In other news

Hello,
As a brief introduction here are some facts:
I am 23 years old
I hate chocolate ice cream
I think I am the most avid sports fan in DAAP
I collect trivia: like John Quincy Adams was the first president born in America
I have 10/20 vision (without contacts)
I built my own Bike
I have experienced no greater joy than having something I built, work.

I think this brail watch is awesome, the form is nice, but the idea is what really makes me love it.

My goals for the quarter are:

1) Get better at sketching.

I have made modest improvement during my 2 years at daap but I can not yet produce professional level work. That bothers and frustrates me. I feel that there are 2 main things I need to do to improve. Firstly, I think I need to invest at least an hour a day to just sketching. Secondly I need to both observe and get criticism from people who can sketch well, so that I can learn what they do and how they do it.

2) Learn to create illustrator/potoshop/painter renderings

I am hoping to pick this up in class and then develop my skills further, espically with my new tablet.

3)Learn solidworks/hypershot

In my co-op experience these 2 programs have come up as things that it would be helpful to be proficient at to that end I will have to buy a new student licence for solid works and then invest the time to do the tutorials.

4) I want to develop a good design process

Currently the design process seems a bit ethereal to me, designing is a cloud of; research, sketching concepts, creating models, testing and refining. It feels like there is no clear stating or ending point for each step and the confusion just builds as I move from one to the other. I usually arrive at a good solution, but I think that if my process was better my products would be as well.

5) I want to build my design vocabulary and my concept of beauty

To create beautiful objects I feel I need to get a firmer grip on what makes an object beautiful, how to manipulate proportion and relationships so that forms are expressive. to this end I will be building a file of cool stuff and researching famous designer's work.
To sell my products I need to be able to talk about then in a sophisticated manor. So I need to build my design vocabulary, I have a few books that I want to read on the subject (starting with "universal principals of design") and I will try to pick up other information from my peers and professors.




I am a designer who likes to put function before form. My main concern with things is that they work and work well, I feel that if something works well it will naturally be enjoyable. I will also admit that I may highlight this part of design because I feel that it is my strength. I am working on developing my sense of form (as per goal 5) and as I improve perhaps I will feature form more prominently.

More later...
-Steve