Stone Soup: A Christmas Tree!

  Stone Soup: one of those seemingly irrelevant topics (to Design) that designers like Michael Bierut* talk about. I was introduced to the story by Marcia Brown* in my Design class last week, and on Thursday, we were able to create our own kind of soup/artwork through collective teamwork just like in the book. Professor Housefield asked us to bring some objects that can be used to make an artwork in our groups. I brought a couple of materials such as Mardi gras beads from French club in high school, cereal boxes, random clothes tags, and scrap paper.

The "stuff" that I brought.

Putting things together.

So we went outdoors and started our “work of art.” At first we didn’t know what to create, so individually we just started putting things together, then we began to fit and add pieces together from what we made into one whole piece. Our hands working together formed a sort of Christmas tree in the way we had different sorts of objects dangling from its branches. We also used a lot of tree branches and bark to add a realistic element and texture to our overall artwork. Though we were not able to execute all our ideas for the project, we did the best we could to include an idea from each person. It made me re-realize how hard it is to work in a group where ideas often clash because I’m sure we all had a different vision for it. Communication is a key component in the design world. I feel that we were all able to contribute an idea or two into the project. In the end, we came up with an interesting, somewhat abstract Christmas tree, but more importantly, we bonded.

Making holes on the tree for the branches.

The final result!

Seeing what the other groups made was interesting as well. It revealed to me the relationship between teamwork and artwork, how the quality of communication between the group members is reflected on the design. The better the communication, the clearer the ideas are portrayed in a design.

Credit/links:
Michael Bierut: http://www.pentagram.com/en/partners/michael-bierut.php