My mentor has been a great help to me overall in the process of working on my Genius Project. I have been able to ask him questions whenever I needed help. For instance I asked him about how to work with clients and create something that they will like, but will also hold it’s value and remain true to my design aesthetic. This gave me invaluable information that I will probably be able to take with me into my college career and my life moving forward. However he is an architect and I think it would be very helpful to get information from a practicing interior designer. So I have decided to ask an interior designer to help me on my project. After narrowing down my list of about 10 designers working and operating in and around the San Diego area I have picked my final 2 I will be asking. These select few experienced Interior Designers share a similar taste and design sense to my own and will hopefully be able to aide me in furniture planning and overall spatial usage. Not only will this mentoring help me achieve my goals for my Genius Project, if all goes well this will also be a great informative experience in working with the interior configuration of a space. Prior to this I have only learned what I know from sites like Houzz, or Pinterest. This is a great way to gain knowledge however learning the reasons why things look good and the information that can only be gained by a designer that has years of work experience. I sent my official emails inviting them to be my mentor yesterday so hopefully I will get a response soon. It will be very interesting to see what they say about my Genius Project and if they can help me with general design tips.
After spending months building the concept for my project and then working on it tirelessly, I have found that it has actually been very beneficial to my growth. Though architecture and interior design have always been immensely important parts of my life, I have never been given the opportunity to create designs for real people. Even in Architectural Design there never was a project that really challenged me. Unbelievably in my entire class there was only one, I repeat only ONE assignment where you even designed a house. For most students this was probably a super difficult assignment, and the rest of the time spent learning all the different building styles that exist might have been a help to many others. However for me what I craved to do was never allowed. So after years of similar experiences in summer camps and classes I decided that to use the Genius Project as my outlet to create real designs for real people would be an amazing experience. And overall it really has been. Sometimes it is very hard to put my own sensibilities and tastes aside to please a client, but that is exactly what I need to learn. In the real world I won’t always be designing a home exactly perfect with impeccable taste, in fact most of time architects and interior designers are forced to meet the client's needs and sacrifice the perfect design to make their client happy. I just had to design a small 6 room house with two bedroom and a shared bath in a gypsy/log cabin bungalow style home as someone’s dream house! But this is exactly what my project is about. Each person on this earth has an unbelievably unique perspective on the world so why is it that we build thousands of boxed-in and soulless identical homes. Looking back on this process, working through these struggles and gaining these important career lessons are a great example of what the genius project has done for me.
After many weeks of great progress I have unfortunately come to a grinding halt. I have done almost nothing since last week’s blog post, now don’t think that this is because I have not been doing anything. This past week has been filled with so much work that I have physically not had any extra time to work on my project. I have been in an unending frenzy to complete my letters of recommendation for college which you may think is a simple process, but don’t be fooled like I was, it is a deceptively difficult journey. To get letters of recommendation or LOR’s as they call it includes a personal “brag letter” and an in depth survey, and thats only for asking a teacher. Should you want to ask a counselor, like all colleges reccomend, you must complete an almost 25 question survey that can only be answered in paragraph form! That is of course in addition to all my other homework and the genius project. With all this going on I have been unable to do little more than perfecting old sketches. In order to make up for lost time I will have to work much harder and complete 1 full home by hopefully wednesday of next week. This has taught me a valuable lesson in prioritizing the tasks at hand. It can be extremely challenging to juggle assignments and responsibilities, but I’ve found if I make lists and plan out exactly what I need to get done and when it should be done by, I have a much easier time completing things. Looking at my genius project so far I am very pleased with how things are going. I think I have really found my nook and I am happy to get back on tract so to speak, (pun intended) and continue work on my project.
After some time of working on my project I am at a fairly good place as far as progress goes. I think I am finally finding the correct speed at which I need to work at in order to finish my project on time. I have completed 4 out of 15 of my designs, which means nearly ⅓ of the most difficult part of my project is completed. Though this may not seem like a lot, I am actually very surprised at my progress as it takes a long time to finish one. I first have to get a feel for my clients style and needs, and then I go through many drafts before I can get it approved by my client, lastly I must transfer the approved version of the home from the rough draft to the final completed version for my book. I think going forward with my genius project I will streamline the process by showing my clients more rough “bubble” designs instead of full on floorplans before I get their final confirmation of the design. Overall this has been a very exciting experience to finally have time to do what I am passionate about. The only challenge of my project so far has been to drop my own tastes and create a home taking into account only my client’s style and specific requests. This can be very hard especially when your client is adamant on having one bedroom and one shared bath for the whole family! However I always try to be as accommodating as possible. This has taught me a lot in regards to working with clients (who may not always have the best ideas) and learning to compromise to give them both what they want and what's best for them. As you could imagine this has given me invaluable knowledge that I can apply to my future career.
After a brief but beautiful summer vacation I have made some progress and come back refreshed and ready to accomplish my genius goals. Over the summer this project has been constantly on my mind. I read every issue of architectural digest that was issued in the last 2 years. Numerous hours on zillow and houzz later, my head is brimming with fresh design ideas. I am excited to continue creating floor plans and elevations. This has been and will always be one of the biggest passions in my life. Homes are more than just a place to life. They are a unique way to express yourself and your personal point of view and style. This guarantees that I will love to do my project and will not give it up no matter how challenging it will get. Which brings me to the challenge of my genius project. If i want to create a design book with at least 15 homes in it, I will have to create 12 more floor plans and elevations before I present in the spring. This isn't that hard but after creating each house, I then have to redraft them in careful detail and then I have to write about each one. And that's not including the time it will take me to create the bound book to house them in. Even just hinting of the road ahead I get overwhelmed, but if I plan out when I'm going to do each step, and set goals, I'm confident I will have a super special genius project that I can be proud to present. I just hope people will understand the community service aspect to my project. Sure it may not look like you're traditional community service, but that's okay. I still think that even just spreading the word on how destructive tract homes can be could really help our community and even in the bigger picture create a change in the way my generation buys homes. My project is the perfect project for me and I'm glad I'm sticking with it, I can't wait to see what it turns out like!
The next step in the Genius Project is to pitch it to small groups of peers and our teacher. This will aid us in the process of pruning our ideas to perfection so that we may truly begin the process of following through with our projects. This opportunity will allow us to get feedback, and learn what we might improve or add to our projects to fully realize its potential.
I have already began to write my pitch and will most likely complete the first draft by the end of the week, giving me plenty of time to revise, and rehearse it. In order to be fully ready for the pitch I should also have a small sample of what I want to create for the final project. This will include one hand drawn floor plan and a frontal elevation of someone's dreamhouse along with a brief statement about how the home connects with the “client’s” style and personal interests. I am very excited to finally work with a real person with real tastes. Even in Architectural Design class, I only was given the opportunity to create a house for a made-up client, and that was only once. However, over the years I have created hundreds of floor plans for faux “clients” in my free time so I have a large bank of knowledge on the topic. Unfortunately, this is a completely different experience than working with a real client which can be very difficult trying to decipher their style and what is truly important to them in their dream home. Although this will be difficult this will also be an extremely fun activity for me to do. This will also help me gage the amount of time that each page will take to create in my design book. The pitch is on the 14th of june, which in theory, should be enough time to be fully ready. This pitch has got me looking forward to actually begin working on my project as it is one of my favorite things to do. Hopefully all goes well! This last thursday, in class, we did an activity called the “Problem Solving Simulation”. In this activity we were given two example events that each had several problems and were asked to find out how to deal with them and as a result how to learn from them. This was a very helpful activity to do, because this will ensure that no matter what comes our way we know how to deal with it, and also how to finish on time without delays despite the many possible things that may just pop-up on us. This also brang light to all the little details that we will have to go through in order to successfully complete our project. This activity ultimately helped us sift through our projects and find the possible problems that we might encounter, and what to expect.
Applying this to my project I can think of a several problems that I probably will have to deal with at some point in the process of bringing it to fruition. The biggest problem that I could see me having is the challenge in trying to mesh my personal style with my “clients”. This will be the first time I have ever worked with somebody to fully create a plan for their dream home. This may have a large learning curve that could end up drawing out the creation process much longer than it takes me to create my designs by myself. To remedy this I will have to make sure that I give myself extra time to create the final products. Another challenge will be in trying to pick out the people that I will design homes for. They must be people that will have the patience to sit down with me and let me interview them and ask them several detailed questions on their needs and personal style. This means that it will be very important for me to know the people well enough to ensure they won’t lose interest and ruin the whole point of my project. After doing this simulation I learned a very valuable lesson; While you might not know everything that will happen, you can prepare yourself for the possibility that anything can happen good or bad. This week we were tasked with finding a mentor to help us along the way in creating our Genius Project. This should be an invaluable part in the realization of our projects. While listening to the Seniors present their Projects most of the ones that were unsuccessful either changed their mentor multiple times over the course of the project, or didn’t utilize them at all. Help with figuring out what is feasible for me to take on and assistance in the process of working with “clients” will be a major factor in being able to successfully complete my project.
I have drafted an email to a select few experienced Architects and Interior Designers which took much thought and research. I picked my final 2 I will be asking after researching their designs and ensuring that they have some spare time to be able to occasionally assist me with my Genius Project. Finding someone that I had a connection with was not difficult since my grandfather is a Construction Manager. However it was a challenge to draft an email to a professional. Before I even wrote an email asking a reputable architect to help mentor me, my grandfather had to ask to make sure that it was okay if I emailed him. This thought didn’t even occur to me but thinking back on it this seems only natural in this kind of situation. Not only will this mentoring help me achieve my goals for my Genius Project, this has also been a very informative experience in professional communication. Prior to this I had only ever written emails to teachers which is a much less formal setting. Learning the process in contacting someone in a formal way, and drafting a refined email is a skill that will help me throughout my career and life. Tomorrow I will send my official email to ask them to be my mentors. It should be very interesting to see what they say about my Genius Project. I am excited to hear if they come up with any suggestions of something I could change or add to my project. Hopefully all goes well! After attending the Seniors Genius Project Symposium I had many things to take away from the experience. One would think that they had completed their projects and had something unique to show for it, however this was largely not the case at all. Many students had been unsuccessful and had either given up on the whole project or had fallen short of their goals. This was very surprising because they had almost a year and a half to work on the assignment. While this was not a very positive sign, It led me to ask myself some crucial questions. Where had they gone wrong, Why did all of those promising students fail ,and most importantly what can I do to ensure my success?
While listening to the Speakers present their Genius Projects I began to notice a trend, none of them had created a solid plan and had stuck to it. Most had formed a diluted and very out of reach project or had completely procrastinated until the last month. So I realized the best thing I could do is create a plan and have loose deadlines to keep me on track and make sure that I’m not waiting until the last minute. Although many students were unsuccessful there was one girl who was very passionate and had actually completed her Genius Project. She had created a donation collection for gently used and new sports equipment which she then donated to underprivileged children. Now you may be thinking that I am a complete loser compared to her because she chose a very good cause for her project, but this was her passion. Many other Seniors picked a worthy cause to devote their project to but you could tell their heart wasn’t in it, and ultimately this led to their failure. She loved sports and charity work which made her project right for her. Unlike the others had picked a subject that interested her and her project was feasible for her to accomplish. These were the magical ingredients that had set her apart from the rest. This let me know that my project was definitely the right thing to pursue for my Genius Project. My passion is and always has been design, this will ensure that my project will be successful. This Symposium was a fantastic help for me in the process of creating my project and has cemented my idea and put my nerves to rest. |