process

Question → Formulate Question → Look for Answers → Generate Ideas → Prioritise Ideas → Generate Constructs → Test

decisions

The last 2 1/2 weeks I was in bad physical situation, even though I tried to read and take some decisions which I didn't have the ability to sit and publish them online. Now 2 days before the official end of this course I'll try to publish some thoughts and some parts of this process.

One of the decisions I made these weeks was that I will focus only to one study case of Italian Designer. This is Ettore Sottsass and the reasons are two.

First of all the the AHO library for a really strange reason doesn't include in its collection monographies, biographies and genaral bibliography for famous industrial designers and if so the bibliography is limited and includes only some names and contemptuously ignore others sources; like for example Achille Castiglioni (1 book) and Enzo Mari. Also to order books isn't the fastest thing in the world as librarians have to approve your orders and so on. The others sources now as internet were more helpful, but still because of the field of interest (Italian Design) there is a language limitation to the reliable sources. Of course if this course was a part of Diploma or a big part of Phd research, then I would had spent more time to find and translate this resources.

The other reason was that my second case studies Enzo Mari and Achille Castiglioni didn't have so many projects with clear architecture. Castiglioni had examples of architecture only at his early years and then he moved to interior,furniture and product design. Mari, he most overcross works had to do with conceptual design and art. So I thought I will stick with the example of Sottsass and try to link with references to these other Italians Masters.

formulating our theme - question of our research

Two weeks now, I try to get lost as much more as I can to books, articles and other sources(magazines,internet) in relation with the Life and Work of Italian Masters Designers.

Before 2 weeks I talked for my theme in the class and all together tried to formulate the question on my choosen field. The results were pretty interesting and helpful.
The first question which poped up had this form: How the Italian Master Designers (like Sottsass, Mari, Castiglionni) can jump from architure to design and the opposite?
Searching for answers and by trying to understand what was the core question I reformulated the question to this: Which method or skill the Italian Master Designers use to jump all over the Design disciplines?

I'm sure that the next weeks maybe this question will be reformed by itself and the research process.

Farewell to two Masters

At the end of September the world of Design said farewell to two Masters Designers. Vico Magistretti (6/10/1920 - 19/9/2006) and Alan Fletcher (1931-21/9/2006).
http://www.domusweb.it/domus2k6/source/contents/item.cfm?type=NWS&ID=60584&lingua=_eng
http://www.a-g-i.org/magazine/news_detail.php?id=192&cat=
http://designmuseum.org/design/alan-fletcher

The sad news actually influnce me a lot. And specially for Alan Fletcher. His last exhibition alive was held by the Thessaloniki Design Museum in May 2006, where I generously contibuted on research and administration of the exhibition catalogue.
Both of them they will leave behind a big cap in the design thought. Through their work and life proved that Design is nothing more than an extreme curiosity for the world. A way of thinking that nowadays is almost forgotten and replaced it by words and meanings like market and management.

To connect the death with my research, seems that both of them belonged to this charismatic generation of the generalist Designers as Sottsass, Mari and Castiglioni(same generation with Castiglioni).

I hope that this research will finish without any other sad news from the Masters.

first thoughts for exploring creativity

After the today's class, I am thinking that a very interesting field for me will be to explore the creativity of great Master's of Design as Eames or Sottsass or Castiglioni or Mari.

What I would really want to investigate is how they used their creativity to move around the fields of product design, architecture and all the other fields of Design. Or better how their creativity didn't (or haven't) any limits on these fields.

I'm thinking that I have to go a little more deep on their way of thinking and connect their work with the specific time from a sociological cultural aspect.

Maybe also I can compare the ways of approaching Design with the nowadays practises.

A good start point is to go through some of their books.

We will see...

A.

Intro

Hi this the first post at my new blog creativity@AHO!
This blog will be developed under the elective course "Creativity" that I have choose this semester at AHO school! I' ll try to updating it with reflections from the course and also with the research process which will be taking part during this semester.

A.