Introduction

Hello all! I’m Wendy Huynh.

I’m a junior getting a bachelor’s in art with an emphasis in graphic design and another bachelor’s in business administration, majoring in marketing. I have a year old Pomeranian named Bandit that is the light of my life.

Food wise, I’m learning a lot about where my food comes from-but I don’t really know how to feel about that. I’m one that loves junk food and has never worried about how much fat is in my burger, etc. so this was a huge wake up call. With the water, I had no idea states were almost in the danger zone of running out of. I guess living in an area where water seems endless sometimes, you don’t think much about what doesn’t concern you. I feel like we could really change things being so conscious about the world around us.

Research and Destroy

I feel like this quote has a lot to do with what we're learning in class right now, "We no longer have any desire for design that is driven by need" (Velden, 2006). I took that as commercialization of design. There's not many people that design for a cause. We see so much advertising about material-items, not that there's anything wrong with that path of design, but we don't see many things on problems dealing with society or our earth even. I think this class is teaching us that we should design with a purpose. Not only do we have the power to really bring awareness to the issues of the world with our work, but we have the power to make changes as well. Designers are looked at negatively, “anyone can call themselves a designer” (Velden, 2006). It’s nothing really special. To be taken seriously, designers need to start working towards becoming developers, which I think is what we’re heading towards. It’s almost impossible to find an internship or job that doesn’t require knowing how to code or do any of the background work that designers used to not have to worry about.

Omnivore’s Dilemma

I think it’s so interesting how much people drank in the 1800's. Coffee breaks were “late-morning whiskey breaks.” Just like in the 1800's, we have a huge surplus of corn from farmers producing too much of it. And like back then, “clever marketers figure out a way to induce the human omnivore to consume the surfeit of cheap calories” (Pollan, 2006). The only difference of today is that we’re eating, not drinking. A child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of diabetes because of the way we eat. Our busy lifestyles , income, technology, and marketing are the culprits to our poor and unhealthy choices. It’s the easiest route to eat cheap and unhealthy, and the government knows that and is sure to keep the corn flowing. We as consumers need to become more knowledgeable about our food to make a change to the way it’s processed.