Week 9

This week I reflect on last week feedback, in order to develop a project plan for the remaining time of my MA project.

Feedback reflections

Last week I gathered a range of feedback from my industry specialist, and also the panel review. One of my goals for this week was to develop a clear weekly/monthly plan for the rest of my project, and I wanted to take the time to reflect on feedback before doing so:

Industry specialist feedback

My industry specialist works with visual identities and graphic design in general within a commercial setting. He has been through an MA himself, and was therefore able to provide feedback on my working process as well as my research question.

Based on our conversation, I concluded with the following feedback/action points:

  • The research question is too long and quite vague – my expert had to ask several questions in order to understand what I wanted to do.
  • For now, focus on collecting insight. Arrange workshops, talk to people and look at more literature, for then to ideate.
  • In regards to life after graduation my expert advised me to research popular / sought after design areas and topics. By learning skills in demand for the project it might be easier to get specialist interviews, but also to get a job after graduation.
  • Now that I’ve explored constructed writing systems, my specialist advised me to take a step back and explore a range of ideas/solutions.
  • Instead of starting with visual development now, set away time towards the end to visually design all final outcomes. It could be beneficial to set off one month just for developing a typeface. However, the typeface doesn’t need to be the final outcome, but rather a part of another idea, such as a game, a book, etc.

I really needed to hear the advise of focusing on insight and stepping back from the final output, as I have been trying too hard to come up with a visual idea in my testing. I think because all of our previous projects have been so fast paced, I’m not used to simply gathering insight without developing something straight away. In order to develop a strong foundation for my project however, I will now take the rest of phase 3 to read literature, arrange interviews and perhaps arrange a workshop.

The advise of not needing to do typography as the main outcome, but rather to put away time to develop type for the final outcome was also very helpful. Moving forward I hope to explore a range of solutions based on insight, and not solely on personal interests. Then towards the end, the personal interests can feed into the visuals instead of the concepts.

External panel review

I absolutely loved last week’s panel review – mainly because we were paired with a relevant panelist, but also with students who had similar themes for their projects. I was able to express my main worries on how to arrange workshops with immigrants and also how to approach the difficulties that comes with this.

In my presentation I asked for feedback on the following questions:

  • Do you have any advice on how to go about developing a non-verbal language?
  • How would you begin to control the meaning of visuals, without giving specific symbols specific words?
  • How would you go about involving people in the project in an empathic way?

Based on the panelist review and Miro board feedback, I concluded with the following feedback/action points:

Process and methods:

  • I was advised to go ahead with workshops and interviews, as advised by my industry specialist. In the review we had a long conversation about approaching people with empathy, and that as outsiders we should let the groups we’re working with create.
  • Scout mentioned that by getting in touch with one person, she had been able to get to know other relevant people to interview. She also viewed our projects as an opportunity to lift others’ voices, instead of inserting ourselves in a perspective that isn’t ours.
  • In terms of controlling the meaning of visuals, Frauke suggested to let go of control, and to instead let users participate in my project. She further discussed how important it is to let the people you’re designing for become part of your project. This is an approach I’d love to explore further, as co-design has been a huge interest of mine in prior projects.

Themes and ideas:

  • Body language and gestures can be used as a tool for communication, rather than visuals. How can one embody words and images, for example through workshops?
  • Another interesting point from Frauke was the keyword comfort. Having to speak a new language can make you feel vulnerable, and in order to share your vulnerabilities you have to be comfortable and engaged. Frauke also mentioned that developing messages for immigrants could make them feel as if someone is looking out for them – and in this way develop a comfortable place (Norway). This made me realise that the goal of my project should not be to communicate a specific message, but instead to make immigrants feel comfortable enough to begin to speak Norwegian (or any other language).
  • In our session we also discussed how nationalism can sometimes be forced upon immigrants. This made me wonder if rather than only “Norwegianising” immigrants, we can somehow begin to adopt aspects of immigrants’ cultures and identities.

Planning my way forward

In order to make sure that I would have time in my project to gather insight, arrange workshops and develop a successful outcome visually, I went on to plan the remaining weeks of my project in this project plan.

In response to the plan I also adjusted my personal resource list, where I added relevant literature to be read, based on feedback and last week’s literature keywords. The resource list can be found here.


Weekly wrap up

Unfortunately I had a limited amount of time for uni work this week and therefore my progress hasn’t been as comprehensive as I would have liked. However, turning last week’s feedback into a project plan has made me feel more in control of my project. It’s also made me realise that I don’t have as much time left as I would have thought.

Moving forward I think it will be important to gather more insight, from interviews, literature and hopefully also from workshops.