It's always a good idea to sit and think about what you have done and what you still have to do. In my case, two months have flown since I'm here and now with a coffee in my right hand and my camera in my left one, it's time to type.
One of the many reasons why I decided to come here was because of the worldwide finnish education and experience in design. After studying design history at school and how cold scandinavian designers made warm home furniture luckily I have had the chance to get submerged in this country and way of life.
It seems
yesterday when I came but actually it´s not...
In Plastic Product Development it all began with
Innostava Suomi's brief, "improve user experience in sport events, make them move" they say. Their objective as a company is clear and I felt really lucky to
feel the competition in my own skin. Our project is focused on orienteering, a finnish traditional sport in which there's a
problem we want to solve that is the fact that orienteering at school seem boring for children and there's a lack we want to cover between people who practice it from 12 until 30 years-old.
During the design thinking process we learn, enjoy and discover. One of my favorite discoveries was
PLA, a biodegradable plastic which made me completely change my opinion about what plastics are and what can we do with them.
Product liability is a more theoretical course in which I learn how a product affects not only the
environment but also our
health and the
health of all the users that are around the product. In our case, both polystyrene and paper disposable coffee cups.
The other course I am studying is Operations Management . At first sight it can be imagined that it has nothing to do with design but it actually does as long as even if we have the best product ever, if it's not affordable all the work we have done is for nothing.
Continuing with sustainability, the second period has started with a twice visit to Arabia campus every week to listen and discuss about Sustainability product and service design. All we design has an effect and it´s our choice to
decide in which way we want to
transform the world. We transform our planet but the planet is also the same for the ones that
will come and this is an important thing to keep in mind in every product and in every aspect of our daily lifes.
This world we life in everything seem to be invented, we have to innovate but innovation is not about sitting in a chair and thinking in our own, innovation is living where we live, seeing what we see and
creating the place we want to see.
This is a part of what is now in my mind but it´s not only about information and lectures, it's about learning inside and outside classes. Learning from the slides, learning from the teachers, learning from the classmates and learning from myself.
Learning needs attitude because no one learns without wanting to learn. First of all attitude is something that is shared, you smile if they small at you and you work if they work close to you. Creativity is in own mind, in our behavior and in the places we are and I feel so lucky to spend my days in the best place to create:
Aalto Design Factory.
Design is all around in this city, but design is much more than an object, it´s a way of creating
life.
Finland is my
home now, a country with
traditions that came from the past and will be here every next
tomorrow. A place that
inspires and where you feel
safe. Finnish trust people, and this among a lot of other things is what gives both students and teachers the freedom they have and that is one of the secrets that makes Finland has the best
education of the world.
"Weren't you suppose to go there for university? I only see pictures of you travelling" tell my friends.
My answer? "No, I´m learning a lot as well". I have learned that we learn by making mistakes, but that some mistakes
cost a lot of money. I have improved my sketching abilities sketching:
I also learn about nature, about it's
beauty and power. I confirm what I though, that products
are more than products and the importance of knowing how to say what you
say.
Sustainability is something I am really interested in, my classmates call me “Ecosara” because every project I do has it's own eco-friendly background. I know I still need years to study about it but it´s probable that it will be my path when choosing my specialization and I really think this blog is a really good way of walking my first steps.
In this two months I had time to travel and at the same time know how to do it alone, how to deal when something is not good around you and demonstrate myself that I am capable of living independently.
Last but not less, expressing myself in this blog have made me rethink everything I learned, re-read everything I write and re-enjoy everything I have done.
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