Plans for Prototype 3

The last prototype failed, but it was good because I figured out a better direction to move in that is a better way to represent my project. For the next prototype I’m revisiting my pod idea from over break, but looking at ways of making it portable. It will be a system of collapsable hoops, that will nest into each other accordion style.

thumbnails:
 

half scale:

Sorting through it

I’m finally in a more concise, focused, coherent place with my concept and have finally figured out what I want my project to convey. I’ve gone from an array of behavioral issues, and pinpointed the cause of the behaviors themself: insecurity. Millennials’ egos have become over-inflated as a way of overcompensating for insecurities they have about self-worth, due to years of empty praise and undeserving ego-boosting to create and preserve false self-esteem. Whatever products I make for thesis must combat this insecurity, but do so under the guise of something else, a high-end designer object.

However, I’m still having some creative issues. The ego and self-esteem are intangible, amorphous feelings, and I’m not quite sure yet what those feelings look like in physical form. I started with the whole body, and considered parts that need protection, what the existing gear looks like, and how it functions.

 

I’ve narrowed the areas of interest to the head, chest & groin (for now), and I’ve been sketching, going first to the obvious things, and then attempting to move past that. The resulting products must be merged and brought into the language of high end fashion to serve a dual functionality to project an image of material wealth & therefore subsequent importance, while providing security for the ego….

Product Shoot Style Idea 1

Wired magazine does this really groovy thing every month in the back of the magazine. It’s called Found Artifacts, which take everyday concepts, items, products, etc. and revise them for the future…essentially it’s critical design but in a more tame, easy to digest form. 

Below are pictures from last month’s Found Artifacts: Happy Meal 2013

  

I like the style of the  photo illustration, and it could be a good alternative to having the physical products to show. Art directing shoots like this is what I used to do at my former job, so the main thing I would have to focus on is packaging and producing realistic looking products. It would be easy to throw something like this up on the screen while Rebecca talked, or to have on the wall during thesis show.

Friends and Revelations

I’ve finally figured out the huge GAPING hole in my thesis (let’s leave the smaller ones for another post), which apparently has been staring me in the face the entire time I’ve been going through this process.

Because my project has been largely based on my opinion, without much to ground it in hard research, there has been a definite lack of depth and development of the products. AND, when I finally did the research and found out that everything I had been saying about certain behaviors and beliefs, and the adverse effects of too much self-esteem, I really had nothing original to say.

The products have simply served as ways to highlight those behaviors and attitudes, but as a friend pointed out tonight, so what? What am I trying to prove by creating these products? That these bizarre behaviors exist? No one is denying that they do, and therein lies the problem. I spent so much time thinking about the actions of my peers, and how I could showcase them, that I failed to address the real issue, which is what I actually have to say about all this.

I was touching on it in the beginning of this process when I brought the socially detrimental aspect into the issue, but moved away from it when I realized I wasn’t showing it (I finally get it Barbara!). Especially since all of the research simply reaffirms that not only do the attitudes and beliefs exist, but they are also statistically on the rise….and never once do any of the articles address why it’s an issue, which is what my thesis must do.

These products cannot be about highlighting behaviors, but seek to show why these behaviors are socially detrimental…they create:

1. A media that capitalizes and embraces these behaviors, making them desirable and glamourous, thus cementing them into the popular culture 
2. People only interested in money & material wealth
3. Indifferent individuals, rather than compassionate community
4. Acceptance and reenforcement of negative social norms such as narcissism (within one’s social circle)
5. The idea that working hard is obsolete when accomplishments are simply handed to you
6. A generation of insecure & dependent individuals, furthering the financial crisis

My goal for the next few days is going to be to brainstorm and create products and services that are based on these ideals.