The next step was to build an actual physical device. I went to the V&A Childhood Museum to an original phenakistoscope which was made in about 1850. I have also checked another animation devices of that time. Then through the deeper research and experiments, we figured out, that it will not work without a mirror because you could see the animation without it only when the disk rotates with the certain speed which is almost impossible to achieve using SAM’s DC motor. So then I have made a small paper prototype just to get a general… More

To create a phenakistoscope animation you could download a template (Phenakistoscope.pdf) or just create your own grid which depends on the number of frames. When your animation disc is ready, you could try it in action. I found that the easiest and the fastest method is to create a few lines of code to rotate a static image so you can easily change the spinning speed. Here is the code: See the Pen [Trilo] Phenakistoscope by Roman Trilo (@romantrilo) on CodePen. More

Transformation, this is the word I have been thinking about for the time during the idea progressing. Transformation of the production process. Transformation of technologies. Transformation of art. Transformation of human perception of the world. We went through the 19th century and found the interesting device which reminds GIFs, which are so popular today.The name of that device is phenakistoscope. It was invented by Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons in 1832 (Source). It is hard to impress us with “moving images” today, but at the time of William Morris, it was magic. So we decided to tell a… More

It has been a long way of researching, decision making, and revisioning.  Now it is time to take a look at what we have got and to figure out what we have at the bottom line by subtracting all the excessiveness. As we know from the interim crits, we have some do’s and don’ts. Let’s start with the second one: We should stay away from our own assumptions. We would better avoid the behavioural design. That means that we should not try to change people’s opinion or behaviour. We should not create any negative associations with the visiting of the… More

There is no place for assumptions if you want to create a strong design project. Every decision should be based on a strong research.  As we have got feedback from the curator’s team, that we should concentrate on the William Morris and the gallery itself than on the external problems of the borough and the worlds, we decided to go to the museum to collect more info to work with. William Morris was disappointed with the quality of the goods created using machines, so he preferred to revive traditional techniques. For example, he learned hand-knotting himself and then taught his employees… More

When you work on the project for the particular client or the specific audience, you could not rely only on your feel and understanding of the subject. It could seem to you as a great project, but it could be just an illusion because you, as a designer, as a creator, is highly proficient in the subject and as a person, you could have absolutely different values and vision than the target audience of your product. So we have come up with the idea I described in the previous post. It was the concept we wanted to present to… More

Since we decided that all the previous ideas were not as great as it could be, it was time to come up with something new. First of all, we should have figure out what are the strong and weak sides of our recent prototype. Strong: The main message is relevant and coherent with the concerns and values of William Morris. Mattresses create a clear association with the actual problem of the borough. Weak: Not strong enough connection with William Morris and the gallery. The concept is too superficial. Realisation is too simple and obvious. Some inaccuracy in realisation (materials… More

It is always very hard to give up on the first idea which comes to your mind while reading brief or doing research. It seems to be genius; you try to refine and make it perfect. You start to prototype it, to present it, to bring it to life. But then… all the magic disappears. For instance, for our William Morris project we came up with three first ideas (yes, I know it sounds weird, but still) I have described in the previous post: Inspired by the work of Donald Judd and the idea to use augmented reality to engage… More

Since we have defined the problem we want to work with, it is time to generate ideas. The most efficient way to do that is to consider the purpose of the project, the results of research, and your own interests at the same time. These things will be a solid ground for a creative process. We have formulated the purpose in this way: How to reduce the negative impact of the mass production by the everyday awareness. Major results of the research we have decided to work with are: Walthamstow struggle from the dumping of old furniture and abandoned… More

Not so far ago the information was a precious resource because it was tough to get access to it. Nowadays, we are so overwhelmed by information that now it looks like the endless ocean with nothing on the horizon. You can not see the place you are heading to, and there are a lot of hidden currents which continuously tend to take you to the wrong direction. It is too easy to get lost. So you should better have a navigation system and a clear destination point. Research is a process of finding a destination, a navigation system, and right… More