but they can all enlarge if you really want to blow your mind.
Ah... Design Thinking. Oh how you bored me to death at the beginning of the semester. But I must say through the contemplation exercises and the more interesting lectures you became much better. When we had to write our first contemplation exercise about our design thought process i was like "what the heck am i going to write, i dont have a design process." But as we kept doing more of the exercises i soon realized that i do have one! So i really enjoyed having that opened up to me and being able to look at it and follow it more closely now.
I also really enjoyed making my design thought model. The assignment was to create a model that showed our design process. That was really all the instructions/rules that there were. He showed some examples (all 3-d models/scultures; very abstract). I got the idea to do a sort of comic book/some sort of story while listening to a song (from the charlie's angels soundtrack, no less) while driving the 5 hour trek to see Hunter. I had to stop repeatedly to write down all the ideas i was getting. (this was the last weekend in march) so after much brainstorming on the way back to raleigh (and hurriedly writing them down in a panera in winston).
So i wont go into all the details about my different variations. This is the final product. And it doesnt make much sense without a presentation... so im also going to include what i said in my presentation. (the gist of it anyways, i wasnt reading it) And then after youre done ill tell you the good news. ps. i spent over 100 hours on this project. including 7 hrs a day in studio this past week. and no i didnt include the two 5 hour trips to see hunter.
::starts presentation::
For my design thought model, I have created an illustrated children’s book.I chose to do this because I believe that a good designer must never truly “grow up” and must always hang on to the vivid imagination and naive nature that children have and many adults tend to lose. I chose to do only illustrations (no text) and read aloud the story because when a child listens to a childrens book they dont pay attention to the words (because they cant read), they just focus on the pictures and their parent's voice telling them the story. So me telling the story instead of you reading it reinforces the child theme. My process is also very organized and time oriented, and I felt that a book showed off these qualities as well. This story tells the tale of a young girl (based on myself) who goes through her own design process as she nears a very important day.
Our young girl's story starts off in Leazar, where all the magic happens. (yes, i said that)
As always, the children are rushing wherever they are going. Always thinking, and always drawing.
Quickly, the children start to get their ideas and cannot restrain themselves from jumping into the air in delight.
But one little girl has not yet had her "Eureka" moment.
So she works very diligently until... she too gets her idea, which pops from the page and comes to life.
She is so ecstatic with her marvelous idea that they do a little dance together.
But wait! Another incredible idea pops from the page!
Two amazing ideas! Could it get any better?
Oh... but as the girl steps back from her ideas and looks at them again... she realizes that perhaps they aren't as incredible as she had once thought. She realized that they were actually quite dirty and disgusting. So, she does what any young girl would do-- 
She kills them. One by performing a Belgian Takedown,
And the other by snapping its neck.
So the little girl begins brainstorming aka. dancing again until...
YES! Two truly perfect ideas! Look at those clean cut clothes and blushing cheeks!
So again, the little girl does her victory dance
with her new and improved ideas.
And then an omnipotent figure appears in the doorway. (This is a caricature of Marvin Malecha, the Dean of Design, and teacher of this class)
After a long discussion about her ideas with this man the little girl chooses her favorite idea and begins to perfect him even more.
And finally, the final idea emerges.
And all around join in on the celebration.
Until they realize that the day is not over, and there is still a critique to attend
where all her professors are waiting to see the little girls idea. (these are caricatures of my studio teachers this year)
The little girl carefully sets up...
Until at last her work is pinned up and ready for critique.
And this is my manifesto which wasnt required to be with our models, but my fit with it so well I had to put it in there. Here it is so you dont have to read that tiny print.Manifesto
2. You must hurry. But do not rush. Always manage your time.
3. Always be thinking. You get your best ideas when you don’t mean to.
4. You must write your ideas down. You must keep it before you’ve lost it-- keep them all.
5. You will quickly find the one idea that’s perfect. You won’t be able to think about any other ideas but this one. So, run with it. Take the idea as far as you can, push it to its limits, explore it.
6. If an idea turns out to not be as perfect as you thought, kill it-- but remember it.
7. Choose the idea you love. Things always turn out better when you enjoy them.
8. Always listen. Ask others opinions; get feedback.
9. Perfect the perfect until its perfect.
10. Celebrate when you deserve it.
So thats it. I presented it today. I was the first one out of all the design kids (by chance). Every freshman in Design is in this class and had to do this project. We each signed up for a day (sun, mon or tues.). The presentations were very casual. The people walked around and came to your desk, you presented, they said whatever they wanted, jotted down some notes (to grade later), signed your mark off sheet, and left. Each presenter had to present to Marvin, a visiting guest (there were 4 visiting guests that came to see the critique. Marvin invited designers from all over the world to come to the critique. There was a mix of graphic designers and architects from florida, california, chile, and somewhere else that i forget... the one i presented to was an architect from chile.) Anyways, so Marvin and the chilean architect came to my desk and i presented and they laughed a lot during my presentation. And at the end Marvin said that he had been teaching this class and looking at design thought models for 10 years, and that mine was one of the best he's seen. (!!!) He gave me many more compliments such as that my illustrations were really good and that the caricature of him was also one of the best hes seen. Marvin told us early on in the project that he sometimes asks people if he can keep the ones he really likes because he has a collection on display in his office. And after my presentation he told me he wished he could ask me for mine but that he couldnt do that because it was so personal to me he wanted me to keep it so i could look back on it later. But he said he wants me to come by his office and drop it off so he can make scans of all the images so he can have a sort of copy of it. What a compliment!!! I think he really liked it because it was so different. Most people do a 3-d model like the title implies. But i think he appreciated my risk-taking in doing a 2-D project. I really wasnt sure if he would like that or not. I was afraid he would be like "right, so what part of model didnt you understand?" But i think it really helped it.
I presented twice more, to the two TAs. One was Amber, who was also my GD studio teacher in January. She was also impressed with my book and said she could tell how much i enjoyed it and believed in it because I was "glowing". I told her that was probably because of Marvin's response. But i was very excited about my book and design process as a whole. It was a very fun project.
So I am beyond ecstatic. What a great ending to a great year.
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