Cool!

An awesome video with beautiful type. I love the colors and feeling of this video.

Journal Entry 2/14

Dieter Rams: 10 Principles for Good Design

Dieter Rams became increasingly aware and concerned about the world around him. He asked himself, "is my design good design?" He developed 10 principles of good design.


1. Good Design is innovative. "Innovative design always develops in tandem with innovative technology, and can never be an end in itself."

2. Good design makes a product useful. Products are bought to work. They must work well and good design must emphasize the usefulness of the product

3. Good design is aesthetic. "The aesthetic quality of a product is integral to its usefulness because products we use every day affect our person and our well-being."

4. Good design makes a product understandable. It makes the product self-explanatory.

5. Good design is unobtrusive. "Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user’s self-expression."

6. Good Design is honest

7. Good Design is long lasting.

8. Good design is thorough, down to the last detail. Little details show a concern for the consumer.

9.Good design is environmentally friendly.

10.Good design is as little design as possible. Less is better.




Don Norman on 3 ways good design makes you happy:

Norman's new life is trying to understand what beauty is about, and trying to make things fun and neat. Beautiful and functional objects are fun. He talks about many products that are fun, including a ping pong table that has fish and water projected onto it. Google's logo has as many O's as there are pages of results. It's clever, simple, and subtle. The subconscious mind notices it because it is pleasant.

He talks about the Mini Cooper. In a New York Times Revue, they said even though it has many faults, buy it anyway. It is still fun to drive. The inside is round, fun, and neat. He says "Pleasant things work better."

He moves on to discuss how if a plank of wood was on the ground, one would have no problem jumping on it, walking on it, etc. But if you put that plan 300 feet in the air, one would not go anywhere near it. Fear paralyzes you and how the brain works. Fear and anxiety cause the brain to focus.

Visceral level of Processing: There is an amazing amount of stuff programmed into the brain. In design, you can spread the visceral level through type faces, color choice, etc.

The middle level of processing is the behavioral level.This is where most of our stuff gets done. Subconscious thought process. Most of what we do is subconscious. The feeling of being in control. Emotion is about interpreting the world.

Reflective super ego. does not control senses, but looks over, and watches. Little voice in your head.

20 Rules of Good Design

(*) Most Important
(#)Practice More
(x) Ignore


1. Have a Concept (#)
2. Communicate, Don't Decorate (*)
3. Speak with one visual voice
4. Used two typeface families max. Okay, maybe three
5. Use the one-two punch
6. Pick colors on purpose (#)
7. If you can do it with less then do it (*)
8. Negative space is magical - create it, don't just fill it up (*)
9. Treat type as image, as though it's just as important
10. Type is only type when it's friendly
11. Be universal (x)
12. Squish and separate
13. Be decisive- do it on purpose or don't do it at all (#)
14. Distribute light and dark
15. Measure with your eyes: Design is visual
16. Create images- Don't scavenge
17. Ignore fashion (x)
18. Move it! Static=Dull
19. Look at history but don't repeat it
20. Symmetry is the ultimate evil (x)

love the look of these!

I love the type and texture of these posters! These are so great.

Audience Personas

Hannah is a 20 year old college student who is from Kansas, but currently lives in Portland and attends the Portland University. She lives in a house with five other girls from other parts of the coutnry.

Hannah has been a vegetarian since elementary school, ever since she saw a movie about meat factories. Most recently, she has become a vegan. Her parents are divorced, and her mom is her best friend. She has one younger brother who is into photography. Hannah has always been a free spirit, and has always partaken in activities such as dancing, painting, and cooking. She has traveled to many other countries, including New Zealand, France, and Spain. She plans to one day move to another country.

While living in Portland, Hannah has enjoyed taking and teaching yoga classes, along with other on-campus jobs. She has switched her major a few times. Originally, she was planning on a career in elementary education but has recently switched to special education.

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Linda is a 64 year old woman who lives in Boston. She has been married for 42 years to her husband, Jim. Linda is a nurse at the nearby middle school. Somedays, she can’t stand her job because of the school’s administration, but she continues to work there regardless. One day she is going to quit her job or retire.

Linda has 4 grandchildren, six year old Ben, 9 year old Lucy, 2 year old Addy, and 5 year old Ella. She adores her grandchildren and spends as much time with them as possible. They all live in Boston as well, so she spends a good amount of time baking cookies and sewing clothes for them. She also loves to read books to them whenever she gets the chance.

Linda shops at the local Wal-Mart. She thinks that they have the best deals in town. When she isn’t spending time with her grandchildren or husband, she likes to take their dog Samantha for walkes around the block.

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Cindy is a 9 year old girl who loves to go to school. Her favorite part of the day is lunch time, and free time. During free time, she alwayas chooses to draw. She draws everything she sees. She draws her classroom, her best friend Jack, and even her teacher, Ms. Brewer. She wants to be an artist when she grows up. Her favorite snacks are Goldfish, chololate pudding, and apple juice. Halloween is coming up, and Lucy is planning on dressing up as a black cat. Her mom is a secretary at a law firm and her dad is a dentist. They live in a nice house and occasionally take trips to visit family across the country.

Journal Entry 2/7

This section of Writing for Visual Thinkers: A Guide for Artists and Designers, by Andrea Marks, helps guide and focus the thoughts that artists and designers have.

When thinking of and developing ideas for projects, it is both important and helpful to write. Many techniques, such as mind mapping, concept mapping, freewriting, brainwriting, word lists, outlines, and reflective writing, allow the writing to reach far thoughts and develop ideas to their fullest.

Some techniques, such as mind mapping and words list, would are very helpful to designers. A mind map gives visual form to ideas and is good to initiate ideas. The goal is to create the map quickly, and then question its content.

To create a mind map, start with a sheet of paper, and write a word in the middle of the sheet that you would like to represent the main idea of your chart. From this word, draw multiple branches and write one word associations that relate to the center word. Keep repeating this and extending the branches further. The words on the outer limbs of your web will have a weak connection with the center word, but this will allow you to form new ideas.

Word lists allow us to create a concise list of associated words.

I thought that some of the things in this section were useful tips. I think that think that some techniques probably wouldn't be as helpful as others, but they are all good tips to get the brain working.

Watch this!

This creature is cool, but also creepy at the same time!