paigecassidy01-blog

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Continuation of Project Beyond Class

Looking beyond Multi Studio, the team wanted to find a way to somehow make this so it would not just stop after the big clean up. We have all agreed to keep our Instagram page updated to when we clean up trash we see around the area. The main reason for this is to keep encouraging people to do their part and dispose of their litter. Overall, this project has made my teammates and I so much more environmentally conscious and has motivated me to be one of the many voices of belle isle by using my platform to create change in this respect. Additionally, it gave us the opportunity to work with external organizations and play our role in the community. We would like to stay in contact with organizations, such as Keep Virginia Cozy if they need design work done, or help with other events to help keep the area clean, accessible, safe, and enjoyable.

Link to final presentation slideshow-

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13-krcYN01FbmeCU-QLUEGO4jrTyRww4xTtXW16C4Ex0/edit?usp=sharing

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Continuation of Blog #5

Another plan that we successfully went through with was creating painted rocks and stickers. For this event, since the team is made up of designers and artists, we decided to make stickers and paint rocks as a token of appreciation for those who helped out at the event. We put them on the table for those to take if wanted. This was just another cool aspect to our project, as we got to work together to make physical products for people to take and spread to others. In other words, it joined together the community for a cause. 

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Continuation of Blog #5

For the past two weeks, the team had set out to collab with a well known organization around Richmond known as, Keep Virginia Cozy. This organization has a similar goal to our team, encouraging people to reduce the amount of litter around the area and plan clean up events. On Sunday, April 25th, the team met up at Belle Isle, alongside this organization to play our role in the clean up. Together, we all decided to wear the tie-dye shirts that we had made, and walked around the area with trash bags and recyclable bags, looking to clean up any type of litter that we found. It was a really awesome experience as we all got the opportunity to meet each other in person, but also do what we had set out to do.

Overall, the event was a huge success. All together, there was 97 participants and we all collected 189 pounds of recyclables, 722 pounds of litter, with a total of 911 pounds of trash cleaned from public lands!! We were all really happy that we could take part in an event that went perfectly with our project. Not only did I get to meet a lot of people at this event, and my classmates, but also felt good about myself afterwards that I helped to make a difference in the world, even if it was small. The team all felt really accomplished. 

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Research Blog #5

The past two weeks for the team was very successful overall. Throughout the semester, our primary goal was to reduce the amount of existing trash at Belle Isle. The original problem statement was, “Large amounts of litter exist in Richmond river parks, making them less accessible, safe and enjoyable.” The team focused on Belle Isle of course and attempted to play our own roles by doing mini clean ups consistently though the semester, while gaining insight of why people litter, what types of trash, and ways we can reduce it. The team has done an awesome job of updated the Instagram @voiceof​belleisle, in order to encourage people to reduce pollution and raise awareness and attention. 

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Continuation of Blog #4

The teams plan of action for the next week is to continue to go to Belle Isle and clean up any trash we see, while posting it on the Instagram. We will continue to encourage others to do the same and feel welcome to submit pictures to our Instagram. The organization, @keepvirginiacozy said that they will keep us updated with the details for the clean up on the 25th. We want to keep in close contact with them and support them in anyway possible. The plan is to gather more details, and hopefully offer any of our design skills or anyway we can help out their organization. Another idea the group had was to gather rocks and bottle caps from Belle Isle. With the rocks, we wanted to paint little designs on them and hand them out to everyone who helped out. With the bottle caps, we plan to get safety pins and attach them to the back of the caps to make little pins. We thought this would be a really cool way to thank people for their support and coming through to help out. 

This sprint taught me a lot about progress and the ups and downs of a project. A few weeks ago, the team was beginning to feel overwhelmed with the little amount of progress and the lack of replies from external organizations. This past week has given us a lot of hope and motivation, as our Instagram is beginning to catch a lot of attention from other organizations. We are also making a lot of progress reducing the trash at Belle Isle, while encouraging and inspiring others to do the same. Lastly, planning our own clean up and joining a well known organization to do one on a larger scale will make a huge impact and help us to make connections. We are looking forward to see the difference we make at Belle Isle. 

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Continuation of Blog #4

I have been working to reach out to other organizations that might be interested in joining us for the clean up through Instagram. Many of the accounts with larger follower bases have shouted us out on their stories, giving us more recognition and a higher follower count. Recently, the account known as @keepvirginiacozy on Instagram has offered us to join them at their clean up event on the 25th. They offered the team a spot at their table to collaborate. We are hoping that we can help in anyway, or even use our design skills to broaden their content on their Instagram. 

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Research Blog #4

My team and I are making considerably a lot of progress on reducing the amount of trash at Belle Isle. Together, we have been working together to make trips to there to clean up the trash we see, and posting pictures of it on our Instagram. This in hopes will inspire others to continue to play their part in keeping this beautiful area clean and beautiful. We have gotten some submissions from people cleaning up the area, which is awesome to see. We have all been doing our part in posting daily reminders and posts to encourage people to be aware of these issues also. In the past weeks, the team has been discussing a clean up on a larger scale on the 24th or the 25th in celebration of Earth Day. We want to leave this event open to as many people, to not only enjoy nature but also help the environment. Some things that we have been keeping mind is wearing PPE, how we will stay socially distanced, and where we can have people meet up. Our plan is to measure our overall progress with the amount of trash we have compiled.

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Continuation of Blog #3

For the next weeks the team plans on meeting up together, or with our own friends to go to Belle Isle and do our own part. We all have agreed to clean up on our time. Even just collecting a few trash bags of trash can significantly decrease the amount of trash found at Belle Isle. We are in the process of planning dates to meet up there together to make a difference. As we all continue to clean the area little by little, we have decided to take pictures of the trash collected and document it on the Instagram, This will create a cohesive work that showcases the work we are doing on the area and how we are reducing this issue of pollution. While doing this, we will include hashtags created such as #SavetheBelle or #CleanupIsleBelle. Also, as a team we have discussed opening this idea up to the public, We want to allow submissions of people doing their part and cleaning up the area. We hope that this idea and collective effort will cause a catalyst of change at Belle Isle. In the process of cleaning up, we have all discussed making t-shirts with designs that we have created to show we care, and add to the cause.

This project has taught me a lot thus far. Recently, as a class we discussed the struggles and issues we all have been experiencing, and it was relieving to hear that other teams were dealing with similar problems. We had to shift our focus, and be pragmatic about the issues we are dealing with during the COVID pandemic. I learned that it is a lot harder to depend on external sources and  organizations because everyone has their own things going on, and a lot of people are more hesitant to want to get involved with COVID existing. As a team, we would have liked to plan a bigger clean up, but realistically speaking I think it will be difficult to get people together at a larger scale. Due to this, we have decided to keep it to our group, or with friends who want to help. To involve others in our cause, people can send in submissions of them doing their part and cleaning up the existing trash there to be posted on the Instagram. This in hopes will create a community with the desire to reduce pollution in an area we all love and enjoy. 

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Research Blog #3

At this point in the semester, the team was experiencing some issues with getting consistent responses from external sources and organizations, so we had to redirect ourselves to not be dependent on them. We have shifted to utilizing social media, specifically instagram to advertise different designs, hashtags, and pictures of trash at Belle Isle to promote cleaning it, while being aware with the existing pollution issue there. Over the past weeks, I gathered everyone’s designs, and created my own posts to showcase on the Instagram that can be found @voiceof​belleisle. I followed accounts associated with promoting cleaning up at belle isle and other groups that enjoy the spaces, such as hiker groups, environmentalists, etc. In hopes of creating a presence on instagram, it’ll inspire others to want to be apart of the change and help clean up the area.

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Continuation of Blog #2

The team’s plan going forward is to continue to reach out and get into contact with organizations already associated with cleaning the Belle Isle area to get insight on the pollution issue, and to organize clean ups. We are trying to all reach out to many organizations by email and calls to ensure that we have options. We have gotten in contact with the James River Association and we will see what can be done there. We have begun looking into a site called Meetup to contact organizations and groups that may be interested in helping to keep the area clean. We would love to organize a clean up, so we have been thinking of ways to get the word out, and get people involved. We have been brainstorming social media platforms that would appeal to the largest group of people. I think Instagram would be the most successful and through word of mouth. First individually, we will each create a prototype of a post to decide our preferred style and information. We will then all come together as a group and pick which style we like the most, and create our Instagram to get the word out. We would also like to create prototypes of signs to put in the areas with the most build up that would catch people’s attention and as a friendly reminder. 

This research week has taught me a lot about working with nonprofit organizations and actually getting in contact with them. It is a lot harder than I would have thought. We are going to have to start reaching out to more than we think we should to ensure getting a response from at least a couple. I also was thinking about going to Belle Isle soon to do a mini cleanup to learn more about the issue, the effectiveness, and also to get ideas on more ways to fix and go about this complex issue. 

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Research Blog #2

Thus far, the team has been working to get in contact with different organizations, and researching groups that may be interested in helping with our cause. We have been discussing different prototypes to attract people and also to raise awareness for this issue. I got in contact with an organization, but they have not been responding as frequently as preferred, but we will continue to reach out to more. To create a presence on social media, we all decided to create a prototype of the style that we think would be the most effective. I think short and sweet slogans work the best, so my mock up design mimics that. I also met with Raymond from class on to discuss his overall experience cleaning Belle isle and how he got people together. We talked about the methods he used to get people interested, what type of trash he found, and what he thought would help decrease the amount of pollution in these areas at Belle Isle. I gained a lot of insight and am looking forward to creating some change. 

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Transforming Trashcans

I think it would be cool as design students to take a different approach in painting trashcans/ making them more appealing to attract the eye and to remind people to dispose their litter. 

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Research Blog #1

My team and I have been working really well together, collaborating to find solutions to the pollution issue primarily around Belle Isle. During our first sprint, the team recapped on the progress we had made in researching this issue and the factors that contribute to it. Prior to the presentation, I made a group chat with my group mates in order to get easy contact with them, and discussed the roles within the presentation. Since this was my idea, I took on the role of describing the problem statement, and how it was refined after conducting the exercises. The original problem statement was lengthy, and did not accommodate as many different types of people as I would have liked. It was originally, how can we find ways to prevent people from disrespecting the environment and polluting the places we love to go to in Richmond? After working with the team, we narrowed the statement down to, large amounts of litter exist in Richmond river parks making them less accessible, safe, and enjoyable. After looking at the statement, I tried to decide what “litter” meant to me to try to categorize the types of trash that is found, and what types of groups of people that may be leaving this litter around. After making the customer map, using the adjectives of less accessible, safe, and enjoyable appealed to members in the inner circles such as, VCU Students, families, hikers, tourists, and the wildlife. Broadening to the outside circle, these adjectives appealed to many groups also like, associations and organization organizing events and volunteer opportunities to clean up these areas we are searching. Lastly, within the sprint we also all included research goals in order to give each member more direction on finding a solution. My goals included finding if there are limited trash cans in Belle Isle which may be contributing to the pollution issue. Also, learning and reaching out to organizations like the James River Association or Friends of the James River to see what efforts they have in place for combating this issue, and how we can further help that. As designers, I think we could make a difference on how people view and contribute to cleaning up Belle Isle.

My plan now looking forward is to continue researching into organizations around the James River that are helping with the pollution issue. People working within these groups are very knowledgeable of the contributing factors to this issue, why, and how we might be able to help. I sent an email to the James River Association in hopes to plan for a zoom interview to find some helpful information on how to solve this issue. I also went out to Belle Isle and walked to count all the trashcans they had available for people to dispose their trash. Along the whole walk alongside the rocks, there was a total of four trashcans. I think the area would benefit if there were more closer to where people sit and hang out. I began doing research on ways other groups have worked to help with pollution through art and design, and I think making visually pleasing signs, and trashcans would be a cool project. I would like to find and contact the organization that puts in the trashcans, and maybe get more there. Lastly, after discussing with local organizations or groups, I would like to utilize social media platforms like Facebook and instagram in order to promote incentives to want to help. I think along with helping keep the environment here, there is an awesome opportunity for a social incentive, and to meet other people working for a cause during this pandemic. Also, organizations with experience in getting people involved could be an important asset, and help my team to get people together and help out. I hope to make a lot of progress before the next sprint demo, and making these ideas come to life.

From this most recent sprint, I learned a lot about collaborating with people and working within a group setting. With Covid, many of us do not have the same opportunities to studio spaces to freely discuss and collaborate to find solutions. After working with three other people, and receiving feedback from the seniors, I found how powerful discussing and planning is to the end result. Skills like communication, mapping out the people affected by the issue, and prototyping are essential skills for the field I aspire to be in. I also learned how quickly two weeks goes by. I think my team worked really well in getting together an informative presentation, and would love to continue throughout this. As the weeks go on, I would like to be more on top of my goals in order to find solid solutions to this issue, or to minimize it.