Tomi Vollauschek (FL@33 / Stereohype) Workshop
ECV Aix-en-Provence – Year 4 / M 1

WORKSHOP
Title: Personal Projects and the Power of Three
970 avenue Pierre Brossolette, 13100 Aix-en-Provence, France
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2–5 May 2023...
Tuesday–Friday, 9:00–13:00 / 14:00–17:00
I would be happy to stay until 18:00 on Tuesday to make sure all students get to talk to me about their portfolio and get encouraging and personal pointers and suggestions from me.

WORKSHOP EXHIBITION
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5 May 2023
Friday: workshop exhibition and presentation of all projects.
Presentations start at approximately 14:30.
3–4min presentation per student.

PLEASE ALSO NOTE — ON DEMAND ONLY:
PORTFOLIO SESSIONS / Q&A
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4 May 2023
Thursday, 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 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
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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.
___ 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. This can – in other words – be a big social issue that you are very passionate about (climate emergency, equal rights, a.i., etc) or indeed a very personal observation or obsession that you would like to explore further this week and turn into the star of your project. Students will get help individually to get started and throughout the process. I will explain everything at the beginning.

HEAD / HEART / HAND – WHAT IS THE ‘POWER OF THREE’?
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I studied at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London. During my studies I first heard my personal tutor 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 my design studio 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 I 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)
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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 come prepared.

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

Please PREPARE a 5min presentation of your life and/or work for the first day! Please note that you are 15 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?

Is there a big social issue that you are particularly passionate about or will you more likely explore a big (or small) personal obsession or fascination instead?

DAY 1 ASSIGNMENT—Tomi Vollauschek WORKSHOP
THE POWER OF THREE: HEAD
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Concept generation. Power of Three. Seek discomfort.
Document your process and progress. Ask to be photographed while you work. It is always engaging to see the creator’s hands every now and then for example.
___ Please refer to the 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 (can but does not have to be a big social issue).

After your 5 minute 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 of 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:
Please do NOT present on screen but print your project or find another appropriate method. Unless you create specifically for a screen-based project nothing is allowed to be presented on screen that doesn’t belong there. For the final presentation please only use a computer screen, smartphone or tablet screen to present if this is the most appropriate medium for your idea. You will be asked to justify your choice(s). Please discuss beforehand if in doubt.

DAY 2 ASSIGNMENT—Tomi Vollauschek WORKSHOP
THE POWER OF THREE: HEART
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Embrace failure. Add some heart. Document your process and progress.
___ Today is the day! 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.
___ There is still time for U-turns, changes and tweaks.

DAY 3 ASSIGNMENT—FL@33 WORKSHOP DAY 3
THE POWER OF THREE: HAND
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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.

THE POWER OF THREE
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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.

Work on a well-prepared 3–4min verbal presentation for tomorrow that showcases your workshop experience by presenting 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’?
— Please comment on the achieved balance of the Power of Three.

DAY 4 ASSIGNMENT—Tomi Vollauschek WORKSHOP
EXHIBITION AND FINAL CRITS
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Come prepared. We will try for all students to present for approx. 3–4 minutes – a chance for everybody else to see what the others came up with. Use walls and tables etc. for the exhibition. I can’t wait... Good luck and thank you!  Enjoy! 8)

PLEASE WATCH
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Learn From Failure by Tim Brown (CEO, IDEO), 1:39
(French auto-subtitles available)
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On the Fear of Failure by Milton Glaser, 7:26
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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).
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How To Make Mistakes On Purpose by Laurie Rosenwald, 15:05
TEDxGöteborg
(French auto-subtitles available)

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS (I will bring my English and French reference copies)
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Parfaites imperfections (Failed It!) by Erik Kessels
(French translation edition available)
I will bring my English and French copies of the book with me.
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Amazon France 11.95 €
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Failed It! by Erik Kessels
(Original English version)
£ 9.95
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Feck Perfuction by James Victore
15–20 €
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How To Make Mistakes On Purpose by Laurie Rosenwald
15–25 €
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Postcard / Cartes Postales by FL@33

LINKS
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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:
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Trans-form (many different observations of tower cranes)
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8min 20sec (observation), technique, set of rules that can be applied to different footage).
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Bzzzpeek.com The Flash-based website is now dead but a Vimeo screen recording is available) ((or use Firefox desktop browser with add-on Ruffle flash emulator plugin))
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Singing Pasta
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Stereohype Squirrel Sculpture
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Fedrigoni 365 2019
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Picture hook faces (more)
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Shadows
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Autobahn custom typeface
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Chinface animation
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RCA Secret 2018 / Tomi’s #loadingmuseum
...

Daniel Eatock
http://eatock.com
Examples (but please do check out his portfolio in more detail)
lens-touch
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camera-straps
no-photo
vandalized-trees-reoriented
closed-loops
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some of Daniel Eatock’s postcard-related projects:
postcard-back-formations
postcard-back-compositions
postcards
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Insightful manifesto:
manifesto
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Russell Weekes
A similar way of thinking.
www.eek.es
Examples (but please do check out his portfolio in more detail)
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somesecondthoughts
naturespotting
protest
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...