other thesis projects

I spent a bit of time looking through the School of Visual Arts 2004 thesis projects this morning. Their theme was Designer as Entrepreneur, an idea we thought quite a bit about in our Design for Innovation class last year. The site doesn't tell the 'rest of story' as in which, if any, of these projects became reality and were mass produced and sold. There are interesting ideas, although the focus seemed to be more on the design of the branding and not as much on the product's innovation or its function as part of a service. One project that looked like an attempt to break that mold was called Go Gowanus, which was a plan to improve the reputation and increase awareness and use of the Gowanus canal. The design of all the artifacts, i.e. brochures, banners, maps, website, etc., were extremely well executed and there seemed to be plans for tours, art shows and clean up events, but I'm not sure how much of this actually happened. I went to the website, but it was no longer there. I'd have to say I wasn't overwhelmed by the exhibit, I think the main reason being the lack of innovation in many of the projects. There were many slick, cool and edgy looking products which showed that much consideration was given to the design, but there seemed to be a lack of depth within some of the projects.

I would love to design packaging for a new type of cookie or salsa, I would salivate over a project that involved writing and designing a travel book or children's book, but I'm not sure this type of project would constitute an mfa thesis. Perhaps if the product was part of something larger. Let's say I was interested in dispelling stereotypes of West Virginia and wanted to research, write and create a travel book that worked to dispel those myths or bring out the charm in them. (I find offbeat, disintegrating towns like Grafton wildly fascinating and always manage to meet up with interesting characters) Maybe the book is paired with a website that was interactive somehow... a place where people who've traveled to those spots mentioned in the book could tell their stories as well. Who knows? But back to the exhibit - One project I did find to be awesome was a book about signs in rural america. I'm not sure how original this idea is since I've thought of doing something like it myself, but what a seductive coffee table book idea! The designer was especially interested in typography and was designing fonts inspired by the signage he was exposed to on his journeys. And the most innovative product of the bunch I thought, provided a fun service to the physically disabled amongst us. The products consisted of padding covers for the backs and seats of wheelchairs that had upbeat, cool patterns and colors that could be swapped out. There were also different brightly colored cane handles. I've never seen this before and thought it was an incredibly thoughtful, creative and fun idea.

Sunday reading

Today I've been perusing through a several months-old issue of Print and have ran across some interesting items, however random. I looked through an article about a recent redesign of Weekly Reader done by Alexander Isley's multidisciplinary design firm. Then name sounded familiar, and the article mentioned his crew is renowned for its work in children's publications. I checked out their website, but unfortunately they don't have a huge amount of work done for children up, but there were a few pieces. There's a kooky book, 'Trick or Treat', that mixes oddball cutouts from victorian era halloween greeting cards with playful typography - an quirky idea, simply and deftly executed. I saw a promotional poster for Target's and AIGA's collaboration on teaching kids about design. And there was an impressive packaging, merchandising and marketing program put together for the launch of the Animal Planet line at Toys "R" Us. It would be interesting to get ahold of an old Spy magazine - his art direction there apparently informed a whole generation of magazine layout designers. They mentioned how within the layouts some of the most hilarious jokes would be in extremely small type and compared this to the design of the MAD board game. I LOVED this game. It was pure goofyness. I remember how smug and satisfied I felt when I ran across one of those tiny jokes in the corner, it was like discovering a little gem.

Here are a couple quotes I stumbled onto by Isley:

"The ability to communicate and be persuasive is therefore a crucial part of the process. I’ve personally found that designing is actually the easy part; the hard part is getting others to invest in your vision. To be a good designer you must therefore be honest and convey a sense of trustworthiness. If you don’t, no one will believe in you, and as a result, nothing you design will ever be made. It’s as simple as that."

"...start a project by writing out a long list of what you want it to do. Then figure out how to make it work. Then decide what it should look like."

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Another article highlighted work by a designer, Erik Adams, who happens to be Mormon. They mention his thesis project involved compiling stories from 100 Mormon missionaries and combining them creating a mythological tale. The final work consisted of 3 bound research volumes, 3 bound sketchbooks and the final book titled 'Divine Identity.'

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Nik Hafermaas was quoted frequently in an article about design education. This one seems especially fitting to discussions of late!
"Graphics designers have to find new ways of translating the world around us into messages that are relevant emotionally and intellectually – we are way beyond mere ink on paper. In a sense, we have to become visual engineers, and our tools are surprise, empathy and beauty."

ah, the experience

Today I went to Starbucks and ordered a fat-free, sugar-free, DEcaffeinated caramel macchiato. I was a little embarrassed ordering such a wussy drink, but the gal behind the register didn't flinch. I chuckled to myself thinking, what the heck is actually IN my coffee if there's no fat, no sugar and above all, no caffeine. Why would I pay for this? The answer of course relates to what we've been chatting about here... it's all about the service and the experience baby! Soft cozy chair, cool music, great smells, people to watch. The coffee's just an afterthought.
Now, if only the guy sitting across from me with his bare feet (I swear) propped up, hogging the round table between us could've been designed out of the picture...

conference goodies

The conference left me with many questions, but also tipped me off to some cool websites, interesting projects, people, books, etc. I also appreciated particular things several of the speakers said. So here's a list of the goodies that emerged from emergence:

websites.

www.many-eyes.com
freaking awesome data visualization service for anyone. I can't wait to play with this site. I also wonder if information graphics people are feeling a bit nervous?
www.threadless.com
www.etsy.com (ebay for crafts)
http://www.getafirstlife.com/ (satire of second life online game)
http://blackle.com/ (does this really save energy?)

statements, questions, words.

We have multi-billion dollar training events that have to teach people how to use tools that weren't designed by designers.
Selling design involves very quickly demonstrating value.
The average power drill is used for 4 minutes. (!!!!)
A little bit of empathy in the hands of a designer can go a long way.
Every 'streetcar' takes 6 private cars off the road.
A strong sense of optimism is irreplaceable to a designer. Always be optimistic about how you can make changes to better the world.
Design should become a universal joint between business and all things produced.
The focus of a product should shift from its use as an artifact to its role in an experience (i.e. ipod)
There's an ambition here for design to go into every discipline... will it be accepted and is this realistic?
Service activates people, brings about justice because it gives people the knowledge and information required to act.

field research
usability
tag cloud
tree map
social network diagrams (i love these)
customer deliery experience
design sensibilities
rapid prototyping
participatory design
storytelling and narrative visual presentation
visualizing scenarios
measure longterm effects (in order to show value)

curiosities - books, people, firms
"Massive Change"; "Information Anxiety"
George Nelson (most articulate speaker, advocate for design); Jane Jacobs (urban landscaper); Colombian politician...?
ThinkPublic; Live/Work Studio; HowardDesign; Electronic Ink

conference aftermath

Is it possible to feel disturbed, confused and excited (in a good way) all at the same time? This is the mental state a weekend design conference has put me in, as I consider the ideas and conversations that were exchanged over the past 48 hours. The conference was on service design, an emerging genre that no one seems to be able to, or want to for that matter, define. I'm no stranger to the genre since I collaborated on a service design project back in the spring, although at the time, certain parts of the process felt a bit like event planning. I enjoyed that project, but I believe the bulk of my enjoyment came from designing educational experiences and seeing those come to fruition. Would I have enjoyed the service design experience as much had our 'clients' not been teenagers and the subject matter — teaching teens about careers in the visual arts — been so personally gratifying? I'm not sure. Which takes me back to feeling confused, so let's start there.

I'm confused about who should be practicing service design. Certainly, designers bring an onslaught of skills to the table. Here are several mentioned by conference speakers:

The ability to see the whole picture.
A human-centered approach.
The ability to formulate a message.
The ability to observe.
The ability to visualize solutions.

But is it arrogant to think that we're the only discipline cabable of making decent observations and visualizing change? What about integrated marketing experts, consulting firms and communication specialists? Are the techniques of service design so incredibly novel and unique that no other discipline has knowledge of them? Maybe, for now. At least that's what I've gathered from listening to service design experts the past couple of days. The other disciplines are beginning to catch on and according to at least one of the presenters today, that's a good thing, for positive and somewhat discouraging reasons. It's great because once it does catch on across disciplines, there won't be just a fraction of companies employing the tactic. Customers (us!) will all be served better, products will be designed better, the world will run smoother. This is exciting! Sadly, we need it to catch on among other disciplines because the discipline of design "hasn't been particularly clever in their business practices in the past. If we want the idea of service design to survive, perhaps we should hand it off to another discipline such as marketing." (speaker from Live/Work studio)

But back to this idea of service design in general. Isn't this all just good customer service and competent management and business practice? Those things certainly play a role. But considerations to service design make for a more holistic approach and address things like designing systems where employees are inspired and have a great awareness of the consumer/customer. I think many businesses, especially ones created more recently are perhaps not as in need of service design renovations as older, established businesses who are trudging along, doing things the way they've always been done. There weren't many case studies talked about during the conference, which was unfortunate, but of the few that were, one interesting example was an evaluation of, and recommendations for a hospital's rapid response teams and nursing staff. After thorough observations, the service design team was able to identify and code breakdowns with the hospitals response process. Since the group doing the evaluations were designers, they were able to visualize to the client through incredibly elegant diagrams where these breakdowns occured, along with the frequency and the type of breakdown it was. They will also be able to effectively create visual representations of possible solutions, whether those solutions be new structures within personnel or a prototype for some type of technology that will improve work flow. So why wouldn't a consulting firm identify the problem and then hire a design firm to create the artifacts that communicate the message of the problem to the client? I suppose that could work, but it's always good when the deliverers of a message have done the research themselves. As an information graphics creator, we always gathered our data and did research ourselves which made for much richer content. Ultimately regarding whose role is service design, it was suggested at the conference that collaboration is the answer.

But what about design's connection to art? As someone said yesterday, which was reiterated by the keynote speaker today, "design's link to art is getting more tenuous." I can imagine this is disturbing to some since it is disturbing to me. I went into design because I enjoy making things. Tangible things that other people see and appreciate. Would I be satisfied designing intangible processes that in their most successful rendition are not seen at all? Will I be looked down upon if I want to continue creating things? In our graduate seminar class last week we spoke about a trend in contemporary art where artists employ other artists to create their ideas. Also, that there's a sense of hierarchy and that the artists who still want to paint, sculpt and create tangible things could be considered by some to be lower on the intellectual food chain. Is this the direction design is headed? Will the 'graphic designers' of today become the production artists of tomorrow?

Our keynote speaker said very decidedly that graphic design and industrial design WERE important genres of design in the first half of the 20th century, but taking their place are service and interaction design (among others). I don't deny these are hugely important and fascinating fields. But will a whole generation of designers want to stop creating beautiful and meaningful visuals that can impact people's lives in order to create beautiful, yet unseen, processes and structures that can impact people's lives? The verdict's still out for me.

A working blog (perhaps I should rethink the title leesies LEISURE)

The fall semester has begun! This blog will now do double duty as a record of thoughts on my search for a thesis topic. I ran across this website today:
http://www.design.cmu.edu/show_news.php?id=91&m=200611
that has a story about a graphic designer turned fashion designer. In the article she mentions that her thesis involved working with inner-city youth in an after-school program. The kids become agents of positive change as they designed magazines, board games and created videos about topics they thought were important. The topics ranged from bullies to pit bulls to the war in Iraq. I like how her thesis melds together a variety of interests that I share... A concern for and enjoyment of working with youth (I was a girl scout leader for at-risk girls in Raleigh, NC; I've worked with teen girls in various youth groups) and the development of educational materials for children. It's also an interesting experiment in user-centered design as the end users are creating materials for themselves – kids designing for kids. I'd like to find out more about her thesis and will email her to see if she wouldn't mind chatting with me about it, sooo more on this later!