"Failure to appreciate DIY/Hack Culture is to risk having professional design become as irrelevant to the contemporary landscape as record labels and network television are in the age of iTunes and YouTube."

General assumptions of UGLY:

• Question existing assumptions (i.e. is beauty intrinsically admirable?)
• Utilize intellect as well as intuition; temper your muscle memory with intellectual rigor.
• Don't rely on what you can anticipate; believe in the creative power of experimentation.
• Change: expect it, embrace it, understand it, leverage it.
• Sustainability: stop segregating it into a class of problems separate than the one you are currently working on.

Process notes for UGLY:

• Iterate Iterate Iterate: work to get it right, respect the resources required to execute your solution.
• Cut/Paste/Slice. Don't get locked in, draw upon sources from outside of your core discipline.
• Move in, out and across mediums frequently. The change in perspective will serve you and your ideas, forcing connections that might otherwise remain hidden.
• Be prepared to walk away from the problem you are tackling, but come back.

Behaviors of UGLY:

• Don't know, Do. Invest the time to vet out your ideas and assumptions.
• Listen to those you don't agree with, you'll learn more.
• Try things that scare you, you'll grow and your tool kit will as well.
• Co-opt an opposing point of view: live in the skin of another viewpoint.
• Disagree early and frequently, the debate will add depth to your solutions.

Source: http://www.core77.com/blog/featured_items/ugly_how_unorthodox_thinking_will_save_design_by_tad_toulis_11563.asp

Labels: design

If we span the space called life, we can break it down into finite problems.

Labels: mythoughts

"You can't be passionate about your job. Unless you're a musician or something."
- my professional communication module tutor

How optimistic he makes us. Us, on the brink of graduation. But, is this the sad fact? Probably. For the most of us, this is our big plan. We're going to:

1) Graduate (hopefully with a good honours)
2) Get a job that pays reasonably well
3) Switch jobs in search of greener pastures (=money)
4) Retire and
5) Finally live life (if we're still alive at step 5)

Sad to say, many of us undergraduates, living in modern day with no need to struggle as hard as our grandparents or even parents did to put food on the table, are subconsciously following in their foot paths. I say, make not their struggle for our better lives be in vain. Yes, make sure you put food at the table. But go out and pursue your dreams. Have passion in whatever you do. Be it driving a SBS bus or teaching a class. If we don't, something must have gone awry in our first-world society.

It takes courage to let go of our pursue of fame and fortune, given society's mindless focus on materialism. I applaud those who have courage to do so.

edited: On a sidenote, it's always best if we can live out our passion surrounded by those we love. *ahem*

This blog might soon become a space for me to throw in nuggets of info i'll like to refer back to one day.

Within design and other creative professions, I think there is a substantial difference between a reactive approach and a critical approach. With a reactive approach we run the risk of coming up with ideas that merely emulate “the mood of the time” without ever asking the bigger question if we even needed this product or feature in the first place. Through a critical approach we can try to challenge current paradigms, to bring in differentiated awareness and understanding, as well as aesthetic and cultural sensibility, thought leadership and a future perspective. Ultimately the energy and care we invest into this process is expressed in the emotional quality and innovation of our products.

“What is your vision for the future and how can you try to bring a little bit of that vision to life in the next product you design?”

- Juliane Trummer (Research & Strategy Manager at Teague)

http://www.design-emotion.com/2008/06/19/creating-emotional-impact-through-vision/

Labels: design, emotions

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.

— Mitch Hedberg