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The Dream is Plump but the Reality is Skinny

Whatever you do, you may face the gap between ideal and reality. We always have high expectations of the results, however, what you imagine in your mind is very difficult to make exactly the same in reality. Take design as an example: you’re creating a design using Illustrator or InDesign, you might not know how to do the effect as same as your sketches or the pictures in your mind. If you just start learning how to use those tools, you may have no idea what is the name of that kind of effect and you do not even have the chance to search for the online tutorials!

It indeed makes us feel upset and frustrated, but believe that we have the ability to cope with difficulties and continuous learning new things. Here are some tips on how to make your work perfect.

Practice makes perfect: 

Do more and try more, you’ll be familiar with your work. When you’re designing a layout, you should try as many templates as you can. Compare each of them and you will find out the most satisfactory one. It can be also applied to skills learning. as the example mentioned earlier, if you’re a newbie to Adobe, try all the tools in the application. Although it spent lots of time, it’s worthwhile since you will know what function each button has and what effect can be created. Miracles will happen while you’re testing each button. You will find what you need.

Finish the work before making it perfect: 

The whole is bigger than the details. If we pay too much attention to details, we will ignore the overall outcome. We should finish the whole part first, then try to add details to your work to make it better. Otherwise, the details might not match the entire work.

Make the best of your work in a limited time: 

There will be a time slot for our work, you have to finish the work before the deadline is coming. Even if the work does not reach your highest standard, at least, you did your best and handin on time. Late submissions are more costly than work with lower standards. (Of course, it talks about the time-limited jobs. )

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Wanna know what is lifelong learning? Ask Y!

We are the newspaper that helps to answer your questions. Today’s topic is about lifelong learning. Let’s see the details!

 Lifelong learning means the action of learning that we take outside the education system. It means that one can continue to absorb new knowledge after the end of one’s student life, to find the essence and meaning of life. For a better life and to transcend one's past.

It is not as difficult as you think. All the actions that make you gain a better understanding of something can be considered learning. It can be a search on the internet to find out if the insects that appear in your house are harmful to humans; it can be an interest to learn new skills like skiing; or it can be a question that you don’t know why and try different ways to figure out the answers. You take this action again and again until you die, that is lifelong learning.

There is no ending to learning and lifelong learning covers almost everything. We experience new things to achieve our goals through learning. It is meaningful and worthwhile. For example, the purpose of studying literature is to create a literary work to express ideas and communicate with readers through our own work. In order to interact better with people, we can read books that teach you how to communicate effectively.

Human beings already reached the top of the food chain in this world, and now we are learning not only for the sake of survival. We can explore outer space and learn about anything we are interested in. We can't know everything in our lifetime, but we can create a better living environment for people in the future through our continuous learning and creativity.

For more information about lifelong learning or if there are something you want to know, Ask Y and comment below the article, we will choose one of them to be the next topic :) 

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Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context — a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.

Eliel Saarinen

What does context mean?

Context refers to the circumstances that form a set and allow it to be completely understood. it is a  framing that unlocks the right explanation of something. Anything can be a part of the context, such as time, color, and location.

For instance, a cup of coffee is put on the table, and a cake is placed next to it. We know that it’s tea time. However, if a person has a sleepy face, he/she is drinking a cup of coffee in the office means that he/she needs the coffee to stay awake in order to finish the work. The context will change based on the included elements in a picture, a text, or an environment.

Why should we care about the context?

As a designer, we should care about the context because it helps us to express our thoughts and to communicate with our audiences. Considering the context, we can design things with more hierarchy. As Eliel Saarinen said: “Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context — a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.” We first think about the usage of design, then think about the decoration of it, finally think about the package and where to put the product in a market.

The audience is the target.

If you want to receive a specific response from your audience, you should lead your audience to respond to you in the way you want them to. By using the context in your design, you should choose what you need to put into your design that helps you convey the message.

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Create Your Own Fieldnote!

“Field research generates inspired insight that enables the team to ask smarter, different, and more nuanced questions. The answers then provide unique perspectives on which the new can be built.” (Jan Chipchase, The Field Study Handbook, 2018)

 Fieldnote is the note that you record during your observational research. Observational research is to collect information about how things, people, and systems behave, interact, and change over time. It observes the specific field, which means a kind of site.

The more observation research you did, the more ideas you develop. You can refine your prototypes and then conduct tests based on them. Finally may choose to observe in a new field in order to improve the outcomes. This process can be repeated again and again until the deadline’s coming (if any). For instance, if you are a designer, you should finish the process before the deadline and create the final product. But if you are a geologist, there might be no ending of research.

Before starting the fieldnote, you may consider what you want to observe and how to record it. I was living in a vacation village, and there are many decorative elements outside my window, so I chose to observe them and their structures in my fieldnote.

Since things might change continuously, you may have to sketch them quickly and simply. The drawing does not aim to create a beautiful picture but to record the information in a short time.

The outcome is quite interesting, if there is no caption of each thing, others may not understand what I’m drawing. But you know what are they because you actually saw them. So that words are necessary to include in your fieldnote to provide a better understanding of it. Moreover, in case you forget what you have drawn, it’s better to write a caption next to your drawing. Your notes might become important learning material for others. Ensure that your records can be understandable and help others know what you have seen and your thoughts about it.

There are many things we cannot tell by others, such as their feelings, we are able to gain our own experience by directly participating in the observation instead of just looking at others’ writing on a website. Creating fieldnotes, we might find some interesting phenomena that were not expected. Although the observers can only see superficial or a part of things, it is still worthwhile to do the observation to combine a variety of information together and have a new discovery.

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◗▲◆◼=?

There are three levels of anatomy in a visual message: Representationally, Symbolically, Abstractly. I’m trying to explain it but it sounds like I’m talking about some logical /morality problems. Hard to say.

What ducks, sparrows, and parrots have in common are a pair of feathery wings and a hard beak. These features can be recognized by their shape, lines, etc, and help us to identify them as birds. Reality is dominated and based on the visual information that can be seen. All of the visual information have their meaning, that we called it “Representation”

 Symbolism means a thing has meanings more than just itself. It can be an object, a letter, or an action. For instance, a cross is a cross(in reality), but at the same time, it symbolizes the Christian. We see a man wearing a ring, we might think he is married.

 What about Abstraction? It is a process to simplify all the basic elements that we see. Sometimes, there are no connections between pure abstract and things we already know. It can be a kind of feeling that brings to us. Such as music, it gives you a feeling, which cannot be seen.

 A  △ can be the symbolism of the word “Triangle” in math homework. On the street, it becomes a warning sign▽ to draw people’s attention. When it is pointing ▷to something, we will see it as a direction tool. Therefore, visual messages can be different based on different environments.

 We can see that the visual message can exist at the same time and can be also separated into different levels. And for different people, they may see the same element as having different meanings. That’s the interest of our mind.

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Improve your self by...

I believe that all of us want to have great achievements in different areas or to become outstanding people in the future. To make these happen, we should improve ourselves continuously.

As a student, paying attention to what your teacher says and finishing your homework are necessary foundations of learning. But there is much more you can do for your self-improvement.

 Every time you finish your work, you may ask yourself: “What aspect of your work are you most satisfied with or you find most challenging?” it helps you find out what are your strengths and shortcomings. Be a proactive person to ask for feedback to get know about how to further develop your work.

“The player sees less clearly than the bystander.” Don’t be shy or afraid to have your work critiqued by others because you will find out there are different opinions coming from others. You will be able to see your work from a new point of view.

Especially when you are joining tutorial classes, be brave and take the initiative to show your work to your teacher. They can provide professional advice and guidance to give you a clearer direction for improvement faster. Of course, be open-minded, otherwise, no amount of advice will help your advance.

I was designing a symbol and displayed it in both B&W and color versions. I was satisfied with the outcome. In the coming lesson, the teacher told me that the light contrast in the color version is lower than the B&W version. I was surprised because I have been looking at my design too long and have become less sensitive to it. But the teacher was able to tell the problem immediately. Therefore, seeking advice helps make your work better.

 In this well-developed century, we are easily attracted by things around us. It is extremely hard to start working. We can set up a small goal, like completing the sketching of the design, and start to do it for 5 minutes. You will find that the goal is not that hard to achieve compared with the goal of “design a complete logo”. After 5 minutes, you will get into working mode and become concentrated.

Creating a comfortable workplace can be also helpful. Based on your personal preference, make your workplace clean or quiet in order to avoid distractions. It makes you more focused while doing your work.

Give yourself a reward every time you finish an assignment. It can heave a chocolate cake or watch TV programs for 20 minutes. That makes you self-disciplined and work more efficiently.

 Be brave and try a variety of things. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that: “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” Just start to do it, don’t be afraid that the idea will be baned, at least you’ve done something. And gain experiences from what you have done.

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Research is The Foundation

Whatever you do, you need to research. When you want to cook a dish, you search for recipes. When you are doing homework, you search for references. Even when you learn how to ride a bicycle, you search for tips that may facilitate your learning. It is not only about searching for information on the internet.

 Joanna Ngai defines research as “Evolution of understanding: hypothesis →data →information →knowledge →insight →wisdom.”

We can see that research is not just a single action but a process to help us understand things from the shallow to the deep.

 There are 3 types of research: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Research. Primary research is things that you do and finds out by yourself, for example, you ask people to do the questionnaire created by yourself or go site visits and take photos. This information collected is called Primary Information or First-hand Information. Secondary research searching for Secondary Data. They are others’ First-hand Data, you take it and use it, it becomes your Second-hand Data. The last one is to search for Secondary Information which has been summarised and commented on by someone else. 

The first one is the most reliable because you see the site and gather the information yourself. The other two are more convenient and help to save your time since you can directly use others’ research. However, they might not be the truth since the author may modify it and add their thoughts before being published.

  Thus when we are searching, we should make a judgment on which type of research we are going to use and also to find out what we need. Or otherwise, it is time-wasting. 

For instance, we can first write down all the questions we want to know. Then find out which question(s) is worth to be answered and which type of research we should use. After that, we are able to do the research base on a specific question. It is more efficient than just searching for the whole topic without planning. That is the tip for searching for the right thing and searching things correctly.

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Don’t Just Say “Good” or “Bad” For Feedbacks, Learn How To Be A Critic

Are you still just using “Good” or “Bad” to give comments on someone’s work? It is unclear and not that helpful for further improvement. There is a way to provide, also to receive useful feedback, called “Critique”. It is a skill of using critical thinking and methodical analysis to respond to work.

 Here is an example of how to critique. Your team is going to design a logo based on a specific topic. Your team member has sketched out several ideas and you need to choose 2 to 3 for them to further develop. You can first find out what you enjoy and what you feel while looking at your partner’s work, it’s based on your personal feeling. At the same time, as a designer, you should be familiar with the design elements and principles. Think about what makes you have this feeling. After you find out which logo is the most effective, let’s say, the most relevant to the topic, you can advise on how to change or explore more to create a better design by using your design knowledge. For instance, there can be more contrast of light value to make the logo more attractive.

 It’s not surprising that people may not be pleasant by being disapproved. Therefore, the way how you speak out your thoughts is also important. You should express your feelings kindly because you don’t want to receive similar comments like “I hate it!” in your work. But kind doesn’t mean you gonna lie to others, the work can be improved only when you give suggestions based on your real feelings.

 In contrast, when you are the one who receives feedback, you should be open-minded since that opinion is helpful in your progress. Take notes on the crit, ask specific questions and seek the answer if you are in doubt.

 Remember, critique aims to help us to improve.

https://frankchimero.com/blog/2018/design-criticism/

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/design-critiques/

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-are-the-elements-of-art-182704

https://www.wix.com/blog/2018/07/7-principles-of-design-websites/

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Words in Design

I’d read a short story talking about the meaning of life. It says life is the little things like the excitement of the first time you carry your school bag. All of the experiences gather together to become your life. I think this can be an example to explain the concept of “INTERBEING”, a term created by Thich Nhat Hanh.

Similarly, design is not just about the outcome, each of the small things, such as the usage of color and typeface, plays an indispensable place in the design process.

Nicole Fenton also mentioned the concept of “INTERBEING” in her article “Words as Material”. We used to separate writing from design, but actually, writers can be a designer and words are the “little thing”, the material.

“If we want design to communicate, we need to communicate in the design process.” It’s interesting to know that communication is a big issue in design. The use of language makes the idea in our minds visible which helps it become clearer. No matter we aim to communicate to ourselves or the whole world, words are indeed an important tool of communication. And writing is a way to practice how to use words better to clarify our thoughts and make them be understood easier.

https://www.nicolefenton.com/words-as-material/

https://dolphin.baicizhan.com/react_reading/reading/article/2082?buid=1064871815&recording=null