A Major Week 3

My lecturer advised me that my slides are text-heavy, and my research still too shallow. I had a feeling of what would be required and yet I hesitated to do it – I did not have enough time and lacked the information. 

My next task is choosing a few (5-7 should be enough as it is a heavy task) products/packaging, take new photos of each element and material, and analyse their journey from manufacturing through the user experience down to the end of life using imagery and icons. I need to illustrate and create a graphic map of the impact of each step. I must discover all the major problems, the speed of manufacture, the weight, the transportation, the excessive material use, the use of materials that cannot be recycled, the unnecessary cost, and the user frustration, and find the major commonalities. Through lots of small interventions, I could make a big change. Hopefully, this research will lead me down a path where I will find a project focus. 

I was told to have fun and enjoy it, so that is what I will try to do. 

While listening to the discussion he had with the other people in the group, I picked up some really useful information. 

• wood won’t last as long as stone
• study Japanese, German, and Scandinavian design and discipline
• challenge the norm
• focus on the moment
• find influence outside of your area, learn from best practice, have multiple points of research
• people need an incentive to change a cultural habit
• design is the highest cost in the change of a product or material – value proposition – justify this cost
• we must find a way to make people value materials and processes again
• subscription-based society – devalues products 
• angle could be slow consumption
• social media – we are the product
• a constantly repeated action becomes boring, grey noise – new experiences are needed to keep it exciting and engaging – can’t keep telling the same story (fashion)
• I must work out who my core user is and what would bring the most value to them
• we do not understand abstract concepts until we see them with our own eyes (such as the effects of climate change and pollution)
• as designers we must find a way to shift perspectives and change the culture (“subliminal advertising”, start a new trend)

As one of the products I analysed through my primary research task for this week was a ballpoint pen, we talked about this in greater length during the tutorial, and because I have a personal interest in stationery I looked into how these pens were made. I could not find information about the ballpoint taking 1 year to be manufacture, however, I was reminded that the ballpoint or “Biro” pen was originally designed by a Hungarian man. 

Thinking further about this, I had the idea to create a project by “reinventing a Hungarian legacy” – bringing my own culture into my product could be a nice angle. My pen could have a refillable barrel where you only purchase the ink and refill every time it gets empty. The barrel could be created out of household waste you find at home. I also had the idea to make an interactive giant version of this pen for the New Designers exhibit in London for this July. The pen could perhaps also have a pencil part on the other end, and maybe a rubber bit somewhere which could erase both. I don’t know. I don’t think I should be at the ideation stage yet, but it makes me a little more hopeful as opposed to not having a clue. 

As for my stand at the New Designers in London in July (for which I will have to cough up a considerable amount of money, as I have no relations in London, which means I’ll have to stay in a hostel or similar establishment for a week), I was considering a printed book (or printed pages in a display book) with the covers attached to the wall, to allow visitors (as well as the judges and future employers) to see my way of thinking, my workflow and progress to arrive to the solution. I should also display any ideation and development models. Of whatever it is I decide to make. Which better be epic. After all, only my whole future depends on it. 

Then there are also the business cards, which a classmate of mine thinks are really important – they will be what we hand out to employers and gain their attention. 

As well as really great hero shots so that our lecturers can request postcards of them to hand out. No pressure.