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Posts Tagged ‘Inspiration’

Decode at the V&A

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

I headed down to London to see the Decode exhibition at the V&A. Based around the notions of data visualisation, technology and interactivity, it was a small yet flab-free exhibition that was impressive and fun.

The entrance to the exhibition was strewn with fabricated foliage, which responded to sound and movement, responding with light and sound, prompting entrants to stamp their feet a lot!

 

Generative

Following this, there were a number of pieces of generative art – works which run procedurally, either by preset programming, or responding to data. Perennial Flash hero Joshua Davis had a nice looking piece, while a work by Universal Everything felt a lot less ‘techy’, almost painterly, as it built, shifted and reinvented itself.

Swarm Draw by Joshua Davis

Swarm Draw by Joshua Davis

 

Sound and vision

Radiohead’s mind-boggling interactive video for House of Cards, by James Frost, was there, looking great on a hi-def touchscreen, allowing users to move it around as it played. Have a go of it yourself here (note, it takes a while to load, but it’s worth it).

House of Cards by James Frost

House of Cards by James Frost

 

There was a nice piece by Flight 404 (who coded one of iTunes’ music visualisers, fact fans) which reacted to sound, although I felt a bit of a fool shouting and coughing at the screen to make the imagery react. It’s a really interesting piece, especially as the relationship between sound and visuals is a minor obsession of mine.

Solar by Flight404

Solar by Flight404

 

Fun and games

Many of the more overt interactive pieces are clearly influenced by video games. Sennep’s piece ‘Dandelion’, where the user holds a ‘real’ hairdryer, and uses it to blow away seeds on a digital dandelion clock, was a combination of Nintendogs (a DS game where you pamper virtual puppies), and outstanding Playstation 3 game Flower. Another piece was very reminiscent of groundbreaking music toy Electroplankton.

Dandelion by Sennep

Dandelion by Sennep

 

What was nice about the exhibition was that not everything was screen-based, with a few more tactile, mechanical pieces too. By far the most impressive piece for me was Daniel Rozin’s ‘Weave Mirror’, comprising hundreds of wheels, coloured from white, gradating to black, which rotated to form a greyscale image of the viewer as they stood in front of it. While the programming and planning behind it was incredibly complex, what was most satisfying was the sound it made as it changed, reminiscent of pre-digital train departure boards (clickety clickety click).

Weave Mirror by Daniel Rozin, taking a picture of me taking a picture of it!

Weave Mirror by Daniel Rozin, taking a picture of me taking a picture of it!

 

Just the beginning

It was a very satisfying exhibition to experience, and I applaud the permission of photography and video, which obviously allows people to record specific instances of works which by their nature are fleeting. What I do feel though is that the ideas and execution on show here is only scratching the surface of what could be possible, both in terms of how data could be presented and used, and in real-world applications that could enrich and improve peoples’ lives. It’s certainly gotten me thinking.

Decode runs until 11th April 2010. Find out more about Decode here

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Designing and building for the future

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

I have always been a fan of post-war architecture, and its attempts at doing things differently. I admit this is partly due to being a child of the 1970s. I grew up surrounded by these kinds of buildings in Birmingham - many of which are no longer there (most notably Birmingham’s Bull Ring).

However, looking at things objectively, as maligned as a lot of it is, I admire those who pushed it forwards, even though much of it ultimately failed in its goals.

The whole idea was to build a brave new world, and to try and wipe away memories of a Britain ravaged by war and bombings. What better way than to create buildings that looked like nothing that had come before? Concrete allowed for huge structures - towering monuments to the future. New shopping centres and social housing projects were designed to encourage community relationships and revitalise the economy.

 

Birmingham Central Library, photo by Martin Hartland

Birmingham Central Library, photo by Martin Hartland

Look at Birmingham’s Central Library. I don’t care what Prince Charles thinks of it - there’s a strength and power to its form that puts learning at the centre of the city. I haven’t been inside it since the late ’90s, but it’s equally interesting inside, where you can look down from upper floors to those below. I do hope they’ve changed the yellowy lighting since then, though!

 

Park Hill in Sheffield, photo by Paolo Margari

Park Hill in Sheffield, photo by Paolo Margari

The Park Hill development in Sheffield is staggering. Built between 1957 and 1961, it is the largest listed building in Europe. The original concept was to create ’streets in the sky’ - a noble and exciting sentiment indeed! It’s currently undergoing renovation.

Of course, it is easy for me to praise something like Park Hill - I’ve never had to live there. As a project, it inevitably failed, and the council more recently found difficulty finding tenants, due the crime rate and poor state of repair of the building.

 

Ambition + research

It is my job to ensure that the work I do is fit for its target audience, through research, testing and iterative development. Maybe that was what was lacking from the development of buildings in the ’60s. Perhaps someone might have pointed out that Park Hill could be abused by muggers due to its structure and layout.

However, what fills me with admiration for all of this is how its creators were really striving for something more - to make a better world for its inhabitants, which is something everyone working in the creative industries should be encouraged to do.

 

A New (Design) World Order?

Right now feels like a good time to think about things like this. America has a new, more liberal president, who espoused to the world the importance of making the world a better place. Miscommunication and misunderstanding are still causing wars, yet the internet allows for unparalleled global communication between people who have never even met. The global economy has put bankers and politicians to shame, but also maybe made many of us realise we really don’t need to replace our year-old iPods just yet.

Will this new-found solemnity arising from the events of the last decade drive new styles and standards in the world of design? Hard to tell right now, but it will be interesting to see where things go over the next five years.

 

Many thanks to Martin Hartland and Paolo Margari for the use of their photos in this article.

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How Super Heroes can make you a better designer

Friday, May 8th, 2009

I’ve been a fan of comics for as long as I can remember, and they have been a huge influence on my visual vocabulary. I’m sure comics have played no small part in my decision to pursue graphic design as a career, too.

I’m not a comics geek by any means - I have no real in-depth knowledge of them. I was raised on a steady diet of Beano/Dandy/Beezer/Topper as a child, with most of my exposure to American comics coming via TV shows.

However, a few American comics were in my posession as a young boy - presumably random purchases from parents or relatives. I certainly didn’t buy them myself.

American comics were supremely exciting. Full colour throughout (as opposed to the one- or two-colour print jobs the majority of British comics were at the time), they were a different shape, they were often violent, scary or sad, and were filled with ads for mythical toys, sweets and other products unavailable in the U.K. (I would have given anything as a five-year-old for a cream-filled Twinkie and a pack of Space Monkeys).

Of the assorted copies of Batman, X-Men and the like I had at my disposal, one particular edition of Green Lantern was to make an indelible imprint on me. Indeed, it was the only Green Lantern comic I owned, but I was obsessed with it.

Cover of Green Lantern comic

Cover of Green Lantern comic

This comic wasn’t about a superhero. It was about a whole army of superheroes, from across space! Look at the dramatic layout of the cover, with hordes of odd-looking good guys disappearing into the distance. I would pore over this cover and the contents within again and again.

This comic was an early lesson in thinking beyond what I understood something could or should be. The artist must have had a whale of a time coming up with crazy alien designs - giant crystals with haircuts! Tentacled eyeballs! Amorphous blobs! Something that looks like a stick of celery! As a child who grew up with ‘Star Wars’, I was accustomed to most aliens being basically humans in masks (until Jabba The Hutt turned up, but that wouldn’t be for a couple of years). Hence, when I drew aliens, they would tend to be humanoid, but with funny heads, or costumes. This comic taught me that I could do whatever I liked.

An inside frame from the Green Lantern comic

An inside frame from the Green LAntern comic

It’s something I was reminded of recently, while trying to think of the last time I saw a piece of design, or a way of interacting that made me rethink the way I approach projects myself. Of course, as we get older, and our knowledge of things widens, it’s harder and harder to find something that truly knocks one’s socks off, in the way my Green Lantern comic opened my five-year-old mind. And of course, designing (for example) a web site that is usable will have to conform to certain rules of thumb, if it is to be successful. I’m always on the look out though, and I’d be interested in knowing what has opened other people’s doors of perception.

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