Pacific Standard Time Events & Exhibitions

Pacific Standard Time is a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California coming together for the first time to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene. The celebration begins October 2011 and runs to April 2012. Click here for a schedule of events

Graduate Lecture Series: Thomas Demand

Image: Thomas Demand, Copyshop, 1999, C-print, 72.25 x 118.25".

September 7, 2011
12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Lecture Forum
Graduate Fine Arts Building (IFT)
3001 S. Flower Street
Los Angeles, CA 90007

Thomas Demand is a German artist who works in Los Angeles and Berlin. He is a 2010–2011 Getty Scholar at the Getty Research Institute in L.A. Demand has shown his work in solo exhibitions at museums and gallderies around the world, including Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Centro Cultural Usina do Gasômetro, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; and many more. Born in Munich, Demand studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Munich; the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf; and Goldsmiths College, London.

Design in Motion

Design does not have to be static. It doesn't just lie flat on a piece of paper. It can be in MOTION. It can be captured on video. As a film student, I love to draw inspiration from videos and there are so many videos out there that have fantastic designs and ideas. Here are some of my favorites:

http://www.vimeo.com/8766811

http://www.vimeo.com/21198351

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfBlUQguvyw&list=FL3wkTgbOC49jf1opoxoUodA&index=27&feature=plpp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLY5XXumLDY&list=FL3wkTgbOC49jf1opoxoUodA&index=63&feature=plpp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zOrV-5vh1A&feature=related

First Time I've Ever Enjoyed Researching . . .

While researching Michael Beirut tonight, I realized how essential research is to making a good design. This is SUCH AN INTERESTING ARTICLE outlining the entire process behind his redesigning of the Saks Fifth Avenue packaging, and it's fascinating. Also, the design is amazing.

http://pentagram.com/en/new/2006/12/new-work-saks-fifth-avenue.php

Just look at this.

Cool? I think so.

(Seriously, read the article though. The word "article" never sounds appealing, but I swear I read it of my own free will and I'm the kind of person who never reads from G.E. textbooks. Ever. Which says something for its level of interesting content.)

So, after this, I'm updating my definition of design to something that requires the designer to be genuinely interested in the subject matter and willing to spend a lot of time learning about it. The designer should base his/her designs off of their research, for inspiration, and also to ensure that their designs are applicable and fit the style required. For example, Beirut made sure that his design was based off of previous designs so as to still retain the historical style of the company since its founding and not to completely recreate the image into something unrecognizable. This is essential.

DESIGN: my definition...

Design to me implies an arrangement of things in space: what is the perfect configuration to solve the problem of a) making something aesthetically pleasing, b) useful,or c) achieve the goal in mind. But it's not just concrete-- think of an architect's mental design of a building, or the way all the chemicals in DNA are designed and configured a certain way to do what it needs to best. The old masters understood and appreciated the natural design of the organic world around us, and the philosophers of ancient Greece used math to try and understand the design of the universe. Above all design means there is forethought involved, and every step is certain and necessary for its purpose. What I don't yet know, though, is whether it exists out there and we just pick it up with our radio antenna of a brain, or if it's a human invention to understand the workings of the world around us...

touch wood ad.

NTT DOCOMO "TOUCH WOOD" from sohn seok kyoung on Vimeo.


I love advertisements. More than anything else, I often myself searching
through the web to find some fascinating video clips, ads or whatevers.
I recently saw this ads/commercial made in Japan, more than the
design of the cellphone, this crazy ad for this cellphone made me
drop my jaw. Take a look at it, and here is the making video for this commercial.
touch wood making from sohn seok kyoung on Vimeo.
Cheers,


jb.

Design

 Design is a tool of representing myself to others in practical ways.  It also must contain artist’s emotion and its own style. When artist’s creative thinking, beauty, and practicality appropriately mixed, it definitely creates GOOD design.

DESIGN

Is tthe most important step to help conceptualize an idea. Without putting your thoughts into a visual format no one would ever get to understand your idea or thought process. Design is a part of our everyday life and without it many things would not be accomplished. Ranging from architecural plans to pattern makers, they all start with a design.

What is the Design?

Design is another language expressing ideas and also it is a tool that makes people to believe my ideas. I believe, design breathes the happiness in life because it gives convenience and visual energy.

Design

What's design? Well, a lot of things.

A painter arranging figures in a work is design. An engineer shaping an airplane wing is design. Poetry is a sort of design. Advertising is design. Programming can be design, although it often isn't very good design.

Regardless of the materials and goals, the point of design is the same: to get the most of something, while using the least of something else. The goal can be measurable, like a bridge's strength, or abstract, like a painting's appeal to an audience, but the goal of design is to make it happen, and to make it happen efficiently. The cost involved with design is sometimes subtle; in engineering or programming, costs in materials and memory are easy to see and measure, but in art or advertising the cost is more likely to be in things like time and patience. Adding an element to a piece of art might make it deeper and more meaningful, but it can also make the work as a whole harder to understand. On the other hand, advertisements have to sneak as much meaning as possible into strict time constraints.

All design shares a few key concepts, including its most important tools: iteration and testing. Iteration involves going back over a design that has already been made and trimming or adding to it as necessary to improve its effect. Testing, meanwhile, helps to identify problems or holes that can be fixed by later iteration. In some cases an artist's eye or an engineer's calculations can be valuable "testing", but it's always best to send the design out into the world (at least a little part of it) to see if it works the way it's intended to.

In visual design, this means not just analyzing your own work as it progresses, but asking others to look it over and see if it works for them, too. The earlier potential problems can be spotted, the easier it is to revise them.

Design

Design is language, or rather a book or an essay. It is the way to communicate with the world and the people who live in it, but at the same time, it tells a story. Design is not just a process of coming up with new ideas, but going through very thoughtful processes and creating a story. The design contains the designers thoughts, hearts, purposes, pleasures, pains, and everything. Design is the way for the designers to communicate with the world and people. I do not think the design has to be pretty. It could be whatever the designer wants to show or tell people.

Design

Design is the practice of artistically arranging elements such as line, shape, color, value, and texture, in a way that fulfills a certain purpose. This purpose can be to create a pleasing visual aesthetic, but it might not always be to cause an experience of pure aesthetic pleasure. For example, its purpose might be to make the viewer uncomfortable, or to inspire the viewer's generosity by invoking pity or sadness. Either way, design is meant to attract the viewer and to demand the viewer's attention, though it can appeal to different needs/emotions to do so. To me, design is organized and clean, and these qualities separate it from the rawness and chaos that can be depicted in art forms such as painting and drawing.

d e s i g n

To me, design is the use of artistic elements and principles to create aesthetically pleasing compositions. These compositions are turned into pieces of artwork that catch the viewer's eye enough to take a second look and absorb the true meaning and purpose of the work, whether it be a painting with a profound social commentary, or an advertisement for potato chips.

Design

Design is a construction of purpose and style. It can be used to make sense of different aspects of life.

To me design is...

Creativity.

Inspiration.

A lifestyle.

Design pervades every aspect of our lives, even the parts your mind doesn't usually associate with the fashion or haute couture that the word "design" initially evokes. The most whimsical creations demand a discipline to complete the translation from thought to fruition. The most basic productions require a structuring that ensures the feasibility of realizing an idea. That discipline and structuring is design, without which the world would be reduced to chaos and stripped of any aestheticism.

Design is such an integral part of society as we know it; it is the foundation for creation, inspiration and life.

Defining Design

For me, design is where practicality and art meet. Design is smart and can be justified. It causes people to look, think, understand, and, ultimately, enjoy. It beautifully organizes the chaos of everyday life.

What is Design

Design is a kind of aesthetic practice process, combined with knowledge, material, individual imagination and personal talent to created a special things.

Design...

is when a person’s creativity and imagination clash together to make something unique and that is appealing to others. Its boundaries are limitless.

Definition of Design

I've heard a statistic thrown around that something like 80% of all meaning in a conversation is transmitted through elements beyond the actual spoken words themselves. Factors such as vocal tone and body language can transform an ambiguous serious of words into an coherent message full to the brim with subtext and indirect implications. While this is effective within the context of verbal communication, it is unsurprisingly less useful when applied to written communication and other visual forms. In these cases, design is used to fill the gap. Design gives voice to visuals, granting any single word placed on a page the potential to carry any of a near infinite variety of meanings. Imagine two closed doors, each bearing a sign reading, “Danger, do not enter.” Now imagine that one is scrawled haphazardly in pencil on the top of a post-it note while the other is printed in a rich, black, bold Helvetica font on a sturdy, neon yellow, reflective placard. While the words are the same, the levels of impact of the signs are significantly different due purely to their variation in design. One signs whimpers ineffectually while the other shouts in your face. Essentially, design is visual voice.

-Ed Saavedra

Sharpie colored lamborghini

Click link above

Check this out, it's very cool! It inspires working on different types of surfaces.

What is Design

Design is the artistic quality that makes something- whether it be a product, space, or advertisement- appealing.  This is showcased in many different ways through pictures and designs that utilize different aspects of art like color, negative space, and composition.  The design of something is what catches a viewer or consumer's eye; it's the art  that draws buyers attention for more than a few seconds.

People design living spaces by utilizing which colors go well together, what shapes look good, what materials match the others, and common art knowledge that makes something look appealing.

Having a flier with an okay design vs. an eye catching colorful and appealing design makes the difference between whether people come to your event or buy your product.

Design is the way you package your art to make it appealing to your intended audience. 

DESIGN

Almost everything that we come in contact with in our lives is a product of careful design.
Design is the piece of art hung up in museums, it's the fan that keeps you cool on a hot summer day, it's the buildings that you have class in, the clothes you wear, the album cover of your favorite CD.
Design is both appealing to the eye and functional. Sometimes it's practical and other times silly and a result of pure imagination.
When it comes down to it, design is what you want it to be. You as the designer have the power to create exactly what you want. 

The picture is a design piece I did. It reads, "How does it feel to be a visionaire? Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum. Feast yourself upon the truth."


"Everything is designed. Few things are designed well."
- Brian Reed

Definition of Design

Design:

Design is a conceptually based idea that addresses the needs of a particular audience. It is the answer to a problem that is common amongst an audience, and it is a growing idea that is meant to be finessed. A good design is often simple and satisfies the basic (or complex) needs of the people. They respond to problems in an efficient way.

Design....

Design is a game plan. a process. 
A process that begins with countless possibilities 
but ends with one right answer

Design: (Verb or Noun)?

Design embodies the needs that society has and forms it into an art form. Design is art refined and polished until practical for communicating ideas, viewpoints, messages, and sometimes even hope. It is a significant and crucial part of not only media, but also business, film, photography, architecture, and every aspect imaginable and beyond.

Definition of Design

Design is everything.

It can mean everything. Through design, we can visually communicate with others. Design is what applies to everything. Anything we see has its own design, its own meaning. It can be simple, and it can be complicated. There are no boundaries. Design can be anything we want it to be--a language, a performance, or anything beyond.

design design design

Design happens when creativity meets functionality.

Paul Rand, an American graphic designer once said that

"Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; There is no single definition. Design can be art. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."

And I completely agree.

Design

Design is an aesthetically pleasing work of art that is composed of different elements; usually a figment of the imagination or an expression of the artist’s thoughts that is meant to convey a meaning or influence the viewer as they look at it.

Design - Natalia T

Design covers such a huge area that my general description of it would be the most functional and visually pleasing creation with an intended purpose. I think the success of a design relates to how popular it is and how long it can maintain its popularity.

Design

Design is an expression of thought. It has the power to convince or create an idea within an individual, simple or not.

What Design is to Me..

I'm a novice in this area, but what attracted me to this area was the fact that design is a craft that almost magically entices humans to something. This something can be something so ordinary in the practical aspect, but with a touch of design it becomes something so desirable by human.

I personally believe it is design that made Apple such a successful company, design more so than the technical skills that Apple had. (this coming from a computer science major)

my works.

you can check my works out on my website.

imjaybe

Cheers,

Design.

to me, design is Nothing to Something.

Design is...

Design is a part of our daily lives.

Design is often used as a tool to show the abstract forms of our thoughts, motives and inspirations.

Design has to be “pretty”.

Yes, but the true beauty comes from the point where we are willing to embrace the reality and pain that we want to hide from the world. We can come up with beautiful design with “pretty” things. However, if the design cannot gain sympathy that ugliness and commonness will do, what is the point of the design being solely "pretty" and visually aesthetic? We should stop for a moment and think about the true meaning of beauty in order to create a “good” design.

Design...

Design is a combination of art elements and ideas. It has the ability to express a thought, satisfy a purpose, or solve a problem.

Design

Design is the convergence of two ostensibly disparate concepts: art and practicality. It is the thoughtful assembly, arrangement, and alteration of elements to serve both an aesthetic and pragmatic purpose.

Design:

Design is the thoughtfully constructed arrangement of an environment--of any form or scale--that aims to most directly connect with the individual(s) interacting with it.

Design

Design is everywhere and anywhere- often, we are are unaware of its presence in our lives. Design, to me, means that someone has intentionally arranged certain elements of color, items, patterns, etc. to portray some sort of idea or to evoke emotions in the viewer.

Define Design:

To me, design is a summation of visual elements which represent something greater, like an idea or event, and express my reaction to that idea

So I recently made a skateboard for a friend and have since been continuing the idea on my own for a series. I'd ideally like to several with Alice in Wonderland characters with the same kinda design elements BUT I don't know which ones to do. Anyone care to suggest their top 3 faves? (besides the white rabbit of course)

Definition of Design...

Design: The way an idea or concept is aesthetically portrayed.

Last Major Work

The above link shows my last project for my senior photography class. After five years of pursuing projects that aimed to project a mastery of technical precision and cleanliness, I decided to finish my tenure with the program on a slightly different note. These are a series of Cyanotype prints on cotton t-shirts. Originally I wanted to have the subjects present some kind of emotion that they normally do not portray, but after realizing the difficulty of the cyanotyping process I started to vary the subject matter. Despite the diversion from my previous projects, I was extremely satisfied with the outcome of the project.