What does RISD mean to me?

I had a chat with a friend that I hadn't talked to since I came to Milan. I thought it was an insightful conversation, so I wanted to share it.


YJ

i just feel so much healthier and happier here... i think risd is poisoning in a way...
but at the same time, i miss risd a lot like A LOT
it's weired

JOO

well you do have alot of friends here!

YJ

what did you take second semester?

JOO

i did future design with peter yeadon
omg i cant believe we havent talked the whole semester

YJ

exactly...
i think it would be weired when i go back to risd

JOO

how so?

YJ

because...
i don't know, i just think i would look at it from a different perspective than before
i was just so into it that i didn't see the whole picture
but now i'm away from it that it looks different
things that felt so fresh and real don't seem like it anymore
i'm not making any sense, sorry haha

JOO

whole picture as in life at risd or your life in general?

YJ

both, but more risd in general?
or what risd means to me?
or even what risd did to me hahahaha

JOO

haha
do you value it more? or is it the other way around?

YJ

i just had time here to think things through in a distance

JOO

thatsgood

YJ

i value it more
there are so many people out there that want to be at risd and be able to speak english
but at the same time risd is not everything
one doesn't have to feel bad if he/she doesn't fit perfectly to risd, risd is just risd, it's not a standard that you should measure yourself to...



When I was at RISD, I devoted myself to RISD just like everyone else. When you go there, you get trapped in "RISD bubble" and don't really see the world outside. One would spend everyday and all day at school with other RISD people and would only be able to communicate everything that has something to do with RISD. I was so disappointed if I don't strive in it and get recognized. But now I'm away from it, I value it more in a different sense. I am so much more relaxed and less anxious and I'm learning how to keep myself from stressing out all the time. I remember what my mother has always told me: "Nothing's worth it if you don't enjoy it",
"A genius can't win one who tries his best, a person who tries his best can 't win one who enjoys what he does".

So, when I go back to RISD, I'm going to try to appreciate every moment and enjoy working hard.

PR-ing up

Luckily, I got into the Pubblicity group for THE market day on June 23rd. Concept Design studio will be selling products that relate to "TRAVELING".

I'm excited! We will be dealing with the title of the event, design of the flyers, posters, and logos. Also we need to figure how to advertise this day so that more people would come to the event.

Last year's team did such an amazing job that it is a little intimidating, but hopefully this year's group can pull it off better. Hope for the best!

Trend by ALU

Today, ALU came to have a presentation on trend in product display and retail space.

About ALU: it is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of first-class point-of-sale fixtures and merchandising systems. The standard range offers wide variety of readily available systems for communication, visual merchandising and display. ALU is an all-round solutions provider including logistics and installation.

ALU spots 11 trends in retail space and product display and installation.

1. "Green is new Grey"?

innstallation and interior design of retail space that emphasize green and eco-friendliness are growing infinitely.

i.e. Yahoo Green Taxi, Adidas grun (Germany), Google logo, Barneys' clothing

2. Poetic

Anthropologie changes the installation of the store every month to refresh the look of the store and also refresh the theme of the products. Everything that is displayed is on sale, and the display looks more like an art work in a gallery than conventional product display.

3. Luxurious

Luxurious brands including Calvin Klein displays their luxurious and pricy products in a cheap and almost comical way. For example, Calvin Klein's shoes and bags are displayed on top of a toilet. This visual contradiction evokes humor and can approach buyers in a more friendly way. This marketing is ironic because the price of a pair of shoes does not change where and how it is displayed (which means that even though they might seem more approachable and affordable, the price of a pair of CK shoes won't change).

i.e. Martin Margiela's jackets made out of gloves, Prada museum, softening by Aspesi, Mailn+Goetz's emotional and empty retail space

4. New School look

Le Labo, a fragrance brand is promotes a perfumer's laboratory look throughout its packaging and retail space. It achieves a luxurious imaging of the brand through old laboratory and old pharmacy-like look.

5. Humorous

MM6, LANVIN, Gucci's silly looking mannekins

6. Customize

i.e. Ernest in NYC's customized jeans

7. Size and Time Phobia

Vitra, Flos, Stark, GB house cutting hair in 10 minutes, and Jewelry design that changes proportions of rings and bracelets

8. Kill Walt Disney

WD's t shirt design, dress prints, and toys go against Walt Disney's fantasy and euphemism.

9. 80's is back!

i.e. Andy Warhol Levis, Andy at Barney's expensive tomato cans, Andy Marc Jacobs

10. Perfect imperfection

American Apparel's mannekins in the window looking "similar" to super heroes in Americal Apparel underwear. Americal Apparel spends very little money creating cheap and ugly design; however, the atmosphere of the retail space is attractive balanced between good and ugly.

11. Go darker

Abercrombie & Fitch creats hotel-like or even spa-like atmosphere with ambient light with pleasant smell and sound. Even though sometimes it is hard for customers to see the products clearly, some retail spaces are going darker and darker appealing customers to a calming shopping experience.

LEARN FROM YOUR FAILURE

I just wrote a long essay of my life and loneliness I'm feeling in Italy in the darkness 3:30 in the morning. I was so proud of myself for writing it because it even sounded brilliant and humorous for me. I was even imagining myself working as a magazine editor, or even a writer! like Biya Han, my favorite writer.

When I clicked PUBLISH POST, the internet got disconnected (and internet had been disconnected because I was writing in the kitchen) and I lost the whole essay.

A lesson I learned from this f@#$ing and S#$*ty experience?

SAVE EVERYTHING YOU WRITE

AND

LEARN FROM THE FAILURE

Goals and To-do lists when I get back to RISD

Goals for my senior year at RISD

1. first of all, my goal is to graduate with good grades and a good portfolio (and possibly with a dope job haha).

2. I want to sell my design at the market day. I think the market day is the equivalent of a festival that other normal schools get. We don't get a festival, but we get a market day.

3. Curating a student show. Since I have been seeing and experiencing countless galleries and museums in Europe that I have this passion and ideas for curating a show myself. I've been working for RISD museum and galleries and I think it's the time to maybe try to curate a show instead of always monitoring one.

4. Winning a design award. I met this design intern in Munich and he inspired me so much about winning a design award. He won numerous design awards, Korean and also international awards, that he now is an intern in Munich. He told me that it is a very rare case for a Korean student to intern outside of Korea especially when one does not speak fluent English (for his case, also German). One of the reasons why he was noticed by his company was because he had a solid portfolio with good presentation skills and resume with award winning experiences. According to him, winning awards is not too difficult. He would commit 3 days of time for a project with a concept. I think it would be great not to only focus in school work but also look into what other projects there are that the design community is working on.

Trend spotting in 2009 Salone del Mobile

MATERIAL

1. Sustainable material
2. Unexpected material
3. Plastic, resin, and everything synthetic.
4. Ply wood, ply wood, ply wood!

DESIGN

1. humorous
2. representational
3. poetic
4. luxurious

SHAPE

1. geometric
2. organic
3. ergonomic
4. anthropomorphic

Trend spotting in 2009 Salone del Mobile in Milan (Design week 09)

At the end of every April, Milan gets busy preparing for a design week (Salone del Mobile). During this week, countless events happen including trade shows, gallery and museum openings, concerts, and parties(!). The whole city turns into an excitement and there's something happening in every block. Also, around this time, people from all over the world concentrate in Milan hence the city is bursting with interesting people. I enjoyed watching people as much as watching designs this week.

The three districts I visited were

1. Zona Tortona

2. Triennale

3. Rho Fiera

The design week finally ended as of yesterday (Salone del Mobile lasted from April 22nd till 27th), and I want to report on trend in design in 2009.

BAUHAUS

*Berlin's BAUHAUS archive wasn't allowing photographs, so I only have pictures of bauhaus building in Dessau.

Us design geeks wanted to explore all about Bauhaus, so while we were touring Berlin we went to Bauhaus archive. It was very small and there was nothing much there to be called an archive, but it was still interesting to see the history of Bauhaus. One thing I realized while looking through the archive was that I felt like RISD was the modern version of Bauhaus school (or the other way around- maybe, Bauhaus is the model school for RISD). Bauhaus students were required to go through a course that's equivalent of Foundation studies at RISD. They studied drawing, color studies, material studies, and 3D studies. Their 3D models and color studies looked hella like ours.

When Walter Gropius, the founder of Bauhaus, first built the school in 1919, he had a motto for the school: Unity of art and technology. Basically, Bauhaus was the starting point when designers were created instead of craftmen or artists. Every object that was designed was meant to be manufactured in industrial scaleused and used in everyday life. Even though all the lamps and tea cups may look too stereotypical, but that was when the vocabulary of designs that are manufactured still in these days.

Amsterdam: Venice of northern Europe

stedelijk museum

shopping mall

(a part of) van gogh museum



raw herrings! (Jordaan area)

beautiful canals

entrance of Jordaan area

dutch wooden shoes

rembrandt house

entrance of vondel park

rijksmuseum (currently closed under construction)

"I amsterdam"

red light district at night

???

cool recycling bins around the city. I like the color and type on it.

colorful pulic art

amsterdam makes a good model for post-card pictures. b-e-a-utiful

red light district art gallery. we never got to go inside, but what kind of art would they have? hmmm I'm curious

red light district by day

So I got a short break from school for an Easter week, so I decided to travel Amsterdam, Berlin, Weimar(eventually switched to Dessau), Prague, and Munich. My budget was to spend under 560 Euros for 10 days, but as always, I went over-budgeted a little bit. One tip to travel cheap is to use hostels (there are pretty decent hostels that might even be better than hotels for cheaper price), and to use supermakets! Eating warm meals everyday costs A LOT. I would just go for grocery shopping everyday and that would cover me for the whole day. That way you can also take a look at what local people eat at a glance.

So, when I got to Amsterdam for the first time, I was amazed how beautiful the city was. Of course where I stayed was the old part of Amsterdam, and the city was very well kept. Here is the list of places I've been to...

1. Van Gogh Museum
2. Rembrandt House
3. Red Light district
4. Jordaan
5. Anne Frank's house (I didn't go inside)
6. ... basically the whold city

When you go to Amsterdam, you MUST bike around. The city is very bike-friendly- there are streets for bikers, and bikes are the type of transportation that is used the most in Amsterdam. Also, try raw herrings! It's called Harring in Dutch, and you can get a little plate of herrings with diced onions and pickles for 2.50 Euros. We got them in Jordaan area, so it was extra delicious since Jordaan area is a beautiful district where small galleries are. (By the way, herrings are fish)

Bikes come in handy in Amsterdam because the city is not too big and it's so much easier to go to places than learning which public transportation at where. My only pair of jeans I brought eventually ripped (in a very embarrassing spot) from biking all day long.

Also about red light district... I don't know how to start this. Well first of all, red light district is a neighborhood in amsterdam where prostitution can take place legally. This district is lit with red lights at night to make brothels look even more sensual. Also this district is deeply connected to sex industry such as sex shops, adult theaters, and strip clubs. In the beginning, it was definitely a big cultural shock for me to be walking down in that street and watching almost naked women seducing customers. But at the same time, it was a wake-up call for me to realize that "I AM IN AMSTERDAM!", because otherwise, where would I ever see these prostitutes hailing with their tiny underwear?

So enough about prostitutes and brothels talk... let's get educational! Van Gogh Museum at the time was having a temporary show called "Van Gogh and the colors of the night" ("Van Gogh en de kleuren van de nacht"). The show had Van Gogh's hand written letters to his brother Theo, and I just wanted to be able to read it! Also, the show had a very romantic quote of Van Gogh extracted from his letters to Theo.

"Perhaps death is not the hardest thing in a painter's life. . . Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

It was such a romantic interpretation of death, and I just sat in the corner of van gogh museum gazing at van gogh's starry night and pondering at the same time about death.

Trip to Venice

My two good friends, Miles and Frank, were traveling Europe for about 5 weeks and they also visitied Italy! They were coming to Milan on March 23th, so we decided to meet up on March 22nd to hang out together in Venice. Here are some pictures from Venice :)

We went to...

1. Murano Island

2. Lido Island

Murado Island is where a big community of glass craftmen are. They make very sophisticated glass arts and products. Even though the island looked empty because we went on Sunday, we got to see a master blowing hot glass in front of us.

Lido was also very nice; but it was wayyyyy too cold to be having a picnic. We went for a grocery shopping and decided to eat some fresh Italian mozzarella, tomatoes, bread, prosciuto crudo (raw ham), and some tuscan wine on the beach. Although it sounds very romantic, in fact our food was all covered in sand eventually. But it was still special playing soccer on the beach together...

Hope they had a good and safe trip for the rest of the time in Europe.

p.s. I'll be traveling Amsterdam, Berlin, Weimar, Prague, and Munich from tomorrow for about 10 days. I'll be post those pictures in 2 weeks! Ciao

L'aperitivo

L'aperitivo culture is now prevalent all around Italy, but it first started in Milan in 70's. L'apertivo in English means "happy hour" and if you order a drink for 6 Euros to 8 Euros between around 6 o'clock to 9:30, you can eat as much as you want. Normally, restaurants provide potato chips or olives, but in Milan, one can eat legitimate food like pasta, prosciutto crudo (raw ham), keish, salad etc.

L'aperitivo started with a drink called Campari; it's a type of alcohol that smells and tastes very herby. Some people say it's a very Milanese drink, but I had a sip of my friend's campari and I did not like it that much (it was waaaaayy to strong). So if you ever have a chance to visit Milan, try L'aperitivo :D

CONTINUUM lecture

CONTINUUM

based in Boston, Milan, LA, Seoul.


Good design is more than eye candy. It drives business, holds the power to create new markets, dfferentiates companies from competitors and helps achieve measurable success. Put simply, good design helps companies compete And win.

To do this right, we feel we must...

1. Engage our clients in the process
2. Utilize cross-functional domain experts in a team-based process
3. Examine audience behaviors and gather insights
Develop sound business strategies, and use them to create targeted design solution
Define goals and measure outcomes based on our clients'criteria for success


Continuum solves complex problems in a team environment.

Creating business success with Reebok, Swiffer, Masterlock, JCI Controls, Chicco, Moen etc. Continuum has long term relationships with companies like Samsung (for the last 15 years).

Continuum's approach is to

1. discover and align in Brand and Business, Consumer and Context, Technology and Process, and Culture and Trends
2. connect and envision
3. refine concept
4. define and evaluate

Continuum's job is to not only designing products themselves, but also designing the system around the products and providing consumers with good experience and service. They focus on people interaction and people experience- thus concentrate on researching and interviewing people and their behavior while designing.

Concept design: Obituary

The first day of concept design studio, we wrote obituaries of ourselves. This exercise was done to express who we are and who we want to be in the future. I thought it was a quite interesting exercise. And this was mine :)

Concept design: Consumer Profile

In Concept design, we are going to have a market day on June 23rd. Students have to make certain amount of profit in 4 hours. We designing products that are manufacturable in industrial scale that is also marketable and profitable. This year's concept is...

"TRAVEL"

Nowadays, the world is getting exponentially smaller and people are able to travel long distances in a short period of time with a smaller budget. Therefore, more and more people travel for various reasons and therefore there is a big market for traveling products. In class, we have discussed about how designers are the trend spotters who can predict future. I really like this year's concept since I myself have traveled a lot and am aware of need of clever designs for travelers.

We were required to create a consumer profile and present in any way we want to. We were asked to create an imaginative scenario and write a script as though we were making a movie, book, or a show.

Giulia and I came up with a story of a girl who has a dream telling her to go to Milan. But then she has the worst day of her life in Milan.



Both Giulia and I didn't quiet understand this homework until the day of presentation, so we came with a story that is kind of broad, so now we need to focus on how we can solve this girl's problem.

Trip to Rome

So I made a trip to Roma for a weekend to see my friends who are on EHP in Rome. I was so haapy to see them especially after being all alone in Milan for a while. I felt so welcomed and loved at Cenci (where EHP students stay and study). This trip was extra special because I stayed in an Italian artist's studio that Aya works for. His name is Baldo and he was very kind to offer me his studio place.

Now I have to describe how beautiful his studio was. It was located literally 2 minutes away from Pantheon. Also, it's a mansion that has caravaggio's paintings and the main gallery is open to public.

Noi abbiamo andata...

1. Parco di villa doria pamphili (Pamphili park)
2. Trastevere (this area next to Tevere river)
3. Porta Portese (sunday flea market)
4. Pantheon
5. Vatican Museum-Sistine chappel
6. San Pietro (Saint Peter)
7. Fontana di Trevi (Trevi)
8. Lot's of gelato and pizza places!
9. Piazza Venezia


woops! i wasn't supposed to take this photo... but I really wanted to try going to sistine chapel early in the morning and lie down on the floor to enjoy it. But the guards there would never allow me to haha