Homework 2
The idea of design loops was pretty mind boggling on page 143. The end goal of the book’s design is to create a feeling and emotion that will convey the message in a particular manner. The feeling of this book, filled with pictures of Ge in a comic book style is meant to evoke a sense of lightheartedness and a focus on the story/train of thought. I found that this is very best way to discuss a topic like design. The way I see design, it does not fit in to the category of art or engineering, but somewhere in between. The designers responsibility extends past just ensuring the efficiency and functionality of a product….The art, medium, and style is ultimately a driving force in the way that the product/content is interpreted and used. This comic book style breaks helped Ge down the information into just about the least dense manner possible. Instead of write long, black and white paragraphs that are easy to skip, Ge is able to puts a strong emphasis on the experience of reading the book. Essentially, he is teaching design through not just the words but through the style of the book. The feel and experience perfectly matches the subject: artistic, effective, and storytelling.
When Ge discusses imbuing personality, he uses the visuals of his book to do so. The man biking with the words “Hi There” and the glow of the city creates a scene oozing with personality. As Ge said, ““Aesthetically, visual design instills mood, a mental vibe of just how something is, all from a glance…” That is exactly how he presented every page of the book, with a focus on the mood.In many ways, this is a form of “Inception.” The same person who writes the books is also inside the book (literally, through pictures) discussing ideas as if he were apart of it, like the book is a visual representation of the workings of his mind. I found the internet meme with the cats to be another interesting (and hilarious) example of this: taking the physical world and embedding it within a photo of a photo of a photo…This design loop and evoking of “infinity, through the establishment of co-relationships” (a much more eloquent express this same idea) is in some way the ultimate goal of design (in certain circumstances). The design should captivate the audience and make them feel a sense of wonderment, like the wall between themselves and the product is blurred.
This sense of infinity is very well expressed through the project Converge. The use of the infinity of space to evoke a feeling of awe within the audience is textbook (literally) and the use of pictures of humans allows people to further connect with it in a deeper way. I really want to download this!