Aesthetic Explorations 2017 – Aesthetics of Design

Final Project Final Report 2017 Part 2: Lampu

May 10, 2017

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Main Project Final Report 2017 Part 2, Student Work, zy 2017

Reflecting upon my project, I am mostly pleased with what I did, considering the re-design and also the poor timing with senior design. I definitely wanted to make something I would proudly put in my room. As I had mentioned in my presentation to my pod, I have a strong tie to furniture/furnishings I put…

Aesthetic Exploration: Guitars

May 10, 2017

Errol Romero

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

I have chosen to explore the aesthetics behind different types of guitars around the world. There are many shapes and sizes out there and each has their own aesthetic appeal associated with each type. The first design is the steel string acoustic guitar. It’s a design that produces a more metallic sound due to its…

Aesthetics Exploration: Skis

February 6, 2017

Todd Holce

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

No Comments

Skis have been used to traverse the globe for thousands of years. Born out of necessity, skis helped farmers, trappers, and warriors travel long distances more effectively. The skis utilized then were thick and made of wood. A common problem in ski design occurs from the weight of the skier concentrating in the middle of…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Jersey Shore

January 31, 2017

Alexander Lien

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

aesthetic, exploration, jersey, shore

Jersey Shore, Oceanview Boardwalk The New Jersey coastline is 130 miles long. The coast line features beautiful lighthouses, boardwalks, and oceanic life; however, when one thinks of the Jersey shore, they don’t think about the 130 miles [1] where the state meets the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, the Jersey shore has a much more urban and…

Aesthetic Exploration: Minimalism

January 26, 2017

Branden Goldenberg

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

One of my personal favorite design aesthetics is minimalism. The minimalist movement begun in the 1950’s with artists such as Donald Judd and Tony Smith. Minimalist design can be identified by its simple nature. Only enough information is displayed for functionality or display of emotion, and nothing more. A classic example of minimalist art is on display currently…

Aesthetic Exploration: Apple

January 26, 2017

Katie Gresh

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Exploration: Aesthetics of Apple Sleek, sexy, contemporary design is the cornerstone of Apple. From Macs to iphones, Apple has defined contemporary aesthetics for its products, making it the most valuable company in the world (www.finance.yahoo.com, “Can Apple Hold Its Place as World’s Most Valuable Company Again in 2017?” January 3, 2017). Once a fledgling…

Aesthetic Exploration: Holi

January 25, 2017

Siddharth Nigam

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

colors, festival, holi

Holi: The Festival of Colors One of my favorite times of the year, Holi is an Indian festival that marks the beginning of Spring. You can probably tell why it’s called the festival of colors. On this day (usually in March, based on the Hindu calendar) the entire country of India is vibrant, energetic, and bathed…

Aesthetic Explorations: Muscle Cars

January 25, 2017

Levi Cortright

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The design of muscle cars is as bold as it is iconic. Ever since I was a little kid I have loved the look and aesthetic of these beasts of the road. There is so much to love about them! A muscle car, with its sharp edges and low profile, turn heads as often as they turn…

Aesthetics Exploration: Tiny Homes

January 25, 2017

Sofi Leroux

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Explorations, Aesthetics Exploration, industrial, wood

As someone who borders on the line of hoarder, I am mesmerized by the concept of tiny homes. Over the past decade, people have started to embrace the minimalistic lifestyle due to its low cost and environmental impact, as well as aesthetic appeal. Many tiny homes feature wood panelling and large windows giving them a seemingly open…

Aesthetic Exploration: Santiago Calatrava Architecture

January 25, 2017

Maxfield Scrimgeour

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

architecture, Calatrava

Santiago Calatrava is one of the worlds most revered modern architects. He has bold iconic and polarizing designs that span the globe and draw mixed opinions from all of those who encounter these designs. When looking at the designs themselves distinct features flow through the years of Calatrava architecture. White natural flowing shapes are something…

Aesthetic Explorations: Cell Phone Design

January 25, 2017

Jack Wheeler

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Cell phones have become a ubiquitous part of modern life. Most people in the United States own one and they have become a crucial part of communicating and networking, as well as an important work resource. The first operational mobile telephone was produced by Motorola in 1973, though they did not start to become widely…

Aesthetic Explorations | Contemporary Archeticture

January 25, 2017

Marcus Gurule

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Contemporary Architecture which is also known as architecture from the 21st century, is both expressive dramatic and are modern works of art. The three architects that I am going to focus on are Santiago Calatrava, Zaha Hadid, and Frank Gehry. Santiago is probably best known for his work on the newly redesigned World Trade Center…

Aesthetic Explorations: Baseball Gloves

January 25, 2017

Colton Behr

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The baseball glove is an item that has been around for hundreds of years. Gloves are a vital part of the game, and have been around almost as long as baseball itself. They have evolved, grown, and changed to fit different demands of the modern sport. The aesthetic of gloves has always been centered around…

Aesthetic Exploration: Mosaics

January 25, 2017

Jimmy Speedy

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Exploration: Mosaics A mosaic is one big piece of art that is made up of a bunch of small pieces. Mosaics are used in both decorative art and interior design, and are often seen in churches and many museum’s in Europe. 1. Mosaics were first found in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC,…

Aesthetic Exploration: Robots!

January 25, 2017

Ethan Rejto

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

No Comments

Recently I watched the film Robots. While it is not a great film watching it at this point in my life I started to notice things that I never noticed when I was a kid, aesthetics. The movie was made by Fox in 2005 and while its boasts some big name actors; Amanda Bynes, Robbin…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Evolution of the Formula One Car

January 25, 2017

Dean Alibrandi

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Formula One racing has been around since the early 1950’s and the evolution of the sport, due to the rules and regulations that the drivers and builders must adhere to, has caused the race cars design and performance to change from year to year while keeping one thing constant. That is, speed. These cars…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Legend of Zelda

January 25, 2017

Kyle Aulwurm

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The Legend of Zelda is a staple series when it comes to gaming. One of the most fascinating aspects of the games is that there is no real order to the games besides a rough timeline with no games taking place in the same time period of the Zelda universe (for the most part). The…

Aesthetics Exploration: Greek Sculptures

January 25, 2017

Katherine Yarnell

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The is an aesthetic that comes from ancient Greece, this being Greek sculptures. The sculptures were focused around proportion, poise, and the idealized perfection of the human body. And even today, one can identify them from these distinct characteristics. This is an aesthetic for a certain era as well as a culture. Greek sculptures escaped…

Aesthetic Exploration: 4th Dimensional Objects

January 25, 2017

Kevin Oh

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

To create something in the 4th dimension is currently impossible. To even visualize it is incredibly difficult. But there is something very appealing to watching a 4 dimensional object rotate in 3 dimensions on our 2D screens. There are artists such as Salvador Dalí who incorporated the concept 4D objects into their art. 4D objects are not…

Aesthetic Exploration: Clean and Minimal

January 25, 2017

Sara Palandeng

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

I recently took an ATLAS course where we were tasked to write a Design Manifesto as our final paper. At first, I thought it would be easy to pin down my aesthetic; however, it proved to be more difficult than that. So, I began with a man named Dieter Rams. Dieter Rams is famous for his…

Asthetic Exploration: Traditional House Design

January 25, 2017

Ryan Forsyth

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

I was born in Annapolis, MD, and have lived there my whole life. My move to the University of Colorado was my first time moving to a different part of the country, and there were some differences that I almost instantly noticed. One of the main differences in they way people live her is in fact…

Aesthetic Explorations: Pop-Cult Minimalism of Olly Moss

January 25, 2017

Luke Woolley

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

minimalism, olly moss, pop art

The sub-genre of pop-cult minimalism can be most easily traced to the emergence of Pop Art in the 1950s in England and America. Notable figures such as Andy Warhol and Eduardo Paolozzi pioneered pop art by taking culturally relevant imagery—often of a commercial nature such as advertisements or product designs—and putting a critical spin on…

Aesthetic Exploration: Impossible Triangle

January 25, 2017

Avery Anderson

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The impossible triangle, or Penrose Triangle is a shape that cannot be made by any 3 dimensional object in ordinary Euclidean Space. This style of artwork was first started by Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvard in 1934 and was later discovered independently by a psychiatrist Lionel Penrose and mathematician son in the 1950’s who famously described it as “Impossibility…

Aesthetics Exploration – Thai Tattoo Culture

January 25, 2017

Jeremy Parsons

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The tattoo culture and unique aesthetic have a deep-rooted, religious history in Thailand. The practice of spiritual tattooing, as practiced by monks in Thailand, is a tradition that goes back to ancient times. Thailand is actually the only country to celebrate tattooing as an annual religious celebration. Each year, thousands of tattoo enthusiasts arrive…

Aesthetics Exploration: Geometry as an Aesthetic

January 25, 2017

Emma Hammerton

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Explorations, Aesthetic of Design, Geometry

Patterns with distinct edges and shapes have been implemented by humans for centuries to use geometry as a form of expression. Studies of Palaeolithic cave art have revealed that even the earliest humans were fascinated by geometric patterns. Some of the earliest documented artistic examples came from the Geometric Art Period (circa 900-700 B.C.) in Ancient Greece.…

Aesthetic Explorations: Theo Jansen and His Strandbeest

January 25, 2017

Blake Arellano

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetics Exploration, engineering, kinetic art, machine, Outsider art, Sand, Strandbeest, surreal, surrealism, Theo Jansen, Upcycle, walking machine

Theo Jansen, a dropout physicist become artist, has created his very own aesthetic. In 1980, Jansen began with 1500 combinations of 11 linkage sizes. Using a new technology at the time, a computer was utilized to dwindle the different configurations down to just one golden combination, the “eleven holy numbers”. These numbers allowed for the…

Aesthetic Explorations: Vaporwave

January 25, 2017

Cyron Completo

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

I took a look at vaporwave, a musical and visual retro/90’s aesthetic that is both a reflection and criticism of consumerism. The word vaporwave stems from the word vaporware: computer software that is announced but never released. Vaporwave started as an Internet-only style arising from artists like Ariel Pink and James Ferraro. Both Macintosh Plus and Blank…

Aesthetic Exploration: Rock Climbing

January 25, 2017

Hunter Miller

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Climbing has been around for hundreds of years. Maybe it wasn’t always done for entertainment and pleasure but more for necessity. Climbing rocks were first recorded in Chinese paintings around 200 BC. It became necessary for exploration through tall mountains starting in the 19th century and because a leisure sport starting in the fifties in…

Aesthetic Exploration: Aesthetics of Time

January 25, 2017

Gautham Govindarajan

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Explorations, Clocks, history, Time, Watches

“Time and tide wait for no man” says the famous proverb. While humans have managed to find a way to tame the tides and make electricity out of it, we are still chasing behind time. Humanity has tried to manipulate time for a long time and has failed time and again. The concept of time…

Aesthetic Explorations: Fumito Ueda’s Video Games

January 25, 2017

Jon Nelson

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetics Exploration, Fumito Ueda, Ico, Shadow of the colossus, The Last Guardian, Video Games

As a video game lover, one game creator whose games I cherish is Fumito Ueda. Ueda is the Director, Lead Designer, and Lead Animator of a game studio called Team Ico which has developed games over the last 20 years. Fumito Ueda Ueda’s games revolve around a relationship between the player and a computer controlled…

Aesthetic Explorations: Retro-futurism

January 24, 2017

Ridhvik Gopal

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

concept car, furniture, future, futurism, retro-futurism, retrofuturism, tintin, TV

Although many of these visions seem almost comical now, the spirit in which they were created crystallizes the essence of how the future was described prior to the 1980s. There was a time in the past when the future was thought as a beautiful place of cooperation, peace, beauty and of course, convenience. But the…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Egyptian pyramids

January 24, 2017

Faisal Al Balushi

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

As I am very interested in architecture, I thought a post about the Egyptian pyramids would be relevant as an ancient aesthetic. There are actually eight pyramids that are known in Egypt but three of them are the famous ones: Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure. The reason why I chose this amazing architectural structures is because…

Aesthetic Exploration: Scandinavian Furniture

January 24, 2017

Levi Caffes

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Scandinavian furniture is characterized by sleek, well-made, and minimalist design. The harsh weather conditions and large forestlands have influenced the designers to produce long lasting products that use wood as the main construction medium. The socialist political climate in Sweden has shaped a common design philosophy that everyone has the right to well designed objects…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Piano

January 24, 2017

Ryan Daniel

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

For almost 300 years the piano has been an iconic musical instrument that is recognized by all. Today three types of pianos are commonly known: the grand, baby grand, and upright piano. When told to picture a piano, many can think of the unique harp shape that almost all grand and baby grand pianos have.…

Aesthetic Exploration: Molecular Gastronomy

January 24, 2017

Jason Savath

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Cooking, Food, Gastronomy, Molecular

No Comments

Molecular gastronomy is the study and science of the physical and chemical processes that occur during cooking. It is a modern style of cooking first used publicly by Nicholas Kurti and Herve This recently in 1988. Molecular gastronomy uses modern scientific techniques to obtain a world class style and aesthetics of cooking. It was also the…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Golden Ratio

January 24, 2017

Shohei Hara

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The golden ratio is a ratio of 1 to 1.618 that seems to be abundantly demonstrated in nature. This is mathematically represented by the Fibonacci series, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 – each number being the sum of the two previous numbers. The ratio of one number to the next number approaches the…

Aesthetic Explorations: Ski Photography and Filming

January 24, 2017

Sam Van Dreser

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Photographing something that is extremely bright is hard. Adding in a moving object makes it even more challenging. Ski photography has come a long way since its start, around the time of the camera. It can be inferred that ski photography didn’t really come about until the camera had become more portable. It was around 1931…

Aesthetic Explorations: Starr Kempf’s Kinetic Wind Sculptures

January 24, 2017

Morgan Ulrich

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

In my hometown neighborhood sits a house with a peculiar front yard. Enormous metal sculptures clutter the lawn: some swaying in the breeze like a wind vanes, while some lay on their sides too gargantuan to stand up. A man named Starr Kempf designed and created the steel kinetic wind sculptures, displaying them across the…

Aesthetic Exploration: Touch of Color

January 24, 2017

Tyler Lefholz

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Beauty, Contrast, Hope, Joy, Saturation, Sex, Shock, Touch of Color, Violence

The aesthetic called a “touch of color” or “dash of color” has been used in still art, photography, and film for years. The aesthetic uses backdrops or settings that are substantially desaturated or even gray-scale with a single saturated element. It forces an instant response from audience to focus on the saturated element and uses the…

Aesthetic Explorations: Baroque Composers

January 24, 2017

Oksana Schuppan

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetic Explorations, Baroque Era, Music, Musical Composition

The aesthetic I have chosen to explore is that of Baroque musical composition, a period of European musicianship lasting from 1600 to 1750. Well known within this period are composers such as Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Tomaso Albinoni (1671-1751), Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767), Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), and George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) among…

Aesthetic Explorations: Lava Lamps

January 24, 2017

Matthew Clark

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Lava lamps have been glowing in people’s homes ever since they were invented in 1960’s in the United Kingdom. The inventor, Edward Craven Walker, took particular interest in the way two contrasting liquids behaved together inside a container and strived to learn their properties. Several years later, he released the first lava lamp known as…

Aesthetic Explorations: Juggling by Preston Marcoux

January 24, 2017

Preston Marcoux

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

*** Note most of the videos below are long, I would advise scrolling through them briefly to get a general sense of the juggling patterns displayed in the videos ** While in class, I was amazed by the extreme differences in aesthetics of the popularized dance seen around the world, compared to the far less popular swing…

Aesthetic Exploration: The Wild West in “Westworld”

January 24, 2017

Alexander Thompson

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

architecture, Arizona, Utah, West, Western

No Comments

The “Wild West” includes the time period ranging from pre-Revolutionary America to the early 1900’s, but is most commonly coined between the Civil War (1865) and about 1912. In movies and shows, the setting is the American Frontier, or Southwestern United States. Today, this would be Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Utah, and Nevada. The…

Aesthetic Exploration- Art Deco Revival

January 24, 2017

Olivia Watkins

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

aesthetic exploration

No Comments

Art Deco was an art movement that started in France during the 1920s. It influenced everything from jewelry to architecture. Art deco focused on repeating geometries, non-dimensional illustrations and liked incorporating things that had to do with the influx of modern era technology. Art Deco was a backlash against the WWI mindset of rationing and…

Explore an Aesthetic: Psychedelic / Technologically Advanced EDM Stages

January 24, 2017

Scott Lowenstein

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Electronic dance music stages have significantly evolved in design over the last several years from simple lighting setups, akin to what one would see in a standard theater production, to highly technologically advanced productions involving many moving lights and other elements on the stage. The effect is that the light shows displayed from psychedelically designed stages create a deeply…

Aesthetic Exploration- Psychedelic Poster Art & the Counter Culture

January 23, 2017

Alexandra Rivas

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The 1960’s were a time of change and drastic social movements in the United States. The 60’s led to a sort of rebirth of America, one with more freedom in many aspects. This desire for cultural change led to new developments and techniques in music and art, among many other things. These movements were pro-peace and…

Aesthetics Explorations: Camera

January 23, 2017

Connor Swanson

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

No Comments

While brainstorming for an interesting aesthetic exploration topic, I began to realize that the very thing we use to capture the aesthetics in our everyday lives is an aesthetic in itself. While most people will immediately picture the black, square DSLR cameras owned by almost every household, cameras have progressed greatly over the years. The earliest…

Aesthetics Explorations: The Hofmeister Kink

January 23, 2017

Jian Kan

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Aesthetics Explorations, cars

The Hofmeister Kink A Simple Twist https://charlesng.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/bmw-hofmeister-kink1.jpg The Hofmeister Kink is a design feature named after BMW’s chief designer Wilhelm Hofmeister during 1955 and 1970, where there is a “kink” on a car’s C-pillar or D-pillar. Wilhelm Hofmeister http://www.bmwism.com/designers/wilhelm_hofmeister.jpg The Hofmeister Kink has been on almost all BMW cars since 1960, with very few exceptions of some…

Aesthetics Exploration: Park Guell, Barcelona, Spain

January 23, 2017

Emily Pearson

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

Park Guell lies on the northern face of Carmel Hill in Barcelona Spain and overlooks the city as well as the Mediterranean Sea. (On top of Carmel Hill in Park Guell – Photo Taken by me) (Inside the colored-tiles in Park Guell overlooking the city – Photo by Traveldigg c) The development of this park was…

Aesthetic Exploration: Camouflage

January 23, 2017

Kira Sadighi

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

bodyart, camouflage, history, realism, war

The history of camouflage art is based in survival, but it has since evolved to mean many things. Up until around WWI many armies and navies were dressed in the bright uniforms of their profession. This included items such as red jackets and white gloves [1]. Fighting in this period of history was undergoing a…

Aesthetic Explorations: The Utility of Maps

January 22, 2017

Benjamin Fried

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

I am a strong believer that everything I own must have a purpose. This purpose could be physical or abstract, but should have enough of an impact for me to NOT throw it away each time I move. If it does not have a function, do I need it? If a stranger were to walk…

Aesthetic Explorations: The Golden Gate Bridge

January 22, 2017

Tori Herfert

Aesthetic Explorations 2017, Student Work, zy 2017

The Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a famous aesthetic that sits in the San Francisco Bay, connecting the city of San Francisco to Marin County. This aesthetic is actually characterized as one of the Wonders of the Modern World. A birds eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge It was finished…

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