Cooper Hewitt Museum: Post-Visit

I had never been to the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum prior to this trip. I had only initially known it existed because I had happened to walk by it in the summer. After spotting it, I fully intended to go, I just never planned when, until now.

 

Staircase Model (France), Mid–Late 19th Century

It was very interesting to see the range of items they had. When thinking and studying design, I’ve only thought of it in terms of a digital realm. It’s easy to forget that design isn’t just about posters and web logos. It also has to do with more physical things, such as houses, furniture, and technology.

 

Concept Art, Bear Cubs, Brave, 2012

My favorite exhibit was the Pixar one. I love cartoons and knowing how much time and effort goes into each one of Pixar’s movies, it was interesting to see concept sketches for characters and how the ideas, trial runs and outside inspirations got them to what we know them as today.

 

Salzhaus by Felix Pfäffli

Another image I saw at the exhibit that caught my eye was a poster, Salzhaus by Felix Pfäffli. While I appreciate the interesting combo use of colors, the closeness of the letters (tension) made it uncomfortable to read. According to it’s webpage on the Cooper Hewitt site, the poster was “intended to ‘distort, warp and disassemble.'” I believe Pfäffli was very successful in designing his piece.

Project #2: Song Book

Songbook

In this project, the goal was to explore movement.

First, we had to choose a song that inspired us. Unable to choose just one initially, I created a playlist of songs on my iPod. The song I ended up choosing was “Very Loud” by Shout Out Loud. We were to listen to our chosen song and create thumbnails of movement in relation to the music we were listening to. We then had to narrow it down and choose two contrasting movements to recreate in our “song books.”

What I learned in doing this assignment is that visually implied movement is best created with diagonals, but can also be done with simple shapes rearranged in a space as well. Also, figure ground relationship with the latter is very important to keep in mind when creating design.