Category: Network Media

A little about me.

I’ve been in the design field for the past 4 years, graduated with a diploma in Creative Media Design, and I’m very much into illustration and advertising. I did a rebranding project for a particular sneaker brand called Feiyue for my final year project, but I’ve never gotten down to a pitch with the people at Feiyue. (ultimate regret.) yeah, procrastination got the better of me, It never came true, and like many of my other projects, it got chucked to a corner.

Rebranding Feiyue was a tough one. I was warned by one of my lecturers not to take up a fashion brand for my final project, in his experience, not many of the students made it pass the mark (Getting an A) But, my love for fashion and branding did not stop me. And, I wanted to prove him wrong, so I did it.

“Without losing any of its authentic vintage charm, this lightweight canvas shoe then underwent a series of transformations. Its DNA gradually evolved, combining French and international influences.”

My illustrations are a portrayal of the Parisian culture, I came up with 3 different collages of Parisian objects based on 3 different districts in France.  Montmartre (where the world famous cabaret – Moulin Rouge is located at) , Champ De Mars ( Eiffel tower), and Champs Elysee (a place famous for it’s quaint cafes and shopping). This is just one of the pieces:


Basically my concept of this entire campaign is to get a younger target audience to be aware of the brand Feiyue. (More to the music + art lovers) With regards to my previous post about design fiction, Ward stated that “The more ‘seamless’ the world is run, the more boring the fiction is”, I didn’t want to heed what my lecturer had to say about choosing another topic just to get a better score in my report card. Design fiction is not just about designing things, but to make the world a better place, not only for the people, but it helps designers like me and you to grow as well. It pushes your limits and challenges you to think of solutions you’ve never thought you would.

I wanted to do something that would challenge and inspire others, I did not want to adhere to rebranding another cupcake/bakery brand (like everyone else was doing). I wanted to prove something and that’s what I feel everyone should strive towards. Be hungry, do what you love to do, people will try to bring you down, but as long as you know what you’re doing, and you know you can make it. Just fucking get to it. I must say I’m pretty good at giving advice to people, but when it comes to me…… I just need a slap in my face and finish what I start. That’s just something I need to work on :/

Design Fiction

In the reading, Matthew ward discusses about how design fiction is imperative to us.  We should make it a point to inculcate this into our everyday life. 

To start off, as a graphic designer or a designer of all sorts, I’m no new to this. In fact, it’s the foundation of all things before we even start developing our sketches. It’s the very basis of idea development. Design fiction takes a critical theory based approached to design. A critical design will often challenge its audience preconceptions and expectations, thereby provoking new ways of thinking about the object, it’s use and it’s surrounding environment.

Matthew Wards believes that design fiction provokes, inspires, makes us think and question fundamental assumptions can make a valuable contribution to debates about the role technology plays in our everyday life. In addition, he suggests that the role of fiction and speculation should be brought up upon more as part of design education. He feels that by focusing on the speculation and fictional, design is no longer constrained by the practical realities of today’s material and economic restrictions. Design Fiction concentrates on narrative construction, user interactions, representations of affect, communication and contextualisation.

As a designer, I agree with the message that Ward is trying to bring across. Design fiction should be brought part of the ciriculum as it helps to exercise the depth and test the lengths of one’s mind can go whilst developing an idea. Honestly, I feel that Design thinking shouldn’t be only excluded to designers + creative people, we shouldn’t snub out the others. Everyone should get to know about it. 

Part of Design Fiction helps you to differentiate overly narrow, autistic design fiction from rich, well texture design fiction that does not ignore the material realities of change.While you’re working on good projects, it draws you in, challenges you, teaches you something new and leaves you looking at the world in a slightly different, hopefully better way.

The more design fiction can engage a broad, robust set of trends and emotions, the mere effective it we’ll be; whether corporate or otherwise!

Here are 10 important tips that I’ve picked out from Matthew Ward Manifesto on designing with design fiction:

1. All design is ideological

2. Fiction as a testing ground for reality (future scenarios lay a framework for possibilities)

3. Re-inscribing behavior and responsibility

4. The decisions you make have consequences; prototype them
(What first seems like a good idea, might have unexpected, unintended and undesirable outcomes) so it’s best to think through a range of possible consequences before making the go.

5. Normalise to persuade
(New ideas, objects and behaviors are difficult to assimilate and imagine in our everyday lives. So By prototyping ur work, it helps people to see and put themselves in a future context.

6. Make space for experimenting

7. Think through making

8. Things that work don’t create interesting stories
(The more ‘seamless’ the world is run, the more boring the fiction is.)
Finding the uncomfortable haunting fiction that surrounds an object, the place where social life starts to break down. No fracture is far more interesting than just. World that “just works” best to challenge yourself)

9. People are in the protagonist in the production of reality
( essential to know your target audience)

10. Craft the narrative
(Immerse yourself in the literary world, ,understand what makes a good and engaging story)

Well,  I’m gonna end off this  post with a video from Design & Thinking.
Hope this gives you a better understanding of design thinking, one great example of an invention is the GOOGLE GLASS!

3 Easy Steps to Embed Videos

Not new to blogging, but I thought today’s Network Media class was a refreshment of how to get my blog rolling again. This time with the help of widgets, blogrolls and cloud tags and not to forget, how to link my friends up.

Anyway, here’s 3 easy steps to embed Youtube videos into your blog posts.

1. Select your video, click onto the Share tab, underneath you will find a tab that says Embed. Click on to that as well. 2. Copy and paste the html code into the html tab you see on the right side of your blog post.

3. Paste the code into wherever you want the video to appear, make sure that the code is not broken. If not, your video would not work.

4. Save, and Publish your post, and wala! Your video has been uploaded. (In case you’re wondering about the song – It’s Featherstone by The Paper Kites)

Check out Bryan’s Blog on how to add links to your blog!
xx.

Symposium 1

Today’s symposium with the class discusses about  Argyris’s concept of double loop learning and single loop learning.

Double loop learning: Often, we start by governing variables themselves to subject them to critical scrutinity, an alteration in governing variables, a shift in the way in which strategies and consquences are framed. (A modification of processes and objectives) In other words, reviewing the underlying assumptions before coming to a decision/conclusion.

Single Loop Learning: Error is detected and corrected immediately, it permits the organization to carry on its present objective. With this strategy, people tend to think about the implications/consequences first rather than focus on the action strategy.

What I can take away from today’s symposium is that both Argyris and Schons argue that people make mental maps on how to act on different situations ( the way they plan, implement and review) Taking into account of Single Loop Learning and Double Loop learning, to me, the latter is better. Not only will we evaluate our own goals and beliefs, but it broadens up our social circle and whom we interact with. With more constructive feedback and opinions, we are able to modify and adapt some of these variable to create an attitude that is open to many application methods to which we can espouse.

Notice me, notice you.

I’ll start with a quote and a video from one of my favourite poet.
She’s someone I can resonate really well with.

“I’ve always been very observant; I’d rather listen than speak. It’s overwhelming, the amount of detail I see in really mundane scenarios: strangers touching one another; arguing on the phone; a man falling asleep on the train. I’ll fill in the gaps of the story myself. In my mind, I’ll follow them home, I’ll imagine their childhood, what their bedroom looks like, if they are in love with someone who does not love them. The downfall is that i give everything (and everyone) meaning. Sometimes a thing is vacant and I’ll create depth for it; that’s not always fair.” – Warsan Shire

I believe this quote is really relevant to the course reading (The discipline of noticing), it speaks great length of my thought process on how I see things. Rarely these days do we come up with a decision that is partial. Our thoughts are often plagued by certain ideologies and preconceived notions of certain things, we are judgmental and we try to justify ourselves with our own set of ideals most of the time. Our bodies regulate to what is “expected” of us and often, we turn a blind eye to little details and the “insignificant” things.

In the reading, Immanual Kant indicates that intentional noticing is necessary and that in order to become aware of the successions of experiences, we not only have to reflect on what we’ve noticed, but to be in it as well. Noting that in mind, reflective practice requires “living in” the moment and not just mere attendance. While experiential learning is all about learning from experiences, when we start “noticing” things, we are not only able to apprehend what has been done, but are able to make informed choices for the future as well.

“The thing that seems so salient and important at that time recedes into distant memory. Perhaps, never to re-appear.”  – I think we’re all guilty of this. Taking everything for granted, people complain constantly about having an outdated model of a car or phone when we should just be grateful we that have these things in the first place. We complain about the insurmountable workload from school, but what do we get out of all of that? Knowledge. Experience. Skills. Likewise, in relationships. You really do not know the good you have it until it’s gone.

A love letter to Spotify.

You are out of your own element. Ever since you came into my life, you lifted my heart when the rest of me was down. You provide me happiness, romance, empathy in the palm of your hands. Rain or shine, you have no qualms on pacifying me with different tunes to suit my emotional needs. Whether is it on the way to school, out to get my coffee fix, or just wrapped up in bed staring into space contemplating on what I should do next. You know all the melodies of the musicians that I play almost everyday- Girls by The 1975 that wakes me up every morning, Benjamin Francis Lewich’s playlist that lulls me back to sleep. For me, each of these interests is like a well-worn blanket, warm and inviting no matter how times I immerse myself into it. And you have mastered draping it over yourself so we can cacoon together in good times and bad. You are my musical soul mate. You’ve also taught me how to appreciate other genres in music and discover new ones as well and I’ve never stop listening since. The only thing standing between us is not having internet connection and a six month free trial. I don’t know what I’ll do after the 6 months trial is over, and the fact that there’s no wifi in my room right now. (Just got a new apartment :/) Sigh, but! Heads up, there’s this tune that I found in you that makes me think of you somehow and I want to thank you for it. It’s on repeat and nicely set under a playlist called “Just cry, sad songs”

Thank you Spotify. (Even though I’m sharing you with 13415814384927 million users in the world) I hope I can afford you and pay for monthly subscription one day. Till then, I love you!!!

 

Hey Munday.

It’s 2014. I would like to think of my life right now as a fresh book that’s waiting to be filled. My mind constantly reminds me that it needs some justification, my heart needs to unhinged itself, to not fall back to where it was before. I write to release the inhibitions, I write to remember, I write hoping someday people will see this, I write when I’m feeling insecure, I write to organize and transcend my emotions and perceptions of the world, I write because each piece is like an art piece. I crave for wanderlust all the time, it’s what gets me going, keeps my thoughts running, keeps information and helps me to make sense of the ever changing world. It’s true personal experiences, creativity, the liberation to make believe and imagine that keeps me alive.

My mind works like a swinging pendulum. Honestly, i’m not fond of taking sides, but as information swings from left to right, I’d like to hear two sides to everything before the pendulum comes to a stop and evaluate the situation, and make a stand on my own. (In this case, with the help of wiki, research, magazines, books, peers ++) As we pave cross the mass network environments of the 21st century, I’m not ashamed to say that i’ve succumbed to the slavery of network media. With so many apps, social media platforms and the internet, I feel like a master of my own, there’s just too many things to do! 

First.

Today marks the first day of Summer classes (boo!) and Network Media.

I think this first post is going to be redundant. I find it rather interesting that we’re using blogs as our main medium to showcase our works especially in Network Media. Still trying to soak up all that information disseminated today, even though the class was pretty dry. Been itching to blog for awhile now, but my wifi at home persists me. Anyhow, I’ll be using this space to discuss about the course readings, my thought process and communication theories that can benefit in my learning throughout the course.  So blogging isn’t relatively new to me, gone were the days where blogging was just soley based on journalism. It has become a space for marketing, advertising of clothes, fashion photography, a display of portfolio ++ etc, basically anything. Check out The Sartorialist, Colour Me Katie! Love them. 

So there’s that, I can’t wait to update this space. Till then, xx.