A general disclaimer: This document presents text that might be perceived as rules or strict structures. Always doubt such things when working in a creative fashion. Break rules where necessary and dissolve or challenge structures where possible! Also be aware that this article might be biased towards normal or technology-inspired design/artistic projects.
This is a generalized structure of a typical design/artistic project. Such a project is usually composed of 6 stages:
- research + finding ideas
- concept
- realization
- presentation
- documentation
- publication + dissemination
Note, that although the stages below are usually executed in the order presented, it is often useful to meander between stages as required. Especially the concept and realization stages are often executed in a tight iteration loop. the plans conveived are more often then not challenged by what is feasable or possible or desireable and need to be adjusted along the way.
Usually but not always a project starts with an idea of what the project should achieve or be in the end. Exceptions to this rule are e.g projects that rely on process. Although such associative, serendipitous, bottom-up approaches are encouraged you should be aware of the caveats of such approaches. One of which might not to know when a work is done and another obvious one is that the final work might not relate to the starting point at all which can be problematic in case where the work is for something or someone e.g an exhibition with a topic or a client.
Note, that the term research in this context is used to refer to the process of searching through accumulations of, for example, projects. Doing research ( as in recherche ) is a good starting point and a good source of inspiration for finding a project idea. Apart from online recherche this may include reading books, going through your favorite online resources, hanging out in cafes and observing people, empathizing with other people’s situations, looking at current and emerging technologies and contemplating their implications and possible uses, inventing fringe strategies for finding ideas, and most importantly talking to everybody about your thoughts constantly, has proven to be good idea finding strategies. For a more detailed discussion on the topic of researching see How to Conduct a Recherche?.
Once you have an adequately good understanding of what you want to do, research is the stage in which you try to put your idea into context. Find projects ( as in designer, maker, artist works ) or research ( as in the systematic advancement of knowledge aka science ) that relates to what you want to do. Try to get an understanding of the current state of affairs? Note, that being subjective about a topic is a very legitimate starting point for a design project ( e.g "I found this technology interesting …" ) but be aware that being subjective does not release you from the obligation of being able to defend your project idea in regards to relevance, interestingness etcetera. Essentially you should be able to outline why your project matters and what it contributes to which situation, need, or discourse.
Research means broadening your horizon. You should not only compile a list of related design projects but also related scientific papers, theoretical writing[sic!] as well as works from other disciplines. Research also means accumulating keywords. After a successful research you do not need to know everything about context, background and technologies, but you should at least have a good idea of where and how to find out more about them.
Take note that research can be a combination of a multitude of contexts. It can take place in libraries, in archives, in expert interviews and of course on the internet. If you choose to conduct online research, you should at least query the following places:
- google ( self-explanatory )
- wikipedia ( self-explanatory )
- patent databases ( e.g. Google Patent Search or Free Patents Online )
- crowd funding platforms ( e.g. Kickstarter )
But please remember to not just limit yourself to online research.
When done with the research you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What is my idea?
- What has been done already; in design, art and in other disciplines? ( in patent law this is somewhat misleading called Prior Art )
- What does my idea add to a discourse/society/culture and why does it matter?
For a discussion on methods for finding and presenting ideas see the article Directions for Developing Ideas for a Design/Art Project
Making a concept involves sharpening your idea. This is achieved by sketching it or at least the crucial parts of it. Sketching can be done with anything from the old-school pen-and-paper method, to building renderings, to sketches done in software, to building quick mock-ups or functional prototypes.
The crucial point in conceiving a concept is finding the right balance between showing the broader picture and describing essential details. Another important balance needs to be found between faking things ( mock-up, simulations ) and actually build things ( functional prototype, tech demos ). If you are uncertain about a specific aspect in your project, especially technologically, you should use the concept phase for evaluating the feasibility of this aspect.
When done with the concept stage you should be able to present and communicate the concept in a way that people actually understand it and more importantly see the beauty of it. You should also be able to verify that the idea is feasible within the given constraints ( usually skills, money and time ), or at least have a good reason why feasibility does not matter to your project ( e.g in a speculative design project ).
- What is my idea exactly?
- Is my idea feasible?
- What are the desired outcomes and in which context will they live?
- What steps are necessary to get it done?
"We plan, God laughs.", old yiddish proverb
the concept may also involve writing up a production schedule and a financial plan.
Realizing a project is about getting down to the nitty gritty. Realizing a project is about negotiating between ideas, expectations and reality. It is important to understand that next to actually working on a design, software or hardware, realizing a project also means communicating with people; in some extreme cases this is the only thing you actually do in a project. Working with technology almost always involves working with people who know how to do very specific things you are not capable of ( e.g programmers, craftsmen+women, production facilities ).
More often than not it is required to go back to the concept stage and reorganize your thoughts and adjust your idea to the new ermerging, given facts. In your project these two stages should be the most permeable and iterative ones. When people talk of an iterative design process, they usually refer to the back and forth between concept and realization.
It is very important to constantly reflect the intermediate steps in the realisation stage with a healthy critical eye and adapt the concept if need be. It is quite common and nothing shameful at all. Quite the opposite, it is good practice to even post-rationalize steps you took intuitively i.e trust you intuition and try to understand it later. Verbalizing such findings in e.g a process documentation can be quite helpful and productive ( see Directions for Process Documentations for further details ).
On a side note, sometimes you are well advised to not even separate the concept and realization stage. in its extremest form this approach is somethime refered to as a strategy called bottom-up process or in other words evolving your concept as you go. Although this approach has been successfully applied by e.g nature, it bears the risk of not getting anywhere and ending up with nothing. The upside however is to potentially create something beyond what you could have imagined beforehand.
When done with the realization stage you are not done with your project; a common mistake.
Properly presenting your project is almost as important as the project itself. Presentations very much depend on the project’s context. A context is composed of two aspects: the external giving settings ( like space, people, room, time of year et cetera ) and the internal settings ( which are entirely defined by your project and yourself ).
Presentation can be asynchronous exhibitions ( "the artist is not present" ), time-based performances or conventional slide-based presentations. Whichever it is, every presentation is a performance. Understand the space and context your work is presented in. Understand and empathize with the people who you are presenting for aka your audience. Naturally there are many ways to construct a presentation, from arrogance to warmth, from rational to cryptic/mysterious, from punk to polished/clean, etcetera.
In a normal slide-based presentation scenario, one strategy that has proven to work well is the explain-your-project-in-two-to-three-sentence strategy. Allocate a bit of time when preparing a presentation to summarize your project in just a few words and go into details later. Sometimes you are well-advised to not just talk about idea and concept but equally much reflect on the realized, actual result; sometimes the work speaks for itself.
The documentation is an essential part of every project; especially in more complex and technology-related projects. Oftentimes projects are very fragile physically and conceptually, in time and space. In such cases it is even more important to preserve your project as a documentation ( at least through photo and video ).
Making a good documentation is a skill ( and a design project ) in itself. Apart from the idea of preservation, it is no secret that a documentation can and should be used to amplify the aspects of your project that worked well. A documentation should be utilized to make your project shine in its best light. The documentation can also be used to illustrate situations that emerged but were not anticipate in the concept ( e.g anecdotes ).
In a rather scientific mindset, the documentation is what other people can use as a reference, an inspiration or an antagonist when working on their own projects, just like you might have done when you started your project. Publishing your project is becoming part of one big collaborative effort. It could be argued that your projects contribute to building a design knowledge. You are also encouraged to write ( e.g in scientific paper format ) about your project.
After having finished the documentation you are highly encouraged to submit your project to magazines, blogs, exhibitions, contests, festivals etcetera. It is of grave importance to you but also to us as an institution to get your projects published, nominated, exhibited etcetera. Additionally, in a truly recursive manner, showing your work in public generates more feedback, discussions and also footage to make your documentation even more interesting.
If you are uncertain about where to submit your work contact your supervisors. We keep lists of current blogs, calls, awards, conferences, and festivals.
This question can be addressed from different directions, for example:
- a project is done when it is documented and published
- a project is done when the designer/artist says it is done
- a project is done when the supervisor/client says it is done
- a project is never done
regardless of which perspective is used as a qualifier, it is well worth noting that each stage might be enough for a project to be complete.
- RULE ONE: Find a place you trust, and then try trusting it for awhile.
- RULE TWO: General duties of a student — pull everything out of your teacher; pull everything out of your fellow students.
- RULE THREE: General duties of a teacher — pull everything out of your students.
- RULE FOUR: Consider everything an experiment.
- RULE FIVE: Be self-disciplined — this means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in a good way. To be self-disciplined is to follow in a better way.
- RULE SIX: Nothing is a mistake. There’s no win and no fail, there’s only make.
- RULE SEVEN: The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It’s the people who do all of the work all of the time who eventually catch on to things.
- RULE EIGHT: Don’t try to create and analyze at the same time. They’re different processes.
- RULE NINE: Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It’s lighter than you think.
- RULE TEN: “We’re breaking all the rules. Even our own rules. And how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities.” (John Cage)
- HINTS: Always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully, often. Save everything — it might come in handy later.
( also in Sister Corita’s Learning by Heart: Teachings to Free the Creative Spirit )
This document is available as a public document at Directions for Developing a Design/Artistic Project.