Social Studies Conference: MFA Panel

Rebecca and Marty begin with Cady Bean-Smith’s rubber band typography.

Rebecca Tegtmeyer and Marty Maxwell Lane represented the NC State Graphic Design Masters Program at the MFA panel on the last day of the conference. They did incredible.

The presentation, following a format that I do not remember the name, lasted for 10 mins. In that short time, Rebecca and Marty were able to speak about the pedagogical approach of the NC State Curriculum, explain the structure of the program, delve into projects briefings, and they still managed to show 2 fully developed investigations, culminating in the marriage of everything that had been explained before into well executed pieces.
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Social Studies Conference: The event

Ellen Lupton welcomes us to the conference.

From October 17th through the 19th a group of us in the Masters Program drove up to Baltimore to attend AIGA‘s Social Studies Education Conference, held at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

It was a great conference on many accounts, but most importantly it gave some of us the opportunity to share with students and academics from other institutions.

Having learned my lesson during the Boston conference (where i did not take my camera), I can now tell a selected visual story of the event. If you are interested for a detailed account, see Louise Sandhaus’ blog where she has some very interesting and detailed notes of many of the sessions, panels, and lectures.
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Swipe… review… sign… pay later [repeat?]

Swipe… review… sign… pay later [repeat?]
Understanding Martha Augustinos’ and Ian Walker’s approach to schemas and how it can aid a designer frame reflexive behaviors during a consumer experience.

Reflect about the purchases made in the last few days. Did any transactions involve checks, money orders, cash, or even a visit to the bank? Most likely the quantitative answer to this question will be low, if not zero. Physical currency no longer plays a major role in commercial negotiations. Items, information, and services can be acquired, and sometimes are required (try to reserve a vehicle without a credit card), through the use of credit-based-cards in lieu of tangible currency. The benefits of such a system are hard to deny: a credit card is often faster than paying with cash, avoids having to deal with change, offers an ever-present source of funds in case of an emergency, minimizes economically-based social judgments, and serves as an element that grants certain social power.

American critic Frederic Jameson, in Postmodernism: The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, wrote: “Any return to the haptic and tactile… seem to hearken back to… the “late modern,” when building materials were expensive and of the finest quality and people still wore suits and ties. It is like the transition from precious metals to the credit card: the “bad new things” are no less expensive, and you no less consume their very value, it is the value of the… equipment you consume first and foremost, and not of its objects.” (Jameson, p.99) The credit card is not only a means to consumption, but it now represents consumption itself, and as such, it has developed its own set of appeals. The credit card is now a must and there is no turning back.
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Design thinking exhibit is [was] up

These are some images of the installation that was part of our first semester studio project where the class attempted to define design thinking in terms of a series of thinking strategies and cognitive frameworks. Read the rest of this entry »

Simon says: design thinking …but wait… what is it? / The poster collection

Recently there has been much talk of corporate cultures —and other disciplines— engaging in the practice of “design thinking“. Such announcements are usually paralleled with ideas of creativity, innovation, and user-centeredness; associations that sound cool and hip but many times result in superficial, inaccurate, and vague information. Wether we like it or not, the buzzword of design thinking is everywhere.

On a recent article in the New York Times, Unboxed: Design Is More Than Packaging, the author, Janet Rae-Dupree, makes an effort to unbox “design” by concentrating on this thing designers do called design thinking. She says: “…design thinking usually involves a period of field research —usually close observation of people— to generate inspiration and a better understanding of what is needed, followed by open, nonjudgmental generation of ideas. After a brief analysis, a number of the more promising ideas are combined and expanded to go into “rapid prototyping,” which can vary from a simple drawing or text description to a three-dimensional mock-up. Feedback on the prototypes helps hone the ideas so that a select few can be used. The results can be startling.”

On another article in the Fast Company website, Design Thinking… What is that?, its author, Mark Dziersk, defines design thinking as consisting of four steps: defining the problem, creating many options, refining selected directions, and picking a winner for execution. He says: “At this point enough road has been traveled to insure success. It’s the time to commit resources to achieve the early objectives. The byproduct of the process is often other unique ideas and strategies that are tangential to the initial objective as defined. Prototypes of solutions are created in earnest, and testing becomes more critical and intense. At the end of stage 4 the problem is solved or the opportunity is fully uncovered.” He concludes the article with: “Design thinking describes a repeatable process employing unique and creative techniques which yield guaranteed results — usually results that exceed initial expectations. Extraordinary results that leapfrog the expected. This is why it is such an attractive, dynamic and important methodology for businesses to embrace today.”

While these two examples, noble in their intentions and approach, describe a bit of what design thinking can be in terms of a traditional object-oriented approach where processes conclude in tangible objects, they do not elaborate on how design thinking operates in this contemporary landscape of information and ever-changing job descriptions. Read the rest of this entry »

Back to school: Fall 2008

It’s that time of year again… it’s back to school time! The adventures of my graduate class continue as we enter our second year of the master’s program. Exciting times are these…

Last year already came and went. The first semester was intense. The second was considerably busy. The third? I can’t wait to find out! I am not at all worried though, for Meredith Davis and Santiago Piedrafita are leading the way…

This semester is special though. Not that the previous ones were not, but this semester I begin to articulate my research interests towards the development of a final project. This experience will force me to concentrate my interests into a series of researchable questions which I will later investigate and work on. About time I got started on this…

Social Studies Conference: I’m in!

Screenshot of the conference website.

This semester’s AIGA education conference, Social Studies Conference: Educating Designers in a Connected World , will be held at the MICA campus from Friday, October 17 through Sunday, October 19 of 2008.

A few days ago I was notified that my original abstract was accepted into the conference. This is my final revised abstract.

Understanding Interaction through People, Settings, and Scenarios

At NC State, the Professional Bachelors of Graphic Design prepares students to understand design from a systems perspective. Among courses that address the issue, three are dedicated to imaging. Last Spring, when co-teaching a three-credit sophomore class —Imaging II: Settings and People (Leading to Activity Scenarios)— with Santiago Piedrafita (faculty member), students were introduced to interaction and time-based media through three key ideas: settings, people and scenarios. Each was addressed through a particular investigation: a “site survey (settings);” a “subject study (people);” and an “activity map (scenarios).”

For the site survey investigation, students were asked to build annotated panoramas through layering techniques, documenting and commenting on a particular location of their daily commute. To visualize the importance of people within a system, students collected ethnographic data of other school members, which they then reinterpreted into one-minute biographical video clips and oversized broadsheets. The semester concluded with an understanding of scenarios, exploring how myriad interfaces found on various mobile platforms shape and affect interactions (scenarios) between users (people) and their environment (setting). This investigation was carried out through hand-made rapid-paper-prototypes, later modeled into stop-animation video clips.

Throughout the semester, concepts were introduced through observation and interpretative methods like annotated tableaus, visual essays, authored journals, video interviews, collaborative ideation techniques, activity maps, paper-prototyping, and stop-animation photography. These “image-making” strategies helped students visualize and actualize key aspects (and phases) of diverse design problems (project-definition-driven, project-building, project-making), understanding issues they will come to terms with when undergoing interactive and time-based media work.

Social Studies Conference at MICA: The Abstract

Screenshot capture of the Social Studies Conference’s website.

A typical scene in my life…

April 2008… I decide to submit a draft for the Social Studies Conference: Educating Designers in a Connected World to be held at MICA this upcoming October. Deadline for submissions… July 15th. Yup, I got time.

July 14th: 6:00pm… Dammit! It’s been raining all day, internet connection has been down, and I have to submit the abstract! Tic, tock… Tic, toc…

hehehe

I submitted the abstract on time (see below)(and I even got a happy confirmation e-mail from the conference).
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Funny moment in Design Camp

Design Camp 08: It’s a wrap…

Design Camp 08: Parent’s visit…

As conclusion to the week… a small exhibit of all student work was made for parents to see and for the students to pick up their projects to take them home.

Design Camp 08: Projections

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Design Camp 08: Collaborative Posters

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Design Camp 08: Airplane design

A little afternoon break… Since students basically worked on the poster from 12:30 – 4:00pm… around 3:00pm I had a little exercise where we sent airplanes over into the landscape architecture area. Landscape never retaliated… hehehe

Design Camp 08: Working on Poster

• The poster had to announce a new feature of the CAM museum
• Each team member had to be traced onto the posters

I was very happy to see how this project got groups working together almost instantly. The engagement level was very high and the atmosphere just felt positive all time around.
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Design Camp 08: Post-Its

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Design Camp 08: DVD Covers

These are some of the DVD Covers designed by the students during the last three days of camp. Half of the samples are scanned directly from their work, while the other half is photographed inside a case (you know, to give it a more realistic look). Most of the movies should be easily recognized, and those that are not, may just need a bit of a creative push… :)
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Design Camp 08: Working on DVD Case

In this new version of my camp session, students now designed the cover for a DVD of their choosing. It was very interesting to see the movies that this generation cited… (I felt a bit old)
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Design Camp 08: Exquisite Corpse

about the time that I sensed that making the students work individually was not working perfectly, this particular group ended the exercise ahead of time. I had an extra hour with them, so we carried out an exquisite corpse exercise. Some of the notebooks ended up looking amazing!
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Design Camp 08: Projections

At the end of every work day, once the posters were ready, I would ask the camp counsellors to take the students out on a walk for 20 mins. During this time I would scan in all of the posters and prepare them for on-screen projection. When everyone came back, I would hold a small feedback session were each student explained what they had done. At the end of their explanation, we would have a small chat about how graphic design can be re-purposed from one media to another, and as a fun example, I would project their posters onto themselves.

Pedagogical reasons for this decision? Design lesson? More than anything, all I wanted was for the students to understand that graphic design is not only about photoshop or computer work. It is much more. With this exercise I hoped to at least introduce such idea into them.

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Design Camp 08: Posters

The idea behind this poster was art that could be interacted with by the audience.

Here some examples of the posters that various students from different groups did during the first two days of me teaching the exercise. The originals are 8.5″x11″.
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Design Camp 08: CamTeen

As part of their office group dynamic, I asked them to design logos or marks for CAMTeen, a made up program that would address their age group.

Here some more examples.
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Design Camp 08: Poster work…

After the ideation session… (during the first two days of me teaching the exercise), I divided the groups to work on their posters. It’s a bit confusing (and it involves math… hehe) but this is how it worked:

• Every office was made up of 4 students, and all of them participated in the ideation session together. (The less engaged groups must have come up with about 20 ideas, while the more engaged ones generated over 60).
• Students where then asked to pick the 2 ideas that they liked the most from all of the post-its and which they thought would work best for the museum. (Remember, some of these were pretty wild… like anti-gravity chambers to experience modern art.)
• The 4-student groups were then divided into 2-student teams, and each of the subgroups had to work on one of these two chosen ideas. Each student made their own poster, so in the end, we had two posters on every idea.

Following are more images of the students working.
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Design Camp 08: The mistake

At this point is where I committed the teaching mistake for the week.

For the first two days of the week, after the ideation session, I divided the students to work individually on their posters. In retrospect, this was a bad call. The momentum that I had gained with the office and ideation exercises was suddenly completely lost. Students still made posters, and actually some very good ones too, but the energy level dropped substantially.

Having gone from group to individual was not a good call. For the last three days of the exercise I changed it a bit… and had them work as teams, which not only kept the energy levels going, but also produced larger scale work.

Design Camp 08: Ideation…

One of the biggest challenges of my design camp experience circled around getting teenage strangers to work comfortably with one another.

I remembered how hard it was to speak and share ideas with others at that age, specially others whom you not know (not that it is really easier now, but at least I’ve gotten better at hiding the awkwardness). In order to attack this problem, and in anticipation to the larger project of the afternoon, students were divided in groups, pretending to be offices, and in five minutes they had to come up with a name and gesture sketch to serve as their logo.

At first, I was skeptical of my own strategy. Part of me thought that separating them into offices was to be received with critiques of being lame or stupid, but actually, students surprisingly engaged very well at the opportunity of creating a name and a mark for themselves. I gave them only one rule: anything was allowed other than pornographic. I even joked with them a bit to get them loose. I gave them an example: if they had be dumped this past weekend, they could call their office I Was Dumped Design. It was impressive to see how they came up with names. Some of the ones I remember were taken from: the brand of the pencil they were holding, the initials of their names, their favorite foods… to name a few.

After their office inauguration, I gave them a wall, which became their work space for the day, and the first exercise was a moderated ideation session. During this portion of the day, I gave them a topic (always related to the CAM museum) and they wrote ideas on post-its and placed them on the wall. This session was high energy and moderated a bit crazy, to get them thinking wildly about museums. Some of the recurring ideas were a petting zoo in the museum, water slides, night parties, coffee shops, better shopping stores and more do it your self art.

I have to say that this was a hit. It may not have generated a pool of realistic ideas for the museum, but it got all team members talking and working together.

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