This square was made using photoshop gradients from different angles. The gradient used a darkish saturated color with a fade to black. Then the layers were set on Exclusion. I think many people ignore these layer modes. I think they’re great. By coincidence– I just checked– there are thirteen layers in this file. I know, the magic number.
I am continuing my search for fonts that inspire me. Sometimes their names have a lot to do with why I pick them. Who was Jenkins? “Jenkins” feels a certain way to me. It conjures up the South, dill pickles and the title of mister, for some reason. Mr. Jenkins. He sits on the front porch eating his pickles, watching the cars go by. His whole life so informal that he never uses punctuation. He never had to. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins either. In fact, at family reunions, he walks around not really talking to anybody, but that’s okay because all the Jenkinses are like that. All Jenkins’ family reunions involve thirty people dressed in plaid away from their stoops, not knowing how to handle themselves. Jenkins’ reunions would go a lot better if they had a giant front porch strewn with rocking chairs centered on a round-about.
Update: After writing this upper paragraph, I had the image of the Jenkins’ reunion.
Here it is after some time with Photoshop.
I had my first morning meeting today. It was about the law firm stationery suite I’ve been working on. We are going to continue to have to versions, but one versions has three subversions because my supervisor wants to see an envelope with the address on the flap and an envelope with a flood of the blue color we’ve been using. There were some hierarchy issues and some crowding of the logo, but I think I sorted that out. It was a quick meeting and it was interesting to see that my boss still was a little bugged by the logo (that I didn’t design) and had to mention that too at the meeting where he was kindly reminded that we (company we) commissioned signage and that it would be inconsistent to change it now. The next step in that project is to pick the paper stock for the suite. Terry mentioned having a warm tan-ish color might be nice. They have some paperstock books and it’s up to me to go through them.
I had some imput regarding my architect/builder logo. (Above, seems most promising.) I’m trying to unite them with style and separate them with color as they are two partners working together. Why couldn’t they be “Bruce and Wever” and save me some time and them some money? Having two spot colors versus one spot color will cost them.
As for the rest of the day, I’ve been reviewing my time log in frustration. Day 2, I decided to keep a timelog so I can look down and see what I’ve done for the day. I’ve decided to write “dillying”– short for “dilly-dallying” for all of the time I end up looking at art blogs and checking and rechecking my Facebook. I’m looking at my log and realizing that I lost my whole afternoon. This internship is a slow-starting thing. I was told that they hired me partially because my resume has a lot of WordPress stuff on it and they were into that. I haven’t seen any of that kind of work yet and it doesn’t feel like it’s my place to bug them because I am bored. Maybe I just need more coffee. Tomorrow is another day. Having a creative job is an evolving process. I am not the first or the last person to be intimidated by a blank piece of paper.
Today’s Font Exploration is Washout. I have two versions here because I’m trying to get into a habit of naming my files funny and slightly lengthy titles to give more flavor to the posts. When I titled the upper one, I felt what I wrote would be better as the copy itself. I think this is a good exercise because there’s less pressure to make it good because you already have something good, but it gives you a last minute second option. If that made any sense.
So, in conclusion. Use every opportunity to expand on your thesis. I’ve been finding that the time I’ve spent on something and the rate of innovative ideas pertaining to that something relates. I feel silly for thinking that spending more time on something you thought was done a revolutionary lesson. But, we all learn something new each day.
Yesterday, I received a logo design assignment for an architect/builder duo. The challenge is to make their names seem like to separate names instead of one guy named Bruce Wever. I sketched out my logos and he seemed really pleased. As an echo from Jill, Jason and Tom, Terry (my boss) said that designers directly go to the computer. So much in fact that some time ago he had a neon fixture with a pencil and paper and some motion lines commissioned and installed into his conference room.
I had felt compelled to try out my other thumbnails in the computer though Terry said very explicitly that one of them stood above all the others in his mind. This is a huge lesson. It might be okay in a classroom to work the ones you’re curious to see if they have any potential, but it feels like to me that when your director says this is where the money is, it really seems to be and polishing the lesser ones doesn’t improve them. He also said that my shovel looked like a toy. Tellin’ it like it is. I like my boss.
I had felt compelled to try out my other thumbnails in the computer though Terry said very explicitly that one of them stood above all the others in his mind. This is a huge lesson. It might be okay in a classroom to work the ones you’re curious to see if they have any potential, but it feels like to me that when your director says this is where the money is, it really seems to be and polishing the lesser ones doesn’t improve them. He also said that my shovel looked like a toy. Tellin’ it like it is. I like my boss.
I’m at work now going through the display fonts we have. It’s been proven that when you associate something with how you feel about it you’ll remember it better. Here’s the beginning of a series of fonts I want to get acquainted with. I made this with the help of Adobe Photoshop’s brush tools.
It saddens me that I can’t share my work as freely as I used to, but I completely understand. Yesterday I discussed blogging policies with my supervisor and he said that I shouldn’t make things live before the company it’s for does and even then I think they might not want their design stuff featured so deconstructed here. (I’ll find a better way to anonymize the designs instead of a simple blur.) I am designing for a law firm’s stationery. I presented three versions of the businesscard, letterhead and envelope. I designed letterhead and envelope off of the business card design once I thought it worked.
My crtique: Two of the three versions had too much line action– attorneys are conservative. All versions had font sizes lower than ten, which especially for older people–my sup said “less-than-40-eyes”– it’s a pain to try to get a phone number off a business card.
I should change the font on the name and make it san serif to contrast with the serif-ed logo. Think white space and clean. Next round, I’m putting all of materials onto a tabloid sized paper so they all fit. (See sup’s diagram.) I am pleased that everyone here likes communciating with paper and pen.
My boss told me a story about how he and the team who does construction for his house had a few meetings to build trust and understanding before any paperwork was signed. He said that architects and ourselves have very similar jobs. He described the project process like a funnel (see funnel diagram), where you start by getting to know a lot about the client (the wide part of the funnel) and then with time and consideration you narrow it down by having meetings and analysis until it comes down to a very focused thing.
As an update to how I am adjusting to the 9-5 workday, I wrote down a simple time slot list, shortly describing how I am spending my time. It looks about right, spending an hour or two on a particular task before switching to another project. It feels a lot more like I am working if I can look down and see all the things I’ve worked on. It’s easy to feel like you’ve spent hours pushing around pixels and they still look the same after all that time.
I had my first day today at my summer internship. It is my first job where I am 1) sitting at a desk 2) working 9 to 5, monday through friday 3) using special skills acquired through institutionalized education 4) in front of a candy bowl 5) have an hour lunch 6) on the internet 7) not getting paid 8) have complimentary Pepsis. I volunteered at a haunted barn (no pay) and worked at a pizzeria (yes Pepsis).
It was really sweet. I had a couple of fresh yellow paper pads on my desk and some pens waiting for my brilliant ideas. I had my first real assignment: work on stationery for a law firm. It’s just like Jill’s class all over. The brand and address was decided on by someone else (thank goodness). In my school assignments, we had to come up with the name of our company and make logos, etc.
This assignment, I just have to arrange the information. I told myself to establish hierarchy and use color and size to dictate where people look first. (I didn’t sketch first. I totally forgot. I was so excited to set up all my InDesign preferences for this machine (a computer assigned just to me!) that I didn’t do the thumbnails that is always heavily suggested for better ideation. I thought it was interesting that one of my superiors gave me this handdrawn diagram of my deliverables due tomorrow afternoon: a business card, envelope and letterhead, specifically with the components in the top banner part with potentially a footer.
People seemed nice and fairly engaged with their own work and I spent half of my time working on the stationery and the other half looking at some side projects that they recommended that I think about. The company is really lacking in social media stuff, so every time I am side-tracked, reading a blog or something, I call it research. I’m going to get used to this stretch of time and find a way to structure it better. I don’t know how all you 9-5ers do it.
