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!