It’s show time. Now we had to enter the Dragon’s Den and pitch to our tutors and Joanna Montgomery. After realising how important the visual element was in explaining our data the day before, we wanted to keep the slide show presentation simple and as basic images. Dougie and myself stepped up and decided to give the presentation (shown here).
Whats your opinion? It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but as a serial doodler I’m all for people learning through sketches and drawings. This talk from Sunni Brown shows that the art of doodling is seen in a very poor light, in-fact the word itself has no real positive definition. Even though it can be seen as a key factor in how we learn and communicate (just look at cavemen for instance).
As already stated I love to doodle and often use them as part of my lecture notes (as shown here from a recent lecture). Despite the fact it can often look like I’m not listening and just drawing away. I personally find that doodling helps me retain information, spark creative thinking and also help me relax. But whats your opinion?
For great examples of talks being visualised by doodling have a look at these RSAnimate videos, which I’ll be posting about later.
The blog has seriously been neglected so I’m going to catchup, it may take a while and mean the posts aren’t fully in order though. Here is a quick video and images of my messy day prototyping with a peristaltic pump and some red ink. Unfortunately the tubing sprung a leak in the first attempt resulting in the mess seen below.
“Made with a kiss in every stitch.” Popitin Shoe Company is up and running , situated in Glasgow Popitin offer a beautiful range of soft leather baby shoes, that are just perfect for tiny toes.
This company not only offers a quality product but offered fellow student Jonathan Robson and myself the chance to get our first commissioned design. The companies lovely owner go in contact with us about designing the Popitin company logo (shown below).
We’d like to thank Popitin for this opportunity and hope you will visit there site for some lovely little shoes.
Wow the laws of gaming are about to change. This Da vinci prototype by Razorfish shows the initial interactions and controls that are now possible on he Xbox Kinect, the development of these interactions may be the start of a new wave of gaming. Being able to contol and manipulate the laws of physics…. not long till be can fully play God.
And there was quiet. With the deadline and ideas day only a few hours away, I decided to set up my stall and enjoy the finished article. Laid out are my 20 insight/ideas cards, 1 project statement card and a video box for project video. Lets hope Industry like it.
Looking into “the Body as a Commodity” I was directed to this film by a Biochemist. Gattaca is inspiring (which is always helpful), it portays a not so distant future, where humans are genetically modified for birth, therefore making them fitter, stronger and less prone to illness. Thus this creates two societies the originals and the genetically superior race creating discrimination called “Genoism”, were the normals (or in-valids) are not allowed to have high stature jobs due to their weaknesses.
This is the key plot in the film where the main character Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) dreams of being a spacepilot but due to his poor genes is not able to get his desired job. In a desperate attempt to live his dream he pays to steal the identity of a “valid” by taking his name and using his blood and urine to pass security. Obviously this is no easy task, Vincent has to also cover his own DNA and make sure sly traces of his alter-ego are left in case anyone decides to check. Al seems to be going well and he is set to go into space until a boss is mysteriously murdered at his work. Creating a man hunt for the in-valid Vicent Freeman.
The film is as entertaining as it is mind provoking. A good watch for everyone and a story that has helped spark a few ideas for me.
The start of my fourth year project is like any other, we use a design process. The first part of this process is the FIND stage.
The FIND stage of design is basically the research section. Where we go out and fill our brains and sketchbooks with as much information as we can muster. Hopefully with some of it being relevant and sinking in. This research leads to the identification of insights.
Insights are the foundation for our ideas, they are the little fact, image or conversation that gets our brains ticking. Solid insights lead to ideas.
Finally Ideas, for most projects we should aim to get 100 ideas, this may seem a big number but this is essential to expanding your thinking. The big number requires designers to look into more difficult areas, therefore enhancing the chances for more creative or innovative ideas.
That is the FIND section, I better get to work on it…
