Chest.Heart.Stroke.

Today I made these table arrangements for a friend to use at a charity chest, heart and stroke fundraiser lunch! Hopefully they will brighten up somebody's day :)

i love my new work bench.
my table was made by my dad when he was in collage.
flowers displayed in my gran's vintage jug.
perfect.

(http://www.abici-italia.it/index_ing.html)

My dream bike.

entomology.

(Source: skullsanddeer)

I have become fascinated and transfixed by the beauty, intricacy and geometry of entomology. This is a subject which I aim to take forward for my self-motivated project and potentially into my final year of study. The study of lepidopterans is one which is full of intriguing pattern and colour. I feel contrasting the liveliness qualities of the lepidopterans to an entomology collection would be a fantastic gateway for some really interesting design work.

a.burst.of.colour

With the sun shining I thought this was an appropriate inspiring image to begin the week with!

the.post.consumer

The post consumer is our target market for our assignment. We as a society are slowly declining from the consumer era and moving into the post consumer era. People are becoming more environmentally friendly especially with the phrase 'reduce, reuse, recycle' becoming more prominent in many businesses and services. I found the diagram above very informative and helpful when searching for an understanding of the post consumer.

As a group project we have been given the task of coming up with a business plan or service which would attract the 'post consumer'. On our first meeting concerning this project we brainstormed around the idea of post consumerism, what it is, who the post consumer typically may be and why. A lot of interesting points where raised which we recorded as a brainstorm poster in the form of a mind map which you can see below.

personality.test.

Our first assignment for this semester was to take a personality test online to discover which category we fitted into predominantly. Then we were given the task of predicting each other within our group. The four categories were as follows:

-Activists

They tend to be involved in new experiences and are enthusiastic about new ideas. They would normally consider implications afterwards and therefore tend to act first.

Activists learn best when:

-involved in new experiences

-problems and opportunities

-working with others in team tasks or role-playing

-being thrown in the deep end with a difficult task

Activists learn less when:

-listening to lectures or long explanations

-reading, writing or thinking on their own

-absorbing and understanding data

-following precise instruction to the letter

-Reflectors

A reflectors viewpoint is taken from different perspectives. They collect data to review and mull over before committing to any conclusions. An enjoyment of observing others and a willing to listen to others views before offering their own are typical characteristics of a reflector.

Reflectors learn best when:

-observing individuals or groups at work

-reviewing what has happened and thinking about what they have learned

-producing analyses and reports doing tasks without tight deadlines

Reflectors learn less when:

-acting as leader or role-playing in front of others

-doing things with no time to prepare

-being thrown in at the deep end

-being rushed or worried by deadlines

-Theorists

Theorists like to adapt and integrate observations into complex and logically sound theories. They think problems through step by step. They tend to be perfectionists.

Theorists learn best when:

-put in complex situations where they have to use their skills and knowledge

-they are in structures situations with clear purpose

-they are offered interesting ideas or concepts even though they are not immediately relevant

-they have the chance to question and probe ideas

Theorists learn less when:

-they have to participate in situations which emphaises emotion and feelings

-the activity is unstructured or briefing is poor

-they have to do things without knowing the principles or concepts involved

-they feel they're out of tune with the other participants, for example with different learning styles

-Pragmatists

They are very eager to try things out. They like concepts that can be applied to their job and tend to be quite impatient with lengthy discussions and are practical and down to earth.

Pragmatists learn best when:

-there is a link between job and topic

-they have the chance to try out techniques

-they are shown techniques with obvious advantages such as saving time

-they are shown a model they can copy

Pragmatists learn less when:

-there is no obvious or immediate benefit that they can recognise

-there is no practice or guidelines on how to do it

-there is no apparent benefit to the learning

-the event or learning is 'all theory'

My results from the test showed that I was a very strong activist and reflector, a moderate theorist and a very low pragmatist. I would agree with these results. I enjoy the excitement and thrill of new ideas. I like getting involved and stuck in so that it will benefit and broaden my knowledge and skills. With regards to being a very strong reflector, I think this is a very noticeable quality as I like to think things through without being rash.

Concerning the part of the assignment which consisted of guessing my groups results I got on quite well. When we met we discussed what everyone thought of their results. This showed we seemed to have quite a multi modal group and we then further discussed how this should be advantageous to us in our future assignments. Through having a mix of every personality type this means each person can bring different qualities and compliment each other. Below is a photograph of my group at our meeting.