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Member Gyoko from ProductDesignForums posted 3 interesting articles about design. Here are the intros:

The Final Frontier
The Role of the Design Research

The role of research in the creative process is to discover and guide the design implications of the real cultural phenomena. Therefore, researchers must have a sound working knowledge of the concepts and methods that make culturally motivated designs possible. Every project demands that designers determine the appropriate outcomes, project constraints and research methods. In respect to that, design researchers must demonstrate that their conclusions are logical and founded in the data created during the project itself, so the design team can create new concepts and solutions.

Read more and discuss here

The Right Choice
Design Education

It is never an easy choice when it comes to selecting the right design school or the right design program. Schools differ in their approaches to design and to design education. Most important is to understand your own interests, so when learning about each department or school, you can evaluate if it is the right choice for you. You might be faced with different choices and philosophies, and none of them might be wrong or right, but they might not be exactly what you want.

Read more and discuss here

Offer You Cannot Refuse
Design as Corporate Strategy

The Chairman of Sony Corporation, Norio Ohga once said, “At Sony, we assume all products of our competitors will have basically the same technology, price, performance and features. Design is the only thing that differentiates one product from another in the marketplace”.

Can good design create a better image for the company? Can design help people feel good about where they work? What has design got to do with the company’s environment? Usually people say: This is a good company. They make great products. Sell them everywhere in the world. Everyone is using theirs products/services. Everyone wants to work there. It is a great company to invest in.

Read more and discuss here

2 years ago Gyoko posted more interesting articles in ProductDesignForums. Check his topics in his profile after registering.

If you want to keep in shape with sketching or improve your sketching skills, then please feel free to participate in the sketch sessions that are being held here.

Current session is ‘bags’

A week ago I went to Pudong, for skyscraper sightseeing. The two main towers I was visiting are called: JinMao (420.5m) and World Financial Center (491.9m). The latter one is still under contruction and it will be finished somewhere this year according plan.

I took an elevator with a speed of 9.1 m/s to the 88th floor of the JinMao tower, which costed me 70rmb and less than a minute. The 88th floor houses the Skywalk, which is a tall indoor observation deck for watching a panorama view of Shanghai. It was a pretty amazing sight from that height. Check out some pics here.

This is the view into the lounge space, located on the 53th floor, of the Grand Hyatt hotel inside the JinMao tower:

And this is the view from the lounge space of the Grand Hyatt hotel:

The World Financial Center viewed from the 88th floor of the JinMao tower:

It was snowing quite a lot in the last few days before the Spring festival holidays in a big part of China, also in Shanghai.
Here is a mobile phone picture I made from one of my office windows:

On the 2nd of February I took the bus to Wenzhou and I had bad luck. The accu of the bus went on fire after 3 hours of traveling on the highway. Fortunately, no passengers were harmed. The most bad thing was that our bus driver was not acting responsible. He did not take good care of us during the incident. He did not report anything to us. What a shame!
Another crazy thing was, that our bus was pulled by a service truck to the closest service center on the highway, with passengers inside an angled bus (check photo with bus window)! Here are some pictures from that event:

This is a picture of a ‘Smart’ in Wenzhou:

My first time seeing a Chinese Dragon Boat:

Check out some tips and advises for creating a portfolio here. And post your portfolio images or website in this forum to get feedback. Also DesignSojourn wrote some useful portfolio tips.

Here are a few good sites where you can create your online portfolio for free:

Coroflot
Carbonmade
DesignRelated
Finalcrit

If you want to showcase and/or sell your design products, register at Designer pages.

As a supplier, you can upload your products and renderings, where thousands of topnotch designers and architects can find it.
You know what could be the consequences if someone decide to implement your product within his skyscraper project .

As a Designer you’ll get free

• Management of materials and elements of your artwork – Save products you may want to use in your projects and build a library of elements for your designs that will never be outdated.
• Materials/Product/Issues tracking per Project – Create workspaces to track what materials or products are used in the context of your design work. Workspaces are great for keeping a constant flow of communication from designer to client and colleagues.
• Private clients/co-workers collaboration on your design projects – Share workspaces with co-workers, clients, and anyone else involved on the project. Setup deadlines, timescales, communicate … get the project done.

They call it The New Source for Products in Architecture and Design.

Starting from now I would like to highlight interesting topics that have been posted at ProductDesignForums , a discussion board that I have been taking care of since August 2004 with my friend Renze Rispens.

One of our members, csven, started an interesting thread about the predictions for the industrial design profession:

So where are the predictions for the profession?

Not design/trend predictions. Job-related predictions. Because more than most, ID is arguably at the mercy of more factors than other professions.

Read more here

Currently I am reading ‘Universal Principles of Design’, which is an useful book containing 100 design principles that can be applied in several design issues. A lot of principles can be recognized from design theories learnt at a design school. So this book it is a good reference to check whether your design is well thought out or not.

Hello readers, who are still checking this place out even I haven’t blogged for 2 months. Maybe blogging is not my favorite habit. I want to wish you a happy and healthy new year (yeah i know i am late) and want to update with some few things:

What has happened and what have I experienced and learnt so far in the past 4 months working and living in Shanghai?

The first few important things in my new life here is that I have met a small group of very nice HongKong Chinese friends ,from the Christian community (yes I am a Christian), with whom I regularly meet for dinners and activities. They are an import part of my life here, becuase they make me feel home.

Also my Mandarin has improved quite well according to my Chinese colleagues. Well, I need to thank them, since I learned the most from them. Able to speak Mandarin makes life more easier here. Fortunately I am able to speak Cantonese (Chinese dialect used in HongKong) which is a good foundation for learning Mandarin.

Furthermore, I moved to my own apartment at HongQiao Road beginning December, 40 minutes commuting time to my work. Before, I stayed at my friend’s apartment in ZhongShang Park.

Before Christmas, our company had a Christmas party at a KaraOke bar (yeah KaraOke is very popular here). We exchanged gifts, some were quite crazy. And we said farewell to our Japanese collegeau Tomoko Obana, who has already been moved to Berlin.
During Christmas I went back to Holland for a short week to visit my family and friends. It was a warm and cozy stay

That’s it for now. Hope to be back soon here. By the way, check my latest sketch here.

Anke and Lars will held the second international designer gathering in Shanghai. If you are a foreign designer in Shanghai and want to have a drink with others like you, then you should come to the event. It will be held at Jonathan Li’s (Design Manager of Asentio Design) Winebar ‘Just Grapes‘

Time: Wednesday, Nov 21
Place :: Just Grapes (2nd floor 462 DaGu Roa)

Please email me so that I can forward your reservation to Anke and Lars, who are the organizers of this event.