Charette Reflection

Constraints:

While time was a pretty major issue, the fact that we had a pre-picked topic and a group of fellow designers was a huge help. The topic at hand was broad enough that we still had plenty of wiggle room regarding the way we approached the project, and having each other to l immediately bounce ideas off of helped us come up with a plan that was both viable and conceptually interesting.

Opportunity:

I think that working in this team was really nice! I enjoyed working with this particular group of people quite a bit. The level of communication was just enough that I feel like everyone was contributing their fair share of work, working off each other’s strengths to complete the charrette on time. However, unless I’m taking little to no other classes then I wouldn’t want to take a two-week design challenge ever again. The time constraint was so stressful, and a good number of the people in my group and in this class (myself included) spent several days staying up very late working on it. This doesn’t mean that I’d be repelled by new ways of approaching design problems, of course, but when me and my peers still have other courses, design and otherwise, pushing ourselves to this limit is awfully detrimental to our health and grades.

Application:

One of the biggest things I think this project helped with is motivation to work. When you’re working with a group of people on a shared goal, oftentimes their portions rely on your own contribution, and vice-versa. Having other people who rely on you really helps the ol’ motivation, because if you fall behind everyone else in the group also falls behind and disappointing people really sucks. Being able to focus, be productive, and concentrate on the project was boosted by this extra level of motivation. On top of all of that, the quality of our final product was enhanced by the fact that we were all there for each other for proofreading and improving our individual creations.

Presentation:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B30lw1n9HFbzeE9rQUNBakRRcms?usp=sharing

Future Recommendations:

I think overall this was a successful project that I enjoyed and learned from. However, as I mentioned earlier I think that only having two weeks was stressful, and adding an extra class or two just to give a bit more time to polish and wrap things up would have been a godsend. I also did not like being singled out to talk when we had already covered everything we needed to cover. It had nothing to do with my group’s project and crossed a line I didn’t appreciate being crossed. If you have concerns about me vocalizing, please speak to me personally about them instead, please. In conclusion, I think that the Charette project was interesting and educational to participate in and was a different and neat way of working in a group project. I give it an 8/10.

Reflection Charette

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

Charette Reflection

I believe the project as a whole was reflected in both positive and negative ways given the time constraints. Given such a short amount of time, I think in the end it allowed us to hone in on fewer, more reasonably achievable aspects. The evolution of our ideas from the beginning of the two weeks were drastically narrowed to become more obtainable within the time constraints, but still not quite fleshed out enough. I believe this constraint affected our team’s ability to solidify a strong, interconnected brand across all of our deliverables. In the end, I think that we simply needed to push our ideas further and put a higher focus on the craft and cohesive nature of what we created. It’s important to have a strong level of progress out of the gate and a wide initial pool to pull from to solidify the brand/goal from the beginning, which can be a struggle with any project, individual or group.

Receiving a topic, in my opinion, made the project easier. Often when you don’t have some sort of clear cut guidelines, it makes the project harder, from the starting point. This is only escalated when you’re working with a group. Two weeks can be difficult to get everyone on the same page and envisioning the same design intervention. It took us a minute to hone in our ideas to something achievable.  I do however think working in teams gives everyone an added motivation to try to put their best work out there, for the sake of them as an individual, but also for the betterment of the group for a project that everyone can be satisfied with. Working in a group did benefit my motivation to perform my role, which was geared toward the remapping and the presentation. My focus and productivity was at it’s peak when getting input and suggestions from the other teammates or whilst splitting up and working individually. I think the end deliverable would’ve been stronger had everyone been able to focus and work collaboratively on a smaller number of assets in a shorter amount of time, by each bringing different skillsets to the table, while being able to maintain a stronger level of control over the assets.

Moving forward, I think I’ve learned different tactics to help with projects such as these, whether it be brainstorming activities, or designating based on specialties. Each person in the group is a design expert of their own, so I believe it’s important to establish everyone’s strengths and weaknesses to not only ensure the best possible end result, but also make everyone’s jobs in the group more successful and enjoyable. I rank a higher level of importance to constantly working in close proximity in order to get input on every aspect to ensure the best outcome, as this is often easier said than done.

I think it was a good experience to prepare me for how the future workforce could be. I feel like we didn’t have enough time to fully flesh out ideas to decide if they were the best decisions we could make. So in the future I believe that will push me to speak up and encourage others on the team as well as myself to not be afraid to throw out ideas and form new, different possibilities. I think we definitely didn’t have a second to waste, which we at times struggled with.

I enjoyed the task of imagining what something could be, rather than re-branding something that already was. It’s a nice sense of freedom, and change of pace that designers get to experience. It also gives you a chance to open up your mind to creating a system that in turn makes improbabilities probable. The main success of this project is that I’m more prepared for future scenarios such as this having had to work under this type charette. All of these things I believe will significantly influence my future design work and challenges.

For the future- I think it’s important to have a very realistic idea of the time you’re allotted and because of that pushing yourself and your group to develop a alot of varying ideas at different scales, then quickly solidifying them, and beginning the legwork. A helpful tip that I think everyone can benefit from is not forgetting to keep check in’s frequent and communication strong throughout the process.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B30lw1n9HFbzeE9rQUNBakRRcms

Design Charette Reflection – Kinzie Burke Group A

Constraints:

My design process personally was effected by the two-week time frame in a sense that I did not get stuck on brainstorming on solutions for an extended period of time. I think that sometimes I jump into ideas too early, so I was used to not dwell too much on all the possible solutions, in this case, it benefited our group’s outcome. I think since we decided the second day we met what our game plan was going to be, it made us more productive and focused. I feel like we decided our plan and started out so strong… then we started to fizzle out midway… but then I think we ended strong.

Working with classmates provided a constraint in the sense that we all had to wait until each other were done with their portion. Our schedules, living locations, styles, and workflow are so different from each other which on the one hand enriches the work but on the other hand can get complicated when needing to meet, make a cohesive brand, and get designs done fast. I think my team tried to push against this constraint making for a more smooth group project experience, even though we did run into minimal speed bumps.

I felt like having an assigned project/place was a good and healthy constraint especially since the project was so short! The constraints of having an assigned project helped me think more creatively when a project is too open ended I tend to get caught up on too many possibilities. I think being given an assigned project/place makes it more applicable to real world assignments in the workplace.

 

Opportunity:

This experience will inform my work with teams in future design work by paying attention to my group’s strengths and weaknesses more. Promoting collaboration is key and meeting up in person to brainstorm and set the stage is essential and something I will encourage my future teams to do.

Participating in design challenges and charrette style projects I feel are most rewarding to me. I have a some what short attention span when it comes to projects. I love quick projects and challenges because it does not allow me to get bored or stuck because it is moving so fast. The excitement in the speed really motivated me and made me think faster and more creatively than I have in longer projects.  I am also used to working in a speedy environment in the work place so I feel comfortable and pushed by challenges like these. 

The way I approach new experience and coworkers will stay the same because I think most of the time I approach things with an open mind. I will be more be more vocal when I believe things are being handled improperly and be cultivate a collaborative and listening space for my other group members in the future though. 

 

Application:

One of the special group moments we had was the third time our group had met, each individual had worked on a piece of the project outside of class only having the logo and color scheme as parameters.  We presented the ideas for how we thought our posters and deliverable should look and feel, our work was all over the place across the board which was wonderful to see the vision each of us was having for our outcome. We thought it might be helpful to switch computers and redesign things that others had made in our style but then decided that was counterproductive and that we needed just to delegate roles within the group that we would then be in charge of. Working in a group benefited me in this way because it was amazing to see other people’s thought process for all the different aspects of the project then fine tune them and craft them to our brand, seeing each individual’s style, thought process, and strengths are key to collaboration.

I normally like to work by myself because I am on my own time frame. But while working with a team the motivation for time management is increased because you need to get approval from the group on your designs and present to your group. Where as if this was an individual project I would already know where I was heading in my minds-eye and would not have to have as many “check ups” on the process. Working in groups is also more pressure because you do not want to let your group down.

Group work is hard especially in a group of five because here always ends up being individuals that feel like they are contributing either too little or too much.

My group did a really good job brainstorming and thinking of solutions, we encouraged each other to push ourselves in the design process which was very motivating. This motivation made me work faster, better, and smarter.
Our level of quality in our end design deliverables was very cohesive which was a relief because that was the hardest part to coordinate within a group. In my opinion, we could have had more deliverables but it is probably good that we kept a number of deliverables to a happy medium because the deliverables crafted and all the way thought out because of the limit of deliverables we presented.

 

My contribution to the group project:

-I created the motion graphics of the logos for the video

-Found, curated, filmed, and placed appropriate film and music within the video.

-Worked on the overall video as a whole: production, editing, and seeing the video through to completion (with Trevor’s help)

-Made and curated the whole website

-Provided feedback and guidance to the overall team

The following link shows our design process, deliverables, and reflection:

Presentation, video, and poster on the google doc:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B30lw1n9HFbzeE9rQUNBakRRcms

Link to The Stream Website:

https://keburke3.wixsite.com/thestreamraleigh

My advice:

Make quick and smart decisions that aren’t based as much on “the now”/current. Let “the now” influence you to think creatively and toward the future….yet still make it realistic but don’t get hung up on logistics.