Japanese Influence On Design

When I am brain dead and bored, I like to look at other people's designs to get inspired. Here are some designs that makes me go... wow... Hey, I can do this better or maybe I can put it in different applications that no one has thought of. I love challenging myself and I guess that is my hobby. Always thinking and improving things.

These are such a lovely designs on boring canvas bag that makes it expensive looking. It has the influence of Roy Lichtenstein, the NY Pop Artist and techno type design. I believe Coach can use this type of design in their products. Their designs are so boring now -

I love these canvas bags. Can I have more of these designs out there, please?

Mural Designs

In a office lobby the designs are being applied.

These are definitely very interesting looking paper cup designs. Why can't more people design like this I can't understand. Please designers out there, be more proactive and take every opportunity to design well and interesting, no matter how boring the product is. Also decision makers that be, please choose better designs and not Safe Boring choices!

Coffee Paper cups

The Vitra Conference Pavilion – Tadao Ando

The Saskia’s Studio – Tadao Ando

I have always wondered where this concept came from. I finally realized that Tadao Ando has designed the level of the pool to the level of the sea with great succession. I love this idea and it is used in many hotels now especially in Singapore.

The Saskia's Studio is built in Sri Lanka. Here the minimalistic style of Tadao Ando speaks with volume. To me, though concrete walls seem cold and sterile, but there is a sense of continuum when lines leads to another and fall into unexpected space. All well thought out and masterful.

The Saskia's Studio

Frida Kahlo

One of the artists I love is Frida Kahlo, born on July 6, 1907, in Coyocoán, Mexico City, Mexico, to 1954. Her paintings are so remarkable and personal.

"I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best. ~Frida Kahlo

Around the age of 6, she contracted polio, which caused her to be bedridden for nine months. While she did recover from the illness, she limped when she walked because the disease had damaged her right leg and foot.

In 1922, Kahlo enrolled at the renowned National Preparatory School. She was one of the few female students to attend the school, and she became known for her jovial spirit and her love of traditional and colorful clothes and jewelry. That same year, famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera went to work on a project at the school. Kahlo often watched as Rivera created a mural called The Creation in the school’s lecture hall.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality." ~Frida Kahlo

While at school, Kahlo hung out with a group of politically and intellectually like-minded students. She became romantically involved with one of them, Alejandro Gómez Arias. On September 17, 1925, Kahlo and Gómez Arias were traveling together on a bus when the vehicle collided with a streetcar. As a result of the collision, Kahlo was impaled by a steel handrail, which went into her hip and came out the other side. She suffered several serious injuries as a result, including fractures in her spine and pelvis.

After staying at the Red Cross Hospital in Mexico City for several weeks, Kahlo returned home to recuperate further. She began painting during her recovery and finished her first self-portrait the following year, which she gave to Gómez Arias. Becoming more politically active, Kahlo joined the Young Communist League and the Mexican Communist Party.

Kahlo reconnected with Rivera in 1928. He encouraged her artwork, and the two began a relationship. The couple married the next year.

Watch this video for complete and powerful documentary of Frida Kahlo.

Who Invented perspective in the Renaissance?

The reason why I wanted to remember and share Filippo Brunelleschi, (FB) is because it was Cosmo Medici that took a chance on him. He saw through the talent of FB. A very talented architect, used to be a gold smith... that had a vision of how to build the dome of the Florence church. I actually saw the architecture of Ospedale degli Innocenti by FB and it was so incredible. The building had grace and elegance till today. I was and still am in awe and in love when I saw it in Florence.

 Ospedale degli Innocenti

Filippo Brunelleschi, April 15, 1377 – 1446 (69 years) was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral. His accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture (churches and chapels, fortifications, a hospital, etc), mathematics, engineering (hydraulic machinery, clockwork mechanisms, theatrical machinery, etc) and even ship design. His principal surviving works are to be found in Florence, Italy.

Sculpture of Brunelleschi looking at his cathedral dome

The principal buildings and works designed by Brunelleschi or which included his involvement:

Dome of the Cathedral of Florence, (1419–1436) 

Ospedale degli Innocenti,‎ (1419–ca.1445) 

Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze, (1419–1480s) 

Meeting Hall of the Palazzo di Parte Guelfa, (1420s–1445) 

Sagrestia Vecchia, or Old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, (1421–1440) 

Santa Maria degli Angeli: unfinished, (begun 1434) 

The lantern of the Florence Cathedral, (1436–ca.1450) 

The exedrae of the Florence Cathedral, (1439–1445) 

Santo Spirito di Firenze, (1441–1481) 

Pazzi Chapel, (1441–1460s) 

Santa Maria del Fiore: The Florence Cathedral
Santa Maria del Fiore was the new cathedral of the city, and by 1418 the dome had yet to be defined. When the building was designed in the previous century, no one had any idea about how such a dome was to be built, given that it was to be even larger than the Pantheon's dome in Rome and that no dome of that size had been built since antiquity. Because buttresses were forbidden by the city fathers, and clearly was impossible to obtain rafters for scaffolding long and strong enough (and in sufficient quantity) for the task, it was unclear how a dome of that size could be built, or just avoid collapse. It must be considered also that the stresses of compression were not clearly understood at the time, and the mortars used in the periods would only set after several days, keeping the strain on the scaffolding for a very long time.[6] In 1419, the Arte della Lana, the wool merchants' guild, held a competition to solve the problem. The two main competitors were Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, with Brunelleschi winning and receiving the commission.

The competition consisted of the great architects attempting to stand an egg upright on a piece of marble. None could do it but Brunelleschi, who, according to Vasari:

...giving one end a blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand upright...The architects protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo answered, laughing, that they could have made the dome, if they had seen his design.

The dome, the lantern (built 1446–ca.1461) and the exedrae (built 1439-1445) would occupy most of Brunelleschi’s life.[8] Brunelleschi's success can be attributed to no small degree to his technical and mathematical genius.[9] Brunelleschi used more than 4 million bricks in the construction of the dome. He invented a new hoisting machine for raising the masonry needed for the dome, a task no doubt inspired by republication of Vitruvius' De Architectura, which describes Roman machines used in the first century AD to build large structures such as the Pantheon and the Baths of Diocletian, structures still standing which he would have seen for himself. He also issued one of the first patents for the hoist in an attempt to prevent theft of his ideas. Brunelleschi was granted the first modern patent for his invention of a river transport vessel.

Brunelleschi kept his workers up in the building during their breaks and brought food and wine up to them. He felt the trip up and down the hundreds of stairs would exhaust them and reduce their productivity. In a further attempt to motivate the workers, he gave them diluted wine, similar to that given to pregnant women at the time.

Brunelleschi's dome for the Duomo of Florence, Santa Maria del Fiore