Sketches From Powerhouse Museum

Task 5 - Paul Bennett

Paul Bennett speaks about how good design doesnt always have to be artistically designed and as well that it can be quite unnecessary, and miss the point of a products purpose. He uses examples of how non-designers already design things made out of readily available resources, either to save time by dumping a trolley by letting it rest next to a pole or by putting a plastic bag over a parking metre to say it isnt working..or as it goes in Britain at least. From this Bennett explains how exploring the users environment and habitiual behaviors opens a new set of options to the designing solution, options that take into consideration the way the user will use it and interact with it, without simply just thinking of the way it is going to look. For example the Ikea kiddy storage unit, instead of a brightly colouring a smaller shelving unit, the designers sought out to examine how a child percieved storage, and from that a square with 4 doorhandle-like protrusions was concieved to be arranged in multiple numbers to make an area of these door handle like shapes to allow objects to be jammed in between the knobs and hold them.

Task 5 Yves Behar

It was interesting to hear Yves talk about the relationship he tries to create between the user and the product. Designing something like a fire exstinguisher, that you know what it is and what it does and how to use it. His designs such as the ear piece really show how a product should evolve to our natural instincts to exsist seamlessly in anyones day to day life.

Task 5 - Ross Lovegrove

I found Ross to be quite inspirational. He successfully touches the importance to have a new different vision for the 21st century. To design things that are beautiful because they are derived from the one real beauty (nature) and not thing that we percieve to be beautiful that are influenced from unnatural forms, as he comments Ross doesn't attempt to create funky objects, i think, and generally speaking they are funky or visually stunning objects beause they share with us something in common, nature, and as Ross said we are instinctive human beings that once lived in caves.

He opens up a box of possibilties, a box whose existence hasnt been known until now as material technology has advanced so far. I felt a really sense of progress as his ideas unfolded, and thought how people must have felt 200 years ago when aluminium was first being used and how vastly availble it is today. I cant help but see a revolution unfolding as Ross delves into what seems so logical to be our future, in design, nature and art.

David George

Task 5 - David Kelley

I found David Kelley's talks to be quite interesting. His discussion on the way things are designed and how humans perceive and respond something I find to be a rather important point. A point which he made very clear to me when he asked which one is the salt shaker and which ones for pepper? The answer not mattering at all as he said "it doesn't matter what we think they are for, but it matters for the person who puts fills the shakers". From his lecture he reiterated what I have always believed, that good design is universal and a user should be able to relate to it naturally and not have the design impose itself on it.

His longest talk of the three delved into man vs machine and spoke about how difficult it is to gear both the human mind and instincts with the limited computerized intelligence of computers. I was suprised that he didn't delve into whether or not machines doing everything for us or knowing everything about us would be a bad thing. But he did show how good design ought to work in such a future where machines did a lot of the simple jobs we do now, that is to let technology tell us what it perceives the world around it to be, but to let us make the decsions.

David George

ARMARAC SERVER ENCLOSURE

ARMARAC SERVER ENCLOSURE

Product Designer: 4Design
Product Manufacturer: Thureon Ltd

Silver – International Design Excellence Awards 2008
Shortlist – Australian International Design Awards 2007

4Design created a multi-featured enclosure for a small network, bringing a very original solution to a computing situation that has changed very little since the 1930’s. Armarac solves all the ergonomic, logistical, storage, maintenance and design problems, which all network servers of Armarac’s capacity have, all at once in a very clever, practical and unique design.

One prominent design change that defines Armarac from conventional network severs is the vertical orientation of which the network hubs are stored. This brings all the technical focus to a comfortable chest height and to go between network hubs the user literally flicks through the different hubs like a book! While this all looks a bit cramped for network hub storage, the hubs are spaced out inside the enclosure while Armarac’s superior fan cooling system provides a wholly revolutionised air circulation throughout the enclosure. The enclosure is uniquely wall mountable and uses a simply construction design to minimise manufacturing costs, to bring down the price for buyers.

Its futuristically sophisticated-look housing is offered in several colour schemes which are made available to suit the different and varying markets that this product will attract. Stephanie McLoughlin from Info World said: ‘The hinged doors open vertically, so the Armarac takes about 4 square feet of space when opened up, but since you're hanging everything on the wall, there's no squatting and bending to get access to the guts’. It features vertical clamshell doors for easy nothing-in-the-way access and the deluxe model even comes with a LCD screen and keyboard to access the network server directly.

4Design have re-invented the way we network severs, and have created a new and more harmonious relationship between us and computers and an extremely marketable product for an exurbanite amount of uses.

LINE – calm, solid
SHAPE – bold and prominent
CONTRAST – green window panels against black, stainless steel or red
TEXTURE – smooth, professional
COLOUR – industrial mat black, see-through industrial green, brushed steel
SCALE – life size, dominant

For more information visit these sites:
http://www.thureon.com/index.htm
http://www.networkcomputing.com/showitem.jhtml?articleID=199901909

http://www.designawards.com.au/application_detail.jsp?status=3&applicationID=975




David George

Fragrance Sculpture