Monday, October 19

First Journal Entry: Design Rebels Class Expectations

For the rest of the class, I expect to gain experience in collaborating with others, working for a cause, seeing a project through from start to final deadline, participating in an art show, learning how to approach groups for donations/partnering/sponsorship/funding, and becoming more familiar with the Richmond community and activist groups. This will be a great experience in learning how I can actually make differences (even small ones) about causes I am passionate about.

What?

Today in class was the presentation of proposals for the project we will be working on as a class for the remainder of the semester. After hearing from all the students with their proposals and visual aids, voting commenced. From the start it was mainly split between 2 choices (rebranding identities for local Richmond non-profit organizations and a project incorporating an educational art show to raise awareness of local seasonal foods); after discussing the possibility of doing both topics as two teams, the class ultimately decided to select Christina's "Project Winterfood" proposal.

So What?

It became clear that many of the people in the class gravitated to this project, describing it as "different." Instead of involving just rebranding non-profits or giving speeches/classes/workshops, Project Winterfood incorporates an art show as well as informational pieces and interaction with the community. (There may be some rebranding identity projects as well to help raise funds.) I think that people were drawn to this project due to it not being just another brochure or flyer or talk, but a genuine attempt to create change through art and design.

Now What?

As we discuss the details of the project and divvy up tasks, it will be a very different experience. Typically when working in groups for classes, group sizes only range between 2 to 5 people, so a large full-scale project with many students involved is great experience in project organizations and deadlines, which will be useful when collaborating on larger projects in the future. Actually using design and art for a good purpose while working as a group is a great way to learn important skills for doing what I like doing to collaborate for a cause.

Now that we have a topic, we can begin focusing our efforts to complete this project.