Tuesday, 23 August 2011

Origination - Week 06

Origination Week 6

In the first part of this lesson we all discussed the exhibition, and Peter emphasized to the group that we all need to get on track with what we are responsible for and have something to deliver in week 7. Josie, Rachel and I agreed that we would have a final heading design by end of week 7 - early week 8. Group had discussion on the exhibition.

Reading quiz:

1. Describe the relationships between Complexity and Simplicity? Complexity allows us to recognise simplicity when we see it. For example, if you are given a crazy complex puzzle to complete, then a simple puzzle, you would only recognise that the simple puzzle was ‘simple’, by comparing it to the more complex one.

2.  What analogy does Maeda use to demonstrate this relationship? "Simplicity and complexity need each other. The more complexity there is in the market, the more that something simpler stands out". An example he used is the ipod in comparison to competitors in the market.

3. In what context does Maeda discuss rhythm/beat in relation to the fifth law? Maeda uses rhythm and beat to describe the need for complexity and simplicity. As Warrick explained to me, if you had a song that had no beat or rhythm, it would be quite boring because of its extreme simplicity, however, if you listened to a song that was too complex and had too much going on, it would not be enjoyable to listen too. This analogy emphasizes the law that there must be simplicity and complexity to make anything effective. If something is too simple it can be boring, if something is too complex people can be bored or too challenged. Elements of both provide good balance. We can adapt this analogy to the planning, preparation, and presentation of our work at the Exhibition. We need to present our work in an interesting enough way, but ensure that there is no over clutter that makes the overall feel and vibe of the exhibition seem to complex. This same principle should be applied to the design of our leaflets and posters. 

4.  Acknowledging contrast allows us to identify qualities that we desire.

The following is a clip of Alexander Mcquinn’s  Spring 2010 runway show. As you will see, his designs are so complect and detailed, but the backdrop/stage is a simple runway with a massive screen in the background.  The lighting I simple which allows the audience to completely focus on the designs. There is nothing else going on that distracts from the models.

Fashion show- Complex extravagant designs, simple backdrop and setting.




Dress - simple cut but detailed graphic art:














Thinking Game - Lateral thinking:

The 'Six Thinking Hats' is tool that utilizes both group and individual thinking. It forces groups and individuals to focus their attention to the critical elements to factor when when making decisions. 

The following information and images were sourced from: http://www.debonothinkingsystems.com/tools/6hats.htm

    The Six Thinking Hats (or modes)

    #
    The White Hat

    The White Hat calls for information known or needed.

    #
    The Red Hat

    The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition.

    #
    The Black Hat

    The Black Hat is judgment -- the devil's advocate or why something may not work.

    #
    The Yellow Hat

    The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and optimism.

    #
    The Green Hat

    The Green Hat focuses on creativity: the possibilities, alternatives and new ideas.

    #
    The Blue Hat

    The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process.

Design Group:

The Process- The Blue Hat Would relate to the planning of the design. Organising our thoughts about what we want to achieve. What we need to think about. For example, timelines, equipment, what is needed etc.

The Facts - The White  hat would relate to the identifying what we know about the design,  for example, the brief specifications. It would also relate to what we don't know (the end result). This is where we would all need to use objective thinking. 

The Black hat would be used to identify weaknesses, dangers, risks. For example, a risk of incorporating an Aboriginal landmark into the heading design could make the art exhibition seem like it is an aboriginal art exhibition rather than a design exhibition. This could either attract or put off perspective guests. 

The Green hat represents Creative Thinking. We would use this hat to brainstorm design concepts and challenge our thinking. What works, what doesn't, what can be changed, what can be refined. This hat is used to solve black hat problems. For example, coming up with a design that appeals to all demographics. 

The Yellow Hat is used to support an Idea. What are the positives and benefits. We will use this hat to address what works with a design concept. Reasons should be given as to why an idea works. 

The Red hat will be utilized to assist the group with explaining our emotions. How we feel about a design idea right now. This is also where we address gut feelings, hunches. For example, "I like the design idea however I don't feel a 80 year old will understand the message". 






Collaboration - Week 06


Collaboration

Blog Exercise:

The first Collaboration exercise involved us going through a list of qualities that display trustworthy and ethical behavior in the collaboration process. Mark then asked us to add two more qualities to the group and divide them up into the essential qualities and secondary qualities.  The point of this exercise is to identify what is important to us and also identify what situation would make the priorities vary. You are helping no one in a group if you are not honest about an idea.

Essential:
-       Being prepared to fully participate
-       Communicating in an open way
-       Honouring commitment
-       Sensitivity to social, cultural personal situations and dynamics.
-       Respecting property.

Secondary:
-       Honesty
-       Acknowledging discomfort or anger
-       Showing respect
-       Understanding the consequence of actions.
-       Be open to criticism.

Trust & creative partnerships Group Exercise:

Part 1: Who’s got a dollar?

Mark went round the room and asked everyone if they had a dollar to give him. Sunita handed over her dollar and Mark asked her to hold onto one side of the coin while he asked her questions about her aspirations for herself and the group in regard to this coarse.

Mark then asked everyone if they had a 2 dollar coin. Maha gave him a coin. Mark repeated the question to her and then took the coin back. He then got to me and when I responded, he handed the coin over to me.

Mark then upped the amount to 5 dollars. I handed over my 5 dollar note. He asked Rachel the same question and handed the 5 dollars over to Rachel. This was repeated with 10 dollars which Josie received in line with her response.

Mark then asked us the following questions?

-       - Would you volunteer your money? – Yes I volunteered $15 dollars.
-       - How did you feel? – It didn’t phase me as I new that there was a purpose to what we were doing. That is, Mark was trying to prove a point.
-       - Did you feel a little sheepish? No as If I didn’t want to give up my money I would have said I didn’t have anything. I would not have followed just because someone else did.
-       - What about when the ante was upped to ten dollars? Still no issue, as there was an underlying reason why people kept the money. It was all in their responses. I figured my response would be correct.
-       Did you think the volunteers were foolish? No. It was a group exercise.

I believe the point of this exercise was to see if any of us trusted mark and the group enough to hand over money and get it back.  I believe this exercise highlighted the trust between the group members.

Part 2:  Eye Contact

The next exercise involved us standing direct directly in front of a group member and staring directly into their eyes for one whole minute.  Mark asked us to take note of how we felt while doing this:

I felt extremely uncomfortable and my body language and behaviour reflected this. I started to laugh, look away and distract the other person. I also was easily distracted as I was not comfortable staring for a whole minute. We repeated this three times with different partners. By the third time I felt more comfortable but still was felt uneasy.

Part 3: Eye Contact with Touch

This part was the most uncomfortable I believe. Mark asked us to now stare directly into the person opposite us while holding their hand. I felt like I laughed more and was more easily distracted than the first time. We did this a second time and by then I started to feel more comfortable. I was able to stare and hold Maha’s hand without laughing, however I did look away a few times.

Part 4:  Proximity – comfortable / closer / further

By this stage I felt comfortable enough to complete this exercise without laughing, however I still felt very uncomfortable staring into Sunita’s eyes while being in such close proximity to her. I found the further away she was, the easier it was to stare into her eyes. By the time all the laughter wore off I think everyone understood the how effective the lesson was at teaching us to trust our team members.

I also think that this exercise helped to highlight the importance in trusting a team member to be able to work effectively with them. It also would strengthen the levels of respect between two people.

Overall the exercise was extremely confronting, and It left me feeling very exposed however it made me feel more comfortable with my group.

The following image is a rough diagram of the group exercise where we had to stare and hold hand. I asked Warwick and Sunita what they were thinking while doing the exercise and the comments are listed on the diagram. and a few of the comments made by












Group Exercise 1: Who’s got a dollar?

Ethical Behavior: In this exercise I believe everyone behaved ethically. The money that was volunteered was given back to the owner and no one judged any of the comments made by the peers. If any member refused to hand the money back, I believe that would be un-ethical behavior in a group task.

Trust: I feel that the members that handed over their money, not knowing that they would get it back displayed trust in the group. The members that didn’t either actually did not have money, or didn’t feel that they could trust the team to give the money back.

Group Exercise 2: Eye Contact?

Ethical behavior: I feel that the group behaved ethically in this exercise even though we all laughed I feel that no noe in the group disrespected anyone.

Trust: We all displayed trust as we continued on with the exercise regardless of how uncomfortable we all were. 

The following is another common trust activity. All text and images referenced from: http://wilderdom.com/games/descriptions/TrustLean.html

  • Trust Lean
  • Create a careful, concentrating, respectful tone.  Watch out for bravado; focus on trust and care.
  • Sequence appropriately e.g., after icebreakers, name games and initial get to know you activities, but often before or as part of  team building activities.
  • If possible, use Trust Lean as part of a progression of trust-related activities, e.g., from Willow in the Wind to Trust Lean to Running Free to Slice N Dice
  • Ask participants to find a partner of similar height and weight; same-sex pairs are not essential, but often occur
  • One person is the Faller and one the  Catcher.
  • Faller must have adopt the falling posture:
    • standing upright
    • feet together
    • hands across chest, resting on shoulders
    • tight butt cheeks and keep body stiff (to avoid buckling)
    Catcher is taught "spotting"
    • one leg in front of the other,
    • arms extended,
    • "give" with the weight, taking it mostly through the legs.
  • Start with small falls, then build. 
  • Establish clear communication calls (like climbing calls), e.g.,
    • Faller: "I am ready to fall.  Are you ready to catch me?"
    • Catcher: "I am ready to catch you.  Fall away."
    • Faller: "Falling."
    • Catcher: "OK"
  • After about 5-10 minutes, swap Catchers and Fallers.
  • Can progress to Trust Falls & Dives from chairs, tables, etc. with whole group catching.
  • Debrief
    • Ask partners to share with each other:
      • What made you feel trusting? (e.g., clear communication, positive encouragement, etc.)
      • What made you feel less trusting (e.g., laughing/joking, lack of communication, etc.)
  • Invite people to contribute to a group discussion about what things their partner did to make them feel more or less trusting.
The following clip is extremely dangerous, but i found it on you-tube to  use as an example of a bad way to build trust between people. See below: 

Equipment: large area preferably with soft ground e.g, grass.
Time: ~20-30 mins
Brief description:
In pairs of similar size, one becomes a Faller and one the  Catcher.  Teach methods for spotting, falling and catching.  Start small and build to bigger falls, then swap.  Debrief - what made you feel more or less trusting?





Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Week 5 - Origination

Week 5 

Jobst Hermann attending todays lesson and discussed the process his team went through for developing the new Charles Darwin University. This presentation gave in site to the group regarding the branding and slogan for the exhibition. The following points were discussed:

Agenda:-

Project background:

Jobst discussed the history behind the rebranding of the CDU logo. The following points reflect why rebranding was paramount:

- Research indicated that CDU was considered an institution of no national credibility. 
- Because of this CDU was also considered a Semi professional authorisation due to lack of consistency        in branding and inconsistent presentation. 
- CDU was using multiple logos which meant that that it was difficult to build a profile to the market. - - - The logos incorporated inconsistent colours and typography and lack of guidelines. 

Brand id development:

Brand audits were conducted, research was backed up by results they had found;
- Marketing and Communication were given task of rebranding and were instructed to keep costs down;
- A generous phase out schedule was allowed. A six month period was given for the uni to phase out all old stock.  

-       
-         The shield and 'Change You World' slogan was taken from the original logo and incorporated into the new logo. See below:


      

Image sourced from: https://www.cdu.edu.au/


,  
-       - Other design concepts were shown incorporating elements from original logos;
-   - Jobst highlighted that the original logo emphasized 'Charles Darwin', rather than 'University', see below image;
    - Advantages for the new logo include: strong design, good reproduction, simple, clear structure and it combines both traditional and modern elements;
             

      






CDU’s brand ID guide lines:

- Correct logo usage was discussed; Minimum size – 35mm; top left corner rule, sometimes placed on the right;
- 'Change You World' is to be used when placing the logo on the right hand side of the page;
- Reproducing – when a document is produced with an equal partnership is completely stands out against other logos;
- Helvetica neue – font chosen as the main font. Ariel is used as a substitute when programs don’t have the main font. 
- The main colours chosen are the original red, white and blue; 
- Additional colours are used to distinguish different faculties, for example, Orange is the distinguishing colour for the Creative Arts and Humanities faculty; 
-       
-       The group discussed the colours allowed for the branding of the exhibition. Jobst also gave examples of how the new brand appears in current advertisements. See example below.

      Image sourced from: NT News
      
      The following video is an advertisement campaign for Charles Darwin University, uploaded to the internet beginning of May, 2010. As you will be able to see, half way through the video, the old logo (insert image) is displayed on a main building. 



Exhibition: 

For the Exhibition - A heading logo alongside CDU Logo will be used.

As a group we discussed the progress of the Exhibition planning to date. The following points were made:
 - All groups are together, group work has commenced;
 - Group time lines and budget was covered;
 - Logistics report, Sunita has drafted timeline. Timeline to be discussed at the start of every class. 

Logistics Report (Sunita): 
- Group teams have been renamed.
- This week, hoping to cover drafting ideas for themes/designs for poster;
- Contact radio's for radio ad;
- Organizing sausage sizzle; where we are going to source a BBQ, where. Peter suggested speaking with Peter Dowling as he may be able to source materials for us.
- Story board for video first draft due next week;
- Start of branding/name for exhibition;
- Each group must put together draft timelines for your group;
- Poster timeline needs to be completed asap;

Reading Quiz: 
Question 1 - Teachers are always learning. Teachers give the information and students have to decipher the information given and understand in context. Teachers and Students need to share the learning (perfect scenario). Communication is a big thing. Discussions were had on what method of learning they would prefer, too much homework or not enough. Which is more effective in making you motivated to achieve? Memory is associated with emotion. We remember the things that stimulate our emotions.  Enthusiasm is contagious. Warick discussed the reduce and simplify concept refering to the teacher in the book.

Question 2 - Evokes an image. Metaphors add colour to the language and they make you think of things differently. Similie = like, metaphore = is. Peter added that his friend referred to his PHD as the trunk of an elephant. The learning starts now.

Question 3 - Group discussed BRAIN. Repetition = not forgetting.

Question 4 - WE all discussed how Peter and Mark use inspiration to motivate us. An example I gave was how both Peter and Mark are using last years exhibition to motivate us for this years exhibition.  Mark also speaks often about next year working in the design industry. Practice makes perfect. Discussing with someone else, consolidates what you know. Peter explained 'when I actually had to teach a class I finally new that I actually got it".

Idea Generation: 

Name based on Centenary 100 years of Northern Territory. 

As a group we brainstormed name/slogan ideas for the exhibition title. The ideas can be found in Josie's blog.