designer marc newson >>

it could hardly have escaped your attention that for sometime now mark newson has been much praised in the product / design world. I have to say he seems to have a great working life and in most respects I think his work is wonderful.
watching the bbc tv programme imagine last night and again today on bbc iplayer I couldn't help thinking that even the usually carefully worded questions from alan yentob were just a bit lazy, perhaps bowing to 'celebrity' that is success.

I have to say that some of the work marc newson has produced is to me astonisingly, as a person of a smiliar age (well ok 4 years older) I remember the effect that space travel and the space race had on me and my peers while at school. I would draw and create stuff very heavily influenced by the ever increasing technology that was happening around me.

the way that newson seems to work with a driven ideal and a search for the next project is so good. I have often argued that when I left working as a 'textile designer' to work in clothing retail that I was spending more time designing while trying to manage a group of people and selling products created by other people than I did as a little designer on my own.

I think what I am trying to say is that to me designing is about so much more than answering a given problem, it is about almost everything we do. so the fact that newson works accross so many different aspects of the the design world doesn't seem at all strange to me.

design & planning >> denmark

it was while I was looking for inspiration that I found myself side tracked. I was while revisiting some textile design research online that I was led me to the web site of the danish museum of art & design. to be honest I know very little about it in fact I didn't really know of its existence until today. from my textile design past I am aware of danish fabric designers.
anyway I liked the site so decided to post something about it.

if you have some time it is well worth a look round. I was delving in to their archive looking for a particular type of printed textile design to illustrate some stuff I need for teaching with. it was worth looking as I found this and though it wasn't exactly what I wanted it made me happy.

after a couple of days >> thoughts about hospitals

I didn't think it would be easy to stay away from this blog for a couple of days good but I did. it was so good to receive positive messages whilst I was away. so regards to paula hope you had some good waves this past weekend. troy thank you for your comments. special mention goes to andrew for checking that I really do have a problem with the way things are arranged, and also feistyred for making me think even more about how children can draw and enjoy drawing without being self conscious.
any way enough catching up and to the reason for today's blog.

I as usual always try to have a look at stuff wherever I go. today I went of the main city hospital as carol had an outpatients appointment (she is well it was a positive appointment). as usual I was looking up and almost enjoying the new section of the building shown in the picture below.

the shapes and shadows of the design of this building I thought were quite pleasing. this is a view out of a waiting room where I seemed to spend a long time. as long as I looked out of the window it was ok.

if only the same amount of time and money where spent on the interior. I pitched for a job designing textiles (curtains, etc.) for a health authority but we didn't agree on some stuff so it never really got going further that initial design drawings.


I wish that some one had been employed to design the interior of this hospital. I fully understand that the work of a hospital is not the same as a 'design studio' and there are more important things to consider as far as live saving. however there is no possible doubt that people recover better and even quicker if their environment is conducive to well being.
the chairs are so depressing (even though I like the colour!) it was the wipe clean plastic covers that I didn't like. as well as the combination of pale pigment less colour scheme. the new section of the build would have been specified, and though about with a chance to change the ever lasting corridors that really do my head in. I am sure that the is a better way of using the space even making the corridors perhaps not as straight, while keeping them accessible to all the emergency needs and wide enough to make it possible to visit without compromising the privacy of an inpatient.

by the time I left the hospital I felt like the last picture (this is the entrance/exit) that of course I have played about it a bit and I hadn't even seen anyone for anything wrong with me! perhaps that is why I spent so much time looking about.

its back to 'the hub' >> I am still trying

I haven't given up on 'the hub', I have mentioned it on this blog a few times.
it is a silly idea really, not because it wouldn't work as I believe it would but it would be just too expensive, and unless created in its entirety it would not have the same impact.

I don't now why but it has continued to make me think about the use of space in an educational situation and will still for a long time yet.
I have clearly seen that students or learners of any age react to their surrounding in such different ways but one thing they all do it respect something that had been designed with their use and only their use in mind, rather than something that just looks good.

futurelab have some really good stuff on their web site but it still follows the classroom model, in the original sense. however I like their (now unfortunately closed) invitation for ideas to create a better working and study space for learners.

I think what I am trying to say is that students are led to believe that a classroom must be quiet and the teacher speaks and the students listen the process is then repeated over and over for an hour. then they move on to someone else (another teacher) doing the same thing in another room that looks the same. in the later years of education I believe it is not really preparing them for employment or further vocational study because the situation is so different to the work place.

I know when I am studying I usually like it to be quiet but I well remember not to far from the college I graduated from there was a pub full of books looking as much like an old book shop or library as it did a pub.

it did get very lively in the evening yet within that environment some of us read books, often books we would not have even given a second chance in a way that was alien to us but good fun.

that said I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not advocating student of any age drinking alcohol in classrooms.

I do think that consideration to different solutions has to be found. just consider most of the larger waterstones book shops have a costa coffee shop in them to encourage browsers to spend more time thinking reading and in the end buying, a result as far as retail.

here are some current educational space practitioners web sites to have a look at if you are interested further.
ncaltd.com
tq.com
jisc.ac.uk

to be continued....................

a bit strange >> design ?

it has been one of the days/weeks really the best way I can describe it is in the pictures I have posted today. this roundabout I love the colours and enjoy the use of colour even enjoy watching it wizz around. the trouble is that is like so much design, teaching and every day talk the ideas can be poor but people think by wrapping it up a bit you have a good product but you don't.

when style not design becomes the substance of a product it doesn't work so any amount of random colour (or non-colour) can sometimes create pleasing effects but rarely gets noticed in a positive light, strange that me a one time textile designer famous for getting a degree in colouring in would believe this! (though I have since added to my studies and become a teacher of ICT/enterprise and business studies). I have always had strong feeling for colour and perhaps more the correct use and interpretation of it. even to the extreme of thinking the apple design teams cool use of colour annoying with its smugness at times. however Jonathan Ive as an inspiration beyond compare.

I am in no way presenting a tin german-made children's toy (that has a warning on it not suitable for children to play with!) as a design classic rather that it shows that all the colour in the spectrum will not save this piece from being anything but 'nice'.

Oh dear that got a bit heavy perhaps I should write about surfing next time, or perhaps I should explore this a bit more?