25 September 2008

Today I surveyed my friends (teenager) and my aunt. List of questions:
1. Do you prefer to have a bag with double design that can be used for non-formal and formal occasion?
2. Do you see trends in selecting bags?
3. Do you prefer to have a bag with adjustable rope model or not?
4. Do you like softer design for formal occasion?
5. Do you like casual style for non-formal occasion?
For this, I print the questions on 5 papers (4 five questions each) and I cut it. Then I distributed it to my friends (16 in school and 3 outside) and my aunt (fill in by call). From this survey, I get this data:
From this data, I can see that I am right to choose to create a double design bag for my personal project and I know how to design my bag to satisfy a certain age. I know how because I can see that whether teenager see trends to choose their bags, whether they like the adjustable rope model or not, choose softer design for their formal occasion and casual style for their non-formal occasion.

The difficulty that I found is how to make the questions of the survey. I solve it by brainstorm several things that I need to check so that the product that I make will satisfy a certain age which is teenagers. These questions will lead me to how I’ll design my bag later.

This activity leads me to have better understanding about PP that I need to do survey so that I could do better in developing my product.
I can do differently by asking more detail questions about it.

New perspective that could be investigated further through future inquiry is to have more detail and selections so that I could see the result in more detail and it could be more helpful in developing my product.

23 September 2008

Today I worked on my analysis of information. I analyzed all of the information that I gathered by the help of the guidelines given by the school’s website.

The difficulty that I find is that how to take the ideas and analyze clearly the information that I gathered. I solved it by clear my mind and brainstorm it so that the information that I gathered are clearly helpful for my product.

This activity leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectations including AOI by analyzing the gathered information so that it could be useful for my product and considered the ideas that I found throughout the analyzing process to develop the ideas for my personal project (this shows that I really understand my chosen AOI which is Human Ingenuity, by using human creativity and etc.).

I can do differently by putting more analytical and in-depth thinking about the information that I gathered.

New perspective that could be investigated further through future inquiry into the topic/theme is that I can search more information about how the professionals work and to determine the next trend of the season so that I can be more professional in doing my work because I can predict how the next trend would look like.

9 September 2008

Today I made bibliography (MLA format) and research notes by using the outline given on the school’s website. I inserted the notes that I got from the previous days of research and gathered it all in this research notes.
This activity leads me to have better understanding about PP and its expectations because I supposed to make research notes and reflect and analyze based on what I got.

6 September 2008

Today I had an interview with my aunt who is a bag maker and designer. This person is a very reliable source for me to make the bag because she has been making bags since 10 years ago and successful. I learned a lot today such as how to design a bag for kid, teenager, and adult. From this lesson, I found out that to make a teenager bag is easier for me because I am a teenager and I know the trend among them. So I decided to make a bag for teenager. For the non-formal occasion it is better to have pattern in the design and looks trendy and for the formal occasion it is better to have a simple motif in the design with darker and softer color. Beside that, she said if I want to make two designs in one bag I should have a same pattern.
From this interview, I learned a lot such as how to start a bag industry, the basic things, and so on.

This activity leads me to have better understanding about PP and its expectation because this is a very reliable source and this is very important for the research note (reliable and primary source).

3 September 2008

Today I searched information of how to make bags on the internet and mostly I searched about the designs of the famous brands. The famous brands that I searched are ZARA, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Pull and Bear, GAP, Esprit, Dolce and Gabbana, and Channel. For some brands such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Channel, and Dolce and Gabbana they are brands that famous of its garments made of special, expensive materials. Those types of designs are hard for me to adapt because those designs cannot be pulled inside out so it will becomes another design. So I chose ZARA, Pull and Bear, GAP, and Esprit as the alternatives. I found out that GAP and Esprit do not satisfy my expectations. In the other side, ZARA and Pull and Bear grab my attention. Those two brands are famous between adult and (especially) teenage community. I really like fall-winter black ZARA bag with chain rope and I want to adapt the idea of it to my bag, which is the chain rope. I can see that one of the attractive parts of the bag is the chain rope because of its simple but sophisticated design. In the other side, Pull and Bear has two kinds of bags that grab my attention. First one is the tote bag which can be pulled inside out and the second one is the black bag with adjustable rope. This adjustable rope is efficient for my bag because we can make it long or short depend on our taste. These designs are really develop my ideas to my design.

The difficulty that I found is that how to choose a bag that can be pulled inside out so it would make another design, because I need to visualize it really carefully. I solved it with choosing a bag with a type of garment that is not really hard but also not really soft and a type of design that can be pulled inside out based on my visualization.

This activity leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectations by develop my ideas about the designs as the base step of Human Ingenuity. I’m expecting to get as many ideas as possible so that I can develop it more and become something that can impact the society.

I can do differently by searching more famous brands. I know I have the limitations of knowing famous brands, so I might need to ask people about other famous brands that they know.

2 September 2008

Today, I searched videos on Youtube about basic things to make a bag, such as how to sew using sewing machine in a right way and others. I have learnt these things when I was grade 8 but I’m forget a little bit about it (and I’m planning later for my aunt’s tailor to teach me how to sew using sewing machine and ask Ibu Fitri in DT class to teach me again how to sew using sewing machine).
I found difficulty in searching the video of making multi purpose bag that I want to make. I searched in many keywords but the kind of video that I want is not exist. So, I just take the video of making a simple bag and use the information of how to sew using sewing machine in a basic way.
This activity leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectations because in my research notes, it would be better if it has sources like video. This would increase my grade because I searched not only in books or internet but I also use video as another source. From video, I can learn something effectively without meeting the person directly and ask how to do it.
I can do differently by search video not only in Youtube but also in another web pages or in stores (I’m doubt about this; having video of how to make bags in stores).

1 September 2008

Today, I was searching for information in books. My missions for today are look at the bookstores, ask friends if they have any books about how to make bags, and searching pictures of bags in the fashion magazines. I have looked at the bookstores in Mall Kelapa Gading (MKG; since this mall is the nearest mall to my house) which are Gramedia, TGA Bookstores, and Periplus. Out of those three bookstores, I found a good one in Gramedia, the book is in English, but the only problem is the price of the book which is around Rp 200,000,-. I don’t have that much money to buy the book and I hesitated to ask my parents to buy that book. I was thinking, is it worth it to buy the book or not with that expensive price. Then, I decided not to buy it because the price is too expensive and I thought that I won’t need it again later after I made my personal project, and I’m not really sure if I really need the book, because what if at the end the book is just a figure in my research note but at the end I didn’t use the book for my personal project? So, I made my decision to not buy the book. The pictures of bags that I found in the fashion magazines are a lot and all of them are nice. I was selecting from those designs that suited with my personal project: dual-purpose bags; which means the kind of bag that can be turn inside out without resulting strange looks if we turn it inside out. I found some and I put it on my research note.
The difficulty that I found is that to search for a specific kind of book how to make handbags. Sometimes, there is a book to make handbags, but the language is in Japanese, or the price is too expensive that I don’t think that I would buy it because I don’t have that much budget for it. So, I solved it by searching for Indonesian or English books that I can afford. Beside that, I also found the difficulty in finding the right bag pattern/design that suitable to turn inside out but still looking good. I have to imagine and visualize how I can make the bag later and confirm it to my aunt and her tailor. This activity leads me to have a better understanding about PP and its expectations because I searched for books that related to my personal project and something that I can use and worth it for my personal project. If I just search for the book but I just put it as one of the MLAs in my research notes at the end, it wouldn’t worth it to spend much money to buy the book.
I can do differently by searching in the other malls or bookstores and in school’s library. I think school’s library is a good option because if there’s book about bags, I can borrow it without have to buy it. Beside that, I also can buy the latest fashion magazine and search to the latest up-to-date bags and find that if there’s bag that can be considered to suite with my kind of bag.