OUGD502 CREATING QUESTIONS

Today I further researched my chosen studios and hand picked what and who I wanted to interview. Within Meanwhile Press was a solo freelance designer, Mark Buchanan who is also the founder of Meanwhile Works within Meanwhile Press. After previously speaking with DIY Youth at the band art book fair, I realised that the studio may be only one person as I could only find one contact email so I would contact DIY Youth via this medium. The main goal was to learn more about collaboration as both these designers have publications involving over 20 collaborators within one book which I find amazing. The interview would revolve around this theme and also have some of their input on the creative report making it almost a collaborative piece within itself.

Here are the questions I came up with relating to the topic of collaboration. I would re word it whence it came to the other interviewee:

What’s your name, where are you from and what do you do?

What do you practice and how do you translate your ideas through your work?

I am aware you have been involved in several collaborative projects such as the DIY Youth zine and Appropriation zine. What was it like communicating with such a large amount collaborators?

How long did it take you to complete such a large briefs like these?

Did you ever come across any misconception with some of the collaborators about the publication during these projects?

Have you stumbled upon any other challenges during the collaborative process?

How specific do you get with the briefs you create when involving such a large amount of people?

Any advice for young creatives who are collaborating with someone who’s practice they are not used to?

 

Are you working on anything right now? And if so what is it?

Finally, given the fact I’ve focused a lot on collaboration, I was wondering if you wanted to have any input on how this creative report should look or this interview should translate?

OUGD502 CREATIVE REPORT - DISCUSSION

Today I further discussed my ideas into my creative report. I finally narrowed the studios/working professionals I wanted to interview down to two more realistic options. My first choice is DIY Youth who are graduates from Leeds Arts University. They expose young creatives and graduates who practice a variety of art and design forms, such as photography, illustration and fashion. They collate all of this sourced work and turn it into a printed publication with features from several students and graduates. I found it really interesting how how they have managed to collate such a variety of work across all forms and formatted it into one single document. Im really interested in how long a collaborative process like this would take and also how many issues they occurred along the way, for instance do all the collaborators involved actually like the final product?

The second studio I was interested in was Meanwhile Works. They make small publications and photo zines, developed upon a loose brief or theme. They also have a few collaborative projects for instance when I have previously spoke to them, they were selling a zine with the theme of 'religion' and had worked with over 30 photographers from around the world. I thought it was really interesting how they managed to organise so many people and document the outcome within one small publication. I wandered how long something like this took, if the other creatives involved were happy wit the final product and also how a collaborative process differs from there individual design processes.

The feedback I got from this discussion was very positive and they expressed how I had a good foundation to begin this brief. Using the word 'collaborative' within this whole process will be good for structuring the physical l work and also the questions. Its good to have something specific to hone in on. My peers suggested that I perhaps collaborate with them or others during the creation of my creative report. Some others said that perhaps just including their interview already counts as collaboration. 

OUGD502 MANIFESTO READING/IDEAS

• Slavs and Tatars - Slavs
• Doesn't make a lot of sense
• Probably has a deep conceptual meaning and background
• Can you have one without the other?

• Bre Pettis & Kio Stark - The Cult of Done Manifesto
• This is to the point
• Inspires you to work better
• Relatable to a variety of work outside of graphic design
• Kind of sounds like common knowledge
• Good to keep in the back of my mind
• Agree with fully

• Dieter Rams - Ten Principles For Good Design
• Very clear
• Gives good design a purpose
• Makes you think about why you're creating something
• Shows that aesthetic is important
• Less is more
• Is all good design environmentally friendly?
• May sound different from a consumer point of view
• Came out in the 70's, what did they think of the environment then?
• How could these principles change if it was written today?

• Bruce Mao - An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
• "Forget about good" This confuses me ass it says growth is not necessarily good so this could be quite restricting
• Making accidents is good
• Asking questions and going deeper helps you progress
• Allow yourself to drift and explore
• 'Don't be cool" 
• "Free yourself from limits of sorts"

My Potential Manifesto!

• The right time to drink coffee on a productive day
• What time to leave in the morning
• Keyboards idiosyncrasy
• How to enjoy a project I wouldn't normally enjoy
• Don't push yourself when working, work to your limit
• Organised mess
• Be sensible in university, don't be outside of it