In this lecture, we continue to present our creative practitioner interview series, which provides professional insight into developing a self-initiated project.

This week the creative practitioners answer the following questions:

– What is your development and reflection process?

– How has production, risk, failure and your own personal ambition affected the outcome?

Lecture Notes – GDE741 Week 3: Development – Practitioner Interviews

Christoph (Migrant Journal)

Key Themes: Iteration, collaboration, reflection, risk, and learning through process.

• Believes in “getting your hands dirty” early — test ideas visually instead of just researching.
• Collaboration style: Isabel works neatly and focuses deeply on a few ideas; Christoph works roughly and broadly. Together, they balance precision and exploration.
• Emphasises stepping away from work and returning with fresh eyes to see new perspectives.
• Their process involves trial and error—iterating visuals until the concept communicates clearly.
• Example: Migrant Journal infographic on Ceuta and Melilla borders — transformed academic data into a human story about migration and obstacles.
• Self-initiated projects are a space to experiment and fail safely — testing new techniques, tools, or ideas.
• Values risk, failure, and learning (“Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett).
• Balances experimentation with perfectionism — they are “control freaks” about final details and printing quality.
• Personal projects sometimes remain unfinished — this is natural and part of filtering what’s worth pursuing.
• Key insight: If you really love a project, you’ll find a way to make it happen.

Verònica (Hey Studio)