Post-Secondary Spotlight: OCAD

Determining what post-secondary school to go to in the new future is hard, as you have to determine the program, your marks, the campus, the alumni, etc. One university has caught my eye for a while and yep it was OCAD aka Ontario School of Art and Design University in downtown Toronto. This university is the one and only university in Ontario which ONLY offers art and design programs only such as; graphic design, industrial design, advertising, painting, drawing & sketching, illustration, photography, and many more.

In order to get into OCAD however, you’d have to at least have your High School Diploma, at least a 70% in English 12, and a well thought out portfolio. Like any other design school, it is necessary to have a portfolio which contains your strongest pieces that you have worked throughout your high school year. This portfolio is what OCAD mainly focuses on, since they want  to see if your improvement throughout the years, your basic foundation and your mindset is creative enough to get into their program. Your portfolio can include anything related to art such as; drawings, still-life paintings, digital drawings, installations, photography, etc. Along with the portfolio would be an one-on-one casual interview with a professor of OCAD, asking questions, critiquing your work, and seeing how passionate you are with your work.

Most of these programs in OCAD are 4-year programs, just the right amount of time showing you and teaching you the basic foundation and the depths of your program. On your 4th year, OCAD has an annual graduate show, where they display all the pieces of the graduates in their university,and best of all, it’s free! That way people from companies wanting to hire a designer or get inspiration, can just look through their works and maybe even take a business card or two.

As you can see, going into an art-design based school you can learn a lot if you really have the passion and the willingness to go do art as a full time career, as you need time and patience for your skills to grow. Are you up for it?

For more information on OCAD, check out their site;

http://www.ocadu.ca/

Career Paths: Industrial/Product Design

 

The products you see everywhere, the chairs you’re sitting, the mouse you’re holding, or even the computer monitor that you’re staring at all involve with industrial design. Inventing new products or just innovating other products to improve the use of the product for society to use, using both elements of design and technology.  For example, an invention would be the Google Glass and an innovation would be the different iPhone process systems that get released all year (iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, etc).  They use different technological programs such as; Google Sketchup and AutoCAD (like we did in class) and traditional styles such as drafting and sketching, thus they have to have a strong computer background. Being an industrial designer, there needs to be a lot of both essential skills and work habits to become a good designer, such as;  communication/people skills, creative skills, organization, problem solving skills, and many more. As for the communication/people skills, like most design careers the designers would have to work in a team to get the job finished. This includes working with people such as; engineering, model-makers, and their clients so the design and the final product would be successful. Creative skills involve creating new uses for the product, drafting, the design process, and thinking of materials to in-cooperate it to the product. Creative skills play a big part because with the unique design for the product, it draw the audience towards the product. Problem solving on the other hand is also what industrial designers are there for, to solve problems to make the product better. Products are usually made so a problem could be solved, problems which include the 16 Fundamental Digital Technology concepts such as; aesthetics, control, ergonomics, material, structure, etc.  Problem solving, besides thinking of the idea also includes solving the problems that happen in the process of creating your product.

An industrial designer’s salary works the same way a Graphic Designer would be like, which is that they’d usually depend on what the client thinks of the final product and they get paid by their level of experience. Those who have barely any experience would have a range of around $30,000 – $40, 000 per year, those with fair amount of experience would boost up to around $50, 000 – $60 ,000 a year, and senior graphic designers would receive around $80,000 – $90,000 a year. Industrial Designers usually work 5 days a week; Monday to Friday, and would usually work overtime to meet project deadlines.

 

In order to become an industrial designer you would have to get a bachelor’s degree in the arts, and there are programs specified in this area in both colleges and universities. Colleges who have this program in Ontario include; Conestoga College, George Brown College, Humber College, Seneca College, and  Sheridan College. Universities who have this program in Ontario include; Carleton University, OCAD (Ontario School of Art and Design University), and York University.

Being an industrial designer is another career choice for me, as it fascinates me when you can see things work and get created, so I wondered, why can’t i just do this as a job? I would always get interested with building contraptions and devices, especially using Lego Blocks when I was younger. However, like my other career choices, I remain unsure if I should go into this career due to the fact that you would need a really need a physics mindset and these programs are usually very competitive to get into.  Hopefully I can get a mindset with what I want to do in the future next year~

Product Design Feature: Google Glass

Up Close

New ideas and innovations are created everyday, are discovered everyday, and technology grows a huge role in this. One of the purposes of technology is to make things easier, more simple and more accessible for the audience. You can see that through other products such as; smartphones, which is like a portable hand=held computer which contain data like the weather, social networking, calling, photos, email, music, and many many more. Now, there is a new type of innovation going into hand which is (and already is) changing our world as we know it. The product that I’m talking about is, yes the one on the title; Google Glass. Google Glass is a type of wearable technology that is like the smartphone, but hands-free, where you would say commands through your natural voice or through the small touch pad on the right-side of the glasses. The Google Glass also added new applications compared to the smart phone; such as having new apps, facial expressions, voice translations, exercise, and photo manipulations. They also included of course Google applications such as; Google +, Google Maps, and Gmail. This lovely product was already out for the public on April 15, 2014; not too long ago, and it costs around $1,500 – $2,000 in depending on the model and style. It holds 16 GB, it is only 50 grams in weight, and is available for people with prescriptions.

Design Process

When this product came out, word spread fast as many people wanted to test this new product. Although there are some criticism such as regarding healthcare, privacy, and safety concerns, this product was (and still is) spreading like wild fire. This product also received many awards regarding the criticism such as; Time Magazine’s “Best Inventions of the Year 2012” and T3’s “Innovation of the Year 2013”.

Wanna test a whole new world? Check out their site to learn more;

http://www.google.com/glass/start/

Check out a preview of the glass!

 

The Ever-Changing World: Learning in an Technological Environment

Technology is progressing everyday, as it begins to become an essential to our world today, which includes schools as well. It has become an essential in a way where we depend on these technological devices to discover new things, such as using; projectors, computers, laptops, smartphones, etc. Most of these technological devices may seem only for entertainment purposes however, they can be used as learning devices also. How? you may ask. For example, searching up different bungalow layouts for the bungalow project we had, sharing links and information using Moodle, watching documentaries through a projector screen. All of these examples were used in the Technological Design course that I have been taking in my school right now, and it is a good experience as the course teaches you through using different programs and just exploring more than you would in an English class for example. As you can see we depend on technology a lot, since it is a huge part of our learning as it is easily accessible, opens up our (students’) minds, and it just makes learning just very interesting!

Career Paths: Graphic Design

Graphic design portrays one of the huge influences in media for today’s society through design and technology. They show and display the aesthetic features in photos, magazines, books, and more. Graphic design is a big influence to decide what people want to do, what they buy, etc as it is focused more on the aesthetic feature. How it works, is that if the product is successful, then society will approve it. Being a graphic designer, you have to really work well with different types of colour, shape, sound, film, photographs, text, and technology to combine them all together into a grand picture that is visually appealing towards the audience. Graphic designers display their work through websites, advertisements, books, ticket designs, packaging, exhibitions, and even video games. They use different types of mediums from multimedia programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and just simple traditional works like drafting. The skills a graphic designer would need would be such as technical skills, people/communication skills, creative skills, and technology skills. People/communication skills come into play when you’re working in a huge team, which is what graphic designers do. They have to work with a variety of people in different areas such as; photographers, copywriters, and sales staff. A graphic designer would need those skills to communicate with their team and client members to know what the client wants, and including being humble when accepting feedback. Being a designer, it also includes having talent, skills, and interest for graphic design, having creative skills, especially in colour, style, contrast, communication, and typography. A graphic designer would also have to have a strong computer background to work out with software programs especially when it comes to solving problems.

Typography

The salary range usually based off of the what the client thinks of the final product. Graphic Designers also get paid by their level of experience; those who have barely any experience would have a range of around $20,000 – $30,000 per year, those with fair amount of experience would boost up to around $40,000 – $50,000 a year, and senior graphic designers would receive around $60,000 – $70,000 a year. Graphic designers work Mondays to Fridays at around 37 hours a week, and they mostly work overtime due to meeting project deadlines. Usually many graphic designers are free lance, as depending on their comfort, they mostly work either at home or at a studio.

As for post-secondary education to get your Bachelor’s Degree are available in both universities and colleges. Colleges who offer a graphic design program in Ontario: Sheridan College, Algonquin College, Centennial College, Humber College Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology (Toronto, Ontario), and many more. On the other hand, universities who offer a graphic design program in Ontario include; Ontario College of Art Design/OCAD, Ryerson University, Wilfred Laurier University, and York University.

Graphic Design is one of the career paths I have decided to choose from. My other career choices would consist of Industrial Design or Urban Design, somewhere in the design field. The reason why I remain unsure for the Graphic Design field is because this field is highly competitive, but with a low pay compared to the other career choices I’ve decided on embarking on. However, I do have a similar passion to the other career choices I have chosen also. Hopefully I’ll have an answer by the end of high school~

The Ever-Changing World: Social Media

It is now 2014 and the world is progressing every hour, every day, and ever second. Products are being bought, things are being made, inventions and innovations are being though of, and the growing technology has a huge role to our society. Social Media has been growing rapidly for the last decade, with 72% of all internet users active in social networking sites either on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Tumblr, Google +, Instagram, LinkedIn, email and many many more. Facebook alone already has 1.15 billion users and counting. Social media is changing the world through marketing, accessibility, and communication. Social media is changing the world by storm.The typical purpose of Social Media is to connect on with other social media users by sharing information. Which is one of the reasons why Social Media has been one of the biggest ways for marketing. Already 93% of all marketers use social media for business since 80% of customers prefer to connect themselves with their business’ over social networking sites. For example, clicking “follow” on a CNN twitter account can already give your timeline with news articles on what’s happening in this world. Having just news articles on your timeline can be so much easier than just sitting through a 1 hour of news for that one news report. Sharing information also lets other people have a voice when it comes to current events such as natural disasters, KONY 2012, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, or the Malaysian Airline Crash. Social Media help the current issue by getting people to spread the information or help them support this issue. Social Media is also changing the way we communicate. as we begin to rely on messages on the phone rather than talking face to face since due to accessibility. One click can already give them that message from wherever you are. As you can see, social media has helped changed the world in good and bad ways through marketing, accessibility, and communication. And is growing even further in the next few years with maybe instant messaging through the brain, virtual phones/computers, and even maybe holograms of other people. Are you up for the change?

Architect of the Day: I.M. Pei

The Architect of the Day is I.M. Pei, a famous architect who helped build many extraordinary architectures around the world with his firm; PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS architects LLP. I.M. Pei was born in Guangzhou, China in 1917, where at the age of 17 he flew to the States to study more of architecture. He eventually graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and his Masters of Arts in Harvard’s University School of Design in 1940. When studying at harvard, he took a short break and had a chance to study and work with a famous German architect known as Walter Gropius who was also the founder of the Bauhaus design movement, then went back to Harvard to study for another 2 years to complete his master’s degree. At 1955, he made his own firm which also led to their first project; known as the building the Mile High Center in Denver Colorado. It was completely the following year, giving him worldwide fame and recognition. In total he has won 7 awards which includes; the AIA Gold Medal in 1979, the first ever Praemium Imperiale for Architecture in 1989, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Meseum in 2003, and won the Pritzker Prize in 1983.

I.M. Pei was also responsible for other projects such as Paris’ Louvre Pyramid, the Museum of Islamic Art in Quatar, the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, Dallas’ Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, and many many more. However, one of his works really stood out to me compared to the rest, which was the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong.

Built in 1990, the Bank of China Tower is a 315.0 m high building with 72 stories for commercial use, uses 72,000 square feet of land, and is the 4th tallest tower in Hong Kong today. I thought this piece stood out to me was because of its modernism edges and its uniqueness in the Hong Kong sea scape view. It’s bamboo-like shape symbolizes prosperity and livelihood, as the 4 different towers shoot up towards the sky. It also displays a modernism theme as it uses materials such as the steel columns covered with glass. He also used the same type of style and building process in some of his other projects such as the Suzhou Museum in China and the Miho Musuem in Japan.

Design Process

Besides its commercial use, the Bank of China Tower is also one of Hong Kong’s well known landmarks today along with the International Commerce Center on the other side the sea. For me personally, whenever I see this building, it always would remind me of home due to the fact that I came from a family who lived in Hong Kong, I’d always visit. When I was little, I even went up to the observation site that was on the 43rd floor, which let the public to see the entire view of the Kowloon Side of Hong Kong.

The Bank of China tower at night

Kowloon side view with the Bank of China Tower

 

 

Want to learn more about I.M. Pei? Check out his firm site;
http://www.pcf-p.com/