Making when the world is breaking - 100 Days of Design, Writing & Emotions

Design:

I worked on the Roborace case study for my MVP portfolio. Today's case study discussed a 3-tiered content strategy I developed for the racing brand:



1] Pitch - Short introductions

• "Roborace would feature in the content creators' videos in the familiar pre-roll method. The features would be ~2 mins that introduce Roborace and explain the concept"

2] Expose - In-depth explanations

• "Once the creator’s audience are familiar with idea of Roborace, the video is a fully dedicated video meaning the a video created to explore an aspect of Roborace related to the creator’s expertise e.g. Up and Atom exploring Moravec's paradox to dive into Roborace's artificial intelligence angle"

3] Plunge - Experimental and immersive

• "For the final video in the collaborative series, the creator takes their audience with them as they immerse themselves in the Roborace world. UK based creators joined us at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and US creators came along to a DevBot2.0 test drive day at Silverstone."



I wrote the the above all the while knowing: this is insignificant. What made the writing sessions less insignificant is the human conversations that happen around them. I worked on the case study during my weekly Writing Dojo. The 3 of us wrote and talked. We discussed our feelings, discussed the chaos we were witnessing and our struggles in coming to terms with it. With the conversations as a backdrop, making became easier.



Today's design insight is less about design and more about the context in which design happens. Make together. Make in public. And make with friends. Conversations are healing.

Emotions:

It's the 31st of May, 2020. A dramatic beginning to a blog-like entry yet it feels warranted. In London, millennials and Gen Z are out in the streets of Peckham and the city centre protesting for the Black Lives Matter cause. In the middle of a pandemic. Imagine what it must take for people to gather in crowds knowing COVID-19 is an infectious, airborne disease.



The people are protesting in solidarity with their African-american brothers and sisters. Shouting, 'I can‘t breathe’. The irony, the insane cosmic timing, of the slogan that's as likely to be a cry against COVID as it is a cry against police brutality, is not lost on anyone.



Portfolios are somewhat meaningless today. The daily struggle and triggering caused by working on my portfolio also seems insignificant. I sit to work because I promised to put in the hours every day and a part of me asks: is this it?