For Challenge 1c the “Power Rangers” team visited the city of Port Wentworth, GA. The group figured out quickly from speaking to the locals (in Challenge 1b: Faces, Places & Paths) that this small shipping community is quiet, yet fairly diverse, with a name that mirrors its main purpose of existence. Other than the port, their industries include lumber, railways, and brick kilns. Founded in 1733 and established recently in 1957, we felt there needed to be a sense of recognition of the charm and community the city does hold, although is it largely unnoticed because of its industry. To accomplish this task, the team created a cause and branded it “Port Wentworth Pride” to gather the population together through a logo, postcard, stickers, and even campaign-like buttons that represented the nautical feel of the city.

When handing out gift bags of these supplies to present “Port Wentworth Pride,” they were received very well by a wide variety of residents. It was discovered that not only did inhabitants love their city, but some had been there nearly as long as the modern city has existed. One retired gentleman has live there for nearly 57 years. Another couple traveled from the west-coast because they found the city’s housing and peaceful attributes so attractive. In short, there were a lot of reasons to be in Port Wentworth, and to have pride in the city. But, its allure is mainly for those who are working hard, or those who wish to relax in a quiet place. The team felt especially successful when the west-coast couple decided to put our sticker on the back of their car. We learned that a simple show of pride could make a big change throughout an entire community.

Our second challenge involved talking to nine locals to get their feelings on their community, so we decided to get to know Savannah’s islands for this task. We started on Whitemarsh Island, then hopped over to Wilmington Island, and finally culminated the journey on Tybee Island. Two locals we spoke with were born and raised on Wilmington Island with the others being transplants from cities, northerners, or a combination thereof. It was interesting to hear their perspective on island life because they originally came from such different areas. All of them genuinely loved their communities. Our favorite quote came from a storeowner on Tybee who recently traveled to Atlanta to see her daughter. She said, “When I came over that bridge, I felt so lucky.” Thomas, a native of Wilmington Island, recently moved back to the island from Atlanta stating, “I’m so happy to forget the names of those highways!” We decided to share all of their unique stories by our class fishing individual quotes on seashells out of a fishbowl, which can be seen in the video below. Getting out in the community was so much fun for a change of pace because it is so easy to get caught up in school and never get to know the community you live in.

This was by far the most rewarding challenge SPAZ came across. After we stumbled upon the health festival in challenge 1b, the SPAZ brainstorming began. Once we know what we wanted to do (we had less than 48 hours) we loaded up on water balloons and fruit and went to Forsyth park. This was the plan: We would bring with us a series of cards with questions/answers (multiple choice questions, A or B) about food facts. We would ask these questions to children (preferably aged 8-11) and reward them (whether they were right or wrong) with a cup of fruit salad. Where do the water balloons come into the picture? Well, two of use were wearing a white t-shirt- one shirt had a big letter “A” drawn on it, and the other a big letter “B”. Instead of asking the participants to shout out the answer (A or B) we asked them to hit the t-shirt with the correct letter. Obviously we got wet, and the kids loved it. Going out into the community was a new experience for some of us. It was nice to go around and talk to others about the issues that affect the community. Being Grad students we are often stuck inside our own little bubbles, only concerned about the things that affect our lives directly. But going out into the community opened our eyes to other issues that surrounded the Savannah area. Most of the things we heard about that needed a change were with-in the school system of Chatham County. Our eyes were opened to problems such as obesity and diabetes. These are things that need to be taken care of as soon as possible because, as corny as it may seem, the children are our future. We need to make sure they have access to the health and education needed for our nation to survive successfully.

The second part of this assignment was for The Power Rangers to interview 9 random strangers. We were not supposed to approach them with sketchbooks and cameras in hand, but we needed to attempt to carry a random conversation. The general idea was getting to know some interesting people & to get quotes from them in an area we were/ weren't familiar with. Little did we (The Power Rangers) know, they were in for some interesting conversation. We drove over the big bridge, straight into South Carolina, weaved backed into Georgia, and before we know it; we're lost. We ended up in a small southern town called Port Wentworth. This town housed the Dixie Sugar Factory that employed a massive amount of the towns population. There were few gas stations, hardly any restaurants, so we decided to stop wherever there was sign of life. We first stopped at a run down firework stand right over the bridge to South Carolina. We pulled off onto a dirt round and followed it around a shaded area that revealed “graffiti Stonehenge”. We met a woman who was photographing the wild tagging that adorned the walls. Jefferson Ranger asked the woman if she knew if we were allowed to be trespassing (when there were clearly signs that said “NO TRESPASSING). Her response was extremely wise when applied to real life situations. Her response, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission”. We ran back to the car, jotted down her words of wisdom and we were back on the road looking for conversation. We did this same exercise several different times until we had reached our 9th conversation. Some of the stories were told included a woman explaining that Port Wentworth was on America’s Most Wanted, a man who acted a mime, and a young woman explaining her business was dirty and sketchy. The Power Rangers were bonding over random conversation and we didn’t even know it. We all had a great time getting lost in the low country and we couldn’t wait to tell the class about our hysterical adventure.

The Challenge - submerging ourselves within the surrounding community… SPAZ took the opportunity of Faces, Places, and Paths to really get to know the local Savannians while trying to understand one of the defining characteristics of southern culture – homestyle comfort food. With so many tourists and visitors of the city, one often hears questions such as “where’s the best place to eat,” followed by “is it true southern cooking?” The embodiment of southern culture into that of a distinctive cuisine piqued our curiosity. We were interested in finding out what the locals were really eating and their personal view on traditional southern eating habits. In search of answers and insight, we headed to the Farmers Market, located in the heart of Forsyth Park, where the freshest ingredients are sold. Not only did we have the opportunity to speak with some of the local farmers, but we noticed that in conjunction with the Farmers Market, was the Healthy Kids First Fair. Behind the fresh produce stands; children were dancing, playing outdoor games such as put-put, learning about nutrition, and enjoying healthy snacks fresh from the market.
Joining the festivities, we met with Janice, the Healthy Kids First Coordinator, who informed us of all the health issues children have begun to develop as a result of bad eating habits and the lack of exercise. This event was to provide a means to involve and inform children of the importance of living a well-balanced and healthy lifestyle. From there, we met Nikka, a current culinary student, who had volunteered her time to teach children fun and exciting ways to prepare healthy food. She was a reminder that, “Food can be fun!” and urged everyone to “Experiment!” As we began to meet some of the parents of the children, we learned that while there are free workout programs for adults, there are no opportunities or outlets for kids to play and exercise within the community. It was, in fact, quite rare to have healthy events, such as this festival, for the children in Savannah; and when there were, the lack of promotion often resulted in many kids missing out on the opportunity to become educated on nutritional issues as well as partake in outdoor activities within the community. Many of these families are trying to change these unhealthy habits through the encouragement of balanced meals and physical activity. They are hoping that over time, people will become more involved in the promotion of healthy lifestyles – starting with the youth of Savannah.

Meeting those involved with establishing the Healthy Kids First Festival, as well as all the children and families who participated, was inspiring. We met a great variety of people, all with differing opinions, interests, and lifestyles. But all wanted to come together to create an opportunity for change. Despite the differences of all of these individuals, if we are able to come together and merge these distinct beliefs and experiences into a united effort, we will have a great recipe for change.

Getting together with our group was pretty amazing. “Doodles”, “Mr. Patterns” and “Webby”, otherwise known as Lauren, Ale and Hayli were all great partners to have. All three of our personalities seem to groove together very well. Each of us were energetic and playful, we loved to laugh and always had a great time when we were together, even if there was pressure in our lives. We came up with the name SPAZ because frankly, all three of us had moments where we were spastic or scattered brained, but we did not look at that as a bad thing. It is the thing that gives us the energy and spunk to be so creative and have fun whilst working. 

We loved working together and all of us had the right amount of leadership as well as service provider. We really enjoyed the random words our Professor Louis Baker gave us. We had a lot of clever and witty ways to add the words into our presentation as you can see in the video. The words were: naked zebra, Lincoln, and Fart. We did a great job at incorporating these words into our presentation. We all took lead in certain areas and we all worked hard. SPAZ is a great team!

In order to come up with a group name for our team, we began by listing different characteristics about each other in under a minute each. Afterwards we went around and read off what we came up with for each person. The qualities describing the member’s design styles and personalities ranged from subtle to bohemian. With a group of such diverse & talented designers, we decided the best way to represent ourselves was by different colors: Red, Yellow, Green, and Purple. These colors not only fit our character, but also show the spectrum (high-low, energetic-calm, etc.) and polarities amongst the group. Collectively we are a design metropolis, but individually we are also just as effective and powerful with our design & communication, thus the play on our name; The Power Rangers.

To come up with our code names we decided to play with the list of random words given to us, that actually described parts of our personalities pretty well.

Jefferson, Jefferson Ranger—Megan: Graduating with a degree in architecture, the connections Megan has with former president, Thomas Jefferson, are pretty apparent with his impact on the field itself.

Urine, Pee-Pee Ranger—Jenny: With an energetic dog that sometimes, “pees” in excitement, it was easy to tie the word urine to Jenny’s code name.

Owl, Who Ranger—Seth: With a love for vintage typography, and an “old soul” it was almost the easiest to assign to word “owl” to Seth because he embodies a quiet wisdom and has a very inquisitive nature, thus the play on “Who?”.

Disco, Disco Ranger—Jordan: Anyone who knows Jordan, knows she always has headphones in humming a tune, or listening to music, so connecting the word “disco” to her code name was easy.

There have been numerous rumors going around about when the end of the world is supposed occur. But we, Nostradamus, Pythia, the oracle at Delphi and the Mayans are here to tell you that the end of the World has already happened….March, 29th 2012 to be precise. You are one of the lucky ones that was saved by us in the THE RAPTURE!

THE RAPTURE is a trifecta of Nostradamus (Lauren Jones), Delphi (Britt Whitaker) and The Mayans (Vince Salpietro) who are here to save the World from bad design. The projected presented to us was to create a team name, individual code names and a team seal. Without divulging too many secrets, the name THE RAPTURE came to us through hours of intensive brainstorming and discussions about dinosaurs.

The oracle at Delphi has been to the Shamans and has been known for her Shamanistic qualities so our team seal is made up of each of our individual spirit animals. Vince, or the Mayans, is the octopus because his design reaches into all aspects of life and art and design. Lauren, Nostradamus, is the otter because because her design always has humanistic, caring qualities and Britt is the fox because she’s clever with her type choices.

Our presentation had to live up to our name and reputation, so dramatic lighting and special effects were necessary. Unfortunately, due to apocalyptic budget cuts, all we could scrounge together was a humidifier and a stripper light.

Fortunately though, we don’t need too much money to continue to SAVE THE WORLD FROM BAD DESIGN!

During 'Alternative' Spring Break 2012, 14 students from the Savannah College of Art and Design traveled to Cherokee North Carolina, where they asked to help brand and design/redesign elements of several tourist attractions including the Mountainside Theater, the Oconaluftee Indian Village, the Tsalagi Touring Program, and a new Children's Theater — all run by the Cherokee Historical Association. http://www.cherokee-nc.com/index.php

Over a three day period, professor Louis Baker and a team of student designers including interior, costume, fashion, graphic, film and video, and production designers worked diligently and collaboratively to create designs and artwork that will help others to further understand and celebrate the rich culture and heritage of the Cherokee people.

A slideshow and video provide you with a quick look at our project. Enjoy!

In an article of the same name by Tony Schwartz he says, "Whatever else each of us derives from our work, there may be nothing more precious than the feeling that we truly matter — that we contribute unique value to the whole, and that we're recognized for it." Most of us have been conditioned to think that money = happiness and that the more we are payed, the happier we'll be. Management buys into this by offering carrots, (raises) for those who they feel are performing well, and sticks, (no raises or worse) for those who are not. Money is a great incentive, and of course, necessary to sustain our lives, but recognition may be even more important.

In my experience, recognition is like fine china that is taken from the cabinet and used only for special occasions, never for day to day accomplishments. To make my point more vivid, I've been working in the same department for 20 years and have annually (1 day each year), been recognized as a solid performer in my performance evaluation. The first time that I was personally recognized for hard work outside of this meeting was two years ago by my current Department Chair — when it happened, I was blown away! I even got a bit choked up about it. More importantly, it made me want to work harder.

"Feeling genuinely appreciated lifts people up. At the most basic level, it makes us feel safe, which is what frees us to do our best work. It's also energizing. When our value feels at risk, as it so often does, that worry becomes preoccupying, which drains and diverts our energy from creating value."

What we have also missed is the basic human instinct to belong to something greater than ourselves — to have a purpose. It goes without saying that managers who show genuine appreciation and support for their staff, and create an atmosphere where everyone feels a part of something greater will always outpace those that do not.

To read the article: http://blogs.hbr.org/schwartz/2012/01/why-appreciation-matters-so-mu.html