Month: August 2014

Collaborative Designers

Designers these days often work together as a group, in order to complete each other’s works and to accomplish greater and better achievement.

As an Indonesian, I envy Revano Satria, a famous Indonesian architect who has studied in architecture in both Indonesia for his bachelor and in London for his master degree. After finishing his studies in London, he went back to Indonesia and initiated his own interior-architecture design company, RSI group.

RSI group is a multi discipline design company that covers architecture (MSSM Associates), interior design (revastudio), graphic (leopardturtle), as well as product and furniture design (flux). Creative, innovative, and talented people from each fields were gathered. Revano Satria, Lavroskay, Aurelia Angela, Kezia Angelica, Stephanie Nastasya and Rebecca Leigh West work collaboratively as a group to design projects such as hotel, offices, and private residences, etc.

Despite all of the inviduals’ different cultural, educational, and geographical background, they work as a team to produce dynamic yet professional surroundings. Together, they don’t only accomplish lots of amazing projects national and internationally, but they also won lots of awards in Indonesia. One of the most amazing accomplishments would be the fact that they broke the Indonesian record (MURI), by designing 250 projects in ten working hours. This accomplishment may seem impossible, but it did happen for this RSI group. Undoubtedly, the company succeeded to attain such award all due to the mind and cooperation of the group’s talented members.

From this group of talented designers’ achievement, we can see that working together is very crucial. Interior design, architecture, furniture and product design are all related to each other. Without assembling every aspect together, iit will be so difficult to execute projects as wonderfully as when they work together. As designer, it is significant to realize the importance of collaboration and teamwork so that one’s career can grow, and thus not stuck with just one role.

Here are some of their works:

Check their website out on:

www.revastudio.com/

Latent Thinking

Today in our creative thinking class, our lecturer asked us about “what is latent thinking?” Apparently none of us understand what it meant. Then after some explanation, we eventually come to understand that latent learning meant thinking outside the box.

think-outside-the-box.png

Firstly today, she gave us some trick questions. Then she told us to find the way on how to connect 9 dots in 4 lines and 3 lines, as well as moving a pyramid of ball upside down, by only moving 3 balls. So we scribbled up and tried to find the answer. Turned out only some people found the answer. When the lecturer and some of my classmates showed the answer, we were all go “whoaaa”, and then most of us said “why didn’t we think of that before?

http://hanaykim.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/inverted-triangle.png?w=247&h=270

Our Scribble in Class

After this exercise, the lecturer gave us a problem then she told us to think of creative solution. So the problem was our neighbor had lots of chickens, but there was a hole on our neighbor’s fence therefore the chicken can freely go to our garden and ruin our plants. So how can we solve this? Working together with Zahirah (zaraaa-16.tumblr.com), we figured out 30 creative ways on how to stop this problem but not offending our neighbor.

The 30 ideas on solving the Chicken’s problem

Then we choose 3 the most creative and illustrated them then presented it to the class. So the first idea was to put a giant blower or fan right in front of the whole so the chicken will definitely got blown away, even before it reaches the whole. Then the second idea was to put a giant vase or flowerpot to cover the hole, so that will prevent the chicken for going to the garden. Lastly, was to put an electrical wire (with not too high voltage, enough to shock the chicken) to cover the hole.

Illustration of the Chicken’s problem

Presenting our Ideas

After that, we were given another story about a bee that go through the window, and in the room there were a painting and a flower. But the bee chose the painting instead of the flower. In this last activity in our class we need to discuss why the bee decided to go to the painting instead. Then we need to list out 40 ideas why.

Zahirah wrote the 40 ideas about bee, flower, window, painting on the board

The final 40 ideas about why the bee chose painting not the flower

Presentation photos credit: journalflorence.tumblr.com

What Can I Improve as a Group Member?

After all these six weeks of studying in NAFA, working in group, especially for creative thinking, visual art, and language of art class is very important. All of these classes really required us to work as a group. Throughout these weeks, I’ve been working in groups with several different people. It was fun and helpful, because we get to know more about our classmates and how they think about something or their point of view about something.

So far, I’ve learned that working, as a group is not dividing the work or work on certain parts individually. However working in a group is more to the sharing of thoughts, communication, social skills, and discussions. Being involved in a group discussion as a high school student and as a college student is definitely different. As a college student, we are more focused on the work, and our matured thinking will give us more ideas than when we were younger.

I’ve learnt a lot about working together with others as a group. I can express my ideas to others, I can understand others’ ideas and not criticizing their ideas, I have a strong sense of being a group member, and I sometimes can show my leadership ability. However there are more things that I can improve and do better while working with others. I will try to improve my communication skill and I will try to talk more in quantity as well as in clarity in presentations. To be honest, I’m quite shy and I don’t like presentation, so I will try to improve my presentation skill as well. Because I know in design field, presentation skill is really important.

Night Fest Adventure

In this awesome adventure, I am imagining myself to be a pretty and colorful butterfly. I’m small and I have pretty and delicate wings. I’m strong, fit (have good endurance) and can adapt to environment easily. However pretty sensitive to bad weather. If it’s too hot/too cold, or if it rains/storms I won’t be able to fly because my wings are very vulnerable to water and storms can easily ruin my wings.

As I go to the festival…

Singapore Night Festival

First thing first, I was really worried that it was going to rain, because it was pretty dark yesterday evening. But luckily it didn’t rain a bit. So when I arrived there, it was really crowded, the place was full of people. When any people see a pretty creature like me, I bet most of them especially like little kids will want to catch me. But unlike any other small creatures, it didn’t scare me, because I knew that I can fly and I could move really fast, so it wasn’t a problem for me.

The Crowd

I saw lots of interesting things I haven’t seen before. There were lots of food and interesting booths, so I flew from one booth to another. It was fun.

Unique Tree

Other than that, there was also performance that I haven’t seen in my life, like a unique musical performance with unique instrument and also an incredible acrobatic dance. I also saw a cool screen media show, whereas there was a huge projector that projected things such as rains, storms, etc. to a building so it looked like a 3D movie.

Night Festival 😀

Incredible Musical Performance

Cool 3D

Last but not least, I also visited a Nonya Museum, where the museum kept all of the history of the Nonya of Singapore and Malaysia.

Nonya’s Batik

Nonya’s Painting

Diaries

As a small creature that can fly, travelling from one place to another was easy for me. And when I’m tired, I can just stop flying and camouflage by blending in with the background, either tree or etc. During my journey, I was afraid that the weather was bad; luckily the weather was perfectly fine and it was such a great experience for me to explore more about a festival.

Interview with the Self

As interesting as it sounds, yesterday’s creative thinking class was quite fun, because the theme was “an interview to the self”. Through this activity, I personally got to know more about myself.

So the first activity was to write 100 ideas, characteristics or things about each individual in about 20 minutes. This activity sounds easy because it can be anything related to us, and it was pretty easy for the first 50 ideas. However when we reached 60, it got harder and harder, then we needed to think harder and that what made us understand ourselves better. At the end of the 20 minutes, I managed to get the 100 ideas down, but truthfully some of the ideas are quite silly. So you can check it out here.

The second activity was to pick an image or picture about an object, scenery, or anything. Then after we pick the object, we are supposed to personify the object and how we can relate us to be the object. In this case, I chose a colorful butterfly for my object. This is because, I find butterfly itself very interesting. Butterfly is a symbol of transformation, change as well as joy. These three characteristics definitely are the characteristic of human. Just like butterfly that undergoes metamorphosis, we, human also transforms from kids to adults. Not only that, but we also change to be a better people as we grow. At the end of the day what really matters is that we want to fill our days with joy, similarly to the various different color of butterfly, which also symbolizes different things that human do to find joy.

Then the third activity was to pick a small object, then draw around the object. So for this activity, we needed to get into pairs. Then my friend, Yu Lee (kimyulee.blogspot.sg), and me chose to pick a key. After that we had to draw 50 different illustrations or sketches around the key. Some interesting sketches were drawn during the activity. I found this activity was as challenging as the ideas where we needed to find about us. The first 20-25 sketches were drawn pretty quickly, however when we get to 28 and so on, it took more time, this is why it was so challenging. So here are some of the sketches:

Lastly, the lecturer assigned us the most interesting activity ever. This activity is an activity that we’re supposed to do outside of the class and we have to do it on our own. So I’m going to tell you more about this last activity in my next post. Because I have to go out and finish the activity first, then I will blog about it.

Anyway, I think that the most important objective from these various activities about ourselves is to be honest to ourselves so we can really understand and learn more about us.

Sharing to Learn

Two or more brains are better than one. This phrase definitely explains that working as a group and learning together help us learn anything better. How?

Clearly when we are working as a group, all of the social skills such as, listening, communicating, expressing ideas, etc. are essential. These social skills will give us the opportunity to make friends, get to know others and see others’ perspectives on solving problems or discussions. Not only that, but it also allows us to learn to work together and cooperate with others. However, teamwork will also help us work on our patience, take turns on expressing ideas, supporting others, as well as accepting critics from others or give critics to others.

Sharing a common goal, it will open our mind and let us see different ways that others use to reach the same goal. Learning collaboratively with others, by dividing the work equally for each member of the group, will make everything much easier and more effective. In addition to that, the collaborative learning will also develop our independence, because each of the members will definitely have to contribute ideas. Therefore working in a group and working collaboratively will bring lots of positive outcomes and it will also improve lots of aspects from its individual, from the social skills to thinking independently.

https://eternalsunshineoftheismind.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/together-everyone-achieves-more.jpg

So since the beginning of my creative thinking class, we are assigned to groups and we’ve worked in our group since then. So far, we’ve done 3 exercises, such as brainstorming, categorization, and also mind-mapping. Throughout these exercises, I actually enjoy each moment a lot.

However when I think back about the happiest moment while working in my group, I couldn’t even forget our first brainstorm exercise where we have to find 101 ways to kill a paper man. My group presented various creative and interesting ways that was out of the context “normal”, I considered that very fun and enjoyable. To be honest, the feeling of working in a group with completely new friends is kind of odd and awkward at first. However through the times and the fun activities, the awkwardness fades and it became more fun. And I’m also glad because my teammates are all not quite at all; in fact they are active, cheerful, and smart. Working together with them teaches me a lot. It gives me more ideas about solving problems from their point of views. Not only that, but also I have the chance to learn to improve my social skill and I learn to express my ideas more in the group. In any group, it may be kind of hard sometimes when we have different point of views and argues a little. In a team, arguments are very acceptable because each members of the group definitely have different characters. This is the thing that we have to understand in working together as a group. Even though arguments are sometimes hard, but this is a small thing that I may not like from teamwork. But when I think about it, arguments are actually the thing that can make a group or team even more solid.

Mind-Mapping

One of the most important techniques on retaining important information of a certain topic or theme is known as Mind-mapping.

In today’s creative thinking class, our lecturer introduced us to mind-map. Although most of us knew what mind map is, I think the lesson today is important to remind us that mind map is one of the most useful tools that we can use in the future to discuss about a certain theme. So, first thing first, our lecturer told us to list out the differences between mind mapping and brainstorm. People may think that these two things are similar and have similar purposes, however these two things are actually quite different. Here are some ideas we listed out as a group in class. My teammates were YuLee (kimyulee.blogspot.sg) and Han Tjie (thj1996.blogspot.sg)

So after we listed out all of the differences, according to our major, we are told to identify how can we use mind mapping in our own major.

So my teammates and I who are from interior design, illustration design and advertising major wrote down how mind map can be really useful.

Lastly, after this simple activity about mind map, the lecturer eventually gave 2-3 groups a certain topic and we are supposed to use mind map and explain about the topic on how to “pursuing happiness”. So as a group, we came up with pretty interesting thoughts about the topic. We also came up with subordinate and main ideas. So take a look of what we mind-mapped in class. 😀

Finding the Broken Rules

So after the brainstorm presentation, we were told to move into a new group. This group is rather different than the previous group, because before, everyone in our group came from different departments. But this time, all of classmates who are in the same departments are in the same group. And so there were six people from 3D design (my department). Four of us are majoring in interior design and exhibition; one of us is majoring in object and jewellery; and one of us is majoring in landscape and architecture. Then the lecturer grouped all of the interior design major in one group, and the rest in one group. However, I was eventually moved to the other group.

The assignment was to list out about “what we typically assume” in each major. This was hard because I was not in my own major. However I was given the choice to use the interior design’s idea or to stay. Then I decided to stay. Not to worry, it was a pleasure working with people from different major, because it gave me chance to learn a little bit about their major. So we listed the materials often used for object and jewelry design, what we typically assume about building, its design and landscape, then last but not least we listed where in our body we often wear jewelry.

So this is what we came up with

Then from that three category, each of us can pick one category and we have to find things that are not typical from every category. Basically we need to find the things that are breaking the rules from each categories. So my teammates, Tzi Quan (architecture major), chose to do the building category, while Felica (object and jewelry major), chose to do jewelry, and I was left with what material used for object design.

This is the typical material used for object and jewellery design. The star represents that the material is typically used for both object and jewellery design, but (o) represents that the material is typically used for object design only.

It was quite challenging for me, since I know nothing about object design. But I asked my teammate, Felicia, to explain to me what she objects she usually designs. Then she explained that things like water bottle, lunchbox, clock, plates, etc. are things that are usually designed in object design. After I got the idea of object design, I started to research about unique materials used for object design. Lots of materials I found are typical, like plastic, wood, glass, metal, and other common materials. But then came across to my mind, using used or recycled materials are very unique and new. Then I researched about it and found lots of interesting objects made from used materials. Some examples are:

– Using CD spindle for donuts or sandwich case. Unlike the normal lunchbox, using this recycle material such as CD spindle is unique and new. We may never think that a CD spindle that is use to store stack of CD can also be used like lunchbox, to keep our snack like donuts and sandwich there.

http://sobadsogood.com/2013/05/19/21-brillant-objects-made-from-recycled-materials/

– Using piano case as bookshelf. This is another novel idea to make use of used piano for bookshelf. As we all know, piano is a musical instrument. But we never thought that used piano or broken piano could also be useful but bookcase. Not only it gives artistic sense but also it shows how recycled materials are also useful for other things.

http://sobadsogood.com/2013/05/19/21-brillant-objects-made-from-recycled-materials/

– Using a cup box or package to store clothespin. This last example is actually an example that I used myself. So I used the box of the cup that I just bought, and utilise it to store the clothespin. Turned out the cup box really came handy and useful.

Without realizing, used or recycled materials are very functional. In fact, most of us use recycled materials for creative purposes almost everyday without knowing it.

Lastly, feel free to check out my teammates’ blogs.

Tzi Quan’s blog: huat-ahh.blogspot.com

Felicia’s blog: feliciarin88.wordpress.com

Brainstorm Presentation

Today was the day when we presented our 101 ideas on how to kill a paper man. It was our first presentation ever in NAFA, so I was so nervous. My teammates, Yu Lee (kimyulee.blogspot.sg) and Han (thj1996.blogspot.sg) were too. But it was good. I could say we were pretty prepared but if we had more time we could’ve done better. Since we had to present 20 interesting and novel ideas out of 101 ideas, we made three different categories for the 20 ideas.

Here’s the picture of the different grouping of ideas; Physical, Science, and Natural

The first category was “physical”, which included physical ways like licking paper, tug of war, etc. to destroy the paper. The second category was “science”. In this category, it utilized the technology and science method such as using laser, steamer, acid, etc. to ruin the paper. The last category was “nature” in which we utilized natural resources that are in our surrounding to break the paper, for example; use lawn mower, bury the paper underground, put it on the road, etc. Our lecturer thought dividing the 20 ideas into three different categories was useful, however we should use more visuals to explain ideas next time.