Week 04: Complex Simplicity
Complex Simplicity — Projecting a New Perspective
Following learning outcomes detailed in the Assignments tab:
LO2: Contextualise – appraise the social, political and historical contexts in which design practice operates.
LO3: Analyse – evaluate research findings and use sound judgement informed by critical debate at the forefront of the academic discipline.
LO4: Distil – position a creative strategic insight that has been distilled and refined through an informed investigation.
LO6: Make – select and utilise relevant tools, skills and technologies in the delivery, iteration and sustainable production of an outcome.
LO7: Collaborate – demonstrate inclusive and empathetic strategies to plan and execute a project across distributed collaborative situations.
LO8: Design – realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.
Week 04 - Crit with peers
This week, we had a crit with our fellow peers to present our projects, get invaluable constructive feedback and consider perspectives we may not have thought of on our own. It also gave me an opportunity to engage in the other projects being worked on in this module and observe their different approaches, techniques, and problem-solving strategies, which could broaden my own understanding and skillset.
When you're deeply involved in a project early on, it's easy to develop blind spots and overlook potential flaws or weaknesses in your work. My group of Peers can help identify these blind spots and provide constructive criticism to address them before they become bigger issues later on.
Most importantly, by openly discussing my ideas and receiving feedback both positive and negative, it can improve my overall project outcome.
My group was very enthusiastic, with constructive ideas and it was welcoming to know my concept made sense (!), so I left this tutorial feeling happier that I was on the right path.
Studio Practice research - Repair café
In which I research, research and more research…
To understand the problem I set up a Survey for SWOT analysis. In fact, I set up two.
Locally through friends and family, to discover if they knew about the local initiative and if they did, why they did or did not use it.
Globally through other students on the course. Since finding that this wasn’t initially set up in the UK, but in The Netherlands first Repair Café was held in Amsterdam in 2009, 1,700 Repair Cafes are offering their services in 35 countries around the world!
I made the questionnaire in Survey Monkey reallly simple with just 10 questions to establish whether they had heard of The Repair Cafe.
Analysing results - Global Survey. Carried out on FF MA Graphic Design Students
Question 1: What age range are you?
Conclusion: I managed to get a better mid-age demographic. This was crucial for getting an overall analysis of all age of my possible demographic to aim to target.
Question 2: Are you aware there is a local repair cafe in you area?
Conclusion: Although this was a crucial answer in my local based survey, I realised the answers from global based students were going to vary considerably.
Question 3 : Have you or anyone in your family visited a repair cafe?
Conclusion: 90% of survey had not used this service. Why not? How can we persuade them to?
Question 4: Are you aware of the items you can get fixed at a repair cafe?
Conclusion: 80% were not aware of what this local initiative offer. So how can we spread awareness?
Question 5: Do you think using a repair cafe aligns with your sustainable living practices?
Conclusion: 100% Yes! this is very positive, as people understand it is a beneficial service for greener and ethical living.
Question 6: Are you concerned about the environmental impact of our disposable culture?
Conclusion: Slightly concerning that one person wasn’t concerned! (Maybe they read the question wrong or are just not bothered). But 90% of answres understand that our planet has finite resources, and we should all be more aware that our throwaway culture isn’t sustainable.
Question 7: Do you believe Repair Cafés can help reduce waste in our community?
Conclusion: A resounding YES! 100% Which is positive that people want the environment around them to be putting less into Landfill.
Question 8: Are there any specific household items you wish you could get repaired but didn’t know this could be fixed locally?
Conclusion: 70%/Yes - So this means users are not aware of the items that can be fixed, 30% No - So why are they using the service?
Question 9: Would you be interested in attending workshops or events at a repair cafe to learn repair skills?
Conclusion: Yes - 72% This varied greatly from the data from the local-based questionnaire where the people of Eat Grinstead didn’t want to attend a workshop!
Question 10: Has this survey made you aware of repair cafes and would this possibly influence you to use this service in future?
Conclusion: It’s very much publicising and marketing the use of this service. By making people aware of the benefits, they are more likely to visit a Repair Café.
The Repair Café - Local service for East Grinstead residents
It was incredibly important to get a section mix of ages so I could understand my audience and who I should be targeting. This will effect the outcome of my choice of medium that I produce.
Analysing results - Global Survey. Carried out on FF MA Graphic Design Students
Question 1: What age range are you?
Conclusion: I managed to get a varied demographic. This was crucial for getting an overall analysis of which audience to target.
Question 2: Are you aware there is a local repair cafe in you area?
Conclusion: 50/50 almost. So I needed to expand on this question and find out why people weren’t using it.
Question 3 : Have you or anyone in your family visited a repair cafe?
Conclusion: 80% of the survey had not used this service. Why not, how could they be persuaded to?
Question 4: Are you aware of the items you can get fixed at a repair cafe?
Conclusion: 80% were not aware of what this local initiative offers. So how can we spread awareness?
Question 5: Do you think using a repair cafe aligns with your sustainable living practices?
Conclusion: 96% Incredibly positive for sustainable living practices.
Question 6: Are you concerned about the environmental impact of our disposable culture?
Conclusion: 100% yes. People are aware and know the current way we live is not sustainable.
Question 7: Do you believe Repair Cafés can help reduce waste in our community?
Conclusion: Another 100%, is positive that people want less into Landfill.
Question 8: Are there any specific household items you wish you could get repaired but didn’t know this could be fixed locally?
Conclusion: 52/48% Maybe I needed to supply further information on this question. Feedback was that people didn’t really understand the question.
Question 9: Would you be interested in attending workshops or events at a repair cafe to learn repair skills?
Conclusion: The majority of people of East Grinstead didn’t want to attend a workshop, and would rather just pay someone to fix it.
Question 10: Has this survey made you aware of repair cafes and would this possibly influence you to use this service in future?
Conclusion: 95% of people would be happy to attend The Repair Café in the future after being made aware of the benefits.
Research Conclusion
This positive set of results from my survey made me realise:
Community matters and local people are concerned about the surrounding environment they live in and if they have to make adjustments to their lifestyle and follow sustainable living practices they are happy to align to this.
Most local residents we’re familiar that they could attend and what items can be fixed. Maybe we need to make this more obvious.
The majority of people were not interested in attending a workshop - this rules out ‘user-centred participatory workshops’ mentioned on the brief!
Audience - I need to establish who my audience is. There is no point in the later age category who are already participating in The Repair Café. I found the average demographic was currently 60 years old. How do I attract a new audience?
Brief specifications. Audience - You should be creating your piece for an audience that is engaged in arts, design and culture. ‘Inspire them to know more about the subject that you are exploring.’
Week 04: Lecture – Projecting a new perspective and interpreting emerging new trends
The lecture material today was how, as graphic designers, we hold the key to interpreting effective information design that possesses the transformative ability to reshape our comprehension of events, issues, and our place in the world.
Through our work, we have the opportunity to unveil fresh perspectives and deepen the understanding of intricate social, cultural, and scientific topics, and facilitate foresight into future trends and challenges. However, with vast communicative influence of information design , this also carries the risk of its exploitation and the manipulation of truths. This, is on us as designers to uphold our own ethical standards in the pursuit of true representation.
The Census - which is an official survey of the population of a country that is carried out in order to find out how many people live there to obtain peoples status such as age, employment, and social status. This can be an empowering act with the information to hand but can also be susceptible to manipulation and misuse. The last one in the UK was held in 2011. And its collected information is accessible to everybody so it can help to benefit public policy. Unfortunately this data can be misused, in political campaigns and can be used out of context or facts to back it up.
Infographics can be used to simplify data and political manipulation with key statistics and facts easily displayed in, graph or diagram form. We see examples of miagration maps clearly showing numbers and figures against photos that were used in media to change public perception.
Artist Banu Cenetogluh - The List
Artist Banu Cenetogluh, and her controversial work titled The List, explores the migrant issues in an interesting way. In 2002 she discovered ‘the list’, which is a catalogue, made by volunteers, of those who had died in their attempt to make a new life in Europe.
This awesome artwork struck viewers by the immense scale and trauma evidenced in this administrative list, she was determined to display and publish it in as many ways and places as she could.
When displayed as a huge scale artwork at Liverpool Art Biennale, it was vandalised and defaced, showing the anti-immigrant sentiment in society.
Data - and how to analyse it
Suggested websites for us to look at to understand data analysis include:
National archives - UK Data Service holding huge amounts of data around governance
Bomb Sight - working with a team of designers and data analysts you can see the map of bombings in World War 2 across the UK www.bombsight.org This project visualises bombs fallen during the Blitz in London, gathers complex data and observations, and gives it geographic and interactive form. Not only does this information illuminate the sheer scale of bombing, it brings in photographs, stories and narratives, openly available now to the public, affecting understanding of what happened and the fabric and history of the city itself. (site down when I went to look).
Grenfell Tower project - Forensic Architecture. By using video of film footage that was taken on the night by the public it helps the Architects understand, explore and better understand the events of the night of the fire. Their video footage of the fire, helped build a complex picture of what happened that night and why. This helps piece together the timeline.
AquaSata - Which is managed by the UN, collects, analyses and disseminates data and information by country on water resources, water uses, agricultural water management, and also focuses on environment issues.
Forecast and future trends - The Future Laboratory
We discuss The Future Laboratory website and how they track their methodology tracks trends. At the core of their approach is Cultural Triangulation, a three-pronged process of interrogation, observation, and strategic intuition. This process enables the utilisation of quantitative, qualitative, and expert-driven methods to analyse, interpret, and frame all decisions regarding future risks within brand, consumer, and organizational contexts. This approach is both provable and practical, minimizing uncertainty.
All of their work on trends, foresight, and consumer behaviour undergoes filtration and mitigation through the Seven Human Needs. These needs represent a unique, evidence-based set of unchanging core desires that influence our daily decisions across various contexts, including home, online, in-store, work, and leisure activities.
Cultural Triangulation
A three-pronged process of interrogation, observation and strategic intuition that enables you to use a quantitative, qualitative and expert-driven set of processes to analyse, interpret and frame all decisions about future risk
Creative Insight in Creative Review - Will nostalgia drive typography in 2024
After watching the lecture material on trends and forecasting, I found this article in this week’s Creative Review.
The 2024 Type Trends Report by Monotype predicts a resurgence of typefaces influenced by nostalgia as designers look back to past eras for inspiration. Damien Collot, Monotype's creative type director, notes a shift away from the sober, minimalistic typography of recent years towards more expressive and detailed designs. The report identifies ten trends for the upcoming year, with nostalgia being a common theme.
One trend highlighted in the report is the return of serif fonts, which Collot suggests may be a response to the overuse of sans-serifs by brands, a phenomenon he refers to as 'blanding'. Serif fonts are seen not only as a way to add flavour and detail to typography but also to convey a sense of heritage. This resurgence of serifs is observed in the rebranding efforts of companies like Burberry and Landor, indicating a broader trend of incorporating nostalgic elements into contemporary design.
Fig 1. Ibz Gharib’s design for the Monotype Type Trends Report 2024 Fig 2. Jell-O’s retro design by BrandOpus
Monotype website - What is type saying to us in 2024?
I also had a look at the monotype website which looks a work from over sixty global agencies to get an insight into what typography is being used to capture the spirit of our contemporary world and discusses the insights from Monotype's 2024 Type Trends Report.
It emphasises a shift towards more expressive and detailed typefaces, departing from the minimalistic trends of previous years. Nostalgia emerges as a significant theme, influencing various typographic trends in the report. Monotype's creative type director, Damien Collot, highlights the resurgence of serif fonts as a response to the widespread use of sans-serifs in branding, attributing this shift to a desire for more detailed and heritage-inspired typography.
Overall, the article suggests that we, as designers, increasingly look to the past for inspiration in typography, incorporating elements from previous eras into contemporary designs.
It’s Nice That’s - Nicer Tuesdays: Offshore Studio
Founders Christoph Miler and Isabel Seiffert are behind the design of Migrant Journal, for which the duo created a bespoke typeface and visually arresting design. Politically conscious, sensitive and striking simultaneously, it sums up the designers’ capability way beyond their years. They talk about their philosophy and their long-term project, ‘Migrant Journal,’ and reveal there was a ‘missing voice’ about the complexity of the subject.
This demonstrates how the movement of people also connect with the political aspect, food, money and resources in Migration.
Conclusion -
These presentations have showcased many approaches to typography and information design and highlighted the intricate questions and contexts surrounding its application. As designers, it is our responsibility to show perspective, in a compelling to narrate stories and comprehend the world surrounding us visually.
References
The Future Laboratory https://www.thefuturelaboratory.com/ [online] (Accessed: 17th February 2024)
It’s Nice That (2018), Nicer Tuesdays: Offshore StudioLinks to an external site. [online] (Accessed: 17th February 2024)