Preparing for SCA

Preparing for the upcoming year at SCA I decided that I needed to look back in order to look forward.

Reflecting on the scholarship competition I recognise that there were some things that went right and others that went wrong. My decision for my final concept evolved by drawing on what interested me in my environment at the time. I started by playing around, combining mismatched interests to see how they could inform a new hybrid idea. After a series of scribbles and swaps these were my two favourites:

Spinning off context — An idea used by a brand strategist company that I was working with at the time, using anonymous employees statements as a foundation to generate new meanings for brand identity.

The Psychopath Test – A book I have been reading by journalist Jon Ronson who questions “what if society wasn’t fundamentally rational, but was motivated by insanity?” A cooky but fascinating account of how he explores the nature or psychopaths both criminal and in society.

Overlapping the two I arrived at the question for my brief – Can the words of the infamously ‘bad’ be used to inspire good? Similar to Nike’s slogan ‘Just do it’ which was an adaptation of the final words of a criminal, by removing the identity of the speaker I wanted to explore how context can be manipulated through misinterpretation and used to take something bad and turn it into something good. Creating an animation to illustrate this idea was great because it gave me an opportunity to teach myself how to use adobe after effects.

I enjoyed the project I liked what I had created, but looking back it definitely reflected having been a little bit cooped up having just finished final year deadlines, and I’m now looking forward to getting my head out of the routine of thinking and creating in line to a uni marking criteria.

So with graduation around the corner, my next step toward preparing for the start of SCA, hopefully without sounding too cliched, is to get out and explore somewhere new. As of next week, I am packing my bag and my books and heading off to India, with the intention to recharge, learn and find new curiosities.

I have been to India several times before, having done the touristy thing in the past I am hoping to move away from that. I am excited to return and learn more about the place. As a country, the landscape both rural and urban is crowded and chaotic. It’s incredibly visual with a lot to see and a lot of explore.

So to me, this is my next step. It will be different and a change. We aren’t entirely sure of where we are going and wifi may be a bit challenging at times, but long train journeys are guaranteed, which will give me plenty of time make my way down the reading list. On a whole it will a positive opportunity to move out, recharge creatively and hopefully with a bit more freedom find out what my next passion project might be!