This is Cedarwood! >> relevant links

For those interested, and for documentation purposes:

Cedarwood's homepage

http://www.cedarwoodschool.org/

Main Waldorf PR Portal

http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/#

Where they get their art supplies

http://www.mercurius-usa.com/

Steiner followers in USA

http://www.anthroposophy.org/

Kindergarten Waldorf-style

http://www.waldorfearlychildhood.org/

Makes cool dioramas

http://www.stormthecastle.com/diorama/fantasy-dioramas.htm

Lair Hill Park

http://www.portlandonline.com/parks/finder/index.cfm?

National Council of Jewish Women

http://www.ncjwportland.org/history.html

Those dolls! Videos of how to lazure!

http://teachinghandwork.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-lazure.html

You want moodboards, I got mood boards.

type styles/heirarchy

diorama process >> inspirations

texture + color palette >> park >> building >> lazure

people + color palette

Developing visual language of This Is Cedarwood! project.

Project Schedule: This is Cedarwood!

(this is an actual Waldorf classroom color chart, not something I made)

WEEK FIVE

10.27 tues >> 5% day >> post to 470 Flickr

• moodboard/visual audit materials
• methodology/schedule in place
• 3 variations of infoplayset contents

10.29 thur >> tighten visual language

• narrow down type choices
• narrow down color palette choices
• narrow down structure/materials choices

WEEK SIX

11.3 tues >> digital sketches

• 3 variations of infoplayset contents
• track down survey responses
• illustration examples

11.5 thur >> further digital refinement

• 3 variations of infoplayset contents
• track down survey responses
• illustration examples

WEEK SEVEN

11.10 tues >> 10% day >> post to 470 Flickr

3 variations of illustrated model

begin assembling response data for booklets

begin building first mockup of infoplayset

3 variations

11.12 thur >> more prototyping

produce first pop-out bio playpieces/stands

3 variations

WEEK EIGHT

11.17 tues >> final work

booklet work

begin building final piece

11.19 thur >> continue final work

deliverables in progress for class

WEEK NINE

11.24 tues >> 15% day >> post all to Flickr

11.26 NO CLASS >> Thanksgiving holiday

Photograph final pieces in context over holiday break

WEEK TEN >> finished and presented

12.1 tues >> small group >> portfolio presentation of final

12.3 thur >> full class >> portfolio presentation of final

WEEK ELEVEN >> FINAL DUE DATE/END OF TERM

12.8 tues >> 2PM FINAL TURN-IN

completely finished PDF portfolio presentation burned to disc and handed in

brandbook

process book

documentation of research/participation

My Cedarwood Surveys

Here are the surveys I wrote and had the school secretary email-burst out to the faculty and parents at Cedarwood School. The development director at Cedarwood is quite keen on what I am trying to do and is helping me a bit. She suggested also printing out hardcopy of these and putting them in the parent mailboxes, which she is probably correct in assuming would be a surer way of delivering to them and getting a response from them.

Faculty questionnaire

• Name:
• Age (optional):
• Position/title:
• How long have you been at that occupation?
• How long have you been at CWS?
• Do you have kids at CWS?
• How many?
• Names/Ages (optional)
• Where are you from originally?
• What other professions/hobbies do you have?
• Why teaching?
• Why teaching Waldorf?
• Why teaching Waldorf @ Cedarwood?
• What's your favourite thing about Cedarwood?
• What's your favourite thing about the building?
• What's your favourite CWS school event/festival?
• Can you say a little something to invite new families to the CWS community?

Parent questionnaire

• What's your name/age?
• Spouse's name/age?
• How many kids enrolled at Cedarwood?
• Names/ages/grades?
• What's your occupation?
• Spouse's occupation?
• Other profession/hobbies/interests?
• Where do you live?
• How long is your commute to CWS?
• Do you use the aftercare program?
• How long have you been a Cedarwood family?
• What Cedarwood clubs/committees/groups do you belong to?
• How did you find Cedarwood?
• What were you looking for in a school, what criteria did you have?
• What other schools did you consider?
• What made you pick Cedarwood? How were they different?
• Were your children involved in the decision? How?
• Why were you interested in alternative education? Waldorf in particular?
• What is your favorite thing about Cedarwood School?
• What is your favorite thing about the building (it's the building's 100th birthday, BTW)?
• Do you know anything special about the building's history that you'd like to share?
• What do you know about/think of the building expansion plans?
• What is your favourite Cedarwood School event/festival? Why?
• If you could say something to invite families considering Cedarwood, what would it be? Feel free to pull out all the stops! :

Objective+Audience+Deliverables >> This is Cedarwood!

Process sketching for diorama

Mary Jo Abinader, 7th grade teacher

Early Childhood (kindergarten) teachers

Grades and Subject teachers

Cedarwood Waldorf School (formerly Neighborhood House, b. 1910)

Objective

The goal of This Is Cedarwood! is to invite new families to become a part of the Cedarwood Waldorf School community. This will be accomplished through the production of a fold-out, 3D diorama info-playset of the school building, featuring pull-out, pop-out, punch-out, all-out information pieces and colorful interactive playthings and gadgets. This info-playset is intended to engage the entire family unit, parents and children alike, in practicing the threefold principle of "Head, Heart, Hand" emphasized in Waldorf education, and heartily embraced at Cedarwood Waldorf School.

Audience

The target audience for this effort would be newcomers to Cedarwood, whether they are newly enrolled families wanting to learn a little more about the school, or brand new families considering choosing Cedarwood for their children's educational development. To help deliver my intended message as accurately and concisely as possible, I have devised two questionnaires. One has been sent to all currently enrolled Cedarwood parents via email, and contains questions pertaining to their experience of finding and choosing Cedarwood, as well as some personal/professional questions to gather relevant, quantifiable data such as names and ages of children enrolled, the occupations of the parents, residence location/commute times, hobbies/interests/clubs in which they might be engaged, etc. The other is similar but tailored specifically to gather biographical and professional information from the faculty and staff, and has been delivered via email, generating several enthusiastic responses already.

Deliverables

A tryptic folder of sturdy card material, which folds out and stands up as a 3D diorama infoplayset representing Cedarwood Waldorf School which enables a new Cedarwood family to sit down together as a unit and explore this place they're considering sending their child. This hands-on exploration is an excellent manifestation of the threefold Waldorf principle of "Head, Heart, Hand", engaging intellectual, tactile, and emotional energies to discover Cedarwood School.

Each panel of the tryptic contains pull-out information booklets, embodying three categories of information about Cedarwood:

• The School

1. bios and stats about teachers
2. concise descriptions of programs
3. a look at classrooms
4. some important numbers (tuition, success ratings, etc)

• The Building

1. pull-out panels that slide into grooves to form the floors of the building diorama
2. these feature an illustrated floor plan on one side, and relevant building info on reverse
3. structure/materials
4. history (Neighborhood House/NCJW
5. Centennial
6. Expansion
7. Lair Hill Park

• The Community

1. a concise runthrough of Cedarwood schoolyear events and festivals
2. clubs/extracurricular activities information (fencing, folkdancing, robotics club, etc.)
3. Waldorf parent duties/meetings

More later as this develops.

Happy Flag Day!

Had a little time yesterday to pop in to the fantastic Anywhere But Here flag-making workshop yesterday. A great time, lots of people there drawing away, awesome flag cookies, and the scent of rubber cement! My time there was brief, but I made a big flag for them to hang, and this little guy here. It was very soothing to draw out your fantasy escape while listening to old Motown. Nice job, people, thanks for the flag!

Termlong Overview: BlockBox (tentative title)

I have been inspired by the Listening Project Capstone class I am taking this fall to create an info kit and resource guide addressing the issue of homelessness in Portland.

OBJECTIVE:

• Making homeless people visible; raising awareness of the homeless situation and how to deal with it in a positive manner.

• The goal of my project is to produce a small boxed "kit" containing materials and information to be used by people to further their understanding of homelessness in downtown Portland, and to provide a few valuable resources to those currently living in that circumstance. Maps and other stowable foldout information pieces detailing a timeline of homeless issues, relevant socioeconomic statistics, available resources for Portland street living, and some solid personal accounts and recommendations from the people living this reality would be contained in a sturdy, weatherproof box/container of a carryable size and weight. Certain small staple survival supplies may also be contained within it.

The container would have two chambers/categories:

• LEARN : Information about local homeless statistics, history, psychological impact, current social/governmental efforts to manage the issue of homelessness. Maps, charts, small text-rich pieces with accompanying photos/illustrations. To be used by those curious about the problem, and those currently living on the street.

• USE : Rubber-meets-road information and materials detailing metro resources available to assist those experiencing homlessness. These would include lists and locations of shelters, food and hospitality centers, restrooms, social and medical services available from area agencies, transit access, current metro ordinances/rules applying to people using the street as their home, among others. Certain small staple survival supplies might also be stashed here. Current homeless individuals can skip right to this section, or those who have experienced the information provided in the LEARN portion of the package can put it to USE in this category.

RESEARCH/DATA COLLECTION:

• Being involved with the Listening Project Capstone gives me direct and regular contact with and access to the plentiful information resources of the MacDonald Center, a faith-based agency providing assistance to the homeless community in Old Town. I am readily able to interview countless volunteers and administrators, as well as homeless individuals themselves for relevant material to be compiled and presented throughout my project. An audit of graphics and info distribution methods used by other social assistance agencies will also be conducted and documented.

AUDIENCE:

• My targets are those curious wanting to learn more about and take action to alleviate homelessness in Portland, and those newly or currently experiencing homelessness. Polling members of the public and interviewing homeless individuals comprises their participation. Use of the materials and resources contained in the BlockBox is also participation-heavy (via games/exercises).

DELIVERABLES:

• A sturdy, weatherproof box containing:
• a waterproof map of downtown Portland
• several fold-out info pieces
• some small staple survival supplies (toothbrush, soap, etc)

Axegrinding: wk 3 read-n-respond

Anything you can do to straighten your path, lighten your load, plot out your course, do it.

Carefully and with some tact. This was the common thread of these three pieces.

The first chapter was a more didactic, diagrammed display of the use of a well-devised organizational plan to structure one's attack on a design problem, through the use of a somewhat cold and complicated matrix, checklist-style. A couple of case examples involving design students in Ohio (land of Devo) highlighted the variations possible in using this matrix. Both results happened because of a little research beforehand, and some testing of the intended audience along the way to pinpoint the direction design efforts should take.

Same thing, a little more specifically explored in the second piece. The generation of a health leaflet doesn't seem that complicated, but you want the most bang for your buck and concise, insured delivery of your message when lives are on the line, so the author detailed basically the same approach as the first piece and how it shaped and refined their work on the leaflet.

Third was the most interesting one to me, although it made some (I thought) preachy assumptions. Not many, more like nuances, but the authors' political heart is on the sleeve. Let the actual audience in, and their native cultural conventions and mechanisms will help deliver your graphic arrow with a little more accuracy and local legibility. Document the whole thing throughout, and you have a tightened procedure in place for future campaigns.

The application of these concepts to what we are trying to accomplish with our termlongs (new word?) is pretty clear. Ask the question, try your solution on some relevant people, refine your approach, and make a more stable and targeted finished piece.

You can always revise later for your portfolio class, right?

Termlong elaboration

not-so-fun camping

I had originally wanted to make a "kit" or "quickguide" for the non-extreme camper, one who does not gear up at REI and tackle mountains every time they step out into the great outdoors which this region offers aplenty. Slouchcamping, a term my friends and I have coined to describe our loosely-defined method of quick weekend camping trips mostly centered around pitching a tent, starting a fire, cracking open some PBR, and reading cheap horror paperbacks aloud to one another while staring into the flames till s'mores time, was to be the title of this little kit. Humorous and simple to assemble. Slightly educational, and slightly more entertaining. Lighthearted and fun, personal from me to youse.

But I want to tailor this same framework to a different purpose. Slightly less light-hearted, but still kind of fun, while teaching a valuable lesson (or at least engaging the particiant in an interesting experiment). I am currently taking the PSU Senior Capstone called the Listening Project, which teaches you about the issues of homelessness in the Portland metro area, how to acknowledge and listen to those affected by it, and places you in a face-to-face volunteer situation to apply what you are learning.

Seems to me you could take this same "camping kit" approach and change it to a "Day Without A Home". A map and list of places to stay, how to access day/night services, bathrooms, food possibilities, places to avoid, and straight-from-the-horse's-mouth advice on how to make it through the day from those who do it everyday. It would involve interviewing some of the people I encounter in my volunteer placement, and people who work at these facilities. A checklist and journal space in the packet would invite participants to share their thoughts on supporting blog site. One day, or as long as they care to extend the experience. A lesson could be learned, eyes could be opened, and perceptions about the town we all walk through everyday could become clearer. No clear title yet. Still thinking.

Constructivismism

Seems somewhat appropo in this current climate of "socialism" or (whatever buzzword you strap over it) to have Constructivism come to mind. This mechanically driven, anti-individual-pro-universalization school of thought arose from the chaotic aftermath of the first World War as a desperate response to, well, desperation. Careful, methodical, functional, centered; everything Europe (Russia, too) had not been for the last decade or longer. Its emphasis was the merging of art and industry, by which was meant day-to-day productivity and activity. It was stated in the declaration from the International Faction of Constructivists (published in De Stijl no. 4, 1922) that "art [is] a method of organization that applies to the whole of life" and should be used as "a tool of universal progress." Sounds simple, direct, right?

Artists, especially those involved in the more applied, design-y end of things know that it can't be that simple. Certainly it could not have been that simple to a world in transition after the war at the dawn of new century. But its principles, nonetheless could be usefully adapted (assimilated?) into a scaffolding or skeleton around which to structure one's approach in designing for a new and evolving culture. Our current situation here in 21st century America, to say nothing of the global cultural upheaval of which it is but one participant, clearly qualifies for this category; social design can make use of the universalized, semiotically direct approach of the avant garde in the first half of the 20th century.

By using mass means, anonymous structures already in place in our culture, one can find and customize their own niche, thus undermining (enriching?) the utopian limitations of Constructivist anti-individualism. I have stated in an earlier post that Kate Fowle seemed to be pointing this fact out as manifested in the social art creations of Harrell Fletcher. Our recent Skype-versation with Marc Horowitz also underscored this connection, this subversion, albeit in his clipped and quirky humour-laden way.

Signs and signals are important; their design should be left to those who know how to use them, and re-purpose them for the rapidly evolving contexts in which they are to serve their audiences. Make something new out of something the masses already recognize, easing their access, and allowing you to steer them in a new direction subtly.

termlong possibilities

Just peeps, whispers.

"Slouchcamping"
"Listening Therapy"

Details later.

mutation

moodboard images from cdc archives

Social practice project undergoing mutation.

After brief but productive team meeting Friday, decided to meld game idea and the clockface concept. Result at present: DesignFlu. My tentative take on the concept is roughly this:

• a bad design flu bug is out there
• you don't want to have it
• there is a countervirus, say, DesignBooster
• you get this countervirus by going to our site/signing up on a clipboard in hall
• logon to site, post name.location.date/time.who infected you (if anyone)
• post one or more "design health" tips (best practices advice)
• spread to as many people as possible (social network sites useful)

result (reciprocity):

• amassed tips and wisdom from fellow designers
• being on the SAFE list.
• awesome immunization badge

social practice project start

my beginning contribution to our group Social Practice Project

the idea is finding out what designers would do if they were given one more hour in the day.

in the hall, a poster (not pictured here in the moodboard, nice, huh?) with a blank clockface with 13 numbers that people scribble on the hands and jot down their timewish.

we collect the ideas, add them to our supporting time management blogsite, and turn them into little passports, badges allowing you to do the timewish.

you come to a party event to pick up your passport. Don't like your passport, swap with someone else and learn al little something about them in the process.

supporting deliverables: pins/stickers with the 13 clock, pause button imagery, SLOW traffic signage, etc.

a beginning.