Finding new ways forward

This week was a bit frustrating. It felt like we didn't communicate our ideas very well at the critique sessions and the group fell apart a bit.

We got the feedback that a video prototype might not be enough and that we should create the web store implied in the unboxing video. We where told that we should investigate how such a store would look and what kits could be sold there.

Making Kits

After the first supervision, we discussed the possibilities that could come out of a web store. We took great inspiration from H&M and started discussing how we could make different kits with different patterns and colors. This is where the group work broke down a bit, two members just took the bigger concrete tasks and left without telling the rest of the group while the rest of us was fumbling in the dark a bit and trying to come up with tasks to do. I feel like it's not unusual that I get the role of group parent where I have to make sure everyone has a task and that they can do it. It is very frustrating and is probably based in part of my vocal nature, other team members design work inexperience and our age differences.

In the end I made some designs for packaging and stencils and we cut them out of cardboard in the laser cutter in the workshop. The designs of the prints were inspired by t-shirts on the H&M web shop but made to look a bit crappier and modular so you could vary your prints a bit.

Critique

Our second critique session was with Clint and he pointed out that our concept might be a bit too fuzzy. What are we really critiquing really? If we want to make the critique about fast fashion, we might want to mimic those companies a bit more. They don't offer any custom design or add-ons as they want to streamline their processes. Our concept might be too far from there to really be understood as a critique of them.

Re-aligning

We came out confused but we found a new way. We will take the work and suggestions we got this week and take the project in a slightly different direction. We will keep the self assembly and press on that that is the only way this company can guarantee that there is no exploitation of the work force. The focus will be less on the DIY nature though and it's just a way to shine a light on the working conditions and not a way to build an attachment to the garment. We will also remove the customizations and make a web shop that looks more like a normal store.