A great series of articles on fictional designers & their "work" by Matt Brown. I'm particularly fascinated by the attention to detail on the imaginary products & how perfectly styled they are to specific decades & topics. They can be found on Core 77.
I forgot to post all of the books I've read for the past couple of months, so here they are. I am slowly spreading out my reading list into more genres, but most of the books are somehow sci-fi related.
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley The Road - Cormac McCarthy Child of God - Cormac McCarthy Crash - J.G. Ballard The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
I've just discovered this Japanese comic by Osamu Tezuka called Black Jack, a rogue, extremely talented unlicensed surgeon. From what I've seen, the mix of accurate medical diagrams & graphic scenes of surgery, I think this would be right down my alley!
Zuzanna found this amazing company on Dezeen & showed me - Sidekick Studios, a mixture of digital & products, all centred around making the internet a better place. They've got internships, but sadly you need to be currently living in London... gutted, it would have been a perfect job for me!
Just found these pieces of fictional furniture & I love them! The Radition Collection by NOCC. What I really like though, is not the objects themselves, but the development sketches - the array of variations in a grid works really well. I might nick that idea to use it in my project...
A great documentary about Pixar, very inspirational - it shows you what happens when you mix creativity with technology. I recommend watching it if you get the chance.
I've just found the most amazing & relevant article for my project ever! It's Lost creator J.J. Abrams talking on Wired Magazine about the subjects of mystery & experience. Read it here. Love it!
The book I am currently reading now is "The Liar" by Stephen Fry - possibly the smartest & wittiest man on the planet. I've been trying to stay away from non-fiction books recently to expand my imagination as it is key to the idea generation process. Saying that I still listen to the HowStuffWorks podcast to continue learning about new things however trivial they are. I'm all about the knowledge!!!
Sorry for the absence, but a lot has happened this month - notably my birthday(!) & currently biggin' it up in Australia, where broadband is a bit elusive...
Anyway, there's a lot of things I need to blog about, including the journey here & the many amazing locations I have visited including a golf themed bar, some wine tasting (hmm, this seems to be all orientating around booze!) & the general Aussie culture.
But what I've realised when visiting these place is that I'm fascinated by how immersed I become in the experience - completely losing myself in different scenarios & places - a sort of virtual reality. This had made me even more interested in the topic by reading the graphic novel "Surrogates" - taking virtual reality to its limits through robotics & discussing whether we have control over products or them over us.
So apart from that, you haven't missed much! I'll continue my efforts to blog regularly & get pictures, videos etc, but there's no promises as I'm having too much fun in Oz!!!
After watching the trailer for District 9 & the short film that inspired the movie, Alive in Joburg, I had a look at their website. I love how in depth it gets & that there is so much info to take in, I got totally immersed in the experience of finding out more. That is the sort of feel I want to give my fourth year work. Anyway, here is the Alive in Joburg movie:
"There, I Fixed It" is a fantastic blog of people coming up with "ingenius" solutions to problems. Although a lot of it is hilarious, some of it is actually very clever - the best designs come from the people who have to deal with the problem at a daily level.
I have just discovered an amazing exhibition called "U.F.O: Blurring the boundaries between art and design", but unfortunately it is based in Germany. For me, it is essentially a who's who in the design world and the standard of work that I aspire to make. I love it!
"Where does design end and art begin? Charles Eames, the most influential designer of the mid-twentieth century, said that ‘design is an expression of purpose. It may (if it is good enough) later be judged as art.’ Contemporary young designers see the matter more pragmatically. According to the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon, ‘there is no longer a clear border between product design and art.’ The most recent answer to this question is inherent in the new phrase ‘design-art’."
A genius short film by Hans Lo - created for his eight month old niece to teach her about how different things in life work. I love the use of dated graphics and music; it reminds me of the BBC comedy series "Look Around You" - a hilarious take on educational science videos for schools.
I'm currently reading Phillip K. Dick's "The Man In The High Castle" as I absolutely the premise of alternate realities and science fiction. I'm so curious about the future and the unlimited paths the world might take, so this book was right down my alley!
