Designer’s Ace
a set of 101 cards aimed at fostering design thinking among budding designers.
This was a project from a team of people that were all aspiring to be a part of a design school someday, somewhere. This was a collective effort of a group of aspiring design school applicants: a set of 101 cards aimed at fostering design thinking among budding designers.
Our primary goal was to challenge the prevailing notion that only individuals who have spent their entire lives drawing and sketching can become designers. We partnered with several designers to identify the most effective traits in their profession, subsequently devising tasks to enhance these characteristics.
Here’s a glimpse of the tasks:
| Serial Number | Task |
|---|---|
| 1 | Begin your day with meditation and illustrate your experience |
| 2 | Connect with a stranger via a helpline and sketch a face to match their voice |
| 3 | Discover and photograph ten distinct textures |
| 4 | Visualize being at two locations simultaneously and narrate the experience |
| 5 | Reflect on the worst movie you’ve seen and describe your emotional response |
| 6 | Spend time in a bustling location, capturing its dynamic nature through photographs |
| 7 | Close your eyes, immerse in the ambient sounds for five minutes |
| 8 | Observe a conversation, try to read lips and guess the discussion topic |
| 9 | Craft a comic strip depicting an episode from your life |
| 10 | Analyze various objects and concoct a narrative around them |
These tasks were formulated by grouping the traits a designer should ideally possess, as per the consensus of a community of designers.
| Sr. No. | Traits | Our Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Empathy | ability to resonate with others |
| 2 | Creativity | grasping the essence of design |
| 3 | Sensitivity | aptitude to perceive things in their true form |
| 4 | Observation | generation of unique ideas |
| 5 | Art Skills | refinement of craftmanship |
In addition, we arranged the tasks based on their inherent nature and introduced a gameplay element via the application of archetypes.
| Symbol | Archetypes | Our Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| ’+’ | Conjurer | tasks promoting creativity |
| ’()’ | Guru | tasks fostering self discovery |
| ’ | Astronaut | tasks enhancing awareness |
| ? | Mad Scientist | tasks encouraging experimentation |
| ! | Dancer | tasks intended for expression |
People Involved: @DarpanaNaik, @KiranSabnis, @Anagha Rewalkar, @VivekShinde, @MicahAlex My contribution: Qualitative Research, Prototyping, Play system, Nomenclature and Typology
