Proposal Title
Abstract
The need
Initial research
Audience
Research areas
Research question/problem statement
Subquestions
What forms might the deliverables take?
How will the core project benefit your education?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Monday, March 29, 2010
Ideas for Thesis Topic
These are some of the thesis topics I have in mind for now:
1. How architectures make to the look and livability of our city
2. The positive effects of Bikeway design and way-finding signage
3. Lack of good way finding signage in the city on most surface routes
4. The definition between graphic design and illustration. What are the differences?
5. How to improve Toronto's transportation system with way-finding systems?
6. The need of information graphics. Why do we need information graphics?
7. Is food design important to human? Why do food need to be designed?
8. The importance of packaging design. Does packaging design make people's lives easier?
9. The relationship between graphic design and advertising.
10. Why is advertising significant in New York? Compare it with Canada.
11. Japan's graphic design industry.
12. The difference between Western graphic design and graphic design in Asian countries.
13. Is Canada's graphic design industry going downhill?
14. How does technology benefit graphic design?
15. The influence of modern design to our city.
1. How architectures make to the look and livability of our city
2. The positive effects of Bikeway design and way-finding signage
3. Lack of good way finding signage in the city on most surface routes
4. The definition between graphic design and illustration. What are the differences?
5. How to improve Toronto's transportation system with way-finding systems?
6. The need of information graphics. Why do we need information graphics?
7. Is food design important to human? Why do food need to be designed?
8. The importance of packaging design. Does packaging design make people's lives easier?
9. The relationship between graphic design and advertising.
10. Why is advertising significant in New York? Compare it with Canada.
11. Japan's graphic design industry.
12. The difference between Western graphic design and graphic design in Asian countries.
13. Is Canada's graphic design industry going downhill?
14. How does technology benefit graphic design?
15. The influence of modern design to our city.
Macaroon Tower
I love the way macaroons look (their colors are fantastic), and they taste great too! I went to a cake shop called "Ruelo Patisserie" in Richmond Hill, and I bought three macaroons.
The top one is Orange Cream Cheese flavor, the middle one is Espresso, and the bottom one is Pistachio with Raspberry. I like the Pistachio one the most! I brought the big macarosns home and took a picture with my mini macaroons (they are plastic miniatures).
Sunday, March 28, 2010
My 21st Birthday
Today is my birthday and I went to watched Alice In Wonderland after dinner.
I didn't get a birthday cake today (ate chocolate fudge cake with vanilla ice cream instead) so I took a picture of my miniature toys.
Happy Birthday to me!
Typography Animation
From Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwihSPaTcSU
A really interesting typography animation.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Readings 6
Semiotics: a primer of designers – Challis Hodge
- Author: “Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to understand the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.”
- Chandler: “The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings.”
- Becoming aware of these systems and rules and learning to master them is the true power of visual communication and design.
- Semiotics teaches us as designers that our work has no meaning outside the complex set of factors that define it; the deeper our understanding and awareness of these factors, the better our control over the success of the work products we create; helps us not to take reality for granted as something that simply exists; helps us to understand that reality depends not only on the intentions we put into our work but also the interpretation of the people who experience our work
- The meaning of a sign is not in its relationship to other signs within the language system but rather in the social context of its use. The study of semiotics needs to account for the relationship of the symbols and the social context or context of use.
- The disciplines involved in semiotics include linguistics (where it began), and has been adopted by disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, aesthetic and media theory,
- Semiology aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substanceand limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification.
- Structuralism is an analytical method used by many semioticians. Structuralists seek to describe the overall organization of sign systems as languages.
- Semantics focuses on what words mean while semiotics is concerned with how signs mean.
- Semiotics is the study of sign processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols.
* Semantics: the relationship of signs to what they stand for.
* Syntactics (or syntax): the formal or structural relations between signs.
* Pragmatics: the relation of signs to interpreters.
- A text is an assemblage of signs constructed with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication. Text usually refers to a message, which has been recorded in some way so that it is physically independent of its sender or receiver.
- Language (code): the system of rules and conventions which is independent of, and pre-exists, individual users ; Speech (message): its use in particular instances
For examples: any specific film is the speech of that underlying system of cinema language.
The Reflective Practitioner: how professional think in action- Donald Schon
Summary: An analysis of the distinctive structure of reflection-in-action. He explores the relationship between the kinds of knowledge honored in academia and the kinds of competence valued in professional practice.
- professions had come to be seen as vehicles for the application of the new sciences to the achievement of human progress: engineers became a model of technical practice for the other professions, medicine was refashioned in the new image a science-based technique for the preservation of health
- 3 principal doctrines of Positivism (a dominant philosophy): the conviction that empirical science was not just a form of knowledge but the only source of positive knowledge of the world; intention to cleanse men’s minds of mysticism, superstition, and other forms of pseudoknowledge; the program of extending scientific knowledge and technical control to human society, to make technology
- 2 kinds of meaningful propositions: analytic and essentially tautological propositions of logic and mathematics/ the empirical propositions which express knowledge of the world.
- Positivists recognized to what extent observational statements were theory-laden, and found it necessary to ground empirical knowledge in irreducible elements of sensory experience. They began to see laws of nature not as facts inherent in nature hut as constructs created to explain observed phenomena, and science became for them a hypothetico-deductive system.
- actual practice of phenomena-complexity, uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and
value-conflict do not fit in the model of Technical Rationality. Positivism solved the puzzle of practical knowledge in a way that had been foreshadowed by the Technological Program
- professional practice is a process of problem solving. Problems of choice or decision are solved through the selection of the one best suited to established ends. With emphasis on
problem solving, we ignore problem setting (the process by which we define the decision
to be made, the ends to be achieved, the means which may be chosen)
- To convert a problematic situation to a problem, a practitioner must make sense of an uncertain situation that initially makes no sense. Professionals are coming to recognize that although problem setting is a necessary condition for technical problem solving, it is not itself a technical problem.
To solve a problem by the application of existing theory or technique, a practitioner must be able to map those categories onto features of the practice situation.
- Knowing-in-action refers to the kinds of knowledge we can only reveal in the way we carry out tasks and approach problems.
- Reflection-in-action is the ability of professionals to ‘think what they are doing while they are doing it’.
- Reflection-in-action is an extraordinary process; is the core of practice for some practitioners; is not generally accepted because professionalism is still identified with technical expertise.
It is the kind of reflection that occurs whilst a problem is being addressed, in what Schon calls the ‘action-present’ (the zone of time in which action can still make a difference to the situation). It is a response to a surprise – where the expected outcome is outside of our knowing-in-action. The reflective process is at least to some degree conscious, but may not be verbalised. Reflection-in-action is about challenging our assumptions. It is about thinking again, in a new way, about a problem we have encountered.
- When someone reflects-in-action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context.
He is not dependent on the categories of established theory and technique, but constructs
a new theory of the unique case. His inquiry is not limited to a deliberation about means
which depends on a prior agreement about ends. He does not keep means and ends
separate, but defines them interactively as he frames a problematic situation. He does
not separate thinking from doing, ratiocinating his way to a decision which he must later
convert to action.
- Reflection-in-action is important because dilemma of rigor or relevance may be dissolved if we can develop an epistemology of practice which places technical problem solving within a broader context of reflective inquiry, shows how reflection-in-action may be rigorous in its own right, and links the art of practice in uncertainty and uniqueness to the scientist’s art of research.
- Author: “Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to understand the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.”
- Chandler: “The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings.”
- Becoming aware of these systems and rules and learning to master them is the true power of visual communication and design.
- Semiotics teaches us as designers that our work has no meaning outside the complex set of factors that define it; the deeper our understanding and awareness of these factors, the better our control over the success of the work products we create; helps us not to take reality for granted as something that simply exists; helps us to understand that reality depends not only on the intentions we put into our work but also the interpretation of the people who experience our work
- The meaning of a sign is not in its relationship to other signs within the language system but rather in the social context of its use. The study of semiotics needs to account for the relationship of the symbols and the social context or context of use.
- The disciplines involved in semiotics include linguistics (where it began), and has been adopted by disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, literature, aesthetic and media theory,
- Semiology aims to take in any system of signs, whatever their substanceand limits; images, gestures, musical sounds, objects, and the complex associations of all these, which form the content of ritual, convention or public entertainment: these constitute, if not languages, at least systems of signification.
- Structuralism is an analytical method used by many semioticians. Structuralists seek to describe the overall organization of sign systems as languages.
- Semantics focuses on what words mean while semiotics is concerned with how signs mean.
- Semiotics is the study of sign processes, or signification and communication, signs and symbols.
* Semantics: the relationship of signs to what they stand for.
* Syntactics (or syntax): the formal or structural relations between signs.
* Pragmatics: the relation of signs to interpreters.
- A text is an assemblage of signs constructed with reference to the conventions associated with a genre and in a particular medium of communication. Text usually refers to a message, which has been recorded in some way so that it is physically independent of its sender or receiver.
- Language (code): the system of rules and conventions which is independent of, and pre-exists, individual users ; Speech (message): its use in particular instances
For examples: any specific film is the speech of that underlying system of cinema language.
The Reflective Practitioner: how professional think in action- Donald Schon
Summary: An analysis of the distinctive structure of reflection-in-action. He explores the relationship between the kinds of knowledge honored in academia and the kinds of competence valued in professional practice.
- professions had come to be seen as vehicles for the application of the new sciences to the achievement of human progress: engineers became a model of technical practice for the other professions, medicine was refashioned in the new image a science-based technique for the preservation of health
- 3 principal doctrines of Positivism (a dominant philosophy): the conviction that empirical science was not just a form of knowledge but the only source of positive knowledge of the world; intention to cleanse men’s minds of mysticism, superstition, and other forms of pseudoknowledge; the program of extending scientific knowledge and technical control to human society, to make technology
- 2 kinds of meaningful propositions: analytic and essentially tautological propositions of logic and mathematics/ the empirical propositions which express knowledge of the world.
- Positivists recognized to what extent observational statements were theory-laden, and found it necessary to ground empirical knowledge in irreducible elements of sensory experience. They began to see laws of nature not as facts inherent in nature hut as constructs created to explain observed phenomena, and science became for them a hypothetico-deductive system.
- actual practice of phenomena-complexity, uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and
value-conflict do not fit in the model of Technical Rationality. Positivism solved the puzzle of practical knowledge in a way that had been foreshadowed by the Technological Program
- professional practice is a process of problem solving. Problems of choice or decision are solved through the selection of the one best suited to established ends. With emphasis on
problem solving, we ignore problem setting (the process by which we define the decision
to be made, the ends to be achieved, the means which may be chosen)
- To convert a problematic situation to a problem, a practitioner must make sense of an uncertain situation that initially makes no sense. Professionals are coming to recognize that although problem setting is a necessary condition for technical problem solving, it is not itself a technical problem.
To solve a problem by the application of existing theory or technique, a practitioner must be able to map those categories onto features of the practice situation.
- Knowing-in-action refers to the kinds of knowledge we can only reveal in the way we carry out tasks and approach problems.
- Reflection-in-action is the ability of professionals to ‘think what they are doing while they are doing it’.
- Reflection-in-action is an extraordinary process; is the core of practice for some practitioners; is not generally accepted because professionalism is still identified with technical expertise.
It is the kind of reflection that occurs whilst a problem is being addressed, in what Schon calls the ‘action-present’ (the zone of time in which action can still make a difference to the situation). It is a response to a surprise – where the expected outcome is outside of our knowing-in-action. The reflective process is at least to some degree conscious, but may not be verbalised. Reflection-in-action is about challenging our assumptions. It is about thinking again, in a new way, about a problem we have encountered.
- When someone reflects-in-action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context.
He is not dependent on the categories of established theory and technique, but constructs
a new theory of the unique case. His inquiry is not limited to a deliberation about means
which depends on a prior agreement about ends. He does not keep means and ends
separate, but defines them interactively as he frames a problematic situation. He does
not separate thinking from doing, ratiocinating his way to a decision which he must later
convert to action.
- Reflection-in-action is important because dilemma of rigor or relevance may be dissolved if we can develop an epistemology of practice which places technical problem solving within a broader context of reflective inquiry, shows how reflection-in-action may be rigorous in its own right, and links the art of practice in uncertainty and uniqueness to the scientist’s art of research.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Creative Eggcraft
“Eggcraft,” Buzzfeed, 2010, Buzzfeed. 25 March 2010
http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/eggcraft.
I was surfing on the internet and I came across this page. It shows three images and they are photos of somebody's craftwork made with egg shells. They're really adorable and I think the person who made them are so creative. I love seeing inspiring and creative artworks.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
My cakes collection
Here is a picture of all my miniature cakes collection! These tiny toys are great for practicing photography skills. I love shooting them in macro.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Readings 5
Why designers can't think- Michael Bierut
Summary: "Modern design education is essentially value-free: every problem has a purely visual solution that exists outside any cultural context." Bierut expresses his concern for a lack of culture among many design school graduates and makes a strong plea for educators to remedy this.
- graphic designers are lucky because they can partake in as many fields of interest as we have clients
- process school= swiss school (only 15 yrs) ; portfolio school= slick school (from 1950s)
To the portfolio schools, the “Swiss” method is hermetic, arcane, and meaningless to the general public. To the process schools, the “slick” method is distastefully commercial, shallow, and derivative.
- Process schools favor a form-driven problem solving approach; don't relate to real world as much; focus on "process" more than "product"
- 1. draw letterforms, translate 3D objects, still life photography> 2. relate drawing of object to hand drawn letter then combine letter with a photo> 3. letter+object+photo+a 42 pt. typeface= poster for Rudolph Nureyev
- Portfolio school aims to provide students with polished books that will get them good jobs after graduation; the problem solving mode is conceptual; focus on "product" more than "process"
- what's wrong with graphic design education is how both school are the same: what's valued is the way graphic design looks, not what is means; the passion of design educators seems to be technology; educators need to expose their students to a meaningful range of culture; most mediocre design today comes from designers are who faithfully doing as they were taught in school, worship altar of the visual
- pioneers of graphic designers were more well-rounded because their work draws its power from deep in the culture of their times (they had no intensive specialized programs);
I come to bury graphic design- Kenneth Fitzgerald
Summary: He proposes that the objective of design, to create a class of expert professional practitioners, can - and should - only lead to its demise as a specialist profession. "An education through design rather than in design should be our goal."
- design's essential impulse is to perpetuate itself, in other words, its first concern is reproduction; to assure its existence, design strives to create a class of expert prof. practitioners with high social standing
- We should be resigned to never achieving full regard for expert design production, The reason is that as the non-designer public become converts to design’s message, the conversion is total.
- Koolhaus’s engagement in design might be considered another triumph for the field. It is, in fact, a sign of the coming apocalypse, because the works are contemporary, capable and forgettable.
- Design culture is blind to its motivations. It constantly seeks to eradicate itself and designers will instinctively reject this notion.
- design study without application is unlikely
- practical hazards in academia: how it puts that idealistic pursuit into practice;well-funded design programs being hijacked or infiltrated by sinecure seekers
- Design is a dislocated art form born out of industrialization.The idea of professional artists is fairly implausible, certainly as a way to consistently generate fresh insight. The activity inevitably becomes routinized and formulaic when required to be on demand. The product turns distant, abstract, and impersonal.
- the only problem professional design solves with any demonstrable success is a designer’s urgency to get a professional design job.
Summary: "Modern design education is essentially value-free: every problem has a purely visual solution that exists outside any cultural context." Bierut expresses his concern for a lack of culture among many design school graduates and makes a strong plea for educators to remedy this.
- graphic designers are lucky because they can partake in as many fields of interest as we have clients
- process school= swiss school (only 15 yrs) ; portfolio school= slick school (from 1950s)
To the portfolio schools, the “Swiss” method is hermetic, arcane, and meaningless to the general public. To the process schools, the “slick” method is distastefully commercial, shallow, and derivative.
- Process schools favor a form-driven problem solving approach; don't relate to real world as much; focus on "process" more than "product"
- 1. draw letterforms, translate 3D objects, still life photography> 2. relate drawing of object to hand drawn letter then combine letter with a photo> 3. letter+object+photo+a 42 pt. typeface= poster for Rudolph Nureyev
- Portfolio school aims to provide students with polished books that will get them good jobs after graduation; the problem solving mode is conceptual; focus on "product" more than "process"
- what's wrong with graphic design education is how both school are the same: what's valued is the way graphic design looks, not what is means; the passion of design educators seems to be technology; educators need to expose their students to a meaningful range of culture; most mediocre design today comes from designers are who faithfully doing as they were taught in school, worship altar of the visual
- pioneers of graphic designers were more well-rounded because their work draws its power from deep in the culture of their times (they had no intensive specialized programs);
I come to bury graphic design- Kenneth Fitzgerald
Summary: He proposes that the objective of design, to create a class of expert professional practitioners, can - and should - only lead to its demise as a specialist profession. "An education through design rather than in design should be our goal."
- design's essential impulse is to perpetuate itself, in other words, its first concern is reproduction; to assure its existence, design strives to create a class of expert prof. practitioners with high social standing
- We should be resigned to never achieving full regard for expert design production, The reason is that as the non-designer public become converts to design’s message, the conversion is total.
- Koolhaus’s engagement in design might be considered another triumph for the field. It is, in fact, a sign of the coming apocalypse, because the works are contemporary, capable and forgettable.
- Design culture is blind to its motivations. It constantly seeks to eradicate itself and designers will instinctively reject this notion.
- design study without application is unlikely
- practical hazards in academia: how it puts that idealistic pursuit into practice;well-funded design programs being hijacked or infiltrated by sinecure seekers
- Design is a dislocated art form born out of industrialization.The idea of professional artists is fairly implausible, certainly as a way to consistently generate fresh insight. The activity inevitably becomes routinized and formulaic when required to be on demand. The product turns distant, abstract, and impersonal.
- the only problem professional design solves with any demonstrable success is a designer’s urgency to get a professional design job.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Clash of the Titans
I am so going to watch this movie when it comes out!! The visual effects look awesome. It always amazes me how realistic these "CG artworks" look and I wonder how do animators create such fantastic works?
Miniature Room
This is one of my "blog friend"'s photo. She collects miniatures as well and I love seeing photos of her miniature room that she sets up. This is one of my favorite of hers. This was done at Christmas time and it really brings out the theme of "White Christmas". I'm always inspired by her works.
linglam34, DSC00129, 2009, Flickr, 6 March 2010
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31350928@N03/4186980988/
Friday, March 5, 2010
CoverGirl: LashBlast Ad
I was taking the subway to school today, and I noticed the bars on the entry gate were painted yellow. I looked closely, and realized that this was an ad for CoverGirls's LashBlast Length mascara. I tried to take a picture but it didn't turned out good so I found this image online.
The yellow bars represent the tip of the mascara brush, and the black bars represent your eyelashes. It's giving you a "picture" that your lashes will be THAT long like the black bars, when you apply this mascara.
I thought this was a really creative idea by using the entry gate because a lot of people pass by these gates daily and I think most people would take a look at the ad to try to figure out what's happening with the yellow bars. I love this ad.
“CoverGirl LashBlast Length: Entry gate,” Ads of the World, 2009, Mediabistro. 5 March 2009
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/ambient/covergirl_lashblast_length_entry_gate?.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Some of the best ads ever
http://uaddit.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=642
This website provides images of some of the best advertisements ever made, and there are a lot of them which I like and I was blown away by how brilliant and smart some of the ads are.
I really like # 12 Ultra Slim Sony Cyber-shot T1. The idea was clever and funny as well, although you can see that the advertisement was not expensive at all.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Type 4 project- Bauhaus
For typography class, we were told to choose a typeface, and create it with materials that's made by you and it cannot be created digitally. So, I've cut out geometric shapes (circle, triangle, square) from construction papers and I drew the Bauhaus font with a black marker, and I took a photo of it.
Big & small Ferrero Rocher
As I've mentioned in my previous post, I love miniatures and I like collecting them. Recently, I bought a few Ferrero Rocher mini chocolates, and I took a picture of them with the REAL ones. It was fun to do, and the photo turned out pretty interesting.
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