Journal 14 // Inspiration

Over the course of this past year, there have definitely been a lot of different things that have inspired me. I came into graphics very excited, but also somewhat nervous and not knowing what to expect. Ever since I was young I have liked making things on the computer; my mom would never buy cards for family because I would want to make them myself. I would always consider my "audience" and if it was for my grandpa I would find a baseball player to put on the card, or if it was for my grandma I would put a golfer.

Being in graphics was the first time I was really around people that had the same passion for design that I did. I think meeting all of these people and spending so much time together really made everyone a better designer. I would say I have definitely say I was inspired by my classmates. Seeing other people's projects that had the same parameters with such different outcomes shows how infinite design solutions are. Some projects made me wish "I should of thought of that" or I wish I knew how to do that. It was interesting to start to see everyone's strengths come out in different projects in different ways and aspects of the project.

Along with this, it was easy to pick out my own weaknesses, especially with the different programs. I was pretty comfortable in Illustrator but I had never had much experience with photoshop. I still know that I have a lot to learn when it comes to photoshop and after seeing many, many interesting work from using it I am motivated to learn. The same goes with aftereffects and flash. Like most people in our class I didn't have any experience with the programs so it took awhile before I became comfortable using them. I would say the most influential thing for me was knowing how much potential there is in design because of all of the tools and resources we have available to us. Knowing all of this has especially lately kept me motivated to keep exploring, revising and working toward higher expectations for myself.

Journal 13 // Larry Lessig

I really enjoyed the second half of this TED talk, not just because of the funny videos but he brought up a lot of issues that I thought were very interesting. One interesting point he made was that creativity was consumed in our culture but the consumer is not the creator. This went along with what he was saying about the "read write" culture, which also could translate to the idea of creating and recreating. This was all before he talked about the internet becoming the popular way to spread content.

The interenet was a new tool for this "read write" culture but now it was easier for amateur artists to broadcast what they were doing. It was a new idea that people wanted to share their new work because it was something that they loved, not to turn a profit. This user generated context was the beginning of the "remix" phenomena that younger generations are still contributing to.

This remix culture uses old and new elements to recreate; this is the way they learn about the past and interpret the present and future. The examples that Lessig included were not only entertaining, but also proved his point well. Lessig made it a point to mention that it was not a piracy to create these types of "remixes" because it is not using the whole work and are not distributing it for a profit. Recreating allows the artist to create a new message and to see things in a different light. It is a new tool for speech and literacy. This represents how youth think and speak. He talked about how the two extremes of this issue need to reach a neutral platform to satisfy each others needs.

It relation to our speeches in motion, Lessig mentioned that there were new laws and regulations against copyright and that it could potentially be that anything using something that has a copyright would be removed from places like youtube. Would this include our speeches since we use the real audio?

Journal 12 // Hillman Curtis Videos

I really enjoyed Paula Scher's talk and the points she was bringing up, especially that "type is making noise." It really hit home about how type really is "image." Her work with the public theatre is a great example. The way she presented it hit right on with her points of type being extreme, loud, visual, and urban; she made another point that type is really about the words and in relation the message that they send based on the way they are used and represented. This example of work was very urban and fit in well with the NYC culture; which resulted in the city "eating the public theaters identity." It was interesting to hear more about Scher's design process and how she doesn't consider herself a refiner and uses a very intuitive process. It seems that she knows right off the back if she has the ability to come off with a successful solution to the challenge at hand. Her citibank was an example that really demonstrated what she was talking about; she broke down the client's needs and used information from them to come to the "umbrella" being formed with the "t".

David Carson is a designer that I really had not heard much about and I really enjoyed his talk. It is interesting that he attributes some of his success to his lack of formal design training. He just went out and did what he thought was right and used his "self indulgence" to design. Because of this, you could tell her was very serious about his thoughts on how design to him needs to be more personal. He thinks it is important for your personality to show through in your work. If you pull from who you are as a person he thinks you will have more success; this makes sense in that your work should somehow show part of your identity not only as a designer but as the type of person you are as well. His work from the RayGun magazine was very interesting to look at. He talked about how he didn't have to report to anyone before printing so he took full advantage and went out on a limb for many of his designs. Carson's three big keys to this work was read, interpret, and draw attention to. He wanted his readers/viewers to really think about what they just read or listened to.

Milton Glaser is always interesting to listen to. I feel like he always has insight that is relevant and relatable. He seems to have reflected on his career a great deal and can say that designers cant understand their path until its over. This played into the question of where designers are on the spectrum between artists and businessmen/women. I think it is important to find a balance and it would be difficult to be on the end of either extreme. Glaser made a good point about how designers produce social commentary; the way they decide to present work is the way the rest of the world sees it. He made a good point about how they have access to people's minds which contributes to them being a good citizen. They can present ideas both good and bad so it is key to think about what your work would say to others. This is another reason why Glaser wanted to teach. He wants to project into the future to avoid being narcissistic but also to contribute to the way designers are being taught today and make sure that the ideals he has deemed important are still being stressed; his level of success and influence makes the things he say very believable and people respect his views. He really embraces the idea that "the possibility for learning never disappears."

Moon Landing Video Progess

Here is my video after a few more rounds of improvements; I got all of my type in and now just need to tune it up in addition to adding some more interesting elements to parts. I want to play more with using the light tool and may incorporate the camera tool as well. I also am going to try to find a song to play in the background.

If the quality isn't great, here is the same video on youtube.

Animation Experiments

This was my first time using aftereffects again so I have a lot to refresh my memory on. This is my first video (combined what I was doing into one video). I used text animations on each frame to see how they worked in the videos and I also tried to animate the text after each preset. It is takes about 23 seconds and it is just the "Its one small step for man..." quote so it was a good indication of how fast the text is going to be. I didn't put in my sound yet because I wanted to get familiar with the program before I got ahead of myself.

Here it is

Journal 11 // Debbie Millman

Debbie Millman the President of the design division at Sterling Brands, an international design consultancy. She has been there for fourteen years and in that time she has worked on the redesign of global brands for Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, Campbell’s, Colgate, Hershey and Hasbro. Debbie is President of the AIGA, the professional association for design. She is a contributing editor at Print Magazine and the chair of the new Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts. In 2005, she began hosting “Design Matters with Debbie Millman,” the first weekly radio talk show about design on the Internet.

Design Matters is a opinionated and provocative internet talk radio show. The show combines a point of view about graphic design, branding and cultural anthropology. In a business world dependent on change, design is one of the few differentiators left. VoiceAmerica is now the industry leader in Internet talk radio, and Design Matters has over 150,000 listeners.

I listened to the radio show with Jonah Lehrer. The theme of this talk was really about our memories. Millman started by talking about being asked to try and remember her first memory. Once Lehrer got onto the show he made an interesting point about how our memories are things that had to biggest impact on us and what affected us the most. We "tweak" our memories to fundamentally change it. Lehrur studied Neuroscience and he talked about what drew him to the subject and how he was always interested in studying the brain and mind. He wrote in his book as the moral, "We are made of art and science." This is a very interesting view point; the book is about designers who embrace neuroscience.

I think this goes to show how broad design is and how it really has an impact in any field; whether neuroscience or graphic design. This is also shown with Lehrer himself. He studied neuroscience at Colombia and is now the editor at large for Seed Magazine (this incorporates the science and design, "art and science"). It also shows that maybe people aren't just a left brain/right brain person.

Neuromarketing was also brought up, in addition to neuroeconomist. They focus on brain research and testing. They discuss how different parts of the brain affect people. There was an interesting topic brought up about people drinking expensive wine compared to cheap wine. Scientists monitored brain activity and found that people that thought they were drinking more expensive wine enjoyed it more than people who thought they were drinking cheap wine. They have done similar testing with coke and pepsi.


What I got from this talk can be summed up with this quote from Lehrer:
"Collaboration at unexpected places."

Journal 10 // GOOD

This site revolves around creating a place for people to visit (whether online or by reading a magazine) to educate themselves on issues that they deem important. They want people who themselves want a good life to have a place to go to for a "unique editorial perspective." I really liked this site and found most of it interesting and "good." I definitely thought some videos and infographics were better than others but for the most part they were all pretty successful. One thing that most of the videos had in common, especially the State of the Planet in 2009, was professionalism; they don't overdo any of the motion in the videos and just do enough to make it visually interesting without complicating it too much for the viewer to follow. They focus in on making something work really well instead of trying to do too much. Their pacing is really nice – they leave things on screen long enough to read and that's it. They also find interesting ways to bring text in and out, I liked when it looked like they were zooming in on certain areas and they would go in and out. This was used a lot in the Hidden Cost video. I also liked how they used rotating text, they made it work really well

I watched some vidoes that were not the "Transparency" kind and they were okay not quite as successful; they incorporated interviews with graphics. They would have the person talking and when they were about to make an important point they would add in some graphics. Some I liked, especially about health tips and work out myths. They also had some interesting infographics. I thought the most valuable companies in the world was interesting along with the richest and poorest neighborhoods. I also looked at the NASA budget one and it used blinking images, I thought this was unnecessary and distracting.

Some of the graphics used seemed a little childish in some of the work that is on the site; this could be both good and bad depending on the content and audience. I don't think it is the best way to approach their audience though because I feel that most of the content is targeted towards adults and maybe a more sophisticated approach could be brought in. The magazine seems to cover some interesting and relevant issues. They definitely appeal to a wide audience.

Favorite video

Simple, gets point across without any distractions

Favorite Infographic

Very creative, sticks to theme and well executed