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.