Reflecting on my experience for this design charette, I feel like my group did well in meeting deadlines and providing an exciting and innovative solution to our problem. The two-week period was nice because it allowed us to come up with a lofty and extensive solution but kept us on track to produce material with little time for major adjustments. It was stressful that our final deliveries involved a giant poster and a video. Both things weighed heavily on myself and my team as the deadline approached, as we had to finish all our content to have things to put in the final deliverables. So, there was a lot of stress and I think my heart rate and mood went crazy as well as neglect for my other classes, but a rude awakening to the Junior year may pay off going into this next 10-week project. I really enjoyed working with my classmates this time around because through interaction with the professors and the ideation process, we were all very enthusiastic about our vision and were easily motivated to collaborate. We could see how much work needed to happen for this to be successful so having a large group was a welcome sight. We all got along very well and there weren’t any interpersonal issues. Everyone had clear roles and work established for them and we all helped curate each other’s work to keep it all “on brand”.
In the future, I will use this experience to choose my team members strategically and try to understand what it is that each member can contribute and wants to contribute. I felt like I always feel going into a group project, and that is that I need to become a leader of some sort. I see the deadlines and the big picture constantly and have no problem telling others what I feel they should do to help the project move towards the goal the quickest. I have tried in the past to take on a more passive follower role and it has been stressful for me because I want to critique and direct other people’s work and not focus on producing content in a silo. In this project I helped art direct, I wrote our directive statements and all the content for the audio, I storyboarded the video so that our group saw what assets the video needed, and laid out the final poster and wrote its text content. My goal was always to design a system that was critically robust and relevant so I needed to hold the reigns and let the creative talent of the group flourish while I nudged people in certain directions.
Design Charrettes are somewhat new to me. I like the idea of a refreshingly quick expression of problem solving. When the problem was presented to us I welcomed not having to look for the problem. I do well reacting to design problems, I feel like it is more aligned with my personality to come up with solutions to given problems rather than seeking out problems that aren’t presented to me. I think this experience will help me problem solve in the future because now I know that a solution with multiple touchpoints needs to operate as a system and not just a collection of pieces. Each touchpoint is an opportunity to integrate functionality and problem solving that is inherent to that medium, so choosing the right touchpoints is key to realizing a design system and vice versa.
Going into the next project I hope I can find a team that accepts my direction and understands that I want the group to function as a team all on the same page. I support as well as lead, so I go where I am needed and understand the strengths of members and let the group know who I think would be best suited for a certain task. It doesn’t mean that I dictate the direction that our group is headed creatively, just that I try get us to that destination as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Working with groups always has me performing and listening the sharpest. I think the social aspect of group projects causes me to produce better work because of social stressors, ego, and artistic integrity. So, I was very motivated to produce good work. The scope of our project meant a lot of work which meant a high level of productivity. Obviously, a group needs to be organized to operate efficiently and get the most out of its people power. So, having individuals focused on certain tasks or having time to work collaboratively and bounce ideas off each other was important. I thought the quality of our end deliverables was great considering the stress we were under. There was a lot of inter group critique and collaboration for everyone’s design implements and a lot of excitement and encouragement. Everyone worked hard.
Overall, I had a lot of fun being presented a complex problem and meeting it with a complex solution. This project redefined the role of graphic designer for me and the importance and reach of branding solutions as well as, restoring my faith in collaboration.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B30lw1n9HFbzeE9rQUNBakRRcms
GD301_Branding, Interaction, Service Design 