Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Design is

People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing. — PAOLA ANTONELLI
Yes i cannot stand people who talks about design as styling, especially when they are supposed (self proclaimed) to be a design thinker.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

MV-22 Osprey



Just as i was saying on the previous post, it probably will become a hybrid of plane and helicopter because of the wing span needed for clearing both rotor blades, i found MV-22 Osprey. The motor tilt in the axis perpendicular to the body rather than parallel to it, allowing it to gain speed while losing it's hovering ability. For the size and use of this, agility is not it's main concern so it's justified. However for an aggressor they may want to look at sideway tilts or better still a ball joint?


Yeah it's easier said than done. They took more than 20 years to make this happen. They probably started with an ideal vision of a free rotating rotor blade, but after a many setbacks and disasters, reached a compromise of functions and abilities. Anyway it looks really cool.

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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Sky Armor



What caught my eyes is the unique way the propellers are placed and positioned. By aligning them at an angle, it allows the toy to change directions without the need to tilt like normal helicopters do. This could be a very good function for real life helicopters.


However before you get too excited and go design another concept helicopter, this is not a realistic way of doing things because it results in the blade ending lower than normal. As a result it
(1) needs bigger open area to land
(2) the propellors have to stop moving before anyone can get in and out of the helicopter.
I can think of a couple more points but just these 2 points are enough to make this a stupid idea for real life applications. Obviously we can solve the problem by simply placing it taller, this results in a helicopters becoming much taller itself, resulting in
(1) more materials needed
(2) more weight
(3) increase air resistance?
Actually i've thought of a better solution by making the motors tiltable, but it meant that it probably will be more of a hybrid of a plane and helicopter as it requires clearance between the 2 blades.

Anyway this robot needed this because it is standing up and way harder to make it change direction by tilting.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Pink (Gay) Gundam


The broken wrist pose completes the look.

Via Jandan

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SUSHI tutorial!!!



This video is for fun and laughter, please do not think it's teaching the real thing.

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Monday, July 20, 2009

New Video for BMW GINA Concept car

BMW Concept Car: GINA from 12FRAMES on Vimeo.



This is the kind of design that i like, one that ask questions on conventional wisdom (in this case the need for full metal housing). New possibilities arises when you find existence of these irrelevant acts.

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Sunday, July 19, 2009

The Hangover


Watched this movie without any expectations, i didn't even know a single actor in this movie, but somehow looking at the poster of the movie, i kinda have a good feeling about it. This is sounding very weird because i have never ever decided to watch a movie just by looking at the posters.


Turn out it is a very good show! I totally enjoy watching it. Maybe it is because of the zero expectation, but i really like the way the story was being told. How it allows the viewers to experience the chaos the characters were in.

Seriously go catch it, it's worth your money! Probably knowing nothing about it will make it even more entertaining so i shall not talk about the story.

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Let's go get this T Shirt!


I think this is Resident Evil 4 promo T-Shirt. Ha pretty good idea!

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Doride Lamp by Karim Rashid




When i first saw this lamp, i'm thinking this looks like some concept done by students. Sounds a lot like some ideas my classmates came up with. Then i realised it's by Karim Rashid! I never like his stuff, because they are always stylist to a point it's not functional anymore. In other words, i find them superficial ,shallow and most importantly, for the fact that he's a stylist, i find his design ugly.


However the thing is, i actually quite like this lamp. It's supposely inspired by a leaf blowing in the wind. Although a leaf has no relation to light (ok unless you want to give some crap reason of photosynthesis etc), the form actually communicate the idea of a articulated stem. Diffuser are added in the pattern of leaf veins to complete the look while also blocking glare. Finally, yes according to him, he came up with this idea while he's still studying. No wonder it's better than the rest of his design and that explains why it seems like a student's work.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

There are too many things I need to do

Thus i got myself a MUJI To Do List notebook! I really like how the cover tells you about what to expect inside and how because the graphic on the exterior is embossed, it is very subtle and can only be seen when light falls on it.




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Sunday, July 12, 2009

Good Design is all about the Attention to Details!

I'm not a fan of big revolutionary ideas. Thus most of the time i do not really see the value in coming up with concepts that can't be made. When you try to change the world, the world has to change and that is a big problem.


Very often i see people coming up with a new (sometimes better) way of doing things, it may cost the same as it's competitors, but it has a big problem, everything else needs to change. People gotta reinvest in infrastructures, send people for training and throw away their old equipments that cost a fortune.

What happened is nothing will happen. Unless it's benefits are really significant. This is why certain things just never change, like how you hope self assembling PC can be much easier, why electric plugs still looks the same after so many years.

I prefer design that pays attention to details, small little things that people do not think matter. These small little things often create irritation for the user in the long run. One example is this medicine bottle designed by Deborah Adler. A medicine bottle with a label that's easy to read. Small idea big benefits. (I can totally imagine some guy proposing using some OLED sorta display for something like this and fitted with solar panels so it's earth friendly and finally the hospital will have a system to update all the display through wireless technology). In this case, it's the execution, the attention to details that's key to its success. Good execution is the key to any success. So please do not dream about big ideas only, pay more attention to the detailings of the design.

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Monday, July 6, 2009

moving


moving, originally uploaded by linyou.

Is the world moving or me on the escalator? I sure hope i'm the one moving, but it looks like the world is.

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crossroad

crossroad, originally uploaded by linyou.

2 paths that's lit with opportunities. One straight forward and leads you straight out of the building, but you can only admire the sky from ground level. The other is tougher and full of unknowns but promises more, you will get closer to the sky if only you can find the route to the roof. Which to take?

I took the stairs, and am starting to wonder if there's a sky.

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Chimpanzees learn from video demo

Just saw this post on BBC News, that talks about Chimps building their own tools after watching video demostrations. The Chimps were broken up into several groups and shown progressively shorter video of less information. To their findings, the group of chimps who had see the full video can easily replicate what they had seen and build the tools easily, while a handful of those exposed to less information can build the tool. Then the reseachers noticed an interesting phenomenon.
"What was interesting about this group was that, when we presented them with the grape at different distances from the cage, they made the appropriate tool to reach it. Those that had been shown the full demonstration, and had socially learned to make the longer tool, continued to make it even when the grape was so close that it was more awkward to use."

"It could be that social learning is such a strong force for the chimps that they apply a blanket rule of 'go with what you've seen' (rather than work out what's most appropriate for the task)."

They are now trying to test their findings on young children and personally i think they're just going to get the same results. I think the chimps are totally demostrating what human beings will do if they are exposed to the same thing. We quickly accept and settle on a single solution that was taught by others, usually without questioning why was it done in that way. We are usually lazy to think so we will just follow what has proven to be useful. Very often when i questioned why certain friends did something, they will answer ,"I never think so much la". This answer never fails to irritate me. The group of chimps that built their own tools have thought through the process and understand what needs to be done and why, thus able to come up with the more efficient method.

In fact there were some research done that asked participants to draw what they were shown on the screen. They will be shown pictures of a real kitten and the outcome of their drawings will be a caricature of a kitten, simple line works that most easily represents a cat. They were then hypnotized or using some scientific method (i do not know how) to temporary clear their memories, this time round, the same participants dutifully drew out what they seen on screen, rather than some caricatures of it. This experiment shows how what we have seen and learnt affect what we will do in the future. How when we faced with different task on hand that we may end up using the same solution even when they may not match.

I often hear people commenting that if you want to design only functional things (things people really need), then you do not need to design anything because we already have everything. Well they are right and wrong, because of the reason stated above, a lot of things around us are done without much thoughts, we call those conventional wisdoms. As the world progress, people changed, technology improved but many things still remain. By spotting these, we can surely find opportunities for new products/ design that makes sense.

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About This Blog

This blog is about looking at design from a logical point of view. Good designs are often good because of the thinking behind it and not because of pure luck. The colour, forms etc can all be and should be rationalised. This belief doesn't mean that any and everyone can design by simply following a formula. It is still an art to decide on the solution that best fit all requirements.


I will be posting on some everyday stuff that's more light hearted and fun. Reviews will be done on products that I’ve gotten my hands on!

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