Designit in Barcelona: an introduction to Generative Design

Hello.
I’m Guy.

Generative Design Guy Haviv Designit

a brief introduction to

Design Hacking /
Generative Design


Introduction


Introduction

I’ve heard this from several teachers at Shenkar:
Nowadays, kids already know
all about the creative software
used for design

— all we can do is teach you
how to think.


Introduction

What I learned
from Dan, a friend
of mine who’s an
illustrator

Introduction

be obsessed with
the process.
Draw > Xerox to 2000% > Draw Again > Scan > Add type


Introduction

everyone’s using
the same tools?
let’s tinker with the
tools then.

Generative Design


Generative Design

We should master
our tools, and then
alter them.


Generative Design

generative tool #01
Core Image Fun House

Get it when downloading Xcode:
http://developer.apple.com/technologies/xcode.html

Mac only


Generative Design

Core Image Fun House
Take an image and stack a
bunch of live pixel effects on top
of it.
(originally made as a framework exploration tool)


Design Hacking


Generative Design

(demo).


Generative Design

generative tool #03
Processing

processing.org
Mac & PC
Open source


Generative Design

Processing
Maybe the most well known
generative design tool.

Open source, very well
documented.


Generative Design

Write simplified Java
code, get visual results.
Thousands of samples
to play with.


Generative Design

generative tool #02
Quartz Composer

http://developer.apple.com/downloads

Mac only


Generative Design

Quartz Composer
Node based visual language for
mixing image, video, audio,
code & other media.


Generative Design

Quartz Composer files are
called Compositions.
They are used on the Mac as:
Screen savers
iTunes visualizers
Keynote plugins

They are also playable on any Mac with Quicktime.


Generative Design

I used Quartz Composer to create an interactive poster.


generative tool #02
Quartz Composer

http://developer.apple.com/downloads

Mac only


Generative Design

Quartz Composer

Get “Graphic tools for Xcode”


Generative Design

generative tool #04
NodeBox

nodebox.net
Mac only
Open Source


Generative Design

NodeBox
NodeBox is fucking awesome.

You write Python code &
generate vector graphics.
Copy as PDF to Illustrator to continue tweaking.


Generative Design

My first gig at nascent was writing a script that served as
the basis of the Kodak Leaf visual language


Kodak Leaf brand visual language
Designed by Roy Yogev

Generative Design

I used NodeBox to generate infographic posters


Generative Design

JVP brand identity work


Generative Design

and also in a branding project to wrap shapes around paths


Generative Design

generative tool #05
Scriptographer
Illustrator scripting plugin
scriptographer.org
Mac & PC
Open source


Generative Design

Scriptographer is an interactive
scripting environment for
Illustrator.
It adds a palette with scripts and a few tools - all of
which can be edited and manipulated.


Generative Design

generative tool #06
PostScript Hacking


Generative Design

What happens if you output an
Illustrator file to .ps, and then
play with random numbers
inside?
And then open the .ps with Adobe Distiller to make
it a PDF to view the results?


Generative Design

Then, distill the .ps file
back to a PDF.


Generative Design

I used postscript hacking mainly to distort shapes


Optional:
Design ‘Hacking’


Design Hacking

hack #01

Be a screen
capture ninja.


Design Hacking

Cmd+Shift+3
Cmd+Shift+4
Cmd+Shift+4 ... Space
(Copies Windows’ drop shadows!)

also:
try these with Ctrl added
use Space like in Illustrator


Design Hacking

hack #02

Be an icon
capture ninja.


Design Hacking

hack #02: Be an icon capture ninja.
Copy any file/folder in Finder
Open Preview
Cmd+N
w00t.


Design Hacking

hack #03

Understand the
.AI + .PDF
relationship


Design Hacking

Illustrator is an incredible app -
it has forward compatibility.
Each .ai file actually has a hidden .pdf file inside.


Design Hacking

.ai + pdf bundles enable QuickLook on .ai files.

Design Hacking

hack #04

Be an app bundle
researcher/ninja.


Design Hacking

The Finder has a trick called
bundles.

Bundles are folders that act like
single files.
They hide some good stuff inside.


Design Hacking

.app files are bundles.
Let’s look at an example.

iWork files used to be bundles.
Let’s extract some media from a .keynote
document


Design Hacking

hack #05

Fonts are usually
embedded within
PDFs


Design Hacking

When you export a file to PDF,
the relevant fonts are being
embedded into that PDF.
And you can extract them.
Get FontForge to try this stuff out.


Design Hacking

(demo?).


Design Hacking

hack #06

Be a
PDF-everywhere
ninja.


Design Hacking

Printers speak
PostScript.


Design Hacking

PDFs are
PostScript
wrappers.
Illustrator is like a planning environment for PDFs.


Design Hacking

Macs speak PDF
quite fluently.


Design Hacking

Macs speak PDF quite fluently.
Nearly every time you see
something on screen, it’s a
vector PDF.


Design Hacking

Demo
Grapher
Dictionary
iCal


Design Hacking

(demo).


Summary

thank you.
Slides available on:
http://tinyurl.com/designhacking

learn more / explore:
http://www.creativeapplications.net/
http://www.generatorx.no/category/tools-code/


Designit in Barcelona: an introduction to Generative Design

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