Dieter Rams on Design + HOMEWORK for next Tuesday 10/4

Studenti,

German design-meister and former design director at Braun electronics Dieter Rams had some great comments in the documentary Objectified describing his thoughts on design, what's good and bad in contemporary products from architecture to advertising, and the timelessness of good design.

In his words, "good design..."

• is innovative
• makes a product useful
• is aesthetic design
• makes a product understandable
• is honest
• is unobtrusive
• is long-lived
• is consistenti in every detail
• is environmentally friendly
• is as little design as possible

For class next Tuesday, take some pages in your sketchbook and put down your own thoughts on products and/or processes you find that possess these qualities, that adhere to these principles, and even ones that clearly fall short and why.  Take pictures, print them out, and paste them into your sketchbooks.  You might also pull advertisements featuring these products or processes out of paper ads in magazines and newspapers.

I'm not going to give a specific quantity, but I will encourage you to be aggressive, thoughtful, and wide-ranging.  More is better than less.

~mrc

COLLABORATIVE STUDY GUIDES

Students,

Please use the time in class today to meet as a group and begin your Study Guides, the guidelines for which are here.

I apologize once more for canceling class.  You don't want what I've got!

I am available by text or email if you have any questions, so please don't hesitate to ask if you have questions.

~mrc

Tuesday 9/21 Class Cancelled

Students,

I am sorry to say that class is cancelled for this afternoon, Tuesday 9/21.  I actually got much more sick after Thursday's class and have had a miserable time since then.  But there are many potent drugs in my system now, and we WILL have class on Thursday.  Please use the time wisely to make sure you've read and thought about the 2 chapters from A Whole New Mind and are ready to discuss Thursday.

Again, my apologies.

Best
~mrc

Class for Tuesday, September 14

Students,

Class has been cancelled for this evening. We will resume at our regular meeting time on Thursday, Sept 16th. Be sure you have your reading done!

Academy of Art University Open House 9/25 in DC

Students,

Those of you considering careers in art and design and are looking for additional coursework or to study elsewhere after graduation may be interested in Academy of Art University's open house in Washington DC at the end of the month.  Saturday the 25th from 10-5 (all day, basically) representatives will be on hand at the Westin City Center at 1400 M Street, NW to review portfolios and answer questions about financial aid and their accredited degree programs (Animation, Game Design, Graphic Design, Education, Fashion, et al).  They even have pre-college scholarships for high school students!  More info at: www.academyart.edu.

If you can get away, DC's always a great town to visit with lots of free art, and Rich Salcido's solo show Beautiful Failures will be up at the awesome Art Whino gallery.

~mrc

HOMEWORK for Tuesday 9/14

Students,

This week we're doing in-class activities and assignments, so there's no homework, but NEXT week, please come to class Tuesday and Thursday having read the first 61 pages of the Daniel Pink book, A Whole New Mind –that's the Introduction and Chapters One, Two, and Three.

Also, make sure you're caught up on all the little assignments to date like adding your profile to the course wiki (as Mr Barry has done here), and that I have your Multiple Intelligence Learning Style test results.

~mrc