Designers: how they work, how they get inspired

Hei, here are couple of links about some influential contemporary designers.
Check them out!

Fathers of graphic design (Carson and Glaser):
http://www.lynda.com/home/DisplayCourse.aspx?lpk2=558

Virtual reality / physical reality (the off video is great!)
http://www.jvallee.com/index_jvallee.html


The philosophy of the graphic designers:
http://www.humblepied.com/all/

Tomorrow morning 09.15-11.30

We have lesson about innovation + review.
In the afternoon you shall have project management, but the morning should be free...
Let´s meet in Saturn.
Thanks!
Simona

UPCOMING EVENTS

on 19th of November, 12.30-15.30 a psycologist will explain group dynamics and team building activities.

on the 24th: Innovation at Nokia.

Please try to be there on the 19th: it will be fun!

Brief update

These would be the 3 directions of the communication artifact, everybody can choose to develop one / two / three aspects. We will discuss it further tomorrow morning in class so that it will be clear to everybody.

Begin with the idea and then develop it further.

The idea is essential!

Quality over quantity! (Rather visualize and concentrate on a small part of the project, but do it as well and professional as possible!)

Tomorrow we will visit Demola, there you can ask further questions. Please note that Demola is the client, therefore even if the relationshp client-designer is not always clear enough, as designers is your responsibility to ask the right questions that improve your work! I will be always in class, so as you develop the project ask for directions, reviews, feedback.

OPTION 1 VISUAL IDENTITY / how they look (visualize few different solution that the Demola grop has proposed with a media of your choice: brochure, video, illustration, comics, site)
_ Development of the brand, how does it apply to different media, specification of the images to be used (directions: for young dynamic people) _ verbal/non verbal communication (directions and clear specifications about it) _ for instance, if illustration is the format you choose, then specify the type of illustrations used throughout the project.

OPTION 2 Virtual promotion (more technology oriented) / how they look? What is the concept? _ viral marketing proposals, strategies of communication (faceboook, twitter, mobile applications, viral marketing video) _ website skeleton (color uses, contents, type of communication used)

OPTION 3 The city environment / how they look _signals on the street, design, placement, maps, scenarios visualization.

I am sure the output will be brilliant!

Simona

about power points and all that.

Hei,
I have received an email complaining about the boringness caused by the use of Power Point.
I agree, to some extent, with the fact that Power Point is not always enabling the maximus of the creativity.

I want just to make clear here that that was the ONLY task planned for the all course that requires the use of that tool from you.

The choice of that was based on some didactical needs:
_ get to know you (have some hints about you);
_ see how you interact in groups, talk in public;
_ get acquainted with your analitical process;
_ make you familiar with some concepts related to the strategy of the brands.

The original plan was to have just four presentations of maximus ten minutes, but the schedule changed due to the longness of some presentations and the amount of presentations, as some of them were not done in group.
Any opinions?

the eco2 brief

Hello,

as during the las lesson it was explained, the brief (see an effective example here) is the tool that connects the clients´needs with the designer´s work.

Please, for next time, try to understand the people who will work in your group and start to browse around, make some research about ecology´s communication and their visual identity.
Familiarize more with the Demola project, visible from their website.
Try to come up with some abstract visual direction that you would like to explore.
An interesting project similar to the one that we will develop, has been done for Helsinki´s city by the communication agency experientia. (See the project here)

Use the same concepts used during last week´s exercise (no need to write them down, try to think about them and direct your thinking in this way, sketching them in your mind or your notebook). This will help to develop the communication strategy for Eco2.

_what are the feelings that visually you would like to communicate?
_what are the key words that you would like to include in the project? (minimalistic, innovative, simple, photographic, illustrative, infographical, straightforward, modern, classical... try to define it!)
_what kind of images (colours, photos or drawings) shall be used?
Suggestion: try to propose something modern, for the young target that we have!'

During next lesson we will go through this.
In the morning there will be some theory and project work, and the afternoon is reserved for Demola.
If you have any questions, get in touch!
Have a wonderful week!
Simona

No way. The hundred is there.

The child
is made of one hundred.
The child has
a hundred languages
a hundred hands
a hundred thoughts
a hundred ways of thinking
of playing, of speaking.
A hundred always a hundred
ways of listening
of marvelling, of loving
a hundred joys
for singing and understanding
a hundred worlds
to discover
a hundred worlds
to invent
a hundred worlds
to dream.
The child has
a hundred languages
(and a hundred hundred hundred more)
but they steal ninety-nine.
The school and the culture
separate the head from the body.
They tell the child:
to think without hands
to do without head
to listen and not to speak
to understand without joy
to love and to marvel
only at Easter and at Christmas.
They tell the child:
to discover the world already there
and of the hundred
they steal ninety-nine.
They tell the child:
that work and play
reality and fantasy
science and imagination
sky and earth
reason and dream
are things
that do not belong together.
And thus they tell the child
that the hundred is not there.
The child says:
No way. The hundred is there.

Loris Malaguzzi

Logorama

Logorama is a short film that was directed by the French animation collective H5, François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy + Ludovic Houplain. It was presented at the Cannes Film Festival 2009. It opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and won a 2010 academy award under the category of animated short. Watch it here
Some issues raised connected to copyright are readable here or here.