#dvcii

[jared-p-dvc-2-blog]

“It Will Be Exhilarating” Review

It Will Be Exhilarating, Studio Neat’s autobiography about the history of their company, is an interesting, thorough short story about what it takes to make it as a small business in the modern age. Founded by Tom Gerhardt and Dan Provost, they initially bonded over a shared passion for a product they desperately both wished existed: a small, cheap tripod mount and stand combo for the iPhone 4. With no prior 3D product design and fabrication experience, they decided to learn both skills on their own, drafting prototypes and refining their design. Eventually they had a model that worked exactly how they wanted it to, and made a Kickstarter campaign in an effort to crowdsource money to create more, in case people online wanted some, too. Their product, named “Glif”, quickly reached the funding amount Tom and Dan asked for and more, and was a smash success for the duo’s very first product.

Surprised by the extremely positive outcome, they decided to make even more products, including a stylus for the iPad, and a stop-motion photography app for iOS, both also proving successful. However, the “Cosmonaut” stylus proved much more difficult to manufacture than they originally anticipated, and a good chunk of the book is spent detailing the trials and tribulations Studio Neat went through trying to get them fabricated just how they wanted them to be.

Overall, I found their story inspiring. Hearing that you go from “rags-to-moderate-riches” without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in product design, R&D, and advertising is assuring, and it makes the process of designing, crowdfunding, and delivering a product you care about seem much less daunting than I originally thought. They created the products they did because they were insanely passionate about them, and learned business management skills and techniques as they went. Still, I also appreciated their willingness to stress how difficult it can be, and helped reinforce the practice of planning things out ahead of time rather than making promises without knowing if you can deliver on them. I’ll be sure to keep that in mind as I start on my semester project for this class.

Shirky, Clay, et al. It Will Be Exhilarating: Indie Capitalism and Design Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century, As Observed By Studio Neat. Edited by Erin Allingham.

[alenakbodnaruk-blog]

It Will Be Exhilarating

I thought that this reading was very thorough and interesting, especially because I’ve been part of a campaign that launched on Kickstarter last week. The product launched is a drinking board game. I designed the board and the back of the box. The product has lots of interest, a great video and lots of informative videos about how to play the game. A promotional video was launched on Facebook and has over 35K views. When the product launched we thought it was going to do well on Kickstarter, but it hasn’t, and only few people have funded it. What stood out in the reading to me was, “Many people make the mistake of thinking that once their project launches on Kickstarter, their work is done, and they can sit back as the money rolls in. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In reality, launching a project is the moment the real work begins.”Excerpt From: Studio Neat. “It Will Be Exhilarating.” iBooks. There was so much effort in getting the product and advertisements ready before the product launched, and we really didn’t think about after the launch and how we would keep luring customers in. “Very few people will discover your products serendipitously; it is up to you to put them in front of their eyes.”Excerpt From: Studio Neat. “It Will Be Exhilarating.” iBooks. Advertising is so important. While I think we did a pretty good job at building excitement for the product, it wasn’t enough and a lot more will have to be done in the future if the goal is to be met. Overall the reading was very interesting and helpful.

[jakepaniagua]

Week 3 – History of Design(Pt1)

This is a picture of the carnival cruise ship that me and my family were recently on. This is an excellent example of great design. It has so much to offer and designed so well into small tight spaces. The rooms are almost like an airplane bathroom, where every part of space is utilized to its true potential.

This is the first sketch I’ve recently did for DVCII for our project. Sketching everything out really makes you think out the amazing designs that are integrated in the river systems.

• One particular note on design that I see everyday is the use of our freeway systems. How we utilize the ramps going around and over each-other, to make traffic move and fast as possible.

•The expansion of the printing industry that allowed more publication to be printed and a cheaper rate.

•Mathew Brady helped to establish reproducing small copies of the same photos. This gave artist much more time to work on one piece of art and then easily manipulate it over and over for mass media.

[klkvool]

Final Prototype JPGS

[aakdvcdesign]

Finalizing my pitch notes...

[jakepaniaguadvc2]

Personal Bio

Organized tech savvy creative who’s passionate about design, soccer and apple products. Influenced by individuals trying to recreate the spectrum and uncover something new or even an extension onto something with a personal creative twist.

A Design and Visual Communications major at UW-Milwaukee, looking forward to the everyday challenge with creating something unique and captivating for the public to observe. A previous graduate of WCTC Design Program, I was able to capture many technical skills in the Adobe Creative Suite. Focusing and honing in on using each of the programs assisted me in having technical skills become a first instinct with great in depth communication to follow.

Currently working within Restaurant Operations at UWM as a student graphic designer, where we are a team of student ran creative all working together to create weekly and monthly signage, menus and specials all for the UWM restaurants spread around campus, bringing adequate responsibility for the numerous and various units. As well as being fortunate enough to working along side Two 3 Design Inc, interning there for a semester, where I was able to discover specific skill, seeing both sides between production and design. I was to create team jerseys, logos and apparel and widen my design techniques.  

High school design courses evoked a creative freedom that couldn’t possibly be inverted for a lifetime to come. With an insight on design and the ability to be creative everyday is the ultimate achievement.

Modern, elegant and fresh  

[sblixt]

DVCII Finished Infographic

[hbrody-dvc2-blog]

Week 4 Reading Response

A Designer’s Research Manual Chapter 4

This chapter provided a survey of a variety of research-driven design projects. It was fascinating to read about each project and how research was used to solve a problem. The first project we read about was Bond and Coyne’s goal to increase enrollment in their college. They did extensive research on the type of student that would be applying to their school in order to create materials that would attract and engage prospective students. This understanding of their audience lead to a whopping 30% increase in enrollments. Knowing your audience is a big deal and a key to the success of your campaign. Another project we read about was that a small town in Connecticut hired Co:Lab to help design a document for the community based on information gathered in a student survey. Co:Lab partnered with the Youth Services Bureau to create awareness. This partnership opened lots of doors for what was possible. This collaboration allowed Co: Lab to not just communicate a problem to the community, but to also interfere with the problem and make changes. Like knowing your audience, forming collaborations is another essential tool in designing for a problem. We also read about Beam home furnishings in NYC who wanted to expand their customer base. They accomplished this through qualitative and quantitative research along with competitor profiling and photo-ethnography. This triangulation allowed for a very successful campaign and re-brand that caused a massive increase in sales. We read about Hallmark’s creative team conducting research on millennial to see if their product could reach this audience. Again, we saw that in-depth research of the customer yields good results. In the same way, Hyatt conducted in-depth research on their guest’s experience in order to elevate their brand. My favorite project was the Lifewater International project. They hired Rule29 to conduct research in order to help them attract more donors. Rule29 conducted research about Lifewater International themselves, their existing donors, the countries that benefited from these donors and non-profit fundraising. This research paid off because the bike charity event was hugely successful.

Reading about these projects was very useful to my work in DVCII. It is inspiring to read about how other companies actually employ these research techniques to create very successful campaigns that raise a lot of money, awareness and power to affect change. In particular, customer research, competitor research and collaboration are the key types of research that kept coming up with all of these companies. I hope to employ many of these techniques myself as I push forward in my project.

5 Mega-Successful Entrepreneurs Who Are Introverts Article

I am certainly no introvert, but this article highlighted the techniques used by introverts and extroverts alike to create strong businesses. By tapping into the skills of people you collaborate with, you gain more than what you could accomplish on your own. This article stresses the importance of being yourself. When you are genuine, people tend to trust you and like you, even if they are different from you. I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly and have seen this to be true in my own life. Many of my friends are very different from me, but we are who we are and we admire each other for our differences. This is helpful to tap into for our projects in DVCII! I’ve met so many wonderful, helpful people who are very different from me. But we all bring something unique to the table, which is making my idea and project stronger.

[stellarwraith]

Bio

Born in Los Angeles, California, Jenny moved to Milwaukee when she was three and has been there ever since. A love of art was instilled in her from a young age by her father, which translated into a passion for illustration and design. She is currently majoring in Design and Visual Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and is especially interested in web design and using traditional art, as well as non-traditional mediums such as comics and video games, to influence her work.

When Jenny isn’t designing, she’s having deep, philosophical conversations with her dog, Sarah. Sometimes she also draws, reads comics, or makes costumes. She has a passion for problem solving, whether that be finding the most effective design solution or just solving an impossible puzzle in a video game, and this drive translates into her work. She hopes to continue to grow as a designer and offer unique, interesting perspectives. 

[knhang]

product sketch 02

[dvc2-blog]

Networking/Interviewing Mindmapping.

Please excuse the sloppiness and illegible handwriting.

[jared-p-dvc-2-blog]

Final Personas

[alenakbodnaruk-blog]

Questions

1. What is your design approach and what is your working process like?

2. Are you efficient? 

3. What are your strengths and how can you improve?

4. Are you open-minded to trying new design approaches/ techniques?

5. Is your schedule busy? How often would you be able to meet and work?

[klkvool]

Pitch Deck Part 1

[aakdvcdesign]

Brand Poster

[hbrody-dvc2-blog]

Reading Response Week 3

A Designer’s Research Manual Chapter 2

This chapter was super helpful; it reviewed the many traditional methods of research and their application to design. Some of these methods I’ve known of and used for years. Others were completely new to me. The chapter started by discussing the difference between quantitative and qualitative research, primary and secondary research, and formative vs. summative research.  We read about combining various methods of research to better solve a problem, which is called triangulation. This chapter illuminated quite a few terms that I had forgotten the exact meaning of, such as: literature review, communication audit, competitor profiling and ethnography. We read about the different types of ethnographic research, from macro to micro and photo ethnography to self-ethnography. We read about all the different types of interviews and observation that are available. We read about A/B testing, which I’ve done in previous jobs. I was particularly fascinated by the eye tracking technology and how that is helpful in figuring out what people actually look at first, second and third. Much of this chapter directly correlates with our projects. We read about prototyping, personas and mood boards: all work we will be conducting on our own.

For my project, I’m using both quantitative data (hard statistics and facts) along with qualitative research (subjective material consisting of words and images). I’m also using both primary and secondary research. My early research was more formative and my later research become more summative. I realized I was using triangulation without realizing it; the more types of research one does, the better. Reading about all the terms and various types of research was helpful in showing me all the various angles I can come at my topic to better understand it. For example, I had not considered the value in conducting observation where the person or group that is being studied doesn’t know they are being studied in comparison with direct interviews. Now I have more to consider about how I gather in-person data from interviews and observation. I have already used questionnaires in my research, but that yields an entirely different type of information that focus groups or one-on-one interviews. It was particularly helpful to read about the methods and value of prototyping, developing personas and mood boards. All of these things are essential to our projects now.

Human-Centered Design: How to Embrace Failing Fast Article

This article was very inspiring. It discussed the value that comes from failing, prototyping and trying again. I liked the idea of “failing smart”, or learning from your failures and using that new knowledge to build bigger and better things. I definitely suffer from the four symptoms discussed in the article: perfection, distraction, solation and caution. It was helpful to read about them and put these roadblocks at the forefront of my mind so I can guard against them during the process of this project. I also was inspired by the quote “the path of failing is a spiral, not a linear path towards a dead end.” This is so true! Remembering that failure is expected, useful and important will help remove excess caution. Failure helps us test the limits of what is possible and it is not final. These sentiments are valuable nuggets to take with me on my journey through DVCII!