I will be evaluating my work with different questions this time to see if I can be more reflective and think more about what I am learning.

In what ways did you consider Designing backwards or application of systems thinking to your project

In this project, at the start with the group work, I could only consider working backwards because I was confused with the first task of making a persona and then thinking about what manner of product/outcome I would have to design or make for this persona.

My group decided to work backwards during this task because it felt like the easier thing to do and was more within our comfort zone.

In terms of systems thinking for my personal project X, I acquired ideas from my peers because I will admit that I am not the best at coming up with initial ideas so I would ask around my classmates and just throw my personal ideas at them and ask for their feedback. I come to rely a lot on my classmates because I respect their input as fellow student designers and sometimes I find that I swallow my pride and have to ask for their help when it comes to ideas.

This would continue on throughout the design process but I am not limited to just my classmates for inputs as I would ask my family and friends for their outside input as well as I know I will always get some insightful ideas from those with not artistic background and that is displayed in my work.

In what ways have you considered the sustainability of your project process and outcomes

I have not really considered the sustainability of my project process and outcomes until today (Monday 11th February 2019). I find myself not thinking about these things and to be honest I do feel like I ever do enough. All I focus on is the outcome and how I personally feel about it. I usually feel proud of what I achieve but I think it is time I started considering how my outcomes and processes affect those around me directly and indirectly which I feel is quite difficult to do.

In what ways have you considered the ethical implications of your project process and outcomes?

It is my full intention for my designs to be beneficial, to be a design for good. My aim is to always be able to help others in anyway I can through design. I had been designing in the past to be more commercial for the sole purpose of trying to be good enough for companies to hire me based on my skills but I feel like my calling lies in designing for good.

I had not considered the ethical implications of my project until today but I am learning to think about the bigger picture. It may be impossible right now for me to cater to every ethical standard but hopefully in time I will grow to consider them more.

Also I feel like my statistics are misleading because it include the numbers 96 and 30 which do not add up to 100 and are part of different statistics so it was not ethical of me to mislead audiences like that by including them in that way. However, it was my intention to hail and communicate a more urgent message but I can see how the inclusion of the statistics could be discrediting.

In sustainability and ethical terms in what ways was your work in this project an improvement or a backwards step for you as a socially conscious designer

I feel like ethically, this was an improvement for me because I designed something I really feel strongly about and used those feelings to design my posters the way I would want others to feel about the importance of blood and organ donation. I tried my best to not guilt the audience into donating and I want them to donate of their own free will but there could be messages in my projects that say otherwise.

I do feel like I am designing for a plaster to the actual problem which is the poor health of others which could mostly be avoided through change of lifestyle where they could be healthier but as of now I do not have the means to address these issues for I did the best I could do with the time and resources at my disposal.

What targets can you make at this point for your work in the future as a socially conscious designer

• Think about the systemic problems and realise that sometimes I am designing a plaster to the problem instead of fixing it.
• And that is okay right now because I am still a student and I am still learning. What is important is that I carry these feelings I have on to design for good in the future.
• I need to consider and think about the ethical and sustainable implications my designs and their processes will have on the world around me – the people I may affect or the resources I may have to use in order to bring my products into existence.
• It is hard to make sure everyone is happy with your designs, I think that as long as the intention of good is there the design will reflect that.
• Design what I believe in.
• Think more critically of what and for whom I am designing for.

Note: Background is not a gradient in order to symbolise red blood cell and to make the background less flat

 

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Next I wanted to include a ECG (heart rhythm) display because feedback from my girlfriend who works as a Clinical support worker at the local hospital said that the image was good but it did not seem urgent enough. I thought the ECG display would be appropriate for this situation because it is a good symbol for the beat of life.

I did some experimentation with the separated segment and made the line solid but feedback from my family and friends said that it looked too girly which is not my intention so I scrapped that idea.

I started to position the ECG mark outside of the heart and then made the segment attached to the solid part smaller in order to convey the heart slowing down to communicate near death and it would then return to normal after the donor heart segment to connote life and rebirth thanks to the generosity of the donor. I added a glowing spot at the end which is found on some heart rate monitor machines for more authenticity but to also symbolise hope.

Lastly I tried to make the type fit into the image because I had more space to work with where I would be able to put in text and statistics. I tried to follow in the footsteps of the blood donation image with the ‘Thank You’ message but it felt forced and out of place so I tried something different.

I tried to position the numbers of the statistics to emulate a heart rate monitor but it felt forced and squashed so I moved it to the bottom left corner where it felt more natural and clearer for audiences to read. I also thought about the page hierarchy and where the eye would lead on from. The eye would travel from the top of the page to the bottom left and then read to the right naturally in the order I want the audience to read in.

 

 

I started off my first piece with the idea I got from two of my research designs. One is based on ‘The Creation of Adam’ painting and with the blood donation poster which featured a large hand reaching out to three outstretched ones.

I liked the idea of ‘extending the hand of generosity but I did not want it to communicate in a negative manner so I needed to consider the actual gesture of the hand to make it communicate to audiences that it was a generous hand and not one in a position of power.

I wanted to somehow outline the hands to make the donating or helping hand feel anonymous so I designed it with dashed outlines but it just made it seem like it was a cut out or something was missing so I do not think it worked well to communicate what I wanted here.

I placed the hands in a blood bag to signify the idea that the poster is about blood donation. I wanted this to be a simplistic design because that is were I feel my style lies and it is an area of design where I am strong in.

I finally added a heart beat line on the tube which would connect to the recipient in order to communicate that it is transferring life to them.

 

What I see:

• a red background
• a white heart shape
• white droplets of blood filling the heart shape
• white type

What makes me think that:

• red background depicts urgency as it is known in the UK that blood is always needed in order to help patients get better
• The white colour used for the heart enables it to stand out against the red but could also symbolise the purity of love which is cemented by using the heart symbol instead of a anatomically correct heart
• the droplets are assumed by audiences to be blood because it would be hard to depict blood against a red background

What more can I find:

• The blue text is interesting to me because I cannot figure out its significance. In my opinion it looks out of place and should have just stayed consistent with the white type.

What I see:

• a jigsaw puzzle
• the space left out is in the formation of a symbolic heart
• the heart is red

What makes me think that:

• the jigsaw analogy is used to communicate unity
• the heart shape is missing pieces outside of its shape as well which communicates that it is deteriorating

What more can I find:

• it is ironic how the message is to not be a missing piece yet the missing pieces form a heart which is a symbol of love

What I see:

• a large white hand outstretched
•  three smaller outstretched arms positioned to be gesturing upwards towards the larger hand
• the three arms are places as negative space between the fingers of the larger hand
• bold white type

What makes me think that:

• the bigger outstretched hand is positioned above the smaller arms and thus is communicated to be in a position of power
• this position of power give it the opportunity to help those who are vulnerable – which is communicated by the three smaller arms
• the three smaller arms look desperate as they seem to be attempting to grasp the large hand

What more can I find:

• I personally find this image more disturbing than hopeful or positive because the red background combined with the smaller arms communicate to me negatively. It is almost like a mini scene of hell where the red is the fire and the white hand is God or god-like and it has the power to save but can also deny. So I do not think this is a strong communicator of donation or generosity

What I see:

• a girl and a boy
• the boy’s shape is an outline
• the boy is holding a balloon in the shape of a human heart
• he appears to be giving/offering it to the girl
• the girl appears to be sick
• she is wearing a hospital patient gown

What makes me think that:

• the boy and girl are easy to distinguish from each other because they possess features commonly associated with their gender – shot/no hair, jeans and t shirt for the boy and long hair with a dress for the girl.
•  the boy’s figure is outlined to imply that he is no longer alive
• his features are also not included to communicate that he is anonymous
• the balloon shaped heart is symbolic of the boy donating his heart to the girl who is implied to be in need of it
• this gesture is frequently seen in  the behaviour of small children to emphasise their innocence and kind nature.
• the girl appears to be sick because her facial expression does not communicate to audiences that she is happy or well. her expression is flat and her eyes are emotionless which signify to audiences that she is anything but positive

What more can I find:

• the red colour of the heart strongly cements the notion that organ donation is important because it hails the audience by being more vibrant against the dull background colour.

What I see:

• a woman hugging a man who is faded
• they are in a hospital
• the woman is connected to a IV drip
• woman seems thankful
• man seems stiff

What makes me think that:

• the faded man implies that he is not longer alive
• I can assume that they are in a hospital because of the colour of the walls which are white which is common within hospitals
• audiences can tell the woman is sick/unwell because she is connected to an IV drip which means she needs the fluid inside the bag to start feeling better
• woman has a relieved look on her face because her eyes are closed yet her mouth is close to a full smile
• the man is stiff in order to convey and emphasise the notion that he is dead

What more can I find:

• the mans face is obscure/hidden from the audience but is implied to be seen by the woman in order to convey the notion that he is anonymous and that you may or may not know who the donor is.

What I see:

• hour glass, with one end in the shape of a woman’s bust and the other side is a man’s shape.
• I assume that the red object contained in the hourglass is blood and/or an organ
• the background is white and the colours are very minimal

What makes me think that:

• audiences can assume that the bust at the top has stereotypical womanly features such as long hair that has been tied in a bun, a sharper jaw line and less narrower shoulders whereas the man’s bust at the bottom has shorter hair, a more angular jawline and broader shoulders which are more typical of men.
• the woman is symbolically ‘donating’ her organs/blood to the man who is positioned in a negative way because he is upside down to symbolise he is either dead or dying
• the donation that the woman is giving to the man also cements the idea that she is also giving him more time to live due to the use of the hourglass.

What more can I find:

• the use of the hour glass and the allusion to time is interesting because it could also be implied that in the future the man could help the woman if she is only donating blood, he could donate to her in her time of need.
• it shows the inclusion of both genders and the message is that no matter what sex you are, you always have the ability to help someone regardless of who you or they are.

What I see:

• two hands, one filled with blood and the other being filled with blood
• a drop of blood in the middle of the separate fingers

What makes me think that:

• audiences can denote that one hand is donating blood and the other is receiving based on the levels of each hand
• audiences can know that it is blood being donated because the depicted liquid is red

What more can I find:

• the hands are from the famous painting that features god and Adam from the famous The Creation of Adam’ by artist Michelangelo.
• this provides the image with more generous connotations because God’s hand is depicted being the provider of life so that Adam may live.

What I see:

• a man
• he is holding a present
• the present seems to be a significant part of his being
• the man is a silhouette

What makes me think that:

• I can tell the figure is of a man because the shape does not have the typical curvier shape of a woman
• the object in his hand is in the shape of a square or a two dimensional present because of the added bow on top of it.
• the image in its entirety is symbolic of the man giving a large piece of himself (in this case, his organs which is suggested because he is missing the area of his body where they are housed)

What more can I find:

• the man seems to not have any defining features or detail in order to communicate to audiences that he could be anyone. Anyone could donate their organs to give the gift of life to a stranger or to someone they know.

The same VTS applies as this image is very similar to the image above. again, the man is giving a significant part of himself as a gift and this notion is further cemented with the supporting type which communicates that you are never too old to donate your organs for a good cause. The good cause is again implied because of the symbol of the present the figure is holding, but more decorated.

What I see:

• two figures of what I assume to be males
• one is very clear while the other one has its opacity turned down to make it seem ghostly
• the two figures are positioned in such a way that the heart is anatomically located roughly where it would actually be in the human body
• the background is red
• the heart is not anatomically correct

What makes me think that:

• It seems like the two figures are male because they are a similar shape to the icons that indicate male rest rooms
• the contrast between the faded one and the clear one is used to communicate that the faded one is passed on but he has donated his heart to the figure that is clear.
• the heart symbol is used because it is a widely understood symbol for love – the act of love of giving a very important part of oneself in order to grant life to the recipient.

What more can I find:

• the red background could communicate to audiences a sense of urgency because it is known or trying to make audiences aware that organ donation is in an emergency state and that there aren’t enough donors for everyone who needs them.

Here is a new method of generating ideas which I have not recently displayed but I found that it really helped to get some ideas off the ground and helped me think critically on the possibilities of the project. Using the mind map I threw down all the ideas I had in my head and it made me realise that with the amount of time I had, I could focus on making a poster but I will definitely produce something more sustainable and not a poster because I feel like posters are a bit ‘basic’ for a brief on project X where I would really like to produce something more tangible.

Using the mind map I was able to conclude that a subject that I felt very strongly about but still was related to the issue of shortages in the NHS was blood and organ donation. I also felt that there was a lot of potential for symbolism, connotations and messages I could include in the designs that would raise awareness and get the public to start considering signing up to donate. My aim for these posters I’ll make is to make people aware at the very least because I think it is important.