Week 8 - Reaching new heights of Design

To illustrate my point, I could have equally used a photo of climbers, and then added a speech bubble. However, a drawing is guaranteed to look the way I want it.

Lecture 8

This week we had a guest lecturer; an industrial designer and founder of the design company - Ivoke (http://www.ivoke.com.au).

Openness. The lecture started with the word "Open". The intent being that we should always be open to anything (new ideas, new technologies, new methods, new experiences, and so forth). Sadly, the lecture was ended with "Takeaway", and I do prefer to dine in :P (well, that will make sense to some people). However, getting back to the initial point, I do believe that having a general attitude of acceptance (and adaptability) is always the way forward. Also, back in week 5, I already acknowledged the importance of experience (of any kind). Sources of inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. I feel that I am more creative now than in the past simply because I have lived and experienced more, and actively sought out having wide and varied experiences. In some specialized areas of life, I may have allowed myself to slip behind. But hey, that is why I'm at Uni doing this course; so as to correct that. Learning (and living) never stops.

Know your Niche. We were told that that we should know our speciality within design. I myself already know that I'm someone who prefers to generate ideas and turn them into something basic but tangible. I'm not really into refining, which is why even my cartoons tend not to have much detail beyond what I consider necessary to convey what I'm trying to depict. Yet I do have the capacity to refine, which is a good thing, since I'm more likely to end up being an indie developer.

Design for Others. In terms of product design, there was a lot of emphasis given to ensuring that you design for the customer. The 'customer' is primarily the person who is going to buy the product. However, there is of course the very important client who will be selling the product. Also, thought needs to be given to everyone who will be connected to the product in some way. The design should try to be inclusive of everyones needs. Some degree of market research is imperative to a design being able to meet it's purpose in the best possible way. This all acts as re-inforcement to what was stated in previous lectures.

Although I have to admit, even if all I'm doing is designing a birthday card for someone else, while I may be making it to specifically suit them, I am still doing it for me. I consider everything I make and do to be a reflection of myself, my experiences, my thoughts and my feelings. It is my own passions that drive me, and I will not pretend otherwise. Being part of a team would/does not lessen that. While giving due respect to the practiced design cycle, I can not see how good design can come about in any other way. So despite the focus on designing for others, I must acknowledge my own motives.

Application to My Own Sphere. The guest lecturer was an industrial designer. Of course, we must apply the same principles to our own sphere of Games and Interactive Entertainment. As stated in previous blog entires, I would like to potentially end up being involved in VR/AR development. In some respects, I want to be an industrial designer for a virtual world. Not to mention that industrial design is very broad, and easily applicable in many ways. I particularly found the lecture of value since long ago, I myself once made a brief start down the road to becoming an industrial designer. Sadly, life events stopped that journey before it really started. At the time I did those studies, none of the course lecturers/tutors at QUT had really worked as an industrial designer, and one was actually re-training in architecture. So it was inspirational just to see someone who is a successful designer.

Group Project 2 - Future Echo's (Week 2 of 4)

IDEA ONE. This week was an improvement over last week. As mentioned last time, I wanted to run with another group member idea, rather than one of my own. But after the last meeting, there was only one idea to run with, and it was not an idea that really appealed to me. But I created a little bit of a story board to lead into their own storyboard. Just to re-iterate, this idea is a post apocalypse world were the survivors have mostly turned to religion, and persecute the unreligious. The unreligious are essentially blamed for the sorry state that everyone now lives in. The presentation would then show life in that kind of world.

This is just a few storyboard frames I quickly drew that leeds into another members storyboard.

The other members storyboard for Idea One.

IDEA TWO. Luckily, the group member who didn't turn up at our last meeting, had actually created a storyboard. I was very happy, since it at least gave another alternative. Their idea was a post apocalypse world where the air was polluted, and gas masks became a necessity. While the air was non-fatal unless breathed in, it could apparently melt your face if you did breathe it in. So while this toxic agent remains undefined, it is obviously quite virulent. So in essence, the story is about life in a gas mask society, with no (or few) filtered buildings, so that gas masks need to be always worn (sleeping, eating, etc).

This is the storyboard created by different group member, and is the one that we are going to use.

The fourth and final member of our group still had nothing to offer. But given the comments that they had made last time, I didn't expect them to have anything.

I actually had another two ideas in addition to the ones I've already mentioned two weeks ago (just to amuse myself). The funniest one being global warming causing ice cream companies to turn into mega corporations :P . However, since I was opting my own ideas out, it became a choice between the above two.

PRESENTATION. We presented our ideas to the class. I presented my 'Lai of the Lizards' idea just so that people would know that I am participating, although I didn't really intend for it to be an alternative (except as a failsafe idea). Luckily the tutors liked the Gas Mask idea, and this cemented the choice for the group. Problem is, the person who put forward the gas mask idea, they had not put much thought into how we were going to execute this production, beyond doing lots of drawings. I thought that was a bad move given the time we had left. However, they insisted that they would do at least half the drawings. This was exactly what I hoping to hear - more effective participation than last project.

OTHER GROUPS. Just to give a brief run down on the development of other groups. Red italics shows what I said two weeks ago:

• Group 26 - Profession Hats - essentially 'hats' that give you the skills of the professions encoded in them. Developmental steps have now be set out. The possibility of Hat Hackers have been included to create drama.
• Group 28 - Underground Religion - religion being outlawed and going underground (USSR style). Focus is more on hyper science society, with less moral regulation. For example, cloning is done without regard or conscience. Religious organisations are rebels. 
• Group 25 - One Currency - the world only has one united currency. A tutor said "like the Euro" :) . An implanted chip contains monetary info, and also affects status in society. The group seemed resistant to the tutors suggestions of expanding on the chip storing other info, or making the story more complex.
• Group 27 - Limited Resources - with increasing population and declining resources like oil, many options here. "Do you want cricket fries with your grubs?" (Although that's already the menu in some places). This group now presented several ideas. 1) One was scanning ID via fingerprints, with this process being a requirement to do almost anything. 2) Another was close to the original idea, with the rich hoarding whats left of limited resources, but end up worse off since they do not embrace renewable resources like those who had to. 3) An idea very similar to the animation 'Wall.E'. 4) I was confused about the forth idea.
• Group 24 - Technology Trouble - I didn't comment on this group last time. They had three ideas of which I remember two. 1) Piracy (downloading) is out of control. The government cracks down harshly. 2) Google Glass is a vital fixture in society. Looks at life if you break your all important glasses - lose the ability to effectively communicate.

ADDITIONAL DEVELOPMENTS
Since the last tutorial session, I've made a few suggestions to the group.

• I suggested that to cut down on drawing, a history be given for the gas mask society through news paper clippings on a wall. This way, those who can not draw can create clippings, stick them on a wall, and film them as though being inspected by a person in that world.
• I said that we do not need to really talk much, as the story can be driven by other means. I also suggested that we incorporate music to set the mood. For example - http://www.last.fm/music/Le+Mépris/_/hikkikomori. I could see nothing in the project description that precludes the addition of legally downloaded music and/or sound effects, provided we give proper accreditation.
• I also suggested that we could use a form of rotoscoping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotoscoping), like used in older animations, to help speed up the development process.

We will see how it all goes.