Digital Penguin

Immediately when I heard the phrase digital penguins, I thought of the movie Surfs Up. This was basically a movie where a bunch of penguins competed in a surfing competition. Now, I expected to relate this to CG characters in some way, but I quickly found that digital penguin could mean the publishing company Penguin. http://garysmailes.typepad.com/gary_smailes/2008/04/digital-penguin.html was a blog post that was titled, “Digital Penguins and History E-books”. This post begins by simply stating that Penguin is going to start selling e-books (as of April 2008) and pricing them the same as old print books. Books have a wide range of prices, but one has to assume that the digital form of a book would be a much cheaper production. Cnet published an article, http://news.cnet.com/8301-13556_3-10250017-61.html, that says why ebooks aren’t cheaper. They say that many of the costs producing a physical copy are still there in a digital format. Most ebooks happen to be $9.99 and Cnet concluded that this is probably near the ground floor. Ebooks at the very least could be easier to produce but the price isn’t really all that ridiculous. Maybe I’ll buy an ebook now. ..

Digital Candy

Digital candy is a very strange concept, but as I was looking around on Google I found a company that offers digital candy digital scrapbooking. http://www.heritagemakers.com/ is the website. I really don’t know much about scrapbooking, but I find it interesting that they are marketing themselves as “digital candy”. Wikipedia describes scrapbooking as, “Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and family history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks. The idea of keeping printed materials of personal interest probably dates to shortly after the invention of printing. This trend is probably similar for photographs”. I found this interesting because scrapbooking seems like a very monotonous and time consuming activity and I would never relate this to images of candy and enjoyment. Anyway, the website offers plenty of templates with various designs to complete your personal scrapbook. It seems to be a pay website where you work digitally on a scrapbook and can share and work on your own scrapbooks. This clearly makes it easier for you to design and share, which is something that I remember from family visits. It seems like every time I would visit my grandmother that she would have something new in a photo album to show everyone. The digital environment makes sharing and possibly even designing much easier. I always thought of scrapbooking as a very analog experience but apparently this is no longer the only option.

Nintendo Entertainment System

I thought, that with all of the new "high-tech" systems that are available today, that it would be nice to take a look into the past. The design of the current consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii) are made to look sleek and futuristic. When looking back on old consoles it's very easy to think that they were never thought to look that way. However, the NES stood apart from it's competitors in its design and its dominace over the market for almost a decade. Anyway, getting to the design aspects, this just looks like a tri-color rectangle. I don't think that this is necessarily bad. It's very simple and allows people of all ages to be able to recognize that all is needed is to insert the cartridge and press the power button. Compared to other consoles of the time (Atari 5200, Sega Master System, etc) this was a fairly good looking machine. Those systems were much bigger and ,in my opinion, harder to operate. As with my previous post, this design denotes simplicity. The controllers only have an "A" and "B" button for gameplay which implies, although incorrectly in many cases, that the games are simple. The D-pad was standard, as the joystick was going out of fashion and start and select are fairly standard components on any console. I think this is why Nintendo was able to garner such a wide age-range in their fan base. The simplicity is inviting to someone of any age. My two year old nephew has even fiddled around with this controller with varying degrees of success. Now, controllers and systems aren't nearly as inviting, with possible exception to the Wii. You really have to have played generations of consoles to thoroughly understand how to work a current system. This is unfortuante and could be corrected easily if we took a look into our gaming past and try to ressurect some of the good ideas present at that time.

Iphone design

About a year ago, I bought the coveted Iphone. I think the main reason that I bought it was because of the unique and simplistic design. However, I only knew that I liked it and I thought it looked cool. I want to know why I thought it looked cool.
First off, I immediately notice how thin the device is. This is for practical reasons, fitting in the pocket, but it also helps quite a bit stylistically. It's very easy for anyone to wrap their hands around and simply feels good to hold. The casing is also very attractive. It curves at the back of the device slightly that, when sitting, almost seems to be floating. This speaks to the overall slim factor in the design. I think that the people at Apple wanted to make it almost seem weightless. The button layout on the phone is ingenious in my opinion. with only a few dedicated buttons on the device, it makes it really simple and quick to turn up and down the volume, go back to the home screen, or put the device on hold. There really can't be any confusion with what the buttons do after 15-30 minutes of using the device. The solid black or white finish also speaks to its simplicity and ease of use. These two colors go with about anything so it never feels like it's out of place. Finally, the touch screen and screen in general are the most important part of this device. The phone seems to be dedicated to the screen, giving up all the room it can to it. Of course, functionality wise, this is very important for navigation but it also seems very progressive. This phone sets itself apart from older devices by having such a large screen. Everyone remembers the old Nokia phones that had a tiny screen. I think that this, even now, makes the phone feel futuristic. I don't think that this core design will change anytime soon, as it is so successful. There really doesn't seem to be much that warrants change either.

Computer Design

Everybody knows what a computer looks like. As a college student, I have to use on nearly every day. Wouldn't it be nice if everybody had something a little more attractive than just a big rectangle?

This is the first interesting design that I found. This is from Dell and the purpose of the product is to save space and obviously look cool. It's called the Dell Studio Hybrid, and although a review from CNET says that it isn't really that practical and a laptop would be a better choice, I still think that this is a very cool and unique design. It reminds me like the evolution of the Mac mini. I also like the idea that you can fit a whole computer into a package that small. If I would have designed it, I would have tried to figure out something else to do with the disk drive. I think that it stands out a little too much, but I don't know what the other options would be. The color scheme is decent enough and has a professional feel and the lit up Dell logo compliments the system well.

This is a computer done in a steampunk style. This really seems to have a classic feel and looks like it could have existed years and years ago. The keyboard is my favorite part. Apparently it was designed by using old typewriter keys placed onto a keyboard. It's not necessarily very practical and it doesn't change the function of the machine, but it's a really nice conversation piece at least. I think that it is so striking because you could imagine this current piece of technology in Victorian times. The color scheme is fairly simple but looks classic. The flower design on the monitor also reminds me of old sculptures or pottery. If I were design this, assuming I could, there isn't anything that I would change with this.

Bus stop design

Okay, so this really caught my interest. Apparently, this is a bus stop in Ventura, California. Everybody knows what a bus stop normally looks like, and this definitely doesn't look like a bus stop. It really reminds me of a surreal painting of a building or even the landscape after an earthquake, which California has many of. I haven't read much on the design or designer so I will just speculate and try to figure out why these choices were made. The front most design explicitly resembles some sort of buulding and seems to be coming out of the ground. I think that this choice could have been made to play with the feeling that people get, well at least I get, when waiting on a bus that seems to be taking forever. It almost feels like you are living there. However, once you get on the bus you no longer are "living" there which distorts the view of the stop as a home or place to stay which could be reasoning for the strange arching shape. The middle arch seems much more traditional compared to the house but is still out of place for a bus stop. It could be there simply to protect people from rainfall but it has three distinct arches in the metal work which remind me of a very Roman design. Red, at least in my mind, can be associated with Rome. Of course I am again speculating, but this choice could have been made because of the communal experiences that rome shared such as bath houses and buses are extremely communal. The final 1/3 of an arch in the background looks simply like windows. I think that these were placed in the back to represent looking into the past. When you are at a bus stop it seems like time is almost standing still and you have time to reflect on the past. Finally, these things all seem to be connected in a spiral shape which I believe is just to show that all of this can be experienced at an average busstop. I don't know if I'm even close to being right, but this is still a very interesting design.

Vodka Design

To start this out, I'm not condoning drinking but I found some really interesting designs of Vodka bottles of all things. Vodka can range from cheap to expensive so I'm pretty sure that all of these bottle designs are from high end products. Well, let's get on with the booze.


First up is something called Blaze Vodka. I couldn't find out much about the company or the vodka, but I'm sure that it's the best vodka ever according to them. Anyway, this is obviously a very unique design. Much like the other vodkas on this entry, these are meant for high class sophisticated drinkers. The design on the far left reminds me most of an hour glass. I think that this could be to instill the sense of a timeless product. It's going for a classic vibe probably. After looking at the middle design, I was instantly reminded of a vase. I think that this could be high class simply because vases can be very expensive and intricate. As for the design on the far right, I think that the hole through the bottle denotes a since of uniqueness and craftsmanship. This works very well to show off a rich image.


Up next is Crystal Head Vodka. It relates to the legend of the crystal skulls that have supposedly been found throughout the world. I think it's also trying to be a little "bad ass" with it's design because a skull seams very manly to me. Also this looks, and is for that matter, expensive because of the intricate design. This is one of those bottles that it really doesn't matter what's on the inside. I think that this could sell with nothing in it.

This is a vodka out of Slovakia called Double Cross. It's a very interesting and simplistic design that really brings out the products "elegance". It reminds me most of a Zippo. Zippo's don't necessarily denote elegance but they are expensive and classic in design. The logo also uses simplicity.

This vodka is clearly more explicit in trying to persuade the buyer that this is expensive and ellegant. I think that this is the worst designed bottle of the ones I have shown because it is so obvious. The other designs, except for the skull maybe, used simplicity in there design which really reminded me of something expensive. This design seems very tacky and outdated.
Well, to sum it up, my favorite design was the Double Cross. I thought that it's simplicity beat out all of the more busy designs. I was very surprised that vodka companies tried so hard to design interesting bottles, seemingly just another way to say that, "hey, I'm expensive."

"Fun" Designs - 10/1/09

So, to preface this, I simply looked up fun designs on a Google image search. This is how I think I'm starting to get my best results. Anyway, let's get this going.
This first image is one of two sticker designs that are described as "fun". They use bright and vivid colors and are extremely positive. I'm sure that these are used to encourage good grades on tests, but how in the world is a star happy? Who even came up with the gold star system? Well the last one I can't answer, but I feel like attempting to answer the first even though I can't find any reason from Google as to why these mark achievement. Anyway, I suppose gold stars have been used in the military for a long time. Maybe it's because they are so "high" up that they mark a high achievement. It's strange that we also use the phrase movie stars. Maybe because stars are seemingly unreachable, so they are used for high achievement. Well, that satisfies me for now, maybe I will go back into this later. Back to the design, these seem to be aimed towards children. It seems like they both have a bright and simple background with a blocky type to keep it simple. Next.Here are some designs on watches aimed at teenagers, once again deemed to be fun. I'm beginning to notice that to be fun, you have to have bright and vivid colors. It seems that stripes are also very prevelant in "fun" designs. For me, these designs make me feel a little torn. On one hand, I can see the fun in bright colors mixed with other bright colors, but it's so vibrant that it's distracting. Perhaps a reason that these are deemed as fun is because they are noticed and thus can be a conversation starter with other kids. The contrast between the colors is drastic which might say that you don't take yourself to seriously and that you like to have fun. I still don't feel like I have a very good grasp on how a design is deemed fun, so let's try one more image.


Finally, this is simply a "fun" pattern that was added to a bedspread. It's of brightly colored flowers and a sun. I think I finally am starting to understand this. Fun is a very innocent idea and throughout looking through my search results I noticed countless of innocent designs. These are very simplistic, bright, and happy, at least I think, to catch a child's interest. These designs also work for adults because they grew up with designs like this so it reminds them of more innocent times and probably brings back some happy memories. Anyway, I think I gained a little understanding on why "fun" is associated with bright and cartoony designs.

Interesting Chairs - 10/1/09

Chair and furniture design are huge industries. For something so simple as a chair, there are so many varying designs. Some seem purely designed for artistic reasons while some seam designed with only comfort in mind. Here is something that caught my eye. This is called the glide chair. According to the website where I found the picture, this lacquered aluminum and fiberglass chair molds to your body. I find this to be a very striking and fairly practical design, even with being so minimalistic. Immediately when I looked at this it invoked a feeling of nature and peace. The first thing that came to mind was the shape of a bird. If you look at it the way I do, the top of the chair curves just like a birds body and the legs are clearly on the bottom. This chair is also supposedly very relaxing so it would seem to make sense that they would look at nature, which many view as peaceful and serene, for a design.


As I was speaking about earlier, I some chairs cater to more artistic tastes than practicality and I think that this one is leaning towards the artsy side. Although it could be an extremely comfortable chair, it doesn't evoke a very comfortable feeling to me. It also doesn't seem to have a very relaxing design. With all of the curves and the dominant red color it feels very wild. The first thing that this chair reminded me was of Gene Simmon's tongue. That might sound weird, but doesn't this remind you of Kiss? At least for me, my initial reaction was wild and unpractical. To be fair, I'm fairly sure that this chair is only a concept, but it still deserves to be judged and time and effort went into the design.

This chair is definitely more explicit in it's design, but it struck me as so interesting that I just had to add it. This reminds me most, as I'm sure it does you, of a tank tread. This chair denotes a since of struggle and battle which is what it looks like it would feel like to sit in it. Although it isn't very practical, I think that it could look good in a game room or just out on display.

Finally, I chose this chair simply because it really caught my eye. For me, this is the perfect blend of art and practicality. When I first looked at it, I really couldn't relate it to anything, but after further thought it started to remind me of a snake. This may seem like a stretch but if you start at the end of the seat and work back words, a snake like image seems to become apparent, at least for me. I don't think that this is necessarily a bad thing either. Although snakes are scary for a lot of people, they are also extremely flexible and maneuverable with ease. For whatever reason, that seems to scream comfortable. Anyway, that's all for chair designs and I'm surprised that they could be this interesting.