29.10.2010 Brainstorming

We were told to get into groups of 4/5, to do the brainstorming assignment but my group (group C) decided it would be best to do a whole group discussion first on each chapter to get a better outlook on the book as a whole, before we split into smaller groups to talk about The Tipping Point and how it relates to design.

As i did my mind map on Chapter Four, The Power of Context (1), that will be what i will be looking into detail.. and how the power of context can relate to the industry of design.

lecture 29.10.2010

Today we had an interesting lecture from johnathon about what was the difference between good design and bad design.. The part I found most interesting was about how males and female are different.. E.g. Is it right that it should be the woman's job to stay home and look after children. He also spoke about although there isn't actually people who are always going to be lucky or unlucky but by the way people act can make them think like this. The example johnathon used that I found most convincing was about a woman who came to the conclusion that everytime a green coloured car passed her she would end up in a car accident. Instead the case being that when she did see a green car approaching she would concentrate too hard on the road ahead, and bringing on the accident herself. The other experiment was a group of girls and boys passing two balls between either people wearing : black t-shirts and white t-shirts.. We were asked to concentrate on only yhe white t-shirts and to count how many passes. By concentrating so intensely on the ball the majority of people did not notice a black haired gorilla walking straight through the group! I managed to but only because I noticed people laughing.. Although johnathon never did tell us how many passes there actually was!!

Georgina Von Etzdorf

Yesterday, we had a talk by the well known textile designer, Georgina Von Etzdorf.
I have to say it was one of the most influential speeches i have ever received and really made me think about my own designs and way's in which i could improve them.
Georgina was so ordinary and such a down to earth person, which made it easy for me to listen to her talk.


She was born in Peru but she graduated in 1977 from Camberwell School of Art. She started off in her parents garage before coming into partnership with two other designers Martin Simcock and Johnathan Docherty. They have even designed garments for The Rolling Stones, Kyle and Robbie Williams.

The Company GVE started by producing distinctive hand-printed textiles but now go onto sell everything ranging from dressing gowns, to furniture, to gloves.



I really appreciate Georgina coming to visit us at Dundee and feel absolutely privileged to have got to see a lot of her garments in person. She had definitely gave me a brighter outlook on textile design and success.

Annotated bibliography:)

·         Nov19th 1998 the Blue Revolution, New York Review of Books, 32 – 34.

Gladwell explains how unattractive subways were as they were covered in “graffiti- top to bottom, inside and out”. It provides the reader with the clear image of how easily crime could be committed in environments like that.

·         Bratton, W. (1998) Turnaround: How America’s Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic. New York: Random House.

Here we see Bratton describe to use how run down and dirty New York City is at that time and compares it to:  ‘... at transit version of Dante’s Inferno.’  It is used successfully to show what it was like before the “broken window’s theory” took place and cleaned up the subways.

·         Bratton, W and Andrews, W. (1999) what we’ve Learned About Policing. City Journal

Fare-beating was becoming so common it was starting to cost the transit authority millions of pounds. Not only was that but there an increase on petty crimes and violence going on down in the subways. Gladwell successfully uses the examples just to show how dangerous it could be.

·         Fletcher, G, P. (1988) A Crime of Self Defence. New York: Free Press. 

Gladwell uses this source to tell the reader what Goetz’s ordinary image looked like and a rough bit of his background information.

·         Haney, C. Banks, C. Zimbardo, P. (1973). Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison. International Journal of Criminology and Penology

Gladwell uses this experiment as an example to show how people’s behavior can alter when an influenced environment is created. Gladwell states: “The purpose of the experiment was to try and find out why prisons are such nasty places. Was it because prisons are full of nasty people, or was it because prisons are such nasty environments that make people nasty?”

·         Kelling, G L. And Coles, C M. (1996) Fixing Broken Windows. New York: Touchstone.

Gladwell compared crime as like a fashion trend that is “contagious”. This is where the broken windows theory comes into play. If something is vandalised and left, people are more likely to damage it even more because it is uncared for and then lead to more dangerous crimes.

·         Rubin, L. (1986) Quiet Rage: Bernie Goetz in a Time of Madness. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Gladwell explains that on the express train the majority of people avoided the four teenagers sitting down because they knew they would associate trouble but when Goetz boarded he seemed to know notice them as though he was asking for trouble.

The Tipping Point Mind Map 2

Here is my second Mind Map

I chose to do it on Chapter Four - Power of Contex (1)

Bernie Goetz and the rise and fall of New York crime.

The Tipping Point Mind Map 1

Mind Map 1

(On The Whole Book)

The Tipping Point - Completed

After finally completing the Tipping Point, i have to say i did really enjoy it and i would definitely recommend it to a friend! It really got me thinking and made me realise that everything in life seemed to relate to it. We all know someone who is a connector and the one who always knows other people's business. We can all think of a fashion trend that has made us want to go out urgently and buy it because we know someone else that has it but when will that trend "tip" and the item of clothing get thrown out. We all know someone at school that started smoking young and mabye the reasons why. Everything spreads quickly when you know the right person and before u know it an epidemic has begun.
I found the stickiness chapter interesting and the comparison between children TV programme's such as "Sesame street" and "Blue's clues". When you have already watched both programmes, after reading the chapter you understand why when we were children we got bored and the experiments that proved it. For example on "Sesame street", Ed Palmer and Gerald Lesser experimented with children to find out where they were losing concentration and make small tweaks to the programme to make a children's TV programme that sticks.

Another Chapter I found compelling was Power of Context Which i decided to do my second mind map on. The tipping point concentrates on situations why causes trends to "tip" in mass popularity e.g. the rapid New York crime decline in the 1990's. The chapter focuses on ways of cleaning up the neighborhood and the story of Bernie Goetz. I feel that the "Broken Windows Theory" is a very successful theory with many advantages and proves that with an already clean neighborhood, it is more likely to remain that way.

Textiles photoshop Week

Here are four of my designs that i created on photoshop!

NHS Artwork!

I was at work at the weekend, reading a newspaper and noticed something about NHS artwork. Turns out, the husband of a dying woman who was denied life-prolonging drugs on the NHS has criticised hospital bosses for spending more than £400,000 on art.
According to the hospital, the art - which includes two three-metre tall human statues made from fibre glass and steel – will “reduce stress, speed up recovery and aid the healing process.”
A statement from Bouygues UK and Mid Essex Hospital Services said: “The project aims to contribute to the overall aim of providing excellence and effective models of care, by enhancing the environment for everyone who uses the hospital and helping to reduce stress, speed up recovery and aid the healing process.

I was outraged by what i had read! How could metal human statues cost that amount of money? when it could be going towards more important thing aka saving somebodies life!!. Yes, it may make the place more attractive from the outside but should'nt it be what's going on in the inside of the building that counts?

I'm sure there would be some artists out there who would quite happily donate some artwork to the hospital (e.g. me) and be pleased it was going towards a good cause! Or even work produced by primary school children would lighten the place up! I don't understand how human statues has any relevance to speeding up recovery.

anywaysss rant over:)