CR04: Accessibility

This week’s lecture was super informative. I liked seeing all of the examples that each type of designer deals with. I never thought about how many different types of disabilities there are and how it is important to keep each disability in mind when designing a product or place. These are some really cool products I found that have been made for people with disabilities:

This is a bathroom was designed by José Vicente to work for those with or without disabilities. It’s not just functional it looks cool too.

 

Sharper Image hand-less soap dispenser                                                       Big keypad cell phone

RR04: Haskett CH. 7-8

This weeks reading seemed somewhat dry (which is sad seeing as the book has reached its end), however I was interested in the part about the British public telephones during this week’s reading. In the 1980s the United Kingdom decided to replace the old red-box public telephones with a newer model. Although the newer kiosks were more efficient, the United Kingdom citizens were not happy with the change from the old red boxes. This is astonishing to me because in America, everyone wants to be more efficient and productive because we have put so much on our plates that we have no time to do anything so anything that works faster must be better. I think in recent years, Americans have stopped caring about the way things used to be and all they want is the latest look, whether in electronics or fashion. I think the red telephone boxes look sweet and because they are so iconic to the British population I think I would be pretty upset that they changed them too. I mean they could have kept a few of the old ones and mix in some of the new, or even just keep the same look, but update the system used for them. To me this seems like the ideal move.

I was also interested with the corporate logo section for the reading. As I stated in my previous post about the Gap logo change conflict, logos are an important part of a company. If you change it and people do not like it, then you will surely hear about it. In high school one of my art teacher’s husband was paid for changing the AT&T logo from a 2D look, having straight horizontal lines inside of the circle, to a 3D look, by curving the lines inside of the circle. I think most companies try to stay close to their original logo so that consumers will know the brand, but others completely change their logo because they want to completely change their company’s image. I think it is cool how simply changing lines in a logo can affect a company so much for the better or the worst.

J03: Survey

Would You Rather...

3 out of 6

  1. Have an extra hand where 

3 out of 6

        one of your feet is

                ~OR~

        an extra eye where

       one of your hands is?

2. Be the world's tallest person ~OR~ the world's shortest person?

4 out of 6 (Tallest) ~AND~ 2 out of 6 (Shortest)

2 out of 6

4 out of 6

3. spend the night in a dark cemetery ~OR~in a supposed haunted house?

4. Would you rather have a blue tongue ~OR~ a blue finger?

4 out of six (Tongue) ~AND~ 2 out of 6 (Finger)

3 out of 6

3 out of 6

5. Have a see through nose ~OR~ entirely white eyeballs?

4 out of 6

2 out of 6

6. Have a 6 inch second toe

 ~OR~ a 6 inch thumb?

7. Would you rather be forced to run on a giant hamster wheel in public for an hour everyday ~OR~ drink from a baby bottle everyday?
1 out of 6 (Hamster Wheel) ~AND~ 5 out of 6 (Baby Bottle)

6 out of 6

0 out of 6

8. always wear earmuffs 

~OR~ 

always wear a nose plug?

 9. Be born with an elephant trunk~OR~ a giraffe neck?

3 out of 6

3 out of 6

10. Would you rather be a cyclops (with one eye) ~OR~ have a 7 foot tail?
1 out of 6 (Cyclops) ~AND~ 5 out of 6 (Tail)

I administered my survey to a group of four people and a second group of 2 for a total of 6 surveys. The survey was administered to 2 males and 4 females.

A02: Designer Investigation (3)

Ruth Handler

Ruth Mosko was born November 4,1916 in Denver, Colorado. She married her husband Elliot Handler in 1938. The couple started their own business named Elzac in 1941. The company was a great success selling everything from jewelry to common household items. Unsatisfied with their success, they began making picture frames while working for a man by the name of Harold Matson. The three created what is today known as one of the worlds greatest toy companies, Mattel in 1945.

Ruth Handler came up with the idea of an adult doll, after seeing her children playing with paper dolls. The doll took three years to create. The 11-½ inch blond doll with heels made its debut as “Barbie Teenage Fashion Model” at the American Toy Fair in New York in 1959. Over 350,000 Barbie’s were sold within the first year of production. Ken, named after Ruth’s son, was created shortly after.

In 1970 Ruth Handler was diagnosed with breast cancer. Being unpleased, with the lack of artificial breasts on the market, she created her own line of realistic artificial breasts called “Nearly Me”. She became an advocate for early detection of breast cancer and worked with many women who were going through what she was. Ruth was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1997. Ruth Handler passed away in 2002 at the age of 85.

I chose to find information on Ruth Handler because I wanted to find an object I didn’t know who had designed it. I thought Barbie would be the perfect thing. Practically everyone has seen or heard about Barbie, but I doubt many people know the story behind it or who created it. I know I didn’t. It is amazing to see how far Barbie has come along. When you walk past the toy isles in a store, you know when you’re passing the Barbie isle because it is practically glowing pink! Becoming a toy designer has crossed my mind a few times before, and if I do, then I want the isles in which my toys sit to glow with colors too. I think it is really cool that Ruth Handler was not just a designer, but a businesswoman as well. She and her husband started from the ground up and were successful. I’m honestly not as concerned with being successful moneywise as I am with having fun and enjoying my job as an industrial designer. And who knows maybe I will work for Mattel one day. That would be sweet.

  

Information from this post was found at:

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventors/handler.htm

http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/ruth-handler-biography-10113.html

A02: Designer Investigation (2)

10 Things You Should Know About…

Jonathan Adler

1.     Jonathan Adler began working with pottery after attending a summer camp in 1978.

2.     He attended Brown University with a plan to study semiotics and art history.

3.     After being told by a professor to quite pottery and study law, he moved to New York and worked for a talent agency in 1990. He didn’t like it at all.

4.     In 1997 he helped with Aid to Artisans, a non-profit organization which helps artisans in developing countries to make products for the American market. He went to Peru and fell in love with it.

5.     He opened his first store in Soho in 1998. And his second in Los Angeles three years later.

6.     In 2002 he began working with furniture, starting a new collection and took on interior design projects.

7.     In 2007 Jonathan joined the Bravo television network as a judge on the reality show Top Design.

8.     In 2005 he published his first book titled My Prescription for Anti-Depressive Living.

9.     In 2010 he wrote two more books titled Happy Chic Accessorizing and Happy Chic Colors.

10.  He also owns a Norwich terrier named Liberace. This dog is practically his life.

Information from this post was found at:

http://www.jonathanadler.com/about.php

http://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2006-A-Ec/Adler-Jonathan.html

A02: Designer Investigation (1)

10 Things You Should Know About…

Jonathan Ive

1.     In 1992, Jonathan Ive moved to San Francisco, from London where he was born and raised to begin his work with the Apple design team.

2.     In 1998 he was appointed vice-president of industrial design at Apple. This was also the year in which the original iMac computer was launched.

3.     In 2003 he won the Design Museum's first Designer of the Year prize.

4.     In 2004 the multi-colored iPod mini went on the market. (I had a lime green one named Leonard)

5.     In 2005 he was appointed senior vice-president of design at Apple.

6.     In July 2008, Ive was awarded the MDA Personal Achievement award for the design of the iPhone

7.     He has a Bachelor of Arts and an honorary doctorate from Newcastle Polytechnic.

8.     Jonathan Ive has over 300 granted design patents to his name.

9.     Fortune magazine named him as the "world's smartest designer" in 2010, for his work on Apple products.

10.  He was voted the sixth most significant event in Apple Inc. history according to a recent Macworld poll.

Information from this post was found at:

http://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/online/jonathan-ive-on-apple/jonathan-ives-biography

http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/ive.html

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Jonathan_Ive