The Dislocation of Inspiration

Wow, this book I'm reading[The Design Process] is punching everything I know inspiration in the gut and then beating it senseless. I used to be one of those people that waited for inspiration to come. What a waste of time that was! I have to look for inspiration not wait for it! Something that I found interesting in my reading was that people had a kind of thought that insinuated that all artist had some sort of problem. Alcoholism, depression, drug abuse and others were thought of as the one thing to have as an artists. That is a stupid thing to think. Those people have problems. Help them! Don't just watch them destroy themselves! We could have had more wonderful art from many artist if they didn't have those problems. I learned that I don't have too look in one place for inspiration, like in the design or in painting. I can look at architecture, landscapes, photos, movies and other places for inspiration. But there is a minor problem [for some its a major problem] with inspiration. it can move you in a fast pace and take you where you don't want to go. I've had that happen to me before but I didn't really care too much because I had deadlines to meet. Time management is something i am working on right now. Which brings me to another part of inspiration that I learned. Take time to explore all the ideas created by inspiration and make it fun. If it's not fun then it just becomes boring work. But don't just spend a lot of time just exploring. Deadlines are to be meet, but you should also have time to play and rest. do something that doesn't involve anything about the project you're working on. You just might find the answer while you are gardening[as if anyone does that anymore].

1 Week of Art Works

Fly to the clouds...Scott McCloud.

I am a fan of comic books. So when we saw a video of Scott McCloud I was excited to see a comic book artist in a design class. I was particularly interested in the part of the talk where he starts thinking about comics in the future. I had never really thought about using the computer as a whole canvas instead of the comics standard page use. That concept really blew my mind. But this idea could not have been ascertained without having to see through what he called the third type of vision. Which is seeing something that is not there but can be gotten and/or though science. Basically seeing through a little bit of faith and a little bit of science. Charles Babage is another person who saw through the third type of vision. He is the father of the computer. Something i did not know. Here I thought that Bill gates was the one that invented it. Although Charles did not literally invent the computer, because he came up with the idea in the 1800's, he basically set the foundation in which people later followed. people like Ada Lovelace, who went to further investigate this matter, and of course Bill Gates. The idea to take from this is that, one should look for a pattern and think of new ideas that can be ascertained with current knowledge. This just gives the one statement that keeps being thrown in my class lately, more justification. "Be curious and never be satisfied!" Durable mutation. What in the world is that? I didn't know until I looked at the video for a third time. Durable mutation, how I understood it, is when there is constant change but also that that change stays for quite a while. An example of this would be myspace. Myspace was dominant in the social network scene until facebook came out. A change happened. facebook was the dominant one now. By far it still is.

Reading The Intro

A designer has to deal with a lot of stuff. From How much money he/she has for a project to deadlines and clients. Again in this reading, the importance of time management is focused on. You have to know how to allow your ideas flow freely and yet still meet deadline. To take as many paths possible to come to a good design. Because sometimes the normal path or the obvious road is something that you do not want. There are many ways to get your idea through with out having to take the normal road.

The Map
There is a map that the book gives that helps us as designers.
-Inspiration
-Identification
-Conceptualization
-Exploration/Refinement
-Definition/Modeling
-Communication
-Production
This 'map' by no way is a linear. I can go in almost any direction. The book will go over all these steps respectively.

Never Satisfied

Just because you are not successful in a project, doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world. Before getting this little gem of advice, I always either threw away my work/projects away because I didn’t think of them as worthy to stay alive. But those past projects could have been useful in inspiring me for other projects or maybe even be used as a part of a bigger project!

Many things can help inspire us to make better and better work. All the experiences that we have in our lives can help us on how we do our projects, helping us make good work. “Not one day is the same as the other,” my instructor stated. Even if we are doing the same routine, all the experiences that we have each and every day are different. So he says. I don’t know if I can agree with him on that. Back in high school I had nothing but a routine and I was so numb from it that I felt everyday like the rest of them. Did I have a different experience one day than the other? I highly doubt it.

Seth Johnson spoke at CSULA on Friday. Unfortunately for me I had another event I had to attend, since I had promised I would. But there were a few people in my class that decided to talk to the whole class and speak about the things that Seth had to say. Besides the mindless rant that went on for the first five minutes I got a few tips on how to be a better designer, with Seth’s six points [to success].
    1) Tell clients what they need.
    2)Do your own work.
    3)Do a lot with a little
    4)Shut up and listen
    5)Make your work better
    6)Be curious and never be satisfied
Some clients are open to decisions that you offer as a graphic designer. Some leave it up to you to make the design seeing how you are the professional in that field. Others already have a design in mind that they want and don’t want to listen to you. Another thing I got from what the other students were talking about was that Seth stated that us as designers we should never be satisfied. Keep exploring the world of design.

MINI GINZA 'Live Canvas' (MINI x Rinpa Eshidan)

What if....

Internally I have always known my methodology and quite frankly it was created to please teachers and not do the best work I can do. The only time my methodology took the route of good work was when I was doing a project that I would do for myself, friends or family. I would start off with two ideas and then those ideas would expand and so on and so on. On Wednesday I finally accepted the fact that I did do acceptable work instead of excellent work. I shouldn’t just do work to finish a class, instead I should manage my time in order to make good work in the time allotted to me, in and out of class. It is up to me to become a good artist and a good designer. I’ve been told that just because you have degrees that does not mean that you are assured a job. You can have five degrees and have a shoddy portfolio and still not get a job. Or just by being a unpleasant person to get along with can stop you from getting a job. That piece of information was surprising to me because I always thought, “as long as I do my work and don’t antagonize people I would be able to get a good job” I guess that I have to do more that just have a routine to follow for the rest of my life.

Moreover, the idea of time management still does not sit too well in the brains of some students, one of them being me. I have a hard time managing my time and every time I do try to manage my time I end up having something that I did not plan, to pop up. I am a perfectionist and abnormalities don’t exactly make me happy. In order to do good designs I have to have time to think of ideas and have time to expand on each one of them; Even if an abnormality comes up.

What makes our world keep changing? I think that the reason the world changes is because there were and still are many people that change their perspective in life. Whether it be just sitting in a different side of a class room or in another country. Whether it be looking up or looking down, the people who decided to change perspective thought of new ideas and those ideas changed the world. There are still changes being made even as we speak. Somewhere in a lab a scientist my be looking for the first time at the spotted ceiling in the laboratory and finally figure out how to cure autism! I recommend you try it. Do things differently than how you would usually do, you might just find it useful. I did.

One of the concepts were discussed in class was time. Time isn’t fixed and there fore it only consists of how you want to tell time. The measurement of time that we have now exists only because the whole world got together and decided that this will be the way we are going to tell time for trading purposes and other reasons. Time can be happening in a period. Time can expand and shorten. Time can even be a constant circle. Now knowing that time isn’t linear how do you think time should be seen?

What if time didn’t really exist? What if…..?