Monday, April 11, 2011

Design Museum

Brit Insurance Design Awards: Your Vote
Which design would you honor for innovation in the following categories:
(list the object title and provide a two sentence response for the innovative selection)

Architecture: Origin Part 1: Join
            This piece of architecture really caught my eye. This piece is 3 space dividers made out of Japanese wood, each piece being two linear frames. The reason why this caught my eye is because of how intricate the design looked. There are so many pieces of wood crossed over each other, parallel to each other and then all of the three uniquely created dividers were put together. I also really was interested in the idea that this piece of work represented integrity, was handcrafted, and barely any glue or tools were used to make this piece. It must have taken a lot of work, concentration and preciseness which makes this piece even more fascinating.

Furniture: The Solo Bench
            This piece was definitely one of my favorite in the entire gallery. I have always really enjoyed nature and Domingos Totora loved nature as well. This bench is made out of recycled cardboard. I was touched by this piece because so many businesses would just discard all of their cardboard and Totora found a way to put that recycled rubbish to use. I many times take things like that for granted where either I don’t recycle or I waste paper and other such materials that could come into great use. I was inspired by his use of everyday objects to make beautiful pieces of work.


Transport: Ohne Titel Spring/Summer ‘11
            I am obsessed with these shoes. If I could transport myself around the city and world with these shoes I would be honored. They were designed by Flora Gill and Alexa Adams and were inspired by a Japanese artist. All of the different bright colors used are captivating and the modernized/futuristic look of the shoes is compelling. I feel in love at first sight.

Graphics: Reactable Mobile
            Designed by Reactable Systems, I see this instrument as incredibly tempting. Although I’m sure it is more expensive than a guitar or drum set, it is so mobile and transportable. You would be able to bring it everywhere and anywhere that you go. It would just be easier for DJ’s to use because they wouldn’t have to bring their entire music set but yet they could just bring this one object. I also think that this would give want-to-be DJers an opportunity to try out their skills on their own time rather than being embarrassed with others hearing them. And they would be able to practice 24/7 hopefully allowing them to become famous one day with their incredible skills.

Describe your impressions of the exhibition. Is the work of Wim Crouwel too minimal? Do you prefer graphics with more visual elements? What adjectives describe the exhibition? 
            Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this exhibit. When I first walked in I was completely confused and uninterested in this exhibit, but once I walked around and read the text palates I was able to appreciate this exhibit for what it was. I’ll have to admit, Crouwel’s work was a bit minimal and simplistic but because of the amount of information the exhibit provided me with, I was eventually able to respect the exhibit. On the other hand, usually I do prefer graphics with more visual elements but for some reason after seeing this exhibit, I didn’t care. This was something like I had never seen before and I really enjoyed it.
            Three adjectives that I would use to describe this exhibition are educational, attractive and simple. Although simple may be on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, I think that the exhibit contained all of this and more. Like I said earlier, this exhibit was educational because of all of the text it provided us with. I didn’t know anything about Crouwel before coming to this exhibit but once I left, I felt much more knowledgable because I learned something new about someone new. I see this exhibit as attractive because of the colorful posters lining the white walls with additional work mazing through the middle of the exhibit. Lastly, I find this exhibit simple because on the artwork there wasn’t much text or detail as well as there wasn’t much complexity to the layout of the exhibit.

What fine artist or artists (painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media) come to mind when you look at the posters of Wim Crouwel. For instance do you see any resemblances to the shapes of Jackson Pollock? Do the colors of Mark Rothko emerge in the posters? Do the repeated shapes on the wall appear like a Donald Judd sculpture? Perhaps think of an artist you have discovered during this London journey. Or research an artist working during the same time period? 
            I see similarities between Crouwel and Donald Judd because of the simplistic and minimalistic styles of art they both use. As mentioned earlier, there wasn’t much complexity to Crouwel’s posters or calendars or other pieces of work, which I see as well in Judd’s work with very repetitive pieces and shapes on his artwork. Overall, I am starting to have a clearer and more open-mind to this sort of simplistic and minimalistic type of artwork.

No comments:

Post a Comment