Rohsska Design Museum in Gothenburg

As I mentioned in my earlier post, design is big in Sweden. Ok, it's big everywhere, but it's highly regarded there. I took the opportunity to visit the Rosska Design Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. The museum has several temporary collections and also a permanent collection titled History of Design exhibit that displayed different types of design from all over the world. I was actually saved 40 SEK, about 10 bucks or so, and got in for free for being a design student. Luckily my UB id and good word worked well enough for a free ticket. Ok, I'm cheap, but it was expensive to get there!

We spent most of our time in the History of Design Exhibit. It featured furniture, clothing, dishes, and technology throughout the years that contributed to the design of the times and of the future. One section asked the question, What is Design, with a few examples that challenged the idea of what could be considered design, including a working and playable Mario Kart game on a 90s model tv. I’m not sure if I was supposed to but I took a bunch of pictures-for blog purposes of course.


I also enjoyed a couple of the temporary collections, as well. GERT WINGÅRDH, 30 YEARS OF WORK, ARetrospective showed the fiction, poetry, and various writing of Wingardh, which were displayed along with paintings, photos, or illustrations that accompanied each piece. Some writings and images paired up in obvious ways, in the examples of the photos. And other times the connections were more loose and abstract. It was a great exercise in exploring words and images and how they compliment each other. I couldn't take any pictures because it wasn't permitted in this section, but I got alot out of the exhibit. I researched more about Wingardh after returning home and he's one of Sweden's most renowned architects. Wikipedia has alot to say about him, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Some plaques that posed design questions and commentaries.

Design Process








What is Design














Ironically, this post is not designed very well because I am very tired. Guess I'm just exploring the process.

Spring Break in Denmark and Sweden

So for spring break I got to go to Denmark and then took a ferry Sweden for two days. It was the most interesting trip I've taken in a while and also my first time in Europe. So it was pretty sweet. Even though I was out gallivanting around, I actually found some things that applied to class (along with the Design Basics book I dutifully carried around for reading during downtime).

For one I saw some beautiful old building and churches that dated back to the 1600s and earlier. I was most surprised at how beautiful the churches were. I have to admit when I saw 'visit church' on my friend's itinerary and I was doubtful that I would have much interest. Once step inside an old Swedish church and immediately I understood why we had to make this visit. It was nothing like any church I'd been in in the U.S., complete with stained glass windows of Saints, elaborate chandeliers and gold statues.

It was clear that design was important to Scandinavian architects everywhere went. The doors on the buildings were so beautifully crafted they were design monuments themselves. I could’ve bought a poster featuring The Doors of Sweden, but I opted to take pictures myself since the dollar didn’t go very far.

But not all was old design of course. In the more modern buildings I enjoyed the simple modern designs any college student can find in Ikea. Not a big surprise since Sweden is the birthplace of Ikea (not to mention H&M and Pippi Longstocking).




In Denmark the buildings were just as old and fabulous. One of my favorite nights ther was a snowy, freezing night (supposedly the coldest night my friends had witnessed since they'd been there!) when we had drinks in an old Danish pub that was this enourmous building once belonging to the wealthiest man in town.

Later I learned that the original owner of the building in the 1600s, Jen Bangs, despite his wealth could not ever be accepted as a town official so he had figures constructed on the front of his building that were sticking their tonuges out at the Town Hall across the street.

It was a great night too because I met some very friendly Danish students who gave me some insight into Danish life.

Visuwords-learn a new word and meet its cousin

This is a really cool way to find new words and learn more about the ones you knew. It's an online thesaurus and dictionary but what I like about it is that it's visual and interactive. Give it a try it makes words even more fun than they already are! http://www.visuwords.com/

Chinese New Year Party - Categories

Here's one example of categories I found in Cookie magazine. The topic was a Chinese New Year party : how to coordinate a birthday party for kids on Chinese New Year. The topic broke down into two categories: food and fun. Underneath each category was 3 subtopics with examples.
The fun:Puppet Show; New Year's Parade; Crafting The food: Do at the Party, Make Before the Party, Buy Before the Party.

You get the idea- if not then click the image for a larger version and see for yourself!

Category Example- Dog Breeds

I thought that dog types would be a good example of categories. Probably not one we can use for our project though because it already spelled out for us. But it is a simple example of categories that I could get my head around. From there hopefully I can come with something more creative.

The following text and information came from Breeders.net:
http://www.breeders.net/article_detail.php?id=16



Hound Group
This group may be broken down into two distinct categories. The long-legged, fast running sight hounds have been bred to use their stamina and exceptional eye sight to run down their quarry. Breeds in this category include the Greyhound, Afghan, and Salukis. The scent hounds, although varying in size and often slower, are great athletes and use their acute sense of smell and strong legs to follow the trail of prey. This category includes Bloodhounds, Beagles, and Bassets





Sporting Group
Retriever, spaniel, setter, and pointer breeds make up sporting group. Using different techniques and skill sets, each of these dogs make use of air scent to hunt, converse to hound dogs, which hunt by following ground scent. The pointing or setting breeds are the locators of game, and will freeze and point to game, which directs the hunter to the location. The movers of game are the spaniels, which flush out the quarry, allowing the hunter to shoot it. Retrievers are the collectors of fallen game, spotting and remembering the location of fallen game, and carrying it over land and through water, back to the hunter.



Toy Group
The Toy group contains most of the smallest canines, and is simply described by the size of the dog. Though many in this group are quite ancient breeds, like the Pekingese and Pug, most are smaller versions of dogs belonging to other groups, created by man over generations of selective breeding. Examples include the English Toy Spaniel and Toy Fox Terrier. There are 21 different toy breeds in this poplar group.




Herding Group
These highly social working breeds have been an important part of livestock industries for centuries. Herding, (or stock dogs), have the ability to control the movement of other animals using physical characteristics such us speed, agility, and endurance. There are approximately 60 recognized breeds of herding dogs, including Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, Old English Sheep Dog, Koolie, and Corgie breeds.

There are more breeds of course but these are four categories. Each has several examples within each division, afghan hound, border collie, etc.