Nature Reconnect

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Nature can feel like a stranger, far away, when we are tucked in, safe in our houses.
But the more time you spent exploring our planet and emerging in nature the more you will realise, we are one planet and every choice we make, matters in some context.

This module is about reconnecting to nature, which comfort and technology has disconnected a big percentage of “The Western world” from. We simply cannot grasp the hardships people live with in rural areas, nor the impact of our actions have when it comes to nature, cause for lots of people they have never had to be at the mercy of nature, nor do they necessarily know that they lack this knowledge or understanding, not to mention the importance of our connection to nature.

In the very start of this module, we looked at the issue of our disconnect with three different problem-solving approaches, as interior designers, product designers and interaction designers. Our solutions were visualized by creating 4 A2 posters, one visualizing the issue, and one for each discipline.
That work, including descriptions of it, can be viewed in my blog post “Nature Disconnect Mood boards” https://learningspaces.dundee.ac.uk/soc-dig18-avchristiansen/2019/03/04/532/

RESEARCH

When it comes to research during the module, we did some field work as far back as the first weeks, we went to Trentsmuir Forest to both experience the forest, but also to collect quite a few objects from the beach and forest. Which left us with both “natural” materials, like wood, leaves, sand etc. and ocean and forest trash like plastic and glass bottles, metal cans, fishing and metal wires, spray cans, fireworks, single-use grills etc. This gave a better understanding of the disrespect there is to nature, the trash from the ocean was no surprise, however, the trash left in the forest and on the sidewalks everywhere in Dundee city startled me. And so that was the core issue for the mood board project.
However, for our second and last project in the module, I wanted to look at the issue of disconnection to nature from a new angle, and to do that I needed more research.

I started out with mind mapping the issues of plastic pollution in our oceans

I then went on to make another mind map for designers who inspire me with their approach to sustainability or reconnection to nature.

However, after doing these I still didn’t feel that I had enough knowledge of the meaning of “Nature Disconnect” so I did searches on the definition of nature and more importantly, what being disconnected to nature means and what consequences it has. I did that by watching TED talks and looking up articles, and that is where I was lucky enough to find a research paper about “The relationship between Connectedness to Nature, Environmental Values, and Pro-environmental Behaviours” made by two psychology students from Charles Darwin University, Australia. Here they had tested exactly what I wanted to know, how connectedness to nature impacts our behaviour and who it impacts the most, and why.
https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/reinvention/issues/volume8issue2/pereira/
This is the link to the website, however, the paper with my notes and highlights is in the SKETCHBOOK section of this post. But for convenience, I will give a short summary of the relevant points for this project.

SUMMARY

Connectedness to nature does indeed lead to pro-environmental behaviours, however, connectedness to nature only explains 10% of the pro-environmental behaviours in this study whereas, in some other studies it showed to be 17%  or even 19,36% caused by connectedness. However, multiple studies, including this one, suggest that we are all subconsciously emotionally connected to nature, and the strength of the emotional connection correlates to our pro-environmental behaviour.

However, in 2015, when this paper was released, the feeling of individual responsibility showed to be declining, interestingly enough with rising concern for the environment. Which brings us to the groups of people described in this paper:
The egoistic type; focused on impacts for that one individual
The altruistic type; concerned about the impact of other people
The biospheric type; concerned for the impacts of climate change for all living creatures.

The general ideas for this development is the lack of knowledge on the significance of the subject, and common mindsets like “one person cannot significantly reduce the impact of climate change nor is one person responsible for the consequences” decreases the pro-environmental behaviours, not only of the person who says it but for the people who listen to it.

It is also suggested that people who live in urban areas are more likely to be less connected to nature, or simply less aware, and therefore less acting, on their relationship to nature, and the environment around them.  They are also less likely to know about the benefits of being in and connecting to nature.

1st BRAINSTORM

Before I created a specific persona, I wanted to stay with designs for children, where I had the initial idea for trying to let blind children experience nature by creating a “feel like” landscape. However, no matter how I looked at it and tried to reshape it, I kept getting into more of a onetime art piece, which at the time I wasn’t satisfied with.

PERSONA & FOUND OBJECTS

To try to get away from my initial ideas and mind space I made my persona based on the data from the research paper, to see who, according to the paper, might be typically disconnected, even though they don’t know they are. It also inspired me to get quite a few details in there to make her feel realistic and recognisable.

Because the brief gives the challenge of using found objects, I used the artefact analysis sheet we were given, and it gave a really cool insight to the effect I wanted the materials to have on my persona. However, my actual found object is wood I got from a barrel that had broken. But after going through the paper what stroke me the most was how big an impact having an emotional connection to nature did, and so I wanted the used materials to have an emotional connection for her as well as her obtaining an emotional connection and appreciation of living plants. So, I ended up making a “fake/tailored” wooden material, which was her family’s old dining table. And so, I made the artefact analysis on that to explore and explain the emotional value in the used object. and then I used my broken barrel and metal cans as found objects for the prototype. I also wanted the metal cans to be from her own use to make her feel individually responsible for her consumption of recyclable packaging.

2nd BRAINSTORM

After creating my persona, I decided to focus on furniture, where I relatively fast decided I wanted to design something useful, which would fit her personality, with a working and visible microcosm inside. Since that would be a benefit to her busy lifestyle and it would still give her the emotional connection expected with watching something live, grow and thrive.

After messing about with different furniture, I mainly stuck with sculptural takes on bookshelves because of her superficial interest in art and books.

Many of the initial Bookshelf ideas were round, or oval, where the plants were supposed to grow inside the sides of the circle. I experimented with shaping a metal grid I found. It worked well to hold the round shape and give some extra texture. I also played with different materials and inspiration sources to get a feeling for the aesthetic I wanted, however, I mainly stuck to plastic, because it is seethrough, and I wanted her to be able to watch the plants live.

 

PROTOTYPES

For my final product, I decided on my parallelogram shaped design. So, I started changing the angle of the body, and the orientation of the shelves. I did all my “refined” prototypes in cardboard to make it easier for myself, but it also made it possible to find the most material saving layout for the final cut-out.

FINAL PROTOTYPE

The finished prototype is made of Plexiglas, metal cans and wood from the broken barrel. I drew the pieces for the model in Illustrator were after I got the glass laser cut, unfortunately, the laser cutter was set at too slow a speed, so the plastic burned all the way around the edges. Which ended up with me spending half a day sanding down the edges to get the sides back in sizes that would fit together. To get a smoother surface on the glass, I was told to smear on toothpaste and let it sit… however, I can not recommend that it doesn’t actually change much. To get the barrel wood to look like it was from an old dining table I coloured it in strong coffee and gave it a few more scratches. I then cut the metal cans into strips to line both the inside and outside of the model. Before glueing the last piece to the model, I put in the stones, soil and plants to emulate the microcosm.

laser outline-1c632uy

EXHIBITION

For the exhibition, I created a booklet and a brand around the product. I chose to call it Ullassa after the Hindi Sanskrit describing “the feelings of pleasantness associated with natural/natures beauty”. I found that in many ways finding an appreciation for Ullassa is exactly what this project is about. In this context, I also made a small 100-word statement to place next to the exhibition, which consisted of prototypes and a sketchbook showing the progression of the project, paired with the instruction booklet and the statement to give the audience an idea of what receiving the product would include.

I would like to first go through the sketchbook, and then close in on the subjects and pages within it;
Please do scroll down after this, since the blog continues with more information on the branding and project reflections.

PERSONA & ARTEFACT ANALYSIS
PROTOTYPES
BOOKLETS
RESEARCH

BRAND

For the instruction booklet and statement, I chose a minimalistic design for my city-dwelling and busy persona, Jessica. First I thought it funny to call the product Grow YourShelf, to include both the function of the product and the development it would stir in herself, in the product name. However, when I stumbled over the Ullassa Sanskrit I couldn’t help but find it cannily relevant, and so I wanted to include this appreciation and connection to nature through the branding, which lead me to a green and black colour scheme followed later by the idea of printing it on craft paper, to give it some texture and weight. To get a coherent aesthetic I went to Pinterest to collect some inspiration and get an idea of what it was I wanted.

I decided to use Gill Sans MT as my body font and Bodoni MT for headings throughout all my handed in text because they both give a bit of interest while staying readable and elegant. Using the same fonts just gives it an extra connection to the other pieces that have it. The same goes for the leaf frame I drew for the booklet and statement it shows some aesthetics from the product, a square with plants growing around it, and then the angled folds of the booklet, to give it that interest and connection to the product.

The 100 word statement was printed on regular printing paper and glued to cardboard.

REFLECTIVE ESSAY

To finish all of this off I have written a short essay talking about

Reflections essay-1qsttpm

Nature Disconnect Mood boards

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Overall design and thoughts:

This project is called Nature Disconnect, so I wanted to use my layout to show the connection to nature that we are slowly regaining in our designs. A global example of this is the “Grow It Yourself Movement” and the increased awareness of how we influence our environment with our decisions as consumers. The colour scheme I choose shows the cliche that we as consumers often fall for, that if something looks and feels natural, it probably is. It is still a good indicator, however, sustainability is a quite complex topic, that often can´t be deciphered that easily.
The rope also opens the discussion of wheater or not we are actually disconnected to nature, or if we have simply changed nature into so many products, that technology and nature in many ways have become very entangled, Cause at this point, all nature is man-made, and that is neither good nor bad, but it means that we can never truly be disconnect, for we, us-selves are nature.

The boy at the end of the rope shows the goal for the next generation, that they will look at found objects and “trash” as resources and materials that can be reused and repurposed into something new and exciting with a story.

Manifesto board:

I made the first mood board, the manifesto board, as an intro to the project. It has three sections, Stating the issues, Examples of solutions and the target group I chose to have in common in all my projects.

I chose the city family dynamic for three reasons,
1. people who live in cities are often the ones who are also less connected to nature, due to the city environment and often the busy lives that stereotypically follow city life.
2. I chose the family dynamic because the influence children have on adults often gets understated. If the children become aware of their impact and lack of connection to nature, they will drag their parents out as well.
3.I chose a family setting with young children, because they have an amazing ability to put creativity and entertainment into everything they do, and appreciating the small things is in many ways what connecting to nature is about. Children are also the ones who benefit the most because they bring it into the rest of their lives.

Product Design Board:

With all of the above in mind, I created a concept I call Search Toys. It´s a way to get children engaged and aware of the resources around them. They get the mechanics of a toy or the structure of a toy, and then they have to search in nature or the families used packaging to finish making the toy. this not only gives them the feeling of accomplishment of building it themselves, and the awareness of the resources around them, they before called trash, but it also makes them fix it themselves when it brakes because it is made of something they can find and have made before. This is to make them go against the throwaway culture in our part of the world.

The board is made up of four sections, inspiration, materials, storyboard and prototypes.

Inspiration part shows the fashion artist Edgar Artis, who uses lots of different materials and cut-outs to use backgrounds as patterns. It also includes the 2012 Poland Student Design Winner Musicon by Kamil Laszuk, which is a complex and engaging toy that gave inspiration to my prototypes. The third inspiration is the outdoors, and specifically an improvised outdoor swing in my local park, it is a good example of how minimal effort makes it easy and fun to engage in nature.

The materials section show how both old packaging, leaves, flowers, branches and stones can be used in the toy designs.

Interior Board:

When it came to the interior design board I wanted to children and parents could stay in and experience the outdoors. Again I separated my board into four parts, Inspiration, First ideas, Storyboard and Prototypes.

All the inspiration pictures are “open” structures, they have great views to the outside, and they all emerge in the landscape more than disrupt them.
In my brainstorms, I played with lots of shapes, and angles, I had an Idea of making an installation with mirrors, zooms and microphone to encourage visitors to use all their senses to explore an area. I also looked at deconstructable materials like paper tubes, that architect Shigeru Ban, for example, has done lots of successful work with (http://www.shigerubanarchitects.com/works.html)

But I ended up with a final concept called Sky House, which is a packageable and portable treehouse, cause lets be honest, what kid doesn’t dream of a tree house? The idea consists of three parts, an adjustable net in the bottom, an equally adjustable plastic ceiling that you can look through to observe the night sky, and a waterproof cloth to put around the structure, like walls.

Interaction Board:

For my last board, the interior design, I had three ideas I was joggling between, Scavenger Hunt, Bug Buddy and Curious Cam.
Scavenger hunt is an app that allows you to scan any plant, fungus or tree to see what it can be used for.
It´s a way to get children and parents alike to get a closer relationship with the plant species around them. Ideally, it should be sponsored by universities, botanic gardens etc, so that they could get the location and count data on the plants, and in return, maybe the kids could collect enough points to get tickets to botanic gardens or research centres.

Bug Buddy, is an attempt to make children less scared of germs and insects. It would work as an app where you can scan the insect and get facts about it.

Curious Cam is a product idea to make parents more comfortable with letting their children out on their own. it works as a picture compass, it will suggest a road for you to go, if you choose so, and when you then want to go home, it will show you in the right direction. But the idea of it is that it takes a picture every once in a while so that when the child comes home, they can show the parent where they´ve been and what they´ve done, so that it can feel like they were out “together”.

 

Design Methods For Insight Gathering

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The history of travel photography

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

We take it for granted now, but simply the act of being able to capture a photo used to be an accomplishment, the gear was heavy, fragile, and unreliable. And as you can imagine the technological development of both cameras and transportation are the foundation of the history of travel photography. In the beginning cameras were more a technical invention than anything else. It was then used as a tool for creating portraits, and to take pictures of possessions as to keep the memory of something.
Cameras then evolved into a scientific equipment tool, it was useful as a means to document. And since scientists found the technology so useful, a need for a transportable camera had arrived, and that´s where our journey starts.

The 19th was, as the 18th century had been, was a time for exploration, explorations that could now be documented more accurately, where they earlier relied on the, often inaccurate, oral descriptions from the travellers.
In the 19th century, the early developments in the area included a portable darkroom, lots of dangerous chemicals, tanks, water containers, heavy glass plates, plate holders, and a large camera and tripod. Keep in mind how expensive these items would be. In 1839 a photographic process was invented called the daguerreotype, it made it a whole lot cheaper to buy and carry camera equipment for travel. Unfortunately, this process came out with pictures that couldn’t create copies, and therefore it didn’t make much of a sale. Another process was soon after invented, the collodion process, that brought exposure time down to 2 seconds, however, there was still lots of equipment.

Now let’s talk transportation, in the 19th century travel was extremely expensive, and it was only accessible to the few rich or funded. But throughout the 19th century the building of railways across the globe expanded drastically and made it easier, and in time cheaper to travel far distances.
The rich, of course, wanted to document their travels as well. And it was made possible for armatures in 1888 when Kodak launched the first “point and shoot” camera. Photography was now available to anyone who could press a button, and, not to forget, afford the camera. The camera itself became transportable as well, even though it was still, in our mind, heavy and unhandy. But the Kodak camera was evolutionary on more than one account, it also used a roll of film! It had 100 pictures in a film, and all you had to do was sent it to Kodak, and they would send you back your photographs.

In many ways the improvements in the travel industry created a demand for camera improvements, just like the improvements of cameras created a wanderlust for travel and tourism.

This becomes clear as we enter the 20th century, and the Wright Brothers invented the first airplane, and from there on travel escalated fast, over the next hundred years travel became easier, drastically faster, and in the 21st century, in many ways safer.

The mid-20th century is when my timeline begins in 1960 when my grandfather brought his first camera. It was a Kodak, they still had a big part of the market, and would have it for a few years yet.
on the timeline we see pictures and comments about the different cameras, and how well they worked. In the end of the 20th century we skip generations, and follow my mother’s travels, followed by my own in 2012 when I brought my own “real” camera.

In 2017 it was estimated that around 1.2 trillion digital photos were taken. And in 2018 commercial airlines carried approximately 4.3 billion passengers a day. And most of us want to get “that perfect picture” to remember and to prove where we´ve been. In many tourist attractions there are even photo spots, where you can stand to get that famous picture of where ever you are. You can book Travel Photography Tours, where you travel to get those pictures exactly and learn to use your camera. However many people don’t even have an old school camera, they just use their phones.

 

Fun facts:

The oldest travel photo is from 1825 in France and was taken by Joseph Niépce. The exposure time of his camera was 8 hours, and for that reason you can see the sunlight on both sides of the building in the picture.

Pierre-Gustave-Gaspard Joly de Lotbiniére travelled to Greece in 1839 and is famous for taking the first picture of Athens, he then travelled to Egypt and the Middle East, where to took 92 pictures, he then published some of them in his book Excursions Daguerriennes, where he inspired many others to travel.

India 1862, Samuel Bourne was the first man to take pictures of the western Himalayas, because of the high altitude and the heavy equipment he had approximately 40 servants to help him.
Samuel Bourne is also the founder of the oldest surviving photography studio in the world.

Sources

https://mygobe.com/explore/travel-photography-origins/

https://www.pendaphototours.com/history-travel-photography/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/564717/airline-industry-passenger-traffic-globally/

https://www.businessinsider.com/12-trillion-photos-to-be-taken-in-2017-thanks-to-smartphones-chart-2017-8?r=US&IR=T

My timeline

I then further examined the subject of photography by conducting an interview with a first year student on her use of photography. these were the questions asked.

Interview  

Of Neve McLellan by Anne Valbak Christiansen

Introduction of the project

A talk about how photography and it´s technology changes and how it changes us. It´s about how first years use photography in their day to day life, how it influences their lives, studies and growth. Stories from their point of view.

Warm up

What is your name, age and study?

Where are you from? And what were you doing before you started university?

Which camera devices do you use? And what do you use them for?

Invitation to stories

Let´s start with how your relationship with cameras have changed over time:

Can you tell me about some of your early memories that involve photography or cameras in any way?

How about your first camera device? Do you recall what it was like?

  • Can you tell me something about it, and what you used it for?
  • Do you still use those pictures for something?

In your previous education how would you use camera devices?

  • Can you give me some examples?
  • How do you use camera devices at university?
  • Can you compare the two?

Has your use of photography changed after you started on university?

  • And can you tell me some examples of how it might have changed or stayed the same?
  • Did you use your camera in the same way at home over Christmas, as you do in Dundee?

Some people might use photography to document, take a picture of something and deal with it later.

  • What are your thoughts on that?

Let´s talk a little about social life

Do you use social medias?

  • Can you tell me a little about which ones you use and why?
  • Can you rank them for me on which ones you use the most?

When you post pictures on social media what would you typically post?

  • Why this in particular?
  • What influences whether you choose to post a picture?

How important do you think profile pictures are on social media?

  • Why?
  • What do you think about when you post a new profile picture?
  • Can you paint a picture of your thought process?

When you take pictures with your friends, paint me a picture of how that scenario would play out.

  • How does that make you feel?
  • How about when you take pictures of yourself? Or others take pictures of you?

Some people might use photography to help them cope or express feelings and opinions.

  • How might you view the importance and reasoning behind that?

How do you use your camera to communicate?

  • Is there a difference in your use of the device when you talk to your family compared to your friends?
  • Can you give me a few examples?

Can you tell me about the picture you have taken that means the most to you?

  • Why is that important to you?
  • How do you think other people would think about it if you showed it?
  • Why?

Do you think cameras have a place in your day to day life?

  • Do you think it has a place in your friend´s lives?
  • What is important for you when you take a picture?
  • Why?
  • Can you tell me the story about one of the latest pictures you have taken?

How many pictures would you say you take compared to what others do?

  • What do you use these pictures for?
  • What about the ones you don’t use?

Do you see a difference between how you use a camera and how others might use theirs?

  •  You can think in a social aspect
  •  A personal aspect
  • Or a study aspect
  • How might this make you feel?

Do you take screenshots on your phone?

  • Can you give me an example of what you might screenshot and what you would use it for?

If you had access to every camera device in the world free of charge, what would you then use day to day?

  • What about when you go on holiday?
  • Did you take pictures over your Christmas holiday?
  • Can you tell me about how you took one of them and why?

Emotions and ideas

What tendencies do you notice there are with the use of camera devices?

  • Can you tell me a little about why you think that?

How much time would you say you spent looking at other people´s pictures?

  • Why do you think we do that?

How would you say the use of cameras change with age?

  • Can you give me some examples?
  • What do you tend to be doing when you use yours?

How do you believe you will use photography when you finish university?

  • Can you tell me a little more about that?

How do you feel when you are in front of a camera?

  • Does it matter if it is video or still pictures?
  • How might the person behind the camera influence your experience of being in front of one?
  • Does pictures for different purposes make you feel or act in a different way­­

o   Personal

o   Social

o   Studies

Create statements

So, to finish up, the point of the interview was to investigate how photography and it´s technology changes and how it changes us.

How you use photography in your day to day life

how it influences your live, studies and growth.

 

When it comes to…. what you are saying is…

So, if…. was a scenario what would think that…

Wind down

Do you have something in mind that you would like to say about the subject?

  • Any last thoughts?

You have my email and my snapchat, and if there is anything you wish to add, you can always contact me.

Thank you very much!

 

I filmed the entire interview, and edited it down to a 3 minute video

https://vimeo.com/user94726552/review/315350956/b4e0010350

 

Why we use Contextual interviews

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

We use interviews because it gives us a more nuanced understanding of what our interviewee is trying to tell us, in other words the answers are highly qualitative because we can read body language, emphasis on certain words and the interviewer and interviewee can elaborate when useful.
That is why filming, and recording audio, is useful in this context, both for the sake of further analysis, but also because the Interviewer can focus on what gets said and has more time to ask the right follow-up questions, when they don’t have to write down everything.

However, even though contextual interviews invite flexibility in the questions most of them can and should be well prepared beforehand, to ensure questions are not leading, because this will taint the answer in a direction or to a conclusion that might be your opinion and not theirs. However, I do believe closed question have their place in an interview. I found the closed questions useful when they were used on purpose, because they can work as a break for the interviewee between harder questions, it can also just be a good way to change subject or lead to the follow-up questions

This leads me to the structure of the interview, which is a very useful tool. Sara Nevay talked about it in “Why Interview”. I had already met Neve for a cup of coffee to go over the consent form and give a brief on what the project was about and how the interview would proceed. I then went through it again when we met for the interview, did a few easy warm-up questions, to get her more comfortable, proceeded with questions that evoked stories, then ideas and emotions, where after I let her create her statements on the aspects of the project itself. Because of the structure of the interview questions, she came through a lot of observations about her use of her camera, that she hadn’t thought about, so when I was wrapping up, she had changed her look on how she uses her camera and how it has influenced her.

I then gave her full freedom to give her opinion on the subject, it gave her a chance to tell her general thoughts about the subject, all the things that she might have thought though the interview that I didn’t ask. And she was a brilliant, because it was something, I hadn’t thought of myself.

Not only did I interview Neve, I did a short interview with my grandparents and then my mother for my timeline project. However, this is where the lesson about preparation comes into the picture, because I was not ready with questions when they called, I had nothing to write on, and I didn´t tape it. So, of cause I didn´t, by any measure, get as much out of it as I could have. Fortunately, I was saved by my grandparents going all-in, sending me pictures and descriptions of the cameras and what improvements they felt. So as to give me all the information I could need.

Give Interviewee a compliment on their looks before they get in front of a camera, so they have more confidence

[00:24:35.23] Anne: Alright so let´s say that you had access to every camera device in the entire world, free of charge, what camera would, what camera device would you then think you´d use in your day to day life?

Putting up a scenario in that way was quite a fun task for both of us.

 

Reflections on interview & my Photography use

By Anne Valbak Christiansen

 

Even though I had worked through my question’s multiple times, I still found myself asking some unintentional closed questions, and sometimes I had to clarify what I meant, because I was unfocused and stumbled over the sentence or improvised a propping question that was unintentionally closed. After writing the transcript I am also aware that, even though I was aware not to, I spoke too fast or interrupted, whereas next time I will be even more focused on keeping some silence between me and the interviewee speaking and to take a deep breath and read the questions as they were intended.

After I ended the interview, I asked Neve to evaluate on how the interview had been, where she mentioned that she was calmed by our short meeting before the interview, so that she knew what to expect, she also mentioned how her mind usually goes blanc in these situations, and it calmed her that I kept insuring her that it was okay…. Even though in hindsight, that was what happened most of the times I interrupted. So, I will properly do that in the future as well, but I must be aware as to when and how often I do so.  

I learned a lot in the editing process, first we had to improvise on our location, because the room I had booked was shared, so we filmed in her flat instead. So, in the future I would want a place with better lighting, a chair for me to sit on (I sat on the floor for most of the interview). If I had been able to change the composition better and could sit in the same height as the camera, it wouldn’t look as if she was looking down all the time, it would both look better, but it would also be easier to read facial expressions.

The further into the interview we got, the more Neve realized about her use of photography in her daily life, and so did I about my own use.
I too take pictures all the time to remember stuff, and to me, taking a screenshot or a photo of something is like writing down a note. I use it when I´m on Instagram or I am walking around outside and see something that inspires me, it´s just much faster and easier to take a picture of it. The same is the case with Snap Chat, that has become the new text, it is so easy to take a picture and confirm where you are, what you are doing, or make a joke funnier. But it also means that we share a lot more, no one would have dreamt of sending a picture of their food to everyone in their phonebook, only ten or fifteen years ago.
The meaning of our everyday photos has changes as well, the pictures we post tell a story, and as Neve talked about, that´s what gives a picture or video meaning, both the ones we take our self and the ones we see. Cause we do spend a lot of time looking at other people’s pictures, I usually use Instagram for inspiration, and follow lots of design pages, and I take screenshots and save the ones I find particularly interesting. But to be honest, I´m just like Neve, I will properly not look at them again, and when I do it´s because I must empty my camera roll, and then I just delete them. But it doesn’t matter, because, I still have a mental note, and sometimes I remember something, and I then know where to find it.

 

 

Layout

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“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose.”

– Charles Eames

For this project, we went deeper into the area of graphic design and started working on layouts. In particular magazine layouts.

Magazines are interesting because they often have a lot of elements that have to work together and still be aesthetically pleasing, especially in fashion, life and travel magazines.

We started out with finding and analysing articles we liked. This consisted of finding the underlying structure, the number of columns and locating the margins.

For inspiration and reference, I already had a board on Pinterest with layouts that I like, so I used the designs I had on that to analyse on.

Pinterest board: https://pin.it/thakehrbapfd6q 

The article I have used in my designs is “Let’s start designing a future that gives us a future” by Nicolas Roope. (https://www.dezeen.com/2018/10/10/un-climate-report-united-nations-nicolas-roope-plumen-opinion/)

It’s an article from Deezen about Environmental Sustainability and I started out being inspired by this design

I wanted it to be a factory in between the two pages, and then have the smoke from the chimney cover the top bit of the page

But when I put it on the page I didn’t really like it, so I analysed some more designs.

I did quite a lot of these to get inspiration and to find a pattern in which layouts I liked the most. A big part of what I found hard to start with was finding a good place for pictures. But analysing other designs like this really have a useful insight.

So after this, I felt more ready to go into InDesign again, I chose to work with 6 columns because most of the layouts I had had 3 or 6 underlying columns. I also chose to keep my graphics to only one picture and I wanted that picture to of course say something, but to also be quite easy and pleasing to look at, because again, I found that that is what I was drawn most to in other designs.

In my next designs, I use two different pictures

In the end,I chose the one of the icy mountains, because ice is something we all associate with global warming in this context. And it will in that way give the article more power, even though he doesnt actually mention the ice melting.

So now that I knew that I started playing around with a few designs.

 

When it comes to the fonts I used in my designs I had drawn inspiration from magazines like these

So a very simplistic type with no serifs or change in weight. The title is bold, the intro is made into an “element” by either giving it another shape (not licked in columns) or by underlining it.

For the body text I wanted something that was easy to read, but that didn’t draw too much attention to the type at first. So I chose Banschrift, because it went well with Zona Pro,  that I used for all other text.

I decided to stick with this design

I then did a few variations of it, unfortunately, I lost some of them.

To give the design it’s last finish I made baseline grids to align the text.

iPad design

for the iPad, I wanted to transfer the layout from the magazine to a new format.

I knew I wanted to keep the big picture in the top, and I also decided to have it in “6” columns. In practise 2 small columns and one big in between them.

I then chose to put quotes in the right-hand column and picture information etc on the left-hand column I wanted to keep the title and byline like they are in the magazine to keep the layout as close to the magazine as possible.

I then created a baseline grid and added the top bar of the iPad to give it more of a realistic feel.

And in the end, by two final pieces in PDFs:

Ipad done-yvexs6

Layout done-10itz3a

 

 

Graphic work with signs

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“You cannot not communicate.”

– Paul Watzlawick

Signs are an often overlooked art, in every way. We often do not even notice half of them, unless we are specifically looking for them. And they are truly everywhere. In this project, we were to design a sign or object that would affect the behaviour of people walking around our building DJCAD. The object had to be completely removable, could not be a nuisance and had to leave a lasting impression on the people who interacted with it.

We started out with a talk on behaviour and the effects of fonts. Where after we went around the building to do our own observations on behaviour.

Observations

We found that people in the building always seem to know where they are going, and barely give walls and the ground a second look.

We also found that people walking alone, unsurprisingly, are more likely to take up their phone when they see others, or they just walk with it in general. Not always using, but just holding it in their hands.

People walking together, on the other hand, where after talking and walking close to each other, but they seemed to be even less likely to pay attention to things around them. Because their attention was focused on the other person. Whereas people walking alone, are looking for any distraction if they do not have their phone in their hand.

We also found that people were more likely to walk through the big doors in the hall, and rarely did anyone uses the small door on the far right.

Brainstorm

Doing our initial brainstorm we came up with lots of different ideas;

Lines on the floor, to make people change their normal route unconsciously, a button to challenge people’s curiosity, signs to confuse them on which floor they were on, writhing meaningful quotes on the stairs, putting it on the ceilings over the stairs, and so on. Unfortunately, not all these ideas were put on paper, but these are the ones that made it.

Location

After brainstorming for a while, we chose to split up our group, into pairs of two. Marianna and I chose to work with the quote on the stairs. We wanted to make people enjoy walking around more, and we wanted to make them aware of the “fear” that walking without our phones gives most of us. We feel naked and uncomfortable without it.

And for that purpose we choose the last stairs walking from 5th floor to 4th. Because it leads to both the library, the Crawford building, to the restrooms and to the lifts. And yes, the lifts are important too. Cause this was one of the places we saw lots of people clinging to their phones. Especially in the morning.

Quotes

After figuring out what we wanted to achieve, we started brainstorming on which quotes we wanted to use.

We found and came up with quite a few;

2nd Brainstorm

We choose to use the slogan

“Don’t be afraid

To walk

Without your

Phone”

Because it is short, it communicates our point, and it has three meanings. Which would be fun and challenging to try to communicate.

Now that we knew what we wanted to write we could begin our second research on fonts, colour schemes and graphics to communicate our point the most effective.

Choosing type

Picture of final photoshop prototype

We choose to go with the yellow to orange colour scheme, but with a black text, to make it more refined. When it comes to types we choose Centaur on the first line “Don’t be afraid” because it is comforting in its round curves, but the serifs and the square dots create interest and generates attention. Also the “Don’t” was put in italic and bold, the italic to emphasise the meaning, and the bold to visually even it out with the PHONE at the end of the sign.

For the second line “to WALK” we used Modern No. 20, for the “to” and Copperplate Gothic light for “walk”. We chose to use two fonts so that they “walk” would pop out more.

Modern No. 20 has character, but without drawing too much attention to itself, whereas Copperplate is a gothic font, that has a lot of weight and character to it. It is also very old and signals how fundamental the statement is.

“Without your” is written in Goudy Old Style, it is a relatively neutral font, easy to read and easy on the eye. We choose those characteristics because this bit of the text is not the most important, however, it is important for the meaning, and therefore has to be easy and fast to read.

“Phone” however, is written in Bodoni MT Condensed. We chose a condensed font to create some interest in the last bit of the text since this will be what will be seen first when you walk towards it looking at your phone. This is also the reason why we chose such a heavy font.

Caps

We used caps in a few different ways in our design. In the first line, it is only the first letter that is in caps to keep it comfortable and easy to read. In the second line, we had “to” in low caps and “walk” in all caps, to show what to focus on, and to give the sign more visual impact. “without your” is all in low caps to visualise that it is not the important bit. “Phone” on the other hand, is in all caps because it is the point of the sign.

As said the sign has 3 meanings, and all three are emphasised by caps.

Designing the steps

There are 11 steps on the staircase we wanted to use. The phrase was only 4 lines, but since the stairs are only 13.5 cm high we wanted each letter to spread over two stairs. And so we had 3 stairs left for blanks. We chose to put one on the top stair to visually give the letters some room, and two on the bottom stairs, so that there was more blank space to draw attention while turning around the corner. But also because of the angle the sign is read from, the bottom letters need “more space” because they are closer to the viewer.

Building process

To begin with, we wanted to get the type printed, at the at the print unit, but because of the size of the document, 183.5 x 148.5 cm, it would be quite expensive and would take multiple prints.

So instead of print, we decided to use cardboard. Jason helped us cut out the cardboard in the size of the stairs, 13.5 x 183.5 cm.

We then started spray painting them in our yellow and orange colours. However, the yellow spray paint kept spitting and we were unable to do the gradient effect as we wanted it. Instead, we got a rougher look with spits of paint and unperfect coating, that gave the sign some texture, that it otherwise would have lacked. So, in the end, it was quite lucky really.

For the lettering, we used black markers, one to line them, and one to fill them in. And since we wanted the fonts to be as correct as possible, without printing them, we put up the projector in first a lecture hall, and later on in a small room.

Here we drew the letters on in the sizes we wanted them. I had earlier on figured out which size the letters should be so that when you looked at the stairs from the 4th floor it would fit together over the stairs. I did this by creating a photoshop document where I put the text on I the perspective we wanted, and then I enlarged the letters into the same size.

Pictures of letters on the staircase, and then next to each other like when we painted them

Final observations

On Tuesday the 20th we put our cardboard strips on the stairs with masking tape and observed as people walked by if they noticed the sign if they were walking with their phone, and if they put it away.

Unfortunately, we only observed over a short period of time and didn’t get too many readings.

Fortunately, we were able to see a pattern anyway. Most people who walked by did see our sign, a lot actually stopped while walking to give it a closer look, and one group stood and discussed it for a while. So it defiantly had visual impact enough to be noticed, but not many walked with their phones while we stood there, however, two people out of five put down their phones after seeing the sign.

For myself, when I see signs or objects like this one, I do not change my own behaviour at once either. But it will often make me think about it throughout the day, and I will try and change my behaviour. So if we were able to, it would have been useful to follow the people who saw it, to see if they walk less with their phone throughout the following hours. Or we could have stopped some people and asked them. But let that be a reflection for next time.

Album cover for Miles Davis

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“Knowledge is happiness to me”
Miles Davis

When looking for examples of visual communication, album covers are great, they have a long history of using creativity in all aspects to communicate what the music will be like before the customer buys the album.

To start the assignment I watched a few interviews with Miles Davis, to get a feel for his character and the things he liked. Which lead me to look into his own artworks.

He also mentioned some of his idols like Picasso and Dali, he also mentioned some albums he wish his were like, which were Sting’s album Sting and Mick Jaggers called Primitive Cool. All the materials are in the end under research, if you are interested in watching it too.

1st brainstorm

But to start my product development I did a whole lot of different designs while I watched the interviews and listened to the single. These are a mix of notes of observations and designs.

Mood board

After my first brainstorming I had to narrow my ideas down so that I could start working on the overall design and details.

To do that I put together a mood board filled with pictures that represent my interpretation of Miles Davis’s personal style and character. In it I have put pictures of Miles Davis himself, his own art, art he was inspired by and art that represents his past like being a pimp and his addiction to heroin. I chose to incorporate his past because these are things that his fans will know and recognise they were also things he talked openly about, in an unashamed manner, which really says a lot about the vibe he gave “I don’t care what others think”.

This attitude is also clear in his naming of the album “So What”

2nd brainstorm

This leads me to my second brainstorm where I worked with composition, colour theory and abstraction.

Detail work

I now had a more refined idea of what I was going for and why. I wanted the initial focus to be on Miles Davis’s silhuet, which I wanted to achieve by using bright white centrally placed on a dark background, the next thing I wanted focus on was his signature in the top, which is made in a solid white as well, a white edge will lead the eye from one to the other.

And the final thing for people to notice will be the woman standing on the other side of Miles Davis, she is popping out of the picture by being red in contrast to the blue/black background.

I decided to try a few media’s to try different styles with the design and see what would give me the result I wanted. I tried with coloured pens and pencils, lead,watercolour, oil paints and acrylics.

Final product

My final product is made with acrylics on A4 watercolour paper. To create the 30 x 30 cm paper I needed I taped together my prepped watercolour paper, where after I cut it in the desired size.

I started with a background inspired by my previous acrylic piece and the watercolour piece.

The bent in the paper that came from taping the two pieces together was placed as a third of the paper, so I made the white line and Miles Davis figure where after I did the signature and white spiral.

After coming that far I did not want the album to look cheap, so I made a colour swatch to compare with the almost finished product.

I quickly decided to use a tad of black in my read colour to allow the white to be the primary contrast.

When the woman was painted in and the product picture was done, I got an idea when looking at the red colour swatch. I wanted it to be the actual case of the CD, and my final piece to be a sleeve over it. This would give a little more supprise and colour to the album, it would also make it seem more expensive and in a better quality because of the added packaging.

Understanding the artist

To get a feel for who Miles Davis was and what he liked I watched a few interviews with him. (linked below under research)

 

Image result for optical illusions

Research

Youtube recording of “So What” by Miles Davis 1959

Youtube interviews:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdbncehVoqk

Miles Davis’s personal art:
https://www.milesdavis.com/gallery/miles-artwork/

Examples of other albums from the same period: 
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=album+cover+1959&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiGpJipj8LeAhVLBsAKHYkACRAQ_AUIDigB&biw=1280&bih=610&dpr=1.5#imgrc=_

Analysis of “So What” by Miles Davis:
https://lkellunis.weebly.com/analysis-of-miles-davis-so-what.html

Ways of seeing

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 “Talent is good

Practice is better

Passion is best”

– Frank Ilyod Wright

 

Abstraction and understanding of drawing as a tool and practice 

Doing the first week of our “Ways of Seeing” module we worked on understanding visual communication as a tool that we can all use and understand as humans, but as something, we, the class, should also practice and improve for professional reasons.

It started as a lecture on how we understand visuals, colours, shapes and optical illusions. It is a primal language that we as designers and design students can use to communicate values and create intuitive user experiences.

We went on to do an exercise on blind drawings. We were to only look at our partner on the other side of the table, and try to draw them without looking at the paper. It gives some interesting results and says a lot about eye to hand coordination, but even more interesting is the fact that we can still see who and or what the image shows, even though it is simply scribbles that we have blindly put on a page. We then went on to one line drawings, where we were not allowed to lift our pen.

A new media

But visual communication is so much more than a perfect picture, it is sketches, scribbles and physical models.

We were allowed and encouraged to have fun with the portraits, so the next part of the project was to incorporate conductive inc and LEDs into new portraits. I chose to stay with a one-line drawing cause I quite like the combination of the aesthetic simplicity and the intriguing complicity of them. I chose to show the inc and the wires in my final drawing to give it a bit of extra interest.

 

Visual communication

To work with communication we conducted interviews on each other. The computer interviews were to be impartial so that the data did not get corrupted. After my interview with Helena I looked over her answers and took in the feel I decided to do three portraits in one, to symbolise the three people she is. One that is polished and perfect, to be displayed (I used Copic Markers for this, to give it the polished effect) the second one her in her national outfit, to show her deep connection to her culture (I used watercolours for this one, to show the playfulness and happiness she showed when talking about it) and the final portrait, her school self, laid back but a perfectionist at heart ( for this I used oil paints, to showcase her creativity and the oils also work as a mask, and I liked this because she can seem hard to get to know)

 

Practice makes perfect

After the portraits were finished we started out reading week, and for the reading week we had two daily drawing assignments, one was to draw an item that had in some way been influential on that day, and the second was to do an interpretation of a map, in whatever way we wanted. So I ended up with 10 drawings, 5 objects and 5 maps. The papers are all dates with the day they were sketched and the day they were finished. Most were drawn Monday, Wednesday or Friday.

These were my five objects:

And these my 5 maps:

Drawing and models as a means to draw attention

In the third week we started doing visual CV’s, for mine, I wanted to make it interactive and fun like a playbook, so I spend half the first day on doing a draft and then I started working in Photoshop. The drawings themselves took me a lot of work because of the interactive components, and I have not been able to do everything I want on it yet. However, the point of the CV is for us to send it out as applications for summer internships.

After working on my computer with it I printed out the first few pages and made them interactive as I had planned them.

I quickly realised how expensive it will be to print, not to mention sent the entire thing. So I will be making it into an interactive PDF. I haven’t done that yet, so I’ve decided to attatch it as a large gallery, where tapping through it will show how it should be.

Link in PDF

Our final project has been to create a character with a story. More specifically we were to create a pop-up character, using paper mechanics techniques, incorporate LED lights into it, with the help of an Arduino and some programming, and then we were tasked to visualise the story of our character.

The story for mine is here

And this is her lying down and reading her book with rosy cheeks.

All the work that had been compiled during the module had been placed in a sketchbook we created on the first day. As the final small project in this module, I made a little video of going through my sketchbook. For the editing, I used Adobe Premiere Pro and found royalty free music on https://taketones.com/

Where2

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Navigation in 2018 is heavily dominated by Google Maps, and for good reasons. They have maps all over the world, it is fast, simple and free. But it has it’s downsides, we, the users, get so focused on going the right way and religiously fallowing our phones, that we forget to look around and actually enjoy our surroundings, even if that is exactly what we went for. And it often ends up being stressfull. So we wanted to make navigation fun and interactive, to allow people to be off their phones and enjoy their trip, even when going to a new place.

Adriana, Jacob and I went on a walk around town talking and brainstorming, Adriana and I both moved here from out of seas, and Jacob has moved around the UK all his life, so we were all acquainted with moving to a new city and planning to stay there for a longer period of time.

As we walked around we realised that one of the things we used most when coming to a new place is finding places to eat and drink etc. And that particular feature in google/trip advisor is rarely sufficient. It rarely includes half the opportunities in a city (we know this from our own) and you are often not able to specify what you are looking for etc.

This is when we came up with Navigation Recommendations, a pin you could put on your clothes and it would tell you directions by little flaps indicating your directions and when you walk around the city recommendations will pop up on your phone.

Once we had the basic idea for our project we went back and started brainstorming on it, to come up with designs and hone the idea.

Initial Sketches

After developing on the details of our idea, we started playing with physical prototypes, made of grey foam. The prototypes served as an indicator of size and wear. We wanted the final product to be something we would want to use ourselves. This is also what drew us to make the product as a pin, since it can be used and worn in many ways, on a ring, bracelet, necklace or as a pin.

Foam prototype develepment

Since we were all doing individual 3D renderings, we wanted to take the opportunity to make different designs of the product, to be able to give a larger range of jewellery. I went on a walk in Victoria Park for inspiration, because I was still not satisfied with my idea. I found it too clumsy. So we took a day off for inspiration.

Secend inspiration sketching 

We then decided to pick out our favourite ideas. And start learning the Rhino program, to be able to create our prototypes in 3D. I chose to do a pin inspired by (name of metal grid toy) it will be very versatile since the grid can be changed into whatever pattern the user would want to wear, when not getting navigations. It would also be able to write in Braille and help visually impaired get around to new destinations, which is otherwise very hard for them without a guide.

Renderings of design.

Adriana chose to do a rotating half circle, that would indicate directions. She then later changed it to have an arrow on the half circle. It can be used for everyone since it has no language and is very intuitive to use.

Adriana’s prototype

At this point, we had also changed the name of the product to Where2. It was shorter and more playful. We describe our end concept as a fashionable gadget that A fashionable gadget that will navigate you and give you recommendations on whatever you are looking for in the area. We were then ready to do our elevator speech with the help of our concept board.

Making Spaces

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In 2018 our lack of physical and mental connection to each other is causing real issues to our health and happiness.

A lot of the social interaction today is happening over digital media’s, and when we are finally together physically, often our mental focus will be somewhere else. Which leads to loneliness and a feeling of not being heard and appreciated.

We started the project with a talk about connectivity in 2018, where we touched subjects like FOMO, JOMO, urbanisation, digital nomads, globalisation and loneliness. I will not go into these subjects further in this post.

Our brief was to redesign some part of the public spaces in Dundee. To get a feeling of the city and the options we have, the course group was split, so that we could go to different places, take some pictures, and explain the place to the others.

My group went to Dundee Quay, where we spent some time in the ship that docks by the quay. Where the social spaces in the ship itself led to a few ideas.

On the way back and forth I couldn’t help but be a little inspired by walking on the pavement, which is also a public space, and it is a space we use a lot of time on, with other people, but often without having conversations with them. Either because you cannot hear one another, or because you are wearing a headset and don’t know the people walking by.

So that was the mindset I had before starting my brainstorm.
The main ideas that go through my brainstorming are to be able to talk, I want people to be able to hear one another while walking from place to place. And then I wanted them to come together and gather somewhere beautiful and inspirational to chat and tell stories.

But being aware of the human behaviour, my own included, one of the issues is time. Many do not give themselves time to go to the social gathering or does not take out time to meet up or even call their friends, because they have so many other things happening. So I went for a different approach to encourage connectivity, nudging. I wanted signs on the entrance to every “sound barrier” on the pavement, saying things like:

“Being busy does not make you happy. Being with people you love does” or

“Paradise has never been about places. It exists in moments. In connections. In flashes across time” -Victoria Erickson

Once I had my concept, I started working on form.

At this point, I still didn’t know where I wanted to place my installation, and since I choose the angled version of the sound barrier, I was no longer able to have my quotes on a sign hanging neatly on all entrances.

So I began planning my model and then walked home for the day. Which put me exactly where I was supposed to be, Perth Road, Dundee. An always populated walk, no matter the time of day. It is filled with shops and leads straight by the Uni campus. It was a perfect place to remind pedestrians of the important things in life, each other!

So problem solved, I chose to save my idea of the storyteller to another project. Kill your darlings and all that. And focused on the road that so many people use every day, back and forth to work, uni, for groceries and for a coffee with a friend.

I came in ready to work on my prototype the next day…but honestly couldn’t shake the feeling that my project seemed a little like a jail. So I went to Pinterest for inspiration, where I found an old pin I had saved.

https://pin.it/nsi5ivnscgl7ll

 

I decided I wanted the columns to be made of wood that had been twisted once in the lower half, and once in the angled bit.

The pattern had to be open enough for people not to feel cramped and there would have to be plenty of holes, to be able to cross the road.

I decided to create my prototype with two scales. One a zoomed out version, to show how long I intended it to be, and where I wanted it to be placed. And the other side, a more zoomed in version, to give an impression of what it would feel like to be there.

So to summarise what my thoughts are, and what I hope will influence the thinking and behavioural patterns of the people using the pavement are:

• Nudging to be kind to those around you, and take initiative to talk to them.

• People will be inspired by the plants in the installations and may become more aware of the nature around them in Dundee.

• They will be less likely to cross the road, just because someone is coming towards them on the pavement.

• They will set time off to enjoy the moments they are in, instead of scrolling mindlessly.

As a nice ending to the project, we put our prototypes together, to give it a “map” effect.

 

Ways Of Making

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Part 1:

Group work

Remaking the Tizio Lamp was our first task, we were divided into groups and were handed cardboard, foam board and wooden sticks to complete the task, in addition, we were handed glue guns and tape.

The biggest struggle with the building process was to make joints that could both move and hold the structure in place at once. We achieved that quality by creating tension between the wood (the joint) and the leg itself and then adding a nut to hold it in place. This was done by applying a layer of tape on the wooden piece and forcing the hole, in the leg, over it.

We divided the work and finished before time, this resulted in a few mistakes, like the upper leg not being long enough and the head of the lamp being a little sloppy. But it did mean that we had time to make details like buttons, a fake cord and detail holes on the surface of the lamp.

Detail work

Part 2:

Individual work

The second task in the project was to redesign the Tizio lamp. It could be anything, as long as it was inspired by the Tizio lamp in one way or another. So the first part of my process was to brainstorm products I might find interesting.

From here I sorted out the, in my opinion, most interesting/challenging ideas. So I took out the bench (Green page 2) and the potholder (Red page 1). But where the bench had challenging joints, that I already knew how I was going to make, the plant holder had a shape and a mechanism that I still hadn’t figured out how to do. So I chose the plant holder in the end.
I then started with the first problem at hand, the shape. To figure it out I made a prototype.

Now that I had a model of the shape, I could go into depth about the technical aspect of the “wires” that should hold and stabilize the pot.
After consulting with our tutor, Jason Nelson, I decided to draw inspiration from Gimbals. And create a prototype to illustrate and understand the principle.

From here on I had enough to start on the more detailed drawings, that I wanted to make, to showcase how I imagine the product to be.

To show the pot and joints of the product I made a detail drawing, that should explain the concept. My aim was to create a potholder, that could be put into a sideways position, without the plant tumbling over.

Sketch and final detail drawing

I then added shadow to the product drawings to give them a finish.