"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
Sunday, December 6, 2009
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.
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).
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!
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!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)