Masks/Tools Photoshop Tutorial

First Project: Practical and Impractical Products

How to Ruin a Great Design (Reaction)

I agree with the author of the piece on the premise that iconic and clean designs need not change. For the most part, the designs she cites as being changed were all changed for the worse or for arbitrary reasons. At the same time, I can't help but disagree that changing logos is usually a bad thing. I like when some companies clean up their logo/product design every now and then. Apple is a good example, where they keep a lot of the essence of the product, but put just enough of a new spin on it that it stays fresh and doesn't have a design that ages out. Additionally, I think that more companies could benefit from trying to future-proof their designs, so that there is less need for drastic change.


As far as the street signs are concerned, I wholeheartedly agree. Most road signs are simple and easy to understand in their current forms, so there should be no need to change.

Robot And Cat Surfers In Space (Photoshop Tutorial 2/7/14)

Functional and Non-Functional Products

The functional product I came up with is an app/program for TVs and computers. Basically, it is wirelessly connected to a camera that is installed in the side of the user's oven. This allows the user to check on the food they are cooking from their phone or a picture-in-picture screen on the TV, without getting up from the couch or moving from wherever they might be around the house. For added functionality it also displays the remaining minutes on the oven's timer, as well as what the current temperature of the interior is.

The non-functional product I came up with is a hat, similar to a soda/beer drink hat, that is used to store ice cream. The reason it wouldn't be functional is that it has no proper way of keeping the ice cream cold, so it will eventually melt and end up dripping and pouring all over the place, causing a big mess. I'm also considering making it so that the hat itself is a waffle cone or something like that, for added ridiculousness in appearance and even further non-functionality since most waffle cones are very fragile.