BRIEF_DESIGN FACTORY 2010/11
SPONSORED BY BRIT INSURANCE
STUDENT BRIEF
CREATING A GREAT MOMENT: Communication in the Public Realm
“One uncle who had a lot of influence on me in the late 1930s and later, had a news stand in New York, a kiosk at 22nd Street and Broadway, which was sort of a radical centre. We’d hang out all night and have discussions and arguments. The great moments of my life in those years were when I could work at the news stand at night and listen to this.”
Noam Chomsky on early formative experiences.
This year Design Factory asks, how can designers communicate the ideas they feel passionately about in the public realm? Is it possible to re-think the traditional methods of speaking out for contemporary times?
The village green, churchyard, town square, speaker’s corner, demonstrations, placards, posters, notices, interventions, graffiti…for centuries people have found various ways to communicate their messages about important issues in public spaces. As opportunities for social critique are migrating to individual interactions within the digital world, Design Factory invites students to find new ways to engage with the everyday to communicate your messages about the world, as a designer and as a citizen.
Design Factory takes its inspiration from the multidisciplinary nominations and exhibits in the exhibition Brit Insurance Designs of the Year. This year, we have worked with kennardphillips, who were nominated in the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2010 graphics category for their interventionist design the Café of Equivalent$, to create a multidisciplinary and experimental brief that encourages students to work across disciplines. For example, a graphic is combined with a product design which is then engineered into a structure for a performative intervention into the street - that might also be adapted to take on another issue at a later date.
Brief Part 1: Design Museum research
Visit the Design Museum’s Drawing Fashion exhibition. Illustration is about communication in a visual language that should be universally understood. Select 3 examples from the exhibition and identify the message, its audience and how well it has succeeded in communicating this.
(Outcome: 1 board exhibition response)
Brief Part 2: Identify and research issues and spaces
Select an issue you wish to communicate in the physical public realm. Research this issue and select the key message you wish to communicate to a chosen public audience. Identify and research this audience and select a specific public space or spaces to address.
(Outcome: 1 board R & D)
Brief Part 3: Design development
Design a platform or medium for live public communication of your selected issue. Include a proposal for a live event which could be staged at the Design Museum’s Design Overtime event/on the riverfront terrace outside the museum. Include logistical research and solutions. If possible stage an event at college and document this – include this in your submission. (Outcome: 2 boards design solutions plus written proposal 500 words.)
Submission:
Tutors will be asked to nominate an allocated proportion of student work for submission to the Design Factory judges.
Online submission from nominated students by 12 o’clock midday, Friday 11 March 2011:
4 boards in PDF & 500 words written proposal to designfactory@designmuseum.org
Following the judging, 40 students will be invited to the Design Factory one day Symposium in April 2011. Participants in the Symposium will work to a final project brief inspired by the exhibition Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011.
Following the Symposium the selected students will devise design interventions to be staged at a Design Overtime event to mark the close of Brit Insurance Designs of the Year 2011 exhibition in June 2011.
