Gonzaga Manso
Sustainism. Sustainism is replacing modernism – say the dutch duo Architects Michiel Schwarz and Joost Elffers. They would like us to believe Sustainism is shaping everything; from design and business, to food, housing and community.
Their book (oddly enough called Sustainism) –splats slogans like: “Less is more” to “Do More with Less”, From “nature as resource” to “nature as a source”…. “From planning to co-design, from appropriation to open-source exchange….
Ok I agree, these elitist terms make you want to grit your teeth and gag. But, call it what you want, “green” design is setting the tone. Still, why create complex terms when you can use EcoDesign?
Digital surfaces transforming spatial design – In an era of mobile everything, where we touch, slide and click to access the world, digital design was bound to break through walls. Digital panels make the perfect peep holes!
Huffington Post writer and guest curator Jacob Slevin claims that digital surfaces combine two concepts: The first offers a non-static alternative to paint, wallpaper, wood paneling…
The second challenges consumers to experience “teleportation“ – where you are potentially in two locations at once, dually experiencing the here and the anywhere. Cool.
Responsive web design –The idea that websites should respond and adapt to all devices and situations – smart phones, tablets… is already game changing. Designer Ethan Marcotte explores the concept in architecture. In architecture, responsive design looks at how physical spaces respond to the people passing through them. It demands from the designer to re-imagine what a space can do.
In his book he explains why responsive web design makes sense and why it could change the rules:
“A more responsible approach would mean building our stylesheet with “mobile first” in mind, rather than defaulting to a desktop layout. We’d begin by defining a layout appropriate to smaller screens, and then use media queries to progressively enhance our design as the resolution increases.“
Infographics makes a splash – 2011 and onwards is supposed to be the era of infographic designs. Infographics are beginning to invade the digital world. Their value comes from our need to makes sense of the senseless streams of content. It promotes greater use of interactive graphic maps, charts, diagrams and instructional designs.
As a result we are seeing more and more visualized data. The positive outcome of this growing trend is the generation of a more pleasant experience. See some creative examples here – http://blog.templatemonster.com/2011/02/04/20-infographic-driven-website-designs/
New age photography –I love the way photography is twisting and turning lately. Take Madrid based photographer – Gonzaga Manso and his ghostly fashion photos. He is truly re-defining aesthetics. Enough with the dramatic white backgrounds framing every brand shot. Finally someone has the balls to go for the mystique to create high visual impact. Take a peep at http://www.gonzagamanso.com/.
