Developing concepts for Sunday or Monday’s photoshoot with Aaron and Heidi at TruValue Vintage.
Aaron
Focus on his use of space and attitude to create mood and ambiance. Air of informality. Sense of nostalgia. The space has to be fun. The shoot will need to put some emphasis on the notions of chaos and color within the space, without getting too distracted.

Heidi
Air of oppression in the space. The weight of the warehouse and it’s contents needs to be starkly visually apparent. The shot can’t rely on Heidi’s expressions. The atmosphere needs to be washed out and a little grainy, perhaps, to play up the feeling of stagnancy in the working area.

The preliminary proposal for my spring semester graduate workshop project. Not quite as refined and distilled as I might hope my thesis to be, but oh well. Feel free to read through some excerpts. A link to the complete proposal can be found below.

Context
“One of the questions that we can ask ourselves is, “How do we intersect with these spaces in which we spend so much of our time?” There is an invisible line between how we shape the spaces where we work, and how they shape us. This line, and the different places where it falls for different people is the subject of this project.”

Motivations
“The impact that the design and organization (or lack thereof) of these spaces have on the people working in them is often quite interesting. This has led me to wonder further about how people shape and define their spaces on a wider scale. From the person covering the walls of a tiny cubicle with stuffed animals, to the person who chooses to work only in the deepest caves accessible to man, they all play a role in making ther working space, and they all are faced by constraints.”

Research Goals
“Since I am not writing a textbook on workplace organizational guidelines, and wish to provide a personal, individual, and intimate understanding of how people relate to their working spaces, first-hand accounts will be required. I plan to conduct a series of initial interviews, some of which have been completed, in which I will engage in informal, but directed, conversation on the nature of the individual’s working space and how they feel about it.”

Design Objectives | Thesis
1. To determine and illustrate commonalities and differences in how individuals relate to their working spaces throughout a range of occupations.
2. Provide an insight for the audience on a variety of ways in which they can shape and influence their working spaces to help improve their lives.
3. To satisfy the voyeuristic desire to see and better understand aspects of other people’s lives in a visually engaging manner.

Deliverable(s)
The end result of this project has yet to be determined. It will likely take the form of a printed publication, in order to reach a diverse, yet selective, audience. The current intention is to have a highly photo-based deliverable that will engage the viewer through a series of polished portraits of individuals and their workspaces.

Link to the Complete Proposal
Sp_Proposal_v1 (pdf 40kb)

Aaron McGill is a 29 year old manager at Tru Value Vintage, a boutique vintage clothing and accessories store in downtown Vancouver.
His space is solely professional, and he has some hand in the way it is shaped. The staff at the store are principally responsible for the layout, color scheme, and decoration motifs found in the store. He describes the organization of the store’s floor space, his principle working environment, as “fairly chaotic.”
The store displays clothing and accessories in a variety of unusual ways, combining standard racks of clothing with dresser-drawers and cabinets filled with various fashionable odds and ends. This, he says, helps to engage the customers who visit the store by creating a sort of treasure hunt for the choicest items.
Aaron believes that the main priority of the store space is to create a fun and relaxed environment for the customers and the staff. This encourages sales, and combined with a very casual interaction between the staff and customers, allows the staff to help customers find the right pieces for their style and taste.

Aaron McGill: Complete Interview audio file (mp3 19.2mb)

Kathleen Westerhout is a twenty-four year old design student at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, majoring in Industrial Design.
Her workspace, located in Yaletown is primarily a living space, but serves as a location for her to study, design, and do some production work. Her work involves extensive time on the computer, significant amounts of time drawing, as well as working with fabric, and other light industrial materials.
She also spends time working in other locations, such as coffee shops, depending on what stage of her work she’s in, and whether she desires an active environment or not. When working out concepts, writing, or doing research, she often prefers to work at home so that she can use the quiet to concentrate. If doing production work, sewing, cutting, etc, she will work at home, but listen to high energy music to keep herself motivated.
Color plays a strong role in the way that she relates to her workspace. She finds an active and vibrant color palate is necessary to keep herself active and stimulated.

Kathleen Westerhout: Complete Interview audio file (mp3 12.6mb)

Well, another semester, and time for another grad project.
Not quite as well prepared this time however.
The topic is spaces. Where we work. How it shapes us. How we shape it. Maybe it’s just an excuse to take cool pictures of cool people where they work. Hopefully not, however.
And thus, the search for a driving, burning thesis question begins.

For starters, I think it’s best to get around to chatting with some people and finding out how they feel about spaces.