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Reflecting on my experience in the Design for Sustainability subject

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Reflecting on my experience in the Design for Sustainability subject Developing myself as a designer and student Who I am as designer, student and researcher is intertwined with who I am in private and in public. I am an optimist and I am naturally drawn to seeing the bigger picture, beyond the tree trunk, I choose to see the whole tree from the roots to the tip of the leaves and how they flourish in the sunlight and rain. This subject of Design for Sustainability has always touched on aspects in my life I hold dear. How I express myself and how I view the world is shaped by my assumptions and experiences I have built up in my life from childhood. This is one of the reasons I value education and learning, because it allows and forces me to unpack all the pivotal moments that has happened in my life up until now. With every subject I change my understanding of what is possible in this world. With every subject I move my perspective from what can't be changed to a more optimistic vie...
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Designing Thought part 2: Feet in the sand

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Designing Thought part 2: Feet in the sand For the 3rd  week we tackled issues relating to CPUT, that being applications, financial transactions and res. We were to brainstorm and produce a research poster that showed our design thinking process covered in the week from defining a problem to arriving at a solution. As design students we are all strong in our ability to produce visual ideas in order to communicate our thinking process, and part of the brief was to learn how to maximise a multidisciplinary approach where the distribution of skills could be contributed evenly from all members. We also had to learn how to work together as practitioners with different design backgrounds, leveraging our strengths in order to achieve a collective goal set by the brief. We all chose methods from Robert Curedales’ book, Design thinking - Process and methods manual. My group which comprised of 5 members, was tasked with addressing issues that occur within residence and analysed whether our m...
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Designing Thought part1: Crossing the river

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Designing Thought part1: Crossing the river Good day, this is my experience of the Postgraduate Diploma Design Management subject for the year  2023. In our 1st  week our brief consisted of 2 parts. For the 1st  part we each completed 5 linkedin learning courses, 4 we were given and the 5th  was of our own choosing. We received a certificate for each course and did a one page reflection on what we learnt from each course. For the 1st  course, Project management for creative projects by Richard Harrington, we looked at organizational leadership within the design industry. This course is an introduction to project management and how it serves to benefit business owners, business managers, those who aspire to management roles and those who work in creative industries. For the 2nd  course, Change management foundations by Scott Mautz, we looked at the foundations of change management. The course covers the human side of change and how to implement change manage...
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Memory jars

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 Memory jars I listened to a podcast called 'Diary of a CEO' and the guest speaker was Jim Kwik, an entrepreneur and memory expert who is the CEO of Mindvalley. Jim suffered a brain injury when he was a child and for the rest of his childhood he believed he was incapable of achieving great things in academia and career. This was further cemented by one of his school teachers telling him and his entire class that he was the boy with the broken brain. Jim eventually broke out of the negative beliefs he had constructed for himself over the years and started making new affirmations. Today he is one of the foremost experts on memory retention and affirmation activation. He states his life's mission or overarching guide can summed up with a simple ven diagram. This diagram, which conveys powerful concepts, is represented by three areas: Mindset which is comprised of possibilities, capabilities and belief; Motivation comprised of purpose, energy and small simple steps; Methods co...
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Tokyo Godfathers Studio Ghibli made a huge impression on me over the years as have other sources of creative forms. My love for Japanese culture and subcultures run deep. From animation to fashion, gardening and philosophies, I have an appreciation of old world lore and rituals. The imperfection of wabi-sabi and the infinite connected energy of kintsugi (gluing broken artefacts together and painting gold over the join lines) is all that I needed to know for me to wander in the valleys in the land of the rising sun. I have always felt a sense of rejection and incompleteness when viewing Western media and seeing how lifestyles and products are pedestalized. In reality I was more than complete and needed no validation to affirm my being. Japanese cultures tend to be whole heartedly entrenched in the pursuit of achieving a concentration of power where the authenticity and subliminal coincide and  produce a language few dare to exchange...if you know you know. It's no wonder Western com...
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Goethean Observation We were introduced to the Goethean observation method of phenomenology during our Design for Sustainable Futures subject block week at Montebello in Newlands. Phenomenology is a form of qualitative research where the researcher places themselves in the first-person point of view to experience phenomena as it is with no influences other than one's self. For the Goethean observation we were instructed to immerse ourselves in the Montebello ecology and experience our surroundings through all our senses. The exercise lead us to observe an area or plant species and through the different stages of the observation we worked through a multi-sensorial practice of self development. We calmed our minds and observed without bias the physical part as fact exactly what we saw. We bathed in the beauty of natural environment and let it speak to us not us telling the environment what to be. I then started to see the environment reveal itself slowly with all forms of life connec...
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This week our Group 1 hands in the assignment we have worked on for a month. I have discovered more about biomimicry and how to view the world through a lens of biomimetic methods. The most important lesson for me is learning how to listen to my group members and work together to achieve a common goal of providing effective solutions to our challenges at Montebello, the other lesson I found profound was to immerse myself in the environment and shut down all my preconceived notions of what I thought was true. The link between human centred design and biomimicry is placing yourself 'in your shoes' of the 'user' you are studying and feeling real and true empathy so that your senses can become one with your environment.  It is a welcome relief from the distraction of the synthetic world where we run around clock in order to pay bills and make deadlines. This experience at Montebello has made me question how often I actually spend time in nature, admire and absorb the genius...
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