Why Design?

Sometimes, I realize just how lucky I am. I was raised by two awesome parents, made it through high school graduation, have had the opportunity to travel the world, and have been studying something I love for just under four years. Pretty awesome if you ask me. I often get so caught up in the stress of thinking about graduation, getting a job, and becoming a "real person" that I forget just how amazing my life is.

Anyway, I'm feeling extremely thankful for the way my curriculum is set up this semester. With the former events lingering over me, it can be pretty overwhelming to think about putting together a portfolio and gathering myself enough to think about job interviews. Thankfully, one of my required courses this semester is Professional Practice - a class in which we take a look at the business side of design and prepare ourselves to begin careers in design. So far, we've been talking a lot about what potential employers are looking for during an interview and how to really present yourself well.

The first prompt given was to think about our personal design philosophy. In other words, what does design mean to you? or why do you design? Talk about a tough question. There are so many reasons I love to design, but I really boiled down why I love it so much in just two short sentences.

Here goes nothing:

Finished project: We were required to include a photo, font, and quote 

representing ourselves as designers.

I realize the text may be hard to read without making the image full-size, so here's what it says:

"Design involves empathy for those inhabiting the spaces around you. I design to create positive change in the way people experience their environment, and ultimately the world at large."

After thinking about this prompt, I can finally answer the question "Why do you design?" with confidence.

Cheers!

In Pursuit of Thesis: Week Two

I've been spending a lot of quality time with construction documents lately. We've really been taking the time to get to know one another - romantic dinners, candlelight, the works. Scratch that painfully bad attempt at humor, let's pretend it never happened.

Moving on, in all seriousness I've been starting at the construction documents for my thesis building for a solid week. I swear every time I look at the building in plan compared to my notes, I find something new. Problem is, my "building" - if you're a Syracuse local, you've probably passed it on the highway (see image below) - is actually made up of four, distinct buildings joined by awkward hallways and disjointed corridors.

The tall, brick building in the back can be seen from I-690

This jumble of unique spaces creates a variety of interesting opportunities, as well as it's fair share of challenges, for my senior thesis. For those of you who don't know, I spent the past semester doing tons of research on education, creativity, current public school curriculum, art therapy...the list goes on. In the end, my research posed an interesting problem and gave me insight into a thoughtful solution:

Long story short, I've found that middle and high school students are in need of motivation to learn as well as an outlet to deal with issues occurring outside the classroom - often in the home environment. My solution? To create a space that fosters improved academic performance as well as a sense of self-efficacy among inner-city students through a creative arts lens.

So, looking at this building with the intent to establish a creative arts center for at-risk youth, I'm both excited to play with space and form as well as nervous to figure out what the heck will actually work. The somewhat disjointed nature of the building as a whole allows many opportunities for different types of spaces - a plus considering the wide variety within my program. On the same note, however, the challenge will be to create a cohesive design between spaces that makes sense. 

General space plan so far. Public and lounge areas will be of particular interest for my concept.

So far, I've decided on a general space plan and started to move forward with it. After speaking with classmates and my professor, I feel really comfortable with my decisions so far. The really difficult part is just starting though - tying my concept work from last semester (seen here) into the entirety of the space. How can I bring the conceptual idea of empowered pursuit into fruition within the space? Hopefully, I'll have the beginnings of an answer for you next week! 

Until then!