I really liked drawing back in the day — at age 5 — when I was still in kindergarten. Until one day, in a thrust of stupidity and stubbornness, I just stopped drawing! My mom still remembers that day and it’s probably one of the biggest, most dramatic mistakes I’ve made in my life… So you can imagine the tingle of excitement and with the feeling of dread mixing in my stomach when our American professor John Gravdahl said: “This weekend is going to be all about drawing!” My track was focused on turning Taiwanese folk tales into posters and as I started on my drawings, it wasn’t so terrifying after all. Some ideas from exploring storytelling at film school came flooding back to me and my fears subsided. It wasn’t least thanks to the group of fantastically talented and hard-working design students surrounding me, everybody focused on their work but very friendly, humble and supportive. And in the end, that day was sooooo much fun! (As facing one’s fears and self-prescribed limitations often is!) After all, scientists are now publishing research proving that drawing is one of the best ways to learn anything — so why continue being stupid. Let me (and us all) rather use all the tools we have at our disposal to think better! This workshop is already in its 7th year and the students came from 37 universities, including industrial-, graphic-, fashion-, and other types of design disciplines, joining the design hackathon. Starting with a conference on Friday, we focused on “building stuff” on Saturday and Sunday, mentored by several renowned designers from Korea, Japan, USA, Thailand, and Hong Kong there to help our teams focus on their storytelling, beauty rooted in cultural relevance and not least, innovation. It was intense but during lunch-time our team made a run for an exhibition of Camille Claudel’s sculptures and an immersive projection based on Edgar Degas’s “Little Dancer” at the triangular “Asia Modern” museum designed by Tadao Ando, located on campus, serving as a perfect inspiration for students at any creative department. The key ethos and justification for the event was “Design leadership”. In essence.. [end of character count, con't on FB] (at 亞洲大學(Asia University Taiwan)) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6AiLPkpLnO/?igshid=zrpbrv7q1xbb
