Large View, Large City: Tezuka Architects’ Big Window House

In connection with a previous posting about Architect Andre Berman’s design of a private writing studio and library, I discovered this building, called the Big Window House, which also features access to a panoramic view:





Designed by Takaharu and Yui Tezuka of Tezuka Architects, the building is evidence of the team’s credo to strive for emotional and physical comfort in the architectural experience. According to Takaharu, “What we’re expounding is very simple: To be in a space where people can feel the breeze, the sunlight, the changing of the seasons, where they can forge and nourish relationships with one another. That shouldn’t be so complicated, should it?”

In contrast to the view of an open field and wilderness from within Berman’s writing studio, the Big Window House opens to a park and an urban composition. I recall mentioning to a friend that I mostly saw a parking lot through the window of where I used to live. To which he replied, “At least you have a view.” He was absolutely correct. Having a view is precious. Better than opacity.

Related: Tezuka Architects’ slideshow of their Big Window House

Design and the Play Instinct: Lessons from Toymakers

While design is a serious academic study and professional practice, its goal is often to simply amuse and delight. That was apparent at this year’s Toy Fair in New York City, which included some 7,000 new entrants. Over the course of four days, more than 20,000 attendees saw a spread of 100,000 products covering 350,000 square feet of exhibit space. That’s a lot of playthings—in this case, seriously designed playthings. A few statements from some exhibitors helped explain how they design products and services for people:

“This is all about the out-of-the-box experience.”
Said Michael McNally, Senior Brand Relations Manager for LEGO Systems, Inc. The way something designed subsequently gets packaged, unveiled and ultimately perceived and used by its audience is a big part of the solution itself.

Danny Wen of Iridesco, a maker of web applications, expressed this about the unboxing experience: “When it comes to web apps, the equivalent of the physical un-boxing is the first-time user experience. Despite the lack of physical packaging when it comes to web apps, we still need to pay attention to a positive experience in the virtual un-boxing. In the web app world, there is no ‘ah-ha’ moment that comes with holding the product in hand, so we focus on the immediate user interaction.”

Though web apps are the focus here, striving for an appealing experience before and at the point of engagement is a welcome reminder.



“People treat toys like they treat food.”
This was according to Robert Thungamen, founder of Green Toys. His sentiment reflects the increasing sensitivity to what literally makes a product. The appearance and presentation—the visual composition—matters as much as the raw materials, be they wood, cement or pixels. This is evident in the Tea Set (above) by Green Toys. It’s made out of recycled plastic (from milk jugs) and other environmentally friendly materials.

“People are looking for toys that they played with
when they were a child.”
Said by Ray Dallavecchia of Poof-Slinky Toys, maker of the classic Slinky, the power of memory is never to be under- or overestimated. A memorable product or service is always the goal, from “pre-sales” to “point of purchase” to “maintenance.” A design’s lifespan depends on a performance that’s memorable in a meaningful and positive way.

“People want basic toys.”
Reported by NPR, this was another theme at the fair. It’s not a new one, but it’s magnified in bad economic times. What do the previous mentions of Lego and the Slinky have in common? They’re simple. Simplicity can be both attractive and profitable. The topic of design reflecting its time is an ongoing debate: Complex times equal complex products; or complex times counter complex products. Being uncomplicated is a very strong desire, then and especially now.

The crafting of toys provides re-lessons for designers, of all ages.

Related:

• Essay Design and the Play Instinct (1965) by Paul Rand
• Gunther Kilsheimer, designer of the iconic Toys ‘R’ Us logo, passed away on August 8, 2009.

Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Community Activist Designer Justin Kemerling

The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative that describes and captures a designer’s perspective in a succinct format. Established in 2004, The Match Factory “was designed to be a place for creative expression. A place for people to share their passions, opinions and projects, and to exist in a space together where they can learn from each other and grow in exciting new directions.” One of The Match Factory’s affiliated projects is Power To The Poster, “a graphic design democracy project” that addresses the issues of our time. The link between these two projects of design activism is Justin Kemerling who pursues the role of “community activist designer.” His thinking about design strives toward the goal of common good and positive social change. Read more about his insightful take on design and designing.

Previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Designer and Singer Jussi Gamache

A Recent Design Lecture, An Opportunity to Doing It Better

I recently lectured to a class at Harrington College of Design. The class dealt with “Design Issues” and was taught by Alma Hoffmann. I was referred to her by a mutual colleague, Jeffrey Jensen, who happens to also be a fan of Design Feast. After my poor presentation to a “Design Ecology” class at the Art Institute of Chicago, I had no inclination to do the “lecture thing.” But when the opportunity came to present to Alma’s class, it was a strong hint to reconcile my bloated overpass to the “Design Ecology” students.

Before, I aimed for broad coverage of topics, resulting in a thin lecture and diluted focus. This time, I strived for a compact set of topics that were essentially tips. Tips on being and staying creative; some about being and staying professional. Graphic designer Frank Chimero said, “Tips are easy. And shallow.” Frank’s absolutely right. This was why personal experience backed up each of my tips. The sole hierarchy dictating these tips was when I wrote them. Tips can drip a lot. They were kept to a handful such as these:

• Honesty is the best policy.
• Not engaging the web is stupid.
• Defending your thinking is hard.
• Referrals rule.
• The cool people are those who build an audience
  and care about them.
• Good designers write.
• Honoring your spouse, parents and loved ones is more important than anything.

The format of tips enables a presentation. It proved to be in an ice-breaker in what to share in a lecture. Making them sound enlightened was an easy temptation. I gave into it, resisted, then backed out and honed in on ones that were worded in a straightforward way.

To supplement my presentation, I brought along one of my rare design books for show-and-tell. It never hurts to bring in presentation-props. In this case, the prop was Bauhaus teacher Herbert Bayer’s “World Geo-Graphic Atlas” published in 1956. The book’s wealth of information-design demonstration mesmerized the audience. Like the Q&A following the lecture, the object provided another Q&A in itself.

Afterwards, I solicited feedback directly from the audience. One student replied: “Personally I thought you did a great job. Thorough reinforcement of the concepts and practices you presented.” Alma expressed, “It was WONDERFUL!!!”

The only gripe dealt with my pace of delivering the presentation: “…you pushed right through your 10 tip title screens, was trying to keep notes and some of them just flashed before I could get them down.” Slowing down is hard once one gets into starting the presentation and talking it through. I’ll try to treat transitions as pauses in the next opportunity to speak to an audience who proved captivated this time.

Speaking of the audience, Alma’s class consisted of only two students. I assumed that there would be more. But I’m glad that this assumption was debunked. No matter the size of the audience, whether the members consist of two or two thousand, each deserves the presenter’s complete attention. One’s lecture, including the Q&As and props, is only a success when the audience is a success.

Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Designer and Singer Jussi Gamache

The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative that describes and captures a designer’s perspective in a succinct format. While listening to an episode of National Public Radio’s “All Songs Considered,” I was hooked to the electropop sound (which appears as bonus tracks in video games Guitar Hero and Rock Band) of Boston-based indie band Freezepop whose lead vocalist is Liz Enthusiasm, the pseudonym of Jussi Gamache. She is also a graphic designer with not only a portfolio of music but also art direction. Read more about her insightful take on design and designing.

Previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Designer/Researcher Jaime Barrett

DesignThoughtLeader.com Recently Refreshed!

After the launch of design job board Design Engage, I went on to my next new year’s resolution for 2009: Converting my static site for my self-published book Thought Leadership by Design into a blog.

In contrast to how I began Design Engage, no story for this web-based project. It was straight dive to getting the site into a new blogging state. I sketched what this could be:



With the help of the designer-developer search engine CollabFinder (a web-designer search resource called Haystack has been launched by 37signals), I discovered Megan Coleman, who specializes in designing and customizing blogs. Recognizing the design nerdery of WordPress, I had already settled on using this platform and was on the search for a template to modify. A minimally-looking template. This wasn’t an easy search. I was pleased to discover the WP theme Statement. Nothing slick, it was plain and clean.

The blog postings are thoughts on design. One detail that I take pride in is the rotation of displayed quotation marks accenting each design-related quote:



I recently added Hazen Sans Light designed by Shawn Hazen and plan to incorporate more quote marks of other typefaces. This is proving to be a good way to inject some appreciation for typeface design into the interface.

Out of curiosity, including learning from working on Design Engage, I wanted to use a web-based organization tool. Before the project’s start, I was using Backpack to manage information for my blog writing projects. A newly shared page (detail below) was created in Backpack to keep track of interface iterations, manage the project’s to-dos and document anything else. Megan used Basecamp to schedule the project’s goals and timeline.



Working on a renewed Design Thought Leader site with Megan was a good experience. Though she was on vacation when I contacted her in December 2008, she replied. Her prompt responsiveness made a very good first impression, even before meeting in person the following month. And it was a rapid project. Within a month-and-a-half, the refreshed site of Design Thought Leader was up and running.

Design Thought Leader is an extension of the thoughts on design section at Design Feast. It’s fun collecting how people describe design and designing. So many insightful nuggets spanning the disciplines of design and lots to learn. Served regularly, one design thought at a time.

Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Designer/Researcher Jaime Barrett

The Designer’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast initiative that describes and captures a designer’s perspective in a succinct format. It was the book “Three Big Questions,” from motivational speaker David Phillips, which led me to Jaime Barrett. She designed the publication about finding one’s mission, vision and purpose—and her portfolio of craft and culture quickly had me hooked. She worked at strategic design consultancy Ziba Design and is a Designer/Researcher at design office Pinch, both in Portland, Oregon. Read more about her insightful take on design and designing.

Previous Designer’s Quest(ionnaire): Graphic designer Lottie Crumbleholme

Design and Metals: Steampunk, Braun, The High Line, Architect Renzo Piano’s Modern Wing

In December 2008, I began writing about the intersection of design and metals. Taking a cue from Eric Baker’s sequences of found images that he regularly posts on the blog Design Observer, here’s an array of clickable images from recent stories concerning metal as a design medium:

Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Karen Templer of Readerville, Note:books and Salon

The Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire) is a Design Feast Initiative. In contrast to the Designer’s Quest(ionnaire), the focus here is on those engaged in the blog medium—why they do it and what tools they use. This sixth installment features Karen Templer, web designer and developer who is also a writer and editor. She created online community Readerville (2000–2009) for “readers, writers, librarians, publishers, critics and anyone else who loves books” and its companion service Note:books which was renamed Noting:books, under new management. She currently is on staff at e-zine Salon and blogs at Collapse and Delight. Her sustained web-based publishing experience may help your entrance into the blogosphere or further inform your current work in it:

Why did you create a web site of regular entries?
With Readerville, I had for years been listing interesting links on the front page and posting those (and far more of them) to the forum, where everything was fodder for discussion. In the past couple of years, it began to make more sense to do that in blog form, to take advantage of the archiving and permalinks and so on, and to move a part of the dialogue onto the front page. Three years ago, when my husband and I began renovating an old house, I set up another blog, which I call Unfrumpy, to document the process on behalf of faraway friends and family who wanted to see what we were doing, and to have a record of it for ourselves. And more recently I started a more idiosyncratic little blog at Posterous, called Collapse and Delight, where I try to post things I’m currently thinking about or inspired by.

What web-based solution did you select and why?
Last summer, I rebuilt Readerville using ExpressionEngine, and I loved learning the template language and working with it. It allowed for an incredible amount of freedom in how the site was structured and styled and archived. Unfrumpy is a barely-customized TypePad blog. And part of the inspiration for the Posterous blog was that I wanted to try out Posterous, which is completely brilliant. (It says a lot that there’s zero customization available and I don’t mind in the least.) I am keen to learn WordPress because I routinely hear great things about it and would like to know how it compares, from a developer’s perspective, to EE.

What is your definition of a good blog and what are three good blogs that you frequently visit?
For me, a good blog is one that really represents the personality (or personalities) behind it and that makes me strive to be smarter and/or more creative. So the blogs that really make me envious are not any of the big powerhouses but smaller, more personal blogs of smart/creative people. Examples off the top of my head being Peter Mendelsund (Jacket Mechanical), who makes me miss working in the graphic design trenches, and Katie Rich (Katie Did), who makes me want to dust off my sewing machine. And then there are blogs like that of Mark Athitakis (American Fiction Notes), who is not only smart and pleasant and well-read and tuned-in, but has come up with a fantastic taxonomy for his posts so that they add up to a tremendous index of author-related content from all over the web.

How do you create content for your blog?
I’ve been spoiled by Posterous and want to use only it right now. To create a post, all you do is type an email: your subject line is the post title and the message is the post. You can drag photos into the body of the message or include them as attachments. If you attach multiple images, it automatically creates an ingenious little gallery. If you include a YouTube link, it automatically embeds the video. All sorts of things like that. And you can set it up to auto-post to your other blogs or Twitter or just about anywhere you like. You determine where all it gets posted by the address you send the email to. Everything in life should be so simple and elegant.

So these days it’s a pretty simple process. I find something I want to share or comment on, I whip up an email, and I hit send.

How do you stay organized and motivated to contribute to your blog?
I use Evernote to keep all of my thoughts organized—not just blog-related thoughts—and motivation is rarely a problem. For me, the problem is time. And with Readerville having run its course and us not working on the house at all right now, the two blogs that have been my focus no longer are. Which leaves me trying to define for myself (after the fact) what it is I want to do with Collapse and Delight, my Posterous blog. Especially in the era of Twitter and Evernote. I think a lot about what I really want to share that can’t be shared on Twitter; what I really want to record publicly rather than just save to Evernote for myself; that sort of thing. So I struggle with that more than with organization or motivation.

For those aspiring to make a web site composed of regular thoughts and/or images, what is your advice?
Keep it simple. Too many people try to do too much and wind up not being able to sustain it.

And similarly, don’t post just for the sake of posting. I cringe every time I see some “pro” telling people they have to post a lot or they’ll lose readers or page rank or whatever. I’m one who thinks it’s more important for posts to be useful or interesting than it is for them to be frequent. I’d rather visit a blog once a week and have it be really worth the visit than to see five or six or 32 new posts in a day that aren’t really worth my time. If you take a few days between posts, I’ll have plenty of other stuff to look at in the meantime. And if, when you do post, it’s interesting, I’m sure to stay subscribed to your feed, no matter what. Of course, if it’s meant to be any variety of professional venture as opposed to a personal blog, the pressure to be interesting more often will be greater.

Hopefully you have a clear idea what it is you want to accomplish with your blog and good reason to believe you’ll have something interesting to offer on a regular basis.

What is your quest in blogging?
I guess I’d say it’s to respond to inspiring (or exciting or infuriating or provocative) things out in the world and bring them to other people’s attention. To see what we each think.

Read the previous Blogger’s Quest(ionnaire): Austin Kleon, Writer who Draws

Growing Design Webliography DesignFeast.com now has Search

The headline may sound lackluster, but it took awhile for Design Feast to be equipped with a way to search its content. I simply didn’t know how to do this myself when starting the site in 1999. Likewise, content was thin back then, as I began the curation of noteworthy, web-based content related to design.

Design Feast currently showcases 1,503 sites, further supplemented with original content like the Designer’s Quest(ionnaire)—making a search capability sorely needed. As a friend related in a past email:

You need a search function on Design Feast ;-)

I’m glad to finally say that the newly added (top bar) search makes it possible not only to comb through Design Feast, but also to visit affiliated sites.



My web-developer buddy Minna Kim Mazza, who co-built the Design Engage job board site, also built this new search capability. I’m really satisfied with the way it turned out and hope you will be, too. The plan is to carry it over to the Design Feast’s upcoming redesign. As Design Feast’s content grows, I’ve been thinking how to improve the site’s interface and interaction. So a redesign is currently in progress behind the scenes, with the goal of launching a refreshed version within the next few months. More about this in upcoming posts. Speaking of redesign, there’s been a lot of that going around lately: from Design Observer’s site to National Public Radio’s site to the site of the LA Times.

Thanks to everyone who visits Design Feast! Rest assured that future Design Feast visits will continue to reward visitors with a growing collection of diverse design content, creative voices and projects, as well as improving features and functions.