The Future is Now

So Christmas was pretty cool got a new fitted, picked up a couple of pairs of Nikes, and I was totally surprised when I got this iPod touch from my parents. I hope everyone had a good Christmas and at least three people that read this throw up on new years like some weird chain letter. HAPPY HOLIDAYS BITCHES!

Braaap brap brap

I know I blog in groups, but I have to mull things over before I present them to the three people that read this. Its kind of an ebb and flow.

I just wanted to use this post to say I completely intend to continue to expose my thoughts about design and my future career to the public (aka maybe ten kids in my studio that keep up on this). I think a lot about this kind of thing, mostly in a narcissistic way as opposed to big design thoughts, but its my chosen career and I need to come to terms with where I want to fit in the grand design scheme of things.

One other thing, I really don't like notcot but i want to stay up on it (or abreast of current trends as those on the other side would say), so if anyone can hit me with some links to designish things I would be super siked. OMG thanks!

Desk of the Day is Dead! Long Live Desk of the Day.

So it was a while between my desk of the day posts, and it will probably be longer until I actually have a desk to blog about, because I'M ON FREAKIN' CHRISTMAS BREAK. Seriously I am siked to chill for a grip.

I think I learned a lot about doing work this quarter. I will be honest and say I was not really enthusiastic about this HP project, I really do appreciate them coming to us, but at the same time it's not my focus as a designer, but I showed up to play at the crit. Decent model, decent board, decent story, in essence I didn't embarrass myself or the college. I learned how to complete a project I wasn't super interested without ever being forced to pull an all nighter and I showed up with decent work. This is something I am wildly proud of. My whole education it was been extremely apparent which projects I have been honestly interested in and which ones I am just doing to pass a class and with this one I could trick some folks.

So on to the future and the chair project. I don't have any idea I am super interested in, but I want to use the computer project as a sort of barometer. I have said that its something I think I did well on and hide my disinterest, so if a chair is something I'm interested in I want to destroy it. When this HP project and my chair are compared I want it to be blatant what I truely have a passion for. I WILL LAY WASTE TO SPRING QUARTER.

Desk of the Day 12.10.08

Been a while but I've been a busy beaver.

Bout it Bout it

Cant believe it took this long for something like this to come out.

Bored and Blogging

Meanwhile, The Washington Post celebrated the album's cultural themes and emotional honesty, calling it "an information-age masterpiece about falling into the depths of loneliness while a nation of millions checks your blog for updates," - wikipedia

Before you decide you hate Yeezy's new album you should listen to it with headphones as loud as it goes.

Also Air Yeezy's March 2009 - biggest tongue wins

Desk of the Day 11.26.08

Ramen Noodles, Powder prints, not sitting at my own desk (k-lo's). Looks like its time to bust out my dirty pants.

That time of year

Firing up the sublet dance. Let me know if you know anyone in need.

Gettin' Growed.

DIGBMX.COM EXCLUSIVE: REFRESH EDIT >>

I'm glad BMX has finally started to reach the artistic level that skating has been at for a minute. (Only a matter of time before Spike Jonze jumps in)

Goooooaaaals: Update

So I just looked back at my first post in which I discussed my goals for the quarter. I didn't really accomplish any of them. AT ALL. bummer.

I mean I did refresh my modeling skills a bit, at least I remember how navigate Rhino again, but other than that not so much. I originally wanted to focus this quarter on hand skills, bust out a bunch of dank marker sketches and that kind of thing. I also wanted to get a job in the action sports industry on the west coast for this winter. Pretty much none of this went down. I did way more modeling than sketching, I got a job in Wisconsin doing, "disposable paper products", and I didn't get anything done for my small start of In Gold We Trust. Oh well I did find out you can totally laser cut t-shirts so that cool.

This isn't to say that the quarter was bad or worthless. I do have a new strategy for sketching, I have posted about it before (kind of giving up on the traditional id style a little bit). I also have been concentrating a lot more on my styling and really trying to learn to make exciting and desirable minimalist designs.

I also learned some far less tangible things and for this I have to thank my teacher Mike Roller, who just won second in the Bombay Sapphire glass competition. Congrats! He has shown me two really important things. First that my career is mine and I can make it whatever I want it to be (I'm going to be a fashionista) and that is totally just as valid as someone who works at a major firm or something. Its my dreams damn it. The other thing I took away from his class is to be more accepting of what I deem as bullshit. Talking and explaining my ideas and reasoning behind my design decisions is definitely one of my strengths, but I sort of hate it. There are so many "famous" designers that just spout of this ridiculous bullshit. I see this and in a effort to not be like them I don't think I fully articulate my ideas, this is something I will work on in the future. Developing a voice that I feel is an appropriate mix of telling the story behind a product without sounding like Kareem Rashid. WERD.

George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

After a few previous award show outbursts, I'm proud of Kanye. It was just an AMA but still, he gave his award for Best Male Rapper to Lil Wayne.



But I think he may do a lot of drugs

USA! USA! USA!

JAY-Z TO PERFORM AT OBAMA INAUGURATION

Fuck me sideways. I know I have only been alive for a hand full of presidents and the only ones I have any memory of have been named Bush or Clinton, but its so wildly refreshing to feel that someone in government is on the same page as me. For the last eight years I have felt like I was really out of touch with the direction and attitude of the country and its leadership. I don't know if Obama can or will really fix that much because we are in a pretty rough spot, but it's nice to feel like I might not need to leave the country for once. If only Tupac were alive to see this.

Desk of the Day 11.24.08

Minor Internet Celebrity Ryan Demita. You might have heard of him.

Desk of the Day 11.21.08

Got my paper hustle on. Oh man.

Teapot Dome Scandal

Can I has your oil?

It cost me my Daapspace, but totally worth it.

I made this big ass squid with my roommate Zach. Consider it an apology for my previous wordy post.

Two Tickets to the Gun Show

My strengths as a designer huh, I pretty much loathe questions like this, such a stereotypical interview question. Actually I don't think I have ever been asked a question like that in an interview, maybe once with Red Group or something but thats it. Thats probably designs biggest strength, not asking lame interview questions that don't really say anything. "My greatest weakness is that I care to much, OMG I totes killed it". Eff that noise!

Anyway I think my strengths as a designer are more of the intangible sort, which is turning out to be a tough sell. I don't really know exactly what this means but I think that I have a strong ability to resolve conflicts between a given brief and my personal aesthetic. I'm a big believer in the idea that every design problem has a solution that satisfies the brief as well as the designer personally no matter how divergent they first seem.

As far as my current career goals go I think that having my fingers to the pulse of the American youth zeitgeist is a great strength, again a tough sell. You can't really say something like that in an interview, well maybe you could, but I don't think I could do it without laughing. But in all seriousness I have always been sort of a big picture thinker (uhhg word vomit) and I think that really helps me digest all the design/fashion stuff I peruse on a daily basis into something that I can use to inform my designs without blatantly ripping people off. I'm bout to be on some next level shit.

Desk of the Day 11.19.08

Desk vacation, image courtesy of El Louis.

Desk of the Day 11.18.08

Tea Time. Also my highly modified skullcandies.

My steez.

I really like Scott Wilson, of MNML, like total design boner for this guy. The work and process at MNML is so ballin' ugly squiggly sketches that still kind of look cool, hyper realistic v-ray renders, bangin' products. This is pretty similar to the process we have been working on in Des Com. So now my workflow is going to go a little something like this (dj drop that beat):

Gross sketches that show all my amazing thoughts and ideas.
Quick 3d models-work out proportions and scale
Photoshop overlays to make really sweet interm sketches
Sweet Ass Renders

Stealing Scott Wilson's process will also help me achieve my main career goal of having Kanye West blog about one of my designs.

Desk of the Day 11.17.08

Still hustlin' for a job for winter.

Desk of the Day 11.13.08

Turnin' ish on its head.

Desk of the Day 11.12.08

Desk of the Day 002- Tea Kettles in Full Effect

T

Desk of the Day 001

So I'm going to post a photo of my desk in studio everyday. Just for fun. We will start things off with a bang, three for one style.

John Ariosa, You might have heard of him.

Seriously the kid throws down harder than you. Peep on his storyboarding/concept art over on his blog, which I'm sure you all already know about considering the only people that read this are the same class. But lets take this time to focus on how is storyboard made you feel bad about yourself.

Look how much energy this board has and cry in your beer, seriously. We could all learn a thing or two about storyboarding from j dot. He showed up to play on this one.

Flashdance

I mean drives, wanted to post some class work, check out these ballin Nike flash drives (Nike? I know pretty uncreative).

*pretend there are flash drives here*


This assignment was a good experiment for me. I have been drawing over 3d models for awhile, but this was the first time I have tried to use it to make really baller sketch renders as opposed to final really detailed images. It was interesting, and I totally failed at making baller intermediate sketches but I'm psyched on my final designs and whats better than failing cause how else do you learn?

Additionally keep voting for my shoe, I am right on the edge of qualifying. So vote early and vote often (like every single day. I want in the freakin' finals.)

You aren't done voting.

Just finished my entry to the design your own 5950 hat on dont panic. If you've ever had your Air Max blow out, this hat goes out to you. Everyone should go register and vote for my entry here.

Another Designer that inspires me...

GOD

You may have heard of him, creator of heaven and earth and stuff. I don't really mean to get religious or anything, but whats more inspiring than life and the world around you? I am always cruisin' the information superhighway on cop patrol and there are tons of products that are the coolest things ever and I must own them, but when I start to design things I tend to try to erase the things I have seen and concentrate on producing new ideas. So I think in this sense very few designers influence me, but life and the world are pretty amazing things so why not vibe off of them. Werd.

A designer that inspires me is...

Salvador Dali

Seriously, how weirdly cool is this table and chair set. People are always telling me how design needs to be very concrete and technical, defining usage scenarios, capitalizing on emerging tech et al. And here comes the kooky old guy who decided hell, i want to make a table with people legs for legs, and I want it GOLD. That totally rules. I'm not trying to say that all that "hard" design isn't important; its totally necessary, but I feel like the way to separate yourself (because honestly you can teach almost anyone that methodology, DAAP is proof) from the rest of the design world is do things that no one has seen before. So I guess what I find so inspiring about Salvador Dali the designer is that he's a breath a fresh air and a reminder that design can be intuitive and fun and probably a little silly. Thats the part I really like. He also had a really long name: Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol.

The future is now...

I recently watched the Al Gore vehicle, An Inconvenient Truth and I must say it was better than expected. I mean the Vice President is kind of a dry dude so I think I was justified in being skeptical but I gotta say, it freaked me out, seriously the most terrifying diagrams ever.

So when thinking about future technologies, the green technologies that will help continue our existence on the planet would have to be sort of high on the list. The following is my short list of green technologies that will keep you from getting burned up like the dinosaurs:

1) Piezoelectric Tiles
Featured in the several of the finalists for the 2007 Next Generation Design Contest. These tiles would be placed in public spaces such as airports and other high traffic areas. They convert the pressure from a footstep into electricity using the same principles as a guitar pickup. How cool is that? They don't generate a ton of energy, but if you placed them in a high traffic area they could power all the lighting in a building. There is no silver bullet, so a combination of technologies like this could help ween our oil addiction.

2) Phytoremediation
This one is pretty sci-fi. The idea is to use plants to suck up soil contamination at Superfund sites and then use the plants as bio mass fuel. It has been in use in several places since as early as 2003. Combining this with genetic modifications of existing vegetation provides a powerful, non invasive method of cleaning up contaminated soil and water. How do you like dem apples?

3) Nuclear Power
A lot of people are on the fence about nuclear power, specifically what to do with nuclear waste. This is pretty reasonable, but we already have a strong understanding of the tech and its applications unlike hydrogen power or other solutions, we just need to work on that last step. I see something similar to phytoremediation, where some sort of organism is designed to break down the nuclear waste into more basic, less dangerous components. I see the future as a new nuclear age, but I think I may just want a flying car.


So there is my list. Whats yours?

No one on the corner has swagger like us

New portfolio, in stores now:

Your such a tease and other omg moments

This week I will discuss movie trailers, I think because we are working on portfolio teasers we are supposed to think about trailers cause its pretty much the same thing as a teaser just cooler, and way more expensive.

My favorite trailer of late would have to be the when Warner Bros. released the first six minutes of The Dark Knight as a trailer. You can check it out here.

After I saw that and how intense it was without even seeing batman. Releasing a short piece of the movie as they did shows a ton of confidence in the work they have done. No cheesy movie guy voice over, no excess explosions, basically this is the movie try not to be pumped.

Awesome.

Supreme Supreme.

So thinking about strong brand identities this morning, and I gotta say its harder to find an industry more concerned with this than streetwear, its pretty much all that matters. I mean honestly a shirt is a shirt only thinking makes it cool. This brings me to the meat and potatoes of this particular post. The creators and purveyors of all things coppable , SUPREME!


There are probably a million skate shops in NYC so not only did Supreme manage to totally jump out of their niche to achieve a ton of mainstream success, they have been top dogs of the streetwear scene for over a decade, an almost unheard of feat.

Supreme is so successful at this point their brand identity doesn't rely on anything besides their status as the ballinest shit out (and a really nice sans serif logo with red). So that pretty much rules.

That which doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

So I have been working a lot on my portfolio the past few months, reformatting, back sketching, etc.

I think a great way to improve any part of your portfolio is to get feedback. There are a ton of places online that will help you out you just need to put up your work. Additionally don't be a dick when people critique your work, if you don't agree with the advice then don't take it but getting into some stupid e-fight, well no one wins.

A short list:
core77 portfolio forum
coroflot
product design forums portfolio forum
id sketching forums (home to 4 designers that are better than you)

I strongly suggest posting work on any of the above forums, its a good way to introduce your work to the id community at large without a job hanging in the balance.

Umm Hello?

Hi internet, I'm Alex. Its great to meet you!

I'm a fourth year student of industrial design at the University of Cincinnati. I have had a few internships, one a Bose and two at New Balance, both delightful experiences that a recommend to any student.

This quarter/year I am really looking to step up all of my skills especially sketching with markers and I should definitely brush up on my almost non existent modeling skills.

As far as career goals go if you want to call them that I really want to check out the west coast, maybe thats not really a career goal so much, but I am wicked sick of the east coast. More concrete or maybe responsible goals are focused around getting a job at Specialized (which coincidentally is in cali) or Vans, but I would rather do something that isn't shoes, I'm worried my general design skills are slipping.

I also want to start a really small apparel company called In Gold We Trust, but its slow going.

Thats pretty much it, I'm pumped about this quarter.