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!

10 Simple Images (10/12 & 10/14)

Simple is becoming more and more underrated. What is now considered simple to most of America is more of an "art form" than a way of living. Just turning on the television and watching a commercial can tell you that. On Monday we were to bring in 10 simple images. From what I heard (I was not able to attend class) we were to describe these simple images in one or more words.

On the second day, we were to pick on of our photos and change it's meaning by saying phrase or word. I brought in this picture from a magazine (as seen left). The words I used were: Pleasure, Denial, Escape, Dirty Little Secrets, Uncertainty, Dying, Unseen Dreams, Trembling, Constraint, Discomfort, and Relief. Jimmy seemed to like my set of words, but truth be told that hearing my classmate's go first definitely helped when my turn came around.

We then went to another room to watch a video of Ken Robinson. A few points of interest that stood out to me:

*Just because you're good at something isn't an excuse to do it.

*A college degree in the 70's is not the same as a college degree now.

*Digital Natives vs. Digital Immigrants (old vs. young)

*We are not divergent thinkers

Dreams (10/5)

We all dream at one point or another, sometimes we wish we could capture our dream and be able to re-visit it any time we want. In class today, we watched a film by Akira Kurosawa called "Dreams". I was pleasantly surprised and amazed by his film-- it is set up in eight increments:

Sunshine Through the Rain-- a young boy goes out into the woods, against his mothers wishes to witness a fox wedding procession. When he returns, his mother says to go and ask forgiveness from the fox's because they want the boy to commit suicide. He goes, yet there is no knowing what happened.

The Peach Orchard-- the same boy is now in a house serving young girls, when he sees and chases a woman in pink clothing into what used to be a peach orchard. When he is there, there is a group of "dolls", now humans, who laugh at the boy and are angry with him because his ancestors chopped down all the cherry trees. The boy defends himself by saying that he too dislikes what his ancestors did, and he loved the cherry trees. Then there is a beautiful ceremony performed by the dolls. The whole feeling is serene, graceful, and translucent in my view. It ends as soon as it begins (as most of the "dream" sequences are)--at first I was confused as to why the director would do this, but now I see the connection. When we dream, it never ends smoothly, we almost always wake up suddenly and abruptly--just like Akira's dream sequences.

The Blizzard-- I was confused as to the message (unless it was about looking for things that were right in front of us all along?) and this was not one of the most interesting dreams to me. Four men lost in a blizzard.

The Tunnel-- Wow. This one was so moving for me--it really brought out the hardship of war and the consequences of our actions. A man who is visited by the ghosts of soldiers that he sent to battle and were killed. He has to verbally tell them all that they are dead--it is so hard for him to do, but at the same time he has a chance to say sorry to all of them. Something that he truly needed to do.

Crows-- This one was a whimsical account of a young man (a painter?) at an art gallery, looking at Van Gogh paintings. He is then inside the paintings and eventually meets and has a conversation with Van Gogh himself. Beautiful music and for the first time, English is used.

Mt. Fuji in Red-- Not to keen on these two. Mostly death and destruction by way of a nuclear plant, although it does tell a warning of our own technology and chemicals--what they can do to us. Many die and commit suicide.

The Weeping Demon-- An interesting account of the aftermath of the Nuclear explosion. There are mutant "demons" with different horns that hurt them. Even in a world with demons there are class systems.

Village of the Watermills-- The order of the dreams was perfect. After seeing the last two dark dreams, the sight of the village is a beautiful sight to be seen. So peaceful, no electronics, no cars, no modern anything. Just peacefulness and a simple life to be lived. The visuals were breathtaking and the sounds of the water and nature completely took you in. After watching this last dream, I wanted to live there!

A Night to Remember...

This last Thursday night left me bitter in the beginning and content at the evening's close. I had planned on attending a screening of "Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight" not only for myself but to represent our CSULA "GUAGE" group (and the extra credit didn't hurt either). I started off, on my own, to Hollywood with directions in hand eager to meet my fellow classmates at Space 15 Twenty. Hit a bit of bad traffic driving to Sunset Blvd., and 40 minutes later found myself looking for parking. What an ordeal! I finally found the parking lot that was advertised on the AIGA website only to find out that it cost $10 upfront! My budget is extremely tight now and I wouldn't have paid except it was supposed to be 1hr free parking with validation. The parking lot was FULL and I was the last car they would let in. I thought to myself, "wow, there are a lot of cars here--I hope there is room for me!" I later find out that this is not one shop, but a mini shopping center. I found the projector screen outside with about 40 lawn chairs set up and only 10 people waiting for it to start. Okay....so not as crowded as I had originally thought, but hey, more room for me! Unfortunately it was not to be. 5 minutes after my arrival, it was announced that they have been looking but cannot find the DVD to show to us. Great. Juuuuust great. So I quickly call my fellow classmates who were just looking for parking to tell them the bad news and re-group at a nearby Jack n the Box. Trying to get my money back was another ordeal--which I finally gave up on.

So Pauline, Freddie, Issac, and I followed each other to our backup plan: StimuLatte'!
It was pretty quiet in Silverlake that night, but it was nice to enjoy good company over coffee.

I hope my next AIGA event goes a little smoother...

Mappin' it Out

As a college student, I try to always keep my mind open to new ideas, ways of learning and thinking. At times it can be a struggle because we're used to those "inner voices" from either family or society at large guiding us through life. Less a "conscience" and more of a way of thinking--a way of life that we grew up with. Keeping an open mind entered discussion numerous times during class even though brain storming was the main topic. We found out that true brainstorming cannot be accomplished unless one is willing to put judgement aside and throw caution to the wind. To bring on the risk taking! Throw anything and everything out there and see what sticks.

Jimmy had each of us (we all knew it was coming!) do our own brainstorm in about 40 minutes on anything we wanted. I chose something that occasionally happens to me: Waking Up Late. Ugh--when I wake up and realize how late I really am, I get an empty feeling in my stomach, my heart races, and my mind starts racing. I automatically start a checklist of things I can and can't do in the amount of time given. After we finished our brainstorms we laid them out on the desks for all to see. The "line" wasn't moving at all so some of us had to push our way to the other side just to catch a glimpse at other brainstorms. My favorite was What to Do For My Birthday, for the use of color and images. It was simple, effective and right to the point. It seemed as if my brainstorm was one of the favorites out of class-- maybe because it's something that everyone can relate to? Maybe.

It was challenging for me to shake out every possible outcome from my noggin onto the paper, but very satisfying in the end.

--------------------------------------------------------
Adjectives:

sassy
valiant
ablaze
guiltless

Time is an illusion...

This last class session we talked about how time is only that which we make it. It is invented for us as a way to put a kind of order and control in our lives. I have often thought about the subject of the inventions of man and left with *enter brain explosion*. However once I do start to question the names of objects (table, cells, eyes, space) the more I realize how scattered our sense of reality really is. Even these "words" I use everyday to express myself, are really just a way of communication through the use of line. yet people from all over the world, every second, are writing what they believe to be words. I know. Brain explosion time again. The subject in class brought me back to a philosophy course I took while at Pasadena City College. The professor was constantly coming back to the same questions that Jimmy had, and these questions took my simple understanding of time to a whole other level.

Although I know deep down that I probably will never find the answers to these questions, it does give me kind of flexibility in my work as a designer. As for the course, I see it as "skies the limit"--just how far can I go? It's a little scary and exciting at the same time because you never know what you are really capable of creating until you're willing to go there.

After our "deep thinking" exercise, Jimmy moved onto some pictures projected on screen for all of us to see--Our second "looking" exercise. The first picture was of three women, the two women on the left were wearing white coats, the woman on the right was wearing a coat, the two women on the left were facing you, you could only see the left half of the woman's body on the right. We were not supposed to assume what was going on, or make assumptions about what was in the picture. Instead, we had to look at the facts in front of us and take them at face value. Jimmy pointed out that we are used to seeing something or someone and making an immediate judgment about this thing or person. I believe we did this so that we could begin to step out of our "programmed" way of thinking about things and start to focus on what is really happening here and now. What are we really seeing anyway?

Tomato

Last Wednesday turned out to be a very long day for me, but very worth it in the end. A few classes and one dinner with friends later, I finally found my way (with the help of a classmate's GPS system) to the Downtown Independent Theatre on Main St. A sold out event, the evening began with free food and drinks accompanied by busy conversations amongst the students and designers. A perfect chance to network and catch up with friends. At about 8PM we shuffled into our seats, ready to begin.

An evening with Tomato (a design company in the U.K.) was presented by three members: Michael Horsham, Dylan Kendle, and John Warwicker-- two of the three showed. Tomato works with commercial, exhibitions, film, and music. Here is an excellent collage of some of the work they have accomplished over the years, and also happened to be the first video we viewed that night:

Tomato Graphics Video


As I was watching the video, I was already blown away by how fluid each project was of all that they had been working on. Each project was different, yet Tomatos character was definitely present in each one of them. What hit me the most was that Tomato almost always uses organic shapes in their work. Two examples are TV Asahi and AOL. Both use shape, color, and sound in seemingly always altered forms. Tomato explores the reaction that music has to digital art, and also the reaction to movement through digital images. One example of this is TV Asahi.




photo source: http://www.tomato.co.uk/#tv-asahi/

The images on this billboard, set up on the side of a building, react to the movement of cars driving by. In turn, their commercial has a man or a woman saying "TV Asahi" which causes the graphics in the commercial (composed of long crystal-like colored shapes) to react to the sound of their voice. Funny that here in the U.S. we now have a few billboards that can show moving pictures as well (movie, theme park, television show) and many people find this to be a big breakthrough in advertising. That idea has already been taken to the next level, as you can see here. Another bold idea for advertising is Tomato's use of color for a company. Take a look at this short video for AOL: http://www.tomato.co.uk/#aol/
Most people know that AOL's color is blue, yet this video (and others) invites different colors to enter into the identity of AOL--of course, always ending with the blue logo. Why not do that here? Would other companies be willing to take that leap? Would we?

Something that they said during the Q&A really stuck with me, and I've been carrying it in the back of my mind ever since "...thought to form." Isn't that what we should be doing in this course? Using our minds and senses to bring thoughts to paper, computer, and beyond.

First Monday...

First off, I have to say that the intro to the "apple project" left me with mixed feelings. I like that the project gives permission for a seemingly unlimited possibilities for materials. If this is the kind of atmosphere and direction the class is going to take, then I have high hopes for our other projects. What were my difficulties with this first project? I was starving and the apple taunted me. I never was in the possession of food that I couldn't eat. My next hope for this class is that food is not involved.
I was impressed with some of my peers' thoughts on what this course is going to be about--the way Jimmy took our words and repeated them to the class really made it sink in. After awhile, I couldn't help but write a few of these words down:

Ideas - Process - Looking - Find meaning - Excercise - Repeating - Draw - Develop

These words define what concept development is about. Agree?