Sustainable Innovation

             Nathan Shedroff’s Sustainable Innovation lecture discussed the shift in American values away from a sustainable society. Design, sustainability, and business must equally be understood in order for either of them to be successful. For the business world it has been a challenge for designers to effectively get the message across to the businessmen in a way that would seem more relative to their nature of work. The business world is looking to design more services rather than objects to work towards this ideal sustainable society. The iPhone for example is extremely popular to say the least, but this popularity isn’t because of the physical phone itself, but because of the services it provides. It has taken place of several objects including watches, alarm clocks, GPS systems, and much more. The fact that an individual can purchase this one object to take place of multiple ones, directs us towards a less consumerist society, which in turn is favored from a sustainability standpoint. It is unfortunate to know that America was more sustainable in the 1960’s than it is now. Back then society reused objects and recycled more. The good news knowing that our values have obviously shifted is that they can shift back leading us to a better place in terms of financial, social, and ecological sustainability. Shedroff’s lecture was effective because he used familiar examples and simplified language in which we could all understand without having to think so hard.

The Bauhaus

  
             The Bauhaus “House of Building” was a German school which combined crafts and fine arts and was largely known for its publicized approach to design.  Founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, the idea of it was to create a “total” work of art in which all arts would be brought together.  The style of Bauhaus had a great influence on modern design and developments in art, architecture, and much more.  Gropius wanted to create a new group of artists who weren’t concerned with class distinctions thus having no barriers between the artists.  Architecture became a large focus at the Bauhaus in which it was to be new, functional, and cheap.  Eventually the school changed its name to Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering as it seemed to revolve more around the architectural department as opposed to the various arts once before.  Art and architectural trends have been impacted by the Bauhaus across Western Europe, America, and other various places.  In fact, some American art schools such as Harvard School of Design and Florida State University base their philosophies on Bauhaus theory and practice.  It is astounding that a school built and developed so long ago still has its presence in the world of art today.

Objectified by Hustwit

             Objectified by Hustwit argues that designers, whether simple or complicated put a lot of time and effort into their designs.  One designer stated that a lot goes into even the simplest designs, such as an apple peeler.  Before the newly designed apple peeler was one not useful for those with arthritis.  To come up with a new prototype they tried many different ways until they made use of a bike handle.  Throughout the video many statements are made about design and designers.  The content can be largely explained by words, yet the form takes place through visual examples.  Instead of just telling us, “form doesn’t follow function,” he shows us how an Apple Iphone is very functional but looks rather simple.  His video also shows the relationship between form and content with certain objects.  A chair and a spoon can be easily understood as far as their use, as opposed to a computer.  Some forms do follow their function, or content, and others do not.  Design is the search for form, according to one designer, and that form must be something new.  In order to come up with the new, designers must look into the future, not the past.  One designer from Paris claimed that people want new things.  Mobile phones have been around for a while and in the past three years we’ve been through about five of them.  This is right on target and shows that designers are constantly being challenged to put old things and their content into a new and exciting form.

Fly Air France...if you're into fashion

             Upon traveling home this past weekend to Southern California I happened to analyze the Southwest Airlines stewardess uniform. They were rather distasteful and non- flattering to the female body. While searching for information on the internet regarding flight crew uniforms I came upon an article, “Dressed for Success: the right uniforms can sell an airline’s brand.” The article speaks of the chairman and CEO of Air France making a decision to renew their uniforms. In the past Air France has had their uniforms designed by Dior and Balenciaga. This time they chose Christian LaCroix to come up with their new look. I would never imagine that an airline company would ever invest such a large amount of money to have a famous designer create their new uniforms. Personally I would not choose an airline based on how stylish their flight attendants looked, rather, which airline is the cheapest. However Air France believes that fashionable clothing is vital to its overall branding and marketing and with such a famous designer they would get more PR leverage. Air France is not alone. Delta Air Lines, British Airways, Air Canada, and Korean Air are also resorting to this form of branding through fashion.

Design on the Runway

             Runway and runway shows are a vital component in a designer’s career.  Designer’s put in much time and effort to earn those good reviews, resulting in large sales.  If you’ve ever seen a runway show, whether it is in real life or on television, have you ever said, “Gosh I have to get that outfit ASAP!”  Never!  Every time I’ve seen a runway show all that runs through my head is, what are they wearing and why?  The outfits on the models are outrageous to say the least.  One would find it odd that such a look would want people to buy from that designer who put those clothes as they did on the models.  The image above is from a Japanese runway show.  Japan has a culture in its own so it does vary largely from here in the U.S., however the same idea can be seen here.  The models look like clowns.  No one would ever be seen walking down the street in such an outfit.  However, the purposes of runway shows are to be over the top and outrageous.  If the viewers see certain clothing in a store without seeing the runway show, they will most likely think that it’s too much and will refuse to live on the edge and be creative with their style.  Those who see runway shows prior to seeing similar “looks” in the stores will be more open to the idea of wearing it simply because they have already seen the look in a crazy way and will feel comfortable in their version of it because compared to the runway look it is very tamed.

High Priced Repetition

             Several high- priced brands use repetition in the majority of their designs, more specifically in handbags.  Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Coach, Dooney & Bourke are a few brands who use repetition as their main design.  Repetition is a valuable and widely used device for achieving visual unity (Lauer, Chapter 2).  Takashi Murakami, a designer who can be compared to Claes Oldenberg, on the basis of selling low art to cultures of higher standards.   Murakami’s work is used for Louis Vuitton handbags makes use of repetition.  In Killer Pink, 2002, Murakami uses many animated looking flowers with happy faces on them as his design.  Granted they are all bright and different colors, this repetition provides a counterpoint to the various colors.  Louis Vuitton has several different yet similar bags with different repetitive looks.  Some consist of these animated flowers, others consist of red cherries.  The majority of their bags are simply designed with their logo LV all over the place.  Perhaps their goal isn’t to achieve a look of unity for their bags, but more so that their customers want everyone to know that they can afford a Louis Vuitton so they may as well make it obvious that it is a Louis Vuitton.  Why not buy a Louis Vuitton handbag that isn’t so obvious?  

Images from http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/images/murakami.jpg, 

Black Bears Ride Bicycles?

             Driving though Davis today I passed by Black Bear Diner and noticed that their signs and decorations on the outside of the restaurant consisted of a black bear riding a bicycle, as you can see in the above image.  I thought to myself how clever it was to make this restaurant unique to Davis being that there are several of these same restaurants elsewhere.  I did some research and found that the bear riding a bicycle is not used for marketing at the other Black Bear Diner restaurants, only in Davis.  Clearly Davis is known for being a bike town and it would make sense for any business to incorporate community relevance and interest in their marketing design to potentially attract more customers.  When designing logos or any sort of branding images, it is important to think of who the buyer is.  Several factors go in to the marketing process when developing the image of a restaurant in a new location.  Recognizing a unique characteristic of the location and acting upon that takes the image to the next level.  Who knows if the bear riding a bicycle will actually attract more customers in there, but whoever was in charge of the design of Black Bear Diner in Davis did not forget the residents who live there and what they spend much time doing. 

Photo from http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/PXz1zMm-RjTY_aYGF-14Dw?select=i-OuZ_QSS6nONxOI-jtJUQ