Madrid

Spain Timelapses Series: Madrid from 3SENSES on Vimeo.

I thought since i've been posting a lot about world changing design and although important... it gets a little boring. Soooo, this summer i spent 5 weeks working in Madrid as an au pair, well, not in the city but a suburb just outside. I already love Spain but wow, I love it ten million times more now. I don't know what it is about the city but i just wanted to share some images i've come across, some I took myself, and of course the video above, which in itself is so amazing. Either you're also going to love Madrid after this, or think i'm a crazy person who needs to get a life instead of being in love with a country!

"Because Madrid is nothing special, it doesnt have a big river, or even skyscrapers, it doesn't have ruins, no beach, no sea. But it has the people, the unexpected corners, the constant bustle, the variety. Its worth getting up early for once, in order to live life in Madrid." (loosely translated!)

 El oso y el madroño - The symbol of Madrid, seen all over the city and is a part of the flag, i think its meaning is something to do with the land of Madrid being owned by someone else but everything above ground was owned by Madrid... I was told the meaning in Madrid but it was in half Spanish and half English, so yeah, a little complicated.

 El Palacio Real

 Gran Via

How can you not love the Madrid sunset?!

 Random doorway taken by me, i loved all the buildings, even the unimportant ones, very different to the design in Scotland where design sometimes seems to be forgotten when the building isnt of great importance, quite sad really.

The river in El Retiro taken by me. 

I could upload hundreds more pictures to show you Madrid, but, I won't. HOWEVER... if you ever do go to Madrid, as I plan to again, you should really look at this! 101 Cosas para hacer en Madrid antes de morir.

Good Design, Bad Design.

Yesterday we had a lecture on Good Design and Bad Design which I feel continued on a bit from one of our previous lectures 'Think Big!'. I'm quite enjoying all these lectures, inspiring us all to do something meaningful with our degrees rather than just the obvious and expected. I'm glad our degrees are being taught the way they are, for example the last few briefs we have been given have had a sustainable and eco-friendly factor to them, almost forcing us to learn all of these new factors we will need in the future. It's also opening my eyes up a lot to how much you really have to think about things. For example we were told about the OLPC scheme (One Laptop Per Child). I personally had never heard about it and at first thought it was quite a good idea, the laptops are wound up to charge and have word processor etc., allowing children to work with them in school. But then as Jonathan explained, the children were only using them to play with and use the web cam. This doesn't really help them at all and the money used on the laptops could really be put to better use, catering to their basic human needs before allowing them to take pictures. Of course education is important in order to get these children out of poverty but surely there are cheaper and more effective ways to do this? There are many problems out there that we can help solve, we just have to think big and make some good design!

Activity 1B/1C: Going into Detail

After reading The Tipping Point I realised the chapter I was most interested in was 'The Law of The Few'. I had never noticed before the different types of people that we need for social circles to work and after finishing the chapter I am beginning to notice the people I personally know who are the Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen. Even within totally different groups of people, for example my group of friends and family, who obviously don't spread important news like Paul Revere did, all 3 different types of people are important. I was quite fascinated by connectors and the incredible amount of people they know, if I were to sit down and count as many people as I know, I doubt very much I would reach the amount that any of the connectors that Gladwell met. Mavens also interested me, and I know a few family members who are quite close to being one! I however found it hard to believe some of the things written about Salesmen... Of course most are very persuasive and sometimes we do not realise this. However to go as far as saying the subtleties of the expressions on news reporters faces can  influence the viewers vote in a national election, I find a little hard to believe!

Annotated Bibliography

Hackett Fischer, D (1994). Paul Revere's Ride. New York: Oxford University Press.

Gladwell Used this book for all discussion of Paul Revere and was useful when finding out about all the different social groups and people he would have met in these groups, in order to be able to spread the word that the British were coming faster. 

Tjaden, B. The Oracle of Bacon. Available: www.cs.virginia.edu/oracle/

This is the 'six degrees of Kevin Bacon' experiment, which is a good demonstration of how a connector works. It shows that actors can all connect somehow, and even more so when in different genres of films, just like the way the connectors in the book have had different careers/hobbies and met different people.

Feick, L F. & Price, L. (1987).  The Market Maven: A Diffuser of Marketplace Information. Journal of Marketing. vol. 51, pp. 83-97.

Gladwell uses this book to explain exactly what a Maven is and the research defines what a Maven is interested in and what they do for society.

Mullen, B. (1986). Newscasters' facial expressions and voting behaviour of viewers: Can a smile elect a President?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. vol. 51, pp. 291-295.

The Journal used for the argument that the news reporters expression had the ability to persuade the viewers who to vote for.

Activity 1A: Mind Mapping The Tipping Point

When reading the Tipping Point By Malcolm Gladwell I found it hard to get my head around some of his ideas, I reread lots of chapters because I kept confusing myself, as ideas within different chapters and sectors all join up. Drawing up a mind map helped me to not only organise the book on paper but also in my head! It also helped to make me understand a clear structure and the whole idea Gladwell is trying to get across, and it is a very well thought out, intelligent idea I'm glad to have read.

Grand Designs

I've just finished watching this weeks Grand Designs, the first i've watched in the new series. I used to watch this programme obsessively but because they played so many repeats I lost interest, but i'm very happy i watched this weeks episode! The episode this week 'Lizard Peninsula' (still not sure why its called that...) was all about Interior Designer Kathryn Tyler. I have to say Kevin McCloud was a little patronising about interior designers (going with the stereotype I had a rant about in my first post). He seems to think that all of us are into fabric and light fittings and was so shocked that Kathryn was so detail orientated and had thought about almost everything in her self managed project. But i'm not getting into another rant, I just think that Kathryn is hugely inspirational and built an amazing house, which might I add came in under budget, the only programme I remember watching which did so. I loved the exterior of the house, however some of the interiors, for me, were a bit too retro. The house was totally to her taste though, which is much better than some of the cold interiors you see that have no character at all. Although the house was pretty cool, Kathryn Tyler was what interested me the most about the programme. Further researching her I found out she in fact studied Graphic Design and then went into Interior Design, quite impressive then that she managed to build her own house so successfully as well as apparently doing a few projects at once in her career. She is clearly very driven and its quite the inspiration, if in ten years i've achieved as much as she has I will be one happy Interior Designer!

Kevin McCloud, Kathryn Tyler and Boyfriend(?)

The finished house. 

Images from here & watch the episode here!

Valencia Design Week

With all this talk of erasmus exchanges going on i've been thinking a lot about it, I know if I do go i'd want to go to Spain because, well I love spain and I really want to work on my Spanish. Dundee university has ties with the Universidad Polytecnica de Valencia, so ive been doing some research on Valencia, to see what life there would be like. Upon researching the university, the city, I found out that the Valencia Design week has just finished, running from the 27th of september to the 2nd of october. I found some really interesting stuff that was on show there and thought i'd share some. A post with lovely pictures this time instead of a rant :) haha.


Sofa Evening - Christina Serrano
This is such a cute, clever idea! Its basically a blanket with socks built in, to keep people warm in the winter instead of having to use so much heating. The wool used to make the blankets is all locally sourced from Spain making it even more eco friendly. I couldnt find an image of the blanket but heres an interview with the designer, its all in spanish but you can see the blankets in the background. I want one!

The Three Little Pigs - Sanserif Design Studio


This exhibit was a fun one too. For the opening dancers performed on top of the furniture the Studio designed which was all made of cardboard, showing the durability of the products. I know that cardboard furniture has been done plenty of times but some of their furniture is just so lovely. The whole exhibition is also eco friendly, with everything being used in the next events, meaning no waste and the leaflets being printed on recycled paper with vegetable inks. It shows just how much things these days are changing in terms of being environmentally friendly.

More info on Valencia Design Week here

What could this have to do with design?

I've noticed recently that whenever people find out I study Interior Design a common reaction is 'oh that sounds like fun!' and don't get me wrong it is, but people assume its all wallpaper and cushions, which most home owners do on a regular basis, why would we need a degree for it? I'm not saying that people ridicule interior design to my face, but after sharing a flat last year with people on more academic courses, medics, lawyers, business studies students etc.... You sometimes do get a feeling people dont take it too seriously. Although my old flatmates are probably going to save lifes, win world changing lawsuits and build multi-national companies, okay maybe im being a little too optimistic on their behalf but im sure they will do some pretty amazing things with their lives. But whose to say that as interior designers we won't too? Its not all picking a colour and a nice pattern to match, we can really make a mark in the world too.
An interesting example of organisations doing just this is Project H Design.


Mission Statement:

Design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness.

Project H uses the power of the design process to catalyze communities and public education from within. We are a team of designers and builders engaging in our own backyards to improve the quality of life for all. Our six-tenet design process (There is no design without (critical) action; We design WITH, not FOR; We document, share and measure; We start locally and scale globally; We design systems, not stuff; We build) results in simple and effective design solutions that empower communities and build collective creative capital. Our specific focus is the re-thinking of environments, products, experiences, and curricula for K-12 education institutions in the US, including design/build Studio H high school program in the Bertie County School District, North Carolina.

WE BELIEVE DESIGN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD.

In our first lecture for design studies we were asked to not think "Whats this got to do with design?" but "what could this have to do with design? People behind organisations like the Project H Design are asking this question finding wats to make design, fix, help and stop problems. Every single person out there can
find ways of changing the world, whether it be interior designers, doctors or plumbers, small steps from everyone working together will make a big impact. I'm very aware of this whole post sounding very pompous and a little bit Barack Obama-ish, but i'm not writing this expecting any person who reads it will jump out their seats and say I must go change the world through design!!!! Its just proving a point that it is possible!