Independent Blended Learning - 10 x Research Review

Kenya Hara Umeda Hospital in 1998

This is talking about how the hospital uses the concept of a sock or a zipper on their signage. The signages in the hospital is ‘washable’ or ‘interchangeable’ as they are wrapped around a board like how a pillow case is wrapped around the pillow, and after it’s becoming dirtier, they could just take it down and wash it, making it clean again before putting it back on the board and turn it into a signage. (ArchDaily, 2016). I think that a design for the signage like this is really amazing and it gives me an impression that everything is possible, whereby one thing is fixed to be there, doesn’t mean that it will have to be there forever, the thing is still there, but the purpose of it may be different from the day 1 it was made there. This made me think of how they use that concept to give us the visualization of cleanliness in the whole building. Lastly, a surgical mask is something that I think having the same concept of the hospital’s signage. After the surgical mask is dirty after several hours of usage, it is swapped with a new one, whereby the signage is ‘washed’ and ‘cleaned’. This gives me an idea that, maybe one day, surgical mask can be sanitized properly and be reused, instead of throwing away and get a new one, which is really harmful for our environment especially nowadays when the Covid-19 virus is spreading all around the world.

ArchDaily. (2016, July 31). Umeda Hospital/Kengo Kuma & Associates. Retrieved from Arch Daily: https://www.archdaily.com/792313/umeda-hospital-kengo-kuma-and-associates

PIG05049 2007

A book that described how a pig, named 05049 by the author, can be turned into so many other products that we see and use in our daily life without us realizing it. Some of the products they found are quite familiar, but as they went deeper into it, they found that a lot of the products they didn’t know were made and contain part of the pig such as photo paper, conditioner, and ammunition. (Fairs, 2009). With this, designer Christien Meindertsma attempted to chart this phenomenon. To do so, she collected and grouped those photos of products together with the part of the pig that can be used as a part to make that product possible. This has definitely made me wonder what the things around me are made of that I would use every day. And I would ask, would I still buy this thing if I knew that it is made from animal parts at first, besides from those stuff that is obviously made from animals like leather handbags? The truth is, it is so hard for us to trace back what everything around us is made from, with the technology that is so advanced nowadays, it seems that most of the things can be made possible.

Fairs, M. (2009, August 29). PIG 05049 by Christien Meindertsma. Retrieved from dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2009/08/29/pig-05049-by-christien-meindertsma/

Moving Brands Launches Fashion and Technology Brand WEARE™

It is about how a man tried to enable consumers to participate in the creation of designer garments with his brand. The founder of this brand, WEARE and Moving Brands, knew that everyone would like to get involved to what they are wearing, so he had an idea to somehow ‘connect’ them with their wear. (Fairs, Weare Fashion label by Moving Brands, 2008). We may think more deeply that, why would people want to put what they wish to put on a piece of cloth? Is it that he or she is trying to convey any message to us? At the surface, we may think that people are only putting whatever they like on the clothing. But underlying it, we can think that maybe it is where people are given the chance to embed a message that they would like to spread to the public as they are wearing them out there, showing the message on their clothing like an advertisement on the street. Pretty much like a graphic designer, whereby we may use graphics or visuals to spread a message to the public, instead of verbal communicating with each other.

Fairs, M. (2008, January 20). Weare Fashion label by Moving Brands. Retrieved from dezeen: https://www.dezeen.com/2008/01/20/weare-fashion-label-by-moving-brands/

Craig Oldham in Loving Memory of Work

The book, ‘In Loving Memory of Work’, is published to give a visual record on the UK miner’s strike at the year 1984 through 1985. To give the readers a more immersive experience while reading it, Craig has made it in a very special way that leads readers to feel like they are in that era, which is when the strike happens. (Siddall, 2015). Readers would always ask themselves as they are reading through a book, especially when it is about the past of the future of the world. How would they feel like when they are in that era, how I wish I could be in that time and feel it by myself instead of just reading it and knowing that something like this happened last time. From the fonts to printing materials, it uses all the stuff that is closely related to that time. It shows how much the author has put his effort into making this book. It gives me an inspiration that I may apply something in what I’m doing that can make people feel related to it even if it didn’t happen on them before so they can better understand the situation.

Siddall, L. (2015, March 20). One of the finest books we've seen. Craig Oldham's homage to the miners' strike. Retrieved from IT's Nice That: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/craig-oldham-in-loving-memory-of-work

Macguffin Magazine

This magazine is just a magazine that surrounds itself onto one particular ordinary object that we may see in our daily life, like a pen, or a water bottle. It dives deep down into what an ordinary object can be used for, and what are the things that we may not know about it and how it affects our lives. (Wang, 2015). When reading the magazine, we may feel like we didn’t pay much attention to what is happening around us every day as we disregard a lot of stuff that we think it’s not important at all. The visuals of the magazine make readers want to read and feel it at the same time, as the ordinary object in the magazine could be something that is very personal to the reader. It goes into how can we attract the readers more and more as the readers continue to read the magazine.

Wang, G. (2015, May). Behind the scenes: MacGuffin magazine. Retrieved from Stack: https://www.stackmagazines.com/craft-making/behind-scenes-macguffin-magazine/

DRAWING UPON “Before I die I want to __”

It is basically about a lady that struggled with grief and depression after the death of someone she loved, and she found a crumbling house in her neighborhood and covered it with chalkboard and wrote “Before I die I want to __”. She did it so that she thinks maybe she can find the way to get out from her depression by looking at what other people around her think. (Eng, 2013). It provides quite an intimate and honest view of what people are struggling or enjoying now in their lives. It may even provide hopes to those that think that they couldn’t live in this world anymore. Get to know what others are thinking is important, as it may act as an action that would console someone that is in his or her down time. The thing about the line “Before I die I want to__” is that, it is so powerful that it makes people that saw this line, think very deeply about what are they doing in their life at times, and they may even feel sorry for themselves if they didn’t do what they want to do in their lifetime before they are gone from this world.

- It brings up an important question especially for those that are having suicidal thoughts, “Are you sure you want to die”, “Wouldn’t you feel sorry for those that still care about you, and want to complete something in their life with you?”.

Eng, K. F. (2013, November 5). My 10 Favorite "Beofre I Die" responses: Candy Chang celebrates the release of her book. Retrieved from TEDBlog: https://blog.ted.com/my-10-favorite-before-i-die-responses/

Design Studio Airbnb

Talking about how Design Studio has come up with Airbnb’s latest logo design, a single “A” shape that contains a lot of story in it. The team travelled to 13 different cities, and stayed with 18 different hosts, so they can get a broader view about what is Airbnb in its core. (Armin, 2014). The idea of them trying to get inspired on how the Airbnb new icon should be like is really impressive. The icon has come up with 4 principles, and they are People, Places, Love, and Airbnb. Nowadays, in order to get an icon or logo that is so easy to be recognize and very representative like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Adidas, is really hard. As it is not about just creating a logo that is simple and publish it, but more towards how much do you know about the company, and what is the meaning underlying it. It requires a lot of uses from user and also adoption so that it can truly brings out what it is for the icon.

Armin. (2014, July 17). All Your Bed are Belong to Us. Retrieved from Brand New: https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_logo_and_identity_for_airbnb_by_designstudio.php

Amnesty International – It’s not happening here, but it’s happening now

It basically trying to tell how human rights are being abused so badly with the creation of poster that is seemed not to be there at all, and image that depicts the global issues like unfair detention and child soldiers are superimposed onto the poster. (Holm, 2016). It gives the people that saw it with their eyes and let them know about what is happening around the world, with a twist of putting it in their own local setting. I think it provides a very insightful look to people on what is going on around us, maybe outside of our own countries, and what would you do if you saw something like this is happening in your own country. Deep thoughts are triggered when public look at it. Discussions were made and it gives the world a message about how human rights are always ignored in your country, or even other countries. Is it because you think you are treated rightly?

Holm, S. F. (2016, October 2016). It's Not Happening Here, But it is Happening Now. Retrieved from Goodvertising: https://goodvertising.site/its-not-happening-here-but-it-is-happening-now/

FCB Inferno “This Girl Can”

It brings out how women can do pretty much everything that men can do as well, not only sports. It is telling that females should never look down on themselves when it comes to doing something that they wanted to do. (Fleming, 2020). Women are afraid to do something they want to do from time to time especially something that is dominant with males. They wouldn’t dare to try to do it anymore as their fear of judgements would come in, thinking that they will be judged if they do so. Challenge yourself when it comes to something that you think you can’t achieve or breakthrough in your life.

Fleming, M. (2020, Jan 14). This Girl Can tackles influencers' 'unrelatable' fitness images in fifth anniversary campaign. Retrieved from MarketingWeek: https://www.marketingweek.com/sport-england-this-girl-can-five-years/

Adidas Lab

Adidas lab showcases two of their interactive activations at the event, which are “The Track” and “The Smart Ball Wall”. They are basically used to analyze the football players ability in different categories. (Kate Dawkins Studio, n.d.). This provides an insight for those players on how they can improve on their certain skills that they are still lacking in, instead of blindly training on something that they may be already mastered. I think that we should improve ourselves continuously, as we should know that there’s no perfection that we can achieve one day, but practice makes perfect.

Kate Dawkins Studio. (n.d.). Adidas Lab. Retrieved from Kate Dawkins Studio: https://katedawkinsstudio.com/adidas-lab/