RR04

I thought some of the points brought up about the context of design were interesting.  How design is so diverse that it is hard to place standards on it in a professional sense, but how it can also be the only thing that unifies a large corporation like McDonald's through branding.  I also found how some businesses utilize designers in their companies to improve products while other businesses outsource their designs strange.  It seems that having in-house designers would be much more efficient and beneficial for a company.  This chapter also focused on the differences between design organization in America versus Europe and the rest of the world.  The future chapter analyses the way design will evolve in the future and how it has the potential to create freedom and to limit information to the consumer depending on how it is applied.  The importance of designing flexible solutions to technological problems is also going to be increasing in the future as consumers look for personalized technologies.  I think it's interesting that in the  future designers are going to have to design products that can then be re-designed by the consumer as unique and personalized products become more popular and feasible.

CR05

The final classes of Design 200 were really interesting.  I liked seeing how other groups approached the issue of transforming Coleman into a home goods distributor.  I also liked how we had to grade each other's projects, it actually forced people to pay attention to the presentations.  Normally I wouldn't like 2 entire days of presentations because they tend to get boring and you start to zone out, but by having to grade everyone it actually made you pay attention and the presentations were actually really creative and interesting.  Some of my favorites were the App for smart phones to manage your electricity, the smart top table you can cook on, and the tent bed for kids.  I was really impressed with some of the ideas people came up with.

J10

I really enjoyed the class Design 200.  It was refreshing to have a class with no midterms or finals and I felt that what I was studying was actually sticking with me more because I wasn't trying to cram and memorize everything, I just learned it.  The use of groups was interesting, it definitely helped me get to know my teammates, but I wonder if switching around a bit would have been beneficial for getting to know the rest of the class too.  I really liked the Coleman project, that was probably my favorite part of the class, I also liked the scavenger hunt too though.  Every time I walk past the Wexner Center I think of the fact that it was built on an angle, which I never would have known if I hadn't taken this class!  The hardest thing about this class was keeping track of assignments, it would have been helpful if on the description of each journal or reading reflexion the date it was due was also included.  Some descriptions included the due dates, but for others you had to search the website to find the assignments tab and then look it up.  Other than that I thought the class was pretty awesome!

J09

Group: 4's
Erica
Jonathan 
Lindsay
me.

Our group had a lot of ideas about how to bring Coleman into the home.  Originally we thought of making some kind of portable energy device, then a solar table, and even fabric that can be powered and heat and cool surfaces, but eventually we decided on solar curtains that powered a portable outlet.  I personally really like the idea of solar curtains and if they existed and I had my own house, I would probably look into buying them.  I think in design, the best products are probably ones that the designers themselves would use, because if the designer won't use the product why should anyone else? I think that's one reason why our project turned out so well, we all actually liked the idea and thought of it as something we would be using.

Another reason why our project went so well was because everyone put a lot of work into it.  We all designed 4 possible curtains and looked into how the solar power could be wirelessly transported to the box.  We also messed around a lot with the branding and packaging, coming up with a name that was relevant but also creative and working out how to keep packaging ecofriendly but cheap.  We finally settled on one set of curtains, the name "Solar Shades", a circular package and a design for the box.  After that I sketched out a lot of logo options and we decided on one and I incorporated that into a package for the customer.

In the beginning phases of the project I think I was probably the person who was most concerned with making sure the product was enough of a "home good" to avoid any confusion.  It was really easy to think of ideas for how to make a product for Coleman that could be both indoor and outdoor, but I wanted our group to try to make something that was clearly a home good.  After we came up with our idea though, we had a lot of fun being creative with it and researching realistic ways it could be made.  I personally really liked our product and presentation (but I guess I'm a little biased).