Am I ambitious?

Recently, I've been wondering if I am a little too ambitious. 

I get excited about what I am building for my final outcome but some times I can't help but feel that it might fail. I am not a chemist, I don't have a wide knowledge about chemistry, although I can always study the basic functions. 

But I am also not a product designer, I've been studying products used for distillation, filtration. I've been studying different methods of archiving smell on edible and non edible things. Even if I am unable to design the product by my own hands, I can always send it to carpenters or product design houses but I am worried that time would not be on my side. 

I am not a developer to build my own offline app, no doubt I can learn and no doubt I know people who deals with apps and websites but will everything fall in place? 

 Am I being too ambitious?

Or what if I could be all of the above?

Project week

Time check, it is now week 8. Which happens to be project week too and here are the list of things I am aiming to complete by this week before time runs out. And I don't want to disappoint or be disappointed too. Week 8 let's go!

• Buy chemistry apparatus / glasswares for distillation 
• Experiment different ways of distillation with different apparatus
• Design and build prototype 
• Document experiments even if they success or fail
• Offline app check with developer
• Redesign outcome 2 : Travel journal
• Essay final work check, print and submission
• DANDAD work check

Sorry to disappoint

No doubt, for work check I've disappointed and was disappointed. I struggled with coming out with an outcome and sort of wasted six precious weeks before the work check. My studio work and cpj barely moved an inch. I was occupied with some personal problems and hence distracted, but I know it should not be an excuse.  My degree is important and I am not just doing it for myself but for some others who has high hopes for me. The very last thing I should do is to disappoint. No doubt it was a wake up call, although we all knew before hand that we were going to be called out at.

However, the feedback given after the work check was defiantely helpful and gave me a rough gauge on where I am right now. The comments given were :

• CPJ should be expanded to include all documentation of process from research through design developments, reflection and analysis.

• Really like the sketches of your ideas in the physical CPJ, seems like exciting thoughts, I would like to see you experiment and create them. Your reflections and musings are interesting in the CPJ. It makes it more personal and enjoyable. Progress on the studio work is slow. The app is a good start but it seems like right now you are just working with the art direction. I would like to see the actual concept, workflow and framework of how it will be used fleshed out more. At least that would give me an idea how the entire thing will work. Consider making also a geo-location tag with the app that users can tag locations that they have found inspiration. Then when you view the entire map, it then becomes interesting that there are so many places where people found inspiration. Disappointed with the progress, was looking to see more from you but hope that you will pick it up and make the most out of the 2nd term. 

Made Up Curiosity App Interface

For my final outcome, I've decided to build an app. After re-looking into my project, and considering that my outcomes should be spaces for designers to document their experiences and be inspired from there to produce more creative solutions. My previous outcomes were mostly spaces for experience but they are more tangible and physical, such as travel journals and notebooks. So this time I was looking into something that is towards the side of social media or web based. 

Also, given the fact that technology is so advanced now and most of the people in our society has at least a smart phone that can take pictures, forward them or linked to social media platforms. Phones are mobile and portable too, which makes it convenient for people to record down their experiences, be it through pictures, audio recordings, videos or text. 

The Made Up Curiosity app interface designs up for mid term work check. A rough idea of how the offline app will look like and basically the art direction of it. There are still a few functions and selections uncovered, and definitely more space for improvement. 

Overlays overload

Overlays of vectors over images that will be used in the app, a few drafts tested to see which works best. Each graphic overlay will indicate which sense the image is related to, and the experience documented down by the user. Very basic graphics to represent each different sense and also to allow users to know which square is for which sense. I designed the graphics to be simple and not complicated, and so users can tell which sense it is by the graphics almost immediately. I used white for the overlays because white stands out the most against images compared to black and other colours might blend into the images. Plus, each image consist of different framing and colour. Thus I decided to keep it simple and easy.

App + UI reference

Some ideal style and look which I intend to go for, these UI examples will serve as a guideline. For the Made Up Curiosity app, there are a few factors I am looking out for.

• Layout & design kept simple, user friendly and clean
• Colour choices : black / white / grey
• Contents speak for itself : Images, audio, text
• White background / black font or black background / white font
• Thin fonts : Hightide / monserrat
• Thin lines, boxes, grids
• Usage of box, squares 
• Overlay of text, vectors, graphics
• Usage of simple graphics / vectors

Chemistry @ Artfriend

Since I will be starting on building the distiller during project week, I do not have much time left before work check. Therefore after some research done, I found out that Art friend sells some chemistry glasswares so I decided to make a trip down after school. Yes Art friend does sell some chemistry glasswares that are quite basic but at least they have more varieties as compared to Overjoy near school. They even have flask, beakers and test tubes in different sizes. This trip was useful because I know what they offer and the price range so I can roughly gauge the budget and what items I can purchase from Art friend if needed. Saturday morning I would be visiting a warehouse that sells the chemistry glasswares and apparatus which are more to laboratory glasswares which are commonly sold at art markets.