Catalogue AKV|St.Joost Masters 2016

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Introduction

To try to define the field of art and design is not only difficult, but perhaps pointless too. Art and design are ever-changing disciplines, continuously developing and reshaping according to recent technological developments and social changes.

These artistic fields are not delimited by a neat separation line, rather they flow into each other. Art and design are hybrid disciplines which borrow concepts, methods, processes, solutions from other practices. Many complex questions that artists and designers are facing nowadays require a cross-disciplinary approach that integrates eclectic perspectives into a collective and choesive whole.

AKV|St. Joost didn’t explicitly declare its position towards the creative industry, but it is possible to read in its silence a clear statement: acknowledgement of the peculiarity of each student. Individual uniqueness transcends disciplines, professions and any possible attempt of definition. The mission of the school is to enable its Masters’ students to find their per-sonal voice within the artistic realm, to challenge them to question their own discipline, and to overcome the boundaries imposed by their field of specialisation. The goal of the Masters is to let the students acquire a deeper consciousness within their practice and question the position they want to hold in the professional future.

AKV|St. Joost does not fall into the standards set by the industry: it escapes the their paradigm. Consequently, the design of the Masters’ Catalogue 2016 reflects the attitude of the school. Over time, the creative industry has developed its own vocabulary consisting of trivial labels to categorise professions, claiming the right to state what is art and what is not and establishing where the boundaries between disciplines lie. Basically, they make distinction whereas there is no distinction, or they group under the same umbrella practices that are inextricably different. Vice versa the Catalogue develops its own vocabulary consisting of the words taken from the statements of the student and the description of their work to counter the institutional jargon. The aim of this publication is to give a space to the students to state and discuss how they relate their practice to the creative fields.

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Marcello Jacopo Biffi

Master’s Graduate

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Introduction Gallery

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Index

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Simone Engelen

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Adriano La Licata

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Marta Masiero

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Dorina Kappatou

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Verena Blok

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Marcello Jacopo Biffi

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Uljana Orlova

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Sara Lima

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Thành Vinh

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Viola Barth

LOVE HOTEL

Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder Anthropophagy

Aspects of a Higher Civilization Where Swans Meet

Atlas of Visual Identity How to Write Ma y ja

Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola The Classroom of Teacher Chau What’s the Point?!

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Essay Glossary The Masters

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Mihai Gui

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Martijn Veenstra

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Anne Lucassen

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Jacklyn Cornelisse

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Jason Edwards

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Nienke Jansen

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Sander van der Kooij

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Ad van Halteren

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Armella van den Heuvel

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André Burnier

I Hate You All Welcome Firewood

Insert Title/Within and Without 1 Mova Nanova

2 The Whole is Bigger Than the Sum of Parts

Authenticity & Signifiers of Value Align Design

Exploring the City Again

Numbers Speak for Themselves

Uncertainty as a Visual Instrument Evolutive Design

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Simone Engelen LOVE HOTEL

As a visual artist, I work on projects that are close to me. After capturing my father’s dismissal during the economic crisis (Out of the Picture, 2010) and the dementia of my grandfather (AchterRuit, 2012), I decided to turn the camera on me.

During a long-term research on the malleability of identity, I started asking others to direct my life for 24 hours (A Scripted Life, 2015).

According to their scripts, I went out for dinner with a mirror, spent a day in silence, sold roses in cafes, did a photo-shoot with a stranger in my neighbour’s clothes, joined the Hare Krishna, drank Ayahuasca, bought a ticket to Tokyo and shaved my head to get a tattoo saying ‘everything is temporary’. It became a method to open up, redefine limits, conquer fear and get immune to embarrassments.

Throughout a constant search for the malleability of one’s identity I keep on wondering: can we choose who we want to be or are we forced to play the roles society expects of us?

My current work, Love Hotel, shows an introspective, obsessive and (at times) destructive struggle on coping with a sexual trauma. With the statements: ‘My body is a hotel/My body is not a hotel’ I want to start a dia logue about sexism in our media-controlled society and encourage young women to break free from old stigmas and to open up about their limits and needs.

Love Hotel, ‘My body is a hotel/My body is not a hotel’, 2016 1. Capsule, appliqued blanket, mattress and light, 101�106�209 cm

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Master Photography

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Love Hotel

Adriano La Licata Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder

‘In that inner landscape where things lose form, where the soul destroys rationality, I achieve a position of being both creator and creation.

Just being a swimming pool of fun and fear.’

I often want to be safe within the walls of my reason, so I end up imprisoned by my own jail, by my own logic. Useless it is to try to describe the space beyond the fence with the intellect.

Within my work, the other senses open up and tell the inexpressible.

They don’t indicate a path. They rather evoke a path. This undefined path moves in the indescribable time. It is precisely in this gap, in this space, be tween the hell I have inside and the bright project that is ahead, where the creative act comes to light. Art, experienced as a visionary acknowledg ement, helps me to find the way. Thus as an initiate, I go into the world to experiment, to traverse new processes of consciousness.

These processes are activated in my new project Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder through a playful and anarchist attitude which subverts the order and reveals the ambiguities in the everyday life. Embracing the viewer with an absurd work, I transform matter into spirit, presence into absence, moving as a shaman in the interstice between the madness and the wisdom.

Hands, 2016 1. Photocopies A4. Dimensions variable Aprire&Chiudere, 2016 (still in progress) 2. Photography. Dimensions variable Glitch 2, 2016 3. Framed c–print from negative film 35mm, 45�30cm Wonder Wander, 2016 4. Framed c–print from negative film 35mm, backpack straps and holder, 45�27cm Fragile, 2016 5. Carton box, plaster, tape, cap, mat. 20�20�20cm

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Master Fine Art

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Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder

Marta Masiero Anthropophagy

Both in my personal history, and in the current political and economic situa tion of Brazil, my country of origin, there is friction and conflict.

On the one hand, there is the sensuality and openness characteristic to the Brazilian people, and on the other there is corruption, violence and injustice. Here, pain, happiness and a feeling of belonging are things that go hand in hand.

After nearly three years living in Europe, I have developed a different look at my country and its problems, and that fact substantially changed the character of my work. The way I see my country brings me melancholy and fascination with tropical Brazil. It possesses aspects that are exotic even for those who were born there. There are healing rituals, there are sol idarity practices, there is a particular relationship with the body, with the surface of the skin.

I use different strategies to grasp these relationships, ranging from micro to macro: by mapping and reframing objects of my family history, and giving to it different meanings; by making collective actions as healing dinner parties, where I prepare meals according to people’s feelings and emotions; by breaking and then trying to repair domestic objects as plates, referring to that which cannot be fixed in life; by revisiting art history and criticizing it; by distributing candies that are related to my dreams; by cre ating sugar sculptures that relate body and architecture; and so on.

1. Reproduction of Albert Eckhout’s painting, Índia Tarairiu (Tapuia), 1641 2. Exhibition view The Only Rule is Work, House for an Art Lover, Glasgow, UK, 2016 Untitled, 2016 3. Sculpture: caramel and baking paper, 20�70�80cm 5. Sculpture: caramel, baking paper and fabric, 90�70�30cm Anthropophagy, 2016 4. c–print, 180�100cm Kaleidoscope, 2015 6. c–print, 60�90cm

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Dorina Kappatou Aspects of a Higher Civilization

My work is an attempt to create the feeling of uncanny by exploring the re lationship between known/unknown, and art/design. I explore the range of possibilities through different methods of application, and collaborations with a variety of people-artists or not. Design is utilised as a means to con nect with the audience through the use of a familiar language, all the while focusing on the importance of the concept and how it shows through the work. The art I create often refers to pop and mass culture. In it, I combine opposing ideas and concepts in order to manipulate the viewer and create confusion. The works are on the one hand attractive, but on the other hand, draw inspiration from a sinister part of humanity. My aim is to leave the audience with a mix of conflicting feelings and thoughts.

All the above are implemented in Aspects of a Higher Civilization, a series that consists of three unique chairs and two designed for the possibil ity of mass production. In this project, the viewer’s understanding of a chair’s use and its historical evolution is challenged. The line between art and design blurs and everyday objects turn to grim reminders of things we prefer not to think about in the comfort of our private space.

Heart in a Box, 2016 1. MDF, 8�8�8cm Untitled, 2015 2. Performance/installation, Kunstnacht, Museum Slager, 's-Hertogenbosch (NL), collaboration with Nina Orteu and Verena Vuori Gruesome Gertie, 2016 3. Chair made of meranti wood, 40�40�170cm Working in the Metalshop, 2015 4. Intervention, AKV|St. Joost, 's-Hertogenbosch (NL)

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Verena Blok Where Swans Meet

I met two young women, Anna and Katerina, from Minsk, Belarus. We happen to be the same age. Anna and Katerina grew up in the same neigh bourhood and were best friends while in high school. Anna dreamt of starting a new life in The Netherlands, where she is currently studying.

Katerina never left Belarus and remains to live in Minsk together with her mother. The two friends see each other rarely and communicate prima rily through Facebook. I have never seen them together, but they talk to me about each other, and I slowly have become part of this triangular relationship.

During the time I was photographing them, I started questioning our relationship and my exact role as an artist: was this friendship, or my work? I am interested in the interaction between subject and maker, and how this relationship is constructed, controlled and manipulated. To what extent am I ‘using’ my subject? This project is an attempt to show an honest relationship between subject and maker, where I put the artist’s integrity on display.

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Where Swans Meet

Marcello Jacopo Biffi Atlas of Visual Identity

‘Identity is arguably more fundamental to the conception of humanity than any other notion. That is a strong statement, but consider some of the key questions that we might use to assess the reach of the concept: What other issue is quite so important than answering the nebulous question, Who am I? What other concern is quite so captivating than dealing with the ongoing, lifelong project of assessing identity and figur ing out how one relates to others and the surrounding world? What other question so influences understanding and action so heavily (if per haps out of conscious awareness)? I can think of no other concept that is so central to the human experience, or one that infuses so many inter pretations and actions, than the notion of identity.’

(D. A. Gioia)

‘The general Hegelian view is this: To be is to be determinate, and be ing may come to be fully and finally determinate only insofar as a manifold variety of differentiating relations to others is both realized and brought to thought. Self-sufficiency and autonomy are not at tainable in isolation, by excluding or incorporating difference, but rather only by establishing and sustaining it.’

(P. T. Grier)

The Atlas of Visual Identity is a sinking anchor in the bottomless sea of knowledge. ‘What is a visual identity?’ is its underlying question, although the attempt to give an answer to such a broad premise seems almost too naïve to be taken seriously. Indeed to succeed in representing thoroughly only with images what is the meaning of ‘visual identity’ is pure utopia.

However the value of this project lies in the Herculean effort to try to pro vide a solution to a question that does not expect any. It is a losing battle— like Don Quixote tilting at windmills—in which the merit of the project (or the lack of it) are brought by the commitment to the research, carried on day after day with industry and obduracy, despite everything. Albeit the book is a diary of a failure foretold, nevertheless this doesn’t mean it can not be a cause for further reflection.

The project consists of a heterogeneous corpus of 919 images sourced exclusively from the Internet with the aim to (partially) give an explana tion to what is a visual identity. The fulfilment of this purpose is approached by the establishment of a dialectic relationship between two polar oppo sites: the first one equal to the maximum level of recognisability, the second one to the least. ‘Iconic/aniconic’, ‘notorious/anonymous’, ‘visible/invis 52

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ible’, ‘exposed/concealed’ are some of the opposing pairs that have informed the selection and classification of the pictures. Although the re search was initially structured upon canonic typologies—such as por traits, statues, effigies, masks and so on—later it grew to include an unpre dictable wide-range of images, only for them to become too diverse to be classified. The analysis of portraits has had a major role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medi um of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos).

The first pole, classified as ‘iconic identities’, was meant to gather uni versal images acknowledged by everyone. Both Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe share a unique spot in the stardom, the Vault of Heaven, and they are world-renowned icons that cannot be mistaken. Wherever they are, wherever they go, they are accompanied by an al mighty, almost divine aura. They are signs carrying a highly distinctive characterisation, similarly rarefied and codified; Mickey’s and Marilyn’s visual identi ties recur always equal to themselves in social imaginary, therefore their strength. The chosen appellative is a reference to Christian icons: Orthodox votive images of Christ (or other religious figures). Starting from the V century AD they helped to establish the traditional portrayal of Jesus, coming all the way to nowadays. Icons were considered to be sacred and subject of worship amongst early Christians. The use of colour had a highly symbolic meaning, thus gold to represent the radiance of Heaven.

An antipode tries to counterbalance icons’ visual hegemony, estab lishing a complementary pole of darkness, oblivion, uncertainty. This time the research focused on images with barely any meaning, any history, any reference to reality at all. Veils to hide distinctive faces, organic shapes to counter idiosyncratic logos, the ordinary to overshadow the extraor dinary. The goal was to achieve the lowest possible level of information to leave the viewer with no data at all upon which building a recognition process. Anyway the more the research delved into the topic, the more the boundaries between the two poles started to become blurry. The images refused to stay silent, as they were crying out to tell their own story. Every image—despite little denotation—has an unavoidable connotation after all and is open to multiple, endless readings. Identity recognition lies in the eyes of the beholder and it is the result of his/her experience, memory and visual culture. The images do not merely have value in themselves, but they acquire multiple new meanings when they are put in close relation with each other. Formal references intertwine, free associations are gener ated. What is, for example, the connection between the missing (face) re flection in Magritte’s painting Not to be Reproduced (La reproduction interdite, 1937) and Caravaggio’s Narcissus (Narciso, 1597–1599) [img. 2] gazing at his own reflection?

The Atlas of Visual Identity is a four months quest after the meaning of visual identity, presented in accurate chronological order. The out 53

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come is exhibited in a transparent and honest way, it is a complete ‘map’ of the author’s mind. A detailed archive, that can be consulted at the end of the book, reports all the sources with the matching date of download [img. 3]. It provides evidence of any decision made or faux pas undertaken, it communicates any direction covered or uncertainty experienced; even tually it shares the beauty of discovery. As you would expect this book is a personal research tool, which includes images that especially relate to who designed it. There could be many more images, as numerous illustri ous figures are surely missing. Although the title Atlas is utterly preten tious—an homage to Gerhard Richter lifetime magnum opus with the same name—the project does not have the hubris to be exhaustive. Inevitably the research won’t be finished due its ever-changing and multiform nature.

The inquiry into one pole or the other is not constituted by separate moments in time, but it is performed as a unique continuous process, where the boundaries between ‘A’ and ‘B’ are often subtle and subject to interpretation. Likewise the colours given to the pictures—gold/iconic, Prussian blue/aniconic—are totally arbitrary, they just reflect the point of view of the author in that particular instance of time. The pictures are nothing more than a fragmentary reconstruction of the main theme, open to discussion and reflection. Visual hierarchy is abolished and very dif ferent elements are clamped together. The grid structure flattens the differ ences between the images and gives a uniform way of looking at them.

It strives for maximum objectivity and anti-illusionism, while recalling im age search engines’ aesthetics and layout and at the same time old faded photo-books. The Atlas does not provide any absolute truth, if anything, it points out the lack of it. For example, how can we say that Warhol’s image of Marilyn references the real Marilyn? Ultimately we experience the problem with representation.

‘Nowadays we all try to store ourselves and our personal experiences through social networks, with a constellation of photos, thoughts, ‘tweets’. Despite somewhere there is track of everything, we still fear the danger of a loss of memory, that today depends on the speed of changing of the media for storing and reading data.’

(D. Amico)

Atlas of Visual Identity, 2016 1., 2., 3. 128 pages, clothed hardcover with perforated PVC plates, two–colours, 17.5�25 cm

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Atlas of Visual Identity

Uljana Orlova How to Write Ma y ja

My mother and I came to the Netherlands from Lithuania in December 1993. I was eight years old. We went through the asylum procedure and re ceived a permanent residence permit six years later. While waiting for that permanent status, we stayed in many different asylum centres through out the country.

In April 1994, we moved to asylum centre Torenduin in Egmond aan Zee. After just under a year, another girl arrived. Her name was Maya, and we became friends. A couple of months later, my mum and I were transferred to a shelter for asylum seekers in Vollenhove. Maya stayed in Egmond aan Zee. A month later, she wrote me a letter and included three photos of us: ‘Hello Uljana! I couldn’t write to you because the photos weren’t ready yet. How are you? Are you going to school or not? How is your house, do you like it? How is your mother? It’s boring here without you.

I’m waiting to hear from you. Say hi to your mother.

Your friend, Maya’ I came across the letter and the three photos again 17 years later. The real ness of her letter touched me. I wondered why I hadn’t replied to her at the time. The more I thought about it, the more curious I became. Where was she now? Who could she have become? What might she look like?

But most of all: how is she? I decided to look for her.

I didn’t have her surname; I didn’t know if she still lived in the Netherlands or what country she came from. I didn’t even know how to spell her first name. But I wanted to try and find her.

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Sara Lima Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola.

Series of Dinners with Friends and Strangers, Multicultural Cuisine and Thoughtful Conversations.

‘Known as a welcoming place for immigrants and asylum seekers, Amsterdam, which is the largest city in the Netherlands, proudly boasts a diverse population. With approximately 178 different backgrounds, the city is a lively blend of friendly people from all over the world.’

(M. Morfin)

I moved to the Netherlands in 2013, coming from a small city in Portugal called Guimarães with a huge majority of Portuguese population living there. Even though it became a cultural discovery for tourists from abroad, multiculturalism is not the word for my birthplace.

I moved to Den Haag on 1st of June 2013, to be part of a year program me promoted by the European Union to volunteer in a local organisation.

In this programme, I focused on discovering the multicultural side of the city and its relation to art and culture.

‘As of 1 January 2014, The Hague counts 509,779 inhabitants, making it the third largest city of the Netherlands. […] The proportion of Dutch people is 49.9%, while that of Western immigrants is 15.6%, and that of non–western immigrants is 34.4%.’

What I found in the three years I live here is very much alike what I found then… Den Haag as other big cities is moving more and more towards a multicultural place where people from all over the world come together while at the same time tend to divide and aggregate with their national ities. This behaviour acts as an easy way for acceptance and sharing of same cultural trends. Den Haag has its own ‘Chinatown’ and neighbourhood’s like Schilderswijk wherein 2008 had more than 90% of registered residents of foreign origin. This segregation creates prejudices and limits the op portunities of a success of people living in these areas. Schilderswijk is con sidered the area with more unemployment rates and criminality; obvi ously, this aspect doesn’t promote the idea of an inclusive and multicultur al city and doesn’t take advantage of the potential its people have to offer.

I had the idea of making a series of dinners in the summer of 2015.

I was living for two years in a city where I was not being able to meet new people while at the same time knowing so many individuals with the same feeling as me and looking for a connection point or space for change.

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The dinners are called Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola, what in Italian means ‘add one place to the table’. The idea is to have series of meals with friends and strangers and great food. Each person invited to this dinner needs to bring one stranger, a person that the group don’t know yet.

The food is multicultural and the chefs members of the group.

In most of the dinners, we had a majority of different nationalities. In total, I tried five dinners (Aruban, Palestinian, Franco-Romanian, Italian, Por tuguese). In a group of 12 people, we had seven different nationalities.

Through this dinners I found myself being in contact with the multi cultural side of Den Haag more than ever before, connecting with people from countries I had no knowledge about and having the possibility to know their stories in first hand.

‘Multiculturalism describes the existence, acceptance, or promotion of multiple cultural traditions within a single jurisdiction, usually considered in terms of the culture associated with an ethnic group.’

For my thesis project, I want to take the concept of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola to the world. My thesis research focus in social design and the prac tical part should reflect my findings on the subject. The term ‘Social Design’ was used for the first time by Victor Papanek to describe a form of design that is aware of designer’s role and responsibility in the society, where the designer understands the social, economical and political back ground of what creates. Furthermore, one of the goals of this field is to bring social change, engage communities, and promote collaboration, open dialogue and influence communities, policy makers and institutions in the needs of the society. Considered very much ideological nowadays, it brings you back to reality when reading the book of Victor Papanek ‘De sign for the real world’. Written 25 years ago and translated into twenty– three languages is a realistic and an awakening examination of ‘the at tempts by designers to combat the tawdry, the unsafe, the frivolous, the useless product, once again providing a blueprint for sensible, respon sible design in this world which is deficient in resources and energy.’

A reality that is surprisingly actual 25 years after.

In a more negative remark of today’s view of social design is the ex ploitation of the communities in which designers pursue their work, where projects are abandoned after the deadline is over and communities are seen only as a ‘project’. Another critic is the lack of locality. Designers en gaged in social design aim to engage publics considered ‘poor and dis advantaged’, going further away from their personal experiences and prob lems that surround them. My focus is to design a double-sided experi ence with the main focus on communication where is created a win–win situation for everyone involved.

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‘The promise is considerable: design can be a tool for social change. And we think it should be. It is no longer a matter of designing for society, but within it.’

(M. Schwarz & D. Krabbendam)

‘Sustainist Design Guide’ mentions some qualities that fit in the agenda for social design. These are: Sharing, Localism, Connectedness and Propor tionality. Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola is an attempt to bring them together in one easy concept that can be shared and recreated in different places.

The final outcome of the project is to create a platform where the con cept of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola is explained together with some per sonal stories of participants, documentation of the events and recipes.

In this way, I want to invite people all over the world to try to implement their own events in the city they live in. Try to get to know the cultures that surrounded them and aimed for a more inclusive environment. Treating people as individuals and respecting the culture they come from.

My final project aims to engage and connect ‘strangers’ that live in the same place but that come from various backgrounds in a search for their ideal ‘home’. It’s about designing an informal night where people can share who they are as individuals and their culture through food. The idea is to break down some typical prejudices that come with your place of origin while at the same time give space to share your own culture proudly.

These dinners are meant to be multicultural and inclusive, a space with good food and thoughtful conversations.

Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola, 2015 1. Pilot dinner (Aruban), polaroids 2. Case studies’ book about Social Design. Overview of the book, positive study cases, 2016

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Thành Vinh The Classroom of Teacher Chau

This project is inspired by one significant nationalist in Vietnam history: Phan Chu Trinh. He sought to end France’s colonial occupation of Vietnam.

He opposed both violence and turning to other countries for support, and instead believed in attaining Vietnamese liberation by educating the pop ulation and by appealing to French democratic principles. In 1907, he opened a modern patriotic school for young Vietnamese men and women.

The school was called Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thuc (also known as Tonkin Free school). Its ideas attacked the brutality of the French occupation of Vietnam but also wanted to learn modernisation from the French. In March 1908, a tax revolt in Annam and an attempted poisoning of French soldiers in Hanoi were blamed on the leaders of the school by the French.

Subsequently, all the leaders were arrested and the school’s publica tions were suppressed.

In my opinion that story still reflects in nowadays the life under Com munism regime. The government controls all over the media. They sup press open-minded scholars and dissidents by forbidden their publications or put them in jail. According to that politic situation I invented the protag onist names Chau. He is a painter but also known as teacher Chau, who opens a drawing class for adults in his own studio. After so many years lived and worked around the world he backed to his homeland and aiming to educate the young generation also publishing his illustrations as a way to enlightening the people.

I build up detailed biographies of teacher Chau and the material evi dence of his obsessive lives and works. The spectators form their meanings and interpretations of the invented characters by piecing together the clues and content they get through introductions and from the artefacts.

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Viola Barth What’s the Point?!

‘A documentary that uses the power of opinions to face and under stand the creative industry in nowadays time and problematics it has to struggle with. Presented thru my view, a designer in the beginning point of her career, who is ready to ask the questions that need to be ask.’

How many talented creatives are unemployed? How many work, in jobs, which do not fit their skills? How does it affect the design industry and creation of powerful design solutions? So what are the main problematics in the creative industry, which led to these issues and make the job search so hard and frustrating?

Ignorance? Acceptance? Fear? There is a wide range of reasons.

So why am I a designer, considering the struggles the industry has to face right now? How can I reach my own expectations? What happened to creative freedom, in a time where copyrights surround us? How can I make a name for myself without incising text in my body like Stefan Sagmeister did? How can I fight for something I believe in without getting pushed into a corner and treated like a criminal, like Aaron Swartz did?

How do I make a point or in Adrian Shaughnessy words: ‘How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul?’

QUESTIONS! We all have them, we all fear them.

As a child I was always impressed by the way designs were put togeth er. Seeing a house in its whole was great but more impressive was to view in detail the small parts, which created the whole. Each part designed and developed by a different person created these amazing design solutions.

How did they create these solutions in a team and what happened, to create the world out of I thinkers?

I have questions, a lot of them. And the reason for that is simple.

I want to create. I want to be a creator. I believe in the impact that powerful design can provide and the changes it can cause. But how, when you con sider the fact, that one-third of all design graduates is not finding jobs after graduation. Designers start to work in jobs not suited to their skills. Oth ers try it as start-ups, some succeed but most of them fail.

This leads to frustrated designers, who out of fear start accepting a job that does not fit their skills. This leads to designs that could reach higher potentials by using the right people for the jobs. How did a rising industry end up in this situation? Did we go too far and where did we turn in the wrong direction?

One reason is the big concurrence, which was created thru the fact that everybody can call himself a designer, professional or not. But that 76

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also brings the question of what is a professional in his/her field?

Another issue plays the fact that we started to compete instead of collaborating with each other. This was created thru the pressure in the job search, that led to a sharing is a scaring generation, which often forgets the importance and impact of a functional teamwork. But how can we put the power of collaboration back in the foreground? Also, the Internet plays its part related the problematics the industry has to face right now.

New ways of self-presentation and communication were born and net working in person went for a lot of designers to the second rank. How could we let it come so far, that we overloaded the Internet with so much information, that instead of supporting us, by promoting ourselves, it created the opposite effect? And most importantly, did we, in all this infor mation overflow and thru the pressure to succeed, lose the main focus about what we as designers can do? Did we start to put our self–presenta tion before creating impactful and problem-solving design solutions?

And how will all of these points affect our profession in the future?

Unimportant what the future will bring, we have to consider the now, and what we, as designers have to change, instead of complaining and continuing in the way we are working now, without questioning directions we see as the wrong path. Positioning yourself in the right way by under standing your skills and values are necessary steps that have to be consider ed. But mainly we have to go back to work in a more collaborative way to create a more functional system in the industry. This includes appreciat ing the values of others, instead of seeing everybody as a possible con currence. With that comes the fact that we have to start supporting ideas of others, dealing with productive feedback and get the ‘sharing is scaring’ thought out of our heads.

We are running with time, that means we cannot ignore technological developments, instead we have to find a beneficial way of use. We cannot blame the Internet or other developments for the problematics, because the way we use them, creates the role it places for the industry.

We do not know how the future of working in the industry will look like.

It mainly depends on the decision and directions we will come up with.

Maybe everything will be done over the Internet and there will be no real design studios, in the form we know them now, anymore. Maybe every thing will be done on a freelance base. Just look at the new working system that some big companies started to use. They, instead of continuing to work with one big agency that decides internal who takes responsibility for which part of the design, collaborate with one or two designers.

They are responsible for putting the most impactful team together, related the necessary skills that are required, to do the job most sufficiently.

How would a future with this system look like?

Continuing with ignoring the facts and not questioning things that should be questioned is not an option. Because we are accepting, instead of facing, and trying to create changes. But isn’t that what we are in a way, 80

problem solvers? So how can we start to solve this one? How can we create a better system and what has to be done for that?

We as designers have the power to create the starting point. We define how the outside world and future clients see us. What do we have to do for that? That’s what I am trying to find out.

What’s the point?! represents a question and a statement in itself.

Because both, asking questions and understanding and listening to the dif ferent statements, are equally important points for getting closer to a solution, a solution that we need. The documentary represents my journey, my journey of questioning the main problematics and listening to the different opinions from the people in the industry. We as designers have to start to go back to our main origin as humans, which is collaboration.

My aim is not to create a solution, my aim is to create awareness and to visualise to others the situation we are in right now and what we have to expect from the future, without changes.

Because I want to work in the profession that I love, and I want to succeed. Isn’t that what we all want? But are we able to create useful solutions? Are we able to appreciate ourselves, our profession and each other, and mainly, how can we create the problem–solving impact?

That’s my point. So… what is yours?

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What's the Point?!

82

Essay Art and design’s role in society changes continuously and that of course means that art schools have to do so as well. Art schools need to reflect changes in society and the resulting implications for the arts, and challenge themselves to formulate how art education will allow students to connect their ambition with a position that has relevance in their chosen field.

One of the contemporary phenomena challenging art schools today is the advent over the past two decades of a confusing discourse on creativity. Creativity has become a driving term in many areas of cultural and economic policy, and this pre valence has created the impression of it being something tangible or knowable, resulting in terms like creative classes, creative cities, creative innovation and of course creative industries.

After the monumental economic shifts that changed our notions of labour from the production of goods to the production of services, there is now again a shift that leaves us baffled: in a second wave of globalization even service labour is leaving our economies. What is left? Creative industry policies represented a first attempt to react to those social, economic and cultural transformations that we associate with the immaterialisation of products and productive processes. The presumption is that by giving entrepreneurial artists, designers and other ‘creatives’ an exponential position within the economy (by granting them their own sector) they will turn into the accidental leaders of the ‘creative revolution’. In Western Europe as well as Australia, this policy has led to investments into all kinds of institutions, funds and infrastructure that would endorse and facilitate the mechanism of creativity.

Robert Hewison investigated this mechanism as it played out in the United Kingdom under the catchy phrase Cool Britania, coined by New Labour.

His observations clarify why the instrumentalisation of ‘art’, ‘design’, and ‘creat ivity’ comes with a built-in fallacy: ‘ The conversion of culture into an instrument of social and economic policy has changed what should be an offering into a requirement, and a response into an obligation. But creativity cannot be commanded, any more than its consequences can be predicted. Creativity depends on taking risks; the corollary is that the risk-taker must be trusted to understand the risk being taken. Everything that was done by New Labour to tie the arts and heritage into an instrumental agenda limited the creativity that it sought to encourage.’ 1 So how can an art school respond when this fallacy is understood but society still adheres to the demand that the arts and artists fulfil their economic promise?

Art schools could of course withdraw from society’s demands and create a biotope of their own—some schools do. They aim to educate artists and designers that operate from a fundamental sense of autonomy, not deterred by fads and fashion.

83

Other art schools embrace the many economic opportunities that the policies of the creative industries have created. Their aim is to educate artists and designers to become en trepreneurs that are able to connect their artistic position to opportunities in this field.

The master’s programme at AKV|St. Joost certainly acknowledges the validity of both of the models mentioned above, but seeks to find its own form through some es sen tial parameters. One of them is a continuously curious and reflective attitude towards societal changes—striving to deeply understand what the drivers behind cultural and political shifts are and of course educating students to understand them as well. This allows students and tutors to conduct open discussions on the meaning of these changes and the possible responses to them.

The other parameter is that each student has to gain their own understanding of the conditions for their practice and research. The term ‘performative autonomy’ is helpful in this endeavour. The term was coined by research professor Sebastian Olma, describing the principle of autonomy as an important condition for research and making, but not pointing towards an exclusive or passive autonomy. Coupling the concept of autonomy with the word performative underlines the former’s potential for being discursive and playful. Within these parameters students gain the agency necessary to determine for themselves how they can interact with the field. They do not simply have to endure; they can act, counteract, influence and innovate.

The parameters have created an intellectual biotope in our master’s programme over these last years; the shared building hat will be realized in 2017 is going to represent its physical form. We look forward to occupying one space with all of the participants of the different programmes. For it will create the conditions for students to discuss, test and challenge their work, opinions and abilities in a research community of artists and designers from very different cultural backgrounds and disciplines.

As Marcello Jacopo Biffi mentions in his introduction, it is not our aim to pin down definitions and models, but it certainly is our aim to understand the conditions for things to happen. The following glossary is a testimony to the joyously Babylonian positions and understandings our biotope has already been able to create and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

This text is the result of the stimulating discussions with research professors Sebastian Olma and Michel van Dartel, and with Marcello Jacopo Biffi.

I want to thank Sebastian Olma for very kindly pre-sharing parts of his publication In Defence of Serendipity, Repeata Books London (to be published in October 2016).

1 Hewison Robert; Cultural Capital: The Rise And Fall of Creative Britain, 2014, p.232

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Miriam Bestebreurtje

Head of the Masters

Glossary action [ak-shuh] noun

approach [uh-prohch] A verb B noun

several of these domains. The domains are time, space, goal, action, mood and role. p. 109 Balancing the collective aspect of the meeting (time, space and goal) with the individual aspect (role, mood and action). p. 109 Balancing the context (time & space), the content (goal & action) and the contact that is made during the meeting (role & mood). p. 158 To avoid drastic and frequent changes, at each round there is an amount of points you expend, and these are connected the actions you take. p. 104 The direct action is to try and teach asylum seekers Dutch by using hate-speech as study material. p. 104 Individually, each part tells its own narrative: the precondition, the preparation for action, and the actual action. p. 106 If we didn’t start to share our knowledge and coordinate our actions in meetings, our society wouldn’t be at the point it is today.

by the establishment of a dialectic relationship between two polar opposites: the first one equal to the maximum level of recognisability, the second one to the least. (A) p. 132 Certain processes and methods are relevant approached in the right circumstances. p. 109 Firewood is based on the idea that designing a meeting can be approached from 6 domains and that it is important to take all these six domains into account when you are designing a meeting. (A) p. 109 What I aimed for when picking these six domains was to find a balanced way of approaching the concept of a meeting. (A) p. 110 I designed Firewood to allow inexperienced meeting designers to approach meetings in a new way. (A) p. 132 The topics I have studied are design transitions, design processes, the agile approach and multidisciplinary teams. (B) p. 136 The agile approach tries to find a healthy relationship between logic and intuition. Agile comes from software development where features and solutions are able to evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, multidisciplinary teams. At Mirabeau, where I was able to conduct my field research, they use the agile approach ‘scrum’ to realize their digital experiences. (B)

p. 109 Every exercise is connected to one or

analysis [uh-nal-uh-sis] noun, plural analyses

p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major

role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). p. 156 The analysis of the social, psychological and philosophical consequences is what makes the picture darker, Bauman believes that we are reaching a point of inability to follow the changes that we generate ourselves.

answer [an-ser, ahn-] noun

p. 52 ‘What is a visual identity?’ is its underlying

question, although the attempt to give an answer to such a broad premise seems almost too naïve to be taken seriously. p. 132 This creates an environment for me where I have access to all the parts I need to study in order to answer my research question. p. 112 I constantly failed to find answers to all the questions I had. p. 106 During my graduation project, I tried to find the answer to two questions. p. 106 What I found out is that the answer lies in our caveman brain, the piece of hardware that drives our behaviour. p. 159 This system fails to answer the questions I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable.

application [ap-li-key-shuh] noun

p. 136 For example, this also applies to interac-

tive web applications that have a responsive beaviour in real time. p. 40 I explore the range of possibilities through different methods of application, and collaborations with a variety of people— artists or not. p. 138 With this problem in mind, an application is created to help people explore their surroundings again. But how can we help to engage the users with their surroundings? The application itself will be based on the user’s interests and give recommendations based on events around them while navigating. For example, my interest lays in cooking. Then the application can give a recommendation on a restaurant or cooking utility shop when nearby. p. 138 Therefore, a minimalistic and abstract navigation application is created, by letting a user explore this kind of places when already on the move.

A

85 p. 52 The fulfilment of this purpose is approached

art [ahrt] noun

p. 105 Another aspect worth mentioning is the

means of distribution for the materials outside of the limits of the artworld and its reach: the videos are part of an ongoing YouTube channel, a sort of guide through the experience and process of learning Dutch through this. p. 105 The motivation behind this project is studying how art can have a positive social impact. p. 105 The graduation project is just a first step in a long-duration commitment to engage with the political and the everyday in this fashion, through arts. p. 144 The significance of numbers in science, art, popular culture, religion, astrology, mythology and history have charismatic qualities. p. 40 My work is an attempt to create the feeling of uncanny by exploring the relationship between known/unknown, and art/design. p. 40 The art I create often refers to pop and mass culture. p. 40 The line between art and design blurs and everyday objects turn to grim reminders of things we prefer not to think about in the comfort of our private space. p. 26 Art, experienced as a visionary acknowledgement, helps me to find the way. p. 64 I focused on discovering the multicultural side of the city and its relation to art and culture. p. 112 I had an art crisis.

attitude [at-i-tood, -tyood] noun

p. 100 I try to raise questions for myself about

the validity of reactionary attitudes.

p. 100 And as there are a lot of variables at play

that I know will never allow this to be a balanced equation, as I’ve pointed out before, I will try to never stop at drawing conclusions and formulating simplistic solutions as—it is plain to see at this point how—they indeed are parallels of politicized speech; they are at the same time more politically directed and self-assuming the position of correct (as in accurate inside the bubble of their specific discourse of origin) than any PC attitude. p. 105 This can guide future dialogue and me-

diation between the subject of refugees and the reactionary attitudes that find themselves in direction opposition. p. 26 These processes are activated in my new project Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder through a playful and anarchist attitude which subverts the order and reveals the ambiguities in the everyday life.

change [cheynj] A verb B noun

p. 76 I believe in the impact that powerful design

can provide and the changes it can cause. (B)

p. 80 Unimportant what the future will bring, we

have to consider the now, and what we, as designers have to change, instead of complaining and continuing in the way we are working now, without questioning directions we see as the wrong path. (A) p. 81 Because we are accepting, instead of facing, and trying to create changes. (B) p. 81 My aim is not to create a solution, my aim is to create awareness and to visualise to others the situation we are in right now and what we have to expect from the future, without changes. (B) p. 156 Bauman has a perspective some what negative the path that our society takes, he argues that our society is experiencing a moment of liquefaction, a change from solid to liquid. (B) p. 156 The analysis of the social, psychological and philosophical consequences is what makes the picture darker, Bauman believes that we are reaching a point of inability to follow the changes that we generate ourselves. (B) p. 156 The scenario in which this research aims to study is a society in a constant acceleration of change and complexity that begins to realise the consequences of what we have created. In a world that demands information and constant rate of change, how does a communicator position himself? (B) p. 158 Commercial airlines logos have a few good examples of logos that have perdured over several decades without change, as an example KLM or Lufthansa logos that have both more than five decades. (B) p. 158 Those who had a controlled and steady evolution over time have a better process than those who made abrupt changes. (B) p. 158 In other words, it is better to adjust your logo to fit new trends and needs then making sudden changes over time. (B) p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo. (B) p. 158 To avoid drastic and frequent changes, at each round there is an amount of points you expend, and these are connected the actions you take. (B) p. 158 These changes can be applied both for visual elements and the rules itself. (B) p. 158 A set of equations was designed to regulate the changes that the Pan Am logo can go thru, and these are expressed mathematically to simplify the number of rules. (B) p. 159 There are virtually infinite possibilities of combinations of subsequent changes in the logo and opportunities increases over time. (B) p. 159 Changes in our world are beyond our control, and I feel as a designer that I should not fight these changes, I feel the urge to embrace them, accept it as an intrinsic part of my job. (B) p. 100 Free will and free thought morph, change, are capable of superpositions of opposing states. (B) p. 132 With the changes in what we are designing,

C it only seems logical that this also affects how we are designing. (B) p. 136 Dynamic processes go even further by stating that they acknowledge ongoing ‘project change’: change is a constant factor in some projects. (B) p. 64 I was living for two years in a city where I was not being able to meet new people while at the same time knowing so many individuals with the same feeling as me and looking for a connection point or space for change. (B) p. 65 Furthermore, one of the goals of this field is to bring social change, engage communities, and promote collaboration, open dialogue and influence communities, policy makers and institutions in the needs of the society. (B)

communication [kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuh] noun

p. 126 Utility includes concrete things like the

tactile material form, function of credibility, and communication of information. p. 144 These numbers are attached to our individual recollection. It is fascinating and intriguing that communication can be done in such a powerful minimalist fashion. p. 65 My focus is to design a double-sided experience with the main focus on communication where is created a win-win situation for everyone involved. p. 80 New ways of self-presentation and communication were born and networking in person went for a lot of designers to the second rank.

86 will try to never stop at drawing conclusions and formulating simplistic solutions as—it is plain to see at this point how—they indeed are parallels of politicized speech; they are at the same time more politically directed and self-assuming the position of correct (as in accurate inside the bubble of their specific discourse of origin) than any PC attitude. p. 132 By the use of literature and field research I have come to a conclusion concerning these matters and have set up additional recommendations. p. 132 In order to come to conclusions, I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multidisciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’ p. 136 This made me able to come to the following conclusions.

content [kon-tent] noun

p. 137 A workshop at the beginning of the project

that aligns the team on content and expectations, and let’s the team get to know each other in a fun and informal way. p. 70 The spectators form their meanings and interpretations of the invented characters by piecing together the clues and content they get through introductions and from the artefacts. p. 109 Balancing the context (time & space), the content (goal & action) and the contact that is made during the meeting (role & mood).

concept [kon-sept] noun

context [kon-tekst] noun

visual explorations to review everyday things that represent or communicate the concept uncertainty and it’s opposite certainty. p. 137 These conclusions helped me to develop the following concept. p. 40 Design is utilised as a means to connect with the audience through the use of a familiar language, all the while focusing on the importance of the concept and how it shows through the work. p. 40 In it, I combine opposing ideas and concepts in order to manipulate the viewer and create confusion. p. 65 For my thesis project, I want to take the concept of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola to the world. p. 68 Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola is an attempt to bring them together in one easy concept that can be shared and recreated in different places. p. 68 The final outcome of the project is to create a platform where the concept of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola is explained together with some personal stories of participants, documentation of the events and recipes. p. 112 I confront myself with situations I dread, which form the base of trying to grasp the concept of fear. p. 109 This way of dividing a meeting is one of the several ways to divide the concept of meeting into several parts. What I aimed for when picking these six domains was to find a balanced way of approaching the concept of a meeting.

practices the hopes are to also create a precedent for others to openly consider this and how to achieve it inside their own social and political context. p. 144 If we hear 911 (pronounced Nine Eleven) in a different context, we possibly think of a classic sports car, the Porsche 911. p. 132 However, this doesn’t mean it’s a waste to create guidelines to help designers in different contexts. p. 136 With quite an experience in organizing meetings, exhibitions and other activities, I discovered that I love organizing in a design context. p. 109 Balancing the context (time & space), the content (goal & action) and the contact that is made during the meeting (role & mood).

p. 150 The attached images are examples of

conclusion [kuh n-kloo-zhuh] noun

p. 158 The short conclusion from this graphic is

that logos can be sedimentary when analysed over time. p. 159 The exercise alone won’t lead me to any conclusions, but it gives a hint about a way to overcome time when designing today. p. 100 And as there are a lot of variables at play that I know will never allow this to be a balanced equation, as I’ve pointed out before, I

p. 105 But through the development of these

culture [kuhl-cher] noun

p. 53 Identity recognition lies in the eyes of the

beholder and it is the result of his/her experience, memory and visual culture.

p. 144 They speak about belief, religion, culture

and values.

p. 144 The significance of numbers in science,

art, popular culture, religion, astrology, mythology and history have charismatic qualities. p. 40 The art I create often refers to pop and mass culture. p. 64 In this programme, I focused on discovering the multicultural side of the city and its relation to art and culture. p. 68 Try to get to know the cultures that surrounded them and aimed for a more inclusive environment. Treating people as individuals and respecting the culture they come from. p. 68 It’s about designing an informal night where people can share who they are as individuals and their culture through food. p. 68 The idea is to break down some typical prejudices that come with your place of origin while at the same time give space to share your own culture proudly. p. 106 But at the same time, meetings are the

Glossary one thing that sparked the rapid evolution of human culture.

data [dey-tuh, dat-uh, dah-tuh] noun

p. 53 The goal was to achieve the lowest possible

level of information to leave the viewer with no data at all upon which building a recognition process. p. 150 In this example, your destination is a final location, though data does not always have the same level of sureness. The challenge for visualising this data is to prepare the information to ensure that the audience can find their way, even though their destination is not fixed.

When comparing quantitative data, there are many cases of gaps in the data, biases in the research and uncertainty when combining different sources of the information. How can a designer, instead of trying to show the data as a solid entity, embrace the uncertainty in the visualisation of data. p. 138 And this significant source of data is still growing every day.

design [dih-zahyn] A verb B noun C adjective

p. 76 How does it affect the design industry and

creation of powerful design solutions? (B) (C)

p. 76 As a child I was always impressed by the

way designs were put together. (B)

p. 76 Each part designed and developed by a dif-

ferent person created these amazing design solutions. (A) (C) p. 76 I believe in the impact that powerful design can provide and the changes it can cause. But how, when you consider the fact, that one-third of all design graduates is not finding jobs after graduation. (B) p. 76 This leads to designs that could reach higher potentials by using the right people for the jobs. (A) p. 80 Did we start to put our self-presentation before creating impactful and problem-solving design solutions? (B) p. 80 They, instead of continuing to work with one big agency that decides internal who takes responsibility for which part of the design, collaborate with one or two designers. (B) p. 156 In a world where déjà vu goes unnoticed by the consumer’s eye, the design seeks alternatives to keep his audience engaged in the messages. (B) p. 156 On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. (B) p. 158 Mostly because even if I project myself into the 90’s mentality, it would be impossible to ignore the knowledge of design I have from today. (B) p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo. (B) p. 126 How can I represent value in a design object that typically doesn’t have that value itself? (B) p. 126 Perhaps by defining a set of criteria, finding the ‘signifiers of value’ which can be used, I can develop a helpful guideline for my design process. (B) p. 126 I also like to think of some graphic design objects as having what I would call ‘layers of experience’ using a few of these signifiers. (B) p. 132 By nature design has been a nosy activity with individuals that have crossed disciplines, asked questions and constantly aim to innovate. (B)

Glossary p. 132 With the changes in what we are designing,

it only seems logical that this also affects how we are designing. (A) p. 132 I, therefore, studied the design process of multidisciplinary teams in an agile environment. (C) p. 132 The topics I have studied are design transitions, design processes, the agile approach and multidisciplinary teams. (C) p. 132 Design for me is about people; to understand them, cooperate with them, learn from them and eventually advise them. (B) p. 40 Design is utilised as a means to connect with the audience through the use of a familiar language, all the while focusing on the importance of the concept and how it shows through the work. (B) p. 65 My thesis research focus in social design and the practical part should reflect my findings on the subject. The term ‘Social Design’ was used for the first time by Victor Papanek to describe a form of design that is aware of designer’s role and responsibility in the society, where the designer understands precisely the social, economical and political background of what creates. (B) p. 106 And how can design can support the facilitation of more inspiring meetings? (B) p. 109 But the design of a meeting only starts there. (B) p. 65 Designers engaged in social design aim to publics considered ‘poor and disadvantaged’, going further away from their personal experiences and problems that surround them. (B) p. 65 My focus is to design a double-sided experience with the main focus on communication where is created a win-win situation for everyone involved. (A) p. 132 In order to come to conclusions, I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multidisciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’ (B) p. 136 The nature of design is that it is a complex interaction between the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to the market. Design processes are difficult to standardize, partly because of their iterative, non-linear nature, and also because the needs of clients and users are so different. (B) p. 109 Instead of looking at meetings as separate entities it helps you to approach them as one continuous meeting design process, where every meeting is a sketch, user test and end product at the same time. (C) p. 156 So all comes down into a question: ‘How to make long term design in a liquid society?’ (B)

element [el-uh-muh nt] noun

p. 57 Visual hierarchy is abolished and very dif-

ferent elements are clamped together.

p. 158 It starts with a system that is responsible

for generating the logo, breaking the logo into it core elements such as colour, composition, and its elements. p. 158 Altering an already existing element costs 1 point, adding or subtracting elements 2 points.

These changes can be applied both for visual elements and the rules itself. p. 105 The mélange of these elements embodies the goal: to imbue the audience with a state of discomfort and criticality over their own positioning on the subject.

environment [en-vahy-ruh n-muh nt] noun

p. 150 Enabling the audience to explore various

interpretations in an environment in which certainty seems a requirement.

E

87 p. 132 I, therefore, studied the design process

of multidisciplinary teams in an agile environment. p. 132 This creates an environment for me where I have access to all the parts I need to study in order to answer my research question. p. 132 In order to come to conclusions, I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multidisciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’ p. 137 So by cutting this phase not only makes the team miss certain input, resources and alignment, it also takes away an important environment where the team is able to get to know each other better in order to collaborate more successfully. p. 138 By losing touch with our environment, we miss a lot of interesting opportunities around us. p. 68 Try to get to know the cultures that surrounded them and aimed for a more inclusive environment.

experience [ik-speer-ee-uh ns] A verb B noun

p. 53 Identity recognition lies in the eyes of the

beholder and it is the result of his/her experience, memory and visual culture. (B) p. 57 Ultimately we experience the problem with representation. (A) p. 156 This projection is a speculation process based on our knowledge and experience as professionals, and there is no way to time-proof a design. (B) p. 105 Another aspect worth mentioning is the means of distribution for the materials outside of the limits of the artworld and its reach: the videos are part of an ongoing YouTube channel, a sort of guide through the experience and process of learning Dutch through this. (B) p. 132 Since 2001 they’ve been developing online services and digital experiences. Because Mirabeau is focussing on digital experiences, they work with multidisciplinary teams to realize their projects. (B) p. 136 With quite an experience in organizing meetings, exhibitions and other activities, I discovered that I love organizing in a design context. (B) p. 136 At Mirabeau, where I was able to conduct my field research, they use the agile approach ‘scrum’ to realize their digital experiences. (B) p. 65 Designers engaged in social design aim to publics considered ‘poor and disadvantaged’, going further away from their personal experiences and problems that surround them. My focus is to design a double-sided experience with the main focus on communication where is created a win-win situation for everyone involved. (B) p. 106 How we experience a collaboration can have great impact on our dedication and motivation to put effort and energy into a project. (A) p. 106 And meetings shape a big part of how we experience collaboration, simply because meetings are a much richer experience than sending emails or working together on a Trello board. (A) (B) p. 109 An inspiring, effective meeting that stimulates you to think and contribute can have a very positive impact on the way you experience the collaboration and how motivated and dedicated you are to put in your effort and energy. (B) p. 109 But when meetings feel like they are a waste of time, the experience of the whole collaboration can suffer, resulting in a decrease in motivation and dedication. (A)

experiment [ik-sper-uh-muh nt] A verb B noun

p. 156 By choosing a logo that died decades ago,

I gave myself the amount of time I needed to experiment with the logo over time, making my speculations based on what happened in our society over the time. (A) p. 118 I provide them with a collective goal and rules by which they must abide during the experiment. (B) p. 26 Thus as an initiate, I go into the world to experiment, to traverse new processes of consciousness. (A)

fail [feyl] verb

p. 112 I constantly failed to find answers to all

the questions I had.

p. 76 Others try it as start-ups, some succeed but

most of them fail.

p. 159 This system fails to answer the questions

I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable.

fear [feer] A verb B noun

p. 76 We all have them, we all fear them. (A) p. 76 This leads to frustrated designers, who out

of fear start accepting a job that does not fit their skills. (B) p. 20 It became a method to open up, redefine limits, conquer fear and get immune to embarrassments. (B) p. 100 I fear being political or politicized. (A) p. 100 Fear induced is yet another. And I can relate with that. I feel fear too. (B) p. 100 I somewhat fear the people around me, the reactionary politics, my friends’ spiraling into vitriolic thoughts. (A) p. 100 I see glimpses of this in hate-filled discourse as much as I see it in the justified but misdirected fear of people who call for just incremental increases in limiting the liberties and rights of a group of people based on their religion for example; (B) p. 112 Still, fear is a constant factor in our lives.

We have gotten used to the idea that we can control everything. But… we can’t. This is where fear kicks in. Fear can’t be controlled. (B) p. 112 I am an artist, but fear made me unable to make new projects. (B) p. 112 All because of fear. (B) p. 112 By using myself as a case study, I investigate how fear works. I confront myself with situations I dread, which form the base of trying to grasp the concept of fear. (B)

feeling [fee-ling] verb

p. 40 My work is an attempt to create the feeling

of uncanny by exploring the relationship between known/unknown, and art/design. p. 40 My aim is to leave the audience with a mix of conflicting feelings and thoughts. p. 64 I was living for two years in a city where I was not being able to meet new people while at the same time knowing so many individuals with the same feeling as me and looking for a connection point or space for change.

focus [foh-kuh s] A verb B noun

p. 80 And most importantly, did we, in all this

information overflow and thru the pressure to succeed, lose the main focus about what we as designers can do? (B) p. 132 Because Mirabeau is focussing on digital experiences, they work with multidisciplinary teams to realize their projects. (A) p. 137 The workshop is divided into parts that focus on team building; secondly on the purpose and interpretation of the question of the client and mapping out the different ways of thinking among the team members; and finally the ex-

F pectations and personal goals of the team members. (B) p. 40 Design is utilised as a means to connect with the audience through the use of a familiar language, all the while focusing on the importance of the concept and how it shows through the work. (A) p. 138 For users, it’s a perfect tool to find your way, but we don’t focus anymore on what’s around. (A) p. 65 My thesis research focus in social design and the practical part should reflect my findings on the subject. (A) p. 65 My focus is to design a double-sided experience with the main focus on communication where is created a win-win situation for everyone involved. (A)

form [fawrm] A verb B noun

p. 80 Maybe everything will be done over the In-

ternet and there will be no real design studios, in the form we know them now, anymore. (B) p. 118 Social frameworks come in any shape or form. (B) p. 126 Utility includes concrete things like the tactile material form, function of credibility, and communication of information. (B) p. 112 I confront myself with situations I dread, which form the base of trying to grasp the concept of fear. (A) p. 70 The spectators form their meanings and interpretations of the invented characters by piecing together the clues and content they get through introductions and from the artefacts. (A)

future [fyoo-cher] B noun C adjective

p. 80 And how will all of these points affect our

profession in the future? (B) p. 80 Unimportant what the future will bring, we have to consider the now, and what we, as designers have to change, instead of complaining and continuing in the way we are working now, without questioning directions we see as the wrong path. (B) p. 80 We do not know how the future of working in the industry will look like. (B) p. 80 How would a future with this system look like? (B) p. 81 We define how the outside world and future clients see us. (C) p. 81 My aim is not to create a solution, my aim is to create awareness and to visualise to others the situation we are in right now and what we have to expect from the future, without changes. (B) p. 156 On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. (B) p. 156 Because of that, I believe that is becoming harder and harder to position my practice towards the future. (B) p. 159 The result of this system is only observable with time, initially, it looks like a limitation to future designers who would be working on the logo, but these restrictions are meant to make sure that the original logo does not go thru a disruptive process, as we see in United Airlines for example. (C) p. 100 I am afraid of a group of people, of what it means to our future as a society and to the advances we’ve seemed to make in understanding our place and role here—wherever here might mean to you. (B) p. 105 This can guide future dialogue and mediation between the subject of refugees and the

Glossary

88 reactionary attitudes that find themselves in direction opposition. (C)

graphic [graf-ik] B noun C adjective

p. 76 ‘How to be a graphic designer without losing

your soul?’ (C)

p. 156 These are the reflections over an exercise

made during my research for the Masters in Graphic Design. (C) p. 156 To have a better view on the logo history for commercial airlines, I organised some of the main competitors on a time-based graphic. (B) p. 158 The short conclusion from this graphic is that logos can be sedimentary when analysed over time. (B) p. 159 The subsequent time-based graphic tries to show a bit how the opportunities rise as time passes. (B) p. 126 I believe there is a variety of ways, not only by using graphic illustrations and allegorical means. (C) p. 126 I also like to think of some graphic design objects as having what I would call ‘layers of experience’ using a few of these signifiers. (C) p. 132 Several times during my graduation phase people have asked me ‘But why are you studying this research question as a graphic designer?

This isn’t a typical topic a graphic designer would study, right?’ I wasn’t surprised to hear this question, but I think it totally represents who I am as a graphic designer, or maybe rather as a designer in general. And that is exactly what my journey during this Master Graphic Design was all about; finding what kind of (graphic) designer I am. (C)

guide [gahyd] A verb B noun

p. 158 To be able to limit and guide eventual

changes the system is based on cycles. (A)

p. 100 As one friend snarkly, yet still somewhat

humorously—probably wanting to be more provocative than I would like to admit—asked me if I was ‘happy about what political correctness lead to in Brussels’ in light of the terrorist attacks there, I felt confirmation that this term he so fondly uses pejoratively, stemming from being a passionate South Park fan, is starting to overlap with what we broadly employ as a guide for ethical correctness. (B) p. 105 This can guide future dialogue and mediation between the subject of refugees and the reactionary attitudes that find themselves in direction opposition. (A) p. 105 Another aspect worth mentioning is the means of distribution for the materials outside of the limits of the artworld and its reach: the videos are part of an ongoing YouTube channel, a sort of guide through the experience and process of learning Dutch through this. (B) p. 150 The available signs will provide one or more directions to guide you through this small, decisive moment. (A)

human [hyoo-muh n] B noun C adjective

p. 81 We as designers have to start to go back to

our main origin as humans, which is collaboration. (B) p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). (C) p. 105 This is fundamentally driven by ego and naivety: I want to be a better human being. (C) p. 106 But at the same time, meetings are the one thing that sparked the rapid evolution of human culture. (C)

icon [ahy-kon] noun

p. 53 Both Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe

share a unique spot in the stardom, the Vault of Heaven, and they are world-renowned icons that cannot be mistaken. p. 53 Icons were considered to be sacred and subject of worship amongst early Christians. p. 53 An antipode tries to counterbalance icons’ visual hegemony, establishing a complementary pole of darkness, oblivion, uncertainty.

idea [ahy-dee-uh, ahy-deeuh] noun

p. 80 With that comes the fact that we have to

start supporting ideas of others, dealing with productive feedback and get the ‘sharing is scaring’ thought out of our heads. p. 126 As a designer, how can I communicate the idea of authenticity and value? p. 126 Meaning includes abstract ideas like nostalgia and escapism, historical narrative, craftsmanship, and cultural identity. p. 40 In it, I combine opposing ideas and concepts in order to manipulate the viewer and create confusion. p. 64 Schilderswijk is considered the area with more unemployment rates and criminality; obviously, this aspect doesn’t promote the idea of an inclusive and multicultural city and doesn’t take advantage of the potential its people have to offer. p. 64 I had the idea of making a series of dinners in the summer of 2015. p. 65 The idea is to have series of meals with friends and strangers and great food. p. 68 The idea is to break down some typical prejudices that come with your place of origin while at the same time give space to share your own culture proudly. p. 112 We have gotten used to the idea that we can control everything. p. 70 Its ideas attacked the brutality of the French occupation of Vietnam but also wanted to learn modernisation from the French. p. 109 Firewood is a game-like tool that consists of a set of hexagonal tiles that all represent a short exercise that allow you to put your ideas on paper for one specific aspect of the meeting you are designing. p. 109 Firewood is based on the idea that designing a meeting can be approached from 6 domains and that it is important to take all these six domains into account when you are designing a meeting. p. 109 Every step in the design process with Firewood consists of three parts: deciding on which direction to take, put your ideas on paper and then reflect on those ideas. p. 110 The aim of Firewood is to not only think about what needs to happen at the meeting but also how and why this should happen, even consider the idea of not meeting at all, when it isn’t necessary.

identity [ahy-den-ti-tee] noun

p. 52 ‘What is a visual identity?’ is its underlying

question, although the attempt to give an answer to such a broad premise seems almost too naïve to be taken seriously. Indeed to succeed in representing thoroughly only with images what is the meaning of ‘visual identity’ is pure utopia. p. 52 The project consists of a heterogeneous corpus of 919 images sourced exclusively from the Internet with the aim to (partially) give an explanation to what is a visual identity. p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman im-

Glossary perial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). p. 53 Identity recognition lies in the eyes of the beholder and it is the result of his/her experience, memory and visual culture. p. 53 The Atlas of Visual Identity is a four months quest after the meaning of visual identity, presented in accurate chronological order. p. 126 Meaning includes abstract ideas like nostalgia and escapism, historical narrative, craftsmanship, and cultural identity. p. 20 During a long-term research on the malleability of identity, I started asking others to direct my life for 24 hours (A Scripted Life, 2015). p. 20 Throughout a constant search for the malleability of one’s identity I keep on wondering: can we choose who we want to be or are we forced to play the roles society expects of us? p. 112 No, I had an identity crisis.

image [im-ij] noun

p. 52 Indeed to succeed in representing thor-

oughly only with images what is the meaning of ‘visual identity’ is pure utopia. p. 52 The project consists of a heterogeneous corpus of 919 images sourced exclusively from the Internet with the aim to (partially) give an explanation to what is a visual identity. p. 53 Although the research was initially structured upon canonic typologies—such as portraits, statues, effigies, masks and so on—later it grew to include an unpredictable wide-range of images, only for them to become too diverse to be classified. p. 53 The first pole, classified as ‘iconic identities’, was meant to gather universal images acknowledged by everyone. p. 53 This time the research focused on images with barely no meaning, no history, no reference to reality. p. 53 The chosen appellative is a reference to Christian icons: Orthodox votive images of Christ (or other religious figures). p. 53 The images refused to stay silent, as they were crying out to tell their own story. Every image—despite little denotation—has an unavoidable connotation after all and is open to multiple, endless readings. Identity recognition lies in the eyes of the beholder and it is the result of his/her experience, memory and visual culture. The images do not merely have value in themselves, but they acquire multiple new meanings when they are put in close relation with each other. p. 57 As you would expect this book is a personal research tool, which includes images that especially relate to who designed it. There could be many more images, as numerous illustrious figures are surely missing. p. 57 The grid structure flattens the differences between the images and gives a uniform way of looking at them. It strives for maximum objectivity and anti-illusionism, while recalling image search engines’ aesthetics and layout and at the same time old faded photo-books. p. 126 The enchantment one might feel while surveying the details of a banknote for example… tactile ink and detailed image come together in the service of both security and craftsmanship.

industry [in-duh-stree] noun

p. 76 How does it affect the design industry and

creation of powerful design solutions? So what are the main problematics in the creative industry, which led to these issues and make the job search so hard and frustrating? p. 76 So why am I a designer, considering the struggles the industry has to face right now?

I

89 p. 76 How did a rising industry end up in this

situation? p. 80 Also, the Internet plays its part related the problematics the industry has to face right now. p. 80 But mainly we have to go back to work in a more collaborative way to create a more functional system in the industry. p. 80 We cannot blame the Internet or other developments for the problematics, because the way we use them, creates the role it places for the industry. p. 80 We do not know how the future of working in the industry will look like. p. 81 The documentary represents my journey, my journey of questioning the main problematics and listening to the different opinions from the people in the industry. p. 52 It is a losing battle—like Don Quixote tilting at windmills—in which the merit of the project (or the lack of it) are brought by the commitment to the research, carried on day after day with industry and obduracy, despite everything.

influence [in-floo-uh ns] A verb C adjective

p. 118 How does the country you live in, the gen-

eration you’re part of or the language you speak, influence who you are? (A) p. 126 Many of these characteristics are also inter-related, and influence each other. (A) p. 65 Furthermore, one of the goals of this field is to bring social change, engage communities, and promote collaboration, open dialogue and influence communities, policy makers and institutions in the needs of the society. (A) p. 109 A meeting is influenced by all these aspects and they can all be designed to allow them to work towards the goal of the meeting. (C)

internet [in-ter-net] noun

p. 80 How could we let it come so far, that we

overloaded the Internet with so much information, that instead of supporting us, by promoting ourselves, it created the opposite effect? p. 80 Also, the Internet plays its part related the problematics the industry has to face right now. p. 80 We cannot blame the Internet or other developments for the problematics, because the way we use them, creates the role it places for the industry. p. 80 Maybe everything will be done over the Internet and there will be no real design studios, in the form we know them now, anymore. p. 52 The project consists of a heterogeneous corpus of 919 images sourced exclusively from the Internet with the aim to (partially) give an explanation to what is a visual identity. p. 106 When you take a short browse through the internet, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for meetings.

job [job] noun

p. 76 So what are the main problematics in the

creative industry, which led to these issues and make the job search so hard and frustrating? p. 76 But how, when you consider the fact, that one-third of all design graduates is not finding jobs after graduation. Designers start to work in jobs not suited to their skills. p. 76 This leads to frustrated designers, who out of fear start accepting a job that does not fit their skills. This leads to designs that could reach higher potentials by using the right people for the jobs. p. 80 This was created thru the pressure in the job search, that led to a sharing is a scaring generation, which often forgets the importance and impact of a functional teamwork. p. 80 They are responsible for putting the most impactful team together, related the necessary

skills that are required, to do the job most sufficiently. p. 159 Changes in our world are beyond our control, and I feel as a designer that I should not fight these changes, I feel the urge to embrace them, accept it as an intrinsic part of my job. p. 106 So survival in the twenty-first century is about doing our job to the best of our abilities. p. 76 How many work, in jobs, which do not fit their skills?

knowledge [nol-ij] noun

p. 52 The Atlas of Visual Identity is a sinking

anchor in the bottomless sea of knowledge.

p. 156 This projection is a speculation process

based on our knowledge and experience as professionals, and there is no way to time-proof a design. p. 158 Mostly because even if I project myself into the 90’s mentality, it would be impossible to ignore the knowledge of design I have from today. p. 132 These findings I’ve developed into a shared, understandable and transmittable area of knowledge, so everyone who’s interested is able to improve their process. p. 137 And a team that collaborates in a better way is more capable of integrating knowledge during the project’s execution. p. 65 I had no knowledge about and having the possibility to know their stories in first hand. p. 106 If we didn’t start to share our knowledge and coordinate our actions in meetings, our society wouldn’t be at the point it is today.

learn [lurn] verb

p. 100 I shudder at the thought that I could be

witnessing the saccades of a society that, despite its numerous flaws, still seemed open to trying to learn from its mistakes in order to better itself; p. 104 To try and repurpose it into something useful: a tool for learning a language, for integration. p. 104 It is confrontational to see these people struggling to learn with snippets of speeches ranging from xenophobic, to ill-willing or vitriolic. p. 104 Another level on which confrontation occurs is that of the audience while observing the process of learning. p. 132 Design for me is about people; to understand them, cooperate with them, learn from them and eventually advise them. p. 70 Its ideas attacked the brutality of the French occupation of Vietnam but also wanted to learn modernisation from the French.

life [lahyf] noun

p. 46 Anna dreamt of starting a new life in The

Netherlands, where she is currently studying.

p. 158 Of course, this long life is only possible

with the help of an extensive and carefully made branding work around it, a logo by itself would not survive that long, no matter how well designed it is. p. 20 During a long-term research on the malleability of identity, I started asking others to direct my life for 24 hours (A Scripted Life, 2015). p. 136 In addition, real life (with its chasing market conditions and customer preferences) is much more dynamic, chaotic and fuzzy than any standard model can fully accommodate and often stages of the design process overlap. p. 26 These processes are activated in my new project Attitudes for a Vagrant Wonder through a playful and anarchist attitude which subverts the order and reveals the ambiguities in the everyday life.

L p. 70 In my opinion that story still reflects in now-

adays the life under Communism regime. p. 106 By contributing to our society and receive a financial reward that allows us the freedom to live our life the way we want to.

logo [loh-goh] noun

p. 53 Veils to hide distinctive faces, organic

shapes to counter idiosyncratic logos, the ordinary to overshadow the extraordinary. p. 156 By choosing a logo that died decades ago, I gave myself the amount of time I needed to experiment with the logo over time, making my speculations based on what happened in our society over the time. p. 156 To have a better view on the logo history for commercial airlines, I organised some of the main competitors on a time-based graphic. p. 158 It is interesting to point out some observations over the history of these logos. Commercial airlines logos have a few good examples of logos that have perdured over several decades without change, as an example KLM or Lufthansa logos that have both more than five decades. Of course, this long life is only possible with the help of an extensive and carefully made branding work around it, a logo by itself would not survive that long, no matter how well designed it is. p. 158 The short conclusion from this graphic is that logos can be sedimentary when analysed over time. p. 158 From the moment I started to think about the challenge, I knew that simply designing a logo and stating that it could live from ‘93 till today would not be fair. p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo. p. 158 It starts with a system that is responsible for generating the logo, breaking the logo into it core elements such as colour, composition, and its elements. p. 159 The result of this system is only observable with time, initially, it looks like a limitation to future designers who would be working on the logo, but these restrictions are meant to make sure that the original logo does not go thru a disruptive process, as we see in United Airlines for example. p. 159 This graphical representation is very limited and does not cover all the possibilities; it is just an example of a few possible evolutions that the logo could go. p. 158 Every five years the branding team would evaluate the latest social, economic and technological shifts in the scenario and decide if it was time to make a change in the logo or keep it for another cycle unchanged.

method [meth-uh d] noun

p. 20 It became a method to open up, redefine

limits, conquer fear and get immune to embarrassments. p. 132 Certain processes and methods are relevant approached in the right circumstances. p. 40 I explore the range of possibilities through different methods of application, and collaborations with a variety of people—artists or not. p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo.

nature [ney-cher] noun

p. 57 Inevitably the research won’t be finished

due its ever-changing and multiform nature.

Glossary

90 p. 132 By nature design has been a nosy activity

with individuals that have crossed disciplines, asked questions and constantly aim to innovate. p. 136 The nature of design is that it is a complex interaction between the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to the market. Design processes are difficult to standardize, partly because of their iterative, non-linear nature, and also because the needs of clients and users are so different.

object [ob-jikt, -jekt] noun

p. 32 I use different strategies to grasp these

relationships, ranging from micro to macro: by mapping and reframing objects of my family history, and giving to it different meanings. p. 126 How can I represent value in a design object that typically doesn’t have that value itself? p. 126 After some research, I have found that the function of signifiers of value can be divided in two parts: utility and meaning, or object and sign. p. 126 I also like to think of some graphic design objects as having what I would call ‘layers of experience’ using a few of these signifiers. p. 40 The line between art and design blurs and everyday objects turn to grim reminders of things we prefer not to think about in the comfort of our private space. p. 144 A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure and label.

people [pee-puh l] noun

p. 132 Design for me is about people; to under-

stand them, cooperate with them, learn from them and eventually advise them. p. 136 Which are, when you think about it, really important skills considering we design for people. p. 136 My curiosity and empathy for different kinds of people combined with my organizational skills made me conduct research for which I dived into a design process; where I had to make use of all the skills I love most as a person and as a designer. p. 136 The nature of design is that it is a complex interaction between the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to the market. p. 70 After so many years lived and worked around the world he backed to his homeland and aiming to educate the young generation also publishing his illustrations as a way to enlightening the people. p. 76 This leads to designs that could reach higher potentials by using the right people for the jobs. p. 81 The documentary represents my journey, my journey of questioning the main problematics and listening to the different opinions from the people in the industry. p. 100 I see reactions around me; I feel them in the tone of the people still teetering on the edge.

I read them online in the Facebook statuses of people that are my friends. p. 100 I am afraid of a group of people, of what it means to our future as a society and to the advances we’ve seemed to make in understanding our place and role here—wherever here might mean to you. p. 100 I see glimpses of this in hate-filled discourse as much as I see it in the justified but misdirected fear of people who call for just incremental increases in limiting the liberties and rights of a group of people based on their religion for example p. 100 I somewhat fear the people around me, the

reactionary politics, my friends’ spiraling into vitriolic thoughts. p. 104 I feel that ignoring the people spewing hate out only provides them with more room for maneuvering within society. p. 104 To confront people in the position he is in with this means for me to prime their criticality in such as sense as to put this subject clearly on the table. p. 104 Secondly, for the audience seeing the video works produces a reflexive twitch that pushes people out of their blasé dealing with these far-right discourses in much the same way as for the refugees themselves and much towards the same goal. p. 68 In this way, I want to invite people all over the world to try to implement their own events in the city they live in.

photo [foh-toh] noun

p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major

role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). p. 58 A month later, she wrote me a letter and included three photos of us: ‘Hello Uljana! I couldn’t write to you because the photos weren’t ready yet.’ p. 58 I came across the letter and the three photos again 17 years later.

present [prez-uh nt] A verb C adjective

p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major

role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). (C) p. 109 ‘Who will be present at the meeting?’ (A) p. 110 When you stop taking your meetings for granted and instead see them as opportunities for setting the atmosphere for a collaboration and consider the investments the participants make by being present at a meeting, you can transform your meetings from being boring and time-wasting to being an inspiring and motivating part of your collaboration. (A)

problem [prob-luh m] noun

p. 81 But isn’t that what we are in a way, problem

solvers?

p. 57 Ultimately we experience the problem with

representation.

p. 159 This system fails to answer the questions

I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable. p. 159 If the research has taught me something, is that I can’t rely on my speculations, for now, is just an unlikely solution to an imaginary problem. p. 138 While people are almost fully connected to their mobile phones, there is one problem that is bothering me the most, navigating with your phone. p. 138 With this problem in mind, an application is created to help people explore their surroundings again. p. 65 Designers engaged in social design aim to publics considered ‘poor and disadvantaged’, going further away from their personal experiences and problems that surround them.

product [prod-uh kt, -uhkt] noun

p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a

system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo.

Glossary p. 136 The nature of design is that it is a complex

interaction between the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to the market. p. 106 Our caveman’s brain doesn’t shape our behaviour based only on our lives today, it is the product of billions of years of evolution. p. 109 Instead of looking at meetings as separate entities it helps you to approach them as one continuous meeting design process, where every meeting is a sketch, user test and end product at the same time.

purpose [pur-puh s] noun

p. 52 The fulfilment of this purpose is approached

by the establishment of a dialectic relationship between two polar opposites: the first one equal to the maximum level of recognisability, the second one to the least. p. 136 The field research pointed out that team members often experience the ‘get ready phase’ (preparation) as being too short for its purpose. p. 137 The workshop is divided into parts that focus on team building; secondly on the purpose and interpretation of the question of the client and mapping out the different ways of thinking among the team members; and finally the expectations and personal goals of the team members. p. 109 A good meeting starts with having a purpose, a goal that all the participants can get behind.

question [kwes-chuh n] A verb B noun

p. 76 I have questions, a lot of them. (B) p. 80 But that also brings the question of what is

a professional in his/her field? (B) p. 81 ‘What’s the point?!’ represents a question and a statement in itself. Because both, asking questions and understanding and listening to the different statements, are equally important points for getting closer to a solution, a solution that we need. (B) p. 81 The documentary represents my journey, my journey of questioning the main problematics and listening to the different opinions from the people in the industry. (A) p. 52 ‘What is a visual identity?’ is its underlying question, although the attempt to give an answer to such a broad premise seems almost too naïve to be taken seriously. (B) p. 52 However the value of this project lies in the Herculean effort to try to provide a solution to a question that does not expect any. (B) p. 156 So all comes down into a question: ‘How to make long term design in a liquid society?’ (B) p. 100 I am not politically correct when I try to raise questions for myself about the validity of reactionary attitudes. (B) p. 132 By nature design has been a nosy activity with individuals that have crossed disciplines, asked questions and constantly aim to innovate. (B) p. 132 This creates an environment for me where I have access to all the parts I need to study in order to answer my research question. (B) p. 112 I constantly failed to find answers to all the questions I had. (B) p. 106 During my graduation project, I tried to find the answer to two questions. (B) p. 132 In order to come to conclusions, I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multidisciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’ (B) p. 137 The workshop is divided into parts that focus on team building; secondly on the purpose and interpretation of the question of

P

91 the client and mapping out the different ways of thinking among the team members; and finally the expectations and personal goals of the team members. p. 159 This system fails to answer the questions I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable. p. 159 The question now is that if I can make a deeper analysis of our past to find correlations between social-economical events to the redesigns of logos.

real [ree-uh l, reel] adjective

p. 80 Maybe everything will be done over the

Internet and there will be no real design studios, in the form we know them now, anymore. p. 57 For example how can we say that Warhol’s image of Marilyn references the real Marilyn? p. 136 In addition, real life (with its chasing market conditions and customer preferences) is much more dynamic, chaotic and fuzzy than any standard model can fully accommodate and often stages of the design process overlap. p. 136 For example, this also applies to interactive web applications that have a responsive beaviour in real time.

reason [ree-zuh n] A verb B noun

p. 76 There is a wide range of possible reasons. (B) p. 76 And the reason for that is simple. (B) p. 80 One reason is the big concurrence, which

was created thru the fact that everybody can call himself a designer, professional or non-professional. (B) p. 150 Uncertainty is not a hurdle that has to be avoided or overcome, but can be constructed into a positive instrument to reason about quantitative information. (A) p. 26 I often want to be safe within the walls of my reason, so I end up imprisoned by my own jail, by my own logic. (B)

relation [ri-ley-shuh n] noun

p. 53 The images do not merely have value in

themselves, but they acquire multiple new meanings when they are put in close relation with each other. p. 118 By letting them perform simple tasks, I reveal inner relations. p. 64 In this programme, I focused on discovering the multicultural side of the city and its relation to art and culture.

research [ri-surch, ree-surch] B noun C adjective

p. 52 It is a losing battle—like Don Quixote tilting

at windmills—in which the merit of the project (or the lack of it) are brought by the commitment to the research, carried on day after day with industry and obduracy, despite everything. (B) p. 53 Although the research was initially structured upon canonic typologies—such as portraits, statues, effigies, masks and so on—later it grew to include an unpredictable wide-range of images, only for them to become too diverse to be classified. (B) p. 53 This time the research focused on images with barely no meaning, no history, no reference to reality. (B) p. 53 ‘Blank’, ‘void’, ‘empty’, ‘anonymous’, ‘faceless’… have been some of the clues that prompted the research. (B) p. 57 As you would expect this book is a personal research tool, which includes images that especially relate to who designed it. (C) p. 57 Inevitably the research won’t be finished due its ever-changing and multiform nature. (B) p. 156 This research started when I acknowledged Zygmunt Bauman’s book Liquid Modernity. (B)

p. 156 The scenario in which this research aims

to study is a society in a constant acceleration of change and complexity that begins to realise the consequences of what we have created. (B) p. 159 If the research has taught me something, is that I can’t rely on my speculations, for now, is just an unlikely solution to an imaginary problem. (B) p. 126 After some research, I have found that the function of signifiers of value can be divided in two parts: utility and meaning, or object and sign. (B) p. 20 During a long-term research on the malleability of identity, I started asking others to direct my life for 24 hours (A Scripted Life, 2015). (B) p. 132 By the use of literature and field research I have come to a conclusion concerning these matters and have set up additional recommendations. (B) p. 136 My curiosity and empathy for different kinds of people combined with my organizational skills made me conduct research for which I dived into a design process; where I had to make use of all the skills I love most as a person and as a designer. (B) p. 106 TED-talks are discussing how they are a waste of time, research describing how they cost lots of money and an unlimited amount of articles discussing why meetings are bad and how they can be improved. (B) p. 132 ‘But why are you studying this research question as a graphic designer? (A)

role [rohl] noun

p. 80 We cannot blame the Internet or other de-

velopments for the problematics, because the way we use them, creates the role it places for the industry. p. 53 The analysis of portraits has had a major role throughout the process, since the human face has been regarded as the prevailing medium of covering identity, from Roman imperial period (emperors’ busts) to the present date (passport photos). p. 46 During the time I was photographing them, I started questioning our relationship and my exact role as an artist: was this friendship, or my work? p. 118 Are there roles to divide or patterns to unravel? p. 20 Throughout a constant search for the malleability of one’s identity I keep on wondering: can we choose who we want to be or are we forced to play the roles society expects of us? p. 100 I am afraid of a group of people, of what it means to our future as a society and to the advances we’ve seemed to make in understanding our place and role here—wherever here might mean to you. p. 132 What does this process look like; how do these different roles collaborate and relate to each other, and which challenges do they face? p. 65 The term ‘Social Design’ was used for the first time by Victor Papanek to describe a form of design that is aware of designer’s role and responsibility in the society, where the designer understands precisely the social, economical and political background of what creates. p. 109 For example, a space the meeting takes place in, the duration of the meeting, the role each of the participants take on during the meeting, the mood in which the participants are. p. 109 The domains are time, space, goal, action, mood and role. p. 109 Balancing the collective aspect of the meeting (time, space and goal) with the individual aspect (role, mood and action). Balancing

S the context (time & space), the content (goal & action) and the contact that is made during the meeting (role & mood).

social [soh-shuh l] adjective

p. 53 They are signs carrying a highly distinctive

characterisation, similarly rarefied and codified; Mickey’s and Marilyn’s visual identities recur always equal to themselves in social imaginary, therefore their strength. p. 156 The analysis of the social, psychological and philosophical consequences is what makes the picture darker, Bauman believes that we are reaching a point of inability to follow the changes that we generate ourselves. p. 158 Every five years the branding team would evaluate the latest social, economic and technological shifts in the scenario and decide if it was time to make a change in the logo or keep it for another cycle unchanged. p. 118 Social frameworks come in any shape or form. p. 118 We obey almost automatically invisible social rules depending on who we’re with. p. 105 The motivation behind this project is studying how art can have a positive social impact. p. 136 But I do see myself as someone who’s empathetic, social and genuine. p. 65 My thesis research focus in social design and the practical part should reflect my findings on the subject. The term ‘Social Design’ was used for the first time by Victor Papanek to describe a form of design that is aware of designer’s role and responsibility in the society, where the designer understands precisely the social, economical and political background of what creates. Furthermore, one of the goals of this field is to bring social change, engage communities, and promote collaboration, open dialogue and influence communities, policy makers and institutions in the needs of the society. p. 65 In a more negative remark of today’s view of social design is the exploitation of the communities in which designers pursue their work, where projects are abandoned after the deadline is over and communities are seen only as a ‘project’. p. 65 Designers engaged in social design aim to publics considered ‘poor and disadvantaged’, going further away from their personal experiences and problems that surround them. p. 68 ‘Sustainist Design Guide’ mentions some qualities that fit in the agenda for social design.

society [suh-sahy-i-tee] noun

p. 156 Bauman has a perspective somewhat neg-

ative the path that our society takes, he argues that our society is experiencing a moment of liquefaction, a change from solid to liquid. We live in a society in acceleration, like a rock melting in the intense heat. p. 156 The scenario in which this research aims to study is a society in a constant acceleration of change and complexity that begins to realise the consequences of what we have created. p. 156 So all comes down into a question: ‘How to make long term design in a liquid society?’ p. 156 By choosing a logo that died decades ago, I gave myself the amount of time I needed to experiment with the logo over time, making my speculations based on what happened in our society over the time. p. 20 Throughout a constant search for the malleability of one’s identity I keep on wondering: can we choose who we want to be or are we forced to play the roles society expects of us? p. 20 With the statements: ‘My body is a hotel/ My body is not a hotel’ I want to start a dialogue

Glossary

92 about sexism in our media-controlled society and encourage young women to break free from old stigmas and to open up about their limits and needs. p. 100 I am afraid of a group of people, of what it means to our future as a society and to the advances we’ve seemed to make in understanding our place and role here—wherever here might mean to you. p. 100 I shudder at the thought that I could be witnessing the saccades of a society that, despite its numerous flaws, still seemed open to trying to learn from its mistakes in order to better itself. p. 104 I feel that ignoring the people spewing hate out only provides them with more room for maneuvering within society. p. 144 For example, in Western society number 13 is regarded as unlucky, and 7 as lucky. p. 138 In our current society, there’s an overload of information every day. p. 65 Furthermore, one of the goals of this field is to bring social change, engage communities, and promote collaboration, open dialogue and influence communities, policy makers and institutions in the needs of the society. p. 106 If we didn’t start to share our knowledge and coordinate our actions in meetings, our society wouldn’t be at the point it is today. p. 106 By contributing to our society and receive a financial reward that allows us the freedom to live our life the way we want to.

p. 81 So how can we start to solve this one? p. 81 We as designers have to start to go

solution [suh-loo-shuh n] noun

to study is a society in a constant acceleration of change and complexity that begins to realise the consequences of what we have created. (A) p. 104 The direct action is to try and teach asylum seekers Dutch by using hate-speech as study material. (C) p. 104 Therefore, I aim to use myself as a case study to develop the course that also serves as a presentation to be able to pitch this course to organizations handling language classes for other migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. (B) p. 132 This creates an environment for me where I have access to all the parts I need to study in order to answer my research question. (A) p. 132 In order to come to conclusions, I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multidisciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’ (B) p. 132 ‘But why are you studying this research question as a graphic designer? (A) p. 132 This isn’t a typical topic a graphic designer would study, right?’ (A) p. 112 By using myself as a case study, I investigate how fear works. (B)

p. 76 How does it affect the design industry and

creation of powerful design solutions? p. 76 Each part designed and developed by a different person created these amazing design solutions. p. 76 How did they create these solutions in a team and what happened, to create the world out of I thinkers? p. 80 Did we start to put our self-presentation before creating impactful and problem-solving design solutions? p. 81 Because both, asking questions and understanding and listening to the different statements, are equally important points for getting closer to a solution, a solution that we need. p. 81 My aim is not to create a solution, my aim is to create awareness and to visualise to others the situation we are in right now and what we have to expect from the future, without changes. p. 81 But are we able to create useful solutions? p. 52 However the value of this project lies in the Herculean effort to try to provide a solution to a question that does not expect any. p. 136 Agile comes from software development where features and solutions are able to evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, multidisciplinary teams. p. 159 If the research has taught me something, is that I can’t rely on my speculations, for now, is just an unlikely solution to an imaginary problem.

start [stahrt] verb

p. 76 Designers start to work in jobs not suited

to their skills.

p. 76 This leads to frustrated designers, who out

of fear start accepting a job that does not fit their skills. p. 80 Did we start to put our self-presentation before creating impactful and problem-solving design solutions? p. 80 With that comes the fact that we have to start supporting ideas of others, dealing with productive feedback and get the ‘sharing is scaring’ thought out of our heads.

back to our main origin as humans, which is collaboration. p. 158 It starts with a system that is responsible for generating the logo, breaking the logo into it core elements such as colour, composition, and its elements. p. 20 I want to start a dialogue about sexism in our media controlled society and encourage young women to break free from old stigmas and to open up about their limits and needs. p. 137 The workshop is developed with the vision that when there isn’t enough time to prepare in the ‘get ready phase’ it can still help the team to get aligned, gather certain inputs and get to know each other to start sprinting more efficiently. p. 106 If we didn’t start to share our knowledge and coordinate our actions in meetings, our society wouldn’t be at the point it is today. p. 109 A good meeting starts with having a purpose, a goal that all the participants can get behind. p. 109 But the design of a meeting only starts there. p. 109 When you use Firewood, you start off with the starting tile, which helps to take inventory of what you already know about your meeting by asking the questions.

study [stuhd-ee] A verb B noun C adjective

p. 156 The scenario in which this research aims

subject [stuhd-ee] noun

p. 53 Icons were considered to be sacred and

subject of worship amongst early Christians.

p. 57 The inquiry into one pole or the other is not

constituted by separate moments in time, but it is performed as a unique continuous process, where the boundaries between ‘A’ and ‘B’ are often subtle and subject to interpretation. p. 46 I am interested in the interaction between subject and maker, and how this relationship is constructed, controlled and manipulated. p. 46 To what extent am I ‘using’ my subject? p. 46 This project is an attempt to show an honest relationship between subject and maker, where I put the artist’s integrity on display. p. 104 To confront people in the position he is in with this means for me to prime their criticality in such as sense as to put this subject clearly on the table. If this awareness slips from being

Glossary visible and graspable, it is subject to fall in the realm of control from other types of logic that have more to do with financial and political interests. p. 105 The mélange of these elements embodies the goal: to imbue the audience with a state of discomfort and criticality over their own positioning on the subject. p. 105 This can guide future dialogue and mediation between the subject of refugees and the reactionary attitudes that find themselves in direction opposition. p. 65 My thesis research focus in social design and the practical part should reflect my findings on the subject.

p. 52 However the value of this project lies in the

p. 80 How would a future with this system look

Herculean effort to try to provide a solution to a question that does not expect any. p. 53 The images do not merely have value in themselves, but they acquire multiple new meanings when they are put in close relation with each other. p. 126 As a designer, how can I communicate the idea of authenticity and value? p. 126 How can I represent value in a design object that typically doesn’t have that value itself? p. 126 Perhaps by defining a set of criteria, finding the ‘signifiers of value’ which can be used, I can develop a helpful guideline for my design process. p. 126 After some research, I have found that the function of signifiers of value can be divided in two parts: utility and meaning, or object and sign. p. 144 They speak about belief, religion, culture and values.

p. 81 How can we create a better system and what

work [wurk] A verb B noun

system [sis-tuh m] noun

p. 80 But mainly we have to go back to work in a

more collaborative way to create a more functional system in the industry.

like?

has to be done for that? p. 158 With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional design method that has as a product a undefiled logo. p. 158 It starts with a system that is responsible for generating the logo, breaking the logo into it core elements such as colour, composition, and its elements. The system should not fight changes; instead, it should embrace and even encourage it. To be able to limit and guide eventual changes the system is based on cycles. p. 159 The result of this system is only observable with time, initially, it looks like a limitation to future designers who would be working on the logo, but these restrictions are meant to make sure that the original logo does not go thru a disruptive process, as we see in United Airlines for example. p. 159 This system fails to answer the questions I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable. p. 80 Just look at the new working system that some big companies started to use. p. 118 The current education system still has many soviet traditions.

tool [tool] noun

p. 57 As you would expect this book is a person-

al research tool, which includes images that especially relate to who designed it. p. 156 On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. p. 138 For users, it’s a perfect tool to find your way, but we don’t focus anymore on what’s around. p. 109 Firewood is a game-like tool that consists of a set of hexagonal tiles that all represent a short exercise that allow you to put your ideas on paper for one specific aspect of the meeting you are designing. p. 104 To try and repurpose it into something useful: a tool for learning a language, for integration.

value [val-yoo] noun

p. 80 Positioning yourself in the right way by

understanding your skills and values are necessary steps that have to be considered. p. 80 This includes appreciating the values of others, instead of seeing everybody as a possible concurrence.

S

93

p. 76 Designers start to work in jobs not suited

to their skills. (A)

p. 80 But mainly we have to go back to work in a

more collaborative way to create a more functional system in the industry. (A)

p. 80 They, instead of continuing to work with

one big agency that decides internal who takes responsibility for which part of the design, collaborate with one or two designers. (A) p. 81 Because I want to work in the profession that I love, and I want to succeed. (A) p. 46 During the time I was photographing them, I started questioning our relationship and my exact role as an artist: was this friendship, or my work? (B) p. 156 On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. (B) p. 158 Of course, this long life is only possible with the help of an extensive and carefully made branding work around it, a logo by itself would not survive that long, no matter how well designed it is. (B) p. 20 As a visual artist, I work on projects that are close to me. (A) p. 104 Secondly, for the audience seeing the video works produces a reflexive twitch that pushes people out of their blasé dealing with these far-right discourses in much the same way as for the refugees themselves and much towards the same goal. (B) p. 137 Agile has taken a lot of friction away by forcing multidisciplinary teams of work more closely together. (A) p. 40 The works are on the one hand attractive, but on the other hand, draw inspiration from a sinister part of humanity. (B) p. 26 Within my work, the other senses open up and tell the inexpressible. (B) p. 65 In a more negative remark of today’s view of social design is the exploitation of the communities in which designers pursue their work, where projects are abandoned after the deadline is over and communities are seen only as a ‘project’. (B) p. 112 By using myself as a case study, I investigate how fear works. (A) p. 70 I build up detailed biographies of teacher Chau and the material evidence of his obsessive lives and works. (B) p. 106 Meetings take away this time that we can use to work. (A) p. 109 A meeting is influenced by all these

aspects and they can all be designed to allow them to work towards the goal of the meeting. (A) p. 76 How many work, in jobs, which do not fit their skills? (B) p. 156 On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. (B) p. 106 And meetings shape a big part of how we experience collaboration, simply because meetings are a much richer experience than sending emails or working together on a Trello board. (A) p. 70 After so many years lived and worked around the world he backed to his homeland and aiming to educate the young generation also publishing his illustrations as a way to enlightening the people. (A) p. 159 The result of this system is only observable with time, initially, it looks like a limitation to future designers who would be working on the logo, but these restrictions are meant to make sure that the original logo does not go thru a disruptive process, as we see in United Airlines for example. (A) p. 20 My current work, Love Hotel, shows an introspective, obsessive and (at times) destructive struggle on coping with a sexual trauma. (B) p. 20 Embracing the viewer with an absurd work, I transform matter into spirit, presence into absence, moving as a shaman in the interstice between the madness and the wisdom. (B)

world [wurld] noun

p. 76 How did they create these solutions in a

team and what happened, to create the world out of I thinkers? p. 81 We define how the outside world and future clients see us. p. 53 Both Mickey Mouse and Marilyn Monroe share a unique spot in the stardom, the Vault of Heaven, and they are world-renowned icons that cannot be mistaken. p. 156 In a world that demands information and constant rate of change, how does a communicator position himself? p. 156 In a world where déjà vu goes unnoticed by the consumer’s eye, the design seeks alternatives to keep his audience engaged in the messages. p. 159 Changes in our world are beyond our control, and I feel as a designer that I should not fight these changes, I feel the urge to embrace them, accept it as an intrinsic part of my job. p. 118 And how do they feel living in two opposite worlds? p. 26 Thus as an initiate, I go into the world to experiment, to traverse new processes of consciousness. p. 64 Den Haag as other big cities is moving more and more towards a multicultural place where people from all over the world come together while at the same time tend to divide and aggregate with their nationalities. p. 65 For my thesis project, I want to take the concept of Aggiungi un Posto a Tavola to the world. p. 68 In this way, I want to invite people all over the world to try to implement their own events in the city they live in. p. 112 We live in one of the safest countries in the world. p. 70 After so many years lived and worked around the world he backed to his homeland and aiming to educate the young generation also publishing his illustrations as a way to enlightening the people.

95

The Master of Fine Arts is a two-year, full-time programme. It offers artists the opportunity to deepen their practice and position themselves firmly within the historical and contemporary art discourse.

The artist’s role in society is changing. At AKV|St. Joost, students learn not only how to respond to the current challenges and opportunities, but also how to shape new realities. The programme is involved with new models of self-organization, alternative networks and artist-initiated activities. Tutors have practices engaged with these modes of working and help students to explore their own position within the contemporary landscape.

At the heart of the programme is the student’s independent research and studio practice, which are strongly integrated. Students will continually connect their developing critical vocabulary to others inside and outside the academy. This occurs in the form of self-organized symposia, wherein students invite artists, curators and critics to reflect with them on the themes relevant to their work.

Pursuing your master’s degree in the Netherlands means students will be part of a vibrant arts scene with a long and established history. At AKV|St. Joost, engagement with this community is encouraged and facilitated.

Students regularly execute projects in institutions and artist-run spaces outside of the academy. This includes the graduation exhibition, which is accompanied by the presentation of a thesis.

The Master of Fine Arts is housed in the former Remington factory in ’s-Hertogenbsoch. Critiques and weekly studio visits take place in an open and spacious shared studio, as well as outside of the academy. Starting from the course year 2017 – 2018, all master programmes will be housed in one building in’s-Hertogenbsoch. Studio space for all students and 24/7 access will facilitate concentration and interdisciplinary exchange even more.

AKV|St. Joost has well-equipped workshops for wood, ceramics, plastics, metal, 3D printing and much more.

Artistic Agency

96

International Network The programme maintains strong connections to key institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.

Recent collaborations: Glasgow School of Art (Glasgow) Sabanci University of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (Istanbul) SAIC, or School of the Art Institute (Chicago) A study trip to a foreign city is made at least once a year. All the major European art capitals are within a few hours reach.

Recent destinations: New York, United States Glasgow, Scotland Core Tutors Marjolijn Dijkman Thomas Bakker George Korsmit Bas van den Hur Erik Hagoort Guest lecturers Bonnie Dumanaw Philippine Hoegen Madelon Hoykaas Remy Jungerman Ine Lamers Freek Lomme David Maroto Jack Segbars

The Master of Graphic Design is a two-year, full-time programme. It offers designers the opportunity to deepen their practice and lay the foundation for a long-term, sustainable career in the field of design.

The programme centres upon the field of information design and is research-oriented. Students are trained in media and graphic design theory, as well as the communicative and ethical skills essential to the visual interpretation of information of today’s technology-based society. Tutors and guest lecturers are professionals with rich and active practices, allowing us to keep our finger on the pulse of the ever-shifting design world.

The independent research and studio practice of students are at the heart of the programme, which builds toward an increasingly self-driven approach. The educational trajectory begins with a process of experimentation, where students will be introduced to a variety of attitudes and practices. Gradually they will focus on the design method and context of their choice.

Engagement with the vibrant Dutch design scene is encouraged and facilitated. Students regularly apply their practice in a professional context by executing projects in institutions outside of the academy. This includes the graduation project, which is accompanied by a thesis.

AKV|St. Joost is unique in its location in the south of the Netherlands. The Graphic Design Department is housed in a former seminary at the Breda campus. Nestled within a small forest on the edge of the city, this inspiring location offers the space and focus necessary to study. Starting from the course year 2017 – 2018, all master programmes will be housed in one building in ’s-Hertogenbsoch. Studio space for all students and 24/7 access will facilitate concentration and interdisciplinary exchange even more.

Lectures and critiques take place in a shared studio equipped with computers. Students have access to the academy’s resources, which includes a printing office as well as graphic technique and bookbinding workshops.

A Focus on the Future

97

International Network The programme maintains strong connections with designers, publishers and institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.

Recent collaborations: Pratt Institute (New York) Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst (Zürich) Design Academy Eindhoven (Eindhoven) A study trip to a foreign city is made at least once a year. All the major European art capitals are within a few hours reach.

Recent destinations: Istanbul, Turkey Moscow, Russia Core Tutors Petr van Blokland Simon Davies Noortje van Eekelen Matthias Noordzij Annemaire Quispel Guest lecturers Samira Ben Laloua Vanessa van Dam Liza Enebeis Ward Janssen Kristin Metho Belle Pronchanya Sterre Sprengers Roel Stavorinus Studio NAAM Emmy van Thiel Pieter Vos (75B)

The Master of Photography is a two-year, full-time programme. It offers photographers and artists a critical context in which they can deepen their practice and lay the foundation for a long-term, sustainable career in the arts.

As the only master’s pro gramme in the Netherlands dedicated to photography, we operate from the broadest possible definition of the medium. The documentary discourse and lens-based media theory are starting points for an unorthodox vari ety of cultural production. Students and faculty work in a wide range of contexts, including film, performance, writing, activism and curation.

At the core of the programme is the student’s self-di rected research and studio practice. A strong theoretical component, combined with mentoring from a faculty of renowned artists, guides students towards the develop ment of process-based approach to artistic production.

The qualities and problems specific to lens-based media are explored from within the conceptual realm.

There is a lively roster of guest teachers and speakers, and students regularly apply their practice in a professional context by executing projects in institutions and artist-run spaces outside of the academy. This includes the final graduation exhibition, which is accompanied by a thesis.

The Photography Department is housed in a former seminary in historical Breda. Nestled within a small forest on the edge of the city, this inspiring location offers the space and focus necessary to deepen students’ practices. Starting from the course year 2017 – 2018, all master programmes will be housed in one building in ’s-Hertogenbsoch. Studio space for all students and 24/7 access will facilitate concentration and interdisciplinary exchange even more.

Students have access to the academy’s vast network of resources and workshops. This includes photography and editing studios, a bookbinding workshop, a darkroom for special processes and analogue printing.

An Engaged and Fluid Position

98

International Network The programme maintains strong connections to key institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.

Recent partnerships: EYE (Amsterdam) Garapa Collective (São Paulo) Parsons School of Design (New York) A study trip to a foreign city is made at least once a year. All the major European art capitals are within a few hours reach.

Recent destinations: Minsk, Belarus Theran, Iran Core Tutors Martine Stig Juul Hondius Marga Rotteveel Michiel van Opstal Philippe Moroux Noud Heerkens Frank van der Stock Guest lecturers Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen Rebekka Hartskamp Ine Lamers Femke Lutgerink Daniel Mayrit Kuno Terwindt Michael Toledano

99

Mihai Gui I Hate You All Welcome

I fear being political or politicized. I think it’s a zero-sum attempt to win a game of sorts, never in the advantage of free will. Free will and free thought morph, change, are capable of superpositions of opposing states. Never a zero-sum simply because it’s never an equation if all the variables and the operations between them stay in constant motion and on the same side of the equal sign.

I see reactions around me; I feel them in the tone of the people still teetering on the edge. I read them online in the Facebook statuses of people that are my friends. Reactionary is a way to describe them. Xenophobic, overly simplifying, hatred-filled is another one. Fear induced is yet another.

And I can relate with that. I feel fear too. I am afraid of a group of people, of what it means to our future as a society and to the advances we’ve seem ed to make in understanding our place and role here—wherever here might mean to you.

I somewhat fear the people around me, the reactionary politics, my friends’ spiraling into vitriolic thoughts. I shudder at the thought that I could be witnessing the saccades of a society that, despite its numerous flaws, still seemed open to trying to learn from its mistakes in order to bet ter itself; it saddens me to consider the possibility that it might signal a reversal of gears, of returning to narratives of ‘us vs. them’. I see glimpses of this in hate-filled discourse as much as I see it in the justified but misdi rected fear of people who call for just incremental increases in limiting the liberties and rights of a group of people based on their religion for example.

As one friend snarkly, yet still somewhat humorously—probably wanting to be more provocative than I would like to admit—asked me if I was ‘happy about what political correctness lead to in Brussels’ in light of the terrorist attacks there, I felt confirmation that this term he so fondly uses pejoratively, stemming from being a passionate South Park fan, is starting to overlap with what we broadly employ as a guide for ethical cor rectness. Or at least with decision making that should belong to the realm of the latter rather than the former. I am not politically correct when I try to raise questions for myself about the validity of reactionary attitudes; I am specifically trying to not be political, but rather simply correct, as in the way my mother tongue allows me to use the term—meaning also fair. And as there are a lot of variables at play that I know will never allow this to be a balanced equation, as I’ve pointed out before, I will try to never stop at drawing conclusions and formulating simplistic solutions as—it is plain to see at this point how—they indeed are parallels of politicized speech; they are at the same time more politically directed and self-assuming the 100

Master Photography

101

Project

102

103

Project

position of correct (as in accurate inside the bubble of their specific dis course of origin) than any PC attitude.

So, within this realm, I find myself conducting my project. The direct action is to try and teach asylum seekers Dutch by using hate-speech as study material. To try and repurpose it into something useful: a tool for learning a language, for integration. This takes place inside an organiza tion that specializes in N2T (Nederlands als tweede taal) classes.

Refugees bear the hallmarks of both global and a plurality of local narratives, inextricably intertwined. It is confrontational to see these people struggling to learn with snippets of speeches ranging from xenopho bic, to ill-willing or vitriolic. And this happens on two levels.

The first one is that of the actual refugees that are exposed to this discourse. They become aware of a reality that for the most part has nothing to do with them. In discussing with a refugee I have met that is close to receiving his citizenship, he told me he was aware of right-wing politicians, their supporters and their general trains of thoughts in the Netherlands; that it is their right to free speech and to say whatever they want to say; but that he had never once felt anything more than heartfully welcome.

To confront people in the position he is in with this means for me to prime their criticality in such as sense as to put this subject clearly on the table.

If this awareness slips from being visible and graspable, it is subject to fall in the realm of control from other types of logic that have more to do with financial and political interests.

Secondly, for the audience seeing the video works it produces a reflex ive twitch that pushes people out of their blasé dealing with these farright discourses in much the same way as for the refugees themselves and much towards the same goal. I feel that ignoring the people spewing hate out only provides them with more room for maneuvering within society.

Another level on which confrontation occurs is that of the audience while observing the process of learning. As Dutch co-nationals of both the people spewing out hate-speech as well as possibly some of those still using it to gain their citizenship, the audience becomes thrown in the midst of this tension.

As a first step towards developing these classes and at the core of the graduation project lies applying this methodology to myself. As a migrant, the right-wing discourses and ultranationalist rhetoric also apply to me.

Therefore, I aim to use myself as a case study to develop the course that also serves as a presentation to be able to pitch this course to organizations handling language classes for other migrants, refugees and asylum seekers.

The mix of appropriated found-footage of hate speech, the didac tical materials developed out of it and the actual video documentation of the language classes are the medium for presenting this project. Indi vidually, each part tells its own narrative: the precondition, the preparation for action, and the actual action. The mélange of these elements embod ies the goal: to imbue the audience with a state of discomfort and criticality 104

over their own positioning on the subject. This can guide future dialogue and mediation between the subject of refugees and the reactionary atti tudes that find themselves in direction opposition. Another aspect worth mentioning is the means of distribution for the materials outside of the limits of the artworld and its reach: the videos are part of an ongoing YouTube channel, a sort of guide through the experience and process of learning Dutch through this. Conversely, QR codes in the space of the graduation show allow the audience to download the actual courses and use them to whatever extent they wish to.

The motivation behind this project is studying how art can have a positive social impact. This is fundamentally driven by ego and naivety: I want to be a better human being. But through the development of these practices the hopes are to also create a precedent for others to openly con sider this and how to achieve it inside their own social and political con text. The graduation project is just a first step in a long-duration com mitment to engage with the political and the everyday in this fashion, through arts.

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I Hate You All Welcome

Martijn Veenstra Firewood

Meetings are an interesting phenomenon. When you take a short browse through the internet, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of love for meetings.

TED-talks are discussing how they are a waste of time, research describing how they cost lots of money and an unlimited amount of articles discus sing why meetings are bad and how they can be improved.

But at the same time, meetings are the one thing that sparked the rap id evolution of human culture. If we didn’t start to share our knowledge and coordinate our actions in meetings, our society wouldn’t be at the point it is today. So why did meetings stop being the invention that moves us forward and instead started being nuisances, keeping us from working?

During my graduation project, I tried to find the answer to two questions. Why are some meetings more inspiring than others? And how can design can support the facilitation of more inspiring meetings?

What I found out is that the answer lies in our caveman brain, the piece of hardware that drives our behaviour. Our caveman’s brain doesn’t shape our behaviour based only on our lives today, it is the product of billions of years of evolution. In these long stretches of time during which our caveman brain evolved it build up some very strong instincts.

The strongest instinct in our caveman brain is to survive. But what is interesting about our caveman brain is that in order to be able to survive, it had to collaborate. 12.000 years ago, it was crucial to our survival to collaborate with other cavemen to kill mammoths, protect the tribe against predators and create a safe shelter together.

Today, survival isn’t about killing mammoths anymore. After all, we can get food delivered to our door with the touch of a finger. But our caveman brain is looking for ways to help us survive anyway. How do we survive in the twenty-first century? By contributing to our society and re ceive a financial reward that allows us the freedom to live our life the way we want to.

So survival in the twenty-first century is about doing our job to the best of our abilities. In order to do this, we need enough time to deliver a certain level of quality. Meetings take away this time that we can use to work. Does that mean that meetings are completely useless? No, quite the contrary, in fact!

How we experience a collaboration can have great impact on our ded ication and motivation to put effort and energy into a project. And meet ings shape a big part of how we experience collaboration, simply because meetings are a much richer experience than sending emails or working together on a Trello board.

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An inspiring, effective meeting that stimulates you to think and contribute can have a very positive impact on the way you experience the collaboration and how motivated and dedicated you are to put in your effort and energy. But when meetings feel like they are a waste of time, the experience of the whole collaboration can suffer, resulting in a decrease in motivation and dedication.

A good meeting starts with having a purpose, a goal that all the par ticipants can get behind. When all the participants of the meeting feel like they need to be there, there is little chance they will consider it a waste of time. But the design of a meeting only starts there. The experience of a meeting is shaped by a lot of different aspects. For example, the space the meeting takes place in, the duration of the meeting, the role each of the participants take on during the meeting, the mood in which the partici pants are. A meeting is influenced by all these aspects and they can all be designed to allow them to work towards the goal of the meeting.

To support the process of designing meetings I came up with Fire wood. Firewood is an approachable way to start designing your meet ings. Instead of looking at meetings as separate entities it helps you to ap proach them as one continuous meeting design process, where every meeting is a sketch, user test and end product at the same time.

Firewood is a game-like tool that consists of a set of hexagonal tiles that all represent a short exercise that allow you to put your ideas on paper for one specific aspect of the meeting you are designing. Firewood is based on the idea that designing a meeting can be approached from 6 domains and that it is important to take all these six domains into account when you are designing a meeting. Every exercise is connected to one or several of these domains. The domains are time, space, goal, action, mood and role.

This way of dividing a meeting is one of the several ways to divide the concept of meeting into several parts. What I aimed for when picking these six domains was to find a balanced way of approaching the concept of a meeting. Balancing the collective aspect of the meeting (time, space and goal) with the individual aspect (role, mood and action). Balancing the context (time & space), the content (goal & action) and the contact that is made during the meeting (role & mood).

Every tile has two sides; one side consists of coloured segments that indicates to which domains the exercise in connected, the other side gives a short description of the exercise. When you use Firewood, you start off with the starting tile, which helps to take inventory of what you al ready know about your meeting by asking the questions: ‘Why is this meeting happening?’, ‘Who will be present at the meeting?’, ‘Where will the meeting be happening?’ and ‘When will it be happening?’.

After the starting exercise, the user can choose in which domain he wants to continue to build his meeting. Every step in the design process with Firewood consists of three parts: deciding on which direction to take, 109

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put your ideas on paper and then reflect on those ideas. These steps are represented by first going through the stack of tiles and picking an exercise, then following the instructions to the exercise on one side of the tile and finally switching the tile and connect it to one of the tiles already on the table. This final step allows you to visualise your meeting design process while you are going through it. This creates an opportunity to take a step back and look at the meeting as a whole, before deciding on the next step in the meeting design process.

After completing a number of exercises, the user can decide to end the Firewood design process by choosing the ending exercise as the next tile.

This tile once again takes inventory, but this time of what still needs to be done before the meeting by asking the questions: ‘What actions need to be taken before the meeting can take place?’, ‘Who needs to do it?’ and ‘When should it be finished?’. This leaves the user with a clear to-do list of tasks to finish before the meeting.

I designed Firewood to allow inexperienced meeting designers to approach meetings in a new way. The aim of Firewood is to not only think about what needs to happen at the meeting but also how and why this should happen, even consider the idea of not meeting at all, when it isn’t necessary. When you stop taking your meetings for granted and instead see them as opportunities for setting the atmosphere for a collaboration and consider the investments the participants make by being present at a meeting, you can transform your meetings from being boring and timewasting to being an inspiring and motivating part of your collaboration.

For more information, please visit cavemanbrain.nl

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Anne Lucassen Insert Title/Within and Without

We live in one of the safest countries in the world. Still, fear is a constant factor in our lives. We have gotten used to the idea that we can control everything. But… we can’t. This is where fear kicks in. Fear can’t be con trolled. Simultaneously we get scared when we lose control. A vicious circle, practically impossible to break. I am an artist, but fear made me una ble to make new projects. I had an art crisis. No, I had an identity crisis.

Obstacle after obstacle. All because of fear. Why didn’t I make any thing anymore? What was wrong with me? I constantly failed to find answers to all the questions I had. What once started as an insecurity trans formed into a serious problem. I was afraid of all that was unknown, and above all, I was scared to loose control.

By using myself as a case study, I investigate how fear works. I con front myself with situations I dread, which form the base of trying to grasp the concept of fear. A hopeless attempt, but I’m doing it anyway.

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Jacklyn Cornelisse Mova Nanova Belarus is known as the last dictatorship of Europe thanks to the autocratic regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko. The current education system still has many soviet traditions. Historical events are altered and liberal Belarusian writers banned. It is forbidden to teach outside the approved curriculum.

Anyone who does, is considered an activist and is forced to go underground.

This documentary tells the story of the rebels who go against the status quo. Why do students choose for this alternative education? And how do they feel living in two opposite worlds?

Images p.119–121

The Whole is Bigger Than the Sum of Parts Groups are our natural habitat. To be part of a collective is our default set ting and we often take for granted how we behave while being in the presence of others. Social frameworks come in any shape or form.

How does the country you live in, the generation you’re part of or the lan guage you speak, influence who you are? We obey almost automatically invisible social rules depending on who we’re with. I record, collect and create patterns which I find within groups. I provide them with a collective goal and rules by which they must abide during the experiment. By let ting them perform simple tasks, I reveal inner relations. The ‘Human Knot’ is used as a team building exercise. How do they make decisions?

Are there roles to divide or patterns to unravel? Will they follow my rules or cheat when it gets difficult?

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Jason Edwards Authenticity & Signifiers of Value

As a designer, how can I communicate the idea of authenticity and value?

How can I represent value in a design object that typically doesn’t have that value itself? I believe there is a variety of ways, not only by using graphic illustrations and allegorical means. But this is also a very subjective area, and requires some careful considerations.

Perhaps by defining a set of criteria, finding the ‘signifiers of value’ which can be used, I can develop a helpful guideline for my design process.

After some research, I have found that the function of signifiers of value can be divided in two parts: utility and meaning, or logic and emotion.

Utility includes concrete things like the tactile material form, function of credibility, and communication of information. Meaning includes abstract ideas like nostalgia and escapism, historical narrative, craftsmanship, and cultural identity. Many of these characteristics are also inter-related, and influence each other.

I also like to think of some graphic design objects as having what I would call ‘layers of experience’ using a few of these signifiers. This is par ticularly notable in some cases. The enchantment one might feel while surveying the details of a banknote for example… tactile ink and detailed image come together in the service of both security and craftsmanship.

War Is… Over?, 2015 1. inkjet print, 59�84cm This is a re-interpretation of the famous poster by John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1969. By tearing out information, the design speaks of war zone media censorship that has been taking place since the end of the conflict in Vietnam.

Kiezel Ceramics, 2016 2. polystyrene, ceramic, varying dimensions A product, brand, and webshop design project.

A series of ceramic tableware items were designed using a slip casting process to produce them. The product photo shows the plastic prototypes, and not the finished ceramic pieces.

Specialized Type, 2015 3. mixed softwood on board, 35x55x4cm Quotation from Buckminster Fuller published in 1963. The idea was to analyze this quote and use rhetorical experiments as a point of departure in visually representing it. By using a ‘specialized’ method to construct the typography, the failure of legibility became the predictable result.

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Nienke Jansen Align Design

Introduction—By nature design has been a nosy activity with individuals that have crossed disciplines, asked questions and constantly aim to inno vate. What is true, is that there is, and will be, no single recipe for good design practice. However, this doesn’t mean it’s a waste to create guidelines to help designers in different contexts. Certain processes and methods are relevant approached in the right circumstances. In a time where design challenges keep increasing in their complexity, designers face the ongo ing challenge of questioning and evolving their practice.

With the changes in what we are designing, it only seems logical that this also affects how we are designing. I therefore studied the design proc ess of a multidisciplinary teams in an agile environment. What does this process look like; how do these different roles collaborate and relate to each other, and which challenges do they face? By the use of literature—and field research I have come to a conclusion concerning these matters and have set up additional recommendations.

I conducted my field research at the digital agency Mirabeau. Since 2001 they’ve been developing online services and digital experiences.

Because Mirabeau is focussing on digital experiences, they work with multi disciplinary teams to realize their projects. A part of their projects they realize through scrumming, which is a framework within agile. This creates an environment for me where I have access to all the parts I need to study in order to answer my research question.

The topics I have studied are design transitions, design processes, the agile approach and multidisciplinary teams. These findings I’ve develop ed into a shared, understandable and transmittable area of knowledge, so everyone who’s interested is able to improve their process.

In order to come to conclusions I used the following research question as a guidance throughout this study: ‘How can the design process of a multi disciplinary team in an agile environment be improved?’

Motivation—Several times during my graduation phase people have asked me ‘But why are you studying this research question as a graphic designer?

This isn’t a typical topic a graphic designer would study, right?’ I wasn’t surprised to hear this question, but I think it totally represents who I am as a graphic designer, or maybe rather as a designer in general. And that is exactly what my journey during this Master Graphic Design was all about; finding what kind of (graphic) designer I am.

To discover this I decided I needed to know who I am as a person, and what design means for me. Design for me is about people; to understand 132

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CREATIVE BRIEF

team gets informed with main issues and questions regarding the project

visual exploration

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gather client + user input function

technical exploration + consultancy tech

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sprint 0 − Fill product backlog − Design principles − ID heads up

retrospective − reflection

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− pick up user stories − start building

− pick up new user stories − continue building

Align Design

them, cooperate with them, learn from them and eventually advise them.

I don’t see myself as the most talented image-maker, which might seem weird to say if you want to be a designer. But I do see myself as someone who’s empathetic, social and genuine. Which are, when you think about it, really important skills considering we design for people. Additionally, as a person I am a good organizer with a strong sense of responsibility. With quite an experience in organizing meetings, exhibitions and other activ ities, I discovered that I love organizing in a design context. My curiosity and empathy for different kinds of people combined with my organiza tional skills made me conduct research for which I dived into a design proc ess; where I had to make use of all the skills I love most as a person and as a designer.

The research—The nature of design is that it is a complex interaction be tween the people and the decision-making processes involved in bringing a product or service to the market. Design processes are difficult to stand ardize, partly because of their iterative, non-linear nature, and also because the needs of clients and users are so different. In addition, real life (with its chasing market conditions and customer preferences) is much more dy namic, chaotic and fuzzy than any standard model can fully accommo date and often stages of the design process overlap. Dynamic processes go even further by stating that they acknowledge ongoing ‘project change’: change is a constant factor in some projects. Web 2.0 projects need dynam ic functionality. For example, this also applies to interactive web applications that have a responsive behavior in real time. Therefore, the process must be designed to be flexible, adaptable and interactive to make logic and intuition intertwine with each other.

The agile approach tries to find a healthy relationship between logic and intuition. Agile comes from software development where features and solutions are able to evolve through collaboration between self– organizing, multidisciplinary teams. At Mirabeau, where I was able to conduct my field research, they use the agile approach ‘scrum’ to realize their digital experiences. With the help of literature research and many interviews and observations I’ve studied their scrum processes. This made me able to come to the following conclusions: Conclusions 1. The ‘get ready phase’ is too short—The field research pointed out that team members often experience the ‘get ready phase’ (preparation) as be ing too short for it’s purpose. It even turns out that the consequences of a short or poorly executed ‘get ready’ will be felt somewhere later in the proc ess. I.e. missing certain input or resources to sprint at full speed. Another important trait of the ‘get ready phase’ is preparing the team into the right direction.

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that’s working in slightly different directions, which will cause unneces sary discussions and time wasted along the process. The ‘get ready phase’ should be focussed on preparing and doing groundwork to be able to sprint effectively.

2. Team building should take place at the beginning of a project—Usually typical team building events like having dinner or a drink together take place when the team has something to celebrate; at the end of the project.

However it turns out that when a team knows each other a bit better at the beginning of a project, their collaboration is more likely to be more suc cessful. And a team that collaborates in a better way is more capable of integrating knowledge during the project’s execution. Interpersonal bonds and trust are important to invest in, in order to have a bigger rate of suc cess within the team. This early team building is also something that could typically take place in the ‘get ready phase’. So by cutting this phase not only makes the team miss certain input, resources and alignment, it also takes away an important environment where the team is able to get to know each other better in order to collaborate more successfully.

3. Insight and understanding in each others activities—Being able to under stand what team members are doing, in able to communicate with them, is very important when executing a project. Agile has taken a lot of friction away by forcing multidisciplinary teams to work more closely together.

However I think empathy is still something that is worth investing in among team members.

The Concept—These conclusions helped me to develop the concept: A workshop at the beginning of the project that aligns the team on content and expectations, and let’s the team get to know each other in a fun and informal way.

The workshop is developed with the vision that when there isn’t enough time to prepare in the ‘get ready phase’ it can still help the team to get align ed, gather certain inputs and get to know each other to start sprinting more effectively. The workshop is divided in parts that focusses on team building; secondly on the purpose and interpretation of the question of the client and mapping out the different ways of thinking among the team members; and finally the expectations and personal goals of the team members.

It has been a pleasure conducting this research with it’s additional concept. My graduation project feels right, where I’ve put the skills I love most as a person and designer in practice and ended up with a project that therefore represents me.

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Sander van der Kooij Exploring the City Again

In our current society, there’s an overload of information every day. The information comes from everywhere, but there’s one device that takes most of our attention. Namely the smartphone. Since the beginning of it be came easier to get all sorts of information directly underneath your thumb.

And this significant source of data is still growing every day.

While people are almost fully connected to their mobile phones, there is one problem that is bothering me the most, navigating with your phone.

For users, it’s a perfect tool to find your way, but we don’t focus anymore on what’s around.

By losing touch with our environment, we miss a lot of interesting op portunities around us. With this problem in mind, an application is cre ated to help people explore their surroundings again. But how can we help to engage the users with their surroundings?

The application itself will be based on the user’s interests and give recommendations based on events around them while navigating. For example, my interest lays in cooking. Then the application can give a rec ommendation on a restaurant or cooking utility shop when nearby.

Finding these places on the web is not that hard but finding them by accident gives much more satisfaction to a user. Therefore, a minimalistic and abstract navigation application is created, by letting a user explore this kind of places when already on the move. Not every detail of the event is told to a user. A user has to search and discover it for him or herself.

Prototype navigational interface Digital, 1920�1080px 1. An experiment for a spacial navigation whereby the different rings are the travel time from your current point. The events are displayed with small dots that get bigger the closer you get to that certain event.

3. A minimalistic approach to create a path like structure. This was an experiment to conclude how minimal a system could get, but still would be able to navigate.

4. A sonar like navigation that searches around you for events. The waves in the system get smaller when approaching a certain event 520 steps later, 2015 2., 5. Photography. A random page of the process, with the 4 different routes next to each other.

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Ad van Halteren Numbers Speak for Themselves

A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure and label.

Besides their practical use, numbers have cultural significance and are en graved in our collective conscience and memory. They speak about be lief, religion, culture and values. For example, in Western society number 13 is regarded as unlucky, and 7 as lucky. Chinese try to avoid number 7.

For them, it is an inauspicious number that is associated with deceive.

In the Bible number 7 has spiritual significance. It derives much of its mean ing from being tied directly to God’s creation of all things. 9/11 reminds us of the terrorist attacks on the United States of America in 2001. Most of us know exactly where they were and what they were doing at that specific moment. Thoughts, memories and emotions appear when we see this combination of numbers. If we hear 911 (pronounced Nine Eleven) in a dif ferent context, we possibly think of a classic sports car, the Porsche 911.

Number 14 is attached to the legendary soccer player Johan Cruyff, who wore this number during his football career when he played for AFC Ajax and the Dutch National team. 020 is the dialling area code of Amsterdam, 010 of Rotterdam. These codes became proud symbols of these regions.

The combination of both evokes the rivalry between these regions and the sentiment that goes with it.

The significance of numbers in science, art, popular culture, religion, astrology, mythology and history have charismatic qualities. Which echoes through our personal and collective conscience and memory. These num bers are attached to our individual recollection. It is fascinating and in triguing that communication can be done in such a powerful minimalist fashion.

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Armella van den Heuvel Uncertainty as a Visual Instrument

Imagine walking through the airport Schiphol Amsterdam to find a rest room facility. A flash of uncertainty will surface questioning which direction to walk. The available signs will provide one or more directions to guide you through this small, decisive moment (Mijksenaar Wayfinding Experts, 2016). In this example, your destination is a final location, though data does not always have the same level of sureness. The challenge for visualising this data is to prepare the information to ensure that the audience can find their way, even though their destination is not fixed. When comparing quantitative data, there are many cases of gaps in the data, biases in the re search and uncertainty when combining different sources of the infor mation. How can a designer, instead of trying to show the data as a solid entity, embrace the uncertainty in the visualisation of data.

Uncertainty is uncelebrated. Uncertainty is not a hurdle that has to be avoided or overcome, but can be constructed into a positive instrument to reason about quantitative information. Enabling the audience to explore various interpretations in an environment in which certainty seems a requirement.

The attached images are examples of visual explorations to review everyday things that represent or communicate the concept uncertainty and it’s opposite certainty. They are not part of the end result.

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André Burnier Evolutive Design Designing for the Long Term in a Liquid Society

Context—These are the reflections over an exercise made during my research for the Masters in Graphic Design. This research started when I acknowledged Zygmunt Bauman’s book Liquid Modernity. Bauman has a perspective somewhat negative the path that our society takes, he argues that our society is experiencing a moment of liquefaction, a change from solid to liquid. We live in a society in acceleration, like a rock melting in the intense heat. The analysis of the social, psychological and philosophical consequences is what makes the picture darker, Bauman believes that we are reaching a point of inability to follow the changes that we generate ourselves.

The scenario in which this research aims to study is a society in a con stant acceleration of change and complexity that begins to realise the consequences of what we have created. In a world that demands informa tion and constant rate of change, how does a communicator position him self? In a world where déjà vu goes unnoticed by the consumer’s eye, the design seeks alternatives to keep his audience engaged in the messages.

On the other hand, designers have the tradition to use design as a tool to project a future, we as designers have to plan our work in a way that it will have an optimised shelf-life, that will be appreciated and useful for as much time as possible. This projection is a speculation process based on our knowledge and experience as professionals, and there is no way to time-proof a design. Bauman’s argument aggravates this because we’re in acceleration, the changes are happening more often than yesterday and tomorrow tend to be faster than today. Because of that, I believe that is be coming harder and harder to position my practice towards the future.

So all comes down into a question: ‘How to make long term design in a liquid society?’

Pan Am logo—To discuss this conflict point, I proposed myself a time-based exercise. Imagine I became the designer responsible for Pan Am logo redesign in 1993. New investors bought Pan Am, and they were determined to recover the company from its economic crisis. Pan Am original logo was already a recognised worldwide logo, and it could be a starting point.

By choosing a logo that died decades ago, I gave myself the amount of time I needed to experiment with the logo over time, making my specula tions based on what happened in our society over the time. To have a better view on the logo history for commercial airlines, I organised some of the main competitors on a time-based graphic.

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It is interesting to point out some observations over the history of these logos. Commercial airlines logos have a few good examples of logos that have perdured over several decades without change, as an example KLM or Lufthansa logos that have both more than five decades. Of course, this long life is only possible with the help of an extensive and carefully made branding work around it, a logo by itself would not survive that long, no matter how well designed it is. On the other hand, the evolution proc ess of United Airlines seem a little chaotic and even random at some points, drastic redesigns and entirely new logos appeared more often than any other company researched. In the middle of this spectrum, we can observe American Airlines and Air France logos which had a steady but contin uous evolution. The French company keep until today the same symbol it had in the 30’s, redesigned and reshaped to fit contemporary aesthetics.

The short conclusion from this graphic is that logos can be sedimen tary when analysed over time. Those who had a controlled and steady evolution over time have a better process than those who made abrupt changes. In other words, it is better to adjust your logo to fit new trends and needs then making sudden changes over time.

From the moment I started to think about the challenge, I knew that simply designing a logo and stating that it could live from ‘93 till today would not be fair. Mostly because even if I project myself into the 90’s men tality, it would be impossible to ignore the knowledge of design I have from today. With this in mind, I decided to create a system that embraces the eventual changes and adjustments, going against the traditional de sign method that has as a product a undefiled logo.

It starts with a system that is responsible for generating the logo, breaking the logo into it core elements such as colour, composition, and its elements. The system should not fight changes; instead, it should em brace and even encourage it. To be able to limit and guide eventual changes the system is based on cycles. Every five years the branding team would evaluate the latest social, economic and technological shifts in the scenario and decide if it was time to make a change in the logo or keep it for an other cycle unchanged.

To avoid drastic and frequent changes, at each round there is an amount of points you expend, and these are connected the actions you take.

Altering an already existing element costs 1 point, adding or subtracting elements 2 points. These changes can be applied both for visual elements and the rules itself. It means that not only the logo can be adjusted, but also the rules are subjective to adjustments if it is found necessary.

A set of equations was designed to regulate the changes that the Pan Am logo can go thru, and these are expressed mathematically to simpli fy the number of rules. These equations have as variables the number of points spent in the last cycles (C−x ) and the current cycle costs (C0). The first rule states that the maximum amount of points you have per cycle is 3 points, C0 < 3. The second states that at least a small adjustment should 158

be done in the logo every 4 cycles – C−3 + C−2+ C−1 + C0 > 0. The final equa tion—((C−2) x 2 ⁄3 ) + C−1 + C0 < 5—regulates the frequency of the changes, it is important for the health of the logo to have free-of-change cycles too.

In other words, if the logo had gone thru major changes in the last years you can’t change it again, and on the other hand, if the logo had not gone thru major changes you can make more radical changes in the current cycle.

The result of this system is only observable with time, initially, it looks like a limitation to future designers who would be working on the logo, but these restrictions are meant to make sure that the original logo does not go thru a disruptive process, as we see in United Airlines for example.

There are virtually infinite possibilities of combinations of subsequent changes in the logo and opportunities increases over time. The subsequent time-based graphic tries to show a bit how the opportunities rise as time passes. This graphical representation is very limited and does not cover all the possibilities; it is just an example of a few possible evolutions that the logo could go.

Conclusions—The exercise alone didn’t lead me to conclusions, but it gives a hint about a way to overcome time when designing today. Changes in our world are beyond our control, and I feel as a designer that I should not fight these changes, I feel the urge to embrace them, accept it as an in trinsic part of my job.

This system fails to answer the questions I posed for this problem, in my opinion, the way I designed the rules should be less changeable.

Mixing math and design in this way can lead me to pseudoscience proce dures and weak conclusions, something that I want to avoid. The ques tion now is that if I can make a deeper analysis of our past to find correla tions between social-economical events to the redesigns of logos. If the research has taught me something, is that I can’t rely on my speculations, for now, is just an unlikely solution to an imaginary problem.

159

Evolutive Design

160

161

162

35 36

37 38

39 40

41

42 43

44 45

46 47

48 49

50

51 52

53 54

55 56

Contacts

Viola Barth Austria, (*1991)

Marcello Jacopo Biffi Italy, (*1992)

↳ design@violabarth.com ↳ violabarth.com

p. 52

Graphic Design

↳ verena.blok@xs4all.nl ↳ verenablok.com

p. 76

Graphic Design

Verena Blok the Netherlands, (*1990)

↳ info@mjbiffi.com ↳ mjbiffi.com

“I am a multidisciplinary designer focused on interaction and tactile design that seeks collaboration as the key for strong design solutions.”

“It is only after you have come to know the surface of things that you venture to seek what is underneath. But the surface is inexhaustible.”

André Burnier Brazil, (*1987)

Jacklyn Cornelisse the Netherlands, (*1992)

↳ andre@andreburnier.com ↳ andreburnier.com

↳ jacklyn.cornelisse@gmail.com ↳ jacklyncornelisse.com

p. 118

Photography

p. 156

Graphic Design

p. 46

Photography

“I see my photographic practice as a way of embodying a voice of an individual. The encounter is the chore, the fuel, for my work.”

“I'm a young designer who loves to face new challenges with each project he participates in.”

“I explore how human identity is being influenced by social frameworks. Is there an unchangeable core or are we a plaything to our surroundings?”

Jason Edwards Canada, (*1985)

Simone Engelen the Netherlands, (*1988)

Mihai Gui Romania, (*1989)

↳ jedwardsfoto@gmail.com ↳ jasonedwards.ca

↳ simone.engelen@gmail.com ↳ simone-engelen.com

p. 100

“An inner struggle on coping with a sexual trauma.”

Photography

p. 20

177

Photography

p. 126

Graphic Design

“I enjoy the result of working in an interdisciplinary approach to construct objects and messages.”

↳ gui.mihai@yahoo.com ↳ mgui.xyz

“I aim to use art in order to potentiate the renegociation of power flows around different social issues. WHAT can art DO? WHY must art DO?”

Ad van Halteren the Netherlands, (*1971) ↳ adcreativecowboy@gmail.com

Armella van den Heuvel the Netherlands, (*1989) ↳ armellavdheuvel@gmail.com

Nienke Jansen the Netherlands, (*1992) ↳ njgrafisch@gmail.com ↳ nienkejansen.com

p. 132

Graphic Design

p. 15s0

Graphic Design

p. 144

Graphic Design

“Design is an act of discovery. A good idea or clever solution must be found.

Without it, design is soulless to me.”

“Not to be absolutely certain is the...”

“Design for me is about people; to understand them, cooperate with them, learn from them and eventually advise them.”

Dorina Kappatou Greece, (*1989) ↳ dorina.kappatou@gmail.com ↳ cargocollective.com/velvetvortex

Sander van der Kooij the Netherlands, (*1993) ↳ svdkooij93@gmail.com

Adriano La Licata Italy, (*1989) ↳ adriano.lalicata@gmail.com ↳ cargocollective.com/adrianolalicata

“I’m an analytical graphic designer that creates clear visual communication by filtering and structuring complex data.”

“I could have been a boy, maybe, probably I was a cat indeed.”

Sara Lima Portugal, (*1991) ↳ saraoliveiralima@gmail.com ↳ behance.net/saralima

Anne Lucassen the Netherlands, (*1989) ↳ info@annelucassen.com ↳ annelucassen.com

Marta Masiero Brazil, (*1983) ↳ masiero.marta@gmail.com ↳ martamasiero.com

p. 32

“As a visual artist my practice focuses on identity issues. Photography and film are the tools I use to get a grip on my subjects.”

Fine Art

p. 112

178

Photography

p. 64

Graphic Design

“Inspired by different people, places and cultures, trying to find my position as a graphic designer engaged in social design.”

p. 26

Fine Art

p. 138

Graphic Design

p. 40

Fine Art

“I like a look of agony, because I know it's true—.”

“Interested in how life can influence human relations and vice-versa.”

Uljana Orlova the Netherlands, (*1985)

Colophon

↳ uljanaorlova@gmail.com ↳ uljanaorlova.com

Editor Miriam Bestebreurtje

Photography

Texts Miriam Bestebreurtje Marcello Jacopo Biffi and the students Concept and Design Marcello Jacopo Biffi Alessandro Carosso Daniel Quisek Image credits Piffin Duvekot

“As a visual artist I am driven by my curiosity; I never hesitate to ask questions in order to reveal the system, be critical and change it.”

44, 45

Jason Edwards

5, 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, 33, 34, 42, 43, 46, 47, 54

Mihai Gui

1 - 2 (cover), 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 21, 28, 32, 39, 40, 41, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 56

Thành Vinh Vietnam, (*1988)

↳ thanhvinhartist@gmail.com ↳ thanh-vinh.com

Adriano La Licata 35, 36, 37, 38, 49

Special thanks to Jason Edwards and Mihai Gui, who assisted the editing of the first section of the gallery.

Printing Unicum by Gianotten Fine Art

Tilburg, the Netherlands

Binding Stronkhorst Bookbinders Groningen, the Netherlands

Typefaces Graphik (Christian Schwartz) Commercial Type

“I work with drawing, painting and installation. I invent fictional characters whose stories are inspired by the sociocultural context of Vietnam.”

Lyon Text (Kai Bernau) Commercial Type

Marr Sans (Paul Barnes, Dave Foster) Commercial Type

Suisse Int’l (Swiss Typefaces) Martijn Veenstra the Netherlands, (*1991)

↳ martijnveenstra@gmail.com ↳ martijnveenstra.nl

Swiss Typefaces

Paper Munken Lynx Rough 300 g/sm

Munken Lynx 80 g/sm

Munken Lynx

100 g/sm Graphic Design

Cyclus Offset 90 g/sm

Edition of 500 copies © AKV|St.Joost and the students.

All rights reserved.

“I’m a multidisciplinary designer who uses the process of design to facilitate, clarify and improve the ways in which people work together.”

179

AKV|St.â&#x20AC;&#x2030;Joost Catalogue 2016 Master Fine Art Master Graphic Design Master Photography ISBN: 978-90-71015-47-2