UW Design Show 2010

If you're in Seattle, stop on by, if not, fly up here and then stop on by!

A guiding quote

Rachel and I did some exploring up near the Canadian border this weekend. We visited an amazing museum in Bellingham called Mindport that focuses on interactive art and exhibits ($2 entry fee, if you're there, it is a must see). On one of the walls of the museum I found a framed piece of 8.5 x 11 with the following written in an unassuming 12 point italic:

"The first enslaving illusion is the idea that people are born to be consumers and that they can attain any of their goals by purchasing goods and services."

"What people do or make but will not or cannot put up for sale is as immeasurable and as invaluable for the economy as the oxygen they breathe."

Ivan Illich

Toward a History of Needs

Prosthetic Arm Final Model

The quarter is drawing to a close and last night I finished the final prototype for my prosthetic arm design. I am quite happy with how it turned out. As soon as I finish a process book to help explain the usage and features a little bit I think it will be my finest piece of design yet.

Things I'm doing besides ignoring my blog....

I have been learning Rhino 3D, a program designers use to create digital models of their ideas. These are just some fun exercises I have done in the last few weeks to get used to the tools:

Design Program in Rome

Tonight is probably the last time the participants of the Design Program in Rome 2008 will all have the chance to be together... The UW faculty club is hosting an exhibition of our photography and tonight is the reception for the show. On the announcement below, my photograph is the black and white "hotel" one...

Day Thirty-One (Final day)

Well, the time has come. My final day in Rome, I leave for the airport in just four hours. Tonight was a very special time. We toured one last church and then we listened to Tojo give a presentation about Roman aqueducts and fountains. With everybody's work finally complete, Chris and Susan had a surprise arranged for us, a final spectacular group dinner at a really great place. The food, of course, was unforgettable, but the highlight of the evening was getting to spend time together as one large family, reminiscing on our time in Roma. We ate, laughed and drank for a good few hours and then Chris took us all out for one last cone of gelato. Our final event as a group was to all simultaneously throw three coins over our left shoulder into Trevi fountain guaranteeing us love, luck and an eventual return to the eternal city. 

Now, I must leave Roma behind and step into the next phase of my life. At my age, I have already experienced several important turning points. They come few and far between. My time in Roma has definitely qualified as a life changing event and I leave her behind reluctantly. So I depart with heavy bags and a heavy heart but really can't wait to see my Rachel and the dog-child again and as I said the other day....Rome is slow to change and I look forward to my next visit here....

Thanks for following my blog throughout the trip!

Grazie e arrivederci!

~Giuseppe

Radical Design

Check out this crazy piece of transportation design!  I love the innovative thinking.... click on the image for a video of it in action....

Also, with this little post, I finally figured how to start getting my images to link properly again. Blogger changed the way they do business at some point. From now on when you click my images you should be able to see a full sized version.....YAYYY!

Designer Insights and the Roma blog

Today I completed two of our assigned missions. The first is called designer insights. We have all been on the lookout for particularly innovative or different ways that design problems are tackled over here. If you have ever traveled overseas then you know what I'm talking about, maybe it is the little/big flush mechanism on the toilet, or the tiny cars designed to squeeze down streets that were built before automobiles, anything, here are thousands of little things in daily life that are different over here, some better, some worse and some just plain old different. I spotted my subject today on our walk to Trastavere. Check out the entry here on our official UW Design Program in Rome website. The other assignment is similar to what I do on this webpage, each of us was assigned two days of the trip to document in the form of journal entries and photos, the 25th and 26th were my days and should be posted here soon, in the meantime, check out the entries from my fellow students......