Design is a process; this is an idea that’s been drilled into our heads for four years now. At first we deal with the phantom, or as we’ve always named it the concept. Then there’s understanding and organizing the pieces, establishing hierarchies, or as put in words we have heard since day one, creating systems. There is also the part of the process in which we give the project more definition, giving it details. I agree with Mateo that these are different issues that are dealt with during the process in a simplified description, but disagree in the sense that he gave the process a fixed direction. Rather than being linear, I believe the process has more of a roaming path in which back tracking, rethinking, and refinement is part of the iterative process. It never turns out to be linear as future parts of the process inform previous parts of the process.
As I panic about the idea that I am about to begin a project that is to last me a year and keep me engaged, and allow me to grow a tremendous amount in the direction I chose, along with many other things that go along with doing a thesis, I realize I’m not even sure where to start. How to Draw Up a Project, the title of this text seems misleading. The design process is something we understand; it is something we have been lead through many times. Yet I am still at odds with the idea of how to start. What is the first step in defining a problem for the project to associate with?
Puja...
ReplyDeleteI agree with your reading of Mateo's "How to Draw up a Project", particularly your stance on the linearity of a process. When I think about how a project should progress, I am continually reminded off Doug Cooper's description of how one will learn to draw. Drawing ability will often jump foward with each break-thought and may often stagnate or regress at other times. With a project, these break-throughs often occur accidentally or tangentally. While Mateo maintains that the process should have a fixed direction, the studio experiance is perfect for these chance encounters with inspiration and non-linear progress.
I agree with you Puja, on the fact that the reading made the design process seem like linear destination when it is a crazy form of paths as that all informs each other. The author seemed to put himself into a "straitjacket" by the general process that he keeps himself to, not allowing the steps of the project to inform each other.
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