In it to win it://

After the first day's studio session of identifying our personal and design related skills and qualities and what type of collaborative practice we'd be looking for, we finally got our team's set and ready to go. Our team for the next 4 weeks working on the live YCN briefs consist of Kate Fenton, Ross Stanton and myself.

Before this brief started, myself and Kate had worked on a side project leading towards a video based outcome which we wanted to continue with. This seemed like a good opportunity for us to continue with this practice, however neither of us were sure whether it would be a good idea, especially as both of us wanted to try and work with someone different to test our ability to work collaboratively. Therefore we kept our decision open, leaving our choice to the studio session and keeping each other as a backup if we didn't have anyone else to choose from. It eventually resulted to multiple possibilities for collaboration, all with their own pros and cons for a collaborative practice. Aswell as Kate being my backup, I also had Heather in mind at an early stage, however some of the things she advertised on her posters didn't really reflect my certain qualities that I thought I could have fulfilled. A few people picked me as their potential partnership; Ross who was one that I also had my eye on aswell. Although we were both into type/layout and conceptual based design practice, I thought this would actually be more benificial and would make a more efficient collaboration. We also share similar qualities and attributes, as we are both generally quite well rounded designers who share similar views and interests towards a collaborative practice.

We ended up forming a strong trio between myself, Ross and Kate. It's probably worth noting that, this formation was not our initial choice. We all had a few other people in mind as potential collaborators but became a problem as the majority of the year had already decided on their partners way before the studio sessions. I was a bit annoyed with this, as it made the whole studio session less effective in determining who our most efficient collaborators would be, however I am quite pleased with the final outcome of our group. I am glad with the outcome as all 3 of us are quite conceptual based and are willing to compromise on the choice of brief/work providing we follow an efficient/effective design practice.  Being 3 quite different designers who share similar attributes and interests, while contributing to the team with our own skills and abilities, I'm quite confident at the moment that we'll be able to pull off a killer of a solution to whatever brief we choose!