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.

fear and the creative process

Have you experienced your own or other people's fear-based reactions to your creative education and career choices?

How have you successfully overcome these reactions?

What is your concept of your creative process?

How do you approach creating, making?


I've definitely experienced my own fear in my creative life. I've overcome a lot of those fears by showing art on my own and trying to keep that YOLO attitude; not thinking about other people's judgements, or my own for that matter. I've been lucky enough to have a very supportive family and a lot of creative people in my life. I really like Elizabeth Gilbert's take on all of this; the idea of letting the creative gods help me and if I fail, I fail. 

My process for painting: When I create a painting, I usually work on it at night. Lately, I've been doing freehand acrylic paintings, usually of abstract faces. The next morning, I either like it or I don't. If I don't, I paint over it. I was doing a lot of portraits- some realistic, some on the abstract side. Since, I'm in school, I'm trying to make painting more of a release and fun. These days, it's quick and colorful.

Sometimes I do feel the genius or daemon Gilbert mentioned. I feel inspired sometimes before I go to sleep and I'll write down my ideas.
This may sound weird, but sometimes when I'm hungover I feel like my mind opens up. I've had some awesome hangover ideas in the past few years. Hangovers have also gotten me into some amazing music that I may not have given a chance otherwise. 

I recently read Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth. In it he talks a lot about the human ego and living presently. In one chapter he says, "How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at this moment." 
I truly believe this; this kind of thinking saves my life sometimes and keeps me out of those dark, depressing bouts so many of us have encountered. 

I really try not to put too much pressure on myself. I try not to feel guilty about lacking ideas or motivation. When the creativity comes, it comes. 

4

This class we viewed a TED talk by Stefan Sagmeister, which was very awesome. Sagmeister basically spent 17 minutes taking his audience through his sabbatical. Every seven years, he takes a year leave from his studio and uses it to refresh and get inspired. I just watched a TED talk with the designer, Paula Scher, and it's funny because she focused on some of the same things. She says there's a point in her work when it goes from being "serious to solemn;" when she works on a project and she's excited about it, she calls it "serious play." But when the work becomes a popular every day task, it turns into a solemn experience and she knows it's time for something new. Not surprising, all of her most prominent works have been done during a time of "serious play" and excitement. Similarly, Sagmeister says that he often reaches a point where he's doing everything the same and it's obvious. Then he takes his time off and works on clever projects of his own and reads Dan Gilbert and BAM-- he's rejuvenated creatively.

day 3

Today I walked into fine art room 308 and sat down. Then I got up and sat closer to the front of the class. Then our professor asked us to organize ourselves by birth date...
So I moved one seat to my left.
The point of rearranging ourselves was an exercise in problem-solving.
I think there's a moment in these group exercises when you realize who's going to lead.  The first second, everyone looks at one another like, "duhhhh" (myself included). And then certain members of the group think to themselves that this group may be big, but someone needs to take initiative. So then, about 1 in 5 people will start making suggestions and taking the reigns, some more politely than others.

Another problem-solving exercise was putting our comics in order of "best" to "worst" in 20 minutes. I hope this exercise didn't ruin anyones day.
We began by making a list of criteria for what would make a comic "the best." And then we didn't follow those criteria at all.
We ended up each getting five tallies and whichever comic had the most, won.
This is probably the best we could do in the time we were given. We definitely didn't have time to read every single comic, so we all went with what looked the best.
This one was a little frustrating, for everyone it seemed. I put my two sense in initially, then I just took a nap under the desks.

Next exercise! Make a script with found objects, 20 minutes, groups of six... GO!

Our story took place on a house boat for someone's birthday where the birthday girl was murdered. It was a murder/suspense/mystery/thriller/comedy of course.
We had a lot of fun in that 20 minutes, but I wish I would've taken notes a tad better and that someone in our group didn't interrupt with silly ideas so often. I mean, this is a murder/suspense/mystery/thriller/comedy... let's get serious, man.
However, I think it actually made it funnier that we had so little time and were basically on the spot. We looked like a bunch of Jimmy Fallons on SNL.
Some groups worked better together than others. We were probably in the middle.
I was actually exhausted during this last exercise. Like my brain didn't want to interact and solve problems anymore. Apparently I need to drink more coffee for this class.