Process

The main goal for our archiving project was to find out if the items in students’ bags tell something about their personalities. We created different categories to find new insights and use our findings for both visual design and contextual purposes.

We started the project by collecting ideas through doing research, observation, and discussions. The first step was to decide on which categories we wanted to include. We initially had two categories, which were choosing the most and least important items in one's bag. It later escalated to ten, as we agreed on including only those two categories would be boring and predictable. The ten categories were chosen to explore various perspectives and get more insights through our data.

After having the categories ready, we asked students to select items from their bags that fit each category according to their own interpretation of it. The images were then photographed and placed in Photoshop where we masked and removed their backgrounds. When done, they were categorized into Google Drive folders.

The edited images were then used to experiment with different layouts for our publication. During this process, we also got a better vision of the selected items and could further analyze them for closer object studies, such as contradictions from analyzing similar items in opposite categories. As a result, we decided to divide the publication into three sections, focusing on this and each student’s characteristics.

After several explorations and failed attempts, we managed to complete various layouts. Since each person in the group focused on one chapter, we later combined them together and further exchanged opinions to develop and finalize the final publication.

You can go to our Miro Board to see the mindmaps.