The reality that I have just one semester left of my degree hasn’t sunk in. My classmates and I will be tackling our final project. Huge amounts of time, creativity and effort will be poured into one assignment. We will also have an exhibition to organise. It’s tricky to find time for personal projects. However, I thought I would share blog posts for my uni project on this site too. I normally have a separate blog but some of you might want to follow along. (It might be a bit of a recount e.g. “I did this, then this” as we have to document our process but hopefully you gain some insight from it).
To put it simply my project is based around social change in Aotearoa. Over the past three years, I’ve developed a growing passion for social design. Here’s a good old Wikipedia definition:
“Social design is the application of design methodologies in order to tackle complex human issues, placing the social issues as the priority. Historically social design has been mindful of the designer's role and responsibility in society, and of the use of the design process to bring about social change.”
Previously I viewed my passion for design and desire for social justice as two separate entities. I was delighted to learn that there is a whole field of design which merges these two interests.
Ideating back in April - trying to think about personal design style
Inspiration Session
Today I’ve kicked off the semester by delving into my collection of papers and publications. This involved two key tasks: creating a physical mood-board and analysing publication styles and designs. (The dog tried to be of some assistance).
Moodboard
This corkboard will sit in my room for the rest of this year – in a spot where I can always see it. There is still plenty of space to add colours, textures, imagery and type ideas as the weeks go by. I already have a clear idea of the aesthetic I am going for and the rationale behind it. Visual cues naturally stem from the topics a project addresses. For this reason I have been drawing ideas from Aotearoa: the culture and the landscape. Dulux ‘Colours of New Zealand’ has been of particular interest.
Publication Analysis
Over the years I have grown quite the collection of design journals and magazines. A few standout ones include Here Architecture Magazine, Sceen’ry Magazine (their website is incredible too) and Stemme; a publication by AUT graduates. I photographed layouts and made annotations on their effectiveness and ideas I could incorporate into my project.
