CCA Confidential

Many of the people who find CCA Confidential are looking for the answer to a question, “is CCA a good design school.” I still can’t answer that from personal experience, this is only my second semester, but BussinessWeek has taken a shot at it.

BussinessWeek has listed CCA as one of the top 60 design schools for 2007. Not bad.

I’ve also heard CCA ranks second in the California, only being outmatched by Art Center. Though I have looked, I can not find where people are getting this information, but it does make sense. If anyone has seen a list, please post it here or email it to me.

I realized today I haven’t been keeping you all up-to-date on my projects. In Graphic Design I, I have sketched more than 200 logo ideas for the record label Secretly Canadian. Today I choose 9 of my best for a wall critique in class.

The critique went better than I expected. From the nine, four stood out as working possibilities. Here they are:

This is my favorite sketch. The concept is a wooden log wearing headphones. It has an off-beat humorous tone that matches the name of the company. The suggestions from the class and professor were to play with the orientation and headphone form. The best sugestion was to add white space between the log and headphone.

This was my very first sketch concept, to use the American flag, and sneak in a Canadian maple leaf into the stars. Professor Munn loves this concept, and suggested I play with the bars of the flag, eliminate the box, and play with the number of stars.

This concept uses two Canadian geese to form a S from the negative space. I am the least excited about this design, but everyone loved it.

This is my favorite monogram concept. Secret documents are shredded, so I shredded an S. People liked the idea, it needs to be more shredded, and probably the C added.

I haven’t followed up on the Makeshop topic because I feel like an ass. On Thursday I sat around waiting for the makeshop to begin. I think I waited 30 or 40 minutes. By that point I was a little angry. There had been so many issues with getting into the Makeshop, the website, and scheduling, I just couldn’t believe no one was there.

By the time I arrived home I was still aggravated, so I sent Serah a snippy email.

The next morning I checked my email, and Serah had emailed be back. Apparently the teacher had a serious family emergency and had to cancel and everyone was emailed. But somehow I wasn’t emailed.

So I feel like an ass.

The CCA Graphic Design coricullum used to include some instruction on  comp making, package comps, and digital portfolio photography. I believe it was part of the Tools classes, but that part of the classes has been removed, and is now offered as free independent ungraded seminars.

Their schedule is up on their website: www.gdcca.info. The website has some errors on it, but Serah (Makeshop Coordinator) says they are working on correcting/fixing them.

Current Seminars:

• Digital Photo Basics
• Comping Basics
• Photographing 3D designs
• Comping Packaging

The seminars are always on Thursday nights from 7-9pm in S1 and S2 on the San Francisco Campus.

Tonight they are covering Comping Basics. I am all signed up, and I ll let you know what I think tomorrow.

It’s only the first week of class and I am already behind on homework.

In Graphic Design I, everyone was randomly given a real music record label. Mine is Secretly Canadian; the idea is that we research the label and create a new logo for it. I have finished my research, and I need to make thirty sketches by Tuesday.

In Tools I, we are tracing over the word typophile (a made-up word meaning type lover) that was rendered in an Old English font.  The tracing has to be accurate down to 4800% view, so it is taking me about 1 hour per letter, so probably 9 hours total. It is due on Monday (a school holiday) by email at 9am. We must also trace three hand sketched logos made by the professor by Wednesday.

In Typography I, each person needs to choose two pairs of letters, one pair that are similar and one pair that are dissimilar. From these we must make compositions that communicate similar and disslimar. There are many rules. We can only use Helvetica or Univers at 36 or 48 points. The composition must be within a 6.5 inch square. This is also due on Wednesday.

I will post my work as I make it.

Today was the first day of Spring quarter, and my first day starting the graphic design program at the California College of the Arts.

My morning didn’t start off to well. I missed the first N-Judah, and then when I reached Civic Center where I transfer to the 19 Bus, the digital sign at the stop said the next bus would arrive in 25 minutes, and I had only 20 minutes to get to my first class at 8 am. So I started walking. It took me 30 minutes, but I got to school only 10 minutes late.

When I arrive, it turns out my first class, Graphic Design I, was canceled. My friend and I had to figure out (no one told us, emailed us, or posted a note) that our class had been merged with another one at the same time.

Luckily the professor, Jason Munn, seems really cool. Over the semester all our assignments will revolve around music.

First we will be making a logo for a record label. Second, we will design a poster for a show. And third we will design a package (I am guessing a CD). Everything we make must be done by hand with no outside sourcing. For example, many graphic designers look for free photos on flickr.com, but this not kosher at the CCA. I don’t mind, I like many everything myself; it just feels better in the end.

The Tools I class after my Graphic Design I class was kind of boring. We started to learn the ultra-basics of Adobe Illustrator. It is really design to teach people with no experience in the programs as well as a trouble shooting for Graphic Design I and Typography I.  Later in the semester we will learn Adobe Photoshop, and InDesign.

Tomorrow I ll post my actual homework assignments.

In an effort to help those who take these classes after me, I am going to give a full postmortem for each class, a score between 1-10, and who I think should take it.

Lets start with the good stuff.

3D Visual Dynamics with Christina Lee

I loved this class. 3D doesn’t have much to do with graphic design, but Chris made it fun and challenging. Everyone in the class definitely worked hard, and put in the additional 6 hours a week in the studio the school suggests to complete the projects. For my part I put in a bit more than 6 hours, probably closer to 8 or 10, but I received an A on every project.

Overall I give this class a 10 out or 10, and I would recommend it to anyone of any major. You’ll learn a lot and have fun doing it.

Intro To The Modern Arts with Dr. Celeste Connor

This class was tough, but I walked away with a superior understanding of modern art. I really feel that I learned more than other students with other professors. But this class isn’t for everyone. Dr. Connor herself states at the beginning of each semester that architecture students should not take her class because she will not lecture at all on the topic. Her specialty is on American painting and photography, but her knowledge of all things modern is vast and deep. Expect to read large amounts and study hard in her class. I never was able to catch up fully on the reading. My best estimate is that a student would have to read 5-8 hours a week to keep up in her class.

I give this class a 9 out of 10. It isn’t for everyone, and is probably one of the most challenging academic classes you can take at CCA. If you don’t want to work hard take a different instructor. If you want to learn, take Dr. Connor.

Intro to the Arts with Lynn Robinson

Can a class be too easy? At first I thought this one was, but by the end of the term, with so many other challenging class, I was relieved by its simplistic nature. I don’t blame the lack of academic vigor on the professor, the curriculum set out by the school for this class is overly simplistic. After the midterm, I stopped reading the book and was able to keep my A in the class with about 4 hours of studying total for the term.

With a small shrug I give this class a 6 out of 10. This class is good for anyone looking to add one more class to a heavy load.

4D Visual Dynamics with Bayete Smith

This class was just awful. For starters the curriculum is a joke. Why would I want to pay $2,000 for someone to teach me how to use iMovie and Garage Band? But don’t think you can wiggle out of it, the class is required. The whole thing was only exacerbated by Mr. Smith who had never taught a college class before and seemed ill equipped to be teaching anyone anything. This class left me feeling robbed of my hard earned tuition and my valuable time at a good art school. In case you think I may be bias, I received an A on all my projects in this class. The amount of work I put into each project didn’t seem to affect my final grade. On one assignment I put in exactly 1 hour, on another I put in 20+.

I give this class a score of 1 out of 10, the lowest score possible. This class is not suitable for anyone of any major at anytime.