Make Some Pretty and Some Ugly
February 2nd, 2013What an appropriate title for this unit! It seems that many of my classmates, myself included, have found ourselves going back to the drawing board. We have each showed our shares of pretty and some ugly as well. Although I have to admit this at first seemed like a symptom of failure, I realize now that it is really just process at work. In order to confront our heuristic biases and normal ways of achieving solutions, we sometimes have to walk through the difficult task of forming ideas and throwing them away. I didn’t realize how attached I was to looking at literal solutions to solving problems in design. Maybe I’ve watched too many episodes of Madmen or I’ve just been communicating in the corporate world for too long, but I constantly find myself trying to force clever taglines for my solutions. Sometimes as designers, our goal will not be to “sell” but rather to “speak.” I am trying now to take a step back and see more meaningful connections between my three words “coffee,” “drone,” and “arrest.” This project is particularly challenging because of the broadness of it and because of the short time limit to execute the final product. I’m sure I’m not alone among my classmates in that in my profession I often have much clearer outlines of what is expected of me in regard to both content and media. This project, however, is wide open! The amazing thing is that though our words seem like they couldn’t be more different than each other, many of us are exploring the same themes. Some are confronting gender issues, while others are addressing poverty or environmental concerns.
I’m happier with my ideas the second time around, though I haven’t finished fleshing them out visually yet. Who knows, I may end up back at the drawing board again before I achieve my “pretty.” I love reading through the dialogue on the discussion board. Everyone is really passionate about their projects, and you can tell simply by the number of posts! Even when I read comments on others’ works, it is causing me to think about my own work in a new way. In the end, our ideas will have to communicate to a broader audience, and this group is a perfect test for that. It’s also reassuring to see that we’re all in the same boat, navigating these challenges together.