CREATIVE OUTCOME. HANNAH FORSE CREATIVE THINKING SOEREN HORNUM 2016
CONTENTS. PROCESS
creative thought and planning process
FINAL PRODUCT
mockups, posters, storyboards
physical process sketches, mind maps, hand drawn ideas, etc.
references bibliography
PROCESS.
The first step i took in my creative process towards my final outcome was to research the three biggest political and social based issues that Australia is currently facing nation wide. these appeared to be the refugee crisis, aboriginal incarceration, family violence and climate change. Out of these issues, i chose one at random by closing my eyes and placing my hand on the page, this issue would become the core concept for my idea and creative outcome, and ended up being the refugee crisis - particularly the way refugees are treated within Australia in a negative way.
step ONE CHOOSING CONCEPT
After choosing my core concept to focus on for the duration of creating my final outcome, I went on to employ the use of mind maps to discover the topic in a more in depth and thorough way. The topic I decided to explore further within my initial and first mind map was “why are refugees treated negatively in Australia” from which multiple ideas and answers were formed, some of which even linking to each other through conceptual similarity or even through being the same word. Some of the answers I wrote down included fear, which stemmed off into ideas such as western culture and ideals, biased perspectives, job loss, lifestyles, skin colour, economic loss and an “us vs them” mentality. Another answer was privilege, which eventually, through a stem of other words, developed into ideas such as a lack of empathy, a lack of education, economic value and desensitisation. All of the answers written seemed to revolve around the similar topic of fear and the majority of a large group of people, i.e the Australian public, not understanding or not being fully educated on the topic of refugees, regarding who they are, what they are running from and what they are looking to achieve through the act of seeking asylum in Australia.
step two mind maps
The second part of exploring the topic of refugees through mind mapping was to create two separate mind maps from two separated words or phrases that were chosen at random from my first mind map. These two phrases were “lack of empathy” and “biased perspective”, from which i drew two seperate mind maps, to aid in the act of exploring my concept in an even deeper way. The first mind map, created from “lack of education” stemmed out into words such as “senses” from the core word desensitisation. Senses stemmed out into sight, hearing, smell, sound and touch, which all individually developed into to other words including bright, loud and virtual reality. A lack of education was also written from the core phrase “no understanding”, which led to the words school, university and media. As well as these words, “no immersion in cause” was written, leading to the word isolation.
step two mind maps
The second mind map, created from “biased perspective” was the most interesting to me as i found myself eventually writing down colours such as “yellow” and “orange” in relation to comfort, warmth, safety and security which were all stemmed from the word “favourable side”. This reminded me of the act of synesthesia and how we are all in fact syntesthetes in a more general and broad way through the way we are brought up, the way we learn throughout our lives and the way we exist within our
own personal lifestyles. The words written within the mind map when grouped together had a recurring theme of comfort, family, shelter and repetition, leading me to believe that the reason we, or maybe even myself only, are closed off to only see through a biased perspective is often because of the fear of being removed from our own personal comforts and the way we repeatedly live our lives on a daily basis being disrupted. Another core theme within the map was the media, which was a word that stemmed from “isolation” and which led to words such as social media, blue, cold, money, class, western culture, celebrities, wealth and poverty. Once I had written out two mind maps from the phrases “lack of empathy” and “biased perspective”, I chose three phrases and words at random, again with my eyes closed, from the “lack of empathy map” and two words from the “biased perspective” map. These words ended up being “senses, lack of education and no immersion in cause” and “perspectives and comfort”. From combining these words I arrived at the outcome to “use the senses to take people out of their comfort zones, educate them and immerse them in the lives of refugees to change perspectives.” This was the first time throughout my process that my final outcome began to appear clearer and to have structure.
Through following the methods of creative problem solving, designed by Alex Osborne and Dr Sidney Parnes, i began part three of my process by clarifying and identifying the issue I am attempting to solve through my creative outcome. This occurred through the act of asking myself five why questions, including why is this a problem? why is this happening? why do i wish to achieve this goal? why would solving this issue be positive for Australia? and why should people care about this issue? I answered these questions as honestly as possible without the fear of judgement to ensure that my answers would be as in depth and as helpful as possible in regards to developing a strong idea, concept and eventually a creative outcome. After completing this question asking process, my concept and motivations became clearer and more understood by myself, giving way to multiple ideas that i could use to combat my issue through the use of creativity and a creatively designed outcome.
step three creative problem solving part 1: CLARIFY AND IDENTIFY // 5 WHYS
QUESTIONS ASKED 1. Why is this a problem? A negative view of an entire group of people is dangerous as it marginalises and prevents those in need from having a chance of a better and safer life. Refugees are risking their lives for a safe home and so they are the people who need acceptance the most. 2. Why is this happening? Refugees are seen in a negative light mainly due to fear, a lack of education and a lack of empathy, due to desensitisation of the issue. 3. Why do i wish to achieve this goal? As someone who has grown up seeing people fleeing from difficult backgrounds, I personally feel a large amount of empathy for refugees. I have also researched the cause a multiple amount of times so I feel linked to it on a personal basis. 4. Why would solving this issue be positive for Australia? Economically, refugees will contribute to growth and the creation of jobs within Australia. They will also bring multiculturalism through new foods, cultures and help to develop Australia as an accepting and multi-faceted nation. 5. Why should people care about this issue? At the end of the day, refugees are people. The situation they are in could occur to anyone, proving how important empathy and understanding is at trying times and in crisis.
The second part of working in correlation with the methods involved in creative problem solving required me to research my issue and topic through the action of asking questions, though this time in a more brief and to the point fashion.
questions asked WHO: refugees WHAT: being treated negatively within Australia WHEN: currently and on a daily basis WHERE: from Syria to Australia WHY: a lack of education, understanding and empathy, as well as biased perspectives. HOW: combatted through showing people what refugees are running from in order to help them understand and be empathetic to their situation.
step three creative problem solving part 2: RESARCH WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, HOW?
After researching my topic, I wrote down one question and split it up into two parts to see ways in which I can combat each separately, or combat them together. The question I wrote was “how can i sensitise the Australian public to the refugee crisis // and // allow them to see what refugees are running to Australia from?” The answers to the first question were to involve the senses, create sensual immersion in the cause or issue and to do something different to what the media is doing to break the cycle of desensitisation. The answers to the second question were to employ visual experiences, stories from refugees, personal experiences from refugees and to provoke emotion. From each question, the answers “visual experiences, stories from refugees” and “provoke emotion” were linked to “involve the senses”. This combination of answers was used to create a joint outcome, stating that to solve the questions asked in a combined way, “a visual experience implementing the stories of refugees to provoke emotions and allow for empathetic reactions” could be created.
step three creative problem solving part 3: FORMULATE CREATIVE CHALLENGES
As seen above, the next step in creative problem solving in regards to my topic was to generate as many ideas as possible, no matter how crazy or insane, and create a list out of these ideas. This was very helpful in my solving process as it allowed my creative mind to open up to endless possibilities and think in a deeper way about what I was attempting to do by designing whatever creative outcome i would eventually produce.
ideas listed
Advertising campaign T shirt campaign story based videos virtual reality experience book of refugee stories blog based refugee story experience website
interviews with refugees
“what if this was your family” campaign
charity based organisation
billboards in public
videos using 3D sound to immerse viewers in war torn Syria
step three
stories of mothers who are refugees
“day in the life of a refugee” campaign
diaries of refugees involved in an advertising/awareness campaign
creative problem solving
senses experience to break down desensitisation
part 4: GENERATE IDEAS
After listing multiple ideas for my creative outcome, I grouped all of the ideas together and found two central themes that would become a criteria for resolving the list of ideas. These two central themes were senses experience and story telling. Using these themes, I wrote down every idea that could be related to them. I then wrote gave these a mark out of 5 in relation to how well they relate to the senses and story telling and later added these marks together to find the highest scoring ideas. By doing this, my ideas were narrowed down to just four, including story videos, VR experience and a day in the life of a refugee.
step three creative problem solving part 5: scoring ideas
ideas listed story based videos virtual reality experience book of refugee stories blog based story experience interviews with refugees 3D sound videos
stories of refugee mothers
“Day in the life� posters and videos
diaries of refugees
senses experience
Once I had completed the process of creative problem solving, I went on to employ the use of CARTS - Cost, acceptance, resources, time and space - to find out what my least realistic idea would be and if i could perhaps combat that and incorporate it anyway. To do this, each idea was placed in a table and marked with either a tick or a cross based on whether it was cost efficient, acceptable to stake holders, if i would have the resources for it, if time would be available and if space would be available.
step three creative problem solving part 6: CARTS
Once I had used CARTS to score my ideas, it was discovered that the “VR experience” was the least realistic idea and would be the hardest to actually implement into a creative outcome. This was due to the fact that it would be at a high cost and that actual VR systems are very hard to come by. Despite this, I continued on to use the process of identifying the assisters and resistors who would either help or oppose the project through the use of asking a list of questions and answering them. After reviewing my questions and answers, it still felt as though the VR experience would be an unrealistic, expensive and difficult outcome to obtain, so it was crossed off the list. This however, allowed me to create an outcome using a combination of the two ideas left on the list. OUTCOME: A story telling experience including both videos of refugees, to provoke the senses, as well as physical based posters. These videos would include refugees explaining their daily routine, the food they get to eat on a daily basis and the physical based posters would show this in a more two dimensional, graphic based way, ensuring that both the senses are used and “story telling” is employed, eventually breaking down the walls of desensitisation and provoking the emotions of the Australian public to allow for empathy and understanding. These videos would be used on a website that would be accessible through a link or QR code on the physical based posters, displayed in public spaces such as bus stops and train stations, etc.
step three creative problem solving part 6: IDENTIFYING ASSISTERS AND RESISTORS TO PROJECT
questions asked Who will help? Organisational partnerships such as amnesty international, supporters of the cause Who will critique? Those against refugees What are the missing resources? A VR system When are the best times for action? As soon as possible When are the worst times for action? later, when the problem continues to grow Where are the best places for implementation? public spaces, within Australia Where are the worst places for implementation? closed, private spaces away from the public Best arguments for proposal This will improve Australia culturally and economically and will increase acceptance, empathy and love towards the people who need it most.
Still implementing the creative problem solving process, now with a clearer, more structured and more defined idea, I was then required to answer more questions to further develop a strong, precise action plan.
questions asked How might promising solutions be implemented? By exposing the physical posters to as much of the public as possible to ensure the viewing and understanding of the message, in addition to the story based videos that will be hosted on a website. What are the sources of assistance and resistance? RESISTANCE: those against refugees, governmental parties against refugees
PROCESS.
ASSISTANCE: organisational partnerships, supporters of the cause, refugees
What are the easiest and hardest tasks to complete? EASIEST: creating stories through videos, creating physical posters, editing, raising awareness through social media, etc.
step three creative problem solving part 7: DRAW UP AN ACTION PLAn PLANNING AND BUILDING ACCEPTANCE
HARDEST: coping with resistors such as anti refugee persons and parties, financial cost of creating and planting physical posters and creating videos for a website What outside assistance may be needed? organisational support through sponsorships or donations, graphic designers to create posters, video editors to edit videos
The issue of the negative way refugees are treated within Australia is one that is currently at the forefront of political conversation, social topics and general discussion. This negative treatment is understood to arise from fear, a lack of understanding, education and empathy, as well as a biased perspective due to lifestyle differences and the media. This can be dangerous as it allows for marginalisation and discrimination of an entire group of people who are often putting their lives on the line for a safer and more secure country to live in. To combat the way refugees are seen within Australia, I hope to create a campaign that will implement the use of both physical and video based ways of story telling regarding the daily lives that refugees live. The videos will show the daily lives of various refugees and will be accessible through a website that will be advertised on the physical posters, which will show the daily lives of refugees in a more two dimensional way, using graphics and text to expose the message i’m hoping to get across. these physical posters will be placed in public spaces such as bus stops and train stations, as well as on billboards across Australia. Through organisational partnerships and sponsorships, financial recourses will be acquired and the campaign will eventually change the perspectives of Australians everywhere regarding refugees, who they are, what they are running from and the situation they are facing.
step three creative problem solving part 7: written action plan
final product.
campaign name The first process of creating the visual elements of my final outcome stemmed from the creation of a brand // campaign name. As the message behind the campaign is to hear the stories of refugees to allow for empathy and a genuine emotional connection to them, I decided to name the campaign “Hear Their Stories�.
font choices To create a memorable and visually appealing campaign, I decided to use a combination of sans serif and cursive fonts. These included the font SantElia Rough, a cursive, handwritten font to portray the element of story telling I was aiming to display and the font Code Light, to make the campaign appear modern, minimalistic and sleek.
GRAPHICS
After deciding to create Hear Their Stories using a modern and minimalistic tone through the use of typefaces, I planned to keep this tone consistent through the design of my posters, website and videos. This meant that the posters, videos and website I created for the campaign would have to be designed using minimalistic elements such as plain shapes and individual photos, work well in conjunction with each other upon the page and all make use of a neutral colour scheme that would allow Hear Their Stories to appeal to and resonate with the younger generation - whose opinions and actions are arguably the most important within our society today.
final product planning
SantElia Rough code light
final product posters
POSTERS: each “Hear Their Stories” poster was created to display the everyday experiences of refugees, from the food they eat for every meal to the shoes they wear to the boats they have to travel on to seek asylum within Australia. These posters were made to allow the public to compare the lives they live to the lives refugees live and to provoke a sense of empathy and understanding within the audience. Through the use of a neautral colour scheme, minimalistic sans serif and cursive fonts and a sense of consistency throughout each poster, the campaign remains as a recognisable brand and creates a modern and sleek visual appearance that hopefully will resonate with the younger generation of Australians, who’s opinions and actions are most important to the act of accepting refugees.
POSTERS: These mockups were created to show how the posters involved in the campaign would appear in action; placed in public spaces such as bus stops and shopping centers to draw the attention of a larger, broader audience and to spread as big of a message as possible to the Australian public.
final product poster mockups
final product website
WEBSITE: The Hear Their Stories website was designed to create a link from the physical (posters) to the digital for the audience exposed to the campaign that would not only allow them to understand the campaigns purpose but would also allow them to immerse their senses in videos that would show the stories of refugees in a visual and audio based fashion, further enhancing the sense of empathy already initiated through the use of the graphic posters seen on the previous pages. The website’s visuals continue to be consistent with the brands overall image, using clean, sans serif and cursive fonts, minimalistic designs and a neautral colour scheme to create a modern tone.
final product website mockup
WEBSITE: This mockup was designed to show the Hear Their Stories website as it would appear as a real website, interacting with the viewer and allowing them to further understand refugees through the use of visuals and audio to employ the senses.
final product videos
VIDEOS: Above is a series of storyboards aiming to show how the videos capturing the lives and experiences of refugees would be animated and displayed to the Australian public on the Hear Their Stories website as well as on Youtube, website pop ups and TV outlets. Each video would introduce the refugee speaking, detailing their name, their age and where they are at this current point of time. The refugee introduced would then tell their story to the audience through the use of a voice over, placed over the top of moving graphics and subtitles, to create a visually appealing video that would create a connection between the refugee and the audience member watching, thus enhancing empathy, understanding and humanisation.
physical PROCESS.
The use of mind maps to explore my cause on a deeper level, as explained in step one and two: “choosing concept” and “mind maps”.
Exploring my concept through the use of creative problem solving, as seen in part one of step three: clarify and identify and the 5 whys.
Deeply researching my concept through the use of asking and answering and formulating creative challenges, as seen in step three, part two and three: research and formulate creative challenges.
Generating ideas through the use of listing, expained further in step three, part four: generate ideas.
Combining and evaluated ideas according to a particular criteria, explained in step three, part five: scoring ideas.
Excerising the use of CARTS to the most unrealistic idea on the score list, identifying assistors and resistors and combining final ideas to create one idea that was later removed from process: explained further in step three, part six: CARTS and identify resistors and assistors.
references.
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