During the spring break I reproduced the MAGCD3 project pad in a smaller size (reduced to A5 from A4) and up-cycled all Risograph prints I did during MAGCD1 into different notebooks adding plain paper and experimenting with different types of binding.
• A5 Drawing meditation pad -> this is a response to feedback received during peer assessment.
• Spiral bound A6 notebooks x 3 (gave a couple to a friend and technician)
• A6 Chunky notepad drilled and secured with screw binding.
• Hand sewing A5 notebooks x 2 (mint green & lilac covers)
For today’s tutorial I have showed two production iterations + all 21 guided meditations.
Guided Drawing Meditations Pad experiments:
1 x Full colour with sheets printed in violet, indigo, turquoise, green, yellow, orange and red
1 x Black & white version
☞ Tutor Feedback :
• Ai narration doesn’t bother but ask your audience. You can use it until you get the meditation narration polished and then narrate yourself.
• If you want audience to add their dates, you can add a space such __ / __ / __ for them to write the date on it.
• There’s an issue with the visual hierarchy of the pad. Try making QR smaller, make grid larger and add a cut line for people to tear off outcome drawing.
• Try making some more iterations with coloured paper, coloured lines and variety of cover experiments.
★ FOCUS GROUP :
After the tutorial I printed all 21 sheets on regular paper for tests and asked all classmates who wanted to participate to try the meditations to gather more feedback.
10 students participated, most / all of them don’t draw nor they meditate — their feedback is listed below:
General Feedback:
• The activity is very relaxing.
• Some of the prompts resembled them a colouring book.
• Try get feedback on this activity from people who are not into arts or graphic design.
• Variety of grids more fluid and organic, less rigid.
• 3D grids are liked because it let’s imagination flow.
Audio track feedback:
• Slower, leaving a larger gap to breath at the start.
• Give a notice when reaching 5min and have a longer track for those who wish to continue.
• Most students felt 5min was too short but at the same time very approachable and less intimidating than longer time. Ideally, give an option to extend the activity over 5min.
Free Copyright Music: Equilibrium by Sanchii from Uppbeat.
Transcript of narration:
“We all have an inner world to explore,
The intention of this colouring in guided meditation is for you to explore embodying your meditation practice one breath and colour pencil at the time.
Sit comfortably, close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths, breathe in through your nose filling your belly and your lungs and exhale through your mouth.
Using a range of colouring pens or pencils, colour in each rhombus with a different colour, ideally no rhombus with the same colour should be next to each other.
As you colour the shapes, breathe in and breathe out, focus on your breath and the colour each shape.”
_
Guided meditation style inspiration taken from Moment Space App. I found the 3D motions and branding created for the app to be very similar to the mindful paper exercises I am testing for this project.
To this tutorial I brought in this table and prompts created from it.
“Get out of your head” 49 graphic design meditations – which I realised 7 of them for the tutorial.
1. Dotted Lines Composition2. Circles Composition3. Display typeface5. Balance & Alignment7. Letter B
☞ Feedback & Tutorial Notes:
• Consider adding an element of voice over guiding the audience through the meditations
• The Musical Note is confusing
• Realise all 49 of them to see what works and what not.
⭐︎ Peer review feedback:
A student from MAGCD tested the above prompts at the library after class and gave the following feedback:
“I think the exercise helped me in two ways. First, by thinking about repetation and rhythm I started to notice how my thoughts became clearer. For example, when I was drawing the icosaedro, it started as a very frustrating process which eventually turned into something more enjoyable as I mastered the shape. Second, the exercise helped me to take my mind off the things that were frustrating me and the confusion that my creative project was causing. By concentrating on a single, unrelated thing, I felt freer to narrow down my thoughts.” – Evy Prentice
✦ This test seemed overwhelming to audience, like a therapist prompt. – Better to focus on simple and approachable easy exercises for self-exploration.
