Blog11: My Favorite Design Video

"Design is like a tool, it is a medium used to construct things, It constantly shapes society."

During our class this week, we were able to watch all the different two minute video clips that the students put together over the past few weeks. Although they were all done very well, a few of the videos stood out as surprisingly more creative and effective.
Jenn Bobbett's video was one of the more interesting ones that we were able to watch this week. Her video had both a good amount of useful information, and a well filmed and edited video to back it up. The use of blueprint paper in a red tool chest was a great way to get across the idea of design being a process that is thought through and planned out carefully. Jenn clearly identified the base of her design theory by also  using the specific environments she was in to get across how people such as interior designers view a project. One of the focuses of her design theory video was the use of examples to get her idea across. This works well, as we are all visual thinkers and more quickly understand images and real objects.
Overall, the class videos have been quite interesting and thought provoking. There will be more to come next week as it is our final week and we get to watch the second half the classes two minute videos.

Blog10: Design Theory Process Video

Blog9: My Mentor

Throughout watching the TED Talk "All kinds of minds", One person kept standing out in my mind as a person who has been a great mentor to myself in the past. This person was Mr. Melnick, my graphic design teacher in grades eleven, twelve and thirteen. 

During my grade eleven year at high school, I was beginning to realize that some form of design was what I wanted to get into as a career one day. This was because I thought differently than many of the other students in my classes and always received high marks in art classes. When I began to take graphic design classes in high school with my teacher Mr. Melnick, he was one of the only teachers in my school that I actually enjoyed talking to, because of our interests being similar. Although teaching is just nine-to-five job for many people, you could tell that it was a lot more for Mr. Melnick.

As I continued to go through high school, I always kept in touch with him and regularly stopped by his class to help other students, or just see what type of design work he was up to that day. The influence Mr. Melnick had on my school years was possibly the largest factor in my decision to continue onto college in this line of work. I can only hope that one day I will be able to have the same impact on someone going into the design field as he had with me.

Blog8: Command X

During the Command X season three videos, I couldn’t help but notice how unexperienced the student presenters were. This is understandable because of their lack of practice in front of an audience. Although some of the students, such as the first presenter named Spencer in the competition seemed quite nervous at the begging of their presentation, overall the students were able to get their points across to the judges fairly easily.

        Some of the judges, such as the Design Museum curator Ellen, were very hard on the students and gave harsh criticism. Although I partially agree with her about the quality of the design work during the first day, I believe she should have given the students a bit more constructive criticism instead of just simply saying the first work “sucked”. Overall, the student’s design work definently increased through to the second round, which is great considering they had only three hours to work on the second designs.

If I was to decide on the top five presentation techniques the students gave, I would list them as follows:

1. Always present a bit of background information about your brand before revealing the work.
2. Always listen intently to what the judges have to say, even if you do not completely agree with them.
3. Always be able to back up any of your colour, typography and placement choices if asked a question.
4. Always know enough about your design to give an intelligent description of the work to a judge, or any other viewer of the work.
5. Always be confident in your work, but never take it for granted.

If I was to decide on the five worst errors committed by the students, I would list them as follows:

1. Never answer a question by saying “it must have exported wrong”.
2. Never argue with a person who judges your design work.
3. Try your best to talk to the judges/audience while still talking into the microphone.
4. It is better to answer with “I don’t know” than a BS answer off the top of your head.
5. Never ramble on about topics that are not 100% going to back up your design statements.

Blog7: My Incomplete Manifesto

1. Enjoy the most brain numbing tasks.

If you succeed in doing this, all other work will be exciting to begin.

2. When in doubt, take a break.

If you end up finding yourself in a situation where you feel drained of all creativity, don't worry, you may just need a break from it for a while.

3. Create something out of nothing.

Do not look at a blank canvas as a negative, think of it as a fresh start to create your most successful piece.

4. Don't be limited just to the sky.

"The sky is the limit." What a terrible analogy. If you want to, go further.

5. Don't press pause.

When you listen to music while being in your creative mind, sometimes you end up with your music playlist continuing into other genres and styles of music. Allow this to happen to promote unique creativity.

6. Any inspiration is good inspiration.

You don't need a multitude of online websites to find inspiration, It is all around you, just take a look!

7. Think outside the square.

Thumbnail sketches are what you want them to be. Allow yourself to forget about drawing specific square boundaries, and strictly sketch what is in your mind freely.

8. allow every design the chance to be your best.

If you go into a design project with the assumption of it not being clever or creative, you are probably right.

9. Be a tool.

Computers are just one of the many tools available to you, don't forget your most effective tool, yourself.

10. Nothing compares to hands-on work.

By allowing yourself to be part of the process, you gain much more experience and creativity compared to being in front of a television.

11. Don't give yourself a label.

One of the biggest problems in the creative field is that people are brought up believing that they should only have one specific specialty, and that will be your career. Make sure to allow some room to cross over into other fields.

Blog6: My Process

When we were watching all the diffrent videos on the topic of Stefan Sagmeister's design process, I could not help but notice some similarities between my process and his. Like Stefan, I strongly believe in the idea of getting away from your current assignment when you find yourself getting frusturated over its details. When I find myself in a situation where I feel like my mind is just numb towards a project, I tend to do one of two things. I eather go off and do some sort of hobby that has nothing to do with the field of graphic design, or I usually go take a quick nap in which time I am subconciously thinking the problem through. If I am lucky, most often I find a creative solution towards my problem after I have rested for just a hour or so.
Although recently many people would disagree with me, I am a big fan of doing thumbnail sketches, and always in marker. I don't even really like doing thumbnails for the most part, I just have found that by doing thumbnails before any other design work, It is the ultimate way to maximize productivity without having to think about using software tools.


         My Design Process in a Nutshell

• Reading the rubric/ brief multiple times through
• Thinking up some very brief ideas/thoughts about the project
• Taking a needed break from the assignment
• Come back to it and start doing more specific research and brainstorming
• Do many thumbnail sketches specifically with my select five markers I always use
• Scan the thumbnails into the computer when appropriate
• Start bringing my ideas to life digitally
• Clean up and revize for a lengthy amount of time
• Finish up the design and make sure everything is appearing "pixel perfect"
• Go to my favorite family run printing place in Georgetown and finish the design process

Blog5: Reflections on Heidi's RGD Visit

When Heidi came to our theory class today to talk about RGD Ontario I found it really interesting how the organization worked. They are a great resource for anyone from design students, all they way up to graphic designers with decades of experience. I ended up filling out the form to be part of RGD because of the great amount of resources that it includes and all the different connections which are affiliated with the organization. When next year comes around, I will definently look through the job listings on their website as well as all the different connections I have made to find a future job in my specific field of graphic design. I hope to get involved with some of the events going on around Toronto which are hosted by RGD such as the Head Start event which is being held next month.

One of my biggest concerns and pet peeves is the whole area of the graphic design field where technically anyone can pick up a copy of adobe's products and start working as a "graphic designer". It was interesting how the RGD is trying to work with this exact same problem which I find makes up a large part of the graphic design community. The idea of doing "spec work" for people, although it may seem harmless, really can hurt the field of graphic designers who have actually been educated in the subject. I can definently admit that I have already done some spec work in the past with some organization's and company brochures etc. but now that I am more clear about the problem people have with that form of work, I'll make sure to only accept pro bono or free lance jobs as a graphic designer.