OUGD603 Workshop: Ditto Press 'Design Publication' Workshop 1

As part of the Design Publication that we have to produce as part of the Extended Practice Module, Ben from Ditto Press will be doing some workshops with us in the year.

To start with, Ben gave us a talk on the work that he has done and his influences
- Didn't go to Art School until later life
- Made Self Indulgent work- Caravan Installation (Traveling Exhibition) and get commissioned to produce work for it
- Arc Student Magazine- Became Editor- Likes Art Directing as its not designing but there is a need for design with it
- Founder of FUN Magazine- Was a journalist at VICE Magazine

Ditto Press
- Done Ditto Press for 5 and a half years
- Riso-graph Printing was the most appropriate method for publishing
- Grown as a business- Print books (80%) and publishing of books (20%)
- How what you are influenced/ interested by can influence your work
- Methodology- Interviews and Photography

Could you produce a manual that would show show someone how to think/ work like you?

Given Brief

From here, we were put into groups (I was in Group 3) and we tried to think of ways that we would research when given a brief.

Trying to work out my methodology

From our discussion around the table, we made a list of ways in which we could source information ranging in different types of gathered information, such as primary research (Interviews, Trying something for yourself, Photography, Drawing, Events and Visits) as well as secondary research ( Documentaries, Library, Online, Data Collection).

Ben came to our table and asked us what we had come up with, so we discussed the list we had come up with, however, we were told that these are not proper research methods and that we needed to come up with how we individually work towards answering a brief.

From this, I made a step by step list as to how I answer a brief and how I approach it. To show this, I made a flow chart showing the how I do this for a brief. The only individual methodology I could think of was how I spend a lot of time during a brief constantly making notes and writing things down.

Despite this, Ben again stated how this is wrong because we all had a similar way of approaching a brief.

At this point, I was frustrated and confused because I didn't understand how I could be wrong when I was being honest with how I approach a brief. It just didn't make any sense to me.

List of possible rules

At this point, the only thing we could think of doing was starting to make up some design rules that we could use which would make our method of working more interesting. This started off being a list of random ways of generating ideas or possibilities yet they seemed rather far-fetched. I followed this by trying to think of things that happen to me every brief but I didn't think these came under the umbrella of methodology. In the end, I wasn't any clearer than when the workshop began.

Initially, I understood the brief we had of trying to produce a book where someone could work in the same way as you, however, the more the day went on, the more and more confused I got. We have been asked to come up with a methodology for the next session but I honestly don't know where to begin.