February 17, 2012

To really think about design, you need to learn and think about everything other than it. Design is a vessel: the most important part is what it holds. As makers of things, the work gets better from outside influences, and gives us clarity about the purpose of the work: to inform, to persuade, and to delight. We’ll spend some time ruminating on what it means to delight our audiences, think of different ways to do so through mechanisms like storytelling, and realize that the real benefit of making anything is to nourish lives.

You can’t measure design. Why? Design is for people. People are illogical and emotional.

The opposite of a true statement is a false statement. the opposite of a profound truth may be another profound truth niels bohr

Cynicism isn’t the appropriate answer to profound truths

creative work is about embracing paradox

If you’re doing your job right as a designer, people will make stories about what you make.

Design is about gift-giving.

February 13, 2012 • 1,742 notes • imamuseum.org
Tim Hawkinson - Möbius Ship “California-based artist Tim Hawkinson is known for taking everyday materials and altering them in imaginative ways, creating works that address broad issues about the intersection of human consciousness, nature and technology. Here, he employed a mix of found objects and common household materials—including twist ties, craft wood, staples, and packing material—which he transformed almost alchemically into a complex and awe-inspiring sculpture.”

Tim Hawkinson - Möbius Ship

“California-based artist Tim Hawkinson is known for taking everyday materials and altering them in imaginative ways, creating works that address broad issues about the intersection of human consciousness, nature and technology. Here, he employed a mix of found objects and common household materials—including twist ties, craft wood, staples, and packing material—which he transformed almost alchemically into a complex and awe-inspiring sculpture.”

(via feltron)

February 13, 2012 • 1,873 notes
feltron: (via partspermillion, zneeem) (via zneeem-deactivated20120203)

feltron:

(via partspermillion, zneeem)

(via zneeem-deactivated20120203)

February 10, 2012

Amazing nature art of Jim Denevan

February 9, 2012

Inspirational Illustrations

November 21, 2011

Part of me longs for this life

November 20, 2011

Human Design

Emotional design’s primary goal is to facilitate human-to-human communication. If we’re doing our job well, the computer recedes into the background, and personalities rise to the surface.

November 20, 2011

Emotional Design

Just stared reading Designing for Emotion 

If an experience can transcend just functionality and become pleasurable- this is a big win. 

I’m realizing more and more the importance of design in my life. My favorite restaurants, coffee shops, cities, websites, are those with such a high level of design they become minimal. All the excess is stripped out

Attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively. How does that make something easier to use? Simple, by making it easier for people to find solutions to the problems they encounter.

- Donald Norman, a pioneer in usability and human computer interaction, in his book Emotional Design

 IE: Attractive things actually work better.

The golden ratio is buit into Twitter’s design.

Another amazing example from the book on Apple’s Emotional Design:

Anyone who owns a Mac is familiar with the status light on the front of Apple laptops and desktops that gently pulses to indicate a sleep state. Apple designers considered the context in which this light would most often be seen—in a dark office, a bedroom, or a living room where the status light is one of the only light sources. The status indicator’s pulse rate is very precise. It mimics the natural breathing rate of a human at rest: twelve to twenty breaths per minute. It works just like a gentle rhythmic pat on a baby’s back. It inspires a mood.

Human beings see themselves mirrored in the world around them all the time. If the mirror they see if beautiful, it reminds them of their own beauty. Apple’s decision to not just use a standard light, but have it pulse in the rhythm of human breath, is an incredible example of human-centered design at work.