Category: Communication Design

On 28th of November 2019, the European Youth Award Festival (EYA) took place at FH Joanneum Graz. There, ten innovative projects created by students, young professionals or startups were presented to us. In order to give you some insights, I will describe some of those projects, addressing their strengths and weaknesses they have in my point of view.

Attending the EYA Festival 2019 today I noted some things I wanted to state in a blog post. One observation I made while listening and comparing the presentations was, that all the participants had ideas, that were or at least wanted to be ethical correct. If the drive to create things is to help someone with something, that in my opinion alone deserves recognition and gives hope that our generation is actually going to make a change.

One group called „eye build it“ developed a special software to enable physically disabled people to work in 3d programs by using affordable eye-tracking devices. What I really liked about the idea was, that you really can give a meaning to peoples lives who would have struggled finding one without it. I would really enjoy to see some of the biggest companies in the world using this tool to open doors for disabled people to unleash their potentials.

There was another group called „imagilabs“ whose initial intention it was to learn very young people the basics of coding. I kinda liked the idea, because everyone should have access to the knowledge he or she needs. For me the crux of the matter was that, this whole program was only meant for girls. In my opinion, that isn’t what equality looks like and it never will. Another thing that grinded my gears about „imagilabs“ was the fact that education should be sold with their program. The thought of someone not being able to afford this product, is one very very little piece that is helping to seperate the poor from education. Besides the girl-exclusivity and the monetization I liked a lot of things what they did. They decided for example to give people using the programs the possibility to exchange and discuss topics.

All in all I enjoyed the presentations and I am kinda proud that the EYA Festival took place at the FH Joanneum in Graz.

When I came to the EYA-presentation I had absolutely no idea what it was about. Young European people. Probably. However, it soon became clear that this was a community of young entrepreneurs, aiming to improve society with digital technology. Listening to several presentations I noticed their aiming to be true: every project was trying to do some good. For medicine, disabled people, our environment, etc. But you have to keep in mind one thing: these people are not doing charity, they are entrepreneurs. And even if they aim to improve something, they want to make money in the first place. However, it was impressive to see people at that young age developing digital products that could really make an impact in the future and I enjoyed listening to their talks. Yet the presentations were really short and as a matter of fact the products were introduced quite superficially. This is why I had a hard time evaluating how mature the products really were. 

To give you a little insight about my thoughts and what I learned, I am going to introduce you to a few presentations I remember the most:

FOREST & CLIMATE

Forest and Climate (Sume i klima) is an online platform educating about reasonable afforestation. They use f.e. satellite data to evaluate where to plant trees and which species would fit best. In times of the climate crisis more and more people, companies and organizations want to plant trees. But without any further knowledge, their efforts are often more or less pointless. I really liked that the platform is more about educating than selling something. I actually never thought about planting trees being a complex process that should be well thought out. I think it is great that they draw attention to this issue. 

EYE BUILD IT

Eye Built It is an eye tracking program making it possible to build objects in 3D just with your eyes. The built objects can then be brought into the real world with a 3D printer. Since the program is controlled with eye tracking even people who can’t use a mouse or keyboard are not left out. There is also an online community, where people can communicate and exchange their thoughts and work.
I really like this project, because projects like that are a huge step towards a more inclusive world. The good thing is that eye tracking is not only a cool thing for people with disabilities. It’s an innovative technology that is interesting and fascinating for everyone. 

PATH OUT

After the game Path Out was presented, one of the first jury questions was: „Why is this game beneficial for society?“. And even though it is just a game, not improving something right away, I think it is quite obvious why this game is great. Path Out is an autobiographical game, telling the story of Abdullah, a young Syrian artist, who escaped the civil war. The game is just telling a story, nothing else, but it creates an understanding why people leave their countries, rebuts stereotypes and creates empathy for Abdullah, the refugee. I love the concept and that you can play the game for free. Even though all it does is basically to tell a story, but in fact it is doing so much more. Storytelling can help to change minds to the better and that is something really important!

IMAGILABS

ImagiLabs is a platform that wants to help girls learn to code in a playful and experimental way. Which is a good thing, I guess. But there were a few things I didn’t like too much. I think it would be great to have a program/platform that also attracts girls to do more with technology. But I don’t like the fact that ImagiLabs is ONLY for girls. I don’t think that excluding boys is the right way to get more girls into coding. Moreover, ImagiLabs is a smart learning platform, an educational tool, but it is quite expensive. I like the attempt to boost girls, but I don’t think that education should be that expensive. At least not, if you really want to change something. 

Der European Youth Award hilft dabei die Projekte von jungen Designern und Start-Ups zu fördern. Er bietet also eine Chance, die eigenen Ideen zu präsentieren, voranzutreiben und sich zusätzlich Feedback von erfahrenen Jurymitgliedern einzuholen. 

Durch die Ära von Streetwear im Luxus Bereich (Balenciaga, Off White etc.) hat es in der Modebranche einen großen Bruch gegeben. Es geht schon lange nicht mehr um italienisches Leder, sondern um den Fan Moment mit der Marke.

Today we visited the event of the European Youth Award which was under the theme „Watch out: Europe on fire“. I have to admit, I never heard of it before, but I really enjoyed listening to the ideas of the young entrepreneurs and start-ups. 

It’s hard to say which project I liked the most, because there are many that impressed me. My favourite projects were imagiLabs, socialbnb and Aivy. Not only the ideas behind the projects were great, but also the presentations themselves. They were easy to understand, emphasized the benefits and the slides were good looking, which makes a big impact. 

Novels as Struwwelpeter, Alice in Wonderland, and the fairy tales by the Grimm brothers were originally published around 200 years ago. However, they still represent an essential part of children’s literature of today. The reason why these fairy tales had such an extraordinary impact and managed to be still remembered by the majority of people is that their authors ensured that their stories were illustrated in an appealing and unique way.

Drawing and illustrating has always been a part of my life and it has become my favorite thing to do. Illustrations are used in a lot of different context of design and help to tell a story. Since I’ve already done some research for my bachelor thesis about how illustrations are used in books, I want to find out more about going big with illustrations. What’s the difference between designing and realizing a illustration for a book or a website for example, or a mural for a shop front or a huge wall inside an office? How does this kind of process works and what should you remember, if you want to create a mural?

Prokrastination – wir alle haben uns schon einmal dabei erwischt, eine bestimmte Aufgabe immer wieder aufzuschieben. Vor allem Designer*innen kennen die Momente in denen einfach die Idee oder die Inspiration fehlt. Da schiebt man ein Projekt dann doch lieber auf die lange Bank und putzt die Wohnung, zeichnet, schaut TedTalks oder sortiert die Plattensammlung nicht alphabetisch sondern doch nach dem Erscheinungsdatum. Während dem prokrastinieren ist nämlich der Einfallsreichtum an Dingen, die man lieber tun würde, eigentlich fast unendlich groß. 

Das Schlimmste aber am Prokrastinieren, ist das schlechte Gewissen. Das Damoklesschwert schwebt immer und überall über einem und die Deadline kommt immer näher. Die Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster beschreibt Prokrastination sogar als Arbeitsstörung: „Prokrastination ist die wissenschaftliche Bezeichnung für pathologisches Aufschiebeverhalten. Prokrastination ist eine ernstzunehmende Arbeitsstörung und kann sowohl private Alltagsaktivitäten als auch schulische, akademische und berufliche Tätigkeiten betreffen.“ Auch gesellschaftlich wird Prokrastination eher als ein Mangel an Disziplin und Faulheit angesehen. Googled man Prokrastination springen einen Tausende Ratgeber und Artikel mit Titeln wie „Ursachen & Hilfe gegen Aufschieberitis“ oder „12 Tipps und Übungen gegen Prokrastination“ an. Prokrastination ist also etwas schlechtes, oder? 

Ganz so sicher sind sich da nicht alle. Ein sehr prominentes und erfolgreiches Beispiel eines Prokrastinators ist Leonardo da Vinci. Auf seine Werke mussten Auftraggeber teilweise mehrere Jahre warten. Da Vinci prokrastinierte indem er sich beispielsweise mit Maltechniken, Architektur oder dem Ingenieurwesen beschäftigte. Die Ergebnisse seiner Arbeit sind uns allen bekannt. Kann sich Prokrastination also auch positiv auf kreative Arbeit auswirken? 

Nach Jihae Shin, Assistant Professor für Management und HR an der Wisconsin School of Business, kann sich Prokrastination wirklich positiv auf die Kreativität auswirken. Ihre Studie zeigt, dass Prokrastination vor allem deshalb kreativere Ergebnisse liefert, da dadurch die ersten Ideen während des Prokrastinierens schon verworfen werden. Andere Studien von Arbeitswissenschaftlern und Verhaltensforschern zeigen auch, dass es nicht entscheidend ist, ob man etwas aufschiebt, sondern wie und was man währenddessen macht. 

https://www.uni-muenster.de/Prokrastinationsambulanz/prokrastination.html
https://www.vice.com/de_at/article/wdkmz9/faul-sein-523
https://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/trends/prokrastination-keine-angst-vorm-aufschieben/22894538.html
https://t3n.de/news/prokrastination-kreativitaet-672186/