A needle in my spine!
suits.
face cards.
DESIGN YOURSELF. lets begin.
This blog serves as a day to day update of the status of my senior project. My thesis is ever evolving, and needs to be documented, observed, and of course i would love feedback. Design Yourself is an attempt to aid design students and/or progressing designers in their quest for an answer to any confusion they might have about the field they are pursuing. More detail lies in the posts below. This project is constantly changing, so brief descriptions are necessary.
This might seem contradictory, but on the contrary it gives the student complete freedom. A simple breakdown of the suits to give entry level designers an understanding of what these areas mean in general. This a project in development that is going to be given to a class of students. They will be the first to experience “Design Yourself.” Yes. Its a card game to replace standardized / placement tests.
DESIGN YOURSELF
I find fault with the learning curve at SCAD. It takes a leap of faith, and that faith is based on standardization in classifying designers. We, as designers are taught to think with open minds and to expand our foundation exponentially. Always think “outside the box”, nothing is ever too “blue sky”, several methodologies are taught to us as students to become excellent problem solvers.
We can combine any random number of words, put up several post-its, and stare at what we have written down. Eventually it comes to us, some sort of visual stimulant evokes our sixth sense of design.
Design opportunities are revealed through our ability to dissect and process mass amounts of data.
Design solutions stem from our ability to visual translate abstract ideas into concrete concepts.
So, as an approach to teach designers who they are, is a mistake on many levels. To tell a designer something is a step in the wrong direction, i believe it is a designers instinct to automatically take something the wrong way. For instance, someone that is told what to do or what to design will instantly rebel.
It’s just natural, because the best design is different, its is innovative, and it reaches the senses in new and profound ways.
We should give young designers this same freedom.
With “Design Yourself”, students are not contained in the bubble of standardization. They are not told who they are or what they can be.
Instead, they as designers create unique interactions and experiences.
They determine the rules, the expectations, and create a world they deem fit. Not only are they creating, but they are telling the teachers so much about themselves as designers. This is the perfect ethnography, the perfect dissection of the mind. No containment, no boundaries, a chance to let students grow mentally, expose themselves. No longer will designers be measured in strengths and weaknesses, for they are burdens that trap the mind.
The designers now expose clear strategies, and they work within the moment.
Nothing is wrong and nothing is right. There is no failure.
The biggest problem that any designer or artist faces is the blank canvas. “Design Yourself” is a foundation to build from. It is blank, but it bears meaning deep inside. This is the layer designers must learn to penetrate. It comes through instinct. Whatever the connotations might be, how they interpret them, will tell the story of each individual designer. It can be worked on as a group or as individuals. These games allow freedom.
Freedom gives light to creation.
Creation makes the designer as the designer creates.
DESIGN IS CONSTANT CHAOS.
As SCAD produces more Majors and more specific focus groups, they should parallel this thought in their intro system.
If they want to channel a students talent and interests specifically then they should give the students the opportunity to show their skillsets in a way that isn’t too literal.(i.e. writing a paper on it.)
“in the moment learning” stems from the ability to create, to take the intangible and make it concrete.
Each student percieves a major differently. They are presented with tasks they must complete, and skill-sets they must acquire.
This is a very unnatural learning process, but designers are taught how to think.
If they can grasp this concept of opening the mind to new methods, then they can grow exponentially as a designer.
If there are no limits to what one may interpret, then nothing is a problem. It is an opportunity.
I believe this to be the goal of design.
