View outside the classroom today. I am very lucky.
I painted this from a photograph in a book called France: Land of Many Dreams.
Tom had everyone take this color test.
We have an assignment to make a color wheel, bonus points for creativity.
Here’s mine. (I might decide to redo it.)
First day of New Media for the quarter.
We go through past work of previous groups that have done the modules we’re about to do.
There’s a one minute video entitled Deja Vu that resonates. I still think it was very witty. And the long awaited Spice Demon video. Due to technical difficulties, this first module made video was shown this day and we all laughed. A good trick for movie props: Buy your puppet, shoot with the tag still attached and return upon completion.
First day of photo essay class. We pour over photographs. They are a series. They tell stories. Their captions clash, accentuate and steal the show. The captions sometimes say where the action is happening. Sometimes, they are editorial. This series by Bill Owens, entitled Suburbia, struck me as particularly powerful and very creative captions.
We ran down the syllabus, some of the pages included advice on brainstorming, critique guidelines, storyboarding information, interview tips, collaboration tricks (a.k.a. conflict resolution) and ways to caption photographs.
Here’s an acronym (also in the syllabus):
Points of View in Shooting a Subject: EDFAT
Entire- Observe/shoot the entire subject
Dissect the subject into specific details
Frame those details into strong original compositions
Angle- Shoot from a variety of angles
Time- Use slices of time
An interesting class, combining the two sections of graphic design students, but two teachers to accomodate.
We discussed Suitcase Fusion 3 mostly. Discussing its limitations and applications. Joe, the hyphen boy, apparently infamous to be very passionate about hyphens in design. Hyphens of all fonts, the kinds with the little swirl at each end.
Braille is a font option. But what about the fonts in Braille? Shouldn’t there be more options for those who can’t see? Spikes vs. rounded bumps, perhaps?
Today, the soft spoken Jill monologued about her childhood history with the most colorful teacher and how she wants to continue to strive to be as involved in teaching as she was. Though Jill didn’t dawn any historical costumes, she did bring in metal letters. They were passed around the classroom and while we examined the feel of type between our fingers, she waxed poetically about how materials available affected letter making. Papyrus, codex, chisel, pen nib, vellum, scriptorium, carved wood, copperplate gravings.
We took a tour of the North Plaza which included the silkscreening area, the letter press stuff and some machines that make polymer stamps. All of this as my classmate who had been there before should have wowed me and it did, but it also intimidated me. There is so much I don’t know. I’ve been playing with paint too long perhaps.
We discussed how this quarter will go down. I have chosen/been assigned a creative brief for Sutherland Creative, which will determine the designs for the next 12 weeks.
I could hardly call the first day of class, the first day of class. Marc, the chairman of the graphic design program waltzed in with his usual swagger and told the class that he had invented a Mr. Hoppy and he’s going to be teaching photoshop next week. Meanwhile, he said, we work on this special project (in my mind, I am thinking that this is a babysitting type project, something to busy ourselves). Most of the class dispersed slowly after he announced he come back later to check on us.
Assignment: “Create a detailed map of your journey to the graphic design program. Your solution should be 15×20. Your final solution must include your name. Print your solution in Color and mount it flush on foam core. E-mail me a .pft of your solution. Due 9am next week.”
The first few hours after getting an assignment, I think of a lot of boundaries. What is the core of the assignment and how can I make this assignment fun by stretching the assignment to include what I would find to be interesting?
I made thought map about the assignment and what I could put into it. What are some map types? What are some journey types? Spritual, stylistic, physical? The assignment says “detailed” map. What are some map details? Legends, keys, color codes. This is essentially an autobiographical assignment. What is unique to me? What art classes have I taken? What metaphors can I utilize?
I discussed the assignment with some of my peers and jokingly suggested something, but then I decided to do that.
On my whay home, I saw this structure. I was struck by it. What is the purpose of its shape other than to intrigue me?
Update 1-9-12:
Here’s my execution of the assignment for the map of my journey. After a lot of thought, I decided to make a nice sweet simple poster. Nothing too offensive or witty about it. It’s a word map.
Photo Credit to Erik.
