Individual RSA Project

Summary of the brief

 

Each year, the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) runs a competition called the Student Design Awards (SDAs) which 2024 will mark the centenary milestone of the awards. In each year of the awards, there are a set of 6 briefs which applicants can choose from to submit to the competition. The brief I decided to choose for this year was the 100 year centenary celebration brief. For this brief, there were two outputs to choose from: textile and a 2 minute moving image. Due to experience and skills in videography and video editing, I decided to choose to create a moving image (video) as my final product. As part of the video, I was required to include assets given to me by the RSA through a specialised digital ‘toolkit’ given to each applicant based on the brief they chose. In the toolkit was a series of case study voiceovers about past winners which would help me include historic sections in my video about the awards.

 

What went well

 

One aspect of the project that went well was the video editing. Due to having experience and skills in video editing and using professional video editing software, I had an advantage in this project. For this project, I decided to use Davinci Resolve 18 as my chosen software. This is due to this software being similar to Adobe Premiere Pro which is the software I have used in the past. By using professional, industry standard software, I had access to a range of tools to help me create a visually appealing and professional video. Another aspect of the project that went well was the initial brainstorming and planning for the video. Before I started to compile the video, I decided to make a mind map of the different aspects of the RSA Student Design Awards that could be mentioned in the video. This included aspects such as design thinking, sustainability, inclusivity and the evolution of digital design within the awards. Creating this mind map allowed me to create links between the different aspects which would be useful when compiling the video as I would be able to add multiple aspects into each section of the video. The mind map also allowed me to narrow down the most important aspects of the awards which would become the main subjects for each of the six sections in the video. One more aspect of the project which was successful was the final product. Although I was unable to complete the full two minutes of the video, I was still able to achieve two sections. This meant that my audience can get an insight into my ideas and how I would like the full video to look, sound and feel. When producing the video, I wanted the audience to be able to connect with the design industry and to show that, although design is about finding a solution to a problem, it can also be linked to the art industry which I believe the public have forgotten about. By creating a sense of feeling in my video, I can remind the world that there are many other industries linked to design and that design is important. 

 

What challenges did you face and how did you overcome those challenges

 

One challenge that I faced in this project was my research on the Student Design Awards. When I was researching the last one hundred years of the RSA Student Design Awards, I was unable to find many details on the subject other than one blog post published by the RSA on their website. Unfortunately, the information on the blog post is identical to the information given to me in the toolkit. The solution to this challenge was to contact the RSA. By contacting the RSA, I was able to receive information from a department at the RSA house about the history behind the name of the awards as well as the various awards given out under the Student Design Awards. I was also given a list of past and deceased designers under the RSA. This information would allow me to find archive footage of past designers for the video as well as record voice overs that I can use alongside the voiceovers given to me by the RSA. Another challenge that I faced was during the planning stage of the project. Planning before starting a project is a skill that I need to improve on as I can visualise what I would like my end product to look like before I start researching. This can lead to an unorganised time management due to wanting to start the main production stage of the project without researching the subject of the project or the medium in which the final product will be in. Although the planning stage was successful, the challenge was starting the planning stage before moving on to the production stage of the video. My solution to this challenge was to set mental goals for each task. This meant that before I could start the next stage of the project, I would need to complete every goal that I had set out to do on the previous task first. By creating a Gantt chart, I was able to separate each task visually which allowed me to create goals depending on the length of time that I had given myself for each task. This allowed me to improve my planning skills for future projects as well as help to improve my time management skills. One more challenge that I faced during this project was finding archive footage from the awards to use as part of the visuals for the video. After searching for footage on google and youtube, I was unable to find footage from the first 90 years of the awards. My initial solution to this challenge was to contact the RSA to find out if they had archive footage that they would be able to send me. Unfortunately, the only footage they had of the past award ceremonies were stored on DVDs and I would have to visit the RSA house to be able to view these DVDs. Without being able to travel to the RSA house, it meant that I was unable to use their footage in my project. The solution to this new challenge led me to use footage of different design outlets from youtube as the background visuals in the video. As the footage was uploaded to the site by other users, I was able to find footage that I could use through the creative commons filter on the site. This would allow me to use certain videos without breaking copyright laws. 

 

Time management

 

Project time management involves analysing and developing a schedule and timeline for project completion. Formalised time management processes provide a buffer for things like unexpected roadblocks and under or over-estimated project timelines (Project Time Management and planning | Adobe Workfront 2022).Throughout this project, I struggled with time management. Due to challenges with research on the RSA Student Design Awards, organising my time to make sure the project is complete by the deadline was difficult. At the start of the project, I planned out my time using a Gantt chart to make sure that I had sufficient time to collect information through research about the Student Design Awards, gather inspiration and research into similar videos and transitions that I could use in my video. With the challenge of a lack of information on the SDAs at the beginning of the project, I needed to adapt my Gantt chart to accommodate the setbacks that I encountered. By creating a Gantt chart, I was able to map out my time and by being able to physically see a plan of how I map out my time, it helped me to see where I had available time in order to make sure the final product was completed. 

 

Bibliography

 

Project Time Management and planning | Adobe Workfront (2022) Adobe. Available at: https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/time-management (Accessed: 03 January 2024).