15.10.15
Final Feedback
Emma and I have been working hard on finalising all of our design elements as well as the dossier and presentation. We showed Nanz what we had done and she really liked it. She pointed out a couple of small tweaks we could make here and there to communicate our ideas better. One big change she suggested was changing our target audience from year 12 students (16-17 year olds) to year 9 students (13-14 year olds). We decided to make this change as it makes more sense to encourage new friendships through our event at the beginning of high school rather then right near the end when students already have well formed friendship groups. It also means students can benefit from the results of our event through out their whole high school experience rather then in their second to last year. We also realised that also means our talk to Mark's 13 year old daughter was also more relevant then we thought. This made our decision to make the target audience change much easier as we knew it would definitely appeal to her age bracket.
Wednesday, 14 October 2015
Friday, 9 October 2015
Lesson 22
09.10.15
Feedback + Laying out work
Today Emma and I printed out all of our visual work to date and lay it out on the floor to see how it all worked together. (see below)
Seeing all of our work together was really good. We decided that there is definitely a visual flow between all elements. We were also able to get feedback from Jason, Nanz and the two life hack guys. They also thought that it was working well. Jason said that we need to make sure we pair the logo with something else when we show it as it is not overly original on its own. The image below is the list of changes and things to complete after the feedback we received.
We are feeling pretty confident that we can complete all of the small tweaks and changes before presentation day.
Feedback + Laying out work
Today Emma and I printed out all of our visual work to date and lay it out on the floor to see how it all worked together. (see below)
Seeing all of our work together was really good. We decided that there is definitely a visual flow between all elements. We were also able to get feedback from Jason, Nanz and the two life hack guys. They also thought that it was working well. Jason said that we need to make sure we pair the logo with something else when we show it as it is not overly original on its own. The image below is the list of changes and things to complete after the feedback we received.
We are feeling pretty confident that we can complete all of the small tweaks and changes before presentation day.
Thursday, 8 October 2015
Lesson 21
08.10.15
Trucking on
Today Emma and I reviewed what we had done so far, what was working and what wasn't. We decided that our original app designs were no longer working as well along with our other designs so we are going to re-vamp it a little so that it is more fun. I kept working on the bus decals and added a superhero photo that Emma had created after our photoshoot in the green screen studio. It is starting to look really cool. I also set up the dossier document. We are going to continue the hand drawn fun style in the dossier also. We talked to Nanz today also and she suggested we outline the content we want to have in at least three of the follow up videos we plan to post on youtube and to put this info into our dossier.
Trucking on
Today Emma and I reviewed what we had done so far, what was working and what wasn't. We decided that our original app designs were no longer working as well along with our other designs so we are going to re-vamp it a little so that it is more fun. I kept working on the bus decals and added a superhero photo that Emma had created after our photoshoot in the green screen studio. It is starting to look really cool. I also set up the dossier document. We are going to continue the hand drawn fun style in the dossier also. We talked to Nanz today also and she suggested we outline the content we want to have in at least three of the follow up videos we plan to post on youtube and to put this info into our dossier.
Friday, 2 October 2015
Lesson 20
02.10.15
Talking to people
Today Emma and I got to talk to Nick, a Psychology student. He really liked our idea but was slightly unsure about how some of our activities related to mindfulness. When we explained to him that we were going to get the students to focus on something in particular during the activity to keep them focused on the present he understood much better. He said the way we explain the activities to the students who are going to do the activity will be very important. He also said a lot of our activities involve play which is very beneficial to peoples well-being.
We also got the chance to talk to Mark's daughter. She was 13 so a little younger then our 16-17 year old target audience but we figured we could get some good insights none the less. She said that she found it easy to meet new people as she was open to meeting new people and found it especially easy to get along with people who had similar interests to her. She said she found it easiest to get to know new people when she is put into a group with people she doesn't know and that talking to people is the best way to make new friends. This was very interesting as this is exactly what we plan to do for our event- split people up into groups with people they don't know but share common interests with. This gave us lots of confidence that we are heading on the right track.
Emma and I also started exploring pop art to add to our brand aesthetic. We want to merge this style with our current had drawn style to maintain the honesty we feel it portrays. We think by merging this with pop art will link our style with super hero themes much better as well as making it easy to add some humour to our designs. We think this will appeal really well to our audience. We showed some of our aesthetic material to Mark's daughter also which she was really positive about.
Talking to people
Today Emma and I got to talk to Nick, a Psychology student. He really liked our idea but was slightly unsure about how some of our activities related to mindfulness. When we explained to him that we were going to get the students to focus on something in particular during the activity to keep them focused on the present he understood much better. He said the way we explain the activities to the students who are going to do the activity will be very important. He also said a lot of our activities involve play which is very beneficial to peoples well-being.
We also got the chance to talk to Mark's daughter. She was 13 so a little younger then our 16-17 year old target audience but we figured we could get some good insights none the less. She said that she found it easy to meet new people as she was open to meeting new people and found it especially easy to get along with people who had similar interests to her. She said she found it easiest to get to know new people when she is put into a group with people she doesn't know and that talking to people is the best way to make new friends. This was very interesting as this is exactly what we plan to do for our event- split people up into groups with people they don't know but share common interests with. This gave us lots of confidence that we are heading on the right track.
Emma and I also started exploring pop art to add to our brand aesthetic. We want to merge this style with our current had drawn style to maintain the honesty we feel it portrays. We think by merging this with pop art will link our style with super hero themes much better as well as making it easy to add some humour to our designs. We think this will appeal really well to our audience. We showed some of our aesthetic material to Mark's daughter also which she was really positive about.
Thursday, 1 October 2015
Lesson 19
1.10.15
Interim Critique
Today we had our interim critique. It went really well and was mostly positive. One suggestion we had was that we could include the year 13 students who would have done the programme last year and get them to help run the activities. This would be a good recap for the year 13's as well as a good opportunity for the year 12 and 13 students to get to know each other. Another person challenged whether our super hero theme would appeal to year 12 students. After giving this plenty of thought we still think if we marketed it carefully in a way that is more mature then your typical kids super hero it will appeal to our audience. Especially if we incorporate humour into our style and marketing.
Interim Critique
Today we had our interim critique. It went really well and was mostly positive. One suggestion we had was that we could include the year 13 students who would have done the programme last year and get them to help run the activities. This would be a good recap for the year 13's as well as a good opportunity for the year 12 and 13 students to get to know each other. Another person challenged whether our super hero theme would appeal to year 12 students. After giving this plenty of thought we still think if we marketed it carefully in a way that is more mature then your typical kids super hero it will appeal to our audience. Especially if we incorporate humour into our style and marketing.
Friday, 25 September 2015
Lesson 18
25.09.15
Mock Interim Presentations
Today Emma and I spoke to Jason about how our project is going so far. He was positive about the way we are going but pushed us to think about how we are going to build up hype before the event and get the students excited for the event so that they don't show up feeling uninterested and bored. We thought quite hard about a solution to this problem and came up with the idea of re-branding 'mindfulness' to make it sound more exciting and appealing to our audience. We have learned through our research that teens are very egotistic so we thought that by promoting our event as being all about them and emphasising that the tools they learn at this event will make them awesome people will appeal to this audience. We quickly came to the idea of branding our event as transforming the students into superheroes; 'become the superhero you'. We thought that before the event we could have superhero cutouts around the school that you could stick you're head through and take a picture to post to our social media page as a way of entering a competition. This would then lead them to our social media page that will have awesome and exciting pictures of past events to add a bit of hype. We thought we could theme the activities at the event also as if transforming the high school student into a superhero, passing levels and gaining essential skills (powers). At the end for a bit of fun we could get a photo of each student in front of a green screen and transform them to superheroes which will be posted on our social media page so they can find themselves and friends and tag themselves. This would be a way of marketing ourselves and getting them back onto our page. We plan to create videos reinforcing the skills they are taught at the event that would be posted to Facebook each week. The videos would be kept light hearted and funny to make them enjoyable to watch but would also be extremely beneficial with the lessons hidden within them.
After we had resolved the above ideas into our concept we then presented our idea to a fourth year. We got positive feedback so we will continue running with our idea. We also got the chance to talk to Sam from Life Hack. He really liked our idea too and he suggested we look into EQ which is emotional intelligence. He also said that instead of just focusing on mindfulness we should look into other wellbeing methods as well, to give the students a wider spectrum of knowledge. We found this advice really helpful to guide our decisions on what our activities at the even will entail.
We had the EX-CHANGE after class which went well. I explained my idea to the group and they said they liked the idea. I didn't really get any feedback on what to change which makes me think we must be heading in the right direction.
Mock Interim Presentations
Today Emma and I spoke to Jason about how our project is going so far. He was positive about the way we are going but pushed us to think about how we are going to build up hype before the event and get the students excited for the event so that they don't show up feeling uninterested and bored. We thought quite hard about a solution to this problem and came up with the idea of re-branding 'mindfulness' to make it sound more exciting and appealing to our audience. We have learned through our research that teens are very egotistic so we thought that by promoting our event as being all about them and emphasising that the tools they learn at this event will make them awesome people will appeal to this audience. We quickly came to the idea of branding our event as transforming the students into superheroes; 'become the superhero you'. We thought that before the event we could have superhero cutouts around the school that you could stick you're head through and take a picture to post to our social media page as a way of entering a competition. This would then lead them to our social media page that will have awesome and exciting pictures of past events to add a bit of hype. We thought we could theme the activities at the event also as if transforming the high school student into a superhero, passing levels and gaining essential skills (powers). At the end for a bit of fun we could get a photo of each student in front of a green screen and transform them to superheroes which will be posted on our social media page so they can find themselves and friends and tag themselves. This would be a way of marketing ourselves and getting them back onto our page. We plan to create videos reinforcing the skills they are taught at the event that would be posted to Facebook each week. The videos would be kept light hearted and funny to make them enjoyable to watch but would also be extremely beneficial with the lessons hidden within them.
After we had resolved the above ideas into our concept we then presented our idea to a fourth year. We got positive feedback so we will continue running with our idea. We also got the chance to talk to Sam from Life Hack. He really liked our idea too and he suggested we look into EQ which is emotional intelligence. He also said that instead of just focusing on mindfulness we should look into other wellbeing methods as well, to give the students a wider spectrum of knowledge. We found this advice really helpful to guide our decisions on what our activities at the even will entail.
We had the EX-CHANGE after class which went well. I explained my idea to the group and they said they liked the idea. I didn't really get any feedback on what to change which makes me think we must be heading in the right direction.
Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Lesson 17
24.09.15
Think Place + Class Time
Class started with the Think Place team presenting us with food for thought on poverty. They offered us the insights and empathy they had discovered through their research. I personally found it shocking how tough some people have it here in New Zealand and the extent some people have to go just to get themselves and their family the basic necessities. When we split off into groups to discuss something in the food gathering process we would like to change we decided to focus on the struggle of communicating with WINZ as well as varying Food Banks. The time it takes to speak to these organisations individually seemed wasteful and mentally and physically taxing. Our idea is that these organisations need to have a shared database so that they could all access the information about when a person last received support whether it be a food grant or a food parcel. That way instead of going to each individual place to see if they are eligible for support, they can find all of this information at one place and then be directed to the organisation that can help them. We thought that if this information can also be accessed online by the individual in need they could go directly where the help is, without a middle-man involved.
From this exercise I learned how important it is to fully understand someones situation in order to be able to offer informed help that will definitely benefit someone. It also proved to me how important it is to gain insight completely removed from judgement. This is relevant to our project as I have found myself assuming things about our target audience when actually the best way to discover this information would have been by asking the target group directly or using pre-existing research that was created with students not just about students.
Design has a huge role in creating change for social good. The way we are taught to problem solve can be easily applied to real world problems to find creative and practical solutions. Empathy is the greatest tool we have learnt for designing real change for humans. It is only by putting yourself in the shoes of someone else that you can insightfully design something that the user will truly find useful.
During our studio class time, Emma and I created a detailed to do list in order to keep ourselves on track leading up to hand in. We also decided on the name and logo we were going to use. Emma had created some visualisations of how the stalls will look at the event which looked really fun and exciting. We also got some tutor feedback. We were told our visuals are looking great and we had a great idea and explanations for everything we just need to really focus on what the activities at the event are going to be. We also need to narrow down our big idea a little as it is very broad at the moment.
Between now and tomorrow we need to keep trucking on with our visuals and define our idea a little better as well as making some decisions on our event activities.
Think Place + Class Time
Class started with the Think Place team presenting us with food for thought on poverty. They offered us the insights and empathy they had discovered through their research. I personally found it shocking how tough some people have it here in New Zealand and the extent some people have to go just to get themselves and their family the basic necessities. When we split off into groups to discuss something in the food gathering process we would like to change we decided to focus on the struggle of communicating with WINZ as well as varying Food Banks. The time it takes to speak to these organisations individually seemed wasteful and mentally and physically taxing. Our idea is that these organisations need to have a shared database so that they could all access the information about when a person last received support whether it be a food grant or a food parcel. That way instead of going to each individual place to see if they are eligible for support, they can find all of this information at one place and then be directed to the organisation that can help them. We thought that if this information can also be accessed online by the individual in need they could go directly where the help is, without a middle-man involved.
From this exercise I learned how important it is to fully understand someones situation in order to be able to offer informed help that will definitely benefit someone. It also proved to me how important it is to gain insight completely removed from judgement. This is relevant to our project as I have found myself assuming things about our target audience when actually the best way to discover this information would have been by asking the target group directly or using pre-existing research that was created with students not just about students.
Design has a huge role in creating change for social good. The way we are taught to problem solve can be easily applied to real world problems to find creative and practical solutions. Empathy is the greatest tool we have learnt for designing real change for humans. It is only by putting yourself in the shoes of someone else that you can insightfully design something that the user will truly find useful.
During our studio class time, Emma and I created a detailed to do list in order to keep ourselves on track leading up to hand in. We also decided on the name and logo we were going to use. Emma had created some visualisations of how the stalls will look at the event which looked really fun and exciting. We also got some tutor feedback. We were told our visuals are looking great and we had a great idea and explanations for everything we just need to really focus on what the activities at the event are going to be. We also need to narrow down our big idea a little as it is very broad at the moment.
Between now and tomorrow we need to keep trucking on with our visuals and define our idea a little better as well as making some decisions on our event activities.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Lesson 16
18.09.15
Big Idea
Today we defined what our 'Big Idea' is and this is what we narrowed it down to:
Big Idea
Today we defined what our 'Big Idea' is and this is what we narrowed it down to:
To break down the friend group barriers
between senior high school students. This will establish a stronger school
community and improve the overall well-being of many students.
We intend to do this by creating an event
that provides a comfortable and inviting environment to encourage and
facilitate new connections on common ground.
When then drafted up a journey map to show how our user will experience the event at each stage and how they will feel during each stage.
We showed this to Jason and he thinks we have a really solid idea that we now just have to build up on to make our event amazing. He suggests we need to create an experience so amazing that students can't resist from joining in and to steer away from conventional event aesthetics e.g. marquee, tents etc. He also suggests we design the event in way that enables the students to learn rather then making them learn the content you want them to learn.
This gives us plenty to work with between now and next week in terms of moving our project forward in the aforementioned ways. Emma and I plan to meet up on Monday to futher our project even more before class on Thursday.
Lesson 15
17.09.15
More Prototyping
Today we mocked up the event aspect of our idea and tested it on our peers. We created a mini version of how the event may look.
After talking our testers through the event we asked for feedback. They suggested a few ideas for the activities we could have at the event and suggested we keep the activities quite separate so that students can't get distracted by their friends in a different activity. They also said we need to find a way of bringing mindfulness into the activities rather then just having it introduced at the beginning of the event and then forgotten about.
This gave us plenty to think about for furthering our project. We then did a second prototype to test how students may feel about being split into groups via a questionnaire a few days before the event. We discovered that if the students knew that the questionnaire may split them from their friends you would be less likely to get honest answers. If students didn't know that they will be split into groups they will be more open to it on the day as long as they know one or two people in their group. Students will feel more confident to talk to someone they don't know if they are working together on a project and therefore have something to talk about.
More Prototyping
Today we mocked up the event aspect of our idea and tested it on our peers. We created a mini version of how the event may look.
After talking our testers through the event we asked for feedback. They suggested a few ideas for the activities we could have at the event and suggested we keep the activities quite separate so that students can't get distracted by their friends in a different activity. They also said we need to find a way of bringing mindfulness into the activities rather then just having it introduced at the beginning of the event and then forgotten about.
This gave us plenty to think about for furthering our project. We then did a second prototype to test how students may feel about being split into groups via a questionnaire a few days before the event. We discovered that if the students knew that the questionnaire may split them from their friends you would be less likely to get honest answers. If students didn't know that they will be split into groups they will be more open to it on the day as long as they know one or two people in their group. Students will feel more confident to talk to someone they don't know if they are working together on a project and therefore have something to talk about.
Thursday, 10 September 2015
lesson 14
10.09.15
Prototyping
Today we tested out the questions we are going to ask the students to sort them into groups for our event. Emma dressed up as an iPad and I asked the questions (see image below).
We discovered from our first test that some of our questions didn't quite make sense so we were able to alter those questions for the next test. The second test we made was more interactive and had questions and answers written on small strips of paper that the user could drag to the centre of the table to answer the question. We also had a couple of blank pieces of paper so that the user could write their own answer if we hadn't supplied enough options. We found this test worked really well and there were a couple of answers the user cam up with that we hadn't thought of.
Prototyping
Today we tested out the questions we are going to ask the students to sort them into groups for our event. Emma dressed up as an iPad and I asked the questions (see image below).
We discovered from our first test that some of our questions didn't quite make sense so we were able to alter those questions for the next test. The second test we made was more interactive and had questions and answers written on small strips of paper that the user could drag to the centre of the table to answer the question. We also had a couple of blank pieces of paper so that the user could write their own answer if we hadn't supplied enough options. We found this test worked really well and there were a couple of answers the user cam up with that we hadn't thought of.
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
First Class Back
10/09/15
Lesson 13
Today we spent all of our studio time articulating our idea to others and hearing about their ideas as well. It was really helpful to hear what others have to say on our idea and we were given a few programmes to look into for research. We are getting to the point where we are close to deciding on an idea to run with and I think we will be ready to make that decision tomorrow.
Lesson 13
Today we spent all of our studio time articulating our idea to others and hearing about their ideas as well. It was really helpful to hear what others have to say on our idea and we were given a few programmes to look into for research. We are getting to the point where we are close to deciding on an idea to run with and I think we will be ready to make that decision tomorrow.
Thursday, 3 September 2015
Interview with a Mental Health Promoter
3.09.15
Interview with Hilary Genet
Today I met up with Hilary to ask her some questions that Emma and I had prepared before the study break. The interview went really well we spoke for 30 minutes and she gave me plenty of insight into the topic. Unfortunately I tried to record the interview but there was a glitch and I only managed to record 15 seconds out of the 30 minutes. That aside I have learnt my lesson to not try to record an interview without testing out the app first. I was able to recall a lot of the information and made sure I wrote down as much as I could remember straight after the interview.
Interview with Hilary Genet
Today I met up with Hilary to ask her some questions that Emma and I had prepared before the study break. The interview went really well we spoke for 30 minutes and she gave me plenty of insight into the topic. Unfortunately I tried to record the interview but there was a glitch and I only managed to record 15 seconds out of the 30 minutes. That aside I have learnt my lesson to not try to record an interview without testing out the app first. I was able to recall a lot of the information and made sure I wrote down as much as I could remember straight after the interview.
Friday, 14 August 2015
Lesson 10
14/08/15
Getting Started on Part 2
Today Emma and I spent the lesson brainstorming ideas of how to tackle the issue of young people not understanding what mental health is, how to recognise it and how to cope with it. Our favourite idea currently is to do something similar to The Life Education Trust but tailored towards high school kids and focused on Mental Health. We like the idea of having general education about mental health as well as directing the learning towards each individual student who can take a personality test and then learn ways that will best help them deal with stress and anxiety. We also thought giving away freebees that relate to the specific needs of the individual student would be a great way to start them off, e.g. an exercise t-shirt if they need fresh air and exercise to deal with stress, or a free diary if organisation relieves their stress etc.
We then talked about what information we did not yet know and needed to find out and how we would find this information. We concluded that interviews would be our primary source of information. After being introduced to the IDEO method cards we also thought that creating collages would be useful when working out what appeals to high school students. We also like the idea of the fly on the wall method, we think applying that method by sitting in on a high school Health class would be interesting to see how the students are responding to these lessons and what the content is like.
In-between now and next week lessons we plan to start some of the interviewing process.
Getting Started on Part 2
Today Emma and I spent the lesson brainstorming ideas of how to tackle the issue of young people not understanding what mental health is, how to recognise it and how to cope with it. Our favourite idea currently is to do something similar to The Life Education Trust but tailored towards high school kids and focused on Mental Health. We like the idea of having general education about mental health as well as directing the learning towards each individual student who can take a personality test and then learn ways that will best help them deal with stress and anxiety. We also thought giving away freebees that relate to the specific needs of the individual student would be a great way to start them off, e.g. an exercise t-shirt if they need fresh air and exercise to deal with stress, or a free diary if organisation relieves their stress etc.
We then talked about what information we did not yet know and needed to find out and how we would find this information. We concluded that interviews would be our primary source of information. After being introduced to the IDEO method cards we also thought that creating collages would be useful when working out what appeals to high school students. We also like the idea of the fly on the wall method, we think applying that method by sitting in on a high school Health class would be interesting to see how the students are responding to these lessons and what the content is like.
In-between now and next week lessons we plan to start some of the interviewing process.
Thursday, 13 August 2015
Lesson 9
13.08.15
Hand In
Today was hand in. We began with a lecture about design thinking provocations. I found Donald's talk particularly eye opening with the different approach to highlight an issue. Instead of promoting an issue he opened up the idea of outraging your target audience as a way of capturing their attention and then once you have their attention, promoting your message. I think this idea could be potentially useful for the second half of this paper.
The second part to the class (looking at everyones final work) was really helpful. It was great to see the take everyone had on wellbeing. Emma and I have decided to continue on the our own brief as we are both passionate about the topic and didn't see anything else that we wanted to do more. We discussed that we would start out working together with the research, interviews and gaining insight on the topic part of the process. We feel as though our directions may change as we gain more information on the topic. The direction that interests each of us will decipher whether we continue working together on finalising a solution. We just want to keep everything open at this point.
Hand In
Today was hand in. We began with a lecture about design thinking provocations. I found Donald's talk particularly eye opening with the different approach to highlight an issue. Instead of promoting an issue he opened up the idea of outraging your target audience as a way of capturing their attention and then once you have their attention, promoting your message. I think this idea could be potentially useful for the second half of this paper.
The second part to the class (looking at everyones final work) was really helpful. It was great to see the take everyone had on wellbeing. Emma and I have decided to continue on the our own brief as we are both passionate about the topic and didn't see anything else that we wanted to do more. We discussed that we would start out working together with the research, interviews and gaining insight on the topic part of the process. We feel as though our directions may change as we gain more information on the topic. The direction that interests each of us will decipher whether we continue working together on finalising a solution. We just want to keep everything open at this point.
Monday, 10 August 2015
Final Touches
10/08/15
Team Meeting
Today Emma and I met up to get our brief to the stage of being ready to print. We put all of our spreads into the same document and applied the same font across all of the spreads and got them looking uniform. Once we were happy with the placement of all elements (titles, pullout quotes, body text and images) we then printed out to scale so that we could hand draw a continuous line throughout the document which would tie together the titles and images as well as give our booklet an ongoing theme between each spread. It added a juvenile playfulness to our aesthetic which we both really liked. After we drew the line we then had to re-scan in all of the spreads and place the lines into the inDesign document. While I was placing the lines, Emma designed the cover. The cover is looking really cool and I think it conveys our message really clearly.
Emma and I are both really happy with how our final is looking. At the beginning we both worked quite separately on our spreads which resulted in us both coming up with different styles. I think that part was very important as we were both able to recognise each others strengths. When it came to meshing our designs together it worked really well and we have definitely combined our strengths to make a new style that neither of us have tried before.
Team Meeting
Today Emma and I met up to get our brief to the stage of being ready to print. We put all of our spreads into the same document and applied the same font across all of the spreads and got them looking uniform. Once we were happy with the placement of all elements (titles, pullout quotes, body text and images) we then printed out to scale so that we could hand draw a continuous line throughout the document which would tie together the titles and images as well as give our booklet an ongoing theme between each spread. It added a juvenile playfulness to our aesthetic which we both really liked. After we drew the line we then had to re-scan in all of the spreads and place the lines into the inDesign document. While I was placing the lines, Emma designed the cover. The cover is looking really cool and I think it conveys our message really clearly.
Emma and I are both really happy with how our final is looking. At the beginning we both worked quite separately on our spreads which resulted in us both coming up with different styles. I think that part was very important as we were both able to recognise each others strengths. When it came to meshing our designs together it worked really well and we have definitely combined our strengths to make a new style that neither of us have tried before.
Friday, 7 August 2015
EX-CHANGE
07.08.15
Meeting #2
After class we had our ex-change meeting. It was interesting to see the progress others had made. Some of the people in our group had finished things to show whilst others were still in the research stage. The overall feedback I got from my group was that they liked the style and direction we had taken. One guy mentioned that it was a little confusing that we had pull quotes defining the youth age bracket differently to how we had outlined it in our audience text. This will be something we can take on board as we don't want to confuse others who may chose to tackle our brief in the second half of the project.
Meeting #2
After class we had our ex-change meeting. It was interesting to see the progress others had made. Some of the people in our group had finished things to show whilst others were still in the research stage. The overall feedback I got from my group was that they liked the style and direction we had taken. One guy mentioned that it was a little confusing that we had pull quotes defining the youth age bracket differently to how we had outlined it in our audience text. This will be something we can take on board as we don't want to confuse others who may chose to tackle our brief in the second half of the project.
Lesson 8
07.08.15
Style Merging
Today Emma and I started coming up with an action plan on how we were to merge our styles. We decided that we would use both fine and bold lines and use the bold to highlight important aspects of the drawing and to add interest. We had also created different hand drawn headings. We decided to use the headings that I had drawn as they were more human (hand drawn and lowercase) and also fitted with the imagery better. They were purposely written in a child-like style to fit with our theme.
From here we wrote a list of page elements to stick to so that we can go away to work on the pages over the weekend and when we meet on Monday our spreads should look similar.
Style Merging
Today Emma and I started coming up with an action plan on how we were to merge our styles. We decided that we would use both fine and bold lines and use the bold to highlight important aspects of the drawing and to add interest. We had also created different hand drawn headings. We decided to use the headings that I had drawn as they were more human (hand drawn and lowercase) and also fitted with the imagery better. They were purposely written in a child-like style to fit with our theme.
From here we wrote a list of page elements to stick to so that we can go away to work on the pages over the weekend and when we meet on Monday our spreads should look similar.
Thursday, 6 August 2015
Lesson 7
06.08.15
Peer Feedback
Today we received some peer feedback. They all seemed to like the direction we were taking but it was clear that Emma and I need to merge our styles a little more. Her blind drawings were done with a very fine pen and mine were drawn with a much thicker one so the continuity wasn't quite there yet. We also realised that we hadn't thought about our front cover yet either. It was good to know from our peers that they were able to work out what each of the drawings were and they were at a good level of abstraction. One of our main concern was that our imagery would be unrecognisable.
After today we have plenty to think about especially to do with figuring out how to merge both of our styles together.
Peer Feedback
Today we received some peer feedback. They all seemed to like the direction we were taking but it was clear that Emma and I need to merge our styles a little more. Her blind drawings were done with a very fine pen and mine were drawn with a much thicker one so the continuity wasn't quite there yet. We also realised that we hadn't thought about our front cover yet either. It was good to know from our peers that they were able to work out what each of the drawings were and they were at a good level of abstraction. One of our main concern was that our imagery would be unrecognisable.
After today we have plenty to think about especially to do with figuring out how to merge both of our styles together.
Friday, 31 July 2015
Lesson 6
31/07.15
Selecting a style to run with
In class today my partner and I discussed which direction to take our imagery. After comparing our imagery we soon realised we had both taken quite different directions. Collaboratively we decided to go with Emma's blind drawing style as we both agreed that it was expressive and also had links with art therapy techniques which linked in well with our concept. This is the artist model we looked at.
Selecting a style to run with
In class today my partner and I discussed which direction to take our imagery. After comparing our imagery we soon realised we had both taken quite different directions. Collaboratively we decided to go with Emma's blind drawing style as we both agreed that it was expressive and also had links with art therapy techniques which linked in well with our concept. This is the artist model we looked at.
Thursday, 30 July 2015
Style Research
30.07.15
Mood Boarding
I looked into the idea of different style directions we could take the illustrations. I liked the idea of animating the seed with human like features to give the aesthetic a youthful feel. This is an example image I found. I feel as though this kind of style could work well by giving our imagery plenty of personality and could be a fun direction we take our work.
Mood Boarding
I looked into the idea of different style directions we could take the illustrations. I liked the idea of animating the seed with human like features to give the aesthetic a youthful feel. This is an example image I found. I feel as though this kind of style could work well by giving our imagery plenty of personality and could be a fun direction we take our work.
Wednesday, 29 July 2015
Lesson 5
30.07.15
Peer Feedback
Today we joined up with stream D and exchanged feedback on our 8 spreads. I got lots of feedback and it is telling that we need to focus a bit more by perhaps narrowing down our target age group or maybe focusing on a particular area on mental well-being e.g. anxiety/depression rather then focusing on well-being on a whole. We also need to find some more facts that we can use to back up our statements. Today we were also told that we need to sketch up a timeline to keep us on track for hand in. My partner was away today so we will have to work on that together in class tomorrow.
After todays class it is clear the direction we need to move in is narrowing our brief as it is currently too broad. We also need to look into more imagery for our spreads. We need to learn each others artistic strengths and style so that we can flesh out our aesthetic theme for the brief.
Peer Feedback
Today we joined up with stream D and exchanged feedback on our 8 spreads. I got lots of feedback and it is telling that we need to focus a bit more by perhaps narrowing down our target age group or maybe focusing on a particular area on mental well-being e.g. anxiety/depression rather then focusing on well-being on a whole. We also need to find some more facts that we can use to back up our statements. Today we were also told that we need to sketch up a timeline to keep us on track for hand in. My partner was away today so we will have to work on that together in class tomorrow.
After todays class it is clear the direction we need to move in is narrowing our brief as it is currently too broad. We also need to look into more imagery for our spreads. We need to learn each others artistic strengths and style so that we can flesh out our aesthetic theme for the brief.
Tuesday, 28 July 2015
8 Spreads
29.07.15
First drafts
Tonight I put together four out of the eight spreads as drafts (my partner did the other four). The main focus was doing some extra research to help write the text and I also found a few images to go along with the text. I like the idea of using images of a seed slowly blooming into a plant to metaphorically show a young persons mind flourishing and maturing into a happy and healthy mind. Below is one of the images I sourced (it's a seed!) and I like the idea of following a style similar to this but perhaps adding a youthful and playful twist.
Sunday, 26 July 2015
First EX-CHANGE Meeting
24.07.15
First EX-CHANGE Meeting
We had our first EX-CHANGE meeting after class. Four people from our group showed up, one fashion student, one photography, one spacial and me. It was very interesting to see what they were doing and their take on well-being. They all focused on slightly less heavy topics then mental well-being which was refreshing. It is still so early into the project, so none of us had too much work to show, just ideas at this point. The meeting didn't change my direction at all but was interesting none the less.
First EX-CHANGE Meeting
We had our first EX-CHANGE meeting after class. Four people from our group showed up, one fashion student, one photography, one spacial and me. It was very interesting to see what they were doing and their take on well-being. They all focused on slightly less heavy topics then mental well-being which was refreshing. It is still so early into the project, so none of us had too much work to show, just ideas at this point. The meeting didn't change my direction at all but was interesting none the less.
Friday, 24 July 2015
Consolidating Topic
24.07.15
Lesson 4
During class today we worked in our small groups through the eight points on the brief. We found this relatively easy as we both had a clear idea of the topic and what we wanted to achieve. One of the more important decisions we made was defining the age group 'youth'. We came to the decision that our brief would be focused on youth aged between 12 and 19 years. We completed the 8 points and will now research the points further and find images that relate for homework.
Lesson 4
During class today we worked in our small groups through the eight points on the brief. We found this relatively easy as we both had a clear idea of the topic and what we wanted to achieve. One of the more important decisions we made was defining the age group 'youth'. We came to the decision that our brief would be focused on youth aged between 12 and 19 years. We completed the 8 points and will now research the points further and find images that relate for homework.
Wednesday, 22 July 2015
Idea Sharing
23.07.15
Sharing and Selecting a Topic
Today we spoke in groups about our areas of interest as far as selecting a topic goes. There was a lot of confusion among the class as to how broad our topic choice could or could not be. It was concluded in the end that our topics were be mental health related and kept fairly broad at this stage. We then identified our topics, wrote them down and got into groups with other people that were focusing on a similar area. We then discussed our specific focuses amongst this group and split into pairs with the person with the closest topic match.
Todays class helped clarify many questions I had about choosing a topic. I knew that I was interested in youth well-being but I was unsure on how specific my topic should be. By the end of the class I had decided that I wanted to focus on improving day to day well-being for youth e.g. a pick-me-up on a bad day. This would lead to happier young people growing into happy adults. It would also educate youth on techniques to keep them in a positive and happy head space, preventing the onset of anxiety, stress and depression. The person I have teamed up with on this project is also keen on youth well-being as a topic and has a similar take on it to me. It will be interesting to see how our topic evolves as we collaborate further.
Sharing and Selecting a Topic
Today we spoke in groups about our areas of interest as far as selecting a topic goes. There was a lot of confusion among the class as to how broad our topic choice could or could not be. It was concluded in the end that our topics were be mental health related and kept fairly broad at this stage. We then identified our topics, wrote them down and got into groups with other people that were focusing on a similar area. We then discussed our specific focuses amongst this group and split into pairs with the person with the closest topic match.
Todays class helped clarify many questions I had about choosing a topic. I knew that I was interested in youth well-being but I was unsure on how specific my topic should be. By the end of the class I had decided that I wanted to focus on improving day to day well-being for youth e.g. a pick-me-up on a bad day. This would lead to happier young people growing into happy adults. It would also educate youth on techniques to keep them in a positive and happy head space, preventing the onset of anxiety, stress and depression. The person I have teamed up with on this project is also keen on youth well-being as a topic and has a similar take on it to me. It will be interesting to see how our topic evolves as we collaborate further.
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