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Reflection

Reflecting on the overall experiences gained in the studio classes, I feel that I was able to learn many different ways of thinking as we were encouraged to explore and question traditional methods of design and design thinking. Each class presented a very different perspective on design, teaching me that it is a multifaceted concept that can be interpreted differently by each individual.

The craft studio was the most obvious form of design as we were prompted to use our hands to create imagery from day and one. However, unlike most other students, the craft class although very enjoyable was my least favourite stream. As with the core class, everyone was eager to start designing something, to receive a brief and be given a direction, an outcome to work towards. I on the other hand, I enjoyed the learning process and was eager to collaborate with other students and relished the thought of formulating and creating something as class instead of solely being directed by the lecturer.

During the strategy studio, I was able to learn a new way of thinking, reacting and investigating and found the class extremely eye opening to the world of branding and marketing. It required me to think more logically and practically as well as creatively which made it very intellectually stimulating. Coming up with an actual design strategy myself really helped me to understand more about what companies do to attract target audiences. Even as a switched on designer, I find myself still being enticed by brands that target my specific demographic. However, after this class I have begun to pick apart all the advertisements I see around me and it’s beginning to drive me a bit insane! (in a good way)

The futures studio was one that I was confused by initially, but ended up really enjoying. The communication skills gained in this studio ended up helping me in the core studio as I felt more confident talking to others and felt that through both tasks I have become a better communicator with my fellow peers. The task itself was very clever as it was like working with a theoretical client (other than a lecturer) to create an outcome that was what they envisioned. It prompted not only talking, but drawing, scribbling, colouring, watching and analysing, broadening the way we communicate and prompt ourselves to tease out ideas and ask the right questions.

The core class, as confusing as it was to begin with was a very valuable and exciting learning experience, one that I was able to take many things away from. The FOOD event really gave me a great sense of community and belonging, I loved the way everyone banded together and collaborated to create such a quirky, fun and unique event. This of course would not have been possible without the energy and enthusiasm of Andy and April who inspired us and prompted us to create such a wonderful outcome. Overall, I felt our group had a very strong bond as we all pitched in to research, formulate and execute our contribution for the event. We were all able to communicate across multiple platforms effectively, and as a result, I would say our glasses were very successful!

This experience has helped me to be more unconventional, to be more hands on, to be innovative, to tackle obstacles alone and as a group and to communicate better through my designs and with my peers. I have come to learn that design is about more than just producing a final outcome, but is also about the process and the experience.

Fruit Salad (yummy yummy)

^^^ (Wiggles reference. I am very childish)

Finally it was time for the FOOD event to commence as we all ascended up the stairs to Alumni Courtyard to feast on fruit salad. Our group met beforehand to assemble the packages and give them to the tote bag group. I can say that the moment that we passed those envelopes over, a wave of relief washed over us as we had put a lot of love, time and effort into our glasses and were excited to see everyone wearing them.

On the walk to Queen Vic Markets, I had a moment when I looked back at everyone walking behind and in front of me and felt and overwhelming sense of belonging and community. This project was all about collaboration, working together as a team and communicating with others and to see everyone excitingly bustle their way to the markets as a 100 person it made me feel happy, proud and excited.

At the market, I used my seasonal fruit purchasing guide and bought an ugly mango that was a tad bit over ripe. After returning back to the event, even though I wasn’t part of the Maker’s group I decided to volunteer to help chop up the fruit. I still felt that strong sense of community and felt compelled to actively participate in the event as much as possible. Once I started cutting I really got into the zone and tried to cut as much up as possible, so much that we cut too much and the tarp began to slip from the weight of the fruit salad (which was delicious).

During the event, it was great to see and participate in each group’s contribution, from the tote bags to the coloured camera filters and the giant mouth entrance, I truly felt proud to be a part of such an event and of the work that everyone had completed to make it the success it was.

Specialist Module: Futures Stream

Disrupting Media with Peter West

This module was by far the most interesting and surprising of the semester and was a project that I ended up being really passionate about. We were given a partner and were to ask them about a song that was important to them in some way and asked questions to gain a visual understanding and representation of the song. My partner was the lovely Yuri, who chose the song ‘Ship and the Globe’ by Kae Sun. I am an avid music lover and relish the thought of discussing music with my fellow classmates, so it was clear to say in the least that I got very excited about this project.

The interaction with another classmate was like interacting with a potential client as we were to visually represent their interpretation of their chosen song in a suitable environment. I have done a couple small design jobs for people before, and usually the same sorts of questions come up and I find I am always left scratching my head a bit wondering where to start. Reflecting on this experience, we were able to learn new ways of thinking and interacting with classmates/clients that enabled us to tease out more information and to gain a stronger understanding of what our client wanted us to communicate their idea.

From Yuri’s song, I was able to create two dreamy images featuring lyrics from the song that I felt embodied her story best. I then turned these images into postcards and photographed them as if Yuri was sending them to her parents to let them know she missed them but that she is thriving overseas in Melbourne.

Overall, I really enjoyed interacting with other students during this task, as it gave me a chance to sit and talk to those who I had not approached yet this year. Peter West gave excellent feedback and presented the brief very clearly, and helped us to tease out and refine our ideas so our outcomes could be as creative as possible.

Specialist Module: Craft Stream

Metamorphosis task with Alex Zubryn

The metamorphosis brief was very entertaining and enjoyable, allowing us to experiment with different mediums and to develop our illustrative skills. This project encouraged a different way of thinking, to tell a story and its most important and relevant details through a small series of images.

We began by reading a couple pages from a novel, ‘The Metamorphosis’ by Franz Kafka that told the story of a business man who wakes up transformed into a cockroach. From the short snippet of story we read, Alex asked us to create a rough storyboard of the progression of the text. This was a really interesting task as everyone interpreted the story in a slightly different way, and illustrated the parts that they thought were the most important. I think the freedom of having no definite right or wrong depictions of the story really gave me more freedom to visualise the story in my head better and transpose it into drawn images.

We then created 3D figures from the novel crafted with play-dough and other bits and bobs that Alex had supplied. Finding the visual language and descriptions in the text was important, but also trying to read more closely into each character’s personalities. I am glad we got to experiment with 3D depositions as well as 2D depictions as I think it encourages those whose strongest forte may not be illustration *cough* me *cough* to explore different mediums and to visualise and create in ways that promote a different way of thinking. The last of these interrelated tasked was to illustrate our characters based off the models we had made.

Reflecting on these tasks, I feel they were a good way to ‘loosen up’ our hands and prepare us and give us ideas for our own metamorphosis flip book that we were to create.

For my flip book I decided to create something based on the idea of seeing the potential something that others would see as useless as stated in my rationale:

My metamorphosis fan book, ‘one man’s trash another man’s treasure’ is based on the ideas of recycling and repurposing. The narrative sees a scrunched up, discarded piece of paper transform into a samurai hat, showing that something seen as useless to one, can be seen as useful or even beautiful to another. I worked in collage as my image making process.

Reflecting on this assignment, I feel that being able to experiment and play more with ideas, mediums and materials really pushed me to create something more than a standard vector graphic illustration. I felt that Alex’s feedback, energy and enthusiasm for image making and storytelling really made the class more enjoyable and pushed me to try and create something that I ended up being really proud of.

success

the beautiful @isa-i-mcgrath feat. cellophane rain

Production Line // Final Glasses

After creating our final prototypes, it was time to finally create the final pairs of glasses. At first we thought that we would only need to put the lenses into the glasses and pack them, however Andy told us that the laser cutting process had been more time consuming than he had originally thought, and was only able to cut 9 pairs for us. Even though this idea did’t really take off, it was interesting trialling different ways of doing things, which is all part of the process! The pairs that Andy did manage to cut were perfect and and beautifully precise (thanks Andy), making our hand cut glasses look a bit shabby in comparison!

We had been toying with the idea of enlisting the Makers group to assist us, however, because of the production hiccups along the way, it was too hard to give them a time and a place to meet as were not sure when we were going to pick up the lenses and paper from Andy. Reflecting on this experience, it would probably been better for us to have organised this a bit earlier so we could have has the help of the Makers, but we did manage to create 50 pairs of glasses in 8 hours!

We set up our production line in Izzi’s lounge room, and worked pretty much non stop for 8 hours to trace, cut, fit and pack the glasses. Even though it did take a long time, this was a very rewarding experience. When we finished we were left with a big mess and numb finger, but 50 beautiful pairs of glasses!

As a team, I feel that we worked incredibly well together, were able to communicate effectively and support each other, as we all took initiative in organising meet ups/tried to find alternatives for when those could’t be there.

For the event, not everyone will receive a pair of glasses but each pair will be shared between two people.

Laser Cut Prototypes

After much anticipation, Andy was kind enough to laser cut a few prototypes for us in a couple different materials. After mocking up a couple pairs, found that the regular coloured paper actually worked best as it was not too flimsy, yet flexible enough to comfortably wear.

Izzi had made the document a little bit too small, therefore the glasses did not quite fit perfectly. However it still gave us an idea of what they will look like. I also took a photo to see the evolvement of our prototypes ranging from the cereal box lenses to the final prototype.

Reflecting on this experience, I feel that even though it felt like we did a lot of prototyping that seemed unnecessary at the time, it was actually crucial to getting our glasses right. If we had not had refined our idea to the point that we have today, we would have had all sorts of problems with paper stock, size of the lenses, visibility and wearability.

The next step for us will be to catch up to assemble and pack the glasses.

Lens Refinement

This evening after class I went and bought some packets of red cellophane to test its visibility, colour strength and ease of use. Using the second pair of prototype frames, I secured the red cellophane in place, one lens with a double layer the other with a single layer. During the lens testing I evaluated three things:

1. Whether the cellophane would be a strong enough material/would it crease or crumple too much: Once stretched out on the frames, the cellophane has much less chance of creasing. However, we may not put the glasses in the tote bags as the lenses may be crushed by other items in the bag.

2. Readability of the ‘secret text’: I found that the double layer of cellophane did make the text darker and more apparent, however it was slightly blurry and may cause difficulties.

3. Strength of colour: For our psychological manipulation to work, we really need the food to be almost completely red or blue. With one layer of cellophane one can still identify the relative colours of the objects they are looking at, but with two layers everything appears red. However, once again the double layer is slightly burry and may cause issues.

I think for the best and safest outcome, one layer of cellophane may have to be enough, as otherwise clear vision is compromised too much. This Thursday we plan to assemble the glasses, possibly with the help of the lovely people of the Makers group, as well as printing the fact sheets on the risograph printer.

*IMPORTANT: On the day you are not required to wear the glasses for the entire event (I mean you can if you want to) but only when eating the food.

#core2639

Further Refinement/Testing

In our last face to face class, Andy led and initiated a cognitive walkthrough of the event, detailing what would happen on the day and how it would be executed. Using the model was a useful way to show this it helped us to visualise how we would move through and interact with the space. Reflecting on the possible issues we may have our final outcome, we realised we hadn’t informed the tote bag group that we would like to put our glasses in their tote bags so students won’t lose them. However, we are now thinking that perhaps the glasses would get squashed by the fruit in the bag or become lost during the trek to the market, so maybe it could even be better to place them on the tables for everyone to pick up after purchasing the fruit.

Image above courtesy of @isa-i-mcgrath

@isa-i-mcgrath brought in the two final prototypes for the glasses, one with square lenses and another with circular lenses. We decided to use the circular lens glasses, as because they are more rounded, they fit better on the organic curve of the human nose, and are therefore more ergonomic. They also incorporate the event’s identity and logo with the use of semi circles for the glasses rims. By Thursday Andy will have laser cut all 100 pairs so we can begin assembling! (finally!!!!)

@gemma-bilby-design experimented with ways of making the text for our information sheet ‘secret’ so only the reader could only read the text if they had the right coloured glasses on. We were all a bit skeptical of the method at first and didn’t really think we could pull it off, however, Gemma was very successful. We may need to tweak the text size/colour depending on what type of cellophane we end up using, but overall the secret message works quite well! @biancagiuliano and I will continue to purchase and test the cellophane to see what works best for the lenses.

Our last face to face class was quite a crucial point for our project, as it was today that everything really starting coming together. As a group, we were able to organise ourselves and spread certain tasks among us evenly in order to achieve the best possible outcome. At this point in the semester, it is so rewarding to see our idea finally taking shape. Like April mentioned today, the small thoughts, ideas and lightbulb moments (that often happen in the strangest of places) are so important in shaping the final design outcome as if they were simply discarded and forgotten, our project would’t have progressed any further from our original idea. There is definitely a certain sense of satisfaction when your ideas that once started out so small actually become executed and work out better than you imagined!

Just some pics of Matt Preston eating things to get you in the mood for the food event next Friday xx

Even MORE Prototyping

In this week’s class (week 11) we refined the shape of our glasses even further to make them more ergonomic and to make sure that the one size would fit all. We kept playing with the shape and size in order to create something that would incorporate the event identity/logo and be comfortable.

Reflecting on our first designs, we decided to make the bridge of the glasses thicker so the design would be less flimsy and overall stronger. We also decided to increase the length of the arms and the rims of the glasses. Izzi then took the design home refine further, to get the template ready for Andy to laser cut. In the meantime, Gemma will work on finding a way to create ‘secret text’ that will only be readable if a student is wearing the coloured glasses and I will be buying, testing and trialling lens materials in order to find the right balance visibility, colour strength and ease of use.

In searching for the best material for our lenses, we had a chat with the team creating the coloured lenses who gave us an insight into what they had be working on and what materials they had used. The material that they found worked best for their filters was colour printed on acetate. We were impressed with the sturdiness and rigidness of the acetate, however, as lenses they wouldn’t have worked as the visibility was quite poor and the colour not intense enough. I have worked with acetate quite a bit in the past and I also knew that for the amount we needed it wouldn't be cost effective, but it was useful exploring alternative options to cellophane.

As a team, I feel that our communication skills have grown even stronger as we not only converse and plan amongst ourselves over multiple platforms, but have been trying to communicate with multiple groups to help them and us achieve the best possible outcome. This week we also talked to the makers group to see if we could get some help assembling the glasses, as many hands make light work and we have 100+ pairs to make!

sashaaarons-blog

Frankenmodel

Yesterday morning I decided to to experiment with an idea for our groups event contribution. We are working to create an entrance to the event and in doing so, begin the new sensory experience. We are focusing on the questions ‘Where are we coming from?’ and ‘Where are we entering?’.

We have had several ideas of how we can construct this ‘tunnel’ entrance. The overall aim is to create something that people can walk/crawl through to get into the tent. We are hoping to construct it like a giant mouth, and paint it all in red. This giant mouth with alter the sensory perception of space and scale. As well as this we have noted that red is a very important colour in terms of food. Many studies have shown that the colour red makes you hungry and so using this as an entrance to the event is the perfect way to begin the sensory experience. This association with red and hunger is clearly seen in the branding of many fast food chains including McDonalds, KFC, Red Rooster, etc.

We wanted to construct the entrance ourselves and we had a few ideas but they all seemed a little far fetched and unachievable. Our next best idea was to see if we could borrow the gazebo tents that the university often uses for events, and place them at the entrance, and create walls of red mouths as the sort of ‘tunnel’ to enter through. While this is a definite option, I thought I might experiment a little more to see if I could come up with anything else and stretch the idea.

When speaking to my family, my dad suggested perhaps paper-mache with a shell construction of wire could potentially work. Initially I thought that this would be too much work but then I remembered that we have a large group of people with crafty hands and experimenting couldn’t hurt!

I created a mini ‘Frankenmodel’ to see how this idea could work. It was very messy but it has potential (my cat thought it tasted pretty good too??). We are hoping to get together as a group this week and try and craft our entrance. In class today we will discuss this idea further and what the potential strengths and weaknesses are.

references:

Color Psychology. 2016. Color Psychology. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.bluesky-web.com/color.htm. [Accessed 10 October 2016].

isa-i-mcgrath-blog

This groups work will also be incorporating the idea that red is a very strong colour in connection to food! Hopefully our red coloured glasses will be able to work in conjunction with their environmental design!

Love that many groups have organically been inspired by the psychological effects of colour throughout their development. Excited to see how this turns out! 👄👅❤️

Rapid Prototype Round 2 // Franken Models

This week before we commenced our second rapid prototyping session, Andy showed us a quick video about ‘Franken-models’

The video featured Federico Ferretti from Continuum, as he explained his ‘franken-models’ an ugly looking model of something that works perfectly. He highlighted the importance of prototyping when working on an idea and believes that ‘passion and instinct are required when making a prototype’ and that ‘designers should take the first thing that is around them and start building’.

As emerging designers in this era, we are so used to starting out with a blank adobe file on a laptop which is very restrictive. The idea behind Franken-models is to work with your hands from square one to allow for more creativity and innovation. I really loved the idea of the Franken-models as there was something quite beautiful and unique about them, the way they were simply made with wood, sticky tape and other random bits and bobs that did the job.

video sourced from https://vimeo.com/179730210

After learning about the franken- models we then got to work on our own ugly yet beautiful prototypes. Before we could commence the prototyping there was a production problem we had to address first. It turned out that the glasses from eBay would not arrive in time for the event, therefore we would need to make them ourselves. At first we contemplated enlisting the help of the makers group to help us, but after discussion with Andy he kindly offered to laser cut the glasses for us off campus as long as we could provide him with a template.

With a new direction, we began looking for a good template that we could start with. We printed it out in a couple of sizes but came to the conclusion that we would need to modify the design of the template so the lenses in the glasses would be bigger and the nose hole wider. Izzi and Gemma also thought we could add a touch of flair to the glasses by creating something decorative to the rims.

By next week we will hope to have our template design refined, and will begin sourcing coloured cellophane and experimenting with designs for the envelopes.

#core2639 #week10 #rapid prototype

Rapid Prototypes

The moment we had been waiting for all semester had arrived. It was time to use our actual hands to create and experiment and make some prototypes for our glasses.

We immediately jumped at the chance to grab the biggest piece of cardboard (Andy’s cereal box) to cut up to create the frames, along some clear plastic for the glasses. We created a couple different shapes and sizes to see which designs would fit on most people’s heads and would be the most ergonomic.

After making 4 pairs in around 20 minutes, we were convinced that making them from scratch might not be the best option as it was more time consuming as opposed to paying $20 for 100 ready made pairs from eBay and switching the lenses. We have planned to order the glasses by the end of the week so they will arrive in time for the event.

We decided that we would keep things simple and have two different coloured pairs, blue and red as these two colours had the strongest connotations and have the opposite effect psychologically. We also talked to Andy about printing our fact envelopes on the risograph printer (very exciting I have always wanted to use one). It was also suggested that we find a way to print the text so people could read the relevant information to their colour by seeing through the red or blue glasses. We are still not sure how to achieve this but we still have time to experiment!

Contribution Summary

Our group’s project revolves around the idea of altering the visual perception of food. To achieve this, we have decided to make coloured cellophane lens glasses that students can wear while eating their food that will alter their perception of the overall meal experience.

We will also include an envelope that the glasses will come in, with a fact on the back, dependant on what colour the student is given. The envelope fact will provide information behind the psychological explanations of how the colour could effect their taste. The advantages of placing the glasses into an envelope means their will be less change of damage when the student receives that and makes it more like a ‘present’ to open. We thought maybe we could include the envelope in the tote bags.

Currently we are not sure whether we will make the glasses from scratch or buy the 3D glasses online and replace the cellophane lenses. This will depend on resources and time restraints.

Research: Colour Psychology

Our concept revolves around changing the visual perception of food, and as people do tend to ‘eat with their eyes’ we have decided to use certain colours for our cellophane lenses that will hopefully elicit different perceptions of the meal, using colour psychology.

Red is deemed to be the sweetest colour, it’s vibrant, strong and usually indicates that something is ripe or fresh. Think about choosing an apple or a strawberry, you’re more likely to be drawn to the vibrant bright red ones rather than ones that are discoloured. Red is also said to be one of the strongest colour and dominates our attention, but also triggers appetite and is used on a majority of fast food packaging designs (think McDonalds, KFC and even healthier fast food options like grill’d us red in their logo)

Blue on the other hand is a very unappetising colour, associated with poison and sickness. As there are no actual blue foods found in nature (no blueberries are a shade of purple apparently), blue food is seen as unnatural as it is not a colour that appears naturally in food.

As I have also learnt previously to this project, blue is actually supposed to be an appetite suppressant, therefore some people that are trying to achieve weight loss are encouraged to put their food on a blue plate.

Yellow is said to be associated with energy and optimism and can increase your appetite. This is why fast food chains use the colour yellow in tandem with red in order to profit from this.

References: https://www.tracegains.com/blog/food-and-color-what-does-it-all-mean

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science/Red-is-sweet-and-blue-is-salty-Colours-cutlery-and-taste-perception

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