#design101/020 My diary 16.11 Sketchbook

Yesterday I got finally my long time waited Mac Book Pro. This makes me so happy!!! Here is the happy moment when I open the package. I worked so hard to get it and partly got it too as a christmas gift:)

There is so much changes happening. Wind of Change could be this moments soundtrack.


The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

We have also moved to a new house. There is even a tv in new home. I am looking forward to see all those german tv films where I played as extra last year.

I can finally speed up posting with my design101 tasks. The platform this MOOC is using was not supporting my old Mac. It made me so sad to see even my answers to the weekly quiz were never gathering any points because the system didn't fully recognise my answers. The design 101 is going to Finnish by end of January and I will do my best that all my works will get finally to the platform.

Here are still some images from my sketch book.

My Diary #design101/019 15.11

here you can see the different methods I used to make paper.

Fridays project was all about different papers. I made my own papers on Saturday and that is a different story that needs own post. But here is just my Friday´s notebook project and the other notebooks together.

My Diary #design101/018 14.11

here is my mini notebook for just small ideas.

here you can see some binding techniques I used.

This is Friday´s project in binding process

My Diary #design101/017 golden ratio 13.11

Here is my #design101 notebook project 017 = 8,034(8)x13.

I made it according to golden ratio 1,618.

I learned on the way from others comments on Iversity platform that if I make the golden ratio just by folding the paper then I must make it not from the golden ratio size of a paper. So I calculated my paper size based on the golden ratio ending format 8x13 (4x8)x(2x13). My paper size was then 32x26.

then I just needed the cover for my notebook. I used paperbag

I realised I must cut my A3 poster to get the golden ratio ending size.

I used for this project as a paper A3 Loesje posters that I cut to the correct paper size and then folded into booklets with this instant book method. I gathered the separate little booklets into a notebook with a separate cover that closes with a pen. The idea of the notebook is that because its not binded notebook you can always add or remove pages based on your need.

I actually got idea because of this task to make a birthday gift for my dear friend who is active in Loesje. This gift was not made in Golden ratio because I wanted to give her a chance to use the A3 Loesje posters without cutting them. So I just made same kind of project to her without golden ratio. She has always a lot of those posters around and so she will always have new pages on her notebook. And if she want its still possible to stick some posters from her notebook to some wall on her way in the city. You can even give one poster out of your notebook easily.

2 different notebooks and pens

Something to remember:Design is relationships among parts.

“We do not imitate, but are a model to others,” said Pericles (the mastermind behind Athen’s Acropolis...).

My Diary #design101/016 Tuesday 12.11

I can learn so much from Martí Guixé and his wall clocks he made to Alessi.

24h sentence maker wall clock
A way to measure time with sentences. The different hours are words and the word IS is written in the middle of the clock. A new sentence every hour, 24 sentences a day.


and something that can be personal:

Blank wall clock
A wall clock with a pen: you can write, draw and erase it easily according to your perception of time and graphics.

taiji water painting

I have my own way actually to feel the time and learn to live in the present. Its taiji water painting. I have very simple canvas but I know how to do a canvas myself or use some alternative ways to do the water painting.



For example, I kept a workshop 2009 of this method in the Loesje summercamp that was then in Spain. We were painting standing in the river. Everyone had a pair who photographed the images that were created because the sun was hot and water dried very fast. Here is some pictures from the sea. I painted also there to the rocks with some friends.

#1st choose an image of a notebook you like very much. Why did you choose it?
What makes it special to you? What are the parameters you are working on?

# 2nd Then, go to a stationery shop (or more than one if you have
time). The one around the corner or the one a the shopping
mall. Check out various notebooks on sale. Which one could suit
you best? Why? What are your parameters of selection?

Important!
Here, the exercise is not to buy a notebook (nothing against
it, but it is not today’s task). The exercise is to analyze
different notebooks, clarifying in your mind your own
parameters of selection.

Take a picture of your favourite notebook.

Tip: have the notebook + lean background. Nothing else.
Upload your two images to the homework section in today’s unit
with a short caption.

notebook in Dussman but its not my favorite.

Here is the image I like from Richard Long´s landscapes.

My work has become a simple metaphor of life. A figure walking down his road, making his mark. It is an affirmation of my human scale and senses.

- Richard Long

Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking, 1967.

Why did you choose it? Its a picture of nature but also someone, human or animals have left mark on the grass by walking the same way several times. Its already a known path when it gets visible.

What makes it special to you?
Photograph is a stopped moment but this picture shows the permanent mark of all those moments that we cannot see. Its like a scar on the skin except scars comes from just one time. I have also scars and I know where I got those. Even if many has been taken that path in the picture nobody is showing in that picture. I also like the idea that when you have a skill in something its like a path that keeps visible because you walk on that path often. For example I remember I was able to climb the ropes very easily when I was just a kid. If I would have practiced it more I might still have strenght to do so. Active skills are like paths in the meadow that keeps visible.

What are the parameters you are working on?
I love to see a story in the photo. Something hidden and visible at the same time. The artist is documenting different nature environment and how things leave a mark. 


and here is the notebook I really like. I bought it last year from London. Its made by Magma for Laurence King . And there is beautiful illustrations of Camille Rousseau.

I like how this notebook is made.

here is my sketchbook and drawings about how the notebook is made.

Which one could suit you best? Why?
I like notebooks that have some idea behind. This notebook that fits me best is very inspirational. It has beautiful hand drawed pictures of different leaves in different seasons inside. Its also made very nice way. I would like to try the same binding method. I made some sketches about it.
What are your parameters of selection?
Funktional and beautiful.  Nature theme through all the design.

My Diary #design101/015 Monday 11.11

I am a bit late for updating my material for My Diary week that was 11.11-17.11. I did all the notebook exercises but that week I had to act in a 70´s movie "Ruth" as an extra and all those film days were 12 h long and the set was in a smoky Burlesque club. So I made most of my homeworks just in the end of the week and was compeletely tired after all those smoky days. Did you happen to know how much people smoked on 70`s? I know now.

The letters from #design101 were inspiring as usual.

Did you know Nick Cave kept lot of notebooks?

Here is Nick Cave by his desk and also my messy desktop.

Did you know about his handwritten dictionary of words?
It’s filled with very strange things!

Futher inspiration: Ikko Tanaka. Not only is he one of Japan’s best contemporary graphic designers, but also Muji’s first art director.

If you want to learn more about him, here’s a nice article for you.

For example the following was said in that article of his exhibition In Front / Behind / Left / Right.
"While the essence of Japanese beauty lies in concepts of Wabi and Sabi (simplicity and passage of time), which are central in the work of Tanaka, Suki stands for his curiosity and joy in colour experimentation."

How did I got ready for my 3rd week of design101? I just wrote the weekplan to my diary. Then I went before sunset to pick some autumn leaves and last summer flowers and pressed them between a big dictionary.

I found some fairies wings but let them in the tree. Fairies will need them to fly somewhere more warm place.

I have added some comments later like color code for things that are not yet uploaded to Iversity. I cannot upload photos from my computer to Iversity and need to use my neighbors computer for that. So its a bit complicated.

4,33 #design101/021

here is an example of my cats golden silence moment

"speaking is silver
silence is gold"

Listening must be also then gold, as John Cage makes us focus on our environment and appreciate surrounding sounds.

According to Cage, duration is the essential building block of all of music. Like in our daily Design101 we should keep designing things just within one hour.

During 4,33 you can simply be present and listen what is moving in the space and time around you that moment. Its like an invitation to Carpe Diem. And as I red that John Cage was a Zen Buddhist it all makes sense he made this kind of silent work.
According to John Cage good music can act as a guide to good living.

I found also more ideas of John Cage´s 4,33 work in TED talk by Julian Dodd at TEDxUniversityOfManchester.

Here some of his points:

a) It´s not a silent work
b) Its point is largely art-political

What 4,33 is

A witty, profound work of performance
A work of conceptual art

Every something is an
echo of nothing. — John Cage