#d4me

FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S

Week 15:

Monday morning we met at Vega scene for the first day of final presentations. It was fun to see what our fellow students had developed. Bjørn had built up a sore throat and fever over the weekend, and we prayed that it would disappear hastily. 

Tuesday was our day to present. Bjørn felt worse, but a handful painkillers worked a charm. Our presentation went well - the audience seemed enthusiastic and interested. The external examiner understood our service, and our 15 minute post presentation discussion was constructive for both parts. Bjørn celebrated by heading to bed, while Benjamin joined the class for a beer. 

Wednesday through Thursday brought intensive work in InDesign, preparing the final report for submission. With our text being more or less finalized, “only” layout and formatting remained. This proved to be more than just final adjustments as we both value typographic precision. Benjamin leaving Friday for a trip to Sandefjord, gave us an earlier deadline. We worked our asses off, when the time closed in on midnight Thursday, the baseline grids started to float around on the screen. Three digit cups of coffee kept us alive. As the sun was rising we submitted two files - one for print and one for grading. We celebrated by heading down to the AHO pub for a glass of wine with our dear Anna and Maija who had finished their shift. We were done.

Everything must come to an end. The last week of the semester project was bittersweet. It felt good to deliver and present everything we had done for the last 15 weeks, but we are going to miss working with it. School is not completely done for the semester - a collective display of our projects will be held in the coming weeks. This will hopefully include new discussions and input on our service. 

On that note, we wish to say thank you to all supervisors, interviewees, friends, family, co-students and car mechanics for making our 15 weeks unforgettable. 

For our sake, Norwegian road travel is for ever changed.

FOOD:SERVICE DESIGN_AHO2022S

Week 6:

Monday started off with group sessions supervised by Eirik Langås. Our prepared brand platform and moodboard sparked discussion which in turn gave us important understanding of the value in consise communication. From one a clock, we discussed the responses from earlier and did some minor edits to the brand plattform. This being a fairly quick fix, the remaining hours were available for some introductory exploring of rituals, as a continuation of the D4Me design method. The crazy 8 method worked well for activating our creative sense, buried somewhere under the endless carpet of marketing.

On Tuesday, Eirik Langås, held a presentation on presenting brands. It included the redesigned graphics for the Norwegian national football team, as well as the rebranding of TOMRA. This gave us insights in how to present complicated brand platforms in an intuitive way. In the afternoon we used the insights when working on the brand presentation we were going to hold next day.

Wednesday arrived, and with it a ton of brand presentations. We saw the different brands our classmates had made during the last couple of weeks, giving critizism and praise. We got both positive and negative feedback when we presented. However most of the negative feedback pointed to loose ends in our project, we had yet to tie together. This was kind of annoying, as we were to present a brand, not the concept of our project. Either way we gained a lot of relevant feedback that we felt ready to tackle.

Thursday afternoon we decided to map our entire process this far, highlighting special insights and discoveries along the way. This proved to be a good idea, as it brought a lot of important information back into the light, i addition to being a meaningful trip down memory lane. Wednesday's feedback showed us the importance of communicating the vastness in our collected research, and its value in building trust. A quick tidy-up session in Miro also seemed rational at this point. With a clear head we saw an opportunity to gather new insight into design for future methodology. This included a visit to the library, which resulted in a handfull of books waiting to be explored. Later, the class gathered at Vippa for great food and casual conversation.

Friday started off a new column in our course, visual identity. We got an introduction in the power of visualizing the linguistics of a brand platform. We both look forward to the weeks to come, as we are both interested in the art of graphical design. After lunch we had a one hour workshop, in which we were to create a brand of a liquid company with logo, name, and values, in one hour. Afterwards, all the groups had a show and tell, and the concepts turned out to be hilarious and creative. A great way to end the week.

Anna startet uka med sykdom, men kom seg fort til hektene. Maija og Theodor gikk gjennom en god del tilsendt materiale fra Vippa.

Vi fikk en artikkel skrevet av Dr. Ted Matthews, Designing for Meaning, tilsendt av gode venner. Metoden han som beskrives i denne artikkelen virket umiddelbart veldig interessant å utforske med vår problemstilling. Ted skriver at vi mennesker gjerne vil kjøpe mening, heller enn kun en behagelig tjeneste. Vi kan designe mening, men for å være i stand til det må man etablere en myte. Ved å kartlegge symboler, narrativer og frykt som eksisterer i samfunnet, kan man designe denne myten. Myter er historier grupper i samfunnet forteller om seg selv. De er ikke nødvendigvis usanne, men likevel ofte heltemodige. I følge Cristopher Booker, finnes det syv narrativer som går igjen i historiefortellingen. Myten designes med grunnlag i en av disse og kartleggingen man har gjort av samfunnet. Når denne er klar, kan man designe ritualer. Disse ritualene bygger på separasjon, overgang og reinkorporering. Gjennom å bruke denne metoden kan man designe for mening.

Vi satte i gang med å kartlegge symboler, narrativer og frykt/angst. Når det var gjort måtte vi finne en historie å fortelle. Vi tok da utgangspunkt i funnene våre og en PDF vi fikk av Kaja om Vippa.

Anna skrev Myten om Vippa:

Vippa er en mathall og læringsarena, et bitte lite samfunn. Her utveksles matkultur, kunnskap og skaperglede. Vi lærer sammen, av hverandre. I sentrum for det hele står kjærligheten til mat, og hånd i hånd med den, kjærligheten til jorda vår. Det blir ingen mat på bordet uten den. Det er det viktig at alle forstår, stor og liten, om det så referer til mennesker eller bedrifter. Ved å komme på Vippa hjelper du oss, deg selv og verden med å ta steg i riktig retning. Du hjelper oss fordi vi (åpenbart) er avhengig av deg for å kunne drive, deg selv fordi du får god mat, laget av kunnskapsrike hender på gode råvarer og verden fordi vi alle tar del i det samme matsystemet. Ved å komme på Vippa viser du verden at det går an. Det er bare sammen vi får det til.

Når den var skrevet måtte vi prøve å finne ut av hvilke ritualer som kunne designes. Onsdag ettermiddag gikk med til nerding av ritualer. Vi kom på ingen måte i mål.

På torsdag måtte vi komme oss litt vekk fra skolen. Kaja tok oss imot på Vippa. Hun ble veldig rørt av myten Anna hadde skrevet. Det var veldig deilig å snakke med Kaja. Hun hjalp oss med å tenke stort. Vi får lov til å bruke Vippa akkurat som vi vil. Hun var veldig opptatt, men vi bestemte oss for å bli på Vippa for å snakke med matbodene og spise litt middag. Vi fikk høre at for bodene er det maten som står i sentrum. De var ikke interessert i å belære gjestene. Vi fikk allikevel fine perspektiver på hva som er mulig gjennom for eksempel interaktiv kunst. Vi spiste mat fra Aleppo. Det var megadigg. Theo tok kvelden, men Anna og Maija rakk å drikke tre pils og bli i syv timer.

Fredag morgen var hektisk, men svært produktiv. Vi illustrerte hvordan vi ser for oss at Vippa skal fungere som tjeneste gjennom Myten. Vippa fikk endelig være med i vår nyeste value proposition.