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Unit 5: Collaboration Project
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Self-evaluation (including signature):
Below is an image copy of the self-evaluation form I completed, I couldn’t attach it as a link but it displays my signature and date signed. Therefore, I copied the main body of information so it would be clearer to read in the post previous to this.
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Self-Evaluation:
This is my self-evaluation response copied out from the form for better reading clarity.
BA (Honours) Textile Design, specialising in Weave
Unit 5: Expanded Practice
Caitlin Hartmann
Submission date: 13th January 2020
Knowledge:
There were elements of successful knowledge initiation within this project, but also areas really needing improvement for further collaborative projects, so it was a good learning curve and experience to build on.
I feel we achieved well in this area through investigating material responses and looking at ways to make this sustainable, starting from the beginning before going straight towards a product output. However, we didn’t reference others who had achieved this to help inform our beginning research. I feel this was a collective responsibility of working together. We immersed ourselves in the practical head on approach of material exploration without starting with these foundations. This slowed our researching down as there were no executive decisions soon enough as no leadership roles were established. This did improve through the project’s duration, however, I would work on this in the future.
I did achieve some personal responsibility, helping the project progress. I instigated this by going to TFL, gathering tube tickets and discussing the workers roles within the system. In turn I discussed with them the sustainability aspect of our brief. This was a really engaging experience of another side to London. This featured at the end stages as an affirmation card to accompany the main design. As a team we also improved our collective research, referring to artists at a later stage to help forward our mobile design and the logistics of this.
Enquiry/communication:
The communication of our ideas lacked success at times due to our group organisation. There wasn’t any delegation of responsibilities. We instead ploughed straight on with material research so when it came time to present our direction, our enquiry had been limited to note taking and discussions.
Our collaborative communication could’ve also been improved as our enquiries felt largely separate. We went our own ways with idea research and methodology, coming together later to make decisions. This was due to our inconsistent timetables making it difficult to link together frequently. I feel we would’ve progressed more successfully by working on ideas as a team, making decisions more instantaneously. We improved this at a later stage within the project, learning skills from each other such as crochet, however this would’ve been more relevant as a consistent not intermittent process.
We interacted really well as a group within our tutorials so we succeeded well here.
I attempted to communicate and contribute ideas I felt held substance within the group but often felt unheard by more dominant members despite taking on feedback and giving their ideas due thought. I did take personal responsibility for this and focused on other components of the product such as the packaging and design for the extra components of this, however I definitely feel this would need to be improved for any future collaborative work.
Process/realisation:
We could’ve improved our time management which was the basis for some of our group process flaws. This would’ve been improved by getting together more through the project, keeping up to date with each other so when presenting our progress we would be at the right stage. However, we did build on this by meeting up before every group tutorial and event to discuss ideas and be on the same page.
I feel we developed the mobile concept well through trial and error of prototyping and then making decisions on this. I felt less involved in this area of making however was still an active member of the realisation, interacting within the environment and gathering our materials from the streets, amounting to successful teamwork.
I applied myself to the packaging and extra components, instigating good teamwork between myself and one other member whereby we made ideas and decisions together, delegating roles and making improvements after feedback which I feel is reflected through a consistent packaging aesthetic and conveys the story of our product, bringing everything together.
I feel we focused too much on the realisation of the mobile structure, wasting time overdeveloping this. We needed to think about the product holistically rather than individually. For example, considering how it would be sold.
As a whole I feel it was a successful outcome with a real story pathway evident and met the sustainability as well as souvenir aspect of the brief.
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Week 10:
Chessie and I worked hard on our packaging plan, developing individually and then combining ideas.
We were fed-back during the final tutorial that it needed to flow better as all parts of the design were different, from the text stencilled on the box to the map of where we found the objects. Despite this being the end of the journey, we created a way to display our packaging more coherently using a plainer inside design, documenting the journey of the objects in the lid in the same method as the map design and therefore producing a more successful end result.
(Initial planning doing our individual packaging designs. I tried in white first for a clean look based on the urges of the group however we found Chessie’s brown cardboard appearance much more in keeping with our project and cohesive with the rest of the design features whilst also being on the whole easier to work with.)
(Chessie and I worked collaboratively here. She designed and made all variations, lining and shaping dimensions for the box. I designed and made the stencil, map, envelope, later drawings of the objects and the affirmation card. This shows the map I designed and made for the packaging, documenting the journey of the objects. This was edited several times to adjust the dot sizes and wording so they were visible but not overwhelming.)
(The initial affirmation card, map and stencilling I designed and made for the inside of the packaging.)
(The initial packaging idea Chessie and I came up with, recycling the tube cards as a lining (box made here by Chessie) and using a stencil I made for the packaging and envelope holding the map aesthetic.)
(Final lid drawing designs I created and made after the feedback tutorial to make the packaging more cohesive with the story of the contents.)
(This is the simplified affirmation card I designed and made for the packaging to go inside the box with the mobile. I carried the affirmation idea through to the end to be a part of the final design. However, instead of going against the grain, I tied it in with the packaging aesthetic with a singular pop of colour.)
(Final packaging design and execution for the objects and hanging sticks to be placed in. The objects match up with the drawings and descriptions I created of where they were found in the lid. This means that even if the lid is rotated, the customer can still determine which description matches which object.)
(Final composition for our mobile souvenir with weights and colour dimentions calculated. This would be the basis for reproduction, using objects of similar weights and sizes in lieu.)
(Collaboration wheel reflection, highlighting responsibilities and my individual response to how well I felt I and the group met them.)
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Week 8 and 9:
We integrated more team working these two weeks with one member teaching us how to do the crochet for our up cycling and developed our research, referring to other mobile makers such as Alexander Calder.
This proved difficult as it was such an intricate skill. We resolved to work on our found plastic in a way that resonated with us individuality. I contributed some wrappings of objects, however, this was dismissed by other members with none included in the final object selection despite my modifications, so I struggled to push hard enough for design inclusivity. To resolve this I started to consider packaging designs to feel part of the collaboration output, however this wasn't in time for the showcase.
We neither as a group nor individually made ourselves fully aware of the deadline implications and had not finished all elements for the showcase. So, whilst we had progressed with a variety of objects selected for use and display, I feel we needed to have instead utilised this time to finalise a packaging method to be photographed with this final selection. I feel we wasted time editing the mobile design unnecessarily and should've focused our teamwork on the complete packaged product.
(Alexander Calder mobile which influenced our design approach.)
(Learning to crochet around an object.)
(Collaborative working learning crochet.)
(Finding a balance point.)
(Our modified mobile. We used steel bars but they proved too heavy making the balance point more difficult to find due to the lightness of our objects so we rejected this in favour of our initial copper waste sticks (100% recycled materials used for this project). We worked carefully on colour combinations for the mobile and design conception.)
(A finalised collection of the selected and manipulated found objects.)
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Week 7:
We made a test run of the mobile with some objects manipulated for display. We had a positive response from 'Not Just a Shop' on the creativity and execution of our concept, however we needed to work on how to sell it commercially and practically, for example, how we would package it. We hadn’t considered how a mobile would be sold practically, whether in a ‘built it yourself’ customised method or as a preassigned set. We initially wanted a more personal customisation, however, we decided on a set selection to help the customer construct it with the variable balance point.
(The first prototype of our London mobile.)
(The objects we had managed to collect so far on our respective commutes home and some initial object manipulation.)
(Setting up found objects for display.)
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Week 6:
This was a more successful tutorial as we met beforehand, discussed our findings and chose from what we had. I proposed London Affirmation Cards designed on the backs of tube tickets which I'd collected from Pimlico Station.
However, we settled on making a hanging mobile from up cycled plastic from the streets of London, another members main idea. I felt unheard by the more dominant voices within the group when putting my idea across, however after petitioning the positives of my concept during the tutorial feedback it instigated a more well rounded approach involving elements of everyone's design concepts.
(Tube tickets I collected from Pimlico underground station. Marked individually with a black pen to show they’d been used. All organised by location alphabetically.)
(Affirmation card initial ideas board, to be included in the final design and packaging with the mobile.)
(Map of the underground marked with each of the locations my tube cards came from and linked together. This gave the inspiration for the next stage of our design process, developing a map of where the found objects/plastic came from to include with the mobile.)
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Week 5:
The first tutorial was difficult as my group and I had only discussed ideas with each other and theorised these so whilst lots of concepts were well considered, we had no physical evidence of a concept visualisation. This made me feel as though we were still behind and needed to use our initiative as a group to produce something to develop.
After the tutorial, to act on this we decided a material for our direction which were train/tube tickets and plastic waste to go and create ideas around and then meet back up and settle on a design concept.
(Notes we had collectively gathered before our initial tutorial considering it through the concept of sustainability constantly alongside a London Souvenir.)
(Discussing our ideal customer to keep in mind throughout the project duration.)
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Week 4:
I feel the museum visit was successful in that every member was present and we went around the exhibition together.
An object narrative that resonated with our initial ideas of something multisensory was the Pomander, something you historically wore that covers up bad smells in London. Smell is a prominent sense we discussed due to its transcendent value and could be an interesting way to consider taking an element of London home with you.
We also found the pressed coins a good collectable, reproducible way to represent different parts of London and how we see the uniqueness of each borough.
(Pomander from the Museum of London)
(Roman coins from the Museum of London)
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Week 3:
Our group had difficulty meeting and it ended up just being myself and one other discussing designs. We thought about what London means to us, going through negative and positive key words we relate to London, then thinking about how we could execute this sustainably as a product.
No actualised designs were drawn so I feel we were behind at this stage.
It was disappointing to only have two members reflections as when meeting up at a later point, other members had valuable ideas that bounced off ours so we could've done with this input sooner to develop quicker.
(Notes we made from our meeting)
(Coffee shop meet up between myself and one other member in Crisis Cafe, Finsbury Park)
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Week 2:
Meeting with my group for the first time was a uniting experience as we all chose similar souvenirs which provided an initial talking point to get us interacting.
I felt reassured at my group’s interaction as we got to know each other and discuss starting points immediately. I felt we had an enthusiasm to see where everyone felt their respective starting point would be and found some similar objectives between us which developed through the weeks.
We all took an active role to set up a group chat and start arranging future dates to discuss ideas further.
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Week 1:
I found the UAL ‘Not Just a Shop’ an engaging way to begin the souvenir project. I was quite daunted to begin this brief as it felt so open ended, therefore, this was a catalyst for me to direct my idea flow.
I found the products on sale a refreshingly different take on what I would usually consider a souvenir, advocating quirky takes on what London is to the designers as opposed to cheap plastic keyrings selling for a pound on Oxford Street. It showed me how I could communicate my own London perspective in a mass marketable manner.
(Souvenir found in ‘Ual: Not Just a Shop’ from Garudio Studiage)
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