Summer Reading and Other Plans

A few 5-point plans for the summer break… 

Books I Intend To Read:

1.    “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell – After reading Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” in semester one I am intrigued to read another title by this author.

2.    “The Mind Map Book” by Tony Buzan – After being asked to read part of this book in preparation for semester one I would like to complete the rest of the book as I found the section I did read very useful.

3.    “A Green Vitruvius: Principles and Practice of Sustainable Architectural Design” by J. Owen Lewis – After completing a studio project centring around sustainable design I would like to explore the topic further and incorporate the practice in future designs. The synopsis of this book states that it gives “advice suitable for undergraduate and post graduate students on the integration of sustainable practice into the design and construction process, the issues to be considered, the strategies to be adopted, the elements of green design and design evaluation within the process.”

4.    “Think – Inside The Sketchbook” by Gillian Robinson, Alison Mountain and David Hulston – By reading this book I hope to discover how to use a sketchbook fully as a design tool.

5.    “Conversations With Frank Gehry” by Barbara Isenberg – This book focuses on the career of Frank Gehry, the world-renowned architect, whose latest design, the 76-story tall New York by Gehry building, opened in February of this year. With a long list of well-respected designs, I would very much like to find out about his work in greater detail.

Updates I Intend To Make On My Blog:

1.    Purchase a domain name. A website and blog with a personal domain name and an email account with a sophisticated address will be much more professional.

2.    Link my current website (which I will update) to my blog in order to display my projects in greater detail in relation to any posts on my studio work.

3.    Create a Delicious account. Working between computers in the college, my laptop in the studio and my desktop at home often makes keeping track of bookmarks difficult so a delicious account will be of great use to me, making things a lot easier to find!

4.    Create a Twitter account to allow me to quickly update followers on new posts on both my blog and website. Twitter will also allow me to receive regular updates from other people from the design industry who may be of interest to me.

5.    Change my blog layout. I aim to have a common theme running throughout both my blog and website so they are easily recognisable as being related. It will make it easier for visitors to relate both to me personally.

People I intend to Connect with over the summer:

1.    Lindsey McIntosh – Lindsey is currently doing a Masters in Design and has given lectures to second year IED students over the semester on materials used in architecture. Her lectures have included information on sustainable materials, which has been helpful to me when completing my current project. Lindsey had lots of interesting things to say so by following her on Twitter I hope to stay informed of any knowledge she has to share.

2.    Alex Pearson – Alex has taught IED student from all years in 3D Max and Sketch-up recently and in doing so has given examples of his own work. I was impressed with his past projects and am interested to connect to Alex’s website to keep up to date on any future projects.

3.    Jonathan Baldwin – I would like to follow Jonathan on Twitter as he regularly posts information on articles, T.V. programmes etc. that are relevant or of interest to design students.

4.    Keppie Architects – Designers at this firm have recently built a new hospital in Larbert where I was brought up. Last summer I completed a mini project on the hospital and found their work fascinating. Many of you will be familiar with their work as they also designed Dundee’s local shopping centre, the Overgate. I would love to find out more about this particular company and have been given contact details for possible work experience.

5.    Delta Studios: The Creative Centre – The centre opened in my home town of Larbert a couple of years ago and over the summer I intend to visit the exhibition space in the hope of getting more information about the studios. Ideally I would like to get contact information from members to find out about any up and coming projects in the area.

The Forth Valley Royal Hospital by Keppie Architects.

Assignment 5A

Planning For The Future

In Semester One, after further investigation of Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point,” I came across “The Law of the Few,” one of the major aspects associated with the spread of ideas – referred to in the book as epidemics - amongst groups of people. According to Gladwell’s theory, “The Law of the Few” refers to three different groups of people: Connectors, those who know lots of people and have a gift for bringing groups together; Salesmen, who use technique, enthusiasm, persuasion and charm to make ideas attractive; and Maverns, who use their accumulative knowledge to pass information on to others.

In further application of “The Law of the Few,” I researched the subject in relation to social networking within the design industry. My investigation included referring to Nancy K. Baym’s “Personal Connections in the Digital Age,” which focuses on social aspects of the Internet, mobile phones and digital media. Also used was Tanguy Coenen’s “Structural Aspects of Online Social Networking Systems and Their Influence on Knowledge Sharing,” which is relevant to the process view on knowledge management where the emphasis lies on sharing through interactions between people.

As a result of my research, I found that Connectors, Salesmen and Maverns use social networking as a tool to both rapidly spread ideas among a vast number of people and receive information from other sources that may be of use to them. Companies or individuals can connect with others through common friends or even set up groups in order to do this efficiently.

To further my knowledge of the importance of social networking within the design industry - along with Connectors, Salesmen and Maverns - beyond secondary sources, I intend to plan a research strategy focusing on primary research to get a better understanding of the topic.

Research Method

For my main method of research I intend to speak directly to people within the design industry from a number of disciplines, such as a tutor who has practiced or still practices Interior Design, and find to what extent they rely on social networking systems to connect with others within the workplace.

Below an initial brainstorm I made to help me think about my main goal when formulating a series of questions in which to ask my potential interviewees.

To discover the level of use of social networking among companies in the design industry, I have decided to use a series of structured questions that would be asked to each company. A positive aspect to this method of research is that by using the same set of questions for each design firm, I will be able to easily compare the difference of each firm regarding the extent of its social networking usage. Another positive aspect of such a method is that by having a series of questions that have been pre-written, there is the option to ask questions on a wide range of aspects of their social networking use, such as whether they would use it to connect with possible clients, employees or graduate students. However, a possible negative aspect of this method of research is that by having a set list of questions, there is little opportunity to change questions after certain firms have been interviewed, as once some questions have been changed, it will become more difficult to compare responses if some firms have been asked different questions from others.

Another method I will employ in order to research the use of social networking within the design industry, I will conduct a survey of fellow design students. With this survey, I would seek to discover the ways in which such students use social networking to collect information from companies working in design, such as the graduate careers (if any) available, and the specific areas of the industry in which they work. Social networking is very popular among students, so this may be an effective tool for collecting information. Despite this, a possible limitation is that some companies in the design industry may not use social networking as a means of communication, possibly preferring to use email, telephone or post instead.

Plan

I feel the idea time to approach both practicing designers and students would be around the time of the up coming graduates degree show at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. Students will at this stage be looking to make and may have already made connections within the design industry. They will hopefully have been dealing with potential employees and publicising their personal work, which is to be shown as part of the degree show. Design firms may perhaps be looking for innovative new designers and seek to contact graduates at this stage and I would look to find how graduates and companies communicate.

Due to the stress of preparing for a degree show, the next few weeks could well be difficult for students and university staff to set aside time to answer questions or complete a survey. If this is the case I plan to approach students who are present during the degree show about their work and ask if they would mind filling in a quick questionnaire about their use of social networking. In order to get accurate results I feel only a few students will need to be asked as, presumably, they have each dealt with a couple of different companies within the industry over the past couple of years.  In order to get practicing designers opinion I intend to approach staff just after the degree show, just before the summer break, when they are likely to have more time to spare. I seek to ask as many practicing designers as possible to find out if in the past, social networking was relied on as heavily as it appears to be today.

Completing these tasks should require no extra input from anyone else other than the people I will interview and ask to complete the survey. I intend to spend one day analysing and recording the results, which I will then blog about to reveal my findings. I fully expect to be shocked by the lack of traditional methods of knowledge sharing, such as writing letters, as my research so far indicates that social networking has replaced the more personal approaches of the past.