Abstract The Art of Design is a Netflix show specifically about design and how it impacts everyday life. I am watching season 1 of this show for inspiration from innovative designers that have impacted our culture and way of life so my design work can improve. Here is what I have learned:
Episode 1 – Christoph Niemann: Illustration
1. Find the big picture
2. How much to reveal?
3. Create work time
4. There is no formula for perfect art
5. Get rid of anything that isn’t essential to the point
6. Teachers can be tough
7. Create variations
8. Each idea requires particular info
9. Learn about culturally impactful art
10. Strong illustration sometimes doesn’t need words
11. Play between 2D & 3D
12. Think about how people view items
13. Go to where you feel at home
14. View things as basic shapes
15. Real life & work life sometimes don’t mix
16. Tight timelines can create great spontaneous work
17. Balance focus on craft & asking greater questions
18. Ask people in your life their perspectives
19. Change directions while things are good in your life
20. Leave some mystery
21. Sometimes plans don’t form
22. Movement can form art
23. Read interesting books
24. Break down elements & re-arrange them
25. Mediums can change
26. Balance structured & free-spirited personalities
27. Allow yourself to investigate blank pages
28. Youthful spark may fade, but new interest emerges
29. Listen to music
30. Create new stories by tell old stories in different ways
Episode 2 – Tinker Hatfield: Footwear Design
1. Think about different usages for product
2. Think about clients’ goals
3. Test frequently
4. Think about people with disabilities
5. Think about barriers
6. Come up solutions to important problems
7. Design isn’t about self-expression, it about solving peoples’ problems through visual appeal
8. Create free form thinking sketches
9. Sometimes you are forced into different directions
10. Find inspiration in the ugly
11. Think about clients’ emotions during their task
12. Try to predict the future of the product
13. Incorporate tech
14. Disrupt comfortable thoughts
15. Prototypes can help client understand
16. Watch your product in action
17. Continuing to create new from the old can be challenging
18. Build a great relationship with your client
19. Include verbiage from your conversations
20. One big failure does not end your career
21. Keep working and thinking of new ideas
Episode 3 – Es Devlin: Stage Design
1. Start without light to find it
2. Tear paper in half to solve conflicts
3. Give your all in a project
4. Figure out how
5. Research question you have
6. Feel out a space
7. Evoke emotion through scenery
8. Function does not need to be known to design
9. Make models
10. Not all projects are successful
11. Find relationships between music & images
12. Search junk shops
13. Deconstruct your materials
14. Ask “why?”
15. What would amplify the experience?
16. Play with perception & mirror illusions
17. Look for a spiritual experience
18. Sign you name
19. Build anticipation
20. New tech can create different angles
21. Look down from above
22. Play with scale
23. Find patterns & create systems
24. Walk around the room for different angle
25. Be abstract with symbolism
26. Consider time
27. Consider surrealism
28. Your projects are temporary
Episode 4 – Bjarke Ingels: Architecture
1. Analyze your dreams
2. Turn fiction into reality
3. You can start at any age
4. Think about quality of life
5. Think environmentally friendly
6. Make the conventional magical
7. Study many different artists
8. Get out of you comfort zone & return
9. Disagreements can be embarrassing
10. Decisions sometimes must be made quickly
11. Combine things that perform differently
12. You may deviate from your projected path
13. Build a communities
14. Fast fame can be overwhelming
15. Old professors can be your toughest skeptics
16. Break the rules
17. Accommodate diversity
18. Move to where you have space
19. Gaining materials can take a long time
20. Include everyone’s in-put
21. Should we repeat ourselves
22. Negative comments can be painful
23. What defines you, you can take for granted
24. Visit home to be reminded of your past & remember what is important
25. Propose the impossible (powerplant with skate park on top)
26. Think of your customers’ health
27. Combine necessity with poetry
Episode 5 – Ralph Gilles: Automotive Design
1. Give objects a soul
2. Innovate to be noticed
3. It takes a lot maintain a brand
4. Sometimes major changes are made in the middle
5. Think of all the different environments it will be in
6. Think about questions you asked a kid
7. Trust you gut instinct
8. Great design lasts forever
9. Try to match great design & affordability
10. Incorporate tech
11. Your invention can become a culture
12. Change discussions
13. New tech can leave you conflicted
14. Teachers can foster your passion
15. Write dream companies letters
16. Companies write back
17. Solve multiple problems
18. Taste making takes time
19. Creators create taste
20. Sometimes people will hate your design, but like it over time
21. Mergers can mean losing your job
22. Falling back on family can help you through rough times
23. Not matter how tough times are don’t compromise your product
24. In a new environment, learn as much as you can
25. Combine function & beauty
26. Feeling nervous meeting your heroes is normal
27. Celebrate the wins
Episode 6 – Paula Scher: Graphic Design
1. Type is everywhere
2. Messages are different
3. Study old backs
4. Move around
5. Start on scrapes of paper
6. Have room to walk around
7. Step backwards
8. Work with others for ideas
9. Play with weight
10. Type can be an identity
11. Find images in type
12. Create emotion
13. Use your hands
14. Simplify the complicated
15. Play with serious & fun topics
16. Weave information to make a bigger thing
17. Explore your identities
18. Practice
19. Play with big names
20. Sometime your worst work everyone will love
21. Ideas come from boring places
22. Be in state of play
23. Play with geometric shapes
24. Identity systems exist in many ways
25. Create a process evolving old works
26. Turn a vibe into an image
27. People want to copy your success
28. Design your food to get ideas
29. Work with who your compatible
30. Design has an impact on real life
31. Take pride in where you live
32. Critique bad designs
33. Develop a public language
34. Think about product placement
35. Meetings are like a debate
Episode 7 – Platon: Photography
1. Camera is a tool to help tell a story
2. When editing focus on parts of the photos
3. Think lighting & position
4. Create unique compositions
5. Prepare for others’ personalities
6. Be open to hear your clients’ stories
7. Relationships can be brief
8. Find power & dignity in high- & low-profile individuals
9. Look at objects in relation to yourself
10. Only keep what in necessary
11. Provoke to spark change
12. Tools take a backseat to story
13. Try to feel what your subject is feeling
14. Try to show people who they are
15. Tragedy can come at your highest success point
16. Capture the details of humanity
17. Change up your settings
18. The hero is the person who makes us think about our own moral compass
19. Inspire change in others
20. Interview you subject & create bridges
21. Bring light to unknown issues
22. Gestures work in communication barriers
23. Every moment is precious, make sure you capture it
24. Tools should not dominate us
25. Encourage your subject
26. Capture an event
27. Get close to the soul
Episode 8 – Ilse Crawford: Interior Design
1. People will trivialize your job
2. Design effects how we feel & behave
3. Design is a tool to enhance our humanity
4. Start a strategy
5. Shift from theatrical to settle
6. People act differently in different spaces
7. Bring luxury to the common people
8. Writing help you have a “aha” moment
9. Seek mentors that will give you opportunity to practice
10. Revamp the old
11. Encourage people to take care of themselves
12. Think of the future of a product
13. Use the five senses
14. Answers will appear when you investigate
15. Ask questions, observe, & listen
16. Think about the clients’ goal
17. Try to encourage healthy change
18. Experiment with materials
19. Think of the energy your client spends
20. Marry aesthetics & comfort
21. Think about the clients’ relationships
22. Collaborate & refine
23. Research sustainable materials for products
24. Build on existing sites
25. Make the ordinary extraordinary
26. Build trust with your client
27. Think about your clients’ everyday activities
28. Combine needs
29. Teach what you have learned
30. Provide tools to those who need it
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