Slowing down our lives/ MFA Process book 01

SLOWING DOWN OUR LIVES A ㄑㄠpractice that leads to a more fulfilled life.

Intro

My name is Yihan Hsia. I am a graphic design student who are working on my MFA thesis Project—Slowing down our lives. Modern people live in a fast paced world and suffered from stress and anxiety. To solve this problem, I would like to leverage my design ability to advocate this slow philosophy and inspire people to slow down and reflect their lives.

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Lab. 1 Seek for topics Lab. 2 Explore the possibilities Lab. 3 Express personal opinions Lab. 4 Find key questions Lab. 5 Connect the dots Lab. 6 Define the archetypes Lab. 7 Listen to other opinions Lab. 8 Integrate the insights Final

Present the proposal

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Lab.1

Seek for topics To develop the topic for my thesis project, I picked five things that I am interested in or concerned about. They maybe issues that needs to be aware or a good idea that hasn’t been told properly. I picked these topics from my personal experiences mostly and have strong motivation to explore them because they are so related me.

01/ BATH PRODUCT SAFETY

02/ WORLD FOOD WASTE

No less important than the food you eat.

We make them, eat half and dump another half.

Bath product is the thing we can’t avoid in now days. Most people take showers to keep our body clean and not stinking.

However, in order to pursue different function and lower the cost. More and more chemical elements are added in those body wash, shampoo and even toothpaste, which we use everyday.

From little baby to elders, no one can escape from it. Bath product Safety is definitely an serious problem we should be concerned about.

According to statistics, people waste 2.3 billion tons of food every year. Almost half of the amount of the all food produced. Most of them are vegetable and fruits. For a instant convenience, people over produce and consume food.

Developed countries even waste more than developing countries. Producing food and cleaning food waste both cost a lot of money and resources.

I would like to find out the knowledge of bath product, gain the awareness of this issue, and motivate people to use natural bath product.

I would like to make people understand the fact and change their consuming habits of food.

04/ HOUSE ARRANGEMENT

05/ A GREAT GAP YEAR

Slow pace makes life enjoyable.

Before arranging, Let’s throw stuffs you don’t need.

Step out of our formal lives and meet something new.

Following with the progress of technology. Everything speeds up. Paying process, delivery duration, information accessing and thinking become so fast that modern people make decision without consideration. Also with the fast tempo, people less enjoy their daily lives. They eat and sleep for surviving, not living. They walk too fast to see the surrounding world. They are too busy to feel their own emotion. People numbed everything with their fast lives.

People always complain about house, or room arrangement. It often takes a lot of time to do it, or even never finish it. Few people do arrangement regularly, however the orderliness doesn’t stay over three days and everything become the same as before. The solution of this problem is throwing. Throwing things we don’t need and keeping those things we love makes differences. Having less items is more effective than reposition all the stuff we actually don’t need and won’t use at all.

I would like to promote the idea of softer life style, and educate people how to slow down their steps in order to have a better life.

I would like to investigate the tips to arrange house well, teach people how to make their living environment more comfortable.

Gap year gives young generation a chance to step out of their comfort zone and experience different life style.

Although it mostly refers to student now, but this concept of “change” could actually be applied in any ages. It makes people become brave and encourage people to try new thing s and be independent. The satisfaction of life comes from various life experiences.

In order to promote this great theme, I would like to make a platform to let people who has gap year share their journey to whom doesn’t have this thought or such experiences.

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Lab. 2

Explore the possibilities To see the chosen topic from different perspectives.

I choose five words for my topic and take ten photos to represent each words. The five words should be what a designer can be concerned to his or her design concept for the topic. Those photos should be unique and representing the word well.

Connect

An important outcome of slowing down is to connect with people surrounding us.

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Speed

When we talk about the pace of life, speed is a key point to discuss. We should reconsider the speed we are at and how it affects our feeling toward lives.

Time

ㄔㄔㄔT ime can be our friends if we know how to get alone with it. Slowing down is to reclaim our time. Because it is losing, we should剋ㄏ ㄋㄛc onsider about it more.

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Daily

The daily routines seems ㄇㄠt rivial and not important, however they are the basic elements to build a day. If we slow down and do them mindfully, we can find pleasure in it.

ă„ŠE xplore

ă„”S lowing down is actually to explore a new way of living. Everyone has their own choices and point of views. We keep finding and trying the most suitable one for ourselves.

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Lab.3

Express personal opinions 喔ㄔPersonal feeling towards the topic is important. It stands my original opinions. I started my journey at this point. I can express myself, get feedback from other people and refine understanding of my topic . Those thoughts might be weak and relatively raw, yet they are still valuable materials for exploring more good insights.

Poster Sketches

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Selected Posters

Poster 01/ This world needs to slow down. 喔I think that the fast pace decrease the quality of life, however, we are encouraged to be as fast. Gradually, we became impatient and complain more than before. Our negative emotion may affect others. The whole world are getting lost in the cult of speed and we enjoy their lives less.

Design: I chose type as my dominate visual elements. I manipulated the image and make it still in the type section. The rest of image was moving fast and colored ㄙㄛi n cold blue creates an indifferent atmosphere.

Poster 02/ Obsession of speed leads us to nowhere.

I feel that people are obsessed with the speed in this generation. Technology improve the speed of spreading information and makes people react too quickly. We’ve been conditioned to believe that busier is better, but actually the speed of doing is not as important as what we focus on doing. ㄎD esign: I also chose type as my dominate elements becasue I want readers to read the warning quotes. 喔I made the title vibrate to create a intense feeling to remind people that accelerating will make lives nervous. ㄔㄖㄖB ackground depicts the haste and rushing of this fast paced world.

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Poster 03/ Stop the tik-tok, and seize the moment.

I feel one of the important habit of slowing down is being present. During meeting, people are easy to be distracted.

We are not in the moment but keep checking the time and devices. If we can focus on the present, we are likely to enjoy the moment more. Our time are limited and we can do nothing with it, however, time restraint shouldn’t become the source of stress and effect our emotion badly.

Design: ĺ–”I use colored and uncolored sections to describe the differences of being present and being anxious about time restraint

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Lab.4

Find key questions ㄇA sking questions is a basic way to explore related insights. Socratic inquiry is a continuous asking action.

The answer of this question might be extended to the next question. Through asking, I gradually got into the center of my topic, but also there were chances that I might go too far from it.

During the process, I came up with about 60 questions and chose six of them that describe my topic well.

55 Questions about slowing down our lives

Questions for clarification 01 What is slow life style?

02 Is slow life style a good thing?

03 Is speed not a good thing?

04 Does speed makes you happier?

05 Who does live in slow life style?

06 Do these people feel their life sucks?

07 What is the first step to slow down?

08 What do you mean “a balance life�?

09 What is Slow Movement?

Questions that probe assumptions 10 Do you think this world is obsessed with speed?

11 Who says that? any examples?

12 Do most people agree with him?

13 If not, Why do they not agree with him?

14 If we are too slow to be late, it that a good thing?

15 Is it true that city people are always in hurry?

16 Does fast lead people to successful life?

17 What is the definition of successful life? wealth? love? family? fame?

18 Does everyone have the same goal in their lives?

19 Should we convince people follow our beliefs?

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Questions that probe reasons and evidence 20 Why do people speed up the pace of their life?

think and make decision?

39 What will we lose if we are too fast?

21 Why people always want to be the first or ahead the others?

40 Questions that probe implications and consequences

22 Why do people want to finish everything in a period of short time?

41 Does slowing down mean it literally, like eating for 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes?

23 Do they finish things well?

42 What if the work due date is coming, should we still slow down?

24 Do you try to save time as much as you can?

25 Doing what thing makes you feel you are wasting time?

26 Why do people think that playing waste time?

27 If Is playing with family wasting time?

28 Why isn’t working wasting time?

43 What happen when the reality and ideal situation are too different?

44 What if you have no time to slow down?

45 Is slow down the best solution?

29 Why do we need to slow down?

46 Does slowing down mean that people need more time to finish a thing?

30 What is the worst result if people live in high speed?

47 What is the benefit from slowing down?

48 How to balance both?

Questions about viewpoints and perspectives 31 Who advocate slow life style?

Questions about the question

32 Where do they live? in cities or countryside?

49 Is slowness the best way to describe your idea?

33 Is he/she rich or have relatively well financial ability?

50 How about Ease? Rest? Balance?

34 Do you think only the rich has the chance to live slowly?

51 Talking about slow life style, do you associate it with leisure time?

35 If I am not rich, I won’t have time to slow down because I have to work to get money?

36 If slowness is a good idea, what about the quick delivery service? Is it a bad thing?

37 Even push it further, what about the Instant Messaging in our daily life?

38 Does the feature of Instant Messaging change how we

52 Does slow life style only describe rest or leisure time?

53 Are my questions neutral? How can I prove that?

54 Do the answers of my questions differ from people in different ages?

55 Do the answers of my questions differ between people from different social class?

“The trouble with the rat race is, even if you win, you are still a rat.”

—Lily Tomlin

Why do people speed up the pace of their life?

In the modern world, fast means efficiency and slowness means deficiency. Doing things fast means that we can do more thing in a short time. Actually we this conclusion since we were little: If kids learn fast, then we tend to think he is smart, if not, then he is stupid. This ”speed philosophy” is also applied in working field. People doing work faster get more chance to promote and better positions.

Also as technology consumers, our expectations for the apps we use – from shopping or viewing videos to trading stocks and updating inventories – are similar to the pursuit of land speed records. What was once fast is redefined with each new generation in technology. And each new generation of technology arrives quicker than the last.

What will we lose if we are too fast?

Followed with the 0ver-speedy life, overwhelm, stress, and a sense of disconnection would come after. We are too busy to care about those are important to us, to expierience different events and to have a quality life. We disconnected with people because we only talk with people in workfield and ignore our family and friends.

We think they would always be there and the truth is the links are disappearing. We may make wrong decision because we have no time to consider it. We are stressful but don’t know how to release it. Stress may cause serious mental diseases.

Furthermore, busy schedule and tiredness would likely shut down our body function. We try so hard and wish a good life, but we eventually failed.

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Why do we need to slow down?

Personal motivations for slowing down vary, but often stem from a sense that all of the more in our lives has not made them better. Overwhelm, stress, and a sense of disconnection are common symptoms of trying to deal with too much in a fast– paced, commodity–filled, and highly technological culture. Slow Living addresses the desire to lead a more balanced life and to pursue a more holistic sense of well being in the fullest sense of the word.

What is the first step to slow down?

“Slow Living? I don’t have time for it!”

This is the initial reaction for most people when they being told to slow down.

Chances are you would really benefit from more of it. The first thing is to put your smart phone and any technological device away, try to cook a good meal for you self, or read an novel for an hour without any bother. You may feel anxious when you do them in the first time, and you may feel like you are wasting time. The reason is that we are so used to the speed and fast world. Once you do it, you will find out that time become your friend because you have more flexibility to use it.

Slow Living means structuring your life around meaning and fulfillment. Similar to “voluntary simplicity” and “downshifting,” it emphasizes a less-is-more approach, focusing on the quality of your life. … Slow Living addresses the desire to lead a more balanced life and to pursue a more holistic sense of well-being in the fullest sense of the word.

What is the benefit of slowing down?

When we start to slow down the pace of our life, we release our stress and anxiety.

We have more chances to connect with people, develop our own hobbies, satisfy our desire and feel fulfilled about life. Many Slow Movement proponents would argue that slow can ultimately be faster, and certainly better, as we make decisions and act in ways that are more thoughtful and considerate than purely efficiency driven processes.

What is Slow Movement?

The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. It began with Carlo Petrini’s protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in Piazza di Spagna, Rome in 1986 that sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization. Over time, this developed into a subculture in other areas, such as Cittaslow (Slow Cities), Slow living, Slow Travel, and Slow Design.

It is important to note that the Slow Movement is not about doing things slowly. It is about finding the right speed with which to do something in a way that values quality over quantity, long term benefits over short term gains, and well–being of the many over the few.

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“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

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Lab.5

Connect the dots As a designer, thinking comprehensively is a important ability. There are invisible connections between things in different fields, and I am the one who try to uncover those interesting connections. Once I made one, more others will appear automatically. This lab provides new windows of the topic, and I am responsible to open them to see what is out there.

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I separated my cards into two groups: The badness of going too fast and the benefits of slowing down. I took out the color of the first group and use the red type to indicate the danger. For the second set, I reclaimed the color back and use script typeface to present the soft and delightful feeling. There are two cards placed in the transition of this two sets. One is “Control” and another one is “Management”. I think through this two actions people would be more likely to get out of the first situation and get in the preferred one.

I also add some graphic elements to enhance the meaning of the photos and words, which makes the design less flat and dynamic.

Apart/

Impulsive/

We get lost easily in speed. The outside world is getting faster, we need to slow down our own path.

Obsession of device makes us disconnected with people around us.

Considering and thinking more before we shop can avoid unnecessary cost and waste. Slowing down can help us to make better decision.

Haste/

Harmful/

Stress/

Being in a haste makes people feel they are out of control. Slowing down and pick up the control of time is the only solution.

Instant or fast food seems that it saves lots of cooking time, but actually is harmful for our bodies.

We pay more to recover form the damage.

Too much stress would likely cause mental diseases such as Depression and Affective Disorder.

Breakdown/

Overly/

Control/

Overworking cause serious health problem.

Also, overworked people become “less efficient and less effective.�

To satisfy the rapidly consuming of seafood, overfishing is changing the balance of ocean ecosystem.

We control our speed not only on the road but also on the pace of our life.

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Lost/

Creativity/

Patient/

Connecting with people let us feel belonging, which also bring sense of security and confidence.

Creativity takes time to make it reality and the process is usually longer than we imagine.

Haste does not bring success, patient does.

Calm/

Fresh/

Ease/

Yoga is the activity that not only good for health also keep people clam and release their stress.

Against globalization, Local farm market provides fresh food and connects the growers and customers.

Ease from tension is one of the benefits of slowing down.

Rest/

Balance/

Management/

A little rest leads better performance.

Slow Philosophy is not doing everything slowly, yet to make balance between different elements in life.

Time management is not just saving time as much as you can, is to distribute your time properly.

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Belonging/

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Lab.6

Define the archetypes To communicate the message successfully, I choose several possible archetypes to be my target audience. Since my topic is encouraging people slow down, I was seeking for those who suffer from the fast paced lives and needs to take a pause. In this lab, I chose six archetypes in the possible spectrum and the other two out of it.

Archetypes in the spectrum

“Please send me the report by 3pm, Pacific time.”

“lolllllll”

—Steven, Business traveler

—Jessica, Phubber

He lives in his house only a week per month.

She checks emails and messages all the time.

He speaks English, Spanish, German, and is learning Chinese recently.

She updates her statue everyday and keeps tracking the others’ statues.

He usually eats with people related with his job.

She feels awkward and uncomfortable during silent moment.

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“When does this end...?”

“Math until 11pm, then science until 2am.”

—Jim, Commuter

—Kim, Straight A’s student

He commutes for 2 hours in each workday.

She gets scholarship every semester.

He doesn’t eat breakfast at home and often just gets an americano cafe for the morning.

She gets great grades, plays piano, attends soccer team and does volunteering in weekends.

He planned to read before sleeping but failed because he was too tired to make it.

She was taught watching cartoon and playing with toys are wasting her life time.

“ I have no time for resting, even a nap is luxury to me. ”

“It is your turn to take care of the baby!”

—Paul, Stressed worker

—Kim, Busy ㄩ M om

He leaves office at 9 o’clock everyday.

She cares about her own business more than her kid.

He doesn’t have extra time to exercise, read and have a good dinner with family.

She often argues with her husband about who can take care of the baby.

He usually feels anxious about his work, he is worried that he couldn’t finish it on time.

She rarely cooks or eats at home.

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Archetypes out of the spectrum

“I am resting and getting refresh, no one can judge the behavior for taking care of myself.”

“I enjoy every moment right now and cherish what I own” —Nancy, Retired elder

—Grace, Life experiencer

She shows up in all of the friend gatherings.

She gets up at 5:00am everyday.

She is usually the one who strat the conversation when she meets new people.

She likes to do knitting for her family.

She is always smiling and polite and aware of her appearance and behavior.

She appreciates surrounding and the awe of nature.

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Lab.7

Listen to other opinions It is time to gather people to talk about your topic. I hosted an event in two different dates and invite my friends to share their life experiences. My played the host and asked question to inspire my guests to give feedback.

I also got inspired by thie responds. Listening to other people’s voice helps �me to find the blind spots of my thoughts. I heard different point of views about my topic, which open a new window for developing this topic.

“Spending time on finding a right way is more important than try to finish it fast.”

–Louise Tsai

“Having my own time and doing what I like help me control my emotion, which leads to a calm mind.”

–Joy Pa

“We want to do million things in one time, and that is impossible.”

–Rofulson Chung

“I just want to get everything done.

It makes me feel secure and calm.”

–Melissa Hedeca

“Sometimes I feel peaceful and calm even I have a busy day, and sometimes I did nothing in whole day yet feel anxious” –Lynn Lin

“In that 5 minutes break, I don’t think anything about my work, anything.”

–Zoey Lin

“For me, slow lifestyle doesn’t mean that slowing down my daily schedule, it means slowing down my mind.”

–Melissa Hedeca

“Don’t force yourself to slow down, it will come naturally if you are involved in it” –Rolfuson Chung

“Staying at home and doing homework all the time didn’t make my work better, after I walked out my door and meet people, I felt happier and my work became alive.”

–Bella Huang

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“The more time you take to make a desicion, the less chance you will regret about it.”

–Jack Chu

Uncovered insights about slowness

01/ Physically slowing down our actions may not really helps.

What people really want is mentally slowing down.

06/ There is no a perfect pace fits everyone, we all need to find the best way deal with our life and it takes a bit time.

02/ wwwㄊw www

07/ The outside behavior is just the surface, the inside pace of our mind is what we should be really take care of.

03/ㄋ ㄋEven with busy schedule, some people still feel calm and peaceful in their mind.

08/ People tends to be over-committed, that is why we rush so much. We try to cram as much as we can in our lives.

04/ Most people associated slowness with negative things, such as incompetent, powerless and uncompetitive.

09/ Slowness doesn’t cause inefficiency, distraction does. Slowing down leads a better result because of thinking considerately.

05/ Slow lifestyle sounds unrealistic to people living in the world with speed and competitive. To them, it is a luxury.

10/ Learning how to appreciate the surrounded nature helps mentally slowing down.

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ă„™Notes from Slow Talk

01/ Demonstrate the benefit of slowness.

02/ Encourage people implement slow philosophy in their real lives.

03/ Provide the principles that people can follow to practice

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ă„Šă„ŠW hat I want to do:

The best 3 insights from the event

01/ being present helps to slow down Deliverable: A set of calender

Deliverable : A little handy booklet

“Step back a little bit, and take some time to think deeper.”

“Take a deep breathe and space out for a minute.”

“Slowness doesn’t cause inefficiency, distraction does”. ㄋ

“It is impossible to do million things in the same time, choose a few and do them very well.”

“Take time to find a good method instead of finishing with haste.”

A LIT TLE SLOWNESS .

“Find pleasure in anything you are doing.”

03/ Slowing down physically is just surface, and slowing down mentally is what people look for.

Deliverable: Postcards

IF THE WORLD BECOMES FASTER, WE SHOULD KEEP OUR MIND SLOWER.

NO MATTER HOW FAST OTHERS RUN, OWN OUR STEPS.

FACE OUTSIDE CHAOS WITH INNER PEACE.

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02/ Slowness doesn’t cause procrastination, distractions do.

ă„?Event report

ă„‘D esign: I made a brochure, a set of ten bookmarks, calenders, a handy notebook and three postcards to present my event documentation. I chose watercolor paper texture to present the slowness. Also for bookmarks, I attached yarn to enhance the softness. In this lab, I finally find the right visual language to present my idea. Expect for the visual, what people can touch and feel are the important design consideration to this topic.

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Lab.8

Integrate the insights Now I am going to arrange all of the facts, quotes, interviews and notes from reading into a set of cards. These cards include the most intrigue and special insights to describe my topic. The integrating will bring it form divergent into convergent so that it will be more focus on the main point. These cards will also be used as raw material for midpoint review proposal video.

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Final /

Present the proposal For the midpoint review proposal, I need to build a video which includes background information, problem statement, preferred situation , target audience, and design opportunity gaps to convince the committee my thesis topic is worth to pursue.

Script and slides

Background & Problems/

“It’s not only the scenery you miss by going to fast, you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

— Eddie Cantor

Since the Industrial Revolution, “bigger, and faster” has been the ethos of this modern world. As technology advances, people speed up. We rush between meetings, make decisions without consideration, and less enjoy our lives.

We enjoy our lives less.

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Stress and anxiety - There is no maximum working hours limit in the United States. Instead, the salary policy encourage people work more than before. Yet we forget our time and energy are limited. Stress appears when we don’t get enough time to relax and refresh ourselves.

Bad body condition - Without rest, our bodies will react in unusual ways which may cause serious health problems.

Less interaction with people we love When was the last time you had a good dinner with family? A lot of people spent their whole day rushing around outside, but don’t even spend 10 minutes with their family.

People are afraid of slowing down.

If your are slow, you are loser, but is that a true? What if we slow down?

Preferred situation & Target audience/

Health - Slow down to stay healthy, we gain control of our bodies with less fast food and more conscious eating and exercise. We are not wasting time. We are taking care of ourselves.

Connection - Slow down to connect.

Turn off the digital notifications, and try to focus on people next to you, specially those who are the most important in your life. Look at them and listen to them before quickly replying without patience.

About 89 % of Americans who say work/ life balance is a significant problem and want to slow down right now

They may be stressed workers, business leaders, and busy parents.

Performance - Slow down to achieve better performance. Slowness does not cause procrastination, distractions do. When we really take time and deeply focus on our work, we are actually able to finish it more quickly and get a better result. In Germany, it is proven that working less hours improves productivity.

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Design Opportunities/ As a designer, I would like to leverage my design ability to help them to slow down.

01/ Organization Identity: I want to redesign the identity of existing organizations to attract more audience to involve.

02/ Book Series: I want to make a book Series that advocates slowness in different categories of life,

03/ Slow Exhibition: I want to create photography exhibition depicting slowness held in an office building to refresh workers’ minds.

04/ Stationery Kit: I want to design a stationary kit with interesting quotes to remind workers to slow down.

Conclusion/ “There is more to life than increasing its speed.”

—Mahatma Gandhi

The purpose of slowing down isn’t to make us move or do things more slowly but to find a better balance in our lives.

Life as a whole is better if we go slowly, take the time to savor it, and appreciate every moment.

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Related thoughts and quotes

01/ The secret of slowing down is it actually bring impressive efficiency.

02/ Slowing down is a conscious choice about lives, and it is not easy to do. It is better to start with small, don’t change your life pace dramatically, it won’t last long.

03/ People think they know how to slow down but they just don’t have time. This is the most common misunderstanding of this philosophy. Instead of just having fun and relaxing, we actually try to do things more mindfully and consciously.

04/ Do less and do them well, single tasking instead of multi- tasking.

05/ Be in the present, rather than think too much about the future or the past.

06/ “Nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is accomplished.“ —Lao Tzu 07/ We are still afraid of slowing down. Fear hold us back—the fear of being left behind, being blamed, or just be bored.

08/ Go deeper into things, don’t just skimming along on the surface.

09/ Slowing down has a spiritual dimension.

10/ The great benefit of slowing down is reclaiming the time and tranquility to make meaningful connections with people, culture,work,nature, and our own mind.

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11/ ”Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.” —William Shakespeare 12/ We forgot that life is to experience, not to compete all the time.

13/ When we slow down, we notice more.

14/ Breathe is a easiest way to take a pause. Even just a breathe, focus on it.

15/ “Do it fast!“ is a good characteristic for machine, and we are human beings.

16/ Excesses lead to all kinds problems, the biggest is that we become hard to satisfied and unhappy.

17/ Volvo in Sweden, for any projects they take 2 years to be finalized, even the idea is simple and great.

18/ Reducing clutter and saving money are just the added value of slowing down.

19/ “Don’t think you will be doing less work because you sleep during the day.

That’s a foolish notion held by people who have no imagination. You will be able to accomplish more” — Winston Churchill 20/ What we have to do is energy management, not time management. This is the key to complete our works efficiently.

Yihan Hsia GR600 Communication Lab Phillip Hamlett Fall 2014 jessica85358@hotmail.com