Week1:Ideas

I’ve been tossing a few ideas about this week, it’s been a bit tough as I feel the previous module massively knocked my confidence and I’m not starting this final module out on a sense of self-positivity!

However, I wanted to look back over some of the previous projects that I felt have been successful over the past year and a half:

Ghost Hunting App

This got such a good response from a lot of my peers and tutors, it was a fun idea and it was really fun to initially create. During the process, I felt it would have been an amazing project to follow through to completion, but I really didn’t feel like it had the passion and strength behind it that I need to put my all into a large piece of work.

Seed Subscription & Sustainability

This was from the Module in which I received my highest grade, I was SO proud of this project and I put my heart and soul into it’s creation. It really showed me that when I am passionate about a subject, I will put everything into it. I think, for me, it was the idea of encouraging people my age to grow something and bring more greenery into our world. This is huge for me, I’m a bit advocate for encouraging people to be more sustainable and ethical in their decisions. I feel, personally, this area has become so popular and the idea of sustainability is something more of us should be concious about.

The main issue here is accountability – we don’t think of future generations or what is going to happen to our planet in 50 years time. We just look at the world now and think its going ok, we need more acountability and more recognition of how our world will become for our children and grandchildren and the future generations. I’d love to create a temporary space in York where people can experience the world around them as it would be in 25 or 50 years time, perhaps a pop up greenhouse in the centre of York that people can walk around and feel the temperature of the air and the loss of vital animals or insects that we take for granted.

Children’s Books

In the last module, I researched tone of voice in children’s literature and it sparked in me my passion for children’s books. As a teacher, I loved the designs, stories and creativity within children’s literature but always considered the sharp contrast and imbalance in gender protaganists.

For a number of years now I’ve wanted to create a children’s book, but never had the spark of imagination to consider WHAT it could be about. I always knew I’d want it to be creative yet educational but since researching about gender stereotypes and imbalances in children’s literature, I really want to delve deeper and utilise this gap in the market.

I have found that a number of children’s books that state they challenge the norms, do so in such an obvious and promotional manner, in a way that doesn’t actually teach the child anything, it purely serves as a marketing tool. For a child’s book to be successful, it needs to be educational, creative and fun first and foremost.

Research Led

I love research but I know I need to improve on my academic writing – I’d love to take this opportunity to really learn about writing for academic purposes and research driven practices. In the previous module we looked into social design and this really drove home to me how graphic design is such a powerful tool. Banners, posters and placards all have their place in society and we are still seeing these today, with marches and protests all around us. HOWEVER, I sense that the socia-political direction of our world is becoming more and more digitalised and does this take away from the effect and impact of our designs? Does the digitalisation of graphic design mean that our social design has less of an impact?

There’s so much to be explored here and such a large area of research, I’ve got so many collaborators in mind who I can speak to and discuss with, my mind is ignited and I’m excited by the prospect of a research driven practice here.

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I know where my passions mainly lie – the last three ideas spark so much excitement for the coming weeks, I just need to research more into each topic and really understand exactly WHAT I want to create and what I want to achieve.

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