Tomi Vollauschek (FL@33 / Stereohype)
Online Workshop
ECV Lille – Year 4

WORKSHOP
Title: Personal Projects and the Power of Three
Location: Online
—
8–11 March 2021
Monday–Thursday, 10:00–13:00 / 14:00–17:00

VIRTUAL WORKSHOP EXHIBITION
—
11 March 2021
Thursday, afternoon, 14:00–17:00
Online presentations of workshop results – for the whole group to see. 10–15min workshop result presentation per student – so we have enough time to discuss and comment.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE — ON DEMAND ONLY:
PORTFOLIO SESSIONS / Q&A
—
9 and 10 March 2021
Available days: Tuesday and Wednesday, 17:00–18:00

If you are interested please do let Tomi know on the day BEFORE 17:00. A chance to discuss your and/or our work and/or life after college. I suggested to offer you the opportunity to discuss students’ work and/or our studio work, application do’s and don’ts and/or life after college. We only have approximately one hour each on the available two days for this however – if you are interested. Please do try to organise as a group and prepare your questions and presentations accordingly.

WORKSHOP TITLE
Personal Projects and the Power of Three

AIM
—
This evolving FL@33 workshop was developed to encourage experimentation, appreciation of process but also to help students to embrace failure and provoke ‘happy accidents’. The workshop aims to help students find a voice and add more personality and emotion to their work as graphic designers and visual communicators.
___ It’s the first time this takes part online but it will still be hands-on. This 4-day experience encourages students to develop a sense of authorship and create – and most importantly continue to create – their own self-initiated projects, even after their graduation and into their professional lives.
___ The students can choose to take the opportunity to continue to develop ideas, work on footage and collections that they already started or they can instead develop new starting points and ideas that are close to their heart. Students will get help individually to get started and throughout the process..

HEAD / HEART / HAND | WHAT IS THE ‘POWER OF THREE’?
—
Agathe and I studied at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. During our studies we first heard Jon Wozencroft mention the Power of Three guideline in a private conversation before one of his Sound Seminars we used to have there every week. This Power of Three was to become – not a rule or a philosophy – but a guideline how FL@33 has been trying since to operate and produce projects. The idea behind the Power of Three is that head, heart and hand – intellect, emotion and skills – are present in equal measures.
___ It was only years later that we learned that the original quote was by Professor Richard Guyatt (1914–2007) who was a British designer, academic and rector at the RCA between 1978 and 1981. Guyatt's timeless vision was that every graphic designer should have a balance of head, heart and hand in his/her work as thematic starting points.
___ If there is only one thing you take with you from this workshop please let it be this guideline – it is amazing!

WORKSHOP BRIEFING

BRIEF (free choice + documentation)
—
Please develop a combination of two things: a final piece AND a making-of project documentation that shows your process – the journey to the final piece. Please choose an appropriate 2D, 3D or 4D medium for your final piece (it must look intriguing and well-crafted) AND your making-of documentation. Medium and technique can include illustration, photography, typography, video, animation, interaction, 3D installation, sound, printing, mark-making, collage, data visualisation and/or any combination. The required documentation can be in form of a brochure, leaflet, fanzine, postcard set, poster or the solution that is always popular with students: a poster/brochure combination. For your portfolio please ensure that the printed documentation also shows at least one photo or visualisation of the FINAL PIECE – especially if it is a video or installation and not already 2D!

Please be prepared.

Please read the complete brief and think about it before the workshop and prepare quick portfolio presentation for the first day. Please also check out the links at the end of the brief – and the books if you can.

A few suggestions – but it’s up to you how you want to do this:

Since this workshop takes place online it might be helpful to share PDFs – or website links – etc with me for the portfolio presentations. Something I can look at here on my screen while you talk about the projects or your portfolio. We can see on Monday how we can best do this technically if it’s a PDF. Maybe you can send me PDFs via our shared folder somehow – Sebastien Delobel set up a folder for us is my understanding. Otherwise you can always email me (with attachments up to 25 or 30mb, I think). You can also send me data via the free transfer service https://wetransfer.com (to tomi@flat33.com).

Please prepare a brief 5–10min presentation of your life and/or work for the first day! Please note that you are of course 12 students together – and time is limited. I would like to talk to everybody on day 1 to help you get started.

— What do you enjoy doing?
— What challenge would you like to take on for this workshop?
— Who are you?
— What is your passion?
— Do you have any important unique experiences or personal key moments that would be great to explore for this workshop?

DAY 1 ASSIGNMENT—FL@33 ONLINE WORKSHOP DAY 1
THE POWER OF THREE: HEAD
—
Concept generation. Power of Three. Seek discomfort. Document your process and progress. If possible, ask to be photographed while you work. It is always engaging to see the creator’s hands every now and then for example. This will be helpful for your making-of documentation.
___ Please refer to list of recommended movie clips, links and most importantly – the books.

THREE POSSIBLE STARTING POINTS
To help you get started please select the following three elements:
— one personal everyday observation,
— one personal everyday object and also
— something you collect or are fascinated by / passionate about.

After your brief portfolio presentation we will together work, combine and develop your workshop ideas and starting points on day one. We will also discuss which medium might be the most appropriate, intriguing, challenging and fun choice for you. We can also talk about which documentation format might suit you best and I will bring paper folding examples for you to look at before you decide what you want to do.

Think creatively in the meantime whether or not any these three suggested starting points are useful for you, and if so, whether they could be combined in a philosophical or concrete fashion. In any case please use wit, humour and/or appropriate aesthetics to tackle this project. Challenge yourself and experiment. Please let your style and personality shine through.
___ Most importantly: do NOT be boring and do NOT ‘play it safe’. Use the opportunity to dive in and challenge yourself!
___ It will be up to you to translate your choice into a fascinating, communicative and overall appealing presentation while keeping the Power of Three in mind.

PLEASE NOTE:
In this section I usually strongly discourage students to present their ideas and experiments on screen, but print and fold and cut and paint etc instead – and present these physical experiments. But this is an online workshop and we are stuck at home – and everything seems to happen on screen. Unless you create specifically for a screen-based project please try your best to find ways to develop and present a physical non-digital process and medium – even if ultimately you might have to photograph or scan at the end – and of course present it to all of us in a video conference... Strange times – we have to make the best of it! 8)

DAY 2 ASSIGNMENT—FL@33 ONLINE WORKSHOP DAY 2
THE POWER OF THREE: HEART
—
Embrace failure. Add some heart. Document your process and progress.
___ Please try to embed more emotion and personality in your project. You may start experimenting with actual production already – but only when you are ready with concept generation and you are satisfied with your level of authorship.

DAY 3 PART 1 ASSIGNMENT—FL@33 ONLINE WORKSHOP DAY 3
THE POWER OF THREE: HAND
—
Make. Create. Build. Experiment. Discover. Experiment more. Fail and experiment even more. Don’t forget to document your process and progress. If you did not start already please do now begin to experiment and fine-tune your vision while developing the actual piece. There is still time for U-turns, changes and tweaks.

DAY 3 PART 2 ASSIGNMENT—FL@33 ONLINE WORKSHOP DAY 3 (STILL)
THE POWER OF THREE
—
Make it a success now, it is time. Wrap it up and do continue to document your process and progress. Decide how important the documentation will likely be in your final presentation. Sometimes making-ofs end up being a core-element in projects. Compromise or don’t – but find a way today to make your project a success for tomorrow’s exhibition and presentation.

Double and triple-check whether you achieved an acceptable balance between intellect, emotion and skills. If not – adjust, tweak and modify accordingly.

Start thinking about your presentation for tomorrow that showcases your workshop experience by presenting your documentation and your final piece.

PLEASE NOTE:
Please ensure to address below points in your presentation.
— What was your starting point?
— Explain your process and how you challenged yourself?
— What was the most frustrating aspect of your project and what was the most satisfying one?
— Were there any ‘happy accidents’?
— Comment on the achieved balance of the Power of Three.

DAY 4 PART 1 / MORNING ASSIGNMENT—DAY 4
—
Finishing touches for the workshop results and for the afternoon online presentations. As already mention, this will be a 10–15min workshop result presentation per student – so we have enough time to discuss and comment on the whole group’s achievements.

DAY 4 PART 2 / AFTERNOON ASSIGNMENT—DAY 4 (STILL)
—
Come prepared. We will define a presentation order in due time. Good luck and thank you! Enjoy! 8)

PLEASE WATCH
—
Learn From Failure by Tim Brown (CEO, IDEO), 1:39
—
On the Fear of Failure by Milton Glaser, 7:26
—
Seek Discomfort by Stefan Sagmeister, 1:03
exhibit from Sagmeister’s The Happy Show exhibition.
The exhibition forms part of the research for The Happy Film by Stefan Sagmeister (2016).
—
How To Make Mistakes On Purpose by Laurie Rosenwald, 15:05
TEDxGöteborg

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS (I will bring English reference copies)
—
Parfaites imperfections (Failed It!) by Erik Kessels
(French translation edition available)
I can show spreads from my English copy of the book
—
Amazon France 9.95 €
—
Failed It! by Erik Kessels
(Original English version)
£ 6.95
—
Postcard / Cartes Postales by FL@33

LINKS
—
FL@33
https://flat33.com
A few of the many varyingly complex FL@33 examples of mundane observations and objects that turned into the stars of a project:
—
Trans-form (many different observations of tower cranes)
—
8min 20sec (observation, technique, set of rules that can be applied to different footage).
—
Bzzzpeek.com (Desktop browsers recommended. Currently still requires Flash plugin – new version hopefully one day...)
—
Singing Pasta
—
Stereohype Squirrel Sculpture
—
Fedrigoni 365 2019
—
Picture hook faces (more)
—
Shadows
—
Autobahn custom typeface
—
Chinface animation
—
RCA Secret 2018 / Tomi’s #loadingmuseum
...

Daniel Eatock
http://eatock.com
Examples (but please do check out his portfolio in more detail)
lens-touch
—
camera-straps
no-photo
vandalized-trees-reoriented
closed-loops
—
some of Daniel Eatock’s postcard-related projects:
postcard-back-formations
postcard-back-compositions
postcards
—
Insightful manifesto:
manifesto
...

Russell Weekes
A similar way of thinking.
www.eekes.com
www.eek.es
Examples (but please do check out his portfolio in more detail)
—
conformism
—
somesecondthoughts
naturespotting
protest
—
Insightful ‘Notes to self’:
information
...