Miya's corner: 2014

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Friday, August 8, 2014

Santa in Hawaii

I did this card a while ago, but am thinking maybe I'll use this one this year.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

In my study, I have talked a lot about how we, human being, has being changed and placed our focus and response on visual images rather than reading text. We are facing a “new literacy” in our lives with the expansion of visual media in the form of video content, for example, popular websites like Yahoo, MSN, Youtube, and others providing more video news content. And high quality video production and exchange continues to be made with built-in camera capabilities available in the ubiquitous smart-phone.

The use of visual images is not a new happening. We have used visual images to convey information for many year, for example, traffic signals, identifying public places like airports, buss stops, restrooms, etc. And who among us hasn’t sat in Chinese restaurant and not see and explored their Zodiac sign. Graphic design for public communication continues to be an integral part of visual and spatial information sharing. The reality is that visual images has and will continue to play an important role in our daily lives.

Recently, an article in The New York Time by Daniel Engber took a closer look at the origin of weather icons that are used almost universally to us today. According to Engber, the BBC TV presenters used dots for rain, asterisks for snow, lines to mark off areas of equal pressure, and a triangle for a rain shower in the early 1970s. Mark Allen, a design student at the Norwich School of Art, considered and wanted to make weather icons more intuitive. Afterward, Allen spent time to study and was inspired by the grandfather of pictogram design, Oti Aicher, for his plan for weather icons. Aicher is noted for designing the widely acclaimed 1972 Mnich Olympic icons. Engber later commented that Allen’s design was neither the first nor the last weather icons to be used, but they were perhaps the most elegant one. In fact, Allen’s icons had a long run at BBC and inspired numerous variations at broadcasting networks and print media all over the world.

In 2011, after 30 years use, BBC decided to withdraw Allen's iconic pictograms with the reasoning that, "The weather site consists of a lot of facts and figures and we wanted to balance this out by adding a rich, atmospheric welcome..." What that meant was static icons would be replaced with Javascript animation, wide-screen images, and a whole lot of ‘ambience’. It is also represented a transition to the digital era and “new literacy” for communication.

With this insight, take a few minutes to explore the icons on yours and other cell phones. Note the detail of the design and how are icons used to convey information. Do they communicate the intended use and response? Are they pleasing to the eye? Are they fun but not distracted? How would you design them?

This is the link to how BCC’s contemplation on new weather icon. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/bbcinternet/2011/11/bbc_weather_design_refresh.html

Here is a list of their areas for icon design exploration:

Move forwards, not backwards.
Simplify.
Inject personality.
Work with platform difference.
Create context.
Align.
Distribute.
Multiple access points.

With user-centered design, a designers make more assumptions about what the intended audiences needs, when, why and where.

My conclusion is that “new literacy” represented the change in our communication, based on our behavior, to meet the needs of daily life. That communication is larger built on a growing desire for social interactivity. The user experience now requires a more vivid and animated visual interaction, not just static images.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Why art & design education for young children matter

Many parents focus on their children’s success in mastery of three R’s along with more advanced study in language, science, and related courses, as well as engaging in extra-curricular sport activities. When these studies and activities are certainly vital in preparation of a successful academic career, are they really enough for providing a well-rounded mental and physical platform in ongoing learning? To this question, I want to outline the value of the study of art and design brings to learning:

Heighten memory capability

When we review children’s drawing, our reaction is typically to smile and think how cute they are with their fun time. For many parents, children’s play with art is simply a good way to keep them busy. However, a closer look at children’s art and drawing often reveal elaborate stories where circle could represent clouds, flowers, or pancakes, and a seemingly random combination of lines can represent trees, people, or ants.

A child’s memory contains images that, when in art, may appear to be abstract, but are unfiltered, honest, and pure view representation of what they remember or are thinking. Children’s art work, more accurately, is their retrieval of memories of events expressed from their own point of view.

Intensify observation skills

When we listen to children’s explanation about their art work, their words are often elaborate and sometimes funny with our confusion. This can be explained as children’s desire to express what they see or saw, they are actually practicing their observation through visual forms.

Art can help children more fully to express their observation, thoughts, and memories, and present them with their own perception. Meanwhile, children are encouraged to be fearless and less self-conscious to convey their explicit statement.

Amplify the imagination potential

It often seems hard to understand children’s art and drawings. Our difficulty in understanding is a result of our refined, biased, and filtered view of life as a result of our ages and experiences. Children, on the other hand, are fearless and able to bear their belief with imagination in a pure and unfiltered way. When children are encouraged to use their imagination to visualize places or environments, depict super powers, or projects themselves into places or situations utilizing pictures and art, they are learning to be confident individuals and to dream beyond the current environment.

Likewise, the use of color provides children’s ability to express a bold imagination. The ability to choose their own colors to amplify their thoughts and emotions is critical in expression and that is why we sometimes see green people, yellow dogs, or blue horses in children’s art work.

Learn to release and relax emotion

Children generally are fearless and unfiltered, and easily showing whatever emotion they are feeling at the time: happiness, sadness, disappointment, etc. However, at their age, they still have difficulty putting their thoughts and emotions into words. But children are adept at sharing and expressing their feelings with the use of their hands. Doing art work helps children to facilitate expression by showing through pictures, often deep emotions. It has been widely held practice by many psychologists using art and drawing to evaluate children as well as conduct their therapy.

Practice right and left side brain thinking

While working on art, children learn to cultivate a sense of color, shape, space, and perspective cognition, also is referred to as creativity. This is generally known as practicing right side of brain agility. Similarity, children practice math, language, and problem solving skills to form their left side brain agility. In fact, children can train themselves to use right and left side brain by doing art.

In the process of participating in and producing art and design, children expand their skills beyond conventional methods and styles and refresh their knowledge as well as their life long learning skills.