Nur Ahmad Furlong

Category: Design

  • What is Design?

    Being a Designer, I’m always looking to better define & redefine what I do. I continuously return to the root of the matter in a search for greater meaning. When asked to describe what “Design” is, people inevitably respond in completely different ways. This is so, because the subject is so vast and can be understood from so many different perspectives depending on ones experience, education, profession and so forth. Do a quick google search asking the question What is Design, and you’ll see what I’m on about.

    The following video will introduce you to the problem, and why we need to rethink our perception of what design is.

    [youtube 3mxbLd9r4Sc&rel=1 – What Is Design?]

    My Quick Definition

    My own personal definition of design has changed over the years. As a junior I thought of design as a commercialized visual art form, though today I see design more as: “Taking a series of steps to arrive at a solution to a specific problem.” It’s something of a process and even though I’ve stated the aim is arriving at a solution to a specific problem, many times the design process reveals the real problem, one which is different to what was initially perceived as the problem. It’s more about process, strategy and innovation than Art, though let me not open up a can of worms on the definition of the word Art just yet.

    The word Design can be used both as a Verb (to describe an act or process) and as a Noun (to describe the resultant product, object, image or solution).

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  • Eco-friendly organisation – why kill trees to keep yourself organized?

    I’m always excited when I see new products attempting to make life easier, simpler and more eco-friendly. The more beneficial a product is to the user and to the environment the higher it ranks in my book. Having hunted around for quite a while for the perfect organisational tools, this latest find seems really promising and very nicely designed for modern living as well.

    Introducing the Jot-it Eco friendly desktop write board designed by cocoa living:

    Eco-friendly write board for note taking - by cocoa living

    Basically it’s a plastic base, with another plastic sheet on top which allows you to insert a template between the 2 layers. A note taking template, calendar (perpetual template maybe), a task organising template, or you could customize your own template. The beauty is that you can quickly jot ideas, rough ones without wasting paper and without cluttering up your desktop with scraps of paper you’ve jotted all kinds of random stuff on.

    Jot-it Write board process

    It’s not perfectly designed. You aren’t able to use multiple templates simultaneously, it seems a little clunky to carry around, though it has been designed specifically for your desk and not your pocket. According to the review on Yanko Design the plastic makes a squeaky noise when you write on it so there’s a few bugs which need to be ironed out. The basic idea though is what makes this a good find and I can see this being modified and upgraded to be an extremely useful device. I’ve started thinking about how I can modify my hipster PDA to make use of this white board style note taking, not paper wasting and easy to delete entries.

    The flexibility of of this tool is easy to spot. Using it in the classroom situation, in a design agency, in & around the office, next to the phone at home, just about anywhere where you need a quick & easy way to jot down notes.

    Jot-it write board modified for the classroom - eco-friendly education

    So head on over to www.cocoaliving.com and see if they have a product to suite your specific needs, or you could devlop your own eco-friendly write board system like I hope to do using a few low cast elements from your local stationery store. If you do please tell me about so I can give it a try.

  • What your logo should & should not be doing

    Have you ever turned up at an event inappropriately dressed, maybe too casual, too formal, you wore 2 different coloured socks? How about waking up for one of the most important events of your life with a huge zit on your forehead? I’m sure you’ve had that experience where someone tells you they’re sure they’ve seen you somewhere before or that you have a familiar face, or you’ve met someone before but just can’t remember what they look like.

    Make sure your company looks the part

    These little life experiences teach us alot about appearances, how we value them and the impact they have on the decisions we make. Your company or organisation is no different. Ever attend a corporate function or business meeting and all you had were those cheaply printed business cards without a logo and just your companies name written in comic sans font? Every company has its zit moment, the moment when it is not dressed appropriately, when it’s presentation is less than what it should be or gives the wrong impression. Many companies are forgotten because they have not made a memorable impact on those they interact with. It’s like those great television commercials who’s brands you just can’t remember.

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  • The South African new media scene is hotting up

    The last few weeks have been an amazing experience for me as a blogger, designer and new media strategist though it’s been one steep learning curve. It all started when I quit my day job a little short of 2 months ago. I had been blogging for a while experimentally and on more of a personal level just writing about my own stuff, anything that interested me really. I never paid any attention to visitors, to rankings, search engines, all of that stuff just made little difference to me.

    I think it started when I first installed the stats plugin in my wordpress and started noticing some activity based on my posting. It was all pretty tame and just a few trickles of curious onlookers. When I decided to become a true nomad and take the plunge into solo uncertainty I knew I had to start doing something more serious with my site and had to start getting serious about networking as well. That was just less than 2 months ago, so I started clicking & reading, adding plugins, modding my blog, adding facebook friends, signing up for linked in & my genius, started linking all my social networks to each other, subscribed to a whole batch of RSS Feeds, set up my own feed, wrote more content for my site, designed my new logo … Wow. I can’t actually believe I did all this stuff in such a short space of time.

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  • If Architects had to work the way web designers do

    I read this one a while ago and as a web designer found it both hilarious and sad at the same time. Tell me what you think. It’s sounds so bizarre but is a daily reality.

    Dear Mr. Architect:

    Please design and build me a house. I am not quite sure of what I need, so you should use your discretion. My house should have somewhere between two and forty-five bedrooms. Just make sure the plans are such that the bedrooms can be easily added or deleted. When you bring the blueprints to me, I will make the final decision of what I want. Also, bring me the cost breakdown for each configuration so that I can arbitrarily pick one.

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