Project Diary

Today in class we finished off our design process and assessed each other’s work. I found this really difficult to do as I was personally impressed with the work I saw however my job was to  look beyond that and acknowledge if the boxes have been ticked. It was also nerve wrecking having to score peers work in front of them. I did find this task incredibly valuable, as this now gives me a new way at looking at my work. Before I knew my aim was to get above 80% but I never fully understood the criteria. I feel confident that I have a much clearer understanding in how I am to achieve these results now. I understand what I need to make sure is clear. It has helped me realize that although it would be lovely to be producing really high quality work and the beautiful sketchbooks you see on social media or the kind of work professional artist produce, I don’t necessary need the skills just yet. My effort will be taken into account and hopefully as the years go by, a natural improvement will occur.  I was confused with the result of my group. We knew we hadn’t done well, we had minimal details and had struggled producing our final idea as once we started we realized it wasn’t going to look how we had it visioned. We also didn’t communicate too well as a group, our opinions and way of working was different to each other - as was our vision. I feel this resulted in a lot of unnecessary delays. We could have also arranged as a group to work on the piece outside of class hours but this is something that wasn’t agreed upon. Despite this we scored a very mix grades. Jenna later explained this to be because visually it looked impressive but the information was not. This was the main point I took with me today and definitely something I am going to explore more.

Wayne McGregor on creating Infra for The Royal Ballet

Wayne McGregor touches on some of his process work which is to constantly be working on it, editing it, removing bits and how one day he will suddenly have a moment were he changes his mind and starts all over again. He states this is his process and it is important. Without it, his final pieces wouldn’t exist. He sets his boundaries to see what happens, if it goes a total different way he is okay with this.

A Choreographer's Creative Process in Real Time | Wayne McGregor | TED T...

We only think about them when something goes wrong.

The quote that struck me the most was the lack of thinking that goes into how our bodies work. I disagree that everyone falls into this categorize however I can safely assume many do not consider their bodies at all. Many doesn’t see their body as a useful tool. The reason I wanted to explore a choreographer’s creative process is mainly because of how different the art is yet how similar it is at the same time to other design principles. It is a very physical production that doesn’t hold. Unlike a painting you can’t hand it on the wall and it be seen whenever. It is a performance which is slightly different to most art piece. It is using physical over words to express and explain the process. It may not be understood by everyone but those who are trained to see and feel best expressing themselves.  In this video three forms of physical thinking is used. Body to body transfer, using the dancers as objects and task based method.  The first activity is creating the word “TED” with their body. It is taking a word and creating something more physical. This can be done in so many different ways. With the arm, head, shoulder, knee, in front of them, on the floor and so much more.  The second action is created in the forms of a duet. We are to imagine to the two in an architectural perspective. Like all forms of art resolves around lines, dance is no exception. In this exercise we are reminded to focus on lines. The two dancers are being used as two objects.

With figure skating once a choreographic has been created it will typically go through consistent re-tweaking throughout the entire season (or long depending on the skater’s level/purpose). Once the main routine has been done, the main feedback comes from competitions. However it isn’t so simple as that, the skater is to preform their routine at the same level each time if the feedback is to truly reflect the routine itself. However it is also valuable to see if something is working or not. If a skater keeps missing a landing it makes sense for that jump to either be worked on more or changed over to an easier one.  Sports are very valuable in the lessons they can teach other professions. A lot of sports of team based, even if they are solo dancers. There will always be a team of people behind the scene supporting the individual. Typically an ice skater will have a coach and a choreographer. Team work is vital from all around. Sport also has the ability to really reveal who humans are, what limits we can push but also the behind the scene which really produces some of the rawest of humans. Consumed by competitiveness, jealousy, envy and pushy parent’s/coaches. Sports really do push individuals. I feel knowing the process of sports in general can be of value for designers. Especially when working within a team and knowing what team really means. 

Like other subjects the science method again varies from person to person. Looking at the diagram, it doesn’t appear overly obvious as to how this method can be used in the design process. Doing a little more digging however it does become a lot more clearer as to which parts could be borrowed. Something that is happily mentioned in the science method that doesn’t always crop up in the deigns is the continuous process and repetition. This is known as a iterative process.

A quick search into iterative process comes up with management and maths.

Bellow are two different examples of my previous design process in the area of photography. As you can see unless it was a brief I never really did any annotation. Instead I would use my previous work as a guide and inspiration piece. It would be something I think of but not make notes of. This could have been why my work wasn’t consistent in terms of ideas. 

PHOTOGRAPHY - Collaboration work - Find team to work with - Discuss what everyone wanted - Agree on final idea - Draw up storyboard, find make-up/style inspiration  - Use inspiration book (collection of magazine tears/list etc) - Reflect on older work (especially what didn’t work) - Test shoot - Final shoot - Take a break (I find I like work better the day after the shoot) - Post-production (with editing music mix in editing room) - Feedback (I send a few different process looks) - Final post-production  REPEAT 

Moving away from design slightly, I started to look into other areas of development. I consider all process to be the same, the outcome will just be different and maybe some of the steps but I believe it to be important to take advice from other sources that aren’t just subject related. Here we have a very in dept description of a design process. This is for an engineering project. It states clearly that there is no universal design process and that the process is just a series of steps people take in order to get to their final outcome. It is discussed that typically all projects start with a problem and end with a solution. It is the middle part that varies. The purpose of the article is to explain to students the process so they are able to explore the area more. This was the three basic steps the writer developed:

[Image taken from blog post]

Later on the writer goes on to explain 11 steps and goes into more details explaining each step. What I found particularly interesting was in step 2 (Explore) the writer states that engineers explore what other engineers have done to solve similar problems. Interpreting this into a design point of view it isn’t something I have considered myself doing, although it is. I look for similar artist creating similar designs or solutions without realizing that is what I am doing. To me it was gathering inspiration but changing the perception to meaning seeking how others solve problems is a more mind churning way to get your brain going. It helps to get you thinking “how did they solve this?” “how can I do it better?” and forces you to really annotate their work and think about how one can incorporate the same techniques or styles into their own. Another thing they do is think about all the ways the finished product can be used. Again this is something I have never considered when producing my work. To me I only ever think about what I am using it for, I fail to consider how it could be used by others. After all, art is mostly an interpretation and work could easily be used and abused so to speak. McDonalds did an emoti campaign which sums this up nicely. McDonalds had used emoji’s to connect with their customers and create a situation to imply a McDonalds makes it all better. However members of the public have created their own versions with the opposite message. 

[ Image taken from: HERE ]

Above is an example of the advert McDonalds have produced. 

[ Image taken from HERE ]

Here is a billboard from Britstol that someone has added an image to the end of. The internet contains more.

[ Image taken from HERE ] It isn’t to say this type of thing can be avoided and should mean you don’t produce the finish product, however it is worth considering how people may use or interpret the final product once it is out there. 

Another section I learnt a lot from is Step 3 (Define). Narrowing it down to three important questions when selecting what is required can really help to make sure everything is relevant and has a purpose. An abbreviation was used. WPD, which means:

“W = Wish (not that important, but it would be nice if it is possible)P = Preferred (important, but the project won’t fail without it)D = Demand (critical to the project, MUST be included)”

As mentioned in this post (and other posts) I am noticing a lot of designers refer to interviews and being asked about their design process. This is an indication as to how vital knowing how you work is beyond self-development and understanding how you work. The obvious benefits to knowing these will help when it comes to working within teams, planning projects and understanding what and why things happen. I haven’t thought much beyond this use so it is great to be getting some perspective now to help ready me for future interviews.

In this article the problems around not having a process is discussed. Even though this particular post is aimed at big teams I still think it is relevant information for individuals. I love the idea of this process. Having used the Kanban methodology myself (with post-it notes) it’s great to see a version that is accessible online.  Later on in the post the process is discussed in a little more detail. The questions asked seem simple and basic. This could easily be a few examples or because it is a big team and they don’t have a lot of time to be digging deep. I think it’s great that the team regularly keeps up to date with process and adapts as they work. I think it’s important to have some kind of flexibility. I appreciate the writer also talking about how at first the process backlashed but eventually the team came around to it. It is important to realize that when working in a team, just because something seems logical to make sense doesn’t mean that it will fit for everyone and their working style.