Design in Mind

New online portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 21:09:00 +0000

Since completing Senior Studio at KCAI I've begun to find a very clear path to take in the coming months. I think a lot of design is about telling stories (put very simply) and developing a brand identity system for someone is essentially finding out what their story is and then finding ways to tell that to the world. Brand identity design is a favorite of mine so I guess that makes me... a visual story teller!

You can see my new portfolio site here.

Way finding on KCAI campus

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 13:38:00 +0000

Much of the way finding on the KCAI campus is different, seems people aren't really sticking to the style guidelines or if there is even a cohesive system to tie all the buildings together. Here's a few examples of the different signs on campus:

What Sean and I are thinking about is a system that ties all the buildings together. Something like this:

To the Rescue

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 19:05:00 +0000

A monument in honor of the 2CV, the little car with a big personality. Designed in 1939 by Pierre-Jules Boulanger the 2CV was a helping hand to the peasants who were not able to afford the car of the day. Boulanger came up with the solution nicknamed the "umbrella on wheels", an inexpensive, as friendly vehicle that could transport a farmer and his goods (including a box of eggs) across a ploughed field without breaking anything.

A new model

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 23:34:00 +0000

The 2CV monument looks like this. It's got that hammock feeling that the original car used, it's colorful to signify diversity and it sits on springs so you can move around on it like you were traveling over a ploughed field! I think the shape of it almost looks like a 2CV too. Nice.

I've made the height of it bigger than a man, when you get in it (you'll have to climb up into it) you'll feel all embraced sitting in the huge seat. I think bouncing around in this thing could be really fun. It looks fun too, just like the car!

Celebrating the 2CV

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 23:10:00 +0000

I'm not sure where this will be in the end but this idea of supporting someone I like. I thought it might be a hand but that might be too cheesy. All I have to do now is bring the digital into it somehow and make it less like a park bench.

The monument would be in rural France, maybe there would be many of them dotted all over the countryside. Maybe a farmer would stroll past one and sit in it for a few minutes. It would be comfortable, lift his feet off the ground and remind him of a time a little car saved his ancestors from breaking their backs on the plough.

Orne, Basse-Normandie, France (photo by Magic Foundry on Flickr).

And here's a model of the seat. Maybe it should be covered and sprayed. It's missing some kind of beauty.

The monument

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:32:00 +0000

This is a memorial to the 2CV, a French car designed to carry a farmer, his produce, maybe the wife and some eggs (without breaking them) over a ploughed field into town.

The car was made for the peasants who couldn't afford the car of the day. This one was not only cheaper to buy, it was cheaper to run, yes, 78mpg people!

It's a poetic visual of the poor being carried by good design. The finished guy will be laughing, carrying some eggs in one hand and maybe a bag of potatoes in the other.

FREE concept

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 15:58:00 +0000

For senior show we played with the contrast between freedom and structure. There is incredible structure in a birds wing but yet they have such freedom in flight. Are we like birds, graduating from the nest, about ready to fly free?

Images from

http://nonsenseverse.files.wordpress.com

http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?p=2095452

Curious expeditions on Flickr

http://www.webdesign.org/photoshop/drawing-techniques/draw-eagle-tattoo.14722.html

http://www.dragoart.com

wdb3b's photostream

Two 2CV Monuments

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 20:31:00 +0000

The first design is 20' high. The monument stands tall and proud as a part of France's history. It's an umbrella on four wheels following the nickname of the car. The two people are carrying the eggs while traveling over the ploughed field. It would be brightly colored to fit the humor of the car. It's only small because the car was small and it would be situated in the countryside of France to honor the farming peasant and the lower classes. You would have to drive out of Paris to see it. The smells of the farm would be all around. The umbrella part could be made of some fabric which would produce a sound in the wind like being outdoors—the top of the car was almost always pulled back and things were sticking out of it. The ground that the wheels sit on could be made of something really textural to symbolize the ploughed farmers field.

The second idea is bigger. It's more like a walk in monument. Again it's an umbrella stretched over four wheels and the building sits snugly underneath. This kind of a size building could house all kinds of artifacts to honor the car and its rich history. The umbrella part of the building would be brightly colored to fit with the humorous side of the car.

Remembering the 2CV

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:41:00 +0000

I think the 2CV monument should be low down, in proximity to the people. Not too high, not to big, approachable, like the car was. Pierre-Jules Boulanger was a designer for the people. He wanted to come up with a car that would be able to transport the lowly peasant. The car did 78pmg! He loved the TPV so much that he hid it from the Germans. I think he was protective of his design for the french people.

He designed it to serve people better than a horse and cart. It was able to do off road in the farms and carry 2 people and farms eggs without breaking them across a ploughed field! He was designing something for the lowly peasants who had not adopted the car yet because it was too expensive. He wanted to help them in their rigorous work on the farms. He was an advocate for the people.

Here's another great video. 2CV owners are like a family. "People don't know wether you have 100 euros or 100 million euros!"

Honoring the 2CV

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:26:00 +0000

The 2CV (French “deux chevaux” literally “two tax horsepower”) was designed to move the French peasantry on from horses and carts. Designed for low cost, simplicity of use, versatility, reliability, and off-road driving it had a light, easily serviceable engine, extremely soft long travel suspension (with adjustable ride height), high ground clearance, and for oversized loads a car-wide canvas sunroof (which until 1960 also covered the boot).

The 2CV belongs to a very short list of vehicles introduced in the middle of the 20th century that remained relevant and competitive for many decades, such as the Jeep, Land Rover Series, Fiat 500, Austin Mini and Volkswagen Beetle.

Pierre-Jules Boulanger's early 1930s design brief, (after a pioneering market research survey done by Jacques Duclos), was to be astonishingly radical for the time, was for a low-priced, rugged "umbrella on four wheels" that would enable two peasants to drive 100 kg (220 lb) of farm goods to market at 60 km/h (37 mph), in clogs and across muddy unpaved roads if necessary. France at that time had a very large rural population which had not yet adopted the automobile, because of its cost. The car would use no more than 3 L of gasoline to travel 100 km (78 mpg). Most famously, it would be able to drive across a ploughed field without breaking the eggs it was carrying. Boulanger later also had the roof raised to allow him to drive while wearing a hat.

André Lefèbvre was the engineer in charge of the TPV (Toute Petite Voiture – "Very Small Car") project. By 1939 the TPV was deemed ready, and several prototypes had been built. During the German occupation of France in the Second World War Boulanger refused to meet Dr.Ferdinand Porsche or communicate with the German authorities except through intermediaries. Several TPVs were buried at secret locations; one was disguised as a pickup, the others were destroyed, and Boulanger had the next six years to think about further improvements.

Text and photographs from Wikipedia.

Then I made a silk screen of a 2CV in my craft class:

Sidewalk project goes national!

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 16:12:00 +0000

One of my senior team projects has won a national award! I teamed up with Tammy Shell and Amanda Laffoon last semester in the Visual Advocacy class to raise awareness of the need for a stretch of sidewalk outside Rosedale park. You can read more here.

The Corbusier Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:40:00 +0000

Corbusier was a revolutionary architect. He believed there were five key points to creating the best building that took in to consideration the elements, the world around the building and the structure of the building itself.

We have designed an exhibition that exemplifies his five points, essentially a space that persuades the attendee that Corbusier's 5 points are the ideal when it comes to building design.

The exhibition is in two parts, the physical space and the digital iPad navigator that shows you around the space.

The visitor to the exhibition is greeted at the door by the exhibition title, and a collection of images of Corbusier's buildings abstracted into three colors. These colors form the basis of the exhibition style and are used throughout.

The visitor can pick up an iPad from the welcome desk and is immediately faced with the building design we are using to show in the exhibition. They can manipulate the building with their hands and move around it to see the five points.

The iPad and physical space work together to provide an experience that is both experiential (physical space) and informative (iPad). We felt that rather than just using text on the walls which people might not read, by giving them a tablet to hold and by them having to make the connections, it would be a deeper and richer learning experience.

Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 04:14:00 +0000

I took the dolls house facades and made them into an art piece for my craft project. The installation piece explores the confusion of multi-tasking with the simplicity of focusing on one moment, a view through a door or a window. The video explores the same but in digital format.

Corbusier's iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:13:00 +0000

Revisions to the Corbusier iPad experience include:

- extraneous information put aside in a lighter color to the top
- users should click the arrow to begin at the bottom
- the flyout tells you how to move around the experience
- extraneous information is scrollable right to left

Leave Behind

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 22:19:00 +0000

A 5" x 7" postcard to leave behind and also to mail to existing clients, as a way of keeping up to date with work projects.

I think I've found a new home

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 04:09:00 +0000

I tried Indexhibit today and I think I like it. It's really simple but it actually makes me feel like an artist. I don't know what it is. I know it's built by Europeans and maybe that's it. You can see progress here.

Wouldn't it be cool if the iPad could do this?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:23:00 +0000

Find your way around a Corbusier building in 3D!

Exhibition Wall Elevation

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 23:38:00 +0000

These elevation drawings show the main walls and three moveable walls. There will be no text in the exhibition apart from a short tag line in each room that briefly explains the benefit of each point. Each room has some kind of moveable activity in it: this room is on floor 2 and houses the moveable walls and long windows which can slide up and down the wall, making the view larger or smaller.

The persuasive exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 19:38:00 +0000

In the H&R Bloch Space there are 4 main rooms. We have 5 points to discuss:

Room 1 - the supports allow for a moveable facade, any size building (1)
- "the supports allow for any size and shape facade"

Room 2 - pilotis raise the building off the ground (2)
- "no more rising damp"
- "I don't just see faces of buildings everywhere"
- "the supports are no longer the walls"

Room 3 - moveable walls (3)
- "free layout design: there are no load bearing walls"

Room 3 - and horizontal window (4)
- "I like a grand view and a well lit room"

Room 4 - roof garden (5)
- "my roof breathes oxygen

To do:
1. buy solid paper from art store for the floor and complimentary wallpaper, it needs to be stuff we can print on
2. build two chairs - one for the roof garden one for the moveable facade
3. use his building plans as shapes to put images in, for line work or as patterns
4. take pictures of iphone and fingers - begin build of sample interface design
5. print a couple more people

This is our color palette: pale blue for light, big sky and space, a dark brown for earth tone, natural and orange for a sense of freedom and fun.

Spatial design

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:33:00 +0000

Today a few walls got moved around, Lance got pushed all over the place, then he got shot.

Portfolio shots

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:28:00 +0000

I set up a little studio, and took some pictures.

Headphones anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:33:00 +0000

I was recently at an art exhibition at the Nelson Atkins Art Gallery in Kansas City and I noticed people walking around with headphones on. Some folks liked them, said listening to the narrator tell them about the art pieces was a lot more engaging than reading text. While I agree with this and I think this is permissible for an art exhibit with many different pieces, I wonder if it's the best option where a more interactive holistic experience is present. If the exhibition was of this nature, I'd like not to see headphones but more engaging artifacts and text that you and someone else can interact with and talk about.

http://www.phonaut.com

What is more memorable? Someone saying something to you or an actual physical experience where you might say something silly or embarrass yourself? Which one lends itself to a more persuasive experience?

Exhibition Type

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:20:00 +0000

After perusing some exhibition spaces online today, I was inspired to try a few sets of my own. In each of these there are three different faces. The main font would I think form the basis of a logo for the event.

I like Akzidens Grotesque condensed here. The letterforms spelling out 'a new architecture' fit very nicely together—like Corbusier's work. DIN is also very structured but with nice curves and Bodoni Old Style is just elegant.

Futura's ascenders are elongated, tall like Corbusier's pilotis. Euphemia has an interesting kerning thing going on, which happens to lend itself to the space between the pilotis.

Orator is mono-spaced. Like the building blocks of Corbusier's architecture. I like the small caps on New Century Schoolbook. As a title, it provides what looks like a very structured cap.

Model building

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:12:00 +0000

Oh the talent of my classmate! Look how he builds a model of the H&R Bloch artspace. This is a scale model at 1/2" to one foot. It will house color prints of proposed graphics and a few scaled to size people. Then we'll be able to get in there with a macro camera to shoot some images. Those and some elevation drawings, some background on the architect will all go in a presentation.

It's so fun to work in a studio with a few other creative people, have the space to spread out and make things. It's good too to have a space to chill and relax (we're working on that part). It's fun to go out and get coffee, share ideas then come back and do some more creative work.

One elevation

noreply@blogger.com (Tom Morse-Brown) — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Here's a look at the large 1st floor wall in the main studio of the H&R Bloch space. Using a scale of 0.25" : 1' you can see how high the 6' man is against the backdrop of seven pilotis. The small scale plan view drawing above it shows where the wall exists in the overall building.