REFLECTION PROJECT | BY DOUNIA BOURJILA
BEYOND ACCESSORY | “ADAMAS” CHANGING PARADIGMS
What inspires me in design are unconventional ideas; ideas that make you think ‘how did he or she come up with that’. I started the project with this thought and my aim was to also end with it. The aim of this project was indeed to innovate on what jewellery traditionally means to people. I started by sensing and being inspired to find the space I wanted to move in during the process. But from there on one road I was supposed to follow became several ones parallel to each other… In my opinion, things finally started rolling from phase 4 and further, when a clearer concept was defined. I have spent a lot of time on finding design opportunities, a vision, a need from the user, and a value to melt it together to an innovation. I wanted to try a new way of going through a design process, other that I was used to, in order to be able to look at things differently. I have worked before on a project with no clear borders which I managed quite well, and again in this one I wanted to try it in another way since I had the freedom to it. Generally, I am not really satisfied with the result of my project and the process unfortunately. I have been on the right track though, but I believe I could and should have delivered a far better result, and I know I can do better. I have worked very hard, and tried different things, but somehow the cause lies deeper in the process, my mind(set) and other factors around the project that didn’t allow me to do better. I have tried to find out during the process, but succeeded only until the close end of the project, and currently, while writing this reflections many things have become clearer to me. LAYERS OF THE PROCESS
Personally I was satisfied with the vision and goal I found at the end (changing meaning of diamonds, and jewellery), and proud of how I managed to integrate technology in a small object, but I was not with how I got to it. I have set different steps, tried different ways of exploring, and kept my mind open to many new inputs, which I call ‘the first layer of the process’. This first layer represents steps I set and activities I do during the process, which I had no lack of. The deeper second layer which represents setting links between activities, therefore the ‘glue’, wasn’t everywhere that present (at least not that I was very conscious of). This means also that the third layer, that represents on a more abstract level what a certain choice means for the complete process and end result, was also less present. With this visualization I mean that the answers why I set certain steps were there, and the richness of certain ideas too, but somehow I was blind to them; I have not been able to recognize them at that time so that I could make the right decisions. This is ended up in choices that were half made, subjects not well enough researched, explorations with no well defined contexts and conclusions not based on complete iterations. However, I think many of the ideas had a good potention when worked out enough. I realize that what I have done wrong in this process, is doing uncompleted design iterations, and basing conclusions on steps that weren’t finished. But there are more factors. To be more precise, I have summed up a few points : - I have been inspired by the values in nomadism and diamonds, but through the whole process I have treated these subjects separately, which lead to concepts that were either missing innovation in technology or meaning. - As mentioned before, I have taken and developed many steps parallel to each other, and didn’t link them together at once. This made me notice each time that an idea didn’t work out, therefore I jumped to another one until I collected too many ideas. What I should have done are complete design iterations, starting from framing until integrating in the end. This caused that I finally found the complete concept a little bit before the end of the project, which didn’t allow me to do more research and iterations. I think for the result I have presented, one more iteration would have made the concept more complete. - I also started off with some kind of fixed image on jewellery, which I didn’t allow to change from the early beginning.
- Extern factors that influenced the result were for example the set up and planning of the semester; I had to get used to the intensity of the modules. Also the lack of a mid-term exhibition, this used to push one to have at least one concept finish at that time, and this project I was behind during that time. Another thing is that there was a part in the semester of 5 weeks (3 weeks SDL + 2 weeks module) in which we didn’t work on the project. I had difficulties with starting up again after that. - The start of a new phase in study with a new type of study wasn’t easy; somehow I expected that the Master Industrial Design would be the same but the expectations of course way higher. But I just didn’t know exactly how high, which caused my fear of making mistakes. I will be more elaborate on this point in the paragraph ‘personal attitude’, because I think this is the core of the problem. RESULT
The type of this project is a very open one, and normally I don’t have a problem with projects that are not pre-defined. The coaching went well, I was able to tie the knots after each meeting, but somehow also get a load of new ideas. So at the end I didn’t stay behind, but I also didn’t go forward. All these factors resulted in a concept with potential, but which was not developed enough and in which the idea that I aimed at, did not come completely forward: it needed another design iteration. Breaking the stereotype and changing the meaning of a ring to a person were strong as an idea/vision itself, but not with the prototype and presentation. I think that the idea would have come forward in the next step, where it is possible to show the connections in the prototype with real diamonds, with more details, and more refinement (also in the concept and meaning). VISION
However, in my opinion I have been inspired again, and through this project of finding values in things that matter to people and finding what actually does and doesn’t matter to people and our society, I have developed my vision further. My vision on design and on our society needed to be fed by a project like this, and despite my dissatisfaction with the process, I appreciate the openness and subject of this project. Though I have learned a lot from the process too, I tried something new but I haven’t worked it out well enough to be able to say that I would use this method in the future. This process and especially reflecting on it opened my eyes to the fears, and struggles I can have sometimes in designing, which also limits me in my creativity. PERSONAL ATTITUDE
I have never went through a design process they way it went in this project, but somewhere I knew something like this would be coming this semester. As mentioned before, I started with high expectations this semester, by working on the level of a Master. It wasn’t clear to me what I should change about my previous ways of working in the bachelor, and whether I could just continue the study as if it is just another semester. Therefore I set the goals high, which caused that I didn’t allow myself to make mistakes. This aspect is actually the core of everything, because it has grown into something that I have been struggling with more and more: afraid of making mistakes (and thoughts like “I am a Master student now, it is totally NOT done if I make mistakes in this or this”). This explains why I was afraid of making certain choices in an early stage, and with each problem that occurred I jumped to another idea to hopefully find a problem less road. It is a kind of fear of falling combined with perfectionism, which goes in a circle because it affects also my confidence in myself and my ideas. I am fully aware of this issue, but it is quite difficult to tackle it and to make it go away at once. I really want to work on it , because this effect me and my work in a negative way. But it will take some time, because just as it has started a while ago with smaller signs which grew to bigger ones, in order to be reduced I have to work in steps.
MY APPROACH
I want to approach this fear of falling by approaching my way of thinking first: generally I think in ways like ‘I have to do this..’, implying that the focus is more on the end result than on the process. This causes my sensing and creativity being blocked completely because I am too focused on the result. I need to learn again (because that is how I used to work in the Bachelor) to think in ‘I want to learn this, or know more about..’ and focus more on the process. As for the future I know now that it is better to imply a certain design space for myself in the early beginning of a project. And also going through complete design iterations could help creating better results. As for the semester planning I hope the mid-term exhibition will we called back, because I think it is a very valuable event in projects!