LIMITLESS
Hybrid Design, Creating design without boundaries.
CREATIVE SEQUENCE
Hybridity means not knowing what you are doing. Hybrid design is purely experimental, process of learning something new every time you get a new brief. Hybrid designers are often referred as geniuses of design while actually they are not, they are experienced designers who are always ready to learn new things and collaborate with people to add their skills. Hybrid designer is limitless, they do what they want to do and having fun in the process of learning new things. For the creative sequence, i would like to make a documentary book of me improving design that i know but in the eyes of hybrid designer such as app design, poster, publication, etc. This book will be my mind map, narrative of my journey from the current me to the future me. The audience for my creative sequence range from professional designers, design studios and design students. Professional designers and design studios will find this creative sequence interesting because it is a new way of thinking, an experimental project of how a designer approach a brief with new way of thinking. Self explanatory books about design process and mind mapping. Meanwhile, design students will find the books interesting since they can relate to it, they are still in the process of learning new things in their studies, revealing what kind of designers they are, what can they do with their skills and encouraging them to do more than they think they can do. I wanted to create this book because i want to explore my potential, i want to challenge myself to learn new things before i graduate. Likewise, this book will be useful for me in the future as it is something that i can look back on and expand on (doing further research)in the future.
FUTURE OBJECT
The future object that i see in the future as an example of hybrid design is a gaming helmet, a virtual reality gaming console that gives the user 360 degree HD experience. Although this is not where i want to end up doing in the future but this is just what i imagined a hybrid design is as physical object, a mix of everything. The gaming helmet will not be heavy as it is need to be comfortable to wear considering the countless hours spent by gamers to play a game. To make it even more comfortable, the interior of the helmet is equipped with soft foams and air vents so that the users wont feel dizzy due to lack of air circulation. The screen will be made out of amoled screen instead of LCD considering the weight of LCD is heavier than amoled. The helmet includes double bass speaker to give real time experience and microphone so the user will only need to bring the helmet and its controller everywhere without the need of additional headphones plug into the helmet. The controller will be wirelessly connected to the helmet and will have a transparent amoled glass touch screen to navigate the menu. The gaming helmet will also have its own app store where users can purchase games and play them in an instant. Why i created this helmet as my future object because to construct, this gaming helmet will need to combine the skills of UI designer, UX designer, Industrial Designer, Game Designer and Programmer aka hybrid designers.
Although currently there is an existing virtual reality gaming console called Oculus Rift, it is just merely a visual tool to help the users having a real time experience when playing games. Oculus Rift still needs the user to put headphones on and it requires cables to connect to the computer. Meanwhile, my gaming helmet is more advanced looking at 5–10 years of development Oculus could really go from the Oculus now to my Future gaming helmet.
RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
Design Thinking vs Hybrid Thinking. Hybrid thinking is broader than design thinking, It has a specific, intended outcome that leads to strategic change. Although it is possible for design thinking to have strategic change as an outcome, it more broadly provides a process for approaching problems and creating thoughtful solutions.
“Hybrid means combining different ideas, different talents, different people and merging them to produce something that’s better than the any of the component” (Designing Better Libraries, 2011)
What i never realized in me was my potential. I always think that i am only a small part of this big world and not capable of doing more than i should even though i always believe to push myself forward when i am down. I always think that after i graduate, i want to straightly go to work in design industry, open business then enjoy life. But after doing alot of research in this hybrid design topic i started to realize that there is more to design than just doing the same things over and over again. As a kid, i liked to make my own things because i get annoyed of not having what i exactly wanted. I custom my own stuff, i watch TV show that taught kids how to make DIY stuff from recycled materials. I create things from everything that i found, cereal box, tissue paper, old magazine, etc. My mom always think that i am doing stuff that later on going to be a waste but i was just being who i am, i let my my hands do the job and letting out my imagination every time i got inspiration. I used to draw and make things everyday as if i was addicted to it. This is way before i know what design is. As the time goes by, i stop doing all of it, i got busy doing ‘teenager’ stuff and concentrate on exams. When i knew what design is, i started to limit myself, i started to compare myself to other people. I get worried of not doing my best, afraid of failing and started judging which one is a good design and which one is not. When i did a case study on Dora Drimalas and Brian Flynn, the owners of Hybrid Design Studio in San Francisco California, it feels like i found the old me.
HYBRID DESIGN STUDIO, HYBRID HOME AND SUPER7
Dora and Brian is a total opposite being and that what makes them a strong team. Dora is a more logical person while Brian is an experimental type. Their differences, their approach towards a brief, their thinking, their different perspective and their unique outcomes.
This studio take different design approach than most of traditional design firm. They do what the others are too afraid to do.
In their lecture for Academy of Art University, School of Graphic Design, they were discussing about the Work and Play panel and i found out about how to think and do what they do as hybrid designers:
- Have Fun. If you don’t love what you do, neither will anyone else. They always start as “No one made what we wanted, so we made it ourselves”
- Overcome the fear of failure. The worst thing they can say is “No”. Sometimes what Brian and Dora does is pure blissful ignorance but they are still doing it because that’s what they want to do. It is okay to fail but don’t let that control you, hold you down to try and make more.
- Never stop learning. Don’t be limited by your medium. You are constantly learning in design, designers always have natural curiousity within them. You also have to constantly push yourselves. Always finds a way to do something. This what makes you a hybrid designer, you are limitless.
- Getting out of the mindset as graphic designer. Getting out of this ‘default’ setting you have in your mind because when you take it outside, the result is more interesting
- What problem are you solving? is it the right one? ALWAYS take a brief a million steps away. You need to be able to bring more to the table that added value to the client.
- Content is everything. Every detail is either helping or detracting from your message. “Content is King, let it shine”
- Create what is missing from the world. Instead of waiting for someone to make it for you, make it yourself. People wont know what you are capable of if you don’t start showing it to them.
- Know your craft. Understanding how things get made will allow you to make things better to use those things to make a better impact. Get up, Get out! Stop starring at your computer. Go somewhere, experience, understand.
According to Brian, design is about being pissed. When finding some design world that blows your mind, you’re getting pissed while thinking ‘why didn’t i do that?!’, and when someone critiquing you sometimes you get pissed. And getting pissed is a good thing because being uncomfortable is a sign of learning.
There was this interview from a book called IDEA+OLOGY: The Designer’s Journey: Turning Ideas Into Inspired Designs where they were asked about their approach for client’s brief:
THE CLIENT IS COMING TO YOU TO GIVE THEM EVERYTHING THEY’VE GOT IN THE BRIEF, PLUS WHAT YOU CAN BRING TO IT THAT THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW THAT THEY NEED.
DD: I think we’d probably get bored pretty quickly if we were just doing the same thing over and over again.
BF: I think the reason you get hired as a designer is not to execute the brief. Anybody can execute the brief. They want you to give them everything in brief, plus ideas and designs they didn’t even know they needed.
DD: We like to work on a variety of stuff, whether it’s toys or textiles or an annual report. Inspiration comes from many different places. The more varied the projects, the more varied your inspiration.
Brian and I collect everything, from dishes and furniture and toys, to design books and children’s books. We go to flea markets and antique stores, looking for treasures. We’d find a lot of inspiration in those treasures. Our next step was to find a way to turn our collection obsession into real projects.
BF: Our products and our nontraditional graphic design were born out of the fact that we couldn’t find what we wanted. For example, we made pillows because Dora spent six months looking for pillows for the house and couldn’t find what she wanted. So, she finally got fed up and made her own. It was the same with our T-shirts and Super 7 magazine.
Don’t give the client only what they ask for, give them more, make them understand where you are coming from because design is changing and overtime, new studios and agencies are everywhere and what will make your previous clients stay? Relationship value.
Design, for Dora and Brian is not only doing what you used to do every time you get new client, that will make design boring. Design is about learning new things so that you can improve yourselves to become a better designer. You got to have this natural curiousity inside you and break free from what you have set your mind into.
These are some things that Hybrid Design Studio Believes in..
I can relate all of these really well and i am able to see where Dora and Brian are coming from to get an idea of creating their hybrid design studio without losing their personality as designers. Dora and Brian made me realize something i’ve never realized before, I know exactly where i am going to now and know that I want to make an impact in design industry. Even though i am only a small part of the world, it is not about how small i am in this world but how big the impact i can make. You may fail but you wont fail forever, sometimes you just have to be okay not being okay because design without challenge is nothing.
References
Academy of Art University, (2011). Academy of Art University | School of Graphic Design | Hybrid Design: Work & Play Panel. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErrmZ_xQ5hs [Accessed 21 Aug. 2014].
Amit, G. (2010). BEYOND DESIGN THINKING: WHY HYBRID DESIGN IS THE NEXT NEW THING. [Blog] Fast Company. Available at: http://www.fastcompany.com/1656288/beyond-design-thinking-why-hybrid-design-next-new-thing [Accessed 16 Aug. 2014].
Dbl.lishost.org, (2014). Designing Better Libraries » Design Thinking vs. Hybrid Thinking – Do They Differ?. [online] Available at: http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/2011/01/06/design-thinking-vs-hybrid-thinking-do-they-differ/#.U_nHI2SSzT2 [Accessed 24 Aug. 2014].
Hainsworth, S. (2010). IDEA+OLOGY: The Designer’s Journey: Turning Ideas into Inspired Designs. 1st ed. [ebook] Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers, pp.Section 4, Chapter 07. Available at: http://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/ideaology-the-designers/9781592535972/xhtml/ch27.html [Accessed 21 Aug. 2014].
