Week 5: 13 August

Week 5

13 August

(Lesson Nine)

Today was our hand in day, where we just placed our work on the tables and walked around to look at the work from other teams. We were able to go around the block and look at other classes work as well, which I found really interesting. 

Our task now is to pick which brief we want to work on for the next half of the semester. At the moment I am still wanting to carry on with my current project, even if I am by myself with it. I feel that over the past 3 weeks I have grown to be very interested in this topic and I'd like to work on it further. However there were some other interesting topics that caught my eye, so I will have to make the decision very soon.

Week 4: 7 August

Week 4

7 August

(Lesson Eight)

Over night I was thinking about the cover and today I suggested to use a wooden cover because of our idea of the storybook. Although this will have the brief inside and not be an actual children’s book, we have come up with illustrations and a design to interest children and to look as if it was a child's storybook. The team is all go for the wood, now just to find some… I also had the idea of engraving the title on the front. So now we have to come up with a title that fits well with our idea. So while Scott went to the exchanged, Ben and I stayed behind to work on the title and to continue pushing out ideas for the text as well.

Ex-Change

I didn't attend the ex-change program because I wanted to stay behind to work on the project, as I thought it was more important. Last time wasn't very successful, as people did not attend, so I didn't think it would be useful this time either. I got lots of work done in the period of time and found it quite productive. We decided on a title for our book which is “Keep the gadgets away so the kids can play”. It works quite well with our idea, and basically says what we are wanting to say. And plus it’s pretty catchy.

Week 4: 6 August

Week 4

6 August

(Lesson Seven)

Ben is a fantastic drawer, and he is working very hard on the ideas of the illustrations. Scott and I have been working on the type, and I have been coming up with ideas for the cover of our book and how to bind it. It seems like we have taken a long time just to get to this point, however we are doing pretty well I think.

Week 3: 31 July

Week 3

31 July

(Lesson Six)

As a team we had to decide on our approach, so the design and the concept we were wanting to show. We decided to turn our brief into the form of a story book, as our target audience is aimed at parents to explain the situation to their child. The idea is that we want to show that technology can be addictive at a young age, which can cause even further addictions in later life. To do this, we decided to use illustrations, to get the child interested, and to talk to the parent about the images and what is wrong with them. Each image will be different on each page, and will show different scenarios along the lines of children and technology. So we have a plan of what we want to achieve this week, so hopefully we can finish all these illustrations on time.

Week 3: 30 July

Week 3

30 July

(Lesson Five)

Today we just got together in our groups and continued discussing our ideas. There have been a few arguments between the two boys I work with, creating a bit of tension with the three of us. We managed to decide on things and get the ball rolling. With extended research happening today, we began to get a rough idea of where we want to take our assignment.

Week 2: 24 July

Week 2

24 July

(Lesson Four)

We gathered all our information and picked out the best parts that were interesting, and then started breaking them down, making more sense of them as we went along. We worked on this for most of the lesson.

Exchange

This was our first time with going to meet other students from a wider range of disciplines. I thought I would be able to get some interesting feedback, but I left a bit disappointed. We shared our ideas on our briefs and our area of interests. I found it quite awkward because only four of us showed up. Two of us from the same class and the other two both from industrial block. I felt like they weren’t really understanding the ideas or really caring at all, it was quite hard to tell today.

It seemed a bit pointless to be sharing stuff as we had only done the research part of the assignment. The whole idea of sharing concepts with others was great, however it just didn’t work as well as planned. This was due to a mixture of non-attendance, confusion, and just pure awkwardness.

Week 2: 23 July

Week 2

23 July

(Lesson Three)

Today we gathered in the theater, where we got told about this reflective blog. I am still slightly confused about what exactly we are meant to be writing, so I have done this wrong. Oops.

Lets just say that the clarity of instructions was, well, not very clear. However we were finally told what is exactly needed for the assignment. I had a small idea of what we had to do, but this made it a bit clearer for me.

However when we got back to the classroom, the instructions again were not clear. We had to put our ideas on the table and then choose someone else’s we liked? This really confused me as I wanted to work on my own idea, and by myself. We had to pair up. Which made things difficult and awkward when nobody else wanted to do a similar topic to mine. Hmmm where do I go?? I walked around lost for a good 20 minutes, asking what people were doing, and none of the topics really interested me as much as my original idea. I eventually found a team of two boys who are doing a similar topic of children, but their idea is technology. I like their thoughts about this so thought I’d give it a go.

We came up with some main focus points to start with, and now we just need to do wider research.

Week 1: 17 July

Week 1

17 July

(Lesson Two)

We met in the class area straight away today, where we got placed into groups again to talk about ourselves again. We had to get quite deep and personal this time which I got quite shy and nervous about at first. A lot of people were quite scared of talking about these kind of things, and so was I. I felt it was pushed on us just a little too much, to the point some of us were almost in tears. Sometimes talking about the past can bring up a lot of sadness for someone, so it was hard to be careful of what things we said to one another.

It was a very uncomfortable lesson, until the positives came out, and it was all smiles and laughter, even though this wasn't really a task, we felt it was needed.

We started looking deeper into issues, pushing aside the ones that made us feel uncomfortable. Doing this made a little progress on the clarity of the assignment, but still foggy at this stage.

Our task before next week is to do research on topics of interests and pick one we would like to dig deeper into. I have chosen to look at the issue of obesity in children. This is quite a strong topic for me, not because I've been through it, but because I have witnessed a friend go through it and it’s not pleasant for both them and the people around them. This is a good choice rather than going deep into depression or anxiety, because I relate to that too much, which makes it a harsh topic.

Week 1: 16 July

Week 1

16 July

(lesson one)

So today is the first lesson of design studio, and we gathered in the lecture theater, once we realized that’s where we were meant to be. I found the introduction interesting, but still had no idea what the assignment is all about. Maybe I’ll find out tomorrow? Who knows. The Lifehack presentation was pretty good, I felt I could relate to some of the things he mentioned, I think everyone in the lecture could to be honest. 

We all came out of the lecture theater to talk more about the assignment, well, that’s what I thought anyway. We started talking about issues within the community relating to well being. I found this a little personal, but I was still willing to come forward and speak in front of the class when we were asked a few questions. I thought I was brave for admitting to having health issues I need to get sorted, but I didn't feel I was acknowledged for my bravery, which then turned into a 5 minute awkwardness of standing there like a nob.

After this, we were paired up and our task was to talk about ourselves in a positive and negative way, which I found a bit difficult to say to someone I had only just met. I got it out though, and we became very chatty, almost off task! So maybe that was a good thing? Again, who knows.

So, still wondering what all this has to do with our assignment, and my mind is still a bit foggy, but I’m sure it will come clear in the next few lessons.