Ismael Obregon

One of the things about Ismael Obregon that stood out to me was how laid back he seemed to be. Not only in his presentation, but with the way he approached his work with a kind of effortlessness that we all wish we could one day possess. Even when he described his educational background, it is clear that he is an imaginative man with plenty of book smart. The story behind his company's name, Oishii, made me realize how important a name and a logo is behind a company. I have recently become very interested in logo design, and how it is created, so it was a treat for me when Ismael discussed the meaning of his logo and the name "Oishii" (which means "delicious" in Japanese). It is easy to take your name and make that the name of your business, but instead doing your research, and finding a story that can relate to you and your goals is what will truly make you stand out among the rest.

At the very beginning he gave a very important piece of advice: don't limit yourself with a computer. Never feel like you are limited in design--utilize everything you have and then use it in a way that no one ever thought possible. So go out there and surprise yourself with what you can dream up! Speaking of limitations, Ismael made it clear to us that we do not have to be limited by language "barriers" when it comes to design. Art communicates! So educate yourself in the art of visual language--a language that can communicate ideas to any audience.

After a very short presentation, he forced us to continue his presentation with questions from the audience. Eventually everyone understood that unless we kept asking questions, the presentation would be over. From the questions asked there were a some very strong points:

• Clients. Learn to listen to your clients. They know what they need, not what they want.
• Be excited (to graduate)! As students we are closer to what is new and fresh--something that more seasoned designers are looking for. Internship as much as possible!
• Learn a lot of the rules of business (and then break them). Get into the nitty gritty of business such as getting a line of credit, money management, etc.
• When joining forces with another designer, always pick someone who is smarter and knows more than you (FIRM believer).

Oishii Creative

Well Color Me Happy!

Color is so beautiful, ugly, chaotic and calm that it's easy to forget it's usefulness in our information-obsessed world. From street signs to the world atlas, color has been our friend in depicting everything from height, to temperature, weight, and even numbers. After reading a chapter titled "Color and Information" from Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte, it began to become clear how purposely and thoughtfully color should be used in pictorial information. For our class project we are to pick a data set with at least two variables in any kind of chart, graph, etc. that we choose. One will be in black and white, and two others (of the same graph) will be in different color pallets. I have decided to use my kitten, Zoe, as inspiration for my variables: time of day and what level of "pain" she inflicts upon myself and others.

Zoe:

I will upload the finished project for my next blog.

Tufte described Oliver Byrne's The Elements of Euclid (1847), of which I have seen many times but never realized how grateful I was when color was used in mathematics. I am.....well let's just say math and I have had a long, stressful relationship since the beginning--and yet, since the beginning, color and math have always come hand-in-hand for me. From the colorful cartoons that came with every situational math problem, to the simplest use of depicting a number from another. Color has been there for millions of children, teens, and adults throughout their days in school. Even my math professors from college would use different colors when writing our equations for us, be it chalk or markers.

Yet even through the general used of color, Tufte goes further to explain how carefully color not only should, but must be used in order to convey the information to the viewer. Something I hope I have accomplished with this project.

Creative Brief/ Research (11/18 & 11/23

"This is a Who."
"This is a Who?"
"A Who."
"Oh, a Who!"

Wow, what a fun game this was! It was about learning to FOCUS--some succeeded, some failed.
It took FOREVER to do though, and we never did finish it! It was funny though and I think we all had a good time.

We also went over creative briefs of different companies (extremely helpful) and the next class meeting turned in ours in along with our 3 poster ideas.


CREATIVE BRIEF

California State University Los Angeles
CSULA Poster: Graphic Design
Jessica Vance


Goals: To convince graphic design students that CSULA can further their education.
To reach out to those students interested in art who are not yet sure what they want
their focus to be.

Target Audience: High School Students to College Students (men and women)
Ages 17 – 25
Attributes: Outgoing, social, live in California, foreign students looking to move to Los Angeles, curious, aware of current events (news, trends, etc.), possesses a need to further their education, looking for a college nearby,

Medium: Poster (words and images)
Print

Tone: Exciting/ energized/ professional/ inviting/ surprising/ clever/ colorful/ informative/ smart/ playful

The Message: CSULA has an astounding graphic design program.

Avoid: Cost of admission/ over-explaining

Should Include: The words “Graphic Design” and Cal State LA (In text and as logo)

Classes Offered at CSULA: Graphic Communication Design/ Photography/ Lettering & Typography/ Advance Color/ Video for Artists/ Graphic Design/ Computer Graphic Animation/ Computer Graphics/ Illustration/ Business Practices/ Photo Manipulations/ Digital Image Processing/ Photo Studio Practices.

Competition: Art Center ($$$), Job vs. College, UCLA

Visual Biography (11/9 & 11/16)

This was fun and brought out my inventive side. :) This class we were to bring in a visual biography of ourselves. Instead of using paper I mixed it up with another sense: smell. I took clear bottles and matched a picture of myself with different smells. Smells that reminded me of a certain time in my life. I took the notion that our strongest target for memory is scents and used it to tell my story. I think my classmates enjoyed it. Some of the scents included were rosemary (big bear), perfume (grandmother), and popcorn (movies).

On Wednesday we brought in our 30 different sketches to promote Graphic Design at Cal State LA. I didn't exactly finish all thirty, but seeing some of my classmates' drawings really inspired me and helped me learn just how detailed and thoughtful a draft should be. How to communicate your intention without you there explaining it.

You and your client (11/02 & 11/04)

Jimmy gave an insightful lecture about the relationship between designer, client, and audience.
Here are some of my notes on what he had to say:

*Watch T.V.!!!
*How you present:
Read your audience
How to critique your ideas
How to be a good client
*We are influenced by design
Be an educated consumer
*Paul Rand
"It's not enough to just be a good designer"
*When we critique:
be constructive
it makes you defensive to be critiqued
*Objective: Goal, target, purpose
*Clients: Understand (goal) ---> Convince the client, and believe in your product
*Your client is a partner with you/ you share a goal/ relationship
*symbiotics

**What criteria NOT to use: Personal preference

*If you need three good ideas, do 10x the work and then choose among those.


On Wednesday Jimmy had us go over the Highlights and Low light of the course so far.
Here were the results:

Highlights:

*The Game
*Creating a Game
*3-Story Picture Telling
*Seeing our classmate's ideas
*Professional Q&A
*Films

Low lights:

*Lack of projects
*Blog (takes time)
*Apple Project
*Unclear instructions

After which we watched videos of Scott McCloud (comic book artist), John Maeda (funny and awkward artist), and Milton Glaser (legendary artist).

Game Day & Our own Game Ideas (10/26 & 10/28)

This was, I'm sure for many students, one of the more fun days in class (among others). We had to bring a game to class and let others play it in groups of three or four. I brought "Worst Case Scenario" board game, but instead played good 'ol Monopoly. It was extremely fun and everyone got into it. all the while I kept making notes on a piece of paper next to me. Here is a sample of what I was jotting down whilst I dished out money:

--upset for paying up'

--property

--numbers

--chance

--laughing

--"noooooo!"

--"haha!"

--jail time!

--become the wealthiest player

--excitement

--revenge

--color coded

--math

--high adrenaline rush

On Wednesday we then proposed our own games to the class in a quick presentation (well, I came up with many different ideas, so I took the longest). My games ranged from 21 (drinking games) to 4 and 10 year-olds and up.

Story Telling & Powers of Ten (10/19 & 10/21)

I don't consider storytelling to be one of my strong suits, but this day's project was so much fun!

Jimmy had us all look through our backpacks and purses and with a group of three, make up a story using selected items. It turns out that I had the most interesting things in my purse and I never even realized it until then. We set out an Apple charger, a Disneyland Pass, pencils and paper, keys, some money, a tow truck ticket (that was from this morning--I had to get my car out before class started), and ticket to Spamalot. Our story went something like this:

We went to Disneyland to draw for class. When we couldn't find a parking spot, we parked in a handicap zone. When we returned our car was towed away, so we pulled our money together to get a taxi to take us downtown. He dropped us off at the Ahmanson Theatre where we decided to watch Spamalot instead. Eventually we found our car and paid the fee.

Continuing with our "telling a story" lesson that day, we were asked to bring in three pictures to tell a story.

On Wednesday we all brought in our three pictures and everyone had to guess the story. I went first:

Get it?

We then watched The Powers of Ten by Rae and Charles Eames. It wasn't until the movie started playing that I realized I had watched this in middle school! Even though that was funny, the film itself had the same effect on me--not very much that is. We also watched "Why Man Creates" which was much better in my opinion for it's humor and visual content. What can I say? I love to laugh!