User:Emanuele Bonetti/groupcritique
Coming from a background in graphic design what I'm trying to do in these years is to push the boundaries of this discipline to something wider. After few months struggling with the idea of "open source graphic design" I'm realizing that this could mean something more then just using open source software instead of the Adobe's ones. I guess it can be seen as something more like an attitude, a way of thinking which I've tried to apply to most of my present and recent work.
What I would like this final project to be is something representative of my idea of work in graphic design, based on my previous and present experiences. Funnily enough the final project is going to be the first individual project after years of working in team since the teamwork is one of the thing that I retain more important in order to get a significant final result.
What I would like to demonstrate is that working as a group for the whole creative process is not only possible but even better then working individually. I think that sharing ideas means becoming able to find more and unexpected solutions and not, as someone could argue, reach a compromise, sacrificing individual ideas. I find somehow interesting that the recent tendency in graphic design studios, after decades of strong individualities, see for example Neville Brody(1) and David Carson(2) who revolutionized the aesthetics during the 80's and the 90's, is now to work as a collective, see in this case Why not associates(3), Tomato(4) and Troika(5).I don't really know how they are working, but I guess there are few reasons to start a graphic design studio as a group. What I find particularly interesting is that individuals tend to get stuck in a certain style, after a while, when groups are able to renovate themselves and their approaches.
What I would like to do is to push more this idea of working as a group applying some of the collective development methods already tested in software development (open source/bazaar model(6)) and in forecasting system (Delphi method(7)) to a creative process.
At this point I've found two options to show my idea:
- A tool for designer who want to work collaboratively, maybe on distance. It might be a software which allow people to work together sharing all the different steps of the design, from the concept to the final realization. One of the aim is to move the benefits of brainstorming over the whole creative path while is actually located just at the begin.
- A project that work as a metaphor of groupworking, exaggerating some aspects. That could be an installation where people are asked to reply to a design brief setting certain variables in a design artifact, let say for example the typeface, the size of the text and the color in a paragraph. The computer would combine all the different input from the different users. For example if just one user use the installation there is just one possibility but as soon as someone else come the possibilities become 8. The installation would show all the different possibilities offered by working in more then one.
I'll explain this better next wednesday, bring your questions!
previous project related:
- anna adamolo project 2008 - January 2009: working with different collectivity from different background. Opensource visual identity
- posterply@work offline exhibition 2009 - January 2010 Open design process. Unplanned result
other inspiring/related projects:
- burdastyle.com "... is a collaborative DIY fashion platform inspired by the open source philosophy: the sharing of intellectual property and allowing the public to adapt it to their specific needs. Burdastyle encourages its members to remove copyright restrictions from their designs. These open source sewing patterns are free to be used as the basis for a new design that can later be sewed and even sold by other community members. ..."
- talenthouse.com Presented as a platform that should help people to share ideas in order to collaborate with each other, avoiding the distances it seems to be still higly individual-centered. After a first analysis looks more like an easy way for big brand and names to promote their call for participants in order to have creativity for a really cheap price. Digging into the users profile you can not really find any shared ideas but something really close to what the myspace pages were for musicians.
- tango.freedesktop.org The collaboration is moved to the practical realization of the projects. Is a collective project since everyone can contribute but the protocol is centralized as well as the design. The unexpected results come from the fact that everyone is free to apply the protocol as he prefer.
references
(1)Neville Brody
(2)David Carson
(3)Why not associates
(4)Tomato
(5)Troika
(6)The cathedral and the bazaar
(7)Delphi Method
