So, after two years of career searching and an exorbitant amount of me-time, I have returned to school. This time around, I am studying Industrial Design at OCAD U. While it’s probably too early to make any predictions on what I will be drawn towards, furniture design seems to be calling out my name already.

More later… I will still update this blog, I promise.

I was recently informed that my friend and University of Windsor graduate student Mike DiRisio is starting a great new project called Books for Prisoners. The blog is also a good resource for news relating to the Canadian prison system.

“The Windsor based Books for Prisoners project is focused on promoting literacy and creativity in the Canadian prison system. We aim to establish greater access to educational and enriching reading material, while promoting the creativity and self expression of the incarcerated. As well, we hope that while doing this we can begin a dialogue about our prison system, which seems to be slipping more and more from public consciousness.”

Well, I wouldn’t consider this post a review in any traditional sense, but a collection of thoughts about something that probably doesn’t matter all that much. After about three months of iPhone 4 ownership, I’m just starting to think about how my experiences with this piece of engineering might be changing my behaviour.

Firstly, the apparent perfection of Apple products in an aesthetic and engineering sense makes me wonder about what makes a product essential to daily life. Also, how can something so unnatural feel so natural? I hope we can agree that from a physical standpoint, there isn’t much that we could call organic about the iPhone. Very rarely can you find a geometrically consistent shape that resembles this device, besides less-rectangular layers of rock like limestone or some plant forms. This being said, the iPhone feels very natural to me. It feels like a logical end to the mobile phone design experiment. This is probably one of the reasons why I finally cracked and picked one up; it seemed relatively timeless. Time will tell if the design remains fresh, but my main concern is more on the philosophical end of the spectrum.

I feel that devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and pretty much any other slick product aimed at simplicity and functionality are helping to compartmentalize our thoughts about the things we find important. A loosely-related example of this idea is the notion (or reality) that Google searches are tailored to the individual searching for them, at least in one or two parameters. Since these devices are a window to the world in a sense, will we start to expect our real world to be organized into lists or clusters of value? What does that even mean? More importantly, if we keep getting fed what we want, will we want it any more?

I think I want a challenge every once in a while. I want to appreciate the search for information as much as the information itself. I don’t want a personal assistant, I want to get my hands dirty and make my own connections between ideas.

I was fortunate enough to attend the 2012 North American International Auto Show last week, which is usually a design dream experience for me. It was tough, but I chose one concept car and one practical car to include in this post. My favorite concept car was the Acura NSX Concept above. The NSX hasn’t been on the market for years now, but if this design gets pushed through, the sports car market better brace itself. As I’m more interested in design than performance, I’ll add that this concept looks incredible from every angle. The grille is almost current-gen Mazda3-like, and the back is sort of Porsche Carrera GT.

The fenders and roofline are very well balanced and it could almost pass for a Pininfarina design.

My practical choice has to be either the Volvo C30 or XC70 (pictured above). I can’t explain how comfortable the seats are, but I would suggest that falling asleep while driving might be an issue. The fit and finish (and minimal design) of Volvo’s interiors is really fantastic in person. I guess this makes me an aspiring yuppie.

I get a little confused when people assume that without believing that human life is some kind of test set up by an interested entity, there is nothing to appreciate. Must it be this binary? I would disagree. I think self-directed purpose is just as legitimate. Thoughts?

Image by Joshua Babcock