Group Members:
Leah Choi http://dsgn200ljc.blogspot.com/
Ben Hickey http://boournsb.tumblr.com/
Kara Knight http://lovelaughdesign.blogspot.com/
Aaron Pack http://get-big-get-big.tumblr.com/
Allison Hoderle http://alh18.blogspot.com/

J08 http://zoller3.blogspot.com/2011/02/group-project.html
J09 http://zoller3.blogspot.com/2011/03/fridge.html

Last Sunday night our group finished our project. We presented on Monday and I think it went pretty well. I think our group had some really good ideas and overall a good product. However, a lot of the other groups did a better job at portraying their project through certain computer programs that digitalized their final product. I know our product was just hand drawn but I hope students didn't hold that against us and were able to appreciate it for it's concept and not it's looks. Overall our group worked great together. Leah was our team mom and kept us organized. She helped schedule where and when we would meet outside of class. She also helped keep us organize and on track. Leah also designed the floor plan of the kiosk. Kara did a great job at putting the PowerPoint together and drawing what the actual kiosk would look like. Ben was responsible for drawing the final product. He did a nice job at drawing the outside and inside of it and figuring out all of the dimensions. Aaron did a lot of research in our group and helped us figure out was possible, efficient and practical. He was also really good at drawing bears and singing Mario songs. Allison was in charge of drawing the packaging and what it would say on it the different sides of the boxes. I didn't have a specific task to do but I did come up with the original idea of the fridge. I did sketches in the beginning of what I thought it would like. And I helped present our product by doing the first few opening slides. I felt my role in this group could have been stronger if I had better drawing skills. I'm not bs-ing when I say this, I really liked working with all of my group members and would work with them on another project in a second. We all had different ideas and talents and were able to work together collaboratively. The project itself was a lot of fun. To start with nothing and two weeks later finish with a pretty sweet idea, research, and an actual design was an accomplishing feeling. I liked the creative thinking freedom it gave us.

Quarter in Review

I remember the first day of design class. I walked in, sat down and looked around. I remember looking at people and thinking I didn't belong. When I think of people in design, I think of artsy or hipster looking students. I remember seeing a lot of these type of people in class and realizing that wasn't me. As class went on, my stereotype had nothing to do with the class or what we were learning. As more weeks went on, I felt that I fit in more and more. I liked learning about the information we covered but I wish I would of realized that I didn't need to take notes. I was always rushing trying to copy down the notes. Once I realized that we wouldn't be tested on it, I stopped copying the notes and listening to Gabe more. One of my favorite topics we covered was color. I also liked the assignments we had that forced us to go outside of class and take pictures of our surroundings. These assignments, like the faces and letters, helped open my eyes and really start to notice little details around me. I didn't like the Haskett book we read. I thought it boring and too generic. I liked the recycled book better but at times it lost my interest too, but that is probably because I hate reading. Working in groups created a better environment for class. I had the opportunity to actually get to knows my classmates instead of just sitting there in silence for ten weeks. Working in groups also helped me think outside of the box because I was able to see other people's ideas. This class was very interesting and I'm almost 80% sure that I'm going to apply to the visual communication design program next year. Thanks for a great quarter Gabe!

THE Fridge

So in this past week we changed our ideas quite a bit. At first we were directing our product to be used as an indoor and outdoor good. After talking to Gabe on Monday, he wanted us to focus more on the indoor part of it. We decided to stick with our idea of a removable freezer but we changed it to a fridge instead of freezer. Kara had a breakthrough question for us when she asked us what we would do with the stuff in the freezer that we didn't want to be portable. We then realized our design wasn't as conveniet as we thought. We decided to put the freezer on the top instead of the bottom and still have french doors to the fridge. The bottom, removable section would an extension of the fridge and serve as a cooler that could be transported throughout the house or outside if desired. Ben resketched this new product. After figuring out the new dimensions of the fridge, Allison and Aaron worked on packaging together. Leah and Kara worked on the design and layout of the kiosk. I modified the Coleman logo to incorporate the home goods part of it. Outside of class, we met twice. We all scanned our notes and sketches to Leah and Kara. We met up Sunday night and worked on the powerpoint together. We also did a rough run through of what we would say for our presentation. Overall, I think our group worked really well together. Leah was definitely our group leader that kept us organized and on top of everything. But everyone else also had their own input and contributed equally. We all had different ideas to offer and by the end of the project, I think our design was definitely a collaborative one. Thinking back on it, it's weird to think that two weeks ago we started off with nothing and now we have this finished final product. I can't imagine what we would have with more resources and time. Watch out GE, Maytag, LG, and Kenmore!