Art Collective
This is a part of the Object Poster Series.
This is a part of the Object Poster Series.
This is a part of the Object Poster Series.
(I was thinking about a script for an upcoming video project when I thought of this. I though it was interesting to read later. I’m about to have my last quarter at design school and it kind of feels like the end of a duration in a coccoon and I want to capture that feeling of anticipation.)
Hello. I’m Kat Countiss. I’m a graphic designer. At least, that’s what I want you to take away from this. See, I am beginning to form this opinion of what the word “design” means. Design with a capitol “D.” It’s the same as Art, with a capitol “A.” I want to validate all attempts at making the world more beautiful and purposeful and call a lot of things design and art, but it remains that these disciplines are ones that need societal evaluation before deemed successful. That is something I haven’t had a lot of. In design school, most of the time you make up a product and parameters. Your clients are your teachers and often less invested in your product than a real client. Sad to say, but true. These people have to wrangle twenty proto-designers and need to keep a distance from all of the projects to be able to attend to them equally.
Mostly, this means I don’t know truly what it means to be a designer. To design something that suits my client’s needs, makes them happy, makes them feel like I’m worth the money they pay me. There’ s a thing about investment that teachers aren’t doing. They aren’t taking that risk of paying someone to do something that hasn’t been done before, or done well before. There’s a gamble in that and a joy when that gamble pays off and there’s a sense of victory and accomplishment from being the client in a well-done project. And that satisfaction is transmitted to the designer as well, creating a confidence unlike anything enjoyed in school.
I have to think about this video a lot. This is me presenting my team’s website, Relic, an online sculpture magazine. I’m staring out at the audience, but it’s a blank facade of a presenter and not me. The teachers in the program have been threatening to video record presentations since first quarter, but this is the first time one of them has caught me on video. This is a great opportunity to reflect on my presenting skills.
And I’ve had the additional benefit of interviewing my web design teacher of my performance and getting his reaction on video so I can review that as well. He said that I was awkward and looked uncomfortable in front of the class. Might I add, this is the largest presentation audience I’ve ever had. Both sections of the class were present for the finals, totalling at about 40 people. Half of which I have been presenting to for the last two quarters. A fourth of which I had the same section with last year, so they’ve been my audience for almost two years (five quarters). In this audience, about one fifth of them are students I’ve never been in the same class with and never really had an opportunity to speak with them until this moment when I am presenting this ex-website (why “ex”? Follow the progress and demise here.).
I recall the experience of this presentation clearly. My heart was pounding and I remember reading my outline in my mind’s eye and perhaps that’s why it seemed to come out so monotone. I felt like I had said almost everything that I wanted to say which made me feel good after the presentation, but when I saw the video of it, I noticed that sometimes, it’s not what you say, but how you say it. I wasn’t engaging the audience in anyway. My presentation voice would have the subtitles in Helvetica. That’s how lifeless it was. Never mind my right hand emphatically waving about. See: Alien Hand Syndrome.
I normally pride myself on a good presentation. Clean slides, good explanation of those slides without reading off of them, eye contact with multiple parts of the room, not fidgeting. Total of “ums”: 9. Not bad. Not my best either.
I wish I asked about the time limit. The other presentation I had to make earlier in the quarter demanded that I be at least 10 minutes long in presenting. So, I imagined I needed to fill three minutes instead of not exceeding three minutes. I like to think I have no problem with being succinct.
It was really weird to talk to my teacher about it afterwards. He was very blunt. I felt a bit deflated hearing all of what he had to say about how he thought I was perceived, but it was great to look at the video and be like “yeah, I was awkward!”
Asking the question “Who here likes sharks?” was great for the science blog, Hyrax | Natural Science with a Twist. I needed to find that little moment where I can say “hello audience, I’m here for you.” And I didn’t do that. Next quarter is my last quarter at Seattle Central Creative Academy and I want to show that I am consistent and that I am consistently good at presentations, no matter if I am speaking to a room of five or fifty. That reminds me, if any teachers are reading this, perhaps you should challenge your students by finding an opportunity where they have to present to a large audience of strangers. That’s got to be really intimidating. Such a feat where anything less would seem easy by comparison. I’m looking forward to presenting more and to more people. In some cases it’s harder to say than to do and for me, graphic design is one of those things.
This is a part of the Object Poster Series.
Me: I asked the teachers what to do about my type problem.
N: Sure. Do you think it is taste or technical?
Me: That’s a fine question. I think it’s the attention to detail. I’m terrible at font combinations. Is that both?
N: So don’t combine them. Might be both, but I think you have the attention to detail, you might just not know what to look for.
Me: Yeah. That sounds about right. I think a lot of it is a choice I make not to worry about it so much. I think that a lot of the projects we do in school are important, but there’s too many of them to really know what to focus on. Type for me is always the last consideration.
N: This is going to sound hokey but I see the design and specifically type as a costume or role I’m adopting. So with the type I can put on the gaudiest suit ever and speak in a generic foreign accent, or I can really define this “person” with details that convince people. So start by asking questions and personifying the concept and it makes it easier. At least for me.
Me: Sounds great. I’m going to make a typographic poster out of that tomorrow. I’m going to misquote you too.
N: Nice. Sounds good.
This is a part of the Object Poster Series.
Kismet Arts Tangent 