I am cool. I am a graphic designer.

Most of my friends think my profession is cool. They don’t really see me as cool, they just think what I do is cool, but guys (and gals alike), let me use this opportunity to share with you a little secret: Photoshop is just a small part of what I do.

Don’t look at me that way. It is a sad truth that you have to accept: Photoshop is just one tool among many others that I use. Since we are in the topic, I will confess one thing: I would not be a graphic designer if it were not for this image editing software.

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What does your future look like?: the first critique

As we explore and venture into the future, we meet to collaborate together and see what the future may hold for us.

Click image for high resolution.

The future really caught our attention.
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Sea level designer –still– reaches mile-high city: the AIGA NEXT Conference

Photo by Stu Alden

I spent this past week at the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ (AIGA) NEXT Conference in Denver, Colorado. For those of you who know me well, yes, this was the conference about which I rambled on all summer while I awaited the results of the selection process of a contest for designers under the age of 26. See the file I submitted as my application for the contest, called Command X. (I know that for many of you the summer seemed endless as I waited for the deliberation. Thanks for sticking with me.)

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Strategies to Improve Communication

Ten (10) Possible Strategies for Designers to Improve Communication Management with Communities
by Jorge Rigau, FAIA and Alberto Rigau

The following are not presented in any particular order, as implementation of all or some strategies may vary from case to case:

1. Elucidating the Big Picture
Community members often argue their cases focusing in particulars, often missing a large scale, wider-scoped understanding of the issue at hand.

2. Make the Community’s Questions Your Own
Identify questions and concerns that are key to the conflict and address them before they are articulated as such. Answer them directly, and proceed to explain; not otherwise. Making sense is about acknowledging pro’s and con’s.

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] words ][ terms ][ ideas ][ 2 [

New terms and ideas that I am being exposed to in the book Practices of Looking by Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright

] Text [
A term extended by Barthes to include visual media such as photography, film, television, or painting, to suggest that they are constructed on a basis of codes in the same way that language forms a text. Insofar as they are constructions, texts can be broken down into their component parts through the work of analysis. Barthes in particular distinguished texts from works, such as art works, to indicate an active relationship between the writer and reader or artist/producer and viewer. This is because the constructed nature of the text implies that its meaning is produced in relationship to the viewer rather than simply residing in the work itself. To treat an art work as text means that we read it through codes rather than passively absorb or stand in awe of it.

] Aesthetics [
Beliefs and theories about the value, meaning, and interpretations of things.

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A moment of nostalgia, making the digital analogue

The Phonofone, a Canadian product, amplifies the iPod using almost prehistoric technology…

Low cost housing overcomes poverty

The Iquique social interest housing project* by ELEMENTAL** and Alejandro Aravena.***

* ] ELEMENTAL Iquique social interest housing [ Looks to deal with extremely low-cost housing that can be a real means to overcoming poverty. The project intends to design neighborhoods of good quality, expandable housing units, which in turn can be well located in cities, and able to develop harmoniously over time. These structurally safe units would be built for $7,500 per family.

There were three goals: the best possible architectural design (having intelligence and precision in form), the best possible engineering and construction (using development and lab tests for new prefabricated components and seismic systems), and the best possible social and community work (offering pre- and post-construction guidance to residents).

** ] ELEMENTAL [ Based at the Universidad Católica de Chile's school of architecture, supported by a Chilean government grant and by the Harvard Design School, is an initiative to build seven exemplary projects of around 200 units each throughout Chile, bringing together the best practices in construction, engineering, social work and architecture, while at the same time aiming to offer a concrete contribution to housing for the poor.

*** ] Alejandro Aravena [ Architect Universidad Católica de Chile 1992, independent professional practice since 1994. Studied history and theory in Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (1992-93). Visiting Professor at Harvard University between 2000 and 2005. Professor at the Universidad Católica since 1994. Since 2006 he is the Elemental Copec Professor at UC and Executive Director of ELEMENTAL.

original conditions of Iquique

project as delivered by architects

2 years later

project as delivered by architects

2 years later

I want to live here, México DF

Higuera + Sánchez Architects restored this beat up location

and created this interesting living space. The building, treated as a template, allowed the residents to customize their spaces.