Clement Yoong_ides1122

1.) Visit a museum: I've visited the Powerhouse Museum two months ago (April). i managed to explore all of the products that are designed for Australian International Design Awards 2010. The finalist is from UNSW and the designer is my tutor, Gonzalo Portas! (completed on 17/4/2011)

2.) Visit a exhibition: I went to the Sydney Convention & Convention Center to check out what is Design Build 2011 all about. I got the chance to see a whole range of household products, especially the latest technology that is involved in some of the electrical products. The exhibition also showcases the industry of both building and construction. ( completed on 13/5/2011)

3.) Read and comment on a design blog: The name of the blog that I've read is 'theory.is the reason' (theory.isthereason.com/?p=50). I read 'Karim Rashid: Democratic Design' and the post is about improving products that would fit the people's use and present time. The main focus in design is us, humans! This is a good reminder for industrial designers because we can always design something new and yet comfortable for the people, not only just by following the previous or old design that have been explored. But of course, it is not always easy to achieve that. (completed on 30/4/2011)

4.) Read and comment another students IDES1122 blog: The blog is belong to Edric, that is Edric IDES1122 blog. It's about a dialog between 2 men about a painting. Man 1 was trying to understand the meaning and what kind of representation of man 2's painting. Both men were arguing because man 1 wanted to see something familiar but man 2 wanted to make his painting something different and more independent. My comment is: "That's a good point Edric. It is one of the principles of design that we need to understand. We shouldn't waste our time to copy or imitate something when it comes to appearance. It must have a reason to copy something. (completed on 11/4/2011)

5.) Read three design magazine/journal: The magazines that I've read are Axis vol.150 - April 2011, Form The Making of Design 237 - March/April 2011 and Innovation interactive experiences - summer 2010.
My particular interest was the interview with Kaoru Kasai from the Axis magazine. He gave the readers the his thoughts what is design is all about and his working life as well. It's great to know someone like Kaoru Kasai in more depth about him. Another article from Form magazine is quite interesting and the title is 'How to get inspired'. It has a list of advices by designers from around the world on how to get inspired in the design world. Basically, most of them would say that it's all about the passion in us. (completed on 12/5/2011)

6.) Do the UNSW Library induction - ELISE: It's a good thing that I've completed the test during the orientation week, on February. Definitely don't want to do the test while having a busy time with my assignments. (completed on 24/2/2011)

7.) Visit another Library - COFA, Fisher, etc: I went to the COFA library to borrow a few books that are related to industrial design. My first book was Phaidon design classics.333 of 999 objects.Volume 1. I think this book has a great introduction what is industrial design is all about and it's a good start for those people who is still do not understand the meaning of 'industrial design'. It's a giant book and of course I did not have the time to read and admire the whole book but definitely will check it out again in this coming holiday. (completed on 10/3/2011)

8.) Listen to ABC Radio 'By Design' Podcast: Although architecture is thought to address only one sense, that of sight, Julia Pallasmaa thinks it should be all about touch, small, hearing and even taste as well. I never thought that architecture could be related to taste. Perhaps it could be applied to industrial design too? I sure that everything can be expressed through more than one element other than sight. (completed on 15/4/2011)

9.) Watch a TED talk: The tittle of the TED video is 'Steve Jobs - How to live before you die'. The 3 stories told by Steve Jobs to the graduated of Stanford University are truly inspiring. All these stories are real life stories that Stove Jobs had gone through. The lesson of the 1st story is to believe in ourselves that we can 'connect the dots' by looking forward which will give us confidence to go through all kinds of hardships.
The lesson of the 2nd story is that we have to find what we love in almost everything that we do and to do what we believe is great work. He also stressed out that if we haven't found the things that we love to do, keep on looking and don't just keep staying at one place.
The moral of the 3rd story is that no one can escape death and this is the reason why we should not waste our time of our life on other people's opinions. We can always choose to follow our heart because we know what we really want to become deep inside in our hearts. Steve Jobs reminded us that death can be a life changing tool. (completed on 3/4/2011)