•:*Class 5/11*:•

In my opinion, this class day wasn’t that productive. It seemed like the class wanted to collaborate on the brief, but when it came down to it, we basically decided to go with our own direction. All we basically established the time frame of our video, we spoke about the objective a little, and we decided on the deliverables. The picture below pretty much says it all! 

The one thing I found nice about the time was that I was able to hang out with some of my classmates for a little while and got to know them a lot more.  

•:*Class 5/9*:•

Today, we went over some actual creative briefs from well-known establishments and it was neat. I never realized how many different categories are utilized within the brief; it is a very concise document that has to map out all the details of the project before the project is even started. Some of the categories included the purpose, overview, tone, brand positioning, deliverables, target audiences, differentiators, and much more. Jimmy read us a Brief and wanted us to guess what the project was. I was living in San Jose while I was attending the Winchester Mystery House so that was the first place that popped into my mind and it happened to be correct!

•:*Simplicity vs. Complexity*:•

            Our assignment for today was to bring in 3 unrelated images that told a story. We were asked to lay our stories out on the desk tops and we proceeded to walk around looking at each others’ work. Jimmy took some stories and pinned them to the wall and asked us to find the best story of the one’s presented in class. Jimmy left us, we discussed the stories in detail, and voted to find the best image sequence. When Jimmy returned to class, we revealed the winner and spent a good while discussing the image sequence/story in more detail. We then tried to come up with a good title for it and went on to discuss the other stories in class. Some were a little confusing, some were entertaining, and others were very basic, but all in all, I believe the majority of the class was successful on the assignment.

            A TED Talk from John Maeda was next on the ‘to do’ list for the class. Maeda’s talk was about simplicity and if there were two things I took away from the talk they were that humans like complexity and that “simplicity is living life with more enjoyment and less pain,” as stated by Maeda. Maeda broke it down to basically mean that if one wants more of something, it’s because it is enjoyable, but if one wants less of something, it’s because it is considered to be work.

            To conclude the class period, Jimmy assigned us another assignment involving finding images, but this time, the images are to reflect the 7 deadly sins. I’m excited to see what my classmates bring in for this assignment.

•:*Storytelling*:•

          Stories encompass an array of things that can give someone an overall good or bad experience. Storytelling is an aural experience that is influence by how a story is told and the way it is expressed. The beginning of today’s class period was spent on creating a story within arranged groups. We were divided into groups of about 4 or 5 and were to create a story out of approximately 8 objects. The stories ranged from murders to imaginary worlds and the rest of the class period was spent discussing the different aspects that make a story great.

•:*Thinking Outside the Box*:•

Today we reviewed our assignment in class. We moved the desks to the back of the class and arranged our assignments against the front wall, 4 at a time. It was a long day and even Jimmy seemed to become restless towards the middle of the review. We didn’t finish going over everyone’s assignments, but overall, I believe it was a worthwhile experience. Our assignment was to find an image and present 10 different words or phrases that would change the meaning of the image. I chose the image of a palma; the image was simple in nature to allow my classmates a chance to see how the image would change with each phrase. Unfortunately, I wasn’t successful in changing the meaning of the image 10 different times, but I tried. I didn’t want to play it safe and choose obvious words and phrases, but I ended up choosing some that were way outside the box. We were then assigned our next assignment which is to find a word or phrase and find 10 different images that change its meaning.

•:*Creativity*:•

TED Talks are all “the buzz” these days and I absolutely love them! I find them so motivating and inspiring; I wish I had discovered them sooner! We watched two TED Talks today, one from Amy Tan and the other from Elizabeth Gilbert. Amy Tan is better known for her novel, The Joy Luck Club, and Elizabeth Gilbert for her novel, Eat, Pray, Love. I found both talks to be interesting, but I found Elizabeth Gilbert’s to be more appealing and more inspirational. Gilbert was more entertaining and she presented some thought provoking ideas like where creativity possibly comes from. She began by discussing her book, Eat, Pray, Love and how it became a best seller. People had been constantly asking her if she would ever be able to create another best seller or if that was it? Gilbert found herself thinking about the typical artist stereotype and how mentally unstable masters of the arts had been in the past and in the present; it seems as though all artists eventually die for the art. Well, this idea didn’t sit well with Gilbert and she started to reference back to Greek and Roman origins of creativity where creativity was given to a person by a sort of spirit. What if creativity was only on loan to you by some higher or other worldly source? What if creativity didn’t belong to you? She believes that by utilizing this way of thinking, artists could potentially be saved from becoming mentally unstable later in life.

            The rest of the class period was spent discussing graphic designers as the creators of culture. I find this to be incredibly true; we, as graphic designers, are able to initiate and promote change through visual communication. Sustainable design is a growing trend in modern society to help promote lifestyle changes that will lead to the betterment of the environment.