COLLABORATIVE DESIGN PROJECT [TASK 1-4]

03.04.2023 -  05.06.2023
Haura Laiqa Naznin / 0345050 / Bachelors of Design in Creative Media
Collaborative Design Project

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INSTRUCTIONS

The Module Information Booklet provided by our lecturer Ms. Lilian. The general summary of what we are supposed to do is create an art installation for a company that we are collaborating with using the materials they will give us. It has to represent the theme of the environment and the impact blister packets and unused inhalers have on it.

TASK 1 PROCESS

Week 1: RESEARCH

For our research, some of us looked into specifically inhalers and blister packaging waste and the impact it has on the environment. We compiled some notes on it on to Miro.

I focused on blister packaging and surprisingly, most of the results on Google showed scholarly articles regarding that topic. While that would have good information, it would be difficult to read through it all to find the necessary facts we need. Therefore I chose a website that talked about the waste and its impact.

Afterwards, we moved on to creating the empathy map for our target audience. Initially, we mostly put it into our perspective.

FEEDBACK
In a later meeting with Ms. Lilian, she provided feedback that our empathy map should be in the eyes of the target audience who experiences illness and need to use daily medication.

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As a result, we made changes to the empathy map with the feedback in mind and tried to be more specific about who is thinking and feeling these thoughts.

WEEK 2

Now, we move on to creating the presentation slides.

At the start, our slides were not decorated quite yet. Our priority was to put what we already did on Miro in a presentable way onto the slides. There, we added the research we found out and simplified/added on to it as needed.

Before this though, we had to explain what exactly our entire project is based off of which was the Give Back Campaign run by GSK.

Afterwards, it was a matter of adding the empathy map and problem statement and questions. All of us were directed by our group leader Shofwa who told us what to do for each slide.

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Once that was complete, we began working on the Project Document slides as well. Out of the 6 of us, 3 worked on the slides including me whilst the others attempted to create some concept sketches for the art installation. This was also in preparation for Task 2 in the following weeks.

WEEK 3

The project document was now near completion, just in time for the presentation we had to do in front of the entire class (albeit, it was online, so it was less nerve-wracking for me.)

Our group was the first to present and it all went well. There was time for feedback after everyone had their turn and Ms. Lilian had some things to say about our presentation.

• We needed to create personas of our target audience - fake identities essentially, in order to fully grasp their wants and needs regarding our project.
• The problem statement and questions were already good and in the right direction.

During the feedback session, we also showed her our current progress with Task 2 which was the actual designing process for the art installation. She told us it was a good start but we may need further designs to fall back on just in case. Our group already made up our mind on one of the designs though!

This was the concept we wanted to go with. We thought it was a good combination of showing the consequences of either throwing the packs/inhalers away versus giving them back to GSK, which leads to a beautiful tree. The color palette on the image above was the very first rough idea of what it could be like. The balloons symbolize how instead of the toxic gases being released into the air and harming the environment, it is now maintained thanks to being recycled.

With that, our Task 1 was complete and we are already making progress for Task 2.

TASK 2: WEEK 3 Continued

For Task 2, it was finally time for us to brainstorm our art installation ideas. For our weekly group meeting - which are usually on Monday nights - we worked together to collect various pictures for inspiration. Many of the images related to nature and waste of course, as that is the main theme for the sculpture.

We put these images on to our presentation. Initially, we didn't separate it into the two categories as seen above which are the land and ocean. However after feedback from Ms. Lilian we then split it up so the ideas wouldn't mix together and appear as a mess. The organization helped us to further our development of ideas.

Afterwards, we discussed what sort of message we wanted to convey through our sculpture other than to encourage people to give back their medical waste.

Together, we thought of several different messages which can be seen in the screenshot above. One meaning would be a positive outcome if medical waste is returned and another would be the opposite, where a build up of medical waste will bring a negative consequence. The last two meanings were to show the impact of undisposed medical waste and the other was that the location of where the waste is disposed will lead to different outcomes.

Once this was settled, the sketching phase began.

WEEK 4

Shofwa, Metta and Abigail came up with sketches based on the previous meanings. Meanwhile the rest of us attempted to complete the presentation slides as well as the project document.

The first sketch is by Abigail who drew the impact of medical waste on the ocean environment.

Metta sketched the meaning of a positive outcome from collecting and disposing medical waste properly.

She has also made another sketch to show harmful impact of medical waste on living beings.

Finally, Shofwa sketched out the final meaning which was the location of medical waste disposal leading to different outcomes.

Ms. Lilian gave feedback from GSK about these sketches, which were to include some ocean elements to some of them and the request to have balloons included. In addition to that they wanted to see more blister packs being utilised for a more specific meaning.

With these feedback in mind, Shofwa refined some of these ideas to improve the initial concepts.

After discussing with everyone else, we all liked the idea of 'Pots and Supplants' most as it had the elements needed from feedback as well as providing a simple yet effective look on how our waste should be treated in order to get the best outcome, which is represented by the blooming tree. This will be our proposed design.

Once Shofwa cleaned up the sketch further, it was my job now to add colours. We collected various palettes, some vibrant and some dull to place in specific areas of the sculpture.

And here were my proposed colour palettes.

This is the original palette for comparison.

Now that we had our idea mostly complete, we finished our preparations for our presentation and would begin the recording to send to GSK. After this we would begin our prototyping stage.

TASK 3: WEEK 4 Continued

Before the group met up for the first time face to face, they all brought in some materials for the prototype. I brought some paper that I haven't used in a long time, just in case we needed it. The other materials were sticks, straws, clay, hot glue gun, tape and markers. The blister packs and inhalers were already provided by GSK as well, so we were ready to get started.

To begin, Shofwa started measuring out a smaller scale of the original measurements for the sculpture.

Using tape, it was easy to see where one point began and ended. While some of them worked on creating the frame of the sculpture, the rest of us had to pop out the pills that were leftover in the blister packs. There were a lot of them!

It took some time just to do this, but these were to be used for our prototype pots as well as the tree. The blister packs of course, not the pills! Those were disposed after everything was done.

The picture above were our initial pots however, we did change the design afterwards to be more thinner and less circular. Again, we used blister packs for it. Unfortunately we couldn't utilise the inhalers as they were too big.

This week we mainly focused on the frame and pots.

WEEK 5

The pots above are the newer version, which were completed in the previous week. For this week we began working on the waves at the sides of the frame using the blister packs once again. It's interesting to see and feel how these materials work with our own hands and it really helped in knowing what to do better for our actual sculpture. We learned it was quite hard to mend or twist the packs, but it is possible!

The waves were just stuck on to the frame initially, but Shofwa decided to take it off after and use cardboard to act as a base for it. It was much easier to glue in that way.

We also began working on the tree, which was made out of clay before but we realized quickly that it wasn't going to work well so we used blister packs.

For the leaves, blister packs were used. Some parts were cut up into the shapes but then we moved on to removing the foil from the packs to glue as the leaves.

This is the cardboard base mentioned earlier. This is a first look at the sculpture without the waves and an unfinished tree, but it was starting to come together.

Shayor and I worked on gluing the waves in one by one, creating a flowy motion to it at the bottom to appear more realistic. This would prove to be a bit of a problem later on as the measurements won't be able to accommodate for how long the waves were if we made it the same as the prototype.

The rest worked on adding leaves to the tree which was quite time consuming considering how tiny they were.

Thankfully, by the end of the week, we managed to complete our prototype! This is the final output.

TASK 4

MAY 13

It was finally time to work on our final sculpture. Starting out was definitely intimidating, especially with having to make a larger version of our prototype. The measuring would be a challenge, but with all of us working together, we decided on the exact measurements we wanted for the sculpture.

To start off, we decided to work on the pots first as the rest of the sculpture would rely on the size of those. Since they were going to be made out of blister packs, we used a bucket as a reference by glueing it together with the bucket as a base.

Wai Fern was the one to mostly work on the pots while the rest of us either popped blister packs or worked on the tree. Each stage is important as the other, so we did the best we could to kick start our sculpture.

Here is what the pot so far looked like at this stage. The 'frame' of it was mostly done, now it was to fully complete it to make it appear more like a pot. When this was complete, the trunk of the tree was being made at the same time.

So far, this is what the tree was looking like. It's rather thin so more wire would be added throughout the following weeks to give it more stability as well as volume.

MAY 15

After a one day break in between, the group gathered once more to work further on the tree and pots. Half of us had the task to keep popping blister packs as they would be the most used material.

We organized them by the same type of package as well as just the size in general. Then, we placed tape on top and wrote down how much was in each category so counting it up at the end would be much easier. Our teacher asked us to note down how many we would use so the client may ask the viewers of the exhibition how many packs they thought were used in the sculpture.

More progress was made on the tree and we tested to see how it would fit with the pots that were made so far. The branches have been developed and stretched out more.

MAY 22-25

The following days, some of us were on and off with being able to come to campus and work on the sculpture. All in all, some good progress was being made. During this time, two of the pots have been completed and were now being painted using spray paint.

Using spray paint made it so much more easier and faster to get them coloured. Inhalers were also added to the brim of the pots to bring the vision we had sketched out in earlier weeks to life.

By now, the team thought to wrap the tree with tape to give it more thickness and stability. It would be painted on afterward so it was fine to go with this idea.

The rest of us were then tasked to work on creating the leaves for the trees using blister packs. There were various shapes and sizes of them to give the tree more variety. Afterwards, we spray painted them.

The other half of the group then worked on gluing them on to the tree.

It was during this time that the frames that the pots will sit on finally arrived and it was put together by Wai Fern and her dad. Respect to them! Once it was firmly glued together, we could now move on to constructing the waves that would surround the frame. For this, we used cardboard that Shofwa had brought.

MAY 26-28

We were nearing the end of our sculpture now and it was all about finishing the tree and waves. Shayor and I were the ones to work on the waves by sticking on tons of blister packs to the cardboard, trying our best to imitate our sketch.

The others worked on the tree and leaves still.

As the deadline drew nearer, we kept coming back to finish to the best of our ability. Some of us stayed for hours, some had to leave early due to their own reasons - but ultimately, we made some intense progress.

The waves were so close to being completed! It was a matter of painting it over with the color palette we chose and waiting for the tree to be complete, which the others were also close to doing. As seen in the photos there is some grass added underneath the pots to give a more natural appearance since the theme is connected to the environment. It was bought by Shayor.

Once the waves were done being painted over, it was finally time to put everything together. The tree is now stable enough to be put in the pot and it was already painted over!

This is the final sculpture which we managed to complete before the deadline.

REFLECTION

During the beginning of this project, I was unsure if we were even able to complete the challenge of creating a sculpture in just under 3 weeks. It was highly demanding and took a lot of our time, which was difficult since we all had to balance other classes as well. Though, working together with everyone was fun and a great experience in something we are all not used to which is making things by hand. I also learned how to plan out projects such as this better as the weeks flew by, it became less and less scary as we were progressing. It really helped to have your group mates to be there for you when you need it!