Fashion inspired by Flowers

I love the simple reconstruction of petals and flowers into wearable outfits! I hope to find some of these in stores at some point in time! 

Original Post here: http://www.boredpanda.org/fashion-illustrations-flower-petals-grace-ciao/

Fun Design: Building Design in Harmony with Nature in Austria

This beautiful architecture  design by Rogner Bad Blumau in Styria, Austria acts as a hotel and spa to those visiting. The green design helps to decrease the movement of water, decrease heating and cooling costs because of the green design and also seems to tuck itself into the landscape. I love that from different angles, the buildings almost seem to disappear. The soft curves and colors are unusual and appealing to the eye. For a small city, there isn't the harshness that one would typically find. I like the harmony with nature created here!

Find out more information on their website: http://www.blumau.com/en/arrive-and-discover/architecture.html 

Great Design 1: Earth Without Art

I didn't realize how much pictures mattered until I saw this:

From a design perspective, it says the same thing as below much without as many words, without taking someone's time and without taking up space. 

Social media has the fortunate and unfortunate opportunity to sending out lots of messages and ideas to massive amounts of people in just a small amount of time.  An effective image will evoke an emotion, send a consistent message (or the message you want to send consistently) and be able to be viewed and assessed within five seconds.  The first image above tells you that you can't spell EARTH without ART. This is a message that brings greater consideration for artists, inspires passion while also getting you to think a little more about how ART influences the world.   The first image allows you to create your own interpretation while we read the words of the second image and instead of being left to think about EARTH = ART, ART is in the EARTH, I LOVE ART, I LOVE EARTH, etc... we think about why did they use a brown bag as a background, what would the earth be like without art? and certainly doesn't inspire me to appreciate Art or the Earth in anything more than an appreciation sense.   The second image spells out exactly what it is we are supposed to think... where as the first gives us lots of interpretation to play with. 

Chalk board designs

Elegant designs like this remind me how wonderful it is to spend half a day creating something at no cost people appreciate. I also love the gentle reminder how iconic and powerful images are. The simplest trash can or bite taken out of an apple can remind you of something so much larger than the chalk and board the images are drawn with.  Not to mention, I love the quotes!

"Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else." - J.M. Barrie

"The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you." - Neil deGrase Tyson

"The only way to do great work is to love what you do." 

"If you haven't found it yet, keep looking."

"Don't settle."

"As with all matters of the heart you will know it when you find it."

Original From:http://www.quickmeme.com/p/3vw6x7 

Green Building Design for Haiti

Green building in_haiti from Rose Haft

Green Design: Synergizing Ecology, Economy and Energy through Greenhouses

Check out a University of Maryland Green Building Design I did a few years ago!

Odum, energy and green houses from Rose Haft

Playing with Dimension

Artist Alexa Meade decided that she wanted to explore and understand shadows -- how to take three dimensions and turn it into two by painting on bodies and removing natural shadows. Check out a preview of the process and pictures below! I think they are gorgeous!

Designing a Beautiful IOS Apps

Task I: Consider Design Elements

Ia. What is it that you like about popular apps?  (Moving in a clockwise manner in Image 1 and then onto Image 2)

Image 1 - CW from center - dribble apps, White iPhone App, Standard iPhone App

Image 2

1) Warm Colors!  I like the way the dribble apps make me feel (all the warm colors are nice for someone like me who could live in India's sweltering heat year round and never get tired of it!  That probably isn't the case with everyone though, so I would probably have a quiz or 'calibration' to get started to match moods, colors and weather types!

Dribble App 1 

Dribble App 2

2) Forecasts I like that the general Apple App has a forecast so I can see the general trend for the day or week. This can be a mood killer or mood enhancer for the week. Even though the weather predictions are seldom correct, it's nice to have something to think about, I guess!

Standard iPhone App

3) I LOVE the weather app in the white iPhone below. The straightforward and sympathetic humor is like that friend that you love to hang out with but you aren't sure what your other friends will think of her! Real, down to earth and always going to make you smile!

  

4) In Image 2, I love the sample backgrounds that are telling of the weather. You hardly have to look at the numbers or anything else before you know what the weather is like!

5) Multi-Functionality Not shown, but I like the idea of having multiple cities saved so that if you live in the suburbs and work in the city, then you have have both sets of weather at your finger tips. Also, if they could gently fade back and fourth so that I don't have to scroll or fumble, that would be nice!  In this app below, you can adjust your home thermostat while also checking local weather. This is great for building managers and vacation goers!

6) Multi-sensory I love that popular apps are convenient and work in ways that work with us! I love the idea of having a weather app that would be set on a timer to let you know what the weather is as soon as you wake up so you don't have to click on anything - or it would pop up in your homescreen so that you can click and see or just look at the weather without having to open the app. Easy peasy pumpkin pie!

7) Design - I love that the intention of this app is to be a window into the day. Not only does it have clear depictions of what the weather will look like throughout the day, but it also helps me to feel like I am taking a peak outside! I love it!

 

8) Thinking Outside of the Box Having the bars makes it easy to tell the temp, humidity, rainfall, etc. throughout the day! I dislike that I don't know what the red line is supposed to indicate and the implication of turning a volume button up or down all the way, but I do enjoy the out of the box thinking that this designer brought forth! 

9) Simplicity These designs have a sense of simplicity to them and also use very clear lay outs and images so that you can get all of the information you need in one glance. It is easy to sweep across the app to the left to see the humidity, chances of rain and also what the weather looks like throughout the week. If I were to change this one, I would have an option to see a weather forecast by time for the day. Just a simple swipe to see something different would be great! In the Simple Weather App 2, there is a very simple and large depiction of the current weather and an easy to read temperature. The week forecast is easy to read and understand and there aren't too many distractions.  This app demonstrates what it needs to and gets away with having very little to show but still being very functional!  The Simple Weather App 3 tells the max and min temperatures and the city setting, making it simple and easy to use! 

Simple App 1

Simple App 2

Simple App 3

Simple App 4

Ib. What sticks out to you?

1) The warm colors 

2) I am not sure if the chunks of different color (both in squares and as horizontally stacked color sets) indicate different temperatures, weather types or something else.
3) It's easy to tell what is happening in the white iPhone app The blue raining indicates that it is in fact raining, no other information required.
4) In the iPhone App love the simplicity of the blue and the way the weather changes at the top.  I am not sure at first glance if the horizontal weathers indicate something different than the vertical indications.  The 73 is easy to read and I can tell what the weather is like just by looking. This one makes me want to fall asleep, however. 

5) Image 2- it's almost as if my weather app has become a window to the world outside. Such a smart phone to know what it's like outside before I get there. Can I see the same weather with the NY skyline? Chicago or SF skylines?

Ic. What would you design differently? 

1) Have something a little more automated
2) Have something for the visually impaired
3) Have warm and cold color settings so that people can adjust to their mood needs.