Futures Reflection
Respond to the brief: how might you embed a specific futures method into your design practice
I think it is hard to really pick just one future’s method that I learned. I feel like all the methods go hand-in-hand so when I focus on one method, I inadvertently end up going through the motions of other methods. That said, I think the method that I have seen myself using in my work is the Causal Layered Analysis. I really like that it forces you to take a step back and really consider how your work will be implemented and or created in different possible futures.
Because I am focusing on communication design, it can be hard to slow down and think about the long term effects of my work. In an ideal world I would love to produce slow work but as of right now graphic design is super fast paced. Using CLA helps me break down my work and allows me to slow down. After I come up with my concept it helps me ideate to think about paradigms and mental models that may be associated with what I am doing.
I know for CLA you have to think about litany, systems, worldview, and myths and metaphors. But in my head I kind of think about it as what the problem, the causes, and the perception. For example, in communication design studio, we are working on a project where we take an existing campaign and its script and rebrand/ remarket it. I am doing AT&T’s “The Last Text” which is an anti texting and driving campaign. I spent a lot of time thinking about how people perceive texting and driving right now. I really had to think about a way to make people not want to do it without directly telling people that it is bad — since everyone agrees it is bad yet they do it anyway. Using CLA really helped me think about how to brand it in such a way that would be accepted now and for all generations.
Leading away from my current project, I think that going into this course I had a lot of these ideas on how to think about the systems of my design but never had proper terms for it. I think it is easy to be a little selfish in the communication design field. Especially since things are so easy to change and iterate that it can be hard to stick to what is best for the project and not do something you just wanna do. I can see that struggle being applied to my real, everyday life too. I have said this many times already but it is true — everything is just so fast and until you slow down you don’t get to see a lot of your biases and faults as a designer. This course, while it didn’t necessarily change my way of thinking about design, gave me the opportunity to slow down and process my projects in a way that I otherwise probably would have had to figure out on my own.
