Week 2 — Design+thoughts

I spent a significant quantity of my time on my dissertation over the past week to really nail the core of the argument. I think while we’re doing these warm-up exercises it is good opportunity to do this, and it have found it helpful in articulating what I want to get from this year.

Upon reflection of the past two years in at Falmouth, I found that it was strategic side of design was what I enjoyed the most, and I would like to make this a focus of my work moving forward. Having talked with Steve House in a one-to-one, I decided that the best way to demonstrate this would be to make a detailed record of the strategy to present prominently along with finished deliverables.

I think this focus was informed by dissertation topic and my interest in the ethnography, and how branding can take cultural codes or sections of an ideology to speak to audiences. I like the type of counter intuitive design touch-points that result from that type of approach.

My dissertation topic has challenged to me think about the strategic branding process in totally new ways. Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreallity, Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, and Barthes theory of mythology has refreshed my thinking on the topic, as I feel the idea generation will come from a stronger base.

Now that my dissertation feels somewhat under control, I would like to spent more time generating potential briefs. I was talking to Amy Harvey about potentially creating a brief around traveling as with our Erasmus experiences and previous excursions, we believe there is a project there. I also plan to schedule small exploratory one day briefs to hopefully generate some leads for personal projects.