RSA Project - Final logo

This is my final logo solution, approved for the RSA Project.

Circle of life final logo solution relates to the typography used in the other materials,
eg. shape of arrow designed with different typefaces at topics and subtopics of the table-game and gives the project a modern and unique identity.

TASK 7-8 - Design authorship 20/20 Presentation,

This is a copy of the 20/20 presentation that I gave last week in the studio.

Photos are part of one of my collection which relates to me and represents my identity and I thought to present them as part of this task.

Here is a mixture of Albanian vintage photos, old memories, history, personalities and costumes which I have organized chronologically to present myself and my antecessors. There is also some history of Albanian photography which is a medium that interests me a lot and also relates with presentation.

 

- Photo description:

1 Dardania 
The Dardanians are my Illyrian antecessors that lived in today Kosovo territory called then Dardania. The Dardanians are first mentioned in 4th century BC. This is their emblem according to a publication in Zagreb 1702.

2 PIRRO  (297-272 p.e.s.)

He was one of the most famous commanders of the time and The Molos King of Epirus, He in Albanian is called “Burri- The man”, He gave to Albanians the etnonime Shqiptar “Sons of Eagle”. Pirro vas called by his man “ the Eagle” and he has called them  “The Eagle Sons”.

3 Albanian language - Indo-european language tree    

Albanian was proven to be an Indo-European language in 1854 by the German philologist Franz Bopp. The Albanian language has its own independent branch of the Indo-European language family with no living close relatives (even though there are many dialects of Albanian, many distant and remote).

Dialects

Albanian can be divided into two main dialects, Gheg and Tosk.

4 Kulla

The kulla, which means tower in English, is mainly seen in the western part of

Kosovo. It is a distinctive traditional style of the Dukagjini plain that borders

Montenegro, west of Kosovo. Kullas were mostly constructed between the end

of the 18th century and the first decades of the 20th century, and inhabited by

generations of families. The kulla was a traditional house of the Kosovar Albanian family.

5 The Stone bridge - Vushtrri-Kosovo

Through research it has been found that this bridge is one of the oldest of its kind in Kosovo.Until 1902, the bridge was around 7.5 m high. However today you are only able to see 3.7 m.It has high historic values as well as artistic, technologic and simbolic ones.

6 Albanian hat – Plisi

The white hat that Albanians call “Plis” is made from the sheep wool and is considered like traditional Albanian hat. A lot of the stories confirms that white hat or Plisi, traditional Albanian hat is inherited from Illyrians

7 Fustanella

Fustanella is a traditional skirt garment worn by men of many nations in the Balkans, similar to the kilt. In modern times, the fustanella is part of Balkan folk dresses. In Albania it was worn and used by the Royal Guard  and southern part citizens. Photo: A tosk wearing the traditional fustanella, Girokaster-Albania 1938

8 George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (1405 – 1468),

Widely known as Skanderbeg was a 15th-century Albanian lord who as leader of the League of Lezha defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades. Skanderbeg is Albania's most important national hero and a core figure of the Albanian National Awakening.

Skanderbeg was born in 1405 to the noble Kastrioti family .

9 Lekë Dukagjini (1410–81)  

Lekë Dukagjini was an Albanian prince who fought against the Ottoman Empire. A contemporary of Skanderbeg, Dukagjini is known for a code of law instituted in Albania. Although Lekë Dukagjini died in 1481 his legacy became everlasting through the codification of the ancient Illyrian customs and honor codes into his work titled The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini,

10 Meshari

First Albanian printed book, 1555

The book is meant to be printed in Venice, in the Latin alphabet, adding it some Cyrillic symbols for notes in Albanian. It was a great discovery as it was the first book printed in Albanian. As it stands today, it has 188 pages and the first 16 pages are missing  as well as some other pages in the middle.

11  Gjon Nikolle Kazazi

Albanian priest 1702-1752.He is the first known Albanian that researched the Secret Vatican archive.From its publication to the 1740, almost 2 centuries, “Meshari” book was an unknown and lost book. At 1740 it was found at the Propaganda Fida Library, near Roma – Italy, from Gjon Nikolle Kazazi.

12 League of Prizren (1878 - 1881) 

It officially began with the gathering of 300 representatives of all Albanian provinces in the assembly held in Prizren on June 10, 1878. The purpose of the meeting was the creation of an autonomous Albanian state that would cover the Ottomanvilayets of Prizren, Shkoder, Monastir and Janina. League was the first major movement organized politically and militarily to create a united Albanian region since the failure of Skanderbeg forces in the Middle Ages. It is the preliminary stage before Albanin independence

13 The Albanian Declaration of Independence

Flag`s day Is the declaration of independence of the Albanian Vilayet from the Ottoman Empire. Albania was proclaimed independent in Vlora on November 28, 1912. The same day, Ismail Qemali waved the national flag of Albania, from the balcony of the Assembly of Vlorë, in the presence of hundreds of Albanians. This flag was sewn after Skanderbeg's principality flag, which had been used more than 400 years earlier.

14 Zog I, King of the Albanians(1895 –1961), 

He was King of the Albanians from 1928 to 1939. He was previously Prime Minister of Albania (1922–1924) and President of AlbaniaOn 1 September 1928 General Zogu was crowned King of the Albanians and declared Field Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army on the same day. Zog's regime brought stability to Albania. The King organised an educational system and attempted to modernize the Albanian military, though the costs involved in this project were high. (1925–1928).

15 Mother Teresa (1910 – 1997), 

Born as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950. For over 45 years, she ministered to the poor, sick, orphaned, and dying, while guiding the Missionaries of Charity's expansion, first throughout India and then in other countries. Following her death, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II and given the title Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

16 The real art

Albanian photography has been acknowledged and leader of Balkan’s until 1945  when the communists have killed the Albanian spirit. The traces of photographic heritage have been wiped of by the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the paranoid communist politician between 1944-1985.

However, Albania has been the most fruitful area photographically speaking of the Balkans. First Albanian photograph is taken at 1858

17  Gjakova   

The city of Gjakova was located at the junction of important road of Via de Zenta.There are indications and material culture  that certify that in the territory of Gjakova is lived during ancient periods. However the exiting city belongs to the Ottoman periodCancel 

Albanian to English translation

Based on historical data, Gjakova is known since the fifth decade of the fourteenth century.

18   Old Bazaar in Gjakova – Kosovo

The Gjakova Old Bazaar is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Kosovo. It is a shopping center that goes back to the 17th century.

This ancient shopping center has many stores and stalls where you can buy all sort of handicrafts. There are souvenirs and other items for sale. Some of the most popular items are its high quality handicrafts. You can also have coffee there. The center was reconstructed after suffering damage from Serbian during the 1999 war. Aside from shopping, the Gjakova Old Bazaar also has a 15th century mosque. This in the middle of the complex and one of the major attractions at the site.

19 The Sword Dance 

Pyrrike is called the martial type of dance, generally known by the name “the sword dance”.It is performed in Northern Albania and western Kosovo and “the sword in the hand” is more like visual or figurative element.Its genesis comes from ancient Illyrians.

20 Marubi Photos: 

Studio was created around 1850s.The studio started to be well-known all over the country and then outside the country when his photos were published by prestigious magazines of Italy, France and England.Photo Studio in Shkodra-Albania is one of the most well known and the richest studio both in Albania and Balkan Peninsula for more than eighty years (1858-1938).The Studio was very rich in photography of all sorts; there were pictures of popular costumes for men, women, children, city people and highlanders being photographed outside in nature or inside the studio. In 1946 Marubi Studio was closed down.

Translate from: MalayType text or a website address or translate a docum

Prototype test

Here I will show you photos of my prototype (small scale), and the pictures of it`s test.

The idea was well received and playing with  it was fun and entertaining.

With new features like topics & subtopics of stories and design development 

it will be more interesting.

Test

RSA Project logo sketches

This are my first sketch & logo proposals for my RSA Project - Something for everyone, 

named "Circle of life", with its slogan "share your story".

Idea - Sketches

Some sketches and variations of an idea that can describe how can the table look like...

After this stage I have got some feedback and I am trying to improve my topics layer of mechanic table "game".

Concept - game details

- 2 hrs/event, game | Story telling table 

- 6 persons

- 20 min/per topic  (max.)  | 5 min. for speaker, 5 other persons 3 min (Timelight).

- Table game mask rotates clockwise every 20 min.

- Timelight | Red light in the center of the table, at the top of collecting box.

- Collecting box | place where speakers share their photos for organization records for       exhibitions, documentaries etc.

.......................................................................................................................................................................


Project name - Strap line

- Cycle of life
- Uniting generations
- Circle of life
- Share stories - Circle of life
- Life cycle stories
- Filling the empty space
- Building bridges
- Show & Tell
- Tell stories and show photos
.............
- Learn about your future from their past
- Share your life
- Show your story
- Tell your story
.............

Project inspiration

Here I will post some photos and videos of my inspiration 

for Project A brief - Something for everyone.

During the research I have passed through different prepositions, from intergenerational days to some workshops and drama ideas. However while refining my research I came up with a idea of a story telling event or game that would be held at age concern organisations spaces with the aim of promoting their social activity, while sitting around a table and playing that interactive game of storytelling and sharing their photos and materials for purposes of different documentaries.

Here you can see some examples of expandable tables, which I have found very inspiring for my "table-game" .

Links & sample below:
  
Expandable table
Expanding table - another sample...

Also. I will show some other images from our last visits at museums, at Science museum which were very inspirational about my project, images of digital interaction games.

After consulting with my tutor I came to the conclusion of using a mechanic table rather than a digital one, which will be simple to use for the elderly generations while sharing their stories.

Research material & links

Here you can see some of my research links, part of my secondary research for intergenerational practice, connections, social activities etc.. 

 

End-loneliness campaign

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation - Connecting Generations

Connecting the generations online

Intergenerational practice

UK Olders people day 

Loneliness research 

Grandparents Day 

Growing up & Getting old 

Intergenerational day activities 

Across generations activities 

Stereotipes
Promoting social activity 
Connecting generations - Journey
Building bridges
Age concern 

Building better communities for all ages 

Supporting youth 

Intergenerational Volunteering in Schools 

Contact the elderly 

Intergeneration week

M&M games 

Virtually friends

TASK 4: Reviewing the blog

I have been using blogging before but not on this way like I am doing it now to communicate with my teachers and group from the course. 
I was familiar with Blogger too but for this time I had to use a template with layout and functional aspects that really communicate and link the user with articles.

After some  trying and changing at Btemplates I have found my temp. template which is designed by Arscin and created by Blogandweb .
What I like the most is the neutrality that it offers and its simple use functions which will serve till my personal company concept is finished and applied here. I have been working on template html code to costumize it for my needs. There will be more in the future.

• Blog title – I am using my name for the moment till I finalize the concept for my company name on the Business for Design module and apply it here.
• Navigation bar – buttons allowing user to view the blog’s home page, posts RSS and all comments.
• Widgets – About Me, Blog archive, Followers
• Tags - Every task is taged and can be found easily
  
• Labels - Which are very useful while searching for a particular post or topic.   

TASK 5 - Project outline & working plan

STORYTELLING EVENT

The scenario of bringing generations closer especially the elderly which these days are facing loneliness, is very current all over the world.They miss a lot of things, one of them and most important is love & care of their son & daughters, grandchildren too and of course their mutual communication. Also I can mention that the younger’s lose a lot from their lack of contact with the elderly, because their continuous contact with people that have passed the barriers of their life helps them to mature and be prepared and understand life better from the lessons that they get from the elderly.

The idea is to create an event on which would include two or more generations while promoting their social activity, in this case of a “game” involving the young people and the elderly in a round table where they can talk and share their different experiences from their past while telling stories which are recorded and showing photos which remain as a archive of the organization that organizes this event and then are used for certain purposes, eg. monographs, photo albums, exhibitions or any documentary.

My opinion for the idea is very positive because the storytelling event with different topics including culture, personal life, technology, love, fashion, war etc would be a better opportunity that generations come more closer, eg. The younger’s to learn more for the elderly like how it was before without internet, telephones, tv etc… where the only form of communication were letters and the elderly would learn more for the entertainment that the younger’s have, technology and convenience that it offers that is taking over the world more and more, for instance internet is one of the most entertaining  and popular form of communication

This “game” would be very attractive and entertaining not only for the players that will learn new things but also the way that is designed is fun, exploring the mysteries and beautiful stories of real life in recent decades, with dialogue and discussions, explained from the elderly and the younger’s in an interactive way .

This combination of ideas, or storytelling affects the realitonship of the elderly and the younger’s very much, makes them learn more for each-other and this would serve that they understand more the relationship between them and that they decrease the distance between them along with the elderly loneliness in particular.The idea could work if at least once “a month” such a event or activity would be held at different organizations that deals with age concerns, with different people like everybody to have chance to meet new people from different generations especially the youngers. Above all in the end we will all get older and  come to the days where they are found today.

In this case the elderly wouldn’t  be faced with loneliness  and the lack of socialization and the others would understand them better and would learn a lot of things that would be helpful and inspiring in their future life and for example the idea of collecting their stories for  a documentary would attract attention.Because at the end It is good to help and show solidarity with others, if you want that later to be helped and that someone else take care and show love for you... after all; this is cycle of life.

WORKING PLAN

TASK 6: Postmodernism - exhibition

Last friday we visited the V&A museum to explore the exhibition of “Postmodernism”. We had the opportunity to see various works of different creators within that time including architecture, fashion, music, posters, signage, sculpture and magazines. Postmodernism is a movement of art that rejects the ideas of modernism such as order or discipline in favor of expression and instincts.

During the visit I was impressed by the work of:

Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, the best known as Paper Architects,

whose work “Paper architecture” saw print but has never been build,

Giulio Paulini ”The other figure” postmodern mood sculpture where you can see two identical portraits staring at the third one that lies between them on the

floor smashed into pieces “Melancolia”.

Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson “Big money is moving in”, Docland community poster project, a billboard that shows a bricolaged London skyline, with huge piles of cash sweeping away the existing cityscape.

Interesting political protest with postmodern techniques.

Jenny Holzer, “Protect me from what I want”, her artwork prompts critical reflection on desire, it`s causes and effects and the whirlwind of commerce that surrounds it.

Wendy Maryama, ”Mickey macintosh chair”, a handmade chair that features the most famous pair of ears.

It was a very effective exhibit, telling its story and passing the message. One of the exhibitions strengths is its presentation with a variety of media and formats like audio, video, print and physical objects! The method is very effective and I think that the artifacts are appropriate for the topics as the samples listed above and they do convince me with their message. The labels and their descriptions are very helpful and easy to understand and the audio-visual segments communicate clearly. I have learned a lot of new things from the interactive components of the exhibitions and yes; they do tell effective stories about the movement. One of the attributes that made me slightly loose interest in the exhibits is the over exaggeration of fashion and its style, as if it were from a different planet. In addition, the movement as a whole over does and over uses decorations deterring my interests.

 

Being impressed by their ways of expression I think that postmodernism can be the most controversial movement in art and designs history. Postmodernism came as a response to modernist needs of opening a new window and by contrast was more like a broken mirror or a reflecting surface made of many fragments with its key principles that were of complexity and contradictory. The movement brought a drastic freedom to design, through actions that were often funny, sometimes provoking and in some cases bizarre. Above all, postmodernism brought awareness about style itself. What is next?

 Alexander Brodsky and Ilya Utkin, Paper architecture

Giulio Paulini ”The other figure”

Jenny Holzer, “Protect me from what I want”

Peter Dunn and Loraine Leeson, “Big money is moving in”

Wendy Maryama, ”Mickey macintosh chair”

Company logo

I am working on my design company logo-project and you can see some 

of the solutions down here. What am I trying to do is to find a balance between a serious and funny style of the appearance of the "superminds", however there can be more 

solutions in the future...

Symbolic object - Book

Those who can read it best want it around and near.

You can`t judge it from its cover.

Creative and inspirational.

It can distract people from reality with words.

Easy to understand.

Other side of me.

Creative, inspirational and entertaining.

Full of knowledge.

Relax and entertainment.

With every chapter it can offer something new and exiting.

It`s content is a record of the past.

You can find drama, fun and educational parts on its pages.

Moodboard

I started from identifying some images that are relevant and represent the key words (which are presented at my company name post before and posted on the blog) of the company thinking  and collected them for presentation of the mood board exercise. 
 

TASK 3: Contacting organisations 2

Yesterday I found another organisation contact and finally managed to meet with him, following the direction of New Horizonts (another organisation).

I were at Age Concern, Kensigton & Chelsea and meet with Mr. Ben Long.

Even that he didnt have enough time, he promised that he will send me the 

answers via email. However I have described him what my reasearch is about and he liked the idea and told me that it works becouse they allready did something like that. 

He described me how hard is to manage the process becouse it is hard to find a place on a theatre for performance and it is very expensive to pay the professionals who will assist at workshops, for scenario.

They are doing it every year and it is called Acting up.

"Each year for three weeks during the summer, a group of school children from Holland Park School get together with members of Age Concern (Kensington and Chelsea) and spend three weeks together, writing and rehearsing with actors from Theatre ADAD to produce and star in their very own show."  

Source: Link

After that I have been looking from him for some new territories of my subject, and he promised me that he will write for them and answers to my email, which I am still waiting.


.....................................................................................................................................................

I received a response from another organisation named Openage that gives support  and offers collaboration for my project. 

Further below see copy of their response via email:

"Hi Yll,

Just to let you know that I’m very interested in your proposal for some intergenerational work. So busy today so will try and get back to you tomorrow and answer your questions. If you could let me know days and state morning/afternoon that you might be free to work together then it would be helpful as we work on our programmes now, to print end of Nov.

Many thanks and I’ll send you the question answers tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Jemma Bicknell

Westbourne Hub Co-Manager"...       Date 07.11.11

..................................................................................................................................................

 

...and she was very supportive with her answers,...

"I think it’s a great idea, something that needs to happen more often given things like the London riots etc....We could find a venue and assist with and promote the group....We would need to get the space and time sorted before end of Nov as that’s when we print our new activity programmes for Jan..."  Date 08.11.11

I have replied to her via email explaining her at what stage my research is and hoping that they might give further support in that direction.

 

Contacting people - Interviews

As part of my primary research I have created 3 types of questionnaires with which I started to contact people of my focus groups and organisations - charities. To do that was not easy at all, because it was hard to find people who can collaborate with you while you are doing it on the streets. I have to mention that I was lucky if I got one from ten of them asked kindly to spare their time  for my research.

During the process I heard things like ...sorry, i have no time, ... don`t speak english, ...can`t speak at all, ... we have just a week here,  and all this leaded me to find places

where the elderly and the youngsters are seen often, like "Portobelo market" an antique market attractive place for people of different ages where usually I had chances to contact the elderly. Other people of my focus-group are youngsters which I tried to reach around schools or near the sport centers here at Kensington area.

Here you can see some of my interviewers that accepted to have a pic. for records as i promised them.There are diagrams formed after collecting quantitative and qualitative data that describe their opinions about some of the questions made to them about the project.

There are also some other questions at each group about their family & siblings, relationships with them, some opinions etc which I have saved for records.

TASK 3: Contacting organisations

I have tried to contact the organizations and charities which deal with Intergenerational relationships, the elderly and other generation people, sending them emails with questions about my project.

From some of them I still haven`t got any response, whilst some of them replied and either answered some of my questions or directed me to more competent people who can help or share experiences similar to my project.

I have started my project researching locally and tried to approach local and official authorities.

................................................................................................................................................

These are the questions directed to them, after explaining the project:

"The cycle of life, all generations sharing stories

I am working in a brief about researching the possibilities of

creating an event or programme that will bring together the

relationships between the young and elderly whilst promoting their social activity.

I would like to organise a workshop in which different (the elderly

and the youngsters) generation can communicate, talk,

tell stories and share experiences which would lead to making a

scenario towards a drama performance as a final product of their

social activity promotion.

The idea is to research the possibilities that they themselves create scenario and play it in a

drama as a final product of the project."

 1. What do you think about the idea?

 2. Would you be able to assist and what would that be?

 3. Would you be able to provide us with a space for workshop and later performance?

 4. What would be the best timing to organise this event so they don’t clash with your other activities?

 5. Would you be able to assist with printing of promotion material, or direct us to any charity organisation that   could assist?

6. How would you manage that kind of workshop?

 ...or if you could direct me to any charity organisation which could be helpful for the above intent?

...................................................................................................................................................

I have started with a local library where they directed me to Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, their reply was:

"The idea sounds fine and you may find HistoryTalk a useful contact as they have organized intergenerational activities similar to this."

...they have given me some other links which I contacted via email. 

Contact the elderly

AgeUK Lambeth

Open Age 

Westway (community projects)

New Horizonts ( a multi-activity centre for older people) replied to me and directed to another contact...

"...thank you for getting in touch, I would recommend you contact B. L. at Age Concern Kensington and Chelsea, he deals with intergenerational projects and has done similar projects and has connections with schools etc and is best placed to help with this.  I'm sure he would be happy to answer any questions you have. However if your only looking for a couple of sessions then we could provide a room during term break for a workshop or performance and we could publicise through usual channels, but we couldn't contribute towards payments for printing or other promotion."

They provided me with contact-email for Age Concern to whom I have written, sent them the questions from questionnaire and asked for advice for project; I am waiting for a response. 

I have to mention that during my interviews in the streets, I passed  Westway-citizen advice center  and started doing my interview with a woman at the reception and she firstly gave me very hopeful answers till the end when she signed her personal name regreting to put her company name instead (she did not accept to take picture for records as well) and her answers were like...

"I think that this is a very good idea, 

I would have been assisting younger`s as a mentor,

Hypothetically speaking (if it happens)  the organisation would be able to offer a space...all the evenings, 

One of her answers were that if it happens we can assist with printing of promotion material..."...nevertheless I am trying too contact them via email,