Wednesday, 29 October 2014

LIVE BRIEF 2 / Ditto Workshop - 28/10/14

Ditto

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We started the day by having a briefing from Ben Freeman, the owner and art director of Ditto Press. 

http://www.dittopress.co.uk/





Ben spoke to us about him as an individual and his life

- Left school at 16
- Travelled with a body piercing company
- Went back to education to do a degree at Camberwell
- Did evening classes in Graphic Design
- Then went on to do an MA at Royal Academy of Art
- Had an installation in Trafalgar Square
- Harrods shop window
- Commissions for editorial work

We then received our brief.

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THE METHOD

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Your task is to develop your own research methodology and find a way to communicate that. It could take the form of a meta-project, or it could be more pragmatic and grounded in reality. 

The important thing to develop in this project is a clear and defined way of looking at the world, filtering it and editing what you find to fit your interests and working practice. 

Most successful designers have finely honed methodologies and this is your chance to really explore your own. 

IMPORTANT: This project is not about producing pretty things. We don't care what it looks like, only how well considered and useful it is. 

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Initially I wasn't sure as to what it is we were suppose to be doing. But we went to the studio and split into four groups to discuss with our peers. 

We decided to start by thinking about the ways we already work and research.

- Picking out words in briefs
- Internet
- Interviews
- Photographs
Questionnaires
- Reading
- Sourcing photos/articles
- Talking to people
- Travel
- Testing
- Exhibitions
- Galleries
- Visits
- Doodles/Drawing
- Network
- Processes, experimenting

Ben came round to talk to us a few times to make sure we understood what it is that we were suppose to be doing. 

He noticed that some of us were making mind maps and explained that that was a very uncreative way to express our thoughts in a visual way and said that this could be an opportunity to change that, and this would then become a methodology. 

I started to think of ideas that I could do differently that would benefit my creative practice and become my methodology.

- Talking to people - making the first step I make on a brief engaged with someone who knows or has been involved in the topic.
- Doodling - I often doodle when I am thinking and sometimes ideas come out of this, so I could make this a methodology by saying that I will doodle for one hour on every brief I get.
- Creative Diary - I write a personal diary every night, where I basically reflect on my day and think about everything/everyone I have seen or heard. I could do this for the creative world I live. 

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Crit

We then went down in our group to have a 30 minute chat with Ben to discuss our initial thoughts etc. 

He mainly wanted to clarify we were sure on what the brief was asking us to do. And explained further what he meant by everything that he was saying. And it did make more sense. We briefly spoke through some ideas we had and he explained that we needed to create our methodology that could be applied to any topic, to any brief. Instead of the brief dictating how we researched, it would be the other way around. 

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