ZIS Upper School

Environment/Energy-conscious Design

The new Zurich International school Upper School has many elements that build it up and make it an environmentally friendly school. To start off, the cooling and heating systems within the building work on a geothermic system. The system conserves the cold in the winter so that during summer there could be an air conditioner, and during the summer the system conserves the heat, to allow heating during the winter. This makes the school a very energy-conscious school. There are also a lot of big windows, that bring in a lot of light. They designed the windows to be at an appropriate angle so that during the day, the most amount of light can come in to the building. There are also windows on the ceiling on the last floor, and they bring it a lot of light. Besides the windows and the geothermic system, the lights in the building are motion sensors that detect movement, and shut of automatically when they feel that no one is in the room. This allows a lot of energy to be saved. Everything was designed very well, and everything works great. It takes the principles of form follows function.

Pre-Course Survey

1. I have done many design technology projects in the past. Some projects were bigger then others and they were ranging all the way from posters to DVD menus designs. I have used many design software’s, such as 3D Max. I have managed to create several different three-dimensional objects using the Euphoria Engine Software. I also taught myself how to make animations using Macromedia Flash. I wouldn’t say that I have made very big projects or assignments. I just always enjoyed creating and experimenting with different types of design. Not all of my design work was done using a computer. A lot of designs that I made were in art class and the materials they consisted were sometimes paper, sometimes wood, and sometimes even cloth.

2. I am hoping to learn a lot more about design this year. I have used many professional software in my life, but I never felt like I understood the true meaning of great design. I would mostly just Google, and search on youtube how to use the programs. I want to learn the meaning of design and what makes some products better than others. I also want to learn to use different types of programs and to experiment and learn how to make your ideas come to life. I signed up for this course because ever since I can remember design; especially digital as always caught my attention. Since I was very young, I used computers, and electronics and it always fascinated me to understand how people designed those products. Another thing that really inspired me, was my step brother, which has is own company for 3D design.

Form and Function

Form + Function

• Form follows function
• Architecture take a lot of elements from this idea of form and function

My Great Design

iPhone (First Generation)

I chose the iPhone for an example of a great design. I thought it was a great design from the moment I saw it. Firstly what make the Apple iPhone so great are the materials it is made out of. The back of the iPhone is made out of Aluminum, which looks great and feels great. The bottom of it is made of plastic. The good thing about putting the plastic at the bottom, besides having it be for the external speakers, was because it sticks to your hand (Great Design I), and provides you with a firmer grip, avoiding it to slip and fall. The camera was placed at the top right of the back, to decrease the chances of your fingers touching the lens while your taking a photo. The front of the iPhone is made out of in scratch able glass going up to about three layers. Connecting the back and front of the iPhone is shiny metal, giving it a unique look. On the left side of the iPhone you can see a little switch, which shows you a little red dot when you flick it (referring to Great Design 1). What it does is mute you volume and puts the phone on vibrate mode. That is a nice little feature that most phones in the market don’t have (Great Design 3 – Something special), because in most phones you have to go to setting to put you phone on vibrate. Just under the silencer there is a volume control, which is extremely easy to use (Great Design I). At the top of the phone there is one more button, allowing you to open and close the phone, and mute your friend’s calls if you don’t feel like talking, or you are in a meeting. The size of the iPhone was built to fit the average size hands (, and the buttons on the touch screen were built to fit the average size finger. Going into the iPhone itself, the first thing you notice it that it is a one big screen measuring at about 3.5 inches, and one single button under it. That one single button can be used to go back to the main page, and you can go the setting to choose what it does if you double click it. The touch screen buttons only work when the feel the warmth of the fingers and so, it very hard for it to open different applications or call someone while it is in your pocket unlike many other irritating mobile devices. It is a very easy to use mobile phone, it has dozens of features that people have never seen in mobile phones, and it has started a new trend for cell phones. All major companies (LG, Samsung, Nokia, etc.) are copying the Apple iPhone and going fully touch screen. But none can beat the iPhone. From the moment you open the perfectly designed box for the iPhone, you know that they put hours upon hours on designing every little feature, all the way to the little booklet that you see when you take out your iPhone, reading “Designed by Apple in California”. This is what makes the Apple iPhone a great design. It is has tons of features, it is compactable, slick, user friendly, stunningly beautiful, and revolutionary. They cost 220 dollars to produce and the sell them for more then double the price depending on which country you buy it from. There isn’t anything completely perfect out yet, but the iPhone definitely brings the bar for mobile devices a lot higher.

Flawlex Designs

Flawlex designs is a company that I have created for my Digital Design class. It is a multimedia company that creates various different types of products. Ranging from mobile phones, to televisions, and even top of the range computers. Flawlex designs provide and bring out flawless products. Compactable , attractive , and high-end performance. Flawlex Designs deliver the perfect products to the national market.

Great Design

Great Design I

• A great design needs to be user friendly and easy to use for everyone
• Over the years designs of products have become much more complex and tough to use
• Products such has the Apple iPod, TiVo, and Google are all considered great designs because of their easy to use interface
• Remote controls for the newest TV’s are not what it used to be. Now a days; remote controls have hundreds of buttons saying different things that no one really used or understands, where as in the old days, remote controls had only a few buttons that have words the clearly state their functions.

 Great Design II

• There are a few things beyond a products beauty. Beauty of a product is referred to as: “Lipstick on a chicken”
• When designers sit and try to sketch, and develop their ideas to make that one single perfect product, they must think about everything. They have many conflicts and have to make sacrifices, forcing them to change and change, until everything seems balanced out.
• Just designing a garbage can can be a great hassle, because it must be heavy, yet light. It must be big, yet small. It must be closed at the top so the garbage doesn’t fall out, but it also needs to be open so it is easy for the pedestrians to throw in the trash.
• Beauty does add a slight bit of design to a product, but it doesn’t make it anywhere near great.
• Mobile and house phones, have become much more complicated to use over the years, because they used to have only a few buttons and now there a lot of buttons, that many people just don’t know what to do with
• Lastly a great product needs to be cheap to make, and yet look and work superbly
• “Good design adds value, faster than it adds cost” – Thomas C. Gale, Chrysler automobile designer


Great Design III

• Apparently products or any other form of media and entertainment don’t have to be perfect, to be bestsellers. Take the iPod, a simple yet attractive mp3 player that lets you listen to music, browse your photos, and watch movies. The design of the product is so attractive that consumers just want to by it to feel like they are in style. There are better devices such as the Creative “Zen” or Microsoft’s “Zune”. But no one really pays attention to them because the iPod is the number one.
• Brad Pitt is an attractive male actor, that can’t really act. But he made a few hit films that put him high up the charts and since then all the girl’s think he looks great, and all the guy’s think he is a true fighter (for example: Fight Club). Brad Pitt is a lot like the Apple iPod, because with all of his fame and great looks he isn’t so much of a great actor.
• That is why companies face a lot of problems. How can they advertise their products to make them bestsellers?
• There are many great designs, but sometimes one that work a little worse and look a lot better reach the top and become number one.