Wall of Post-Its

This photograph, taken in the new UIC innovation center, shows a huge wall full of post-its notes from my research documentation. The blue wall background and the colorful post-its form a high contrast image, and the arrangement of the post-its generates an abstract graphic that is simple but beautiful. Post-its are often regarded as a fundamental research tool, commonly used to color code research findings, yet people seldom find the beauty of the post-it notes themselves. My image shows that data gathering and sorting can be enjoyable and attractive. My research about Chinese Design Identity rethinks the relationship between national identity, traditional culture elements and designs. In this research, huge amounts of data were gathered. In order to be able to interpret and synthesize the datum, post-it notes were especially helpful in extracting the core idea from all the interviews and documentations.