Final Semester Blog on Final Grading Day

So all of my projects are magically done. Well, that's how they're supposed to look anyways. I labored for the past couple weeks, sneaking time during my Thanksgiving break and trucking along for the past week and a half to have everything designed, printed and mounted (with acceptable quality) by this afternoon. Final grading day.

The warehouse is nuts. I'm sure at least half of the people on the third floor right now (and there's probably at least thirty) are operating on less than four hours of sleep. At least five different computers play five different songs across the studio. Foam core litters the floor, and exacto blades are sprinkled every which way. You have to be careful during CMD finals. I managed to escape this one with only a paper cut. Unfortunately, it's on the tip of my right index finger, so I think it still counts as a battle wound.

I actually got five hours of sleep last night, which means that, though I have good time management skills, I lack my war story this morning. To try and make up for it I trekked through the rain from my house to the printing center today to print and laminate the last pages of my final booklet. I had to come back a couple times because I kept punching holes on the wrong side of the page where the binding ring and eyelet were supposed to go. It's all squared away now. I just hope the professors like it. The eyelets made it fat, so the book is pretty clunky. Oh well. I did my best.

So this is gonna be my last blog of the semester. Usually I try to make my last blog after I've gotten sleep after my review has finished, but, given that this morning is my last work morning of the semester, you get me all bleary eyed and delirious, just the way one should be the morning before the review. It's all part of the fun.

After this grading day I have to bring everything in again on Saturday for the semesterly portfolio review. Since I have everything done for today, that's not too scary. I could hypothetically tweak a couple of things, but I think I'm gonna be all busy trying to get some rest and pack up my house. I'm moving out this weekend because I'm going to London next semester. I'm SO excited for that. Weee!

Ok. Enough for now. Maybe I might pick up the blog while I'm across the pond. We'll see. If so, see you next semester! If not, see you next year!

All the best,
Allie

Finals Approaching

The last couple of weeks have been pretty crazy in regards to CommDesign. My ideas just weren't taking off. I kept on bringing in stuff to class and every week I was closer, but no cigar. I've gone in for a bunch of office hours with one of the CMD professors. I have classes during his normal office hours, but he's been nice enough to allow me to meet with him at another time to try and work through this project. I think I'm finally really getting somewhere. We'll see. I have a week to get this thing done. Oh my.

All my classes are coming to a close, and each one has its projects due. I am much less on top of things this time around than I was last semester. I'm hopeful, though, about where my current project is going. I might just be able to pull this off well. I guess everyone has a project that doesn't go their way. This one is definitely that project. I think, though, that through struggling with it I've definitely learned a bunch about considering my audiences and finding a voice for my advertisements and my company.

Not so much more to report. Finishing up animations in my experimental animation class and reading and writing reports for my other classes. One more report for each and then I'm done with that. That feels nice. Only a couple of weeks left to the semester and then break and then LONDON! I did mention before that I got into the abroad program right? Well I'm definitely going! Found a subletter for my apartment and I'm off! It'll be amazing. I'm so excited. First, getting through these finals. Here I go!

Back on Track, 8 Hours a Day

Class photo after our Friday stress management presentation. Bob

(the professor in the middle) brought in his Edna Mode doll from the

Incredibles. We were told to dress comfortably. I'm behind Edna with a

blue shirt and my green robe.

I'm feeling good. I had a very productive weekend. In the CommDesign discussion class on Friday we talked about stress and time management. One thing that really stuck out to me was different ways to arrange your to-do lists and think about the way you organize time throughout the week. One of the strategies discussed was a kind of thirds system. You divide your day up into three sections of eight hours. One section is devoted to sleep (yes!), one section to work and one to play. When she first presented this I was skeptical. Since classes are included in the "work" column, I didn't see how I would have enough time to get everything done, even if I put walking places and eating in the "play" section of my day. Still, with this strategy in mind I tackled my weekend. Turns out that on the weekends I definitely don't usually do 8 hours of work a day. This weekend I did. I'm feeling good.

Last week I had office hours with a professor to make sure I'm on track with my second project. The truth is that I'm behind. I had a tough start to this project, and then a tough week near mid terms when I got sick. Though lots of juniors in my class are a bit behind, I really didn't want to be one of them. So last week all I brought in was two rough spreads, sketches for my others and a theory for how my book was gonna be constructed. Though that's all my professor told me I should bring in, I didn't feel good about it. This weekend, I have finally picked up the slack. At the moment I have all the text written, photos taken, photos placed, and 12 out of 18 pages DONE (for this week). That's good. Now I can finish that project up tonight, start focusing on my third project and make sure I'm on track for all of my non-major classes. Just have to keep plugging away.

The best part of all of it was that I got to go to bed when I wanted both nights.

It'll feel great to be back on track. It doesn't mean that I can slow down, but it means that I won't have so much work piling up on me during finals... well, not AS much work. We'll see.

Catching Up and Cut Paper

It's been a while since my last blog. A whole lot is happening in the office and in my studies. The handwashing campaign is pretty wrapped up for now. I'll have a bunch to tweak near the end of the semester for finals, but we'll leave it till then. My next project hasn't been so good to me. I'm making a publication about foods that are good for directing your mood, and quick recipes for how to use them. As my professor said in office hours on Monday, I was sick last week and so was my work. SO this week I went in to talk to my professor early and tried to gain back some of the productivity I had fallen behind in. I'm still behind, and this project is more complicated than I thought. Luckily a lot of my class is also having trouble, so, in the end, I'm not toooooo far behind compared to other people. It's a mid-semester slump, but we're all picking up the pace to try and make finals do-able. This week I bring in my new concept for the page layouts, sketches, and information about my next project as well as names and slogans. Goodness. I have a bunch to do before class today at 2:30. So it goes.

I haven't talked a lot about my animation studio, but I had a really good class yesterday. We're starting on our own personal animations, as opposed to the last claymation which was a group project. During the beginning of the semester the professor had us picking out newspaper articles to respond to and share. Now we're doing an animation inspired by something in an article we heard of. My animation is about virtual twins, two people who are less than 9 months apart and who were raised in the same household as siblings. Studies show that even though these people have had similar upbringings, they are far more different from each other than biological twins are in personality intelligence and so on. I'm doing my animation using stop motion and cut paper characters. I'm enjoying the physicality of cutting out paper characters and sets, even though my friend tells me that it looks exactly like my style of illustration using the computer program Adobe Illustrator. I guess that makes sense. I wonder if it's ok to have a style as a designer. I'll have to ask the professors.

"Loosening Up"

After a Friday afternoon/evening class at the Warehouse. Someone found a super cool video on YouTube.

I've gotten to my favorite part in my design project. I've got the big ideas solidified, my mission clear and my graphics in the right direction. Last week I managed to eek out a few roughs for actual design of my handwashing campaign. The class liked one direction in particular, but told me that I had to "loosen up." This advice isn't new to me. Ever since high school I've been told to get looser with my work. It's hard for me. Even when I thought I was loosening up, my art remained pretty uptight. With graphic design I'm even worse. I love order in my pieces, using a grid and perfect lines of common continuity. So in critique this past Wednesday, when they told me to "have fun" with my graphics, I knew they were right, and I knew I was in trouble.

The next day I decided to go for help. If anyone on this campus could help me loosen up my graphic design it would be Gail Hoffman. Gail was a professor of mine for my freshman foundation 2D Creative Processes course. I learned a ton in that class, and have kept up relations with Gail ever since. A good friend of mine is now the TA for this year's 2D course, so I knew where and when I could catch Gail before the class began. With examples of the design and a good deal of brainstorming and sketches I met with Gail for a few minutes. She gave me a bunch of new things to think about, and reaffirmed a bunch of things I already thought of. When it was time for her to turn her attentions toward the class she suggested that I come back later in between my classes that afternoon and ask her class what they thought. To tell you the truth, I was really not into this idea. I thought I already had a good place to go from based off of my crit in my CommDesign class, and my brainstorming with her, but since it was Gail asking, I couldn't say no.

Later that afternoon I show up in Gail's class. As soon as I walk in a handful of the students call my name. Turns out I have a bunch of them tours last year, and they chose to come to Syracuse. Most of them are even planning on entering my major. It was fantastic to talk to them. They're so excited to be here! As soon as the whole class was back from their break, I started my quick presentation. I told everyone about my project, showed them my roughs and asked them to comment on my typography, the use of color, the mood and anything else they could think of. Their responses were fantastic. The conversation was smart, quick and full of good feedback. I told them I might come back next week so the could see what I took from their critique and ask their advice again. It's nice to see the students so excited, and I'm sure it's great for them to see what a junior in CommDesign is up to (especially for the ones who plan on entering the major). Besides, I can never get too much feedback.

I'm feeling good about my new designs this week. I don't know if I've reeeeally loosened up, but I think I've gotten closer to what loosening up may look like. My colors are happy, my designs are almost whimsical, and the images have much more thought and meaning behind them. I'm excited for a very useful critique this Wednesday, and I'm also pumped to bring the new versions back to Gail's class. I'll tell you how it goes next week.

Internet and Design Briefs

I'm really starting to get into the groove with my schoolwork and my schedule for this semester. This weekend my house finally got internet. I've never lived in my own house before so I wasn't as on top of getting that hooked up as I could have been. All is well, though. The four girls who live in the second floor in my house all got internet and my roommates and I are pitching into their bill. That makes seven people sharing one internet bill. It's a good setup.
Anyways, back to school work. Now that I get internet in my house the whole research and homework process is a lot more fluid. I don't have to plan what I can do around when I'll have internet.
This week I'm making my first comps for my guerrilla/viral ad campaign on handwashing. It's been taking me a while to figure out in what direction I need to go with the content of the campaign. All day Saturday I was calling up family and friends to brainstorm with them. Something wasn't making sense. It took me all day to realize that my targeted audience wasn't defined enough. You see, at the beginning of every project we write up a design brief. This document covers all the aspects of the project other than the design itself. It delineates the problem we are solving, the aspects of the company we are creating or that we "work for," the competition, audience, and so on. In real life a lot of this information is given to us by our client, but doing it ourselves helps us define our project and also helps us realize the value of the brief, and what a good brief should consist of. After my struggles this weekend I realize the value of defining one's audience. It was really simple. I needed to decide whether my campaign was aimed at people who don't wash their hands at all, or those who already do but don't do it for long enough (around 20 seconds). It may seem like a small detail, but it made such a difference in my thinking. My only regret is that brain work doesn't yield anything of substance to show for it. That's what tonight is gonna be for. By Wednesday I have to have multiple looks and feels for a couple different elements of my campaign to present to the class for feedback. It's a bit intimidating, but also exciting. It's what I'm here for.
Other than CommDesign work, I've had a lot of readings for my British Literature classes, and a small report due for each. My animation class has been focusing on "cameraless" animation, making short films directly on 16mm film to show in class tomorrow. We're also considering different ways we can portray the passing of time through film. I brainstormed with my dad last night (he loves this kinda stuff) and I have a bunch of cool ideas. Tomorrow in class we start claymation. I'm very excited.
That's all for now. Maybe I'll have time to write more on Wednesday. If not, have a lovely week. I'll tell you how it all goes next week.

Back to School Blog

I'm back in Syracuse after a fantastically lovely summer. My summer internship went very well. This was my second year doing graphic design for the Public Health Department at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Last year I spent all summer designing two booklets to help teens and adults quit smoking. After the intense year of CommDesign I went through last year I was able to tackle three logos, multiple pieces for a children's handwashing campaign, and design the board for a board game. It proved to me what my professors have been telling me all along. They cram an undergraduate's degree worth of education into the CommDesigner's sophomore year. It was intense, bit it was worth it. I went back to that internship a different designer. In a meeting with the Cleveland Board of Public Health I was introduced to the board not as an intern like the other girl I worked with, but as the designer working on the project. It felt good.

Now I'm back and getting into the groove again. Junior year feels very different than sophomore year. We are treated like graduate students. We have loose guidelines, and we get to choose our own projects. If it wasn't for the strict guidelines for projects last year I wouldn't be comfortable with this freedom, but they trained us well. The trick is to come up with a good idea that you're passionate about and that you won't mind working intensely on for a month. I've chosen to further the kind of handwashing campaign I worked on over the summer, but doing it my own way :) This time I'm aiming it toward young adults, making it a guerilla ad campaign and seeing if I can even give it a viral aspect. The trick (and the fun) of the project is to make an edgy exciting project about handwashing. This week I'm preparing a presentation including an in depth design brief, pitching names, slogans and a look and feel. This class is very special because the juniors and seniors are being taught together. That means we get critiqued not just by our peers and our professor but by kids who have already been through this. I'm very excited.

In my second CommDesign class I have another where we talk about design issues, what we want to know about being a designer, what is good design, who are good designers etc. My whole grade is in this class together (around than 30 kids), and it's team taught by two of our professors. The class is very energetic. Everyone participates and debates. I enjoy having forum where everyone sits down and discusses in depth design, the career of design, and what I'm getting myself into.

I'll try to talk a bit about my non-design classes in future posts. For the record, I'm enjoying all three of them. I think this is going to be a good semester. Thank goodness.

DONE WITH CMD! (for the summer)

I was a bit late for work today because I was coming from my final CMD review. The way grading works in CMD is that there are two separate grading days where the professor for each studio sits with each students' work and gives the grade that shows up on your report card. The student is not allowed in the room for any of these, and we only find out our grades when we get the report card at home or when we check Myslice. What I just got back from, today, was the big event. Our final review is when we put all of our stuff out as attractively as humanly possible and (again) leave the room. All professors in the program enter the room and discuss each student. Before they leave they fill out an in depth score-card showing us where our strengths and weaknesses are. It's pretty stressful but really exciting. Now I'm done. I have my feedback and my final projects and I'm done with CMD for the semester. It feels unreal. I'm pretty happy with my work this semester and my review went fairly well. That feels so good. I worked so hard. I'm glad it paid off.

Now all I have left is to study for an art history final on Monday, show up to my ceramic review and pack. There are a couple of loose ends socially and officially that I need to tie up and then I'm outta here. What a semester! I did it!

This'll probably be my last blog of the year. I'm sure I'll start up again soon. Until then, everyone take care and enjoy the nice weather!

The Final Countdown II

It's the Monday of my last full week 'till break, and I have a lot of work to do. Luckily I've been on top of things, so I don't have an insurmountable pile of projects. Just enough to keep me constantly busy. My big project this week is redesigning my point of purchase display. I redid my packages and they look so much better than the old ones. I didn't realize, however, how long it was going to take me to complete them. I designed the package myself making a template and cutting them out of acetate... then with two more pieces to the package.. it took all day to have everything printed cut out and assembled. That set me back a bit. I'm one step behind where I wanted to be right now. That's ok. I think I'm still on top of things. If I get what I want done tonight (designing the graphics and creating a tiny and then a scale mock-up for my point of purchase display) THEN I will once again be ahead of the game. I only have until Thursday morning to get this done. Thank G-d I did that brainstorming for critique yesterday so at least I know what direction I'm going in.

Everything else is getting neatly squared away. I'm not gonna touch my paintings anymore, I did my history project, I'm handing in the final project and giving my final presentation in my writing class this afternoon. Tomorrow I hope to finish glazing all my ceramics. I HAVE to get that done tomorrow. Then I don't have to worry about that anymore. After my final CMD reviews at the end of the week I'll have a whole weekend when my only responsibly will be to sit in the sun and study art history on the quad. I'm looking forward to that!



In other news, passover ended last night. I finally get to eat bread again. I love how thankful for everyday things like bread or pasta or cookies I get after going 8 days without it. On Saturday night a bunch of the gang got together and made cupcakes to celebrate the birthday of two of my friends. I couldn't eat the cupcakes but I had some passover brownie mix. The brownies actually tasted really good! That was a nice surprise. Anyway, they saved a bunch of cupcakes so I get to pig out later today. On top of it all I get a call yesterday from a friend from home that goes to RIT. He was on his way back from an impromptu trip to NYC and he was gonna drive past Syracuse. This resulted in me leaving my work at 11:00 to go sit in Kimmel dining hall with my buddy and his friend and listening to their adventures for an hour. I ended up going to bed at around 2:00 after finishing constructing my packages but it was all worth it. It was nice to see him.



Bu the time I write next I'll be done with ComDesign crits for the year.

I can't wait.

The Final Countdown

It's finals weeks and it's too nice outside. These last couple weeks of school are super intense. I have projects in every class that I'm running around to get done. I've got my painting studio squared away, but my ceramics one is gonna take up a lot of time. Both comdesign classes have final projects due this week and then I have to get my portfolio ready for next week. I wrote my history paper this past weekend and an article for my writing class group project. I think I can get everything done, but it's not over until it's over. Less than two weeks left. That's both terrifying and liberating. I know I'll get everything done... and I can't wait until I do.



On a lighter note, Syracuse is lovely during the spring. Going back and forth has given me the chance to enjoy this beautiful weather. The sun is shining, birds are singing and the flowers and leaves are finally coming out. Everyone's so hectic, but we can't help be be cheerful due to the weather.



... and getting these projects done is gonna feel soooooo good. Then I can really enjoy this weather. That's about it in my life right now. I'm a little frazzled ComDesigner... but what should I expect during finals weeks. I don't know when the next chance I have to post will be, but maybe it'll be after this is all over. I'll tell you how it all turned out.

After the Weekend

It's been a busy couple of days. There's only about four weeks left to the semester, and there's a lot to do in those four weeks. This weekend I tried to get a head start on a lot of the work due in the upcoming week. I'm preparing my magazine spreads for a teacher's conference on Tuesday. I got four revised and a new one started, so I have two more revisions and the new ones to finish before tomorrow. I also worked pretty heavily on my group project, though I bet I'll be putting in a bunch more work on that over the next couple of days. We have to get these perfect before our printing appointment for the poster and spreads on Wednesday morning. On Sunday I went to the ceramics studio to make my first pots with lids. The lidding system I tried out on Sunday was the simplest of the three we need to attempt. I got four pots with lids thrown. We'll see tomorrow if I did those right. Finally I also did some reading for my writing class, some reading for my history class and two write ups for paintings in my painting class. I'm pretty tired, but there's a bunch left to do. These next couple of weeks are going to be a trip.

On top of all this I managed to slip away on Friday and Saturday night. On Friday the gang and I hit the mall to watch a movie, then on Saturday night I went out to tea with a friend from my major and afterwards went back to her dorm to watch a movie. I got my own pint of ice cream. It was delicious.

The spring receptions for the school are coming up, so it might be a while before I blog again. We'll see. Wish me luck with all my work. It's a challenge, but I wouldn't be doing this if it wasn't what I love. Additionally, it's spring. I love spring.

More Magazines Books and Posters

This last week and a half has been pretty crazy as usual. Each week we've been getting more and more done on our magazine projects. This week we were responsible (again) for creating 4-6 new spreads and redoing everything that's come before. That totals up to eight spreads and two covers. I'm getting somewhere with these slowly but surely. It's more difficult to do these spreads than I imagined it would be. In the real world we would have a budget and illustrators and photographers to work with. Here we have to use our resourcefulness and ingenuity to come up with stellar images that are clear enough conceptually and good enough quality to be placed on a 11 x 17 spread. Additionally we're learning to use innovative and handsome typography. All this in the quantity required of us is certainly a challenge, but, as always, I'm glad we're being put through this. I'm starting to come up with good, doable ideas quicker, recognize good design in other publications and attempting to create my own original well-designed spreads.

For the other design class we are working in groups to create posters and book layouts for the juniors. The juniors are going to use these as part of their projects helping to revitalize a neighborhood in the city of Syracuse. Last week we met with our groups to share our research as well as come up with, mock up and prepare to present our design ideas for the poster and book. The design created by my group was the design the juniors chose. We were very proud. This week we plugged our information into the templates and created color schemes and collages to go on our multiple roughs to be presented this week. Both the morning section and the afternoon section, the two professors and a slew of juniors met this afternoon to critique the posters and make more adjustments to the templates. It was exciting to have designers of all different levels working together on a single project.

As for my other classes, I turned in a paper for my writing class on Monday, and I got a test back and a project proposal back from my history class. Both were pretty good. In ceramics I'm making even more bowls and plates. The professor demonstrated how to make different kinds of vessels with lids. In painting we had a critique of our large paintings of "light." In symposium we heard from an award-winning airbrush caricaturist.

So I'm a very busy individual, but that can be expected with as little time left in the semester as I have. The improving weather is making everyone happy. It's very pleasant to walk to and fro and to sit and wait for buses. Every one's bringing out their warmer weather jackets and smiling. I love it.

That's about it for the last week. I'm sure I'll have a whole bunch to tell about next time around. Until then, take care!

Photo Shoots and Publications

The last couple of days have been pretty packed, but I've been enjoying myself. Last week I really booked in an attempt to get things squared away before my boy came up to visit. We've always known that I would have to do a considerable amount of work while he was here, but I've tried to either get as much done before as possible, or come up with ways that he could help me doing some of the more fun aspects of my work. So far this weekend we've done a couple of photo shoots for my spreads, setting up, lighting and photographing still-lifes. On Saturday we realized that I was going to need models of a certain age to be in my photograph so I called up my brother's girlfriend's parents who live in the area and they were good enough to come and help me out. That's one of the big lessons I've learned this year. Sometimes you just can't do everything alone. As long as you're reasonable and as long as you're very gracious, it's ok to ask for help. The worst that can happen is that you're turned down.



This afternoon I have a meeting with an individual from the library to discuss a project I did earlier this semester. I created a research guide that is geared for our library. During the process I worked with a librarian to try and make it as accurate and useful as possible. Now that it's done the librarian has shown it to other people that work in the library, and they might be interested in working with me to produce it. I'm so excited! I really hope this works out! It would be amazing to be able to put in my portfolio and my resume that my work is being used for the Syracuse Library.

Back from break

Syracuse is sunny today. I looked out my window at the campus and thought that I might be able to get away with a spring/fall jacket. Wrong. It's 20 degrees outside. At least it's beautiful.



I've been out all morning giving tours and running errands for work. Lots of fresh air. I'll be around campus a lot more today too. I have a meeting with my writing professor and then I go out with a camera to try and find people to model for images to use in one of my CommDesign projects. That should be an adventure. If I get good enough images I can work straight on the work due on Thursday. If the images are not good then at least I'll figure that out early enough to go out and get better ones.



In addition to that project I'm also doing the initial research for my topic in a group project. We're working with the juniors on their community service project. They're using design to help revive a certain neighborhood in downtown Syracuse, and they've given my grade certain tasks to help them out. It's exciting to us because the work we're doing is really going to be used, and working with the juniors is also a really cool experience. We see the upperclassmen about the studios and talk to them about our projects or ask for advice, but we've never worked with them before like this.



In a couple days my boyfriend is coming up on his spring break to see me. I've used spring break to get some work done, and I'm trying hard to get as much as I can done now so that I'll be able to spend some quality time with him over the next week. It's hard because this major is really intense, but he's aware of this and very supportive and understanding. I'm even planning some of my work so that he can help me out. I've so excited to see him. I've been planning where to take him and what to feed him. We'll go to the Indian restaurant on Marshall Street. I love Indian food.



And that's my current CommDesign status. We'll just have to see how my work this week treats me. At this point in my education it tends to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it goes smoothly and sometimes it just won't cooperate. Either way I always pay attention so that the next project runs a bit more smoothly. It works!

Monday, March 3

It's March, finally, and the weather outside is relatively pleasant. I even heard birds singing and the crows were all still asleep as I walked to work this morning. All that snow on the ground is gonna be melting away all day today. It was pretty while it lasted, but I think I prefer the warm weather.

This weekend seemed like a breeze compared to the past weeks of CMD. We've had the product design project culminating, and every week was a challenge. I got it done. It wasn't stunning, but it's better designed than anything I could have done before the project, and I have until final reviews to make is as stunning as possible. I'll have to go in for office hours. Our new project was assigned last week. We have to make a magazine with a whole bunch of parameters to adhere to such as the style of the magazine, the age range for the audience and the topics of the articles. This is a bit different than other projects where we've had more "freedom" to choose our subject, but I've found that's much more challenging. It's not that we don't have a gazillion decisions still left up to us... but there's a couple more rules to follow.

I spent this weekend getting some rest (amazingly) and calmly making my way through work. I had a very productive brainstorming session (helped out by my boyfriend and my mom's feedback over the phone) and now I have a solid direction for my research. This week we need two design briefs, three name options, taglines, a content list and six covers for our new publication. I think I can do that. (Oh come on, I know I can do that.) Last semester or even at the beginning of this one that would have seemed like much more work. I can see myself gaining more confidence and becoming more efficient with every project. It's wonderful.

The other CMD project is coming along. I like the place where I'm at in its process. I have the basic framework constructed and now I'm just tweaking it here and there. It needs a LOT of tweaking, but it's easier to tweak than to create. It's a project that deals with images and creative typography flowing together. All my comrads have been on an Easter egg search for good imagery and sources. It's exciting. I've learned how to navigate the library as a designer, and of all the nooks and crannies on this campus where you can print 24 large B&W images late at night (for cheap!). That's part of the fun of being a CMD major. We keep on discovering little secrets and ways to go about our work to make life easier, and, even cooler, when we find them we share them with the rest of the gang.

Other than all that, I've studied for my Art History midterm (The History of Art Deco and Industrial Design). That's tomorrow. I also trimmed six plates I made for my wheel throwing class (only destroying one of them) and stretched a HUGE canvas for my painting class. Thank goodness my writing class is cancelled today for student meetings with the teacher.

I also had a visit from my best friend at home. I took her to the student improv comedy group's performance, and then out to the tea house with the gang. Both of us were pooped by then (her from traveling and me from my week) so we went home early and talked. I had a great brunch with my roommate on Saturday, and I took a walk in the cemetary on Sunday morning (not as creepy as it souds, it was gorgeous with the sun and the snow). Dinner with the gang that night. I also got a good number of delicious naps squeezed in. Huzzah sleep!

Only four more crazy days until spring break. I go home, hang out with my cats, bake cookies with my mom... and get a head start on my CMD for the next half of the semester.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog!

My name is Allie Jennings and I am a sophomore Communications Design major hailing from near Cleveland, Ohio. I think this is a wonderful way for you to get a feel for what life in this major is like. I hope you find this blog helpful.

I chose Syracuse because it seemed at the time to be the best fit for what I wanted to get out of college. I still believe this to be true. When I was college searching I looked at in state schools, art schools and liberal art schools with a solid art program. I knew I wanted to do design. I had been very active in my school newspaper and I fell in love with typography and image as well as the challenge of communicating visually. I'm a design dork. I know it.

At first I really wanted to go to an art school. My mom didn't feel the same way but I had convinced her to look with me as long as I looked at other schools with her. I even attended the Maryland Institute of Art Precollege program between my junior and senior year to get a feel of art school. It was my high school counselor that threw out the name of Syracuse University and I decided to give it a glance. What I saw blew my socks off.

Out of all the other colleges I looked at- art and liberal arts alike - Syracuse had the most specific program for what I wanted to do. Just the fact that it's named Communications Design rather than Graphic Design showed that it talked more to what I was looking for. I saw pictures of letterheads and packaging designs as well as layouts and page design. Syracuse gave the most specific and inspiring description of what exactly I was going to be trained to do.

My visit to Syracuse only served to reinforce my positive feelings towards the program. I got a tour of the main facilities, the Warehouse, by a ComDesign student. On the bus ride there he told my mom and I that the major was very intense and that sophomore year was "like boot camp for graphic design." When I give tours today I make sure to tell kids and their families the same thing. This is a very intense program, but I've found that for real passionate students (like I was) it only makes them more excited to come here.

Anyways, Syracuse was my obvious match. It's an art school AND a university. It's an intense program with passionate professors as well as peers. I feel confident that I will graduate as a quality designer with the ability to get a job that I enjoy. I think that's the most important thing. I feel that of kids go into art with a kind of acceptance of an uncertain future after they graduate. Not me. This major will give me the training I need to be amazing at a career that I love.

I hope the rest of this blog is useful in giving you insight into my life in this major. Good luck in your college search!