When planning you have knowns, known unknowns, unknown knowns and unknown unknowns. The last one bites, and makes tasks take 7 times longer than they should. Then we did sketching of upright cylinders using ellipses. We also talked about color spaces (RGB vs CMYK and HSB) and Pantone Color of the Year. Then we started…

Today we looked over the schedule for the rest of the semester, had a little team time, and then went through Modern design movements with lightning speed: Art Deco, Organic Design, Streamlining, Post-War/Mid Century Modern, Pop, Radical Design, High Tech/Matt Black, and back to Post Modernism. Whew! Now everybody is ready to play the Aesthetics…

Yesterday’s post on constraints MUST HAVE sketches showing your current plans. ESPECIALLY to illustrate your aesthetic. Critical Design Presentations starting Monday. Same pods. Prototypes please! Must show aesthetic design. Does not need to function. Small scale is fine. The goal of this milestone is to force everybody to decide on what they are making and…

Today we finished listing the elements of Arts and Crafts, and moved on through the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau, ending with a whiplash curve sketching exercise. 17 Aesthetic movement and Art NouveauDownload

Groups of students analyzed images of Arts and Crafts styled products to determine what design elements form this aesthetic. When critiquing this week’s blog post about Main Project Inspirations, look for enough information to do this type of analysis on the proposed aesthetic. In other words, did the author describe what are the important style…

If you are having trouble deciding on your project, choose an aesthetic to start, then think of an artifact that defines that aesthetic. Choose a random one if you have to! Today we started talking about historic design movements, so that our postmodern references will be understood. Had trouble with a video link, so please…

Today we went over Upcycle Presentation logistics (look for a separate post on that), and then continued with sketching practice, specifically cubes, extending to a blocky chair. In contrast, we also started talking about Universal Principles of Design; specifically Contour Bias. Humans react to pointy things with fear and attention, while rounder objects are more…

Today we went over the explicit expectations for final documentation of the Upcycle project: presentations and next week’s blog post. Then we went over basic use of vanishing points in 1, 2 and 3 point perspective, starting with cubes, of course. 09 Upcycle specs, Perspective sketching

We talked a bit more about individual design processes, and looked at traditional industrial design sketches; how they vary through the design process. Ended with a bit of sketch practice, starting with straight lines, circles and ellipses. 07 Process and sketching lecture notesDownload

Hi. I’ll try to collect all of the end-of-semester details here, in rough chronological order.   Make a post for Monday 4/24 with your project name as the title. This will be a placeholder for your presentation video only, so your pod can comment on your presentation regardless of the state of your final blog…

Today we finished our discussion of contemporary designers by looking at Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive, and their shared design philosophy. Then we broke into groups to sift through a variety of design competitions, looking at the winners. 31 Design Awards

We are all done with sketching instruction. Now it’s up to you. Notice what you are seeing around you, and practice! Today we looked at the work of Zaha Hadid (‘Queen of Curves’), Horacio Pagani and Steve Jobs. In Jobs’ case we were able to talk about early influences and how they were expressed as…

Today we looked at how to represent metal in sketches; neutral, desaturated colors and fake reflections, suggesting a photography studio environment. We also looked at the work of a range of current designers: Martha Stewart – what is unique about her work? Organized clutter! Karim Rashid’s biomorphic shapes Ross Lovegrove: Captain Organic. Rejects biomorphism/blobism/consumerism, but…

Today we looked at how to represent glass in sketches; show something inside the glass, show its refractive effect, its shadow and glossy surface. Then we started discussing current designers; who comes to mind. Just a few from students: Martha Stewart Dyson Apple; Jonny Ive Elon Musk David Kelly IDEO/Stanford D-school Martha Stewart and Jonny…

Did some sketching; how to represent a glossy vs a matte surface. Watched a video about making the Eames lounge chair as an example of organic design that blends the production process with the ‘good host’ chair aesthetic. Contrasted the Eames lounge chair at $5000 with the Monobloc plastic chair at $12. 27 Chairs Eames…

Today we talked about schedule, final expectations and Expo registration. See the notes for full details, but here is the registration link. Deadline is 1 week, next Friday! April 14. We will probably all be grouped in the DLC, so we can have group music. Each student should provide one song for a playlist, no…

Today we talked about the Magic Factor of 7, needed for planning time management. Also covered a bit about sketching horizontal cylinders, and then finished the anthropomorphic aesthetics. Covered the geometric aesthetics except for Golden Ratio; that will be Friday. 24 Anthropomorphic and Geometric Aesthetics

Today we did sketching practice: ellipses, useful for showing horizontal circles in perspective. Homework: practice drawing ellipses, as many and as quickly as possible. Practice to correct your errors. Here is a link to some good exercises for drawing ellipses: http://mydrawingtutorials.com/a-drawing-exercise-every-beginner-artists-should-do/ We talked about color spaces, including HSB, RGB and Pantone. Went over a psych…

Today (3/10/17) Korkut Onaran (Principal, Pel-Ona Architects and Urbanists, Assistant Professor Adjunct, College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado, Denver and President, Colorado Chapter of the Congress for the New Urbanism) gave a wonderful talk on how he learned sketching, and the role of sketching in his architectural process. He brought us some new…

Here is the administrative info for today (Wednesday March 8, 2017): This Wednesday Blog: What are your top 5 constraints? Aesthetics should be one of them. Friday: Guest Lecture: Prof. Korkut Onaran (CU Denver, Urban Planning), pel-ona.com Next Monday: Prototypes are due! Must show aesthetic design. Does not need to function. Small scale is fine.…

A look ahead: This Wednesday Blog: What are your top 5 constraints? Aesthetics should be one of them. Friday: Guest Lecture Next Monday: Prototypes are due! Must show aesthetic design. Does not need to function. Small scale is fine. Same presentation rules and pods as last time, starting Monday. Report blog Weds March 15 Following…

Bit of admin: Please post your Upcycle presentations! A little advice on posting videos: Post your video on Youtube or Vimeo. Make the link to the video the first text in your post, and select post type to be video. Now your video will show up with a play button as a featured image. Also…

Today we discussed the moralism of the Arts and Crafts Movement, then looked at the Aesthetics (Art for Art’s Sake) Movement, and then Art Nouveau. Love those whiplash curves. 16 Art Nouveau

Most folks are closer to choosing their main project, so today was ideal to do a bit more ideation, to get over the hump into a better idea space, or be more sure of their current choice. We used methods from Thinkertoys; a linear method called False Faces, that challenged basic assumptions, and an intuitive…

Today Admin/schedule Team time History of design: 20th Century Timeline Sketching practice 13 20th Century Timeline

Taking stock: looking back at Upcycle, and ahead at Main Project Some sketching UPS on color Tonight: Between The Folds Wednesday Blog: Info for team building – what are your skill sets, and what are your personal aspirations (not inspirations)? What do you want to do when you graduate? What do you aspire to be?…

Today we went over the requirements for the Upcycle presentations and reports (those will be in a separate post real soon). We also did a little practice sketching basic shadows of boxes. 11 Supernormal Stimuli

Today we played the Aesthetics Game. Teams drew a random object and applied a randomly chosen aesthetic, and made sketches on the whiteboards around the room. Some awesome mashups resulted! Very popular: the Mob Culture electric razor, and the Sk8r Shoe Toilet. 09 Aesthetics Game A set of screwdriversSuburbia in TV commercials

Went over 0,1,2 and 3 point perspective, and then how to sketch a block. Based on Steur, Roselien, and Koos Eissen. Sketching: The Basics. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers, 2011. Then we listed to an excerpt from This American Life, #370, on how bad apple behavior (slacker, jerk, depressive) can ruin a group. 07 Sketching and teams

Today we talked about the design process, ideal vs real. Also looked at some design sketch examples, especially the ideation phase, where you make LOTS of quick little sketches. 06 Process and sketching

Design, art, engineering: all iterative processes. This will be the third offering of the Aesthetics of Design course. The class is full, the students are eager, and I’m stoked to do this again: learning and presenting new content, expanding and honing what I already have, greeting students from previous courses and meeting new ones. Looking…

We had two after-hours sketching workshops from Kara Priest, a local painter, portraitist and art educator. The first workshop focused on the human face, and on light and shadow, using pencils and shading tools. The second was on patterns, done with sharpies. We were given a number of skill- building exercises; repeating patterns to practice…