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Innovative Product - Poster and Brochure

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Innovative Product - Poster and Brochure

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We did the Poster around the end of Week 6 and early Week 7 and the brochure was also around the same timing. The poster were a means of attracting attention with interesting or appeasing art. (The poster displayed are the ones I did/had collabed with)

Meaning that the poster had to be interesting or appealing from a single glance. The first poster I did, Poster - 5, was a poster based off other game posters. It was simple and easy, but it also captures the eyes with the contrasting colours. The silhouette has the benefit of being easily distinctive and recognizable by design. The contrasting colours can draw in the audience, but since there isn't a tone of detail the audience can understand the overall message, focus on the writing and/or marvel at the art.

After that, I ustilise divergent thinking to mass produce posters and the ideas. So although some didn't fit with the theme of our product, Poster - 1, it helped with generating posters like Poster - 4, which has an interesting design and colour. It gives a sunrise-like vibe, which I, and hopefully the audience, finds quite peaceful. I kept with the silhouettes because in design terms, are very easy to recognise and allows focus on the entire poster than the details.

I think design is a very important part in attracting attention and therefore, I used up a lot of creative 'juices'. Poster - 4 and most of the posters use only one type (at most two) of fonts. When there is a combination of different fonts, it makes it difficult for the audience to read and makes them uninterested, due to the 'clutter' look it has. Therefore, I made sure to look/research and understand the design behind the poster.

To continue generating more ideas, I did research and took inspirations fro the first few pictures that popped up, which helped inspire Poster - 2. Although it looks simple, making the poster served quite difficult. First, I needed to think about the colours and how they would interact with each other. Such that I chose, red, blue and a different shade of blue as the 'background' and yellow, which moves away and contrasts the other colours as the 'foreground'. Since, in a way it contrast, it draws attention to the middle. Colour coding and composing was the most difficult, since with these type of poster, you have to put a lot fo thought about the colours, such that colours can't be opposite of each and similar can't touch each other and similar colours must be a considerable distance from each other so that they can compliment and create a pattern that becomes a background. I think this one poster really tested my designing abilities, but it was valuable in understanding colour values and how I can use them to draw attention. This understanding could be applied to future art activities.

Poster - 3 had more of an actual app feel. I did this one with Tara, but the colours are light, neither too saturated or dull, although we want to draw attention. Colours that are too saturated actually disengages audience because to the audience, it looks like 'colour vomit'. It becomes even harder if other colours can't compliment it or the attention is drawn somewhere else because it isn't saturated enough.

The brochure was rather simple. We utilised a template and wrote the info that the audience would need to know. Through creativity, I wrote a simple and easy explanation as though I was pitching the sections to them. I wanted our team to sound energetic and enthusiastic about our objective. It did give me more experience in understand pitch like writing, but I find it unlikely in using this skill more in other subjects.

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Innovative Product - Backstory Art Development 

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Innovative Product - Backstory Art Development 

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Originally the group made the backstory for the sake of having a clear defined game, but then the group wanted to incorporate the backstory into the game.

Therefore, I decided to draw more detailed backstory like in games with animated scences. Although we didn't end up using it, I still wanted to reflect on it because I feel it was necessary to my growth.

In 'Backstory Art Development - 1', the sentence or idea was '18th birthday', but since the player moves almost immediately, I wanted to create a dimly lit and dark scene of a cake. I didn't think too much about the composition and the colouring, but I figured if the player was leaving the house as soon as they turned 18, there must have been a reason. So, the dark birthday cake was supposed to give the idea of being a bit lonely (Which is kind of the little backstory I gave for the player). I wanted 'Backstory Art Development - 1' to reflect some kind of reason the player was leaving.

In 'Backstory Art Development - 2', the concept was 'leaving the house/moving out'. This was the one where I didn't think too much, I just drew. I wanted to see where the direction would head if I didn't think too much about the composition or colouring or etc. I think this type of thinking and doing is a good routine to do from time to time. It essentially allows free reign of doing whatever comes to the brain, which I think is similar to the 'Paint the Elephant' and 'Shave the Monkey' routine I did before, except it was little more controlled, where it had stay within the layout of the sketch I did. It came out a lot brighter than I anticipated, but I think it looks alright.

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To speed the process of the game development faster, we decidede to split the roles, such that I was doing most of the art related stuff (posters, brochures, character development, background fixing and creating art for the game in general), Vianne and Tara who collaborated together to develop the prototype a game from scratch (although Vianne was doing the majority and Tara was an overarching support for the group).

As the picture of the Prototype Development, there are a variety photos of the program and the code that was used for the game to work. I didn't contribute within this aspect, so I, therefore, can't reflect too much on it. However, I can they worked very hard on it, and as a group we had a very solid framework and schedule to work around. Although, progressing more on the group work development, I would press more on long term scheduling to have everything finished, so that there is no stress when we are too far behind. I think being in this group have taught me the very important values and key aspect that needs to be in a group for it to work, such as a importance of compatibility, leadership skills and etc.

I also tested with websites that pixelated the image, so I created a character and tested it out, which is the 'Character Art Development'. I wanted a style that was different from the 'squashed character' pixelated games tend to have. I thought a lot about the shape and form of the character, like utilising shapes to create defining character form, or utilising the simple big head and small body proportion that pixelated games would have. I thought a bit about the colour, but since I'm not good at colours and wanted it to be simple, I went for black hair and clothes.

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Feedback is crucial in understanding the wants and needs of the customer as well as the holes/negative aspects of our product. It provides valuable information on how to present ourselves.

The rubric presented our weakness/what we were lacking. Being able to take negative critiscism and improve oneself is a very good skill for one to have and as a group, I think we took to this feeback in a very positive and optimistic sense. Since the feeback was quite positive, we knew we were on the right track and criticism shows how we can perfect ourselves and where to focus on.

The questions helped us understand where there was something lacking in our product and if we couldn't answer, research even more t be able to answer the question in the near future.

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Throughout the duration of the product compilation and production, I was in charge of the art that would be presented in the prototype.

There was a lot of thought that went through through my head as I created different sketches.

The first sketch was a concept sketch. Originally, it was attempting to find an art style that would be approved by both my teammates and also test the waters with different game art. They were also intentionally made to figure out what a default character would look like. There was not much difficulty in creating the characters and to be honest, creating the concept sketches was easier than the pixel characters. I wanted the art to reflect the style of the game, which was meant to be a simple and easy game, so therefore the art needed to be simple as well.

However, briefly before the presentation, it was confirmed that the team preferred a more pixellated style that was similar to Stardew Valley. I think the pixelated was more of a visual style rather than a conventional style at the time. After the drawings, I found that pixelated style was a lot harder than I imagined. I really struggled to find a pixelated style that looked detailed, but simple; it could have been that I never had done pixelated before. I found that there was more difficulty than I initially thought, but I kept adapting and altering the process in which I drew certain things. It was really difficult in understanding the layout and etc. Due to the first background and item ending up very choppy and rather 'unstable', I was very conscious of each pixel. Although I wasn't overall to happy with the final pieces, I decided to keep drawing and understanding the pixelated style to grasp the concept.

There was a lot of creative and critical thinking during drawing, I would like to think up of a plan of how I'll understand the style and how I can practice and apply it quickly.

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills - Harvard 

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills - Harvard 

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In part one of this series, Mastering the Basics of Communication, I shared strategies to improve how you communicate. In part two, How to Communicate More Effectively in the Workplace, I examined how to apply these techniques as you interact with colleagues and supervisors in the workplace. For the third and final part of this series, I'm providing you with public speaking tips that will help reduce your anxiety, dispel myths, and improve your performance.

Here Are My 10 Tips for Public Speaking:

1. Nervousness Is Normal. Practice and Prepare!

All people feel some physiological reactions like pounding hearts and trembling hands. Do not associate these feelings with the sense that you will perform poorly or make a fool of yourself. Some nerves are good. The adrenaline rush that makes you sweat also makes you more alert and ready to give your best performance.

The best way to overcome anxiety is to prepare, prepare, and prepare some more. Take the time to go over your notes several times. Once you have become comfortable with the material, practice-a lot. Videotape yourself, or get a friend to critique your performance.

2. Know Your Audience. Your Speech Is About Them, Not You.

Before you begin to craft your message, consider who the message is intended for. Learn as much about your listeners as you can. This will help you determine your choice of words, level of information, organization pattern, and motivational statement.

3. Organize Your Material in the Most Effective Manner to Attain Your Purpose.

Create the framework for your speech. Write down the topic, general purpose, specific purpose, central idea, and main points. Make sure to grab the audience's attention in the first 30 seconds.

4. Watch for Feedback and Adapt to It.

Keep the focus on the audience. Gauge their reactions, adjust your message, and stay flexible. Delivering a canned speech will guarantee that you lose the attention of or confuse even the most devoted listeners.

5. Let Your Personality Come Through.

Be yourself, don't become a talking head-in any type of communication. You will establish better credibility if your personality shines through, and your audience will trust what you have to say if they can see you as a real person.

6. Use Humor, Tell Stories, and Use Effective Language.

Inject a funny anecdote in your presentation, and you will certainly grab your audience's attention. Audiences generally like a personal touch in a speech. A story can provide that.

7. Don't Read Unless You Have to. Work from an Outline.

Reading from a script or slide fractures the interpersonal connection. By maintaining eye contact with the audience, you keep the focus on yourself and your message. A brief outline can serve to jog your memory and keep you on task.

8. Use Your Voice and Hands Effectively. Omit Nervous Gestures.

Nonverbal communication carries most of the message. Good delivery does not call attention to itself, but instead conveys the speaker's ideas clearly and without distraction.

9. Grab Attention at the Beginning, and Close with a Dynamic End.

Do you enjoy hearing a speech start with "Today I'm going to talk to you about X"? Most people don't. Instead, use a startling statistic, an interesting anecdote, or concise quotation. Conclude your speech with a summary and a strong statement that your audience is sure to remember.

10. Use Audiovisual Aids Wisely.

Too many can break the direct connection to the audience, so use them sparingly. They should enhance or clarify your content, or capture and maintain your audience's attention.

Practice Does Not Make Perfect

Good communication is never perfect, and nobody expects you to be perfect. However, putting in the requisite time to prepare will help you deliver a better speech. You may not be able to shake your nerves entirely, but you can learn to minimize them.

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10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills - Professional Development | Harvard DCE

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Few are immune to the fear of public speaking. Marjorie North offers 10 tips for speakers to calm the nerves and deliverable memorable orations.

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During the planning phase and putting our action on screen, we went through a long process of ditching and adding ideas. No idea is inherently perfect and that's why even until the last minute of the presentation we were still altering the product to seem even better, such as the layout of the game, will it have a clear objective, will their be a guide, if we do develop the game, how many people would we need? and etc. I think continuously quesitoning the product and making it the best it can be is a very important skill; no good product has never not been questioned and altered. There wasn't a specific thinking process that I went through, but as a group, we went through good critical and collaborative thinking. No one was left out and I think that is important because a wide variety prespective and continuously generated ideas can make a product really well made, rather made by a one prespective and bias person. This kind of conversation with my group might become a model of a group I would look for or build within other subjects or activities that require collaboration. While also understanding the idea of continuous adapting and altering to fit the intended audience.

While practicing, we tried to incorporate as many things learnt during classes, such as the '10 Tips for Improving Your Public Speaking Skills' by Harvard, which is a give good and simple advice. Although I don't remember all of the tips, these simple advice are very motivating and beneficial in keeping in mind when trying to improve my public speaking skills. As a reflection, I would like to improve by becoming more comfortable with pauses and silence; I tend to speed up or slow down too much when I start getting nervous or saying too many 'uh', 'um' and 'ah' kind of filler words.

During some of my peers presentation, I found the improvement amazing. I think I took note on a lot of speech skills for the groups, but the one that stuck out to me was the Fire or Flight group because the beginning was so engaging. They quite literally screamed in my face, but they were quick and concise and their message linked immediately to their problem. If I had to note, their use of being comfortable with loud voices was admirable, and although I think I did best voicing my pitch, I think I could have gone louder and try to engage the audience similar to the Fire or Flight group.

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In Term 3, we created a group of three (Vianne, Tara and I) to plan for the Innovative product. Using the Innovate Idea Progress Checklist, which we worked on in Term 3. This idea generating encouraged creative and divergent thinking. Although, we had one particular idea we were rooting for because through previous activities and good judgement, we believed that this idea was the most creative and solved a problem that hadn't been too invested in. This part of the planning allowed more experience in building good judgement in indeas and solving skills.

After going through the questions and planning, we scouted for feedback, asking both peers and the teacher. In the end, we got feedback that the idea was good, but there was a certain aspect that was better than the actual overall idea. After getting further confirmation, we decided to stick with the one aspect and expand the idea. I think this feedback section is an important part of this task and I will consider utilising more feedback from my peers in both AP and other subjects in the future.

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17 Year Old Donut Entrepreneur - Shark Tank

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17 Year Old Donut Entrepreneur - Shark Tank

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This 17-Year-Old Is A Business Powerhouse | Shark Tank AUS

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17 Year Old Shark Tank Donut Entrepreneur 

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17 Year Old Shark Tank Donut Entrepreneur 

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Shark Tank is a program that goes through several entrepreneur-like ideas and supports/give deals to the founder.

During this video, we went through and discussed the 17-year old shark tank donut entrepreneur. I did think the business was not that bad, but it's not the most original. However, I think he did sell himself well, such as showing a lot of data and statistic of how good his business is and the future of it (which is something to definitely add). We discussed what kind of 'os' (ethos, pathos and logos) and how these factors are important in speech and pitching.

Both the discussion and the pitch were very valuable. Since, I have never put in too much thought about what factors needed to be considered during my pitch. Now that we have gone through those factors, I would like to add more thought and using the thought process to use in writing the pitch to engage the audience. Although Logos is important in presenting a pitch, too much can make the pitch sound dreary and therefore, need some sort of balance between pathos and ethos. So that we can emotionally attach with the audience.

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The Big Willie Pitch was an example pitch that happened during the Startupfest.

This was a very good example of a great pitch that was simple, yet entertaining for the audience. In this particular lesson, we took notes on what made the pitch really great, such as eye contact, engaging the audience, energetic energy/tone, no script and etc.

I think this task pitch was very valuable and could help with speech/pitching in the future. A good product without a good pitch won't sell, which therefore, I want to understand pitching and good points as much as possible.

This is important as we do the innovative idea, expo and the presentation displaying the product, where even if our product is amazing, the pitch is just as important to it selling.

I could possibly even, when I develop speech well, to use it future career paths that require speaking in front of an audience or in other subjects, like English which typically has the most 'speech' like activities

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The Spin-Off Project is a summative task that requires a group to create a 'desirable' solution on a problem within a community and then making a video to advertise that.

1. In a team of three, select one of the issues put forward by out local community. By following the scaffold, the class padlet and our seperate group thinking, we had to decide what problem we would solve. I actually find this first step very important because not only do you have to make sure  that the problem is definitely viable, but you also have to make sure whether if you'll find enough solutions and if it will be creative enough. Deciding, I think, we always be a difficult part of AP (Action Project) and I think continuously having to pick a project that might not work out, will help decivness, but could hone either better creative thinking or good judgement.

2. Use your understanding of Design Thinking Toolsets to ensure that you have a comprehensive understanding of the problem. I believe after thhe deciding step, this is much easy. Finding who you target audience, discussing ideas, and etc is a good way to get groups collaborating even if they haven't met before. The problem or the solution should be targetted to a specific demographic, otherwise I think the project wouldn't have much of point, since there isn't a particular demographic that would be 'loyal' to the project.

3. Use your understanding of Design Thinking Toolsets to develop innovative solutions to the problem by. In this step, it gets hard again because not only do you have to find a solution, but it has to be innovative. This is where peer feedback will be the most important because it can help with finding blind spots or problems with the solution. To improve the project or product, seeking advice from people who may find the problem annoying or want a solution will be the best since they understand the problem well. This can boost efficiency and effectiveness. I wished that in this project, we put a lot more thought and asked more people to come up with a slightly more realistic solution.

4. Develop a 2 minute informercial. I found this particular step very fun and interesting. I think this is what AP is about and trying to find the best way to convey your message while being engaging. There was so much information that needed to be addressed without sounding boring. I think it was a very valuable step that helped me develop the way I think of how something should be delivered in the best way.

As more reflection, I found watching other people's video was very eye-opening. I feel there were a lot of people's videos who were engaging and I took of note of how they may have done that, e.g. jokes, pictures and etc. I also found a lot that were informative that slightly lacked engagement. From out video, I understand that the informercial lacked some information and some aspects of the video could have been improved. Just like I said before, I find that feedback is a very valuable tool to improve my thinking to a better level. I think in future tasks that require similar rules, I would refer back to this task to understand how to make a better project.

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Creative Circle is a task that requires us taking up the most with circles on a page. It get us drawing as many objects in a time limit.

With a partner, I found this a very creative and collabortative task. I found this task fun because after a few circles, you get stuck and you start churning out the most obsurd circular or ideas that could work. I found this task quite similar to the Shave the Monkey and Paint the Elephant task. I tried using a similar thinking, but I found it quite difficult. Since those tasks require simply finding any solution that can do a specific task, but for this I was limited into only thinking of as many circular objects.

It was definitely valuable in the aspect of getting out minds moving and trying to get us in a creativity state. It was a similar train of thought as divergent thinking, but slightly different, since I can't think of opposites of those objects and get something circular all the time. But I do think this is an important task to get us thinking of creative solutions with restrictions.

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I found the SCAMPER Method quite difficult, mostly because I lacked a bit of clearer instructions. The SCAMPER Metho requires taking a problem from a list of problems, which I have created in the 'Lists of Problems'. I then use the SCAMPER Method to try and create a solution out of the problem by following the acronym, SCAMPER.

I did the task a bit wrong, so I couldn't fully experience the purpose of the task, but after reading through the SCAMPER pamphlet, I found the ways to get a solution quite simple. I understand the value of the SCAMPER Method and I could definitely be using this in solving some problems.

Although I feel like the SCAMPER Method description is quite vague, I can see how some of the letters can come to an odd or easy solution. I don't think I will use the SCAMPER Method too much for other tasks, but I can definitely use it to move myself out of a mental block. I could use it in the beginning to get my critical thinking going and once I have some simple ideas, I can build on it and create a more complex and original solution.

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The random input task is a task where I pick an object and my partner picks an object. From the two objects, I must create a product that ustilises at least one property of each product.

I find that the random input idea was interesting task that got me thinking of creative ideas in order to out two objects together. Since it was also timer limited, it had me creative thinking at a quick pace.

I think this could definitely help in future task that require me to think of product that solves a problem. Not such that I will put together two objects, but rather have a think of my thought process when combining two objects and how that thought process can be applied to future task that require a creative output.

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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During the period of several lessons, a partner, Tara, and I completed a slide that goes through at least one problem that I would attempt to solve or make their experience better. We decided to redesign a weekend.

The entire redesigning task went through understanding out partner better, so we can find the best solution that would suit them. Tasks that followed this idea was the 'Reflect on your experience', 'The Interview', 'The Empathy Map' and 'The Insight Statement'. This was an experience to put myself in my partner's shoes and understand what the root of their problem is. This would help me in Action Project when I start to idea think on a target audience; it gives me better insight on a collective group's wants, needs and problems.

The next part, 'Finding the Right Solution', went through various activities that got us thinking deeper about the problem and being more open to a large variety of solutions. Being more open allows for more creativity and to think of original solutions that could became a next big thing. This would definitely apply to subjects like Economics, which looks at resources like entriprise/entrepreneur. '50 in 5', a brainstorming activity, is similar to the 'Paint the Elephant' and 'Shave the Monkey' task, which looks for fast, outside the box thinking.

In the second to last part, we thought up an idea that could solve their weekend problem and pitched it to them. I think it really gave us an indepth insight in what Action Project will be and this could be valuable in how we could improve in terms of pitching, creating and making a prototype.

Lastly, feedback section, I believe is a very important section when it comes to improving a project or product because the project/product usually revolves around the problem of another party and its very important to listen to the feedback of the person who is experiencing the problem, in order to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of the product's capability.

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Performing exercise that is most effective when you have good posture, but I'm not an expert and can't know if it is correct

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Waking up early

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On problem no. 13, I can come up with a device that detects are you limbs and corrects you when you perform wrong posture, then shows you the correct posture by a professional and tells you what you did wrong and have maximum efficiency

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Wanting to do a learning and remembering method, but I want electronic version so it can go everywhere with me without all the extra material

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Too cold in winters in Australia

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Too hot in summers in Australia

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My object in this task was a book and the random object I was given by my partner was a scarf.
Random Input:
1. The hardcovers could have the material or texture of a scarf
2. The attached bookmarks could be a mini scarf
3. The book has a little sleeves so the person can put their hand in and could keep their hands warm
4. The scarf can have designs or pages of a book
5. It could be a book about scarves

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Shave the Monkey & Paint the Elephant Task

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Shave the Monkey & Paint the Elephant Task

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During the lesson, we did the 'shave the monkey' and 'paint the elephant' task, which allowed us to think of ways to perform the task as the name suggest without any restriction.
The task allowed the group to think outside the box and get a insight in divergent thinking. I experienced going through a train of thought with the idea of getting as many solutions as possible, for example getting inspiration from another idea, thinking of the opposite of a solution and etc. I think this a valuable task that gets me and many other to start warming up and practicing idea gathering and divergent thinking.
This can be applied to many other subjects and topics and is very important skill that I hope to further develop in the future.

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Trying to describe a pain that I can't put to words and so I can't actually figure out the problem and potentially solve or even having a headache and trying to figure out what could have potentially triggered it

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Difficulty paying attention in class or doing anything that requires my attention constantly and for a long period of time

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Being too lazy to put effort in dressing myself, especially for outings I think I should dress up for.

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Difficult to get motivation to do certain things for a long period of time; commitement issues. Like consistantly going out for a run, finishing pieces of writing or rewritings

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Difficulty at remembering things that I need/want to remember, such as things in subjects or even putting away something at a later date

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When I start playing piano, my fingers are so tense and cold that its really difficult to play until like several minutes later of warming up and playing songs

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Buses running late or not coming at all when they are supposed to

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Travelling to places, when I'm not familiar with, by public transport and walking and having the constant anxiety of not knowing if you're going the right way