Designblog

Although this is a completely black book, this book represents the best book designs of 1988.

The design of the books is simple but elegant. Just with the name of the author and the title of the book. Some designs make use of illustrations. There is not much use of different colors. Mostly, two

or three colors on one book. The designs of the books that are the most attractive to me are those with a simple choice of typeface , that represents just the basic information of the book.

For me the most attractive design of he book is the one that uses very light colors’ for illustrations. Although I already said that the most attractive books, for me, are the ones that use, just words for the design, I found this design the most fascinating in the collection of 1988 because of the simplicity of the illustrations that make the book very stylish. It’s a children’s book of Margriet Heymans “leveling, boterbloek Querido”. The book that is less attractive to me is the book of Poesjkin “verzamelde werken 3”.The reason for that is because of the use of, on my opinion, hideous use of the teletype and large font for his name. The color of the book is dark green that is used a lot in the design of books from that period. Although I like the simplicity of the design of the books from that period, this specific green is not attractive to me at all.

cat. no. 758.3

keyword: best

Drie jaar geleden liep ik langs een winkel waar een televisie in de etalage stond, ik zocht naar het prijs kaartje; niet te koop stond erop. Laatst liep ik over een tweedehands markt daar was hij mijn televisie; geen geld bij me. Nu keek ik in de bibliotheek van school wie de gene was die het had ontwerpen, het was een raadsel. Iedereen die ik het vroeg wist wel een letter van zijn naam maar ik kwam er als nog niet achter als ik al de letters achter elkaar plaatste.
Maar gister kwam ik er na lang zoeken achter. Je hoeft dus niet meer op de Design afdeling te kijken van onze bibliotheek. Ook al ben ik nu zelf wel nieuwsgierig of hij er toch bij staat.

mijn zoektocht

my search

“How things don’t work”…I have to admit that title worked as cliché of love at the first sight. Coming into the section of strictly design based field and being obligated to choose one book as starting point of next one month of study didn’t completely contribute to the feeling of being excited about further choice but then this title appeared. For miracle to be even bigger it was in part of industrial design to which one I defenetly don’t feel interested in.
Passing through introduction and first paragraph gave me satisfaction of knowing that there is no possibility of wrong choice. It is about practical problems which modern technology that we are using for every day activities brings and opposite result of the image of comforts and easiness that we expect but it is not critically focused. They don’t directly attack industry for producing all this kind of gadgets… there is a solution and that is inventing, studying, understanding and improving things that are already made or left over. In first chapter discussion about convenience of bathrooms and bathtubs appears, which is quite funny on the first reading. As you think about it more closer it is actually truth. Also what might be interesting is comparison to situation of the same kind of environment that we are situated right now maybe 20-30 years after this book was written.There are some improvements but basic problems are still the same caused by politics of capitalism market…use less make more.
“Societies and the individuals making up social groups ,tend to respond in a number of different ways to each new problem.There is capitalist approach-make it bigger,the technocratic one –make it better,the “revolutionary”solution –portry the problem as an example of an exploitative system ,and pre-industrial romantic fallacy-don’t use it.maybe it will go away by itself.We propose a fifth alternative response-let’s invent a different answer.

cat. nr: 770.6 pap 2

keyword: invention

I browse dusty books signified by typeface and the often great level of deterioration.

Title, Title, Title, stain, Title, stain, tear and of course a nagging pain in the neck caused by the uncomfortable positioning of the head, necessary to read the titles on the afore mentioned dusty books with ugly typeface justifying their own existence by amazing amounts of crappyness meant to be intriguing.

I browse dusty books and I am very impatient and yes, very annoyed.

I have an assignment to fulfil.

I bend down to take a peek at the lower levels and find: stain, tear, Title, Title, stain, bright clear red outstanding unpretentious untitled fat thing. It was such a relief.

cat. nr: 942.9 chun 1

keyword: develope envelope

Unique, Traditional Techniques for the Modern Weaver by Marjorie Cason and Adele Cahlander

I’m quite good at misreading. Today’s appeared to have been Waving out of Weaving. The thing immediately came with a very clear image : Someone had wrote a book on visual yodelling. Ancient—it had to be ancient—technique from Bolivia’s vast highlands.

By when I kneed to grab the book my mind was already wandering among bits of sign language notions I could recall, considering amplified variations after the needs of long distance communication. The surroundings of my prey presented unexpectedly high occurrences of the term jewellery and the blown-up pattern on the book cover soon identified itself as woven cloth. So much for highland waving.

While flipping pages, I still got stuck by the amount of weirdly positioned hands, drawn and pictured struggling with threads. I drew them and asked a sign language student to tell me which parts of the series could made sense. It turned out saying : ‘Independent animal west coast gives’.

cat. nr: 779.1-cas-1

keyword: animal

The book ‘The Art of Rock’ is about rock posters from 1955 until 1987, ‘From Presley to Punk’ stands on the cover.
I think. Only if you want a clear image of the atmosphere that these poster want to give you, you should not look at them closely. You should just brose through the book. Then you will find out that the atmosphere is mostly about drugs, endless summers and music. I like that. It takes me back to a few years ago when there were these cosy Friday and Saturday evenings with friends and no parents in the house when we just wanted to get as fucked as possible.

Another reason to not look to close at the posters is because most of them are not that good. When you do look good at them and look true all the tricks you will see there is a lot of graphic design creativity, which can work inspiring.
cat. nr: 754.1GRU

keyword: time

book

I picked the book City Signs and Lights (S. Carr (ed.), Boston, MIT Press 1973) from the Rietveld library. The title immediately brought up associations with Walter Benjamin´s concept of the flaneur, the prototype of the bourgeois consumerist as the socio-cultural product of the earliest department stores in Paris established around 1900. Parallel to this idea is, I believe, the Society of the Spectacle (Debord). The power to attract customers with light commercials like lamps attract bugs, by accepting the existence of Desire within the subject (Deleuze), creates a competition in the city landscape, that alters the landscape into a continuous feed of visual stimuli. This competition for attention in the urban environment leads in its turn to a new set of rules or aestethics for such commercials. This is probably the design part of the fascination: the competition within the city landscape for attention of potential customers that sets the parameters for an aesthetics of a denotation system that functions almost as a parasite on the urban environment.
(The author of City Signs and Lights doesn´t seem to mention a historical context)

The second association I had when I first saw the book, was Wong Kar-Wai´s Happy Together (1998) in which shots of city signs and lights are metaphorical for emptiness and alienation between the two main characters and their environment.
The book in itself does not provide extended written articles, but the title and images provoked associations and ideas about an exhaustive list of topics on the conditions of modern western society, semiotics in general, and the meaning of neon as a material or medium in particular.

cat. nr: 754.5-carr-1

keyword: neon

– First week: I grabbed the first book that caught my attention. Something on weaving, because I had misread it and thought it was about waving. I then drew all the hand positions displayed in the book and asked a sign language student to associate the ones he could recognise to words. The result became the starting point of the exploration: ‘independent – animal – west coast – give’.

– Second week: I used the search engine of the library. Typing in, one after the other, the four different words, I ended up with 10 book results. 2 for ‘independent’, 6 for ‘animal’, none for ‘west coast’ and 2 for ‘give’. 4 of the books were fitting within the design field, 2 of the ones found with ‘animal’, 2 with ‘give’.
Wondering about what to do with these four books, I took inspiration from a Wire album cover, On Returning, (a compilation of the three first album covers of the band) and compiled the four book covers.

– Third week: I asked someone for leads. Eveleen, who I asked if she would have ideas on compilation and art, told me to look into a book she heard quoted in a lecture, it was called something like ‘Postmodernist exhibition’. I couldn’t find a trace of the book in the library here, in CS nor on the internet but the idea was seducing.
In the meantime, I came across Martino Gamper’s work, approximately fitting with the subject I gave myself, but I wanted to keep using the system I had set, relate to the defined keywords.
I came back to the 10 books found earlier. 4 of them, as well, were fitting within the art field, 2 of the ones found with ‘independent’, 2 with ‘animal’. I then tried to install the 4 books as a ‘postmodernist exhibition’.
Funny thing is:The selection of the second week, on design, consists of books found through the keywords: “animal give(s)”.
The one on art then consisted of books found through the keywords: “independent animal”.

by Jules Estèves

keyword: sign language

…a friend of mine told me at dinner that I eat really slowly. I was surprised , have not really realized that everybody but me was already finished. It bothered me.
When I was still living at my parents place the tempo of eating was always an issue. Everyone but my father ate really fast. From time to time I could even keep up with my mother and was proud to sit in front of an empty plate while anybody else was still eating. It was like a competition.

So what happened from then until now? Am I slowing down or are people getting faster? Is it me or my environment which changed? Who influences whom?
posting by Charlotte Beek

What is slow? We can always be slow in reference to something
which is faster. Is life fast or slow? It depends how you see it.
I would like to bring your attention to noticing things. Generally we always notice something faster before than something slower. Get used to see the shoe on the other foot, get used to perceive slowness. If life seems too fast for you, give yourself some time. For example every day before going to work, wake up a little earlier and take some time for making yourself a nice breakfast. Be slow, enjoy the activity. Take your time for eating that, feel the taste and smell of your meal. Fix the mind on your food. Look out of the window, see what morning brings. Notice the details. Take a walk when you’re going to somewhere. Breath, be aware of doing that. Notice other people around you – Who is she? Where she’s going to? What she’s thinking of? Concentrate. You are surrounded by details, find them, play with them. Be interested in things.
Notice sun, notice rain, notice snow. Give yourself some time to notice!

1 month ago my brother and me got a new apartment, so a moving process started. I had to paint my new room and organize my stuff but because of my study I could spend only few hours a day to do that. Things went really slow, each day I was working in a small part of the room, moving my stuff from this corner to another. I did not finish organizing it but I am not in a hurry. Every week my room slowly changes from one shape to other. Slowly, but one day my room will be complete. At the same time I was sending photos of the apartment to my mom to keep her in touch with my daily life.

I like to be slow, ’cause it’s giving me time to see what’s going on around me.

Principally, I think I am relative slow… especially in doing my assignments… my brain is running the whole period… and I can’t close down… so I need typically too long to get to the point… to say “yes” to my idea… and the longer I think about it, the more difficulty it gets… from one element to the next… in the end thousand… once I felt in love with details and complicated schemes…
Then it is in the evening, one day before the deadline and I still have to work it out… working the night through… falling asleep in the middle of all the material… glue… scissor… cutter… ruler… pencils … waking up with a piece of paper glued on my nose or somewhere else…
Sometimes I love this nights… waking up and directly start to work and in between a short rest… a complete continued circle….
Never stop before perfection?

We all have expectations of what is going to happen in the future. What is going to be the next? It is impossible to figure out the unknown. The best way is to let time tell. As an experiment, I put a used shoe in an aquarium and let my friend draw his expectations of what was going to happen with the shoe through time. His drawings said more about how the water disappeared rather than the transformation of the shoe. The result after four weeks showed something completely different.

My conclusion is, we always have thoughts and ideas about how things are going to turn out. The fear of disappointment and the dream of the perfect end makes us forget the surprising. The so called “great” expectations.

FAST, BABY YOU HAVE TO THINK FASTER.
Because this will not work in OUR reality.
No, I can’t think like this.
That is what she said.
My answer was: my apologies, but i simply don’t have any time left.
Would you mind?
The next one please.
GOD what a nightmare.
Where are my feelings?
No not necessary they make me run out off time,
and time is MONEY AND THAT IS WORTH A LIFE, even your life realize that.
YES MADAM. I said.
A LONG LIFE WISHED FOR THE ASIANS,
said my boss.
AND WILL BE REPEATED BY ALL THE  BOSSES IN THE WORLD TODAY.
TOP SPEED MY BELOVED FRIEND.
CAN YOU GO 2000 k/m a hour?
DOESN’T MATTER THE MACHINE CAN.
RAPID.
BLACK.
WHAT A NATION
WHAT A LIFE.
And there it went.
MY TIME
MY LIFE.
MADAM it’s o.k now.
It is different here, they name it SLOW.
I can glance at you,
only you will not be able to see me.
AND I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TELL YOU,
THAT YOU WILL MISS THE ART IN YOU MY CHILD.

posted by Beties Sadaty

Traces of the everyday embedded in textile

Rietveld graduate (2008 TXT) Marie Ilse Bourlanges visited the Slow Design research class on Thursday 12 February to present about her graduation project, ‘Decay,’ a collection of sweaters exploring complex relationships of time, the body and materiality.  By taking the class through her project from concept to final product, Marie Ilse revealed the deep and mindful processes of research, design development, experimentation, and production that enriched her project.  She talked about sources of inspiration: the work of writer/biologist Midas Dekkers, the concept of Time in the work of Belgian fashion designer Martin Margiela,  the symbiotic relationship of crumbling architectural forms and the natural forces that overtake them, patterns of cellular growth and decay, and the hidden treasures of a threadbare teddy belonging to her niece (among others).  She also described the evolution of her pattern, which derived from capturing subtle, everyday body movements and subsequently was subjected to fractal geometry, while also providing instructive detail about her various stages of experimentation with materials and techniques.  Marie Ilse’s project is a beautiful example of Slowness as a process of designing, and also Slowness as a more engaged and reflective experience of a designed artifact.  Her work on this project demonstrates how Slow Design tools and persepectives were supported and enhanced by the atmosphere of the Rietveld, and it hopefully was reminder to the Basic Year students about both the opportunities and intrinsic responsibilities of creative education.

 
download this thesis:  ‘Decay’  by Marie Ilse Bourlanges was

the Winner, of the GRA Thesis Award 2008

Generally I think of slowness as something nice, peaceful. Take your time so you can think it over. Take it easy. But it can sometimes be unnoticeable and maybe even destructive in some cases. Things can slip in and out of your life or work. You don’t see it at first, but it can have the most horrible consequences when you finally notice them. Maybe after the great slowness must come a lot of speed to catch up witch will end in an eruption of horribleness. Or just continue to be slow to the end.

posted by Tim Mathijsen

Everybody are always demanding of me to be quick.  But what´s the
hurry?  Time won´t go faster or slower.  If I´m late I embrace that
knowledge and think ” Oh well, I´m late anyway.  What are 20 minutes
more?”.  Of course that way of thinking doesn´t work when you have a
job or school.  But when I oversleep I rather take my own time in
eating, putting on clothes and making sure I have everything for the
day instead of feeling shitty in the rest of it.  But in the fast,
systematic world this type of thinking is not acceptable.  Doing
things in your own pace hardly exists anymore because we are slaves of
the time.  Even when I don´t have anything to do after school except
for getting my ass home I hurry to get more time to do nothing.  That
is kind of perverted.  Time for nothing.

posting by Thordis Zoega