My field of research for DSDN171 – Blog 2 is Art Deco; it is a style of design that originated in Paris in the 1920s and quickly spread internationally through the 1930s.

1. A book with single author

 This book explores the beginnings of the Art Deco movement from France where it made its first public appearance in 1925 at the Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Induestriels Modernes to the rest of the world by the 1930s. It also discusses whether Art Deco was a “backlash” or an offshoot of the previous Art Nouveau, furthermore other influences which helped shape the movement from “Egypt to the imagined future...”.
 This book documents Art Deco design in many different things from decorations to furniture and therefore it is useful for my research.

Duncan, A. (2009). Art Deco Complete: the Definitive Guide to the Decorative Arts of the 1920s and 1930s. London: Thames & Hudson.

2. A scholarly journal article

 This article discusses how there was a lot of Egyptian influence in France during the 1920s and how this has influenced the Art Deco movement. It mentions how Egyptian influenced fashion and the discovery of Tutankhamen played a role in shaping Art Deco. It also goes on to discuss how the idea of luxury and decadence of Ancient Egypt was carried through into Art Deco.

Elliot, B. (2008). Art Deco Worlds in a Tomb: Reanimating Egypt in Modern(ist) Visual Culture. South Central Review, suppl. Special Issue: Staging Modernism, 25(1), 114-135,176. Baltimore, MD, USA: John Hopkins University Press. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/226841368

3. An edited book

Napier was struck by an earthquake in 1931, during the global rise in popularity of the Art Deco movement. Naturally when reconstruction began, Art Deco was the style of choice for its architecture. This book and also the city itself is an example of how the movement spread globally.

Galloway, A., McGregor, R. (Ed). (1996). Art Deco Napier: a Design Guide. Napier, New Zealand: Napier City Council.

4. A website

This website explains both what Art Deco and Art Nouveau are and what differentiates the two. It breaks down the principles of each movement and puts it into laymen’s terms calling Art Nouveau “flowery” and Art Deco “streamlined”. Though it is not a detailed insight into both movements it allows the reader to quickly and easily grasp the fundamentals of each. Thus it is helpful in my research.

Art Deco vs. Art Nouveau. (n.d.). [Website]. Retrieved from http://www.mentalfloss.com/difference/art-deco-vs-art-nouveau/

.5. A picture

The Chrysler building is arguably one of the most iconic pieces of the Art Deco movement. Its architecture incorporates a crown which has a radiating “sunburst” arrangement of triangular windows; this kind of ornamentation is quintessential to the movement. Furthermore the crown is made from a stainless steel alloy which was very reflective and advanced for the time; the Art Deco movement embraced the use of modern materials. Therefore, this image is very relevant for my research.

Highsmith, C.M. (2007). Chrysler Building Detail, New York, New York [image]. Retrieved from: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010630430/

INDIVIDUAL WORK - DSDN101

Individual Work.


For individual work I chose Isometric/Axonometric Projection. And an original GameBoy as the subject.


I decided to go with Isometric Projection as it is a commonly chosen method of technical drawing. Furthermore I wanted some practice as I haven't drawn anything in Isometric projection since Year 10..
Isometric Projection was first conceived by Professor William Farish in the 1800s but only began being widely used around the 1920s. To this day engineers, architects, industrial designers and even artists employ this method of drawing as it conveys the object in an accurate manner in which the eye can not naturally perceive.
There is no "vanishing point" so this makes the subject appear both more and less realistic at the same time; the subject has proper measurements, however this is not how we would actually see it.
The idea that the object can be drawn whilst retaining its proper dimensions is one of the reasons why it is a commonly employed drawing style in product design, and this is also why I decided to have a GameBoy as my subject; simple in its overall shape but enough detail to employ in an Isometric projection.

Note;

The image was originally composed horizontally. I uploaded it rotated 90° as an aesthetic choice.

TOUCH and DRAW - DSDN101

Touch and Draw.


Now this provided a much greater challenge.. after a couple of weeks making drawings that fit into certain guidelines, we now had to make one with very little rules. At first I thought easy! however a lot of time was spent looking at the blank page... Where to start??

I thought to myself, how to best capture the essence of the item.. What better way than to actually use the item's "essence"?

After some debate with other students on whether the object is actually allowed in the final composition, I decided to submit two. Apologies, Sam, for not clarifying this before the deadline.

SECTION - DSDN101

Section.


A lil' more interesting..


My lighter appears again, the actual section of my lighter is both what I imagine the inside of my lighter looks like as well as what other lighters look like on the inside (from smashing lighters open in the past). I think the outcome is pretty convincing, if I may say so myself.

DRAW - DSDN101

Draw.. Bang.


Rather straight forward. Its my lighter.

HATCH - DSDN101

So.. Hatch eh?


I found my freehand drawing not competent enough to put out consistent patterns neatly and consicely. So I decided to be formulaic and use a ruler and slowly remove negative space.


Smudging and fingerprints turned up after I jacked up the contrast on Ps but I decided to leave them in because I liked them.

IDENTITY - DSDN101

For Identity I chose the painting of the horse and cart (apologies for not knowing the name), my 5 items; spray can, vivid, bearbrick, lighter and keys all adhere as well as break up the composition of the lines found in the painting.

Design Personae

camera shy?

  My name is chang, I'm from Mt Zion (Mt Eden), Auckland.

I decided to come to design school to gain skills and higher knowledge. These I lack.
By skills I mean things like drawing and other hands on stuff, however I also mean my perception.. There's been a lot of talk of changing the way we look at the world in our lectures and its exciting, I’m constantly trying to perceive things in a different light, and hopefully through design school I will be able to hone my perception into something a little more “design-orientated".
When I say higher knowledge I refer to the history, philosophy and whatever else is considered “important” in design. I’d like to pay respect to the greats, hahaha.
 To be honest I draw a lot of inspiration from “Hip-Hop culture”, KRS-ONE, dondi, Futura2000, the Wu-Tang Clan, King Kase2 (RIP), Seen, Niels “Shoe” Meulman the list goes on..  I guess one of my more relevant (though not Hip-Hop related) inspirations would be Tinker Hatfield.
Hatfield is a designer for Nike. He joined Nike in 1981 and he designed some of the best and most memorable/coveted sneakers for Nike, air max 1, 3, Jordan III, IV and XI are amongst my favourite of his creations. Hatfield was/is always one to combine functionality with great aesthetics to his designs, he drew inspirations for his shoes from many different things but always executed them in a tasteful manner.
 I guess this is what I’m aspiring to be, producing good design that is aesthetically pleasing, but not compromising in its functionality.

Chur.

Soundbite

So, Helvetica huh?

Interesting stuff though probably not so new to most of us at FYD..

The only soundbite that I noted was from the beginning where one designer said,

"The world is a place of visual disease, which we as designers must clean up."

Hahah, to be honest I'm not totally sure whether this was what the person actually said, but at least that was my perception, I liked it, and I'd like to think that's what he said.

(:

Hello, World.

Design School yo.

Time to get school'd.

Knowledge Reigns Supreme.