GDE 710

WEEK 9

Message delivered

This week is about form and function working together to deliver a message. Looking into how the actual medium in which the message is presented can affect the interpretation. The core question driving this week is:

How can a message be enhanced through the medium in which it is implemented?

Form and Function—Susanna and Sam

SusanSam_Header

You've got to trust that you're going to come up with something useful, it's going to be interesting. Then it’s just having a sense of trust when you enter an environment for you not to know what's going to come out. Then there's this beautiful edge between trust and fear. Fear is basically excitement about doing something.

Sam WInston

Lovely conversation between Susanna and Sam. The podcasts where people are just conversing are a great format as it's like you're sitting in the room with them and like you're a part of something. The conversation flow is also natural and I think that puts me at ease. There were a few things that stood out to me in this podcast. Firstly, the idea of an embodied kind of exploration towards design. I think the more we have shifted to using our computers the more design work just seems to be infront of a screen. I know I miss working with my hands a lot, and mostly work client side doesn't usually allow to explore that outlet. What was new for me was the notion of not trying to always intellectualize your ideas and that there is a space for that kind of ideation. Ideation can be done via immersion as well, letting the body dive into the brief, the environment, the problem, while not really knowing how to figure it out and to let the body, hands, senses take over and feel it out and do their thing. Questioning what comes in the moment and letting it provide you with solutions.

It's funny how sometimes with my team when the copywriters have written something and they bring it to me for feedback, I sometimes ask them to just step back and read the copy out loud while I just close my eyes and listen to it. The words then seem to push or pull towards the message and when a line or word is not working I 'feel' it right away. At that point it's like the body knows something the mind would try to figure out and rationalize. When I approach it that way and tell them to feel out the paragraph we get to better places. I neer really knew why I do it this way, in a sense my body just knows to. 

This created an opening for me because while I deal that way with creative direction and feedback on copy, I haven't really tried this approach to a fresh problem, brief or idea. I trust this kind of process even though I can't explain it. I think I will try it more in my process next time and see where it leads. I am intrigued. 

Another important idea that Sam and Susanna brought up was about changing ones relationship or how one sees problems. And entering into them and questioning what about that problem interests you, because that interest is where the impetus and energy will come from. I think sometimes in the noise and speed of life and especially of the corporate world when we get problems to solve we just dive right into to execution. And that inhibits the possibilities. I think fear has a lot to do with it as well, the fear or getting it wrong, or not being able to find a solution. In this regard, the quote I posted at the beginning of this section by Sam in this lecture is something I want to be reminded of. This idea of trusting the outcome will show up even if you have no idea what it is. 

In conclusion, I think both Susanna and Sam left me with some actionable openings: looking to materials, language, design, processes, relationships, archives and social elements to problems, and getting interesting in the problem and the impact of it on people and on the outcome. This idea of building a personal toolkit. Collecting answers before you even have the questions. 

I've compiled and visually chunked together the main points as I'd like to refer back and remember them. My notes are presented here:

Week9_Notes1
Week9_Notes2
Week9_Notes3

Workshop Challenge

CHALLENGE: Communicate an emotion you perceive your city or location is about. Take the word and use an appropriate material, form or medium—2D, digital, 3D or immersive. You may choose to communicate the word directly or you may choose to create a juxtaposition, if there is a contradiction or tension, e.g. New York is Tense.

For this week's challenge I chose my city Toronto and made a trip to downtown to spend a few hours walking and taking in the city and see if any feelings showed up about the city. I also checked out some areas and community forums where people left reflections about the city. I also remembered a forum where people shared their thoughts about Toronto as a 7 word story and it was published in the local newspaper. Although the words were not feelings per se if gave an insight into how people perceive where they live. The article wasn't a major part of my challenge just something I skimmed through while 'feeling' out what the city is like.  

TorontoSevenWords

Here is my list of words to start of the Toronto as a feeling challenge:

TorontoTerms

I chose to explore the sentiment of ALIVE, which became VIVACIOUS, which became VIVACITY. I decided this would be my final word to describe Toronto. I especially enjoyed the word CITY appearing in the word VIVACITY. 

Next I started thinking about the medium and when I think of city, and exploring and feeling a city I am excited about the idea of vacation and visiting a city to get a feel and taste of it. To create an experience. To celebrate an experience. That led to a powerful question of how do you get entry into a city? And this happens via a passport. And what indicates where you have been? A stamp of entry that allows you into a city. That same stamp becomes a 'mark' that is left that reminds you of where you've been, and all the feelings and sentiments associated with the journey. The memories of the people you spent it with. 

So I started looking into passports and stamps. 

Stamps

I found some interesting executions and this equipped me some visual elements to consider for my final execution. I decided to use the colour red for my stamp to represent Canada and the lively nature of the city. I chose a font and typeset it to embody the emotion. I used the CH tower motif from the Toronto to celebrate an identifying landmark and give it a feel of familiarity and authority. I added other type and a distressed grunch look to mimic an actual stamp. Here is my final outcome:

KhanNida_VivacityTORONTO

Ideas Wall

Here I share my cocontributions to others on the Ideas Wall, and comments left by others on my challenges.

Week9_IdeasWall
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Final thoughts and reflection

It was an interesting week. A bit out of my comfort zone because I couldn’t quite ‘intellectualize’ the outcome. I had to rely on intuition and I felt like I would have loved more time to think about it, and a week wasn’t enough. I think I would have gotten a lot more ideas since it was such an intriguing brief. 

Overall I am happy with the result. I was glad my peers saw my intention reflected in the final piece. It’s not something I would usually sit and design so having a new experience was nice while also causing some uncertainty and feelings of what if I don’t get any ideas! 

Thank you for taking the time to read this. 

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Week 8: Skills & Making
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Week 10: Type and Page

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