Masters, done!
Last February 13, seven of us presented our final projects, as requirement for graduation from Masters of Strategic Design at Politecnico di Milano. It was a nice reunion of sorts after 8 months, and it was nice to see that everyone refreshed and doing well. Needless to say, proper celebrations were in order, starting from mid-day until the evening. I think the wine gods would have been proud.
I posted some of the slides of my project, mostly as documentation of the strategic work I had to do to come up with the proposal that you’ll find here.
It wasn’t always a walk in the park — at times it would get extremely tedious, especially when I had to understand the funny figures lined up on the chart or do several analyses that would make me head bleed. But somehow I knew that, as creatives, it’s not only important for us to follow the direction given to us, but understand why it is that we’re taking them. (Or see whether they’re the right one in the first place)
At the end of the presentation, we were given our marks for our performance in the course, and I was happy to receive a mark of 110 (the highest in the Italian system), as well as news that I would be graduating with lode (honors). However, for me, the real victory with this whole experience was being able to learn new ways of solving problems creatively, and now feeling empowered that design and creativity can and should make a difference. That, and being able to learn this in Italy, which is really, another world to be fascinated with in itself.
So thank you to my teachers, classmates, friends, colleagues and every single face that I’ve met in my latest ambition come true. Thank you for every tool taught, every Italian word explained, every meal, walk and bike ride shared. I’ll always remember you, and I’ll always remember Italy.
Likewise, I will always be grateful to my family, friends and former colleagues in Manila, who supported all my crazy endeavors, through emails and emoticons. This one’s for you.
Here’s to moving on from this dream, to catching several others.
K is for Kat 