Design Directions Reflection

Today I fully analysed my results and drew conclusions from them. I found they supported my idea to have an app that connected street artists with those who own walls. It also helped me identify my potential audience.  I created audience profiles with this information. I now need to research the visual language of street art brands and brands that target these kinds of audiences. These will help inform the visual language of my brand. 

 Today I had my first learning team with Ian, who is my stand in for Dion. We decided that the connecting street arts and owners plan was the best, but he encouraged me to explore alternatives to the app.  I spent the day doing this, but eventually came to the conclusion that the app would work best, and that the other ways of contacting graffiti artists, such as leaving stickers of spray paint cans or painted bricks by commonly tagged walls would not reach people who like graffiti but don't do it because it is illegal. I will still use them as part of my marketing campaign. 

Today in the Morning meeting, matt said something of interest. I can't remember exactly, but it was something along the lines of "so often people come up with an idea, and then jump to an obvious way to do it, such as an app". And it occurred to me that really, my idea wasn't an app that allows people who own walls to post that they would like to see street art, it was "find a way to connect owners of walls and artists". And there are lots of different ways to do that. I started exploring different possibilities. I came up with the idea to give people a sticker to stick on the wall they want painted.  I also analysed my survey and discover that people who do graphite illegally and people who do it legally have very different opinions. I came to the conclusion that allowing people to be commissioned by strangers who own walls is the only option that both people who do graffiti illegally and legally will like. 

Today I created a survay to collect first-hand research on people's views of street art. I wanted to find out how willing people would be to take part in each of my ideas, as well as some of their general attitudes to street art. I sent it to everyone I know. I will close the survey and analyse the results Monday. They will help me chose which of my ideas is best. 

Today I had textworks, but I also managed to do some studio work. I created a PowerPoint with the main points and visuals for each of my ideas. This really helped clarify them in my mind. It also made me realise how I could combine ideas to improve them. I also did a bit of research into the benefits of having more places to do street art legally. I now feel completely ready for my learning team next week. 

Today I had a meeting with Matt about my portfolio. He liked it but gave me a few small tweaks, such as removing a page and changing the font size. We had a nice chat about the course in general and it made me happy. I then worked all afternoon as an ambassador so I didn't have time to do anything else. 

 Today I had a meeting with Dion. He said it was a bit early to be picking a set idea, and I should develop a range of ideas and decide on the meeting next week. I was sulky about this at first, but then he pointed out that I might decide to combine one of the other ideas with my main idea to make it even better which sounded good. I then finished yesterday's workshop. I was really pleased with what we came up with and I made 2 new friends along the way. I enjoyed looking at everyone else's, but some of them were a bit too weird for me. 

Today we had a workshop with Jack Hardiker. I initially wasn't convinced that this would be a good use of my time, but once I got started I really enjoyed it, so I am glad I took part. My group decided to create an audio file of the Gruffalo with gaps where the adjectives would go. We will then create cards with lots of different adjectives on. Children can listen to the story and add in their own adjectives to create a custom, silly version.  This is so different to the sort of thing I would normally create, and barely even graphic design. It was nice to have so much freedom too. Plus as this was only a short project that won't be a huge part of our grade, there was no pressure, so we weren't thinking "let's come up with something good and impressive that Matt will like" we were thinking "lets come up with something new and mad", which is much more fun. 

Today I worked on my brand values. I eventually came up with the following 4:  Freedom Community Expression Joy These are very positive values, which suits an app that wants to make change for the better in the street art world.  I also started deciding on my audience. I realised pretty quickly I am going to have multiple audiences, one who will be creating the street art and one who will be offering walls for it. Within those groups, I have created the following sub categories.  Artists: street artist, ex-street artists who stopped when they got kids/wives/jobs and didn't want to risk arrests, and people who have never done street art but like it and would have a go if they knew it was safe. Owners: Small business owners, owners of houses who love art and owners of property in urban areas that are prone to vandalism.  I will define these groups in more detail during the week.

I think I am very happy with my brief, my idea and where it is going. I think I can start working on it. Today I came up with a plan of everything I need to do. I need to brand the app, advertise it and design what the interface would look like.  I am going to start over the weekend by coming up with some brand values and a target audience. 

During the workshop, Anda came up with multiple problems for me to solve. I decided to solve another one today. I looked at the problem "How can I make Street Art still seem "cool" even though it's legal". I came up with a variety of solutions and decided the best approach was to use a mixture of the best 2. These are "use spray-painted designs for all logos/imagery etc" and "claim it is a street art revolution".  The spray-paint designs will stop it feeling too branded, corporate or official. It will make it feel like it has been designed by a street artist, for street artists (which it has!!). The revolution theme will tap into what is currently appealing to young people. Movements like extension rebellion have made demanding and creating change cool. 

Today we had a group workshop. I worked with Anda, who I know a bit but aren't really friends with. I enjoyed it a lot. We were supposed to come up with an idea for our brief. As I already had an idea for my brief, I ended up solving a problem within it which was still very helpful. I solved the problem "Street artists remain anonymous, how will that work with your idea." I decided that everyone should have a pseudonym, similar to to the traditional "tags" used by artists. This would be sprayed on their artwork using a set stencil, so all the artworks created as part of the app would look like they belonged together. I used the lettering I learnt with Tim the day before to do this. I was very pleased with my outcome.  Even though I did the workshop in a slightly different way because I am a bit ahead, it was still really useful. 

Today we had a meeting and watched a video about discursive design. It was really interesting. I definitely want my work to have that jarring effect on people. I then brainstormed different ideas for my brief and settled on the idea of an app that allows people who own a wall to give permission for others to paint there.  In the afternoon I had a lettering workshop with Tim. I really enjoyed it. I love designing type and do quite a bit in my free time.