The idea of the class is to create a self-directed project from start to finish, that solves a problem through design. Design the solution to an opportunity in an innovative way. Think outside the box! Make it different! This is communication design so I have to communicate the solution effectively through design. Methods and mediums can be anything that is suitable to the solution, though it is recommended to stick to what you're comfortable with rather than trying something new.
Here's a list of mediums that I have worked with in the past
Books
Films
Boardgame/cardgame
models
website
community project
cothing
Over the past few days I've been jotting down ideas as they come, trying to explore as many areas of interest as possible. Here's my list so far. . .
Redesigning elementary school education
Following the ways of Emilie Pilloton, I am interested in looking at reworking the system we learn with, focusing primarily on elementary schools. I want to introduce more activity in children, and decrease the long hours spent focusing and absorbing. Kids need to run around, the brain stops absorbing after half an hour of learning. Humans have become accustomed to sitting all day where we naturally are beings of activity. Our bodies were created to run, yet why are so many of us "not runners?"And why are so many people "bad at math" or "bad at science"? I believe we can redesign the system so that math becomes fun to learn, and children and kids strive to learn it.Film codec compatibility
The film world is a mess of different codecs and formats. It's ridiculous that every single camera shoots in a different format, and every computer program reads different formats, and nothing talks to each other. There's got to be a way to make it work.PC vs MAC in the film world
Again, the film world has too many formats that don't speak to each other. In our film studio we're working with both PCs and Macs. So, any given film will have half the film edited in Mac and half in PC. Yet the final export and render must be completed on a single computer. Yet the world of Mac and PC and Final Cut and Premiere don't speak to each other intuitively. There's got to be a system that would work, a workflow that can be designed to solve the problem.The politics behind BC's drug problem
Coinciding with our documentary, I would like to explore the real problem behind our drug problems. The systems that have been put in place by the government don't work. There are so many loop holes it's nearly impossible to get help if you've got a problem. Unless you have complete discipline and motivation and go through the process of withdrawal all by yourself, with no help and no home, you pretty much have no hope in helping yourself. The only other option is if you've got enough money to send yourself up to Baldy Hughes recovery center, but that costs about $2000/month. And once you're in, you're bound to staying there a minimum of 3 years, which in total would cost you $72,000.Font organizing
When brainstorming for ideas I asked myself, 'what are the things in my everyday life that bug me, that I don't have a solution for?' One of these problems is font organization. There's no simple easy way to keep your fonts organized, or to preview fonts (both that you own and that you don't) that would be suitable for your project you're working on. There should be a database that you can browse through with different categories and search engines that pull from the different type foundries and your own personal collection.Defining Design
One issue I have run into over and over again is describing to a non designer what it is I do. My family doesn't even understand exactly what it is I do, and where my future lies. And it's an industry that is ever evolving and expanding and changing, that it is hard to describe in a single sentence everything that my career encompasses. Balance
The key to life. Something I have not yet accomplished. In everything in life there is a need for balance:work vs play
spending vs saving
indulging vs discipline
health vs desire
active brain vs resting brain
(to name a few)
Consumerism
Oh consumerism. This is something that has made me angry for many years now. It never ceases to piss me off how people just blindly fall into the trap of consumerism, without thinking. It pisses me off how companies control the everyday consumer, and sadly enough one of the latest companies that has pissed me off the most is apple. If they didn't make such damn good products I wouldn't support them. You have to do it their way, you can only buy from them, they charge you up the ass, their costumer service sucks, and they support and promote the linear life cycle that is killing the Earth today. Rather than creating new bits and bobs to add on to your old electronics, they come out with a brand new gadget every few months. And they want you to chuck out your old one and buy a brand new one. Oh, and their company has the highest suicide rates of all.People need to think about where they're spending their money, because essentially what you're buying you're supporting. And think before you buy, think about the planet, think about the earth, why waste unless you have to? But consumerism supports waste 100% and it's not ok! It just bugs me that people fall into the trap so easily - use your brain people!
Fear
fear of failure. fear of death. fear of being hurt. fearing for your life. fearing for your future. fear of the unknown. fear of being disliked. fear of being unaccepted. fear of hurting someone. fear of amounting to nothing. fear of getting caught. fear of others. fear of losing someone. fear of wasting your life.Women Warriors (16th century)
Another thing I asked myself while pondering on ideas for this project was, 'what would I like to learn more of?'. . .Well, I read in a recent book that in the 16th century there were a number of women Amazon soldiers who fought wars and battles and went undefeated for a number of years. Yet there is very little knowledge, if any at all on these women.
Post-feminism
I recently started watching Mad Men and I was taken by the amazing job they did in portraying womens roles back then. It got me thinking about women in the world today, and how things have changed. And yet, they have and they haven't. Women still earn on average, less than a man, and we're still exploited in new ways through sexuality in advertising, porn etc etc.Recycling electronics
Back to consumerism. I know there are some companies that will take old electronics to reuse their bits and bobs, but it's not clear where to take them. It would be cool if there was a recycling program like your normal recycling and compost pick up every week, or just common knowledge on where to take your old electronics.Micro Biology
My friend is studying micro biology right now. We had a long talk the other day that absolutely fascinated me. I learned that anti-bacterial soaps actually are causing more problems than not, as they're promoting and catalyzing the creation of super-bacteria. Bacteria reproduces so fast, and it becomes immune to our anti-bacterials that it creates these super-bacterias. Same thing with viruses. It also fascinates me that there is something so incredibly small on the earth, and we know so little about it. They say scientists know about 8000 bacteria in the world, yet there's more than 8000 bacteria in a handful of dirt. It's a hard field to study because they're constantly changing and evolving, and nobody wants to be squinting in a microscope all day long.As of right now, I'm unsure still which direction to take, though I'm most drawn to micro biology. I need to start diving into these topics and deciphering what the specific problem and opportunity is, and whether it's something that can be resolved through communication design.
A designer, when you boil all the software, mediums, and job titles away, is a problem solver. A graphic designer solves a clients problems with a variety of primarily visual tools.
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