LonelyStreets.com
New Portfolio
I’ve revised my web portfolio - giving it a new and improved look and adding some work (and details about old work). I’ll probably continue to tweak it, but I’m pretty happy with what’s there now. I actually did the entire design and development (learning Javascript and jquery in the process) in three days. The final part of that was a 32 hour sprint - that’s a really long time without sleep. Take a look and let me know what you think:
February 25th, 2009
Posted by Paul in CMU, Communication Design, Design Process, thesis | 1 Comment »
Designing History
History is one of those things that most folk take for granted, but which most folk also realize is largely subjective (even if they may not think about it much). I remember that in my own primary education, the Viet Nam war was never mentioned. There was usually a chapter devoted to it towards the end of my textbooks, but we somehow never got that far. As an undergraduate student, I once took a class on the history of US diplomacy with a great visiting professor at Grinnell named T. Mills Kelly. Prof. Kelly assigned us a paper taking a stance on whether or not the US’s decision to drop The Bomb on Japan in WWII was correct. I no longer remember what I argued, but I do remember that the question led me to exploring the “wicked problem” that was “how the heck do we end this war?”
Wicked problems are, in fact, what writing history is really all about. Time mists things in ambiguity, and written accounts can never be objective because they were written by people. When I write a historical account, then, I am designing a perception of the past so that I can communicate it to others. This is not to say that one should fail to be entirely thorough when researching a history, but the form of language means that ambiguity will always exist in text. If I leave one thing out, but include another, I have made a design decision. Hopefully, I have done my research and, as with any design, am making an appropriate and defensible choice, but it is a subjective choice nonetheless.
I find this interesting, in part, because of the implications it has for modeling the domain of design (something I’ll be doing in an independent study this semester). Can I argue that all of the social sciences are within the domain of design because they focus on communicating ideas, which is a big part of what design is about? I have often struggled with these sorts of questions because they sound arrogant to me - I don’t like to believe that designers have the right to strut around saying that they can jump right into any other field and improve the way things are done. On the other hand, I feel passionately that design and design thinking have much to offer other fields. Most realms of study and activity can only benefit from cross-pollinating with other areas of inquiry.
I’ve been thinking about all this because of the negative reactions my article for Interactions has gleaned. I have yet to write a formal response (though I will do so soon), but in the meanwhile I can’t help but say “I told you so” to myself. Writing a short history for a magazine meant leaving a lot of things out, and I have unsurprisingly angered a few folk who felt that I made the wrong design decisions with my history. In a way, this makes me happy though - any dialog around the history of sound in computing is better than none because we have so much to learn from those that have come before us.
January 7th, 2009
Posted by Paul in CMU, Communication Design, Design Thinking | 1 Comment »
More Bunny
And just because the CMU design site got me thinking about Cycloptobunny and I needed a reason to play around in Illustrator CS4 anyway (just got it and installed it last week - thanks again Adobe Design Acheivment Awards!)…
November 6th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design | No Comments »
A Little Random Photoshop Art
Just playing around, taking a break from my reading…
September 1st, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design | No Comments »
More Bunnies!
I just can’t hop! I mean stop!
I introduce to you…
CYCLOPTO-BUNNY!!!
July 18th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design | 1 Comment »
Bunnies!
So I stumbled across the Bunny Mandala the other day while looking for interesting information visualizations to inspire me at work, and ever since I just can’t stop sketching bunnies! I love ‘em! And tonight I came home and made some in Illustrator. So here they are:
July 16th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design | No Comments »
Fun With 3D
People have been telling me about Illustrator’s 3D abilities for a while, but I’ve just got around to playing with them. Fun fun and pretty pictures.
April 7th, 2008
Posted by Paul in Communication Design | No Comments »
Data Viz
This may not be the most innovative data viz you’ve ever seen, but I think the following visualization I did of my musical listening habits for my Mapping and Diagramming course is quite nice, if I do say so myself. Karen Moyer even complemented my colors! (Mind you, this was made for print, so the screen colors aren’t right at all). The viz shows one week of how, where, and when I listen to music.
March 3rd, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU, Communication Design, Visualizations | No Comments »
Maps!
I’m taking a really cool class called Mapping and Diagramming with Prof. Karen Moyer. For our first assignment, Karen asked us to redesign a terrible map she found in the design building (many years ago). The map was put up to announce the closing of one of the main exits from the building, and looked like this:
Note that, among other things, this map is of the third floor of the building! It also didn’t have any exits labeled, though you can tell where they would be from my scribbling. I think I was pretty successful in fixing things up. Take a look:
A few notes on process: I chose a gray background because the sign would be hung on a white wall, and I wanted it to stand out. I didn’t want it to look too good though (because it will be in the Design building, where things that look really good are, as a rule, announcements of speakers and presentations), so I left a white border, as if it came out of an office printer. I also chose Helvetica for the font because we are used to seeing the big ‘H’ on street signs and other such official notifications. Finally, I included the street and UC building in order to offer context and orientation to people who are less good at spatially positioning themselves.
January 26th, 2008
Posted by Paul in CMU, Communication Design, Typography | No Comments »