video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGVp6AFy0w0&feature=youtu.be


this video is not public because of copyright stuff.

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katherinebingley@yahoo.com

Yet another awesome TED talk today, Ted Robins. He talked about how our education system has been structured based on the industrial revolution and the "necessary" traits one must have to succeed. We've put the arts at the bottom of the ladder in our education system and he says that it's time to change. His whole analysis of the world's educational structure is brilliant. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to pursue a creative career. My parents have always been incredibly supportive, thankfully. Play writes, musicians, artists, writers, etc. are all the people I admire the most and it's a shame that the school system puts those fields last in their curriculums. We need more creative minds in the world to deal with our ever-changing world. 

We have a project to do: create a 2-3 minute video that somehow relates to sustainability and helping the planet. My first idea was to create a video with some moving music in the background, inspiring pictures and questions like, "When you die... How will you be remembered? How will WE be remembered?" Referring to our generation and eventually getting to the message of saving the planet and practicing responsible and sustainable living. I have it all mapped out and I think I can make it really good. I'm excited about it.
BUT, I think I'd really like to do a video on living happily. The problem: how do I relate living happily to protecting the planet. Let's brainstorm.
So if everyone were happy and aware of the effects of the ego, there would be no war. People would think more about the big picture: our children, other countries, people in need, the planet.
There. I got it. Must research now.

Today we discussed story-telling through imagery. We each brought three unrelated pictures from magazine, that made a sequence of events or told a story. It was fun to interpret these stories and hear what my fellow classmates had to say about them. We've got some clever people in this class. I'm usually drawn to more minimal and humorous imagery. I think the most clever ads are really symbolic and use one object, person, facial expression to convey a message. 

We came across a Juicy Couture ad that depicted a young girl, making a super sexy face, all blinged out and wearing two watches. The question that came out of this ad was, "Who does this appeal to?" 

I want to answer this question with... more questions: Who does top 40 crap on the radio appeal to? Who does Real Housewives appeal to? How the hell is Nicki Minaj so popular? Why do TV ratings skyrocket for reality shows? How is it that the U.S. still has red states? Why is there still racism in America?

Because people have bad taste. And, sadly, we've got a lot of materialistic, Kardashian-watchers in this world. 

We were discussing using our "design powers" for good the other day. I believe this is something to talk about; not selling a materialistic lifestyle. I don't ever want to encourage a seventeen-year-old to buy buy buy to be cool cool cool. 

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.