Design Studies: Summer Reading Material & Other Plans

Part of our last assignment for the year with regards to Design Studies is to identify 5 books I will read as a result of this module, 5 things I want to do to my blog etc. and 5 people I will make contact with.

These include (and have already purchased some):

- Blink - a book by Malcolm Gladwell, the author of first semesters read "The Tipping Point".

- Semiotics: A Graphic Guide by Paul Cobley, as I found semiotics very interesting.

- Designing Infographics by Eric Meyer, I have become increasingly interested in infographics and data visualisations as a result of several paths during Design Studies and would like to learn how to incorporate this clean presentation style into my future projects.

- I plan on investing in several of the books in the series for my course anyway, however Basics Design offer one called Design Thinking, which is something I need to consider more deeply, namely the user and the effect a design can have on it's surroundings as often we get caught up on the aesthetics only (stemming from reading about ethnography).

- Wordpress for Dummies by Lisa Sabin-Wilson. This sort of leads me into my next top 5 catagory of what I plan to do over summer, and as you tell, regards moving over to Wordpress very slowly but surely.

All of these are available on www.amazon.co.uk.

The 5 things I plan to do over summer are:

As I am already an avid blogger and tweeter, I have not added these to my list as it is something I already regularly do.

- I do plan however, to move from Blogger to Wordpress over summer, and archive my posts.

- Finances permitting, I'd also like to take a short trip to The Netherlands to visit, along with visiting Norway (which is already booked), allowing me to visit their Architecture & Design Museum, as well as possibly visiting a Jewellery exhibition as I plan to travel with JMD student(s).

- Complete my LinkedIn profile and begin to use this more thoroughly.

- Organise my Flickr account into a more manageable system, along with updating it with recent albums.

- And finally, StumbleUpon more things every day - and as a result try to blog about a new find at least once weekly.

Finally, 5 people I would like to make contact with:

- HKU Utrecht if I am lucky enough to be invited to apply directly to them for an exchange opportunity.

- Continue to follow people on Twitter, while always looking for new companies and designers to follow. (I currently already follow most guest lecturers from this year's lectures etc.)

- Although it would not be a new connection, I plan on staying in contact with our current 4th years, keeping up to date with their job prospects and life as IED graduates, hopefully giving me an insight into life after DJCAD.

- Aim to get published by finding an amateur online design magazine, and make contact about perhaps submitting an article.

- Get, and start using Skype - as suggested by Lauren Currie (@RedJotter) some weeks ago.

EcoOffice: Easter Break & Deadlines

Quick update - the current project is going well.

It's now the Easter holidays, although by no means will this be a holiday as the deadline is on the 2nd May.  This means as I now plan into my final decent, I need to make final decisions upon how to present it all. We have been informed that it is not necessary to produce a scale model, but for those of us with presentations lacking a model, we must produce other scaled representations. In this case, I do not intend to build a model as my design has developed into a dense space, making a model too time consuming to do to a standard I would be happy with, not to mention being of little use as it would not be sufficiently viewable. I have chosen to provide plans that will be printed and displayed separately, along with an exploded axonometric, and an isometric showing colour coded departments.

The remainder of our materials fee which is paid annually will be put towards our printing costs, totally 2 A0 sheets, and for a small fee we can opt for a third. As I plan not to make the model, I will continue onto a third presentation sheet.

I am currently battling the baffling realm that is rendering software, which I have a feeling may continue on for some weeks yet.

Planning, I am very good at. Now however, execution is required. Thankfully Carol, our tutor, reassured me on Friday that I am further ahead than I thought I was - and in fact almost finished, so therefore should take a break. Clearly she doesn't know me very well still, because I won't be taking a break from this until it's finished and checked. And checked again. And then edited. And re-exported. And checked.

www.hku.nl

Lastly of my things to update about, I submitted my final application form for the Erasmus exchange programme just over a week ago. I spent a long time getting paranoid over my personal statement and portfolio, in fear I wouldn't do it justice and damaging my chances at such a good opportunity to meet new people and visit new places. I chose to apply to the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht, with no second option as I didn't want to travel elsewhere if I were to be unsuccessful in my first choice. But alas, all is done and submitted now so lest not fret about what can not be changed. But I will fret, it's what I do best after all.

Techmas: Jesus? Who The Hell Is He - Where's My iPad!

It seems these days people are obsessed with gadgetry. iPhones, iPads, iPods, Blackberrys, HTC handsets, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, bluetooth headsets, computer chips in your head that communicate for you from your bed...the list is virtually endless. Okay, I perhaps made the last one up, but it really is just a matter of time until that too is available.

Christmas is often a time people use to get their hands on said gadgets - it's an excuse to rationalise spending £500+ on things that throughout the year they lived quite comfortably without. Now I'm sure by now the Church has been alerted through their online tabs on the sinful world (can you tell I'm both paranoid about the Church and also an Atheist? How ironic!) of my bad mouthing of Christmas, but at a mere 21 I am already sick of the tacky fiasco that surrounds something that few people care about, in it's original sense that is. Gifts were originally a gesture of goodwill, but it's now all about monetary value.

I'm aware that my above ramblings may be somewhat disjointed and out of the blue - but let me explain further.

I remember as a child looking forward to the festive holidays because you got to see your family, the whole day was a celebration and we would sit around the television watching Bed Knobs and Broomsticks, Mary Poppins, It's a Wonderful Life and so on. Of course as a small child I was also highly enthralled to receive my Fisher Price kitchen - with an assortment of plastic groceries, but forgive me for that - I was after all, a child.

The older I have become, the more I have become a cynic. I go into town and hear people saying "I want that" every other second and it winds me up to no end. When I had a rant (me? Never!) to my Dad about why we even celebrate it in a completely Atheist household, he said that it's more of a winter festival than a celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday. I thought that was actually a much better description. People enjoy having something to build up to and work towards during the cold winter when it's dark and miserable. It helps pass the time, and it's a chance for people to get together I suppose.

I like that idea much more.

I think people should try having a Christmas where they all spend a small set amount on each other, but put the effort in in terms of what they are giving, as oppose to how much they are giving. Then, their day would be spent less focussed on their pile of gifts, and instead enjoy the warmth, food and relaxing break from their hectic daily lives. To some extent my family have decided to do that this year, as we all collectively do not care hugely for it.

I'm going to start celebrating Steve Jobs' birthday instead - I care more about him and what he has brought to the world than I do Jesus. At least I'm being honest.

Happy Hanukkah folks!

And A Merry Ecomas To You Too

What is everybody using as wrapping paper this year? Glossy printed paper, with bows? Metallic paper wrapped in string ribbon? All the aforementioned are attractive when wrapping up your Christmas gifts, however what about the eco option? Although collections of shiny presents attract people like magpies to pennies - at what price does this come in terms of damage to the environment? An article I came across in The Guardian questions what we can do.

Furoshiki gift wrapping may be the answer:

Several obvious benefits occur by choosing to take this route this Christmas - firstly, it saves money. This is a huge benefit with the obvious current climate, as you can reuse the material from gifts you receive. You can also recycle your old table clothes etc. by cutting them up to donate to your wrapping collection. Secondly, it entirely eliminates the paper waste that gets sent to landfill every Christmas. Win all round!

RecycleNow.com provide several tips as to making your Christmas more eco friendly. Aside from the above, they also have created a page, documenting the instructions needed to make gift bags from envelopes - something that also adds to the endless waste created at this time of year. Below is the video "how to" tutorial:

If wrapping your presents in a material alternative is not for you, and they are bigger than the envelope gift bag option, do not fear: there's always the homemade eco friendly wrapping paper option!

Furthermore, Yahoo! offer some ideas towards helping the environment and reducing your waste, including biodegradable stuffing - something that is regularly overlooked. Family gifts can be exchanged with a twist; as you can get the kids to draw their own patterns. Pathetically sentimental yes, but also quite refreshing - why do gifts have to be presented in a professional shop bought way? Homemade touches like that go down well with grandparents especially! 

At the very least - you can also use newspaper. It's waste anyway, and hey, if it's good enough for our now ex Prime Minister and family, then I guess it should be good enough for us too.

Aside from wrapping paper, there are many other aspects to Christmas. Decorations, Christmas dinner, and the gifts themselves. A novel idea I did come across was the Christmas tree made from 80,000 plastic spoons. The Telegraph shed some light on several of these topics, as well as on The National Geographic.

Lastly, I shall leave you with thinking towards the future. Tesco have provided 5 green resolutions to consider when choosing your New Years Resolution. Not only this, but there are links to the right concerning cutting your food waste levels, and 20 steps to greener living in general.

Happy Ecolidays!