CCA Confidential

The Chronicle of CCA Design Student

Monthly Archives February 2008

Final Logo Design For Graphic Design I

Secretly Canadian Logo #1

Secretly Canadian Logo #2

Secretly Canadian Logo #3

Here are the final renderings of the three logos designed for my first project in Graphic Design I. The three logos are for Secretly Canadian, a music label based out of Indiana. As a whole I think the three are very good, but the Canadian geese still need a little work to be complete.

Over the five week long process of developing these logos, I sketched more than 300 ideas and variations. I was shocked when I went back and counted.

Last week, the class had it’s final critique. My critique went very well, with a short discussion about further work on two geese logos.

Once I saw the logos up on the wall of the nav I realized the log logo needs a bit of work in the wood patterning, but no one said anything during the critique.

I don’t have my grade back yet, but I ll post it as soon as I know.

First Final Project For Typography I

Type Icon: Typography I

Over the first five weeks of class, everyone in Typography I has been working on creating an original type-icon from two existing letters and/or numbers. I started by sketching type together in my sketch book. Over the first two weeks I generated over a hundred different combinations. From those I choose three to experiment on. Eventually I settled on a combination of J and R.

The goal of the final piece was to actually make two icons, one that looked optically correct large (11 inches +) and one that looked optically correct small (1 inch -). By correct I mean, identical despite the change in size. Professor Hugel has an amazing eye for detail, so in the end I made more then 30 adjustments to my forms, and probably about 15 hours of work just making those adjustments.

The critique was last week, and mine went very well. No one had anything negative to say, but professor Hagel found one small correction. I bet you can’t find it!

Yesterday I receive my grade for the project - an A+.

No Internet For Eight Days

Thanks to poor service at AT&T, I have not had internet for eight days. Today my internet is finally up and running, after no less than a dozen calls to AT&T.

All my class projects wrapped up last week, so I have a little free time over the next few days to post stuff here. I will post my final versions of my logos, my type icon, and the feedback I received from critique.

Also, I need to catch you all up on my new project briefs, so stay tuned.

One Week Until Final Critiques

The graphic design classes really have three finals, one for each of the three major projects per semester per class. They are all equality important. I know this should make me less stressed. But I am a perfectionist, so I am more stressed.

One week from now I will have my final wall critique in the Nav of the school for all to see; in my Graphic Design class and in my Typography class.

I have been working approximately 6 to 8 hours a day outside of class,  more on weekends, and I am starting to feel a little burned-out. Hopefully it pays off.

On Friday I will try and post my final versions before critiques, so you can get a sneak peak and let me know what you think. And after critique I ll post the comments here.

I am tired and going to bed now, I have been working since 7am.

CCA Annual Graphic Design Lecture

It looks like there was some sort of mixup. The calendar broucher that the school mails out and stocks around campus, says the Graphic Design Lecture would be on Feb 2, but the website and email newsletter says it is on Feb 16. The latter correct.

As far as I can tell it we bill in Timken Hall, from 10am-3pm on the San Francisco Campus. There is a information number, 415.703.9563, but no one picked up when I called it about scheduling error. I am 90% sure I am going, so if you can’t make, check back here and hopefully I ll have some good notes.

This years lectures will be: Leslie Becker, David Karam, Jeremy Mende, Jennifer Sonderby and Jon Sueda.

Here are the descriptions of the lectures from the CCA:

Leslie Becker, BFA, MA, PHD (ABD)
Leslie Becker is a professional designer with a deep understanding of design process and theory and a 35-year history in the fields of graphic design, custom furniture design, and information design. Leslie has been a design practitioner for over 35 years and a design educator for over 30 years. She received her B.F.A. in Graphic Design from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and M.A. in Design from the University of California at Berkeley. She is a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley, Architecture Department, in design theory and methods with a research focus on design and ethics. She expects to receive her Ph.D. in 2008. As Professor of Graphic Design at CCA she has taught Graphic Design, Typography and Thesis and also seminars in Visual Studies and Visual Criticism. Her articles have been published in Print Magazine, Graphis New Talent and Design Book Review and in design books edited by Steven Heller, and more. She has presented regularly at AIGA National Design Conferences, AICAD Conferences, and has lectured nationally and internationally at institutions such as Tsinghua University in Beijing, St. Louis University Business School, Harvard University, and University College Dublin in Ireland. Her multi-disciplinary design work includes corporate identity, print, signage, space planning, custom furniture, and design for non-profit organizations.

David Karam
David Karam is usually a programmer. Sometimes he is a designer, musician or teacher. His career began in Austin, Texas where he produced the interactive graphic adventure, To Preserve Quandic, which was distributed by Prickly-Pear software in 1984. After finishing high school in 1987, David moved to San Francisco, where he inadvertently became a desktop publisher. In 1993, he founded Post Tool design with partner Gigi Obrecht and began teaching technology to graphic designers at the California College of Arts and Crafts. In the following 4 years, Post Tool’s print and interaction design was published in every major graphic design journal world wide. By 1997, David’s focus was diverted from graphic programming to server-side and database. In the last 10 years, his clients have included Nokia, Apple, The Getty, SFMOMA, Swatch Watch and The Body Shop.

Jeremy Mende
Jeremy Mende is the principal of the San Francisco-based visual communications firm MendeDesign. He believes, among other things, that given enough time he can create the universe within a few square inches of paper. Mr. Mende has won a whole bunch of design awards and has had the privilege of seeing his name in print many times (however not quite as many as some German car designer who goes by the name of VonMende, but you get the point). Currently, he is an adjunct professor at CCA where he teaches experimental typography and critical theory. Before his design career, Mr. Mende skippered a salmon packet of the east coast of Nova Scotia.

Jennifer Sonderby
Jennifer Sonderby is a designer who loves to tell stories. When she is not concepting ideas for exhibition catalogues at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, she is writing, designing and theorizing her own futuristic novels. As creative director at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, she is responsible for interpreting and communicating the Museum’s graphic identity and mission through all communications based projects including exhibition signage, marketing campaigns, catalogues, the website, and store products. In addition to teaching at California College of the Arts, she has taught workshops in Harare, Zimbabwe and Nagoya, Japan and presented her work at international conferences on the future of the book in Cairns, Australia and at the University of Technology in Sydney.

Most recently her work was included in “California College of the Arts at 100: Innovation by Design”, an SFMOMA exhibition showcasing alumni and faculty of CCA as well as ”Design for Innovation: The Social Designers”, an international exhibition organized by the Nagoya Design Center in Japan. Her work is recognized by the American Association of Museums, American Institute of Graphic Arts , Print Magazine, and The Type Directors Club. Her work is also included in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s Permanent Collection.

Jon Sueda
A native of Hawaii, Sueda has practiced design everywhere from Honolulu to Holland. After returning to school to recieve his MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts in 2002, He was invited to North Carolina State University as a designer in residence, followed by a stint in Holland where he did an internship with Studio Dumbar. Sueda’s work has exhibited internationally, most recently by the Architectural Association’s ” Forms of Inquiry,” Mois du Graphisme d’Échirolles, “California Dream,” and has recently launched a new design publication called the Task Newsletter. Sueda’s work has been recognized by the Art Director’s Club, AIGA, Adobe, and ACD, , Creative Review, Grafik. Jon recently moved his studio Stripe to San Francisco. He works in collaboration with the Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts and teaches typography at CCA and CalArts.