communal sense. Our neighbors, parks, libraries and universities are all part of our living space. Many consider the enclosed areas within our apartment/house walls as limits to where we live. Small-footprint living style links one to their local surroundings, where in Andreas’ case, Berkeley is as much a part of his physical housing as the structure and items in his 150 square foot Airstream. Both the Airstream and the mobile office take advantage of the surrounding community to facilitate work and life functions. The idea of connection is an integral part of Andreas’ daily life and design process. All of these ideas need to be taken into consideration when designing for and living in small spaces.

shakkei is the Japanese idea of a borrowed landscape…it allows one to incorporate objects, like mountains, from your view port into your space by creating visual access even though they might not be in your yard.

Our desire for large private homes cannot be sustained as the population increases. We can look at Andreas’ approach to life and design as an insight into how we can prepare to support this growth within a finite existing space. It would be unrealistic to assume that everyone could adapt to this living and work style in the short term. There are elements that individuals can draw from Andreas’ philosophy to begin incorporating into their lives as we shift towards a changing urban environment. Next time you look out your window, take a moment and think about your connection to your extended landscape. The macro view from your room may alter the way think about the dimensions of your personal space.

Images courtesy of: www.xs-land.com

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Images courtesy of: www.xs-land.com

Andreas Stavropoulos: Macro View, Micro Space

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Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

a conversation with Andrew Leland by Eva Rogers

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

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Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

a conversation with Andrew Leland by Eva Rogers

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The print industry is changing as digital technologies and tools have opened up new opportunities for communication, research, learning and entertainment. Since the invention of movable type in the fifteenth century, print media has come to play a dominant role in the dissemination of stories, ideas, and information through books, newspapers, and magazines. In recent decades, however, technological innovations have seemed to foretell the death of print, encouraging us to select our next read from the thousands of books we can store on our Kindles, and to get our news instantaneously from online news sources alerting us of up-to-the-minute changes around the world. Is it an either-or moment? Can print and digital conduits of information coexist, and do people want both? Are there experiences exclusive to print that we should worry about losing, and what new opportunities for engagement will digital technologies have yet to offer? The future of print is the subject of many conversations these days, and I recently sought to add a new page to the discourse by picking the brain of Andrew Leland, currently a Contributing Editor to The Believer magazine, following eight years as its Managing Editor and single full-time staffer. Leland has been with The Believer since its earliest issues, and has also contributed to the San Francisco Chronicle, the Lifted Brow, and City Arts & Lectures, and is editor-in-residence of the Oakland Standard, a series of contemporary art projects produced by the Oakland Museum of California. Leland and I discussed topics ranging from the visual experience of looking at a text, to the aura of an original art object, to the lingering desire of writers to see their work in print even if thousands more readers might access it online. The magazine is described on its website as such: The Believer is a monthly magazine where length is no object. There are book reviews that are not necessarily timely, and that are often very long. There are interviews that are also very long. We will focus on writers and books we like. We will give people and books the benefit of the doubt. The working title of this magazine was The Optimist. Leland and I began with a discussion of how The Believer was born out of McSweeney’s—a multi-faceted, independent publishing house founded by Dave Eggers in 1998—and how Leland came to be involved. Andrew Leland: McSweeney’s started around my freshman year in college, and quickly got a national platform. It had been on my radar, and I was becoming increasingly obsessed with it—I missed the first issue but I bought it obsessively after that, looking at the website every day, and buying the first books they published. And then one day I saw they were offering internships, so I applied to be an intern that first summer. Dave Eggers moved from New York back to the Bay Area, and 826 Valencia was just starting, and so it was a good time to be there—it felt like getting in on the ground floor. I had a great experience

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

doing some design work and some editorial work. I came back the following January for an extension of the internship. It was the right place at the right time: they were starting The Believer behind the scenes. I went back to school, and then they needed someone to fill the Managing Editor position quickly. I left college to take the job. That was eight years ago. How did The Believer come out of other McSweeney’s activity? McSweeney’s Quarterly published nonfiction and interviews from the beginning. The Believer became another way for fiction writers to stretch out and publish longform or unusual nonfiction that they might be inclined to try but that a lot of magazines don’t support. In the first issue, which is all online, founding editor Heidi Julavits has an essay that functions as a manifesto for the magazine. She wrote about U.S. book-review culture, the snarkiness of it—reviews that are hatchet jobs looking to take down the author, reviews that read like personal attacks instead of actual critical considerations of a book. So Believer was conceived as a corrective to that tendency. The life span of The Believer has coincided with the speedy technological advances of the past decade—have you seen changes or growth in the magazine relative to that context? McSweeney’s just hired a full-time Digital Media Director. He is called Russell Quinn. His first job was to produce the McSweeney’s iPhone app. Eventually, Russell will hopefully build an iPad app for The Believer. In the meantime, the McSweeney’s iPad and iPhone apps regularly feature Believer content. They’re terrific. The Believer website now is really a placeholder for the magazine—you can see what’s in any given issue and can read a teaser for each piece, but beyond that, the sentiment is, Here are your two full-text pieces, now please buy an issue. It is very much oriented toward getting people to subscribe. Now that there is an iPad app things might get more sophisticated—maybe you could get a digital subscription, or buy individual articles for a dollar. I am interested in digital media but by virtue of the magazine’s structure—only one full-time paid employee—I had to ignore it. Anytime someone would say, “Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a paywall and subscribers could get full texts?” I would blink angrily and say, We have to get the issue out. The other thing about The Believer is that you can argue that it was designed not to be disposable at all—it’s a print object with perfect-edge binding, and a lot of bookstores will leave an entire year’s issues on the shelf. People who read The Believer want that—some people are probably buying it as much for that as they are for the writing. It’s part of what will help it survive. I love and will defend print, the physical book, but the book doesn’t need to hang on to the primacy it used to have in order for it to survive or develop. Print and digital are both just technologies; they both have their advantages.

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

My interest in this topic is the general idea that different media have different roles to play—nothing has to be all one way or the other. In the way you describe The Believer to encourage people to subscribe, it’s very focused on the tangibility of the print piece. But on the other hand, if you can reach more people and share more content through an app, that is important too. One idea I’ve been considering, and perhaps you’ll have thoughts on it, is that when information is all in the digital realm, how does one sort out the levels of importance of different texts, different information? For example, you can look at a book of the complete works of Shakespeare, all in one place, and it is a significant tome. It’s huge. When you’re viewing something like that digitally, screen by screen, is there a depth that is lost? One of the first experiences I had like that was with Bartleby.com. Before Google Books existed, they were digitizing public domain texts, making them available for free online. As you know, Google Books gives you a scan of the original books, of the nice typeset page, and often because they’re scanned from university libraries, you’ll end up looking at some awesome edition from the Harvard library, with water stains and crests stamped into it and markings from 1912. I love seeing those details online. But Bartleby had a basic format for all the books, so they could be as portable as possible, and so the texts were radically reduced; they appeared in the most basic computer font, with all the margins and formatting lost. Eighteenth-century texts with great ornate title pages were collapsed and run together. The dedication appeared on the same page as the first chapter, the table of contents gets squished. It was clear that this is not how that text is meant to be presented.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

I love and will defend print, the physical book, but the book doesn’t need to hang on to the primacy it used to have in order for it to survive or develop. Print and digital are both just technologies; they both have their advantages.

The Believer encourages you to subscribe with this message online: By subscribing to The Believer, each month you will receive, in perfect-bound print, all the new articles, interviews, reviews, poems, and columns so enticingly excerpted here on the website; you will have the opportunity to study up close the beautiful illustrations of Charles Burns, Tony Millionaire, and our regular raft of guest artists and photographers; you can pore over each issue’s two-page vertically-oriented Schema spread, more or less unreproduceable on the website; you will enjoy the feel of the Westcan Printing Group’s gorgeous “Roland Enviro 100 Natural” recycled acid-free heavy stock paper against your hands, fingertips, and face; and you will save a hefty percentage off the $8 (and $10 for double-issues) cover price.

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

So there is the experience of reading, but also the visual experience of looking at a text. As technology improves you’re more and more able to reproduce the original experience, even if you’re just looking at a scan of a nice edition. Maybe it becomes less about reproducing things, and more about creating for the medium. Digital texts with their own personality—not just a print product copied to the digital realm. There is a huge advantage for pieces to be online, digitized. I’ve been watching my girlfriend do research. She searches online databases—say, of 18th-century political pamphlets—and can search thousands of these texts for a particular word or phrase. Not even that long ago, that would have been a lot more difficult, if not impossible. She’s going to England for research, and I had to wonder: Are there really any texts that haven’t already been available to her online? In fact, they haven’t finished digitizing the entire British Library, so she will be able to go there and find things she hasn’t already seen. But maybe in ten years there won’t be a reason to go to England for research if you’re writing about British poetry. Of course, there will always be a reason to go somewhere—there is always something that’s not online. But there are obvious myriad advantages to being online, and there are also a lot of advantages to something being analog. It comes down to reception and the experience. And access. There get to be some clearly defined points for how you engage with things. Research can be very fluid, operating on the mechanics of needing to gather a lot of information. Then there is a casual experience, where you might be looking to add something meaningful to your day. Are there more layers to the print experience? When you’re in the digital realm, you are often doing work and being entertained in the same place, via the same tool. It’s on your iPad, your iPhone, it’s the same place. I heard an NPR commentator talking about the Kindle—I’ve never actually read anything on a Kindle—but there is an experience where other people can annotate a reading, highlight words, and it shows up when you read. This commentator was furious. It’s like when you buy a used book and someone has highlighted half of it—chances are it’s going to be distracting and annoying. So it becomes a little bit like buying a used book. This is where a disadvantage would be— where services are trying to be helpful but they are actually interfering with the experience.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

This gets at the idea that not all technology applies to all people in the same way—some people will like to share annotations with their friends, and some just want a clean page for reading. Everyone wants something different out of the experience. This is an aside but the advantages of the technology for the visually impaired and the hearing impaired are huge. You might want to read the new McSweeney’s, but your options are limited. Now, people don’t have to rely on a particular publisher to concede to the large-print market to get the books you want—you can find anything you want, read it in large print, spoken aloud. Not everything yet, but it’s growing rapidly. Does it matter that over time ideas and content might be taking up less physical space? I don’t know about the longevity of digital archives. Does a book decompose more slowly than a silicon chip? Just as you can print on archival paper that won’t decompose in a hundred years, there are archival hard drives that will outlast your laptop. It’s an interesting point that I’m not qualified to answer, about interfaces and formats—in a thousand years, are people going to be able to read the file types we’re using? The assumption would be that there is a linear progression through which we’ll transfer ideas forward—but what gets left behind? What doesn’t make it in the switch-over? You hear about people today having content in older file formats, and there is no machine to read it. And that’s just over 20 years. What about hundreds or thousands of years? There is a piece by a semiotician in an anthology called On Signs. He was hired to create signage for a nuclear-waste disposal. In 6,000 years, what symbols can we put there—assuming languages change—what can you put on the door to say, This is radioactive waste, don’t go in here until the year 5000? That is an incredible challenge. You’d have to be working with the idea of planning for the longest term, or else always reviewing everything to make sure it is current. At the Ransom Center at the University of Texas, they purchase a lot of authors’ estates, their papers. I think Salman Rushdie was one of the more recent ones. They bought all his correspondence, his papers. And he was one of the first acquisitions where a lot of that correspondence lived on computers, in emails.

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

To bring it back to The Believer—are there changes being made to how you create the print product, as a reaction to the digital climate? At this point, The Believer still focuses on its print subscribers. The website is an arrow to the print edition. I still like things where the web presence says, Hey, re-subscribe to get it in print, where all the secret treasures are! But more and more, the things I subscribe to or impulse-drop $15 on are the things that remind me how awesome they are by putting it on the web over and over again. It seems to usually happen with PayPal. There is a poet in Washington DC named Buck Downs whose work I read online and was excited by. I saw he had a service where, for free, you give him your mailing address, and when he’s working on a poem he’ll print it out on a little postcard and mail it to you. He recently sent a poem that I thought was so good—it really made my day. So I went to his website. I found a section where he says, “Help me out, a roll of postcard stamps costs $14.” I’ve been getting his mailings for three years, they bring me pleasure, and so I decided to buy a roll of postcard stamps for $14. I think that’s beautiful. The internet creates and supports these sorts of situations.

Maybe there is a way in which a print object is a bookmark, and the conversation continues in between print editions, in online ways. With blogging, there is always content that rises to the top—a thread of interesting information that wouldn’t necessarily make it into print, but via a blog, I have it now. I use the web a lot, but there is nothing simpler or smaller than a postcard that this writer printed out himself and slapped a stamp on. The power of that is pretty amazing. It speaks to wanting to do things digitally, and wanting things to appear in the physical world as well. It’s all complementary. I dealt with this a lot at The Believer. Sometimes we would say to a writer, We can publish your piece, but it will be online only. And 100% of the time people would say, That’s too bad, I really wanted to be in the magazine. The irony is that The Believer had some several thousand subscribers, and the McSweeney’s iPad app has 30 – 40 thousand. In theory that person should think, 30,000 people could see my work via the app. But people would still rather be in print.

I use the web a lot, but there is nothing simpler or smaller than a postcard that this writer printed out himself and slapped a stamp on. The power of that is pretty amazing.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

I use the web a lot, but there is nothing simpler or smaller than a postcard that this writer printed out himself and slapped a stamp on. The power of that is pretty amazing.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Something can be infinitely reproduced— you can see it here or anywhere. But you can go to a museum, and though you’ve seen the work a million times, the original still carries this aura. Now we’re in a situation where the print product—even though it’s a mass-produced object—has a greater aura than the online text.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

That gets at another point—is there a greater sense of legitimacy of print versus online? The answer, in part, is not about numbers—you would think it would be about wanting the maximum number of people to see a piece of work. I think it’s actually about aura. Something can be infinitely reproduced—you can see it here or anywhere. But you can go to a museum, and though you’ve seen the work a million times, the original still carries this aura. Now we’re in a situation where the print product—even though it’s a mass-produced object—has a greater aura than the online text. If you buy a mass-market paperback that had an original print run of 100,000—say you pick up a book from 1971 for half off the cover price, you get it for $1.50—those things have aura coming out the wazoo. The thing is practically glowing. But that’s a mass-produced object. I suppose it’s still finite, even if it is mass produced. Just 100,000. But what happens to aura on the web? Is it possible for something digital to have an art-object aura? Webpages can have that feeling sometimes. Maybe you make something important on the web by giving it a finite amount of time there. But perhaps that defeats the purpose of having it forever, if it’s only there on the web for a little while? Even that rarely happens in print, that you can’t get your hands on an object somehow—it’s not as if we burn it so it is gone forever, like a truly ephemeral experience. With blog posts, for example, dating becomes very important. You get the specific time the post went up, and at some point commenting is closed—the post gets frozen in time. It’s funny to think about a PDF having an aura—a PDF as an art object. Right now the PDF may be the most tangible object on the web, because it maintains its integrity. As far as text is concerned, the PDF is the equivalent of an MP3 or a JPEG—it’s a publication, a document. There is a preservation of the communication between how the thing was intended to look and be, and how you get it. An interesting fact that came out of a recent conversation about ePubs—the reader can select the font they want to read in. How does this fit in with the fact that designing a print object is about being particular in the selection of typeface, leading, etcetera? What does it mean for a designer to say, It looks like this, and for a reader to say, No, I want it to look like this? With the McSweeney’s app, they’re typesetting all their digital publications. I think the first one was an early Michael Chabon novel, and they’ve made the decision that McSweeney’s readers want their books professionally typeset. They did a cool thing with that Chabon book, where you swipe through the front pages— and it isn’t just the title page mimicking the cover page; it’s like film credits. You

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

see a picture, then the title, then “A Novel by Michael Chabon”—playing with the cinematic element that reading can have too. It’s not just visual experimentation for its own sake, but something that enhances the experience. There is also a question, in considering the future of print, about resources for both print and digital communications, and the assumptions we make about what will continue to be available. Is it irresponsible to assume that our resources can continue at the level to make enough iPads to ensure the death of print? There is the illusion that when you search something online that’s a zero-impact green activity, but in fact there are server farms in China using hydroelectric power, building dams… it has an impact. The internet is not zero-impact. We can’t assume that things are going to continue on this trajectory and that print will die and there will be billions of iPads.

My conversation with Andrew Leland showcases a fraction of the interwoven concepts and questions at the heart of the print/digital debate. Rather than assuming there is an either-or answer, this is an opportunity to consider new models of publishing, to thoroughly examine the ways that resources are utilized to produce both print media and digital technologies, and to consider both through the lens of intended permanence versus disposability. There remain delights to be had in engaging with information and ideas in both the physical realm and the digital realm; there are opportunities to cultivate the aura of objects in the digital realm, perhaps considered in parallel with how a mass-produced physical object can have an aura of its own. There is a distinction to be made between the experience of reading words and gathering information with speed in mind, versus immersing oneself in a designed or customized experience in both the print and digital realms. Digital technologies offer new opportunities for flexibility and conveying information and ideas to readers in diverse, personalized ways; how might print take these examples and further enhance the sensory experience of engaging with a unique physical object? The conversation will continue, and for the time being it is clear that shifting practices in the creation and use of print and digital media both offer new opportunities and new challenges. I thank Andrew Leland for sharing his time, ideas and experience in the field.

Illustration by Jason Polan

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Illustration by Jason Polan

Print and Digital Technologies and the Importance of Aura

Light on the Beautiful Life: an interview with Jonas Samson Jonas Samson with light emitting wallpaper.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

by Wei-Ting Fu

Light on the Beautiful Life: an interview with Jonas Samson Jonas Samson with light emitting wallpaper.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

by Wei-Ting Fu

Introduction Although there continues to be many innovations in lighting design, it is still difficult to develop new ideas about lighting. However, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m still passionate about this field, and I was excited to discover Jonas Samson, the designer behind ECCO LUCE. I discovered Jonas Samson randomly, searching for interesting lighting design on the Internet,where I found an article on unusual illuminated wallpaper, shown in a design fair. The illuminated wallpaper was an amazing and eye-catching design, because it transformed three-dimensional lights to two-dimensional lightsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and displayed Electroluminant foil into graphic patterns. Jonas Samson, a young and talented designer from the Netherlands, was the designer. I was fascinated by this attractive and intriguing design and was curious to learn how Jonas came up with the idea. Jonas Samson graciously accepted my interview request. We did our interview via Skype as he is in the Netherlands and I am here in the U.S.

Education background I wondered what kind of environment brought him to his present position. Jonas Samson is a designer. He does not want to define himself in a specific field of design; instead, he would like to keep that open. He is from the Netherlands. At an early age, Jonas thought he would become a musician. After graduating from high school, he saw a commercial about the Design Academy Eindhoven. He thought it might be interesting. He took an exam and was accepted into the Design Academy Eindhoven. Jonas studied a pre-education at Arts Academy for two years in Finland, before attending the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands for two years. Eindhoven is an industrial city and also the home base for Philips, the lighting company. After the Design Academy, he continued to another academy in Utrecht, to pursue his Bachelor of Art degree. After Jonas attained his degree, he received an internship at the University of Texas, Dallas and worked in the nanotechnology department. Because of his art background, the internship was more a conceptual approach than a technical one.

Light emitting wallpaper with moving image.

a dash of playfulness without losing sight of functionality. 38

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Light on the Beautiful Life

Light emitting wallpaper with moving image.

a dash of playfulness without losing sight of functionality. 38

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Light on the Beautiful Life

Present Work Jonas started his design studio in the Netherlands in 2009. Although relatively new, the studio is already becoming successful. The studio consists of three people. Jonas, as the designer, works on different projects and with customers on customized products. He also teaches Solidworks once a week at The Arts Academy in Utrecht. The second person manages the marketing aspect of the business, which includes managing meetings, contacting clients, managing projects and making sure everything is on schedule. His partner is very important for Jonas, because he manages the business side while Jonas can focus on design—he’s also a person Jonas can talk and discuss ideas with. The third person in the studio is an intern to assist with projects. There are several projects ongoing at the same time. Currently, one is a project working with Twente University in the city of Enscheda in the Netherlands. Twente University has added a new building to the campus and Jonas was commissioned to create an interactive lighting wall. Jonas is therefore a busy man but he enjoys this challenging and creative environment. Design philosophy I asked Jonas of there is a design philosophy or value he believes drives his work? Jonas does not wish to confine himself to a specific style or design philosophy. There are so many different approaches to product design, interior design, and even architecture. He is open to all kinds of design fields. He does not want to settle on only one specific field of design because when he works on different projects, he does a lot of research. He learns a lot from the research process. His design philosophy is one in which the sense of freedom involved in design leads one to approach design in different ways and make each project unique. This is the reason he loves design. Whatever the design field is, Jonas’ motto is “a dash of playfulness without losing sight of functionality,”—one can see this in all of his work. Inspiration Some people have specific methods for getting inspiration. I asked Jonas if he had one. He doesn’t have a particular way. For him inspiration comes from everything, including what he sees, hears and his life experience—from images to photos to movies to music to someone’s story that may be related to the product. I’m in agreement with him; as long as one pays attention to things around, one will find something special, in any form, that will reveal unexpected inspiration.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

ECCO LUCE The introduction of ECCO LUCE took lighting design to the next page. ECCO LUCE means “see the light” in Italian. It is a personalized light wall with embedded LED lights. The lights, which are remote-controlled, appear through a wall as a pattern, with moving or static images, and can also sense movement. It is comprised of individual/personalized panels, the largest measuring 120cm x 300cm; and the panels can be combined to create as large an image as desired. The LED lights can be RGB or white. Turn the lights off and the walls appear normal. But, turn the lights on and patterns shine through the wall to project any form of light you desire. The inspiration for two-dimension lights came when Jonas was thinking of the traditional form of a lamp. Lamps all have similar forms, which is almost always a kind of coat around an incandescent light bulb. Jonas thought, what if the light source was 2D, flat, instead? He did research on flat objects, and concluded wallpaper is a typical 2D product.

ECCO LUCE at train station Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands.

Jonas hopes that this fascinating light source can be integrated as part of the architecture off a house. It is not possible now, technology-wise, it is not commercially available. The illuminated wallpaper is just a prototype, because the material is too expensive and it creates sounds when it works. It may take five years or more to actually solve the problem—but, I’m still excited about this illuminated wallpaper.

Light on the Beautiful Life

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

ECCO LUCE at train station Schiphol Airport, the Netherlands.

Light on the Beautiful Life

Instead of illuminated wallpaper, Jonas uses glass and LED. The idea is to build an entire wall by glass, and project images on the wall. Those images are animated. The best part of this product is you cannot anticipate where the images will appear, or the movement. This is a surprise for people. Twente University in Enscheda Jonas recently completed a project with Twente University, designing an illuminated wall for the university’s new building. The inspiration for this project came about in a very interesting way. Jonas was watching a documentary on architecture on the Discovery Channel—a skyscraper built of triangular shape led him to think about the form of three-dimensional objects. There are a variety of shapes in construction. For Jonas the triangular shape is more interesting than the standard square shape. Therefore, he decided to use triangular shape with panels “growing” on the wall. It resembles an animal climbing the wall. Jonas wants to integrate the image with the environment. And how does the light work? The triangular panels will sense human movement and trace people from geometric patterns with light. There are a total of 30 different patterns Jonas designed. Free style lamp/vase When I first visited Jonas’s website, his most well-known product was ECCO LUCE. But I found another interesting projects of his—from unique freestyle lamps to vases. The way he presents them is very interesting. He uses an old black and white film technique. Jonas transformed the old technique to more artistic ways. He liked the idea of a using old techniques to create new forms. Jonas also points out that it is very important to bring some humor into life, and hopefully, that’s what the audience sees in his projects. Thoughts on being a “Label” During our conversation, we talked about “sustainability.” I asked Jonas if ECCO LUCE aimed to be a sustainable product? Jonas said that was not the primary concern of ECCO LUCE, but ECCO LUCE does use LED lights, which are high efficiency with low energy usage, so it can be considered a sustainable product. Jonas said he may approach more sustainable designs in the future. He thinks people should be careful about putting the label of “sustainable” on everything; for him “sustainability” is a relative thing. It’s good that designers design low impact products for the environment, but it is not appropriate for people to use the term “environmentally friendly,” which he considers just a marketing phrase. The truth is, a lot of environmentally friendly products are actually not good for the environment, instead, they simply have less impact on the environment. People overuse the word for marketing purposes.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

people should be careful about putting the label of ‘sustainable’ on everything…sustainability is a relative thing.

These triangulations are support structures for a light sculpture at Twente University.

Light on the Beautiful Life

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

people should be careful about putting the label of ‘sustainable’ on everything…sustainability is a relative thing.

These triangulations are support structures for a light sculpture at Twente University.

Light on the Beautiful Life

Left and below: Produce process-LED testing.

Finished product on the new building at Twente University.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Left and below: Produce process-LED testing.

Finished product on the new building at Twente University.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Jonas also brought up a good point: people define whether a company is successful or not by measuring financial progress. He wonders why people do not put the same amount of care on gaining of knowledge or health instead of money. He thinks not only industry, but all of us should pay more attention to other things besides moneyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;he believes there are other things in life that are much more important than making a profit.

Left, Free Style Vases in Artemis Hotel (Amsterdam), and, right, Free style lamps.

Enjoy your study and keep a balance between work and a healthy life.

Conclusion Jonas says he has a chaotic personality and is easily distracted. But, he learns a lot from his mistakes. He says as long as you benefit from your experiences, you will learn how to develop concepts logically, make decisions faster and switch between different projects more easily. He added, that people are easily distracted because of multi-taskingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;when you work via computer, you will go between Facebook, Gmail and news then go back to Facebook, Gmail and news! Jonas ends our conversation with this bit of advice to the design student: Enjoy your study and keep a balance between work and a healthy life.

Additional references: http://www.jonassamson.com/ http://vimeo.com/10877854 http://vimeo.com/10890799 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_-eyKrHgN8 Images courtesy of Jonas Samson.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Light on the Beautiful Life

Left, Free Style Vases in Artemis Hotel (Amsterdam), and, right, Free style lamps.

Enjoy your study and keep a balance between work and a healthy life.

Additional references: http://www.jonassamson.com/ http://vimeo.com/10877854 http://vimeo.com/10890799 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_-eyKrHgN8 Images courtesy of Jonas Samson.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Light on the Beautiful Life

Bridging the Gap Between Spandex and Haute Couture: Bike apparel for the urban cyclist, occasional rider, or bike commuter by Zsofia Gutvill

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an interview with Sheila Moon 48

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap Between Spandex and Haute Couture: Bike apparel for the urban cyclist, occasional rider, or bike commuter by Zsofia Gutvill

â&#x20AC;&#x201D;an interview with Sheila Moon 48

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Is there any cool, fashionable bike clothing for the urban cyclist? Is there any comfortable wear that accommodates riding and is appealing as street wear or work clothes? With all of the high-tech fabrics and research implemented in modern cycling apparel, there seems to be a shortage of moderately priced, high quality clothing and accessories for everyday cyclists and commuters. It seems technology would have trickled down into the amateur market at a lower cost. While bike commuting is a new and surging habit in many developed countries, there are a limited number of companies that create high quality clothing and accessories at a reasonable price. The bicycle commuter wants to bike to work, but does not want to look like a “cyclist” at work. Cyclists often compromise on different levels to solve the problem. They roll their pants up and down every time they bike, they wear shorts even during winter time, or funny straps around their ankles to secure their pants from ripping or getting caught on the bicycle chain. Some carry work clothes, and extra pairs of shoes with them, then shower and change at work. Wearing bike helmets is becoming a standard; doing so saves lives, but can look out of place in a city environment. It seems that helmets were designed for performance cycling and their designs never evolved for casual city use. Performance cycling clothing has advanced over the past years with the development of fabrics for comfort and function. Could people bicycle to work in work clothes that perform as cycling clothes? Are there solutions that combine the performance of the technical cycling clothing with the work apparel, street wear look? Where do performance bicycle clothing, work clothing and casual apparel and their accessories currently intersect?

Sheila Moon, the owner of Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel is best known for making cycling apparel for female bike enthusiasts—Designed by a female cyclist for fellow female cyclists—as she stated in a recent promotional video. Sheila sponsors a local cyclocross team who wears her signature bright pink skinsuit with geometric floral patterns. The style is very unique and needs no name or logo branding to distinguish it. Besides performance bicycle clothing, the company makes stylish apparel for the everyday cyclist. This fashion is what caught my eye and why I decided to interview Sheila.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

What is your background and connection with cycling? I had my bachelors degree already, and went to Los Angeles to design school in 1989. I worked in Los Angeles for a couple of years in the fashion industry, then I moved back to San Francisco. I always knew I wanted to have my own line of clothing. I always figured it would be a high-end ‘suity’ women’s sports wear, not an active wear collection. I started racing bikes in 1996 and I got into cyclocross shortly after, that’s what I really love. Then I pretty much gave up road racing. I still race a little bit of cyclocross these days, and I do a little bit of endurance mountain bike racing. Did the creation of Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel come about because of necessity? What was the inspiration? What was the thought behind it? When I started riding, there was one woman for every 10 guys on the road. And there was nothing good for women as far as clothing. It was all men’s clothing. I noticed from the time I started racing that the number of women and licensed women racing was growing like crazy. It just seemed a natural thing to do. I started with accessories; hats, arm warmers, knee warmers and base layers. And that was easy. Then I started to do women’s apparel. At the end of the 19th century, women had to fight conventions by shedding their skirts and donning bloomers and pants to be able to ride bikes. Today, women want to be strong and athletic just like the men, and stay feminine at the same time. Is this still dictated by society? Or is this the woman’s desire? Do women want to display their femininity on the bike? I discovered that there are two main types of women cyclists. One is the racer type who wants to look like the boys. They don’t want flowers, they want to wear clothes that are just like the boys’ clothes. And the other side of the equation are the women who embrace the feminine side. And if you think about it, any time women do any type of athletics they are working on improving their body. And they want to show it off. To me what’s really important is to create clothing that really fits women properly. Most of the things that exist don’t really fit the woman’s body. It is kind of a modified men’s jersey. The companies are getting better, but they still have strange ideas of what the female body is like. I create stuff that is completely technical, but it looks feminine. The craziest thing is—and I’m not sure if I want to believe it or not— I had a lot of women telling me that they get really excited about working out because they have this beautiful clothing. In a way I feel like I’m inspiring people to go out and exercise and feel good. I’m trying to make clothing that is flattering and makes you look good. I also think women are really strong on the bike and when you pass a guy and ‘kick his ass’ wearing a dress, I think it’s totally empowering.

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Everything I make has to be comfortable, has to perform, and it has to be fashionable.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011 52

Everything I make has to be comfortable, has to perform, and it has to be fashionable.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011 52

Left, Bo Peep Dress.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Left, Bo Peep Dress.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

What are your priorities when designing a new model? Everything I make has to be comfortable, has to perform, and it has to be fashionable. This is the challenge I set for myself when I design a garment. This is the challenge of what I do. While comfort and performance are equally important for Moon, she also manages to find fashion twists to make athletic apparel look genuinely unique. Sheila designed arm warmers (Bolero) with the woman in mind. Traditionally a formal garment, the Bolero is a short tailored jacket that Moon makes out of a polyester-Lycra® blend. In other words, the garment is two arm warmers with the sleeves joined at the back. Another unconventional model, the Skort, is a combination of cycling shorts and overlaying skirt. Moon also styled the attractive Lingerie Liner, a bike short with the appearance of lingerie. It has the same pad as the regular shorts, mesh body and stretch lace around the waistline and legs. What was the idea behind the Lingerie Liner? That’s a fairly new item. The funny thing is when I first decided to do it I envisioned it as a piece to go in the baggy short for mountain biking. If you get a pair of mountain bike shorts you always cut out the liner, because it never work—they are never as comfortable as regular shorts. The other thing I envisioned was wearing them under the britches or underskirts for street wear. You have the inner layer and can wear anything you want over it. Later I noticed is that the most popular sizes are Large and extra Large. What was happening was that bigger women who wanted good shorts but didn’t want to show their booty in Lycra® are getting Lingerie Liners and wearing whatever else on the top of it. This piece seems to have unintentionally solved many women’s problems. What will be your next innovation? Can you spill the beans about the next surprise? In spring 2012 I’m going to be making a maternity jersey. The cycling shorts I make have a V-waist, an approximately 2" wide soft band of fabric without the gripper elastic. It vents and allows for more circulation, so you can wear it during pregnancy. Since women are already wearing the shorts when they are pregnant, why not make a jersey to go with it? The other thing is that a lot of women are riding further into their pregnancy. I recently met a woman who rode practically until she gave birth.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Moon’s line of tailored commuter clothing includes everything that a stylish wardrobe requires. Fall and spring collections include just as many styles for men as for women. Jackets, riding britches, riding shorts, sweaters, dresses and skirts are designed to be functional and fashionable on the bike on the way to work or cruising around town. The garments are designed to hold essentials and bike gear. Durable fabrics have been carefully selected to allow for movement, and reflective zippers increase night time visibility. When did you start making stylish commuter wear? About five years ago I introduced my commuter pants and they took off very quickly. Nobody was doing anything like that. And quite honestly there is still not so much. What the bigger companies aren’t quite getting is that technical apparel does not always need to look technical. Some people don’t want to look like they are wearing their workout attire. They want to look like they’re wearing a suit or a nice pair of trousers. The britches, when I first made them, looked like a pair of jeans. They are not denim, they are twill and they look like a pair of colored jeans with the same details but with special features. What are the features? The original pants had two back pockets with reflective zippers. The back pockets were designed big enough for a U-lock. The leg featured a side pocket large enough to house a mobile phone. The knee area of the pant was articulated for riding. The jackets had one back pocket, two back pockets or a zippered back pocket, a mobile phone pocket on the sleeve and articulated elbows. The other thing I did for both of them was place an Ultrasuede® pad on the shoulders and an Ultrasuede® pad on the butt so that your pants don’t get destroyed by the saddle of your bike, and your shoulders don’t get destroyed by the backpack if you have a backpack on. The cut and the fabric choice of natural fibers promote the street wear look, but the big pockets and Ultrasuede® pads grab attention. Is your goal to create clothes which blend into most urban environments or do you like to leave trademark features visible? The goal is that you get off your bike and you walk in the door looking normal.

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

What most people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize is that we are a fashion business, not a cycling business. Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel operations in Emeryville, CA.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

What most people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t realize is that we are a fashion business, not a cycling business. Sheila Moon Athletic Apparel operations in Emeryville, CA.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

I heard you describe the style of the fall collections as “retro grouchy.” Is that a retro feel you are looking for? My original degree is in history and journalism with an emphasis on advertising. And I love historical costume. So whenever I design a collection I go back and forth between what the big haute couture designers are doing right now, and the things that were done in the past. There are a lot of styles, hunting styles, horse riding styles that are very appropriate to the body, very classy. As far as the bikes are concerned, I’m much more interested in a great, hand made steel bike with solid wheels and solid components. It’s not that I ride old bikes but I like classic and simple.

What I am really trying to create is lifestyle wear. Commuter wear to me is when you see the neon vests, and your pants tied down with a neon strap. I am very curious as to what can be borrowed from racing technology to make commuter clothing. It seems like a great oportunity to make street wear with the smart, intelligent characteristics of racing suits. What can you borrow? The cut? The technical fabrics? Both? What are the limits? It is hard to say for commuters. What I am really trying to create is lifestyle wear. Commuter wear to me is when you see the neon vests, and your pants tied down with a neon strap. There are all the ripstop nylon trousers that exist, I just don’t like that. As far as the lifestyle clothing I prefer to stay away from technical fabrics and lean more towards the ‘retro-fibers’, I try to stay away from the idea of making a technical suit. Every fabric that has polyester is technical. We don’t say it is, but it wicks. Pretty much every fabric has UV protection. So there is pretty much a free way to do what you want. A few years ago a lot of companies bought an antimicrobial fabric that had silver in it, and it was so expensive. Later they found out it didn’t work. But that said, there are really great technical fabrics. A few years ago, I had this dri-release wool fleece, 11% wool, polyester and Lycra®. It was this amazing fleece with wool, which makes it even better.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

You use woven wool for the fall models and cotton-Lycra® blend for many of the the spring coats, dresses, skirts and riding pants. I love wool. I think wool is the best fabric ever. It has all the technical properties without looking technical. Cotton is not a technical fabric at all, but it feels really good. It has Lycra® so that it moves better. If you commute you don’t need technical properties. Most people who are commuting ride five miles or less. If your ride is longer than 10 miles you are going to wear proper cycling clothes. With all the great features I noticed one thing that seems to be left unsolved. The pants, the riding britches are cut below the knee line and are all slightly shorter than a regular pant, the reason being to avoid the pant leg getting caught in the chain. The britches and the pedal pusher length is common for women. On men it’s a little uncommon, but one of the reasons we did it is that it’s easier not to roll up your pants all the time. It’s a nice length to wear in California, but people from colder climates prefer a full length pant. So I have actually been working on pants of a full length. For a regular person who is not familiar with the bike industry it’s hard to find cycling-specific street apparel. There are so few companies that make stylish commuter clothing, most people don’t even notice that it exists. It’s still a very hard market. The percentage of my sales that come from the lifestyle apparel is really small. I think there is a barrier between the manufacturer and the end user. My traditional outlet to sell is through bike shops, and the bike shops don’t understand it, and they certainly don’t understand the price point. I am trying to figure out ways to get to the consumers—it will be for the most part special events and on my web site. Is this the same market though? Is the same group of people who ride for fitness or recreation the group who commutes to work? I think there is a lot of crossover. The people who first bought my britches were bike racers and bike messengers. If someone is a rider they will ride and if they are an urban dweller they will not wear their spandex to go down to the bar. If you think about it, if you are trying to convert people it is easier to convert people who are already a fan than trying to create a whole new customer.

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

There are many different types of bikes and many types of commuters with different needs. Looking at some Northern European countries where people ride heavy city bikes equipped with chain guards, racks and baskets, people ride in their everyday clothing. Only children wear helmets. One could argue that you can ride bikes wearing anything. It is true. You can wear anything on the bike and you can make it work.The thing about it is creating a ‘tribe’. You look at yoga and everyone is wearing yoga pants everywhere. You look at surfing or skate boarding and people are wearing surfing shorts and skate boarding pants everywhere. You want to be identified with your sport. Cycling doesn’t have that at all. But it is fun to be dressed up, look cool and fashionable, and be part of this ‘tribe’. What is the best seller? The best seller forever are the 8", padded cycling shorts. Then the accessories, arm warmers and boleros. There are certain things that I have in the collection all year round. Everything that’s black or white and Lycra® is in stock year round, and that’s what I sell the most. I tend to do more racing type, ‘more serious stuff’ in the summer, and more ‘casual, life style-stuff’ in the winter, because women don’t tend to ride their bikes in the winter that much—though we can get away with it more in California than in other parts of the country. There are a handful of other brands that make cycling-specific street apparel: locally Swobo, B.Spoke Taylor, Rivendell, and Outlier in N.Y., Rapha in Portland (originally from the UK). How would you position yourself among these brands? Is this a healthy competition? We are not really competing. We are all in different niches, we all have different kinds of customers. Nan Eastep (of B.Spoke Taylor) makes predominantly custom, whereas I don’t make any custom stuff. Rapha’s price points are just outrageous. Swobo is more geared towards men. Outlier I really don’t know that much about, but I just don’t feel we are competing for the same customers. Do you design for the US market or do you sell internationally in Europe or Asia? Besides all the social and environmental benefits of local production ‘Made-in-America’ is a catchy marketing tool. Do you take advantage of this abroad? I predominantly sell in America. ‘Made-in-America’ sounds good for American people from major metropolitan areas, places like New York, Seattle, San Francisco. But there are many places, even in America, where the cost is the bottom line.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Your operation is in Emeryville, CA, the production is in San Francisco. Is it hard to stay competitive being designed and made in America? I have no problem staying competitive. A nice thing for example is that with new items I can do a small run because everything is made here. When it comes to certain fabrics and certain styles then it gets a little more difficult. Anything made out of Merino Wool is just way too expensive. Merino wool is a tough one. Where in San Francisco are the sewing shops, are they small or big? Who’s sewing? There are a number of sewing factories and sewing shops in Jessie Alley, parallel to Market Street. They have special machines to do special things, but the clothes are sewn by people. Most of the workers in San Francisco are Chinese. There are some Hispanic shops too, in Los Angeles it’s mostly Hispanic. The ones I work with are Chinese. There is so much clothing manufacturing going on in China, and if once they want to leave, they will have those skills. The factories are run by Chinese people. If people move here, the sewing factories are the ones that are open to people. It’s an industry. It’s fascinating to see how clothing today is still transforming and is adapting to different life styles and to such an elementary design as the bike. While the typical city bikes may accommodate any type of clothing, Sheila’s lifestyle cycling apparel will accommodate any type of bike. There is likely a wider market for clothes like Moon’s. I imagine that with expanded marketing and the use of alternative sales channels, she can reach a wider array of customers and can turn many more ladies and men into fans.

The social, environmental and economic benefits of bike commuting are obvious. Could bicycling be the all-in-one solution, the “Swiss army knife” for our growing cities? The bicycle as an urban vehicle offers no pollution, less congestion, quieter streets and a healthier populace. People with autos make about one thousand round trips in a car each year that are less than five miles. The average velocity for short-trip urban driving is less than 20 miles per hour. 1 In many developed countries politicians, urban planners, and city officials work together to budget, create and implement policies and plans necessary to encourage bike commuting in cities and high density urban areas. Their goal is to reduce congestion, noise, and pollution—to make cities cleaner and healthier for their inhabitants. Environmentalists and engineers search for alternative solutions to decrease energy use from fossil fuels, to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and to slow down or reverse climate change.

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture

People commute on bikes to work to avoid traffic jams or cut down on their spending on gas or parking. They may even own several bikes to do their weekly exercise, keep in shape and feel better. Is San Francisco a good city for biking? Is it good for commuting? What is the future going to look like? The whole Bay Area is great for biking. For all the recreational cyclists it’s a great place to ride. And it is so compact that it’s easy to be a bike commuter. It makes sense to ride a bike instead of taking public transportation or driving a car. In some European countries like Holland 20%-30% of the trips are done by bicycle. In the US it is only 1%. Is there a chance that the Bay Area would ever look like Northern Europe? 2 Americans value their independence. I don’t think it will ever be quite like Europe. But in some cities like Portland or New York, it is amazing how many people ride their bikes. Minneapolis apparently has an entire bike path system that is safe.

The biggest issues of bike commuting are safety, separated bike lanes, sufficient bike parking and connection to transit systems, rail and buses. Still, many of our decisions today are made based on visual preference. We buy what we like and value our well-being. Companies that make bike commuting more accessible, appealing, and comfortable are contributing to more livable cities and a healthier planet.

Footnotes: 1. International Bicycle found 2001a 2. Pucher, J. and Buehler, R. (2008) Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands,

Denmark and Germany—Transport Reviews: A Transnational Transdisciplinary Journal,

Volume 28, Issue 4.

Images courtesy: www.sheilamoon.com

Women’s Wool Short Britches.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture: Bike Apparel for the Urban Cyclist, Occasional Rider, or Bike Commuter

Footnotes: 1. International Bicycle found 2001a 2. Pucher, J. and Buehler, R. (2008) Making Cycling Irresistible: Lessons from The Netherlands,

Denmark and Germany—Transport Reviews: A Transnational Transdisciplinary Journal,

Volume 28, Issue 4.

Images courtesy: www.sheilamoon.com

Women’s Wool Short Britches.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Bridging the Gap between Spandex and Haute Couture: Bike Apparel for the Urban Cyclist, Occasional Rider, or Bike Commuter

The Architecture of Healing Ë&#x2122;

an interview with Linda Mahle and Terrie Kurrasch of Ratcliff Architecture

by Mara Finley

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The Architecture of Healing Ë&#x2122;

an interview with Linda Mahle and Terrie Kurrasch of Ratcliff Architecture

by Mara Finley

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Ratcliff Architecture’s offices are housed in a former warehouse on a leafy block in Emeryville, CA. Established in 1906, Ratcliff is one of the oldest firms in the Bay Area. Still a family firm, Ratcliff specializes in healthcare, civic, and educational design. On a cool, sunny morning, I drive across the Bay Bridge from San Francisco to interview two women of Ratcliff: Linda Mahle, Associate Principal, and Terrie Kurrasch, Senior Strategist and Planner. An unassuming front door opens onto a bright, airy reception area. The receptionist greets me warmly, and offers me coffee while I wait. I thumb through architecture magazines, and fantasize about working in such a well-designed, modern office. Linda and Terrie walk down a few wide, carpeted stairs to meet me. After quick handshakes and pleasantries, they lead me back through a gently sloping walkway and into a glass-walled conference room. I’ve come to ask them about their work on the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, CA. My MAIA Creative Work thesis focuses on improving the mammogram experience through design, and, according to many of the women I’ve interviewed for the project, the Breast Health Center at Alta Bates has successfully done just that. Linda and Terrie begin by introducing themselves and their work. Linda, an architect by training, has specialized in healthcare design for the last 15 years. Terrie, on the other hand, has no formal training in architecture or design. With a background in public health and healthcare administration, Terrie’s career took a circuitous route to Ratcliff. While working as Director of Mergers and Implementation at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Terrie selected Ratcliff to work with her on a hospital redesign project. After several subsequent collaborations, Terrie developed close working relationships with many of the architects at the firm. When budget cuts forced Summit Health to eliminate Terrie’s position, one of her friends at Ratcliff asked her to join their team as a strategist and planner. Although the job offer came as a welcome, if unexpected surprise to Terrie, it made perfect sense to Ratcliff. Terrie’s expertise in hospital planning would prove invaluable to the architects in their mission “to provide sensitive healing environments that are attentive to patient comfort and well being.” 1 After their introductions, I ask Linda and Terrie whether they believe in the notion of healing environments. “Do you have all day to talk?” says Terrie, and they both look at each other and laugh. Clearly this is a topic that merits more than an hour-long conversation, so we decide to use the Breast Health Center, which opened in 2008, as a jumping off point to discuss healthcare design theories and their practical applications. Opening image: Waiting room, Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center (Alta Bates Hospital, Berkeley, CA).

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The Breast Health Center began as the brainchild of two visionary physicians at Alta Bates, surgical oncologist Lisa Bailey, MD, and radiologist Ira “Buzz” Kanter, MD. Funding for the project was provided by the family of Carol Ann Read, a Bay Area wife and mother who lost her battle with breast cancer in 1998. Bailey and Cantor first commissioned Jain Malkin, Inc., a San Diego based interior architecture firm specializing in healthcare design, to work on the project. Malkin was asked to transform an outpatient gastrointestinal unit into a welcoming breast center for women. In an effort to keep costs at a minimum, the architects hired to work with Malkin drew up plans that called for as little demolition to the existing space as possible. For reasons Linda and Terrie were either unaware of or wished not to discuss, Alta Bates parted ways with the initial architects before construction began. Malkin, who had collaborated with Ratcliff in the past, brought the firm on to pick up the project where the previous firm had left off.

…how do you accommodate machinery without making the space feel mechanical? How do you maintain a safe, sterile environment without the feeling of sterility? Creating a welcoming environment within an existing, finite hospital space is an inherently challenging proposition. Linda and Terrie had to contend not only with building codes, but also with an exhaustive laundry list of hospital rules and regulations. In lieu of these challenges, they convinced Summit to break the space down to its bare walls and start construction with a clean slate. With the demolition battle won, Linda and Terrie still faced a series of design dilemmas—how to accommodate machinery without making the space feel mechanical? How to maintain a safe, sterile environment without the feeling of sterility? Although hospital administrations are often hesitant to involve their staff in the design process, Summit encouraged staff participation throughout the project. A happier, more relaxed staff, they assumed, would naturally provide better patient care. With input from the mammography staff, Linda, Terrie, and Jain were able to tailor the space to the specific needs of Summit’s caregivers and patients.

The Architecture of Healing

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The Architecture of Healing

Figure A

As a predominantly female design team, Ratcliff and Malkin worked with their own, often unpleasant mammogram experiences in mind. Jain defined the space as a series of ‘dramatic events’: waiting, dressing, clinical, etc. As the patient transitions from one ‘dramatic event’ to another, the space becomes more and more intimate. Jain sought to create a sense of calm throughout the otherwise harrowing experience of getting a mammogram. A series of chapel-like rotundas are meant to provide moments of respite and quiet contemplation. Jain’s initial concept included running water in one of the rotundas, but the hospital was wary of contamination and slippery floors. Instead of abandoning her vision, Jain created the illusion of running water with sound, color, and light—panels of blue tile are illuminated from above, and soothing water sounds play continuously in the background (see Fig. A). Linda, Terrie, and Jain made a conscious decision to design two separate waiting areas—one for women receiving routine, diagnostic mammograms, and the other for women who’d been called back for further testing. The designers chose to divide the waiting area with the cohort concept in mind— women coming in for routine screenings could talk to each other, or not, in a large, casual setting, while women returning for possible complications could talk to each other in a smaller, more private space. The designers also included a play area for children accompanying their mothers to appointments. The play area’s glass walls create a feeling of openness, while also allowing children to play amongst themselves while their mothers look on from the waiting area. Terrie had children’s handprints sandblasted into the glass wall, so that actual handprints wouldn’t create a constant cleaning headache for the staff. The dressing area calls to mind a boutique or spa rather than a locker room. Women change in private booths (with doors rather than curtains), then lounge in their robes on comfortable chairs while waiting to be called in for their mammograms. Clinical rooms are dimly lit, with warm toned walls. After the exam, the designers made sure to provide vanities and mirrors so that women can, as Terrie says, “feel put back together again” before leaving.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

As a predominantly female design team, Ratcliff and Malkin worked with their own, often unpleasant mammogram experiences in mind.

The Architecture of Healing

Figure A

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

As a predominantly female design team, Ratcliff and Malkin worked with their own, often unpleasant mammogram experiences in mind.

The Architecture of Healing

The healthcare community is known for clinging to its well-worn ways, but with projects taking as long as they do, designers must convince their clients to think toward the future. 72

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Although the Breast Health Center has received awards and accolades from both the healthcare and design communities, Linda and Terrie hear more about the things that don’t work than those that do—the staff is unhappy with hand washing sinks, etc. Although they do a post-occupancy evaluation with each project, patient satisfaction is difficult to gauge. The designers don’t often talk directly to patients, and patient surveys are problematic at best. Linda and Terrie wish that patients could fill out surveys anonymously— with names required, patients are more likely to sugar coat their responses. After all, who wants to upset their doctor? I came to talk to Linda and Terrie because of overwhelmingly positive feedback I’d gotten from Bay Area women about the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center. “That’s good to hear,” they say. After such thoughtful work, it’s a shame that they don’t hear more often from the people who’ve benefited from it. Linda even says that, because of insurance constraints, she goes to another, drabber facility for her own mammograms. Clearly these women are driven more by the desire to create healing spaces than by notoriety or self-interest. As our conversation continues, we touch on evidence-based design theory, or EBD, which the Center for Health Design defines as “the process of basing decisions about the built environment on credible research to achieve the best possible outcomes.”2 Linda and Terrie use EBD to convince reluctant clients that well designed healthcare environments, although costly, save money in the long run by reducing the spread of infection and the time it takes for patients to heal. Evidence based arguments help designers translate design speak into more business friendly language—hospital administrators, however much they appreciate good design, are ultimately concerned with the bottom line. EBD is also useful when talking to healthcare providers about the importance of design—with their scientific backgrounds, doctors and nurses often relate more to quantifiable information than they do to aesthetics or formalism. Linda and Terrie cite Fable Hospital as a successful (albeit hypothetical) EBD project. Fable Hospital, created by the Center for Health Design in 2004, imagines an ideal hospital of the future based on an amalgamation of emerging healthcare design ideas. Now in its second incarnation, Fable 2.0, the project promises not only an idyllic patient experience, but also a significant return on investment for hospitals.3 When I ask Linda and Terrie about other healthcare designs they’ve worked on, Linda brings up John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, a project she is particularly proud of. After nearly ten years of planning, design, and construction, the addition Ratcliff designed for John Muir is now accepting its first patients. A decade long project seems daunting to me, but with so many factors involved, healthcare facilities aren’t built overnight. Linda is pleased with John Muir’s willingness to embrace emerging trends in healthcare design—

The Architecture of Healing

The healthcare community is known for clinging to its well-worn ways, but with projects taking as long as they do, designers must convince their clients to think toward the future. 72

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The Architecture of Healing

single patient rooms, decentralized nursing stations, electronic record keeping, etc. Although some nurses complain about the lack of designated space for patient charts—the architects based their decisions on the assumption that all charts will soon be digital—most of the staff is enthusiastic about the building’s forward thinking design. The healthcare community is known for clinging to its well-worn ways, but with projects taking as long as they do, designers must convince their clients to think toward the future. As our conversation comes to a close, I ask Linda and Terrie about healing gardens. “In Sweden,” says Linda, “the building codes demand that each patient has a view to nature.” We may not be in Sweden yet, but with women like Linda and Terrie on our side, the future of American healthcare design looks bright.

Footnotes: 1. www.ratcliffarch.com 2. McCullough, Cynthia (Ed.). (2010). Evidence-Based Design for Healthcare Facilities.

Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International.

3. Sadler BL, Berry LL, Guenther R, et al. Fable Hospital 2.0: The Business Case for Building

Better Healthcare Facilities. Hastings Center Report. 2011 Jan/Feb:13-23.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Caring for Patients in a Different Way: From Nursing to Architecture an Interview with Ann West, RN, AIA A week after my conversation with Linda Mahle and Terrie Kurrasch, I meet Ann West, RN, AIA, at the Beach Hut Café in San Francisco’s Presidio. A design triumph in itself, the Presidio has been transformed from private, military land into a bustling public park. The café, with views of the ocean and the Golden Gate Bridge, is a fine location for an architectural interview. Ann also worked for Ratcliff architecture—how she got there is a story in itself. After attending Skidmore College, an all girls liberal arts school in upstate New York, Ann worked as a nurse in Manhattan. She then moved to San Francisco, where she worked at San Francisco General Hospital. Ann then returned to school at UCSF for a masters in child mental health nursing. When she graduated, there weren’t many jobs in her field, so she worked for awhile in administration. Ann then worked as head of pediatric nursing at St. Luke’s Hospital, as well as in the pediatric units at UCSF. With so much experience, both practical and academic, Ann turned her attention to teaching. As a teacher, Ann found herself teaching young nurses ideal practices, and then sending them into a working reality where ideals flew right out the window. She knew she was setting her students up for disappointment and frustration, but couldn’t bring herself to compromise her vision of what the profession could and should be. So, after ten years in the field—as a floor nurse, an administrator, and an educator—Ann took a year off, and a leap of faith, to search for a new career. It all began with a night class at UC Berkeley Extension, Intro to Architecture for Non-Architects. Ann had always been fascinated by architecture, but never had the opportunity to study it—Skidmore didn’t even have an architecture department. Once enrolled in the extension class, Ann was hooked. She spent the next five years studying architecture at Cogswell College in San Francisco. Cogswell only had two departments, architecture and engineering, and employed only professors who also practiced in the field. Surrounded by like-minded students and professors, Ann enjoyed a hands-on immersion into a new, architectural world.

The Architecture of Healing

Footnotes: 1. www.ratcliffarch.com 2. McCullough, Cynthia (Ed.). (2010). Evidence-Based Design for Healthcare Facilities.

Indianapolis: Sigma Theta Tau International.

3. Sadler BL, Berry LL, Guenther R, et al. Fable Hospital 2.0: The Business Case for Building

Better Healthcare Facilities. Hastings Center Report. 2011 Jan/Feb:13-23.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

The Architecture of Healing

During her fourth and fifth years at school, Ann worked for SMP, a firm specializing in the design of healthcare facilities. Although she enjoyed the job, her work there entailed more research than hands on design. Once out of school, Ann took a job consulting for her former workplace, San Francisco General Hospital. Although she brought a great deal of expertise to the job—she could see the buildings not only as an architect, but also as a nurse—the work was overwhelming. She needed to work with other people—people who knew what they were doing. On her first day at Ratcliff Architecture, Ann felt out of her league. She locked herself in the bathroom and cried—how did she end up here? How could she compete with more experienced, confident architects in the firm? She took a deep breath, went back to her desk, and, to her delight, was asked out to lunch. As a nurse, lunches were taken to go, and eaten standing up, as quickly as possible. Discussing architecture and beyond over lunch with her new coworkers, Ann felt that she’d finally arrived. In the medical profession, says Ann, the work is so stressful that the staff clings to routine. Innovation, she says, must come from outside. As a nurse turned architect, Ann brought a unique perspective to the field of healthcare design—she examined the problem from the inside and out, and bridged the divide between doctors and architects. As a nurse, she always felt that healthcare facilities worked against, rather than with her. As an architect, she found the rare opportunity to transform healthcare facilities into more efficient, pleasant environments for nurses and patients alike—“I was still taking care of people,” she says, “just in a different way.” Although she had to scale back her concept of making a difference— change in healthcare design didn’t happen as quickly or dramatically as she would have liked—Ann loved working at Ratcliff. As a nurse, she was surrounded by stressed out, unhappy people. As an architect, she found herself in the company of well-rounded, creative people with plenty of outside interests. After a long nursing shift, she says, all you want to do is put your feet up. Ann hopes that her architectural work helped create less stressful working environments for nurses. Although she left Ratcliff years ago to raise two children, she’s excited to get back into the field in one way or another. In the meantime, she’s added Master Gardener to her already impressive list of accomplishments. Maybe she’ll return as a landscape architect with a focus on healing gardens? We’ll just have to wait and see. —MF

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

In the medical profession, the work is so stressful that the staff clings to routine. Innovation must come from outside.

The Architecture of Healing

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

In the medical profession, the work is so stressful that the staff clings to routine. Innovation must come from outside.

The Architecture of Healing

Let’s Make Those Ramps! an interview with Gretchen Anderson, Senior Interaction Designer by Elnaz Davoudi

Portable and unobtrusive, the Intel Reader takes pictures of printed material. It then converts it to digital form and allows magnification and/or audio playback. The reliable Intel® technology combines a high-resolution camera with an Intel® Atom™ processor. Which means conversion is fast, and the Intel Reader can hold large amounts of text.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps! an interview with Gretchen Anderson, Senior Interaction Designer by Elnaz Davoudi

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

As an industrial design student I was always passionate about the projects in which I could solve a problem rather than making things beautiful. This has drawn me to doing projects that revolve around medical problems. Based on that enthusiasm, back in Iran I did both my Bachelor’s final creative project and Master’s thesis on designing medical products. Later on, having focused more on how a lot of problems can actually be solved just through designing the interaction between person and product, I decided to seek a Master’s in Interaction Design. With that as the background, getting to know and interviewing Gretchen Anderson was like finding the whole package for me. Gretchen holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and Literature from Harvard University. She has worked for design companies such as Ikonic, Organic, Cooper, Digitas, frogdesign and LUNAR. She is currently the Senior Interaction Designer of Punchcut Design in San Francisco, a user interface design company specializing in mobile and convergent experiences across devices. Her 15 years of experience in interaction design were evident through our entire conversation, and her tangible real-world examples for each topic made it even more intriguing.

Design is not about putting all the ingredients together equally and by democracy; it is about having a very strong point of view and saying this is how the product wants to feel like. She is passionate about solving problems and has primarily focused on healthcare and medical design, where she has helped dyslexics to read, and diabetics to deal with their disease. Having entered the interaction design before it was a formal field; this pioneer designer is mostly self-taught and learned a lot through trial and error. In person, she is highly professional, charismatic, warm and open. Meeting Gretchen Anderson gave me new motivation in my approach to design and our conversation was certainly a highlight in my professional career.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

How would you define interaction design? In your standpoint why should interaction be designed in the first place? When you are dealing with a solid state object, the interaction is not that complex. So, mostly you do not need an interaction designer. But when things start to have multiple faces that react and have input, you need to design the interaction as well. For me, that is the core of what is called interaction design, which happens in stages all along the design process. I have had clients coming to me saying that they have already come up with a technology or have perceived a certain market and want to apply interaction methods and principles to it. But I think interaction design becomes more meaningful and powerful when you have a fully articulated product in mind. You know who is going to use it, you know what the goals are and you really want to craft the experience. For instance, Apple has been so revolutionary because they have made the interaction magical at the level of what they are offering. They are doing a good job in balancing the benefit to the user, to the cost of development. What are some important basic guidelines for designing the interaction? There are a lot of general guidelines in interaction design. About Face by Allen Cooper is a very good source on this topic. The one that first comes to my mind is the one that says, ‘Do not put might on will.’ This principle revolves around the idea that just because the users ‘might’ want to do something does not necessarily mean that they ‘will’. So as a designer you should not sacrifice based on what users might or want to do. Also, there is a lot of talk about ‘inflecting the interface,’ that is the idea of how you put things on your desk. Some things are on top of the desktop and very easily accessible, while some are away in the drawer and some are very far away in the safe. It is essential to the designer to apply the same hierarchy to the applications and products while designing the interaction. And the last one is the one I have been talking about lately as ‘Do not make it brown!’ Imagine you have a lot of paint tubes. If you mix all the colors together you will get the most unfavorable brownish-grayish color possible, but I think our job as designers is to make it ‘not brown’. Design is not about putting all the ingredients together equally and by democracy; it is about having a very strong point of view and say this is how this product wants to feel like. I use this term (it) a lot. I assume that the product has personality and ask, “What does the product want to be like?”, “How does it want to feel?” You can even attribute facial features to your design, to say if you think of your product as a character, which features are the ones that should stand out? Are they the freckles, eyes, eyelashes or lips? I think being able to craft that first visual impact and then the ongoing impact of the product with a strong point of view is really important.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Do you find web designing different from interaction design for the products? I have done very little web design, though, I think more and more, the term is becoming meaningless as nowadays you will have to be able to access internet through a laptop, a cell phone, a tablet and TV, etc. So I think those distinctions are becoming arbitrary. However, there are some differences between designing for different media. On a mobile device you can sort of assume that people are giving an experience partial attention. So, they are going to start a task while they are waiting for a train, they will pick it up again after they get out of the tunnel, totally forget about it and start doing it again at lunch time. As a result the experience is totally different than doing it on a laptop or a big browser which could be the focus of attention. This is something designers should carefully take advantage of, but not abuse. Netflix is an optimized example of taking advantage of these differences and applying it to its applications.

Gretchen Anderson was the lead interaction designer of Spark. The SPARK is PASCO’s fully integrated, standalone option for science both in and out of the classroom. Handheld and rugged data logger, SPARK is powered by SPARKvue software. Its large touchscreen and oversized handles promote collaborative learning and the sharing of ideas.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Do you think running usability tests are beneficial in the interaction design process or that they are not as important as they are generally assumed to be? I think it is a double-edged sword. I am not a fan of usability testing myself. Other than to say that certain levels of superficial details can benefit from some detailed usability testing; like testing the respond of the users to a button that says “ download now” and is in pink versus “download right now” in green. In small detailed cases like this you could probably make a sample that is big enough to be statistically valid, run a test, and measurably find the difference and make a choice based on it. However, that will not work in every stage of the design process. In addition, if you decide to run a usability test you still have to think of the purpose and be very clear about what you are going to do with what you will find. You have to clearly define where you are in the process and what fidelity you are testing. Are you going to take every person’s point of view and apply every comment? Then, you will get to the brown color we were talking about before! Personally, I have found some concept validation user tests useful. When you design you have to decide on the point of view of the product and how it will finally look. Using the tests you can sometimes make sure if it resonates in the designed form with people or not, which could be helpful in reassuring the executives, too. Although sometimes you might end up having some interesting outputs there. One of my favorite anecdotes is the test where university students were given the chance to choose between two posters. One was a very peaceful classic painting from Monet and the other, a poster of a kitten. Half of the people were just to choose the poster and the other half had to write down why they had selected it. Six months later they called all the participants back in and asked them the same question again. This time, none had to explain the reason behind

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

You never tell a person who is sitting in a wheelchair on the bottom of the stairs to try harder. You build them a ramp. That is what interaction designers do. WE BUILD THE RAMPS!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

student name and title goes here

You never tell a person who is sitting in a wheelchair on the bottom of the stairs to try harder. You build them a ramp. That is what interaction designers do. WE BUILD THE RAMPS!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

student name and title goes here

their choice. The result of the research showed that the second group who had to justify their decisions, had overwhelmingly chose the poster of the kitten just because it was easier to justify, but overall were not happy with it. In terms of designing for the users, that could mean when people are to explain themselves and analyze why they behave a certain way they tend to invent reasons and choose unsophisticated options that they don’t really want. That is why my approach especially in designing the network distributed mobile applications would be to launch and gather feedback as you go. This way you will get much more meaningful information only if you have the guts to go for it. You mentioned that you should clarify from the very beginning why you want to test and what you are going to do with the results in detail. How would you do that? How elaborately would you define the test ahead of time? It comes down to how much time and resources you have. I think the best way to do it is to let people run out something that is barely functional, or if it is not actually functional at least it is a prototype and let them open-endedly explore. I think the worst thing to do is to tell them exactly what to do, because people are curious and it is a natural behavior for them to explore and that is actually very important for being able to support that real-world behavior. Also, I think it is important to have enough visual fidelity to be able to abstract what is a superficial problem from a core problem. Once you have enough fidelity it is really easy to dig more and make a distinction between the possible potential reasons of a problem. For example the first reaction to people not using a feature could be that people did not like it. However, in a lot of cases underlying cause is a much simpler. Maybe they just did not see it. Maybe they expected it to have another color, be located in another place or to look a different way. So, if it is really a usability test it has got to have enough people to be statistically valid and that you can finally get a better sense of how you can improve the quality of the idea instead of just denying the whole idea. How important do you find the user context when designing an interactive product? In my standpoint the context is crucial to a good design. This is the reason why I always recommend doing a soft launch to find the chance to observe the users in the real context; especially when talking about a consumer mobile application. That being said, I have done a lot of very helpful confined usability studies in the medical products that take the context into account. For example if it is an application for the nurses in the hospital, going to the hospital and observing them using the product in the context lets you see that they get interrupted every 30 seconds. And watching them trying to get back at what they were doing

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

gives you a very good insight about their attention threshold that could become the grounds of your decisions in design. You will then know how much information to present, what to call the menus and whether to include a unique feature saying ‘get me back to where I was’. Observing the user in the physical context of using the product could also lead to finding some human factors that we could probably miss without it. Human factors; all the way from cognitive to physical aspects, are sometimes the key to design when it comes to medical design. For instance, I remember watching doctors using a surgery kit mock up revealed strange factors. We learned that doctors are short and tall that we could have guessed, but interestingly we realized that some of them are bifocal, some wear glasses and some don’t wear any vision fractions. Those factors that we could have missed could affect cases like where they want the screen to be in relation to their hands and a lot of other factors that we could have theorized about, but that would have been a very weak way to come up with ideas. In the cognitive part of it I have done research with diabetic patients. I have seen a guy that outfitted his bike with a test kit so that he can test his blood sugar level racing. Getting to see people in the real context and the emotional impact of managing a disease like diabetes and how far they will go to live a ‘normal’ life is sometimes breathtaking. What are some ethical issues that might come up during the process of design? I think the most fundamental one is to avoid being overly patriarchal or matriarchal, and be cautious not to fall into any of those extremes. In case of medical projects, I think some levels of ethical issues come up about how much authority you grant somebody over their well-being. A lot of medical device makers err on the side of caution. I am sure there is a legal reason for that and they choose to be conservative because they do not want to be exposed. But the example I always use in regards to blood glucose monitoring kits is that if it is potentially dangerous to expose a diabetes patient to their eating patterns that effect their blood glucose, just because we are not sure what they are going to do with that information; I would ask, ‘Isn’t it equally dangerous to provide them with just a number and absolutely no insight?’ Then they could draw all kinds of conclusions and make all kinds of changes in their behavior or not. As the technology becomes enhanced and cheaper, the expectations grow and designing a product that can just measure and give you a number is going to be seen as not so helpful. We probably owe it to our users to do more. Ethical issues also come as how you persuade your market to buy something. This was a debate in the interaction design community that using persuasive techniques to get a teenager to buy something is called ‘advertising’ and it is done every day. Now, how should the interaction design community react to that?

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

The elderly just need someone to show them a shallower ramp that allows them to make mistakes until they make it. They will make mistakes over and over again during the process but finally manage to master it, just like a kid playing a video game.

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Make Those Ramps!

If you are pushing a product on somebody how transparent are you going to be about it? Is this advertising or is it part of the experience? It is likewise in the medical cases. Just because now more people can have this kind of surgery because it is faster and cheaper are we sure that they should and that it is for the best? I am not even sure if this is a question for designers to answer. I was working on a product that would photograph the text and read it back to you for blind people. There were parents, especially moms of dyslexic children who would say, ‘Oh, but I still want my child to know how to read,’ and still there is this lingering attitude that if they push harder they will finally be able to read very well. My answer is that you never tell a person who is sitting in a wheelchair on the bottom of the stairs to just try harder to get there. You build them a ramp. That is what we as designers do. We build the ramps. There is some debate that interaction designers have facilitated the interaction of people and products while in a sense separating people from each other. More and more these days you see people gazing at their own little cell phones and engaged in virtual relationships rather than looking around and making random real conversations. How do you react to this opinion? While that might be true and it is probably true, it is like saying the car means that we do not get to the countryside anymore. We are into little screens and I don’t think that is the designers’ mistake or even the device makers’. People are not accepting it against their will. So, I think taking an overly optimistic or pessimistic view about the technology is only looking at half of the problem. The question is, what can you do with that? It does not seem like we can stop it, so how can we use it in its best? I am not a technology person but I think it is important to be real about it. For every story you hear about a mom ignoring her child while playing Farmville, you will see the people of Egypt fighting for their freedom and forming a revolution to finally find democracy. Talking of interaction, we have all heard of the clashes that sometime happen between the designers and developers. What steps have you taken to convince a reluctant developer to listen to your advice? A couple of things come to my mind. The first is; including them in the ideation process. I personally believe that the diversity can bring more to the table if it stays within reason. Though, I go back to the idea of ‘not making it brown’. You do not want to equally use every and any idea but there will be times when a developer suggests something that either solves the problem or opens a whole new avenue of possibilities. The next point you should have in mind is, being very clear about the wires and documentation so that if you are not collaborating with the developer closely and up front, you can always make sure that you are on the same page. To achieve that it is important to explain not just ‘what’ but

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

also “why” something should be a certain way. These days we use storytelling techniques to help developers feel more included and also help them predict. I was reading your article Designing for the Elderly on www.designmind. frogdesign.com (a web forum focusing on business, technology and design). As you have mentioned the number of people over the age of 65 is going to double over the next quarter-century, thanks to the aging of the Baby Boom Generation. You propose that designers should start designing for this huge number of people and taking them more into consideration while some other designers debate that the problem would be tackled if all products are designed universally. What is your approach to this idea? How important is it really to design specifically for the elderly? I know universal design can apply to some kitchen products, but I also think it is an unrealistic to apply across the world. If some of us cannot read it does not mean that all of us should use audio only output. I think designing for the elderly is a balancing act. To gain it, we should first stop thinking about the elderly as complete ‘electro-phobes’. Nowadays a large group of the elderly has GPS in their cars, have Bluetooth headsets on and use smart phones. The moment we stop that bigotry we can start to find something that can actually help them out. To me there is a difference between someone being elderly and someone being old. An old person says things like ‘Oh, honey. By the time you do this I am going to be dead anyway.’ They are people who are already letting go. Even though they might live for five more years, eventually they are not engaged. The elderly on the other hand, are still interested in learning end experiencing new things. They just need someone to show them a shallower ramp that allows them to make mistakes until they make it and they will make mistakes over and over again during the process but finally manage to master just like a kid playing a video game. What is interesting about the iPhone and how it could get the attention of seniors is that the interaction is so simple and single-functioned that there is pretty much no way they can make a mistake, and even if they do nothing serious will happen. You never want to design something specifically for the elderly, like coming up with a ‘senior TV app’ and send them the message that they are ‘dumb’ but you will want to find their programs of interest and channels and then offer them features that could make their experience more pleasurable in a very delicate way. The deficiency for the seniors specifically is that we have not started designing for them yet. Even though we know that the Baby Boomer population is growing, a lot of companies seem to tend to ignore them until the numbers get big enough. Yet, the fact is that we should think of ways to attract them and facilitate their experience because they ARE interested unless they are old. Let’s build those shallower ramps!

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

Acumen: Insight into the Design Process || Spring 2011

Let’s Make Those Ramps!

About the authors Elnaz Davoudi was born in Tehran, Iran where she completed her Master’s Degree in Industrial Design and worked for several design companies. In Iran, Elnaz’s focus in design revolved around healthcare and medical product design. She is passionate about solving problems, and looks at design as a powerful medium to tackle the everyday issues of life rather than making things beautiful. Currently, she is focusing on interaction design and the design for the aging populations. Elnaz believes that designers should acknowledge users who have been excluded from ‘traditional’ design target groups over time and facilitate their interaction with products that were once designed to be used only by a limited group of users. Mara Finley was born in Berkeley, CA. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Wesleyan University. Her creative work project focuses on improving the mammogram experience through design. Wei-Ting Fu was born in Taichung, Taiwan. She graduated from International Business and Finance Department at Fu Jen Catholic University. After graduation, she worked at an international trade company for one year—then she answered her calling, and made decision move abroad to study product design. Currently, her Creative Work Project focuses on interactive lighting design. Her mind open to experiences, and enjoys different fields of design.

Eva Rogers is a candidate in the MAIA program at San Francisco State University, with a focus in Visual Communications. Her current research explores the future of print at a time when news, stories and ideas are increasingly communicated via screens. Ms. Rogers is also Development Associate for Donor Relations at Headlands Center for the Arts, a nonprofit artist residency program in Marin County supporting artists’ creation of new work and public access to the creative process. Prior to relocating to the Bay Area in 2007, Eva lived in Tucson, AZ, and served as marketing copywriter for Tucson’s two daily newspapers, as well as a volunteer grant writer for Tucson’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Originally from Michigan, she holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan. Todd Wilkinson received his B.A. in Geography from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is a product designer who is interested in integrating urban living, industrial design and engineering for innovative product development. His Creative Work research emphasis focuses on modular design, and the efficient use of space within an urban context. Todd also studied sculpture at Santa Barbara City College, receiving both the Blaine Gibson Honorary Scholarship in 2009 and the Eli Luria Scholarship in Studio Art Plus in 2010.

Zsofia Gutvill holds a Master of Science Degree in Architecture from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. She practiced as an architect for many years; worked for the Budapest and London offices of the Dutch architecture firm Erick van Egeraat Associated Architects, and Mark Horton Architecture in San Francisco. She participated in the I-NOVA design program organized by Scuola Politecnica di Design and Poltrona Frau Group in Milan, Italy prior to moving to the United States in 2007. Her graduate research currently focuses on ‘bike to work’ clothing, functional and fashionable apparel for the everyday cyclist. Steve Jones is an Assistant Professor and the Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Design and Industry. He received his BFA from the California College of the Arts, and his MFA in Graphic Design, with honors, from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the founder of the Negro Emancipation Association (NEA) and the Principal/Creative Director of plantain, an Oakland-based design studio.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

About the Authors

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

About the Authors

Acknowledgments Elnaz Davoudi I would like to thank Gretchen Anderson for sharing her time and valuable expertise with me and all the readers. I would also like to express appreciation to my parents who have always been there for me in every stage of my life. I am also very grateful to Professor Jones who provided this opportunity to graduate students and encouraged us all on our way. The last but not least I like to thank my friends and appreciate their support. Mara Finley I’d like to thank Linda Mahle, Terrie Kurrasch, and Ann West for so generously taking the time to share their stories with me. I’d also like to thank my mother, Candace Falk, for inspiring me to transform her experience as a breast cancer survivor into an opportunity for innovation and change.

Eva Rogers I would like to thank Andrew Leland for generously sharing his time, ideas and expertise in the field. I would also like to thank Jason Polan for his time and talent in creating a portrait of Leland. Thank you! Todd Wilkinson I would like to thank Andreas for taking the time to meet with me and share his approach to life and design philosophy.

Wei-Ting Fu I would like to thank Jonas Samson from bottom of my heart for sharing his work, knowledge and time—and generously providing me with photos and video for use on this project. Thanks to Mary Chen, my English teacher, for helping me to correct my grammatical mistakes. And I want to thanks Professor Steve Jones to have this project and have high expectation for each of us. I would like to thank my family for their to support, financially and mentally. And finally, thanks my friends in Taiwan who comfort me whenever I’m depressed by projects. Zsofia Gutvill I would like to thank Sheila Moon for her time and for sharing her thoughts and vision on bikes, design and fashion. I would like to thank my husband, Anthony Coando, for introducing me to the fascinating world of bicycles, putting me in contact with so many great people and helping with my research. I would like to thank my colleagues, friends and family for their help, feedback and support, and Professor Jones for the challenge and guidance. Steve Jones I want to thank an incredible group of students! It’s been great working with you, and seeing you all develop over the course of the semester. You guys rock! I also want to thank our librarian Darlene Tong, our Department Chair Ricardo Gomes, and Professor Hsiao-Yun Chu for all their guidance, advice and support.

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Acknowledgments

Acumen: The Design Process Exposed || Spring 2011

Acknowledgments