Dress Mess »
Dress Mess is a small fashion-related ongoing side-project. It is a documentation of how I dress most days, and ultimately a reflection on my fashion sense when fashion is not something I think about consciously.
What is Successful Design? »
Our task for the Ma this week is to talk about a successful piece of design. What appeared to be an innocent task — how hard can be it be to talk about a piece of design I like? — soon took a turn. I realised two things: that successful design is hard to define, and that I am not inspired by design I can only take at face value. Every time I define a criteria for successful design, it works against what I feel has an interesting process. These are my questions, and though there are no definitive answers I feel that perhaps they will provide my criteria for what makes successful design.
Recognising Word Shapes »
This post is an exercise in recognising word shapes. Word shapes are self-explanatory — they are the shape of words. When we read, we are receptive to the shape of words rather than to the letters individually. This exercise is not a test of who can read best, but an insight into how recognisable word shapes are when little to no letters are present.
An Exercise in Problem Solving »
Throughout the MA we have been asked to question our process and research methods. That questioning covers everything from how we shape problems with questions to how we begin to offer possible solutions through risk-taking. This week, those realisations were put to the test with this seemingly simple task: create a brand for a management consultancy that manages academic spaces in one hour.
The Follow Frenzy »
Having recently purged more than half of who I was following on Twitter in cold-blooded spite (but mostly out of necessity), I began to realise what it was that was turning me off. I had reached a point where all I had was a 140 character information soup that I got no real joy from. All I had in my stream was retweet spam, self-serving blurbs which did not engage nor entertain me, a load of wank from social media “experts” and tweets in languages that did not even utilise the Latin alphabet. Twitter became a scary place for me.
Explaining Design Theory »
Does theory inform design? It is the age old question that arises in so many design-related debates about how we as designers learn, contextualise and research. I have always argued that it is imperative to have theoretical knowledge in order to produce meaningful design. In studying a Masters, I am starting to understand that theory is not necessarily what I have always considered it to be. I also realise now that meaningful design does not necessarily arise from a monster folder of research. In order to link theory to the discourse of design process, I need to define theory first.