A little late, but here’s the report!!
https://rommpenk.tumblr.com/archive/2022/5
styofa doing anything
Xuebing Du

★

roma★
Game of Thrones Daily

⁂
Claire Keane

Janaina Medeiros

blake kathryn
occasionally subtle

Discoholic 🪩
Sade Olutola

shark vs the universe

Kiana Khansmith
noise dept.
ojovivo

Kaledo Art
trying on a metaphor
Show & Tell
TVSTRANGERTHINGS

seen from Russia
seen from China
seen from Philippines

seen from Germany
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from Romania
seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Singapore
seen from Canada
seen from United States

seen from United States
seen from United States

seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom

seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye

seen from China
@rommpenk
A little late, but here’s the report!!
https://rommpenk.tumblr.com/archive/2022/5
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 15:
Monday morning we met at Vega scene for the first day of final presentations. It was fun to see what our fellow students had developed. Bjørn had built up a sore throat and fever over the weekend, and we prayed that it would disappear hastily.
Tuesday was our day to present. Bjørn felt worse, but a handful painkillers worked a charm. Our presentation went well - the audience seemed enthusiastic and interested. The external examiner understood our service, and our 15 minute post presentation discussion was constructive for both parts. Bjørn celebrated by heading to bed, while Benjamin joined the class for a beer.
Wednesday through Thursday brought intensive work in InDesign, preparing the final report for submission. With our text being more or less finalized, “only” layout and formatting remained. This proved to be more than just final adjustments as we both value typographic precision. Benjamin leaving Friday for a trip to Sandefjord, gave us an earlier deadline. We worked our asses off, when the time closed in on midnight Thursday, the baseline grids started to float around on the screen. Three digit cups of coffee kept us alive. As the sun was rising we submitted two files - one for print and one for grading. We celebrated by heading down to the AHO pub for a glass of wine with our dear Anna and Maija who had finished their shift. We were done.
Everything must come to an end. The last week of the semester project was bittersweet. It felt good to deliver and present everything we had done for the last 15 weeks, but we are going to miss working with it. School is not completely done for the semester - a collective display of our projects will be held in the coming weeks. This will hopefully include new discussions and input on our service.
On that note, we wish to say thank you to all supervisors, interviewees, friends, family, co-students and car mechanics for making our 15 weeks unforgettable.
For our sake, Norwegian road travel is for ever changed.
Vrooooooom!
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 14:
On Monday we started off with planning. We understood that this week was going to be one of our last, and therefore it was important that we worked efficiently. Following the planning, we came close to a drafting up a good proposal to our final rapport.
Tuesday was the 17th of May, the Norwegian independence day. With that the work was put to a halt.
Wednesday, was a rough day, a consequence Tuesdays partying. However, at the end of the day we had sent a draft of our final rapport to proof-reading, and we had started on what was going to be our final presentation of the service, which we were to present the coming Tuesday.
On Thursday we started off motivated and energized. We worked hard on our final presentation, creating slides, animations and stories. By the end of the day we were exhausted, but proud of the work we had done.
On Friday we finalized our presentation. We presented it for some fellow students, who gave crucial feedback, improving the overall experience of the presentation.
We met up Sunday for a presentation-session in advance of the following week. Some final feedback from our fellow students resulted in some adjustments before submission. What a week!
Week 14 became an intensive week of preparations and constitutional celebration. We started off and ended the week with good spirits and a spoonful of excitement.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 13:
On Monday we finished up producing most of the associations promotional surfaces. This included a roadside banner, postcards, letters and a commercial video. Most of the afternoon consisted of writing and structuring the projects final rapport.
We continued the rapport writing on Tuesday. However we also began to sketch out the associations ever so important "shrines". We started off by drawing with a pencil on paper, after which Benjamin moved the modelling over to the 3D-modelling program, Autodesk Fusion 360. After lunch we conversed with our supervisor, Anna Martine Nilsen, on the subjects of nostalgia and irony. Important subjects to discuss, as they both are interconnected with our project solution. The day secluded with Benjamin modelling, while Bjørn continued writing.
Wednesday started off with a chat with one off our supervisors, Andrea Plesner. The chat was calming, as we got the notion we were on the right track. Benjamin was finished modelling the shrine, which meant we could start a 3D-print. The rest off the day was spent writing on the final rapport.
On Thursday the 3D-print was finished. The result was pleasing. The writing continued, and the rapport was beginning to take form.
On Friday morning Benjamin continued writing, as Bjørn worked with the content and graphical layout of our user-journeys. After lunch our supervisors had a talk about expectations and the technicalities of printing a book. The day ended with an anxious feeling of relief as the project was coming to an end.
To summarize the week we tied up loose ends, and we wrote, a lot.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 11:
Monday morning included a collective intro to the written report, scheduled for delivery in two weeks. We began exploring typographical options concerning columns, paragraphs, imagery and layout. These were printed out and discussed privately. Afterwards we continued our preparations for the field trip coming Tuesday. The preparations included arranging a meeting with the mayor of Hjartdal, in addition to printing maps and relevant information. Benjamin left early because of a creeping illness. Bjørn explored and designed some possible promotional surfaces for the service, such as receipts, apparel, stickers and other merchandise, before going home to his hometown to prepare the car for the day to come.
Tuesday was excursion day. Benjamin felt better than the day before, and headed to Lier by train. A well timed delay in the railway service gave us a slow start, but we met up at Drammen station at 09:30. Happy to finally (!) be on the road, we cheered as we drove west. After some kilometeres we made a quick stop, picking up a flower for the road, as a part of our planned rituals. This was to be brought to the destination. The drive westwards sparked some interesting discussions about local potential, possible promotional surfaces and roadside services. Deciding to drive on the new highway between Eiker and Notodden included an interesting reflection on the almost unnoticeable passing of Kongsberg. We passed the famous Hengselva bridge, and approached Notodden in sunny weather. Before driving down into the Notodden valley we stopped at a standard rest area to explore the service it included, and how our association could benefit from using such stops. Tourist information, signs and picnic tables were obvious possibilities. Another quick stop before Notodden came rather abruptly. A few months earlier, Bjørn had driven the same route and had become curious on some subtle headstone looking installations carefully placed along the road. Reaching out to both the Notodden municipality and the State Highways Authority had brought no luck on finding the stones symbolism. Being able to stop this time, we stopped by the most accessible stone we found. Still unsure of their importance, our curiosity grew. Could we take inspiration from this in the creation of our local ritual shrines?
We passed the Notodden Industrial Heritage Site, inscribed in UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. This is where Norsk Hydro started its pioneering activities – in both a Norwegian and international perspective – to develop the electrochemical industry, which revolutionized food production globally. We also stopped at an abandoned petrol station beautifully placed at the entrance of Notoddens city center. The local departments of our national association were planned to develop clubhouses. Would this be such a solution for the department of Notodden?
Driving past Rygi and Stivi, we could see the approaching Stave church in Heddal. A quick stop felt natural. It's historical significance in the development of Norway's constitution was new to us. Suddenly we had entered Hjartdal, and our well planned prototyping began. First stop was the former site of Fossen Kro - an iconic and picturesque roadstop to be burned to the ground in 2009. The only remnant today is the foundation. A ritual including placing a hand on the foundation and saying "If only the troll was alive, so it could extinguish you with the river" was completed. Finding out that the troll in question had survived the fire gave the location a whole new meaning. Sitting lonely in the former play area outside the burned down roadstop, the stone troll looked sad. An iteration to the ritual could include a shift of focus from what was gone (the roadstop) to what remained (the troll). Crossing the Heddøla river we immediately stopped for the next ritual prototype, located at Heddal Mølle, Hjartdals contribution to the national list of locations encapsulating the transition to the 21st century. We quickly discovered that we weren’t the only ones working for development of meaningful local rituals. A local couple had hung up a printed and laminated ritual connected to the river path using the same tone of voice and approach as us. This gave an optimistic spark to the two travelers. We completed our own ritual connected to the site consisting of collecting a handful of earth and dropping it into the foaming waterfall envisioning it being turned into pearls by the local endangered Freshwater Mussel. Discovering a White-throated Dipper, Norway's national bird, flying up the river showed the the vast possibilities for rituals on this location.
Arriving in Sauland, home of Hjartdal's administrative center, we decided to abort the ritual connected to the people emigrating to USA in the eighteen hundreds, because of the lack of brought documents showcasing the names. An iteration could be to say farewell, but not include any names. As soon as we took right onto Tuddalsvegen, we played ritual-connected music from local artist Ingvill Marit Buen Garnås, while driving northwest towards the coniferous gates of Tuddal. Stopping at a location we found perfect, we were ready to test a ritual connected to enviromental attention. Quickly discovering that 50 steps were too few from the parked car, we quickly iterated to 100 steps. We walked into separate directions, stopping at exactly 100 steps, then observing the enviroment for something in particular to remain in thought. Bjørn discovered a Green hairstreak, a small green butterfly, and reflected on the meeting between the two. Benjamin discovered abundance of spruce pinecones and saved this. Leaving the location, we made moose antlers with our hands above our heads and wished the locals a fruitful hunting season. We played some more ritual-connected music, this time from local artist, Knut Buen. The tunes lengths showed the possibilities for visual cues along the way to perfectly time the experience. Beautiful music played on local historical instruments combined with narration gave the entrance into Tuddal an almost sacral feeling.
Safely arrived in Tuddal, we made a quick stop at the only market in town. "Tuddal pastry" was a welcoming taste. The petrol station, consisting of two subtle rusty pumps was a possible spot for shrines or other physical presence. We decided to head directly into Bondalen, known for untouched cultural landscape and historical significance. It's also, however, known for exceptionally horrible roads. After a couple hundred metres on the narrow and bumpy road, a sound from the rear left wheel gave us a shiver. Something was not right. We stopped at the nearest stopping option: a beautiful summer mountain pasture on a green hill, to discover that the rear left shock absorber was completely broken. This left us stranded, and lacking cellular coverage made contact outwards difficult. Bondalen, also happens to be a several kilometre dead end with very few inhabitants. Finally being able to contact a tow truck, we waited the two hours it took for it to reach us. We explored the area, finding several hundred old wall written scribes in an abandoned and almost fallen wooden shack. Some other planned rituals were tried and reflected upon. A rest in the warm hills between the ancient stone fences proved to be a good way of relaxing. Finally a red truck approached in the far distance. Together we decided that the car was not drivable. The car, with us two inside, was strapped to the truck bed, and we headed back to Notodden. The journey back proved to be an exiting one, as the car couldn’t be put in park mode, so Bjørn kept a firm grip on the steering wheel. The tow truck driver had local knowledge of the roads, so he kept a steady speed of nearly 80km/h on roads meant for way lower. In Notodden we were met by a tired mechanic. We could choose between abandoning the car there, or carefully (!) driving it home, avoiding all uneveness in the road. We decided to do the latter, and headed slowly home, stopping at Elgjsjø café, having meatloaf sandwiches, before driving back to Drammen. Benjamin hopped off at the station, leaving for Oslo, while Bjørn delivered the car at the usual mechanic. An exiting end to an exiting day in an exiting project.
On Wednesday we sat down and reflected upon Tuesdays field trip. We used the information we gathered, doing the "local rituals" in Hjartdal, to iterate and improve the overall experience of the service. We later went on to get an overview of what we had done thus far in the project, and what we had left. We got a rough outline of the tasks we need to tackle, and started on writing the final rapport.
The following Thursday became a day of writing. It started off with discussing a text we had written, with fellow students. This was apart of a design theory course. After lunch we spent the rest of the day writing on the final rapport.
On Friday morning Benjamin continued working on the final rapport. Bjørn occupied his time with design renderings showcasing the service. After lunch Benjamin worked on a fictive commercial for the association, and Bjørn began to write on this weeks tumblr-post (which ended up being the biggest post, thus far). By the end of the day, we felt satisfied with our work, and we looked forward to the evening as we were going to a concert.
To summerize the week it consisted of two parts. The first part revolved around our excursion to Hjartdal municipality. This gave us insight and a good experience of how our association would work in practice. The second part of the week revolved around writing parts of our final rapport, and tying up loose ends in our project.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 11:
After a relaxing weekend respectively spent on picking ramsons in the spring forests and underground clubbing, Monday got us back on track. A quick update on tumblr refreshed our cloudy minds. We continued working on the association’s website, exploring tone of voice and dissemination. A lecture by Paola Trapani sparked some thoughts regarding product-service systems and rationalization of an open design brief; much like our own. Supervisor, Andrea, came by for a quick chat, and had a look at our website prototype. Her feedback proved to be a good base for our finishing work on the prototype, which we finalized in the afternoon.
We started of Tuesday by writing a one-pager about an important design choice for our project. This was an assignment we had due the coming Thursday. When that was signed, sealed and delivered, we shifted our focus from that to how we were to test our prototyped website. We ended up creating a narrative in which our test subject had noticed the association and went on the website to explore it further. This was a way to somewhat create a realistic point of perception which would fall in accordance with the follow-up questions. We wrapped up the day by analyzing feedback from our prototype-tests.
Wednesday morning brought iteration on the website following Tuesday's feedback. Some highlighted changes were hierarchy, flow and readability, i addition to minor touches such as image use and functions in the forum. A prototype review in a small group including supervisor, Diogo, brought some interesting discussion on user testing and time distribution on smaller touchpoints in the service. We concluded that we were ready to move further in the process, as our website was finished for the time being. This brought a continuation to our ritual development, buried under a serious layer of dust. We decided to look into "universal rituals" - rituals not bound by geographical location or relations. We quickly brainstormed a handful possible rituals connected to these prerequisites, and explored the value in shared and solitary meaningful experiences. As our service was to include both universally- and locally bound rituals, we found it rational to begin with the universal ones. Before ending the day, we selected a few favorite rituals for further testing.
On Thursday we had a chat with fellow co-students concerning the "universal rituals" we had created on Wednesday. We found the chat useful as it essentially told us that the rituals must be tested on people that are interested in doing them. After this "soft-prototype-chat" we decided that we needed to do a field excursion. In a perfect world, we would have people test our rituals on travels, however traveling people are harder to come by than we expected. Therefore, we decided that the best thing to do is to test them ourselves. We decided to travel on the coming Tuesday to the municipality Hjartdal, more specifically a valley named Bondal, as it is a place which you dont come by without intention. We used the rest of Thursday to delve deep in to Hjartdals history, nature and people, to create localized myths we could try out when experiencing the municipality.
We had a slow start on Friday, as both of us had taken part in the schools Thursday Pub offer. We spent some time creating a calendar for the last weeks of the project, mapping out key elements we had to produce. A chat with our teachers ensued the lunchbreak. We ended off Friday by reflecting on what we had done this week. A weekend was never more needed.
Week 11 was a week of vastly different topics and considerations in our narrowing design process. Starting off finishing the website as a promotional and informative service surface, gave us room to explore possibilities of local exploration in regional Norway for the sake of understanding the potential for association practice in the real world outside our "AHO office". Constructive feedback and discussions with fellow students, family, supervisors and pub visitors has been an important spice to the thickening stew that is our project. Now, to the countryside!
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 10:
Tuesday started off with a quick recap with our project supervisors, activating our heads after a long and comfortable Easter break. Bjørn was happy to be alive and well after being hit with a flu the week before Easter. Anxious to get started, we both rushed into our now well established "office quarters" in AHO's south wing. Benjamin presented his work and feedback, and we jumped into our visual identity finalization, our goal being; concluding a logo, typeface, colors and manual before Thursday. Our work began by exploring typefaces and possible fonts. By previewing a bunch of different options, we got the opportunity to explore all the different ways of displaying our symbol and text together. Grotesque, sans serif, serif, monospaced, script and display fonts were explored. Four of 50 options were selected for further development. We created up to 10 different text and symbol placement options for each typeface, exploring hierarchy and distributed weight.
Wednesday morning started by discussing our project plan in a colloquium with another group. This proved to be a good way of placing ourselves in relation to the deadline coming up in less than a month. Afterwards, we continued our visual identity work. Following our feedback from the discussion two weeks prior to Easter, we looked at including ornamental qualities into our symbol and text. This was difficult. Reason being the contrast in our selected "u/a" symbol and the added detailed ornaments. As a fairly modern and governmental looking symbol, all added ornaments seemed out of place and unbecoming. After working seemlessly for several painful hours trying to combine modern and ancient design, we concluded that perhaps our logo would benefit from avoiding trying to be an intellectual fusion, and rather stay true to one form. This conclusion led us to choosing good ol' Times New Roman as our selected typeface, in combination with our symbol. Ornaments and historical details were however not discarded: these would be optional additions to our logo presentation on selected surfaces later. Furthermore, we quickly explored and chose colors. Having a complex and insightful logo process, choosing colors became easy as they had followed us in our subconscious thus far. A interesting option following our logo was the possibility for local departments of the association to directly edit the logo - giving it a local feel. We imagine this being a good way of including emotions of affiliation to the association and the districts represented. The local department of Aurdal was therefore presented as an example of local adaptation. A quick chat with our prototypist, Hans Jacob, gave us some needed insight on the success of rituals included on a roadtrip.
Thursday morning brought our presentation and feedback on our written task in design theory showcasing the D4Me methodology. Having completed out visual identity Wednesday, Thursday gave us time to refresh our minds on the process we were partaking. This proved to be important, as we had lost some overview during the elaborate hell that is visual identity. Some notes were added to our Miro stages, in addition to writing down and discussion the prototype feedback from Hans Jacob. Later, we began constructing the infrastructure of the association our project has developed into. Creating a hierarchy of the people and links included gave us some overview. A quick revision of our projected user journeys also brought some new thoughts. We concluded that it was time for surface development: where was our association to be represented? On that note, we ended the day.
Friday became a day of webside production and prototyping. Our projected user journeys proved the importance of information flow in a national association. With this in mind we began carefully developing a desktop website in Figma. Taking inspiration from similar associations, we included typical categories and buttons, in addition to adding our own. The prototype was of course channeled through our newly created visual profile, and paid obvious visual homages to both early html-websites as well as modern javascript programming. Having a chat with our new supervisor, Anna, sparked an important discussion on some essential topics, for example use of irony, nostalgia and communication. With an almost finished website prototype, we took a well deserved weekend.
To summerize the week, we produced a lot i four days. Being able to nail down our visual identity, and create a prototype of the associations website felt amazing. The different conversations we had with people proved useful, as they uncovered arguments we have to answer to.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 9:
On Monday we continued to work on our visual identity. Our trip to the Norwegian Folkemuseum was inspiring, and we spent some time creating logos using visual elements from the Norwegian olden days. Throughout the day we saw a problem arise. There was a mismatch in our visual concepts with how they felt and how we wanted to be perceived. First of all, the concept named "The mystical forest", became too visually fluid. We found it hard to encapsulate mystic feelings bound to the Norwegian forest, as the importance of minor details were key, and those did not translate well in to stylized logos. When it came to our other two visual concepts they had elements we wanted, but they also carried with them connotations we found problematic. We discussed, and came to the conclusion that we wanted a folksy visual identity that carried a sense of seriousness. This led us to a new visual concept; "Associations". We made a new moodboard, discovering the visual identity of Norwegian associations. By the end of the day we felt like we had gathered a respectable amount of insights, and looked forward to begin producing logos the next day.
Tuesday brought a morning of production in advance of our presentation and discussion in groups later the same day. Having decided to develop the concept as an association, Monday's gathered insight gave us a good base for further development of graphic elements. Four vastly different logo options were chosen for further graphic involvement, and were presented on possible promotional surfaces. The suggestions were printed and brought to the group discussion for input. The feedback included positivity on our choice of developing the concept as an association, as it directly answered the difficulties of user involvement and engagement. The vastness in our graphic suggestions proved to be good for discussion and the feedback pointed out the qualities of the different options. The logo concept constructed of the letters "U" and "A" was pointed out as being the most flexible option for individual development in local departments, and the possibilities brought by the customization freedom. These possibilities were not equally represented in the other concepts. However, the discussion sparked an interest of merging the ornamental qualities of the other logo concepts into the favorite.
Wednesday's production was somewhat different from Tuesday's. The presentation coming Friday had to include projected user journeys, so Benjamin quickly created two versions; one for first-time involvements in the concept, and one for more integrated users. The two versions showed the differences in users, and the importance of a meaningful inclusion of both person "a" and "b" throughout the experience of our concept. Meanwhile, Bjørn wrote a summary of the concept thus far, highlighting D4Me as an explored methodology, and how this colored our process. After lunch, an aggressive fever hit Bjørn, and Benjamin was forced to continue the process alone. Which he of course, handled perfectly. The afternoon was spent on mapping the coming presentation and on how to communicate this process.
Thursday was yet another day of design theory. Bjørn was at home struck by sickness. Benjamin started lightly writing parts of our final rapport, as well as drafting up a presentation we were to present on Friday. We had a lot of loose ends due to the sickness, however we pushed through and at the end of the day Benjamin, had a presentation of interesting scraps.
Friday was a day of presenting. Benjamin held a presentation using a written rapport, and our Miro-board. The feedback was mostly positive, and they looked forward to what was to come. The positivity was great, and at the end of the day we were inspired to tie up the loose ends which were consequences of sickness.
This week we produced a lot, and took some important decisions concerning both our project and our visual identity. We were sadly struck by sickness, despite this we ended the week on a high note. The change from creating a service to an association were and will be exciting to develop further.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 8:
On Monday we had an introduction course in visual identity. It included two lectures and a task in which we were to help each other name the different class projects. Lecturing was a great way to jumpstart the graphical engine. The task proved helpful in ideating around names and associations. Later in the afternoon we decided that we would call our service "Utenfor Allfarvei", translated; "Off the beaten track" - something that is out of the ordinary, innovative and original, with a natural connotation to the road.
Tuesday was a day of gathering visual insight in our theory heavy project. We sat down in front of our computers, gathering relevant photos from all over the internet. When we started to categorize them, we saw that we could form three interesting conceptual paths for our visual identity. The first was called "Mellom bakkar og berg", which pointed to the Norwegian people. The second we called "Den mystiske skogen", which translates to "The mystical forest", entailing nature and Norwegian art. The third concept was called "Emblemer og ornamenter", "Emblems and ornaments", which included Norwegian logos and historical royal emblems. We had a chat with our supervisor, Vera, who was pleased and told us to continue the work. Later in the afternoon we carefully initiated the logo creation process.
Wednesday was a continuation of what we explored on Tuesday. We pushed forward in our search for a logo fitting our project. We created different logos within the three concepts, dipping into many different styles. We also explored audio and the possibilities in visuals through sound. Quickly discussing different surfaces also made it easier to envision scale and important logo characteristics.
Thursday morning included a visit to the Norwegian folk museum at Bygdøy. We got off to a slow start this day as Bjørn came directly from a job interview and Benjamin experienced some annoying bicycle malfunctions on the way to the destination. At the museum we got good insight into Norwegian history, displayed though artifacts, historical architecture and interactive storytelling. Especially interesting were ornamental details and hand done detailing on different objects. The most interesting details were photographed for later inspection and possible inspiration into further graphic development. The Sámi exhibitions were eye opening and shed light on an important part of Norwegian history. After a day at the museum, we had gathered tons of material for further use. The evening was spent at the annual school flea market - an excellent ending to a great day!
Friday we continued our logo creation process. Exploring further into emblems and monograms, our logo quantity grew rapidly. The increasing vastness in logos showed us how much room there is for creative freedom in a project like this. The gatherings from Thursday's visit at the Norwegian folk museum added some new qualities to the process, and was great for understanding scale and graphic possibilities on objects. Afterwards, Benjamin packed his bags and headed for Bergen, while Bjørn celebrated the arrival of spring.
To summarize the week, we began developing our project's visual identity. We both found it fun to start the production of graphical content, as it had been something we had looked forward to. Developing three main categories for logos broadened the creative space and made it possible to explore a lot at once. With a good introductory production and exploration, we look forward to the coming week.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 6:
Monday started off with group sessions supervised by Eirik Langås. Our prepared brand platform and moodboard sparked discussion which in turn gave us important understanding of the value in consise communication. From one a clock, we discussed the responses from earlier and did some minor edits to the brand plattform. This being a fairly quick fix, the remaining hours were available for some introductory exploring of rituals, as a continuation of the D4Me design method. The crazy 8 method worked well for activating our creative sense, buried somewhere under the endless carpet of marketing.
On Tuesday, Eirik Langås, held a presentation on presenting brands. It included the redesigned graphics for the Norwegian national football team, as well as the rebranding of TOMRA. This gave us insights in how to present complicated brand platforms in an intuitive way. In the afternoon we used the insights when working on the brand presentation we were going to hold next day.
Wednesday arrived, and with it a ton of brand presentations. We saw the different brands our classmates had made during the last couple of weeks, giving critizism and praise. We got both positive and negative feedback when we presented. However most of the negative feedback pointed to loose ends in our project, we had yet to tie together. This was kind of annoying, as we were to present a brand, not the concept of our project. Either way we gained a lot of relevant feedback that we felt ready to tackle.
Thursday afternoon we decided to map our entire process this far, highlighting special insights and discoveries along the way. This proved to be a good idea, as it brought a lot of important information back into the light, i addition to being a meaningful trip down memory lane. Wednesday's feedback showed us the importance of communicating the vastness in our collected research, and its value in building trust. A quick tidy-up session in Miro also seemed rational at this point. With a clear head we saw an opportunity to gather new insight into design for future methodology. This included a visit to the library, which resulted in a handfull of books waiting to be explored. Later, the class gathered at Vippa for great food and casual conversation.
Friday started off a new column in our course, visual identity. We got an introduction in the power of visualizing the linguistics of a brand platform. We both look forward to the weeks to come, as we are both interested in the art of graphical design. After lunch we had a one hour workshop, in which we were to create a brand of a liquid company with logo, name, and values, in one hour. Afterwards, all the groups had a show and tell, and the concepts turned out to be hilarious and creative. A great way to end the week.
This week was the end of the marketing course we have had the last couple of weeks. The pinnacle being the presentation of our brand on Wednesday. Furthermore, we were able to do some work on our concept when we found spare time. The week ended with learning about visual identity.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 6:
Monday started off with a lecture on branding and strategy. We learned about the meaning and definition of branding, as well as ramifications and terms concerning strategy. The lecture concluded in a task, in which we firstly were to position our concept in a positioning map, secondly summing up our concept in one sentence. Bjørn was down with the covid, but we worked through Zoom and Miro. The positioning maps gave us greater knowledge on how we positioned ourselves in coherence with other actors within the field of road communication. Our finalized concept sentence (which was recalibrated during the week) was; "Utenfor allfarvei is a service functioning as a declining car window on a warm summers day; the scent paints a picture of the surroundings, the sight delivers a sense of belonging with history, and lastly you hear the stories of those you pass along the way.".
Tuesday morning brought a continuation to Eirik Langås' lectures about brand platforms, so we didn't get to working before after lunch. Bjørn having covid brought some complications, but luckily, zoom worked a charm for the following work. We spent the afternoon constructing a one-pager brand platform addressing our value proposition, core values, vision and mission, everything leading inward towards our position. This proved to be difficult considering the current missing tangibility of our concept. Carrying on with Eirik's tips on creating a branding narrative, we chose an archetype representing the concept. None of the 12 archetypes checked all boxes, but "the innocent", "the sage", "the creator" and "the magician" shed light on some characteristics we valued. "The magician" ended up being chosen as it explored "developing a vision to live by (...) making the complex appear simple" - a strategy we found interesting.
On Wednesday the class presented freshly made brand platforms for each other, giving criticism and help. We got a lot of useful feedback from this session. One of the things we were commented on was on whom we made the brand platform for, was it for us or potential investors. Taking this and other feedback into account, we used the rest of the day to revise our brand platform.
Thursday afternoon was a prolongation of what was to be presented Monday. Bjørn, finally escaping covid's chokehold, was happy to be back. Wednesday's feedback gave us some spark to tastefully edit our brand plattform, focusing on keeping the formulations understandable and discussable. Analogies were found to work well in advocating our abstract core values, in addition to making our concept a little more tangible, which was at this point heavily needed. The content similarity of "mission" and "vision" brought some discussion, and was important to differentiate in our platform. Our vision needed to address what we wanted to achieve as an absolute goal, while our mission had to address what we wanted to change.
Friday started off with some lectures, after which we continued to work on the task we got on Wednesday. We needed to create a moodboard which we were to present, along with our revised brand platform, first thing on the coming Monday. We looked into what words and feelings we wanted to visualize through images and texts. When all was said and done, and we were satisifed, we set off to a well-earned weekend.
To summeraize this week we worked with linguistics. The art of branding was new to both of us, but now at the end of the week we both feel like we have gathered a greater understanding of what it is and how to work with it. We both had an idea of what branding was, but an interesting fact we discovered about branding is the value it creates for those within a company.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 5:
Monday morning started off by tidying up the prototype space after testing Friday. While tidying we discussed the benefits of our testing. A common response was that historical connection to geographical locations could be very interesting as a service. The use of familiar, but mystical symbols raised curiosity, but required something more to become meaningful. With that in mind, Monday became a day of meaning. Following the continuation of Dr. Ted Matthews D4Me, we found it important to begin the mapping of symbols, narratives and anxiety in Norwegian road culture. Collecting a wide array of data resulted in vast mappings describing everything from opening the car window as a symbol, to the Norwegian rural curiosity as a narrative, and the anxiety connected to meeting a local motorcycle gang.
Tuesday we found it important to discuss these mappings with individuals outside our own group. Were our mappings realistic and true? What could be supplemented and why? Without any connection to reality, our narratives, anxieties and symbols would be mere assumptions. Discussing with others proved to be fruitful. After lunch our goal was to extract the essence of the mapping, translating it into meaning. This brought us to the conclusion of the 3X’s; "The Norwegian roads are efficient, safe and embrace beautiful nature, but carry with them problems of belonging. Aesthetically, it is an exclusion of nature, functionally an exclusion of historical necessity and communicatively an exclusion of interpersonality across regions.”
With a good understanding of our collected meaning, Wednesday was the day of mythical constructions. Diving into Cristopher Bookers 7 narratives in storytelling, our task would be to decipher each narrative and possibly conclude on one that could work as a framework for our translated meaning. The comedy and the rebirth were selected as possible options. However, there was an important difference between the two: the narrative of rebirth demanded the user to have some form of introductory opinion, while the comedy embraced the user as someone more wicked and ill-defined without necessarily having a clear agenda. We concluded on using the comedy as a framework, and constructed a comedic myth of the Norwegian road culture: “You feel no belonging to the road. You know it as an adapted passage between a and b. You are prevented from seeing the road winding through nature like blood vessels, from understanding the immortal history behind it, and from knowing the diversity of the people you pass. But, you want to be curious, you want to know, you want to understand. Now you stand here, off the beaten track, receptive. You understand, you know, you're curious. You know you're part of the people you pass, part of the story, the road is an extension of your own blood vessels. You no longer know the road only as an adapted passage between a and b. You feel a sense of belonging to the road.”
Thursday afternoon was spent on preparations for the revised concept presentation Friday. With a still, fairly abstract conceptualization, it became essential for us to focus on understandable communication. Limited to only 3 slides, carefully choosing what to say, also became important for us. This process of choosing what to say and how to say it proved to be very difficult, as we felt we had gathered enough material for hour long talks. We cut as much as we felt was possible without compromising what we wanted to deliver, and headed off to punk band practice and the aho pub for the evening.
On Friday we followed the presentations of fellow students, and prepared ourselves on what we had planned on presenting. The presentation was swift; three slides, three minutes. We went through key findings from the test we had the Friday before, our work with Dr. Ted Matthews PhD and lastly our poetically designed service myth. After our presentation we got some feedback. One of the teachers told us that we had to work on defining our end-user; pointing out that the service might not be for everyone using the Norwegian roads. Another teacher told us that she looked forward to seeing how our concept would turn out in the end. We got the notion that we had done a good job, and that we were moving in the right direction. When all the groups had presented, we went off to grab a beer as the weekend was upon us.
To summeraize the week, it started and ended with Dr. Ted Matthews. We worked closely with his insights into "Sacred Service Design", to map out what we need to form "our" service myth. It was a definitely a week of mapping and reflecting. During the week the project felt both lost and honed about 20 times, which in a way feels typical, as working so closely with design theory tends to feel that way. However difficult the process was, we were able to land, and stand comfortably on our result. Presenting our findings in the end of the week, gave us the feeling of proudly closing a chapter of our design process. We looked forward to the coming week as we now had the foundation to start designing rituals.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 4:
Monday morning brought an introduction to crazy 8’s and user journeys. With Bjørn being on a week long roadtrip though rural Norway gathering practical insight and good memories, the productive work force in Oslo was reduced by 50%. Benjamin, staying in Oslo, tried out visualizing the service through quick sketches, which proved to be effective in materializing the experience. Further, Benjamin used the crazy 8 method as a rapid tool for ideation. These ideations set the foundation for Tuesday.
Tuesday included early prototyping and testing of different ways of designing eye-catching and intriguing experiences. Working with receipts and symbols he gathered important insights such as the individual importance of gathered knowledge in advance of an experience. A visit to Designit brought motivation and understanding.
On Wednesday the prototyping of different aspects of the service endured. By continuous testing of rough prototypes, Benjamin realized that we lacked firm understanding when it came to the creation of rituals. The meaningful experiences we wanted to create needed to be connected to something larger. It became clear that we need some more insight in sacred service design.
Thursday as per usual was a study day, where we read and reflected upon design theory. After lunch Benjamin had a meeting with Dr. Ted Matthews, a designer with a PhD in rituals correlating service design. He provided a ton of insight on the subject, and emphasized the importance of "myths" when creating rituals. Realizing this Benjamin started to create infographics concerning the cultural myth of Norwegian roads.
Friday was a day for recollecting and testing. With Bjørn being back from the roadtrip, a quick chat in the morning hours proved to be important. Points of discussion were prototypes, field insights, literature and interviews. Benjamins prototyping work from earlier in the week made an excellent foundation for the testing planned Friday. Bjørns gathered insight in the field opened up for a wider discussion with the test subjects. Testing a prototype consisting of a 200 meter long road stretch along the Tyrifjord, carefully spiced with subtle use of symbols and information was an effective way of gathering reactions and responses. Especially interesting was the potential of establishing geographical connections in a service like this, and the connection between folklore and local understanding. To trigger the subjects subconscious, we placed some recognizable symbols around campus with the goal of activating curiosity beforehand, leading towards our prototype.
Driving through rural Norway, specifically across the Dovre mountain range, gave important insight on the existing picture of roadside services and sights. Exploring road culture on both sides of the car windows proved its vastness. Particularly interesting was the shift in concentration when driving, riding along, walking, or living by the road. While signs and gasoline prices might be important for the driver, these elements are substituted for surroundings and other details for the passengers, sensible impact and security for pedestrians, while people living by the road are affected by the traffic in ways entirely different from those who experience it by car alone. In addition to sensible consequences, pollution and personal health must be considered.
From concept to testing. This week, different from the others, was a week of separated work. Benjamin worked with tangible prototypes, and started to materialize the concept we had worked on refining. Bjørn benefitted from a roadtrip and gathered hands-on information on driving through the Norwegian countryside. Friday morning we met up at last, sharing experiences and insights. The talk with Ted Matthews in addition to the testing on Friday was of grave importance, as it gave us momentum and clarity, which in turn helped us to look forward.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 3:
Starting the week off on Monday, we prepared for Tuesdays interviews by printing all the necessary material in advance. We categorized everything, and made a strategy. Later, we updated the tumblr blog and prepared further. The beginning of the week was fairly colored by 50% of the work force being sick.
Tuesday was a day of interviews. Firstly, we meet up with Peder Valle, who is an art historian at the National Museum. We talked about the history of roadside inns, contextualized within Norway. This brought up a lot of material we did not know previously, historically speaking. Peder was a great tool in understanding what was and what has become of "road-culture" in Norway. After interviewing Peder, we rushed over to "Riksantikvaren", the governmental branch responsible for what of architectural value is conserved in Norway. Hanna Geiran, the director, gave us insight in what, how and why we conserve and value different aspects of Norways cultural history. Combining this with regional Norway, and the culture of the road networks, things became interesting and fruitful for further discussion.
We used most of Wednesday transcribing the two interviews, getting an oversight of the their values. During the day we had a chat with one of our supervisors, Diogo, discussing possible value propositions, which was perhaps a little premature for our sake, but interesting.
On Thursday we continued transcribing the interviews. The audio recordings were a bit over three and a half hours in total. A tedious job to say the least. At the end of the day we were done. Bjørn was sick and worked from home, while Benjamin worked from school. It worked well as it was just "robot-work", but had its difficulties as well, as our ability to discuss finds was compromised.
We ended the week on Friday, a day of effectiveness. Longing for a concrete definition of our problem, we spent some hours brainstorming concepts including key findings from our gathered insight. Extracting certain elements from our interviews made this process very interesting. We quickly realized that we might have been too hasty, as many of the concepts felt easy and disturbingly narrow. A quick chat with supervisor, Vera, proved to be very assuring - maybe we needed to determine an area of interest before going concept hunting? With this in our thoughts, we decided to construct a fairly broad value proposition including two areas of interest; developing culture within transport on Norwegian roads, and local initiatives working towards presenting rural identity, values and "us"-ness. We celebrated our Friday effectiveness by drinking beer with our classmates.
To summarize, the week started off with energized and focused work. We were ready to tackle last weeks problems, or in other words, one could say we were glad to start talking to someone else than ourselves. We gathered a ton of valuable insights, but straining as it took a lot longer than we expected. This, with our luck of being struck by sickness, made the middle of the week compromised. We came back strong on Friday, worked hard, and delivered value propositions by the end of the day, even celebrating with a well-deserved beer.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 2:
We started Monday off by choosing what “potential” we sought most interest in, which ended up being “Roadside Inns” (”How to get people to stop at roadside restaurants?”). Then, the search began. Optimistically and hungry for knowledge, we loaned books from the library concerning themes such as “ruralism”, “food” and “history”. Reading through excerpts of the books, in addition to articles off the internet, we started to gain some introductory insight.
Tuesday was mostly a typical school day, starting off with lectures from service designers. After lunch we found time to contact a handful people we imagined could contribute to our preliminary data gathering. We also had a chat with our supervisor, Vera.
Wednesday was a day for forms. We created statements of consent for our interviewees for the following week, we digitalized our physical timeline, and went a bit deeper into a specific roadside inn we found interesting; “Botten skysstasjon” in rural Telemark. We also found an article concerning roadside food in Norway; “Mat i farten”, written by researchers at SIFO. At the end of the day we ate ice cream.
On Thursday morning we were occupied with reading and discussing design theory, as it’s a part of our curriculum this semester. After lunch we began printing different subjects that we wanted to discuss with our interviewees, based on the previous research.
Friday was recollecting day. We went through the weeks findings, systemized them and pinpointed out what we found particularly interesting. Furthermore, we discussed what we needed to finish in order to be ready for out interviews on Tuesday next week. Before leaving, a quick chat with service designer (and GK6 supervisor), Abel Crawford, concerning innovation and demands in rural Norway, gave us some final reflections before the weekend.
To summarize this week; we started and ended it with bold research and insight on the theme of Roadside Inns. We researched it from a user point of view as well as looking at it in a historical perspective.
FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S
Week 1:
This week was the very first of our semester long project. On Thursday we met and shared thoughts and ideas. After that we combined our digital mind maps on a big sheet of paper. This gave us the ability to create connections, and a system through our otherwise sporadic thoughts.
We discussed further and came up with three main “potentials” to further work and elaborate on:
How to get people to stop at roadside restaurants?
“Lemonade stands” for start-up restaurants.
Food with criminals.