ARD501 Bibliography

References

1807 Commemorated, (n.d.). The Brookes – visualising the transatlantic slave trade. [image] Available at: http://www.history.ac.uk/1807commemorated/images/brookes1b.jpg [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].

dezeen Magazine, (2015). Postmodernism Style and Subversion. [image] Available at: http://www.dezeen.com/2011/09/26/postmodernism-style-and-subversion-1970-1990-at-the-va/ [Accessed 19 Dec. 2015].

Emily Fletcher, (n.d.). Design Thinking. [image] Available at: https://gdefletcher.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/screen-shot-2012-05-02-at-16-19-25.png [Accessed 21 Nov. 2014].

iCollector, (n.d.). Marcel Breuer – Knoll – Pair of “Wassily” chairs. [image] Available at: http://media.liveauctiongroup.net/i/5573/8523596_1.jpg?v=8CBACF9967152D0 [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].

New York Times, (n.d.). Bauhaus on Display. [image] Available at: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2009/07/23/0727-raw/29164007.JPG [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].

Wikipedia, (2014). Postmodernism. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism [Accessed 19 Dec. 2014].

Wikipedia, (n.d.). Innovation. [online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation [Accessed 27 Nov. 2014].

ARD501 Ending the Module

This module has been difficult for me. Although I’ve really enjoyed learning about all the different concepts and ideas on offer, I’ve found it difficult to comprehend and take in all of the information given to me. I’ve recently found out I have been gifted with dyslexia, which I’ve found extremely hard to come to terms with. I thought I wouldn’t do very well on this module considering its theory based. I struggle with my language and I found it tough to keep up in the lectures. I’m grateful the lectures were later put on Moodle so I could learn at my own pace. I’ve been lucky having a great support network around me to help me through this. My one to one tutoring has also helped me develop incredibly and has taught me I can still work but I just have to do it in a way which doesn’t confuse or frustrate me.

My whole overview of myself as a designer hasn’t changed a great deal. I was confident before the start of the module that I knew what kind of designer I wanted to be and I believed I worked well within my own ethical boundaries. What I have learnt though is how much I miss Graphic Design. I studied for 4 years before deciding to leave it behind and I really miss working within the design process and getting to put my ideas down on paper. I think this is something I might re-visit once I graduate so I can broaden my work more than I would if I just worked in Photography. I hope that I can proceed to be a good designer in my career, sticking with what I believe in and not changing the person I am because money might be thrown at me. I want to do it because I love it, not because I’ll get paid for it. Thats the key aspect this module has taught me.

ARD501 Post Modernism

I haven’t studied Post Modernism since I was studying for my A-Levels. It was a big aspect of my Graphic Design course and it was one of the main movements we needed to research and study. The Post Modernism I looked at in college was more about the art movement, rather than this lecture which introduced to me the idea of the social element to the movement. The definition I found of the movement is:

Postmodernism is a late-20th-century movement in the arts, architecture, and criticism that was a departure from modernism. Postmodernism includes skeptical interpretations of culture, literature, art, philosophy, history, economics, architecture, fiction, and literary criticism.

This is very familiar to me, I remember studying the art movement well. I was surprised and interested to learn more about this side of post modernism as it was something I haven’t looked into before and it was good for me to learn this subject. From what I have actually learnt, post modernism challenges the differences in culture, such as straight vs gay, black vs white etc. I think this would make an interesting debate, because there are certain people in society who are racist and homophobic, which then begins a debate on what current society believe is the right or wrong way to live.

I was more thrilled as the lecture went on as the art movement was implemented. I loved looking at post modernism artwork when studying Graphic Design, because it broadened my mind and helped me to realise I can be as creative as I wish, also that experimentation is a positive tool to use, I’ve always been a designer that sticks to what they know and are afraid to experiment in case they believe their work wouldn’t be considered ‘good enough’. This movement definitely taught me that it is okay to be different and it’s okay to create what comes into my mind.

ARD501 Ethics Lecture

Ethics play a huge role in the design industry. Different designers have different ethics and morals in which they believe is the correct way to work. Morality is about responsibility whilst way ethics is about how a person chooses to live and what they choose to believe in and what they believe is right or wrong.

Isaac Newton’s theory of the formation of the universe challenged the beliefs of religion and caused uproar within the religious community. It forced people to rethink about how the Earth was formed, but also about if there was actually a god.

Slavery was always a controversial topic discussed in the lecture. Until The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was created, the public had not see anything wrong with the slave trade up. The photograph of The Brookes Slave Ship published in 1787 was significant as it showed the public the conditions in which slaves were treated and they finally realised that slavery was actually ethically wrong and needed to be stopped.

A good example of an ethical issue today is the argument over whether gay marriage should be legal or illegal. Many religious people believed that homosexuality is a sin and it is wrong for people to be this way. But personally, I have no problem with homosexuality or gay marriage. I believe everybody should be treated equally, no matter what their circumstances or sexual orientation.

ARD501 Autobiography in Animation

The lecture discussed how animation design can be calming and therapeutic. For me animation is a subject I don’t have a lot of interest in and I don’t understand why this particular subject area would be therapeutic. In my experience of working in design, I have never felt calm about creating my own work. I can understand how the final product could be considered therapeutic, but there is no reason why creation and the development could be a calming, stress free process.

The three key areas of animation seem to be visualisation, narrative structure and theme. Whilst I don’t intend to explore animation in my own work i could see how these areas could be implemented in other areas of design. A good example would be photography. Photographers visualise what they want to see, they follow a certain concept and keep to a theme and some photographic sequences tell a story.

ARD501 Innovation Lecture

Wikipedia used to say that “Innovation is the development of new customer’s value through solutions that meet new needs, inarticulate needs or old customer and market needs in new ways”. Now it gives the following definition:

 Innovation is a new idea, device or process. It can be viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or existing market needs. This is accomplished through more effective products,    processes, services, technologies, or ideas that are readily available to markets, governments and society. (Wikipedia, 2014)

This to me, is a very complicated way to explain the meaning of innovation. The key word that pops out of each of these definitions is ‘new’. Personally I think that innovation means taking a new idea or concept and introducing it to the world. Another way that innovation can be described, is through renewal or change. This concept of innovation can be applied to my own practice. Having studied graphic design for four years, I am used to renewing or changing the ideas I come up with, so this definition is ideal and easy for me to relate to.

There are three different types of innovation: Incremental, Radical and Crowd Accelerated. Incremental innovation, from my understanding means introducing an idea in a slow and steady way. Whereas Radical innovation is introducing an idea in a completely crazy manner. For me, these are very simple to understand, which means I will be able to tell the difference between the two. Crowd Accelerated Innovation is a different story. It requires three aspects in order to make it work; a crowd, light and desire. The crowd would be a group of people with the same interests. The roles of people within the crowd include; the innovator, the trend-spotter, the evangelist, the super spreader/maven, the skeptic and the general participants. The light allows the crowd to become visible to each other whether it is meeting up in person or connecting through social media websites. The desire is where the crowd aspires to be. They have certain goals they wish to achieve.

The widespread use of the internet has encouraged innovation. I was particularly inspired by the slide which said ‘We are citizens of a country called the internet.’ I think this is a true statement because the majority of the world are participants of the internet, who come together through social media. Fantastic examples of innovation inspired by the internet and technology include the evolution of Apple and the variety of products they have created over the years and also the evolution of Facebook.

ARD501 The Bauhaus Lecture

I hadn’t heard of Bauhaus before, therefore the lecture was difficult as there were a lot of names and dates which were unfamiliar to me. I understood the Bauhaus as an artistic Institute/Movement which retrained creative people to think in the Bauhaus way. This was a specific way of thinking, everything would need to fit the rules of the Institute in very precise, symmetrical and straight ways of working. The Nazis closed down the Institute as it went beyond their rules, but the movement continued.

From what I know about Kadinsky, he theorised the correlation between form and colour. And with the theories he came up with he was able to test students of the Bauhaus Institute.

The future of the Bauhaus school depended on winning over the ‘Industrialists’. I had to research into what exactly an industrialist was as I have never heard of this term before. The definition I found was, a person involved in the ownership and management of industry. These industrialists were not keen on this institute. I believe that they wanted to see the Bauhaus in action and to see how it teaches the students to behave and work in a certain way.

The leaders of the Bauhaus liked to get students from all the different workshops to work in a collaborative environment to create various products, such as the chess table.

Typography sounded like a very important matter from what I had learnt in my lecture. Bauhaus wanted to abandon capital letters, and this printing style was adapted by Gropius, who was confident it would be successful. But because the Bauhaus was only a school, the industrialists were severely critical of them and did not think could influence the operations of industry. In my opinion this was not fair at all because the school was entitled to run things in their own way.

Gropius was incredibly sexist, even though he insisted that there would be, ‘no difference between the beautiful and the strong sex’. I believe this insinuates that women could not work equally or to the same quality as men could.

Charlie Chaplin’s film Modern Times was released in 1936, but it was banned in Germany. The concept for his film fascinates me, not so much the film itself, but the fact it dealt with the events currently unfolding in Germany and that it was banned in Germany. I personally think it was because Chaplin wanted to rebel against the German Propaganda of the time and the message of the Nazi movement.

IKEA reminds me very much of the Bauhaus movement. I feel their design and concept lies along the same lines as Bauhaus especially their furniture design. Everything is organised and symmetrical, similar to the way the Bauhaus students were taught how to design.

ARD501 Design Thinking Lecture

I found the Ten Commandments of Design the most interesting part of the lecture. Previously I had studied the Ten Commandments of Graphic Design and this made it easier for me to connect with. I found the commandments useful and I could apply them to my working practices. I did not connect with the 2nd commandment that design could be used to “make the world a better place.” I feel that as a designer I follow the client’s brief which hasn’t currently followed the 2nd rule. I hope I apply the other commandments to my work and particularly think about relating to people, function, audience and particularly costs.

I made a set of boxes last year which I felt was eco-friendly because the smaller boxes all fitted into the larger box to reduce the packaging. I like to ensure that there are no unnecessary items which do not have a purpose when I am designing, all aspects of my design will focus the brief and will I stick carefully to it rather than making additional items; when I worked on a campaign for the Mayor I carefully ensured that I did not go over-the-top in designing a large range of items when I could make a smaller range which still met the brief. I prefer to work by myself as I find collaborative working difficult, so I would not always agree that collaborative working is an attribute which needs to apply to all design.

I was pleased to find that the initial stages of the design process: feasibility, viability and desirability discussed in the lecture are exactly the stages that I follow in my working practices. The concept of Creative Futures is something new to me. I want to work freelance when I complete my degree and I am unsure if this week will provide me with the information needed to support my career choice. I have completed a module where I worked with a freelance photographer for 5 weeks which was really useful and I learnt about how to work for myself. I really benefited from this experience as it was hands-on rather than theory and I hope Creative Futures will build on this insight.

ARD501 Introduction Lecture

When doing my practical work, design thinking, shooting, editing and processing I will think about the week’s lecture and any research I have done. I will consider how it might be relevant or could be applied to my work and experiment with incorporating these new ideas and thoughts into my work methods. Afterwards I will reflect on the impact this has had on my working practice and record this in my blog.

How I work

I work by thinking about the ideas whilst I am working and adapting my working practice and design as I go along. I feel uncomfortable bringing in any ideas or concepts that I have strong negative opinions about as this makes me less creative. As a student who joined the course in the second year I feel that I need to consolidate my work, and identify my strengths before moving into more difficult areas particularly in using equipment or moving into mediums which I am less familiar with.

ARD501 Design Thinking Assignment

You have now entered Level 5 of your studies and it is important you have a clear sight of your career goals. It will be necessary to speak to your tutors to negotiate your learning pathway for Level 5. In order to facilitate this, you should establish a clear methodology to contextualise your thoughts and aspirations. You will be asked to keep a reflective journal most of which will be digital based in the format of a blog, but some reference materials may be paper based.

Reflective Practice

Your reflective journal will evaluate your learning experiences of each contextual / critical lecture during trimester 1. This reflective practice will help you consider your work methods, contextualise your thinking and analyse thought processes within your own creative practice. Aim to write an approximately 2500 word critically reflective piece of work from the talks and quotes provided that will form your own design philosophy and manifesto.

This will contain evidence of your research into your chosen design pathways, (both visual and written).

Your design thinking will evidence your philosophical views in support or against the views presented during the talks and in the selected quotes. Identify who said what, why and when, and through contextualising the idea, relate it to contemporary practice in your field of design. Please reference books, journal articles, films etc. in your research and bibliography.

Requirements

A reflective journal, (approximately 2,500 words), using an online Blog (Blogger, WordPress or alternative, including illustrative examples of relevant works / practitioners, based on the Contextualising Design talks and accompanying quotes.