The Three Musketeers
October 15, 2010In week 1′s lecture, I was given my first task of IMD’s Final Year Design module. I had to come up with three major project proposals. It took me a while to come up with three ideas, but in the end I filtered my ideas to the ones that I thought had the most legs…and yes I’m talking virtual legs. In this post I will explain how I came up with the three ideas.
The Three Musketeers
Like D’Artagnan from the Three Musketeers, I must be brave and fall in love. Perhaps I should explain that last bit. I have three ideas. Only one can make it. Whichever idea I choose, I want to be 100% sure that it is the right decision. I have to fall in love with my idea and make my passion shine through in this project. I will not be a success if I produce a half-hearted attempt at something that’s already been done before. Most things have been done before but it is my job to pick something that I can do better than anyone else in the world. Slightly ambitious? Perhaps. Possible? Absolutely! Let’s get right into it:
Swording Out my Ideas
To explain how my ideas came about, I have to mention the Three Musketeers. The Three Musketeers was a novel by Alexandre Dumas first serialized in July 1844. The book is a classic with adaptions in television, film, musical theatre and in 2009, a three musketeers video game for PC and Mac (which I am determined to get).
My final year project must be sustainable, adaptable, timeless and better than anything else in its category once completed, like the Three Musketeers. It must be new, thrilling and talkaboutable. A major project is for life, not just for Christmas. Let’s take a look at my thought process.
A few personal goals that I set myself. I'll be annoyed at myself if I don't achieve them all!
I thought it was important to set a few goals, no matter what my final project is. That way, I have something to aim for and something to keep my motivation up, if I begin to procrastinate.
Once I had established these goals, it was time to come up with a project that would fit within my specified criteria. Rather than wasting time being neat and structuring my ideas, I felt at this point it was important just to get them into loose categories and on the page!
The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
Click the above image to see my initial thought process, jotted down on paper
I can understand how at first glance this looks like a huge muddle of words. You’d be right, it’s not a mind map, as there is lack of map. It’s more me getting my ideas semi-structured and onto paper. I bunched them into six categories that inspire me; sport, technology, film/TV/gaming, music, nature and kids. The idea was that I could pick out my favourite ideas and create a more organized mindmap. So that’s exactly what I did!
Click the above image to see my more organized major project mind-map
The above mind-map is a lot clearer, with arrows showing thought direction and potential outcomes. These were my better ideas that I felt I could use for a major project. I somehow had to whittle this list down to just three. Some serious thought had to go into the next stage. I began discounting some ideas and hoped that if I kept going, I’d get it down to just three. It was the first and last time I ever felt like Simon Cowell (thankfully); picking the best contestants by pointing at a page and saying, “Like, like, like, hate, like, like”. I got it down to nine, which I was reasonably pleased with. Nine ideas was certainly a nice choice to have, due to my planned and organized thought process which had all been done on paper. The nine finalists were:
The Competition Heats Up
Click to see my nine major project finalists. Only 3 can make it...
All for One and One for All
Click to see my final 3 major project ideas
So that pretty much sums up how I reached the proposed ideas found in my Lecture 1 Research! You can also find my thoughts on each idea in my week one blog post and see what the pros and cons of each are!
Stay tuned for the rationale behind my major project choice, branding inspiration and plenty of major project related testing!
Citations
Wikipedia
The Literature Network