Don Norman - Emotional Design

Watching Don Norman’s TED talk, an insight was gained into the way in which humans react and interact with objects and situations in everyday life. Focusing on products, Norman reiterates the importance of Emotional Design and how it can be effectively adapted to engage consumers with products. He splits Emotional Design into 3 sub – categories: visceral, behavioural and reflective, of which visceral and behavioural are subconscious responses to stimuli.

Norman presents a great example of visceral interaction with products, explaining how people often reuse glass bottles and wine bottles to display flowers or fill them up with another liquid - proof that the bottle and its content was not solely purchased for the content inside as with other grocery or consumable items, but because of its perceived beauty.

Interestingly, Norman raises a point about how pleasure through specific product design can sometimes dampen the impact of poor functionality, and uses the E – Type Jaguar (now exhibited at MoMA) as an example. This may be the case with some product design where beauty domineers, but I personally believe that there should be equality between functionality and beauty in design.

Besides this, it was interesting to learn that the “happier” we are feeling, the more abstract our thoughts and thought processes become – a valuable asset during brain storming sessions. Contrary to this, anxiety also influences our thought patterns, enabling strong focus and rational thought, useful when under time constraints or deadlines to complete tasks.   

Ultimately, what I took away from this talk was how strong bonds and emotional responses can be formed between humans and products, and the importance of implementing elements of “fun” and enjoyment in design. Emotional Design, now more than ever can make or break a product. As well as functionality, image and ego (reflective responses) also play large roles in the success of a design and must also be taken into consideration.

I believe designers are looking to create a unique “experience” through consumer interaction with their product, and no matter how subtle or empowering this experience may be, it can only be achieved with an understanding of human behaviour, and emotional response.

“So Jake Cress is this furniture maker,and he makes this unbelievable set of furniture.And this is his chair with claw, and the poor little chair has lost its ball and it’s trying to get it back before anybody notices. And what’s so neat about it is how you accept that story. And that’s what’s nice about emotion.”

 I chose the quote above as the most outstanding as it demonstrated the effect of emotional response in a live audience as they viewed the piece of furniture on the display. Laughter began even before Norman began speaking and it was clear that the audience had understood the playfulness achieved by the designer.   

Passport Review

This had already been documented in writing, but to keep up with requirements, here goes … 

Museum Visit / Exhibition: MCA Sydney, in which I saw the Annie Leibovitz photography exhibition. 

Read and Comment on a Design Blog: “Designer Dan” & “Life is Carbon,” to which I read and commented upon the “Life is Carbon” article on Louis Campbell - his designs of past and present including the “Very Round” chair for Zanotta.

Read and Comment On Another Students Block: I had, by now, read through all of the design blogs present on the “Past Present Futures” design blog. I attempted to answer a question raised by Luke Messina and did the same for Cherrie. 

Read 3 Design Magazine’s / Journals: 

- Wallpaper Magazine 
- Habitus
- Abbitare

What Was of Particular Interest? Habitus and Wallpaper had great articles on the changing design in kitchen utensils. The design aesthetic is slowly transforming from a sterile, clinical form to featuring timber, cork, stone and natural fibres, making these objects kitchen display pieces.

Completed the Elise quiz!

Visited the COFA Library in an attempt to borrow the only copy of “Campana Brothers: Complete Collections So Far,” though the book was on loan for a little while … I bought it at MCA instead :)

Listen to An ABC Podcast: There was an interesting story the wine industry and the way in which art and artists have been contracted to feature on labels and packaging for bottles. New and innovative serving packages have also been developed which include a single serve plastic cup with foil sealed lid and a vile containing a single serve of wine that can be pocket - stored. Campers have also been considered through further development and manufacture of “dehydrated wine” hmm …

Watch a TED Talk: “Steve Jobs - How to Live Before You Die” 

It was interesting and rather uplifting to gain words of inspiration from the Apple billionaire, rather than hearing more on his product range or technology. His words were really relevant to all aspects of life. Some of my favourite quotes are as follows:

“Much of what I stumbled into by following my intuition, later on turned out to be priceless…”

He speaks about how you must find work that you love, as the only way to do great work is to love the work you do - “Keep looking, don’t settle!”

My designer postcard collection :)

Once again, a stunning example of graphic design in poster form … amazing!

This is just lovely, a wool felt, teak and aluminium computer mouse designed by Joey Roth … combining raw, unfinished materials with the bare essentials of modern day technology

The images above are some of my favourite information maps, straight from “informationisbeautiful.net” - a really fantastic website I was looking through earlier, and a great source for ideas and inspiration … some of the designs are truly brilliant in terms of layout and legibility, and have most definitely been influenced by a designer’s hand. 

Model Magic

It was fantastic to see everyone’s designer displays this morning! The models were really great, and it was interesting to see how far we had all come as a group from the very first poster we designed.

Below are a few images of my own model.

Testing and experimentation on scrap card:

 

A little while ago I completed a period of work experience with architectural firm, Durbach Block. The company is known for their Balsa wood mock up and presentation models of residential and commercial architecture which they fondly present to clients. I was given the task of completing (in a few days) a Balsa wood model of the Centre Le Corbusier to present to them at the end of the stint. The images above are of the mostly completed model which they were thoroughly pleased with.

Neil Durbach, part owner of the practice, commented that “many people simply end up presenting a pile of sticks to us at the end!”

During this period I also had the privilege of site inspecting the half - constructed Roslyn Street building which the practice also designed, accompanying Neil Durbach and two others. It was a fantastic “behind the scenes” look at a fantastic piece of architecture loosely based on the designs of Antonio Gaudi.   

Workings: poster mash - up

Below are photos of some of many workings that went into the design of my poster mash - up. The images taped to the wall were to keep record of how the colour changed (cool or warm) after filters were applied or adjustments were made. This way, previous experimentation could be used as a semi - reference to the work currently being done on screen. 

Attempting to chose the right type of 3D glasses for Melendez’s head … unfortunately I couldn’t and so I made a pair using Photoshop which you can see on the page to the right. The parchment sample behind the glasses was used as a colour reference to successfully match all foreign elements that would be added to the self portrait. As the parchment was such an obvious part of the painting, elements needed to complement each other. 

Alternatives

Although we completed this assignment a while back, here’s some other images I was considering for the poster mash - up:

A 1960s family

Baldassare Castiglione

Attempting to put up poster #1 for Past, Present and Futures, though the file size is way to large! 

Visual Acoustics

The above title is the name (Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman) of an absolutely amazing documentary on the incredible photographer Julius Shulman. I saw the very short teaser video of this on Wallpaper last year and bought it from SBS straight away. It’s predominantly architecturally focused, as Shulman was an architectural photographer, but the intensity of the film, the details of his life that they capture, and the dramatic influence his photographs had on the careers of Architects of the time (Gehry, Wright … ) enthralled me completely. I walked away from it having a completely fresh outlook on aspects of design … just stunning! 

Please do check it out if you get a chance … or better still, buy it!! :)

<< Rewind

So this may be a little out of order, but just wanted to introduce myself :) My name’s Robert but Rob is just fine. I have a strong interest in Architectural design, which carried me through my Major Design Project for Design and Technology, and was nominated for the DesignTECH exhibit earlier this year. That said, my interest extends to all aspects of design, art and music especially.

Music, particularly minimal techno, has played a very important role in my life since around 2006, where I decided to be creative and design my own independent music label as a “hobby” … little did I know that now, 5 years later, that project has morphed into something quite amazing …

Apart from this, I like to cook and love driving around with friends.

My favourite designers to date are Le Corbusier, Achille Castiglioni, Philippe Starck, Garth Roberts and Antonio Citterio. There are some really great independent artists as well, that may not be superstars, but also produce some amazing works around the world.  

I believe that this Industrial Design course will provide me with a broadened and detailed knowledge of design, designers and processes involved in the successful creation of a form that one or many can find useful, or simply enjoy for a long period of time!  

If you’re ever curious, Etsy online has some really nice handmade items for sale. Although some of things there aren’t what I like, it’s a great place to explore and see what others have come up with. Also, if you scroll down the page, they often feature a designer or company of the week with an accompanying interview.

website: http://www.etsy.com/

ABC By Design

The train trip home was a prefect opportunity to listen to a few podcasts of the “By Design” show on ABC Radio. There was one that was particularly interesting and focused on the effort that wine makers go to in designing, or contracting a design for their bottle labels. Graphic design and art now has a huge impact on the sale of wine bottles, and at times, is what acts as a point of difference and a competitive edge over the rest of the competition.

Also, in expanding through innovation and creativity, concepts and prototypes, as well as currently released products are changing the way we think about alcohol packaging. Examples include a single serve glass of wine in a clear plastic cup, with a foil “peel - off” lid, a thin vile design that can be slipped into a pocket, and dehydrated wine for those camping out and about. 

Also, they were discussing whether or not the design of the wine glass has a significant impact on the taste of the wine, and concluded … it did?! Apparently, the whole sensory experience of how the glass feels in your hand and the way the aromas move around internally play a vital role in the end taste experience. Pretty amazing!