Design should make us smile more. Isn't it what it's all about?
Smiling elevates your mood and reduces stress, and we can facilitate happy emotions through our work. Below a compilation of cheerful ideas in a random order :)
Why We are Teaching Architecture the Wrong Way
First of all, I'd like to say that I feel really grateful for the education I have received in architecture school and that I've had many wonderful teachers. Nevertheless, it's good to question how we do things, and it is in part what this space is all about.
I've been discussing this topic for a long time with friends and colleagues from different countries, researched about the subject, and there are issues that become repetitive in our experiences.
What is Beauty?
Beauty and aesthetics, as we all know, are an ongoing concern in the world of design and art. But beauty is subjective and hard to define. What you may find beautiful, could be ordinary or even ugly to others. It's deeply linked with emotions and experience.
Isn't it what makes it all more special? Beauty is not a mere surface but a central part of what it means to be human.
DIY Materials
The Do-It-Yourself movement is now expanding beyond products to the materials that embody the products themselves.
In comparison to the industrial ones, DIY-Materials are "created through individual or collective self-production practices, often by techniques and processes of the designer's invention. They can be entirely new materials, modified or further developed versions of existing materials".
I had the opportunity to attend a lecture on DIY-Materials by Marta Gonzalez, PhD in Science of Materials and Metallurgic Engineering, and Senior Researcher in Elisava Research, and I'll share an outline of it here, with examples of their applications.
Design and society
Make Nonsense
It's good to have goals behing what you do. The thing is when those expectations get in the way of actually enjoying anything that happens in the process and is not immediately perfect.
And let's face it, in the beginning, it almost certainly won't be. There's a lot of struggle and sweat and tears. So what if seeking the absurd is exactly what we should be aiming for?
Emotional Design: How to Design for Feeling
In creating a product, a designer has many factors to consider: the choice of material, the manufacturing process, the way the product is marketed, cost and functionality. But what many people don't realize is that there is also a strong emotional component to how products are designed and put to use.
What happens when we see a design for the first time?
Vignelli's Recipe to Good Design
What does it mean to do good design?
What principles are important?
While we develop our own language, we can use some guide from the masters. And there is no one like Massimo Vignelli.
Of course there's no specific recipe, but according to Massimo's vision, let's comment on the three fundamental aspects EVERY good design should address.
Tips to Finally Finish That Portfolio
Doing your portfolio can become a nightmare. There's just too much to do.
Sometimes we can get stuck because we don't know how to organize the execution, or we feel that something is missing but we don't know what it is.
In the process of applying to grad school, I had to make several versions of my portfolio, according to the specific requirements of each institute. They varied in the number of projects, format and focus areas. So I had to rework a lot of things, but always making sure I met the deadline.
Here are my top tips from going through the grueling process myself, and doing a lot of research on the topic.
The Values of Design: Creating Objects with Stories
Yves Béhar is a Swiss designer and entrepreneur. He is the founder and principal designer of Fuseproject, an award-winning industrial design and brand development firm.
I came across one of his TED Talks a while ago, "Designing Objects with Stories", and his speech from 2008 is still current and definitely food for thought.