Production Notes: Design

View the super-rough re-cut of this sequence at http://youtu.be/NJ10vobsP8Q, and follow along with these production notes.

The original cut of this sequence focused on four design groups working separately, and the goal was to display the work from those four designs.  We have since then re-thought the entire sequence.  It will now be based on process.  The goal will not be to distinguish among four groups; instead, it will be to communicate the general overall design process that everyone worked through. 

In focusing on process, this sequence will be organized process-based topics, as follow:

-Design Goals

-Work Sessions

            -trace

            -computer

            -model

-Presentation (mid-term)

-Revision (outdoor working scenes at farm)

-Presentations (final)

            -cool finished graphics

So, let’s explore each of those sections, and work on a script.

Scene opens with black screen and introductory titles cross-fading in and out.  A massing of voices fades in – what any single person is saying is hard to distinguish, but you can tell that it is people’s voices.

“Our first design session of the studio…

“It may seem chaotic, and to be perfectly honest, there is a certain amount of chaos you have to work through in the beginning.  The first step is just to get your ideas out, to communicate them with your fellow designers.  And in many ways the design process is about organization; refining your ideas from a state of chaos into a coherent vision. 

“You could also argue that the design process began back on the farm.  It was there that we were introduced to the place where our designs would go, and it was there that we would begin to decipher the design goals for this project.

“In a phrase, our goal in this design effort is to promote agricultural literacy.  Our job is to design a trailhead that would allow visitors to enter a system of hiking trails on the farm.  That trailhead, by design, would have to express something of the agricultural nature of the place.  To open the visitors’ eyes to some better understanding of the place they are in.

Transition into discussing the work sessions…

“We would work in groups to formulate design proposals that meet these criteria.

“One of the first steps is always to begin drawing.  To get your ideas out.  You can only refine an idea that is given some sort of expression.

Footage of people drawing and working in groups.

“Design drawing, in these initial stages, is about experimentation.  Some people are more comfortable sketching on a piece of trace paper.  (Joe or Curry sketching)

“Others prefer to draw in the computer  (Patiro on his laptop)

“And very often we’ll create models to understand an idea in three dimensions  (Johnny with the model)

“The idea is to advance your idea, your design, to refine it, to move it forward, as much as you can.  And a vital part of design advancement is to take a critical look at what you have done so far.

“So we invite people to our work sessions that can help us with that.  Our faculty members, other design and building professionals, the client… these are all people who can look at a design with fresh eyes, and offer the critique that can help the whole thing work better, or become more coherent, or perhaps more expressive.  (Footage of Holly, Bob, that science education guy, Oliver in work sessions). 

Transition into presentations (mid-term)…

“As the semester moves along, you begin presenting your work.  Formal presentations can be nerve-racking at first, but they ultimately help your design.  They force you to refine the graphical expression of your design ideas and to express your thoughts cogently in the form of a presentation.

“The presentation also opens a conversation around your work that involves your peers and the jury members who participate in the process.  Many times, questions will come up that maybe you had not even considered yet.  And understanding the way different people view your work will help you to make improvements.  (Footage of a mid-term presentation.  Try to get something where a jury question/comment is audible)

“And whatever you take away from the presentation, you have to work back into the design.  Design is an iterative process, you review your work and make changes in order to improve it. 

Transition into revisions (outdoor work sessions)…

“After our presentations, we decided to re-engage the place, and so we went back to the farm for a work session.  (Footage of outdoor work sessions)

“You can’t just go to a place once, and expect that it will not change, or that the only changes that will be made are the ones you’re proposing.  Landscape, as a medium, is ephemeral.  It had been a few weeks since our last visit to the farm, and we were beginning to see the progression of spring.

“We worked on our designs with the sun on our shoulders, and we could suddenly imagine a place much more engaged with people than that first rainy visit when we thought so much about reading the landscape of this farm. 

“And our designs moved forward, so that when the final presentation came around, we had really advanced out work.

Transition into presentations (final)

Maybe now is a good time to show some of the most engaging design graphics.  We could offer a sentence or two describing the highlights of each.  Maybe we could do this initially with our two narrators, and if time permits in the semester, we could sub-in the one-two sentence highlights recorded by the individual designers.  That might be a cool effect, to all of the sudden get these different voices talking, other than the narrators.

Anything you want to say about a particular graphic, you can post a comment on them here: https://picasaweb.google.com/perry.kev/AgLitDesignGraphis?authuser=0&feat=directlink 

“But our efforts would not end with these final designs, for the goal of our studio was to actually build that trailhead.