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.

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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.