WORKSHOPLEITER — TIM LOGAN
[supsystic-gallery id=11 position=center]DAY ONE
What is the brief?
The concept of this workshop with graphic designer Tim Logan was to give the students an experience of the activity involved, when working in a design or branding agency, to formulate an identity for a new product or service. This was accomplished through a series of exercises designed to frame the problem, expand the students’ imaginations, and then generate some creative solutions for the “Living Museum” concept.
Splitting into five groups of three students, the workshop began by developing a creative brief — as there was not one provided by a “client”. In a mixture of large and small groups a set of personas of our target audiences were created, and the places and times that the identity would be encountered was established. Next came the hard part: Each student contributed several ideas on sticky notes of what is the purpose of the living museum project?, and these ideas were synthesised through visual (re)organisation and discussion into a definition: It’s about:
Learning about people and events of the past
Re-examining that past in the present-day context
Understanding the specific reasons to change “Hindenburgufer” into “Kiellinie”
Helping to inform us about how we should act in the future
The first day closed with some fun: A “graphic jam” exercise to attempt sketches of abstract concepts in two minutes – which were then displayed all together while the students shared their thinking with everyone else.
[supsystic-gallery id=12 position=center]DAY TWO
Stretching the imagination
The students first visited the other groups – to get a sense of the kind of work being produced – then were led by Tim in a forced analogy game to blow open their imaginations. How is our living museum concept similar to: A tree? A cake? A flying car? A bird’s nest? Some wonderful – and insightful – analogies were dreamt up and presented back to the group, which formed a foundation of ideas for the later activities. Before getting creative, the students watched a presentation of examples of names, logos and straplines, and discussed the characteristics of a successful identity. They were then let loose with pens, paper and scissors – to release their pent-up ideas for names and logos for the project.
DAY THREE
Names and logos
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The group gathered for a mixed-language brainstorm to generate names and straplines. A wall of suggestions emerged, and – whenever the room went quiet – another idea was pulled from the previous day’s forced analogies to release the creative flow. The best of the options were identified through group discussion – and are listed below. With this completed, the group started again to draw logos, some using that morning’s ideas, other’s developing their personal ones. While pre-sketched ‚contexts‘ – a blank flag and a brochure cover – were provided to encourage the students to quickly render ‚disposable‘ alternative ideas, it was notable how several students were keen to concentrate on producing one ‚finished‘ piece of work. Some the students used Apple Macbooks to work-up their logos, or to print letterforms for further hand-rendering.
- Uferwandel
- Geschichte in Schichten
- Zeiten/Zeichen-Wandel
- Wissensfunke
- Ruinierte Helden – Wandel am Ufer
- Geschickte Geschichte
- Wandel am Ufer
- Geschichte an neuen Ufern
- Zeichenwandel
- Erfrischende Geschichte
- Zu Neuen Ufern
- Hindeum
- Verständnis Verändern
[supsystic-gallery id=14 position=center]DAY FOUR
Presentation
With just a few hours left before the presentation, the atmosphere became very energetic – more like a design agency on a deadline. The students who still had more to do on their creations were helped where necessary to bring those to completion. The remainder divided up to write texts and make posters explaining some of the creative exercises, and hang the display of posters and logos in the presentation room. For the final event itself, one of the students was asked to give a run-though of the weeks activities – auf Deutsch – to the assembled school year, teachers and press.
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