Sustainable Innovation by Nathan Shedroff

What’s a more sustainable world look like?
What’s a more meaningful world look like?
What’s a post-consumer world look like?

These questions do not have definite answer,but can be best answered through a Socratic seminar. The main purpose is to compile potential solutions that people make and come to the conclusion. Nowadays, there is a constant race and competition for the best product. However, in order for innovation to take into effect, there must be an incentive for designers to partake in new investments. According to Nathan Shedroff, the service to users is part of the sustainability principles. The next generation is the driving force behind the technological advances and design systems. Designer should design something today that will benefit the future of tomorrow.

Nathan Shedroff show the tools and tips that designers need in order to create a more sustainable design. He states that to understand the three questions, designers need to understand other sectors of our society such as the business and sustainability sectors. Designer have to learn about economics, finance, ecology in order to come up with sustainable solutions that are able to implement universally to all the different sectors of society.

Nathan Shedroff is convinced that the answer to our problems lie in the hands of designers. Shedroff believes that designers are creative thinkers and creative thinking is what needed to change the way the world run.

*Image from http://www.nathan.com/thoughts/RethinkingConsumption.pdf

Design Objectified

Gary Hustwit's documentary film, "Objectified", is about the ideas, processes and people behind the industrial designs. The film addresses the problem with standardizing designs for the public while maintaining sustainability also. It focus on how designers explain the impact of the objects on consumers’ lives, and what design really is about.

The standardization of designs gives the designer a big picture of what to produce, but it does not lead to an advancement in design. Soon, unique objects become ordinary and people will no longer find any significance in them.

The film begins by stating that initially objects speak to the designer that created it. But then, it is not really about the designer but the people that interact with the object. This interaction reveals that the content of an object varies according to each and every person.

The film shows the viewer that designers have an important job of perceiving the future and anticipating what the consumers will want. Objectified explores and makes obvious of the question that all designers need to ask themselves today, how do we design to better the future?

*Image from http://www.typeneu.com/v2/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/objectified.jpg

Lomography: A picture is a thosand words

Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, "happy accidents," and alternative film processing are often considered part of the Lomographic Technique.


The Lomography motto is 'don't think, just shoot.' A true Lomograph is a photo using a Russian-made Lomo camera, known for its poor lens quality, inconsistent exposures, and occasional light leaks. Chance or 'happy accidents' frequently make the image. The photographer is the designer of the photo.

Users are encouraged to take a lighthearted approach to their photography, and use these techniques to document everyday life.Lomography is all about having fun while taking good pictures. The picture does not have to be perfect. The color and the lighting can be off and unnatural, even the angle can be awkward. The picture will still be interesting to look at even if everything is off.


Just take your lomography camera with you everyday and anytime and capture the moment that can last forever.

*Images from http:// lomography.com

Bauhaus' Inspiration

The Bauhaus movement was founded with the idea of creating a total work of art in which arts are brought together. The Bauhaus style is one of the most influential currents in modern design. The Bauhaus had a strong influence in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design , etc.

Walter Gropius, a German architect, started the Bauhaus movement in Weimer, Germany. Gropius based his work on the harmony between form and function. The Bauhaus movement constantly deal with the question of craftsmanship and mass production and the relationship between usefulness and beauty. Many of the issues come up during the Bauhaus movement are still faced by designers today.

Gropius wanted to break down the barrier between classes because he believed that well designed items could reach beyond class. Today, designers make their designs accessible to everyone, reaching beyond class. The main objective of the Bauhaus movement was to unify craft, art, and technology. They believed heavily in the machine, and the idea of a preliminary design course rather than design history. The Bauhaus movement created a new way of thinking that has transposed into design today. Bauhaus created a universal visual language that could be used by all designers and understood by everyone.

A huge inspiration to me in design has been the Bauhaus school. I love what they stood for, architecture and arts. Their use of san-serif fonts, clean lines, flat colors, diagonals, and white space. With the influence of Bauhaus, I continue to prefer designing in a very clean cut manner; lots of white space, clean lines, few colors. Although, I do enjoy learning about all the different design techniques, especially the ones in the past that helped shape the graphic design industry.

* Images from http://maddart.blogspot.com/2009/08/bauhaus-9090.html

Color Theory

Color theory is a body of practical guidance to color mixing and the visual impacts of specific color combinations. Color is used to express mood, feelings, category, expression, and much more. Color theory was originally formulated in terms of three primary colors: red, yellow and blue, because these colors are capable of mixing all other colors. Painters had long known this color mixing behavior. Warm colors are the yellow through red-violet spectrum on the color wheel. Cool colors are the yellow-green through violet spectrum on the color wheel. The warm and cool color have a psychological effect on the eye of the beholder. Warm colors tend to give the viewer a warm and optimistic feeling. While on the other hand, cool colors have the opposite effect; they stimulate a cold and pessimistic ambiance.

Color when use correctly can be a powerful tool in design that it can literally impact the way people look or act. Color harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When a visual experience is bland that the viewer is not engaged, the human brain will reject under-stimulating information. When a visual experience is overdone that the viewer find it hard to look at, the human brain will rejects what it can not organize. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure.



* Image from http://www.lasalle.edu/~didio/courses/hon462/goethe_chaos.htm

Parking space and Swing

The best way to win back public space is to use the parking we have as effectively as possible. Parking Barrier with Swing is not just another way to park your car. It is for kids who like to play and to interact during daytime and adults who want to find a parking space to store their car overnight. Meant to be used during the nighttime, this parking space doubles as a play space for your kids in the daylight. The parking barrier features a swing that also does double duty. While the kids can play and have fun on the swing, the barrier also ensures that others doesn’t take up the space to park their cars. When you are back from work, the swing hides underneath the ground surface to park your car. The swing bars are concealed in a concrete lab, so no damage to either the swing or your car. The parking-play space is an ideal solution for the urban environment, where kids have to remain inside their homes with no space available for outdoor games.

Human Touch

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Human Touch were set up by a group of designers in 1998 to manufacture the belief in design to reality.



The use of simple stick figure can tell a story completely but also let the viewer to add in their own imagination. The use of only two color create a strong contrast to draw the attentions of the viewers.

Human Touch has create many product related to the everyday product, as the design want to show that everything have a story. "

"Aesthetics of an object are not only defined by it's exceptional design"...It is a simple belief which all designers at Human Touch continually share and practice. Our goal is to create works that can be universally distinguished and in the end, create in each individual an awareness within the soul and fulfill a physical need.

Human Touch collections are each filled with a story that is both imaginative and functional. This results in not only original designs but items that come alive as they communicate through the language of design.