Assignment 3 Dissertation Mind Map

This week we had a meeting with our group to discuss and devlop ideas for our mind maps and ideas for our dissertations topics. From the discussion we looked at and discussed peoples mind maps, and tryed and think of different topics and social issues that people could look at. Some people in the group already had an idea or area that they wanted to look, or had a concept in mind that they wanted to explore. From the group meeting and disseration shop I have decided for my dissertation I am thinking about looing at technology in textiles and how these can be used to devlop society and social issues and design in general.

Assignment 1 Fair Trade and Design

Fair Trade and Design
Lynsey Hutchison
Textiles
Fair trade is a globally recognised form of trading that’s aims and goals is to reform and develop new means of trading which offers a fairer alternative to the producers in developing countries. These means of trading try to ensure an equal and fair method of trading between the businesses and the producers. Fair trade tries to ensure certain standards which include fair minimum price which is agreed with the producer and fair pay, improved working conditions. Fair trade also provides a fair-trade premium which can be used to invest to improve the social, economic and environmental development for the producers. Another benefit and commitment of fair-trade is to try and create a partnership between the producers and the traders in order to create a long term, beneficial trading method to help create security for the producer and their businesses. This then enabling these countries and the producers to achieve substantiality, and environmentally and economic growth, which is the overall goal in order help these producing country to develop.
“It is an entirely different way of doing business, where the objective is not profit at any cost, but to help people in the world's most marginalised communities escape poverty and promote sustainability.”(People tree,2010)


History
The idea of Fair trade goes back to the 1940’s, when organisation and different religious groups began buying hand made crafts and goods directly from the farmers and producers in the developing countries in the south, for above market prices. This was in response to the globalisation and corporate methods of trading, and to bring “Fairness” back to trading. As this movement towards fairness and change began to grow and increase and become more established there began to open shops to trade in that were known as “world Shops”. There was an increase in the number of world shops other methods of fair trading being opened, along with the number of organisations committed to providing fair trade, and by the 1980’s official certifiable standards and labelling were established. The introduction of the labelling system saw a shift in rise of fair trade and for the fair trade movement, as it greatly increased the level of availability to fair trade goods and products and awareness of fair trade and helped to establish it as a new, fair method of trading. The first fair trade formal labelling scheme was established in the late 1980’s by a Dutch development agency called “Solidaridad”. In 1997 the fair trade labelling organisation went international and the fair trade logo was established in Britain. This fair trade labelling organisation known as (FLO), this was then split in to two different organisations called FLO and FLO-CERT. The FLO organisations aims are to set the standards for fair trade and facilitate and provide support for the producing businesses. The FLO-CERT organisation is there to inspect and certify the producing organisations, as well as carrying out audits on the traders to ensure the standards are been maintained.
“Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade” (Raynolds,2007)
The first leading supermarket in the UK the supply their own brand of fair trade products was the Co-operative and they have made it a main goal and objective to achieve and maintain fair trade standards and now sell over 265 fair trade products in their store.
Fair Trade and Design
In terms of fair trade and design the basic idea is that design has a big part to play in promoting fair trade and creating awareness, as well as looking at the actual design process of products and outcomes that are produced through fair trade means could increase and improve the ways that fair trade products are produced and traded. Advertising is used to increase and promote consumers and businesses to buy and trade using fair trade products and this is where design plays an important role. Through advertising and branding of fair trade products and the fair trade logo it appeals to the conscious consumer through the use of colour, design and message that the it transcends, it is powerful in its design in persuading people to purchase these products. The design of the fair trade logo was taken on by the fair trade foundation in 2002 and has established itself as a brand that consumer associate with fairness, happiness and economic growth for developing countries. The actual logo itself is blue, green, white and black and in using these colours they have created a message, the green leaves and grass representing growth and the blue of the sky showing a brighter, more prosperis future, therefore allowing the consumer to feel that by buying these products they are helping to improve people’s lives and allowing them to grow. The textile industry is one of the lowest in terms of contributing to producing fair trade products;
“More than 50 per cent of coffee sold in the UK is fair trade, but in clothing it is less than one per cent.”(Haughton,2010)
However although this is the case, it is also an area where there is an emphasise on increasing the numbers and use of fair-trade products and both consumers and designers are becoming more and more conscious and concerned about developing new idea to reform the way they design, the materials they use and looking for new ways of working with this is becoming a big thing in the textile industry. This is shown by the creation of the ethical fashion forum website which aims to encourage consumers and designer to be more aware of the issues around fair-trade. They have even developed a competition entitled the “Innovation” award which looks for young designers to come up with new, exciting and unique methods to incorporate fair trade textiles in their work and designs. The main area of textile working with fair trade is in the cotton production industry.
There are many organisations and business that are solely concerned with only trading with fair trade products and make it there aim to increase the use of fair trade, an example of this is a website called ‘People Tree’, that is a fashion website that only uses fair trade products and processes.
“For every beautiful garment People Tree makes, there's an equally beautiful change happening somewhere in the world.”(People Tree)
The people tree company also works along with around 50 fair trade organisations, all of which have different methods and means in which to achieve help and support for the developing countries. People tree itself offers 50% advance payments for orders to allow them finance to produce the goods. In terms of design the have designed a framework to enable there designer to design beautiful clothing that are also fair trade as they have used creative ways of incorporating the skills of the workers.
This is another way and issue of looking at fair trade and design the idea of designing to enable the use of fair trade methods to produce products, for example reduce the need for big machinery and expensive methods of production and built on the skills and crafts of the people and enable more hand craft and less expensive methods of production for poorer producer businesses.

For assignment 1 we had top pick a topic in which to research and write a wiki entry on your chosen topic, for my topic I have chosen to look at fair trade and design. We were put into groups in which we had to arrange to met up with and discussed our ideas and thoughts on every ones different topics. Within my group people are looking at a variety of different areas.

Assignment 5b Project Brief Proposal

For this proposal I decided to look at the studio brief entitled culture, in which I decided to look at the culture of New York City. I researched this in terms of looking at the architecture, the people and the different cultures within the city. Through exploring the shapes, lines and patterns, within the cityscape and through the contrast within the cultural landscape. In doing this project again using the primary and secondary methods of research that we learnt in design studies it would allow me to look at the project in more depth and apply more knowledge and understanding. Therefore might allow me to explore and experiment with the project in a more interesting and innovative way.
When tacking this brief originally I started by using a mind map to focus and generate my ideas, and to explore the different areas I could research and develop through into textiles. As this project was based on New York City I primarily used secondary sources of research, mainly through looking at literature, internet images and photographs that I had taken on a visit to New York. In doing this project again and after learning the skills from design studies my approach would probably differ, in terms of the ways and methods used to collect research. For this topic one of the most appropriate and useful research methods would be that of carrying out brainstorming with friends or different groups of people, to bounce ideas of each other and get an insight of their views on New York in terms of the architecture, environment, and culture. From previously carrying out this method in semester 1 I found this is an effective method of quickly generating ideas and found that it created interesting, new and exciting ideas and therefore was very time effective. Another method which I could do is to carry out experiments, by taking a selection of photos of the landscape of New York City and different aspects that symbolise New York in terms of objects, colours and architecture. One of the main reasons I would use this method of research is that I found through carrying out this method last semester, that the results largely depended on the person doing the experiment and their personality, which could prove effective and interesting as it could give you a large, variety of different perspectives.
Cross search is a method which would link to the literature research that I previously carried out but would allow me to achieve a much more focused search for literature and offer more accurate information searches based on and related to the topic I am researching. Therefore achieving a much more time effective, useful take on literature research. I could use this in terms of searches on the history of New York and its culture, the different cultures and the areas within New York. It could also prove more effective in terms of looking up more design specified literature for example different building designs and architecture. The only aspect of this method that is limiting is you have to be very specific as to what you are searching for and is very much written based research, therefore this then limit’s the variety of research that can be achieved by this method.
Interviews would allow me to get a wide spectrum of peoples views and perceptions of New York, to create areas of interest to look at and develop. By carrying out interviews I could get the contrast between the views of the people who have been to New York and those that haven’t, those that possibly create a fantasy view as seen in films which could create new angles to look at. This method of research as pointed out in the previous proposal would require a lot of planning and prototype interviews to achieve results that were of interest and allowed you to gain new research information.
The most valuable aspect in carrying out any of these methods of research is that everyone has their own aspect of new York that excites them and their own image that represent New York, therefore through carrying out any of these methods of research could allow me to apply the images and ideas into my own work. This then differs from when I tackled this brief before as I only applied my own ideas.
The method of carrying out observation would prove inappropriate for this brief as although I would work from photographs which are observations, the aspect of carrying out primary observation research would prove unpractical as it would not be possible to carry observations as they would be in New York and therefore not effective in terms of cost and time.
There are a number of research methods that I have not tried and that might offer interesting and insightful ideas therefore I want to continue developing and expanding the possibilities that these have to offer. To enable my design work and for me as a designer to develop I need to continually expand my knowledge and skills in all areas of art and design and in general areas of interest . I think in doing the design studies course it has allowed me to realise this and gain new ideas and interests to then apply to my studio work. I see myself as a designers in the general sense however primarily a textile designer as that is where my passions and interests lie. Although I feel design studies has enabled me to look outside the area of my specialism and allowed me to broaden my views of what you can do and achieve through design.

Assignment 5a Proposal

The topic I chose to look at in semester 1 was the idea of looking at how older people use and understand technology. I decided to look at this issue through the idea of creating a new product which allowed catalogues to be put on to a disk and viewed through a product similar to an e-reader and you would also be able to order the products and have the same functions to an internet site. This would enable a catalogue to be easily viewed, held, delivered and used especially for older generations. I now want to look applying a number primary research skills and techniques to further develop this idea.
In semester 1 I looked at this in terms of literature and finding secondary research sources. I looked at an article entitled ‘The Older Adult and Public Library Computer Technology: A Pilot Study in a Canadian setting’ written by Patricia A. Larkin-Lieffers and ‘Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people’s user requirements’ by Amela Karahasanovic. Although these offered a lot of information in terms of secondary sources, I found it limiting in terms of finding accurate information and current information. I also found it limiting in terms of collecting correct and useful information, as both sources which I looked at as the studies were based in different countries and created for other purposes and to achieve other results.
Throughout semester 2 we have been looking at different methods of carrying out research. These methods are all primary methods of research, which offers both benefits and restraints in terms of time, resources and value. These methods include carrying out interviews, observations and Experiments. For this particular area and topic of research, interviews could be an effective research method. I would look at interviewing a range of people in the elderly population, who differ in terms of class, knowledge, use and access to technology. I would look at interviewing specialists in different areas of technology related to my product. I also intend to interview people that train and teach people to use technology, possibly in public spaces or in a work environment. From these interviews I could look at, the uses this generation has for technology, the areas and aspects of technology that they have difficulty using and understanding and how technology could be adapted to be more easily used, understood and accessed by this generation. By interviewing specialists I intend to look at what products are aimed at this area of the market and why, also to research what new and existing technology there is available to be able to innovate my product and improve and develop it from existing products in terms of technology and versitiy. This particular research method would allow me to gain knowledge and understanding that would be difficult to achieve from other research methods, as it is first hand, primary research that would be current in terms of technical information, and the needs and requirements of the target market. The aspects of this methods that are less effective is the reliability in terms of that it is only a very small selection of this particular market and audience, therefore it might not reflect the overall view of technology and the requirements of technology for this generation. Another factor in using this method is the time it would take to carry out, in planning ect. I intend to minimise these by looking at a range of people within the elderly population to try and give as balanced results as possible, and by using effective time management and carrying out prototype interviews to see if the questions being asked would give effective results.
Another research method is that of carrying out observations, I intend to carry them out in environments that allow people to have access to computers and technology. These could include public libraries and internet cafes, as for most of the elderly generation they do not own there own computer therefore require access to technology in other places. By carrying out observations in these places it would allow me to view places that offers computer technology to the general public, and observe how the users and staff behave and react to the elderly using technology and what help and advice they receive. These observations would allow me explore the design and target market these environments aim at and to see if the elderly use and feel comfortable using these places. The problems with using this method of research is that there are a number of ethical rules to follow when carrying out observations and is therefore difficult to record the results. You may also require consent which makes it difficult to be accurate in carrying it out effectively.
A method of research that would not be an appropriate would be a questionnaire, this method would not be effective as it is not a time effective and in order to achieve accurate results you would have to carry out the questionnaire on a large number of people.
Within this proposal I have looked at two secondary methods of research that I intend to carry out, both of these would enable me to gain research from a variety of sources and in a variety of forms. From semester 1 I found out a lot about research and background information that had been carried out on older peoples use and understanding of technology from literature and secondary sources. This gave me a clear understanding of the issues regarding their use and needs towards technology, to give me an insight into how I could develop my product in terms of being user friendly. However literature did not give me an insight in to the technology and technical information that I require in order to develop my product. Therefore through carrying out these primary methods of research it would give me both the current and accurate technical information and the users needs and requirements of technology in this country.


Bibliography
-Karahasanovic, A et al (2009) Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people’s user requirements, Science Direct
-Lieffers, L (2000) The older adult and public library computer technology: A pilot study on a Canadian setting, K. G. Saur Verlag

Assignment 4 What does the way somone decorates their living space tell about them

For assignment 4 we had to choose a topic and conduct interviews to find out their ideas and attitudes to the area of design that you have chosen to look at. The topic or area of design I choose to look at was, “What does the way someone decorates their living space tell about them.” The questions that you asked in the interview had to help you to find the answer to this question and find out any connections between how the way people chose to decorate and how this tells you about them and their personalities. Before I carried out the interviews, a group of us doing the same question had a discussion about what type of questions to use and what our perceived answers would be and main aspects and areas to look at. In the discussion we looked at areas and aspects such as gender and generation relations, and the aspects of the ways in which people use their living space and the purposes of the living space, also the different styles and decorating themes people might use.
From the interviews I found a number of these aspects and ideas to be the case, I interviewed a variety of people from different age groups including an interior design student, a middle aged woman and a semi retired woman. The first question I asked was about what methods people used when thinking about their inspirations for decorating. This allowed me to note the first difference between the three participants I interviewed in terms of generational and occupational differences. For the interior design student their methods are very much relating to the way in which they would approach a design brief in terms of drawings and samples etc. The other two participants of both similar age groups used more media based inspirations such as decorating television programmes, however all participants used magazines as their main source of inspiration. This shows how different ages groups have different inspirations when it comes to decorating, older people use television shows on decorating a home and the programmes are targeted towards older people and their decorating tastes, whereas younger people are more inspired by current trends and themes showing in magazines. Televisions shows are targeted towards older people and this can be shown through their viewing times which could be seen as another reason for the generational differences. Another area that this looks at is the fact that one of the people I interviewed is an interior design student, and therefore has a more trained eye and approaches much like they would if they were doing it for a client. The second question was much more related to them as a person and their personalities and I found that the answers allowed me to establish more of a connection to the way the decorate and their personality. As from one of the participants they said that their most valuable or the most important aspect in their living space in terms of decoration was their soft furnishing, which I think represents the idea that they are a homely person and the they also mentioned that they all have to colour coordinate because they are the focal point in the room which might suggest that they are quite a neat and organised person, who is particular about things matching and going together. The other person was more focused on the carpets and the larger pieces of furniture and works the rest of the décor around the main pieces of furniture in the room. This could suggest that they although like the room to be homely and cosy, doesn’t like clutter and likes larger pieces of furniture in the room. The student chose as her most valuable aspect her living space to be the big massive window in her room, I think this shows an element of what she studies in that it is a built in feature of the room, and shows that it is the space in the living areas and how that works that is the most valuable within her living space. The last question I asked was relating to colour schemes and styles and I think you can get an idea of someone’s personal tastes, styles and inspiration from their colour schemes. From the people I interviewed the colour schemes they are attracted to were quite similar. The interior design student is attract to light colours such as cream, dirty pink and dirty blue, colours similar to shells. These could represent the idea that she likes the light warm feel that creates an older, style feel but with a modern twist, this could also reflect her own personal style and taste. From the other interviews I found they are quite similar and like warm colours such as peaches, terracotta and creams, to create a more cosy, homely feel. Therefore showing that people can express their styles, and tastes and show there personalities through their décor.

Assignment 3 Design Safari

For assignment 2 we were asked to observe people and the ways in which they act and behave, within different environments. For this I went to a coffee shop called the tartan café. We sat there for about an hour and within that time many people came and went. In this environment I think people feel very comfortable and relaxed and enjoy spending time here, this could be because of a number of factors, including the décor with the nice homely feel with hand made prints on the wall and big comfy couches, the layout of the café itself as it has different seating areas with couches and more comfortable seats through the back and tables and chairs through the front. The positioning of the tables and chairs might also play a part as they are not situated to close to each other and there is the right balance between two and more seated tables. Another interesting observation was that when the music was playing in the café people felt more relaxed compared to when it was off and people seemed less relaxed and talked a lot more quieter. These might be seen as design factors and that the café was designed to create this type of environment and atmosphere.
The age groups of the people in the café varied from some young children with there parents, to students and to older people, there was also not a particular type of target selection of people that the café was aiming to attract as they seemed to cater for all ages. Although they cater for all ages there was separate groups of people seated in separate sections of the café fro example more of the students were seated through the back in the couches section. I found the behaviour and the etiquette of the people within the café quite interesting and how there are certain things and ways in which you act when your in a café in terms of seating, ordering, talking and service etc. The different people that we observed while we were there all varied in terms of the ways in which they acted and the reasons why they were there.
There was a variety of people in the café, behind us there was two people deep in conversation, possibly having a debate or discussion. Behind them there was a man on his laptop and in front of us there were a number of people in groups having lunch and conversations. In a café or anywhere you are being served there are certain behaviours and ways in which you should act and certain typical interactions which take place, between your role as a customer and the role of the waiter/waitresses. These roles include the customer taken a seat in the café, viewing the menu and placing their order and the waiter/waitresses receiving the order, placing it together and presenting it to the customer.
The people deep in conversation seemed to be oblivious to everything else around and only when been served did they stop to carry out the usual behaviours. The man on his laptop was sitting at a table designed for more than one person, and was obviously using this environment to do work and have lunch. The other aspect to him having a laptop with him may have been because he was on his own, possible a security, and something to keep him occupied. The groups of people were there to relax and socialise and enjoy their lunch.
All these factors relate to design in that it you must consider that different people have different needs and uses for different environments.