nhoongmeep

[nhoongmeep]

Week 10

Team's presentation

Reflect on your and your team's presentation: What you have learned, and how you can improve for better results.

This is the final step to our project. We prepare with extreme care for this step, we made a presentations slides includes every products, even include a GIF of 2 products, and we made a look book

I think we did a pretty good job, Song Linh's presentation is very condensed and smooth, slides of Mi Do and I is really easy to read, the photo and mock-up was very convincing, and especially the lookbook turns out very professional. and it seems that both the client and lecturers were very pleased with the outcome.

i think the only thing id want to improve is the time management, had we had more time and got the photos exactly right inn the first shoot, everyone wouldnt be so rushed and sacrifies so much off their time. i wish i could say it's an avoidable shortcoming, but we tried our best to do what we could, and the results was amazing.

[nhoongmeep]

Week 8

Progress checkpoint

Document your learning for this week. What theme, common to all of your work irrespective of subject or media, can you identify in all your own work?

This week im dealing with silhouette cutout illustration, which is something im not quite familiar with, and im also developing the tote bag to be BSNB background inspired. i have to admit drawing scenery and background is really hard, im not entirely sure what perspective id use, or what kind of style im going for. my usual style is watercolor based and even when i switched to digital, my redering technique still resemble watercolored a lot. In our project moodboard, we had a lot of Camelia Pham works, because i think her works altho resemble traditional method of rendering, look really mature and classy, suitable for our sudden change of target audience. i tried to learn and incorporate her style into my illustrations, but what i thought was a very quick and easy process requires a lot of experience and developement. Her works are very textured and detailed oriented, compleately opposite to mine, which is very soft, dreamy and dont mind much details. so when i finished with the totebag, i felt very off and defeated.

it was not up to my expectation and plus the foggy mind of covid just add more to the failure i felt.

i decided to draw the 2nd version with another composition

it still look really weird and out of charcter, so i developed entire different sketch hoping it would turns out better

And then i have too much on my plates with theprinting i have to outsourced it to Song Linh

They really finish the painting the way i expected it to be. and honestly im very disapointed that i wasnt able to do it. But i think it's a lesson for me to plan better and do not crumble under pressure. It would be ideal to develope more into the style if we have time, but since our timeframe is very limited, i should've sticked with things that works.

For the common of my usual style, one thing very recognizable is it's very dreammy, round and colorful. since my base was watercolor transit into digital, my works has a very sheer and dreamy, translucent. and it's often nature-oriented.

[nhoongmeep]

Week 7

BSNB fieldtrip

HIghlight of BSNB trip

We drove over to Ninh Binh to meet with the BSNB teams and study more about the bear

Day 1: Meeting up with clients in Hanoi

youth program, we leared how to asset an animal keeping facility, and practices on the animals currently residing in Thủ Lệ. The conditions r only for survival and it barely qualified for the wild animals to live there.

Day 2: BSNB trips

We go on a 2-hour ride to get there. the first thing we did when we got there was relearn the core values and BSNB mission. We went over some rules of the sanctuary, and were introduced to how normally a rescue mission gonna go and the medical procedures for the bears. Then came the walk around the sanctuary, we observed moonbears in their semi-natural environment, and learned about each individual's story. There were some special need bears due to circumstances, mostly from the mistreatment they received since birth as bile vessels. Some bears dont even have full limbs because they were harvested to cut the costs for the farmers. but now they have found their forever home and got treated with the best facility, trying to reconnect them with their instincts, and habitat,...

after that we had a talked with Ms.Trang, finalized our projects and try to find common ground on Target Audience. Since the begining, our TA is all age and more specified in the younger generation group, it took us by surprise that our client changed it to government representatives, donors and press, age around 40s and older. Our project theme is watercolor children book so it took us by surprise. We also cut down some deliverables to be more suitable with the target audience and talked about vendors, requirements and regulation.

During this whole presentation and negotiation, we encountered our first risks. Linh Tran presented the client with a brand-new idea and potentially jeopardize our whole process. This idea was came up in week 6, and all members has turned down the idea, yet she still proceeded to go over group decisions and presented clients with it. She wanted to change the tote bag idea to reusable polyester shopping bag even though the tote bag is already in the process and the group has already found a place to execute it. It was a very unprofessional and selfish decision for the group, especially it was already half of the given time and we were already behind the original schedule.

after this we had a meeting together to resolve this, and had to write an email advised the clients to stick with the original plan

[nhoongmeep]

Week 6

Risk Management

How might I use the Quality, Time & Risk Management techniques I learned about in class to improve my life? What do I want to do when I graduate? What existing risks are preventing me from succeeding in my plans? How do I mitigate those risks?

i think i can use thiss technique to manage my life projects better. As of now i have many many big personal projects that could last years and decades but the workload seems overwhelming. i havent had time to break it down and tackle it. not to say balancing everyday life, personal project, professional projects and studying. i think i could benefit to section everything into bite size and achievable tasks rather than 3 or 4 giant sections.

After graduations, im planning to further my studies into animation and game making, since Design Studies is a very general and overall Course, meaning i know a bit of everything but not particularly specialized in anything. My final directions is still animation, and illustrations, so im planning to study master in those. illustration is cool and more to my liking but im not sure if i can sustain myself by just being an illustrator, so I'm refocusing onto Animation, specially 2D animation. The reason why 2D and not 3D is bc i feel like in recent years the 3D animation industry has been oversaturated and asking for sth new, so they r developing the mix betwwen 2D and 3D or multimedium. And to be able to adapt to the everchanging and demanding industry, i have to had my basic first, therefore 2D animation. for me 3D is just a skill to add on the skillset, but to be really good and unique i have to start with 2D. so my plan for the near future is, getting internship in a 2D studio in Hanoi (Deedee animation would be great) > work to get experience first > once i feel like im all prepared and equipped with basic knowledge > animation master oversea (Singapore/France/England/Hongkong) > get a job in some animation studio and deveope my portfolio and personal project. During this plan i definitely have to develope some personal project to strengthen my portfolio. Honestly, im scared, I have all this plan but i dont know where to start and everything seems so overwhelming. i know i should start w bitesize baby step but it would be a lie if this isnt still overwhelming to me.

Anyway, project update

We just got update on the question list and the chosen brief in Dec 2nd, and it's Chuyện của Gấu. We r currently behind our schedule 2 week, so we will have to push our productivities up. I called for a quick meeting/ update to divide our workload and readjust our timeframe. also tell my team mate to do more research into BSNB, moonbear and Mường culture.

Our task curently

As of now, we divided into 2 group

task 1 - Calendar - Nhung Nguyen & Linh Dinh

task 2 - GIft box - Linh Tran & Mi Do

each person will get 4-5 tasks, this can be change accordingly in the future if anyone is/is not able to finish their task.

additional tasks: research and questions for client on BSNB fieldtrip

nhoong's personal task: communicate w clients and other leaders to agree on a day for the field trip; preparations and collect drafts from members and organize to present to client first draft on field trip

2 key dates this week:

9 Dec: client meeting 1 - Introductions and Hanoi zoo filedtrip

10 Dec: BSNB fieldtrip

[nhoongmeep]

Week 5

Phase 2: team work

Working together you will need to design and produce your client's final deliverables in the coming weeks. How do you feel about this challenge? Do you have all the skills and knowledge you need to complete the tasks? What learning opportunities does the project offer for you as an individual?

In this week, we've just finished our presentation for our client - Four Paws/ BSNB. We expect to have feedback and a chosen brief within this week and hopefully can kickstart our project right away. For me personally, i am really excited for this project, the cause of the organization is definitely something I've been caring about for a while, and it's such a relief that such a big organization contributes to pushing back illegal bear bile farming. So for me to participate in a project like this and somehow contribute to the cause of the environment, I'm really pumped and beyond happy. I'm confident in myself and my teammates to bring the best possible result to this collaboration.

Although getting this brief is quite unexpected because it was not fully in my skillset, (my skillset is illustrations, animation, 3D so i if im being honest i was aiming for brief 2) but im up for the challenge of product development and packaging since it was also something i want to develop as a side profession. i definitely gonna have to research more into product design, packaging, budget, printing both on different materials like paper, cardboard, fabric, etc. Other than Design industry learning opportunities, i think this project will offer me in depth knowledge about the environment in general, and moon bear habitat and situations in Vietnam, AND opportunity to research more on Vietnamese culture because im planning to incorprate local myth, folklore and holiday into our project.

Project update

It's the 2nd week we havent got a respond from Jeremy about the chosen brief and everyone in my team and other teams is nervous. The thing is we dont know what content of which people gonna be chosen to proceed with the projects. We've been trying to contact BSNB trying to push them for an answer but we still havent got any feedback yet. So we r listening to our lecturers to push some fixed design up first, like Thank you card and stickers, some of our members r finding vendors and how to execute our products.

[nhoongmeep]

Week 4

Self-evaluation after Assignment 1

What grade would I give myself? What would I do differently? How am I doing in the course?

If I'm being honest, I would give myself an HD, I did extensive research into the project and client, I developed my own original ideas and demonstrated my idea in a very clear and easy-to-understand manner, and my brief design was easy to read and easy to navigate, each element incorporates well with each other. Furthermore, I received many positive feedback from the lecturers and clients. the only thing I would do differently is the presentation. I have to admit that I was a bit underprepared for my presentation and was very nervous when I presented and went a bit all over the place. I would have written a clearer script and don't have to go through every detail and try to be calmer.

I'm adjusting well to this course, and I'm excited to see how this course will go. I'm the team leader so i admit i have to take more responsibilities compared to previous course, because what i do will affect not only me but other teammates in my group, so i have to hold myself on to a higher standard and try to keep everything on time. but im confident that we can pull this off together.

[nhoongmeep]

Week 3

Communication to non-designers

How do you communicate “design” concepts and strategies to non-designers?

Showing rather than telling non-designers is one of the best ways to convey design concepts to them. This entails employing visual aids to exhibit and show how your design concepts function, such as sketches, wireframes, mockups, prototypes, or animations.

Also by not communicate with a rather in depth design special terminology, because the client may not understand the word wwe use in a daily basis

[nhoongmeep]

Week 2

Tools/skills required for Design Studios

What tools/skills do Design Studios require? What are non-design personals also required?

A Design Studio requires a lot of tools, depending on what the Studio it is, either a Graphic Design agency, an Architect firm, an Animation Studio, or a Fashion Design studio, the tool and skill may vary. But essentially, basic skills in Image and Video Editing, Illustration, and 3D design, so the equivalent digital tools would be Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, and 3D software like Blender or Zbrush,… Besides that, it also requires creative thinking skill, and basic knowledge about the creative field like design disciplines, color theory,...

Outside design technical skills, I think some important soft skills we always should be equipped with are communication, time management, flexibility, and adaptability. Communication in the field, designers must be able to communicate their ideas in depth with their colleagues and their managers, for the people outside of the field, they should be able to narrow down and not use too many technical words to get the idea across.

[nhoongmeep]

Week1

Design Studios' Roles and Structures

Reflect on Design Studios’ Roles and Structures. How do different design disciplines vary in their studio structures?

I figured the structure of a studio is much more complicated than I’ve thought.

1. Design Studios’ Roles and Structures.

The highest in the hierarchy was Creative director l, which usually got confused with Art Director. The person in charge of leading each campaign, coordinating with the client, and supervising all deliverables is the Creative Director. Their departments are run by them. On the other hand, Art Director is bellow Creative Director and solely responsible for a project's aesthetics and visual components. Under Creative Director and in Creative Department, there is also Studio Manager, who would oversee a recording studio's day-to-day activities. Their responsibilities cover anything from corporate operations and client interactions to studio and equipment maintenance. Other than that, a studio also has their Finance Department to be in charged of budgeting, spending,… To maintain a fluid flow, all departments cooperate and coexist with one another.

2. Design Studio structures

depending on what the studio is for the structures might vary, but overall they still follow a similar hierarchy as mentioned above. For example, in an animation studio like Pixar, the same positions applied to the higher management department, but below that they separated into 3 smaller departments: Creative and art design, Story and Tech.

[nhoongmeep]

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