Week 10 - Origination

Wednesday 28th September 2011

Today we discussed Chapter 9 of Maeda’s book and everyone gave an update of where the groups are at for the exhibition.

READING: The Laws of Simplicity; John Maeda

 • Intro and Law 9 – Failure

–      http://lawsofsimplicity.com/2006/07/23/law-9-failure/

Reference (Image above): Maeda Law 9: Failure

WEEK 10 – 28/9/11 © 2011 School of Creative Arts & Humanities, Charles Darwin University

Reading Quiz

Answer the following questions as succinctly as possible in your own words

10 mins: Cut & paste into your blog and start answers / 10 mins: Open discussion

1.Using Ten Squared as an example, describe an aspect of your work or something you have worked on, where you have found a symbiotic relationship that is both complexity and simplicity

The logo ten squared looks complex with a series of splashed paint and artwork however it has been applied as a simple process of evolution.

2. Provide a conceptual example of a situation that has arisen during this project

where you have had a return on failure?

We had an idea to go around and gain sponsorship from businesses because we thought a friendly face would be more effective. In practice we found that many of the businesses were not prepared for our visits and on the back foot and we only got to see a few people in the time allocated. We found that if we called the businesses, we could get a lot more sponsors.

3. How are you using the laws in relation to your contribution to The Ten Squared exhibition? Provide a short explanation and example for TWO of the laws so far. Use your work towards and your examples

Organise –  We all pulled together in different areas to make light work of an exhibition that takes a lot of organising.

Time – We had some deadlines along the way well before the exhibition so we have time to finalise our logo, sponsors and send out the invitations

Reference (Image above): Failure http://bloodsweatdice.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/failure.jpg

YouTube Clip

Michael Jordan "Failure" Nike Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45mMioJ5szc

Commentary

It is only a thirty second ad, but it sums up our topic for this week on failure. Michael Jordan appears on a nike ad reciting the amount of times he recalls failing in his chosen sport of basketball. These were big fails in the eyes of the sport. This is the most famous and one of the best basket ballers of all time and to admit failure in order to succeed, suddenly makes us realise he is human and that we all fail . Even the superstars succumb to failure.

Reflection

Today was mainly about catching up with everyone to see where we are all at in regards to the exhibition. There’s only four weeks to go so we seem on track at this stage. I am starting to visualise what my exhibition setup will be like. For the 3D element, I would like to sit a coffee table on some artificial grass that is slightly bigger than the table. For the 2D design I was thinking of applying the irrigation design onto a t-shirt. Mark the Lecturer suggested I could use a mannikin from the fashion room to display the shirt on. This could be an option. I need to finalise my logo so i can get the shirt made before the deadline.

Week 09 - Collaboration

Wednesday 21st September 2011

In today’s collaboration class we look at egos, pride, vanity, judging others and ways we interpret our designs and others’.

Group Exercise – DISCUSSION

Vanity & Ego

Discuss these questions in relation to a group creating a design in collaboration

01 – Are you capable of being vain about your art & design?

I am capable but I choose not to be. If I were, I would not see the bigger picture.

02 – Do you have a healthy ego?

Yes I think it is reasonably well balanced.

03 – What defines an unhealthy ego?

• Ignoring others
• Not accepting constructive criticism
• Being more confident than one’s current skill level and making it known

04 – When others want to change your ideas, do you get offended?

If it’s a radical change I would be. If it’s a tweak to my current idea I would probably embrace it as inspiration.

05 – When you are asked for opinions on other’s work, do you compare it to your own?

No. I think everyone’s interpretation is different but if we are all working towards the same goal I will look to see if mine is up to the same standard.

06 - When you are asked for opinions on your work, do you compare it to others?

No. But If I feel the standard of my work is less than those of the others I will commend them on it.

07 – If somebody plagiarised your work, would you be proud?

I would feel 5% Yes that they think mine is good enough to use

But I would feel 95% cheated.

08 – What is the difference between pride in your work, and vanity about your work?

Pride in your work is putting in the effort, being proud of your work but open to criticism and feedback. Vanity in your work is the mindset that everything you do is the only thing that matters and no element is open for criticism

09 – Do you expect others to listen when you speak?

Yes. It is respectful.

10 – When somebody else speaks are you thinking about what you are going to say next?

Usually I will have an idea but I will always listen to the person’s next response and I will change accordingly if it is irrelevant.

11 – Do you form opinions about others quickly?

Yes but they can change over time after getting to know them more

12 – What percentage of your judgments about others talents are right?

50/50. Everyone has talents in different areas. For every single thing someone is not good at, they are dynamic at something else and vice versa.

A lot of people with egos are in denial

Reference (Image above): ego banner

http://rlv.zcache.com/big_ego_postcard-p239051841895112044qibm_400.jpg

Blog Exercise – Idea Evolution

In regard to creative collaboration:

Discuss these questions - write a paragraph on each and use examples

1 . Do you have a strong belief in your personal ideas?

Sometimes. It depends how strongly I feel on certain topics or my original ideas that I really am proud of.

2. How do you evaluate your personal ideas over a period of time?

Yes. I see where society is heading. I compare it to changing values. I talk about some of my ideas with others to get their opinions. I look back and see whether I need to tweak my idea to suit current trends.

3. How flexible are you in changing your mind about the value of your ideas?

Quite flexible as I like to adapt to different situations. The root of the idea can be the same but applied to certain situations.

4. How flexible are you in changing your mind about the value of others’ ideas?

Other people’s ideas are important to me so I can gather a sense of whether mine are on track or they may inspire me in some way. I may have a weak belief about someone’s idea but when I see an avenue for it, my opinion can change.

5. Does hanging on to your old ideas block new ones?

Maybe it does. But if you don’t hold on to the really sound ideas then you constantly be moving from idea to idea without giving time to develop the good ones. On the flip side, if you stick to just one idea, you can miss out on a whole new range of ideas if it becomes stagnant over time.

6. Are you slow or fast in moving on when an idea has burnt out?

Once I have confirmed an idea is no good I will move on but my sub-conscience may still look into other avenues of the same old idea just in case there is another way of executing it.

Ego in the workplace

Reference (Image above): Workplace ego http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/mfl/lowres/mfln1761l.jpg

YouTube Clip

Pride comes before the fall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CErX8rz5dg8

Commentary

In this week’s video we look at an example of pride coming before the fall. The Student complains about how they got an “F” in writing class when they are so good at it. At about the one-minute mark we can see the conclusion where the realisation of what if you’re actually not that good as you think you are in reality, becomes apparent and the lesson is learnt. This is a good video to grasp the meaning of the old saying “Pride cometh before the fall”

Reflection

Today the class was about egos, judging others and pride. We discovered we all had similar ideas about how we judge others. We can learn to be proud of our work but not lose touch of reality. I like to think I have a good balance of ego but is my ego too big about having a balanced ego? There's one to ponder about!

Week 09 - Origination

Wednesday 21st September 2011

This week’s lesson was about trust and its involvement in our exhibition.

Reference (Image above): “The Laws of Simplicity” – John Maeda – Chapter 8: TRUST week 09 Origination Handouts pdf

Reading Quiz

Answer the following questions as succinctly as possible in your own words

10 mins: Cut & paste into your blog and start answers / 10 mins: Open discussion

1. Provide an example of a situation where you have to have trust – in the same

vein as the author in his swimming lesson example. What made you trust in this

situation and how did you feel?

When I was learning to scuba dive when I was eleven. The Instructors spent a lot of time on surface and out of the water even with the use of the breathing apparatus. I was wondering when all the theory and breathing on the surface of a training pool would eventuate under the water. I found though when we did finally breathe under water I already trusted my regulator (breathing apparatus) and trusted I was in good hands because it wasn’t suddenly foreign to me.

2. Where in our exhibition do we need to instill trust? Give examples. How are we going to achieve this?

We need to have good marketing and trust the reputation of our University.

We need to trust our lecturers as they have generally seen the process and outcomes before. We need to trust our institute for guiding us with the foundation of knowledge, we need to trust our classmates in their co-operation and we need to trust ourselves. Sometime we don’t trust ourselves enough and we find we can achieve things a lot easier than first assumed.

3. What strategies are used to instill trust?

Offering something free

Examples?

Food

Drinks

Snacks

gifts

Where do we need to employ this in Ten Squared?

At the exhibition or via marketing

How are we going to do this?

4. If you could “undo” any aspect of the preparation for the exhibition to-date, what would you “undo”?

Visiting only a handful of potential sponsor companies instead of ringing many more.

With this in mind, what would you change now in your

preparation strategy to overcome having to “undo” anything?

After driving around for half a day meeting potential sponsorship companies we should have just called a lot more businesses by phone. It was a waste of time and money just visiting a handful of companies.

5. Homework: How are you using the laws in relation to your contribution to

the ten squared exhibition?

Provide a short explanation and example for each of the laws so far.

Reduce – I have condensed all our tasks into a checklist

Organise – I organised which locations to visit first so we didn’t have to backtrack.

Time – I agreed to a time when we would knock over all our tasks for the exhibition effectively

Learn – I looked at last year’s exhibition invitations to gain inspiration

Differences – I adapted to the body language of different companies to gain rapport quickly

Context – I fine tuned my approach to the businesses using a simple method of procedure

Emotion – We had to create an emotion in our potential sponsors to get them to sponsor us

Trust – I had to trust the girls to organise their paperwork so I could present it to the sponsors trusting all the info was on there.

The son trusts his father will catch him.

Reference (Image above): http://www.loveosho.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/fatherandson-trust.jpg

YouTube Clip

Extreme Trust Fall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BdjZYfzuuA&feature=related

Commentary

The video I chose today is a typical trust exercise where a person stands on a high perch and voluntarily falls backwards instilling the trust in the group that is waiting below to catch them.

This clip is slightly different as they run away after the lady starts counting down and return only at the last minute to catch her. We can apply similar group trust in our classmates and our exhibition audience.

Reflection

I didn’t really think about trust as an element of design however Maeda’s chapter was quite interesting. We need to make sure that we don’t put all our trust into all forms of design otherwise if it falls through and there is no back up. We need to trust but also be responsible. The remainder of the class today was hearing from the different exhibition groups and their progress towards the exhibition. We established that the sponsors don’t have long to et back to us before the info goes to print and also that we need extra people to help find a few more sponsors. We heard the audio for our radio ad today and it sounded good! We need to make sure corporate comms has our info so when it goes to air that the CDU website has our ten squared content.