"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.