I'd like to design...

As a way to generate ideas for project we'd like to work on for the show, lets answer the following questions:
What have you always wanted to design, but haven't had the chance to? If you could design anything, what would it be?

Lets think big here, and try not to be limited by what your own skill set lets you do - because collaboration makes all kinds of things possible.

I'll start it off. I've always wanted to design:

an album cover

a wine label

a table made of aluminum or titanium and white acrylic

a business card stamped out of metal

See something that you want to work on too? Lets get together and make it happen!

Collaboration is...

Answers to the questions: What is collaboration? What does collaboration mean to you?

• …all the creative students work together to create something creative



• …I love to work with people



• …if you’re in CO/LAB, you are the one who is really in love with design and art because you want to spend your time in this area even though there is no class credit for it



• ...combining forces and powers to create something extraordinary



• ...the cooperation within a group of people who love design



• ...the manifestation of the collective consciousness, intellect and experience



• ...positivity coming out of teamwork, whether it is with only two people or a group. It is the optimistic outlook on working together to create something super awesome and better than what one person alone can imagine.



• ...2 or more things working together, helping to augment the function or overall goal



• ...new ideas, view points that I cannot see on my own. new techniques and styles that I have not tried. Help and communication from people.



• ...the whole is greater than the sum of the parts



• ...working together with the same goal in mind. Contributing unique skills and perspectives to a project.



• ...cooperation towards a common goal, utilizing the unique talents of everyone involved



• ...unexpected/unforseeable outcomes



• ...a combined effort to create a product which is an ideal blend of the best ideas of the participants



• ...the working social contract we have with our fellow designers



• ...the combined efforts of multiple people for a singular purpose



• ...giving in and not being stubborn and pulling your fair share of the weight



• ...an amalgamation of human resources - our individual talents and interest as intellectual creatures can combine in a co-operative way - in a willing and open way- to create a powerful message. I guess what I'm expecting out of collaboration is something ou can't see happen or generate on one's own - I strongly believe that human life is a co-existing one - without others life is not complete.



• ...any activity, object, thing that is dependent on more than one activity, object, thing. A relationship or a tree for instance.



• ...like an ant farm. Creating a world in a box we're stuck in.



• COLAB: One plus Two = Three



• ...putting in all our thoughts in the oven and baking the most delicious cake



• ...the feeling you get - it is so instant - that what you are creating with someone else is so good. And ou know that it couldn't be done just by yourself.



• ...respect

Official list of Active Members and Specialty

So I don't know if I'm "allowed" to do this here, but I'm taking initiative and starting a list of active members and their(our) specialty (e.g. typography, photography, illustration, grid system, logos, poster, painting etc.). So if you consider yourself an active member (ex. attending most of the meetings, contributed work, etc.), leave a comment of your name and what you think you're best/passionate in. Also mention what kind of area in art or design or technique that someone is great at that you would like to work with.

colab with sam

T-shirt Design

Heya, here's my design. I've made a front and back design. Doesn't necessarily need to be together.

mah t-Shirt

I haven't decided on the colors.

CO/LAB in the MUSE

Muse: Co/LAB: After all, two heads are better then one

Design, art studio students will show screen printing demo on Picnic Day
By: Nicole L. Browner
Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: Arts & Entertainment


What do you get when you mix a design student with an art studio student? The answer is Co/LAB, an informal group of UC Davis students and non-students who collaborate on artistic work to better their personal skills.



Formed in November 2006 by senior design major Milan Phan, Co/LAB is an attempt to "build a design or creative community because we feel like there isn't one," Phan said.



Phan further explained that the original purpose of organizing was for a senior showcase scheduled for the end of the school year. But considering the diverse involvement experienced so far and a lack of interaction between the design and art studio communities on campus, the theme changed to an informal collaborative group.



"We felt that collaboration is one of the best resources we have during our college careers, so we decided to start this group," senior design major Adam Guzman said.



Co/LAB members do not expect to receive any units from their effort. Instead, the group has yet to formally organize with the UC Davis campus. They do, however, have loose affiliation with Pixel, a visual communication design club on campus.



The group keeps in contact through a facebook.com group, e-mail listserv and a Weblog. Weekly evening meetings are coordinated to cater to the schedules of the members and are usually held in the residence of coordinator Phan.



At the meetings, members of smaller projects touch base and brainstorm ideas for their projects, but at large Co/LAB members are working toward their May 21 show. Week by week, they take small steps in the process. Stickers and silk-screened posters are a few of the many artistic endeavors the members have taken on.



For their May 21 show, there will also be a simulated room installed and completely designed by the Co/LAB members. They would also like to incorporate a live mural, digital video or other types of visual media, all of which could use the assistance of a wide range of creative skills from disciplines other than art studio and design, specifically technocultural studies students.

Semar Prom, senior art studio major and one of the directors of the Basement Gallery, has deemed himself liaison of the two related groups. Co/LAB will be using the Basement Gallery for its show, and Prom has offered to instruct Co/LAB members on how to screen print.



Co/LAB will be holding a Picnic Day screen printing demo at the Walker Hall dye lab on Apr. 14. This demo aims to give exposure to the Co/LAB group as well as promotion for its May 21 show.



The future of Co/LAB presents many possibilities - with intentions of branching out to students with skills in many mediums, the group can grow. At this point, the club faces the challenges of advertising and creating a budget proposal for a grant.



"Working with people with different backgrounds and skills is important. If this project goes well, hopefully it will continue to foster better relationships between design and art studio departments," Prom said.



For more information, visit collablog.blogspot.com. The Co/LAB will be holding a meeting today at 6 p.m. at 217 C St.

From the other side of the Design Sucks argument, Kinda Not Really

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/03/06/design-schools-please-start-teaching-design-again/

With UC's being a "research" institution, we can't help but learn about thinking more so than doing. It's interesting how so many students I know (including me) want a class in Portfolio design but that'll never happen because it's not research or thinking-related. I think it's even more interesting that the article is focusing on craft and the actual making of the product when I personally feel that there is too much emphasis on visuals and not enough concept when talking about design.

Anyway, worth a discuss.

-Ivan

Rules & Context

"Among the more counterintuitive characteristics of art and design is the fact that these endeavors are governed by rules. The rules of artistry (and therefore design) are inviolate and unchanging. If you don’t obey the rules, your results will be boring, uninspiring, uncommunicative, and less than compelling. In short: poor art or poor design." -Andy Rutledge

Also, there's a good bit on art versus design...

(Full article)

Are Designers the Enemy of Design?

"Design Democracy is the wave of the future. Exceptional design may only be done by great star designers. But the design of our music experiences, the design of our MySpace pages, the design of our blogs, the design of our clothes, the design of our online community chats, the design of our Class of ’95 brochures, the design of our screens, the design of the designs on our bodies—We are all designing more of our lives. And with more and more tools, we, the masses, want to design anything that touches us on the journey, the big journey through life. People want to participate in the design of their lives. They insist on being part of the conversation about their lives."

This article popped up on BusinessWeek recently, and I think its absolutely awesome. Give it a read, its food for thought for sure, and has direct relevance to the COLAB.

Click the post title for the link, or:
http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/03/are_designers_t.html?campaign_id=rss_blog_nussbaumondesign

Collabsite in the works

Hi all! Clayton and I worked today on the Collabsite! Here's the preliminary design! We'll get the actual site up and running soon. Yukiko out.

Collabtype

Who wants to collab-develop a typeface with me, whether it's for the Collab or not?

-Ivan

Speaking of Ballpoint pens

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=19153

Pulp Fiction does Typography

This just drips coolness.

Who needs paint?

Here's a guy who does abstract artwork with nothing but ballpoint pens. The rhythm he achieves is astounding. Work like this reminds me that I should never use the excuse "I didn't have the right materials/tools/etc". There's also video of his process. Click the heading of this post to see alot of scribbling.

http://sjmusart.org/content/exhibitions/current/exhibition_info.phtml?itemID=305

Web Typography Sucks

This little presentation covers all the reasons why web typography is no good. Thorough.

http://webtypography.net/sxsw2007/

Erik Otto: Rooted Dreams Installation

This guy inspires me.

Collabodcast?

Does anyone know how hard it is to get a podcast going? What if we have a small series of podcasts for other people who want to participate but couldn't make it to the meetings? I originally suggested to get a YouTube video of someone introducing and explaining about the Collab so that we don't always have to explain it ourselves and web visitors (when the site is done) can watch the video and know what the Collab is instead of reading it on the site if people are lazy.

With the podcasts, we can do weekly/periodic updates about what we talked about at meetings for those who missed them AND/OR for us to spread ideas on what to have on the show. Since we have less than three months, we don't need to do that many updates. It's just another medium that people can use to learn about our group.

Do podcasts cost money? [EDIT] never mind, it's pretty easy. the work goes into editing. But still, what does everyone think about this?[/EDIT]

-Ivan

About Students and Money (Mostly)

http://www.underconsideration.com/speakup/archives/003092.html

It's long, but interesting to read and ponder. Discuss if you want. I think the part where the guy mentioned that just gluing a bunch of pieces of paper together is not pushing the limits, which is true, but it's kind of sad how this is what I'm doing right now for Danh's project, and that's probably the most professional I've gone with my projects.

-12:48am

Just a little thing I worked on

Just something I worked on at tonight's meeting. Gonna use the radials as a T-shirt design. But now, it's more like for a wallpaper pattern or something.






-11:28pm

not dealing with collab, but something I thought might look cool screenprinted.

Stupid Scanner Tricks

As of late I've been using my scanner more often. I know it's something that i've ignored to a large part when it could've both saved me time and made my final product better. Anyone have any useful techniques or fun tricks that are scanner related? Or is the scanner not even a part of your workflow? Let's hear it in the comments.
-Clayton

Stuff like this makes me happy

Here's an article from Core 77 that paints a fairly happy picture of the job market out there. It also is a bit of a challenge to young designers.

http://www.core77.com/reactor/02.07_choe.asp

Contribute

Hey all, so Milan made a point about using this blog to express our comments and things about the Collab, the Collab Show, or just Design in general. So what say we all try to make comments about other people's work or opinions about certain topics? I think it would be an amazing thing to see if this blog updates a couple times a day and it becomes a thriving forum of really interesting ideas, concepts, inspirations that we would throw around and get some Collab pieces out of it as well as an expansion of each and every one of our design styles?

So with that said, I'll get started. This is really generic, but what are the things/people/ideas you like about/from design?

My list:

logos/branding
typographic posters
lines
typographic motion graphics
Josef Muller Brockmann
Stefan Sagmeister
creative type made from objects

Hm.. that's all I can think of right now. What about YOU guys? I know, it's kind of boring and leaves little room for discussion, but if you guys don't know who Josef Muller Brockmann is, check him out. And I want to know other people's favorite designers/artists, too, so I can check them out. Comment or post an entry of your own.

-Ivan

Workshop Suggestions

This post is a prompt for you all to think about what projects we can do together. It can be something that ends up in the show, or not, but the idea is to take advantage of this really great group we have! Seeing everyone is eager to work with each other is pretty exciting, and actually having something to show would be even more "wow".
So, is anyone interested in doing a photoshoot conmigo? Or maybe a group phototrip to the city?
Also, I think it'd be fun to do mobiles of found objects/material. Maybe next time.
Also, this link was super cool! Mini-environments. (I have a fascination with working with natural materials)

Is there anything you guys have in mind? Set it up!