Leaf kite

I had a picnic with my studio mates on Saturday. Apart from the food and the ambiance, one of the things that caught my attention was how a group of children had made a kite out of a giant piece of leaf. No it didn't manage to soar but it did provided them with a lot of enjoyment just running and playing with it. Perhaps what I found extremely interesting was how deep the semantic was. A leaf floating in the wind is akin to a kite being flown.

Design Hacks 101

Hello readers. Its been a rather uneventful 2 weeks where design is concerned but for matters of the heart, that is an entirely different story. I'm not sure what really prompted me to even note about the latter. But then again, if you have no heart, you can't design. Yes I know the past few sentences could have been interpreted as absolute rubbish.

Anyway.

It's about time that I started posting entries with relations to 'design hacks'. The term is a reference to the things we do to any object and adjust it to suit our need beyond its intended designed function. For example, like how you could use a paper clip as a fishing hook. See what I mean? Apart from hacks, this new category of postings that I'm creating is also about my observations of how everyday objects are used by people without much thinking.

Naoto Fukasawa attribute this phenomenon as the 'core of awareness' and ideo (the design consultancy) call this 'without thought'. So in light of these things, I have decided to do my own observations and post them up.

stay tuned.

and then there was none

Randomize

It feels rather anti-climatic once the the whole shebang was over ( temporarily ) for this first semester of my fourth year. Procrastination has gotten to me as I wander back and forth in my head thinking about which design related issue I should write about. There are definitely a lot in my head right now and everytime I think about issues, I get a mental image of me giving a speech. And then this led to further daydreaming which eventually resulted in a mental orgasm that leaves me slightly satisfied and I don't feel like ranting on the blog anymore. Anyway, just to keep this site going, here's a post of a picture of a man trying to fix an air-conditioning unit. He is 8 floors up and lives directly opposite my apartment.
Enjoy.

Cardboard Amplifier

In about less than 24hrs, I'd be making my last presentation for this semester. I did a design hack to create my mock up. The concept is suppose to be a wearable amp for the employees of a certain guitar store. I took out the main circuit board from a Danelectro headphone amp e-studio series. Hijacked a mini speaker from a friend. Throw in some hot glue , masking tape and cardboards and Voila! Oh, and it works too.