My Creative Process

Here is my final video for this class!

My Creative Process from Alyssa Moore on Vimeo.

December 1st- Last Class

So today was our last actual class meeting before we meet for finals to turn in our 50 apple renderings and our 5 minute final video about our creative processes.  During class Jimmy just asked us what design classes we were signed up to take during the Winter quarter.  He then told us what we were supposed to get out of those classes and what we should know as a result of taking them.  I found it pretty awesome that a professor is actually interested in the academic process in the graphic design major as opposed to solely focusing on the class.  It's always nice to know that some one wants you to succeed.

Anyways, time to get crackin' on those last few apple renderings and film some stuff for my final video!  I'm just not stoked to hear my own voice played to the class, but it's nothing compared to the big scheme of things.  I'll just have to deal with it.  I can't wait to see what everyone else did for their final video!

November 29th- Beautiful Losers

Beautiful Losers trailer

Monday we spent most of class watching a movie called Beautiful Losers.  After watching the film, Jimmy tried to initiate a discussion in class about what we thought the movie was about.  I gave my answer, but I don't think it was what he was looking for.  Still, it was what I got from the movie and what I thought it was about.  Different people can watch the same thing and get something totally different from it.  If I watched it again I would probably get something totally different from it as well.  Anyways, my answer "It's about doing what you love because you love doing it."  A few other student gave answers but the discussion didn't seem to go anywhere.  Mind you, it's the last week before finals and I take it everyone is either stressed out, exhausted, or hit the wall.  As a result, Jimmy asked us to post in our blogs what we thought the movie was about so here it goes.

According to IMDB this movie is a documentary that, "follows the lives and careers of a collective group of Do-it-yourself artists and designers who inadvertently affected the art world."  True, that's technically what it's about but I'm still sticking with my original answer.  It is about doing what you love (artistically) because you love it.  All of the artists in the film made their art because they loved to do it.  They originally were not looking for profit, they just enjoyed what they did, showed it off to their friends, and had a great time doing it.  Most of the film talked about a gallery one of the artists in the film opened called Alleged Gallery.  This was a gallery in a crappy part of New York city where he and his friends showed their artwork and had parties.  This gave them a real sense of community and sparked a real do-it-yourself art phenomenon in not only New York, but around the country.  At one point, Aaron Rose, the founder of Alleged Gallery talks about worrying about not being able to pay rent for the gallery but shows still went on and the artists continued creating and showing their work because they loved to create.  Alleged was a great influence on what street art is today and pretty much introduced it to the world as being art even though it it not traditional art.

Looking back on it, for the most part I think the film was about the introduction & rise of do-it-yourself art & street art and doing it strictly because the artists loved their art form(s) and creating things from nothing.

The Design Process: Stage 7- Production

Wow, is this really the last of our reading for this class?  Hard to believe.  Anyways, here goes my last reading response...

Production is the last stage of the design process, but the job is not quite done yet.  The idea must now become an actual object.  To make this happen you must work with a production team and the feedback you have received in order to produce the best possible outcome for the object that was once merely an idea. 

Aspelund also discusses the importance of prototyping and testing during the production process.  There are three different types of prototypes, which are: concept prototype, throwaway prototype, and evolutionary prototype.  Aspelund describes the prototype model as being a representation of the idea that can be roughly thrown together but it's main purpose is to communicate the basic concept to the design team as well as the client.  A throwaway prototype is a model that is created to test a particular aspect of the design, which most often is functionality, interaction with environment, and exploration of the object's scale.  Evolutionary prototyping is used when specifications are not certain or need to be explored further.  Changes can be made to this prototype as new decisions are made and explored.  Aspelund states that it is very important that one must not confuse the prototype with reality.

Part of the reality of designs are the decisions made based on budgets, scheduling, materials/aesthetics, and sustainability.  A designer's job is about making choices and these choices are highly influenced by budget, time allotted for the project, and materials.  These choices will all effect the outcome of the object.
Lastly, Aspelund reminds me that I must not forget to always document my projects as a designer.  I have learned the hard way about the importance of this due to crashed hard drives, but another reminder doesn't hurt.  As a designer I must keep a record of all of my work and keep it neat and organized for future reference.  Who knows when I might need it later for my portfolio or as an example for a client.

November 17th- Dreaming About Finals

 

In today's class we watched a PBS documentary called What Are Dreams?: Inside The Sleeping Brain.  The documentary mostly dealt with scientific studies about dreams and their purpose.  In one study they found that REM sleep (dream-state sleep) boosted creativity, but another study found that too much REM sleep led to a tendency for depression.  I found this interesting and tied this back to the idea in one of the TED Talks we watched previously in this class where the author of Eat Pray Love talked about the reputation of artists and creative minds being depressed and self-destructive.  Maybe creativity and a tendency towards depression actually have a scientific link? Hmmm...

Of course Jimmy found a way to cleverly relate this to our class.  Since REM states of sleep boost creativity and can stimulate ideas he assigned us all to think about our final project before we go to sleep and then hopefully dream about it and spark some ideas for how to go about completing it.

Our final for this class is to create a video that somehow shows our particular creative process and what graphic design means to us and why we are in the field of design.  It's basically a self analysis.  Coming up with a plan on how to effectively display this clearly and creatively in a video will be challenging.  I hope that whole dreaming up ideas thing works!  I'm more of a nap person, so getting REM sleep will prove to be a challenge in itself for me.  Oh, and the final will be posted onto this blog for all to see as well!

November 15th- Stuck at SFO

So this morning I was supposed to catch a flight back to LAX from SFO at 7:30AM and then jet off to class from there.  I had no such luck.  Unfortunately, my flight had been delayed and I was stuck in San Francisco for a few more hours.  Luckily I had my laptop and got my reading review for this class finished during my wait, but I was bummed I had to miss class since I always learn something of value in every one of Jimmy's class sessions.

During my trip to San Francisco to visit my twin sister for the Veteran's Day holiday weekend, I stopped by Clarion Alley in the Mission District.  For those of you going to San Francisco in the future and enjoy seeing street art I highly suggest it.  Plus, it's not your typical touristy thing to do and it shows off what a great artist community San Francisco is.  Here are some pictures my sister & I took of the art work at Clarion Alley:

 

 

 

 

November 10th- Binaries & Beauty

 

When we all signed our roll sheet for class Jimmy noticed that today's date was a binary number because it's digits only consisted of 1's and 0's.  The date was 11-10-10 or 111010 in binary.  Of course by noticing this, it sparked up a group discussion and problem solving exercise that Jimmy came up with.  He gave us the binary equivalents for the numbers 1through 7 and had us as a group try and figure out the next 3 binary numbers based on the pattern(s) of the previous seven.  After about half an hour of group discussion and problem solving, a majority of the class was convinced that they had found the correct next 3 binaries, but I was not convinced.  The group had not sold their idea to me, which is a strategy worth learning and utilizing in the world of design.  Anyways, I decided to do some research and these are the correct binaries for numbers 1 through 10:

The remainder of the class was spent sharing the ten images with one tag line for those who did not have them in the previous class session.  I presented my set of images and my tag line was "beauty."  The picture posted above was by far my strongest image in the set of 10 since it can be read many different ways by the viewer even with the tag line.  Because of this, Jimmy decided to keep it to use as an example.  How do you read this image?  I also purposely chose the image to poke fun at the fact that everyone in the class is working on their 50 apple renderings, which from some light laughter when I showed the image to the class I think they got the inside joke. 

November 8th- Creative Briefs & Visual Language

Today class started with a discussion about Ismael Obregon's GAUGE talk.  Jimmy asked us what we thought about it and I pretty much just stated what I posted in my previous blog entry about Ismael's talk.  It was great to hear my fellow students' opinions an it as well though.  I learned that I was not the only one who's expectations weren't quite met, but we all still seemed to take something valuable from Ismael's presentation regardless.  We then handed in our creative briefs and discussed the importance of presentation.  Some of the class had typed up their briefs while others chose to hand write them.  I chose to type up my creative brief and treat it like the real deal as if I were working for a client in the design field.  Jimmy then described the importance of doing so and showed us examples of actual design creative briefs.  Most were simple and to the point so that the client could easily read and interpret them.  Judging by the examples, I did people well on this assignment.  

Later in the class Jimmy asked us to present 10 images with a single headline that changes the way the viewer sees the image in 10 different ways.  This homework assignment was given weeks ago, so unfortunately I did not have the images with me in class to share.  I was not the only one who did not have the images, so Jimmy let us bring them in the next day we have class.  Thank goodness I didn't miss out on my points for that assignment!  I was freaking out in my mind about missing the assignment I had already done but did not know we were going to present it weeks later.  At least this taught me to always be prepared and to have your work with you because you never know when you might need it.

The Design Process: Stage 6- Communication

This stage in the reading mostly addresses the importance of not only the art of communication, but the art of presentation of idea's, work, designs, etc.  When communicating or presenting, as in all things in life we communicate or present, we must first consider our audience. 

In the reading Aspelund states that, "The different audiences you will be presenting to have different needs and expectations.  Clients, corporate officers, production staff, and fellow designers will be looking for the information they need and will present different communication challenges to you."  This made me realize that you must consider who you are presenting your work to before you decide how you are going to tackle to try to sell them your idea(s). 

Aspelund also describes the four levels on which the information you are dealing with can be when you are presenting a design.  They are: statement, concept detail, and planning.  It is always good to be aware of these three distinctions even if they are all not utilized in your presentation.  Knowing these levels and clearly presenting them will clarify the purpose of your idea and/or design.  The importance of language was also brought up again.  It seems like in every class, presentation, discussion, and homework assignment in this course has had something to do with language and communication.  Realizing this made me zone in on this section of the reading the most.  "The rules of language differ from visual to spoken to written, but in all cases you should be clear and consistent."  Clarity in visual language is a definite key ingredient in design!

The Design Process: Stage 5- Definition/Modeling

This stage of the reading was all about starting to make your design a reality, detail,  and the hierarchy of a design's needs.  This stage is where the design process starts to move away from the exploration stage and moves towards a physical reality.

The author describes a design's needs by putting them into levels.  They are as follows:
Level 1: Functionality
Level 2: Reliability
Level 3: Usability
Level 4: Proficiency
Level 5: Creativity

The part of the reading I was most interested in was where the author described the importance of details and how they effect the outcome of your model(s) and represent your idea.  The author, Aspelund, states, "The correct treatment of these details, whether functional or decorative, is crucial at this stage.  Their definition and treatment will not only influence the outcome of the final design, but their presence or absence of the model will also present your idea in a certain context.  As your model is the first impression your clients and colleagues get of the physical manifestation, a false or inadequate impression can be quite harmful."  This made me realize and pay attention to the fact that as a designer I must be aware of how my models are read by my clientele as well as my peers.  Putting forth the effort into the detail of my models will help my ideas be read more clearly in the physical realm.

Words changing meaning of an image:

GAUGE presents Ismael Obregon

 

Thursday evening, the founder of the design company Oishii Creative, Ismael Obregon, gave a talk at the Music Hall on CSULA's campus.  He started his talk by showing a video called Words and then talking about the importance of visual language in design. This video is not only beautiful, but very effective in displaying exactly what visual language is all about.

WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.

Ismael then had a question and answer session with the audience, which was composed mostly of my peers and fellow classmates.  This was the part where I learned the most about the design world and what Ismael does.  I appreciate that he wasn't using the talk to promote himself or his company and that he genuinely seems to love design and what he does for a living.  Above everything else this re-inspired me to be continually creative and curious not only with design but everything that surrounds me.  At the end of the question and answer session he said that if anyone would like to visit his company's studio, that they are more than welcome to.  I am definitely going to take him up on that offer!  Who knows, maybe this could lead to an internship opportunity in the future!

November 3rd- 7 Deadly Sins & "Powers of Ten"

Today we brought in our images representing one of the 7 deadly sins.  I'm dyslexic and accidentally brought in 7 images instead of 10.  For some reason I thought there were 10 deadly sins and we had to get 7 images to represent one.  Whoops! 

The sin I decided to represent in the images was the sin of sloth. When the class looked at my images they had a tough time figuring out what sin was represented.  This made me realize that I really need to work on representing something more clearly so that the audience and client can easily read the image.  I found that I read into my images, but the viewers did not.  I was also confused and did not quite know whether the images should be direct or indirect, since in previous assignments the images and words attached to an image were somewhat indirect and changed the meaning of the image.  Even though I made a mistake on this assignment, I definitely learned from it! 

Later in the class we watched a short film by Charles and Ray Eames called Powers of Ten.  This film depicts the relative scale of the Universe in mathematical factors (powers) of ten.  It was a lot of information to take in at once and I was a bit overwhelmed.  I feel that the only way to properly, fully describe it is just to watch it, so here is a link to the short film: Powers of Ten

Our homework assignment is to create a one page creative brief for the film that we watched.  This means that we each have to describe the purpose of the creation of this film by describe the who, what, when, where, why, and how's of it.

November 1st- Absent :(

I unfortunately missed class today.  I'm bummed because Jimmy's class is definitely one I look forward to and I don't want to fall behind.  I did, however, find out from a classmate what was covered in class.  Jimmy discussed the word "methodology" and then the class saw a short film called "Why Man Creates" by Saul Bass.  The class then went over the 10 sketches that he assigned as homework last week, and lastly we have new homework assignment. For this assignment we have to pick 1 sin out of the 7 deadly sins then find 10 images that display it clearly.  This will be difficult for me since personally I have no idea what the 7 deadly sins are and when ever religion is brought up, my mind automatically shuts it out because I believe religion generally does a lot more harm than good to society.  But I need to put my personal thoughts aside and stick to the task of communicating an idea through images, even if the subject isn't to my liking.  Learning to do that will benefit me as a designer.

meth·od·ol·o·gy

noun \ˌme-thə-ˈdä-lə-jē\

plural meth·od·ol·o·gies

1: a body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline : a particular procedure or set of procedures

2: the analysis of the principles or procedures of inquiry in a particular field 

October 27th- Game Day!

Today was game day!  I was so excited to get to play board games for the whole class period. Despite the fact that I was stoked to play board games for a few hours, I knew that ultimately this was all part of Jimmy's master plan.  Somehow this would teach us something valuable as far as design is concerned.

During the class I got a chance to play two board games.  The first was my childhood, favorite, Candyland and the second was a game I played for the first time called Scrabble.  Maybe I'm just getting old, but I enjoyed Scrabble far more than Candyland.  I think this is because Scrabble requires actual strategy and stimulates the brain, whereas Candyland relies on just pure chance.  Towards the end of class Jimmy assigned us our homework.  Based on our experience with games in class, we had to come up with 10 sketches of our ideas for games. 

October 25th- TED Talks

I think everyone decided to show up to class as zombies today.  We were all physically there, but were unresponsive for the most part.  Maybe everyone just had a severe case of the Mondays.

Anyways, during class Jimmy showed us two more TED Talk videos.  The first video was a talk given by John Maeda and he explained his thoughts on the "laws of simplicity."  The statement that struck me the most during his TED Talk was that simplicity in life is more enjoyment and less pain.  The second video we watched was a talk given by a comic book artist by the name of Scott McCloud.  The thing that struck me the most during his talk was that during the creative process you can view the computer monitor as a page or as a window.  This idea is very important to the design world and made me totally see graphic design in a new way.  During the design process, if you only see the computer monitor as a page instead of a window you are limiting the design as well as your creative potential.  From now on I will make it a point to view the monitor as a window and not contain my design to a page on a computer screen.

Scott McCloud on Comics TED Talk

The Design Process: Stage 4- Exploration/Refinement

This stage in the reading was all about the exploration and refinement of ideas.  The importance of exploring and refining ideas is to come up with and present ideas in a clearer manner.  In the design world, I think this is vital because without being able to effectively explore different ideas to show the client and refine them so that they can be visually read by the client, it would be very difficult to explain your design idea(s).  This reading and these ideas presented in this stage all tie back to when Jimmy was talking about visual literacy as well.

Further in the reading, the author explains how important sketching is in the design world.  Drawing is a language and it is how designers first start to visually express their ideas.  As a designer one must practice sketching ideas all of the time no matter if it is on an old napkin, newspaper, or sketchbook.  This is something I know I need to practice and start doing more of.  Sketching more often will definitely help in improving the visual literacy of my design ideas and encourage myself to pour out all of my ideas on paper so that they are tangible and not forgotten in my thoughts.  I'm going to make it sort of a work out routine for me and sketch out new ideas every day.

The author also mentioned that sketching is not the only form of expressing design ideas, but three-dimensional mediums may also be used.  I found this interesting and I think I am going to challenge myself to build models in 3-D when my ideas call for such mediums. 

Now I'm off to start sketching some ideas I've got in my noggin! 

The Design Process: Stage 3- Conceptualization

Read this chapter (stage), but due to unforeseen events I'm running pretty late this morning.  Will edit this blog entry and provide you with my comments on it asap. I promise!  Gotta go catch that bus!

October 20th- Body Language

In today's class Jimmy had each of us think of two truths about ourselves and one lie.  He then had each of us stand in front of the class and tell the two truths and a lie, but the class had to figure out which of the three "facts" about the person was false.  We had to determine this by not only using instinct, but by also paying attention to people's body language while presenting.

This exercise taught me that I'm a horrible liar and that I need to work on my lying skills, as awful as that sounds.  My three "facts" about myself were: 1. I'm from Chicago, 2. I have a twin sister, and 3. My favorite color is red.  Jimmy told me that he knew right away that I lied about being from Chicago because I said it faster than the other two things like I had to get the lie out quick.  He did also say that the fact about me being a twin made him second guess himself though.  This exercise also made me realize that I tend to move my legs a lot while presenting in front of people.  I think this stems from me being a trained dancer since I was little and therefore my comfort zone when performing in front of people is some sort of movement.  Because of this I need to walk around the room while presenting instead of trying to stand in one spot and looking antsy.

Later in the class we presented an image with 10 different tag lines once again.  I didn't improve much with this second chance at the assignment and was honestly embarrassed to read what I came up with in front of the class, especially since everyone else seemed to improve so much.  This is definitely something I need to improve upon.

October 18th- Changing Meaning of An Image

Our homework that we had to bring in for today's class was to come up with 10 different words or phrases that changed the same picture's meaning.  This proved to be very difficult for me.  I had a tough time separating my mind from reading into the image and coming up with obvious tag lines. 

During class Jimmy had us put all of our chairs in a circle so that as a class we were closer to each other and therefore connect with each other more effectively.  Jimmy then went on to talk about different magazines like CYMK and how advertisements, marketing, and briefing are used within that certain publication versus other publications.  He also showed us various examples within the magazine of different advertisements that were aimed to catch our attention as an audience.  One of these advertisements was for Art Center College of Design and it consisted of a baby in a carriage holding a chainsaw.  None of us in the class could quite put a finger on why this particular imagery was used to promote a school, but we had to admit that it did catch our attention.

Later in class we presented our selected image and stated our 10 words or phrases to the rest of the class.  As I said previously, this assignment proved to be more difficult than I thought and not only was I not satisfied or proud with my outcome, the rest of the class didn't do so hot.  Because of this Jimmy assigned us the same task for next class, but with a new image.  I hope since the class has a better understanding of the assignment now, we'll come up with some interesting tag lines this time around.

The Design Process: Stage 2- Identification

The reading in Stage 2 mainly discussed the identification of constraints a designer has to work with and around when working on projects.  "Whatever the project's origin, designers need to identify what the design needs in a coherent way and what its limits are.  A project's needs and limits are it's constraints, and by identifying them, we understand what we need to engage with to create an effective design.  We can then tap into our sources of inspiration and apply them to our projects."  I feel like this statement can tie back into life in general and not only design.  The main idea being that if you are well aware of your limits, you can reach whatever your goal is more effectively within those limitations.

The author then goes on to describe different types of constraints designers often have to deal with.  The constraints mentioned are: end user constraints, constraints of production, constraints of the designer, and sustainability.  The one that caught my interest were the constraints of the designer.  This portion of the reading talked about how time-management skills are a key component to design and time is a great constraint that designers must face in order to complete their work and be a good designer.  Meeting deadlines is highly important and one must plan out how you will use the time allotted to you for projects.  I find this very relate able now as an art student, because I find myself having to constantly meet deadlines and complete my projects and assignments, which requires me to carefully plan and manage my time with school work and other activities each and every day in order to effectively complete my work.

October 13th- Storytelling

In Wednesday's class we each presented to the class 3 separate, unrelated images that told a story.  As a class we tried to decipher what each story was to see each story's effectiveness to the viewer.  I was glad that my story was visually easy to read.  Later in the class we watched a video from TED (technical entertainment design) with an author by the name of Elizabeth Gilbert talking about her success of the book "Eat, Pray, Love" and how she is dealing with the pressures to maintain and top that success and how artists usually deal with similar pressure(s) when their work is concerned.  I found it interesting that Jimmy had us watch a video with someone talking who's job it is to be a storyteller.  I felt that it tied in well with our assignment that we began class with. 

October 11th- Get Well Soon, Jimmy

Jimmy is sick and was not able to teach class today.  Honestly, I'm a bit bummed out since it is my favorite class of the day for sure.  Just because Jimmy is ill doesn't mean we don't have work to do though.  He sent all of the students in the class an e-mail and asked us to bring three different images in by next class that when put together create a story without having to explain to the viewers what is actually happening within the story.  I'm now off to search some of my magazines for images to create my story!

The Design Process: Stage 1- Inspiration

Stage 1 of the book I am reading for this class is all about the topic of Inspiration and what it has to do with the design process.  Inspiration can come from anywhere in our daily lives.  I find that I get inspired by the simplest things sometimes, such as some one's mannerisms, an overheard conversation, or even the color of a shirt someone is wearing.  Just like the reading states, inspiration doesn't just pop out of nowhere.  It comes from your surrounding environment as well as events you experience everyday.

Being a designer, you must seek inspiration every day.  Aspelund (the author) mentions that adults have a tendency to forget to use their imagination.  We, as adults, must make an effort exercise our imaginations just as much  The same imagination we once had as a child is what could help create the next big thing or as much as when we were children and many things inspired us.   It is important as a designer to re-inspire one's self and continue to generate inspiration and thoughts during the creative process.

This reading made me think about where exactly I draw my inspiration from every day.  I think that by reading this portion of the book that I will be more conscious of what ignites my inspiration, imagination, and creative process and seek it more so in my every day life and apply it to designing.

October 6th- Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

In class today most of the time was spent watching a video of a lecture by a man by the name of Sir Ken Robinson.  Now most videos of someone just standing and talking are boring to me, especially if they're over an hour, but what this man had to say really grabbed my attention.  He mainly talked about passion and discovering who you really are.  Two things in particular that affected me personally and made me think about my own life and experiences with trying to find my passion were that without knowing what you're good at you don't really know who you are and that being good at something doesn't mean it's your passion if you don't also enjoy it as well.  People do best in their doing the thing they love.  I've found this to be very true.  I'm good at many things, but only enjoy few of them.  I used to be a classically trained Russian ballet dancer from age 3 until age 15.  I didn't stop because I wasn't good at it; I stopped doing ballet because it wasn't my passion and I needed to put all that energy that I was putting into being a ballerina into something that I actually loved and that was when I realized I needed to discover my element and passion in order to not only love what I do, but love life as well.

October 4th- Mind Mapping

Today we learned about mind mapping as a way to visually see all your ideas or solutions to a particular problem.  It's kind of like a brainstorming activity, but Jimmy encouraged us not to judge our thoughts and to write as many of them as possible down on our paper.  Jimmy then had each of us test out this whole mind mapping thing in class. We had to come up with a question or problem and write down our solutions to that problem, no matter how far out or ridiculous they were.  The problem I chose to tackle in my mind map was "I'm hungry but I don't have any food."  Because there wasn't a filter from my thoughts to what I jotted down on my mind map, it caused for some amusing answers to my problem, which included the following:

- Keep checking the fridge until food magically appears
- Act like a bum and beg for food
- Mooch food off of friends
- Go on a date just for free food

The Design Process: Introduction, Perspective, Excercises 1-16

In the Introduction portion of the reading I was most interested in the section when the Author, Karl Aspelund, asks "What then is design?"  This is always a question of mine only I find myself more so asking not "What then is design?", but "What then isn't design?"  Aspelund describes design as "...a plan of action, created in response to a situation or problem that needs solving." So this got me thinking that things even like our thoughts and ideas are also designed in some way shape or form.  Our minds our constantly thinking about a response to a situation or a solution to a problem.

The perspective reading for the most part made me get more familiarized with the author as the narrator of this text that I will be reading for the rest of this Fall quarter.  It also offered his thoughts on the design world and what design is. I thought it helped to get a point of view from the author himself, rather than just having no connection whatsoever with the person who put time and effort into organizing their thoughts and writing (as well as DESIGNING) a textbook.  This felt like a breathe of fresh air compared to other textbooks I've had to read in the past where the author is nothing but a name. 

The Design Process: cover-xviii

Today I started to read our required text for this class.  The reading we were assigned was the cover until xviii.  These pages basically informed me as to what I would read and hopefully learn as I continued to read the textbook and at the same time gave me a better idea as to what I would be in for as far as this course is concerned. 

The reading started off with the author describing in the preface what the world of design is like today versus 20 years ago.  I found this to be the most interesting part of the reading.  It described design as being a clearly definable process and this statement in particular caught my attention: "The process of design can be broken down into stages, each of which contains it's own set of goals. By following a path that arrives at each stage in turn, a project's development becomes clearer, easier to navigate, and more assured." This sparked my interest because it is not only relateable to design, but also any type of goal in life itself.  The rest of the reading divided and described the book in stages as well instead of chapters, which ties into the overall idea of the process of design.

September 29th

Wednesday's class started off with our instructor telling us we had to sit in order according to what month and day we were born.  I then stood up to figure out what months people were born in so I could sit down.  I then learned I was the only person born in July in the class.  Jimmy then told us that the purpose of changing our seats was to interact with our fellow students and to have a different point of view and experience of the class than our previous seats. 

The rest of the class we discussed and learned about visual literacy. In the simplest terms visual literacy is the reading and interpreting of images.  Jimmy showed us different photos and images and asked us what feelings we got from each one.  He also asked us to state factual information about each image versus what we thought was happening in each image.  I found it difficult to detach my emotional feelings from each image and quickly noticed how powerful and affective an image can be if it is targeted towards human emotions.

First Day of Class

Monday was my first day in my Concept Development class at Cal State LA.  Upon walking in the professor, Jimmy, had each student write down on a card what we thought we were going to do in the class as well as what we thought we were going to learn from taking the course.  Jimmy then read allowed each of our responses and to no surprise to me my answers were totally off base.  Hey, it was my first class that morning and I was still half asleep.  Oddly enough we later had a discussion about Red Bull's advertising versus Monster energy drinks advertising campaigns.  It was pretty obvious I needed to consume one of them that morning!

Later in the class Jimmy passed around apples to each of the students.  At first I thought to myself "Hey, is this some reversal of roles sort of joke?  Aren't I supposed to be giving the teacher an apple?"  My second thought was "I guess I lucked out since I didn't pack a lunch!"  He then told us the apples were not to be eaten.  Darn!  We then had to describe our individual apple to our neighboring fellow students as if they had never seen an apple before.  Who knew something as simple as an apple could be so complex in description!  Anyways, as an ongoing project throughout the next ten weeks I have to draw a total of 50 different renderings of my apple using different mediums.  I will post some of these renderings as the course progresses.