Design [by/for/like] People 2018 catalogue

INTRODUCTION “Design [By/For/Like] People” is an academic exhibition that brings together concepts and ideologies from 23 books about design. Each display in this exhibition explores how humans encounter design in their daily lives, whether through the process of designing, using designs, or critiquing them. “Design” has no universal defnition, yet determines each of our interactions with and within the world. What can we learn from principles and aesthetics that will help us launch successful designs?

The students of Dr. John Hatch’s “Lessons by Design” class have spent the Winter 2018 term investigating the different avenues of design. These include tips to help designers, ways to make designs more appealing to diverse audiences, and critical commentary of the ethics of design. Visitors will learn about graphics, marketing, and empathy as they interact with the dynamic installations at the exhibition. The student creators encourage questions and collaboration, which will mirror the design process as core to the human experience.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As curators of “Design [by/for/like] People,” we would like to thank Dr. John Hatch for moderating the class and supporting our ideas going forward with the exhibition.

Thank you also to Lisa Daniels, our Teaching Assistant for the class, who provided exhibition materials from her gallery, the Judith and Norman Alix Gallery in Sarnia, and to Dale Workman who helped us to install them. Because of Lisa, Dale, and the gallery, our show met professional standards and we learned the intricate procedures of exhibition design. To the students in our class, thank you for producing such creative works and for sharing your clever ideas. It was a great learning experience in itself to hear about your design books and to interpret your works accordingly. Extra thanks to Maria Napigkat for designing all our promotional material, and to Adam Mulder for photographing all the works. For hosting the exhibition, thank you Satellite Project Space, and thank you Eeva Siivonen for coordinating the show. To Meghan Edmiston, thank you for handling our grant funding and for helping us to advertise the exhibition.

Finally, we would like to thank the Department of Visual Arts and the Student Donation Fund which both made the exhibition possible with their monetary contributions to our project. Curating “Design [by/for/like] People” was a fun, informative experience that we appreciate both academically and professionally.

Madeleine Ghesquiere and Leah Abaza, curators of “Design [by/for/like] People” 2

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1 Lindsay Athoe Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Graphic Design Thinking: Beyond Brainstorming by Ellen Lupton

The design process combines problem solving, creativity, and an end goal. Various techniques can be applied to each of these things to achieve the best possible design outcome, but the most basic beginning step is brainstorming. Going beyond brainstorming is what takes designs over the top. Applying as many creative techniques as possible before the work is fnalized can help designers embrace their individual creative voice and be successful. For a designer to fnd their individual creative voice, many fnd it best to frst brainstorm independently. One of the best ways to do this is to create a visual “brain dump.” Though this may sound funny, it can be a very useful tool for designers to empty their cluttered brain on to paper in order to discover a diamond in the rough idea. Sometimes, our brains get so crowded with problems and ideas that it's hard to sort through them and discover what’s best for our designs. A visual brain dump will help you fnd your best idea through a process of creation.

Here, I’ve used the design process to defne my problem, which is to create an illustration for my poem. Then, I’ve chosen to get ideas for this illustration through the process of a visual brain dump. The next step would be to create a fnal form for the illustration.

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2 Rikki Bergen

In Light and Dark, 2018.

Inspired by White and Ex-formation by Kenya Hara, and In Praise of Shadows by Jun’ichiro Tanizaki This piece is inspired by Kenya Hara’s White, and Exformation and Jun’ichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows – both authors who, in different ways, studied concepts of light and space in Japanese aesthetic. Both Hara and Tanizaki work to compare styles common in the West and the East by considering the use of whiteness, free space, darkness and contrast. Shadows were chosen as a medium for this piece as a contrast to bright, crowding of Westernized spaces. This piece allows for art to be created from nothing, and to be removed, as though it was never there. This lack of permanence lets art be shown, without the creation of more objects. By attempting to blend both the minimalism of a fat image, and the extra layers to cast the shadow, this piece merges aesthetic traits seen in Western and Eastern cultures. Like Hara and Tanizaki’s studies, this piece strives to ask its audience to consider space and light differently.

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3 Celinna Biffis Please Feed 'CLAIR 2,' 2018 Inspired by Susan M. Weinschenk’s 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People This display centers around "CLAIR 2". Her full name is actually "Clear Mannequin/Polycarbonate – CLAIR 2" but we call her "CLAIR 2" for short. "CLAIR 2" is brought to life as visitors “feed” different design tips into her. The 100 different tips are printed on statement cards and visitors are prompted to read the tip on the card before feeding it to "CLAIR 2". These design tips are also readable on “CLAIR 2”’s body, as she wears some of them on her person like tattoos. Although, "CLAIR 2"'s perceived sex is female, she is indicative of any and all humans consuming good design. Essentially, visitors are participating in feeding good design ideas for humans to the “human.” In the process of performing this action, viewers are also learning a new design tip based on the information they read on the statement card.

This installation and the design tips it employs, are all inspired by Susan M. Weinschenk’s design book, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People.

Weinschenk’s work explores ideas around designing more human-centred products, which is a practise becoming quite relevant in the design industry today. This display connects all categories of designing “by”, "for" and “like” people. The design tips are “by” people, as they are intended to teach a new generation of designers how to design with more conscious, and innovative methods. The tips are “for” people – to make everyday designs more human-centred and our lives a little easier. As well, "CLAIR 2" is "like" people because we are effectively building a human by flling her with the tips.

This display will create an interesting conception of flling a human up with good design ideas. "CLAIR 2" also presents a conundrum – if she becomes full, have all of the useful design tips been exhausted and is good design accomplished?

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4 Sara Dhurjon The Sustainable Space, 2018 Inspired by The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology for the Future by Marjanne van Helvert

The inspiration for this design piece comes from a series of smart designs that were presented in Marjanne van Helvert's book, The Responsible Object: A History of Design Ideology. Van Helvert’s book traces a history of sustainable designs— designs which have at their core a social, economic and/or environmental function — beginning as early as the mid-nineteenth with William Morris’ Kelmscott Productions through to modern innovations. The book interrogates themes such as consumerism, politics and responsible production within the larger theme of design.

The goal of “The Sustainable Space” is to use a sustainable medium (electronic projection) to project a sustainable space, namely Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky’s early version of a studio apartment, which sought to effectively organize objects within a limited space. This space will then be flled with a series of sustainable designs which can be found in van Helvert’s book. Like those designs, this piece seeks to be a responsible object, one which showcases a history of design ideology that has laid the foundation for thinking of design as having the potential to address current issues of waste, manufactured scarcity, and conspicuous consumption.

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5 Manqiao Fang Designer's Kit, 2018 Inspired by Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires Innovation by Tim Brown Each design is a complex project requiring designers to solve a series of problems. A good design thinker can always create practical, feasible, and functional solutions to the problems they encounter. My work, Designer’s Kit, has two components. The frst consists of eight paper-wrapped tin cans, in reference to the conceptual artwork “Artist’s Shit” made by Piero Manzoni in 1961. Manzoni’s work is a metaphor for the embodied and disembodied nature of artistic labor. While design involves the huge efforts of the designers, this work is intended to generate curiosity, leading the viewers to think about what is hidden in the cans and in turn, what will happen in future designs. Design thinkers can create anything out of their “kit.” Eight words labeled on the tin cans represent the key factors emphasized by design thinkers in their design process. These include teamwork, collaboration, prototyping, human-centered, experience, story-telling, analysis and synthesis. All of these keywords on the cans are signifcant in bringing convenience, effciency, and happiness to those who ultimately use the products or services. The second component is a list of advice given by Tim Brown, the author of “Change by Design.” I invite visitors to spend a little time looking through the tips for design thinkers. These tips are not just about design, they are about life itself.

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6 Erika Ilse Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Know Your Onions: How to Think Like a Creative, Act Like a Business and Design Like a God by Drew De Soto In graphic design, designers must always consider the context of the design they are creating, whether that is a logo, magazine cover, or even a food wrapper. For this exhibition piece, I have chosen four topics related to graphic design that must be considered carefully within the design’s overall context. These topics are typeface, colour, layout, and kerning. A typeface is the specifc kind of font people use when writing anything digitally. In company or product logos, the wrong typeface can make or break one’s image. Imagine if a fancy brand with a sleek image were to choose a font that was playful instead of sophisticated. Would it ft their image? Colours easily bring about feelings, and graphic designers choose colours carefully to ft a design’s overall image. Imagine if the McDonalds sign were coloured light blue! When reading a poster, the layout is designed to draw your eye from one section to the next. Haphazard layouts can quickly cause headaches and misunderstandings. Finally, in any text you read, the spaces between letters are ‘kerned’ so that they can be easily read. This avoids text that looks like T HIS. On the front side of each of the four boards, you will see instances where each of these ideas are used without thinking about context. If you fip to the back, you will see the real versions of these images, and will be able to understand how these concepts have been used in order to ft their context correctly.

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7 Yitong Jiao Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Talk to Me: Design and the Communication Between People and Objects

by Paula Antonelli

Human beings can have very different emotional responses to various colours. Colour is a powerful communication tool and can even be used to infuence physiological reactions. For example, many people prefer to paint their walls with bright colours instead of dark colours, as they feel warm colours will capture the joy of sunshine and communicate happiness. Alternatively, dark colours are more likely to bring down a person’s blood pressure and encourage relaxation.

I am inspired by colour psychology, and this design is an examination of how colours affect people's perception of art. By giving audiences the right to decide which colour to pick, I wish to explore how participation changes the viewer’s role (shifting from passive spectators to active designers), as well as how certain colours affect people’s moods.

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8 Emma Juskovic Mirror, Mirror on the Apple, 2018 Inspired by Well Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love by John Kolko

Mirror, Mirror on the Apple uses its common form to represent the cross-demographic consumption of a single good. Notably, the apple is made of a mirrored shell in which one can see their refection. The attraction to this work is clear, but it is less obvious what exactly the alluring feature is. The iridescence illuminated by the gallery lights and the familiarity of the apple’s shape both provide compelling rationales for this attraction, but John Kolko would rather attribute this effect to the integration of empathy into this product. In his book Well Designed: How to Use Empathy to Create Products People Love, Kolko describes both the importance of this integration as well as the process of accomplishing it.

In the case of this exhibit, audiences represent the average consumer and the apple symbolizes an average product rather than an installation piece. The intrigue felt by audiences is analogous to the situation Kolko describes in making purchasing decisions. It prompts the question of what consumers look for in purchasing products, in the same way that the installation piece inspired the examination of what made it appealing. The answer is clear in the refection of the apple: audiences look at themselves and consumers look for themselves in their products. In fnding ourselves in the refection of the apple, we are naturally more attracted to it. This implies that in making purchasing decisions, a product which refects the values, objectives and goals of the representative consumer are most likely to be successful, as discussed by Kolko.

In order to develop this connection between consumers and products, product developers must consider the integration of empathy into their offerings. Furthermore, this theory offers audiences and consumer’s a refection of their identity through their consumption patterns.

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9 Megan Levine Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Two-Dimensional Man by Paul Sahre

“I know that life can’t be designed,” Paul Sahre refects in his autobiography TwoDimensional Man. Sahre, an accomplished designer, recognizes that design can’t rule our lives; rather, our lives rule design. We strive to escape chaos by creating a sense of order that is impossible to maintain. In reality, design is a messy collaboration between order and chaos. Sahre’s defnition of design is that there is no defnition. How we go about creating design is unpredictable; sometimes, the greatest designs are the ones created by accident. As well, our personal experiences guide our art, and we should embrace the chaos in our lives rather than strive to maintain order.

This display is an experiment. It could fail because there is no preconceived plan, but I plan to embrace the fnal product as it is either way. I want to create a design that would make Sahre proud. My work points to two concepts that Sahre discusses in his book: experience and entropy. It is a collaboration with anyone who wants to participate. Everyone has a story to tell, and I think everyone’s story can be told through design, just as Sahre did. The starting point is an outline of a version of one Sahre’s iconic designs, "Spreadin' the Luv", and the rest of the blank canvas is up to you to fll.

By mixing a variety of experiences, I hope that the illusion of an intentional design can be created out of chaos. Life will guide design in this case, and I hope I can accomplish that by the end of the exhibition. I am excited to encounter the creativity and stories of friends and strangers. In the end, my exhibit is not about Sahre, nor is it about me. It is about you, and your relationship with design.

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10 Devon Lowrie She Loves Me (Not), 2018 Inspired by Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things by Don Norman She Loves Me (Not) investigates the practice and theory of emotional design as presented by Donald Norman in his book Emotional Design: Why We Love or Hate Everyday Things. The three mugs represent the three levels of design thinking; visceral, behavioural, and refective. Visceral levels of design are meant to attract people, to make the consumer say, “that is a beautiful product. I want it.� Behavioural designs are meant to perform to their best potential, prioritizing functionality over everything else.

Refective designs comment on their own existence; they display a self awareness of what the product is meant to do and how it is to be used. They could also be considered as ironically designed. The best design incorporates all three, but this is an extremely hard feat to accomplish. As consumers, we usually have to decide which aspect of design matters most to us. Each kind of design has advantages and disadvantages, but choosing a product is not purely logical. Emotions play a large role in the decision-making process of deciding whether we love or hate inanimate things.

So the question remains: which do you love?

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11 Olivia Mossuto Abject Noise, 2018 Inspired by The Plenitude: Creativity, Innovation, and Making Stuff by Rich Gold

The pervasive human-made plenitude of stuff, products and things, weighs on consciousness and sense through assault by artifciality. The dense, layered quality of consumption and industry creates what Rich Gold terms a “deadening spectacle,� existing always in our periphery as something between the bland and the ugly. Despite the numbing effect of this grey vision, it is a herald of human creativity and innovation in transition. Strip malls are indicative of an age of development, of creation without consequence in newfound decadence. These placards of a phenomenon now passed confront us with a capitalist graveyard, reminding us that even the most sparkling virtues of humanity need only exist in moderation. The consistent human drive for progress presents an abyss of shortcomings in many plastic forms, but with a matched passion, human innovation promises a re-engineering of a generation steeped in unreality.

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12 Adam Mulder 125 Design Statements, 2018 Inspired by Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kristina Holden, and Jill Butler

This artist book act as a culmination of 125+ statements regarding design. The simplicity of each statement is pertinent to the piece. Each statement is presented without context, allowing for varied interpretations—a byproduct of the intellectual diversity each reader has. The book is simple—one statement per page, written in a small black font. Physically, it acts as a coffee table book—something intended for display and a heightened level of physical interaction. This work infuenced by the text, Universal Principles of Design, by William Lidwell, Kristina Holden, and Jill Butler. It is a collection of cross-disciplinary design principles, written with the goal to create of ease of access within the vast feld of design.

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13 Maria Napigkit 1. Ask Stupid Questions, 2018 Inspired by Glimmer: How Design Can Change Your World by Warren Berger

My work is based on Berger’s ten principles of design, and focuses on the frst and the most fundamental principle for design thinking: “Ask stupid questions.” The goal of the installation is to not only pay homage to the title of the book Glimmer, but also to reference designers and the problems they are trying to solve. The installation revolves around the book’s joke about designers and lightbulbs, “How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Does it have to be a lightbulb?” It is also layered with many metaphors and references to the book.

The initial phrase shaped into a question mark refers to the fundamental principle of asking stupid questions. The string lights represent the “glimmer” moment that starts after asking questions. The geometric tray pertains to the complex world challenges designers such as Bruce Mau are eager to solve. The coloured glass rocks refer to more glimmer and is also a metaphor for the other principles from the book, such as “making hope visible.” The answer written on a piece of paper encompasses the simplicity of the frst principle as well as how a piece of paper leads to brainstorming and prototyping.In the end, I hope to attract viewers’ attention so they may spend time with the installation, be inspired and realize that thinking like a designer is not as diffcult as it seems.

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14 Diyana Noory Flower Girl, 2018 Inspired by The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy by Gilles Lipovetsky This series of portraits features my friend Angie Maradiaga styled in a fun blend of athletic, skate, and traditionally feminine style elements. The look showcases a Golf Wang sweater designed by Californian rapper Tyler, The Creator, who says of fashion in an interview with The FADER: “you don’t have to follow any fucking rules, you can literally do whatever you want.” Tyler’s designs incorporate a lot of colour and foral motifs, which are usually associated with feminine fashion; his work subverts the hypermasculine norms imposed on black men. He encourages breaking out of the bleak grey cityscape of street style with bold patterns and funny phrases scrawled in blues as bright as the Los Angeles sky (the back of this sweater reads “Let’s Fuck Right Now”). I chose to style this piece because of Tyler’s individualist design values, and I combined it with sport inspired items that refect on how womenswear has evolved to become more fuid.

I shot these photos on 35mm Kodak Portra 160 and Fujiflm Superia X-TRA 400; I chose a manual analogue setup with natural lighting so I could capture the rawness of the moment. The location indicates a stress-free approach to design and self-expression and my model embodies this ideology through her relaxed poses and expressions.

Playing at an outdoor park is a liberating activity reminiscent of a childhood free of societal pressures to assimilate, and the Airhead candy invokes nostalgia.

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15 Calvin Quijano Untitled, 2018 Inspired by How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy In this performance video piece, the design world is explored by giving an inside look at an important aspect in many designers’ lives: the interview. Inspired by the book How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing your Soul by Adrian Shaughnessy, the short flm addresses the intimate nature of interviews, as well as its ability to expose us. How to be a Graphic Designer states that during interviews, “your character is under as much scrutiny as your work.” In essence, personality is the second most important thing after your portfolio.

Design is a rapidly growing business, with many new designers on the rise. This means that interviews are perhaps one of the most important processes for a designer—it gets them work. There are very few wrong jobs early in a designer’s career. This video gives short tips that Shaughnessy includes in his book that can help new designers get, keep, and thrive in a new job. The design world is competitive, taxing, and sometimes downright awful. While there is no such thing as a set of rules that will turn you into a complete graphic designer, these clues, hints, and prompts might be exactly what you need to make working as a designer more enjoyable and rewarding.

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16 Lena Schwartz lightsexchange, 2018 Inspired by Politics of Design by Ruben Pater

This work draws on the book The Politics of Design by Ruben Pater to show the interconnectedness of politics, culture, and design. Through the use of parody and satire, it demonstrates the absurdity that can surface in advertisements when the design of them is not properly thought through. The work uses a mock ad for lighting centered on the idea of the perfect kitchen - a stereotypically female gendered space and inserts a male fgure where a female traditionally would’ve been depicted. The work is meant to highlight the responsibility of designers when it comes to creating material - advertisements specifcally - and the way that this material is able to infuence public opinion. The domain name further shows the importance of giving design enough thought, while at the same time referencing the reversal of the stereotypical roles of men and women. The work is meant to draw on the themes Pater outlines in his book, opening up a commentary on the role design plays in the perpetuation and creation of stereotypes and the consequences of design faw.

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17 Natalie Scola Untitled, 2018 Inspired by The Evolution of Designs: Biological Analogy in Architecture and the Applied Arts by Phillip Steadman

When looking at a building, one would not immediately think of biology as a basis for its design. Yet architecture, as well as many more applied arts, has deep roots in biological analogy. In fact, the structure of a leaf can serve as inspiration for structural supports in buildings. People have turned to nature for artistic inspiration since ancient times and the inspiration has continued throughout the centuries. However, there is a much deeper connection to biology than simply recreating an organic form in the applied arts.

My exhibit aims to look at these connections and help viewers to understand the relationship between people and the natural world. Organic forms have informed artists and architects throughout history and it has unknowingly become an aspect of our everyday lives. Nature has provided the solution to many human problems; woodboring insects served as inspiration for tunnel-boring machines, while plants used a cooling system long before refrigerators were invented. Architecture, the human applied arts, and artifacts are not static; they become like living organisms that are always able to evolve and change with human needs. We only need to look to the outside world for the answers. This brings in the larger theme of global stewardship and environmental awareness: the natural world has provided so much to the evolution of human artifacts, we should do all we can to preserve it for future generations.

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18 Jessica Sealey Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Design: the Invention of Desire by Jessica Helfand Whether it features a vintage concert, sports team, or an Abercrombie and Fitch logo, the graphic tee is an instantly recognizable symbol. It’s a simple way we show the world our likes and dislikes, interest and passions and who or what we support. It is a popular branding tool employed by companies, turning each of us into walking advertisements.

The tees presented in this exhibition are not printed with predictable tropes but instead feature two images of human blood cells as viewed through a microscope. The thin-layer smear of a feathered edge is visible at 100x magnifcation and again at 400x magnifcation with a slightly distorted focus. Both samples have been treated with a commonly used Romanowsky stain variant giving them their purple hue. These images interrupt our traditional reading of the t-shirt brand and instead replaces it with a biological sample of something that is inside of all of us. These designs remind us that regardless of what we wear on the outside, we are all human, and it is our humanity that drives us to both create and consume design.

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19 Elora Sinnott Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton

Design can be seen in everyday objects and motions, from the construction of roller coasters to the layout of a fast food line. In her book, Ellen Lupton presents a new ideology proposing that the design process can be mapped with the same fow as a story (hence the title Design is Storytelling). Her book examines design with the use of narrative devices, thought processes, and empathy. To represent her ideologies, I obtained a Hot Wheels Race Track to visualize the ups and downs, twists and turns of the narrative. Labelled around the track are different aspects of stories and their connection to the design process. This is done in hopes to represent and put into contexts the importance of storytelling in the design world, and in everyday life as well.

Showcasing this may entice people to look to ordinary objects and search for its design story, analyze the successes and defciencies, before working towards better design.

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20 Kendra Thomas Untitled, 2018 Inspired by Burn Your Portfolio: The Stuff They Don’t Teach You in Design School, but Should by Michael Janda

This exhibit is intended to be a collective product of various ideas, brainstorms and creativity from the viewers. The core themes found throughout the questions on the paper were drawn from Michael Janda’s book, Burn Your Portfolio: The Stuff They Don’t Teach You in Design School but Should. These themes include brainstorming, communication, teamwork, and graphic design. Through the interactive, creative component, this exhibit aims to put the viewer in the shoes of a designer. The goal is for the viewer to consider how graphic designers often brainstorm and collaborate in order to achieve their end product. There are no right or wrong creative additions to the paper, simply free expression and contributions to others. Since the work will not actually be complete until the end of the exhibition, allowing for each viewer’s contributions and interactions, what the piece becomes and thus how it is named will not be known until the end.

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21 Kayleen Tosello Human Interaction with Long-Term Habit Forming, 2018.

Inspired by Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal For the fnal exhibition, I have created an installation using a mannequin presented from the chest up. The mannequin’s eyes are blindfolded, to symbolize the various marketing tactics that manipulate and “hook” people in the 21st century. The mannequin is representative of people who are not able to clearly see how they have been manipulated, hooked and/or addicted to various technological devices and apps.

Along the mannequin’s arm is a chain of social media/media products that are longterm habit-forming commodities that the author, Nir Eyal, discusses throughout his book. However, the main habit-forming product that Eyal examines and often revisits, is the most well-used technological design of our time: the cellphone. In addition to the mannequin, an iron hook rests to the side. The iron hook represents the challenge of the triggers, the actions, the variable rewards and the investments (better known as the Hook Model) that all users of a habit-forming product encounter. Sitting next to the mannequin is a sign that defnes “habit” as discussed in Eyal’s book.

Consequently, the purpose of this installation is to demonstrate how various products infuence our behaviour and how we become “hooked” into using such technological devices and therefore form habits. Eyal examines how users of any product, but specifcally technological products, go through phases to become hooked permanently to tangible and intangible commodities. This installation piece raises awareness of how well designers have cleverly manipulated the relationship of the user into buying or using the product so that they become consumed by it. Furthermore, this installation piece also raises awareness of how new designs and technologies consume human communication, challenge behaviours, and form habits. Without awareness, individuals will develop long-term habits and the cycle of habit-forming continues.

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