Start of a new semester

Hello there my lovely human!

This is the start of a series I plan on having here on my page. A series of blog posts that hopefully will bring you an insight into my thoughts on design, and daily life of a design student.

And it's not a better place to start than the start of a new semester.

So, let's dive into it. As you might suspect, the new semester started on Monday. Hitting it off with meeting up with the people in the studio before my morning class. It served as a nice introduction to the jump into the weekly routine that was awaiting. Studio space, labs and lectures are a great way to actually get to know people, their thought process and the ideas they stand behind, that influence their designs. Each one of us has our own set of those and can share them (sometimes with receiving disagreement from others sometimes with support) and that sparks more creativity! Can you imagine how different it would be if the ideas wouldn't be able to be shared? Booooooring is what I would argue for it to be. But yeah, I basically dived into Affinity, then food and some research on the possible places I could go to if I wanted to do Erasmus and finally Solid Works. All new things… but that's why I'm there! To learn more and get better at what I do and don't know (insert a grinning image of my face).

Also, interesting thing, sometimes taking a different path might lead to a cool discovery, exploration even. So yeah, going on a “journey” to the bus stop can help your brain rewire to discover new possibilities in seemingly known spaces.

Tuesday, oh it was an interesting day, that started with me packing a knife sharpener into my bag. Nope, I didn't bring a knife, that might have been cutting it a bit too close. Hehe. But the sharpener was my well designed object I brought, to discuss in my morning class. You can imagine a half oval shaped on the sides, roughly 12 cm long box that slides out with a push of a button and has different types of sharpeners inside. Really handy thing.

What interested me however was the mention of Dieter Rams' documentary that I had the pleasure to watch a few days before the actual class. The man was eccentric, but undoubtedly brilliant. The way his house was designed was a pure bliss, his own designs in his own space. It showed in a way the love he has for the projects he did and their constantly modern, timeless feel. Beauty in the essence of simplicity. I wish to have that in my own space some day, designed by me pieces of equipment that stand the test of time and allow me to show my personality as a designer to the ones visiting. Being surrounded by what brings me joy and reminds me that I can create, that the creator of the world gave me the free hand to create my own things.

Rams’ 10 good design principles however, are really interesting to think more about, because if you think of it, is good design really as little design as possible? Can anything be that, when every single thing we surround ourselves with what was designed by someone else. Technically one can say that we live in a constant state of design. And with the change of space we also absorb more and more of the design of others who came before us… Yeah… just give it  thought.

I guess here is where I will put the stop, for if I was to continue, I'll have to write a whole weekly magazine.

But yeah, one last thought that came to me on Thursday morning. I'll call this section “Designer problem of the day”: 

When you make something so cool that you want to have it, but since it's your design you would need to make it to your own standard and can't get it anywhere else.

That's finally all.

Love,

the one and only Maria

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