Today I learned of the best group game ever... and I don't remember what it's called. Does it even have a name?? Well, it's like "Telephone..." kind of. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I don't feel like explaining it. I'll just say that it's a fantastic group communication exercise and we all did pretty darn good. I think a lot of us also left class today feeling a little dizzy, which is sometimes the price you pay for having the best time ever, duh. 

Our discussion on project briefs today was very inspiring. Jimmy showed us some examples of media design company's project briefs, and it blew me away how detailed these things can be. I also had a sort of, "o yeah!" moment. Of course you have to break these things down to every last detail because your client must understand what they're paying us for. The examples were perfect and I learned a LOT. 

I look forward to making my own and getting this graphic design business ball rolling.

I'm finding that line drawings are useful. I probably drew about 500 tiny lines today and as my hand started to cramp, I finally thought I was learning something. This exercise helped to train my eye. I had to completely concentrate on the length, the stroke and the angle of the line. It reminded me of introductory drawing classes when we had to make contour drawings; we focused completely on the object and tried to mimic the exact curve of the line with out taking the pencil off the paper. That took total concentration and I remembered having the same feeling I did today. I thought, "Oh man, what's the point?" And then, there it was; hand-eye coordination and the smallest details in a single line.

In our 220 class, we presented our games and I didn't understand a lot of them, but they looked really good. Board games are so boring to me, it's difficult for me pay attention when they're being explained to me. However, the details and effort put into these projects from some of my fellow classmates was awesome. A few of them were really intricate and clever.

At 7:30 this morning I got on the bus to go to school and the driver passed the Cal State LA bus stop. The bus driver made a mistake and thought the Cal LA stop was closed for some reason. I was now undoubtedly going to be late for class, but because I knew their were fellow Cal State LA students on the bus with me, I was pretty calm. When the bus finally arrived at Union Station in Downtown LA, the other students and myself huddled together with our smart phones and figured out our bus route back to campus. I hardly said a word and everything worked out just fine. Sure, we were a late for our first classes, but it wasn't too bad. Despite it being an unfortunate circumstance, it was a relatively stress-free situation.
I mention this because I thought of our problem-solving exercises when we were at Union Station. The students I was with seemed to know exactly what to do, so I just put my faith in them and followed along. There was no way I could be a leader in this situation because, for one, my phone is no iphone. And also, I'm not super seasoned in riding the bus in LA and I'd never walked through Union Station before. While we were walking through the station, I felt grateful and confident that these people would find our way. And they did. Really fast. It was like, BAM we missed out stop. BOOM we're at Union Station. BAM that bus passes CSLA, we're gettin' on that one. And that was it. No problem.
Maybe I was too tired to stress about it, but I'm pretty proud of all of us for handling this situation so smoothly.

In discussing the list of designer competencies, there was one that my group had a lot of trouble defining; "understanding of how systems behave and aspects that contribute to sustainable products, strategies and practices."
We picked apart this sentence for a good 10 minutes, and we found that it means a designer must have the knowledge of a variety of networks in terms of society and how things are. A designer needs to be able to determine what is economical, environmentally sustainable and efficient in practice. This is quite a mouthful, but it makes perfect sense. Basically, we need to be aware of the world we live in and be sympathetic to social issues and the environment in our designs.
This is a competency of logistics and sociology. The smartest designer takes in to consideration what works AND what's eco and socially friendly. As a designer, it's important that I do my research in order to make sure that this step is always implemented in my work. My strategies need to be efficient to be successful. I need to think project all the way through to be a successful designer.
We also discussed the system in terms of a network of designers. We related the system to bees: just as a bee can not be successful in helping it's colony alone, a designer can not change the world alone. We need to come together and share our ideas to make societies better, and the planet for that matter.