(hint, the answer is c)
We’ve been talking a lot about analogies in class lately, and how it can be helpful to think of analogies to a new problem space you are exploring in design studies. I’m really excited about how it’s already started broadening my thinking. Almost without consciously thinking about it, I’ve been coming up with them… Mostly stupid ones to amuse myself, I’ll admit, but some are worth filing away. One that I thought of is that is amusing, but not that helpful: design that is handmade is like a history painting, whereas design done start to finish on the computer is like paint-by-numbers. Some analogies are good for plumbing for insights into the original problem space. Other analogies can be valuable just for illuminating a topic or one specific facet of a topic. That first one I think comes off as a little anti-computer, which is not what I want to communicate.
We’ve also been talking about diagramming as a way to explore a problem space. This is something I’ve been having a bit more trouble with, and it was especially hard for Hebrew typography. Instead of finding new connections, I was regurgitating facts. I felt like there was so much that I needed to know to actually create something new and useful in that area, just by virtue of not speaking Hebrew as my first language and still being a pretty wide-eyed student of roman typography. I’m super excited to use it to explore my new topic!
