The Standard of Living Package

Buckminster Fuller, an American architect, author, designer, inventor and a man ahead of his time, assigned forty students from the Institute of Design in Chicago, to create a standard living package. Although some of the ideas and products they used in theirs worked I would change a few things and for the standard living of today. Many gathered up expensive bulky furniture, they also used the top of the line dishwasher and kitchen appliances. Certainly they had their reasons, however I would personally spare the bulky expensive furniture and go with maybe one couch and then stick with a more minimalist approach to obtain more items in the area given.

If there were six people living in the area I would have three rooms with two and a half baths. I would then also have a place for a woodshop and garden. I would have the common kitchen appliances: fridge, freezer, kitchen aid, microwave, oven, grill, and etc. I would also have a computer or two with a large 3D printer, to be able to make things along the way. I would also have a few other things the students had put into theirs. I would have some recreational equipment, and also outdoor gear and emergency equipment. Technology is large in this era of time so I would have a camera and smaller objects that could provide education, entertainment, and creativity. There are many things that could go into a standard living package and it would take a good amount of time to figure out what would be best. I do believe what I have already mentioned I would put in a package like this. It would have been interesting to be apart of that group directed by Buckminster and see what their thoughts were in this project. 

The LEGO Group Part 2

_{LEGO bricks are to some just another child’s toy, some the brick is a hard plastic object just waiting to pierce their bare feet, however, to others, and myself, LEGO opened up a brand new and imaginative world, which offered anyone the opportunity to be expressive and enjoy life. And because of a Denmark carpenter, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, this LEGO world has grown over 80 years. The Kirk Kristiansen family, of Denmark, started the LEGO Group in 1932 and the LEGO Group is still privately owned and is run by Kjeld Kirk Kristensen, a grandson of Ole Kirk Kristiansen. For most people LEGO Group is simply known as LEGO. The LEGO name is an abbreviation of two Danish words, “leg godt”, meaning, “play well”. These two words describe LEGO products precisely. The LEGO Group is original and creative and has been doing what they do best for years now. LEGO has done very well on focusing on the concept to “play well”. In 1958, when the present brick was introduced and launched, LEGO stuck with a certain kind of style, and has shown, through design, creative thinking, little falters here and there, and having fun, that design can carry on through the ages.}

_{Most people, through one way or another, can recount an experience they have had with LEGO. Maybe building that epic “Star Wars Death Star”, building your own remote control car, or being the person to have to clean them all up. Either way, some how, the LEGO Group has impacted many people through out history. LEGO is perhaps one of the most recognized names in the world, and as it states in the book, “Brick by Brick,” “with the possible exception of Apple, arguably no brand sparks as much cultlike devotion as LEGO.” And because one LEGO brick combined with another and anther has the capability to be turned into cars, sculptures, calendars, art, hours of being sucked into a new realm, and turning adults into kids, it is important to look back and understand how the LEGO Group has successfully done so. It is also important to appreciate how their way of designing has created this fixation and passion to a plastic brick.}

_{LEGO- Piecing Together the History}

_{Beginning in 1932 Ole Kirk Kristiansen stared up a business in Billund, Denmark, where he manufactured stepladders, stools, and wooden toys. Between 1932 to 1939 the name LEGO was adopted into the carpenter’s firms name, LEGO produced the famous LEGO Duck, the firm had 10 employees and LEGO’s motto was cut out and hung up for all their workers to see, “Only the best is good enough”. The LEGO Group has stuck by this motto ever since and you can see this throughout their work ever since. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, who became manager in 1956 “once, approved a shipment of wooden toys with two rather than the mandated three coats of varnish, Ole Kirk Kristiansen dispatched him to the train station to retrieve the ill-made toys and made him stay up all night adding the third coat.” Kristiansen made sure that LEGO’s work would keep to their motto. This dedication in design and not faltering has pushed LEGO to be one of the most successful design firms to this day. In 1946 Ole Kirk Kristiansen was the first Danish toy makers to purchase an injection molding machine. He revolutionized the industry of toys buy doing so. Today most plastic toys are now being injection molded. Ole Kirk Kristiansen was a pioneer in his day and put dedication into his work. He also, along with his family who still own the firm, believed in their work. The LEGO Group has shown that you don’t need to always give up quality and what you believe in to come out on top. By laying down a foundation first, and building on top of that, you can have tremendous results. Design is about making your product work, but making sure it will stand the test of time, making sure it is quality, and making sure you’re doing it to inspire creativity. As Brian Reed once put it, “Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” Although LEGO fell into record losses around the years 2001 to 2009, LEGO has now started to innovate once again and has profited over 38% in the last 5 years.}

_{Design Methods & Philosophy}

_{As stated previously, the LEGO Group started out their philosophy with “Only the best is good enough”. Ole Kirk Kristiansen also “had the critical insight that Lego was not a toy, but instead a "system of play". This meant that all Lego blocks were compatible with all other Lego blocks”. The design methods behind LEGO were simple. Manufacture a quality product and to keep the details of the LEGO brick design the same. “You can take a LEGO brick built in 1958 and snap it together with a brick from 2008 as if fifty years had never happened.” LEGO started loosing insight on this during and around 2001 when they started to forget about that kids do want to keep building and piecing things together and not just have another action figure. They came out with a new line, “less buildable and more playable.” This hurt them immensely. “Think GI Joe instead of bricks. Jack Stone an oversized minifigure, stepped out in 2001 as LEGO’s new world hero…and failed miserably.  The majority of kids didn’t care about a fabricated character without history or context. The pieces comprising the toy sets required expensive new injection molds, making it unprofitable to turn out. But the most egregious error? It alienated its core fans – adults and parents who grew up with LEGO bricks – for abandoning its classic play values: “Joy of building, pride of creation.” LEGO came back by a way of two approaches. They started to grasp the idea that kids still want to build and create in this new technological world and that adults still have a strong passion for LEGOs. SO with these two things in mind, LEGO started in “2009, to introduced a well-received line of buildable board games, like Lego Minotaurus.” They also gave in and realized kids grow off of good competition, which LEGO wasn’t too fond of encouraging competition for a long time. They have now started to create video games and also an animated film, which will be airing in 2014. The LEGO Group has gained popularity with adults, and, no, not just because of their kids. LEGOs have been such a large part of adult’s childhoods and have also sparked so many memorable moments. The LEGO brick has carried on and given everyone his or her own way to open up and be creative. They can design what they want and construct their own personal creations. One example, of several, is the LEGO Calendar, a wall-mounted time planner created by Vitamins Design located in London, England. ­ “The Brit designers used green, yellow, blue, orange and pink blocks to track what projects everyone’s working on in the studio. At a glance, you can look at the wall and see what everyone’s doing and what projects are getting the most investment of time on any given day, week or month. Even better, while it may be made entirely of the tactile toys, you can take a photo of it with a smart phone, and all of the events become magically synchronized with an online digital calendar.”, stated by Mary Schumacher. This just shows that LEGO can keep on improving with new ideas and that even the business environment is being creative with the LEGO bricks.}

_{Design work & visual characteristics­}

_{The LEGO Group, for the majority of years it has been up and running, has had a specific look to it. It is unmistakable to point out a LEGO product. Ever since 1958 when Ole Kirk Kristiansen patented LEGO’s brick, they still make it to this day. The visual characteristics are found in the blocky shapes of their toys and products. They keep to very distinctive colors, like yellow and red. They first started off with those colors and kept with the primary colors. Today LEGO carries and has supplied numerous colors of bricks for everyone to enjoy, but still having their main yellow and red bricks always in production. They once strayed from their blocky minifigures and tried to create a taller skinner action hero. They realized soon enough that isn’t what LEGO is and eventually came back to the loveable blocky characters that everyone enjoys and remembers. It is hard to stick with an idea and go with it, especially over 80 years of design. Trying to always keep that form and function in your design concept is tricky, however, LEGO somehow found a way to create something that almost has no end to the vast possibilities of what you can do with the LEGO brick. Today and throughout, the LEGO Groups, history LEGO has had to design around kids and ability to stir up their imaginations. You can see this through their genres of sets. In some cases the genres have been focused on characters from movies, they have been created from ninjas, pirates, to aliens, to deep-sea adventures. The design teams now have used technology to help in this, by creating buildable board games and producing LEGO movies. As previously touched on earlier, now even adults are becoming interested in LEGOs once more and or for the first time. LEGO has now even come out with the architecture studio sets, which is geared more towards adults and helping them in design.}

                  _{The LEGO Group has been innovated, creative, smart, and has stuck by their motto, “Only the best is good enough”. LEGO has always been a large part of my life and childhood; I hope it can be apart of the future generations as well. LEGO has done well, through design, to help build up peoples imaginations and to care enough to make a positive impact.}

                                       _{by Jon Paul White}

The LEGO Group

There are many companies, firms, and design consultancies that have made their names known to the world and some of these names started well before 1950. There is one company, however, that I am choosing to write about and that is the LEGO Group or LEGO as the general public knows them by. The Lego Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen and still today run as a family business and is owned by Ole Kirk Kristiansen grandchild Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen.

            I am particularly interested in researching the LEGO Group and knowing their history because, for me, LEGO was the start into designing. LEGO blocks have found their ways into most children’s hands, mouths, and homes and this is the same story for me. I grew up with building, designing my own creations, making movies, timing myself on how fast I could build the 4,000 piece death star, and making sure what I created functioned properly and was color coordinated to be pleasing to the eye. LEGO took over and I loved it! I could say that story was the same for me as the other kid down the street but because I was so fascinated, with building and designing, it carried me and brought me to this point I’m at know. That point I am talking about is being in my junior year in the Industrial Design program at ASU and I love it!

            The turning point in my decision with pursuing industrial design was a conversation I had with my dad, the topic of LEGOs, and how architecture didn’t give me the opportunity to create as much as I had wanted. I was standing in my parent’s kitchen talking to my dad on how I didn’t think architecture was what I really wanted to anymore. It wasn’t creative enough. My dad then brought up that I should look into industrial design and then went on explaining what that was. He brought up how I have always been creative and ever since I was young I loved making the perfect LEGO designs and challenging myself in designing. Because of that conversation and the long history I have with LEGOs I get to do what I love and that’s to design and create.

Part 2 coming soon....

             

Why do we still create?

Here is a question to ask yourself. Why do people create, when there are already great solutions and services available in the marketplace?

For me I believe there are obvious reasons and nonobvious reasons. And now I’ll explain some of those reasons. For some people in this world they are always wanting more things, they are wanting new and better products, items, gadgets, knickknacks, and people believe they can get them. We have created so much in the past what’s stopping us from creating more and making those solutions and services that much greater? There will probably come a point in some things, where we can’t move on but I believe that is very limited and it will be a while before we can stop being creative and innovated.

            Another reason I believe people create, when we technically don’t need to, is we want to. We want to push ourselves more and be able to come up with new things. It is a comfort, a motivation, and a way to escape the normal way of thinking. I create because it’s exciting and almost a meditation for me. People are here to not just be in existence. We are here to grow, to push ourselves, to progress. Creativity is just that, as long as that creativity doesn’t cause you to obsess over one particular item. If that obsession happens then you are not creating anymore but almost digressing.

            Some people create for money. They believe if they can keep putting things out in the marketplace then they can keep gaining profit. And that isn’t a bad thing or a good thing. It just depends on what you see important at that time and if that can help in your creativity then I believe it’s a positive thing.

            There are so many other ways and reasons why people create and I could probably go on for a while, but I will just bring up this last subject and let others and myself think a little more, and be creative on coming up with other reason on this topic. The last thing is there is always room for creativity and improving solutions and services out there. As I said there might be an end to a solution or service but very rarely do we get there. So there is no reason to give up and stop being creative. Creativity can help others, can help yourself, it can motivate, comfort, and give a purpose to individuals or communities. Creativity is designing and design can be found in all of us. People should never give up on creating. Where would we be now if our ancestors gave up being creative?

Icons- The beginnings

So here is a little project I did. I have more work to do on them but here are the first designs. Can you guess what they stand for? Ill give you a hint...Food...Animal...Transportation..Profession.

The Spirit of Time

Zeitgeist- The Spirit of Time

Most of the time we don’t think of where ideas, products, or systems have come from. Almost like they just were meant to be, so now they are here. Here are five items, in particular, that did happen by accident.

James Wright created silly Putty in 1943, when the government asked U.S companies to invent a new rubber. Because of WWII rubber was being used up for the many needs of the military. The government asked if companies could invent a synthetic rubber that had similar properties but that could be made with non-restrictive ingredients. In new Haven, Connecticut engineer James Wright mixed boric acid and silicone oil together and thus producing the glob of goo now named Silly Putty. In 1949, the accidental glob was found by Ruth Fallgatter, a toy storeowner who regularly produced it in her toy catalog for a year. In 1950 Ruth Fallgatter, advertising consultant Peter Hodgson bought a large portion, separated it, put it into small plastic eggs and sold it for $1. Silly Putty became a novelty at first. But as time continued in turned into a kids toy and now we see it all around the world.

WWII was going on and Percy Spencer, who worked at Raytheon as the head of the power tube division, helped win a contract for Raytheon to help built combat radar equipment. This contract had the second highest importance to the military at this time. When Spencer was working on a magnetron, which made microwaves, he was standing close in front of it and noticed his candy bar, which was in his pocket, was starting to melt. Noticing this he decided to place popcorn kernels in front of the magnetron, which became the first popcorn. Spencer created the first microwave, by attaching a high-density electromagnetic field generator to en enclosed metal box, which would help control the microwaves and be safer. On October 8, 1945, Rahtheon filed a patent for a microwave oven. The microwave oven called Radarange, weighed 750 pounds, was 51/2 feet tall, and cost around $5,000. It wasn’t until 1967 that a 100volt countertop oven was made available for only $.495

Next the Post-it-note was an accident, when an organic chemist and scientist were working for 3M. Spencer Silver, the chemist, was trying to find a better adhesive for the tape 3M used. Silver discovered a less sticky glue. The adhesive was broken and did not cover the whole contact area. The result was tacky, reusable glue. Arthur Fry, who also worked at 3M, used scraps of paper to use as bookmarks when he would sing hymns on Sundays. They kept falling and Fry remembered about Silver’s glue he had made. At work he gathered paper and the glue and made sticky bookmarks. However, people only needed a few bookmarks at a time. At one point when Fry received a file back, from which he sent a colleague, he noticed his colleague had written a note on his sticky bookmark. Realizing this Fry took his sticky notes to the companies executives, where they asked for more. In 1980 Post-It Notes were officially released to the public and were named 3M's Outstanding New Product in 1981.

Have you ever heard of Goodyear tires? Well in the early 1830’s rubber was becoming very popular. But there was an issue. When the rubber became too cold it would crack and if it was to hot the rubber would melt. The extreme temperatures killed the excitement of natural rubber. Charles Goodyear spent many years trying to find a way for rubber not to melt and be able to stand up against high and low temperatures. In 1839 and after many years and going into debt Goodyear accidently dropped rubber mixed with sulfur onto a hot stove. He took it off the stove and examined the rubber. It was charred but was not melted. Heat was the ingredient to Goodyear’s weatherproof rubber. He also put it outside where it was introduced to severe cold weather but in the morning when he brought it back inside; the rubber was flexible as it was before he placed it outside. Also rubber is vulcanized when sulfur is added to it, which modifies the polymer by causing bridges or crosslinks in the material.

In 1907 shellac was being used as an insulation for electronics to help preserve wood products. It was costing industries large amounts of money to import shellac. Shellac came from Southeast Asian beetles. And at that time chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland wanted to produce a shellac alternative, which could be cheaper to produce. When experimenting, Baekeland heated his shellac-like substance in an iron pressure cooker. The substance was formaldehyde and phenol. With it being heated plastic was invented. The first plastic is called Bakelite and it could be molded into many different shapes, stand against time and could come in many colors. This one accident had many uses in the industry and was the first synthetic material that could stand on its own. In 1910 Baekeland founded the General Bakelite Company. Plastic is now one of the largest used materials in today’s world.

These are just a few accidental products that changed the world. It is an interesting question to ask if these accidents didn’t happen, then what or would anything have taken their place? And if so, when and what would they be?