Archive for 'Arts and Literature' Category
How Important Aesthetics Is - the Revolution of Industrial Design
4 June 2007 <As marketing departments have carved their ways throughout centuries, they have created multiple solutions to embellish and build products in strict dependence to customers’ tastes. That is why the product market now depends strongly on industrial design and its sub-branches. Yes, having your customers satisfied not only with the utilities of the products but also with its looks is nowadays vital. Who would possibly buy a vase, for instance just because it is functional if it doesn’t appeal to the eye? Nobody, trust me, because every single potential client is hunting appearance.
Industrial design has enforced its benefits in multiple domains: cars manufacture, bag design, containers and cans, you name it. It has in fact grown so productive that people have become addicted to it. Take the case of lunch containers. For those who have to take their food to work, workers, students or doctors, companies designed boxes and drink containers with images that represent an entire history of American container lunch. And it is all for the best! The “Taking America to Lunch” collection has caught the interest and, not at all surprisingly, there were thousands of requests for such products the very next day the exhibition took place.
But industrial design is not at all reduced to a few domains. On the contrary, it touched (and left a mark) the sphere of furniture, window and carpet design, in such a way that market competition became truly fierce. It also penetrated the domain of computers, front entrances, kitchen appliances and watches, all to give products, apart from the basic utility feature a shade of beauty and interestingness.
This way, industrial design has managed to become a separate branch of industry and marketing programs, in fact, a necessary one. And if you come to think about the fact that fashion and design nowadays are occupying top positions, industrial design is really important.
How Industrial Can A Design Be?
21 May 2007 <Think of what draws your attention when we talk about a product. Is it its shape? Its color? Its suppleness? Its simplicity? Now also think of the fact that what looks good must also be functional and have a special, particular type of comfort. There are some things that maybe come into your mind when you’re looking at a product, at machinery. How accessible are the buttons and the accessories during the practice? Why do the handles have that particular shape? Is that machine suitable for all the body shapes and weights of the users?
Industrial design gathers a team that is part of a careful and inventive world where form and functionality are combined in order to create the best machines. Take for example the fitness items. You can see that they are specially designed to fit and to satisfy any type of user, and what matters the most is their shape and degree of comfort.
The industrial design is a major, essential component in all the stages of the development process of a certain product. The industrial design accompanies this process from the very beginning when the initial idea is born. The industrial designers are meant to work close to the engineers, to all the persons implicated in the process of creation and of development of a product. What you see is the finite product that hides beneath its surface the collaboration of hundreds of people, it encompasses the talent and the hard-work of a handful of professionals.
An important trait of the creative industrial design is that it finds inspiration in everything, in the line of a piece of furniture, in the supple shapes of a bottle, or even in the body shape of the celebrities. These market trends and pop cultural elements help the industrial designers to establish a unique, functional view on the manner in which the products look like.
What is “in” in Home Architecture
4 March 2007 <When it comes to home architecture, it must be said that the variety of architectural styles is more than overwhelming. From the historic styles that use columns and many decorative elements and that represent certain eras, such as the Victorian, the Charleston or the Neoclassic one, to the ultra modern and contemporary, even eclectic architectural styles, we can find anything in the impressive range of home architecture styles.
But what will actually be “in” in 2007? The rustic or country homes, with wide porches, the luxurious estates (well, actually, these never seem to go out of fashion), the cozy bungalows or the conservatory and minimalist Scandinavian homes?
It seems that the minimalist style gains more and more popularity. While some consider it too vanguard to be enjoyable, others understand this interesting aesthetics. Furthermore, some consider that this style should limit to the construction of office buildings, banks and so on. Still, some specialists claim that introducing this style in the home architecture might be a daring, yet successful action. When talking about this particular style, there is an obvious fact: the geometry makes all the rules. Innovative combinations between massive volumes and perfect lines, the alternation of different sizes and lack of details, as well as lack of ornaments are the main characteristics of their particular style. While some think that this style is better to be kept for the interior of luxurious city apartments, others see it as a very aesthetic architectural style.
For sure, the coordination between the actual style and the colors is essential. Such a simplistic appearance, such rigid lines and shapes can not possibly be combined with joyful colors. The wide range of grey, pale ivory, dirty white and other such colors make the best choices. Daring, vanguards and revolutionary – this might be the perfect descriptions of the 2007 architecture.