Pom Pom our workshop in a box to explore Trans+ experiences
Final Major Project blog 11
W/C 11 November & 18 November
Making the book box
We utilised various LLC workshop spaces to create a high-fidelity book box and booklet. Attending a bookbinding workshop enhanced my skills in binding, covering, and working with grey board using different tools and materials. Following this, I referred to the book arts box-making manual to make and cover three boxes with book cloth.
​
To deboss a logo on the boxes, Teddi designed a Pom Pom logo and laser-cut a stencil. My initial attempt at manual debossing tore the book cloth, so I switched to an embossing and debossing machine in the lithography workshop. While I accidentally embossed the logo, we liked the result. For added effect, I glued laser-cut letters to the grey board beneath the embossed covering. The second box was debossed as originally planned.
Fig. 1 top left to right 1. outcomes from book making workshop, 2. me measuring out the book cloth, 3. Teddi's stencil of Pom pom logo for debossing, 4. my manual debossing attempt, 5. machine embossing and 6. the final two boxes
One box I then covered in pom poms, aligning with Teddi’s idea to contrast a polished box with one that embraces the messiness of creativity. Finally, we curated materials based on Teddi’s selected colour scheme, enhancing the professional look. Teddi also sourced a sticker book and clay, while I refined materials from the workshop crafting exercises to match the palette.
Making the booklet
Teddi created illustrations of trans bodies to embody the trans experience within the booklet. We then explored textured papers to enhance the tactile, craftable feel of the book, cutting them to SRA3 at digital print and finishing, then printing the booklet on the Xerox printer. We handmade a pop-out for the 'design your own world' activity in the booklet’s centre.
To add a personal touch, we used foil embossing for our names and title on the book cover and back. Teddi calculated the placement and we matched the foil colours with the book box covers, while also experimenting with other options. Finally, I bound the book using the coptic method. ​
Fig. 2 left to right 1. Teddi's hand drawn illustrations 2. digitalised version of Teddi's illustrations, 3. Setting up the letters for foiling
We captured high-quality images at the 3D table and copy stand, which brought the project to life and provided strong visuals for digital presentations.
Fig. 3 final images of box and booklet
AI and Intimacy Event
We also attended an AI and intimacy talk by Made by Many. This helped us reflect on our project’s position with AI. Rather than being a commercial feature trying to sell AI as a magical tool, like Bumble and Blush were. We align more with speaker and writer Jenny Kleeman who critically reviewed AI as something to solve all humans problems, including love. The audience discussed the realities of human interactions and questioned these frictionless services offered up by Bumble and Blush. For example, should the AI ghost you or send flawed messages like a human? This raised deeper questions about whether AI is really a solution or a symptom of capitalism and marginalisation.
Fig. 4 Images from Ai and Intimacy event by Made by Many and description of event
Reflections
Through making our workshop in a box I realised not every design decisions needs to have meaning, some can be made on purely liking the way something looks, which can evolve a project organically.
I am also glad I created a low-fi prototype as it was essential for communicating our vision on binding, pop-outs, and layout for printing. Additionally, it revealing that my InDesign file with varied colour pages was impractical for printing. As a result, we opted to include just one pink coloured page spread within the booklet.
Presenting Pom Pom, Grad show & final reflections
Final Major Project blog 12
W/C 18 November & 25 November
Final presentation
On Friday, November 22, we presented our final outcome to Wan, Greg, Tonicha and Alaistair, walking them through our research question, methods, outcome, and where it lives in the world. They appreciated our decision to pivot away from AI, recognising that our research centred on human experiences, and admired us revisiting and challenging the assumptions in our original design question. Wan suggested expanding Pom Pom into a larger campaign, which I found inspiring. I would like to create a campaign website similar to Joana Varon’s ‘Oracle for Transfeminist Technologies’ (2023), where users can engage and download resources. Additionally, they encouraged us to explore secondary spaces for Pom Pom, such as workplaces, to promote inclusivity beyond community spaces.
Fig. 5 slide show of final presentation
Graduation show
For the post-graduation show I worked in the communication team and took charge of postcard creation. These postcards summarised each project and were designed for users to take away. To create them I contacted a printing company and arranged for them to be printed and delivered for the show. Alejandra made a indesign template of the design and we made 10 postcards each. I collected the postcards on Wednesday and displayed them within the show.
For Teddi and my display I measured the space and planned out a mosaic of A3, A4 and A5 posters to display alongside Pom Pom our workshop in a box. Teddi worked with me to ensure the posters displayed a journey through our design process. I then worked with digital printing to print out the posters. We iterated the display by adding Teddi’s illustrations and pom poms’ as a rejection to white, straight interfaces which seem to dominate UX design.
Fig. 6 images of designing and putting up the exhibition posters and final outcome of postcards
Finally, we talked through our project with the Dean of the Design School who suggested our design still embodied technology as the foundations of interaction design is people relating to people through products. He also recommended we spoke to the Service Design course to explore the systems and frameworks behind our project Pom Pom.
Fig. 7 images of exhibition space
Final reflections
​Given we want to situate Pom Pom within Trans social enterprises I reached out to enterprises we have previously spoken to. We now have a session schedule with Not a Phase and I look forward to hearing their thoughts on Pom Pom.
If I was to continue this project I would like to revisit our LLM tool and test it with the Trans+ community before making any final decisions on it’s usefulness. I’d also like to create a campaign for Pom Pom so it can be easily used in multiple setting. Finally I’d like to consider how the activities within Pom Pom could be packaged up for other groups to explore other issues as a form of participatory design.
References
Varon, J. (2023) 'on envisioning alternative trans feminist futures', in A. Place (ed.) Feminist Designer: on the personal and the political in design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, pp. 170 - 174.