We got a short brief for this final project from the people behind the after school writing program 826NYC last week. Our mission is to redesign the blog Fish slaps a baby to meet their students (age 6-18) demand for a nicer looking, more flexible website that will better support the different kinds of formats and content they want to publish. In the future blog, the children will be able to choose between different, carefully designed templates to illustrate the feel of their blog post. These templates will be based on the students own creative ideas.
Our first meeting with the students happened tonight in their workspace, and we were all set for a creative brainstorming and moodboard session where the 826NYC students were in charge, and the SVA students their humble and curious assistants. Armed with paper scissors, I was helping several students finding the magazines and images that would best illustrate their ideas. The concept I will work with for the next weeks, is one that fits me quite well, considering that I’m a garden owner miles away from my garden. So why not grow a digital garden template based on these instructions:
CONCEPT IDEA: BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS
Flowers in gardens, especially roses. Favorite color is pink, but lilac and yellow is OK too. And sparkling things. Like her bracelets. One time when she played with her friends in a garden, she hid a bunch of rocks and the others had to find them. She also likes eggs and chickens, and she has seen someone kill a chicken once. With a knife. But that’s another story, and another concept all together.
Having a nine year old art director has been lots of fun. So far. We’ll see if I meet her expectations as the process evolves. I believe she was pretty happy with my paper cutting abilities, at least…