Research task:

Gain a fresh insight about the project you are developing. You might choose to reflect on the feedback and comments made by staff and your peers or your engagement with your target audience.

I was a little disappointed with the feedback I got in week 8 on my idea for brief 2. It was just a ‘yes, nice idea’, but no constructive feedback. Nevertheless, I spoke to Louis from the study programme and we thought a bit about what we could do for the video. Could we do something completely different in the video? Or should the video show something we couldn’t find in the pdfs? Louis also mentioned something our tutor Paul had said in the last module. ‘Make a good point when you break the rules’.

Louis had a really good idea of what I could do with the hexagons in the video. He said I could go with some friends and draw them with chalk. But I told him that I couldn’t make the hexagons interactive that way. So I told him that maybe I could use paper to imitate the interactive part. The problem is that I don’t know many people here (Louis said I could mention that as a challenge when doing the video) , and also it was snowy and rainy, so I couldn’t really do anything on the floor. But I had another idea to imitate an app by cutting out papers….

I also thought that maybe in brief 2 I can show that not everything can be digitised and done with AI => forest as a real environment; To go further, the objects could be connected in some way to what the user sees in the environment. E.g. wood -> wooden furniture; underground -> railway in the past etc.

1 brief video: Go to the bakery, show long lines (maybe zoom in?); Then the bakery in the city with tips

Interviews with practitioners

Q: Describe a case study when innovative design thinking and fresh insight enabled a surprising project outcome

M. Jones from the agency Accept and Proceed talks about hiding a message, a little background story, so that people can discover it (Rapha cycling: design pattern based on cyclists tour¹)

How to use graphic design to sell things ( book by Michael Beirut)

“most important characteristic for a great brand is consistency […] working with just one typeface […] is a model of consistency” (p.48)

Also he talks about a children’s museum he helped to design the branding. And he didn’t think about museums in general but about “what makes this particular children’s museum special” (p. 101). I would have liked to visit the Science Museum in London to see more of what it’s all about. Just seeing the online presence doesn’t seem enough to me.

99U, (2019) Joel Beckerman: Designing With Sound

Music triggers memories. Sound is underused in design, but can influence behaviour. Beckerman suggests: more sound first design

Webinar 21.11

Equip visitors with critical thinking skills and knowledge to unpack and question historical relations of power -> not just tell them what to think

How to deal with sensitive items from the collection?

• Canadian Museums Association: “More than giving back”

• Entryways: Nontsikelelo Mutiti: “Mutiti blends African hair braiding patterns with ironwork symbols, in a design that highlights their roles as markers of identity, culture, and protection”². She “incorporates [these] braid renderings with symbols traditionally found in decorative architectural features first created by enslaved blacksmiths from West Africa. These designs are now found across the United States and the larger diaspora, including the ironwork forms on windows, railings, and doors across Philadelphia, creating a shared diasporic visual language.”³

I find Mutiti’s designs very interesting. How she combines these patterns that look very beautiful and decorative, but have a bigger story behind them.

1. https://www.creativereview.co.uk/accept-proceed-creates-pattern-based-on-rider-data-for-raphas-pro-team-collection/ ↩︎
2. https://artguide.artforum.com/artguide/institute-of-contemporary-art-university-of-pennsylvania-240/nontsikelelo-mutit-entryways-226083 ↩︎
3. https://icaphila.org/press_releases/artist-nontsikelelo-mutiti-to-transform-ica-philadelphias-facade-into-large-scale-public-artwork-in-partnership-with-maharam/ ↩︎