Author: christina.lamprecht

Even with all the little hiccups that happened the day of and before, I am extremely happy and proud that everything worked out relatively well. Especially since it all came from the silly idea I had in March, thinking about the design scene in Graz, when I realized I would love to go to something like a Design Sprint in Graz, and realizing that it had not happened yet, decided to take it into my own hands.

It also was a really nice way to leave a tiny little mark on the design people of Graz, before leaving to go to Linz, where nothing ever happens. I am still debating doing a second round in August, but there are just so many people not here during the summer. I think in the beginning of the Semesters, it might work out better and reach more people, especially beginning of winter semester, when a lot of people are new to graz and might want to join events to get to know others, not only to do a silly little design. I am happy I tried though, and will continue to consider it a success 🙂

While I was really happy that everything worked out the way it did, that at least some people came and seemed to have fun (I hope?) and that I actually pushed through organizing this all by myself, there is a lot I would do differently.

1. create more guidelines for people to follow

while I would still not give any concrete rules, I would communicate my idea and the idea of the evening better, give a fixed timeframe for works and communicate beforehand that people should arrive at the start so everyone can begin at the same time

2. promote better

I would spend more time and energy trying to reach different groups of people that maybe are not in direct relation to me. While I enjoyed being with friends and people I already knew in general, since it helped with nervousness, it also made it harder to be more authoritarian, and give “orders” in a way, since the atmosphere was really friendly. I think it might be hard to find a good middle ground. As for advertising, I would try to reach other outlets, like accounts about design on instagram to try and make them share it, or for example maybe even try to get the event to happen at the time of design month, to be included in their event calendar. But additionally, promoting it more in person, going around to different courses and classes at FH, maybe even KF and Ortweinschule to reach people.

3. be more confident

I had a really hard time promoting the event because I wasnt feeling sure about it myself. I had a hard time believing that I would actually pull it off, and that I could manage to create something people would enjoy. I felt like I had to pursue people and convince them to come, when I should have had an attitude that conveyed that the event is extremely cool and that people would be luck to be there.

But things I would still do the same: I really liked the space, I think it worked well because of the location in the city, the possibilities to change and rearrange, and the slight chaotic and messy appearance. For the people that arrived on time, I made them start sketching on paper first, so there were no screens inbetween people sitting across from each other, and they would have an easier time starting to talk about their sketches, if they could each see each others. I really like that part personally, and felt like it helped create a social atmosphere. The music did as well.

The day of the event, i went to Zotl to prepare the space. I was still having trouble guessing the amount of people, since not everyone registered, so it was a little stressful preparing the tables and chairs.

Here is what the space ended up looking like after the preparations, I additionally added a little corner for some snacks and drinks (not pictured here) to create a more cozy atmosphere.
People arrived at varying times, since some had other plans before and couldnt be there in the beginning, so there was a little introduction in the beginning, and people that were late got their own little introduction to the event and the prompts.
After each person was done, they had the option to present their work to the others using the projector and doing a little presentation. The working atmosphere was comfortably social, as well as productive. One thing I realized and learned was again that I did not create enough rules or guidelines. So for example the amount of time people spent on their work was really different, and through that it made it harder in a way to have conversations about the progress, since not everyone was in the same stage.

But it worked out well in the way that the presentations of the works were nicely timed, since everyone just presented as soon as they were done and wanted to, and there was no big joint presentation in the end where people wouldve had to wait their turn.

Here are some impressions of the evening: I also added some little drawings in the window to maybe attract strangers (didn’t work) and also show people the way if they had never been at zotl before (worked):

To give peoples work more attention and a platform, I also shared the works on instagram after and tagged the creators (have not posted all of the yet because I was being lazy), here a link to the page and their works: https://www.instagram.com/silly.design.sprint/

the latest post visible on the screenshot is a resume and thank you post for everyone that came <3

Now, one big big problem was how to get people to come. While the event was free, and basically a possibility to have fun and meet people, it felt like there still needed to be more incentive for people to join. As it turns out, best thing you can do is just annoy everyone about it for 2 months constantly, so they feel guilt tripped into not letting you event fail. No, but seriously, I guess word of mouth still makes the most difference. While at the time of the event, the instagram account I had created for it had around 65 followers, and a few interactions, everyone that came was someone I talked about it to in person. So for a next round I would have to invest more time in trying to reach people not only through social media.

For the social media promotion I created some graphics, based on a series of posters I made to hang up at FH. Poster looked like this (mostly). So i tried creating a visual identity that was chaotic and messy, but looked fun and creative. There was also a lot of information to squeeze in, since the event was not that easy to explain.

So taking these hand drawn elements, I created 2 rounds of Instagram posts:
The first one acted purely as an introduction to the idea, and announcement of the date and space.

The second one, I tried some different visualizations to remind people of the event. Again, keeping the some color ways and hand drawn elements.

And for a final reminder I additionally posted this, also trying to get people to sign up.

I tried creating a social space before the event already, by making people give their opinion in my poll about what they want to do, and also sharing a link to a spotify playlist for everyone to add songs and therefore influence the evening and the vibe. Here is the link to the playlist, incase anyone is interested:

Now, creating a prompt sounds way easier than it is. While I had some fun ideas I had a hard time judging if other people would also think them fun. There was also the issue to solve of wether to just give one prompt for everyone, let people choose, maybe a vote by hands? In the end I decided to ask some people that would not be participating in the event because the had plans that day about their opinion on the development of the prompt, since I did not want the participants to know before the event. In these conversations, it became obvious that people did want to have a little bit of a choice about what to do, especially since the prompts were not only different in content and “vibe”, but also discipline. So giving a poster design prompt might annoy people, even if the topic of the poster would be interesting.

So in the end, I created a google form as a kind of sign up which helped me in two ways: I was able to gauge about how many people were interested in coming, which was important for the setup, and I could ask people their opinions on what they were interested in doing, discipline wise. These were the results:

So most people wanted to do a random graphic asset, also guessing that they wanted to be surprised by something that was further from typical classwork, and second in line was logo/branding.

So the final two prompts given at the event were:
1. Create a branding/logo for your favourite conspiracy theory
2. Design a birthday card for david (a friend of mine, its his birthday today)

Out of the 12 people that came, this was the ratio:
branding of conspiracy theory: 6
birthday card (so, random graphic asset): 3
The remaining 3 people did not participate in the prompts, and used the space and time to work on different projects. So this was also a clear learning for me, that there maybe need to be more rules than I had, to make sure people participate, while not feeling pressured.

Some of the discarded prompt ideas (in case anyone is interested) were:
wedding invitation for 2 clouds getting married, redesign the periodic table, business card for a ghost who freelances, type poster with a font you hate, “knickbild” plakat (folding paper, handing it around, unfolding at the end and using the result as a base for a design), redesign currency.

I started looking into using zotl as an event space mostly because of money to be honest. While I had been there a few times and liked the space, I knew that it could be difficult to fit the space to my requirements. They were: creating open and chaotic sitting arrangements, to not make it feel like a class, having space for a projector, being adaptable to the amount of people (since it was hard to estimate how many would come), and all in all creating an atmosphere that felt friendly, while still productive.

I started talking to Luise and visiting the space after she agreed to house the event which she was equally excited about as me, herself being a graphic designer (BA from FH), and noticing how there are less and less events being organized by independent people for no monetary gain. The fee for using the space was 50€ per day, while at first I was planning to do multiple sessions of the event, I have to honestly say it was so much work and stress, and I don’t think I will do another one because of those reasons.

The most important part of the event though was 1. the people and 2. the projects.
I sourced inspiration from two existing events. One of them is Lolas Club in Lisbon, which I already analysed in the first semester. It is a coworking event with no joined projects, but for everyone to work on things they have been procrastinating. But it made sense to compare as it was also organized by individuals, not a company, it brought designers together and it was trying to solve some of the same issues I had of creating a space where creativity and ideas can be shared, but at the same time making it possible to concentrate and work on things without distractions. The second one is Design Chef by Elliotisacoolguy, a graphic designer from Australia. He hosts this event on his twitch channel, and the way it works is that he proposes one design prompt that every participant works on while being able to share ideas and questions and progress in the chat. In the end, who is willing can present their work and a “winner” for the challenge is chosen. I really liked this idea of a creative prompt as a way to encourage people to share ideas and learn from each other so that is something I wanted to incorporate.

“We question the common belief that closed, tightly connected networks always result in a collaborative mindset among the involved individuals, suggesting instead that the degree of collaboration within a network may not necessarily be linked to its structural features. Successful creative processes typically require a combination of work done independently and as a group. Individuals may first come up with ideas on their own for deep thinking and personal expression prior to sharing them with a group for further input and improvement. This strategy blends the advantages of each technique, utilizing the distinct viewpoints of individuals alongside the varied perspectives and united effort of a team.” (p.9)

Kang speaks about social creativity in a more careful manner, in the forementioned quote they question if a sole focus on the sociality of creativity would be profitable. Through the paper »On Social Processes of Creativity: how creative ideas emerge, develop, and diffuse in social contexts« they go on to say that these creativity enhancing settings have to be fitted to the specific people/the specific team working on the projects. This was also something I later realized in the process of my own event, how it can be difficult to try and combine very different approaches of people, with different progresses, ideas, time frames etc.

On page 22 they say “Cultural and societal conventions have a big impact on how creative ideas spread in a community or organization. Established norms in every social context determine acceptable behaviors, values, and beliefs. These norms have the ability to facilitate or impede the spread of creativity.”, which made me think more about how to create a space to support creativity and social interaction for my own experiment.

At this point I started contacting Luise, the owner of Zotl.

Something that came up pretty quickly when researching creativity in general was different techniques for idea generation, for example Kreativitätstechniken. While there are some like brainstorming that include more than one person, most of them do not specify the amount of people working on it or how it can be beneficial to do it in a social setting. For this I am excluding things like the 7 Hats, since the still are very structured in which positions to support and don’t create an open social environment.

Ways in which creative solutions can benefit from social environments is not only that there is more input to work with, and ideas bouncing off of each other, but also, how Gerhard Fischer calls it in his Paper »Social Creativity: Making All Voices Heard«, a social perspective. With this, he describes the benefitial nature for a project that comes from a setting where every participant is able to contribute their opinion. Not only about design in specific, but in my mind this relates a lot to for example solutions for a poster meant to be in public space, that might not be working for everyone, similar to a focus group or usability testing. He specifically goes into the right setting for this to work on a media level.

“To achieve and support social creativity is not only a technical problem; it requires new cultures and new mindsets. Making all voices heard requires socio-technical environments that provide people with powerful media to express themselves and engage in personally meaningful activities. The complexity of design problems transcends the individual human mind by requiring the integration between individual and social creativity. Our work has only scratched the surface of exploiting the power of collective minds equipped with new media. The challenges of the complex problems that we all face make this approach not a luxury, but a necessity.” (p.7)

To start getting into this topic I again went back to research instead of directly into experimenting. For this I read some papers and reflected a lot on my own experiences in the different contexts I was faced with educational environments in this field (My high school, my bachelors, my exchange semester and now the masters). First, some collections of learning of the papers:

The first paper I read and was fascinated by was »Creativity: A social approach.« by Arthur Cropley.
He challenges the traditional view that creativity is purely an individual pursuit rooted in self-expression and internal traits. Instead, he proposes a social perspective, arguing that creativity is shaped by and contributes to the surrounding social environment. He says that creative acts are not only personal but also public, since they must be evaluated and accepted by others to be considered valuable or original. (Similar to the problem I mentioned in the first post, that ideas can never be truly original, since people draw them from their experiences and interactions)

But he also talks about creativity and its purpose, not only its roots. The paper explains that creativity can serve society both through its products and through its role in social and moral development. For example, creative ideas can improve mental health, foster openness and tolerance, and lead to technological or cultural innovation. Cropley outlines how norms, group dynamics, classroom climate, and societal expectations all affect whether creative behavior is encouraged or suppressed.

As for educational environments, he mentions classroom practices as strong supporters of so called orthodox creativity, aligning with traditional thoughts and judgements while he mentions so called radical creativity as an opposite, challenging these thoughts.

The paper concludes that creativity is not just about generating new ideas but also about navigating the social systems that judge, interpret, and implement those ideas. A supportive social environment, including mentors and a flexible classroom climate, is essential for creativity to flourish.

My one big experiment this semester was the event most of you have already heard me talking about a lot, the Silly Little Design Sprint. For this course I wanted to reflect on some of the challenges and the phases of development I went through to create this event, and what I learned from it. But first, some more theoretical insight since my topic has changed so much. 

I came from the background of research I did last semester, about the differences of arts and crafts and design. And the things that stuck out to me the most was how arts and crafts felt social, almost communal while design felt solitary and sometimes lonely. Not necessarily only in the scenarios of creation, but also in its history, its heroes, its attitude to sharing information, resources and creating together. 

While in crafts, skills and knowledge are passed on traditionally and in the process of passing on, practiced together, it often feels like (graphic) design is a field where everyone fights for themselves. While there are still places to find resources like books, blogs, and social media (e.g. sharing design tips and tricks), in student settings and as young designers, it sometimes feels like sharing knowledge is similar to giving up a secret that might have created an advantage in the future. 

To involve myself in this topic, I thought a lot about how our institutions, especially FH do not necessarily promote communal or social creativity. While we work on a lot of group projects, that does not mean the creativity is enhanced or supported by this, because there is usually no groundwork laid for it. The basis for the concept of social creativity is that there is never a singular genius and a solitary idea, since creativity is influenced by everything and everyone around us, and our ideas stem from our experiences and things we have seen. While a lot of us rely on inspiration to create, there is not enough input on how to use these inspirations in a way that prevents us from copying or starting to do the same thing over and over again. 

We get private about our ideas, reluctant to share, afraid of being copied. 

Not even our rooms promote a social way of working, chairs and tables all oriented towards the front, for studies that don’t necessarily rely on frontal lecturing. 
I wanted to look into this idea of inspiration vs copying, of the singular genius or the