GDE730 W12 | Workshop Challenge

INTERDISCLIPINARY PROVOCATION

What are the advantages of interdisciplinary provocation and how could you utiliZe this approach in your practice?

Put theory into practice and spend an hour brainstorming ideas based on the following challenge and who you would choose to work with.

1. Identify a discipline and specialist who could help you to reflect from a dynamically opposing position on a specific problem.

2. Pick one of the issues below and discuss with your chosen individual how you may solve the challenge. This should ideally be recorded as an audio podcast. Our interest in this also relates to the way in which different disciplines discuss an issue and their manner and approach in communicating differently, as well as how you would capture this.

3. As a guide, please evolve your own strategy for bridging the questions. Equally, you may wish to also consider the core issues: how would your specialism solve this and how different is this to the expected design thinker?

4. Do not forget to consider the communication style you would use to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue.

5. Finally, how do you summariZe these findings in a way that is acceptable to both collaborators?

Provocation considerations:

• Improving mental health in young adults.

• Reducing pollution in inner cities.

• Encouraging greater engagement with galleries and museums.

• Reducing isolation and loneliness.

• Promoting greater community cohesion.

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HOW CAN DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE PROMOTE GREATER COMMUNITY COHESION?

I chose to interview an architect, James Knight about the opportunities for architecture to inform, improve, and impact community cohesion as well as the intersection of graphic design, architecture, and community.

Questions:

• What is community cohesion?

• What are some of the benefits of community cohesion and pitfalls of having an absence of cohesion in the community?

• How does architecture inform or impact community cohesion?

• What socioeconomic considerations must be made to positively impact community cohesion?

• Are there any common denominators?

• Tell me about The Bellettini in Bellvue, WA.

• How will any of this change post COVID-19?

• What about the future? How will architecture change to address the needs of future communities?

• How can architecture and graphic design collaborate on this issue?

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018).  Interdisciplinary Insights – New Approaches and Creative Partnerships | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

TYPE Talk, Andy Altmann (2012) Dinner for One?. 

LYNfabrikken Aarhus Denmark, (2012) Lecture with Troika.

Open Cell https://opencell.webflow.io/ 

OffShore Studio Migrant Journal http://www.offshorestudio.ch/ 

TED, Anab Jain(2017) Why we need to imagine different futures 

GDE730 W11 | Workshop Challenge

INTERDISCLIPINARY PROVOCATION

What are the advantages of interdisciplinary provocation and how could you utiliZe this approach in your practice?

Put theory into practice and spend an hour brainstorming ideas based on the following challenge and who you would choose to work with.

1. Identify a discipline and specialist who could help you to reflect from a dynamically opposing position on a specific problem.

2. Pick one of the issues below and discuss with your chosen individual how you may solve the challenge. This should ideally be recorded as an audio podcast. Our interest in this also relates to the way in which different disciplines discuss an issue and their manner and approach in communicating differently, as well as how you would capture this.

3. As a guide, please evolve your own strategy for bridging the questions. Equally, you may wish to also consider the core issues: how would your specialism solve this and how different is this to the expected design thinker?

4. Do not forget to consider the communication style you would use to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue.

5. Finally, how do you summariZe these findings in a way that is acceptable to both collaborators?

Provocation considerations:

• Improving mental health in young adults.

• Reducing pollution in inner cities.

• Encouraging greater engagement with galleries and museums.

• Reducing isolation and loneliness.

• Promoting greater community cohesion.

---

HOW CAN DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE PROMOTE GREATER COMMUNITY COHESION?

I chose to interview an architect, James Knight about the opportunities for architecture to inform, improve, and impact community cohesion as well as the intersection of graphic design, architecture, and community.

Questions:

• What is community cohesion?

• What are some of the benefits of community cohesion and pitfalls of having an absence of cohesion in the community?

• How does architecture inform or impact community cohesion?

• What socioeconomic considerations must be made to positively impact community cohesion?

• Are there any common denominators?

• Tell me about The Bellettini in Bellvue, WA.

• How will any of this change post COVID-19?

• What about the future? How will architecture change to address the needs of future communities?

• How can architecture and graphic design collaborate on this issue?

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018).  Interdisciplinary Insights – New Approaches and Creative Partnerships | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

TYPE Talk, Andy Altmann (2012) Dinner for One?. 

LYNfabrikken Aarhus Denmark, (2012) Lecture with Troika.

Open Cell https://opencell.webflow.io/ 

OffShore Studio Migrant Journal http://www.offshorestudio.ch/ 

TED, Anab Jain(2017) Why we need to imagine different futures 

GDE730 W9 | Workshop Challenge

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

Being an entrepreneur today.

Create an information graphic, or diagram, or animation that, for you, highlights the effective definition and process of a being a design entrepreneur today.

• Upload your diagram to the Ideas Wall and discuss the pros and cons of how risk, failure and innovation is built into a model for business success;

• What is the impact of different cultural insights with regard to opportunity and potential?

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BEGIN WITH A GODDESS

Durga, the Hindu goddess of war, the warrior form of Parvati, whose mythology centers around combating evils and demonic forces that threaten peace, prosperity, and Dharma the power of good over evil. Her nine blessings of prosperity, happiness, wealth and good fortune served as my inspiration for my design entrepreneur infographic.

The design entrepreneur must be able to wear many hats, or in the case of the Durga, have many arms in order to take into consideration and act on their own behalf to bring their ideas to life. Using Durga to serve as the foundation of my infographic, I considered the following:

Risk and Reward

Success and Failure

Innovation and Awareness

Further, each design entrepreneur must assume the many roles that include:

• Dreamer

• Explorer

• Marketer

• Protector

• Juggler

• Manager

• Promoter

• Accountant

• Forecaster

• Analyst

INSPIRATION

I wanted to use myself as my Durga to feel most empowered by this exercise and to be most inspired when considering the life of a design entrepreneur. That said, I came to this exercise inspired by many design entrepreneurs. Below is a small gallery of my all-time favorites:

Top to bottom, left to right:

Anna and Nathan Bond of Rifle Paper Co. was founded in 2009 by husband-wife team Nathan and Anna Bond. Over the last 10 years, we have grown our company from two people to over 150. Our world is full of bold colors, hand-painted florals, and whimsical characters—and our goal is to create quality products that bring beauty to the everyday. Their current collaborations include globally recognized brand, KEDs and a new rug line for their home decor channel.

Aaron Draplin of Draplin Co. and Field Notes The Draplin Design Co. finally stepped out on its own four hairy feet in the fall of 2004. Collaborating with the likes of Bernie Sanders, Patagonia, Target, Chris Stapleton, NASA/JPL, John Hodgman, Ford Motor Company, Woolrich and even the Obama Administration, if you can believe that. He is also the founder of the universally handy and well-know Field Notes brand.

Christine Schmidt of Yellowtail Workshop Fueled by too much black tea and public radio shows, Schimidt spent nights creating hand-printed cards and gifts. Seeking out local suppliers and working with fine, momma-earth loving materials, she began honing her line of wares. In 2007, after steeling her nerves, Christine took a box of her goods to some local stores, they placed orders and Yellow Owl Workshop was born. Yellow Owl Workshop now bustles with a team of hard-working humans in a sunny Mission district studio. Though Yellow Owl Workshop has grown and can be found in stores worldwide, the original values of expert attention to detail, ecological awareness and premium U.S. made materials are evident in every product. Legend says if you hold a stamp set really closely you can probably still smell the Earl Gray and hear a "Radio Lab" episode.

Tina Roth Eisenberg (aka Swiss Miss) and Tattly Co. Tired of putting poorly designed temporary tattoos on her daughter’s arm, Tina Roth Eisenberg took matters into her own hands. After soliciting a dozen renowned artists and designers, hiring the first two team members, and learning what a temporary tattoo was actually made of, Tattly was born. Eisenberg is founded and runs Tattly, CreativeMornings , TeuxDeux and her Brooklyn based co-working space Friends.

Adam J. Kurtz (aka @adamjk) is an artist and author whose illustrative work is rooted in honesty, humor and a little darkness. His books have been translated into over a dozen languages and his work has been featured in the New Yorker, VICE, Adweek and more.Kurtz speaks frankly about channeling human emotion into our work, and generally just trying to be more okay with whatever we've got. His latest book, Things Are What You Make of Them, is a handwritten essay collection that digs into the emotional realities of creative entrepreneurship. ADAMJK® is an art and stationery brand focused on gifts that are fun, weird, sentimental, and often literal. 

Timothy Goodman is a designer, illustrator, muralist and author. Timothy Goodman's art and words have populated walls, buildings, packaging, cars, people, shoes, clothing, book jackets, magazine covers and galleries all over the world. He has collaborated with peer creatives such as Jessica Walsh and globally recognized brands such as Tiffany & Co., GUESS, and Uniqlo.

IN PROCESS

I set out to create my infographic beginning in Procreate as a sketch of my version of Durga in my likeness. Once the illustration was complete, I moved into InDesign for the final layout. Elements of the design worth noting is the components of risk and reward — divided by a chasm called “failure” — and bridged by a narrow line that symbolizes opportunity. My design entrepreneur Durga rides a unicycle to nod at innovation over the tiger that the Hindu goddess herself rides. The chasm does not fall too deeply below the opportunity line noting that failure is not only far out of sight, but that it can also be overcome. The thin line of opportunity also points to fleeting moments that risk must push the entrepreneur forward as well as serve as a delicate balance between and the ongoing dipping in and out of both success and failure.

FINAL PIECE

View fullsize

You can download a high resolution PDF of this layout HERE.

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2019). Core Characteristics, Ethics and Theory | Lecture. Studio and Entrepreneurship GDE730 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Entrepreneur Europe [online] https://www.entrepreneur.com/ 

Lecture in Progress  https://lectureinprogress.com/ 

Courier [online]  https://couriermedia.co/ 

Offscreen[online] https://www.offscreenmag.com/ 

Intern [online] https://intern-mag.com/ 

Backstage Talks [online] https://backstagetalks.com/ 

Artsy Magazine [online] https://www.artsymagazine.com/ 

Ethos [online] https://ethos-magazine.com/ 

Wired, Jessica Alter,(2013) Designers make great entrepreneurs, they just don’t know it yet 

Frederick Harry Pitts https://www.frederickharrypitts.com/ 

Futures of Work https://futuresofwork.co.uk/

GDE730 W8 | Workshop Challenge

INTERDISCLIPINARY PROVOCATION

What are the advantages of interdisciplinary provocation and how could you utiliZe this approach in your practice?

Put theory into practice and spend an hour brainstorming ideas based on the following challenge and who you would choose to work with.

1. Identify a discipline and specialist who could help you to reflect from a dynamically opposing position on a specific problem.

2. Pick one of the issues below and discuss with your chosen individual how you may solve the challenge. This should ideally be recorded as an audio podcast. Our interest in this also relates to the way in which different disciplines discuss an issue and their manner and approach in communicating differently, as well as how you would capture this.

3. As a guide, please evolve your own strategy for bridging the questions. Equally, you may wish to also consider the core issues: how would your specialism solve this and how different is this to the expected design thinker?

4. Do not forget to consider the communication style you would use to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue.

5. Finally, how do you summariZe these findings in a way that is acceptable to both collaborators?

Provocation considerations:

• Improving mental health in young adults.

• Reducing pollution in inner cities.

• Encouraging greater engagement with galleries and museums.

• Reducing isolation and loneliness.

• Promoting greater community cohesion.

---

HOW CAN DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE PROMOTE GREATER COMMUNITY COHESION?

I chose to interview an architect, James Knight about the opportunities for architecture to inform, improve, and impact community cohesion as well as the intersection of graphic design, architecture, and community.

Questions:

• What is community cohesion?

• What are some of the benefits of community cohesion and pitfalls of having an absence of cohesion in the community?

• How does architecture inform or impact community cohesion?

• What socioeconomic considerations must be made to positively impact community cohesion?

• Are there any common denominators?

• Tell me about The Bellettini in Bellvue, WA.

• How will any of this change post COVID-19?

• What about the future? How will architecture change to address the needs of future communities?

• How can architecture and graphic design collaborate on this issue?

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018).  Interdisciplinary Insights – New Approaches and Creative Partnerships | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

TYPE Talk, Andy Altmann (2012) Dinner for One?. 

LYNfabrikken Aarhus Denmark, (2012) Lecture with Troika.

Open Cell https://opencell.webflow.io/ 

OffShore Studio Migrant Journal http://www.offshorestudio.ch/ 

TED, Anab Jain(2017) Why we need to imagine different futures 

GDE730 W7 | Workshop Challenge

NEW WAYS TO COLLABORATE AND FIND COLLABORATION

Based on some of the debates and discussion covered so far, outline a series of ideas that could help you to work in new and more exciting collaborative ways.

• What media and communication platforms could help support this? (This might be to help you collaborate with new design partners, introduce yourself to a new network or culture or area of investigation.)

• Present your ideas as a one minute elevator pitch video (with the aim that you will develop one of those ideas further next week).

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THREE WAYS TO IMPROVE OR FIND COLLABORATION: THREE IDEAS

What if we were taught to collaborate? What if at the very beginning of our collegiate educational journey we were encouraged to find ways to learn from and with others outside of our chosen major? 

I was encouraged by my week six workshop challenge conversation with architect and city and urban planner, James Knight. When asked how architecture and graphic design could collaborate to help promote greater community cohesion, he mentioned that when he was in graduate school, the graphic design program students and faculty never presented nor engaged with the architecture program. He believed that as a result, architects were not exposed to the collaborative opportunities with graphic designers. He went on to say that he also didn’t see the medical school and architecture school connecting on how hospitals could be better built to suit the needs of the community. 

This got me thinking… are we doing higher education wrong?

This is a big picture idea. Not only would it help designers like me to work in new and exciting ways, but it could change the way college approaches it’s disciplines, creates curricula, and graduates more cross-platform, interdisciplinary design and system thinkers. One could argue that is what the Liberal Arts is: exposure to loads of courses that touch on a wide array of disciplines. And for undergraduate school, I think that rings true. But when we get to graduate school, the hyper-siloed focus on a singular area of study within a program walls off that interdisciplinary collaborative environment.

Where to begin? 

ENTER THE INTERDISCIPLINARY THUNDERDOME

Bring teams of cross-disciplinary students together around a single issue or problems for a hackathon. Teams would be made up of students of design, social sciences, natural sciences, healthcare, business, and law. They would spend a weekend, a month, a semester or year working together alongside one another collaborating on how to achieve the solution to the problem. The outcome would be for each of the students to learn from one another and evolve their ways of thinking and collaborating. 

An app would be the central piece of technology to get team members signed up and connected around the problem, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engaged on the assigned project.

CREATIVE MATCHMAKING

This is a pretty-straightforward idea where creatives (designers, writers, editors, videographers, animators, artists, photographers) are able to find projects to collaborate on via an app matching skills interests, backgrounds, desire for diversification, mentorship, education, niche audiences, etc. 

You’d create a profile similar to something like Behance and then list your areas of interests, potential projects for collaboration, and availability. You could set your levels accordingly so that you are getting matched with others that align to your selections.

The app would be the central piece of technology to get matched, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engage on any given project.

CREATIVE CAUSE

This ideas is similar to creative matchmaking but more narrowly focused on volunteerism and giving back to the community. 

Again, you’d create a profile similar to something like Behance and then list your areas of interests, potential projects for collaboration, and availability. You could set your levels accordingly so that you are getting matched with others that align to your selections

Going a step further, you’d be volunteering for projects that are aggregated in the app by the end user (client, customer, organization, etc.) and partnering with other altruists looking to apply their skills in solving a social issue or provide support for a cause for which they believe in. 

The app would be the central piece of technology to get matched, then employing digital communication tools such as Zoom, Whatsapp, Facetime, Slack, and project management tools such as Trello or ActiveCollab could help folks keep in touch, collaborate and engage on any given project.

ELEVATOR PITCH

The aforementioned ideas have been distilled into an elevator pitch which you can watch below.

REFERENCE

Falmouth University (2018). Approaches and Strategies for Working Today and Delivering Creative Services | Lecture. History and Futures GDE720 19/20 Part-Time Study Block S2 (Falmouth, UK: Falmouth University)

Mucho (2018) A Conversation with Rob Duncan and Brett Wickers

Butler, A. (2012) David Turner (Turner Duckworth) Interview,DesignBoom [online]. Available at: https://www.designboom.com/design/david-turner-turner-duckworth-interview/