Hello folks, here are the presentations from the good people who entered for Assignment 8. With added comments etc from the equally good people of The Design Conspiracy. Here are their overall thoughts:
"We feel that D is the winner, although C ran it a very close second. C had passion by the bucketfuls, which was great, but D was just a little bit more sophisticated.
This was slightly different to the previous one we judged in that pretty much everyone knows about the World Cup and everyone knows about football. We think this was a harder brief too. It’s hard to write about something that almost everyone already knows about. Most people struggled to get the balance right between insight and information overloads. That’s why the ‘from the heart’ passion of C was so refreshing. A deserves a special mention for the link between WW2 Germany and Apartheid South Africa. E deserves a special mention for craft and the nice comment about the sketchability of logos. The only problem with E was that the craft got in the way of the thinking.
Take a look at F. We really didn’t like this one. There’s a great opening slide, but then it’s like a script and not a presentation. Presentations are funny things and they can be difficult, but writing for a presentation is very different to just writing. As we’ve said before, it’s about the drama, the pace, the delivery, not just the words.
Last time we wrote, “Don't over elaborate, don't take 3 slides to make one point. Make points. Pictures are good.” and we said “Seeing as we're Visiting Professors we've probably been harsher than Russell. We'll make no apologies for that, we won't bump into you in the canteen.” that’s all still true.
So, we’ll now design a logo based on the brief we received in presentation D. That should take about 2 weeks. Now we’re off to Cape Town."
I've had a look through and I'd echo everything the Conspirators said. And I'd like to thank them, a lot, for their efforts. You can see everyone's entries below. They're all worth looking at.
8A.ppt 8B.ppt 8C.ppt 8D.ppt 8E2.ppt 8F.ppt
By the way, I started anonymising these, which I normally do, but then it started proving quite hard, so I stopped. I'm not going to do it from now on. If you want to enter anonymously that's perfectly fine, but I'm going to assume that if you put your name on the deck you're happy for it to be uploaded for everyone to see. Does that make sense?
Also, by the way, we've only had three entries for Paul's assignment 9 which rather surprises me. I thought it was a really interesting question. Why only three? Summer holidays? Didn't find it interesting? Getting bored with me setting y'all homework? Anyone got any thoughts? I'm happy to extend the deadline if anyone else wants to have a go. Let me know. Otherwise we'll start having a look at the three who did enter, and who'll get extra special attention for being so diligent.
Looks like E didn't show up. It downloads but won't load (at least for me). I'm fairly certain (given their overall comment on the deck) that it was mine, and I'd love to see what they thought.
Any way to re-load it?
Posted by: Clay Parker Jones | September 10, 2006 at 07:46 PM
Sorry about that Clay. Have another go.
Posted by: russell | September 10, 2006 at 09:23 PM
Sorry about the last assignment. August got away from me and the assignment was intimidating. Interesting for sure, but the last thing I wanted to do was piss off a bunch of MMA enthusiasts with my ignorance.
Posted by: Lauren | September 10, 2006 at 09:27 PM
Apologies definitely not neccesary. Just want to make sure there's some demand to keep going.
Posted by: russell | September 10, 2006 at 09:31 PM
Thanks, Russell.
Very exciting to read the critiques. And many thanks to the Design Conspirators for the notes!
Feeling encouraged...
Posted by: Clay Parker Jones | September 10, 2006 at 10:12 PM
What do I win? What do I win?
Posted by: Michelle | September 11, 2006 at 12:52 PM
Firstly, my heartiest congratulations.
Secondly, you're going to get a logo designed to your brief by The Design Conspiracy, which is a priceless prize.
And thirdly, because it's better to get something real, you can choose; A signed copy of Gladwell's Blink or a signed copy of Douglas Coupland's Jpod.
What do you fancy?
Posted by: russell | September 11, 2006 at 01:03 PM
Finally, it came out. Mine is 8C. I think 8D is great and i agree with the design conspiracy team. Thanks Russell and the design conspiracy for comments. (Sorry i didn't join the 9th assignment because i have been so busy with my family business) I really enjoy doing your homework :)
Posted by: Oakie | September 11, 2006 at 05:32 PM
Even though I've read it I don't think I could pass up a signed copy of Blink.
Thanks Russell - I was half kidding but delighted to accept.
I will email you my address.
btw, do we all get Russell Davies APSWO graduation certificates one day? ;)
Posted by: Michelle | September 12, 2006 at 12:02 AM
Michelle - Congratulations, you got the special prizes. I wish i could.
Posted by: Oakie | September 12, 2006 at 06:40 AM
Thanks for the congrats. Looks like I only won by a hair - yours has some great thinking behind it too!
Posted by: Michelle | September 12, 2006 at 12:43 PM
Michelle & Thanit: Well done... Certainly showed me what I was missing.
Posted by: Clay Parker Jones | September 12, 2006 at 10:01 PM