Mustache Final and AIGA Archives

Pulled an allnighter last week, but with good results. This week was the final (until Finals) deadline for my first credit of work. This, for me, entailed designing and building the interior of a mustache emporium. (A perk of this major, even though it's an obscene amount of work, is that we get to pitch our own project ideas.) Wednesday/Thursday was filled with last minute supply buying, printing, transportation to and from the warehouse and lots and lots of sawing. That's what I get for choosing to work in wood, and even though I know we have a lovely wood shop downstairs, but I haven't yet been trained on it. Gotta get on that.

Anyways, all is well. After c. 39 hours of consciousness I got a very positive review. It was worth it. Here's a quick picture of the resulting interior. Still needs work, but I'm proud of the result.

In other news I'm looking through the AIGA archives for inspiration for a handful of my projects. AIGA is a professional designer's club that is prominent across the nation. Our school has a University level organization where students can buy membership for significantly cheaper and get tons of benefits in terms of portfolio sharing, contacts and inspiration. One aspect of the organization that is free to non-members is the ability to browse their archives online. Just go to http://designarchives.aiga.org/ and chose either "Annual" for last year's designs or the "Archive" for everything. You can even narrow your search by a bunch of categories. Very useful. I would highly recommend even just browsing through it.

This week I have a lot of work to catch up on, but I frayed my nerves and depleted my energy pretty badly last week, so I've been moving kind of slowly. I'm not worried yet. I think I can get this done in enough time... hopefully. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Senior year is quite the thrill ride.

Back from Outer Space (or summer vacation, or London)

So I'm back in Syracuse after a REALLY long time being away. Count 'em. Winter break, LONDON, summer (including two internships) and now good 'ole Syracuse. Even harder to believe than the amount of time I've been gone is the fact that I am now, indeed a senior. Much like a lot of you guys reading this, except for I'm starting to think of real life things. A job, an apartment, a puppy (one can dream) and all that crazy stuff that comes from being a real person. BUT before I get to that I have a whole truckload of work to do. Let me tell you a bit about senior year CommDesign.

In communications design our professors like to tell us that our sophomore year should equal up to an entire bachelors degree worth of work. Sounds scary, right? Kinda was, but it turned me into an awesome design NINJA with crazy amazing skills, ready to tackle the next year of even more work. Junior year the professors start treating you like grad students. This means that they give us general ideas of what kind of projects we need to tackle (branding, packaging, interiors, publication, etc.) and how much work each category needs to merit a credit (a whole lot). We are pushed to come up with our own unique "big ideas." Therefore our projects really reflect ourselves and our portfolios are each unique as snowflakes.

The coolest part of our program, though is the way the classes are set up. All these projects are presented weekly for critiques, and the classes are always made up of both juniors and seniors. The seniors do twice the amount of work as the younger kids, but they also get to be role models and mentors to them. It's amazing.

Last year I was a junior and I was the kid trying to find my footing and my process, frantically asking seniors for tips and advice, and now I'm the big guy. I finally know what I'm doing and that is a gooooood feeling.

So. First couple of weeks have been easing into the CommDesign craziness. It's about to get real, with me working on two full fledged projects simultaneously, but I am so pleased with the familiarity I have earned to the creative process. I can see this being my best year yet. I'll keep you as up-to-date as I can. Lots to do. One more year. I'm all about that.