This is a what. A what?

Again communication was emphasized in class but there was another thing that I took from the exercise in the class. Besides being a good communicator one also has to keep focused on the things that you are doing. If you keep having to wonder around and lose focus a lot of things can go wrong. If you leave information in the hands of someone who is not a decision maker, there is a possibility that things that you are trying to get through that are going to get lost and that is one thing that you don't want to happen. The game, as we referred to the exercise, which was a type of game like telephone where you tell someone "this is a what" and they will respond with a "this is a what?" and you would have to answer to who ever gave you the object the same question. Once an answer is given then you give the answer to the person who asked. The exercise was not as difficult with one object but when two objects were introduced that's when things started to go down. Everyone lost track of what was going on. The focus was on where the objects were and say what to who. Good fun though.

There was also a movie shown in class which took up most of the time. The guy, Kent, was entertaining. Unfortunately for me my caffeine could only take me so far, so I took a couple of things from the movie. One  of those things was that everyone can be the next Beatles or the next Elvis if they just keep being encouraged by the people around you instead of putting you down. The other thing was that there are a few things that you need in the workforce, and that is be able to communicate clearly. There were other points but I forgot.

Stage 7

There is one thing that I’ve been hearing a lot lately about the design world, and that is clients, other designers and other people like a production like a person who is a team player. It is important that you respect others and that you are able to work with others. At a presentation I attended I learned that the competition in the real world doesn’t really exist. Team work is something that I need to work on. Usually I just sit back for a while see how things are going then if they are not going well I go in and take over. One thing the book mentions is that motivating a team will help the design project. The more the team cares and feels like they are a meaningful part of the project the better a project can be.
One thing that caught me by surprise in the book was that is said that even though you have finished your design and brought the idea into reality, that does not mean that you are finished. There might be questions that need answering and there might be other things that need to be cleared to the production team. This reminds me of class because Jimmy always asks questions even after we think we are done. There might be something unclear or not done right that needs to be changed.
Feedback, is something many are not too keen on receiving. When getting good feedback, most just dwell in pride and boost their ego. When getting bad feedback, which is probably the most common, people get angry and irritated. Learning how to control yourself during times of feedback, is a good thing. When getting good feedback, note what it is that you are getting good feedback on. You might want to take that into consideration so it can help in the creation of other designs. Bad feedback on the other hand can be disastrous. It is hard to turn bad criticism into a motive of improvement because we get so caught up in the emotions that we ignore everything else.
One good idea that the book mentioned that I like is that we as designers should keep documentation of the projects that we do. Like that is can be used as inspiration and/or help to make another project better.

11011100...101

Trying to explain something that you don't really have a good understanding of is really hard. I tried explaining a sequence of patters of numbers that an instructor had put up on the board. The class was split in to two groups (male/females) and were to go up and say what the next number was gonna be and explain how you came to that conclusion. The girls had come up with an understanding of the numerical pattern that I didn't even think of. Then it was the guys turn to go up and present. Unfortunately we did not do so good in explaining and one after another we went up to explain and kept getting shut down by jimmy. One of the things that I have to keep in mind is that I have to learn how to explain to a client what it is I did in the project. I don't usually have any trouble explaining things. I just need to know what it is I am talking about before I go up and possibly make an idiot of myself.

John Coy was what the center of discussion after the explanation exercise. Personally I thought that it is stuff that I have heard before but like I stated in class, the one thing that I got from the presentation was that how you present yourself really sets the way of the presentation.

    1
  10
  11
100
... <<figure this next number
(By the way, this is what was on the board.)

Sipping on a cup of a million dreams

There are a lot of things that we can get from our dreams. I saw a film called Dreams by Akira Kirosawa. It showed eight short stories that interpreted his personal dreams. It just amazed me that we have have so many thoughts in our brains that even in our time of rest it keeps creating new ones. I know that science says that our dreams are thoughts and images that have happened during the day all clashing together and that is why sometimes the dreams are weird. But really it is something entirely new, for what is art other that a creation of something by combing things that already has existed? We can create something entirely new thanks to the inspiration that our dreams give us. It is those times of inspiration (among other things) that lead us to create the world that we live in now. The times are changing and the current designers are getting old, it is time for us to become the dreamers and create a new world in which to live in.

Learn on Impact

Exciting news today...we had to instructor! Although most students would just pick up their belongings and run towards the door, the class stayed and discussed our creative briefs for our final project. Through all of this there was something one of the students said that really hit me. He said, "How can he be running the class without him being here?" Its funny because the class was actually having a discussion on the brief. Discussions are not really something this class is good at and yet when he is not here we are able to have one, even though it only lasted 20-25 minutes before everyone agreed on what was on the board and took off. It just amazed me that our instructor actually had an impact on the class.

Briefly Post a Brief Post about a Creative Brief

Today we talked about creative briefs. These useful papers help you understand what a project is about and how to go about it. I had a hard time writing a creative brief for the movie "Power of Ten". I spent two hours trying to think up of how to do it. The only explanation that I understood about the creative briefs was that they are the parameters of the designs. It seems straight forward but I just could not grasp that idea very well, even after asking the instructor! after today I understood it more. Its very simple, yet complicated. Its simple to understand and get information of of it, but its difficult to write one because you have to take into account so many things. Demographic, target audience, how, when, time, etc. One must also think about the organization of the brief and truly make it a brief creative brief. Within the small amount of space one must say a lot and make the audience think, feel, know, and do something. That's a big load of information!

Present yourself

There was a lot of information to take in today in class. One of the things that I learned was that presentation is very important. You have to have a professional presentation for someone to take you seriously. This time we went in on a little bit more detailed. One thing I saw repeatedly was that there was a bunch of papers cut out with a pair of scissors instead of an x-acto knife and a ruler. I know that there are many things that happen around us constantly and we have to somehow manage all the tasks handed to us. Then there are personal matters to handle, there is work, family, and friends to think about. The one thing that I've failed personally is prioritizing the things that I do. What should take more of my time? Can I cut time from this project to spend more time on another? The times I do make a decision like that I usually end up cutting time on the wrong project. But it doesn't only involve school work, time is taken up by all sorts of things. We have to make time to do our homework and that might mean missing a relatives birthday party or your friends get together. To me a relatives birthday party or a friends get together is more important to me than school work. What does one gain with a degree and no family and friends?