TED / Talks / Frank Gehry: Nice building. Then what? (video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/13
Frank Gehry wanted to be a scientist when he grew up. But after blowing up a part of his house, at age 14, he decided against it. He's gone on to create some mindblowing buildings, including the Guggenheim at Bilbao and LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall. This wildly entertaining conversation with Richard Saul Wurman (then host of TED) touches on many topics, including the power of failure, the importance of collaboration, and the need for architects to bring personal expression to the table.

Dilbert on Architects

Got this comic strip from a friend. It is supposed to be amusing... I think.

DDAY THESIS

The Design Studio of the 5th years will only get filled up during the thesis deadline. Armed with a phone-cam, I went there an hour before the deadline and took pictures of the students. Hmm... I wonder if any of these guys took a bath that day... =)

Logo Loco

I was organizing the files in my laptop and I realized that I have designed logos that became useful. I'm not an expert on logo making. The only reason why I ended up designing logos is because I was forced to, at least by circumstance. Here is a collection of logos which I designed or was at least involved in the designing process.
The earliest logo that survived in my computer is the official logo of the 1995 World Youth Day in Manila. There was a logo-making competiton and my friend wanted to join. He asked me to help him with it. We started at around 9pm and ended at around 2am. I used CorelDraw to interpret in the computer what he wanted in the logo. Well, he won! We were so happy. He made it to the news, and also travelled to Rome as a prize.


When I worked in the office of the President of the Center for Research and Communications in Manila, our project was to convert CRC College of Arts and Sciences into the University of Asia and the Pacific. We succeeded. When we were defining its corporate identity the task of interpreting what the Board of Trustees wanted to see in the logo fell on my lap. The result is the one used now. This is memorable for me because I was asked to study the laws on heraldry and the material they gave me was in Spanish. Good thing I can read Spanish. The image is taken from the internet.


I suggested the name Castelmonte for our residence hall in Davao. My family liked it and decided to use the name for our mountain resort as well. Later I was asked to come up with a logo within 4hrs because they need to print it on t-shirts sponsored by our company. Oh well, I find this very literal and I intend to improve.
When my godfather wanted to put up a joint corporation between our families I suggested the name Helmbridge. When I designed the logo I just concentrated on the first letter (H), making it look like two happily persons in agreement... blah,blah... The color green is supposed to symbolize a sustaining relationship.
We decided to have a logo for our family corporation as well. This time, my brother gave the name E&S Ventures. E stands for Elizaga, S stands for Salang (my mom's maiden name). I decided to use fire as a main symbol. I designed the characters E&S as tounges of fire. The ampersand is blue since the middle flame is stronger. This also symbolized that the union of the two families makes a stronger fire.

There were a few other logos but i decided to just set them aside. I don't want to make a very long blog.

TED / Talks / Ross Lovegrove: The power and beauty of organic design (video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/27
In this energetic talk, industrial designer Ross Lovegrove expounds his philosophy of organic, "fat-free" design, and offers insight into several of his extraordinary products, including the Ty Nant water bottle and the Go and Moroso chairs. He reveals the two sides of his work: Yes, he's the pragmatic designer of beautiful, functional objects whose forms are inspired by nature. But he's also a bit of a maverick, who envisions an electric car that multitasks as a street lamp, and installs a DNA-inspired floating staircase in his Notting Hill studio. Lovegrove concludes with a video tour of his workspace, which he shot at 3 AM.

TED / Talks / Paul Bennett: Design is in the details (video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/43
Showing a series of inspiring, unusual and playful products, British branding and design guru Paul Bennett explains that design doesn't have to be about grand gestures, but can solve small, universal and overlooked problems. Ideo creative director Bennett shows how his firm works to reframe the everyday realities of its diverse clients to create results that truly make a difference. From hospital design that takes the patient's-eye view (staring up at the ceiling) to toy storage that responds to how children see the world, the answer, he says, is very often to be found in the question.

Bamboo Frenzy

My friend is doing a research on the use of bamboo for building structures. We were just meeting our clients who are advocates of green architecture and we keep tabs of our researches. When they learned about my friend's research, they helped out in looking for materials. They just gave us pictures of things that fascinated them.
When I told them that, to some extent, bamboo can be a substitute for steel, they showed me some sheds constructed in bamboo frame. Other people might use steel for the frame, but the ones they show are ingenious.
Here's a barbecue shed made of bamboo and canvas.
This one is a better view.
The roof connection detail...
The floor connection detail...
There's also a parking shed for a car:

This waiting shed with a living roof is simply amazing. The posts are made of bamboo.

Here's a picture of the living roof when they were laying the grass...
Here's another shed structure but using a different roofing material.
The floor connection detail of the shed...

There are many other applications in bigger scale. These ones are just to prove my point about bamboo substituting steel. The waiting shed with a living roof is a bonus.