bye bye blogger!

I've moved over to wordpress now, so you can find my blog by clicking here!

Back to School

Third year started only 4 days ago but it already feels like we've been back months! In the studio we've been given our brief for GIDE and we've also started our chosen modules, in my case Advertising and Branding.
The GIDE project is an international competition with 7 different universities, Leeds, Magdeburg, Milan, Mechelen, Lugano, Ljubljana and of course Dundee. Were currently all working out how we want to work around our brief 'Creativity for Local Enterprises', and everyone's coming up with so many different ideas. I myself am still trying to figure it all out and will blog a bit more when I've figured it all out!
Advertising and branding started yesterday as well, we had our first lecture and then a workshop today. The lecture was interesting and I was glad to know some of the basics already as I did business studies in school, I wasn't as lost as I thought I might be! We worked on marketing strategies, SWOT analysis, the four p's, ansoff matrix, perpetual maps and SMART objectives.

The different strategies were all quite useful when it came to our workshop and we used a few when it came to our 'real life' client, Jo Montgomery of Little Riot, the company behind 'Pillowtalk'. I'd seen pillow talk before online and at the degree show and it was interesting to hear little bits of background information, like the reasoning behind the name of her company. It was difficult to find alternative uses and different areas to market the product when I already love it and the fact its not really a materialistic product, more an idea and very emotional based. You can see a lot more about pillowtalk on the Little Riot website here and also vote for her in the SmartA competition here!

Ana Montiel

I recently came across Ana Montiel, an artist focused on mainly patterns and graphics. Her designs are shown on many different surfaces, from wallpaper to curtains and even demonstrated on shoes and bikes! The colours and shapes in the patterns are so feminine, and some very detailed, I love them all! Montiel also has a wonderful way of presenting her CV, an interesting way I'd like to look into further... An illustrated timeline of her life, from her first canvas at age 4, when she started her fine art studies at Universidad de Barcelona, to when she began practicing yoga and meditation! So much more personal and intimate than the boring old CV! Here are a few of my favourite pieces, you can see more on her website here, and also buy prints or even her book! Something I'd love to get my hands on (although a little out of my price range unfortunately!).

Click images for a better look! 

Before I Die...

Before I die is a project by artist and designer Candy Chang that asks people what's really important to them. The project took place on the side of an abandoned house in the artist's neighbourhood, and involved the community to really think about the important things in life, and turned a useless ugly building into something constructive, bringing the community and wider public together. Using panels covered in chalkboard paint allowed people to write responses and when it was filled, for the boards to be cleaned and wrote on again and again. The project lasted just over a month before the owners of the property wanted to start on renovations. The artist has plans to start this project elsewhere in New Orleans and also creating kits to allow people to recreate the project worldwide. You can find out more on Candy Chang's site here, and here are a few images of the project in action.

Alexandre Farto aka Vhils

Alexandre Farto aka Vhils is a Portugese street artist whose work is a little different to typical street artists, or graffiti artists. Vhils instead carves into existing walls, billboards, creating elegant portraits with a lot more depth and texture. Also working with metal and wood, everything about his art is natural, yet modern and urban. 

 billboards

 billboards

metal

You can see a lot more of his work on his personal website here.  

El Teide

El Teide is the highest mountain in Spain. Located in the Canary Islands, Tenerife the mountain is the highest point in the atlantic ocean. The norwegian artist who filmed the time-lapse 'The Mountain' was Terje Sorgjerd, and here's what he said about the experience;

"This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide.Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories. 
The goal was to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy along with one of the most amazing mountains I know El Teide. I have to say this was one of the most exhausting trips I have done. There was a lot of hiking at high altitudes and probably less than 10 hours of sleep in total for the whole week. Having been here 10-11 times before I had a long list of must-see locations I wanted to capture for this movie, but I am still not 100% used to carrying around so much gear required for time-lapse movies.
A large sandstorm hit the Sahara Desert on the 9th April (bit.ly/​g3tsDW) and at approx 3am in the night the sandstorm hit me, making it nearly impossible to see the sky with my own eyes.
Interestingly enough my camera was set for a 5 hour sequence of the milky way during this time and I was sure my whole scene was ruined. To my surprise, my camera had managed to capture the sandstorm which was backlit by Grand Canary Island making it look like golden clouds. The Milky Way was shining through the clouds, making the stars sparkle in an interesting way. So if you ever wondered how the Milky Way would look through a Sahara sandstorm, look at 00:32."

Anyway the video speaks for itself, here it is!


The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.

Summer Plans

This time last year I was finishing off uni and preparing for summer. After my first year at university I had some new found confidence and decided to do something totally out of my comfort zone so decided to leave my hometown for a bit and get out there and do something different. So i did. I went to Madrid, worked as an au pair for 5 weeks and loved it. I felt like I'd done something meaningful with my summer and felt more confident and independent coming back home. This summer however I have a job, and since it took me so long to find it I can't give it up! Therefore i'm preparing a plan of action to make the most of this summer staying at home, and hoping for a summer away next year, fingers crossed! I have many ideas of things i will do to make the most of our 'holiday' so here's a few ideas, which i'm sure will change as the weeks go by but im going to stay focused and driven in order to not waste my time!


Blogging plans:
1. Update layout
2. Learn wordpress and hopefully switch over
3. Make a less simple layout design
4. Upload more pictures
5. Organising tags!



There was a quote on the design studies blog;

“Designing is basically the practice of combining stuff; ideally in ways that haven’t been seen before. So the more stuff you know (about everything), the greater the chance you’ll find a relevant and distinctive, and therefore effective (and original) combination. Everything is interesting”.

for this reason I want to practice and read a variety of different things. I'm going to do a refresher course in Spanish, conversational in summer to build my confidence a little and then further this next semester with an accredited course.

I'm also going to try and catch up on some reading, i haven't had time to read in a long time so i'll hopefully get in the zone and get through a lot!

1. The ten faces of innovation, this book was written by the people at IDEO and sounds really interesting, studies into different people and how they work, reminds me a lot of the mavens connectors and salesmen from The Tipping Point!
2. The back of the napkin, this book was recommended in one of our design studies lectures and looks really interesting and fun, as well as informative and linking in with
3.Why we Buy: The Science of Shopping, this is all about how people shop and working in retail it would interest me a lot to have a read, might also come in handy if I ever go into commercial design and hopefully get some training in visual merchandising whilst working part time in retail! 
4. Some spanish novels (to improve my spanish, i'm looking into some at the moment to find the best and perhaps simplest options!)
5. Reading a few novels from this list of 30 books to read before you die, there's a lot but i'll be stuck in Dundee working for most of the holidays and will have a lot of free time, so i'll try and not waste this time!


People to connect with:

Currently looking into spanish interior design companies to get into contact with, in order to build relationships, and perhaps be noticed for after 4th year!
Would also like to connect with some more local studios for possible placements in the next couple of years as i'm starting to realise how important experience is. I would love to get in contact with graven images in Glasgow, a company I studied in higher a lot and am very interested in.
I need to find people that I specifically want to contact but I will keep my blog updated and take full advantage of twitter to get in touch with lots of people at once.
I also plan on emailing a few companies and hope that goes somewhere!

Assignment 5; Planning for the future.

This semester we are currently working on a solo project, design an eco-hub for sepa. A lot of people struggled when we first started getting into the project, it is after all our largest project so far, and our previous projects in second year had all been group projects. I therefore got to thinking, how difficult would this then be in industry when everything is a whole lot more real!

Last semester I looked into co-design, within the voluntary sector a lot, creating spaces for those who need it and perhaps cannot access the design world the way others can. This is explained further in the article "The New School collaborates: Organization and communication in immersive international field programs with artisan communities" by Cynthia Lawson, which I analysed in semester 1. The idea is to design for the other 90% of the world, because only 10% of the world, i.e the richest, have access to the skills of architects and designers around the globe. This extends way beyond the things we believe to be essential to the actual necessities, water food and shelter. There is an exhibition, Designing for the other 90% that goes into more detail about this.

Anyway, getting back to our current project, the fact it was such a large project made it hard for people to get there heads around it, the large space and the many different areas and sizing of these areas fitting altogether! If anyone was like me they had a million things running round in there heads at once, so organisation was a must. The website service design tools helped a lot when trying to manage things a little better, I created a mood board of materials and also created a site analysis with all the information about the side location and surrounding area, transportation etc. After the initial inspiration and thoughts however the more in-depth design process would benefit greatly from some co-design.

The organisation SEPA help maintain the Scottish environment and have offices based around Scotland, within many communities. This seems the perfect opportunity to get communities involved, not only with educating the community but also when it comes to designing their office space.
As our current project is, it makes sense for a sepa office to be 'eco friendly' they are after all protecting the environment and their office should reflect this too.
When researching into more sustainable methods of design I looked into local materials and designers, trying to incorporate this into the overall design, not only for the distance making the carbon footprint lower but also to support local people. Getting these people involved with the design process supports both the main designer, local artists/designers and the community.
Workshops would be a great way of working well with both professionals and the community. One of my ideas had been to have art work from local artists, but I had also thought what about children, local to the office? This would then bring awareness to the fact SEPA were there and get everyone involved, creating a good relationship with the workforce, encouraging communication with any environmental problems the local Dundonians may have. Students would then want to visit the office to see the art work, and could then be taught a lot more on environmental issues, perhaps solving future problems for SEPA. With 20,300 pupils enrolled in 37 primary schools and 9 secondary schools there will be a lot of talent the office may benefit from.

With more structural elements of the building and interior design, locals can still be involved, either local building merchants doing literal building work, or local stone masons or joiners helping with material sourcing, as locally as possible of course. This involves a lot of research, a lot which needs people with contacts, meaning the whole design process being collaborative very useful as different people have different contacts, a   lot like in The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell, with connectors mavens and salesmen all being useful.
One organisation that i'm already aware of in Dundee is the Sun City House, part of the Solar Cities Scotland organisation. The house is a living demonstration of renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable construction in a domestic environment. This kind of environment is a good example of what Sepa could take inspiration from, linking together taking advantage of the people working with Solar Cities. The two groups working together makes sense to me, preserving the environment with Sepa and thinking about our future environment with Solar Cities. Simplified diagrams demonstrating the different systems that Sepa could implement in their offices would help not only the designer but also the staff working in the office, who may not be as clued up on the workings of photovoltaic panels for example.

When working on layout of the building, envisioning how the building will work for the team and visitors is difficult, and I see the best way of solving this is to observe other similar sized businesses and their office space. When using ethnography and observing at the casino this helped a lot more working out how people work and move around a space, utilising it to its potential. This is essential in office design, the space has to look good but more importantly work well in order for people to be happy in their work space and be more productive. Co design could be utilised here by using the employees, it is them after all that need the space. This would be done using roleplay or a cognitive walkthrough, perhaps in an existing SEPA office to see what improvements could be made or at a later stage in the process in a roughly set out office the designer has created.

Overall I believe that co design and office design coincide with each other in more ways than one. The office working for the staff is essential for higher productivity in the workplace, so involving the staff with the process makes a lot of sense. The fact our project involves Sepa, an environmental agency brings sustainability into the process also, and with the design world as well as many other industries taking a lot more notice of sustainable factors in many different things, contacts should be easily made. The research into who to contact is the tricky bit, keeping it as local as possible allows carbon footprint to stay low and to promote local talent and local companies. This needs perseverance and knowing as many different people as possible, getting out there and asking around.

Julian Bialowas

Julian Bialowas is a Canadian graphic design student with a love of photography. He has combined photographs he has taken on his travels with quotes, and some of the results are pretty amazing. They may be simple but I think thats why I love them so much. He has a current project 365q, where he posts one of his photos every day for a year, heres a few examples, and you can find the rest here!

Assignment 4; What do you treasure?

For assignment 4 we were asked to pick one of 10 questions and i decided to pick the subject of what people treasure the most and why. The question reminded me of a lecture we had last semester when we were asked what our favourite presents were, some people picked recent presents, things like a new laptop or camera where as others were less about material value and more about memories, choosing things like items that were lovingly handmade for them, so had a bit more of a meaningful value. It interested me to see that some people care more about the item itself and some about the meaning behind the item.
When researching I found random websites where people stated the items they would treasure, one of the people said his items were his playstation, his guitar and his nirvana box set. On the other end of the scale some people had said items made by a close relative, or even just their memories, although not tangible, the only thing they felt was important.
It really confused me how some people could be so materialistic and some not even want an object, with memories or not.
The question itself reminded me of that question, what would you save if your house was on fire? So on googling this, I found an interesting article written by a grandmother and her findings when interviewing her 5 grand children (all aged below 14 I believe) on what they would want her to save from her house and then what they would save from their own house. She was surprised at how un-materialistic the children were, choosing things like paintings that reminded them of their heritage and hair pieces that their grandmother wore a lot. The younger grandchildren were least materialstic, saying she should save the pet dog as it needs someone to care for it and that she should save herself so then she can see her grandchildren.
This then also interested me, that children and adults have different views as to what they value as important and what isn't.
I decided then to take a 'now and then' approach to my interviews, seeing the difference in what people treasured in childhood and what they treasure now, as adults.

I asked 3 people the 2 main questions what was your most treasured item as a child and what's your most treasured item now. I asked 2 people the same age as me, a female student and a male non student and a female friend of my mums. The results were as follows:

The female student was first. A pink tartan blanket described now as 'rubbishy' was her favourite item as a child, she took it everywhere and it was given to her by her parents. The fact she described it as rubbishy said a lot, she realised now it was just a blanket but at the time it clearly meant a lot more to her. Her chosen item now was a Charles Rennie Mackintosh jewellery set also bought for her by her parents for her 18th. Both items are distinctly Scottish and bought for her, by her parents. This would be a big clue to the fact that both are a big part of her life, even though the items are material objects, both seem to have memories behind them, not just the cost or use of the items. 

I asked my mums friend second, she's slightly older but still in the same kind of age group so I expected slightly different answers. For her childhood item she said teddies, not any in particular, just in general and for her present treasured item it was her family and friends. The fact one was a material item and the other wasn't was interesting. I thought maybe as she was slightly older and maybe a bit wiser she had realised it wasn't material objects that mattered.

My third and final interviewee was a male student living at home and in full time work. His childhood treasured item was different to everyone else, he chose football. He said that whenever there was a football around he would be kicking it about. I thought a sport was an interesting choice, people i knew growing up who were interested in football were always very focused on it, and it was an important part of their life. For his current treasure he chose his friends, although a bit wary of choosing his friends, he said he knew it was 'cheesy' but they are amazing and wouldn't change them for anything. He didn't choose one material object, and appreciates his social life more, starting from an early age with his football. 

All three peoples objects linked back to their family and friends. I had first thought people either chose materialistic objects or memories or people, however it seems that all are linked. People may choose an object as it reminds them of a memory, or was given to them by a certain person. For me, I treasure a lot of things, and keep things because they link to memories. I value things such as my uncles watch i was given after he passed away, and a bracelet which is totally value-less as i made it myself, but haven't taken it off since he died over 2 years ago now. When I was a child I treasured my dolls (lovingly named Baby Jesus and Elena Rosie) both of which I still have. I also have a pair of my first shoes that are still in my wardrobe at home, which i plan on keeping for my first child. Things such as laptops and clothes can easily be replaced but the idea of losing things that mean so much to me leaves an uneasy feeling in my stomach. 

Having tangible items we treasure is a good way of reminding yourself of people or events you don't want to forget, and family and friends are the most valuable objects we can ever have, without them we wouldn't need objects to remind ourselves of them!

I was very interested in finding out what people treasured most as children, so decided I would ask a few friends and family as I knew what they treasured now but what they treasured when they were younger was all new to me. My mum treasured a pair of wellie boots bought for her by her mum that she used to wear all day, even to bed. My younger brothers was a car with a handle for us to push him in that I remember him rolling about the house in, he named the car Barbara, we were never sure why... He also had a pair of mouse slippers that were his 'mousey browns', he adored those slippers. Strange the things some people see as valueless mean so much to other people.
You can never just look at something and know it has a lot more meaning than you would expect.

Ryan Tatar

My favourite season will always be summer and I came across this photographer who captures it in ever picture he takes! He has a few different series of work, my favourites are sea tribes and the cape fear kooks.
Heres what Tatar has to say about the cape fear kooks,

"The Cape Fear Kooks is an ongoing photo essay, and subset of the sea-tribes body of work, that focuses on a small pocket sized capsule of eccentric surfers in North Carolina.  The photographs in this subset continue the tradition and attributes of the sea-tribes essay, however are specifically focused in the area around the photographer’s home and personal lifestyle from the fall of 2008 until early 2010.   Also, like sea-tribes, the photographs were taken with fully manual 1960s and 1970s era equipment and shot on a variety of black and white, cross processed, and expired films.  The colours are unique to the film processing technique (various slide films processed in C-41 chemicals) and polaroid."

 Every single photograph makes me wish it was summer and want to go on a road trip, here's some of my favourites, you can see all of his work here!

Assignment 3: Design Safari

Our third assignment was all about people watching, or the technical term 'Ethnography'. For this I decided I wanted to go and visit the G Casino in Dundee, a place all of my friends had been but I had never got around to going. So with a couple of other girls in my course we went for lunch one afternoon, a monday afternoon to be exact. When we first went in we got chatting to the guy on reception, who sorted out our membership for us. He informed us that the casino was in fact not that busy but we went on in anyway. When entering the casino you have to go up a few floors after reception to get to the actual casino, and as interior students we immediately started noticing all the decor, interesting wallpaper made up of tiny images of Dundee which we were all quite impressed with, and a rather out dated carpet we were a little confused with, as the casino has only just recently opened. However we carried on, ordered some lunch (which was very good by the way) and started to observe. We noticed that the casino was a little bit deserted, and the whole are very separated, with very different people in each area. The table area seemed to have only men, all age 40 or over and looking mostly middle/upper class. They were all looking very serious and very in to their gambling, something i thought odd for it only being lunch time. When we were observing them (perhaps not very subtly) they looked a little shifty and uncomfortable. We also noticed that as there wasn't too many people everyone was sitting a seat apart. Some seemed on edge as well, fidgeting and looking quite nervous. On the other side of the casino at the slot machines there were older people, typical 'grannies' who would sit at the same machine with a drink with them. This side of the casino was a lot more relaxed, more fun i would guess rather than the seriousness of people at the tables. It surprised me there was such a lack of younger student types in, as from what I'd heard from friends the casino was the place to be! Maybe not during the day but I still expected a few.
We noticed from the way people were so separated that the casino layout was designed with very different zones, the bar, the restaurant, the roulette tables, the slots and a seating area with televisions. The betting table area was very literally separate, with a railing around the area and it was central to all of the other zones, most likely because it's the part they make the most money and want people to go to the most. The bar is very flashy and glamorous, bright lights attract your attention and expensive wine and champagne menus are laid out at every table. We got chatting to the barman and he told us that the flashy lights at the bar were a great way of spotting the drunks as they can be quite disorientating, although i'm not sure if this was a deliberate design decision, but if it was, it's a clever one!

Lights played a prominent part in the design of the casino, adding to the 'glitziness' and also subliminally guiding people through the room. The lights on the ceiling swooped across the room guiding you from the entrance through to each section. This is continued with flooring and with the glass panels surrounding the roulette area, all allowing any user to smoothly walk from one area to the next.

Adding to the whole casino experience even more is the atmosphere of the place. Calm music is played throughout the day and the place is a lot more soothing and relaxed than i expected. This may just be due to the fact that it was during the week I visited and that at the weekend it livens up. I would expect the atmosphere is calm deliberately, keeping users happy and relaxed enough to keep on playing. 

My experience in the casino was not at all what I expected. Having never been in any casino I expected something like in the movies in Las Vegas, it was not like this at all. I visited once in the afternoon and then later in the week at night and at night it wasn't all that more exciting. It wasn't fun and full of the glamour advertised in its leaflets and the way casino's are portrayed in Hollywood, just older business men losing their money.

What a wonderful night for a moondance...

As part of our latest assignment we were asked to visit somewhere we'd never been before either a casino, a football match or the bingo. I visited the casino but also decided to go the Jazz night at the union, something i've always wanted to do, therefore killing two birds with one stone! The event was held on a Wednesday night in 'mono' in the union. Usually when i'm in mono it's for 'skint' and its a nightclub full of drunk, very drunk normally, students dancing away to a random mix of music. To walk into mono sober and to listen to music I haven't shown a lot of interest in previously was all very new to me!
The night attracted a lot of different people.        There were the slightly older group of people, sipping on cocktails and wine, very sophisticated. There were the more what i would call, artsy people, swaying about in time to the music. Finally there were people like my friends and I, people you probably wouldn't expect to see at a Jazz Night. I did feel a little out of place for a while, I have to admit.
I felt the atmosphere was overall relaxed and everyone fitted in. My idea of people who would be into jazz was pretentious people who thought they were all so cool, but there wasn't anyone like that really. Although saying this, it maybe wasn't a true
example of the whole jazz scene as it was a temporary space.
Although it was totally new to me I like new situations, getting out of my comfort zone a little. Last year i travelled to Madrid and lived with a host family alone and lived their lifestyle with them, something that was extremely new and quite brave for me. Its nice to seek out new experiences.
Here's a video of one of the songs the Universities Big Band played in the union 'Moondance', I also have a new found love for Sinatra and Etta James.

Service Design Tools

For assignment 3 we were asked to look at the website Service Design Tools,which shows you different communication methods that you can use in the design process. Looking through some of them i thought i would never use this and found a couple hard to understand but looking more into it I realised I actually use a few of the methods already, just didn't realise what exactly they were. There were tools such as mind maps that obviously all of us have previously used in the first semester. There was also an 'offering map' which I realised I have been using  (okay a much simpler version but still..)  for our current office project in order to help me get my head around the layout of the building.

One of the methods which was a very obvious communication tool was a mood board, however I have never sat down and made one so decided I would try it for this project and it really helped me sort all the different design ideas I have going on in my head right now!

There were some other methods i thought would be quite useful, especially since I'm quite a disorganised person, it would make sense for me to use some, mainly methods such as a task analysis grid, which looks time consuming but probably helps a lot when there's just too much information to take in at one time, I problem I have had with our current project. The context panorama looks like an interesting tool, and simple and easy to understand as well. I'll try to use as many methods as I can in future projects!

Radical Cartography

I came across this website today that is all about maps, but in very different ways you would expect to see a map. The maps aren't simply about places but a whole host of issues, race boundaries, suicides and comparisons in scale with different country's and cities. Some of the issues the maps are built around are pretty serious but some are really amazing to see and quite shocking and are a great way to get information across really fast and in a easily understandable way.

here's a couple of examples, find more here!

'what the world needs now'