We were briefed about our final MA projects today. The idea this final semester is to create something we truly feel passionate about - "Drawing on your journey over the last two study blocks, and building on your abstract from study block 2, you are asked to develop a self-directed communication design project. An immersive ‘deep-dive’ approach is required, where you are expected to evidence a rigorous independent process; and an ability to demonstrate considerable theoretical insight and critical awareness. You are encouraged to connect with experts and specialists in your specific area. Critically, the final outcome should evidence innovation, and a high level of production awareness and suitability for your project needs."
Reflecting upon my previous study blocks. 'Process' was really about me understanding myself as a designer and my design process. Something that I really struggled with in the past was taking feedback as a designer. Upon further research of psychology and Sigmund Freud's theories, I understood my sub-conscious emotions even better. I was able to express them with the theory of ego brew. Watch here. The tea vessel is a metaphor for my ego and the heat is an external simulation (feedback) that positively or negatively impacts my ego. The module really helped me understand my ego and how I perceive feedback. I have understood to take feedback from my mentors positively now, understanding what exactly they are saying.
Intersections - This module was about understanding designing for social change. We had Jazzy Olive for a thrilling 2-day workshop. The workshop was really informative in terms of understanding user personas, finding gap, figuring out known-unknowns, creating user-centric designs. The workshop led to me creating 'oddyssey' which ultimately became a highly detailed project in terms of user research and building the interface, followed by the various advertising campaigns and their art direction. I ended up submitting the project for UX Design Awards, Autumn 2024 entries.
It sparked an interest in user-centric design and I started really enjoying the process. Further, I made a personal project called TOPAZ - a new age podcast platform that supports community building through shared music taste.
Boundaries - This module was about speculative and adversarial design. We delved into the concepts of possible, plausible and preferable futures. The module demanded us to go deeper into our developing speculative design concepts for an art studio or design school. One of my highlights was how the module was about finding that simplest idea that holds strong significance to the topic. My calculations for the price of paper in terms of life minutes became the hero for the project. The entire project revolved around creating this speculative campaign of an art store that puts up warning labels on paper products in terms of life minutes. Check the project here. The module really redefined what good design means to me and what a good idea may look like. It's sometimes always in front of you.
The second study block really allowed us to explore data around us in terms of speculative and/or critical design, additionally we were encouraged to take part in competitions and work on public briefs and see how we approach them.
Curate and Build - One of the highlights from this module was the session by Will Kimchin, founder of Will Works. His approach of using wall space for design ideation really stuck with me as I ended up using it for my D&AD project. C&B also allowed me to understand how opposing views can really get in the way of your project, as I was dealing with a sensitive issue of men as domestic abuse victims in India. Further, working on the group part of the project was quite interesting, especially the exhibition identity my group created - Unveiled • Rethink. The exhibition was a great success and it involved a lot about dealing with people and getting people on the same page with a lot of things.
Compete - I really had fun with this module and ended up submitting in five competitions. One of my highlights was the penguin book jacket I designed for Daisy Jones and the Six. While it did not end up getting selecting, a very similar concept was selected and I kind of felt bad about not being able to make the cut. But the project still remains my best one so far, it really speaks of the idea of the simplest concept being the highlight of the design. The torn book cover echoes with the main plot of the book when the band splits up. For D&AD, I went ahead with the Durex brief. It was quite a challenging brief, dealing with sexual barriers. Working on it gave me lot of insights into copywriting and how to deal with sensitive topics. I further honed by skills in art direction and advertising for this project. I also reworked on my Intersections and Boundaries projects for UX Design Awards and Creative Conscience Award.
Moving on for my final major project, this reflection helped me understand my skills and how far I have come since day 1 of my course.
Having my cultural roots in India, I have always had a passion for its art and culture. As I pondered over my final major project, I was inclined towards a language and typography based project. For two reasons, one I had been wanting to touch this topic since day 1 but somehow I kept it off, and two from my portfolio perspective I thought a typography project would really help diversify it. India is a land known for its history, legacy and culture. When it comes to languages, almost every state has its own regional variation of language, dialects and even sometimes scripts. Devanagiri is the national script of India that is used to write a majority of North Indian languages. Down the south we have a different script and four diverse languages - Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada. Diving into this topic is going to be really fun and so I begin my research into languages and scripts in India.
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