Project proposal guidance
During the project proposal development and writing group activity with Simon, we discussed what a project proposal is, who it is for, how it can be helpful in a designer maker context, and the difficulties we may have while completing one.
As someone who has always had ideas and realised those projects, I realised I have never actually completed a project proposal. Reflecting on all of the projects I’ve completed, at some point during the project I felt lost. I remember sometimes starting with one idea and then throughout the project veering off on another route and then feeling confused about what I was trying to achieve and wondering what I’m even doing. Looking back, I forgot why I wanted to do those projects in the first place. I wasn’t necessarily entering those projects with a certain question or research in mind. I was more designing and building things for fun or to solve a problem. I remember typically getting caught up in the way something looked, typically getting frustrated with a sense of perfectionism. I had a grandiose idea of what something would look like in my mind and then just go try to make it rather than planning everything out and writing it all down in order to remind myself why I was attempting the project.
The project proposal development reiterated how important the planning and proposal phase is to a project. Especially when speaking in the context of trying to gain funding or explanation of a project to people. Mapping out each phase of a project and setting a timeline allows one to reflect back to why they were doing something while moving along with a project.
In the group activity we spoke about many different aspects of the project proposal and why it’s helpful/important. I won’t list those reasons why here, simply because this blog is more for me to reflect on how/what/why I am feeling the way I am about this MA course. I do look forward to the challenge of planning out my projects from here on out while experimenting to assist my research as well.
