For our second project of this module we were put in groups and asked to research, prepare and present a slideshow on a topic related to design history. I was pair with with Emma, Saskia and Sarah. As a group we chose to do Design systems for the Olympic games as it seemed the most interesting. I’m not big into sports so I’ve never had much interest in the Olympics but now I’ve found something I can appreciate about them that I had never considered before. That being the design systems.
We would have a total of 10 minutes to present so we decided to divide that time into roughly 2mins. There was an extra 2mins that meant that if any of us were to run over, we’d still be able to get everything covered in the presentation. We each chose individual topics but met regularly on zoom and worked together to make sure that there was no overlap in content and that our slides were clear, visually appealing and cohesive. We also practised the presentation as a group to make sure that we were going over time and so that we would be more confident and better prepare when it came to the real thing.
Saskia was first up and discussed the origin and relevance of the Olympic Rings. Then it was my turn and I talked all about pictograms, their origin and why they are such an important part of the design system. When first researching Olympic design systems, I found pictograms the most interesting and so I was really glad that the group was happy enough to let me cover them. I really enjoyed researching pictograms especially looking at the different designs from each year and ho they represent the country where it is being held. My favourite was the Beijing 2008 pictograms as I thought it was really cool how their appearance is based on ancient Chinese writing symbols but they can still be easily understood by anyone from any country.
Next Emma explained all about design manuals and what they consist of. Finally Sarah discussed the memorable opening and closing ceremonies that occur during each year of the games. Here is a link to our presentation:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/13QaYmvqacdfjhXEK7NvHHc61eb2XeAd_RVrIeF8aPGg/edit?usp=sharing
Reflection
Overall I think that the presentation went great. Everyone did their best and we worked well as a group to pull it all together. The main critique we got from Pauline and Kyle was to try relying less on notes to allow for the presentation to flow better. I will definitely keep this in mind in future but for a first time doing a group presentation like this, I think we did pretty good.
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