4-D Printing

Lately 3-D printing has made a few headlines, and has shown a lot of promise for the future of design. What most people are not talking about is 4-D printing. Skylar Tibbits did a TED Talk on The emergence of “4-D printing.” What is 4-D printing you may ask? 4-D printing is when you print an object from a 3-D printer yet it assembles itself. “Self-Assembly is a process by which disordered parts build an ordered structure through only local interaction.” The parts are printed with multi-material properties that can transform into an object. There is no human interactions. One example he gives is underground pipes that control water. In today's world if the pipes needed to be changed you would have to dig up the pipes and change them. With 4-D printed pipes the pipes could change shape, and would not need to be replaced. This made me wonder if furniture could be built with 4-D printing. Besides these examples I am not sure what else we could use this new technology for. The idea is really interesting and should definitely be further investigated.

Future of Design

I recently watched two TED Talks and I think they relate to each other. They proposed an interesting question about design and where it is heading in the future. The first one that I watched was Michael Hansmeyer: Building Unimaginable Shapes. He talks about creating new forms in architecture that have never been made before. My favorite quote from his talk is “What kind of forms could we design if we wouldn’t work with references anymore, if we had no bias, if we had no preconceptions? What kind of forms could we design if we could free of ourselves from our experiences? If we could free ourselves from our education, what would these unseen forms look like? How can we go about creating something that is truly new?” This got me thinking, what will the future of design look like? Will it just be another small step in the evolution of design? Or will someone come up with a truly new idea that has never been created before? 

I then watched Jarrett J. Krosoczka: How a Boy Became an Artist. He talks about how he became a writer and illustrator for his own children's books. The best piece of advice he said, was from his art teacher. One day Jarrett walked into class with a book that taught you how to draw comic book super heros. His teacher told him “Forget everything you learned. You have a great style. Celebrate your own style. Don’t draw the way you are being told to draw.”

For a new style that has never been seen before to be created someone is going to have to forget everything they have been taught. This new style would not have any rules or structure that we have seen before. Maybe in the future there will be a person that can invent a new style of design. I am definitely excited to see what the future holds for design.

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How Should I get Started?

I started reading No Plastic Sleeves which is a portfolio guide written by Larry Volk and Danielle Currier. When I thought about my portfolio, I thought all I had to do was put my work on my website and make it look nice. I was wrong. There is a lot more to it then that. When you are getting started you want to know your target audience. This will help me choose what pieces will go into my portfolio. The next thing I have to do is, figure out who I am. You would think I already know that, but I need to think how I want to brand myself. I have to first think what type of style or feel that I am trying to go for. By understanding who I am and seeing how it has influenced my artwork, I can then move on to the branding. One quote that I really like from the book was taken in an interview with Christine Pillsbury. Christine said “Brand is so much more important then branding. I’m not looking for your cool logo, but I am trying to find out who you are, what you can do, what is interesting about you, what makes you different, and where you are going.” That is completely different from my first thoughts of about my portfolio. I have a lot of work ahead of me and need to find out who I am and how to brand myself. 


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Hello

Hello my name is Mike Heflich. I am from South Jersey just outside of Philadelphia. I am currently an Interactive Digital Design major at Quinnipiac University. Interactive Digital Design is similar to graphic design and includes web design, 2d, and 3d animation. In my free time I like to draw and learn about cars. I also enjoy working on cars. When I was younger I would watch my dad fix things around the house. I learned a great deal from him over the years. When I am not doing those things I am usually hanging out with my friends playing some sort of sports. The group of friends that I have i’ve been friends with since I was 3 years old. I tend to be quiet at first, but when you get to know me I open up.


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