Thursday, June 30, 2016

rehearsing and polishing and prepping

Today is the day to get everything ready, ready for Friday mornings presentation. Big Ideas were honed. Presentations were created. Presentations were rehearsed. Presentations were edited. Presentations were re-rehearsed and then rehearsed again. Presentations were re-edited.
Class ended a bit before 7pm, but what we have to say looks and sounds awesome.


Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Day 3 - two teams become one team become two teams

Today we arrived to facilities workmen in our room and a gaping hole in the wall. Repairs had been made in a faulty pipe and all that remained was a mess and clean up. The students worked around the disruption and pressed on toward Friday's morning client presentation. The two teams that ended Tuesday with good but similar ideas came together to combine creative power and brainstorm another idea. Going back to the conceptual digging from day one and two while adding creative energy driven by a closing deadline a good solid alternate idea was found. The two teams then reshuffled members to divide and conquer the new and revised ideas. By the end of day three, three solid concepts have emerged setting things up nicely for Thursday.


Day 2 - Big Ideas

With one day under our belts the day began with all 3 teams working toward coming up with the "Big Idea" that will answer the clients design communication problem. Ideas are tried, pushed, prodded, and then enhanced or replaced. There is a lot of failed attempts, but that is part of creativity. New, appropriate and original ideas that work don't come without coming up with ideas that look good at first but in the end can't fully and successfully answer the creative brief.
At the end of the day three polished ideas were presented, however, two of them were too close to proceed as separate ideas - tomorrow another idea has to be found.

final t-shirt

All 15 students were asked to work on a design for our annual commemorative t-shirt. A vote was taken to winnow the field down to the top 3/4. Then refinements and adjustments were made to these. Then another vote and a winner was chosen. Congratulations Gillian!
The shirts will be ready by the time we leave for London.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Day One - We Begin...

At 9 am the adventure began with a bit of talk about logistics in preparation of our leaving for London in 2 weeks. Then we got straight down to business. The teams moved their desks together and they began the hard task of creatively coming up with what we call "the big idea" to solve the clients communication problem. We broke for lunch and then continued into the afternoon dissecting the problem from many angles.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Preparation 2016

February 19 - First official meeting to go over the scope of this years course before course deposits are due. April 22 - Second official meeting to answer any last questions prior coming together on June 27. We have 15 students going, Students were given PDFs and reading material outlining the project and specifics about “smart” cities. June 10 - The students have “homework” before the course begins: They are to passively ponder the creative brief and the task Lm1 is attempting. They had to read 1 book to help them understand their strengths and how to work in teams. The students are also working on the story they will upload to the Lunar Mission Everyone capsule along with a t-shirt design for our team while abroad.

Our creative charge...

1. The Pilot Education Project. A Big Idea : For the first two weeks of this program you and your team will develop a ‘big idea’ for an overall theme that promotes Lunar Mission Everyone from a point of view that encourages students to want to participate/share their stories. Stories are to be put together digitally; written + photos, audio or video. Currently Canada, USA, Bolivia, UK, France, Belgium, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India and Australia are identified as wanting to participate.

Week 1, your team’s big idea needs to be clearly conveyed to the client with an on-screen presentation.

Week 2, based on client feedback, the big idea needs to move forward to the next-level of detail, taking into consideration the following assets - LM1 Promotional Posters : : Design posters that can easily be reproduced at local schools as well as having the ability for the copy to be translated into local languages. Messaging needs to speak to students, celebrating the idea of having their story sent the moon in a digital archive. Final deliverable will be PDF with simple instructions + working files from Adobe InDesign. LM1 Instructions on ‘how to’ : : Design two sets of instructions - one for teachers, explaining the purpose of LM1’s program and how to implement it in their classroom, and one for students, on how to create a digital story.

Final deliverable will be PDF with simple instructions + working files from Adobe InDesign. LM1 Website (wire-frame + digital design files) : : Design a website that is easy to navigate, clearly communicates and is functional on all platforms (responsive). A wire-frame plan is required, as well as the digital assets (PSD and/or AI files) to hand over to client at end of course. Functionality of site should contain LM1’s purpose, instructions to educators, instructions to students, a library where uploaded stories can be viewed and a page where uploading can occur.

Sample digital stories : : this is your story. Beginning immediately, consider the story you will share with LM1, gather the assets (visuals), and be prepared to develop that story while you’re in London. The story should be about you and where you grew up. Look at https://storycorps.org for inspiration. 

2. Local Chapters. As we have local chapters developing in the countries listed above, we need to help our client maintain control of LM1’s brand integrity. LM1 Brand style guide : : Design/develop a brand style guide that can be translated in multiple languages and can be distributed as a PDF. Elements within the style guide could contain, but not limited to; - brandmark use, color palettes, font usage/typography, photography, illustration and use of Archie - stationery suite (consider international paper sizes) - onscreen templates - social media guidelines/best practices (look at Specialized bicycles)

 3. Chapman University. CU T-shirt design : : individually, each student should begin to develop a t-shirt for this year’s program; single color and t-shirt color of your choice. Designs due approximately June 17, 2016. Students will vote for winning entry. Sketch book : : individually, each student will keep a weekly sketch book - of daily drawings, thinking and musings. These are graded at the end of each week throughout the course. CU Poster : : at the end of the course you will be given a template, designed during the course

Preparation 2016

February 19 - First official meeting to go over the scope of this years course before course deposits are due.

April 22 - Second official meeting to answer any last questions prior coming together on June 27. We have 15 students going, Students were given PDFs and reading material outlining the project and specifics about “smart” cities.

June 10 - The students have “homework” before the course begins: They are to passively ponder the creative brief and the task Lm1 is attempting. They had to read 1 book to help them understand their strengths and how to work in teams. The students are also working on the story they will upload to the Lunar Mission Everyone capsule along with a t-shirt design for our team while abroad.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Welcome to the 2016 version of the blog that will chronicle the 6th time Chapman students cross the pond to work on a design project for an international audience and client.