What if... art was nonexistent?

As artists, we try to see the world from many different ways, ways which can often seem unimaginable. I think Thursday's class was about thinking outside of the box. What if we couldn't see color? What if our destiny was predetermined? What if we all looked the same? Through art, we make those "what ifs" appear a reality. These questions lead for people to look for answers and often times find solutions. What if the Earth is not the center of the Universe? What if we could walk on the moon? What if we could live on a planet other than Earth? It takes creative and intelligent minds to come up with these solutions, but it only takes a wild thought to get us started. In art, no idea is ever too crazy and nothing is ever impossible. Whether we can make these ideas a reality (like walking on the moon) or having to fantasize about it through cartoons is a different story. Letting our minds roam into the world of endless possibilities helps trigger our imagination and allows us to create solutions that have not been done before.

quizzical- questioning or suggesting puzzlement

ubiquitous- omnipresent, everywhere at once

ossified- inflexible, old-fashioned

What's the pattern?

Tuesday's class seemed no different than the others from all quarter. A seemingly unimportant activity with underlying messages and lessons that keep you thinking about the real purpose and objective of the lecture. As graphic designers, effective communication is at the base of every piece of work we will ever produce.  Everything has a purpose and a message that it is supposed to convey, whether it is a solution to a problem, an emotion, or a thought. Tuesday's class was built around effective communication. The message itself was unimportant, what matter was how we communicated and how effective our methods were. Did we think of all the possible solutions? Did we fix all the loopholes? Will our audience understand what we are trying to say? A short sentence (or lack of, in the case of my group) could change the whole outcome of what we were trying to do. The way we communicated (or the way I communicated, since I was chosen as speaker) gave our audience a solution, however, it was not the solution we intended for. Our choice of words or the way we present our information can have a great impact in how the audience perceives the message. Even when we tried explaining our solutions within our group, coming to a consensus or getting everyone to be on the same page and understand what we were trying to say was a task in its own. The most important thing I was able to get out of this activity was that if I can completely understand what I'm trying to do, the specific message I'm trying to send, then convincing others of my ideas will be much easier.

exultant- very happy
guttural- sounding harsh and throaty
debonair- gracious, courteous

Closing In On Winter Quarter

I can look back at the last 8 weeks of the quarter and I'm only able to recall two actual projects that we worked on yet Tuesday's class made me realize that I hadn't just been sitting in class at 8 am for 2 hours drinking coffee and listening to lectures. We started thinking back to all of the concepts that have been covered since week one and as to continue on my post from last week, I see how unconventional this class has really been. Ive learned a lot and a lot of topics have been covered. There was a very long list of ideas, activities, and concepts that we have discussed and learned about but as I try and think back as to which assignment was meant to teach the lesson, I got nothing. This just goes to show that you can learn from the most unexpected people in the most unexpected ways. I can say that I have grown up a lot during this class and I think it had to a lot to do with Jimmy constantly trying to change our perspectives of the reality of the business. We are artists, but the world is not always like the pretty pictures we can make. You have to tend for yourself and have a hunger to grow and be the best. We can only get so far thinking that our art will be enough. We need to be fully invested and put ourselves out there to get where we want to be. I always felt that I was just getting by and having very little confidence in my work. It's still a working progress but looking at the list of concepts that have been covered, I can actually see the progress I have made in this short amount of time. However, I was also able to see how much more I need to go through in order to really be ready for whats in store in my future.
Then came our final project. It was refreshing to know that I wasn't alone being overwhelmed by the lack of ideas for a 1 minute video. 1 minute does not seem very long but I think back to a commercial we made last quarter and 1 minute seemed like an eternity. Fingers crossed that all goes well. We brainstormed together and helped each other refine ideas. It was interesting to see some of the things my classmates were coming up with considering our only instruction was "1 minute video describing our Graphic Design/Visual Communications program". Vague instructions leave plenty of room for imagination and creativity, most of us interpreted the assignment a different way leading us to all go in completely different directions. I look forward to seeing what we all come up with.