DesignGood design project.
February 1, 2008
January 22, 2008
January 6, 2008
Back to the Future
Before the grid there was dilation and after the grid there will be dilation. The postmodern, if it ever arrives, will look much like the pre-modern, because the grid, the metric of some long dead king’s arm, is completely irrelevant to how space organizes it’s self, this realization combined with the fact that tension structures deploy material more efficiently than compression ones can, will drive our going “back to the future.” The realization that space can be self metric is the missing link between where we have been lately and where we are going. Design efficiency.
January 5, 2008
The divine proportion
Problematically, I thought all spirals looked fairly well beautiful, not just our “golden” one. The divinely favoured one’s beauty seemed to be emanating more from other people than my own experience and searching for an ugly spiral proved fruitless. Another concern regarding “good design” and Phi is that designers who never employ the divine strategy still achieve “good” results. How so? <!–more–>
January 4, 2008
Up date
For a designer, they are a dream come true.
A dilation can be assigned any proportion and this won’t change internal metrics.
By internal metrics, I mean the # of units, regardless of proportion, remain constant and each unit ( except 1/2 in this case ) will tile to fill the entire space. What this means is you won’t see a grid unless you want or need to. When using this strategy grids become secondary as most needs are satisfied by finding points on the Z axis rather the x, and y, axis. Another way of thinking about this is to imagine that your grid will scale to your work.
Think SVG ( scalable vector graphics ) or grid “squares” that stretch to fit the given task. Within such an environment, because there is always an harmonic spiral, proportions can’t be lost. More…
December 31, 2007
December 14, 2007
Theory of Everything
Dilation strategy big time.
“Roger Highfield describes a heroic mathematical enterprise that could lay bare the fundamentals of the cosmos…
Mathematicians have successfully scaled their equivalent of Mount Everest. Today they unveil the answer to a problem that, if written out in tiny print, would cover an area the size of Manhattan.”
and
Physicist study variations on sunshine and dirt. Well… to be fair, some only study the language of Physics. Math is a language the universe never learned. Never heard of prime numbers and never heard of pi.
Sunshine and dirt exhibit dilation strategies at every level of organization:
Atomic
Molecular
Crystallographic
Symmetry
Planets
Solar systems
Suns / stars
Gravity
Storms
Plants
Animals
You name it, and yes, plants and animals are sunshine and dirt working in a concert that some people call “biology.”
The only place you won’t find dilation strategy usefully employed is the designers square and triangular grids. The designers ( impossible) center less grid wanders off to infinity one inch or centimeter at a time forever looking for a proportion it will never find. Unless of course you spend valuable time helping it out. A dilation matrix ( not a grid ) on the other hand, will spend all of it’s time helping you out regardless of the two or three dimensions of any given space where you might choose to deploy it. Dilation strategy is a math free organizing principle; easily understood visually, that a school age child anywhere in the world ( or big shot designer ) can learn with relative ease.
December 11, 2007
DWB
“Smallscale Philanthropy
Designers Without Borders is the only non-profit organization in the world specifically dedicated to enhancing development through communication design education. DWB spent academic 2006-2007 working with hundreds of African students…”
December 9, 2007
New Cover Design
I liked the old cover design, but, it originated back when the book included every dilation under the sun and a few others. This new cover reflects the clarified state of affairs for the “graphic design edition.”
