Last night was the University of Plymouth Student Union awards where the designers society won two awards!
1. 'Best Society Event'. This was when Harry Pearce from Pentagram came down to visit in January and present a lecture enticing designers and students from across the south west and also then afterwards opening an exhibition of students work which resulted in a work placement for one of the students and gave us the opportunity of working alongside the council on the Jigsaw project!
2. 'Best New Society of the Year' Not only this but I won an award too for 'Contribution to Societies' for all the hard work that has been done establishing the society and making such a great start. It is coming up to the time when I should hand over to my replacement and it will be very sad to see it go out of my grasp, but I know it will be in fantastic hands and strive towards bigger and better goals!
I know it is looked well on design organisations taking an opinion and the Designers Society should be no different. I am as yet unsure what to make of this film that was introduced to me last night. It does not have a clear purpose, there is obviously a message but unclear at exactly what it is. I understand it has already been banned from Youtube but should vimeo do the same? So there is freedom of speech. Fine. I may not care as much if only I knew what the purpose of this film is. If you are ginger, now is a good time to look away.
In collaboration with the 'Plymouth City Council' and 'Groundworks' the Designers Society that I chair has been working on the 'Jigsaw project' and what goes into the space between Roland Levinsky building and Drakes Circus shopping centre. Work doesn't seem to have much urgency at present but little by little changes are happening and today they rolled on some grass bundles! Soon start to take shape I hope.
----- Update 07/05/10:
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Update 17/05/10:
We have just been informed that the 'Jigsaw' site is being presented to the Lord Mayor of Plymouth on the 22nd of May. Not having been able to get in touch with the council on the matter to find out the final design there is always the suspicion on how the site will get from this to a finished piece similar to any of the designs shown in just over a week...
Ever since doing a project before christmas trying to encourage people to drink more tea I have become a tea-aholic. I have bought more tea this year than anything else, testing and enjoying the vast variety of flavours.
I have always admired the packaging design used with Clipperand on seeing some limited edition 'Alice in Wonderland' themed packs I just had to buy them. Not only do they look fantastic but they taste great too! They are a unique and original tea company that proves design can make a difference.
Why is technology not built to last? It seems that everything we buy has a life expectancy of about 1 or two years - if that! A recent set of headphones I bought have just fallen apart in my ear!
Takes phones for example, when they first came out the battery used to last for weeks, now my dads blackberry doesn't even last a day! Why can't these companies improve on the basics before they focus on the exciting new inventions??
Just stop and think how many phones you may have been through in the past couple of years! Since I first bought a phone about 7 years ago I am now on my fourth phone! How disgusting! I think that companies need to stop focusing on the next new thing and improve on what they do have, improving how robust and user friendly things are.
I am recently toying with the idea of buying a new camera because mine is now several models behind and very quickly ceasing to work.
Do I even need to move onto the difference between PC and Mac? Why cant people solve all problems with technology before being released. OK so Joe Public has accepted that everything they buy will go tits-up in a year or two but WHY should they be expected to accept this. We should be pushing for improvements. We don't need the latest extra mega pixel - we need something we can use and will last us over a long period of time for the extortionate prices we pay!
I could go on all day but it could get very tedious for both the reader and for me when I should be writing my dissertation...
