daniela alvarez design portfolio
lleras
stories for designing
I have always had a particular interest in telling stories. I am curious, an explorer and storyteller, and my tool is the design thinking. I am passionate about stories, narratives are my main source of information and inspiration. Stories of all kinds help me initiate my research process and create concepts, which are key points of the beginning of my projects. Stories give meaning, are easy to understand and we all tell and hear them every day; we are involved in narratives that have millions of possibilities to understand problems, to lay out challenges and to be the starting point of any project. Also, I am an explorer and a pathfinder, I venture to discover without knowing what is waiting for me at the end. I search new roads and take risks because I feel challenged by the unknown. For me, that is design: collecting information from different knowledge areas, investigating, being inspired and surprised by everything around me, even getting lost along the way if necessary (sometimes). I believe that design, more than a profession, is a way of thinking, a way of approaching a problem/project without pigeonholing and at the same time, making it viable. Instead, it proposes solutions including multiple possibilities: collective construction, looking for answers through the users, creating promotion strategies, communicating through images, and creating products, services and experiences. All of the above can originate from a design thinking methodology.
Taking stories instead of history...
Through this edition, you will find five approaches that provide different views and ways of undertaking a project. All of them were built around specific stories, but shown through specific media. The selection of each design project was based in the strength of the concept and how it translates into a proposal. The selection gathers works from my professional experience and my undergraduate studies, and they show a personal way of addressing design, my methodologies and my processes. As a whole, they give an idea of who I am as a designer, and off course, as a person.
contact e-mail: alvarezlleras.daniela@gmail.com
[index]
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index
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stories and visual universes ∙ roses 1900
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stories for designing stories ∙ rural buried stories
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stories for building brands ∙ delights of the master soap-maker
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∙ where does P meet D?
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stories for sharing and understanding ∙ inventory of soul’s fusions
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[stories and visual universes]
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one
stories and visual uni ver ses
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r o s as 190 0 Production design adaptation from an original script.
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The designer as an art director or production designer must take some risks at the time of suggesting and creating an aesthetic proposal that communicates the essence of the story. The designed atmospheres and visual universes should be coherent with the play, the stresses of the plot, and at the same time enrich the original script with a personal signature that demonstrates how was the appropriation of the play. It would be unthinkable that suggesting modifications on the script would be part of the functions of the art department. However, I believe that feedback from the designers can complement the story, making it more appealing visually and poetically, as long as it respects the original story.
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the project This academic exercise was carried out during my undergraduate design programme at the “Universidad de los Andes” in Colombia. The adaptation of space and time of the script, “Rosas” by Vito Mantegna, tests the design team as follows: creating new visual geographies and atmospheres without changing the original intention of the script and being coherent with the narrative structure; these changes imply an infinite universe of possibilities at a visual level that can give a new twist to the story. In this project, a plot developed nowadays in the rose crops of a wealthy family in Bogotá, is replaced for one that occurs in the Amazon at the end of the 19th Century during the rubber boom.
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To understand the project it is necessary to contextualize the reader with the original story. The subject revolves around survival, transformation of the characters and an emotional journey until each one of them get to know themselves. Here, a thriller is developed between a family that owns the rose crops and a group of thieves desperate for finding resources to save one of them from a terrible disease. In the middle of murders, blackmailing, extortions, romances and deceptions, the story unfolds showing how a series of mistakes made by the thieves, end up benefiting an ambitious and dominant daughter of a large flower grower in the region.
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“...after carrying out a deep historical investigation, it was decided to situate the work approximately towards the year 1900 in the Amazon region, in the border of Colombia, Brazil and Peru during the boom of the rubber production�.
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*Read the online publication of the production design proposal: Rosas 1900 Book
[stories and visual universes]
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For the production design team, conformed by four students, it was essential to create a new universe (space-time) that showed to the greatest extent, the struggle for survival and the extremes that humans The key was to find a place full of tensions can reach. that could take people to their limits; an universe that poses as an extra character, full of contradictions, dramatism and uniqueness. For these reasons and after carrying out a deep historical investigation, it was decided to situate the work approximately towards the year 1900 in the Amazon region, in the border of Colombia, Brazil and Peru during the boom of the rubber production. Rubber quickly became a source of wealth and unleashed a legion of colonizing opportunists in the region, who undertook a race to extract the lucrative material from the depths of the forest. The rubber fever started, affecting and shaking the region and its inhabitants: the indigenous tribes. The settlers of the jungle, who came from the interior of the countries and had the capacity of extracting rubber, took their ambition to the limit, slaving and slaughtering entire populations of natives; as the forest slowly drained away, while the colonists grew richer. This opportunistic and brute colonist, inspires (in our approach and proposal) the characters of LĂa and Hugo, the ambitious daughter of a determined father in search of new markets.
“This opportunistic and brute colonist, inspires (in our approach and proposal) the characters of LĂa and Hugo, the ambitious daughter of a determined father in search of new marketsâ€?.
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[stories and visual universes]
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Furthermore, with the rubber extraction, some ports developed allowing the transport of the material towards the ocean and other countries. Cities like Iquitos in Peru or BelĂŠm do ParĂĄ and Manaos in Brazil, saw the coming of progress to their doors. However, new indigenous groups and afro-descendants that worked in the plantations, also established their homes in the banks of the big rivers.
These banks were filled with dwellings and the port cities became centers of invasion in which poverty and sordidness reigned as a consequence of the rubber owners and their systems for obtaining the precious liquid.
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The natives, protected during centuries by the forest, were victims of the syncretism that merged their customs and beliefs with those imposed by their masters. A new type of person results as a city invader-displaced from the jungle model. This invader-displaced character living on the outskirts of the cities, is the one that has inspired the characters of Matilde, Nelson and MartĂn. Not only the difference of social classes between the indigenous and the master is enormous, but the difference between races, which at the time represented a disadvantage in terms of opportunities and lifestyle, is reinforced. They are individuals without resources, they live from what they can and where they can. Matilde clings to her beliefs in search of hope, but their condition will take them to look for a more drastic solution.
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Our space-time adaptation modified the universe of each character and allowed us to assign a new poetical and conceptual meaning to each location; this new meaning reinforces the situation of each character and the drama of the story. Initially, we built a model scale 1/10 to show what in the original script was “the apartment of the thieves”. For this place we created a new concept that we called “sordidsweltering”, and this would be the axis around which we would build the whole set.
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sordid-sweltering sweaty suffocating bleeding burnt-out hot damp precarious oppressive dirty
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t h i e v e ’s h o u s e m o d e l The goal was to show that the hut was placed in the jungle, without having to show the jungle itself. That is why we created a damp and sweltering atmosphere, that is falling down little by little (just as the persons who lived there). It is a messy place where several styles coexist, where it can be seen that the forest is invading and taking back what it belongs to itself. The house, like the characters, has weak and unstable foundations and columns. It is being pinned down by the jungle.
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In the hut, circular or curved spaces make
The house, like the characters, has weak and unstable foundations and columns. It is being pinned down by the jungle.
reference to the feminine universe, Matilde’s: An oracle-altar where she reveals who she really is, where she takes off her mask and enters a spiritual level. The square or straight spaces belong to Nelson and MartĂn, who embody imprisonment, decadence and poverty.
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When designing this house we were looking to create tensions between the outside and the inside of the house, as well as between the different parts of the house, the kitchen, the altar, the dining room and the room. The choice of colors, materials and textures responds to the metaphors and poetic function that this space fulfills in the development of the story. This house must transmit the heat, humidity and sweltering in which the characters are submerged both physically and symbolically in a place where the jungle invades and traps those who try to counter it.
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In the design team I had the opportunity of being in charge of creating the visual geographies and establishing a conceptual framework to the later building of the thieves’ house. Here, the intention was to communicate the situation the thieves were facing through the set, the textures and illumination. Even though the model was built by the whole team, my role was to ensure that every detail, texture and decision, was coherent with the idea of “sordid-sweltering� and the situation the thieves were facing. Every little detail had to be placed according to the time period and the narrative conditions of our spaces, to transmit the drama and the actual conditions of our characters.
When we assured that the model communicated the sensations we wanted to transmit and that it was in accordance to the story, we produced a photographic series that reenacts one of the scenes of the original script. For this task, we built in real scale Matilde’s altar in a wood cabin in the forest. The challenge during this stage, was to design the clothes, makeup and lighting to show the same concept and sensations we transmitted in the 1/10 model.
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[stories and visual universes]
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scene with images A scene from the script was chosen to make seven photos of the scene as a storyboard. The intention of these images is to convey the sensations raised in the art direction proposal and the model, but adapting the costumes and props as a guerilla filmmaking, using the elements that we had on hand. A key element to give the same sensations is the lighting, achieved both in production and post-production.
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[stories and visual universes]
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Showing the magical and superstitious universe of Matilde, a mixed raced woman full of syncretic beliefs and clinging to these, was one of the main challenges. Giving the idea of a​​ mysterious and sordid place, that surrounds the viewer in the proposed atmosphere was the goal of the first images of the scene.
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This project was exhibited at the “Andando� fair at Universidad de los Andes during the first semester of 2014.
[stories and visual universes]
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The location and costumes used seek to transmit the conditions, time and place in which the characters lived. In addition, these elements poetically support through the colors and textures, metaphors raised for the universe of these characters in the art direction book proposal.
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Our design complements the story poetically and in terms of narrative. It makes the most of each character and emphasizes the struggles the script communicates between lines. It is a long shot but I believe that adding a historical context like the one we added, gives mysticism and mystery without damaging the original intention.
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two
stories for designing stories
[stories for designing stories]
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r u ral bur i e d sto ri e s Editorial design for a collection of works by Juan Rulfo.
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[stories for designing stories]
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This is Juan Rulfo through my eyes. “Buried Rural Storiesâ€? is an editorial concept that translates into the design of a book collection of the Mexican author, Juan Rulfo. Pedro PĂĄramo, El Despojo and El Llano en Llamas are the works that make up the collection. Each one of the books has its own concept that works individually, as with the other two works as well; they complement the other books and together give meaning to the general concept. The design of each book was made based on the themes identified in the stories,
using elements and details that differentiate each one of the books, which at first sight look the same.
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This project is born from a particular interest in Latin American writers who treat subjects regarding realities and human dimensions in a nonexplicit way. The ones who approach reality through fiction, doing it in a subtle way, mixing thoughts and conversations that make us feel familiar with these stories, that seem so distant, but are really close due to our Latin culture. Juan Rulfo is a writer who may seem obvious and simple to many readers; nevertheless, the way he addresses ordinary life is one of a kind: he jumps from reality to invention and vice versa, entangling us with its whisperings that are lost and hidden but eventually are perceived. That is why is read over and over again his stories, to get lost and then find new elements that I had not seen and realize that what I read is not always real, or fictional, as I thought.
[stories for designing stories]
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Silence is essential as a sign of what is not said
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I read Rulfo for the first time many years ago and it was until recently, after reading his books several times, that I found its real value; value that goes unnoticed because of the desire of excesses, wanting more stories, more emotions or drama in each fragment; characteristics that not always make part of his narrations. I decided to communicate the same thing that I felt; what draw my attention was the things said between lines that make me question myself and go further.
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the concept The editorial concept comes up from a constant questioning of reality in the stories of the author: what is real and what is not, or if it exists the possibility of a midpoint between these two. The words of the death, the whispers of silence, what is hidden beneath an apparent everydayness and What is written between the lines, reveals
simplicity of Rulfo’s stories is what makes him itself as the reader becomes surrounded by the
a unique author. narratives of the Mexican countryside which in
turn has much of Latin American reality.
[stories for designing stories]
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the books In these narratives, that at first glance may seem simple and common, its real meaning may go unnoticed. The details suggested by the author make evident the questioning about reality, making us open up the book again and again, revealing new peculiarities every time we finish reading.
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“...the reader is invited to discover and not only to read�.
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The prologue of each book develops the general concept of “Rural Buried Stories”. Individually, each one of them addresses a parallel concept; “El Llano en Llamas” (The Burning Plain and other Stories in English) refers to reality (or what we believe to be real), “El Despojo” evidences the abrupt leap between reality and unreality, while “Pedro Páramo” talks about unreality when everything is believed to be real. The prologues are my own and were written at the end of the project.
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Design is about creating a product and an experience for the reader. It does not matter if the intention is not understood after the first reading, because the interesting thing is the continue discovering of new details, even after finishing the book or reading it a lot of times. In this way, the reader is invited to discover and not only to read.
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The three books may seem identical. When found, it can be seen that they have the same packaging: a translucent and aged wrapping covers each book and the role of the reader is to find each story through the act of tearing the packaging. The design combines digital and manual techniques to support and evidence the blurry boundary between reality and fiction. The type of binding (handcrafted), mixed with the use of typefaces that try to imitate the ones from a typewriter or a quick calligraphy, sometimes unreadable. The way books were constructed leap between digital and manual all the time, because for me it is important to always recognize the hand behind the design.
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This project was exhibited at the “Andando� fair at Universidad de los Andes during the first semester of 2012.
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I believe this project complements each story without damaging the content and/or the original intention, and brings each one of them afloat with a new look; with a concept that although is not very clear in its works, glimpses in between lines. The combination of media allows only one edition of this collection to exist, which, I think, makes it more special and related to the concept I created.
[stories for building brands]
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stories for building brands
[stories for building brands]
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delig h t s of t h e ma s t e r soa p mak er Redesign of the Cold Processed Soaps Line of the Colombian b r a n d L o t o d e l S u r.
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[stories for building brands]
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about brands Every brand has it own essence, its unique universe on which all its products or services are built. When this essence results from a story, the brand creates an emotional link with the user; instead of creating products, small stories that give life to what is offered are created, beginning to build a single brand imagery.
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Loto del Sur is a premium personal care brand that encourages to re-discover the American continent through its ingredients and flora. Proudly Colombian, the brand is placed in South America’s imagery for its botanical wealth, its refined exoticism and its mestizo and millenary traditions.
It is a brand that uses as source of inspiration the exploration journeys to America, the Royal Botanical Expeditions, crossbreeding and the result between the fusion of the Ancient and the New World.
In this universe appear the narratives that we take as inspiration for the brand.
[stories for building brands]
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The cold processed vegetable soaps are one of the brand’s most oldest and recognized product line. Yet, its packaging design and the way it is sold/offered does not tell any story and much less, shows the spirit of the brand. The product needed a re brand that showed why these soaps are different, the benefits of the ingredients they contain and most important, to create an experience for the user since the moment of the purchase until the stage where it is unpacked and used at home.
During the process, we sought to bring the customer closer to the manufacturing process of the soaps to reinforce the value of the product; it was intended to give a major role to the botanical ingredients used, and to make the moment of purchase, a ritual that communicated its craftsmanship where the fresh product is cut, marked and packaged instantly. Finally, it was important to express the brand’s DNA and its new identity to create a one of a kind product that could tell a small story.
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How to combine exuberance and richness while communicating the benefits of a product and create a unique experience for every user? This was the design challenge.
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the pu rch a se m ome nt The soaps are brought to the stores in freshly removed from the mold bars. At the time of the purchase, the client picks the soap and the person in charge of selling, will cut the soap bar with a special guillotine. Then, the soap is marked, packed and ready to go for enjoying.
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Why not use this moment and simulate a delicatessen experience where the client chooses a product and this is cut and packed in front of him? The buyer will feel that he is taking a fresh and high quality product with him. The delicatessen is a type of specialized store that offers exclusive foods because of their special characteristics: exotic, rare or of high quality in its execution. These are delicate products of high range.
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t he pa ck a g in g The packaging goes beyond covering and protecting the product. This design communicates the idea of a product bought in a delicatessen.
Composed of a single box, waxed paper and a dry stamp, the packaging emphasizes the concept of a refined and luxurious product, “cut and packed just for you”. When the soap is handed over, the first thing the user sees is a printed box with a colored band that envelopes it. For the boxes, we used a pattern that uses the tropical rainforest as if it was an illustration printed in lithography. The paper bands use color palettes that adopt natural dyes typical of the Amazon region, such as “achiote”, “huitillo” and some barks. The outside of the package reflects richness as to ingredients and variety, and the color of the bands correspond to the type of soap it contains.
Amazon dyes used as inspiration for the packaging color s. Color textures taken from Color Amazonia / Susana Mejía - 2013
achiote
palo brasil
huitillo
amacizo
chokonoary
cúrcuma
bure
cudi
llorón
huito
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When the box is opened, the soap is find wrapped in a waxed paper that contains the information about the manufacturing of the soaps, the craft process and its natural ingredients to finish telling the story of the product, while the user finds out the benefits of the product. Finally, the dry stamping of the soap serves as seal of the house and the master soap-maker.
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[stories for building brands]
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t he re su lt During the process I had the chance to define and lay out how the experience of the moment of purchase and packaging ritual should be. I also was in charge of researching and collecting information on the method of manufacturing soaps and their ingredients to create an easy-to-understand text to tell users the history of the brand’s soaps.
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[stories for building brands]
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I think it was possible to give a complete turn to this product. The design of “The Delights of the Master Soap-Maker” reflects the spirit of the brand and tells a whole story from the moment it is unpacked, until each time it used. The line of Loto del Sur’s soaps went from being a product that could be sold anywhere and with no remembrance, to be a brand’s insignia and one of the most sold products from the moment of launching, until today. The project was nominated in May 2015 to the Lápiz de Acero award in Colombia, in the Graphic Design - Label design category. *Project property of Loto del Sur.
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[stories for building brands]
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wh ere doe s P meet D? B r a n d c o n c e p t a n d w e b s i t e d e s i g n fo r P D - Pr o j e c t D eve l o p e r s I n c . by D a m a p p a S. A . S
we a r e p r o j e c t d eve l o p e r s . c o m
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[stories for building brands]
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Project Developers Inc. is a Florida based corporation, is a stock market investment analysis consulting company. Project Developers Inc. brings together resources that impact today’s stock market trading intelligence through digital projects. These projects are developed by a data design studio based in Bogotå, Colombia called Damappa S.A.S. Most of the times, the projects emerge from a need identified by the people working there, they find out that others have the same needs and develop the apps or websites that satisfy those needs. Their apps and websites started to function and become available for the public; but they, as a corporation, did not have a differentiating speech that showed their way of understanding and formulating projects. They did not have a specific image, besides the one of each of their projects, which are very diverse.
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What is the story we should tell to build their brand? I believe that, no matter what media is used, every brand should tell their own story, and this was what happened with this web project. The brand only had a logo and business card; they needed something else, a brand and their own signature. They wanted a web page that communicated who they are, what they do and show their portfolio. Even so, they did not know very well how to tell their story, what to say about themselves and much less, how to show their work without having a boring, corporate and a difficult to use website.
[stories for building brands]
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A series of creative sessions were conducted with the design team to determine what is the story the client wanted to tell.
The goal was to find a metaphor that would work as an explanation of what they do and show it in a slightly more poetic or dreamy way that shows that what they do is really a passion.
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The chosen concept is: “Where P meets D, where projects get developed” How to show this visually? What story narrate with this concept? How to move from the idea to the construction? We kept the most straightforward idea. We pictured the challenge of starting a project with a blank sheet; and within a sea of blank pages, Which one is unique? Only a few ideas take off, and that is what we wanted to represent. We used the sheet idea literally and decided that the story was going to be told with paper. Paper is the perfect example, because we know every project starts with a “blank canvas”. A blank sheet alludes about thousands of possibilities, uncertainty about what the new idea will be or what it will become. It is up to each one to make it something more, to go beyond and execute it so that it is no longer a simple sheet of paper.
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wh ich s t or y we sh o uld t e ll w it h a b la n k s he e t ? We were inspired by the quote from Muhammad Ali, which is also one of the favorite phrases of the creator of this company: “The man who has no imagination, has no wings�. With a little extra imagination a blank sheet can turn into anything else; we folded it a few times and it became a plane. A paper plane is a familiar and simple image that talks about the dream of flying and with which you can tell a story easily. Our concept, paper, a plane and flying are the starting point to define an aesthetic and design the web page.
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Once the concept and the story were defined, it was necessary to create a manifesto to give a voice to the brand. This text would delineate the tone in which they should speak and lay the groundwork for their communication. The tone in which the brand would communicate from now on, is a close and inspiring tone.
This is where P meets D, where projects
opportunities and turn them into thriving p
the world around us abound. ¤ We find st
effectively to develop projects that impac
the highest ∙ Modern technology for mod technology can be creatively implemente our surroundings ∙ Strive to do important
can change the way we understand and a
even greater solutions: We believe in taki
up with creative solutions. ¤ We are Proje
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get developed. ¤ We identify unique
projects. Opportunities to improve
trategic allies and allocate resources
ct our lives. ¤ Our motto: Seeking
dern opportunities: We believe that d to enhance the way we interact with and meaningful things: We believe we
act upon our world ∙ Great challenges,
ing on challenging projects and coming
ect Developers Inc.
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the we b site’s str uc t ur e The way this page would be experienced should be simple and consistent with the concept. A wire frame was built where I organized the content and defined the structure of the site. During this exercise I also determined certain effects and aspects of interaction that differentiated the website from others that have a similar design. There are some details from the ux design that were chosen during the process, that strengthen the design and at the same time, support the concept.
Split screen: This is where P meets D. The action of putting two pieces together or making the pieces fit like a puzzle, speaks of what this company does. Why not make clear that this is where projects meet with development? Utilizing this resource works both structurally and graphic. Navigation: If we are talking about flying or ideas that take off, why not make that gesture evident. In this web page, the scrolling starts at the bottom and obliges the user to navigate the page from the bottom and not from above as is usually done.
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[stories for building brands]
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th e UI de s ign The design was based on creating an aesthetic inspired by the use of paper crafts, using solid colors and a limited color palette. We made the decision of taking photographs for using them as main resource of the design. Video: Videos are the best way of quickly telling a story. We created a stop motion as introduction to the website and at the same time to the brand itself. From this video we took all the graphic elements to use through the entire design process.
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The design not only focused on creating a visually striking page, but also on making it easy to navigate and quickly to read. Due to the designing the page with scroll, we avoided a large number of clicks, making the information quickly within reach. We focused on placing short texts, with a font composed by caps only, that instantaneously stands out, also because the texts are located on solid color background that has a high contrast with the color of the texts. In most of the screens we used images that make reference to the initial video, so we could continue the story as if they were part of the video; constantly referring the user to the idea of making any project come true and make it unique within a sea of ideas (or blank pages).
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The result: a simple but easy to use website with the indispensable information about the client. Telling a story through a stop motion video changes the dynamic in the navigation and introduces a differentiating element that engages the reader more easily than if we only used texts. I believe that this project also works as a key visual of the brand, because it lays an important foundation regarding the use of fonts, color and images, always keeping the emotional side that we considered from the beginning. It is not a branding project but I think it make it happen in a certain way.
The project was developed during July and August 2016 in Damappa S.A.S. *Project property of Damappa S.A.S
I had the opportunity to participate throughout the entire project, from the creative sessions, the creation of the brand manifesto, the creative direction, to the complete UX / UI design of the website. This is the kind of project that I am passionate about, where a concept starts shaping up and becoming real thanks to a story. I like to get the story told in many ways and that is why I am interested in being present throughout the process and thus ensure consistency between the initial idea and the final result, without neglecting the details.
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[stories for sharing and understanding]
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stories for sharing and under standing
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inventory of soul’s fusions A design project that proposes to externalize sorrow in a symbolic w a y a n d c o m m u n i c a t e i t c o l l e c t i v e l y.
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This is my final degree project of my undergraduate design program. Taking as a starting point a special interest in narrative, I wonder how to use its power and tools in design without using words as the main medium, in order to develop a project where I propose how to create an experience that helps to sympathize with the grieving of other persons and at the same time allowing you to see your own with another look. The project shows how to make the leap from literature to design, through the analysis of theatrical narratives and fairy tales (Märchen), which at the same time, offer structural, symbolic and visual elements.
The design project demonstrates a way of talking about sorrow/grief as a limit situation, proposes how to externalize it and how to consume (or end) it, in order to be able to transform oneself in front of the event and give it an appropriate closure.
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All of the above, using design tools (moodboards, storytelling, shape prototyping). At the same time, it is sought that the design resulting from the compilation of stories of this common event (grief) works as a way of making the “other� see what I perceive as a way of generating empathy with the other. A containerexperience that allows to break the barriers that contain sorrow and consume it to be able to externalize it, communicate it and / or objectify it is the conclusion of this design project.
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Due to the length of the investigation and the amount of authors investigated, it was decided to expose the whole project through a conceptual map. This shows the authors investigated, the inspiration and how the project was structured until reaching the final proposal. The document that expresses the investigation, inspiration and design process can be seen in the link below: Inventory of soul’s fusions document
1 - i n itia l inv e s t iga t ion
Pleasu narrative specially Jos
STARTING POINT
Subjectivit perception How to talk about grief without using words?
Collective vision throug many individual visions
- Grieving situations - Communicate them through design. - Exteriorize them. - Generating empathy.
Taking th narrative it visual.
Visual and tangible aspects Personification “masks� Think ouserlves as characters of our own story
Narratives in theate
Luigi Pirandello
How to represent the drama of each character?
Extreme/Limit situations
ure for es-fiction sé Saramago
Blindness Empathy. Recognizing the other.
ty in the n of reality
Transformation of oneself.
gh s
WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION?
he power of es and making .
Grieving moments.
What to use from this?
Vladimir Propp’s Structuralism Stories recognized by everyone.
er
?
Different appropriations / Different interpretations
Märchen, not Fairy tales
[stories for sharing and understanding]
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Using fiction is an option to externalize and share our own experiences in an indirect way. Man has always had the need to tell stories and the curiosity to know others’ stories. It seems that there is a need in life for fiction, which can be much more interesting than reality by making constant references to reality and everyday situations without having to do it directly.
In design, it is sought to translate the subjectivity at the moment of narration and the way to suggest or generate multiple interpretations of a single event without using words.
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“Poetic language approaches to reality in a different way, which allows access to worlds that are unavailable to reason�.
Stories recognized everyone.
Understand how sorrow, grieving or difficult situations are represented. Reflection
Märchen as a way to express problems and fears
No fairy tales
Märchen not Fairy ta
Ourselves as hreoes of our own stories
Consider the pain agent as a simple and identifiable metaphor: a character
Visu
Magical Objects - Symbolic value. - Overcoming difficult situations. - Multiple meanings and interpretations.
Externalize Talking about grief in terms of metaphors.
- Pers interp - Text - Sen
How to talk about sorrow? Common Event (Sorrow)
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Multiple perceptions
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Design Challenge - Next Stage
Pers
Vladimir Propp’s Structuralism
d by
Classifications
How is it build? Propp’s functions
n, ales Common Plots
ualizing - Moodboards
sonal pretation. tures. nsations
Morphology of the folktale
- Sorrow. - Nature - Magical Objects
sonification
Taxonomies
Function 8: Villany or Lacking Function 14: Receipt of magical agent
Grief/Sorrow
Overcoming
What should I take from each story?
-Trapped characters that transform theirselves to overcome grief. - Unhealed wounds.
[stories for sharing and understanding]
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“...however important plot may be, without personification there can be no storytelling�.
Märchen have imaginary, fantastic and unreal universes that make easier to leap out of the novel context and make the most of their visual aspects. These stories were taken to find referents and visual inspirations, but there were aspects that supported the points mentioned above as they are similarities in the way in which the story and the novel share extreme situations that lead the characters to emotional confrontations that, in a beginning, would seem impossible to believe.
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The characters, who are not always human, are an aspect that allow to work beyond the real conventions due to their polarized characteristics and the defined role they play in the stories. That is why fiction and character creation are an important part of the project as a way to tell personal stories, express a personal perception and show real situations through metaphors and analogies.
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One of the methodologies used was to create moodboards of some tales, seen from a less fantastic perspective, trying to emphasize elements that reflect grief situations, damage caused to the characters, and above all, the different magical objects, their uses and various meanings inside and out of each story. These moodboards gave visual, spatial and textural languages to approach from aspects more related to the design, each Märchen.
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Most of the images in the moodboards talked about solitude, grieving situations and sorrow, silence, trapped characters that transform themselves, melancholy and open wounds.
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How to talk about sorrow? Common Event (Sorrow)
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Multiple perceptions
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Design Challenge Usually people don’t talk about their sorrow
How to collect sorrow stories?
How to classify it? - Taxonomies. - Scientific imagery. - Apothecary. - Cabinet of curiosities.
Design Concept - Break barriers that contain sorrow. - Get that grieving out. - Extinguish it - finish it. - See it from another perspective. - Learn what can be taken or how to transform oneselve in front of the situation.
Collect and organize stories related to sorrow
Pe
ersonification
Personification Not human
Insects
- Symbolic meaning. - Repugnant. - Stings. - Cause fear.
Taxonomies The insect as that character that causes all the sorrow
The insect does not have to be represented literally or accurately.
Take its information and characteristics Form Texture Visual aspects
People talk easily when asking to think the character that infringed grief as an insect.
Survey Insect - Habits - Habitat. - Feedeing habits - Attack? - Chracteristics
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what to ask for collecting these stories? It was mentioned in the investigation how important personification is in tale creation. It was decided that a new approach would be made, seeking that the person may allude to the person who caused the grieving, as if it were a character in a story. It was also decided that it was going to be asked what was it that hurted the most of the situation, how long did the conflict last, and the intensity of the sadness; all of this in survey format.
When defining what would be proposed to create a character, appears the presence of animal elements (see moodboards). Once it was decided that the metaphor characters would be insects because of the ease with which people would begin to be imaginative and would cease to be neutral towards them, base criteria should be set to create the questions, taking into account entomological studies and classification criteria.
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Developing the insight of taxonomies and classifications was crucial in choosing the final format questions. The topics to be asked would be the insect’s habitat, feeding habits, manner of attack or defense, and anatomy, such as number of legs, wings, antennae, and other characteristics. The survey is divided in two parts: the first one asks about the pain situation, its duration, who was involved and what hurted the most; part two focuses on converting the cause of grief into a fictive insect based on questions such as what it feeds on and where it lives metaphorically, its characteristics, modes of attack and finally, a description or drawing of the insect.
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The survey was named “Grief Taxonomies” (Taxonomías del Dolor), however, the name of the project was redefined as the project was developed.
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t he c onc e pt Sorrow stories are named after imaginary insects. Each story was used as a specimen of grief, each with a common name and a scientific name (invented); so each story begins to appreciate as something external to the person, as if it were an insect or virus that attacks the victim in a nonphysical way, but emotionally and psychologically, and understand that anyone can suffer its effects. The name is accompanied by a description of the harm this specimen of sorrow causes, where it lives and what it eats; this retrieves the narrative burden of each survey, uses poetically what each person wrote so that whoever reads it, understands what happened but not explicitly.
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The final result has to be a gesture that is carried out in front of or with other people, because leaving it in private would contradict everything previously stated about externalizing sorrow and communicating it. Sorrow has to be extracted, objectified and narrated in some way, for this is proposed a gesture of sharing - do - consuming (the person shares his experience and provides the key information; from this is designed, and the person “heals� as a result of facing the situation in a different way and to be able to narrate it to others); however, this must be an ephemeral gesture, it must end at some point and remain as a memory.
To consume the sorrow, the person must first break the barriers that contain it, remove it from where it is and take from it something beneficial, to be able to see it from a just perspective, to be aware of the transformations that occur from this, to know what sorrow allows and also, learn about others’ grieving.
The proposal seeks to retake the idea of the magical objects of stories as a reference to find some way to close the stage of grieving. Objects are seen in the same way as in stories, they are the symbolic form of the “happy ending” of that story. In the project the object acts, figuratively, as a way of showing a way to face or give another end to a situation that has already happened; access to the magic object is the first step to start a new life and overcome adversities within the history. Using several pieces as allegory to the magical objects of the stories work as a way to return to the starting point and to maintain the spirit of the story and of the magic within the final design.
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th e f ina l de s ign A container - experience where grief specimens are preserved and displayed in order to perform a dissolution ritual to get to a possible recognition of a fair perspective of the event and to consider an eventual transformation resulting from their own grieving situations and others’ events.
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[stories for sharing and understanding]
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The gesture of breaking the barriers and consuming sorrow is done literally: the person breaks, burns and takes something with oneself. This alludes to having the opportunity to break down that barrier that does not allow sharing or communicating; for each person has different implications, for each one leaves something different. When encountering a classification of sorrow, which is considered as a collective manifestation of a feeling (sorrow), the person can learn the experiences of others without having to be involved with anyone, sees grieving as if it were exposed and preserved in a showcase where it can no longer hurt anyone.
how it was made The design consists of two parts: the product-container and the experience, which sets off from this container.
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t he pr od u ct - co n t a ine r The piece of Here are arranged the specimens of sorrow furniture according to the intensity and duration of each situation. The cabinet keeps or hides each one of the exemplar of grief. The divisions and shapes of the spaces are inspired by the antique apothecaries. This refers to the idea of keeping ​​ something that heals, the place where you go in search of a specialist that combines the perfect recipe for some sickness. The allusion to the apothecary is a way of relating the order of the pieces and the design of the cabinet with an aspect that is directly related to the suffering/illness in times before today.
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The disposition of the specimens in space depends on the intensity of the suffering they caused (from 1 to 5) and by the duration of this situation (whether it was days, months or years).
Y axis: duration of the situation (days, months or years)
X axis: intensity of the sorrow that causes (from 1 to 5)
More intensity, longer duration.
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Final design of the cabinet. Inspired by the cabinets of curiosities, apothecaries and Victorian furniture.
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The membranes
The membranes covering each of the compartments are made of very low weight paper so that they can be easily tore off. Each membrane is marked with the scientific and common name of each specimen with the intention to create curiosity about what is behind each membrane, what is that specimen and what is the harm it causes. Each label corresponds to: suffering causes by family, significant other, friend or strangers.
The membrane represents the inability to take out sorrow, externalize it and share it. Its function is to hide the grieving, but at the same time suggesting that there is something behind it. The membranes standardize the look of the cabinet and then exposes the shape of each individual story.
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Urns containing Inside each of the spaces of the cabinet sorrow there is an urn that contains each piece of sorrow. The shape of each urn corresponds to the category of the situation. The urn allows to show what is inside, but it is also a barrier between the person and the specimen. The selection of the urns as containers is the result of objects appearing in the moodboards and from recurring objects in tales (the glass slipper, glass urns, mirrors, crystal balls) which have multiple meanings and connotations. The use of urns is also inspired by the crystal boxes that preserve animals or plants for a scientific research.
Family
Significant other
Friends
Strangers
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The specimens Initially 20 of the 40 surveys were taken, these 20 stories were the most significant. From each of the insects created by the 20 people who were chosen, a pseudo-scientific name and a common name was created, along with a scientific-poetic description of the specimen and its effects. Descriptions of each insect were made based on what each person responded to. Below are some of the names of the insects chosen to perform as pieces to display.
1. Scientific name: Vinculumae
2. Scientific name: Acarus
5. Scientific name: PuĂąalipsis
ruptil.
roubon.
spathea.
Common name: Sorrow under
Common name: The lost value.
Common name: Judas
the same roof.
Intense suffering that
grieving.
The lack of humility and the
generates in its victims a
Pain not immediate but
eagerness to control cause
desire to not exist and a feeling
intense and growing. It grows
this grief. It never measures
of not being worth. It occurs
in conflictive environments
the damage it causes, hides
mainly between sheets, full
where it sucks the energies
what it did and pretends that
of crumbs and dirt, where it
of those around it. It gains
nothing has happened. Only in
only attacks naive and insecure
the confidence of its prey
moments of intimacy the true
people.
to attack values, beliefs and
harm that its words cause is
expectations that this had,
known.
which will be destroyed.
1. Scientific name: Vinculumae ruptil.
2. Scientific name: Acarus roubon.
Common name: Sorrow under the
Common name: The lost value.
same roof.
5. Scientific name: PuĂąalipsis spathea. Common name: Judas grieving.
[stories for sharing and understanding]
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The pieces located inside the urns are small sculptures made of wax. The choice of the material responds to the need to make evident the gesture of “consuming the grief” in some way; the consummation understood as “consumed in fire” is a fundamental gesture. Each sculpture works as a candle. These burning candles are every story of sorrow that slowly burns to completion, some taking longer than others. When burned, what remains of the sorrow is discovered (this is the magic object). The shape of each piece was decided according to the characteristics that the
person assigned to his insect in the survey. While there are guide shapes, the material and the way of execution of these pieces, individually and manually, gives the wealth of the unique and unrepeatable. It was sought to maintain organic forms that relate to the idea of something that is alive, growing, constantly changing, but this time can not hurt because it is already preserved inside the cabinet. The idea is that when the figure is seen, its name and the description, the person will wonder about what happened and how the story was.
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Characteristics from survey
Characteristics assigned - wax
Lives underground
Roots - Funnel
Harmless appearance
Egg-shaped
Wings
Paper - Petal
Antennae
Wax Rolls
More than six legs
Roots - Branches
Fur
Whipped Wax
Sting
Sting
Pincers
Holes in the piece
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Harmless appearance
Antennae
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The magical objects As mentioned above, the magical object represents that change of perception towards sorrow, a change of perspective necessary to move on to another “chapter of the story”.
It is clear that the object they will take, will not change anything of their reality, but it represents the transformation that takes place under so many layers of grieving, until at last it manifests itself and comes to light. The person takes it as a reminder and as a way to understand what remains of sorrow after burning it, that transformations necessary to change the vision of a situation. It was decided that the objects would have a symbolic, and above all , a personal value, taking as reference one of the questions of the survey that alludes to what the “insect” or generator of suffering metaphorically feeds.
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This allowed to create three large groups of magical objects described below.
Protective objects: This family of objects symbolically represents something that would protect the bearer in different ways, either taking him away from the person or situation, and giving tools to avoid or escape from the situation. Regenerative objects: For those who are left weakened after the situation; this are medicinal or therapeutic and heal wounds. Strengthening objects: This ones facilitate an internal transformation of the person who suffered.
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[stories for sharing and understanding]
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th e e x pe r ie nc e Tearing and burning are the core idea of the interaction with the containerexperience, that is why these actions are emphasized in the development of the experience. The collective realization is advised as it generates Watch the whole experience prototype by clicking this link: Inventory of Souls’ Fusions
a greater impact both symbolically and visually, allowing sharing and comparing stories.
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Step by step of the (1) Tearing off the membrane that cover each experience compartment as an act of destroying the barriers that do not allow to communicate or share the sorrow story, is the purpose of this first step.
(2) After tearing, the person must remove the glass urn containing the piece of wax on the base of wood. When removed, the description of this sorrow and its characteristics can be read. (3) The piece is uncovered to start burning it.
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(4) Each piece of wax is lit on. Once the sorrow specimen is lit, the person will decide whether to leave it on until it is consumed without interruption, or if it will burn slowly. Fire is not only destruction, it is also transformation. The act of burning has a symbolic meaning in different cultures as a ritual. Lighting the piece appears as a way of closure of a suffering stage.
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(5) As the wax melts, the magical object begins to appear. The time in which the candle burns refers to the fact that not all sorrows are the same, some sink deeper or are more difficult to overcome. When the object appears, the person can take it. (6) As more specimens are consumed and returned to the cabinet, the overall appearance of the furniture changes; it no longer keeps preserved specimens, now it shows them melted and “overcame�.
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the results One of the most important discoveries was the narrative load of each of the surveys, everything people told from something as simple as inventing an insect. The lack of a sequential telling and anecdotes that take care of the accuracy of the events, allowed a greater expressiveness at the moment of telling the essence of what happened; it opened the door to be a very easy way to tell something that is not always easy to narrate, and even so, do it in a fun and light way. It was never thought that this material could be as valuable as the main resource of the project.
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Another finding was to see how the pieces, which at first glance do not match, cause the person to get involved and articulate the parts, making sense as a whole. In spite of subjectivity, each personal experience shares, to some extent, characteristic of sorrow or negative experiences with other people. Each act that involves a stop on oneself and try to intervene on the discomfort, is an act that not only leads to a different state, it takes emotional design to more subtle frontiers.
9. Scientific name: Adulendro excusabilis. Common name: From pleasure to indifference It is mistaken for wellbeing and comfort. Over time it becomes indifferent and ends in pain that is revealed when the victim falls weakened due to constant adulation.
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3. Scientific name: Gyrum inespradilos. Common name: Sorrowing that gives meaning. It lives from the eternal state of making mistakes, knowing it and doing nothing about it. It looks directly into the eyes of its victim, who believes that it will never be his turn. It adopts any form, any state and hides inside the hearts of people.
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thanks!