DSDN 171 Blog 2: Research Statement and Annotated Bibliography

To explore the style of Art Nouveau, covering its development and characteristics, the style influences behind it, and the major proponents of the style.

Greenhalgh, P. (Ed.). (2000). Art Nouveau: 1890-1914. London: Victoria and Albert Museum .

This book explores the history of the style, looking at the designers and artists who championed it, and the architecture, decorative arts and ornaments that were created during the art nouveau period.

LWL State Museum. (2007).  Hermann Obrist: the Lone Cyclamen. (Original in possession of the Munich City Museum). Image retrieved from http://www.lwl.org/pressemitteilungen/mitteilung.php?urlID=17592

Hermann Obrist: The Lone Cyclamen

This image of embroidery by Hermann Obrist is an example of the “whiplash” curve which is a feature piece of Art Nouveau. The image was chosen because it shows this characteristic curve.

Madsen, S. T. (1975). Sources of Art Nouveau. New York, NY: Da Capo Press. (Original work published 1956)

This book reviews the influences behind art nouveau and it’s development, ideals and leading figures of the style. Looks at the style’s application in a range of fields, from architecture to the applied arts.

Marinica, A. (2011). The influence of art history on modern design – Art Nouveau [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.pixel77.com/the-influence-of-art-history-on-modern-design-art-nouveau/

This blog article covers the history and use of art nouveau in architecture and design, and looks at how it influences modern design today.

Silverman, D.L. (2011). Art Nouveau, art of darkness: African lineages of Belgian Modernism, part I. West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture, 18(2),  139-181. doi: 10.1086/662515.

This article focuses on Belgian art nouveau and seeks to show how it was inspired by “Congo motifs – the vine, the lash and the elephantine.” (Silverman, 2011). It focuses on the works of Belgian architects and designers of the time such as Victor Horta, and  suggests a relationship between the “whiplash” curve and the lash/whip.

Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh – London Life – Life & Style – Evening Standard

Interview by Mark Prigg, Science and Technology Editor at the Evening Standard with Jonathan Ive, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Industrial Design

Sir Jonathan Ive: The iMan cometh – London Life – Life & Style – Evening Standard.

and the cliff notes over at Lipstick Alley

4 Principles Apple’s Chief Designer Lives By

DSDN 171 Blog 1: Design Persona

Me

I am Kezia Page-Sinclair and my decision to enrol in the Bachelor of Design Innovation came about while I was working on an assignment for an information systems course I was doing as part of the Bachelor of Information Technology at Weltec. Well, at least, that was when I made the conscious decision to go to design school and then a few months later I worked up enough courage to enrol. I was writing a paper on how companies can remain competitive through the use of usability design and reading a book about innovation called Little Bets by Peter Sims  for personal interest, and I realised that while what I was learning at the time was useful, it wasn’t taking me in the direction I wanted to head in and it certainly wasn’t creative or challenging enough.

What I desire to achieve in design lies very much in the world of information technology, I want to design interfaces for software, for hardware and for the internet that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also are a pleasure to use, and make people want to interact with them because they are intuitive and fun and beautiful.

I have found inspiration from a number of sources. For the artist in me, there is the sculptor Anish Kapoor who makes fabulous sculptures out of materials such as powder pigment and highly polished metal, and for my tech-loving gadget freak, there is Apple. I feel Apple has designed products, such as the iPhone, that are the epitome of everything I aspire to achieve. I feel they are beautiful and intuitive to use, and the technology behind their products never seems to get in the way of being able to just use the product, something that I feel is incredibly important.

Soundbite from Helvetica

“Typography is white”

LED wall panel project

Just a wee post to try WordPress out  with a couple of lines and maybe a picture and a video taken this weekend while I worked on a wee project with a friend. We are in the beginning stages of building a piece of LED interactive art for my study wall at home. The plans are to have RGB LEDs housed in 7x7x6cm boxes that can move in different configurations on the wall. We want to get the control panel and each LED light box talking to each other via wi-fi. However, we discovered that we need more components than we have and need to order some in before we can continue with the project. We do have a simple little prototype box with a single LED inside attached to a 9V battery so I can play around with how each box should look with a light inside it.