Project 4: What is your Research?

^ Sketch for Apple, Enzo Mari

Project Description

To this point, we've explored graphic design as a means of close observation and self-expression. For this project, we will broaden our aperture. Whether working for a political campaign or a news organization, graphic designers may engage visually with politics to persuade and inform a perhaps disinterested audience.

Launching from your manifesto in which you spent time understanding what it meant to represent the intangible parts of yourself in a written and visual format, you will now move into representing a component of a culture and political movement that is not your own.

From here you are given the latitude to determine the outcome. We're asking you to draw on your animation skills, type skills, hand-making skills to best interpret your research. At first this may feel like a vast sea of possibilities — one without beacons for orientation. It is up to you to provide those beacons for yourself in order to develop a route that cleverly and artfully delivers information. This is a design research project based on the work of David Reinfurt's "R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H" class.

Grading

Your grade for this project will make up 1/4 of your grade for the class. You will be evaluated based on your capacity to curate and present a set of thoughtfully designed visual studies grounded in a single subject, a well-articulated and meaningful statement, and a composition that showcases meticulous attention and professionalism in achieving the objective.

Project Goals

    • identify and explain a researched political or protest movement from the the past three decades outside America to an English speaking audience.
    • demonstrate understanding of the visual culture within which the movement took place.
    • create the front-end of a website OR an animated video explainer that’s conceptually driven by the culture to explore that movement.
    • Part 1: Collection
      • Collect 5 possible design research subjects for a semester-length investigation. Post each to your are.na channel with visual references. Come to class prepared to discuss. Together, we will help you select one to work with.
    • Part 2: Make Something!
      1. This could be as simple as translating the work from one media to another — copy it in pencil at 1:1 size; make a short video of the work moving between different scales; describe the work in your own words recorded as a short audio file; print it in black and white; print it at six different sizes; hang it upside down and make notes on how this changes the work; etc., etc., etc.
      2. The most effective way to learn about a piece of design is by making something new. This is directly opposed to the research process that you might be familiar with which relies on previously written and recorded accounts. In this case, you want to know not so much what is it? but rather, how does it work? And so, an empirical approach will be best. Bring what you’ve made to class.
    • Part 3: Make Something Again!
      • Make three new things in relation to your original. Each must be in a different media. Using the first practical response as a guide, refine your inquiry. For example, try to understand color in the work. What happens if it is monochromatic? Or shifted to warm colors? Experiment with typography — copy the work but change the type. How does this alter the original? What do you know about when and how your subject was made? What were the tools of the time and how did they shape the work? Bring what you’ve made to class.
    • Part 4: Make Something Again Again!
      • Make three new things in relation to your original. Each should be in a distinct media, at a distinct scale, or with a distinct approach. All of your design research involves making new work. You will continue to do so. This is a design research project where thinking and making are collapsed into one fluid activity.
    • Part 5: Perform Your Collection
      • You will prepare a 9-minute presentation to be delivered over in class. This constitutes the documentation of your design research project. It will be recorded. Therefore, this presentation should be very carefully scripted, choreographed, rehearsed, and performed. You might present from a specific space in the building. You might be wearing specific clothing. You might enlist others to help in the presentation. You might consider lighting and sound. You will present the works you have made, which will necessarily be in different media, and so you should consider how to do this gracefully.

Resources

Reading

Inspiration

Rubric

EXCELLENT VERY GOOD GOOD FAIR NEEDS IMPROVEMENT UNACCEPTABLE
CONCEPT Work demonstrates deep understanding of the project and ability to apply this understanding to outstanding visual and, if applicable, conceptual execution of the objectives. Strong understanding of the project goals and requirements. Student’s visual execution thoughtfully  fits the concept and objectives. Evident understanding of the project goals and requirements. Attempts have been made to explore visual execution and the idea is understandable, yet the piece needed more attention. Project met most, if not all of the minimum criteria. Needs improvement to exhibit fluency. Visual exploration is limited or incomplete and ideas are difficult to follow and/or too basic. Poor quality work that does not meet the project goal or objectives. Visual exploration is weak. Unsatisfactory. The work either does not evidence any of the project’s objects or has not been completed.
Objective 01:
To develop a website (or animation) that clearly and effectively communicates the protest movement you've chosen.
Objective 02:
To identify and successfully implement a relevant visual tone of voice.
CRAFT Excellent design craft:
No noticeable inconsistencies in form or execution. Surprising and effective craft choices in form.		 Strong design craft:
Negligible inconsistencies in form or execution. Effective craft choices in form.		 Solid, well-done work, could improve on the items noted in the Excellent list, in particular: better attention to detail, willingness to experiment without sacrificing quality. Does average work, fulfills the assignment. Feels rushed in execution or sloppy in attention to details.  No attention to detail, and barely qualifies as finished. Unsatisfactory. The work either does not hold together at all or has not been completed.
Objective 03:
To demonstrate care in the craftsmanship of a website (or animation).
Objective 04:
To select images with clarity to support a website (or animation).
Objective 05:
To effectively document the final outcome for your portfolio.
PROCESS Excellent, well-documented design process, ability to sketch and articulate ideas. A thoughtful and flexible honing of your project over the course. Thoughtful design process, ability to sketch and articulate ideas. A gradual honing of your project over the course. Solid, well-done work: could improve on the items noted in the Excellent list, in particular: more iteration and experimentation and willingness to articulate distinctive ideas. Limited iteration; student explores only a few other ideas, and they seem stubborn in their unwillingness to experiment. Singular solution that changes very little throughout the assignment. Unsatisfactory. No iteration or evidence of process.
Objective 06:
To annotate readings thoughtfully, participate in critique, and give and receive feedback
Objective 07:
To develop your website (or animation) from your first draft to your final. As a designer, your process should make your thinking visual.