Assignment 02 (A02): Designer Investigation

DUE: Monday, January 24, 2011

Having a solid grasp on the history of design and the people who have contributed to the field is an integral part of the design program at OSU. This project will give you a chance to learn about designers that you are unaware of, or find out about the designers of something you may have seen before.

Spend time at both the ARC library and FIN library at OSU. Wander around the many shelves and cabinets which are full of books on design and designers. Randomly pull out books and begin exploring. The key here is to slow down, relax, look, and read. There is no right or wrong way to go about this exploration. Think about pieces of design that you have liked and find out who was responsible for them. Check anthologies or current magazines for work that catches your eye. If you really have no idea where to start, here is a list of designers to get you started.

Over the course of your exploration begin to locate three designers who’s work or life intrigues you in some way. Focus on a more in depth study of them. From this short-list of three designers, you will write a more in depth investigation on one of the designers and more surface level responses on the other two.

For completion of this assignment, you will submit the following three (3) posts to your blog:

• 1 short post about the first of the two designers who made your short-list but was not selected as the subject of your in depth investigation. This posts should list a minimun of 10 facts that you found interesting about the designer and cite a minimum of two sources.
• 1 short post about the second of the two designers who made your short-list but was not selected as the subject of your in depth investigation. This posts should list a minimun of 10 facts that you found interesting about the designer and cite a minimum of two sources.
• 1 longer post containing your in depth investigation of the third designer on your short-list. The content of this post should cover their life, work, contributions, etc. Also include your own thoughts about their life, work, contributions, etc. Length is at your discretion, but remember you are in college now. Please include a few (2-4) visual examples of their work with your post.

All three of these posts should be identified with the "A02" tag/label.