MC Yogi: Obama '08 - Vote for Hope

Love this combination of after effect art and lyric by MC Yogi. Obama's speech goes well along with the beat too :D All candiates have strength and weakness so I won't make any opinion about them.

NYC CRUISE

I went to an semi-formal cruise party with NYU students last saturday. It was raining but I was just glad it wasn't a storm. I waned to take a picture of the Statue of Liberty but it was too dark and rainy. We couldn't stay much on the deck so I will definitely have to come back when it's warmer. I was thinking "oh, why didn't I come here earlier." Cruising the city river was one of 'Must Dos' in my list and I'm very happy I was out there. I think the world is full of good people. Am I too optimistic?

A Louis Vuitton Bag

I liked this installation of the cameras and the bag very much. It was displayed in front of Louis Vuitton store in Toronto. All the surveillance camera is watching this bag that newly came out as if paparazzi is taking picture of an actress with stunning outfit. I think Louis Vuitton bags are extremely expensive than what they are supposed to be according to their materials. However, I understand and admire how they have tried to be unique with their design for long period time. They make history in fashion because they don't copy other brands. I think it is extremely important that being a good designer means having unique style. Copying may be permitted but it won't make the designer last long so someone can remember their style decades later...

What's this humongous RAT doing here?

I took this picture on 14th and 5th ave. How is this huge rat going to be used? For Holloween? I really don't like rats because I have a bad memories about it. I lived on 11th floor of the apartment when I was little and rat family invaded our kitchen. I can't forget the red eyes of the rats. I didn't watch Ratatouille in the movie theater because I didn't want to see the detailed furs of the rats in the animation. Many of my friends didn't watch the movie because of the characters. What I have realize is character design should base on the taste of target audiences.

Galleries in Dumbo

After our public space experiment, we stopped by Smack Mellon Studio & DAC(Dumbo Art Center) on our way back. Best thing about living in New York is there are so many small, hidden, and interesting galleries that you can just step in. No need to purchase ticket, no one to bother you(not many people usually)... You can totally feel and achieve freedom of being in your own world. Some art pieces didn't even have name or explantion which increased curiosity.

I'm a Burrito Winner

Wow! I'm a Burrito Winner! This was the best thing happened to me last week. I had 10 free burritos at Chipotle (13th st & 6th Ave) and I gave them out to all my friends who were reachable on Sunday evening. I told my mom about this, and she said "You should've bought a lottery"

I didn't even think about getting free burritos because I rarely win raffles. Everyone should put your business card because you never know you are gonna win!

Adorable cookie design

I like to discover little things that make me smile. I went to Georgia's Cafe, located in 87th and Broadway, yesterday and I just couldn't pass by these cookies. How am I supposed to eat them? I wonder they just spontaneously make these shapes or sketch first before they bake.

Organ Recovery System @ MOMA

Since Moma offers free admission on friday evening, it was even more crowded than other days of a week. What I like about being a New School student is getting free admission anytime so I didn't have to see every floor. I can come back anytime I want =) I found this organ recovery design in the industrial design section. Wouldn't it be nice if it could be produced in near future?

Wedding at the ROM Museum

My friend Kathy got married to Marcus at the Royal Ontario Museum. I'm honored to be her bridesmaid despite the curling iron accident. Ouch! What I like the most about ROM is its unique architecture. I will definitely go visit art schools when I go there next time. I will remember every single moment of Kathy's wedding.

Toronto Street Dog

I won't forget about you and I'll come back for you.
I was a bridesmaid on my friend Kathy's wedding in ROM museum, Toronto. Everyone told me to me eating a street hotdog is a MUST if I were to travel in Canada. I ordered Polish Sausage Hotdog. I had hardtime making decision among Italian, Polish and Octoberfest sausages. The lady in dog stand put butter on the bread and grilled it while the sausage was grilled. The sausage was served slightely chopped and then, I had so many choice of toppings, e.g. halapeno, olive, corn, onion, cabbage, pickel, etc... CHOMP! I had it right before I drove back to Toronto Airport. I was so satisfied and felt like a mission was accomplished.

Flower Alarm Clock - Storyboard

How does the Flower Alarm Clock function?

1. Selected scent will spread out.
2. Petals and leaves will fall apart.
3. Selected sound will activate.
4. Users need to place the petals and leaves back to the correct position
5. The alarm goes off

Postmortem - Flower Alarm Clock (short version)

            We have developed our idea further from the Design Brief of a Muji Compact Stapler and Purell Hand Sanitizer to a Flower Alarm Clock. Currently, there are no products designed to spray scents as they alarm. This is decorative, functional, affordable and on top of that, amusing. The alarm clock will awaken three senses, olfactory, visual, and auditory, as the scents spread out, petals and leaves fall apart, and sound activates. While trying to set alarm off, users need to get physically involved to put the petals back to the correct position like a puzzle and surely, they will be ready to start the day. We gave options for users to choose different kinds of scents (e.g. flowers, coffee, bread, fart, lemon, fish sauce, cotton candies, etc.), different color of flowers, and different alarm tone (e.g. ambulance siren, fax machine, door bell, helicopter, scream, etc) Customization to satisfy users is the most crucial aspect of the design because some might wake up better with an amusing sound and a bad scent whereas some might prefer an annoying sound and a sweet scent.
            Although our design concept already includes customized a color, a scent, and a sound, we would even want to add more design options than just a flower shape to suite various tastes of users. During the critique, we found out that a flower-shaped design may not be so attractive to men to purchase it. We will make sure there is a customer service ready in case of any damage occurred by falling parts(petals and leaves) despite the product is made with flexible and soft plastic materials. According to peer in the class, we can add more functions for the petals so it works like a fan and helps purifying the air if a user wants to.
            After the Design Brief, we have changed our idea several times since it seemed people do not prefer to wake up with a “fart” odor. That is how we came up with giving more choices on scents as well as sounds. Darcy and I have agreed to create something that’s unusual and fun rather than functional at first. We began to think about functions of an alarm clock later as progressing with our design. Narrowing down the target users was challenging because we generally assumed everyone who is bored of the conventional alarm clock would want to buy this product. We targeted “kidults” after research on markets to find out who would be more specific users of the toy-like alarm clocks.

Flying Alarm Clock

Clocky Robot Alarm

ThinkGeek(USA)
Primary purpose – To haul people out of bed

            Before we came up with our first design, we researched alarm clocks that are lately invented. The bestselling items are Flying Alarm Clock and Clocky Robot Alarm. The Flying Alarm Clock is designed for users to catch the propeller-driven key to turn off the alarm clock. Also the Clocky Robot Alarm clock is designed for users to chase after it and catch it to turn off. The designs of the Flying Alarm Clock and the Clocky Robot Alarm require more interaction with users than the designs of the traditional alarm clocks which only wake up auditory senses at first. These products remind me of the importance of physical involvement in order to wake up more effectively.

Traditional Coil Holder

Animal Mosquito Trap Coil Holder

Ibuki (Japan)
Primary purpose – To trap mosquito

            When I saw “Animal Mosquito Trap Coil Holder” for the first time, I was fond of how well it reflected culture. In East Asia, there is poisonous mosquito all around during summer and many efficient products have released to prevent the users from the poisonous mosquitoes. However, it is hardly ever seen any mosquito trap product that actually considers decorative aspect like this one. It’s designed to hold the mosquito trap coil and there are two choices to pick the model, a pig or an owl. The ordinary coil holder is visually unattractive. If buyers have choices to pick between ordinary one and the newly designed one, I’m sure they will purchase the later. Besides, it can be used as a pen or a paper holder before or after summer. This example is similar in a way of being functional and decorative at the same time, I would like to consider and study more about the targeted culture, which is “Kidults” in my case to find out what they are looking for.

            With our design concept, users should be able to fully wake up. However, it is unclear how many people are willing to buy the product if released. It is a task to set a reasonable and affordable price for the users. The Flying alarm clock costs $24.99 and the Clocky Robot Alarm costs $49.99, so we are looking at somewhere around $30.00. The most important goal is providing customized alarms that users will get physically active and be awake for the day. Also, they will enjoy looking at the product even when they are not being used. “Mosquito Trap Coil Holder” is designed to target people in specific culture. We could even change our product more girly or manlier. For sure, we are in need of researching how long the gas will last in the room and design it to disappear as soon as it needs to. It would be helpful to study on olfactory films and how it works because they should have made sure that the odor didn’t last for long time to move on to different scents for other scenes.

Flying Alarm Clock and Clocky Robot Alarm

These are two examples of dynamic alarm clocks which require physical involvement of users. Thinkgeek.com has so many hilarious stuff.

Deviation from Daily Routines

During the prototype presentation, I showed a part of this short film called "Deviation from Daily Routines" I made in undergrad. Here, I portrayed students having difficulties waking up by alarm clocks sound and starting daily routines.

Everyone has desires and dreams but they also have to live the unavoidable and boring daily routines. Using Techno music in the day scenes reflect with their mechanical daily routine and fusion jazz music adds delightfulness in the nighttime scenes. The Bolex camera was used to create more natural color.

I'm very glad my past work can be related to the current project :)

FREE KAYAKING - www.DowntownBoathouse.org

On 72nd st and Riverside Park, you will find this "Free Kayaking" spot. I once talked about this in the class and I finally made it last weekend. You don't need ID or anything but just need to know how to swim just in case. It's free and tons of fun! This kayaking event will run till this Sunday (only on weekend) between 10:00 AM and 5:00PM.

Are you a "Kidult"?

My group talked about this during the presentation. This is the link to test out whether you are a kidult. Believe or not :P It's true we all are cherishing the moments of childhood like Morry said... I really miss some parts of my youthful days, especially when my dad was alive.
I would definitely consider myself as a kidult. I can't help collecting cutesy stuff.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/quiz/questions/0,5961,638109,00.html

Turnstile @ Houston St

I took a local train from Houston St. today and missed the one that just came in as I was standing in line to swipe my card. When there are too many people, it clearly proves that the turnstile is very unpractical. I would've made it if it were the regular turnstile. Oh well... I know I will always need to ready to face any kind of traffic that will happen within the train stations in NYC, just like Seoul.