For the Reflective Journaling Assignment I actually went over by 23 words and had to cut it down. I hope that it doesn’t make less of an impact because of it, or less sense by that same way.
For this Reflective Journal I chose to do it on our most recent Studio project, The Sustainable Materials Project. I was unable to attend the first week for this project due to an injury that ended up being worse than it was first thought to be. My recount of this project is quite short compared to others. But I believe that reflecting upon it in a more structured way than I have been already, will help me to learn more out of the experience and process.
We were given a brief that specified that in groups we were to modify a product/artefact of today to create a cradle to cradle life cycle, instead of the cradle to grave lifecycle it already has. We were to prototype, model, and present. The presentation was to be done in five minutes. In the group I was in a member brought in a product/artefact for us to look at and discuss. It was a glass bottle. We began discussing ideas, and researching glass. We found that glass already has a lot of different ways that it is being reused. Using glass as a base for different artefacts, I thought of glasses, or spectacles. I pitched it to the group, we discussed it, and decided to work with it. We then spent a lot of time researching, referencing everything as we went along. We started with the actual lifecycle of glasses, the manufacturing process, being used, and how to dispose or reuse them. Next we got onto alternate materials and their lifecycles. As we went along we began to shift our focus onto only being biodegradable. Which was better than what the product is now. But it wasn’t exactly what we were meant to do. We weren’t very focused on reading the brief repetitively, or we would only reread little sections of it. When you work on a project that comes with a brief, it needs to be referred back to often. The other teams on the other hand began their prototyping almost immediately. They had a lot of chances to make mistakes and learn from them by doing. I believe that they ended up having a lot more to show for their work, with a strong correspondence to the brief. When we first looked at prototyping none of us had done any training at the 3D Labs making it difficult to do much. So we focused on doing the slides for the presentation instead. There were definitely some boundaries to doing the prototyping, but we didn’t address them, we just took them as facts and let it stop our progress. Later when we finally got back around to making the models/prototyping, it was rushed, we didn’t have much time, or the materials we wanted to be working with. So one member brought in some cardboard, so we made the first of three models/prototypes for the frames of the glasses. It wasn’t very strong, we worried about the look, and getting our point across. So another member brought in a different and stronger cardboard for us to use. So came the second of our models/prototypes, it actually ended up being not very cleanly done because the cardboard was so difficult to cut. The third model/prototype was made out of the stronger cardboard, though armed with the knowledge that it was difficult to cut, this one came out much better, even making it to being the main model. The second model/prototype was repurposed to be a model showing how the lenses would look in the frames. One member had worked to create a version of the bio plastic that would actually be used in the new type of glasses. They ended up making two different sheets/batches. The first was cut up and used in conjunction with the second cardboard model/prototype. The second sheet was made bright red to show that the bio plastic could be easily tinted, it was also an easier way to show the representation of the separate materials to our new glasses. When we were working on the slides to our presentation we made two different drafts before making the final slides. As we went through we didn’t save separate copies of the drafts, making it difficult to show our progress. It ended up being quite difficult to present with the final slides. We hadn’t taken enough steps back from our work to see the bigger picture, we were to attached to the research that we had done, and couldn’t figure out a way to condense it when we needed to. Throughout the project I found that the delegation of tasks was not done effectively, at different points members of the team would get bored or distracted because they had nothing to do. Either because there actually wasn’t that much to do at the time that was obvious, or someone was having difficulty understanding how to take apart their tasks to make sure everyone was doing something productive.
I found and read some resources to enrich my understanding of my experience. I researched ‘collaborative work’ and I found when reading this paper, “Factors of collaborative working: A framework for a collaboration model” that "Work, collaborative or otherwise, is best understood in terms of the context in which people are working, and its influence and constraints on structures and processes, performance and success. With collaborative work we often find continually changing people, technology, information and space, and so collaboration is understood through people’s interactions with each other, technology, information and the environment and not solely in terms of the cognitive skills of workers and organisational norms.” When I read that, I immediately realised why my group had so much difficulty. I myself had more trouble than normal because of my injury, my group members had some difficulty having to compensate for that in some areas, and we all had to work a little harder because we were missing a member who never showed up. We were constrained in lots of different ways and that changed our dynamic, making the project not have our desired outcome. This time I researched ‘presenting a presentation’ and that took me to this citation “Building design portfolios: innovative concepts for presenting your work” from there I went through a few pages until I came across this theses “Creating a visual identity for a personal brand” and I found this snippet right near the beginning, “The successful career of a designer depends on personal branding and as a consequence of it a creating an original visual identity. The designer should stand out from the crowd and show uniqueness.” “personal branding helps to affect the way how others perceive you.” As part of our presentation my group and I worked hard to take on the feedback we were given to make our presentation more appealing. We tried to create a brand, but didn’t spend a lot of time on it, so it seemed to fall flat. If we had created a better model/prototype it would have come across a lot better. When you put time into something like your branding it can come across much better and create a positive view from your audience. Another group actually did that, and I enjoyed their presentation.
From this experience and my research I have learnt, that if the project has a brief, referring to that brief all the way through, on a regular basis is very important, so that you do not lose sight of what you are meant to be doing. Not to take all things at face value, problems can always be looked at from ‘outside of the box’, try to address issues or boundaries as they come up, instead of making them facts that hinder progress. Getting straight into things can actually create progress, not just make things more difficult. Keeping even just photos of progress will help to change things for the better when reviewing projects. Delegation is extremely important, and a skill I need to get better at, it is not ‘losing control’, it’s actually more like gaining a stronger grip on the situation, while letting the project move forward faster. When working collaboratively it can have a lot of different factors that change the situation throughout whatever you are doing, these are okay and will only change the desired outcome if you are not willing to be flexible and learn. And when making a brand to engage with your audience, make sure you have put enough time into it to create your desired outcome. I believe that I am already doing a lot of this. Over the first week of the break, I worked collaboratively with a new group of people. I tried to get straight into the project at hand, I made sure to refer to the brief I was given, more often and thoroughly. I addressed issues as they came up. I also figured out how to gain and strengthen my delegation skill.
References:
1. Factors of collaborative working: A framework for a collaboration model. - Authors: Harshada Pate, Michae Pettitt, John R.Wilson - Human Factors Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK. - Received 4 December 2009, Accepted 19 April 2011, Available online 26 May 2011. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2011.04.009
2. Creating a visual identity for a personal brand - Author: Anastasia Parfeeva - THESIS May 2016. - Degree Programme in Design Sirkkalankatu 12A Link: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/112773/Parfeeva_Anastasia.pdf?...1
