Book13 vmg

[ NARRATIVE ]

RJTHOMPSON VISUAL METHODOLOGY GENERATION

Project Title:Visual Methodolog y Generation

Media Used: Adobe Illustrator CS4 Vinyl , Binder Clips, Screws, Hinges

Research Criteria:Undergraduate student methods of prob-lem-solving.

Target Audience:College students ages 18-22.

Concept:Considerable ef forts were taken to i l lustrate the importance of ef f icient, yet qualitative and creative idea generation to 19 and 20 year olds. Unfortunately, their specif ic generation has known nothing but the computer, insofar as their design education is concerned. As a part of those ef forts, I specif ically denied them the use of the computer to create solutions to many problems, be they political [the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, PA], academic [the f inancial strain that La Roche College is facing ], or even for a hypothetical client. Simply put, all of their ideas start in the classroom, then onto the computer.

Solutions:Inspiration for this project came from my participation in the Design Methodolo-gies class I instruct at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Loosely adopt-ing elements of the Design Methodologies graduate class at Savannah College of Art and Design, I crafted a class that was more in-line with undergraduate concerns and overall education.

As far as the multi-disciplinar y, abstractive methodolog y generation applies to non-design students, a class I teach titled “Digital Fine Arts” is the perfect testing ground for my project. Specif ically, La Roche College, as made evident in Project A , has a suffering librar y. The contents of the librar y tend to be more out of date and ineffective to the contemporar y education of any student, across the board. Having said that, as extra credit , I of fered them the opportunity to recreate a book cover for any book in the librar y. As part of the project , they are asked to analyze the content of the book , and it’s cover -- and how it may appeal to someone in their major [as they had chosen books specif ically in-line with their major.] Did the books have concepts? Did they have

ef fective design, etc. etc. To il lustrate the concept of the “concept”, I had shown them the book covers I had worked on for Project A , at which point they were able to get a better idea as to what they were asked to do for the extra credit assignment.

(Right) The box unfolds into 4 free-standing panels and back to a box shape.

Each wall has it’s own characteristic. Fear of the unknown is a powerful factor when trying to devise creative solutions that may or may not need a particular emphasis on innovation in order to succeed. Assumptions misguide our judgement and fool us into taking possible fiction as fact, distorting the truths of reality. Without proper knowledge, how can we identify the problem, and more importantly, reasonably solve it? What are the rules– what is hindering our choice-making, and how can we work within the rules to solve a problem? Habit-forming is a dangerous situation– how do you innovate if your habits form the same possible answers, how do you break your habits to gain new insight? When one is complacent, everything suffers– where is the energy, where is the excitement, where is the enthusiasm to generate new, innovative solutions?

fear

habit

rules

complacency

knowledge

assumption

[break the walls down]

A not-true-to-scale representation of the idea in a full-scale scenario. A person would enter with a specific problem that requires a particular amount [or quality] of idea generation. Starting with the panel to their immediate left once they enter, they work through the prompted exercises with their problem in mind.

[ideal vision]

The ceiling and base of the box will not be included, at least, in this preliminary version of the project. Functionality is limited by the inclusion of a ceiling and base. The colored panels symbolize the use of designed diagram posters that will attach to the back of the panels and act as a creative problem solving tool that people can write on top of, free of the fear of making errors or running out of space to accommodate a particular thought.

[think outside of the box]

binding

colored panel

A not-true-to-scale representation of the idea in a full-scale scenario. A person would enter with a specific problem that requires a particular amount [or quality] of idea generation. Starting with the panel to their immediate left once they enter, they work through the prompted exercises with their problem in mind.

[ideal vision]


Each wall has it’s own characteristic. Fear of the unknown is a powerful factor when trying to devise creative solutions that may or may not need a particular emphasis on innovation in order to succeed. Assumptions misguide our judgement and fool us into taking possible fiction as fact, distorting the truths of reality. Without proper knowledge, how can we identify the problem, and more importantly, reasonably solve it? What are the rules– what is hindering our choice-making, and how can we work within the rules to solve a problem? Habit-forming is a dangerous situation– how do you innovate if your habits form the same possible answers, how do you break your habits to gain new insight? When one is complacent, everything suffers– where is the energy, where is the excitement, where is the enthusiasm to generate new, innovative solutions?

fear

habit

rules

complacency

knowledge

assumption

[break the walls down]

Book13 vmg

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