Class Question/Another day in Class

A couple of questions came up in class today. One was have I ever experienced fear based on my creative career choice. My answer to that is yes I have experienced fear. When I chose to be a Graphic Designer my biggest fear was do I have the creative ability to present a visual image and persuade others to buy or just pay attention to what my project is all about. I feared that my choice of career was going to have a lot of competition and wouldn't stand out from others. These were some of my fears but I over came these thoughts. The way I overcame this wasn't over night. Many events happened till I actually felt good about my choice in career. I first over came the shyness of showing people my work and instead of taking criticism in a negative way I processed the information and made it a positive. I became more optimistic towards my work. I told myself "my way of thinking is like no other, no one sees life the way I do but myself" and thats true. One may see a picture and think its just a house, but then I see not a house, but I see the architecture involved and how beautiful it is. So the main thing for me overcoming this fear was just basically learning from others points of views, gathering all the information, and processing it for a better outcome on my designs. As class went on we had an exercise were we took one of our images and changed the whole meaning about it. If an image would be of a person with no hands we would say something like "don't touch," even though the image was about a homeless man. We did this as a group which was great because this will help us when we have to work with others and gather up all thoughts and ideas. Ive never really had to do this type of exercise, but overall I thought it was a great way to learn how to gather not just one persons ideas but everyones and making them better. The biggest outcome I got from this is that a great idea will come to you when you least expect it. Don't over think a certain thing because that would only drive one crazy. Its best just to write down as many ideas as possible and have fun with it. There is no such thing as a bad idea, their are many just data pick the best one out of the many that their is.

Adjectives:
1)Suspenseful- a feeling one gets, such as, excited or anxious
2)Extraordinary- something that is unusual, not an everyday type of thing
3)Horrific- something horrible, unpleasing

Class day 1/24/12

A very important topic came up in class today. The topic was "As a designer we must be able to write proposals." A proposal is an important tool a designer uses in order to persuade the customer. Our professor Jimmy Moss showed the class a short clip of a famous writer who's name was Elizabeth Gayle. We were instructed to pay attention to what she does and the types of techniques she uses to keep that audiences attention. I thought her proposal speech was really well thought out. She started off by telling us who she was and what it was she did. As she talked she not only spoke to the audience, but made them and myself feel as if she was relating to us. She gave examples of what people would say to her and the types of fears she had. By her doing so I felt like "ok maybe I'm not that crazy there are others who feel the way I do." This technique she used captured my attention very well. She also used a lot of similar examples and stories of others to help us understand her work and what she has gone through. As a designer we must be able to present our projects properly and with excitement that way we can keep the audience gauged. This short filmed helped me in the aspect of talking about my own work with excitement and gave me good pointers on the way I should address  others. I don't have to be what people call "by the book," but I can laugh at myself, show others that ok I'm not superman I do have fears as well as others do, and be able to just related to the audience and show them how passionate I am about my work. The only difference I would have that I won't take from the film is the speed she was going. I believe a good presentation is best when the speech is slow and everybody can catch what I say. Overall though I thought Mr.Moss short film presentation was a good example to show for us to learn on how to present a proposal to others and how to stand up in front of an audience. 

Adjectives:

1) Alluring- something that captures my attention, leads me looking to the same thing over and over again.  

2) Amazing- something that is above normal, something surprising.

3) Distinguished- something that stands out, a part in the image that we can all tell what it is, successful. 

Visual Day in Class

Thursdays class was one of my favorites so far. We discussed the visual side and symbolic meanings on images we see around us. An image we went over in class was the HOPE poster of Obama by Shepard Fairey. We discussed how this image has a circle with a flag inside referring to it as a rising sun and only supporting the fact that by electing Obama we can see a better hope for our nation. Also another aspect of this image we went over was the choice of colors. The two main colors chosen for this image was red and blue. The class and I discussed how red is for passion, love, etc... and blue is for calm and warmth. This is going to help me in the long run because now when I look at certain images I will be able to catch the hidden messages behind them. In fact not only the hidden, but the implied messages one can't see unless they pay attention to the whole composition. As the class went on we also applied what we talked about in class to our own images that we were assigned. We talked about the visual side of the story as well as the creative and the legibility in them, further helping us practice what we have learned in the begging of class.

Adjectives:

1) artistic- when one is creative in their work.

2) beautiful- when something is eye catching to me, when i can look at it for hours

3) symbolic- something that was a symbol with implied meanings to it.

Concept Dev. 1/17

As the class finally settled in and became more comfortable with one another we started to talk about the power of words. We got into a class discussion about how words have a great impact on the behavior of others. For example, the two words that came to play were Game and Test. As a class we compared both words and came up with the conclusion that they didn't have much of a difference. They both involved competition, such as two students playing a game or competing for a good grade or how both you can earn points. Many students gave examples only helping me understand better that the concept can always stay the same, but the power of words can change the feeling and the behavior of people. As a designer this will help me chose my adjectives to describe my projects better and get a better feedback from others.

Adjectives:

1) Passion- a strong feeling or desire for a particular thing, place, or person.

2) Unique- something out of the ordinary that can't be recreated easily.

3) Inspiring- to motivate someone

Second Day of Class

Second day of class was a an informative day, but inspirational as well. The professor started off by telling us "One thing a designer does is first identify the problem" (Moss).  As a class we went over some examples. For instance, professor Moss went over a poster in class that was about a Gauge Speaker and the design. We went over how there is always a focal point and how we make it the center of attention without the distraction of everything else around it. One technique used was making the font more bold and changing the color. As class went on professor Moss told us a personal story about his career choice. He explained to us that once he use to worked in a corparate job, but left it because he was bored and wanted to feel useful. Even though he only makes half of what he did as his first job, professor Moss rather teach at cal state l.a. then any corporate job. His story was inspiring to me as an upcoming artist because he chose to do what he loves and followed through with his decision. To me this story reflects on how a designer thinks about things. Like professor Moss said as a designer figure out the problem and fix it and that is what he did with his career choice.