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EsKayOh Reflection

When I started my studio class, I felt very lost and unmotivated when we were given our semester timetable and what we had planned for us. I felt there was a lack in design and expected the semester to consist of theory and paper work, however, was instead given a challenge much like I have faced in some of my previous briefs, but instead at a larger scale and consisting of the entire semester. I had no idea what was expected form me at the end of the year and where I was to start to make sure I had something to progress. 

We started with core studies and Andy introduced us to Gordon Matty Clarke, I honestly felt very confused as I watched a black and white movie and struggled to understand the point. It was all stepping stones to introducing us to the idea of an experience, going away from the norm and creating something different. 

This was the mind set that Andy was preparing us for, we did our first trial of this by going with small groups for a meal, based off one of the core studies we saw. This project I got the right idea and wanted to go to a small bar I knew of in an alleyway hidden behind a bin, in an almost abandoned looking building with a bar on the upstairs level. Because of the time of day we wanted to go; we ended up going to the donut shop, although it was not the original plan, we opened up to each other and discovered this tiny little hidden donut shop together, and created our own experience. 

As the group came closer together, I started to understand the concept of this semester was not only about creating an experience, but it was bringing us as class mates closer together, and learning to work as a team instead of approaching every task independent. 

The specialist classes when firstly introduced to them were hard to grasp, I got the idea it was all theory, but instead found each specialist I had to tackle the brief given with a different approach to the first. And that alone taught me some new skills, learning new ways to research and brainstorm ideas for different types of briefs. 

For the food event, our team faced a variation of obstructions in the way, and over group discussions tackled them to find ways around it. We communicated well and it improved as the semester and group assignment progressed. The event was well co-ordinated and it would not have been completed to the standard it was, without the whole class and lecturers communicating and assisting each other. I feel the skills I learnt from this project were very beneficial, especially for a young designer to hopefully one day go into the field of working in a design team. 

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AluMni fRuiT PaRTy

Attending the event on the friday was such an eye opener to see what our class was capable of, with the expectations it was going to be a small event. I was amazed to see what a group of young designers with little experience of planning event like this could achieve. To see so many things included in our tote bags or made and designed out of paper and basic materials, however, maintaining an interactive and exciting design. 

There was so much to explore and discover at the event, especially as the whole design team was broken up into two classes, so some of the designs we were not even made aware of. The trip to the food market was social and encouraged everyone to talk to new class members, also sharing an experience as one brought the whole group closer together. 

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The Day

On the day of the event we ran into some difficulty, the weather was forecasted to rain in the morning, and we believed we would struggle to get everyone to make their bowls, as the surfaces would all be wet. So we took the initiative in the morning to make them ourselves, this did mean our instructions were redundant and ended up wasting the left over trimmings. 

Reflecting off this however, after seeing everyone retrieve their tote bags with the bowls already assembled, we saw it would have been overwhelming as their were so many things in the bags to consider. Hindsight, this was a success and I think the assembling by the consumers was not needed and the event went forward as planned with our bowls serving their main function. 

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Futures / 未来

For this project, the lecturer wanted us to communicate and interact with students we were not familiar with, therefore collected our name and handed them to others at random. I was paired up with Xinyi Jia, a chinese student studying in Australia, with English as her second language we struggled to get a clear understanding that required verbal and physical communication by searching images on google. 

We had to interview each other about our favourite song, and why we picked it, so as a class we collected a selection of relevant questions to ask. She chose the song “Hallelujah”, said to remind her of her family in her home country, and this song made her feel very home sick. I asked specific questions, the answers would make a big impact on the direction of my design. When she first heard the song, she did not understood the lyrics clearly; this explained to me that she connected with the emotion portrayed in the song, and not the lyrics. I wanted to incorporate this into my design and keep the message ambiguous, expressing her home sickness and her culture. 

I listened and studied the songs lyrics, and searched for a few sentences that best related to her situation. I wanted to mask the lyrics and almost give it a Chinese style, I achieved this by overlaying the words, the same as they do in their language, to mask the words and make us see the lyrics the same way she did (foreign). 

After completing the lyrics, I ink painted the summer palace, located in Beijing and a famous landmark to symbolise her home country. I felt the postcard would have a bigger impact by telling the story of her opening it over dinner. As if it was sent from her family back home in Beijing posted in a traditional Chinese postcard. Out of all my specialist classes, I enjoyed this one the most, as it encouraged me to really get to know my client. I had to research her background and her culture, and to try capture it all in my own design. 

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Food Bowl Designs!

So after several changes and alterations to our work we did it, we finally had a final product to provide for the event. All 5 of us came up with a singular design to contribute and mix up to add some colour and variation to the event. 

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Food Updates

So we had been updated by other group members about the location/food/time etc and what every group would be contributing to the event. This allowed us to focus on our design with more information and a clearer understanding of what was required by our group and our product. 

Now we knew what the food subtanse was, we were able to trail our product, but sadly none of the tests contained the watery food without leakage or damage to the paper. We also had to consider food safety by making sure no contact to ink or unfood safe paper was made with the fruit. We struggled to make this work with our limitation in time and cost and came to the conclusion of using the basic origami and inserting plastic sleeves.

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Food Bowl

So we had sat down and begun to design some ideas for our product, with the intention of it being an invitation, advertisement for the event and then transforming into a bowl to hold the food contents. But as expected we ran into numerous problems requiring us to alter the design and function. As an invitation we believed too many people would lose them, leaving them with no dine ware to hold their food in. We felt this made the class too dependant on keeping their invitations safe for the day and remembering to bring them, this was also a concern as we would have to send them out before the event deadline. 

Over the weeks we did plenty of trial and error, testing with different papers, using different designs and using all the paper surface so nothing was to be wasted. 

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Strategies

Strategies required me to select a company of my choosing, to break down and to analyse. I decided to choose Samsung as it is a large company with plenty of information, located on their own websites and other existing websites.

After our third class, Chris explained in further detail as to what it was we were searching for and what it was we needed to include.

I had to spend quite a bit of time researching Samsung’s journey from the beginning to what it is today. And from a designers perspective I learnt a lot from this, to understand that a design has to be altered constantly to always appeal to the current market. I also had to analyse Samsung’s consumers and how they appeal to them with their products, how they compete with other existing companies. 

This was an eye opening subject, and got a clearer understanding of why strategies is so vital for any designer if they are to succeed in the long run.

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Presentation

So we had to present an idea, for an event we did not know, for food we did not know would be served, and location that was not decided. We as a group were very lost and confused on what to do, but after we started brainstorming ideas and listing things required for any food event we decided on what direction we wanted to go. 

We decided to design and make the container/bowl/plate that would have multipurpose. We met up after class and we trailed several ideas and tested their function, predicted a range of foods it may have to contain. Although we were certain on what origami would be the most functional, we did not present it in our presentation. We kept our options open and instead focused on only presenting the concept and our intentions for our idea. 

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Donut Time

Soon to be the same group for our Food group, we went and explored down hidden alley ways find a small donut shop, hidden amongst Melbourne’s busy suburban streets. Looking down at our maps unsure that we were on the right direction, we stumbled across the small donut sign poking out in the quiet alley.

It was a small simplistic little store, you could purchase donuts and coffees with the opportunity to watch your donut be made in the kitchen. The panoramas expressed the cramped store as it was difficult to move around, however, the size of the store matched perfectly for the vibe and small but tasty menu.

It was a good experience, with beautiful food to greet us in the small short stop paper bags, the donuts were worth their price and it brought us closer together as a team as we sat outside sharing our food tasting all the donuts on the menu. It was an experience I've never done, to explore a corner in Melbourne city and get to know classmates I barely knew and had just met.

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How to make a salad

This week I found gave me a better understanding of what it was we were working towards, with an example of a food event, that required a team of people to run the event. 

The event was easy to reflect on and imagine something similar with our own group, as it required a collective to make the salad and everyone to co-operate to reach the final product. The preparation and process taken was different and an unusual way. As I am used to seeing kitchens preparing portions of food with a small team, it was strange to see the same outcome with a large group of people preparing the meal together as a team. I can imagine this is a similar concept Andy is wanting us to reach when we come to preparing our own event.  

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Fruit Corpse

So my first specialist (craft), we were to design and create an exquisite corpse related to food. I sat there lost in my mind, brainstorming ideas all linking to food, I listed cutlery, colours, food textures and other things more thinly linked to food. But to interpret this idea into a physical human form was the main struggle, and to express the factors of food made it harder without making it a typical form just made up of pieces of food. 

I realised that I was fascinated by hard shelled fruits that contrasted heavily with the interior of the fruit. Such as passion fruits and coconuts etc, that all had a less appealing exterior, but contained a soft and colour edible fruit. I linked this idea to how many of us paint a mask, a false appearance that does not express who we really are on the inside (our true personality).

I took the form of a hard shelled, metal robot relating to a character who is very closed and does not self express themselves as they may be insecure. The last thing to expect on the interior of a man made machine would to contain a soft, organic life form that contrasted heavily with what we are shown. The muscle and organs was replaced with fruits that shared the same textures and the same relationship with their own exterior shells such as the watermelon that I used for muscle tissue. 

I got my message across, however, maintained an ambiguous art piece that may be interpreted in different ways by different eyes. 

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Panda Party?

So I’m still at the point where I’m a bit unsure with the relevance with some of these case studies, after watching a video of a women hosting a tea party; she requested very corporate staff to change into panda onesies. A few minutes into the video, I started to understand the point of the event, as it was taking a very closed person out of their comfort zone, and placing them into a scenario you would never expect to see them.

On their knees, sharing a cup of tea in a circle, meanwhile wearing panda onesies. 

I’m grasping the idea and theme Andy wants us to approach for this event, however, with very little knowledge or group understanding of the event we will be hosting, its hard to imagine what approach we will take when we execute our own event. 

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Do not talk about Picnic Club

So I was introduced to a club that people were allowed to talk about, known as the picnic club. At this point I was a bit confused as to what the direction of this core study was, however kept an open mind on the subject as I have learnt in the past was always the best attitude. We had to form groups and brainstorm rules for “our picnic club”, but may transfer over to our final event which at the moment I am struggling to understand.

- Do talk about picnic club

- No wastage

- Meet new people

- No mobile phones/electronics

- Give left over food to homeless

The concept of the picnic club was fascinating as its located in Tokyo, where there is little grass or areas designated for picnics. Andy then got us to walk around the campus for areas, where we could possibly host our own picnic. Without realising we were test rats, we returned back to the class and surprisingly, we all highlighted the grass areas as the designated picnic areas. This is because our minds automatically connect picnics to grass, however, this was not the plan for our event. The direction was to host an event with an extraordinary experience. 

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Studio 1 Introduction

I was introduced to a dull and very basic documentary in our first Studio 1 class, confused and struggling to understand the point of it, I patiently watched as I listened to Andy explain it in a different perspective. As I am used to a documentary with voice overs and small clips to keep it interesting, I found it hard to enjoy the beginning of the tedious and pointless video.  Gordon Matta Clark was taking close up shots of food and long duration shots of a kettle whistling, or a simple movement of something in the cafe. To appreciate the documentary, youre required to highten your other senses as that was the motive. After a while of watching it, I found myself getting drawn in and finding my self experiencing the vibe of the people and the food.

Reality tv today rely more on music and special effects, creating a false experience and manipulating the viewers emotions to feel what the director wants them to feel. This cannot be compared with the experience captured by Gordon, as there is no addition to the raw footage, built plainly on the sounds and video captured in the moment, untouched and umanipulated. With todays tv, there is also a criteria to fullfil when featured on television, such as a professional layout and scripted conversation with the people. The script and reaction is usually controlled to maintain a consistent flow,  that is appropriate for the audience to entertain them. The food documentary uses no script, to capture an honest recording, this creates a connection with the people in the documentary on a more personal level. As you can hear Gordon interview people behind the camera, the people reply with a relaxed and casual response, giving the impression of their character.

The documentary places the audiences into the room with the people, the foods and all the interactions. Instead of an experience manipulated and processed under music and scripted conversation.

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STUDIO 1

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ASK ME ANYTHING

Reflection

Last minute photos at the drop box as I realised I had no final photos of my book. It took a lot of patience and a different outlook to get my design to where it was. Firstly designing for an existing magazine; I designed a 2 page spread displaying one of Luke’s works and the interview neatly laid out on the second page with the small introduction.  I spoke to Bronywn and she gave me a push to go in more depth and add to my design with a stronger connection to the designer I was presenting. Instead of scrapping all the work I had done, I altered and enlarged the quantity by adding an extra 9 pages with the interview spread out. The Zine presented a variation of Luke’s work instead of expressing just one of his styles. The book exhibits a selection of his work and reflects on his style with the layout of each page.

I felt I succeeded with the final design as each page was different and no layout or design was repeated or similar. This was the goal I gave myself as Luke’s designs had so much variations I couldn't possibly express his style in one way. I did struggle designing the cover as I didn’t want to draw too much attention away from Luke’s designs with a fancy font. I also felt I couldn't summaries the content with a design on the cover as all the designs inside were so diverse. I took the approach with a simple but effective layout, reflecting on the idea that each of us chose our own client to interview and no ones would be the same. Highlighting ‘Me’ supports that and gave a bit of colour to the cover without affecting the content inside the Zine.  

The book was printed with a 250gsm cover and a 120gsm gloss interior giving a satisfying feeling to turn each page. I was happy with the final product and for $13 from Dinkums I’ll definitely be going back again. Keen to see all my classmates finals