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.

Blog4: Values, Beliefs, Paul Rand & Me

Paul Rand

Paul Rand is possibly the most highly credited graphic designer world wide, famous for his work with companies such as IBM and UPS. He tends to have a very interesting way of approaching his design process, although apparently he was doing something right. In Paul Rands tv interview, he made it quite clear that for the majority of his projects he would give the client just one piece to choose from. He has been known to even say things such as "I will solve your problem for you, and you will pay me."

Although I tend to look up to Paul Rand as a designer, I feel as if his approach to showing clients work has a fault. In my opinion, the client should have possibly up to three options for work such as a logo. I completely understand how giving a client a lot of options can hurt the graphic design industry and go against Registered Graphic Designers, but at the same time, the client who's paying a designer should be able to pick between a couple options. This is mainly because having a small amount of leeway would spare us as designers the problem of the client not being able to describe what they do not approve of because they have nothing comparable.

Having said all that, I do agree with what Paul Rand says about designers being allowed to act like doctors in those situations. This is because were are considered the experts in the field of graphic design, and the client is almost seen as a patient. A designer's role in the world is to simply solve problems they are given. Although this may sound like a very simple situation, we all know that it takes a specific type of person to be able to balance both their own creative licence with the thought process of a unexperienced client.

The average person may wonder what it is a designer even does, and wether or not the world would really be all that different without. If you really stop to think about that for a moment, you realize that nearly everything man made in the entire world is in one way or another designed. There's such a variety of forms of design in the world that it would be impossible to imagine the world otherwise.

Just quickly before I end my current blog post, I want to mention just a few of the things that really are important to me as a graphic designer.

– The relationship between a designer and their clients.
– Quality work apposed to simply quantity.
– Using personal experiences from our lives within design.
– Focusing on creating a solution to the problem (leave the pretty designs to amateurs).
– A strong work ethic (Without hardly any schooling, Paul Rand became a fantastic, influential designer).
– Trying to continuously create a world where great design resides all around.

Blog3: "Design is..." Take One

Design is the freedom to convey creative expression.


At this point in the course, although I have learned a lot, I am still looking into exactly what view it is that I want to write my paper on. For the time being, I have decided that design as a whole is ones freedom to convey their own creative expression. This creative expression can span from being a form of visual art, all the way to more restricted design for things such as stationary. Although there are specific groups of people in society who are considered to be more visually conscious such as people in the architectural and graphic fields, each and every individual has their own way in which they can express their feelings through design, whether they choose to or not.

By the time I am able to write my next blog post on this topic I really hope to understand a little more fully what design means as a whole and outside of just my own field of graphic design. I'll have to make a point of looking into some professional designers in their own fields to see exactly what it is that determines their career as design based. Im also going to look further into what the difference between art and design is. I know that technically design is art with a purpose but clearly their is a better answer than that out there. Lastly I'm going to try and find out exactly where the line is drawn in the business world between the idea of design and just simply predefined templates.

Blog2: Creativity & Innovation: Cobus Potgieter

For this blog post I decided to talk about one of my favorite musicians and designers Cobus Potgieter. He is one of my biggest influences as both a graphic designer and a drummer. Cobus is a 23-year-old South African who has become what you would consider famous due to a drum solo he posted on Youtube five years ago from a handheld camera. After this video became so popular, Cobus started recording and producing videos of him playing drums to a variety of different songs. Five years later, Cobus now travels all over the world playing on all different types of stages doing drum conferences, band music, solos etc. As of this moment Cobus Potgieter has more than 99 million views on his drum videos posted to Youtube.

Besides from his amazing talent, the main thing that sets Cobus apart from all other drummers is is passion for both drumming in general and his skills as a videographer. From the earliest videos he has posted all the way to his newest cover videos, he has done the majority of the filming setup, recording and video editing for his videos. This is because it just what he loves to do.

Cobus is known for “getting into” his drumming. This is partly because every single song he plays to is already a song that he loves and that is why he has never taken any song requests from fans.

The first step in Cobus’s design process is to just get to know the feeling of the song that he plans to drum too. This is very easy when you already love to listen to the song. After he knows the song well enough, he starts practicing a few ideas for how to make it his own while at the same time not overplaying it. On average, Cobus will do this with five to ten songs and then he will record them all in the same day as a series. He then proceeds to take all the film and audio and start editing the songs to his exact liking, all the while keeping his fans and followers informed on how its coming along. After a month or two of waiting for the new series, Cobus will finally post them all up on Youtube free for anyone to watch and enjoy.

Cobus’s design process is very unique in the way that he constantly keeps all his followers on both Facebook and Twitter in on what he is working on, while also keeping things a surprise. He is a great role model as both a great drummer and a person with a great personality. I hope that he continues to go through this process and work with his passion to create many more videos for everyone to enjoy.

Blog 1: Introduction

Hello everyone, for those of you who may not know me, my name is Bill Livingstone and I am studying Graphic Design at Humber College. Im a second year student who loves anything to do with creative design and has a passion for music, specifically drumming.  Ever since grade nine I knew I wanted to be a Graphic Designer, I really never had any other choice for a career in mind. One of my design strengths is the ability to problem solve when i'm given a design senario. I tend to have a lot of energy and I am fairly easy to get along with, so if you dont know me make sure to just say hi!

This blog is going to be my way of trying to put any thoughts or ideas I may have about Design Theory out there for anyone and everyone interested to read and discuss.

Being a fourth semester student here at Humber College, I believe one of the key things to remember is to stay organized, which includes my design thoughts. So throughout the next fourteen weeks I'll do my very best to keep everyone posted weekly on what I have discovered about theories relating to design in general. Until next time.