Nametag

Our first creation of the semester was something as fun and simple as a nametag. We paired ourselves into groups and our partner became our customer. The objective was to learn as much as you could about the your partner (in 10 minutes) and the aesthetics your partner would like on their nametag. The task seemed simple enough- some guidelines were that they had to be made by 40% conventional materials (paper, glitter, ribbons, etc.) and 60% unconventional materials (items not usually found to create the nametag) and had to be . My "customer" was Stephanie who was fun and bubbly to talk to. She specified her name (obviously), year, academic interests, favorite show, favorite movie, and favorite book (which I found out when I was telling her about my favorite book!!!-twinsies). She also told me she loved pink, gold/yellow, and red. With that information, I set off to create her nametag.

In the process of making this first nametag, I tried thinking of a design and then creating it. However, turns out either a) I don't work well under pressure or b) it's hard to plan when you aren't familiar with the resources available to you (aka the unconventional resources).

Well anyways, this was my first nametag for Stephanie.

Honestly, I think I just made a pretty conventional nametag and then added the (washer and straight shaped)magnets in the middle and back, the white connector in the back, and the electric board at the bottom. The nametag could have been just fine without these "unconventional" materials. I was not incorporating them into the design, they were just extras attached. 

Stephanie's feedback was very encouraging and her constructive critique was that the nametag should be more attention grabbing. Using only three colors (black, red, and gold) was a little plain and I realized that I was projecting aesthetics that were more mine than hers. I even avoided pink even though it was one of her favorite colors. Stephanie later texted me saying "I like nice designs and things that are strange and interesting and sometimes all over the place." And I knew, I could be more creative than what I did with the first nametag. 

So, I went to the lab a few days later and collected all the materials I thought were attention grabbing and decided to work from there. 

The bead heart above the "i" fell off right before I took the picture...

This nametag was definitely more attention grabbing and incorporated unconventional materials into its design than the first one. It was also a lot more fun to make.