Writing for Visual Thinkers is an e-book textbook. The book explores various relationships between writing and design, allowing students to incorporate various ideas and methods of writing into their work. The e-book format allows for dynamic media (such as podcast interviews, video and downloadable PDF exercises), to be easily accessed. The book is currently under development and this blog is intended to create a dialogue and share ideas for book content.
{Publisher: New Riders/AIGA Press}
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
collaborative writing
Can writing be a collaborative process? Please share your thoughts on the collaborative nature of writing, both in an educational setting and in practice.
I'm usually the wrong person to ask about collaborative anything, specially designing or writing. I think that owning a piece of design or writing is important. And while collaborating can be exciting, the finished product always feels a little detached from you, since you didn't see it through a 100%.
Also, whenever I see a long article with a byline of two people I find it unbelievably hard to picture how two people can arrive at the same conclusions in the same tone of voice. Writing is personal.
At Notre Dame, we brought creative writing students together with graphic designers to create a series called: The Verse and Visions Project. Originally created by the Cleveland chapter of AIGA, the project was conceived to bring professional designers/photographers together with professional writers. The project was commissioned by the Regional Transit Authority, and the posters were installed inside city busses. The Notre Dame effort was an offshoot of this idea. The designers were given free reign to interpret the poems as they wished. It was truly amazing for the poets to see their efforts represented, in some cases, with an entirely different meaning. It was also a great opportunity for the designers to give life to an idea that they had previously not had an emotional investment in.
Collaboration takes many forms. Though it may be seen as a distinctly different situation, the best writer/editor relationship is a collaboration. I've benefited greatly from insightful editing, which extended to restructuring and rewriting my words. I see that as collaborative as we were working together for the good of the article (and reader.)
Collaboration also doesn't necessarily mean a single, unified voice where each is a 50% contributor. For a writing project a few years ago, I needed to create a taxonomy of design works. It wasn't something that I felt was my strength, so I turned to my friend John McVey, who came up with an excellent system. While I wrote maybe 80-90% by word count, I considered it an equal collaboration as the piece wouldn't have worked without John's contribution.
It's like design: just because I didn't "do" a component (like design the typeface), I still consider it "mine."
3 comments:
I'm usually the wrong person to ask about collaborative anything, specially designing or writing. I think that owning a piece of design or writing is important. And while collaborating can be exciting, the finished product always feels a little detached from you, since you didn't see it through a 100%.
Also, whenever I see a long article with a byline of two people I find it unbelievably hard to picture how two people can arrive at the same conclusions in the same tone of voice. Writing is personal.
At Notre Dame, we brought creative writing students together with graphic designers to create a series called: The Verse and Visions Project. Originally created by the Cleveland chapter of AIGA, the project was conceived to bring professional designers/photographers together with professional writers. The project was commissioned by the Regional Transit Authority, and the posters were installed inside city busses. The Notre Dame effort was an offshoot of this idea.
The designers were given free reign to interpret the poems as they wished. It was truly amazing for the poets to see their efforts represented, in some cases, with an entirely different meaning. It was also a great opportunity for the designers to give life to an idea that they had previously not had an emotional investment in.
Collaboration takes many forms. Though it may be seen as a distinctly different situation, the best writer/editor relationship is a collaboration. I've benefited greatly from insightful editing, which extended to restructuring and rewriting my words. I see that as collaborative as we were working together for the good of the article (and reader.)
Collaboration also doesn't necessarily mean a single, unified voice where each is a 50% contributor. For a writing project a few years ago, I needed to create a taxonomy of design works. It wasn't something that I felt was my strength, so I turned to my friend John McVey, who came up with an excellent system. While I wrote maybe 80-90% by word count, I considered it an equal collaboration as the piece wouldn't have worked without John's contribution.
It's like design: just because I didn't "do" a component (like design the typeface), I still consider it "mine."
Post a Comment