"Stone Soup" Project

“Design is about collaboration” said my Professor Housefield. Since we've been small we've all been taught to share. Neighbors share cups of sugar. Countries share resources when it is beneficial for both parties. To sum up, sharing for the benefit of all has, pretty much, been carved in stone for our society.

In the story of Stone Soup, the soldiers create camaraderie out of exclusion and mistrust. Joy is made from a multitude of people taking their knowledge and resources and adding it to the massive pot of stewing, tasty creativity. With this Stone Soup project of creating a piece of art out of unused objects, garbage, and neglected bobbles, Housefield applied the same principle to Design. Without cooperation and collaboration, both the act and the product of design would be sold to the world without its best foot forward. When working together on a project, Designers conceive a myriad of brilliant ideas and details that might have been overlooked had not that one specific person been involved in its creation. We help one another to produce the best we can produce.

In my group's project, each person gave a unique touch to the piece. Without Gina's impressive leadership skills and general positive attitude our creation would not have been constructed with such ease. Taylor created great little additions to the model with her glitter-covered cardboard cutouts. Valerie provided the glitter glue that became our go-to tool and Libby decked out an entire side of the piece with her intricately placed green strawberry containers. Tanya, Chinh, Alyssa, and I all put in our two cents with the construction of cardboard stairs, or the addition of a flag on top, or a decoratively wrapped Martinelli's bottle with a ping pong ball glued on top. Suiwa provided a laugh as well as the finishing touch with the little stuffed duck she placed on top of our masterpiece.

The final product could not have been erected without the input of all our members. I'm sure that in each of our future design projects, be they graphic, fashion, or architectural in nature, the suggestions and aid we receive from others who are just as passionate about that creation as we are will cause a piece of design to be produced; one even more ravishing than our cardboard masterpiece!