Next Steps

Ay I’m done! Just wrapped things up by packing up and shipping out all my orders yesterday. Today I posted my final update on Kickstarter and emailed everyone their tracking numbers.

My next steps are to find a place to continue working with plastic. I hope to work with Vanessa in the pitch competition next year, and I hope to actually pursue my plans to work with the community on small-scale recycling in the future. Thanks to this class I feel like I could actually accomplish this someday!

Reflection on EPD

I have to say, this class was awesome for me. I took this class because I am a very opinionated and independent person and wanted to be able to work in my area of interest for senior year.  We had almost exclusively team projects for our sophomore and junior years and the social aspect of group projects can exhaust me. 

Since working with recycled plastic all of junior year, it was really great to be able to continue my practice. Pushing my knowledge of the process and learning what production would be like. I am so grateful this was a possibility for our senior year and I feel like this class has informed me even more of my interests and career paths I would like to make.

I enjoyed hearing from guest lecturers and visiting relevant businesses in Chicago. I collectively learned so much from them – and continue to. I now know of people like Eric Trine who regularly posts educational talks and places like Lost Arts where I might be able to use their resources.

My advice for class next year:

I would have benefited from a quick email at the beginning of summer with some brief information about the class. Just to know I should start thinking about what I would make and how I would attack the manufacturing. Small pieces of info to start like, think about shipping/size and think about the amount of materials/manufacturing processes involved to make each element. This would give an extra 3 months for concept development and could really improve the outcome of ideas.  

I also felt like sometimes we would spend too much class time doing personal work on our computers/commenting on people’s pages. This actually takes forever to not only post, but to read. I think I spent like 7 hours one time commenting on every single person’s video. It would have been more beneficial to me to have traditional critiques in class. I prefer in-person conversations and critiques since it can be much quicker and we can still post on people’s pages at home, not during class time. I’m sure you noticed I am impatient, so I get really uneasy when I feel like my class time is being wasted —more of a personal problem....

ANYWAYS ————————————————————————————

THANK YOU CRAIGHTON AND TED! I had a great class and am very grateful for this experience :)

chadwix day

....had to miss because of family funeral, just a reminder

UIC startup challenge: pitch practice

Watching the UIC students practice their pitches was pretty interesting. Things they wanted to stress:

-take a deep breath before you start (especially for 60 sec pitch)

-don’t repeat the same statistics

-tie a story into your pitch to keep people interested and keep it relatable

-use images on your slides to keep it visually interesting

-don’t just fill your slides with text and read off the screen, have a prepared speech with supporting slides

-don’t talk too fast, try to be as clear and concise as possible

STEPHAN ANGO — cofounder of Lumi • "the world doesn't need another chair." He focuses on problem finding first ...which is how they brought design to the field of packaging that clearly needed a new approach for the world of entrepreneurial e-commerce • Lumi's North Star: "learn by first hand experience." Stephan talked about how what got you to this point is not what is going to get you to the next. • "go get yourself in trouble" (problem finding) • "how can you design an experiment to test your idea right now? Learn as much as you can as fast as you can" • Lumi acts as a broker to optimize supply chains. "E-commerce is fundamentally changing the way we think about things." He said they strive to find a balance between brand experience vs. cost/logistics

MHub!!! Really excited to see what a happens in the future from MHub –there is a lot of potential and talent already. I'm happy to be introduced to this scene and am already looking forward to some upcoming events they are hosting.

Had a great discussion at the Chicago Design Museum today! So glad I was able to finally check this place out, I've been meaning to go a while. Really impressed with what they have pulled together from their own personal passion to connect the community to design. Surprisingly, my favorite part of the visit was checking out the book they passed around called Radical Modernism by Dan Friedman -very much my area of interest. I am definitely going to check out their next exhibit and see how they transform the space.

CARDS AGAINST HUMANITY I had a really great time listening to Max discuss his journey with creating cards against humanity and how they continue to stay fresh, relevant, and successful. Some tips he gave us from how they like to approach marketing: - he said they like to "wage unconventional warfare" by using different means of reaching their audience than traditional advertising -everything they do has to be something surprising, novel, and new. If people aren't going to talk about it at the water cooler in the break room, it's not worth doing -they try to keep a good ratio of earned media vs. paid media by leveraging attention from people's conversations -catering only to your established audience is lazy and complacent. They are always trying to find out how to reach new people outside of their audience -every new project is a roll of the dice. It needs to have a great design, press coverage, and an audience, but it's still a gamble. Always keep the dice rolling. -be smart and protect your ideas with a Creative Commons license

HD email pitch

Hello! My name is Lauren and I am a design student at UIC learning entrpreneurial product development by creating my own Kickstarter project. I have been working with recycled plastic for a couple years now and I have finally perfected my manufacturing process and excited to share my work with the world! I have been following your blog for a while [individual statement for each blog... work I’ve loved from them].  I think you might enjoy my work also! I have developed a line of self-manufactured housewares from recycled plastic called HIGH DENSITY. My first line of objects includes: soap dishes, wall-mounted coat hooks, and wall-mounted shelf brackets. You can view my Kickstarter page here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/highdensity/762731162?token=23712478

HIGH DENSITY is near and dear to my heart not only as my own personal work, but my passion and goals to work on improving recycling solutions locally in Chicago. I truly believe investing in solutions, big or small, brings value and attention to our flawed recycling systems. I hope this project is the begining of my journey to work with the improvement of these systems and the creative possibilites for the future.

Thank you for your time! Please fee free to ask me any and all questions!

Sincerely,

Lauren Bach

314.xxx.xxxx

Our chat with MONICA from SIGHT UNSEEN

Sight Unseen is a huge influence for me, always showing the best work with fresh and inspiring style. Monica has an impressive impact on the design world by not only curating Sight Unseen’s online work, but by also starting the prolific OFFSITE exhibition during NYC’s design week. I feel very privileged to hear her opinion on what she looks for. 

My takeaways:

-”If you don’t have the photograph, you basically have nothing” She said photography is the number one problem with submissions and where designers need to spend the most attention when trying to be published online.

-Make it easy to view. When emailing blogs include an embeded image in the email with a link to hi-res images

-Use searchable terms. When looking for something in particular, Monica says she often just google searches something descriptive like “triangular lamp”

-Follow up and be nice. Sometimes emails get buried and a nice follow up can be helpful, but no more than 2-3 emails total, journalists don’t have time to respond to work they aren’t interested in

Things that Monica said she looks for or is currently inspired by: strong geometric forms, contrast of materials/finish, and process-oriented design.  :) ...I wonder what she would think of my work????

me: I’m feeling so good lately

crippling anxiety:

I have so much respect for Steven Haulenbeek. I've been a HUGE FAN of his work since I toured his studio last year. Experimental processes are my #1 favorite thing about design, def the thing that drives my work as well. Steven's drive to create the highest quality material from his process is what really impresses me. I loved hearing how many types of resins he tried before he settled on one for the RBS series and how he tested different temperature variables with wax and ice for his bronze pieces. Truly one of the most inspiring designers I've met 🙌

staying distracted 🕴🕳 (at Uic School Of Art & Design)

I finally created a curve-surfaced mold! Really happy with how my first run of soap dishes went. These are easy to manufacture with no post-machining and don't use very much material. I'm hoping to make these an entry level reward with a lower price because I can create a higher volume of these. I am thinking like $15 per dish, what do you guys think about that price point?

I'm trying to embrace being being open and exposed 😱 This is especially difficult for me since I have spent so much time experimenting to nail my process. I am hesitant to show too much in fear of being ripped off, but I'm just hoping for the best and trying to return the favor to all of my online mentors.

Gaetano Pesce

...another Italian male disappointment. I was really trying to like him, but his attitude depreciated his work for me.