paper discovered

I've been looking for good quality printing paper lately. Two kinds of paper that i think it's good for printing. Xerox 20 lb. laser paper is used in ocad print shop. Hammermill color copy has very smooth finish and off white color. The global and Mail magazine uses for their printing proof. Unfortunately i haven't found them in the store. They are available online. HP laserjet Ultra White, 24lb. is not a bad choice for testing, however, i found the color is too pale.

Printer is also crucial to print quality, ocad uses Xerox. I found Canon Laser Beam Printer is better, it defines more detail, color and texture is more even.

Brock University's logo redesign

Named after Major General Sir Isaac Brock, who died defending Niagara from the American invasion at Queenston Heights in 1812, Brock University chose Sir Isaac Brock to serve the university's logo when it established in 1964. Their old serif typeface with Sir Isaac Brock's silhouette represent this university for half a century. Suddenly they decided to redesign the logo into plain san serif with a cliche fingerprint. The new logo is poorly executed and its fingerprint is too literal and too small to recognize. The logo doesn't represent of a higher learning institution, in stead it looks like Brock Security or Brock Investigations... It doesnt relate to Brock's brand personality-Fresh, smart, creative, passionate. It looks dull and intelligent. The redesign is a disaster.

Armin. An Academic Fingerprint. Brand New. 8 April 2010. http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/an_academic_fingerprint.php

Patterns: Design Insights Emerging and Converging

I came across an insightful project from IDEO called Pattern. It is a common insights that captured challenges across projects as well as about the world. It is a way elevate insights to the level of cultural impact. It contains some of the toughest design challenges we all have the potential to solve in the most innovative companies. Patterns publishes different issues every month. Their opinions and ideas are solid and sharp, they inspire for critical thinking and further research. Their expression are very concise, I found it challenging to understand without enough background knowledge.

Patterns: Design Insights Emerging and Converging. IDEO 1991. 4 April 2010. http://patterns.ideo.com/

from "made in china" to "learnt in china"

Richard Kelly represented IDEO in " When China shows to the world its design-driven innovation instead of technology-based R&D driven innovation" suggested a new design thinking to suit Chinese customer- the human centered innovation approach. To find out what these new ways are, designers need to get close to the consumer and observe how they truly behave and what they ideally want. They observed that many female customers, in a subconscious act of saving money, so they encouraging money-saving behavior.

Just as the 2008 Games marked the possibility of transforming ‘Made in China’ into ‘Created in China’, so in the future when we will witness a World Expo encapsulates the progress of ‘Created in China’ to its next evolution: ‘Learnt in China’.

Chinese consumers have a big appetite for new experiences and ability for accelerated learning. So, consumers constantly re-learn and unlearn what's good and what's not, what works and what doesn't. They change their minds, and often very quickly about purchase decisions they make. They also adopt new behaviours much faster than those in the developed markets in general.

Consumers should be a source of inspiration for innovation and design, and not just technology excellence. Chinese consumers are as discerning about quality and as equally demanding about value. They also observed an increasing desire and demand for products, services and experiences that express their socio-cultural value rather than simply pursuing foreign brand names.

Chinese culture celebrates thriftiness. As as part of “created in china”, we’ll need to evolve from “how to make it cheaper” to a philosophy of “how to make it better”.

the key successful branding in china

Managing Researcher Shaun Rein in Business Week suggested the key to successful branding in China. His research is quite honest. There is some truth that Chinese consumers switch brands frequently, because they have massively more choices than they had even a decade ago. Curious consumers need to experience to establish their loyalty. There are some successful brands that Chinese consumers are loyal to because those brands target their needs and understand the market. Brands such as Tencent QQ instant message service, Belle shoes, Taobao e-commerce service are incredibly successful. The White Rabbit candy had built trust with Chinese consumers much as Tide had in the U.S.

He suggest that to foster brand loyalty in China, companies need to learn from these successful examples and focus on three critical points: Define their brand position, understand and relate to their consumer base, and target China's younger generation, which has the product sophistication to be tomorrow's loyalty leads.

China is the world's second-largest auto market. Buick took advantage of this growth and leveraged the position it created and selling low-end models into $12,000 price range. The middle-class are upset because Buick quality has been watered-down as they see Buick as a luxury brand. Buick made the mistake for not clearly defining its brand for consumers. Is it low end or high end? As a counterpoint to Buick, BMW has sacrificed short-term sales and chose to maintin its premium positioning for affluent consumers. BMW is now seeing massive growth and gain its loyalty.

Clarins and L'Oreal are two popular brands around the world. Their images in China are very different. L'Oreal is very successful, and they have developed brand loyalty to both male and female consumers. L'Oreal's image in China is more luscious than it does in the western world. Clarins had made a mistaking by making an advertising campaign that typical Chinese male cannot relate. Clarins used metrosexual models that presented an image most Chinese men could not relate. L'Oreal has chosen Korean movie stars for its male brand. These Korean stars exhibit a look and style that Chinese women wish their boyfriends would exhibit. Clarins chose to lauch campaigns with blond girls on sailboats when these popular images do not attract Chinese consumers. Shaun's study argued that Chinese concerned about safety as consumers in the U.S. Brands like Midea, Haier, and Unilver has established as good quality.

To develop a brand successfully in China, it's not enough to take short-term path and sell to every possible market.

Rein, Shaun. The key successful branding in China. 1st April 2010 http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070925_202489_page_2.htm

Thesis three options

1. Project base, a preparation of job base, create diverse projects.

2. Thesis base, one year study of a subject.

3. Master preparation thesis going in to deeper research.

reading 6 notes

The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals think in Action

Donald Schon

Schon questioned of the relationship between the kinds of knowledge honored in academia and the kinds of competence valued in professional practice. He was convinced that universities are not devoted to the production and distribution of fundamental knowledge in general but inattention to practical competence and professional artistry. This study is an analysis of the distinctive structure of reflection-inaction. Schon argues that it is susceptible to a kind of rigor that is both like and unlike the rigor of scholarly research and controlled experiment.

In the university, there is a dominant view of professional knowledge as the application of scientific theory and technique to the instrumental problems of practice. Technical Rationality is the heritage of Positivism, the powerful philosophical doctrine that grew up in the nineteenth century as an account of the rise of science and technology and as a social movement aimed at applying the achievements of science and technology to the well-being of mankind. It became institutionalized in the modern university when Positivism was at its height, and in the professional schools that secured their place in the university in the early decades of the twentieth century.

From the perspective of Technical Rationality, professional practice is a process of problem solving. But we ignore problem setting, the process by which we define the decision to be made, the ends to be achieved, the means, which may be chosen. Problem setting is a necessary condition for technical problem solving.

Knowing has the following properties:

There are actions, recognitions, and judgments which we know how to carry out.

Spontaneously; we do not have to think about them prior to or during their performance. We are often unaware of having learned to do these things. We are usually unable to describe the knowing which our action reveals.

It is in this sense that I speak of knowing-in-action, the characteristic mode of ordinary practical knowledge.

Reflecting-in-action. If common sense recognizes knowing-in-action, it also recognizes that we sometimes think about what we are doing. “feel for the ball” that lets you “repeat the exact same thing you did before that proved successful.

When someone reflects-in-action, he becomes a researcher in the practice context. He is not dependent on the categories of established theory and technique, but constructs a new theory of the unique case. His inquiry is not limited to a deliberation about means which depends on a prior agreement about ends. He does not keep means and ends separate, but defines them interactively as he frames a problematic situation. He does not separate thinking from doing, ratiocinating his way to a decision which he must later convert to action. Because his experimenting is a kind of action, implementation is built into his inquiry. Thus reflection-in-action can proceed, even in situations of uncertainty or uniqueness, because it is not bound by the dichotomies of Technical Rationality.

Semiotics: A Primer for Designers

Challis Hodge

“Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to understand the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.”

Semiotics can be described as the study of signs that includes anything capable of standing for or representing a separate meaning. Paddy Whannel offered a slightly different definition. “Semiotics tells us things we already know in a language we will never understand.” Semiotics is important for designers as it allows us to gain insight into the relationships between signs, what they stand for, and the people who must interpret them — the people we design for.

Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure is generally considered to be the founder of linguistics and semiotics. Structuralism is an analytical method used by many semioticians. Structuralists seek to describe the overall organization of sign systems as languages. They search for the deep and complex structures underlying the surface features of phenomena.

Semantics focuses on what words mean while semiotics is concerned with how signs mean. Semiotics embraces semantics, along with the other traditional branches of linguistics as follows:

Semantics: the relationship of signs to what they stand for.

Syntactics (or syntax): the formal or structural relations between signs.

Pragmatics: the relation of signs to interpreters.

Valentin Voloshinov proposed a reversal of the Saussurean priority, language over speech: “The sign is part of organized social intercourse and cannot exist, as such, outside it, reverting to a mere physical artifact.” The meaning of a sign is not in its relationship to other signs within the language system but rather in the social context of its use.

The study of semiotics needs to account for the relationship of the symbols and the social context or context of use.

Daniel Chandler sums up: “The study of signs is the study of the construction and maintenance of reality. To decline such a study is to leave to others the control of the world of meanings.” Semiotics teaches us as designers that our work has no meaning outside the complex set of factors that define it. These factors are not static, but rather constantly changing because we are changing and creating them. The deeper our understanding and awareness of these factors, the better our control over the success of the work products we create.