Stone Soup Anyone?

Today’s lesson in Design 1 was a group assignment that involved creating an abstract piece out of recycled goods. Although the group was supposed to brainstorm a general idea for a product, each individual member branched off into separate independent projects, and eventually came together to construct a final design. In the end, the resulting artwork became a dream catcher consisting of a zebra print cloth wrapped around golf balls, two water bottles decorated with scrap paper, and a plastic bag hot air balloon consisting of plastic fish and pictures of people pasted on corks inside. This breakdown of this complex structure touches on Scott McCloud’s (an American comics theorist) notion of closure, the ability to observe fragmented parts as a whole. In the beginning, the dream catcher was merely a disarray of scratch paper, water bottles, plastic bags, and string. However, each group member was able to find a complete composition within the chaos, and form a foundation from the disjointed objects. This group activity enforced the idea that design is all about the process, not the product. If there was better planning at the start of the project, the dream catcher would have looked more refined and absolute, not muddled and sloppy. Therefore, communication and an efficient process are essential for an effective product.

("The Ultimate Dream Catcher")