9. Reflection

Task: To review the FMP as a whole, identify what could have been done better, and what has been learned along the way.

Methods: Thinking

Team: Tanya Singh, Zuzana Galova, Roshni Suri

Timeframe: Always

Now, at the end of the project and the degree, the distance travelled feels incredibly long, and the road has been increasingly bumpy. One of my key findings from the degree is that the more you learn about the expectations, the more you strive to achieve them, the easier it is to be more critical of yourself and others.

Design Reflections

Back in the pre-FMP proposal weeks, we met Ava, then a guest tutor who, in giving honest and insightful feedback, tore our presentation to shreds (or so it felt!). There was a difference of opinion in what we had been asked to present, but in hindsight, the project was flawed, and we couldn't see it at the time.

Coming up with an FMP proposal was much more challenging than anticipated, and the early weeks did not set us up well for the project. Our first attempt resulted in a new research method (tea party), and the second attempt was on gendered language, a topic that the group very quickly felt was a broad, controversial topic and struggled to see design opportunities.

When money came into focus, we were looking at it within the context of the structure of religion. I'm still not sure whether this was helpful or a hindrance; participants didn't respond much to this, but also, as designers, we felt less passionate about it and allowed it to slip away.

Our design process oscillated widely between ideas, although in reflection, many of the same topics were being tackled over and over again: money is a lens, money has power, money is a tool. In hindsight, whilst we acknowledged at the beginning it was a broad topic that our research would narrow for us, we should have either started narrower or picked one key theme and locked it in permanently.

Whilst I am critical and disappointed with the lack of a continuous, iterated, tested idea, in hindsight, we have tested and iterated multiple ideas within each of these realms; the fact that they were discarded due to our lack of confidence in ourselves should not reflect on the quality of the idea we had or the work we completed for it.

The ups and downs of working within a team

Working within a team was always my intention. With so many years of experience working in design teams, I know my strength lies in being around people who are supportive and constructive, and this is what I experienced in the FMP project. I give many hugs and lots of credit to Zuzana, Tanya and Roshni for being moral and creative support, being positive on difficult days, and being available and present as much as possible. We will always look back on our Master's degree, knowing it was a team success and did not happen in isolation; I am grateful for this.

We have taught each other a lot through the last five months; I have helped them learn to present more clearly, and they taught me Figma and Illustrator skills. Along the way, we all identified ourselves as research-focused and real-world-focused, which didn't help when designing in the speculative realm.

The team and I have different backgrounds; my nearly ten years in the construction industry made me a stickler for not switching on concepts. Clients have bought into the idea, and contractors are building it; I (usually) don't have the ability to be flexible in the workplace in that context. I think we could have learned more from each other if we had discussed this more openly earlier, as I feel that I could have given the group more confidence in the ideas we had to avoid so many changes later in the project. In return, I could have leaned into the ideation more and embraced the creativity and enhancement of ideas the team were showing.

As we started as friends before colleagues, working in a flat structure without a leader or line manager, we learned the hard way that being polite for friendship did not serve the project or design process well. If I were to start again from the beginning, I would set ground rules about honesty and freedom of speech in the workplace because we can function as both friends and colleagues if the boundaries are set in place. With this in mind, I would absolutely choose the same people to align myself with for my Masters degree.

Myself, Roshni, Zuzana and Tanya. Image by Kimberley Rodrigues

The Graduate Show

Unable to resist a side project, I offered my experience working to assist the cohort in pulling together the graduate show. I suggested the first steps on how to start, implementing team leaders and generally starting the conversation about what needed doing and how to get it done. I took the role of project manager, holding meetings, taking minutes and assigning actions to keep the project moving.

I commend the team leaders for adding to their workload by collaborating with both the cohort and the university team to make this happen: - Comms Team: Kimberley

- Curation Team: Keyi

- Build Team: Xiaole

- Website Team: Bin and Wan

Unfortunately, with many last-minute changes to exhibits and some curve balls from the university team, the plans for the graduate show needed revising from scratch. I used my skills to engage with each exhibitor (solo or group), re-establish their requirements, negotiate what was achievable, and then allocate space within the group. I produced five layout plans for the university team labelled for access, AV, furniture and locations.

Furthermore, I am in contact with the university team to enable their progress and act as a messenger and distributor of information; the last slide is an update to AV plans following a meeting with Alex C.

Working on the graduate show is familiar territory for me; however, it also means that the experience at UAL doesn't finish with an impersonal online submission. Instead, the experience will continue into the success of the show and of all of us exhibiting fantastic work.

Please make sure you're following the MAUX cohort grad show on Instagram! @lcc.maux2023