Lauren Hyndman: Final Year of Design Degree

I took an incredibly long lunch break today from my 9 til' 5 job in an office (and my manager did not mind!) in order to have my tutorial with Andy - as well as being a nice break away from answering phone calls and replying to emails, it was a great tutorial as I walked away feeling like I knew what I should do next!!

Andy started off by asking me what type of project I was interested in doing. I think I said;
Marketing
Branding
Raising awareness, e.g. for epilepsy
Campaigning
Advertising

Andy suggested that I read "No Logo" by Naomi Klein, so I have now borrowed a well read battered copy from the collection in his office.

I told him about my blog, and how I am recording my thoughts as I go along. Keeping an online diary for my third year, and he said he would check it out. So "HI ANDREW!!" if you are reading!!

We talked about and looked at past student's who had done digital design projects and compared the successful ones to the not-so-successful ones so that I was aware what made a good project.

Andrew suggested that I aim to write on my blog three to four times a week, just making a note of something that I was thinking about that day or had made me smile..... Challenge accepted!!

So, what I walked away with knowing was that I would try not to rush into choosing an area to research into depth, but consider lots of different possible projects I could do and do a small bit of research about their backgrounds, so that I could get a feel for each one and start to think about what the issues are how it relates to design practice.

So I am going to read "No Logo" and make a few daily observations from my everyday life on my blog, give it a few weeks and see what happens!

Yesterday I discovered that I have a new personal tutor, Andrew for my studio projects for this coming academic year.

I think that this is a good thing especially because of his diverse background in different medias.

I have made contact with him and arranged a tutorial for this Monday.

I will spend the weekend trying to get my head around exactly what I want to achieve with my studio projects this year and hopefully some initial ideas. I need to consider this carefully because it will need to hold my interest from now until May 2008.

After a pretty long tutorial with my Critical Studies tutor, Wendy, a few continuation points have been determined.

For my dissertation I have already started looking into the diversity of dens, personal space, and what dens mean to different people and why we feel we need to find this time to ourselves. Is it influenced by our childhood and our need to feel in control?! All that kinda stuff will be researched and discussed. I will have to submit quite an extensive submission but I have till April 2008 to get it handed in. Feels like ages but I have so much work ahead of me, I just know it's going to go really quickly!!

Wendy gave me some pointers;

- more explicit aim - both to drive the work and to be communicated in the final submission.
- more explicit rationale explaining why project is necessary and meaningful to my practices and other people's.
- more extensive exploration of theory (not just 'dens')
- directly relate primary research to this theory!!
- more representative case studies, e.g. age range, gender, 'class', geographical area.
- more in depth conclusions
- more coherent summary or description of the project.
- more forms of primary research; interviews with experts, existing designs (not just dens, e.g sitooteries, Scottish word for something to sit out in!!), design concepts or developments.

 
Deadline dates to remember.......
Rough proposal & request for 50/50 assessment - 8th October 2007
Detailed proposal - 24th October 2007
Dissertation draft - 27th February 2008
Final Dissertation - 18th April 2008

P.S. Oh and in terms of my studio project, we agreed I still need to think about this.

So, I have chosen to follow the 50% dissertation / 50% studio work route (as opposed to the much more commonly chosen 25% dissertation and 75% studio work) for my final year. Therefore I will be completing a much lengthier dissertation.

After speaking to a couple of tutors, I am sure that this option will make much better use of my strengths in research, analysis and presentation, and take away some pressure on my not so favoured three-dimensional manufacturing stage.

It has also been discussed that I should consider completing studio projects that revolve around the digital and graphical sides of design, as that is what I enjoy and hope to persue a career in in the future. I need to raise issues with my graphical or digital designs or help teach something or campaign or market something, the list goes on. So a slight twist in my current direction, and now I need to start thinking of projects which could suit this path.

Thinking caps on!!

I travel a lot by train....

What issues do others have whilst travelling on them??

Space? Tickets? Late? Times?

I am trying to come up with exciting ideas for design projects and am getting really stuck.

I would deeply appreciate it if anyone who reads this could spare me a few minutes and answer the following questions (or even one, favourite question...)in order to provide me with inspiration.

Thanks so much xx