CR03

In class 9 we had a short lecture covering two subjects. Color and Communication was the first. This was a great discussion and touched on many of the things I'm learning in design 310. The subject of color in design in an interesting one because of how many roles color plays. Color can set a mood, it can help dictate how something is viewed, it can create hierarchy and it can be used to help communicate.

The subject of color has been studied extensively by people such as Josef Albers and Johannes Itten, both of whom I've had the opportunity to study. Both Albers and Itten were interested in the psychological aspects of color. They were also interested in how the eye and the mind perceive color. In his color study called Homage to the Square Josef Albers studied the effects color had on the eye. His squares, which he painted using pure non tinted paint, would show how our perception of pure color can change when placed on different colors.

Our color discussion also covered branding and how companies use color for recognition and to convey a message. BP for instance wants people to think they are environmentally conscious so not only is their logo a flower but a green and yellow flower. McDonald's uses yellow and red in their logo, not only because, these colors are recognizable but they also invoke a strong appetite.

After our color discussion we covered legal issues as they pertain to designers. From writing contracts to getting patents the legal side of design can be a daunting subject. Having a legally binding contract is necessary to keep either party from getting cheated. In the discussion we talked about the five main parts of a contract: The Deliverables - what exactly is being produced, The Persons involved - how many people will be working on the project, Time - how long the project will take to complete, Budget - how much the project will cost and Exclusions - what the designer won't deliver. One good point in the discussion on contracts was stating exactly what work will be done in order to avoid being asked to complete extra or unnecessary work.

Moving on to patents we discusses the two types of patents, utility patents which cover mechanical, chemical and biological innovations and design patents. Utility patents are good for 20 years and design patents are good for 14. We discussed the argument of should you patents and the reasons for or against it. For instance a lot of time and money is involved in writing a patent.

We next discusses trademarks and copyrights. Trademarks protects a name, word, symbol or device. They must be registered and are good as long as the company uses it. Copyrights protect documents such as music, art, photos or film from being used by others without consent. In our digital age copyrights are hard to enforce and with newer media and file sharing programs it is becoming harder.

After the lecture we watched a movie called Rip!: A Remix Manifesto, which we finished in class 10. I think this movie was a perfect way to continue the discussion of copyrights. In the movie a musician named Girl Talk uses digital sampling of other artists music to create new songs and the movie discusses his legal rights to do so. It also covers the history of copyright in the United States. I found this movie interesting because of the arguments for allowing musicians, such as Girl Talk, to sample songs to create new songs. I especially like the argument of how Walt Disney borrowed or completely stole ideas from others when creating his first movies and then after he died the Disney corporation helped change copyright laws so no one else could do the same thing. One could argue that we get new ideas from what has been done before but if we are not allowed to borrow those past ideas how can we create new.

Getting back to the subject of sampling or downloading music, most of us remember Napster and what happened to it, but what I find hard to understand is why a band would want to sue over intellectual property when distributing it to more people could be beneficial. I think it was Rob Zombie who said he didn't care if people were downloading his songs for free if it meant more people would become fans and in turn come to his shows.

In classes 11 and 12 we had guest speakersfrom Design Circle, who gave us a background on their activities and information about the design program at OSU. The second was from Cobego. They gave us a short background on work they have done and talked about their experiences at OSU. I think both classes were beneficial in getting students prepared for what to expect next in the design program.