Portfolio: Studio Introduction

Our first studio in this program was about the design process, not necessarily the product of that process.

The process began with observing a retail location for Apple. During this observation we were instructed to take note of how the products were displayed, how the store was arranged, how the customers interacted with the products. From this observation we were instructed to produce a story board of perspectives and images that represent the experiences of the Apple Store. 75% of our story board should be based in the actual experience, and 25% was to be additional program that we have control of.

During this process, we were instructed to exchange work with our peers for additional commentary. I believe this exercise was intended to encourage us to truly dissect our intentions, and how those intentions are fabricated into spaces, and how people can understand and experience things differently.

We finally visited the site and were given the actual program space and requirements. The most important of the requirements was to do the best that we could to keep our storyboard, or process intact while changing the dimensions of the space that was utilized. We were encouraged to continually explore our ideas and how they fit into the space. Our motto was, “FAIL. FAST. Make something, test it, critically assess it, tinker with it, remake it. Then repeat.” Many parts of the project we explored, but we did not fully develop and polish each. Consequently, some of the images presented for this portion of the portfolio remain ‘unpolished’, or parts of the portfolio show examples of the process and not specifically a finished product.