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.