Reading Reflection Hasket 9-10

      These last two chapters of the book, Design a very short introduction, were about the context and future of design. these chapter taught me about how design is always changing and can effects everything from new technologies to culture. Also the future and present design has gradually started to more heavily rely on computers, but also that drawing will always be an important aspect in developing a design. Also this book has made me realize that much of the design for the future will emphasis Eco friendly technologies and I will always keep this in mind when designing anything.
     Another thing that I found interesting from chapter 9 was that countries have started to make organizations to group design capabilities which helps them improve many things from government projects to industries. Also these chapters talked about how design isnt just drawing but also critical thinking and problem solving. Over all I really enjoyed this book and it helped me learn a ton about design.

Course reflection 05 (Presentations)

     Initially I thought these presentations would not be very interesting because many of the products would be similar and most would be repetitive. But after seeing the presentations I was very impressed with the ideas our class came up with and how they were presented. Many of the products I could even see myself using or many other people using.
     This is not to mean that all the projects or my project was perfect though, many of the products I believe could use improvement if they were to actually be sold. Many of the products would have to have technologies made specifically for them which would increase costs. Also many of the teams wanted to be environmentally conscious which is not bad and would just say you can use it for something else or just that it was recyclable or made from recyclable material, but did not give a way to recycle these or how they could get those recycled materials. This could easily be addressed if the product went into production but its just one more thing that would need more planning.
     One thing i was very impressed with though was though were the presentations that used Prezi. I had never heard of this before seeing it used in class and I believe it made those presentations made with is very good. Normal power points can get very boring but prezi was unique and stood out. This taught me a lot about much of the project being how its presented and I will use this in the future with other projects.

My final thoughts

Over all I really enjoyed this quarter in Design 200. I initially wanted to take the course because I had interests in  a majoring in something with design but was not sure if I would really like design. After taking the course I really like the concept of design and many of my interests that were in more of the "fine arts" have shifted more to design. This class has exposed me to much about design that I didn't consider before the class, I initial was interested in communication through design but now i am also interested in industrial design. After reading your four "underhand passes" much of what we did in class makes more since and now that I see this much of what we did or how we did it makes a lot more since. Another thing is that I usually hate reading for any class but the books we read for the class interested me more then usual and reading for this class was much more enjoyable. 

Reflection of the Coleman project

      For the final project of the year each team was supposed to design a product for a hypothetical Indoor line for the outdoor company of Coleman. My team, consisting of M. Shaama H. Trevor R. Courtney S. and myself, decided to make a child's bed that could also be made into a tent. This product was designed with the thought of getting kids interested in camping and the outdoors, and especially for kids in urban areas were they can not go camping.   

      In the brainstorming  part of the project I believe my team worked very well together to come up with our product design. I think it was Shamma who had the idea for the tent bed but the whole group contributed for the final details of our plan. After getting our ideas together we split the work up giving each member a different part to do. Shamma made the final designs on her computer and with sketches, Trevor made the power point presentation, Courtney made the kiosk design, and I designed the packaging. 

      The picture to the right shows our final product design. This product was designed keeping the preexisting Coleman look in mind and at the same time getting more kids more interested in camping, but also to be a quality long lasting bed. Another thing we wanted to keep in mind was environmental impact of making the bed so we decided to make the tent poles out of recycled plastic and the frame of the bed out of recycled wood. The team decided to make the poles of the tent to side to the back and to be able to completely remove them if the owner wanted so the kid would not always have to sleep in the tent. 

     My contribution to the project was the final design of the packaging. The team decided to to incorporate part of the bed into the packaging to same costs and prevent some waste. We decided to use the drawers from the bed to be folded up into a suit case like box and to put the rest of the parts in the box. Of course this means that the bed comes unassembled and the costumer will have to do this. We also decided to cover our "suit case" with a plastic film that has a picture of the actual bed and several stickers from popular outdoor vacation spots to give the illusion that the kids will be able to pretend they are traveling all over the country with the camp site in their bed room. Over all I felt very good about this project, I believe my team covered all the aspects of the project well.

Media Reviews

Design and the Environment

With humans designing almost the entire world around us with little thought, until resent years, to how it might be hurting the natural environment; humans have made a huge impact on the planet over the years.  With overwhelming evidence of the harm we have caused the environment and the growing emphasis on protecting it for the future there have been many developments in products to protect the environment.

#1 P&G future friendly products
P&G has released a line of products that conserve electric, water, and materials that would otherwise end up in land fills. One product, the pur faucet mount, has eliminated more then 3200plastic water bottles from being used.
http://futurefriendly.com/Pages/Products.aspx


#2 Top five Environmentally friendly cars  
With cars being one of the leading factors of air pollutants there is a large emphasis on making them more environmentally friendly.
http://chemicallygreen.com/5-most-environmentally-friendly-cars/


#3 Frito Lays!
The Frito Lays Company has been taking steps to protect the environment since 1939.
http://www.fritolay.com/our-planet/all-steps.html


#4 Volkswagen
Another leader in air and water pollutions is factories and volkswagen has spent a billion dollars to stop many of these pollutants.
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/volkswagen-builds-eco-friendly-car-factory-in-tennessee/1752


#5 Renault Tanger
Renault Tanger is the only car factory in the world that uses a renewable energy source and has reduced CO2 emissions by 135,000 tonnes.
http://www.physorg.com/news194874921.html

Reading Reflection 03

I found the book Cradle to Cradle to be fairly interesting and had many good ideas but mostly I just wanted to take it in the shower to see if I really could get it wet like it claims but never did because I didn't wanna ruin it. This book so far has made many good arguments about design and protecting the environment for the future. One of my favorite concepts he talks about is "upcycling." Unlike recycling which can one be done two or three times to a product this could be done as many times as you please because it would isolate the quality materials.
Another thing that is discussed in the book is the negatives of the industrial revolution, this was weird to me because it is usually portrayed as a great time of our country. I still believe it was a great time of the country after reading this but now realize we could have done a lot better of a job. I liked how he described the old way of design as the "strategy of tragedy" and that we need to embrace a "strategy of change." 
Something else that I learned from the book was that there are many harmful products in our industry today. A few examples of these are Indigo dye, plastic water bottles, and polyester shirts. It seems to me like we could fix some of  the harmful things like plastic water bottles though by just not making them plastic any more.
Over all these six chapters showed me that many products can be redesigned and should be redesigned to help the environment.

A Review of my Peers a Third Time

Trevor R.
What I liked most about Trevor's blog was the letters he had found. I would have never noticed his A, W, or Z on my own. Also he does a good job of cropping the photos so it is easy to find the letter in the photo. Another thing from blog that I liked was his reading review, I believe he has a good understanding of the content.

M. Shaama H.
First off I love her reading reflection when she states that she hasn't taken the book in the shower but was tempted because I have been tempted as well. I also liked her letters she found, especially her "i" because it is unique and again I wouldn't have noticed it on my own. Also I liked in her course reflection when she said that she was excited and overwhelmed at the same time after meeting the guest speakers from design circle and cobego, because I felt the same way after listening to them.

Courtney S.
I really liked Courtney's third course reflection because i felt the same about many things in the class and i believe she summarized or reflected on the past few classes very well. Also I like her example of an indoor home good being a hello kitty toaster, this is a good example just kind of an unusual product.