I will not say disregard the two previous posts, but what I will say is that I am in no way shape or form happy, or proud of those two posts, but they exist, and that is that. This is not a make-up post per-say, but more of a reflection of my thinkings and findings today while in the senior critiques and afterwards while eating lunch in my apartment.
What a day today has been! Today has been a giant day of pure enlightenment for me as a designer. However, I won't lie, I wish I had this revelation earlier in the semester, not at the very end, once all my studio classes are done and over and everything is accounted for and turned in. BUT! I am not letting that bog me down, instead I am using this as a starting platform to make myself soooooooo much better as an all-around graphic designer.
I met with Jamie last wednesday after our last day of class with her(in viscom1, that is) and I had a meeting about how my performance in her class was. I was nervous about what she was going to say because I knew that I had a lot of improvements that I could make. But I still wanted to meet with her nonetheless because I knew that I was going to hear valuable information that would surely help me grow as a designer. I met with her and, as I had imagined, she told me of areas that I needed to improve on, and the main area was my blogging. I knew she was going to say that from the beginning, but what i hadn't thought about was why we were blogging. And Jamie said that by me focusing on my blog more, it will help me grasp what I am trying to articulate when ever it comes to speaking about my own pieces and about other peoples work. I will have a much stronger vocabulary and preciseness to my thoughts vocally. I never gave it time to really think about the importance of the blog.
From there I moved on with the week, focused on all the other projects that needed to get done by their deadlines. I didn't really give my meeting with Jamie much more thought other than what I gave it the rest of that night. Then it came to yesterday and the end of semester review thought process blogs were due and I was just now starting them. Stooooooooooopid me. It was a horrific idea to do that. But I did it, and I haaaaaaaate those two blog posts, but they happened, and I don't think I will necessarily go back to redo them, tho I may, because they are just. that. bad. So I posted them and moved on.
I headed back to Design to sit in on senior critiques. One of the girls went up to present and after she was done, it was open to questions and comments. I had a question for her and I planned it out in my head and went to ask the question, and the question turned into a large jumbled mess of words that no one really understood, and all I could think was "damn." I tried my best but yet I still failed, and so for the rest of the crit I was just letting that really get to me and upset and annoy me. I had started to concoct a plan as to how I could make more of those little moments not happen any more, or at least not happen nearly as much as they do happen now-a-days.
I went home after the critiques and had an epiphany as to how this semester has and has not been good.
I have definitely had a good semester, I have learned a lot, but I could have pushed myself alot more than what I did. I do feel that this semester was successful, I created good projects, got high grades on my first two projects for Jamie, and overall did really well in both Type and CD+F. But the conceptual side of this semester I feel that I have been verry lack-luster.
Thinking conceptually for me has never been an easy task, and most definitely thinking conceptually in graphic design is a biig part of the entire package that is "Graphic Design", or at least good "Graphic Design". I did not actively pursue strengthening my conceptual side of thinking and that was definitely what I needed to do. I, for the most part, quickly jumped to the formal aspect of my assignments but did not give the conceptual aspect of the assignment almost any focus at all. This Christmas break I am going to read at least 1 article a day and then blog about it. This doesn't have to be a gigantic post, just a simple a post housing my thoughts about the article. I will blog one post a day every day for the entire break to work on my articulation of what I want to say. It will also broaden my horizon of design topics so I can have a more well-rounded education.
This has been a day full of realizations, too bad this came too late after the deadline for the post. But I still felt that this was necessary for me to get this written down so I could remember everything I was thinking(but i've already forgotten stuff from this afternoon, damn...)
Here's to me and my blog post a day!
12/7/09
VISCOM1; Final Evaluation
This entire semester has been a massive learning experience for myself. I have been pushed to think in a way that up until this year, I have been reluctant to do. I am not one to think philosophically, or abstractly. That is a gigantic hole in my thinking process. This semester has pushed how I think further than what I had pushed myself, or had been pushed by other people.
Project 1 was all about implementing the basic principles of design and how to be able to convey those principles the best way possible through simple circles. With that project it is was the beginning ideas of learning the principles of how to communicate different ideas. Finding ways and paths to do that the best. With the taxonomy, we had piles of marks, and the assignment was to find a way to classify those marks that we made and then find a way to be able to communicate the classification of those marks.
Looking back on that project and thinking about how it has effected my way of thinking, it is the same process. Taking what we have, this case it is marks on a page rather than dots, we have to figure out a way to communicate a classification of marks. Using the different types of placement, labeling, grouping, all to help with that process.
Project 2 was also about focusing on the relationship between different objects within the space and how to arrange them to have them work best within the space. This project though was working on larger objects, so much more about the juxtaposition of two+ images and how they interact in space how you planned them to, and how you did not plan them to. And even though you planned for them to work in one way, you also have to take into account how they interact unintentionally and how you can fix that or embrace that.
The taxonomy involved this aspect of design as well. The juxtaposition of marks against one another and how they interact within the given space. The unintentional shapes and relationships that were also created and to figure out how to handle those happenings.
This semester really has been an overload of information that I have been doing my best to take in and sort out and retain as successfully as possible. One piece that I will take with me into the spring semester is the thought process that I won't be able to grow much more without blogging TWICE or THREE times as much as what I am doing now. Blogging really helps with understanding of ideas and comprehension. Blogging helps me figure out what I'm trying to say, and better communicate across to the viewer what I am trying to say.
Project 1 was all about implementing the basic principles of design and how to be able to convey those principles the best way possible through simple circles. With that project it is was the beginning ideas of learning the principles of how to communicate different ideas. Finding ways and paths to do that the best. With the taxonomy, we had piles of marks, and the assignment was to find a way to classify those marks that we made and then find a way to be able to communicate the classification of those marks.
Looking back on that project and thinking about how it has effected my way of thinking, it is the same process. Taking what we have, this case it is marks on a page rather than dots, we have to figure out a way to communicate a classification of marks. Using the different types of placement, labeling, grouping, all to help with that process.
Project 2 was also about focusing on the relationship between different objects within the space and how to arrange them to have them work best within the space. This project though was working on larger objects, so much more about the juxtaposition of two+ images and how they interact in space how you planned them to, and how you did not plan them to. And even though you planned for them to work in one way, you also have to take into account how they interact unintentionally and how you can fix that or embrace that.
The taxonomy involved this aspect of design as well. The juxtaposition of marks against one another and how they interact within the given space. The unintentional shapes and relationships that were also created and to figure out how to handle those happenings.
This was one of my first ideas for the first image of my haiku line. This was starting to take me to the realm that I needed to be in. Starting to get away from the actual object itself(here in case is a butterfly) and turning it into more about it's shape, and form. Moving away from what it actually looks like to what it represents. I still enjoy this sketch, but it still was not abstracted from the reality enough for it to work for what I needed, but it put me in the right track of where I was needing to go.
VISCOM1; Haiku
The animation was too large for it to work properly enough for me to be able to load it onto Vimeo so I dropped it into the drop box for you to look at. I changed the music to be of a more calming sound. Originally the music matched with the animation a little too perfectly so i switched it to be a more calming music that seems to fit the overall feel of the poem and the animation itself.
These are the three progressions starting from mark-making tool, to marks it made, to hand-drawn sketches, to analogue shapes, to digital translations, and then to the final mark paired with its text. Sometimes, as in with the middle one, the final shape veers more drastically than had hoped. Getting a shape to be made to look like very specific drawings was not the easiest thing to do, but getting a shape that echoed the drawing worked well, too.
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