Michelle Wolfarth's Blog

My self-assessment for Project A visual presentation – let’s see how objective I can be!

Presentation Topic Introduction
I thought the introduction was fine, but I debated for a long time if the introduction to the definition of “DIY Design” was too long.  I kept thinking about cutting it back, but what I found most interesting during my research was that it was the hardest part to do.  We all assume DIY is just “do it yourself” but when I actually thought about it, graphic designers “do it” themselves, so I felt it was important.  What I found most revealing, and something I’m considering exploring for Project B is if the DIY debate is fueled by the actual lack of a definition.

Presentation Tone
Tone was acceptable, but I think I could have tried to be a bit more casual, accentuate phrases better and slow down a bit

Vocabulary Presentation
There were a few times I would differ in how I referred to DIY, sometimes it was DIY Design and others it was DIY Graphic Design.  I need to make sure I am consistent in the phrase in order not to get confusing.
Visual Presentation:
I was pleased with the presentation, I had more animation ideas in my mind, but have to admit that time constraints just caught up with me.  I also think I could have used more imagery to support what I was saying towards the end, particularly the section about the pros and cons.

Presentation Flow
I thought it flowed well, but ended a bit abruptly.  I was unsure how much I should go into a conclusion without seeming to take a side – that was my biggest challenge.  So, what I tried to do was set the stage for Project B.

Presentation Timing
I was pleased with the timing.  There were a few mistimed elements, specifically the Martha Stewart section, but all in all I was good with it.

When looking back at my original definition of graphic design during Unit 1, not much has changed.  I still define it as the way I communicate with others.  However, what has changed is my view on design thinking.  To be honest, I hadn’t given it much thought before this class, and hadn’t really even thought much about the term.  After going through the Bootcamp Bootleg writings and exercises, design thinking became a term that meant a lot to me.  Prior to reading it I would just think of things as “creative blocks”  or I would just brainstorm in my head.  Now I realize that design thinking is about more than just brainstorming ideas, it’s also about making exploring opportunities between unseen connections.  Typically someone would ask for a business card design, or a website and I would say “ok, what should I do?”  I didn’t really take the time to explore connections between design items that may never occur to me; I totally jumped into the obvious and thought I’d make it original by doing some new design element.  Now I realize that it’s valuable to take that time before working on a piece to “think outside the box.”

Another element that has evolved since the beginning of this class is understanding I do have heuristic bias’ within the way I design.  I always thought I didn’t and that I was pretty open to all things.  But, after exploring our discussions, talking with classmates, and again reading through the Bootcamp Bootleg I realized I am guilty of many of the patterns a designer can fall prey to:  jumping to the obvious solution, making the surface connection and not really challenging myself.  So, while my definition of graphic design remains in tact, I do interpret elements within graphic design differently.

With our mid-term projects due next week I found my design thinking mind has been on overload the past few days; trying to brainstorm this, sketch that, research over there and type a blog here.  I posted two blog entries earlier tonight and then sat down for a little retail therapy and brain numbing with a cup of tea and a brownie.  I visited some of my usual favorite shopping sites to see what was new and if anything good was on sale and then I typed in one of my favorite t-shirt stores into my browser:  http://www.creativegrowthforeverybody.com/.  The website is Creative Growth for Everyone and it is the collaborative partner with the Creative Growth Art Center in California.  There mission is to serve adults with mental and physical disabilities in a studio environment for artistic development, gallery, exhibition,and representation.   The center hosts exhibits and offers classes in a wide range of art categories and they sell many of the items made by the studio artists on the Creative Growth for Everybody website.

I love this organization and the thoughtful campaigns they produce to help raise awareness and spread voices for those who may not have the opportunity to do for themselves.  After a long week of work and school and feeling frustrated I was browsing through the shirts and happened to click on one of the artist’s bios.  I felt inspired and fortunate to be a designer who gets to be in the same community as these inspiring artists and it made me appreciate the voice I get the opportunity to explore every day.  While I stepped away from school work to rid my design frustration, I found myself appreciating it even more and reminding myself to never take my opportunities for granted.  It’s amazing where we can find inspiration, especially when we’re not looking.

Some of the products from the website:

I have to be honest that I have really been struggling with Exploration A during this quarter.   I haven’t felt inspired, but confused and unsure of what the project is about.  I found myself talking through things with my classmates and posting sketches, but it still felt boring and expected.  I was ready to just throw my hands up and then I read an article for GRDS 701 Bootcamp Bootleg that presents new ways of design thinking.  I read through the article prepared to write a blog entry for my other class about it and found myself stopping my blog entry to brainstorm for Exploration A.  Ideas were racing through my mind and I kept flipping the pages of my sketchbook to try and get down the images in my head.  It was great!  I finally felt “unstuck” and inspired to share it with one of my partners that was feeling a similar frustration.  We went through some of the different design thinking methods and caught ourselves saying “Oh! What if you tried this!”  or “Wouldn’t it be cool if it did this.”  I felt so relieved after our last brainstorming session and perhaps what I will turn in will actually be good!

As I sat down to read through some of the other discussion posts and saw our original Unit 1 discussion questions about Creativity and Design Process, particularly Jonah Lehrer’s video that poses the idea that the creative journey begins with a moment of frustration.  When I originally responded to the post I didn’t agree with that statement, but after our assignments in Exploration A, I would most definitely agree with the idea the journey starts with frustration.  If I hadn’t been so frustrated, I would not have stepped away and reconsidered new ways of approaching my design opportunity.  Then I started to think, perhaps all of our exercises up this point was to get us to this level of frustration that we then force our old ways of design thinking to submitting and making way for new opportunities.  Whether that was the goal of the exercises up to this point I have not idea, but I do have to admit that my brainstorming would not have been as productive if I hadn’t felt that level of frustration.

I’ve been struggling with a project for another GRDS class and trying to find a new way of approaching a design opportunity and was not having any luck.  It was perfect timing that I sat down to read the Bootcamp Bootleg material because it helped me try new approaches to not only solving the design problem, but also approaching the problem in new ways.  My design opportunity revolves around tying three words together:  coffee mug, Freud and wean and up to this point, most of my ideas were fairly expected.  After reading the material there were two methods that really helped spark new ideas.

The first method was Prototyping with Empathy that emphasizes discovering not only what you can learn about a product, but also the person who is using it.  What I thought most helpful was the step of sitting down with a non-design person in the environment I was designing for and just talking.  We went to a coffee shop, got our drinks and just sat down, watched people and talked.  I noticed I stopped approaching the opportunity as a project and more as a person who might use it.  My friend, the non-designer, had amazing input of what they would enjoy using, what would make sense to them as a person who would never read my design brief, or understand the background of the project.  I realized that I was making the solution much more difficult than it needed to be and this reminded me of my theory of “thinking wrong” and how sometimes in design “thinking wrong” can sometimes mean you’re thinking too much.  We had a blast sketching on paper and just talking about how one thing may be really cool, and how it would be even cooler if it did this, or that.

After our experience with Prototyping with Empathy, another light bulb went off and I reread the section on Brainstorm Selection and the method of thoughtfully exploring specific brainstorm ideas to develop them further.  I used the four-category method to choose which brainstorming ideas to explore that included “ the rational choice, the most likely to delight, the darling, and the long shot.”  By exploring this range of ideas, I found myself trying to find a way to merge them together and sketching ways to take an obvious solution, morph it into something the audience will enjoy and is unexpected.  I think the benefit of the four-category method is encouraging myself to not limit my design ideas into one particular category.  If it fits only into one will it accomplish my mission?  And it encouraged me not to ignore an idea just because it may seem “out there.”

As I wrote earlier, I was feeling very stuck on this design opportunity project and after trying the methods outlined in the Bootcamp Bootleg article I discovered ideas that were no where to be found in my original concept.  My design opportunity became fun again, opposed to just a project I was trying to finish.

Working on our Project A play and exploration lessons has been so interesting.  I think what has intrigued me the most is the “blind” factor behind each exploration.  We don’t know what the end product will be, or what the goal the end product may produce.  It’s a very foreign concept from my day to day job where there is always a clear goal established before I start creating.  I know the problem I’m trying to solve and it drives my creative process.  For Project A, I just take it one step at a time and I have no restrictions for my thought process.

What I also thought was interesting was to build on the other students lists; read through the words they wrote and see the same, or different, direction I may go.  It made me stop and wonder what made someone come up with that word, and also examine what made me go in another direction.

I’m so excited to see what is going to be next with the projects and how we will build off our first three exercies.