Design Droplets wanted to do a small write up on some recent graduates and their work come and have a read and look at a few photos. Here is the link enjoy getting to know a bit more about my work and a bit more about me. I would like to thank Raph again for having me.

A 25-minute documentary of the London Underground Diagrammatic Map creation (BBC Four)

Watch the video!

This is the title of Dieter Rams’ exhibition at the Design Museum. Rams was in charged of the German consumer electronics manufacturer, Braun, for more than 40 years, developing a synthetic, rigorous and pure visual language for its products. In this exhibition can be appreciated how his principles of design were applied in and followed by his designs.
Below are explained the 10 design principles defined by Dieter Rams:

Good design is innovative.
Good design makes a product useful.
Good design is aesthetic.
Good design makes a product understandable.
Good design is unobtrusive.
Good design is honest.
Good design is long-lasting.
Good design is thorough down to the last detail.
Good design is environmentally friendly.
Good design is as little design as possible.

As a starting point of his designs, Rams applied a clear and well-defined structure (grid?) to organise the elements (information?) before moving on to the creation stage itself.

Design Museum. Dieter Rams' structure used in the creation of his designs to organise elements. (©Photos Sheila Pontis)

Rams’ objective was to create extremely functional objects where irrelevant information had no place. His designs are examples of simplicity and clarity. (see below). Rams also thought that sketching (analysing?) was an essential part of the design process. In addition, for Rams this stage of the process is independently of the media or technology, and cannot be done with computers. This stage is about taking the necessary time to carefully think about what to do, the characteristics and uses of the product/project.

Design Museum. Wall diagram of Dieter Rams' object. (© Photo Sheila Pontis)

Less and More. The Design Ethos of Dieter Rams. 18 November 2009 to 7 March 2010 – Design Museum London

The greatest challenges an agency like X faces come directly from the nature of its clients. Having chosen to exclusively work with international institutions and organisations, NGOs, the academic and cultural sector there are quite a few obstacles, challenges and trade-offs needing to be met and faced. Although it may seem as if the clientele is fairly uniform and the needs would be a pattern on which to perform, the case is not quite the walk in the park…

One of the challenges X is called to face is the nature of each institution and its unique character. Aspects such as hierarchies, bureaucracy, workflow and types of projects are different from organisation to organisation. Each one has its own procedures of dealing with their needs, with publishing public tenders and outsourcing. Here, tenders and procurements are key words which define the very nature of this challenge. Having to customize the phrasing and layout of tender proposals according to each organisation’s standards requires experience and efficiency, timely response and professionalism to respond to unique requests. Therefore, X is called to customize its response to fit each of those clients’ needs. Every case is an individual case and X finds itself re-designing and re-organising its approach when dealing with different organisations.

A second challenge also comes from the nature of the clientele and has to do with time frames. Usually, institutions and organisations have to deal with often encumbering bureaucracies which cost time and money, both for themselves and for their partners. It can sometimes be quite unexpected as to when an organisation will respond, how long it will take for a project to finally initiate and last but not least the issue of deadlines is essential to ensure trust with the clientele, therefore creating a bond with X. This basically means that at one point there maybe low workload and the next the company has to be extremely organised and efficient in order to cope with an overload of approvals and green lights to initiate projects.

Along those lines, it is also very challenging to maintain reputation. Once a company like X has notorious clients, others are almost sure to follow. This clientele requires high standards that can both be expressed with the physical outcome, the product or the reputation of the company. If an institution sees and recognises other clients as reliable, then it is more likely to begin a partnership with some level of trust and high-end expectations from the very beginning. It is a challenge to maintain the reputation, as it may well be a significant part of staying afloat in the market.

When dealing with organisations worldwide, distance is an issue. Clients need to be reassured there will be no delay in delivery and that the quality of the project will remain impeccable. It is up to the company to do its best and convince the client that it has the experience and the means to do so. As has been observed, distance can be a turn-off or a point of scepticism for the clients. X has managed to face this challenge by spreading its offices all over the world, thus making communications easier and with the use of worldwide partnerships, therefore eliminating distances. Personal meetings with the company’s CEO work as a catalyst when it comes to convincing the client and becoming a living example of the elimination of distances.

As today’s world is getting more and more environmentally aware and concerned, it is important to stay up-to-date and understand the concern on the clients’ behalf. Combined with the above-mentioned unique character and the need for customising responses according to each client’s specific needs, X also needs to create a response to the clients soft values and become something more original and therefore, more necessary. So far, this is a challenge met, as X does stand out compared to others exactly because of its expression of concern for the main issues that most of the organisation it deals with are concerned with. Surely there are several competitors for X, yet through this expression of soft values, X has been able to differentiate itself from other companies.

Challenges such as global financial crises, political situations are challenges that can only be met by attempting to flexibly re-invent X in order to create new solutions for clients. The challenge here is the trade-off: what will X have to sacrifice in order to remain in the market either in the short or long-term? The planning needs to be careful since challenges like these are unpredictable and X needs to keep a strong look-out for the moves of the competitors, both as threat and inspiration. For any company, it is essential to be precise in the planning and make the right choices and the right sacrifices in order to be consistent with its values and clients. If for example, a financial crisis demands for a drop in prices so that a client will remain a client, then the choice has to be made carefully. If an administration changes, then it is important to recognise and quickly react to this change, offering new solutions, changing the marketing language to suit both X and the client.

Our oil based economy, we start our day with oil and end it with oil. Wake up and put a plastic based toothbrush in our mouth topped with a chemical based toothpaste. at the night to get rid of the mosquitoes we turn on the chemical based mosquito killers.

In today’s metropolitan world cities are increasing in terms of population than the villages and towns and they have become the hub for hazardous waste as the GOVT policies are not keeping up with the growth according to the population. Individuals and families should be more responsible of their daily use of products which generate hazardous waste. A source of hazardous waste is FMCG packaging materials.

FMCG Packaging materials are the materials used to pack and transport the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods, mostly food products which gets used in a day, a week maximum a month)

Packaging materials for such products are mostly plastic materials of different grades made of oil(fossil fuels or petrochemicals, non-degradable for 1000’s of years and toxic for the basic natural resources)

The system which the packaging industry follows is a linear system, where the raw materials formed to be used once end up either in landfills/seas or recycling units polluting and intoxicating our very basic resources like water, air, land, forests, etc. If we look into details of the product life cycle, there are indications of oil traces at every step of the process.Raw materials for such product are made from petrochemicals and other available chemicals from oil resources which come from by either burning natural resources or digging them out.  The process of product life cycle can be put down in steps as follow.

1. Raw material production from various kinds of petrochemicals

2. Packaging manufacturing through various set of manufacturing processes

manufacturing processes are designed to make most out of the available.

3. Printing and other brand related processes adding more chemicals in form of ink, glue, plastic. If the printed material is an external material it takes one more process to make the stickers for the products.

4. Packaging assembly line with the FMCG product

5. Packaging transportation to retailers

6. Used and thrown away to the dustbin by the end users. These is where the economical purpose of the product development ends and the problem of environmental pollution starts depending upon where the product is been dumped in a landfill or sea dumps(garbage patch)

Plastics dumped in landfills release various set of toxic materials into the lands creating soil degradation of the surrounding areas, creating visual pollution, toxic smell, etc.  And if it is dumped in a sea patch, the plastic is been broken into small pieces and stays in the sea forever. Many times the fish eat it considering food and end many of them end up in our plates with plastic spices stuffing.  Well before I start going towards general plastic problems let me summarize the topic here and will continue later with other resources. One lat point is that in India, Maharashtra  produces almost 45 % of all countries waste Found in one of the reports of NEERI. Take a look at the Image below for details.

Here is a great example of the importance the role the client plays in the outcome of a design.   This example is taken from an online book by the famous advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather called Ogilvy on Recession

Consider Michelangelo’s painting for the Sistine Chapel:

What was he exactly asked to do by his client?

“Cardinal Alidosi needed to brief Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  How did he do it?

He might have said  “Please paint the ceiling”.  This is a bad brief.  It gives Michelangelo no idea as to what the solution might be.”   

He might have said “Please paint the ceiling using red, green and yellow paint.”   This is worse.  It still does not tell Michelangelo what to paint, and it also gives him a number of restrictions.

The actual brief was this:  “Please paint our ceiling for the greater glory of God and as an inspiration and lesson to His people.  Paint frescoes which portray the creation of the world, the Fall, mankind’s degradation by sin, the divine wrath by deluge, and the preservation of Noah and his family.”

This brief helped produce one of the great creative works of all time.”

Inspiration and overview for the final push: a great slogan from the SHoP Architects site, an advertisement for Dupont, for a software company, and images from the Stanford Art Department’s front page.

Well kitten, there are a lotta options out there, and very few explain in plain English what they do and don’t offer, or how they might actually be of use. Plus, most of them are written for pure geeks, since that’s who generally implements them. As your translator and guide, I’m going to help you narrow it down from the point of what you need, versus what’s being sold.

MINIMAL
If what you need is a clean, simple slideshow for a half a dozen shots (e.g. to add some ambience/fun to a page), then what you want to ask for is a “basic slideshow with automatic transitions, no captions, no controls.” Something like this or this (scroll down) or this.

STANDARD
If what you want is a larger gallery of images, with thumbnails, captions, user-navigation controls, then what you want to ask for is “a gallery slideshow with customizable captions, transitions, and user-nav controls.” Something like this, or this, or this (which is similar to iTunes CoverFlow). Or even a super-sized version, like this.

DELUXE
If you have multiple categories of images (e.g. photos separated into “interiors” “exteriors” “annoying in-laws”) etc then you need to add “multiple galleries” to the description. As with cars, more options = higher price. At this point, you’re probably looking at a Flash option.

Thumbnails: don’t settle for a row of numbers. Tiny preview versions of each image make navigation much more intuitive and efficient. This is an automatic process with most plug-ins, so the cost difference is minimal.

WHICH FORMAT?
Most options boil down to 2 choices: Flash or jQuery. Both are fully compatible with most modern browsers. They can both be customized to match the look and feel of your brand. While some search engines do not scan the text captions in either option well, fret not, as there are legitimate workarounds. Both can be embedded in your page alongside scannable text and other navigation (i.e. your site does not have to be all Flash, and yes, you can have permalink pages with flash embedded for easier sharing and bookmarking). Both can display video. Here’s where they differ:

FLASH (with XML)
Pros:
1) More features for animation, games, or video.
2) Better quality results for video using .flv format.
3) Audio (sound/music options) is more developed in flash.
4) Plug-in is free to download in the unlikely event that a user has an ancient browser (circa 2001).
5) All images display in a uniform size = formal, consistent presentation.
6) Considered more deluxe (more features) and more robust as it’s been around longer than jQuery.

Cons:
1) Does not display on iPhones (yet).
2) Old versions of flash slideshows use a client side plugin = possible slower downloads (translation: your user’s computer must do the heavy work, so mileage may vary, depending on age/speed of each user’s computer). Be sure to ask for Flash + XML/actionscript to avoid this.
3) All images must be the same width/height ratio to avoid distortion. Yes, the images can be auto-processed to achieve this with mixed results. If you’re big on quality, don’t skimp on this, have the images processed manually in Photoshop.
4) Can be more expensive as it requires a Flash programmer to create the initial file.

jQuery
Pros: the current darling of developers, it has fewer features than Flash, and is therefore simpler to code. It’s perfect for basic slideshows and galleries.

1) Displays on iPhones and other mobile smart phones. Yay!
2) Overlay effect (page dims in background, image gallery floats above it) = users less likely to leave your site or get lost. Great for large sized images.
3) Images can vary in width/height = less prep time for each image = cheaper maintenance.
4) Server-side includes = fast downloads (translation: all the heavy lifting is done by the website server, not your user’s computer)
5) No download necessary. Ever.

Cons:
1) Fewer features than flash.
2) Images display at different height/width sizes = less formal, less cohesive visuals. While this might be a plus for some brands, if you’re aiming for a high-end market, casual is generally not advised.

So. Do you need a deluxe version or a basic?

Some terms related to diagrams (and also to design) strategies, language, layout, and so on are often misused or misunderstood:

- When is a diagram simple?
- When a diagram is simple is because it has few elements… and when it has more elements it becomes complex and less clear..
- Additional information is useless and complicated the message…
- Is additional information irrelevant?
- To make simpler a diagram, the best solution is to delete elements…

These terms are simplicity, complexity, clarity, additional, and irrelevant.

Simplicity. The Oxford dictionary defines simplicity as something being free from complexity or intricacy and absence of ornament. Shedroff (2007) synthesises these concepts explaining that clarity deals with one particular message or goal at a time, rather than the communication of everything at the same time; and that simplicity is misused producing meaningless messages rather than clarifying them. Referring to the concept of design simplicity, Per Mollerup (2005) talks about minimalism. He explains that minimalism deals with the fact of having few elements: simplicity of elements, number of element types, number of elements, and their size. However, both Bertin (1983) and Tufte (1990) explain that simplicity can be reached with an appropriate information organization, rather than with a low number of elements.

Complexity. Complexity deals with the number of dimensions (informational variables, level of reading, levels of information) that can be represented on a 2D design. Similarly than simplicity, something complex is not related to the number of graphic elements employed in a diagram, but with how they relate to each other.
Tufte (1983) describes a diagram as complex when it contains multiple layers of information that create multiple viewing depths and multiple viewing angles. He adds that complex diagrams need to have at least three viewing levels: 1) general structure: What is seen from a distance as a summary of the content, first level of content analysis; 2) main structure: What is seen up close as the primary idea of the content, second level of content analysis; and 3) hidden structure: What is seen implicitly and is understood besides the diagram itself, third level of content analysis.
High-information graphics combine several layers of close reading with an overview.

Clarity. Clarity is defined as the quality of being clear, distinct and easily perceived or understood and free from ambiguity. Clarity deals with the kind of message that a diagram communicates, focussing on the content, and not in the quantity of elements used to represent that content. The number of elements is not a parameter of clarity. A diagram can have only few elements but if all of them are at the same visual level with equal values, equal textures, equal colours, equal shapes, as a result there would be failed communication. When everything is emphasised, nothing is emphasised. If, on the contrary, a diagram has a high number of elements but well organised and differentiated, the result would be an extremely clear diagram. I believe that Tufte’s (2007) definition about this concept is undeniable. He states that ‘it is not about how much of empty space there is, but rather how it is used. It is not how information there is, but rather how effectively it is arranged’.

Additional. The Oxford English Dictionary defines additional as something extra, something that complements, enriches or improves a main subject. Tufte calls ‘evidence’ the information that adds details and enriches a diagram. A difference of meaningless information, additional information can sum details from multiple sources and levels to a diagram. Diagrams that contain additional information do not rely in one type of data or stay at one level of analysis. Detailed information helps to explain a complex content of a diagram, and makes it easier to understand. Furthermore, additional information enriches reading and amplifies content. Tufte suggests that for clarifying, the answer is to add details.
However, it is important to notice not additional information is considered useful. Mollerup explains what redundancy means. He argues that when additional information is purposefully used, it becomes meaningful information, eventhough it can be redundant. Furthermore, he adds that sometimes a message with no additional information is extremely vulnerable to misunderstanding. Nevertheless, not all additional information qualifies as useful redundant information. Sometimes, much additional information is just useless. As an example, both Mollerup and Wurman (2001) classify fashionable and trendy graphic ideas as additional information that causes graphic noise, has no useful meaning and makes the information less understandable.

Irrelevant. On the contrary, irrelevant is defined as something that is not pertinent or applicable, or not closely connected or appropriate to the matter being considered. Irrelevant elements are unnecessary elements. Moreover, a big difference with additional/detailed information, when unnecessary information is given more than once, it becomes meaningless and redundant.

- Bertin, J. (1983). Semiology of Graphics. Diagrams, Networks, Maps. UK: The University of Wisconsin Press
- Mollerup, Per (2005). Wayshowing : a guide to environmental signage : principles & practices. Baden : Lars Müller
- Shedroff, N. (1994). Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design. http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/unified/index.html [accesed on 14th September, 2009]
- Tufte, E. (2006). Beautiful Evidence. Cheshire, Connecticut, USA: Graphic Press.
- Tufte, E. (1990) Enviosing Information. Cheshire, Connecticut, USA: Graphic Press.
- Tufte, E. (1983). The Visual Display of Quantitative Infornation. Connecticut, USA: Graphic Press.
- Tufte, E. (1998) Visual Explanations. Cheshire, Connecticut, USA: Graphic Press.
- Wurman, R.S. (2001) Information anxiety 2. Expanded & updated ed. Indianapolis, Ind. : Que

Educators are increasingly warning about a “crisis” in architecture education today, especially related to a misuse of modeling software and simple form-generating paradigms as a substitute for teaching and learning fundamentals.  They warn of architecture’s loss of authority and autonomy, of education’s increasing irrelevance with respect to the profession and the future.  But the voices are far from unified in how to approach the problem.

In 2004, Jorge Silvetti’s article “The Muses are Not Amused” (in Harvard Design Magazine, no. 19, special issue on Architecture as Conceptual Art?) railed against a “pandemonium in the house of architecture.”  Silvetti was disturbed by a “progressive dissipation of the centrality of our mission as educators to teach and learn rigorously and vigorously about form-making and its consequences.”  He considers the “neglect” of form-making to be “nothing less than suicidal for a profession whose creativity and standing depends ultimately on its absolute command of this unique and difficult task.”  He writes of a “deceptive euphoria” about a proliferation of design approaches that purport to create significant form, but don’t.  His “victims” or targets of attack are “programatism,” “thematization,” “blobs,” and “literalism.”  These problematic but increasingly popular approaches to design “are turning the architect into a dazed observer of seductive wonders.”

Instead of using sources outside of architecture to drive the creation of facile forms, Silvetti calls for architecture to return to itself: “architecture as the sole course of architecture could look at anything as formal inspiration, but from its inside out, keeping footings in its building core, anchoring its imagination in programmatic research beyond literal formal translations, and continuing in the flow of its own cultural trajectory, both responsive to and critical of its conventions, which does not imply the literal figurative use of referents.”  He calls for more disciplinary “autonomy,” a return to the specific muse of architecture, without denying the “intertextuality” and cultural “contamination” that we so much appreciate now in architecture.

In 2005, Thom Mayne’s address to the AIA urged all architects to embrace the computer, integrated practice, building information modeling (BIM), and the new possibilities these bring to the profession.  He writes of how the profession has changed since he graduated from school  in 1969: “Since then architecture has been eviscerated. We’re cake decorators, we’re stylists. If you’re not dealing in the direct performance of a work and if you’re not building it and taking responsibility for it, and standing behind your product, you will not exist as a profession.”

For Mayne, the solution is the 3D design thinking enabled by the computer, especially 3D modeling, both in the screen, and the new fabrication methods, for models, and construction.  “The tools we now utilize simplify potentialities and make them logical, allowing us to produce spaces that even ten years ago would have been difficult to conceive, much less build.  Anything that is possible is realizable… There exists a new medium, a continuity, a flow of thinking, a design methodology which is more cohesive from the first generative ideas, through construction, coordinating millions of bits of discrete data.”  His mandate is to “change or perish”: “You need to prepare yourself for a profession that you’re not going to recognize a decade from now, that the next generation is going to occupy.”  He seeks “less emphasis on designing in the traditional sense–styling, let’s say–and more emphasis on making.” With respect to education, he writes: “I haven’t drawn a plan for five years. I go to schools now that are still drawing plans and sections, and I have no idea what to talk about. Because once you start getting used to these tools, it’s like flying a jet plane and then going back and flying a prop… Once you get used to working three-dimensionally, there’s no going back. It represents a new totality.”

This month, Tim Love’s article “Between Mission Statement and Parametric Model” (Places blog), wrote provocatively: “A crisis in architectural education is brewing. I refer to the increasingly contentious divide between that cadre of junior faculty who espouse the gee-whiz form-making made possible by speculative parametric modeling and an Inconvenient Truth-influenced student body demanding design studios that prioritize social relevance and environmental stewardship.  The inherent tension between these cultural positions has not yet been fully registered by design faculties nor acted upon with specific curricular reform — yet it’s hard to miss.”

Love continues: “On the one hand, the situation is generating strange, hybridized manifestations in design studios — notably the ubiquitous son-of-the-Yokohama Port Terminal proposal: an undulating green roofscape blanketing habitable space below.  On the other hand, many schools and departments are busy reforming their programs to better integrate sustainability criteria into studio exercises, often at the expense of other aspects of design thinking. But in this swing from decontextualized digital experimentation to heightened social responsibility, design education is being compromised. A generation of young architects is graduating into professional practice with scant ability to construe and elaborate an architectural agenda that begins with a set of a priori social and cultural intentions and ends with a constructed environment. Only by examining both the causes of this situation and current pedagogical tendencies can a better approach to design education emerge.”  In the end, he calls for educators to look at practice for ways to solve the dilemma.

In this assignment, our second year students were required to redesign the Toronto Transit Commission identity. The goal is to promote ridership and present the TTC as a reliable, modern, convenient, and environmentally friendly solution for travel. Here are some exceptional examples:

Kyle Kuchurean

Adrian Bromfield

Emily Li

Josh Han

Vithya Vivekanadan

Our second year students recently completed an assignment that required them to illustrate a magazine cover, and update the brand identity via an extensive cover redesign. It was a challenging and involved assignment, which required multidisciplinary thinking as well as masterful execution methods. Here are a couple of exceptional examples:

Emily Li

Josh Han

Our first semester students recently completed their first formal assignment for their Design Process 1 class. The goal was to express the idea of global communication, mobile technology, and commerce via appropriate visual metaphors. In addition to conceptualization and idea development, students were required to learn vector drawing and creation skills to execute their ideas. Below are some exceptional examples.

Ray de la Calzada

Hannah Hall

John Victorino

Jiayin Wang

Raman Andryianau

Sutha Sivananthan

I read an interesting article on NY times about how Design thinking and Six Sigma approaches can coexist in symbiotic nature. The author Sara Bekam who is also the director of Management of Technology Program at UC Berkeley compares Design thinkers to quantum physicists, who are able to consider a world in which anything — like traveling at the speed of light — is theoretically possible. The Six sigma advocates, she says, think more like Newtonian physicists — focused on measurement along three well-defined dimensions.

While working as a designer in User Centered Design team at Honeywell, I was responsible for bringing in design thinking to new product development and apply design methods to improve user experience of the Honeywell products. But Honeywell’s strong emphasis on Six Sigma process meant that, I had to be proficient in Six Sigma process and tools. We were required to be green belt certified within 3 years in the company (yes I am GB certified).

As a designer I initially was resistant to this process, but after following it for some projects, I quickly realized that it was an important tool to keep you focused on the users and business needs. Some of the tools like Quality function diagram really help you to justify the business value of your intended product features. It is important as a designer to wear two hats and know when to wear one. In the initial phase of the product development, too much emphasis on sixsigma process can limit creativity and free-flowing brainstorming sessions. Yes six sigma has tools like Tmap (thought process map) for the initial idea generation phase, but they are very rigid and aren’t really useful (may be because sixsigma is more apt for process improvement/optimization).

It is here one can rely on design thinking to give you novel ideas and feed them into sig sigma process chain.

Tim brown also agrees with me

That's how my brain felt after a weekend of classes; in the hands of a scary dude

After a short break class picked back up, this time with a focus on communication. After a weekend of class I’m a little afraid my brain might be broken from so much learning. We are finally digging into the design process.

Task: For this class we are fortunate to have the opportunity to help a local company.

Process: So far for the process we’ve done some interviews and observations.

Interviews: During the interview we were given a list of questions to go through like a survey. The key, however, was to have a conversation. A conversation allows you to see the meanings and emotions behind the responses.

Observations: The observation portion consisted of taking notes and pictures of people’s actions. The picture part felt a little creepy at first, but people hardly noticed they were part of a class photo shoot.

The trick with both is resisting assumptions and coming to a conclusion. Instantly, you want to come up with a solution for your design problem. What I found helped to keep myself from assuming or trying to solve was to focus on the moment. You almost have to turn your brain down a notch and only take in what your seeing. Later you’ll be able to think about the “whys”.

The next day we started putting together all that we recorded. We presented the information our sources gave us from the interviews as well as what we observed people doing. From here “themes” and “patterns” started to emerge and we started to get a sense of what the true problems were – and some potential opportunities.

Now the challenge continues as we conduct more research and continue the process. More to come!