Capstone: Pro Crit Report
Context
Welcome readers! You may be all too aware of my current capstone project by now, but for those that are not, here is the link to the rest of my posts regarding the topic. For this post, I would like to update you all on the most recent milestone that I reached. A very significant part of the capstone course that I am taking is getting assigned to a professional reviewer. This person is a professional out in the workforce that has some sort of expertise in whatever the topic and/or medium that a student has selected. We meet with our reviewer in order to get feedback on what it will take in order to push our projects to be even more advanced. My reviewer is Tyson Baker, a professional environmental designer at the St. Louis design firm PGAV. Going into our meeting, I was a bit nervous, but not as much as I had anticipated. I had heard that Tyson was a graduate of Maryville University’s (the college I attend) interior design program. This meant that he was surely going to possess a wealth of knowledge that I had yet to learn due to the fact that I am an interactive designer. The idea that Tyson would likely have answers to all of the questions that I had due to my lack of experience designing a physical space had me quite excited. Sure enough, once the meeting began he quickly began informing me on where the gaps in my knowledge were and I was ecstatic.
Suggestions
Tyson came into the meeting and I instantly saw how his background in interior design had helped him become such a skilled experiential designer. One of the first suggestions that he had made was to get a better idea of the actual space that I was designing for my exhibit by designing a floor plan. I had tried this at the beginning of the course, but my inexperience in doing such a thing led me to abandon it in order to begin producing actual content. Within mere minutes of listening to Tyson’s suggestions, I had a far better idea of how to get a usable floorplan than I had in weeks of trying to figure it out myself. So, per his suggestions, I went to the St. Louis Science Center and drew inspiration from the floor plan of one of their exhibits. Next, Tyson suggested various ways of making the infographics that I had made, more interactive. This was when I realized that his background in materials and how helpful it must be. One of the final suggestions that he made that he sort of reiterated throughout our meeting was that since this project did not have any sort of budget, so I should go all out with materials and push the boundaries with my concepts. This led to instant improvements on some of the experiences that I had laid out for Tyson to look at, and I am sure it will help open the door for more creative solutions in the future as well.
Adjustments
One of the biggest adjustments I will be making revolves around Tyson’s advice to ignore any sort of budget constraints that I had previously put in my head. As I mentioned, this suggestion led Tyson to give me a fantastic change to one of the interactive walls that I had designed for the exhibit. The next biggest adjustment is another thing that I had already have put into motion. Now that I have a more official floor plan to work off of, my process has changed rather drastically. Instead of trying to pump out content for the sake of content, I have essentially been using the floorplan as a checklist. Once I complete the designs for one section of the exhibit, I move on to the next. I think that this process will help me greatly in the end because all of the designs that I make will seem far more cohesive.
Personal Positives
One of the things that I was proud of was that I knew that a floor plan was important, even though I was quickly humbled and hand to abandon the idea until I got help. I also really liked how easy it was to speak to Tyson. Even though he was busy and the meeting had to be cut a bit short, it was very easy to talk to him and I learned a lot. Finally, the biggest thing that I was happy with about the whole situation was the number of things Tyson was able to show me that I needed to learn. I would much rather be shown what I need to learn/where I am lacking than move forward blindly and guess what the next correct course of action is.
Things I Would Have Changed
I don’t think I would change much about the experience. However, if there had to be something, it would probably be the meeting time. Tyson was about to board a flight for a business trip which is why our meeting had to be cut short. In hindsight, I probably would have just canceled the study session that wound up making the meeting at the time that it was and pushed the meeting time up which would likely have given us more time to talk.
Learning Experience
Meeting Tyson was a fantastic learning experience. It was the first time that I had presented my work to a professional outside of Maryville staff. I think the most valuable thing that I learned was how vital a project statement/design brief can be. Since I had sent my project statement to Tyson in advance (per his request) he and I were able to jump right into talking about how we could improve my project, instead of wasting time on background information. Given that we did not have very much time in the first place, this was something that turned out to be incredibly helpful.
