Collide by katy robinson

C O L L

ide.

The Brief Project synopsis This module enables you to develop the integrated design methodologies required to work in a dynamic, professional, creative and commercial environment. This project demands that you channel your intellectual and creative skills, through exploration and self-directed progression that demonstrates your ability and independence, as well as in-depth knowledge and understanding of aesthetic, environmental, marketing and technical requirements of design for the creative industries. Emphasis is placed upon the ability to achieve high-level flexible thinking approaches in the pursuit of creative solutions. Expectations are further challenged for the design outcomes and artefacts to achieve group coherence for exhibition purposes.

Project/Assessment requirements: The assignment will incorporate a range of stringent professional requirements, involving personal and project management, detailed research, creativity and originality, as well as a high level of technical expertise and portfolio promotion. Project/Assessment Task: Brief: Collide Individual Task: create both physical and digital outcomes in response to the three themes explored. Explore and evaluate the creative propositions beyond the parameters of your chosen project. Produce outcomes that respond effectively and coherently and meet your projects initial aims and objectives. Resolve technical and aesthetic problems utilising and practising

a variety of working methods.

‘inevitability’?

Present and communicate developmental work and outcomes in a manner appropriate to your discipline and to high professional standard

The future – the virtual or reality – will we fake it, or keep it real? Ten years from now…what will you be doing?

Collaborate: create artefacts and curate an exhibition of work to launch the Collide Event Exhibition outcomes for screen based media as well as physical installation pieces R&D: Blog - should include research, methodologies, experimentation, prototyping, synopsis and strategies. Consider, explore and mash-up the three themes; Happiness/ the Internet/ Your Future Self. Sagmeister urges us not to convey happiness but to ‘evoke happiness’. Coupland misses his pre-internet brain – should we embrace this

‘Collide’ requires you to appropriate and converge a variety of mediums for exhibition at the Collide Event. Graphic Design Posters, Fanzines, Book, Magazine, E-zine, Manifesto, Marketing Strategy, Direct Mail, Advertising Campaign, Advertisements, Copy, Photography, Social Media, 3D artefacts, installations, events and experiences.

aesthetic potential of digital convergence and the future self. Innovate,explore and expand technical and personal parameters. Create a contemporary portfolio piece for personal promotion and a curated exhibition. Show your ingenuity – be unique - make it memorable

Requirements: A portfolio of designs involving a high degree of creative and technical skill and justification, in which there is a clear reasoned and personal response to the requirements of the brief. Background material in the form of research and concept development will be of Aims: a high standard and will clearly Undertake creative and ambitious support the final outcome. Each research beyond the parameters assignment will incorporate of each theme. Develop a brief a high degree of finish and that transcends commerce and presentation, with all aspects of commodity acquisition. the brief taken into account. Examine the conceptual and

Final Project For the final project our main goal is to â&#x20AC;&#x153;make somethingâ&#x20AC;?. This could be anything from a chair to a childrens story book all the way to a spaceship. There are no boundaries or restrictions, however the only thing that there does need to be is a physical and a digital outcome. There are three themes that

need to be considered when researching, developing and making the final piece. The first thing to consider is happiness. What is happiness? What makes you happy? Secondly the internet and the digital age, this considering how the internet may have changed

us as a generation changed us. Also consider how the digital age affects your life. What else could it do for us? Lastly, your future self. Who will you be in 10 years time? How would you represent the future you? When proccessing the research

and throughout the design stages of the project consider a collision. Not an actual collision, but consider mixing ideas, disciplines, mediums, technologies, people, practices, cultures, etc. Within your work try and create some new and exciting content bringing in these

different elements together. Do this through the technique of amalgamation. Remember the tools of the digital age; story telling, emotion, experience and make it memorable.

Happiness Happiness is a mental and/ or physical state of well-being. It is defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. A variety of approaches have made effort to define happiness and identify its sources. Some of these being biological, psychological, religious and even

philosophical. Research groups such as positive psychology are e,ploying scientific methods to research questions as to what happiness actually is and how it might be obtained. There is even an international day of happiness declared by the

United Nations to recognise its relevance and well-being. This falls on March 20th. Philosophers and religious thinkers frequently state happiness in terms of living a good life, or flourishing, rather than calling it an emotion. The concept of happiness is

a difficult one to describe and grasp as it means many different things to many people. Part of the challenge is to identify the different concepts of happiness and split them into their appropriate components. Some related concepts to happiness are wellbeing, quality of life and as said before,

flourishing. Some even define happiness as contentment. In my work I need to consider all of these factors and portray in a general sense what happiness is, how it comes across and what it really means to be happy.

Happiness

Stefan Sagmeister Stefan Sagmeister is a New York based graphic designer. He has designed album covers for many music artists, including the likes of Lou Reed, The Rolling Stones and even Jay Z. As well as this he has also cofounded a design firm called Sagmeister and Walsh Inc. with Jessica Walsh, in New York City. Sagmeister is a speaker for TED Talks and in 2004 he led a speech based around happiness by design. In this he took the audience on a journey through the moments of his life that have made him happy. He also makes note of how many of these moments have to do with good

design. Straight away he mentions that he went to visit a friend in Hong Kong and in that he stated that if he were to see something good he would have a great time, however if he were to see something negative he would be miserable. This already shows that happiness can be interpreted and taking in from what we see in our surroundings. He later states about the real moments of happiness in his life from 1981 through to 2002. Some of these being just a simple motorcycle ride through mountains, work being exhibited

or even running at the Cape in South Africa. Again this shows that if you enjoy what you do, being where you are, and even the company that you are in happiness will come easily. In 2010 Sagmeister took another talk entitled “seven rules for making more happiness”. In this he shared his latest thinking on happiness – the conscious and the unconscious kind. His list of things to be happier are as follows: 1. Thinking about ideas and content freely – with the deadline far away.

2. Travelling to new places. 3. Using a variety of tools and techniques. 4. Working on projects that matter to me/you. 5. Having things come back from the printer done well. 6. Getting feedback from people who see our work 7. Designing a project that feels partly brand new and partly familiar. As a designer myself, I would almost certainly agree with this

list. I know for sure than when I have a deadline coming up very soon and there are no ideas or content in my mind to put onto paper I stress, whereas if I were to do this without stressing about deadlines I may find that ideas come naturally and easily and it will make me a lot happier in life. In fact all of the other things on the list I can one hundred percent agree with to make you happier in general. This I also need to consider when completing my work, current and future, and also employ some of these ideas into this current project.

Stefan Sagmeister

The Internet and The Digital Age The Internet is a global system of computer networks that are all interconnected and use the Internet protocol suite (IP) to link billions of devices. It is a mass network of networks that comprises of millions of private, public, business, academic and government networks from a local scale to a global scale. The Internet carries an extensive range of informational resources and services such as the world wide web (WWW), emails and peer-topeer networks for file sharing. From the mid 1990s Internet use

grew rapidly in the west and then it was from the late 1990s for the developing world. In the twenty years from 1995, the use of the Internet has grown over one hundred times. Most of the traditional communication media, which includes television, are being redesigned or redefined by the Internet making way for these services to be anytime and pretty much anywhere. Even newspapers, magazines and books are being digitalised and adapting to websites in the form of blogs and web feeds. All of this contributed to the

entertainment industry being the fasted growing segment on the Internet. The Internet has also enabled and accelerated new forms of personal interaction due to instant messaging, online forums and social networking on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. The rise of the Internet has been one of the most changed developments in human history. Over two billion people have access to more information than ever before and can communicate instantly using

web connected devices. Mass adoption of the Internet is steering a social, cultural and political transformation, which is one of the most exciting in history. The effects of this are not only local, but also global. Many people have different views on how the Internet affects peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifestyles and also on a da-to-day basis as in this age of technology, our computers appear to have taken over everyday lives, from how we shop to finding friends. Continued use of the Internet can

lead to many negative factors, some of these being the feeling of jealousy and loneliness. The Internet may also lead to giving you the brain of an addict, similar to those of drug or alcohol addictions. It may also lead to memory problems due to too much information going to the brain, however the worst would have to be a heightened risk of suicide in some teenagers. When producing my outcomes, I need to think about how I can link the internet and the other two themes together, into what I want to produce so that I can fulfil the brief as best as possible.

The Internet and The Digital Age

Douglas Coupland Douglas Coupland is a writer and an artist who has spent the past two decades chronicalling modern society. He has been writing about society and technology since Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. His new book, Kitten Clone, looks

at the inner workings of AlcatelLucent. A company that holds some of the most significant patents in modern history, the transistor, microchips and optical fibres. It is one of the world’s main providers of a set of wires and computers that make up the Internet.

Coupland uses this book to meditate on the Internet as it “relentlessly colonizes the planet and our brains”. “There’s a “new neural reality” he writes. At the start of the book, Coupland says that he used to think the Internet was a metaphor for

life, however now it’s the other way around, with life being a metaphor for the Internet. He also says that in the last few years he has been missing his pre-Internet brain and lately no longer even remembers his preInternet brain. By this he means

that technology has rewired his brain and he means that in a genuine neurological sense. He also states that everyone else’s brains have also been rewired in the same way.

Douglas Coupland

Your Future Self The future self, you in the future. Where will you be? What will you be doing? Who will you be with? All of these things are a big part of the time ahead, in one year, two years, five years or maybe even ten years. The biggest question would be to ask yourself what you want to be doing, and will you enjoy it. Its your future, you don’t want to get stuck doing a nine-to-five office job when in reality you want to be travelling the world carefree.

The future is unpredictable, you never know what’s lurking ahead, which is why most people tend to not think about it and live each day as it comes. “At every stage of our lives we make decisions that will profoundly influence the lives of the people we’re going to become, and then when we become those people, we’re not always thrilled with the decisions we made” says Harvard psychologist Dan Gilbert leading a 2014 TED Talk about the

psychology of your future self. As a psychologist the question that fascinates Dan is that of why do we make decisions that our future selves so often regret? Which is indeed a good question to ask. He believes that one of the reasons for this is due to the fact that we have a fundamental misconception of time and the power that it holds over us as human beings.

He carries on to say that the rate of change slows down throughout the human lifespan, but where does that happen? He states that for most people the change is now, wherever now may be. Gilbert later says that we are all walking around with an illusion. An illusion that history, our personal history has just come to an end and that we have recently become the people we were always meant to be and will be for the rest of our lives.

Just like the other two themes, I need to consider how I place this into my outcomes. This may be a struggle for this particular theme as the future can change no matter what you may plan for it. However as a designer these are the obstacles that I would need to think of when designing.

Your Future Self

Shannon Lea

Jamie Kirk

Lucy Kilcoyne

Tom Watkins

(Home) Maker 2015 D&AD Winner (Yellow Pencil)

Tarot 2015 D&AD Winner (Wood Pencil)

I Transfer 2015 D&AD Winner (Wood Pencil)

When I’m A Dad 2015 D&AD Winner (Black Pencil)

Shannon designed this piece as she knows ten years in the future what she wants to be doing and where. Equally she knows what she doesn’t want to be doing.

Using the concept of tarot cards, Jamie produced a self promotional piece of work that captures aspects of his past, present and future through illustration, animation and print.

I Transfer is an interactive wallpaper piece which incorporates moveable illustration and magnetic pieces. Lucy says that the concept displays how life can be unpredictable, but can also be easily changed and adapted dependant on our choices.

Tom stated that in ten years time being able to inspire people was important, he also said that he wanted to be a dad. This was when “when I am a dad” was born. This project was set up as a way to not only inspire Tom himself, but also future fathers about things to do as a dad.

The project gives an insight into the person Lucy could become in ten years time depending on her decisions and paths she may choose.

There were two outcomes produced. The first was an illustrated children’s book, which consisted of ten individual “when I am a dad” scenarios. A website was also created to bring the conversation online.

The print that she has created reflects this. The white is her ambition, to be a city designer concentrating on her craft and making a living, whereas the black depicts the future she dreads. Marriage, children and countryside living.

Connecting The Themes Trying to get these three themes (happiness, the internet and your future self), to link together initially seemed like a struggle, however after a long thought out process it became a lot easier. The majority of thinking lies in the future as this includes

your happiness. The one thing to consider when thinking up potential outcomes is how your future self wants to be in roughly ten years down the line. Also to put into consideration would be where you want to be and what you want to be doing,

so to put it simply what you enjoy the most, whether that be working, travelling or spending time with family and friends. This then easily links all of the themes together, as if you are out there (as a future you), doing what you enjoy most, then you

are more than likely going to be happy. With technology developing faster than ever and the Internet being right at our fingertips this can be broadcast to people, thus triggering the link to happiness, the internet and your future self.

These are the main things I need to consider for my final outcome, and make sure that I do produce something that contains these three themes in both my physical and digital outcome.

Idea Generation - Themes

Idea Generation - Outcomes

Idea Generation - Considerations After looking at the mind map that contains the ideas, there were a few that I really liked and that I felt on the physical and digital outcome together would fit really well. These combinations were: - Installation and animation. - Book and animation. - Book and application. - Advertisements - poster and moving image.

- Photography and interviews. - Game and animation. I chose these five as I felt that they were all very diverse and equally, a variety of different outcomes could come out of these ideas. The next challenge was deciding on two of these five ideas to take on to a final decider before settling on just on to carry

forward for further research and development before making it a real life, physical and digital outcome that will fulfil the needs of the brief to present in the collaborative collide exhibition. For my first decider, I chose the installation with the animation, as I felt that the installation would be something very different to pieces that I have previously produced and I feel

that with the animation I can easily combine and portray all of the themes in a two to three minute sequence.

it be long, short, full of words or have barely any. With imagery anything is possible to tell a story.

Secondly, I opted again to go for the same digital outcome with the animation, however for the physical outcome I went for the book. I chose this, as similarly to the animation, I can get all of the themes in there and also a lot can be said in a book, whether

Thirdly I looked at the game and animation combination. I felt that this could be a really creative idea and could really link all three themes together.

Final Idea For my final idea, I have chosen to go for the game and animation combination for my two outcomes (physical and digital). This is due to the fact that I feel that I can make the outcome of a game a lot more visually pleasing

in comparison to an installation and a book as well as explore a range of different media and techniques. With a game I also feel that it is very interactive in itself, getting people involved in it.

Also with this idea all of the themes easily roll into one within the outcomes easily and effectively, without many issues coming into action, therefore fitting the needs of the brief. Alongside this would be the

animation, which could easily be a follow on from the game and simply animate what has been put into a visual form, or include instructions. In relation to the themes combining within my outcomes,

I want to portray something that everyone may feel could happen in their lives relating to happiness, their future selves and the digital age/internet.

Physical Outcome

Research - Games When it comes to games, most people commonly relate them to multiplayer games, however I wanted to create something a little different, where it was just you. A singular user looking at

the piece, however I still wanted it to be interactive and of course fitting to the brief. I then thought back to when I was younger and used to buy

magazines that came with the free toys/mini games/activities. One of these that occasionally came with the magazines would be a dress up fridge magnet

style activity/toy. This then got me thinking about how I could use this as an idea for my outcome, whether it be like an actual magnet based outcome or whether it was similar to the

paper cut out dress up games or the digital games.

Research - Dress Up

Connecting The Ideas After seeing the examples of dress up games, whether they are online or magnets, I really liked this idea and can really see it coming to life in a physical and digital form. The next task was to think about

how the three themes were going to link. The digital age aspect was easy as the whole point of this is to take you away from the internet, back to days when not many people knew about it or what

it was and are just at one with maybe re-living a childhood memory. With regards to happiness and your future self, in many ways these rolled into one. I had the idea that it could be something

that you could use to say to other people what you believe would make you happy in say five to ten years time, for example a career, a family or even something simple like happiness. From this I then needed to get

first hand â&#x20AC;&#x153;evidenceâ&#x20AC;? of what people would want in their future to make them happy with who they are.

Research - What Would Make You Happy? - Survey I took to survey monkey for yet more research, however this time primary research. Because I was producing that would be interactive for the public, I wanted a public input into the items that would be made for the use of this piece as after

all, everyone has a completely different idea of what would make them happy in the future. So that I could get an insight into what each gender wanted I set up a simple two-question survey, with a description of what

I wanted as answers. Unfortunately, despite posting the survey on social media I only received around 40 responses, which is not as many as I would have liked to get, however it was most certainly better than

nothing and there were a lot that I could input into my work. Although I did not receive as many responses as I would have liked, I did receive plenty of positive answers. Some of these being to have a family, someone

to love, to win the lottery, get a degree and many more. All of which I feel people can relate to, but also some very personal responses to the questions.

Research - What Would Make You Happy? - Survey

Research - What Would Make You Happy? - Survey From the answers that I received and some of my own ideas I then needed to somehow represent what I wanted to show. Some of these would be as simple icons, where as others would have to be simply words so that it was clear

what someone who was using the piece wanted to portray. Some responses and ideas: Moving away from England Aeroplane/moving van Happiness - Smiley face

Dream job/career - Job conract Family - Silhouette of mother father and 2 children Having a child - Baby Nice house - House Money - Notes Degree - Graduation hat

Someone to love/love - Heart Friends - Two people with arms round each other Holidays - Aeroplane/passport Be fit and well/strong - Weights Good health - a heart with ecg Pass driving test - A car

Winning the lottery - Lottery ticket World peace - Earth with people round it

Image Generation - Research - Icons and Artists To represent the feedback that I had received from the survey, I wanted to show the words as

icons, with a very illustrative feel to them. Before going into designing my own I looked at

different icon styles, as well as different illustrators and their styles, to see if this could

influence my own work. I feel that using icons will visually communicate a simple word, but

from a visual language style.

Image Generation - Research - Icons

Artist Research - Illustrators - Rob Nichols

Artist Research - Illustrators - Jeffrey Devey

Artist Research - Illustrators - Brian Hurst

Artist Research - Illustrators - Alex Perez

Artist Research - Illustrators - Jillian Barthold

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons After looking through the works of these artists and illustrators, I really like the two-dimensional style of work within some of the

artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pieces. This will be the style that I go for in my work to represent the icons.

I also feel that a â&#x20AC;&#x153;flat lookâ&#x20AC;? will suit the icons best as it will not over complicate things, or make them stand out too much.

I will also be going for a flat style of imagery for the people and the clothes, therefore these two pieces will go together nicely and

not look different next to each other.

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Job Contract Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

JOB CONTRACT

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Money Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

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Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Lottery Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

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03 07 11 25 38 49

winner

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Love and Marriage Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Health and Fitness Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Travel Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Family Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Graduation Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - House Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Digital Development - Icons - Pets Inspiration

Initial Drawings

Digital Outcomes

Image Generation - Final Icons After looking at all of the assorted digital outcomes that I had drawn up, I needed to choose what ones I would have as my final icons.

Below are the ones that I chose, as I felt that they were the strongest out of all of the outcomes. I believe that they are the strongest visually as they can easily communicate what word it

JOB CONTRACT

is meant to be. There are also some other items that I feel will go along side the visual icons, however for many they can mean a variety

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of different things, for example happiness. I chose these as text so that people can then imagine what that would be for themselves. There were also some words that I felt would

have been hard to put into imagery, therefore these are also kept as text.

Image Generation - Research - People Once I had all of the icons drawn up and finalised into which ones I definitely wanted to use, I needed

to think about the people and the clothes for my piece.

It was a definite that I would have a male and a female, it was just the style that I needed to look at

as well as the clothes. I then went on to make a list/

mindmap of the types of clothing in these categories.

Image Generation - Development - People

Image Generation - Development - People After looking at the initial drawings of the man and the woman, I decided that my best and favourite two were the last one of the woman and the first

one for the man. This was due to the positions of the bodies and also the sizing of the people. I feel that these

two have what I would see as an average body size and/or shape of the average person of that gender.

I then went on to draw up the people in Adobe Illustrator to a suitable size and added in all of the necessary details such as the facial elements, colour in the

clothes as well as the underwear.

Image Generation - Digital Development - People

Image Generation - Digital Development - People I then went on to designing the clothes. Because I had the

people drawn up digitally as well as an idea for the clothes, I felt

that it would be a lot easier to play around digitally around the

people so that I knew the sizes of the clothing imagery fitted well.

Image Generation - Digital Development - Final People and Clothes

Final Outcome - Physical

Digital Outcome

Digital Outcome - Animation Research

Digital Outcome - Animation Research As said at the start of this project, when deciding on what to present for my physical outcome I had also decided to produce an animation for the digital outcome.

The style of the animation however would still need to be decided on, due to not knowing the design of the outcome(s) for the physical piece.

After completing the physical outcome and having the illustrations and imagery to hand, I felt that having a very simple two-dimensional animation would

fit well with the style that I went for. I chose to make a stop motion animation, as I felt that this would

have been a good way to show all of the different components of the physical outcome, but in the digital format.

Digital Outcome - Animation

Digital Outcome - Animation - Video Link

https://vimeo.com/166704099

Katy Robinson University Of Huddersfield katylouiserobinson.blogspot.co.uk