Color Transforms

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How many times have we all stopped at a traffic light, the familiar shape and position of those colors so burned into our brains that we hardly even see them anymore? If you feel that way, maybe you should wonder what would happen if those colors suddenly disappeared, and we had to rely on our memories to determine which position told us to go, and which one told us to stop.

Needless to say, the three separate colors in a traffic light are extremely important. Besides their designations as stop, slow down, and go, the colors are also important from a design perspective. The traffic light was designed with three very different colors--red, yellow, and green. It is important that each of these colors comes with a distinctive hue because of the changing nature of colors based on their surroundings.

When viewed from a different angle, or with sunlight reflecting upon them, colors can sometimes appear as almost completely different shades. If red had been orange instead, in bright sunlight, a driver could possibly mistake a stop light as a yield light, and run the light, creating a dangerous situation for themselves and drivers around them. It is also important that the value of each color is light enough that the colors do not blend into the black around them, but shine in sharp contrast, alerting drivers of their presence.

Design in Society

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Throughout the quarter, the theme of our design 1 class has been design in society, and how design aims to function within and even improve society. Although I will come back to one very specific design, I would first like to talk about an event that focuses on utopian design. This event is the Index Award, an award that is given out every other year to designers who create products that aim to better the world around us. This award is given out or five different categories--body, home, work, play, and community.

One major aspect of the thinking behind the Index Award is also one of the key points in our class--the design process. The creators of this award have broken down the creative process into four different steps, with each step joined together by the sub-steps of summing up, learning, and continuing. These four steps are 1. Prepare; 2. Perceive; 3. Prototype, and; 4. Produce.

By following these steps, Philip Greer, Lisa Stroux, Graeme Davies, and Chris Huntley were able to create a design that was selected as the 2007 winner of the work category. Inspired by the underground bombings in London in 2005, the "tongue sucker" was created to be a paramedic's new best friend. According to their research, the creators of the tongue sucker found that the average arrival time of a paramedic was 12 minutes during the bombings. The average person will die or suffer severe brain trauma from lack of oxygen after only 4 minutes should his/her tongue slip back and block the airway while unconscious. The design behind this small gadget allows even an untrained bystander to suck the tongue out of the back of the throat, allowing paramedics time to secure other victims, perform CPR, or even call for more assistance.

Despite its small and seemingly effortless design, the tongue sucker saw 60 prototypes before the winning design was created, and even now, it faces difficulties while the designers search for a company willing to produce the award-winning design.

Design is Dangerous

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Of course gun design is dangerous. Guns have been crafted with the intention of killing. Over the years, firearms have been used for hunting, war, and protection. Despite this aspect of danger intentionally built into guns, Remington has been battling with a design that unintentionally places its users at risk for the past 60 years.

According to an NBC report, the Remington 700 has caused at least 100 injuries and two dozen deaths due to a malfunction where the gun may fire automatically without anyone pulling the trigger. The malfunction is part of a defective safety, an issue that was originally noted by the lead engineer. Despite this warning, and more than 75 lawsuits against the company, Remington claims that there is no defect, and that the gun is completely safe. 

This defect is not merely dangerous to its users, but life-threatening. However, it is not merely the gun's defect which makes this product so dangerous; it is also the company's attitude. After being interviewed about the defect, a spokesperson for Remington claimed that the injuries were caused not by any flaw in the product, but in user error.

Thus, despite the gun's intentional danger as a weapon, the defect in the safety mechanism of the Remington 700 also makes it unintentionally dangerous to its users. And even after a multitude of injuries, deaths, and lawsuits, Remington still claims that there is no flaw in the Remington 700. So which is more dangerous, the product or the company?

Rediscovered Art in Berlin

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In recent news, art believed to have been destroyed by the Nazis was recently rediscovered in Germany. While digging at a site near the Berlin city hall to prepare for a new subway line, construction workers unearthed a handful of terracotta and bronze statues thought to have been destroyed. They were found at the site of an office building, originally burned in 1944. The pieces include some that were considered deviant and sexual by the Nazis. These "deviant" characteristics were attributed to Jewish artwork by the Nazis, but only two Jewish artists contributed to the works found.

Originally, one piece was uncovered in January 2010, but was thought to be a unique piece until the other pieces were discovered in August and October. The first piece found back in January was a statue of actress Annie Mewes by Edwin Scharff.

Some of the pieces are set to go on display at Berlin's Neues Museum. Most of th pieces have suffered a great deal of damage; one of them is now too fragile to place on display. Some that have been damaged have been left unrestored or partially unrestored to reflect the the history behind the damage.

Word & Image

Lately, we have been discussing the notion of design combining words and images. Brian Fies's lecture on comics was a perfect example of this, and it got me thinking about other areas of design that so perfectly combine word and image. Of course, my first thought was something very close to me, graphic arts. Growing up with a graphic artist for a father (who used to work in the advertising section at The Sacramento Bee), I am very familiar with the way in which an image, accompanied by text, can create a strong advertisement. So from there, I decided to do a little research into the graphic arts, and how graphic artists effectively pair images and words.


According to AIGA, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, the main tools of a graphic design are "image and typography." A graphic designer must be able to take the concept that a client visualizes in his/her head, and make it a reality. In advertising, the graphic artist must be able to take an image of the client's product, find the most appropriate words and typeface, and balance them in the most successful manner with that image. Graphic artists do not often do this alone, however. Much in the same way that the words and images must collaborate effectively, so must a designer collaborate effectively both with his/her team and the client. Effective collaboration can then lead to a successful marriage of both word and image.

The World of Comics & Brian Fies

During class last Tuesday, we were lucky to receive a lecture from the gifted comic artist, Brian Fies, known for his graphic novels Mom's Cancer and Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?. Throughout his lecture, Fies stressed the importance of words and images working in conjunction in comics. Comics, according to Fies, is a "combination of words and picture that add up to more than the sum of their parts." He made his point by comparing comics to rock music. Without the lyrics, the music is just a repetition of a few chords; without the music, the lyrics are just bad poetry. So it is that were pictures of words missing from comics, they would cease to be comics.


Brian Fies's lecture was an exciting view inside the work of a comic artist. He talked to us about how he first got started with his web comic, Mom's Cancer, which was eventually published into a book, and what it took to get there. He was also informative about the use of space and time, split panels, visual allusion, character design, color, and collaboration to make his comics effective. In the end, the most important aspect of comics I took away from the lecture was the juxtaposition of words and images and the ability of comic artists to distill their subjects to the very essence.

Compare and Contrast

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Back in 2003, Starbucks Corporation purchased Seattle's Best Coffee, and as part of this reinvention, Seattle's Best changed their logo from their familiar red and gold circle encompassed by a red and gold band with their brand name printed on it in bold white letters. They traded in their old logo in favor of a new more streamlined logo, a red half circle with a white drop in the middle of it and the brand name in red and gray print, enclosed in a gray circle. The strangest part about the new logo is that in seven years of use, I have yet to see it, but instead have continued to see the old logo used.


I began to wonder if the lack of use of the new logo, except for on their website, was due to lack of consumer support. In many ways, the newer Seattle's Best logo is reminiscent of the updated Pepsi logo, which attempted to be more streamlined. Although the newer logo is effective in the aspect of presenting a more modern and streamlined appearance, it is less effective than the old logo in giving consumers an accurate portrait of their product. Additionally, the drop inside the red half circle reminds me more of a drop of blood than a drop of coffee.

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Frightful Design

Over the weekend, I went to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom's Fright Fest to partake in some good old Halloween fun. What I did not realize what that I was entering into a world of frightful design. Frightfully bad, I must say. Overall, the design of their three haunted mazes was typical of many haunted houses I have experienced in the past--tight hallways with black walls, dancing strobe lights, and heavy fog. However, two of the three haunted mazes failed to appeal to me, and from what I heard, as well as many others.

The first maze we entered was the "Bayou Hazard." About five steps into the maze, the first major flaw in the design was apparent as I began choking on the smoke produced by the fog machines inside the building. Overall, we spent about five minutes in the maze, and the majority of that was spent stumbling blind through narrow hallways that had no attractions. The second maze, "Slasherville," was much better than the first, with less smoke and more attractions. The third maze we went through, "Kamp Khaos," failed in comparison to both previous mazes. After waiting in line for 45 minutes, we spent less than two minutes walking along an outside path with three or four actors jumping out at passersby.

Overall, the three mazes at Fright Fest were typical of the average run-of-the-mill haunted houses, not a design I would have expected at a major theme park. There was poor planning involved in the overall layout of the mazes, as well as the use of the fog machines. The haunted mazes could have been improved by adding more visual interest and reducing the amount of smoke inside the buildings.

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Design as a Conversation

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Not only is design itself oftentimes a conversation, but it promotes conversations across different ideas, and across different generations. Over the past couple of months, I have been indulging in the drama and high stakes of Lifetime's Project Runway. Unfortunately, I am more interested in interiors than fashion, and some of the styles of past decades were lost on me, but I was particularly intrigued by the challenge in episode 8. Let me just say that if you had asked me what "sportswear" is, I would probably give you a quizzical look and tell you it's the shorts and tee I wear to the gym. If you asked me about Jacquelyn Kennedy's style, on the other hand, I'll be more than happy to talk shop with you. This is exactly why I was so thrilled by their challenge, which was to create a sportswear look inspired by Jackie Kennedy.

The winner of this particular challenge was Mondo Guerra, whose outfit consisted out a purple houndstooth pencil skirt, a striped half-sleeve tee, and a cropped black jacket with purple lining. The judges declared that while Jackie Kennedy might not wear his look exactly like that, she was certainly clear as the inspiration. I later noticed quite a bit of discussion on the Internet about whether or not Mondo should have been the winner. Most people seemed to think that his look would never have been worn by Jackie Kennedy. However, I think his look was a perfect example of a design discussion between the early 1960s and today. Clearly, the jacket and skirt hearken back to clothing that was actually worn by Jacquelyn Kennedy, but with a more modern color palette and silhouette. Mondo's look, complete with the retro styling of his model, invoked a discussion across decades.

Houndstooth skirt suit worn by Jackie Kennedy
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The Art of Chinese Calligraphy

On Thursday, October 7, I listened to a lecture given by Chinese calligrapher, Lampo Leong, about the history of Chinese calligraphy. The lecture encompassed the evolution of Chinese script, and ended with a demonstration of Dr. Leong's work. Although the lecture was interesting and informative, it was the demonstration, which lasted less than a single minute, that captivated my attention.

In his demonstration, Dr. Leong stressed to the audience the importance of chi within any given piece. The idea of chi is that every written character has a certain energy, and that energy must flow continuously from one character to the next. Calligraphy is judged based on several criteria, including this notion of chi. Chinese calligraphy, of course, is not the only form of art that stresses an ease of motion, and this is evident as Dr. Leong compares calligraphy to dancing, the way the brush moves continuously from one character to the next, even when there is a break in between characters.

Below is a clip from the demonstration given by Lampo Leong, in which he writes the characters for "fine ambition" in the dance of the Chinese calligraphic brush.

++Photo and video by Kylee Ferguson

Creativity from Without

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This past weekend, while visiting the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco for a class assignment, I came across a piece that really spoke to me. The piece, called Mountains and Rivers, is part of artist Cai Guo-Qiang's Gunpowder series. At first glance, the "painting" was reminiscent of traditional Chinese and Japanese painting, with refined brushstrokes, their lines forming the shapes of nature. Upon closer inspection, however, I discovered that the artist was inspired by something outside of nature, something entirely manmade--gunpowder.

To create his pieces, Cai Guo-Qiang lays out a pattern on his canvas in gunpowder, much in the way a painter may first do a study for a piece in pencil. He then adds pieces he finds in nature--rocks, dirt, sand, leaves, twigs--to add to the pattern that will be left behind by the blast of the gunpowder. Once he is satisfied with a design, he covers the canvas with cardboard and lights the gunpowder, setting off a miniature explosion in his workshop. What is left behind is the impression of the lines of gunpowder and the natural pieces accessorizing the space.

In working with gunpowder, the artist is creating art that is both constructive and destructive. The destructive, explosive qualities of the gunpowder leave impressions and residue that are the construction of the art itself.

To learn more about Cai Guo-Qiang and his work, visit his website.

Design's Stone Soup

One sunny morning, a group of designers students came together, each one possessing an ingredient for the recipe of great artwork. Alone, each student looked at his or her ingredients in dismay. But together, the students began to have visions of great works like those of da Vinci, Seurat, and Picasso. As each person began to add ideas and ingredients to the "soup" of creation, their vision became a reality. While the piece may not have ultimately rivaled the works of the great masters in art, it was a symbol of their cooperation together as designers and as artists. A piece of foam packaging and yards of ribbon later, their "stone soup" of design was a success. Had it not been for their group effort, the design in their visions would never have come to fruition.

For those out there who don't know the story of stone soup, it is a children's tale about three soldiers returning home from war. They stop in at a village, hoping to find food and lodging for the night, but upon seeing the soldiers, the villagers have hidden all of their food. So the soldiers decide to make a stone soup, enticing each villager to add one ingredient. Because of the cooperation of the villagers, they end up cooking a marvelous soup that everyone shares. It was our job as design students to create a similar stone soup (though not edible) by combining art and craft supplies we brought from home. The project was an excellent example of how designers are never their own one-man show. Designers must work together with other designers to make their visions a reality.

++Photo by Kylee Ferguson

++Thanks to Kassie for taking the group photo

The Cost of Art

I came across an interesting article on Yahoo earlier today, and decided to share my views. The article, Venice mayor mocks billboard critics, discusses the recent upset over several historic buildings in Venice being partially covered by billboards. Tourists who come to view these historic monuments are upset at the views they are finding, and many art historians and critics claim that the billboards are degrading and defacing the buildings they obscure. Giorgio Orsoni, the major of Venice, has responded with the reason behind the advertisements: to bring in revenue to support the extortionate costs of renovating the buildings.

Now, one might ask: What does this have to do with design? Everything. Clearly, the design of the buildings and the advertisements themselves come into play in this scenario. However, the bigger issue here is designing a solution that will appease parties on both sides of the arguments. Despite the upset over the situation, the solution currently in place is a smart use of resources. According to the article, restoration costs for the Palace of the Doge alone run approximately 2.8 million euros (about $3.8 million). Without the money brought in by companies such as Coca-Cola, Bulgari, and Rolex, how else would the city afford such costly renovations?

True, millions of tourists travel to Venice each year, expecting certain sights, but most of the buildings being restored are only partially obscured by the advertisements. Besides, if the advertisements were not in place, the areas of restoration would still be covered to hide the work in progress. The main difference would be that the renovations would take considerably longer due to lack of funds. Although I understand the desire to separate the historic buildings of Venice from the everyday commercial advertisements of the modern world, without the revenue that the ads bring, there would be no possibility of the city of Venice completing the necessary restorations in a timely manner.

First Encounters with Design

Growing up with an artistic father always made for an interesting Halloween costume. Some of the most exciting, to name a few, were the apple tree, the Monarch caterpillar, the box of McDonalds french fries, and the cactus; thankfully, my brother and sister both suffered through the menagerie of costumes as I did. While at the time, my focus was mainly on the bulky, often awkward costumes, as I think back on them, the most interesting part of it all was not the embarrassment we sometimes felt in wearing them, but the process that went into designing and developing each costume. For the sake of time, I will focus on the year that I dressed as a box of McDonalds french fries.

The costume consisted of two main parts--the box, and the fries. The box was crafted out of cardboard and covered in red paper with the iconic double arch pasted on the front. It was held up by two bungee cords acting as suspenders across my shoulders. Inside the box, I was dressed in a yellow turtleneck, and foam pieces cut to the shape of french fries were placed inside the box alongside me. Although the costume may not sound complicated, it was an arduous process to design it. Months before anything physical began to take shape, we discussed ideas, finally settling on a suitable design for the costume. Next came the process of engineering what the costume would be made of so that it would be comfortable enough to wear the entire night. (Needless to say, that part of the process was an utter failure; the costume was too bulky and heavy to maneuver very far in.)

Some people may think creating your own Halloween costume is silly. There are plenty of costume stores out there, so why not choose from hundreds of premade get-ups, like the one pictured above? Certainly, there were years when we copped out and took the easy road. But had it not been for those years when we took the liberty of thinking outside the box (or inside, in the case of the french fries), I may not have been given such a fond introduction to some of the nuances of design.

++Photo courtesy of Lynn Applen

A-MUSE-ing Design

Just a few days ago, Tuesday, September 28, Muse performed at Arco Arena in Sacramento. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Muse, they are an English band that began in the 1990's, and has often been labeled as the producers of "progressive rock." The theatrics of their show, Resistance, would suggest a similar genre, one that combines a geometric and linear aspect reminiscent of design in the 1980's--the design of rock--with a more modern use of technology and progression.


The main design of the show used three large columns with the ability to retract into the stage. While these columns served an architectural function as an extension of the stage, they also served as a major design element. Each column was split in the middle to allow the band members to stand atop them, and it was the upper half of the columns that received much of my attention. The columns appeared to be covered on the outside with a material resembling chain-link fence, and acted much in the manner of a scrim in a theatrical production. When lit from the inside of the columns, the stairs built within them were visible. However, when lit with multimedia images from the outside, the inside of the columns were mostly or entirely masked to the audience.


All-in-all, the design of the show effectively portrayed the band Muse as a combination of older rock styles and progressive modern technology. The design was also effective in engaging the audience, as lyrics were projected onto the columns at intervals, and balloons filled with confetti were dropped into the crowd. I can only imagine the time that went in to designing and preparing for such a tremendous theatrical display.

++Photo by Kylee Ferguson