DDS Session 3 Notes

Agenda Our classes are more or less built on the backbone of a timed agenda, which is a refreshing change from any of the other design classes offered at the Academy. We don't stay absolutely faithful to these timelines but it does help to know what we are doing ahead of time...especially in a night class...keeps the neurons firing! So this class was 30/90/20/40: review, creative brief and questions, break, and a discussion over the next work assignment.

The creative brief This session featured a guest speaker, who also represents our new client, the United States National Park Service. George Su is both a designer at the National Park Service and on Wednesdays, attends MFA classes for New Media at the Academy. After a his presentation about the parks, George answered student questions about a variety of park events and services. These questions allowed us to select from the list of park programs, and determine the focus of our digital design project (a mini-site).

Choosing a client My selection was the event called "Muir Woods Summer Solstice." This annual event occurs on the longest day of every year, usually around June 21st or 22nd. George explained that this event targeted urban youth specifically as the primary audience for this event. It made sense at the time, though now I wish I'd asked why the audience was so narrowly defined. Fortunately, he did give me the contact information for the administrator of the event, Mia Monroe. Mia forwarded my information on to Sarah Koenen, a park ranger who has so far offered to gather digital photos from past year's events.

Insight Currently, my only concern is getting enough information about the event itself to build a conceptual backbone for the mini-site. Visiting a national park has a certain appeal to a certain population, but I think I'd be doing the client a disservice if I didn't delve just a little deeper into the minutiae.