Blog Post 18

Wednesday’s class was rather short, and I was definitely glad it was because it gave me time to think about my final project. For a while now it’s been something that I have been dreading because I have not yet figured out what I want to do or how I would want to present it. I feel my creative thought process is random and for me it depends on the day and mood for my ideas to start flowing. I spent the rest of the class to watch the other presentations from students of past quarters and I was quite surprised as to what I saw. A lot of the videos I watched were interesting, some were rather lengthy and wordy, but others got their message across and were an overall good presentation.

I feel that time is going by really fast and it was just yesterday I was complaining about having the quarter end on the very first day of class. It’s really interesting what I have learned so far and I anticipate seeing what we will learn with the remainder of class.

Blog Post 17

We did an exercise in class on Monday about the importance of listening and how, as designers, we should consult things with the person making the decision as opposed to having things spread around by word of mouth. The exercise was a little frustrating, but after I cleared my mind and just focused on listening, it got a little easier. It’s always fun and interesting to do something interactive in a class rather than being taught at by someone, forcing us to listen to a boring lecture. Any form of interactive learning is something that I wish my other classes would do because I tend to retain information better and it helps with getting messages across.

After the exercise, we watched a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson and his presentation was hilarious, yet informative. Although it was very hard for me to decipher some of the words he said (partly because of his British accent), I was inspired by his quote about how finding our passion changes everything. It really got me thinking about why I got into the graphic design program. I’m not that great when it comes to designs or drawing, but something about the field really interests me.

Robinson also mentions that a degree gets devalued as it gets older and it really got me thinking about the job market after college. I am not sure about what others think, but I’m getting slightly paranoid about what to do after college. The job market is really tough, and finding a job is going to be even harder. As of now, I feel I should take more classes and possibly stay even longer at CSULA to gain more knowledge in another field besides art, even though I’m dreading that option since my main goal is goal is to be finished with school. I do believe, though, it’s time for me to just try not thinking too much about what lies ahead of me and just see what happens.

Reading 9

IT’S THE FINAL STAGE! I don’t remember ever being so happy about finishing a textbook before in my life. Either because this is the last stage of the reading, or because there won’t being anymore dreadful stages to read, I am extremely glad the book has come to an end. Seeing the first header of the section, “It’s a Wrap” made me feel a lot better about reading this textbook because I am very close to the finish line.

Like most portions of the book, I have once again read about things I have already learned in the past. I was anticipating something more from the last stage and I was thinking that the author would go out with a bang. The entire first portion of the reading dealt with working in teams and how we should collaboratively work together to better succeed with design. As far as I’m concerned, working with others has its ups and downs.

The positive sides about working in a team are that we get different perspectives form others and we aren’t just restricted to our own personal thoughts. Although some of us may think we are the best designers in the world, in actuality, we are not because there is always room for improvement. It is physically impossible for us to know absolutely everything about the world, and therefore, getting a different perspective on things helps us collaboratively learn things through constructive learning.

In my personal opinion, I would prefer not to work in a group because I tend to do most of the work. Very rarely have I been in a group where all my teammates have worked together and we created something interesting truly amazing. On most occasions, I somehow always get more than 1 slacker to work with me and I tend to do more of his/her work than I should. There is a feeling of failure that I cannot accept into myself. I will always try my best to revert from failure.

Feedback is probably one of the best things I have learned in my life to this day. Although it’s nice to have someone comment on your work and say why they like it or not, I feel these comments are useless in making me a better designer. I crave negative feedback because it proves to me that the work I’m doing is horrible and I use it as a stepping stone to get better. I feel having critiques in my art classes, as uncomfortable as they may be, is the best way to learn something because not only will it help an artist get better, but he/she given a different perspective from someone else which they can then apply to their own artwork.

I was reading the scheduling portion of the book and I can’t help but notice that there are different types of handwriting used in the calendar on page 179. Even though there’s probably some reasoning behind this, I feel that with the advice this book is supposed to be supplying in relation to this image implies we should share our calendars with others. I now understand why it is very important to effectively communicate our ideas because little details, such as the different forms of writing, can create a whole new message than what we actually intended.

Overall I feel that this book has provided with some new material that I thought was mildly interesting. I felt I struggled with trying to read this book because the material I have learned were things I have learned already and some are just common sense. Now that it’s over, I want to search for something different and that has more useful material. Although I finished reading about the design process, I feel the journey has just begun…

Blog Post 16

Wednesday’s class was interesting and made me realize that we all think differently. Jimmy supplied us with a problem and, in a battle of the sexes fashion, we split up by gender and tried to find out what the next answer would be in the following sequence of numbers:

1
10
11
100
?????

My first instinct was binary code which is a way of representing text in a computer processor through the use of 0s and 1s. Essentially, if one were to follow a logical pattern in the following sequence provided, it would be the next set of finite numbers that consist of only 1s, 0s, or both 1s and 0s (in this case 101). Although in my opinion we somewhat complicated our reasoning as to why the answer was 101, I felt that as a group we provided enough justification to get our message across.

The girls said the next answer was 111, and in a visual pattern this will work. Even if it wasn’t from a visual standpoint, the evidence they showed would still give us reason to believe that their answer could as well be correct. There is no geometric sequence in the following series, and therefore, a formula that’s easy to read using a₁r^n-1 would not be successful. The exercise made me realize that persuading a client is important in design and it is something that should not be taken lightly, as well as elevated vocabulary and effective communication.

After, we discussed our thoughts about John Coy’s presentation. Although we went around the room and talked about what we enjoyed most about the presentation and got a different perspective about it, my opinion still stands that his presentation was not interesting. His content, however, was great but his lack of planning clearly showed when it came down to the actual presentation. I did learn that the lack of planning really does make a difference and, like in the exercise we did today, communication is everything.

Blog Post 15

The entire portion of Monday’s class consisted of watching Akira Kurosawa’s film, Dreams. Essentially, the film is divided up in eight short segments, all of which are actual dreams of Kurosawa. The imagery used in the film pertains mostly to Japanese culture and I felt the film gave me mixed feelings. Overall, I thought the film was slow, entertaining, frightening, and disturbing.

The first segment, “Sunshine through the Rain” was a little slow for my taste. Artistically, it was calm, soothing, interesting, and the time and effort put into mastering the Japanese processional fox wedding was gorgeous. One would rarely see imagery such as this in an American film, but to be perfectly honest, at some points, it lost my attention. Watching a procession with repetitive choreography and mellow music for more than 8 minutes can be dreadful, but the Japanese culture was beautifully represented in this segment.

I felt “Peach Orchard” gave me the same kind of sensation I felt in “Sunshine through the Rain”—calm, soothing, boring, and interesting. Although I know one should primarily focus on the Japanese style of dance and the artistic choreography, I felt this portion of the segment to be boring and redundant. The storyline was just okay, but to a foreigner unaware of the Doll Festival in Japan, this segment may be a little confusing.

“The Blizzard” in my opinion was confusing. Even though I am aware that the woman in this segment is most likely a reference to a Japanese urban legend or myth, I wasn’t sure whether or not she was providing warmth for the climber to make it through his journey, or make him comfortably freeze to death in the blizzard. I am very certain that because I am not familiar with certain Japanese references, a great portion of the film was a mystery for me.

“The Tunnel” was very interesting, and yet not as disturbing as I hoped it to be. I am fascinated with paranormal activity and confrontations with the deceased, and I felt this portion of the film kept my attention. I was expecting something more frightening to happen, however, and the conversation the characters had was unexpected because I was hoping to hear them talk about something more grotesque and disturbing. 

I actually enjoyed the nightmare segments of the film (i.e. “Mount Fuji in Red” and “The Weeping Demon”) because I tend to have dreams/nightmares that relate to these segments. “Mount Fuji in Red” gave me chills because it closely resembled what happened at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant after the drastic earthquake that hit Japan. Although Kurosawa’s representation was much more disastrous and extreme, the irony of having something like that happen is frightening. “The Weeping Demon” portrayed humans with horns living in agony and was very disturbing. I have to admit that these segments actually caught my attention and kept me entertained, but what I want to know now is how did Kurosawa dream these nightmares?

“Crows” and “Village of the Watermills” were probably the least interesting to me. “Crows” was dull and it was hard for me to get into the story. As much as I love Van Gough’s work, I didn’t find this segment to be interesting or entertaining at all. “Village of the Watermills” lacked a really good story, but the scenery and landscape in this segment was beautiful. The vibrant colors of the foliage and flowers really made me appreciate nature. The running water from the stream mixed with the village and landscape were spectacular and stunning, which was really the only reason why I appreciated this segment.

Gauge/AIGA Presentation - John Coy

Although I give him props for trying to keep my attention and for creating such amazing designs, John Coy’s presentation didn’t really interest me. After attending last quarter’s presentation by Rebecca Mendez, I was expecting something a little more lively and entertaining, but this presentation was a little disappointing. Yes, I did gain a few things out of the presentation, but for the most part, Coy’s calm and monotone presentation was more of a bore than a learning experience.

I appreciated him asking for our input and what we wanted to learn from this experience, but even though he cared about what we wanted to learn, I still didn’t gain much from the experience. The one thing that I did benefit from him was the fact that he said the job market out there is not clearly based on competition alone. He states that we need to find something that identifies us as designers and build upon it more. He also mentions that we should believe in ourselves and continue to work hard to try and become amazing artists since we do not have the same advantage as students from an art college.

Coy’s presentation was a little dull in my opinion. Just having to go through every single slide that he provided us was monotonous and seemed to take forever.  Majority of his slides, if not all of them, were picture based and it felt like a really long art history lecture. Coy is an amazing designer and most of the designs that he presented were spectacular, but without him trying to engage his audience and hoping that all of us will benefit from his presentation didn’t thrill me at all. He just talked about how much fun it was to design things and where his work has been publicized, but I wanted to gain more knowledge from this experience.

I wanted to learn more about his creative thought process and how he develops ideas, transposing them into designs. Coy’s designs are great, but like Jimmy has mentioned in class, if one cannot defend or explain his work well, then the designer has failed to communicate his idea effectively. Perhaps I’m used to watching the TED talk presentations in class and learn more from those films rather than this presentation, but I felt that Coy’s way of presenting his experience to us was just up to par; nothing spectacular. I now understand that effective communication is everything and preparation is necessary in order to entice an audience.

Reading 8

Finally, a section in this book worth reading! I gained a lot of knowledge about how important communication is, and how important presentations are. Whenever I make a presentation for class, I tend to just do the requirement and rarely do I go out of my way to make the presentation better. The main logic behind this is laziness, but I feel this section of the textbook was a wakeup call.

The author talks about how presentations should be accomplished in various fields of design and this was something I have been anticipating for a while since reading this book. The advice provided in just three pages was enough for me to gain the confidence to use my skill in in-class assignments and presentations. To be honest, I kind of want to do more exercises in class where we present our design ideas on presentation boards. Being able to practice our communication skills in a learning environment is a great place to build our skills for the upcoming job market. All that comes next is experience.

Personally, I felt the presentation board in the image used to show us what a concept board is was garish. The busyness of the board was overwhelming and it was very hard to focus on what the board was trying to communicate. Without the dashed lines on the next image, I would have never known what the cutout images were for. Yes, I kind of see how the board is supposed to reflect the personality of the outfit itself, but the board is very gaudy, tacky, and so flamboyant that it loses my attention and just brings me into a realm of confusion. With better organization, I feel the designer could still get his/her idea across, but in a cleaner and sophisticated matter that still reflects the edginess of the design.

“The venue of the presentation can affect its style and outcome.” This was actually something that really surprised me. I never knew that the venue had a general affect on the presentation of something itself. The advice provided within this section was very helpful and are things that I will definitely try to follow. Because I love office and art supplies, the general descriptions of each type of medium (including digital) was very interesting and made me want to go out to buy new supplies. In some cases, the author provides which brands to avoid and use which was very helpful, and in others stated how to present ideas using the materials. I really do want to go out and buy some new supplies now…

I don’t usually do any of the exercises at the end of each section, but after reading this section, I think I might try a few of them. For once I am glad the book entranced me and made me want to continue reading and further my knowledge about design.

By far, this section of reading was perhaps the most useful and helpful out of all of the sections we have been reading so far. The question for me is: was it worth reading all the other materials before getting to this stage? I have been struggling for a long time reading this book because it never captivated me and rarely interested me. The readings were redundant and were things I’ve learned before, but I am also trying to have a positive attitude towards this book. I know the author spent a lot of time and effort into writing the textbook, but his effort wasn’t working for me. Just with this chapter alone I feel he got me a little more interested, but I don’t want to get my hopes up in case the rest of the book is awful.

Blog Post 14

I was quite skeptical when class was cancelled on Wednesday. I wasn’t sure if Jimmy’s absence was a hoax to get us all to talk about our final project or if he really was out sick. Either way, it let me catch on up on some things like reading for the following section of The Design Process as well as work on my blog posts.

Essentially all we really did on Wednesday was discussed the creative brief for our final project as a class. I understand the basic premise of the assignment, but now the challenge I am facing is how I should present it in a short film. Films are not my forte, but to better myself as a designer, I am going to do all that I can to make something great.

Sad to say, but I feel we get a lot more accomplished when Jimmy isn’t here (no offence or anything, Jimmy). What’s a little frightful is that even though he was out on Wednesday, we still did some work as if he was here—just goes to show he’s done his job. I wonder if his teachings will be haunting us for years to come…

Blog Post 13

In an effort to give us all a different perspective of the class on Monday, we arranged ourselves in order by height. I’ll admit that I am not a huge fan of sitting in the back of the classroom (or any classroom for that matter) because everything in front of me seems smaller, but it definitely is brighter in the back and I could actually see better when I write with natural light. At least I can say I am getting different perspectives of the classroom even though I am not very fond of some of the places I’ve sat in.

Monday’s class provided me with more detail about writing a creative brief which was very helpful. I feel my writing for creative briefs are not yet up to par and I am getting several mixed messages about the style of how some of them are written. The briefs I researched after I did the writing assignment for Monday’s class had a style which one would see in sixth grade papers, where the author would try and communicate to his reader as if they were holding a conversation (i.e. This is what I will be talking about… Here are my ideas…). Other briefs I found had a more professional style and tone, but with two conflicting writing styles, I’m not entirely sure which one to follow.

I feel the conversational brief draws me in a little more than the other, but the lack of elevated vocabulary and style of writing only familiar with a younger generation doesn’t make me take the author or the design seriously. I honestly have no idea why that brief was used as an example, but with more practice I think I will be able to grasp the idea a little better and eventually write creative briefs with ease.

Reading 7

Reading about the OLPC laptop, XO-1, was very insightful. It made me realize that technology is rapidly changing and the fact that we are able to design and market a laptop for children is intriguing. As John Lasseter once said, “art challenges technology, but technology inspires the art.”  With today’s continuously developing technology, we must use our creative thought process to innovate something amazing. Technology is here for a reason and whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay and develop.

Reading the remainder of the book about modeling inspired me to design the model for the game that we presented on Wednesday. I’ve always wanted to explore with creating models for a design and I feel that would be an excellent activity to do in one of the upcoming classes. After reading more about how to set up models and the precautions we should avoid, I was really determined to create something. I feel with the right mindset, I could do anything, but I know for a fact when I actually get into the modeling process, I will hate it for dear life when I can’t accomplish modeling on the first try.

The guest perspective by Ian Cunningham was interesting and I agreed with a few key points he brought up, such as “the biggest challenge [in any industry or company] is to have clear communication.” In any type of environment, communication is always necessary whether it be in the form of verbal or written expression. There is especially a great deal of communication in the workplace because it shows a substantial amount of professionalism. Not being able to communicate well, or communicate in a manner that is inappropriate for the working environment is not only embarrassing for one’s employer, but for the person who lacks these communication skills.

Once again, my love-hate relationship for this book continues. I enjoy the fact that I am learning new things from it, but on the other the slow pace at which I am learning these new things is dreadful. I am constantly reading things that I already know and have learned in past lectures from other professors, which makes me feel very fidgety because I want to get to the new material I haven’t discovered yet. The author meticulously supplies us with vast amounts of details that lose my interest. I’m beginning to wonder if the costs outweigh the benefits.

Overall, this section of reading made me realize that trying to be perfect is still not good enough for me. Because perfection is in the eye of the beholder, and I must say that my ideal view of perfection is at a really high standard, nothing from me will ever be good enough. Yes, I may come across something that will suffice, but in my very few years of developing my artistic style, I have longed to create something I like and passionately enjoy. I have never once been satisfied of things that I do and I say that mostly because in this world, there’s always something new to uncover. Every day is a mystery and we should cherish the living moments of the present. We should not live the way someone tells us to—the decision is ours. Make use of yourself and understand that you are the ideal vision of perfection to someone dear and near.  

Blog Post 12

All I can really say about Wednesday’s class for my presentation board is, “oops…?” I was quite ashamed that I didn’t put more thought into the presentation of my game idea. I already knew a professional presentation involves a label with contact information and title with a coversheet to protect the work, but for some reason I didn’t think to put any of this on my board. That is a huge error on my part—for shame.

The bulk of the day focused on the overall presentation of our game ideas and how a professional presentation board should be set up, mounted and presented. The lecture and class activity we did about body language was interesting. I never thought that the way we move our body communicates something to others. I usually move my arms or cross them when I get uncomfortable sitting or standing in a position for a long time, but I never thought about the way I position them sends a message to a person watching me. It was really fascinating and made me want to learn more about body language.

After we finished the activity, we watched a film called The Power of 10 which is a stunning short film about how minuscule we are in the universe. The film starts with the camera zoomed in on a couple resting after a having a picnic in the park. We are then zoomed out of the park, soon to be world, solar system, planet, and even galaxy by increments of 10 to the power of 10 every 10 seconds. It was a fascinating short film that makes us realize how small and insignificant we are in the entire galaxy. Even after we are brought back into the world, the camera zooms in even farther beyond the layers of skin of the man resting at the picnic and shows how we are composed of even smaller elements.

The short film was intriguing and made me think about the state of our planet as well as the complexity of our bodies. Once the sun goes out, what will the universe look like and will humans of the future somehow start a new life elsewhere? Who are we to believe that we are the only living life forms in this galaxy? These questions arose after I watched the film and it puzzled me for the rest of the day. I never enjoyed science, but at times it entices me, making me want to learn more. The field is filled with unique discoveries, and even answers questions others are dying to learn about. It’s a thrilling area we should take more consideration into.

Blog Post 11

On Monday we discussed what everyone did over the weekend and Jimmy provided us with some small advice about how to formulate a good portfolio. Hearing about these things (creating a portfolio, setting up resumes, etc…) is making me a little nervous, to be honest. I am not sure that I am quite ready to take on the real world yet. I do have at least another year to go at CSULA and perhaps my confidence will build in time.

After this, we all went over our nine game ideas as a class. To be very honest, coming up with nine different types of games was really difficult. At first I thought this was not going to be such a bad project because I have had numerous game ideas in mind, but when it actually came to jotting down the ideas and storyboarding the design of all the games, I realized that they were essentially the same game just formulated in a different way. I resorted back to the research we did for our games in class and I only got inspiration from about two games which was a mild disappoint for me.

Actually doing the work and designing the games, for the first time, I got into my homework assignment—so into it that I took the extra step and decided my games needed color. I believe color is what draws our attention the most and to try and pitch my idea with the lack of good visual aids loses the attention of my audience. I was an animation major and I was always entertained by the “punny” or witty things animators would put in animations. For example, only in a make-believe world will you see a game that is so ridiculous it’s hilarious (i.e. a game called Egg Splat where players guess which type of bird laid the pictured egg.) I had plenty of those game ideas, but being able to think about a logical game that can be marketed to people was a little challenging.

When it actually came to the discussion part of the class, I was slightly surprised at some of the game ideas that my classmates came up with. A few games really stood out and it made me want to play them, but for the most part, I was a little disappointed. I thought a lot of the game ideas would be fun and entertaining, but I guess with the lack of some visual aids and/or aids that didn’t make a lot of sense, majority of them didn’t stand out to me. Many were variations of other games that were just tweaked slightly, which for some was good, but didn’t work out well for others. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or I was the only one who kind of got into this assignment, but my excitement level plummeted into boredom really quickly.

I don’t know if it was just for this particular assignment that I was ecstatic about doing my homework assignment, but I sure hope I could keep up that level of excitement up throughout the remainder of the class!

Reading 6

Early on in the reading, the author mentions, “The best you can do is the best you can do. The worst you can do is nothing.” For some reason, that line stuck with me all throughout the reading echoing in my mind that the worst thing I can do is nothing. It’s such a simple phrase that I never really thought about until I actually read it. Giving up is the weakness and endurance is our motivator.

So far, I really enjoy the “do’s” and “don’ts” of this book. These sections are perhaps the only thing I look forward to when I read this textbook. It provides an accurate recollection of ideas that have been explored by other designers and passes on their knowledge/experience to me. For the most part, the sketching “do’s” and “don’ts” provided me with the best advice. The don’ts are something I always do, and I am aware of it, but I feel that right now it’s a sign I should stop doing the “don’ts” and focus more on the “do’s” to better myself as an artist (I always say I’m going to stop doing certain things, but sadly, I never commit to a promise which saddens me).

Even though I have not mastered any design program and I am still a novice as to how a design program actually works, I still rather dislike the use of digital media. No, I am not showing any bias because I know there are amazing artists who can perfect their work in digital and traditional art, but it upsets me when pompous artists, who “claim” to be a master of digital media, cannot draw or use any other traditional medium well. They literally have become a slave to the machine and their arrogance leaves me fuming. Only the best artists can use their talents in both fields excellently.

 I feel there is a loss between the artist and traditional work in digital media, and the work done traditionally just does not feel the same as digital media through the working process and at the end result. I fear with new technology, traditional art will be extinct, leading a new generation of uneducated, conceited “hipsters,” and the true talents of traditional artists will be undiscovered. The ability to grasp a pencil and know you are controlling it without any restrictions is a sensation no computer can replace. Drawing on a tablet feels awkward and I have not gotten used to its feel even though I’ve had it for more than a year. So, in the very end, my choice of weapon: pencil and paper.

Even though I dislike using digital media, Leifur Breidfjörd’s perspective gave me a better feel for it. My feelings about it are still the same, but Breidfjörd states that “it’s important to be working in different media and not to focus too heavily on one discipline.” I do agree with his statement and I feel I should learn from his philosophy. Getting frustrated will get me nowhere, but taking a breather and coming back to it later will be a better way to perfect a skill.

As of now, I am building a love-hate relationship with this textbook. On some occasions I am bored by its repetitive information, and on the other I am fascinated with interesting facts that I have never thought about. I appreciate this book for what it is and that the information inside is trying to communicate to me, but I feel it’s not doing its job well enough to keep me interested. Others may find it helpful, and I really do think it is, but I just cannot get into it. It’s redundant and gets its message across in a humdrum way. Perhaps I am being too critical because I have learned a lot of the information in it from my upper division classes, but I know if I read this book two years ago, I would have been more into the readings and have better inspiration on past and future tasks.   

Blog Post 10

Wednesday’s class by far was the most fun I have ever had in class. For the entire day we played various board games as a class for research. I will admit that I am a hermit and I was not very fond of playing board games with other people, but in the end, it was something that I enjoyed and wish we had more “research” days like this. The games I played were Taboo and Trivial Pursuit: Disney Edition. Both games were fun to play and throughout both I tried thinking to myself what makes them fun and enjoyable.

What really does make a good game? Is it characters? Could it be the object or premise of the game? Maybe it’s the whole ordeal of just playing with a group of people. Through this research process, I discovered that I am a fan of word games. Most of the games I play online involve thinking around words or finding words through jumbled letters, but most of my friends dislike them as do many others. Personally, the essence of a good game is defined by the individual preference of the person who plays it. What I may define as a good game, another might say it’s boring or pointless.

All in all we can agree on one thing: a good game makes us want to play it again. We say a game is our favorite because it makes us long to play again and the outcome is usually always different. When designing elements of a game, one must think about the target audience as well as its creative aesthetic. Most people want to see something new and exciting, not something that has been seen over and over again.

Many of us love a game because of certain characteristic it posses, however, the said characteristics does not necessarily define the game to be successful. When presenting ideas of a game, the successfulness of it should be marketed and advertised to a target audience in the best way possible. A game needs to be presented to an audience effectively or else it will suffer in the economic market whether or not the game itself is good or even great.

As designers, it is our job to effectively produce a great game with an amazing way of marketing and advertising it. We must learn this study and practice as much as we can now in school before applying our knowledge in the real world. The more we explore, the better we become.