Stuff it....

Stuff it....

Again I wasn't in class and was not given a stuffed animal. So I had to find one of my own. Which when you have two kids you think would be easy. I didn't know what I was going to do with it and the last thing I wanted to tell my son was mommy needed his friend for her project and I'm sorry it got destroyed. So this is the one I have chosen and he won't miss at all (just in case).

Frog Stuffed Animal

 Well after thinking about what I could do with this stuffed animal AND trying to find a contradiction in what I decided to do AND find the harmony after it was done, I decided to forget the stuffed animal. 

I felt that the scope of the project was more to get you to find a contradiction and then the harmony in your work not necessarily using a stuffed animal to do it. The fluffy critter was severely cornering my creativity, which yes I have to deal with for clients, but my brain works two ways. If it is for me, I shouldn't and don't have limitations. If it is for a client I have them. My brain also thinks differently depending on that. I think more "me" for projects for me and for school, but professional and more the "client" when working. Anyway, that is not the topic here....

With that limitation out of the way I then tried to focus on finding something I could do that showed a contradiction and then a harmony. Once again, it was limiting my thought process. First I kept getting hung up on the stuffed animal, since it was a frog. I tried coming up with things that wouldn't go with a frog and then try to figure out how to make them go. Then I focused on the stuffed animal part and said screw the frog part, focus on it just being stuffed and animal. Then I kept getting hung up on that. What could I do with a stuffed animal? Sure I could destroy it and use its innards for some other project that was pretty or nice. Sure I could open it up, remove the stuffing and replace it with live frogs. Wait is that a contradiction or a cruel irony? Maybe its neither..anyway...

Finally I decided to just do something I wanted to do. I made a zombie in photoshop. Sure, boring, I know, but its always fun for me. So here is the before picture I found online. (not sure where). I see this picture and think that this girl is getting ready for a party or a date or something. She wants to look her best.

Awww how pretty.

 Then I did what I do and viola! I consider the contradiction here to be that we always look different to ourselves then to others. She is cute (left version of her) and normal looking, but in the mirror she is hideous and rotting. Clear contradiction...or close enough.

Still pretty!

 The harmony - to me anyway and thats all that really matters - is that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. She looks like a normal girl but sees herself as this hideous creature BUT she still thinks she is pretty and getting ready for that date! 

She doesn't see herself as others do and in fact she sees herself like a lot of people see themselves. She sees gross, ugly, disgusting etc. Things most people have thought when they looked in the mirror at least once in their life. The girl here, however, sees all that and thinks she is pretty because of it! 

Maybe I don't explain it very well, because it sounds more like a moral, but the ugly and the pretty came together in a harmonious way and that is Beautiful! Well to me it is...and again I am the only opinion that matters...well maybe Beth's should count too since it is for her class.
 

Bliss?

Bliss

So I wasn't in class this past week due to extremely sick children. I got to stay at home all week with a two year old and a five month old both with colds and on breathing treatments for nasty coughs that kept them up or woke them up. For the last two weeks my husband has slept in our daughters room and our son has slept in my bed and neither of us have had more than 4-5 hours sleep straight for more than one day. It has been crazy and exhausting. So when I read that I had to do something for myself for 2.5-3 hours my first thought was sleep! My next and most realistic thought was "I don't HAVE 2.5-3 hours!" I get this time when I am in class or the one day I have classes. So...my "me" time has to wait until Monday or after the kids are asleep but then that is my husband and me time. So being given this assignment has caused me to think "what will I do?" I figure I can have "me" time Monday but this assignment will be due before then.
I have no idea what I would do...

1. Sleeping =  doesn't actually make me happy if I get more than 6 hours at night and I can't take naps.
2. Play video games = I can't honestly play video games for three hours straight or I feel lazy.
3. Read = this I could for three hours, but I am the type of person that "plays" or relaxes AFTER I get all my work done so this wouldn't do either. 

So I think for the 3 hours I will read a bit, play a bit and then create something for fun like a few cards or work on my new educational blog for parents logo. Which is not a commitment btw its just for fun and hopefully to help parents who want to work with their kids and find ideas and help.

I felt pressured by this assignment. I get "me" in small amounts every 1-2 days and that has always been enough for me. I don't like to sit and do nothing, or sit for too long without working on something. I always have time for my kids and get my work done early (when possible) so that I can have more time to relax, enjoy my kids or a video game or extra "me" time. I just prefer to have the "work" done first. But it is all a balance, and one I learned a long time ago. You can't live your life constantly working and you have to make time for yourself. I do this already so this assignment didn't teach me anything new and all it did was cause me to creatively plan those three hours so I am not "working" on commitments, but can still be me and work on something. I assumed cleaning and organizing were considered commitments.

I don't think it affected me creatively...My creativity doesn't come for doing nothing, it comes from being me and this assignment seemed like it tried to get me to not be me. Maybe not intentionally and I wound up figuring out how to be me and do it anyway, but I don't need "me" time to be creative.
 

Does it add up?

Well I wasn't in class so I can't exactly comment on what it was like. I hope that isn't held against me. From my understanding you discussed

"Inspiration>Idea>Concept>Trial>Refine>Product"

which is not a new process to me. I don't always follow it in order and sometimes I know exactly what i want to make and just go to it and make it as I thought it, but generally I follow the "steps".

I think that inspiration comes from various sources and (to me at least) always starts from somewhere different depending on why your making the thing, what your making and for whom.

Generally if I have a client, they tell me what they want. A website for example generally means the client has a logo, so my "inpiration" step is to look a their brand and get ideas of who the company is so to speak.

Then I get "ideas" based off of the logo, the current printed materials or online materials they have already.

The "concept" is usually just me starting to make the website and then having about a dozen or more versions of it until I find 2-3 that I think would work best and present them to the client. Sometimes the idea and concept stage are one in the same. Actually they mostly are the same.

The "trial" is usually me presenting my layout options to the client and the "refine" process comes when they tell me any changes they like to see. There are usually some.

The finished "product" in this case is a website. One that then gets "refined" again and again periodically.

This is the end result for a client using those "steps". I designed the logo so I had a starting point.

Client Website

The process differs though if I use it for my own stuff and if I am doing a website vs a logo or something.

For a logo design the inspiration would change depending on if it was mine or a client. I will say both and show mine.

Starting Point-

• Me - What am I making? - An educational "company" logo for myself.
• Client - A logo for their company that is just starting out.

 First Step (before Inspiration) - Why am I doing this? Who is it for? Target Audience?

• Me - I consider what I want my logo and name to portray. Do I want it to be more educational? more fun? more towards parents or teachers? I decided I want it geared towards parents who want to work with their kids at home with a focus on toddlers learning preschool and kindergarten things.

• Client - They want their logo to show what they do and have their company name (pre-established) in the logo. They have no color preference, but want it to be fun and professional at the same time. 

Inspiration -

• Me - I look at other parent/teacher sites and see what logos they have, then if I don't get an idea I simply start "playing" in Illustrator.
• 
  
• Client - I will almost always look for logos of companies that are similar to my client. This helps me establish the general "norm" for their type of company. I never copy though and I never do the same as what I have seen, which the searching also helps with.

 Idea -

• Me - Once I have an idea (or sometimes if I don't) I start playing with names for the website/blog as well as some vector images. I usually end up with a dozen or more in an AI file and then narrow it down or tend to focus on one and then make several options from it. 

• Client - Usually I have an idea for the client before I open Illustrator and sometimes I have a rough sketch (I am not sketch artist so it involves more text and stick figures than actual drawing) to go by. With this idea I look for pre-made vector pieces I can use and then find the right font with it.

Concept -

• Me- Usually this stage means I have no more than three ideas and am playing with them to determine which one I like best OR I have the one and am tweaking it to make it better. Generally the concept is the roughed out second draft so to speak with idea being the first.
• Client - The concept here is usually one option with 2-3 variations to them. I then sent this to the client.

Trial -

• Me - The trial part for me generally takes place at the same time as the idea and concept "steps" for me and involves my staring at one or more options and finding what I dislike about it.

• Client - This is where I sent the concept design to the client and then send it back with any changes to be made and what they like and dislike about it.

  

  Not done. Still in refinement process and will most likely look drastically different.

Refine -

• Me - Again this all takes place at the same time as idea, concept, and trial for me. I refine until I am pleased with it and then I stop looking at it cause when I do I want to improve it further. This happens almost 98% of the time I create anything. I am overly critical but oh well.
• 
  
• Client - This is the part where I get the email back and make any changes, or change the things they dislike to things I think they would like more based on the their likes from the concept. This could take awhile as we usually go back and forth until they are 100% happy with it as a whole.

Product -

• Me - My final product usually is when I have come up with a design I really like and can't think of how to improve it further. Then I go with it, test it out somehow (website, friends etc) and get other people's opinions on it. Once more refining is done if necessary I am ready to go. 

• Client - The final product is given to the client once they have sent me an email saying they love it, go with it, approved etc. Then I send one more email asking them to verify every word for spelling, all the colors etc. Once approved its done and given to the client.

Logo created by using steps above. Though still in refinement process and will be changing name and possibly logo itself.

The whole New Media = Target Audience and Art = Me equation to me means basically that when you design for clients (as in New media) you have to consider your target audience when designing anything because that is who your client is concerned with. they want their logo, website etc to reach as many people as possible and so you design for the target audience.

When you design for yourself (and not your own company) it can be considered art more than anything. Though art to me has no actual definition since it is one to me and another to each person. However, when you design for you it is more of an art and your target audience is YOU. Your the only who you have to please with it and therefore is considered art (though this is by no means the definition of art).

Make sense? Long enough post?

Well here is a little more for those that said "Nay" to the long enough post question.

Using the "steps" discussed at the beginning is something I generally do. I never follow all of the steps it seems and I combine the middle four more often than not. Trying to fit a design into each "step" actually slowed me down though it didn't cause any creative "blockage". I generally adapt to "how" I design as I have had many different types of clients.
For doing my own work I work best when NOT using those steps and I generally just have an idea, get inspiration, start with a concept and then either I go back and forth and around with the previous steps and then move on to refinement with no trial or just move on.
For client work, it helps to have the steps (though I don't actually have them and follow them). I have an idea, get inspiration, get the concept created and then send to the client (trial) and then make changes (refinement).

The fact is that all of the steps change or get rearranged depending on who I am making the thing for, what I am making and how long I have.

Field Trip!

So today we go ta tour of UITS and learned that we had access to some pretty interesting and drool worthy technologies. The guy giving us the tour also asked us our passion. Mine is Photo manipulation like the following zombification I did on this girl.

Before - the original photo

After

There is a guy who does really neat photo manipulation (though he uses the clone tool and it shows, so its not the GREATEST ever...)

I have this one in my kitchen.

His name is Thomas Barbey and I have this poster in my kitchen. I get frustrated because you can clearly see the use of the clone tool, but I give him credit for doing it and the ideas he has are pretty awesome.

I REALLY want to use the virtual reality room, but I would have to learn 3d..which comes after programming on my list. I might actually use the multiple screened tv for a photo manipulation project. That way I can ensure I do not have mistakes in the manipulation on my potential poster art.

To break or not to break....the rules

Well I am not sure what the rules are in my field of study, but there are rules for my job as a graphic designer. However, I am not going to break any of them. The ones I can think of that I could break will either cause me to lose a client or get fined or possibly arrested.

For example, I could go against the "customer/client is always right" rule and make what I think they should have, but they won't like that. Or I should say they might not, but if they don't I could lose business, get a bad reputation etc, so I am not going to do that one.

I could find a picture on the internet (google images) and use it in a logo or flyer design. Then if my client were to get fined, so would I and then I could possibly get arrested. Not sure on the actual consequences for that I just know its bad. So not going to to do that one.

I guess I either like all the rules for my job as they are or if there are any I could break I probably already am doing so.

I guess if I can't think of any rules I WANT to break then there are probably no rules I want to break.

Class on Jan 31st

I wasn't able to make it to class Monday. I was sick and so were my children so I thought it best to stay home and not get anyone else sick.

I am not sure exactly how concept vs final product was discussed so I can't comment on the discussion of class, but I always start with a concept and it ALWAYS changes by the time its the final product. To me the concept is the initial idea you get when you start a project. I feel like it almost has to change throughout the project. Usually for reasons like lack of materials, or skills, or software/hardware, etc. Generally though I think it always changes because my mind constantly takes the concept idea and gets new ideas from that. It acts as inspiration that I keep adjusting until I get the result I want. In this case the final product.

Although with me the final product could always use improving too and I NEVER think my work is "perfect".