magazine advertisement.

Each of these magazine advertisements are well designed and communicate the function and purpose effectively. The product that is being advertised is clear and easily understood. Within each article the eye is directed toward the product that is being advertised. In the case of the second advertisement the chair is in the middle of the page and white which causes it to jump out at the reader. This is the same in the Cartier advertisement. In the Tiffany & Co. advertisement the color of the jewelry is the same color as the text block which draws the readers eye up toward the product. Repetition is used in the first advertisement. The illustrations throughout all of the advertisements evoke emotions that are parallel with the emotions the product might evoke. The font typefaces and text placement do not take away from the advertisement but rather add to the design. The eye is drawn to the text but then directed toward the main focus of the advertisement, and in the case of the first advertisement the eye is not drawn to the text but rather to the product.

morocco welcomemat.

for my welcome mat i had the country of morocco. i started off by researching morocco and moroccan culture. i found a variety of images that conveyed the culture and the people of morocco. these images show the what is seen throughout the landscape, architecture, and people of morocco. i was very interested in the wide use of mosaic tiling which i found out was common among islamic people. i was also interested in the bright and vibrant colors that were used in this tiling and throughout the interiors of the moroccan architecture. another point of interest that i had was with the vast number of morccan lamps. the way the light shinned through these lamps and onto the walls that surround them causes very interesting patterns. this combination of the traditional islamic mosaic work along with the vivid colors and the light that the lamps give became my jumping off point for my welcome mat design.

the research that i did helped me in deciding on what pattern i was going to use on the welcome mat that i produced. the pattern is a traditional islamic star pattern. i highlighted this pattern with vivid colors of red, orange, and yellow and also with light. i felt that the way the pattern went from dense stars on the right to less dense stars on the left was much like the way light comes out of the moroccan lanterns hits the walls around them and the patters that lamp produces become less dense as they flow away from the lamp itself. i also felt that the light coming from this mat, especially at night, would be very welcoming to the moroccan that used it, much like a porch lamp might be to an american.

adoration moodasmany

collage.

This is the collage we created about Karim's life. We included aspects of Egypt with aspects of the US, and integrated them as a composition. In the non-digital version of this collage, certain pictures are elevated on a piece of foamcore, signifying their importance. For example, the hookah is elevated, because it represents Karim's dream of opening a hookah bar.

interview with karim.

Name: Karim Aboushady

Country: Cairo, Egypt

Age, gender, marital status: 20; Male; Single

Family details: Karim’s mother, father, uncle, brother and sister are all in the United States. His other sister and the rest of his family still reside in Egypt.

Native Language: Arabic

Occupation: Karim currently works full time at Starbucks as a manager, and he is also attending Wake Technical Community College to get his degree in Accounting.

Path to Coming Here: Karim’s father and uncle came to the United States in 1977 to attend college, and then open their own business. His father moved the family to the United States in 2000, and Karim started 9th grade at Millbrook High School in Raleigh.

Goals/Intentions/Dreams: Karim’s current dreams are to own his own Hookah bar in Raleigh. If that doesn’t work out, he wants to open his own wholesaling business. There is also a possibility that he will take over his father’s and uncle’s carpet cleaning business after his father retires.

Life before and after: As far as living conditions go, life in the United States is much better for Karim. When asked specifically what is better about the US, he answered “Everything.” He also told us that Egyptians who were educated in the United States got more respect and better jobs back in Egypt then people educated in Egypt. Karim said that he misses the strong sense of community that he had in Egypt. He also said that Egypt is more fun than the United States and there was “more stuff to do” there.

Challenges: The challenges of living in the United States are the people, individual community, and language. Karim says the people in Egypt were generally friendlier than in the US, because as you walk through town there, you know everybody. In the US, he says, the communities are more individualized, and that took some getting used to for him. When Karim first moved here, he didn’t know any English, he learned it all once he was already living here. He said it wasn’t very difficult to learn how to speak English, he just had some problems with the grammar. Today, Karim’s English is very good, and he only has a slight accent.

Acculturation: Karim says that he has taken the things he likes about each culture and put them together. At home his family still keeps their traditions, but Karim also enjoys activities that other Americans would. He has found a lot of Arabic friends in Raleigh that he hangs out with regularly, but he also has a lot of American friends too. Him and his friends spend a lot of time together doing both American and more Arabic activities, like going to movies and shopping, but they also go to hookah bars and have parties where they dance to Arabic music. They all include their American friends in this too, so it’s interesting to see how he not only experiences and embraces our culture, but lets Americans experience some of his culture.

pattern perception

Computing in Architectural Design

Computing in design has always been an integral part of the design process, in many different ways. From the first architects that would use the computers to help with complex calculations of large numbers, to entering building modules of a building into the computer with a light pen, to the computer aided design that we think of today.

Computing in design today has come a long way in technology and usefulness from its predecessors in the early days of computer-aided design. Known as second-generation CAD systems, the computer-aided design of today is lead by the introduction of the personal computer, the mouse, and display technology that had not previously existed. This technology was now available to a more wide range of architects. The advent of faster and more capable processors allowed the architects to complete more complex modeling systems than before, and these modeling systems were available to more people, not just high-end workstations. Also the introduction of ink jet printers went hand in hand with the increased technology of computer-aided design. Now not only were architects able to see their work on screen, but able to print out their design on a wide range of surfaces. This helped to communicate their design to clients. This is still very useful today.

Computer-aided design in general helps to make the execution of a certain task more efficient and more precise. The computer does not know when the designer makes a mistake and similarly cannot put out its own thoughts on the design. This leads to what computer-aided design could be in the future, a system that is not simply used as a tool but rather as a viable design assistant, much like a junior architect to a senior architect. If a task is not interesting enough to require the full attention of the designer then that designer could turn the task over to the computer. This ability to delegate tasks to a machine could prove beneficial in time management and also accuracy of the task at hand. This ability of computers to go beyond the designs in patience, design ability, speed and memory, may allow for better and more simple design solutions.

Although the computer is a giant help in the world of design, there are still drawbacks to its use. The fact that the computer is its own separate world away from the world that we design for can cause use to be disjointed in our designs. Also the fact that with the increased technology and the computer doing more and more on its own, we come to the road block of the computer not knowing the full needs of a client. By this the computer may know the programmable needs, but since it is a machine, not the emotional needs of a space and that spaces relation to a human.

Computers aid in design everyday and will continue to aid in the design process as long as human brainpower is inferior to that of computer processors.