Hello all,
We’ll have coffee and pastries delivered to the room before class and for break. We’ll be running on a tight schedule… so be sure to arrive on time. Anther, I have you first.
10 minutes max presentation, 10 minutes discussion. Better if you present for less time.
I’ll follow up with an email that I sent the critics…
9:00 Introduction to critics
9:10 Anther – Design for Commerce (3 projects under one umbrella)
9:30 Justin – etc Magazine
9:50 Elie – Radio RISD
10:10 Carly – Book Proposal
10:30 Jen and Anne – City Development
BREAK
11:10 Kaveh – Installation
11:30 Jay and Carlos – Installation
11:50 Jay – Installation #2
12:10 Daniel – Roomie
12:30 — Course evaluations
Frieze Writer’s Prize is an annual international award to discover and promote new art critics.
Entrants must submit one unpublished review of a recent contemporary art exhibition, which should be 700 words in length. Entries must be submitted in English, but may be translated (this must be acknowledged). Entrants must be over 18 years of age. To qualify, entrants may only previously have had a maximum of three pieces of writing on art published. The winning entrant will be commissioned to write a review for frieze and will be awarded £2,000. Entries should be emailed as a word attachment to writersprize@frieze.com. Please do not send images.
The closing date for entries is 22 July 2013.
Judges
Christy Lange (associate editor of frieze)
Sean O’Toole (co-editor of CityScapes)
Lynne Tillman (fiction writer and critic)
More than a decade ago Sappi Fine Paper North America— the maker of McCoy, Opus, Somerset and Flo — established the Ideas that Matter grant program to recognize and support designers who use their skills and expertise to solve communications problems for a wide range of charitable activities. Even today, Ideas that Matter remains the only grant program of its kind in the industry. Since 1999, Ideas that Matter has funded over 500 nonprofit projects, contributing $12 million worldwide to causes that enhance our lives, our communities and our planet. Sappi believes that the creative ideas of designers can have an impact beyond the aesthetic and that those ideas can be a powerful force for social good. Working together with our customers, we aim to make a difference.
Due July 19
More information and entry form
Video from last year’s winner, Lowell Williams
Y Final review critics for May 14
Owen Johnson, founder at Providence accelerator Betaspring, and founder of Providence’s Awesome Foundation. Owen brings substantial experience in how to get budding ideas off the ground. More on Owen
Greg Victory is Director of Career Center at RISD and higher education consultant. Greg is RISD’s go-to person for student entrepreneurial projects… having just started “The RISD Lab” at 204 Westminster. More on Greg
Clement Valla is on the full-time faculty in the Graphic Design Department. His teaching and art career has touched on an incredible range of the arts: architecture, painting, digital media and design. More on Clement
Ian Gonsher is an artist, designer, and educator currently working in Providence, RI. He is on the faculty in the School of Engineering at Brown University, where his teaching and research focus on the creative process in practice. More on Ian
f John
Do you think you can design a better MBTA map? Here′s the opportunity for you to show us what a new T map could look like.
In celebration of National Transportation Week (May 12 — 18, 2013) the MBTA and MassDOT are sponsoring a contest to tap into the creativity of our customers and to build on the public′s interest in mapping. The contest offers contestants the opportunity to develop alternative versions of the MBTA rapid transit (or “spider”) map.
Greetings all… let’s meet as a class tomorrow from 9am until 1pm. We should
use this time to review everyone’s final proposal.
We have four excellent critics for our final class next week. I’ll give you
more info about them then.
Prepared and presented via email to RISD CSI in mid-April to garner support and initial funding of $2k.
Update: CSI will support this with space and web hosting.
How did the project get started?
- background is in architecture and design from Iowa State
- graduated in 2006 and worked at Gensler in Santa Monica
- while he was there he got into this problem of putting together a lot of presentation boards
- wanted to use graphics to visually communicate these ideas
- when he was doing a lot of sketches in college he hit a rut where he couldn’t find a subject-matter to draw that inspired him
- so decided to draw the simple things that inspired him when he as a child
- started drawing sequoias, trains, trucks, combines
- in 2008 he got laid off
- then decided to try to get this idea off the ground
- the workflow in architecture is very fragment: you design everything and then you build it
- he tried to bring this same mentality to build a website but found that it works very differently
- with a website you start small and build from there, and you correct along the way
- it’s much more user-centric
Kickstarter
- at the beginning they sold these “noun shirts”
- one of the problems when you’re just getting off the ground is inventory
- if you stock a lot of inventory, the cost is lower, but if you don’t sell you lose
- if you stock too little and a lot of people but, you’re out of stock and you lose that momentum
- with Kickstarter you would know how many people purchased and then you’d get the stock, thus removing all the risk
- the backers that invest in your idea are really invested in your idea and really want to support you
- an amazing brand-building exercise and an amazing community-building campaign
When you wree initially building the site were there a lot of suprises, things you didn’t anticipate?
- initially he was building a solution for a problem that he experienced
- but right after he launched he got a lot of emails from educators and doctors, saying that they were really helpful for their work
- that excited them to changed their mindset from it just being a graphical resource
- they wanted these symbols to become more of visual communication tools and social objects and not just visual objects
Where do you see some of this graphic language going as a means of communication? What symbols do you feel are really new?
- it’s one thing they’re not doing as good a job as they could and that’s why they’re trying to develop this API system
- they want to allow their symbols to be shared like that
- through the api they’re going to create some games that’ll test user comprehension
One color icons? Do you think of ever introducing color, or animation, or dimension?
- as a a foundation, they’ll always have it as black and white
- they want to allow people to give their visual interpretations of these concepts
- and through technology they want to offer up the one that’s most popular
Do you ever kick anyone out?
- struggled with what their threshold is
- they have a pretty hands-on curation process
What happens if you receive a symbol that means something somewhere else in the world, do you accept it?
- they see where the symbol comes from first and then might ask the person to explain it a little bit
- they do want to accept icons like that
Did you build your own platform? What technology is it built on?
- used a lot of web standards at the beginning but built it back in with django
- Scott knows these things better
Categorization
- redoing that at the moment
- right now they have a noun paired with an icon
- but they want a one-to-many relationship
- they’ve creating a tagging system
The fund
They invest in designer entrepreneurs through funding, mentorship, and connections.
Find out more
The book
Designer Founders is a book series that interviews designers about the path they took to create tech startups. Our first edition features the designers who founded Pinterest, Behance, fuseproject, Slideshare, and theicebreak.
Find out more
Download pdf
I spoke about this experience in class, but thought I’d share some photos from the Stillwell Book Collecting Competition, where I was one of six finalists.
View the competition entry here.
There are 2.5 weeks until the last Call for Proposals class. We’ll have a final review with outside critics on May 14. Representing the viewpoint of business and fundraising will be Owen Johnson (Betaspring) and Greg Victory (RISD Careers). We’ll have one or two GD critics as well. If any of you have other critics or guests that you feel are appropriate, let me know of feel free to invite them to your final presentation.
As far as course requirements, I have maintained that I expect three proposals and one final project. These four pieces may overlap in terms of what content they are working with and for whom they are targeted.
I’ve posted a video of Guy Kawasaki talking about the 10 mistakes of entrepreneurs. One being the mistake of not prototyping when you can. I think that’s good advice. His talk is about 35 minutes, then the rest is questions. You should all check it out.
I want to meet with each of you individually on Tuesday to help assess what you should be presenting and bringing in on the last day of class.
There is a sign-up sheet on the class website. Edit the post and put your name in. Note, early meetings are longer. You only need to come to class for your individual meeting and the lunchtime conversation. This week we’ll have Edward Boatman, founder of The Noun Project, via Google Hangout.
-John
8:00
8:20
8:40
9:00 – Carly is the werst(bratwerst)
9:20- Justin Chen
9:40 – Mr. Anther Kiley, MFA
10:00 — Break
10:15 – Carlos
10:30 – Elie
10:45 – Jen and Anne
11:00 – Kaveh
11:15 – Daniel
11:30 – Jay
Active calls
(26 posts)
Finished Proposals
| Tue, Apr 9 |
Etc. Zine / GS Grant ProposalJustin |
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| Wed, Apr 10 |
why-we-make project proposalCarly |
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| Sun, Apr 28 |
Book Competition: UpdateCarly |
1 b |
| Fri, May 3 |
Proposal 1: Radio RISDElie |
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| Thu, May 16 |
AiOP @ New Museum Idea City Street Festival ProposalJennifer |
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| Sun, May 19 |
Portfolio RevampJay Kim |
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| Sun, May 19 |
RISD Beach ExtendedJay Kim |
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| Sun, May 19 |
On The Scale Of…Jay Kim |
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| Tue, May 21 |
Proposal 4: Portfolio RevampDaniel Chang |
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| Wed, May 22 |
Radio RISD TumblrElie |
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| Fri, May 24 |
w Radio RISD Promo SiteElie |
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| Fri, May 24 |
w Radio RISD Outreach SiteElie |
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| Mon, May 27 |
project: FishworldAnther |
1 b |
| Tue, May 28 |
Kaveh FinalKaveh |
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| Tue, May 28 |
Protected: Hakaniemi GreenHouseAnne |
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| Tue, May 28 |
Protected: risd contemporary typefaceAnne |
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| Tue, May 28 |
Protected: Providence WayfindingAnne |
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| Tue, Jun 4 |
Protected: Kennedy PlazaAnne |
(18 posts)
Lunchtime Conversations
| Sun, Feb 17 |
Prospective Lunch series scheduleJohn |
Dates to be Finalized |
| Tue, Feb 26 |
Max AckermanJohn |
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| Tue, Mar 5 |
Glen CummingsJohn |
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| Tue, Mar 12 |
Danielle AubertJohn |
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| Tue, Apr 2 |
Murray McMillanJohn |
April 2 |
| Wed, Apr 3 |
Megan Feehan – April 9thJohn |
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| Mon, Apr 22 |
Chris Specce on licensingJohn |
April 23, 12p |
| Tue, Apr 30 |
Lunchtime Conversation with Edward BoatmanJohn |
April 30 |
(8 posts)
Resources
| Mon, Feb 18 |
B Books and ArticlesJohn |
|
| Tue, Feb 19 |
w Chronicle Books Submissions GuidelinesJohn |
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| Thu, Feb 28 |
w 15 Lessons of Business Learned from Steve JobsJohn |
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| Tue, Apr 30 |
Designer Fund & Designer FoundersJohn |
|
| Tue, Apr 30 |
w Bridge: 3-month stints for designers at startupsJohn |
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| Wed, May 1 |
w Advice from Graphic Designers bookJohn |
(6 posts)
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Call for Entries: Design History Society essays | ||
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The Design History society is a quiet little organization in Britain that publishes real scholarship year-in and year-out, somehow avoiding the various waves of academic hipness that have been known to blow other journals around. Do enter! It could result in a nice little chunk of change. And what scholar does not need a new pair of shoes and a fresh case of ramen? The deadline is 14 June 2013. Here are the details: Submissions are invited for the Design History Society Essay Prize, established in 1997 in order to maintain high standards in design history in higher education. Two prizes are awarded annually; one to an undergraduate student and the other to a postgraduate (MA or PhD). Competition requirements: 1. The entrant must have been a current or graduating student (full or part-time) within the academic year 2012/2013. The Prize includes: Application forms are available from the DHS Essay Prize Officer: | ||
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“New Perspectives” T Map Challenge | ||
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Do you think you can design a better MBTA map? Here′s the opportunity for you to show us what a new T map could look like. In celebration of National Transportation Week (May 12 — 18, 2013) the MBTA and MassDOT are sponsoring a contest to tap into the creativity of our customers and to build on the public′s interest in mapping. The contest offers contestants the opportunity to develop alternative versions of the MBTA rapid transit (or “spider”) map. | ||
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w Radio RISD Outreach Site
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Etc. Zine / GS Grant Proposal | ||
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Collaboration with Yejin Cho: The term etc. is used to textually terminate a list that remains conceptually open. The proposed project intents on documenting the ‘et cetera’ within a design challenge: references, initial ideas, working methods—the raw materials. | ||
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Hounds tooth Bag, product proposal | ||
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A proposal seeking licensing and funding for the production of canvas hounds tooth bags. Each bag is screen printed individually using photo emulsion silk screening technique onto canvas/leather hand bags. Houndstooth Bag Product Proposal | ||
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project: Helvetica Ornaments | ||
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Helvetica Ornaments presentation This project, a set of typographic ornaments for use with the typeface Helvetica, tries to bring into dialogue the two extremes of the (imagined) function / decoration spectrum in design. The ornaments are inspired by decadently decorative nineteenth century print work, but are drawn in the monoline style of Helvetica, ultimate symbol of Modernist rational functionalism. At present, the ornaments are available as a digital font file through the GD grad show website, and also as a physical artifact for sale in the show. The artifact is as a series of six offset printed posters packaged as a booklet and accompanied by a sheet of 66 vinyl stickers. The ornaments are a stand-alone project, but also an experiment in distributing and promoting digital type. For future type projects, I’m interested in finding ways of dramatizing and making physical (and desirable) digital type, rather than simply selling OTF files for download on a website. | ||
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Protected: Kennedy Plaza | ||
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w NYC Big Apps
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AiOP @ New Museum Idea City Street Festival Proposal | ||
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Hear Now Project Proposal For Art in Odd Places @ The New Museum Idea City Street Festival Jennifer Vincent and Nupur Mathur
To: Radhika Subramaniam Guest Curator, Art in Odd Places, NYC, 2013
Dear Radhika,
Nupur and I left last week’s Art in Odd Places meeting feeling incredibly excited to create a project that would thoughtfully speak to both AiOP’s and the New Museum’s particular themes. So, we put our heads together and dreamed up Hear Now, a social practice public art project that frames ideas about the power of one as “untapped capital.” For Hear Now, we propose to invite Idea City Street Festival visitors to take a spin on our playful, custom made stationary bicycle rigged to amplify a curated selection of audio recordings from campaign speeches given by unelected presidential candidates over a loud-speaker that extends from the front of the bike, with the intensity of the amplification dependent on the rate at which the rider pedals. Hear Now’s content seeks to address the place of failure and unelectable ideas in the context of envisioning newer and better worlds. The featured campaign speeches present the political platforms of Democrat, Republican and Independent candidates and conceptually introduce the question of why the general public was not, in their respective historical moment, motivated to elect and enact these platforms. Hear Now is user activated, and so it is only when users give of their own energy are the ideas captured on the recordings made available for Street Festival visitors to hear and muse over.
We recognize that this project is vastly different than the one we pitched to be part of AiOP, but we believe it to be a far more rich, mature and dynamic piece and we anticipate that it will represent AiOP in a far more sophisticated and engaged way to New Museum Street Festival visitors.
All Best,
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Kaveh Final | ||
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Newport Wall Proposal and future web address: www.newportopen.com Pelican Transport Bushwick, Brooklyn NY Toilet | ||
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On The Scale Of… | ||
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(on the scale of low res) <- link to pdf Although, I’ve presented this during the final presentation, this is my third proposal so I decided to post this on the blog. “On the Scale Of” project came from the inspiration to build community through learning of individual’s values across all demographics. This proposal was shaped to seek for a gallery space in which the project can live in but from the feedback I’ve received during the crit, I think the project can be modified to be outside of gallery space for its further steps from here. | ||
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Course Content
- Announcement (3)
- Assignments (2)
- Blog (21)
- Emailed (13)
- Links (26)
- Outline (58)
- Active calls (26)
- Finished Proposals (18)
- Lunchtime Conversations (8)
- Resources (6)
- Readings (3)
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Call for Proposals is a Graphic Design elective at R.I.S.D., spring semester 2013
