eissacoohk

Effectively Communicating Information

[eissacoohk-blog]

‘Share The Love’ Final Project on Behance

https://www.behance.net/gallery/30357829/Share-The-Love-Project

[eissacoohk-blog]

REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

This minor project was a rather interesting one. Having ended up being quite experimental in nature, I found that I really wasn’t sure for quite some weeks where the project would eventually end up. In some ways that was exciting, but nerve-racking at the same time. Exciting in the sense, we didn’t really know what would come out of this project, yet nerve-racking because (for the same reason) we didn’t know what was going to happen, what we were meant to do, what path or process we were meant to take to get to the final stage. In the end we got there, which is a relief. I’ve honestly never favoured experimental design before, because I felt like I would be lost and have absolutely no idea what on earth I should be doing. 

Briana and I really went all over the place with our experimentation and process. We started out with our location as Auckland City Mission. From this we came up with the idea or theme of ‘lights’ as a symbol of hope. Our aim was to raise awareness and reflect the Auckland City Mission in a more positive light. In doing so, also increase donations that helps the organisation in the good work it does. Much of the promotional material for the Auckland City Mission, is often gloomy, or negatively oriented and we felt it didn’t really reflect the good work the Mission does on a daily basis – help people. This sparked the idea for the lights theme. From there we spent a few weeks coming up with a theoretical idea and visual mood board of the whole lights scheme. However when we came to present it to the class in a formative presentation there were a lot of points and issues brought up. The key things being, not all the aspects of our light scheme were necessary (some didn’t really have a strong purpose) and our entire project was rather technology heavy, which would pose some difficulties being that we have no clue on how to design such things. Over the next few weeks, our ideas diverted to other methods, posters, typography based designs, but with the guidance of our tutor, we eventually ended back up with our lights idea, but with an added element of the umbrella. 

The umbrella is a representation of shelter and protection, and this is something we both felt had a strong tie to the Auckland City Mission since they in fact help the homeless, giving them shelter and protection as them help them get back on their feet. The umbrella can also be used as a gesture of kindness, a gesture of sharing. This sparked the name and message of the project ‘Share the love’. Just as you might help a stranger by sharing your umbrella, we want people to share the love by not only donating to the Mission so they can help the homeless, but to encourage people to do small acts of sharing and kindness. 

As part of experimental process, Briana and I did some experiments using cocktail umbrellas. We used these as a cost-effective way to explore and better understand the umbrella and how it could be used to create a ‘bigger picture’. Using that as a spring board we brainstormed what event or installation we could create out of it, and what content we wanted to show in order to convey the message and stories of ‘Share the love’. This sparked the dome of umbrellas installation filled with messages (words) on the outside, and acts/stories of sharing the love on the inside. This aspect in particular became the added value of our project. While the dome itself is made of umbrellas and together signifiers protection and shelter, the entire installation is lit up (tying back to our light theme and signifying hope). Then the designed content of hope-inspired words and acts of sharing illustrative stories on the umbrellas themselves adds yet another layer of value to the installation. As a whole the installation adds value to the Auckland City Mission by portraying it in a positive, more compassionate light compared to what it is currently perceived as. It encourages people to share the love through acts of kindness, and donate to the good cause of the Auckland City Mission so they can help the homeless.

This is my second/third team project this year. And as I found in my other team projects, I really enjoyed and relished the experience of having to work in a team. Not only does it provide valued collaborative experience, I felt (particularly for this project), working in a team helped me to be able to push the boundaries, more so than I would have dared to do on my own. Having Briana as a my team mate was great support when it came to our experimental design. Because we’re forced to endure the hardships of our project wherever it might have taken us together, it lessened the burden of doing something way out of our comfort zones. As I said before, I’ve never really done experimental design, nor have I favoured doing it, purely because I felt I would be confused and lost. However, having done it (hopefully) successfully for this paper, I feel like I have a bit of experience in this process method. I think experimental design really allows a project to expand and explore to its full creative potential. Had we not pushed and explored further from our lights idea, we would have ended up with a rather meaningless design (looking back on it now). Only by experimenting and exploring our ideas further were we able to come up with the concept of umbrellas and the inside story/outside message to go with it, thereby creating a more meaningful project that adds value instead of merely being aesthetically ‘cool’. 

Briana was great to work with. I believe we got on well and were able to freely discuss our project. There were times we didn’t quite agree on things, but we were always able to come to a compromise and move forward. I felt out of all the partners I’ve worked with so far, what I found was great about working with Briana is that we were truly able to critique and improve our ideas, if I suggested something she would really think about it and honestly let me know what she thought – good or bad, whether she thought it was a good idea or not. I felt this was one of the great things about our collaboration, I think being able to really discuss what works and doesn’t is the key to getting a good design coming out from team work. I feel sometimes there is the potential to get partners who will agree with just about anything you say, and offer little to no input themselves. Luckily I haven’t had a partner like that. I do feel though, out of all my partners so far this year Briana was one of the best at doing this.

Because our project was for the most part experimental and not quite what the rest of the class seemed to be doing (it felt a lot of the other groups were doing ‘signage’ based designs for their locations), Briana and I did feel lost and confused at times. I don’t think we really had a clear path to the finish up until the last 3 or 4 weeks. In a way that is pretty scary if you consider we’ve had almost 14/15 weeks for this project. However, I like to think we couldn’t have gotten to the place we’ve brought this project to, if we hadn’t allowed ourselves to explore and experiment in the way we did (and as guided by our tutor).

Overall while I rather enjoyed this experimental process, I probably wouldn’t attempt to do such a thing on my own in the near future. It’s certainly something best left to a team project. The uncertainty in where it will lead and take you is not something I feel fond of at this stage of my design career. However, this minor project will certainly prove useful and a valuable experience to draw from should I ever need to add an experimental element to a project in the future. (I just don’t think I feel up to doing a project entirely based on experimental design alone.) The experimental bits of the process were certainly the most fun – cutting out paper, playing with mini umbrellas, cutting and pasting things together. I think the challenging part of the whole process was coming up with the idea – a good solid idea that had meaning and added value. It seems the idea generation (of a good idea at least) is always the trickiest part of the process. And was certainly one our team dwelled on and changed for a large part of the process.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 15 HAND IN WEEK

This week, ahead of the due date, Briana and I have met up at uni to work on the final stages of the project. This mainly involved creating the content for the final presentation of the project on Behance. Over the weekend, we both created the content for the outside message (Briana) and inside stories (Cassie). And also proceeded to draw up some mock ups using the 3D paper model we had created last week. We used these on their own and also placed in situation in Aotea Square. My task over the weekend was to complete the start of the series of blob characters for the inside of the umbrellas as above. Together when we met up today, we both collaborated on the in situation and 3D mock up views of the umbrella dome and the other images you will see on the Behance page.

We’ve now uploaded these images, written a project description and posted the project on Behance. 

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 14 CLASS

This week was our last class. Briana and I met up earlier to make a better mock up of the dome, this time in the correct colours.

Doing this exercise really helped us to see how it works, and what it might look like. It was a good way to take the idea out of our heads and into a tangible form. We also played around with the patterns on the outside to make it a bit more interesting. Like the inside, half the umbrella will be coloured while the other half (with the four letter words) will be white.

The donation box that goes in the centre of the dome would look a bit like this, It would have a weight at the bottom (hidden inside) which ensures it isn’t able to be taken away. It would have a glass/acrylic section at the top which people can put their donations in.

Briana will be putting the text onto the donation box. The text we’re thinking of is:

We will be bringing in the characters from the umbrella illustrations onto the box to help tie it together. By having the characters and also the text ‘Share the love’ in the same type as the outside words on the umbrella, will create a system linking everything together.

On Monday, after my classes, I went to take some images of Aotea Square which we will use to create in situation images for our final project presentation piece. This will help to show our project in its intended situation and give a better indication of how it might work.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 13 CLASS

On Wednesday, Briana and I met up briefly for an hour to discuss our project a bit more. We went over the ‘macro’ aspect of the design. Last week, G said he felt we were straying away from the bigger picture of the project. Later on Briana and I talked about it. And we both felt we were just focusing in on the ‘micro’ aspect last week with the character drawings and umbrella design. We hadn’t lost our ‘macro’ or bigger picture of the project. But rather felt by having a design for the umbrella, it would be easier to decide on the best matching ‘macro’ way to showcase it. We decided to go with the dome of umbrellas idea. Creating a dome out of umbrellas. The outside would have a the text/words (done by Briana) and the inside the illustrations (done by me). The dome linked back to the idea of protection and shelter. 

In the center of the dome, we decided that it would be a good idea to place a donation box. The kind of donation box we’re thinking of looks like this...

We figured a cylinder-like donation box would be suitable as the center piece of our installation. It would be another layer of information that encouraged people to donate right there on the spot after/while interacting with the installation. But there would also be a prompt to go donate online. 

The way we’re thinking of putting in the lighting aspect of it is to: 1. Use layers of fabric/material over a flexible LED light panel, this would light up the illustrations and outside text from underneath. Giving it a glow. 2. Use spotlights to light up the inside. 3. Use fairy lights and line the edges of each umbrella.

Over the week I drew up the ‘blob’ characters in their different actions. I really like how well these turned out to be. I even tested out the full circle illustration on the inside of the umbrella. This first attempt didn’t turn out so well. The placement of the clouds made it look weird.

Instead I decided to go for a simpler approach and just have the characters on it (see below). I initially did the umbrella scene with a lot of rain, however both G and Briana pointed out it was too much, saying by doing so it didn’t quite match with the other ones. I should probably tone down the rain. Just a few drops here and there.

I intend to continue doing a few more of the illustrations in order to show it is the start of a series. 

In the class, Briana and I spent most of the class creating this mock up of the dome idea we had come up with. This was a very rough mock up to test and see whether or not the idea would work or not. The two holes on the top of the dome (as the octagon isn’t a tessellating shape) would be used to support the dome. Most likely we would but poles to help hold the dome up and keep it from flying away. G seemed to really like this. Though he did say we should always try to make things like this in a form that can be easily used for other stuff. So in this case we should have used white paper to create this, as our umbrellas are intended to be white.

As for our final presentation of our project. Briana and I have decided to put our final work on a share Behance project page. This works well as it is a professional platform on which to display our work, and also means its ready for future use in our portfolio.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 12 CLASS

This week in class we worked on the actual designing of the interior and exterior of the umbrellas. Over the week, before class, I started drawing some sketches of the characters we might use to show the story on the inside of the umbrella. Because we wanted it to be abstract, yet resemble a human in their basic essence we thought of doing either a monkey or a simple ‘blob’.

I tried the monkey first. But even with several references and different attempts it wasn’t quite what I wanted it to be and what I needed to show. Part of this is probably due to my lack of skills when it comes to drawing anatomy. So I tried the blobs next.

These were much easier to draw and illustrate in the different actions I needed it to do. They were also pretty anonymous and less gender specific, which would have been tricky to do with the monkeys. In doing so I think there is less chance of tying the action to a specific gender or kind of person and instead getting across the core of the message more immediately.

I also sketched out a ‘scene’ version using the blobs on the inside of the umbrella to test what it might look like and how it might work in context. The other way to go about it was instead of doing the whole half of the umbrella, I should just do 2 sections (out of the 8 panels that made up an umbrella).

I brought these all drawings to class and discussed them with Briana. After some discussion, I decided to try illustrating them in vector format using Adobe Illustrator, to see what it would look like in it ‘final’ form. We mocked it up onto an umbrella to get a better sense of it. While we both liked the ‘blob’ characters and decided to go ahead with them, we also felt the arrangement wasn’t working as well. So I was to explore that and come back next week with some other options.

We also discussed the text/copy that would go on the outside of the umbrella, as Briana had been tasked to cover this and come up with some words. Some of the words she came up with were hope, care, love, sharing. 

She initially tried mocking it up on an umbrella like so. However I felt like it didn’t quite have the right warmth to it. Looking at how she had drawn the type in her notebook, I suggested she do it in a hand-written style instead. It felt more authentic and personal, something you can never quite achieve with a perfectly crafted typeface like the one used above.

Image above: Pictures of Briana’s workbook. The left image shows the hand type I was referring to above.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 11 CLASS

Today in class we were able to come up with a solid idea of what we’re going to do with the umbrellas. Now we need to test that idea out and start creating it.

We started the class talking over with G our initial chosen idea. Which is to use the umbrella and make a dome of light from within the umbrella. Then to add some kind of information layer from within the umbrella.

He though it was a good idea and had potential to work well. However what we were lacking was the information layer – of course we had thought about how to show the information, but we hadn’t yet determined what exactly that information would be.

Some of the ideas that came out of our discussion with G for the information was as follows:

Word cloud of values that relate to the mission

Practical or philosophical information messages that people can empathise with rather than just ‘Donate now’.

Show events or things the Mission does

Sentences around the umbrella (two ways of reading it)

Poems that can be read one way in a negative light, but another way in a positive light.

Facts > though it might be too boring/negative

Broader messages that merge information we’ve collected from the mission and the umbrellas (safety/protection)

Share the love > become a tagline to support a bigger general message/statement

Connect audience to the people at the mission

Routine of homeless people

Pictures of homeless people

Positive, uplifting message/information

Translation of activities happening inside the mission

Modular system

System of type

After G left, Briana and I continued discussing and started narrowing down these ideas of information. First we decided instead of doing a website (which would be a trans-media project and a bit too much for a minor paper) we could have people walking around with umbrellas collecting donations. This would be of a second priority/layer. They would be connected to the light dome installation by the symbol of the umbrella and the style.

For the information, we came up with the idea to do it visually. Have a scene depicting on the outside of the umbrella, something negative – such as having no food and being hungry. Then on the inside showing that same scene but in a positive light – so the act of giving or sharing food. To make it not so literal, and easier for all audiences to digest, we thought of using icons or a character as a metaphor to show this. The main message here is you can take something negative and make it into something positive. This ties back into the idea of sharing the love. We want to show people to do acts of kindness, and they can share this act of kindness in many ways, one being a donation towards the Auckland City Mission. As explained earlier, we would have a second layer which is the donation umbrella people, somehow with a line/sentence getting people to donate, perhaps also with the character on it too. However we need to be careful not to say it outright, like ‘Donate now’, but say something that will grab their attention and make them empathize, and if they have seen the installation, associate it with that. Already having the person there with a donation bucket already implies they’re collection donations so that doesn’t need to be re-stated.

Some other things would be to research how we would light the inside of the umbrella up. This would be the only technical element to our design if we still wanted to go ahead with the light aspect. Otherwise it would just be putting a design on to the inside and outside of an umbrella.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 10 CLASS

This week in class Briana and I went over the ideas and drawings we had come up with over the week. 

Both of us had similar ideas, one was simple basic people (faceless people) kinda like stick figures, posing in different acts that you would find homeless people doing – sitting on the sidewalk, sleeping on the sidewalk, looking in a rubbish bin, etc.

I also had a look into some metaphors for homeless people, as I thought this might be a better way to portray it rather than literally a person. One such metaphor I came across was ‘hidden in plain sight’, which is very much true, Briana and I had discussed several times that its often the case people walk past a lot of these homeless people as if they weren’t there, hence hidden in plain sight. They’re there but you don’t really see them or take notice. So this sculpture would highlight that fact.

Another more abstract metaphor I came across through discussions with my family was an umbrella. Turns out Briana had thought of this too. It represents a gesture of kindness, shelter, protection, etc. So when we met up in class and talked over it, we thought it would be a good idea to include this as part of our sculpture/installation. We first had the idea of making our faceless stick figure character hold it. The idea was to ‘Share the love’ through the idea that just like you would help a stranger from the rain by sharing your umbrella with them, help a homeless person, perhaps not by sharing your home with them, but donating to the Mission, so the Mission can help them – sort of a sharing cycle/pass on the sharing or help.

At this point, G came around to see where we were up to. We told him our idea, and he suggested we just explore the umbrella idea. To take that and really experiment and explore rather than come up with final solutions straight away. To analyze and deconstruct the umbrella by its functions, shapes and forms and experiment with other ways of using that. In other words to stem off the idea of literally a person holding an umbrella, but to take the umbrella as the main ‘unit’ and create something from there.

So with that in mind, we both did some exploratory sketches of other ways of presenting an umbrella while still retaining that shelter/protection purpose. We then stepped out of class and went to buy a pack of those small cocktail umbrellas to do some experimenting with.

This was a rather fun process. We didn’t really think about anything, and just kinda played with the umbrellas and took pictures of the things we had come up with. At the end of class, Briana and I decided that we would take a look at what we had come up with so far and try and see if we could pull some possible solutions from it. 

We would also need to look into somehow incorporating an information layer as a design on the umbrella. And look at how we’re going to design and layout the donating/second layer of information website.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 9 CLASS

This week in class, Briana and I got started on our idea we had come up with over the holidays. We brainstormed what the posters would say, and how it might visually look. I drew these ones up in class, trying to test the wording and the style we were going for. 

We also sketched out a rough idea of what the website might look like. As below. Basically the idea here is to have one main scrolling page, with all the information presented as visually as possible. It aims to tell the story of homelessness in Auckland, so people can be more informed about the issue and therefore be more confident in their decision to donate and support in order to help eliminate the issue — knowing of course where exactly the money they’re donating is going to go. Throughout the main page will be donation buttons. This will lead to the second main page on the website, where people will be encouraged to fill out their details to donate. On this page, it would be good to reinforce the idea that their money is being used well by showing them where donations have been going within the Mission. From research, this seemed to be a factor that prompted people to donate more.

Near the end of class, G came around to check up on where we were at. We presented our new idea to him. However, he felt we were limiting ourselves by stepping away fro the light concept which had more of an exploratory opportunity and possibilities. He therefore suggested we should go back to that idea. Both Briana and I weren’t sure we could pull off the idea to a finished standard – i.e. making the actual light sculpture. However, G assured us that it would not need to be that complex. As long as we were knowledgeable and were able to explain how it worked in detail then there was no reason we could draw a realistic looking sculpture over an photo to show how it worked. In this sense it was more a design proposal rather than an actual finished product. I guess its because neither of us are product design students, we weren’t really sure. But I do agree with what G was saying here in the sense it has better potential for further exploration than this poster idea we were going for did. 

So with that in mind, we told G about our other idea (which we had come up with over the holidays) which was instead of doing the whole system of an interactive installation, directional lights, an information pathway and lighting up the Mission and Hobson St, which as we determined before was a bit much. We decided that we would focus on one or two things. This idea involved multiple smaller light sculptures dotted around the city. During the day they would act as sculptures, but during the night they would act as lamps. Other possibilities to be included into this sculpture it to make it a form of collecting donations, in addition to it informing and directing people online to learn more and hopefully donate. In a way this would still be using our idea from the posters of directing people online. But we would instead replace the posters with these light sculptures. And compared to our very first idea, there would only be two elements to the project. The light sculptures and the website. Which would mean it isn’t such an overwhelming task and we can get into more detail about it and refine it more.

For next week, Briana and I have tasked ourselves with coming up with ideas for the character of the sculpture. Hopefully with some conceptual drawings. We really need to push forward with the idea and stick with something. Would also need investigate materials, processes and such.

[eissacoohk-blog]

RESEARCH

So I’ve been tasked with the researching of the website we’ll be creating to inform and encourage people to donate to the Auckland City Mission to help the homeless, and others at risk of being homeless because they are currently living in poverty. The best way to solve a problem/issue, is to identify and work to eliminate the causes. 

Good examples of non-profit donation websites. http://wiredimpact.com/blog/great-nonprofit-donation-pages/

What these websites seem to be doing right...

• Give a visual, often a person, to instantly connect the donor to who they are helping • Informing potential donors what donations is currently being used for – how it is helping these people • Even on the donation form page there is a clear visual about where the donation is going to be used. >> builds trust with the donors. • Break it up into missions. Compels people to donate. Help the visitor understand the purpose and range of the organisation on the donate page. • Powerful and concise copy • Visual elements to draw the eye, get the message across faster. • Big call-to-action buttons • Positive/informative statistics • Educate and inform people about where the donations go, and how it is helping people.

5 Tips to get donations for charity/non-profits by Nielsen Norman Group

http://www.nngroup.com/articles/donations-nonprofit-charity-online/

It is important to address what the visitor needs to know. Answer the questions they want answered – they’re not going to spend the time looking for it themselves. If you can do this then they will be more likely to donate as you have streamlined the process. Inform them. Answer their questions. Call-to-action button >>> donate. 

1. What the organisation does and its purpose. Explain clearly and succinctly. 2. Be transparent. Disclose upfront how donations are used. People feel more compelled and confident to know their donation is being used to its maximum potential. 3. Show anything that raises the profile of the organisation, testimonials, reputation, endorsements, recommendations. This makes the organisation appear more credible and reliable. 4. Make sure the donate link or button is clear and easy to locate on the page. ‘Donate’ or ‘Donate now’ are the best phrases for this. 5. Streamline the donation process. Don’t over complicate it. Simple, easy to navigate and understand is key. Donors want to be able to donate quickly, easily and successfully. Mimic the checkout process. This is something familiar to users donating online. They are already familiar with the e-commerce checkout process.

Pinterest board. The top pins show examples of how homeless/poverty stats could be presented. Visual is the way to go about it. It makes the information easier and faster to digest. https://www.pinterest.com/eissacoohk/wayfinding/

Defining homelessness in NZ. Its not simply those sleeping rough out on the streets. Its also those who have no suitable, secure, permanent place they can call home.  http://nzceh.org.nz/about/Publications/homelessness_in_aotearoa.pdf • more than just about securing housing though. Its re-integration back into society and community. Skills to get and hold a job so they can support themselves.

Statistics • 1 in every 100 Aucklanders are without housing  >> half of these are under the age of 25. • 1 in 4 children live in poverty = 285,000 (2012) • 1 in 4 New Zealanders live in poverty = 622,000 (2013) • 68 people sleeping rough (within 3km of the Sky Tower) in 2013 • 147 people sleeping rough  (within 3km of the Sky Tower) in 2014 Auckland City Mission Facts & Figures • 210 older clients assisted in 2014 Homeless Services 2013/14 Visits to drop in 41,228 Hot drinks 222,835 Clothing 3,183 Activities 458 Emergency housing assessments 899 Homeless outreach contacts 181 Homeless new rough sleepers 303 Homeless housed 166

I intend to grab information from Auckland City Mission’s annual reports over the last few years to show how the Mission is making a difference with the donations they receive. If possible. Show a breakdown of where the money is going within the organisation, based on their financial reports. Its putting this information on the donation website, so people don’t have to go and find it themselves. Which is one of the points that come up in research. 

[eissacoohk-blog]

HOLIDAY BREAK

On Monday, Briana and I met up at uni for about 3 hours to discuss our project. After the feedback from our presentation, we decided to take a step back and go back to the drawing board for ideas. We were being a bit ambitious with the light idea, and in doing so, kinda lost sight of all the other aspects we need to consider for this project. We also veered away from a purpose and direction that would drive the project forward. And I felt this was probably why we couldn’t really get started on the designing earlier. 

In order to make sure we address all the aspects and elements of the project, I created this list of ‘What needs to be addressed?’ so when we came up with an idea, we could go through, and check to make sure it fits/addresses each point. This was formed from the requirements of the brief and also the points that were brought up from our formative presentation.

As we had established our rather ambitious first idea. We first decided to narrow down our focus group and target audience. And decide on the overall/final purpose of the project. Though the Mission targets a wide group of people, we decided to focus on the homeless, they ones that sleep rough on the streets and tell their story. Their daily life. Help to inform the more fortunate ones of the lives these people lead. As such our target audience for the project naturally became the general public who had the means to donate to help these people. The purpose is to inform people so they are more aware of and hence will hopefully donate to help get these people off the streets and into a better life.

Since I arrived early on the day of our meeting, I decided to do a bit of research that might help inform us both. I wondered what stops people from giving money to homeless people directly, on the streets? I found a few, but similar answers. Essentially, we don’t know how they will use it and will it just become and endless cycle of giving without anything really happening in the long term. My mini research on this can be found in the picture above.

I then went on to read a few articles about how in the US, to cost to get a homeless person off the streets, under a roof and with the skills to hold a job, is a lot less than it costs taxpayers to cover ER, medical, and those kind of services the homeless can’t afford and are continually using. While I’m not too sure if this situation is the same in NZ, I think there is a lot more to know about these people. Homelessness (from what I know) is something often out of these people’s control. The result of various circumstances, often poverty, which means they are unable to get a job to support themselves, feed themselves and get a roof over their heads. Sometimes it is simply easier or more affordable to sleep on the streets and live off the donations of passerbys.

After sharing my small research findings with Briana, we both continued by thinking of a few ideas. Ones that weren’t too ambitious, and certainly low-tech.

We then took these two ideas and went though our list, too think about and make sure it addressed the points we needed to cover. After doing that process, talking about it a bit more, we decided the ‘This is my...’ idea would be the best option. It addresses all our points well and it was an achievable task we could take forward.

The ‘This is my...’ idea is essentially to put artwork/posters in places homeless people frequent – rubbish bins, bus shelters, sidewalks. Showing how this is their equivalent of their dinner, home, bed. Things you and I take for granted in our everyday lives. In prior research, Briana and I have both found a lot of these posters on the ground, in unusual places, often places where a homeless person might reside (often a place we tend to avoid) can make for a powerful awareness campaign. And we thought this idea would allow us to grab attention and hence direct people online to a website, where they can be informed and encouraged to donate to help these people. This direction online is part of our wayshowing – in our talks we realised wayshowing doesn’t have to be literally a physical guide from A to B, but direct somewhere using signifiers, so we like to think that directing people to a website fits this aspect of the brief.

We quickly came up with a short list of where we would put these posters. Might have to do a bit more research to see if we’ve missed any.

After that we came up with a list of the tasks we need to do. Breaking it down into little chunks so we can get started and progress bit by bit over the semester.

Lastly we came up with a project timeline as G suggested, outlining our week by week milestones to make sure we can get everything done in due time.

After finishing the timeline, Briana and I took a walk down Queen St. Our main location and did a bit of research and photo-taking of rubbish bins, bus shelters and whatnot, which would act as the locations for our posters.

This meet up was certainly a productive one and really helped us to get back on track with our project. All that’s left now is to get started. Our first task as per our new project schedule, is to find information and research that will be used in our project – the website infographic and physical posters.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 6: FORMATIVE PRESENTATION

Today was the last class before the break. It was also our formative presentation assessment to check where each team was up to. This was a good opportunity to get feedback on our own project and see what everyone else was up to, particularly because Briana and I weren’t too sure if we were on the right track, and progressing enough. 

The presentations were every helpful. In some ways it helped to clarify what we were supposed to actually do for the project – as some aspects of the project were still murky, particularly because the location and idea Briana and I want for our project isn’t as straight forward as everyone else’s seems to be. 

In the end many good points about our lights idea were brought up after we presented it to the class. Some very good points, that fortunately came at a good time. I think after the presentations, we both realised we might have been a bit too ambitious with our lights idea, and hadn’t really thought it out in full detail, which meant we were setting ourselves up for a whole lot of work, that wasn’t really achievable for the time we had to do it. While the light idea had potential and seemed it would be a really cool idea. We were probably too caught up in that and lost track of the other aspects that needed to be addressed.

Another point brought up was that we were lacking a storytelling/narrative element to it. I guess another effect of being too ambitious with the light idea. We needed to include this element in order to make it more purposeful and for it to have an added value.

One very big point that was brought up was the fact that our lights idea would require quite a bit of technology. While we were advised this was fine as long as we knew about what we were doing and could explain it, it would be better for this particular project (as G mentioned at the start) to opt for something more low-tech.

With the focus being lights, we only really thought about its use during the night. However the day time use should be just as important, and was something we needed to think about more. Could we keep or retain some of its value during the day – so its use and purpose is not limited to being active only at night?

A way to bring a temporary revamp to the Mission rather than its current feel/look of the early 20th century, was another point brought up from our presentation. I thought this was a good way to define the style we should go for. In order to appeal to people today, we should change up the style and make it contemporary to attract attention.

Having gotten all this feedback, Briana and I once again defined our Vision, Mission and Value.

Vision: To shed light on the mission (awareness) in a contemporary way (so it appeals to the public). Mission: Bring awareness. Value: Inform people about the positive work the mission does, so the Mission is better associated as a place of hope.

At this point we plan to meet up over the holidays for a session to come up with a solid idea, that really goes into detail and addresses the above points, and those stated in the brief. If we can get our idea to a stage where we can start working on the designs next half of the semester, we should be at a good place.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 5: LIGHTS

This week we spent our class putting together our research on lights, and coming up with an overall idea of how our project might be put together. 

From our research we started to brainstorm a sort of system that we would use. In a few stages to lead our audience to the mission from Aotea Square. As well as acting as a system that would raise awareness about the mission, it would also lead them, and guide people who might need help from the mission, to its location up on Hobson Street. 

After talking with G and discussing further about our idea of lights, Briana and I both settled on the theme of lights and magical/fantasy to underpin our light project idea to raise awareness for the mission.

Having established a theme, we were able to narrow down our ideas from research to ones that matched and worked for the theme. Definitely having a theme, and knowing what it is, helps to make decisions a bit easier. Thinking about this, I do realise now that at the beginning, we were essentially given free reins to do whatever we wanted at a location with a few general, vague guides. So it was important to establish a mission and aim to help guide and give a purpose to the project. It also helps to justify and decisions that need to be made, and keeps the focus from hopefully getting off track. So that was something I learnt about doing these kinds of projects.

Anyway, continuing on. The overall idea was to have directional lights/sculptures across the city that would point and direct you to the Aotea Square, where our main structure would be. Here we plan to have a main interactive structure that would get people interacting with it and hopefully learn more. From here, people would be guided to follow a pathway made of information (most likely a story) up to Hobson Street. Here in order to make the place more welcoming, we thought of putting fairy lights on the trees, since we found during our site visits, there were some big trees lined up along that street. For the building itself we were thinking of lighting that up in some way. And all these different sections/stages of the system would be linked by a similar style and the overall theme of lights. At least that’s the idea we have so far.

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 4: MINI PRESENTATION

This week in class each group did a mini presentation of the textures they found at their specific location after visiting it last week. It was a good way to see what the other groups were up to and what they were thinking of for their projects. The general consensus from the class was that our location looked cold, industrial, worn and run-down from the photos we presented, which matched what Briana and I had come up with when we sat down to analyze the photos last week. The class and G also suggested that because of the cold, worn down feel/atmosphere to the location, it would be good and possibly add value to the place if we were to do something that added a more compassionate, welcoming, lively feel to the place.

After everyone had finished their presentations, we went off into our pairs/groups to continue with our projects. Briana and I were still having difficulty trying to come up with a good idea, so we took this time to discuss things. We eventually started by deciding on a mission and aim for the project to help us get going.

We did some brainstorming around what we wanted to achieve and how or who we wanted to target. Eventually the idea of light came up. I had read somewhere that homeless people often choose to sleep during the day rather than at night. Instead of walking about during the day, they slept and wandered during the night, as it could become quite dangerous to sleep unprotected at night out on the streets. Hence the idea of light sounded like a good overarching idea for our project. It acted as a symbol of hope and also a physical way of making the place (city and mission) feel a bit safer. 

Both loving the concept behind the lights. We both decided to we’d go with that. And made a plan for the first few weeks as above. Because we hadn’t decided specifically what we wanted/needed to do for the project around lights, we decided to do an initial schedule and come back to it later.

Over the next week, before our next class, the task was to do some more thinking of what we could do with lights, and conduct some initial ideas and research into what could possibly work.

[eissacoohk-blog]

IDEAS

So far, Briana and I have been trying to come up with ideas for our project. Our location being Auckland City Mission. We’re trying to come up with something interesting that will add value to the location, or the people at the location, but also fulfil the specific requirements of the brief which is wayshowing and storytelling. And so far, I think that’s the part we’re stuck on. Trying to get the right idea that ticks all those boxes. 

[eissacoohk-blog]

WEEK 3: SITE VISIT 2

Dirty, worn out, tattered, rusty, chipped, dirt, rubbish, litter, scratched, concrete, murky, wood, detailed, gritty, grainy, heavy textures, geometric, structured, dark/deep colours, tired, old, lonely, cracked, grunge, messy, unkept, predominantly grey, brown, and green, occasional red or orange, cold, muddy, wet, nature, broken, dull, makeshift, metal. Overall a big contrast between nature and industrial >> all worn and messy.

In our studio class, G asked us to go visit our site, regardless of whether we had already done so in our self-study time as he assigned last week. But the catch was to look at it through a particular lens. The reason, he says, is to look at the site from a different perspective or view, which should help us see the site in a different light, and possibly see notice things we wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. Hence, Briana and I went to the site again and analysed it through its textures and surfaces. We explored the building and its surrounding areas, photographing any visible texture or surface we could spot. This exercise really narrowed our focus onto one thing and the photographs we got out of it, when analysed, helped us to get an idea of the mood or atmosphere of the place through the textures and colours we had documented in our photographs. 

When we got back to the studio afterwards, Briana and I sat down and looked through the photographs, creating this brainstorm of the feelings or moods we felt were conveyed through this documentation. Here is the list of words we came up with to describe the general gist of the photographs:

Dirty, worn out, tattered, rusty, chipped, dirt, rubbish, litter, scratched, concrete, murky, wood, detailed, gritty, grainy, heavy textures, geometric, structured, dark/deep colours, tired, old, lonely, cracked, grunge, messy, unkept, predominantly grey, brown, and green, occasional red or orange, cold, muddy, wet, nature, broken, dull, makeshift, metal. Overall a big contrast between nature and industrial >> all worn and messy.

[eissacoohk-blog]

FIRST SITE VISIT

On Wednesday, despite the gloomy weather, Briana and I were lucky to find a gap when it wasn’t raining to go up to Hobson St and visit the Auckland City Mission site. Aside from visiting the building itself, we also explored the surrounding areas to get a better idea of the environment and atmosphere of the place. Briana took some photographs of the general buildings and things we found interesting (as shown below). We felt the place was busier than expected. We both had thought it was going to be more deserted, but instead found that quite a considerable amount of people walk past the Auckland City Mission building and along Hobson St to other places. Though not as lively as Queen St, Auckland City Mission and Hobson St is quite open and well lit with natural light. It’s not too gloomy, or deserted. 

This site visit taught me that it is always important to go visit a site or location significant to your project in person. What is perceived in the mind, through outside influences, isn’t always reflective of its everyday, common atmosphere or feeling. In this case, the research I had done and photographs I had seen on the Auckland City Mission had put the idea in my mind that this was a rundown area, not many people went there unless they needed to. But in fact, when we actually went to visit the site in person, the feeling was quite the opposite. Sure it doesn’t have the hustle and jive of Queen St, with all its shops and people, but there is something more positive about that area than one might think.

Photography: Briana Taylor