ISTD: Interim Critique

We recently had an interim critique whereby, we presented our ideas up until now.

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I felt the presentation itself went well – it was placed in an informal context and therefore took a more relaxed approach. I do believe that I am not where I need to be at this point because I have been struggling to decide on a final solution within my Alzheimer’s concept in order to answer the brief. I therefore took this presentation as an opportunity to gain feedback from others to help guide me to making the best decision.

The feedback I received was that a number of the ideas suggested could work really well, David then suggested that what if all of the ideas were rolled into one? This could look at how when people suffer with the disease they have random moments of clarity. By bringing all the elements together (in a considered manner) there could be random moments occurring within the text. Although this may be confusing for the reader who doesn’t suffer from the disease – it can emulate the experience from the perspective of someone who does suffer from it.

This is definitely an interesting approach and one I had not considered – I will explore this in more depth and make a final decision on the idea in order to move the project forward and begin focusing on the design. All in all, I felt the feedback received was very helpful and I feel more confident in being able to make a decision.

ISTD: Rebecca Petts Davies

On Friday 16th November, we had a visit from designer, Rebecca Petts Davies, who currently works in a studio in London. She has won two D&AD awards (and so knows what she’s talking about) and came in to give talk about ideas and her experiences.

I found the talk to be extremely inspiring and was great to listen to what she had to say. Seeing her process and how she came to her final ideas was quite interesting because she took the brief and really understood on what was being asked. I really liked how her first approach was to think of all the obvious or cliché things that could be done to get them out of the way and move on to the more interesting ideas.

We then had a chance to sit with her one on one and speak through our ideas relating to the brief we chose. I spoke through each of my three concepts and her feedback was that she liked the approach of the Alzheimer’s brief because it’s a different way of looking at the issue. She also thought that the others had potential, but she could see that I was most passionate about the first concept and said that if that’s the case then I should go for it. I expressed my worry about it being obvious, but she reassured me that my approach was a different way of looking at it and to just look at the obvious things to get them out of them way.

We then got chatting about the transition into industry and about gaining mentors and ‘imposter’ syndrome – with the feeling of not being good enough attached to it and how to get over that and to remember that you are good enough. It was lovely to get to talk to her about these things and to get an insight into Rebecca’s experiences with everything – especially knowing that she also struggles with these feelings. It is something I often struggle with and so hearing it from someone whom I regard as a great designer was somewhat reassuring.

ISTD: Tutorial Feedback

Throughout the process so far, I have had feedback from various members of staff and peers.

I had a one on one tutorial with Theo, whereby I discussed my three concepts with him. He really liked my first concept and we discussed the implications of the disease, he thought that my approach was a good way around it as it meant it wasn’t an obvious or direct approach. He suggested that if I focused on the story of my great-grandfather, it might not connect with people as much. So he suggested an idea of taking a well known piece of text (like a song or poem etc.) and writing it for a three year old, then a seven year old and up and up until it reaches the full text (as it was written), from this point words could be removed or replaced from the text, making it confusing to read and showing it disintegrate. This works with the idea that memories are built up from childhood, but Alzheimer’s then takes it away. I thought this was a very interesting approach and got me to think wider than just using a personal story.

We then spoke of my second concept and he again thought that this was another strong concept that had lots avenues to explore. We began talking about the notion of how things work out in life, and losses are needed to make us who we are today. He particularly liked how it changed the negative connotations associated with the word ‘lost’ and took a positive spin on it.

With the third concept, Theo thought it was very closely linked with my first concept – something I highlighted myself previously. But the change in this idea came when discussing the two books highlighted. He thought that this could be an interesting approach but felt my other two concepts were stronger – something I agree on. When asked which concept I felt most passionate about, it was the Alzheimer’s concept and he agreed that it is one I should go ahead with.

Overall, I found the tutorial with Theo to be extremely helpful and I gained a lot from the discussion. It was nice to gain his perspective on the ideas and he made me think a little beyond my ideas within each of the concepts.

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I also had a group tutorial with my peers and David, where I again discussed my concepts and the feedback received was more asking which I felt most passionate about and to go with that. I didn’t feel I benefited that much from the tutorial as I felt I was essentially left to make the decision (which I am anyway) but without much input or guidance.

Despite all of this, I have decided to go with the Alzheimer’s concept as it is the one I feel most passionate about and I do believe it is a strong concept to go forward with, providing I handle it with care and avoid anything cliché. I was initially worried that it was an idea I was holding on to and not looking beyond it (like what was discussed with Theo in his ideation workshop) but after speaking to Theo and Rebecca I now feel much more confident in the concept – in that it is a strong one.

ISTD: Ideation Workshop (Theo)

Before delving too deep into the ideation stage, new had a workshop with Theo on idea generation. He spoke to us about the danger of thinking of one idea and running with it without thinking of any other potential ideas that could be stronger than the first.

This is really good advice as I believe it is too easy to have a single idea, think it’s strong and take it forward without delving into it in depth and uncovering all the possibilities.

‘Ideas are the most valuable thing in the world, and are (at the same time) utterly disposable.’ – Theo

The workshop highlighted how you have to get to the crazy, push through it and come out the other side, then you get the brilliant ideas.  It is not just about the outcome, but a consideration into the context is needed. The concept itself needs to be solid to allow for a strong outcome to be created – otherwise you are making something pretty that has no substance.

Here are seven points from IDEO (a design innovation company):

1. Defer judgement
2. Encourage wild ideas
3. Build on ideas of others
4. Stay focused on the topic
5. One conversation at a time
6. Be visual
7. Go for quantity

Some other key points gained from the workshop include:

• Generative collision – collide ideas together to create new ideas
• Be expansive / challenge barriers
• Be meta-cognitive
• Play with the process as well as the outcome

Overall I found the workshop helpful, it helped to build on the work on idea generation gathered previously (100 ideas challenge). I can see the benefit in what Theo was discussing and it is a frame of mind that is developed and is not gained easily because we can all get attached to our ideas and can at times struggle to see past them. I will definitely work on this and implement the seven points discussed above not only within this project, but also in future projects in order to avoid thinking of an idea that is too obvious – and something that everyone would think of.

ISTD: Editorial Exercise

As part of my research, David set us the task to take an existing spread from an editorial, copy it and then re-work it five different ways in order to highlight the significance of hierarchy and how it must be considered – to highlight the level of detail needed when dealing with multiple elements on a page and handling a significant amount of type.

To begin with, here is the original image:

Now here is my copy of the spread:

From the copy here are my re-workings of the spread:

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What this task taught me is that hierarchy is not easy and there is a lot to consider when placing all the elements on the page. I think that some of the spreads above have elements that work really well and could be an alternative to the original, whereas others simply don’t work at all in my opinion because they are too illegible or don’t use the white space well. I also struggled to work with the larger elements on the page as they are not as flexible as the smaller elements.

Going forward I will ensure I take note of the level of detail expected to be considered for this brief – but it must be underpinned by research. I will therefore make sure I complete sufficient research into layouts and grid systems so that I am able to make informed choices in regard to my final outcome.

ISTD: Breakdown of Lost

Following on from looking at the brief, I have decided to do a large mind map to get everything I can think of associated with lost on to the page, allowing me to see what areas I can explore – and want to explore.

Before going off and mind mapping the theme, I wanted to get a full understanding of what the word meant and therefore looked up its definition.

This has definitely opened some doors for me because I now feel I am able to understand the word properly and all the different definitions it has – it doesn’t just have the one definition.

Following from this I did an initial mind map in order to see what initial thoughts I had on the subject and to give me a sense of how vast of a subject area it is. It is therefore not as in depth.

Through this initial mind map, I realised that lost could be explored through lots of different categories and so taking that forward I decided to look at the theme in much more depth.

I feel all the mind mapping has allowed me to gain a good understanding of what the word means and all the ways it can be interpreted. I don’t think I anticipated how many ways the word could be looked at and the number of ways it can be interpreted.

Looking at all the information gathered/ formed the three concepts standing out the most to me is the idea of looking into Alzheimer’s and the loss of memory – but to put a spin on it so that it isn’t obvious and cliché. The second is to look at loss as a positive thing – uncovering how losing something can allow a person to gain so much more. The final concept is to look at the loss of reality for my interest in Psychology and is an area that could be interesting to work with visually.

Moving forward I will take these three concepts forward and explore them in depth to see their potential and how they can answer the brief.

ISTD: The Brief

I have chosen to do the ISTD competition, specifically looking at the ‘Lost’ brief as it was the one that sparked the most interest and the one I feel could be played with extensively, taking a topic and looking within it in depth.

Below is the brief set by ISTD:

From reading the brief initially, I realised there are a number of pathways that can be explored within the theme. This is therefore not going to be an easy task to decipher all the different avenues available. The word ‘fragility’ is mentioned within the text and is one that has stuck out to me – I feel it is something that could be played with, taking a sensitive approach.

I have also included the assessment criteria as I feel it is equally important to look into what is expected from the outcomes and process involved within the brief.