Everyone at school is feeling it. The great python of finals tightening it’s grip. There is only two weeks left, and four weeks worth of work. People have stopped chatting, but instead sit quietly at their desks, staring zombie like into their labtops.
I can’t believe it’s almost over. I will post my current projects later tonight.
I haven’t covered it much, but I am also enrolled in CCA’s History of Visual Communications class. The midterm was an essay, but with a twist. The highest grade a person could get is a B, if they just hand it in on normal paper. To get an A, it must be designed.
For my paper, I decided to write on Herbert Bayer’s argument for the complete abandonment of the uppercase alphabet. At first I thought the topic would be difficult to research, but as it turns out, Bayer is a prolific writer, and there are several good books about him.
Here are pictures I have just taken of the design of my book. This was the very first time I had ever hand bound a book.
Unfortunately the professor marked his corrections in ink, in the rest of the book. But I did get an -A.
I just finished reading Tellmewhy: The First 24 Months of a New York Design Company. I found this book The Great Overland Book Company, a cute little book store near my apartment in San Francisco. It really stood out from other other design books because, it is half novel, half design book. The novel portion describes the first two years on karlssonwilker inc.
The story intrigued me because the concept looked so similar to my blogs concept. In there own words:
The typical design book:
- Features a well-known (or not so well-known) design company.
- Shows the best work from the past fifteen or twenty years (since the opening of the studio).
- Everything is great and everyone is happy.
- Stories are romantic memories and told a hundred times before.
- Took a year to finish.
- Cost around $45
- No risk involved.
Tellmewhy:the first 24 months of a new york design company:
- Features a little-known (or not known at all) design company.
- Shows all the work from the firest 24 months (since the opening of the studio).
- Everything is not so great and everyone is not that happy.
- Stories are new and fresh.
- Took four weeks to finish.
- Costs around $19.
- Risk involved.
I think these guys are my new heroes. Not because of their design work, though I like much of it, but more because of the approach and honesty in telling their story. And of course, their sense of humor is odd and quirky, like mine.
Definitely worth the $19.
Jason turned our poster projects back very quickly. And I got about what I expected, a mid B. It’s a fair grade when you take into account my hundreds of sketches. Maybe I should take a picture of the giant stack, and post it. Anyone want to see?
Jason’s written comment on my poster was:
“Conceptually, your idea of using type to show how the band sounds is strong, and your use of color, lack of also does a nice job of defining the band.
The text you created will work as the groundwork and something to build off of which I think you could and should. As I am looking at ti again now, I could see the initial wide swoop of the M and W turning into multiple lines filling the page”
Jason grades on four aspects: process, concept, presentation, and function. I lost the most points on function.
I think I’ve already comment fully on what I’d do differently, and what other my avoid in the future in my last post, so I won’t reminisce.
California College of the Arts Spring Fair may be one it’s best kept secrets. Very few people I talk to know about it, but those who do say it’s one of the best places to pick up original art.
Students, faculty, and alumni, come together to show and sell their work including t-shirts, paintings, ceramics, photography, sculpture, metal art, prints, books, glass, paper, textiles, and jewelry.
My good friend Natalie, picked up a beautiful necklace of a human tooth, at last years fair. Unfortunately I did not even know about the fair at the time so I missed.
I’ll be there this year. The Spring Fair is held on the Oakland campus on April 12 from 11-3pm.
You can check out more details on the CCA website:
I ran across this video serfing about the net. It is really an adult take on the old children’s popup book. The solutions are inovative and tell a great story. What the video.
As expected my critique went very badly. Jason brought in a quest critiquer, who gave me very hard time. In part because I admitted to my dissatisfaction with my design, and I knew what was wrong with it. I always thought that showed poor charictor in a professor, if they jump on someone who knows what went wrong. Knowing what went wrong, is the learning process. And I can’t stress that enough. Knowing what went wrong, is the learning process.
Here is what went wrong with my poster. Early on in the design process Jason and I agreed the Mew would be a great name to build unique typography around. So instead of developing a strong concept to frame the typographic solution, I chanced after one typographic solution and then another, without really having a context for it. So in the end the design feels kind of hollow and unfinished despite zillions of hours being pured into it.
Thats it. It’s a hard lesson, but I ll never forget it. And for all you other designers out there. Don’t get too exited about a particular solution, get the concept down first.