Sunday, April 19, 2009

Your turn #11

Let's share some ideas on my previous post.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

\Random rant/

Is obsolescence—the state of being which occurs when a person, object, or service is no longer wanted even though it may still be in good working order—where graphic design is now? Should design be created knowing it will be destroyed? Imagine working on a spanking new campaign for a company or product for the sole purpose to fail. As opposed to it being exploited until viewers are sick and tired of it and hate it. I think its genius. You grab the attention then confuse the hell out of people with a different approach.
Apparently companies no longer value customers. The hell with loyalty, trust, and great products!

I am not shocked by this way. I know, there will always be competition that will do what they're told... ergo you are replaceable.
I'm replaceable because I am creative and may be too individualistic (not always for the right reasons). I'm replaceable with all who follow suit. However, you are replaceable for not being able to be a unique and owner of your own ideas. It's a damn shame, oh well. The tide'll come.

scolbert said...

Sustainability. Energy efficiency. And going green are all buzzwords that arise in every day conversation. The importance of being recognized as a sustainable company or organization has become a valued position in a time where environmental preservation has never been more important to all global citizens. However, do people or businesses wholly understand what such terms insinuate?
The practice of sustainability centers in on a company’s long-term actions and how they impact the world by and large. It encompasses the making available of the best outcomes for the human and natural environments, now and into the future. In addition, sustainability deals with pressing environmental and social challenges, such as enhancing water conservation and quality, efficient usage of energy, wiping out poverty and disease, and augmenting transportation mobility.

Although it has its upside, risks are inevitable. Sustainable companies may face are project delays, labor unrest, loss of operating freedom, and reputation erosion. Project delays will become a risk factor when companies fail to foresee and deal with community and regulatory concerns. Labor unrest could become a potential risk if employees are exposed to new and perilous materials in constructing “green buildings.” Product safety must be evaluated before jeopardizing worker health. Workplace conditions may be found unsuitable and perceived to be unfair causing an uprising in laborers. Sustainable companies must also pay attention to government enforcement and regulations. Being in tune with regulatory guidelines concerning all aspects of sustainable business is a necessity. Between project delays, failure to provide a safe work setting, and follow government regulations will ultimately result in loss of operating freedom while shareholders are bound to withdraw from the company.
In essence, creating a sustainable business is regarded highly by society for its global and environmental impacts, but can be complex to maintain.

Lauren Santa Cruz said...

Social Consciousness according to the link: A subject with an acquired social consciousness derives his or her viewpoint from the mainstream culture.[4] This individual avoids identifying himself or herself with a marginalized culture. This individual generally is either not aware of or does not acknowledge the way that differences among people affect the way that they are treated within society. The individual is not fully active in society. The person with an acquired social consciousness does not question mainstream viewpoints, and acts accordingly, without confrontation.

In my opinion a person such as the one described above is the complete antithesis of a creative human being. Artists are successful nowadays for creating something new that nobody has seen before. Looking briefly at the solar powered parking lots I realized this was a great idea. Somebody has made use of a vast empty space of concrete that has no positive offering to the environment. Now we must change the status quo which is the idea that america must be completely productive and industrialize natural spaces and environment. It should be our goal to create a new social consciousness were all are concerned with making the environment a priority and not question the productive ideas of those people who have the power to make us change for the better.

Victoria S. said...

So the link about propaganda claims that propaganda objectively tries to influence people's opinions. I disagree with that. Propaganda is inherently biased. It is meant to influence our opinions and make us see only one solution (which the post later on begins to describe). However, propaganda cannot do both these things. Objective means it is without a "hidden agenda", allowing readers or viewers to form their own opinions. But propaganda thrives on force-feeding you a single opinion. Think about it, the best propaganda posters are for questionable organizations or movements: The Nazis had some of the best propaganda posters, and they were no cup of tea. Obviously, this form of poster has been made infamous for brainwashing unsuspecting victims.

The article goes on to say that propaganda tells facts, but lies by omission. I'm not really sure that's true, either. If propaganda prides itself on telling facts, then it picks up on the one fact that can be twisted to coerce others into believing their position. Don't get me wrong, I think it is brilliant. Propaganda posters make us see what the designers want us to see, and often cause us to believe in something questionable. Or, if we don't believe in what it's saying, at least we can see HOW someone could buy it. And that is design at its finest.

Unknown said...

I think the concept of participatory design is very interesting. It makes the most sense to include those who will benefit from the products in the design process. This way the products will better meet the needs of consumers and will be more successful overall. A process of review with consumers also needs to take place as the last stage of participatory design. Evaluation is the most integral part of any plan. In order to see if something was successful, you would need to ask people who have used, tested, and can comment on it from experience.

However, I would imagine that participatory design from a graphic design standpoint can be somewhat restricting. Too many opinions sometimes stifle the creativity of the designers, and lead to confusion, and a project that was not allowed to extend to its full potential.

The post explains the differences between user-design and user-centered-design. I think the most effective method is user-centered-design, in which participants have input and are consulted regularly but are not in possession of the necessary tools or skills to make vital construction decisions.

Ryan Eckert said...

Sustainable design is important for people to pay close attention to. Making the world a better place is ideal but if we could just change a couple of daily activities we could save the environment. For many of you that don’t know I try my best to litter as little as possible. Not only do I recycle but I also try and carry a container to drink from instead of disposable container. I have a reusable 7Eleven Big Gulp (love it), and I’m starting to think that 7eleven company should make a sustainable design on their Gulps. It would help catch more consumers interested in going green.
Also, has anyone been on campus when it’s too late for classes, yet all the lights are on? Look around at all the energy being wasted, if only somebody would turn out the lights, this school alone could save so much money.

Unknown said...

I think all of these topics are very important especially in today’s society.
I have been thinking about propaganda so I am going to talk about that.
Propaganda is information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to influence, help or harm a person, group, movement, institution or nation. I think propaganda is a constant thing in our lives. Everyday the things we do, say and believe are influenced by the things we see and hear. The news spreads propaganda and tells us how we should feel about different issues but the news prefers not to be called propaganda. Tabloids and magazines also tell us how we should act and dress and whom we should like and dislike. Commercials and television shows also influence what we like and what we buy. All these things produce emotional responses not rational ones just as propaganda does. Everything everywhere influences us and I think it is propaganda in a strange way.
The examples I have given are not usually the harmful kind of propaganda but sometimes-silly influential kind. As emotional beings we are the perfect targets for this.

Anonymous said...

I was interested in the link about “redundancy in design”. The link explains how redundancy is often used in the engineering field as a fail-safe, but I believe that some designs today are redundant, watered down, generic creations that fail to provoke, incite, stir, and push the limits of the “traditional”, and hence are also fail-safe creations in that aspect. This redundancy can often be seen in the cars that we drive. We spoke of this once before in class. Normally there are a few cars that stand out of the heard and then, the next thing you know, other car brands are creating similar models that look exactly the same. For example: the Volvo, Lexus, Infiniti brands all have a similar looking SUV/car, or how the latest Jeep model resembles a Hummer (minus the steroids.) Not to mention all of the tiny “eco-friendly” egg shaped vehicles that have emerged and remind me of Easter year round. It makes you wonder.

Annika said...

I really feel that more and more buildings and other potentially damaging aspects of today's social culture should be created with sustainable design. With the knowledge that exists regarding construction materials that can in some way benefit the earth instead of causing more problems or even simply be from renewable sources, there really is no reason for architects and construction companies to plan with this in mind, short of cost. I know some cut corners of sustainability in order to save money here and there... but if they really think about the long-term effects, they'd honestly be saving money for themselves and future generations in the long run. One principle of sustainability mentioned in the Wikipedia article that really stuck out to me was that of Healthy Buildings. Too often do you hear about older buildings contaminating their inhabitants and the surrounding environment, but hopefully with the current "Go Green" movement that's sweeping internationally, future citizens of the world won't be hearing the same news.

Emily said...

I totally agree with Victoria. Propaganda does not lie by omission, yes, some propaganda may lie by omission, but you cannot generalize all propaganda as lying by omission, much propaganda is extremely deceitful. I guess in lieu of holocaust remembrance day, this immediately made me think of Nazi Germany, the perfect example of harmful propaganda. Nazi Germany took advantage of young children and their vulnerable minds and imitative nature…as well as corrupting the minds of the rest of society, but with children, they went to the extreme. Propaganda was drilled into the classroom curriculum. All formal education can in some way be viewed as indoctrination and in effect propaganda, but Nazi Germany’s curriculum was filled with lies, thus showing propaganda does not always lie by omission. Their ant-Semitic ideology did not only depict Jews as devils, and other in-humane figures on posters, but children in classrooms would recite “Judas the Jew betrayed Jesus the German to the Jews,” according to wikipedia. They also quote a math problem of Nazi Germany, “The Jews are aliens in Germany—in 1933 there were 66,606,000 inhabitants in the German Reich, of whom 499,682 (.75%) were Jews.” Even today, there is evidence of very similar and extremely frightening propaganda on Hamas television. The children’s program, “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” sends out very disturbing messages to the children about the Israelis. The Hamas Mickey Mouse on the program in one youtube clip of the show says, “from the filth of the criminal plundering Jews who killed my grandpa and everybody…” then he goes on to try to reclaim the land but was martyred by the Israelis. Other clips speak of Jihad and Islamic supremacy and place false claims on other people to indoctrinate the children.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3vGDmdEP_0

Emily said...

Globalization is also an interesting topic since it encompasses so many different areas. Everything has become globalized now, especially since the Internet and the constant technological advances that further shrink our world. Culturally, globalization can be viewed as something remarkable. We can, and we do communicate with people on a daily basis from all parts of the world in a second. Years ago, no one would have thought that this could be possible. It has broadened out cultural horizons, and made us ore accepting and interested in other cultures. This is clearly seen as each separate culture can almost not even be defined as a specific culture anymore because they take and modify aspects of others cultures and incorporate them into their own. We eat cuisines from all over the world, and other countries eat American food, as fast food chains are now global enterprises. Styles of dress are shared and activities as well, yoga for example, a sacred Indian practice for centuries, is now a very popular American exercise routine. There are downsides of course, as there are with everything. Unfortunately, along with globalization comes outsourcing and off-shoring of laborers, and exploitation of foreign impoverished workers. But now that we have seen the world on this extremely small scale, how could we ever go back.

Unknown said...

As a child, the waste management hierarchy of “reduce, reuse, recycle” was grilled into my brain. I can even remember the Nickelodeon cartoon recycle song, “R-E-C-Y-C-L-E recycle, C-O-N-S-E-R-V-E conserve. Don’t you P-O-L-L-U-T-E the river, sky or sea or else you’re gonna get what you deserve.” We all know how important it is to take care of our environment, and so do designers. Car designers are beginning to make more fuel efficient and solar powered vehicles. I peaked over at the next post on solar powered parking design, and it is great how designers are beginning to turn out world into a more efficient and beneficial one. The appeal may not be entirely aesthetic, but the concept is quite intriguing. Developments like this show us how important it really is to take our environment into account as our technologies advance.

Kara D said...

I think sustainability is really important. When I graduate in May, I want an entry level design position in Miami somewhere. My problem is that I don't particularly like the idea of working for an advertising agency that promotes wastefulness. Fast food and big automobiles usually have huge/expansive campaigns. I'll probably end up working on campaigns that I disagree with ethically. I think that advertising itself is an artform, and I like a lot of ads that are for products that I don't care for. It's a strange thought that I may end up working to promote the consumerist economy that I find to be oh so "icky" in the US.