Design Ethics

I think Ethics is a process of learning – not a process of obedience. Ethic is the rule governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession which also sets the principles of right of conducts. It is about why we design and how we judge.

Today it is more important than ever that designers understand how influential their work really is and how they can use it to promote their ideals. Graphic Design is a form of communication in which visual information is used to convey a message its applications are endless, and it has the potential to make the world a better place.

what it should take is for each designer to examine his or her own morals and understand the role of design in the world that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice”

 The designer must work with harmony and balance in mind, working for the good of the weaker members of our society, and be willing to face the consequences of their design interventions, and accepting their social and moral responsibilities. 

As a practitioner-researcher, I should be aware of these issues and how I might respond to the. Work ethics include not only how one feels about their job, career or vocation, but also how one does his/her job or responsibilities. This involves attitude, behaviour, respect, communication, and interaction; how one gets along with others. Work ethics demonstrate many things about whom and how a person is

One way to design ethically is to apply your talents to serve a social or cultural purpose, or fill a need in society. Design can be used to open people’s eyes to important issues, bring people together for a common purpose, or serve public needs. Political posters, promotions for cultural events, identities for non-profit organizations, and educational materials are all possibilities.

Another way to design ethically is make sure that your clients reflect your morals as well. Researching a client’s background is important to keep personal integrity and to make sure your work won’t be used to represent something you don’t agree with. Designers must step back and take a look at the meaning their work on what it produces, and what it stands for.

Each client we work with is a reflection on our integrity, so we must take precautions before agreeing to take on a new client relationship. A main focus of Adbusters magazine is to break design molds and change minds. 

Caroline Whitbeck in Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research argues that ethics is traditionally regarded as judging something that has already been done. But the bigger challenge and what ethics should be is about the way to act. And that is a problem of design devising ethical courses of action. A designer should not only make things that look good but also be able to help explain the value of what they design in a larger context, Respect other designers in fair and open competition, Be honest when you are describing your professional experience and competencies, Avoid any type of conflict of interest, Acquaint yourself with each client’s business and provide honest and impartial advice, Maintain the confidentiality of all client information, Eliminate any form of hidden compensation or kickback, Maintain commitment to the development of innovative work of the highest quality, Reject all forms of plagiarism ethics and social responsibility, Acknowledge authorship of others who have collaborated with you in creating a designDesign itself is ethics. It is all about what is the right thing to do and to follow rules, and not just technically. Everything that is made is an argument about how we should live our lives. The world is filled with competing objects that are arguing amongst themselves for our attention. "Live my way! Live my way!" Deciding where and how to employ the art of design is an ethical issue.

Designers need to be both technically right and compellingly wise. Wisdom is about evaluating and choosing between competing principles. And to be wise is to be aware. And awareness is the passage to action.

Resources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethics

What are work ethics? http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/what-are-work-ethics-faq.htm

Campus Session 8th Feb 2011

Summarising the session

Task 1

Was about discussing and mapping our knowledge of BAPP. Two questions were asked

·      What I needed to know to be a professional practitioner?

·      What I needed to know to be a successful professional practitioner?

These questions were a starting point then we were asked to think within our whole profession and represent our thoughts and findings graphically.

Building blocks for my professional practice as an

Events design manager

SPECIALIZED 

ADAPTABLE

GENERIC

GENERIC-This felt to be the foundation for a professional practitioner and was named.  Within this block i included skills and knowledge that are required whatever practice I was a BAPP pursued.

ADAPTABLE- as a candidate my feeling suggested that practitioners should relate to having these skills and knowledge but depending on each individuals professional practice these sub headings would be developed and used differently. I.E. PROMOTION / FIND CLIENTS, these can be done by advertising yourself, doing work for free to get well known and also finding agencies and many more.

SPECIALIZED -This is the top block and this helps define my professional practice as an Events design Manager.  It is called “Specialized” as it includes very specific skills and knowledge associated and needed to succeed in our chosen field.

By developing this block design we could now easily distinguish the skills and knowledge we required to be successful.  We could use it as a tool to individually start to recognize the things we were capable of and competent at and the things we needed to acquire or refine. 

A skill is something you acquire and become competent at, but knowledge is never ending.  There is always more unknown than can ever be known.

This lead nicely on to more stimulating questions.

*What do you know?

*What do you yet know?

*What do you want to know?

*What are your big professional questions? (Starting to produce thoughts for inquiry)

As a group we proposed and discussed “Big questions” trying to stimulate ideas for our individual lines of inquiry.  Unfortunately I am yet to stumble upon anything that I may wish to inquire but I will use the above questions over the next few days to hopefully generate a clearer idea.

To once again disect our individual professional practice we were asked

*Within your professional practice what are your personal advantages and what are your challenges?

Here are my thoughts

CHALLENGES	ADVANTAGES
Not becoming stereotyped	My developing knowledge
Establishing new contacts & clients	My age and experience
Maintaining status	My previous career as a performer
Staying current	Business has been established for 5yrs
Finding suitable committed employees	Recommendations
Networking	Being in a partnership
Funding

I was very interested to discover that what was an advantage to one profession actually challenged another.

I.E The older I have become whilst being an event supervisor manager the more respect I seem to gain from my colleagues, staff etc and clients as they seem to know and have confident that I have the skills, knowledge and run a successful event.  Where as a Graphic designer i felt challenged by my works although more experience are required

The final part of the day was focused on Special Interest Groups (SIG), working to develop a strategy that worked best for all participants of BAPP Module 3835

Here is a brief outline of what was proposed

•                A closed BAPP Module 3835 group would be created by Paula Nottingham on Facebook

•                Everybody on this module would be invited to join

•                Threads would be started by individuals wishing to discuss aspects / questions relevant to their professional practice

•                 Few Bapp students would comment and reply to threads that they were interested / knowledgeable in

•                There ain’t no limit to the amount of threads you can involve yourself in

•                If there was a thread in which particularly you were interested in then you are encouraged to blog about your thoughts

•                The person who started the thread should evaluate it on their blog and post this to the group

•                At some point (Time frame to be discussed on a separate thread) more specific groups would be created to go further and deeper into discussions thus creating a more concentrated membership

•                You wouldn’t be limited to the number of core groups you join

•                These new core groups would also be closed and include students on the module but also invite industry professional relevant to the groups topics.

•                These professionals would hopefully inject useful questions, knowledge, proposals etc to help us BAPP students to  progress with our own development in our chosen professional practice.

Reference

Nicole Louise Geddes

http://nicolelouisegeddes.blogspot.com/2011/02/summery-of-campus-session-8th-feb-2011.html?showComment=1298136057499#c7090949165325419686

Inquiry based learning

Inquiry based learning is mainly involving the learner and leading him to understand. Inquiry here implies on the possessing skills and attitude of yours, which allows you to ask questions about new resolutions and issues while you are gaining new information.

Dictionary meaning of Inquiry is seeking knowledge, information, or truth through questioning. All the people carry on with this process throughout their life, even if you might find it not very much reflecting. For example, infants use inquiry to build their sense of the world, the babies turn towards voices, put things in their mouths, grasp things, and observe faces that come near. The inquiry process is mainly the gathering of data and information and applying them to senses like smelling, tasting, touching, hearing and seeing.

Very sadly, our traditional ways of teaching discourage the process of inquiry. It makes us get less prone to asking questions as we move through our grade levels, we are expected to listen and repeat the expected answers. This is due to the lack of understanding of inquiry based learning. Inquiry based learning is not just asking questions, but it is a way of converting data and information into useful knowledge. A useful application of inquiry based learning involves many different factors, which are, a different level of questions, a focus for questions, a framework for questions, and a context for questions.

http://www.teach-nology.com/currenttrends

Line of Inquiry with in the design, management team as a candidate

A series of questions have arose to mind regarding what am going to do after I graduate with in the programme or title when I graduate

When I thought of this I had series of thoughts coming to mind eg

• ·       What you have is not all you have
• 
  
• ·       My resources aren’t limited
• 
  
• ·       Time is nothing as we are changing, developing and molding everyday

Straight away i thought Event design Manager would suit the role am looking for. in other words i have combined graphic design and event manager into once sentence.
Since my work new what i study and do they have used my talent to produce certain design at my work place and i work as a supervisor event manager,  but there could still be a chance to change and tweak my title in the coming future.

Ever since the FdA graduation of graphic and multimedia design m I have sort of swifted into event management. I have really enjoyed graphic design I mean winning competition and being a runner up as well as being a freelancer but due to the economic statues and challenge including years of experience this has not enabled me to pursue the design line despite I still have little interest in it

I have had thoughts and began to change and being influenced in the field or company I work in.

Being with them over five years I have developed an interest in managing staff,  clients, organisers, chefs and my function room.

 As a person I enjoy the fact that I get to co-ordinate how the room will look like and even though it has been set up I could tweak things around and make it of the best interest for my organiser to be satisfied with.

At times I get to decorate the meals in a certain way to attract the customers to eat , I also get to design the menu stand in a professional way for this the customers are able to read and identify what they want.

Currently as an event supervisor manager which involves studying the intricacies of the brand, identifying the target audience, devising the event concept, planning the logistics and coordinating the technical aspects before actually executing the modalities of the proposed event and organizations service a variety of areas including corporate events (product launches, press conferences, corporate meetings and conferences), marketing programs (road shows, grand opening events), and special corporate hospitality events like concerts, award ceremonies, film premieres, launch/release parties, fashion shows, commercial events, private (personal) events such as weddings and many more

I plan and execute the events by creatively make the event successfully event though its ran behind the scenes.

Going back to my three  bullet point it has proved and showed how I have moved changed or made changes and developed interest in what am doing.

I still believe this aint the end and am not there yet as I said time is nothing as we are changing, developing and molding everyday so we keep going on and on and move to different field until we say we’ve certainly achieved what we want and gain and learnt experiences

Rerences

Event manager SOP (pdf)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_management

http://ww2.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/event_organiser_job_description.jsp

Kolb Learning Cycle

Concrete Experience

I studied  a two year foundation degree in Barnet college

FdA Graphic design.

During that time i had to learn how to design a co-operate identity for clients.

But in this case i had to do my own.

I had to find out the size of the business card  and what colours would attract my clients to my business card even though its seen on the floor or found on the floor.

Most of the time i got the size of the business card wrong even the complimentary card.

I had to produce both black and white version's of what i have personally done. all this was a big process.

Over the years i have done a co-operate identity for clients in fact i had to do one for myself and i named it LANTERN, lantern has light its full of energy, i chose colour red because its a colour you can't miss it represent energy, power and its very significant.

At this present time i do have the same logo and i designed myself a business card

to network with clients, organisations, friends and many more.

Reflective Observation

Well i wouldn't say i want  to be a professional singer but some how one day i do want to perform in X factor.

Ever since i was born i used to play the keyboard, but i had always found the keys hard to play.

i started to improvise but that never worked.

My tutor mrs Hodges gave me a note book to learn to study and practice but due to the fact i didnt have enough time at school i decided to practice at home.

Unfortunately  there wasn't enough income to get what i yearned for which was a keyboard.i was doing great in music classes because i had to go back to the music note book.

But lack of practice and the lack of not having the equipment at home hindered me from progressing forward.

I picked up singing although i wasn't up to standard, despite i had few performances in large rolls the audience and my mates would say i needed practice.

So i took singing lessons, bought few tapes and all i had to to was to repeat exactly what they had said.

Now at the moment, am in a band and church choir i back up and lead. Its fun and its amazing to share your voice to great multitudes.

In fact people called me the secret voice. the reason behind it was because i had never perform solo.

Abstract conceptualisation

I found Graphic Design so comprehensive, its all about the ability to think and connect across new communication boundaries.

The variety of tasks in design and illustrations involved communication with various individuals, teamwork, leadership, competence and organisation

I realised that Graphic Design is a form of communication in which visual information is used to convey a message. Unlike fine art, it is normally used for commercial purposes, to convey a specific and persuasive message to a large audience.

As a student I have learnt how to produce and stage-manage images in both computer programmes and in more traditional methods.

In my spare time, I enjoy producing some freelance work, voluntary work, socialising with friends and meeting new people at the various events I attend.

As a Graphic Designer there will be many challenges. This does not overshadow my hope for my future: to be a successful and genuine Graphic Designer. It is that challenge that I look forward to the most, because I know that a challenge will be enjoyable if it is something you are highly interested in.

Determinations is Destination.

Active experimentation 

A good description of this would be when i was given a design brief.

My client was linking london and the brief was written in such a way that it looked so fake (briefs can appear in different ways).

The out come of the brief was to produce a text based design no visual imagery

Unfortunately i broke the rule and i used the a piece of the linking london logo to produce a fantastic piece of work.

I  think in the end i followed the brief very well , i did come second place

my final outcome was material based.. i had the idea do to my artistic skills in college so i inputed all this in y poster .

For more information, looking at the linking london website gave me a short description and idea to what they needed.

the brief was met and the final outcome was accomplished.

5 most important sources of information

•               Internet

•               Library

•               Events

•               Galleries

•               Facebook-Creativepiece.

Internet: Now and then every one literally jumps into the internet to find information, such as images, info, etc

I wonder what happened to going to the library.

I personally wouldn't say i ain't a victim of the internet for i know i am. well in context i use the internet to search for information especially if its design.

I use the internet to find out if there ain't a similar design to mine. I use it to broaden my knowledge of the do's and don'ts and in any field it can help me with. Yet again i found out that sometimes you got to open your options wider, because we have been swamped by this electronic devise we seem not to care about copy right or even asking for someone's permission.

To my own opinion yes i have been a victim. i just realized that i only need the internet to back up my options my notes my ideas  my ups and downs , what went well and what didn't go well. The internet is an addiction to we beings in which we all depend on.

http://searchwindevelopment.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci212370,00.html

This link here provides and infact has said what i have thought already.

i started  with the internet because in colleges infact schools as well the first thing when they ask us to do an assignment is that we go straight unto the net.

Even now as we speak, chat, write etc allot and millions of people are doing it.

even this blogger.

Library: it is said that a library is a collection of similar objects that are stored for occasional use - most frequently, programs in source code or object code form, data files, script s, template s, font s, and physical use

The library is a very useful tool for me. sometimes the internet has loads of junks in it that it seems so confusing, even to find a meaning of an item we forget to use the dictionary.

The library i would say has been very useful to me or for me, it helps me broaden my knowledge more and makes me or at least try and make me understand what am searching for .

Most of the times the answers are in the library. we beings tend to have a lazy attitude not to bother to read and understand contents we fell like the library is an old school thing but i totally disagree with it .

It came to a stage whereby i had to design a direct mail CD cover to a client i went straight to the net but all i found was a repetition of commercial based designs, i found nothing edgy and artistic.

using the library is valuable to you and unto others its a tool which has to been in us to find resources and to back up our opinion.

Events: I currently work as an event receptionist whereby the company "the Brewery" hold all sorts of events from dinner to conferences. I have met and spoken to designers and even label designers.

where i currently work  the slogan is called " the scene to be seen" the reason of the particular slogan is because we offer and accomplish  designs at the brewery.

Attending events  to see things in real life helps you open your creative mind it gets you involved it makes you think what you could have done better if you were in that scenario.

Galleries: As an individual am a fan of going to galleries to see what's happening.

whether it be it in london outside london i tend to attend.

the reason being is because it opens your creativity it also creates this knowledge of mind character in you .

Like Sir Francis  Bacon said " Knowledge is Power" i used that slogan due to the fact that am relating it to the london 2012 logo.

when that logo was produced allot of people i would say millions complain how rubbish it was but funny enough that took recognition.

Now its all over across the globe people recognise it a lot of people manipulate the logo because it has been in our mindset how valuable it is.

Artist, designers now we all come up with crazy ideas. for an example i went to a show whereby i saw the men's cubicle displayed as a piece of art. That when i realised that art can be anything.

Facebook-CREATIVE PIECE:  this is a social networking site whereby everyone can interact with each other.

i found this very useful because i could find out about events , when, where and what time its happening . i could also pass on information to my colleagues and we could also debate on anything. In my facebook , i joined other creative site and their facebook.

Creative piece is a site i joined whereby all sort of events happens and sometimes i get live brief form them as well 

These are my Top 5 resources in which i use although i still have other site i tend to use regularly.

lines of Professional Inquiry

To develop my sets of questions as a candidate, firstly i will establish my professional practice whereby in which I would like to progress. Currently am freelancing in the graphic design field. I have clients whereby I get work done for them meanwhile when I ain’t freelancing I work as a supervisor events manager in a banqueting and conference venue whereby I manage the staff, guest, organizer, chef etc. With in this current field which am in suits my needs at times, but the reason for taking this course is to establish what my chosen field would lead to after freelancing in the design field. As a candidate I certainly been freelancing over three years and still being professionally learning and developing into the field. This course is to help me build my confidence, aspirations and intentions and once this ends I will finally have the desire to pursue more, be creative and have a professional knowledge with in my field.

As a candidate over the past months I thought of what I could become once this course has reached its end:

·      Event Manager, Events and Marketing designer

·      Full time freelance or contract designer, Graphic design teacher

a variety of questions will be raised in order to help me for my future within the  professional practice. Am glad to be a freelance designer as well as an event supervisor manager this two field ill help me develop my character in depth and professionally.

·      Event Manager, Events and Marketing designer

- What the roles are of each and what are the required skills and qualifications would I  acquire for such position?

- How I transform from a designer to and events manager?

- Having a good customer professional feedback with in the fields.

·      Full time freelance or contract designer, Graphic design teacher

- the role of a freelance, contract designer and teacher Graphic designer and what skills and qualifications i would require?

- What elements, sessions, interviews and customer feedback were given and how useful was it.

- How could I incorporate graphic design to my skills in further depths to make my work unique.

- Why teaching, freelancing or contract in graphic design?

- What is or why web design is changing graphic design rapidly

I feel both these variety of questions will raise issues that I am currently facing in my professional practice. 

USTREAM-broadcast (A must see)

Ustream.tv is a website which consists of a network of diverse channels providing a platform for lifecasting and live video streaming of events online.
I thought of putting this on blogger,as ustream could be useful for students who are unable to attend sessions but to see or watch the events live where ever they are.
I tend o use ustream if i lack transport fair, or am unable to make it at the certain time.
i find it very useful.
i thought of BAPP using thing to stream campus session 







http://www.ustream.tv/

Reflective Writing task

I was ambitious in most things i do or had interest in, fields like singing, acting, dancing, nursing, and drawing (art), funny enough where i come from my parents never believed in such things, 

instead my dad would suggest the army while my mum would go for lawyer, banker or doctor.

I just thought they never had faith in me to do well but little did i know that it was just an african mentally thought or desire which was stuck in there heads even to my grandparents.

As time pass by i kept on doing what i loved best which as art, i could draw and draw and draw, all this was pointless to my african little continental community, it felt appalling boring and unacceptable.

so having done this on my way to a show with my dad, he said with a droughtful facial expression saying if you want to be an artist so be it, 

the tone of his voice dropped like the sound of a tape which has been wired in the tape player, i just knew he wasnt too happy. I carried on believing that this art talent would get me somewhere.

i had a few sessions after school with my art teachers, we would go on for hours, sketch etc

then getting into college there were few lessons on art which i soaked myself into until i met the word Graphic design. I realised that Graphic Design is a form of communication in which visual information is used to convey a message. Unlike fine art, it is normally used for commercial purposes, to convey a specific and persuasive message to a large audience.

So in this case I was going back and forth continually mixing art and graphic together, although my work became so effective due to the strong skills I had from the art background so mostly when I design for a client even at this present moment my work becomes so effective and eye catching

Due to the fact that I have practiced and gone over and over my interest by taking few classes, attending sessions and then progressed unto doing graphic design I can now say I successfully design for clients and family and friends in which all are paid work also I have enter few competitions whereby I have been nominated, I was also given second place in the LINKIN London poster competition.

As a candidate I believe am still learning and absorbing information’s off the big bad wide world. Its competitive and as a designer I tend to go back have little input on certain work I have done I tweak and change add and subtract but as far as am concern decision determines direction

The Network Profession

As a candidate i uploaded a youtube video of my starting on BAPP, how i got into the course,
what i want to achieve and gain as i progress.

Kindly make comments as you watch this video



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWwm8OM_Nj0

Set of images of my Graphic Design work

What is Graphic Design-  its a creative process, usually completed in conjunction with producers of form (i.e., printers, programmers, signmakers, etc.) – undertaken in order to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and professional disciplines that focus on visual communication and presentation. The field as a whole is also often referred to as Visual Communication or Communication Design. Various methods are used to create and combine words, symbols, and images to create a visual representation of ideas and messages. A graphic designer may use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to produce the final result. Graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.
Graphic design basically is also a visual problem solving using text and or graphical elements. My aim is to create something that is pleasing to the eye, and gets the attention of the viewer. But things can't just look cool. They have to work as well.

http://lanternachievingambitions.tumblr.com/