on Cindy Li and her presentations

On Thursday, April ninth, we had this totally non-typical day where we had activities – mostly outside of school – and got free food and were in good company. Leslie invited Cindy Li to come and speak to the juniors and seniors specifically; we all met at Greenspaces at 8 and had our first session with her. It was nice that designers outside of UTC decided to join in. We got Niedlov’s for breakfast, which all looked amazing; I’m definitely a muffin-top person, so I must admit that that’s all I ate, but it was delicious.

We went back to school and the juniors had the opportunity to sit with Cindy and Leslie and just ask questions and listen to Cindy’s answers. The part that fascinated me the most and which I had the most questions about was Cindy’s freelancing experiences up until now and how she feels about them for the future. It is terrifying to me but partly what I want to do at least at some small part in my future. I feel like it would be really good personal experience; being forced to create your own timely schedule, meetings with separate clients, and budgeting. All incredibly important things that I still have somehow not caught onto. For this reason, I fully understand that freelancing would probably not be the way for me to go just yet.

We were able to go to lunch at Easy bistro, which was a totally good experience. Their fairly new space is beautiful and wide open. The orchids at the bar made that side of the space look amazing and super chic, almost.

The whole day, the theme was social networking. This is a hard thing for me to really come to grips with, because I have been raised and have learned in past years through my own experiences that sometimes it is just best to stick to face-to-face relationships and leave out the no-strings-attached typing and texting. The whole thing smells somewhat dangerous to me, because our entire view of people has and will continue to change with the wave that social networking sites are making. I realize that these are important for employers to look at perspective employees, but what happened to interviewing and receiving recommendations? I understand why being interconnected is so important sometimes, but I just cannot understand why you would want to be connected and knowing of what your friends were doing at all times. I feel like eventually, masses of people will forget how to react and interact with the world on a true level.

This whole series of presentations was especially interesting to me, because the night before, I had read an article in GQ, where the editor quotes a British magazine called “Biologist”, and says that “An eye-opening new study reveals that if you spend a lot of time on Facebook and other social networking sites, chances are you’re alienated, lonely, and quite possibly demented.” After reading this article, I mentioned it to my dad and older brother, who are in different stages and walks of life than me, and they both kind agreed that they thought this way. My dad even threatens to fail his students if they do not cancel their twitter account by the end of his class.

So, this is where I come from with the entire idea of social networking. I understand why it has become addictive and therefore kind of important in our society. I understand why people use it and that it can be used in really productive ways; I cannot deny, though, that I am tentative to take a strong social networking persona at this time.

color picker.

In Professional Practices on Thursday, the group that I am part of – the identity group – was able to help choose colors for our final logo and overall color scheme. We were lucky enough to at least be in on the decision-making process with Casey and Leslie, which was definitely a good experience. I have used and learned a little bit about Pantone colors before, mainly from Tricycle, but this was a pretty short and intense lesson about everything Pantone. Leslie has an amazing full set of Pantone swatch books that we learned how to use and how not to touch, and even though Casey had chosen some of the best color schemes for his logo already, it felt good to be there to agree on the finals.

Pantone swatch books are made to be an exact match to the colors that your final printed (if printed at a legitimate printer) piece will consist of. They mix the colors to the exact number and put a little touch of each in each different Pantone book. There is a few different options that will affect your final outcome, depending on the type of paper you use and what you are using it for. The most commonly used options are the Pantone solid coated and solid uncoated

Set of Pantone swatch books

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Although this Pantone set wouldn’t be incredibly useful for most of the student project we put out right now – not to mention way to expensive for most of us – it was awesome to have the chance to learn about one more thing that we may not have gained very much information on until getting into the workplace. Thanks Leslie, for risking your swatches in our untrained company.

PR workshop

On February 18, our class had the opportunity to go and listen to a workshop on press releases given by Janice Hashe. Janice is the editor of Pulse magazine, and has been dealing with press releases for some time now. She has been in Chattanooga since 2006.

It was interesting to go and listen to Janice, because I have never had the patience to sit down and think about organized press releases. For one, I have never had the need for a press release yet in my life; I’m sure I will at some point, though, and so I’m glad that I was forced to sit down and pay attention. The environment was good as well, which added to the comfort of taking in as much as I could about something I have never been particularly interested in.

It was a long workshop, and just a few of the things that I learned were sending a press release to an editor – and how to address the editor, taking photos for stories in the newspaper, and just how engaging a press release needs to be. I feel like I have heard some of these things before, such as an emphasis on spell check and how to send photos, but because I do not pride myself on how well I write, I have never considered the fact that what I write for a press release needs to be interesting and interacting from the beginning.

One of the things that Ms. Hashe stressed the most was the importance of contact information, and listing your own contact over and over throughout a press release. If this does not happen, the editor automatically has no desire or time to try and figure it out.

acting the part.

Although I have never experienced trying to sell something to a client per say, I feel that there is some similar experience in both trying to sell classmates a design during class as well as trying to convince an employer to hire you.
I think that being confident about yourself and about your design and design style is one of the most important things that you can possess in order to sell someone on something. I think that it has always been that way in any type of marketing. If you are trying to sell something to someone in order to increase your sales or respect, you have to be convinced in the product yourself.
For some reason, my mind relates this whole concept to old sneaky medicine men. Or maybe that’s not the right title. But then people that used to drag their carts or their wagons around with tons of interesting things to look at, much of it fake. This person, who was most likely a bum of some type, needed to either be convinced himself, or have an incredible acting spirit to seem convinced. If he was trying to sell water in a bottle as some kind of saving liquid, he needed to act in a way to convince people that it had saved him, and would also save them.
It’s a way of making money, and I think that it is an incredibly important skill to have, on top of about 15 million others that sometimes seem equally important in our field of graphic design. If we are not absolutely convinced in our design, it will be hard to sell it at all; but if we can muster our acting abilities and come up with legitimate reasons to buy what I’m selling, it is harder but just as possible to succeed.
In front of a group of clients or possible employers, it is easiest to sell something or sell ourselves if we are also sold. To maintain control of the situation and group of people, though, it is important to realize that if we are not sold, we need to pretend.
The actual presentation of what we are attempting to sell is also key – if we mumble and slouch and have not given a few good thoughts to what we are wearing and who we are looking at and focusing our presentation on, there is a good chance that we will fail. Although this is harsh, it is reality. We need to think through every step of the procedure, from how we put our clothes on to how we will greet clients, to how we will stand and act while we are in front of clients.
It is hard for anyone to master these characteristics, if anyone actually ever does. This is obviously a hard thing for us as students to dedicate ourselves to and learn, because we are focused on the aspects of study that we find ourselves most interested in; “presentation does not seem like a part of print.” “How can selling ourselves be pard of our complex way of thinking about art?”. Ultimately, in order to do the things that we love within design, we need clients. We need someone to make our design for. I don’t think it’s really pleasant, but I also don’t think I can probably survive and thrive on creating design for my own ideas forever.
This is a hard thing for us to learn, it is a kind of switching of mindsets, from “artist” to “professional” at times. We are lucky, however, to be taught the things that we need to survive, and not only the things that we enjoy.

blindly gathering inspiration for logos.

Creating logos is something that I have always known that I wasn’t necessarily gifted at; not that I am self-pitying about this fact, but I have always lacked some amount of creativity. I have always thought this was kind of strange, since this is something that “artists” are supposed to be overflowing with. I have come to grips with this fact, and have decided long ago to just move forward with things and use any amount of creativity that I am suddenly endowed with. Many times, this creativity is simply inspired. There are far too many things in the world to take in and remember, it is known that we are programmed to only remember solidly the things that stand out to us for some particular reason. This being said, I do not know that I have a particular style of design or beauty in the world that continuously strikes me. Creation is constantly bestowing beauty all around us, and although this is the stem of everything that could be called beautiful to look at, I feel like many times this is the last thing we think to gain inspiration from.
It is strange, then, that when trying to be inspired to make logos for something natural, I feel like I have consistently been falling flat for ideas and creativity. It has bothered me, even though I knew from the beginning of our professional practice classes that this would be one of the hardest parts for me, that I cannot seem to come up with a logo worthy of putting on the local food guide.
Just recently, admittedly tonight, I have felt even just a spark of inspiration in creating TasteBuds logos. I all too many times forget that it is when really digging in and making mistakes on a pen drawing or thumbnail that creativity begins to flow. I have felt a small sense of relief tonight to have been able to come up with any kind of logo, no matter how insignificant or worthless to our cause and project. It makes a personal difference to have been able to fiddle and make mistakes long enough to have come up with something that is enjoyable to myself. One fan might be nice, but even without that, I have gained confidence.

identity guide standards.

I haven’t begun to really dig into researching identity guides, but from what I have found and have seen in the past, a normal, good-sized companies or objectives identity guide will have around 10 topics addressed within it. They usually seem to have kind of a summary of the company at the very beginning of the guide, and then go into how to use what and when and where. The logo is really the main topic of the identity guide, being the most important asset that a company can have misused or manipulated if they are not careful. What the logo means and how it can and cannot be used are a couple of the topics covered in the logo-specific section. Some companies used extra “signatures” for different parts of their companies or in different parts of the world or a city. For example, there are main Tesco stores, as well as smaller ones only situated in the middle of cities. In a case like this, or McDonalds and McCafe, different signatures are added to the original logo. These need to be addressed and specified, because they could be easily and accidently misused.
Another major issue to be addressed within an identity guide is the color palette of the company or initiative. The possibility of colors needs to be decided and specified so that the company is completely cohesive and whole.
Typography is another important factor to a company feeling stable, complete, and professional. Many large companies tend to use similar typefaces, it seems, but these still need to be specified within the guide so that an advertising agent or the company itself doesn’t screw themselves over by using a typeface close but not the same as what is specified in the guide. If this happens, it not only makes the company look stupid, but the designer can go back and point out that they now look like a fool as well, all because of a misuse of type.
In some cases, a company or initiative has designs, or graphic elements, that can be paired with the logo, on letterhead, or simply next to the name of the company. These need to be be addressed, as well as the photography style and content that a company is allowed to use for themselves. A company seems to be really the strongest when you can see any aspect of it’s company – i.e. advertisements, packaging, website – and know what it belongs to. It is important to keep the photography style and graphic elements used cohesive with the rest of the company’s identity.
These are a few of the main topics addressed in most identity guides. It seems that there could always be other, more company or project specific topics added, about how to use collateral or something, but these seem to be things that are included across the board.

research and sour cream.

Even though researching for something usually means that one is beginning a project that they may or may definitely not want to start on, I am continually thankful that researching and finding inspiration is one of the best parts of any project. Usually I think of starting something in the way that a Monday morning feels, or the way that water is floating on top of “expired” sour cream when you first open it; it is up in the air whether the Monday will turn out well or terrible, whether the sour cream just needed to be stirred or it is actually sour. Since I think it would be hard to use these two metaphors to parallel each step of a project, I will move away from that and say that although a project is sometimes up in the air, the research is usually fun and inspiring to me no matter what. It is hard for me to believe that a person would go into a project and not first dig into some recent or vintage magazines, childrens books, adverts, or packaging. Even talking to people or simply observing people is mind-blowing in making a project more effective. It’s easiest for me to be sitting right next to a pile of magazines that I have specifically picked out for some reason to look through, and having a full pad of small post-its in order to mark anything and everything that I initially think could be helpful. After I do this, my mind is so packed full and swirling with ideas that it can be helpful to have a large sheet of good marker paper (Bienfangs graphics marker paper is the best, I have discovered after much marker paper use. It is also probably the most expensive, or one of them, but totally worth it. Take it from a broke-ass student), and a double-ended sharpie nearby to write everything down. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is an extent to the information that humans are able to quickly store; it’s easier for me to know that I’m not storing anything right away, that I will get things onto something more permanent than my brain and then go back through the magazines a few more times and take away post-its that were ignorantly placed. I love showing people that are involved in the same projects as me this research, because it is always helpful to know what other people think about ideas that you feel blessed to have been given.

design brief.

Writing a design brief is incredibly complicated.
“The format is, of course, critical in that it should be easy to read and track through.” Although this sentence is obvious and incredibly true, it makes writing a design brief sound much easier than it is. It was helpful that in our classes’ case, we were broken up into four groups to cover sections of our design brief; in our case, we only had to take control of one or two sections, and then make the entire thing sound cohesive. I can’t imagine sitting down in one period of time and creating a brief alone.
In our book, “Creating the Perfect Design Brief”, there was an excerpt from Kim Zarney’s “The Core Creative Concept in Branding: A Streamlined Approach”. It was helpful, in this section, to have things put in terms that make it seem simpler; Zarney compared the ease of creating a brief to the ease of creating a perfect stir fry. It just depends on what you intend your end product to look and feel like, and if you have those ingredients READY. Not just available to you, but ready to add in as soon as you begin. Things will go much faster if you write down and have a good idea of every section and then worry about the wording and professionalism of the thing in its entirety when you have your main points down. Although I don’t think this is quite what Zarney was hitting on, this is what I have taken and remembered from his article.
Another point that I think is important to remember when thinking about graphic design as a profession is the fact that it is not only art we should be concerned with. “If the design profession wants to become a core, strategic business partner, then the design profession must learn to think in both design and business terms.” I think that this is a hard thing for us to remember during our education, because there is a lot of stress put on tuning our conceptual thought process – which there should be – but then we begin to lack in classes that are more bent towards surviving once we are thrown out of university. Because of this, and although I did not necessarily enjoy creating a design brief, I appreciate that we had to make one and that we have to go through Professional Practices. It is a difference in thinking that will definitely help us all through attempting to find jobs or opening businesses.

BRAND.

Thoughts on the Brand Gap.
Although Marty Neumeier has created a book and strategy that would most likely be easy for the normal person to read during a flight, it is still strangely deep. I appreciate the fact that it is so short and seemingly simplistic, and maybe it’s just my short-lived attention span that sometimes forces me to re-read a paragraph or chapter; in any case, it is more of a business book than I have read to date, and I find myself increasingly interested in this side of the graphic design world. I know that I could continuously be taught about the art of graphic design for the rest of my life and still not feel completely educated on the subject, but I feel like a designer also having some business knowledge is incredibly relevant – maybe sometimes even more than the art itself? – to surviving and succeeding within the graphic design world. It is my feeling that we need more of this business side taught to us, a whole class devoted solely to surviving as a freelancer, or starting your own small design firm. I know that these are somewhat broad subjects, but the only class we have now that relates closely to business is professional practices; and there is surely not enough time in this one semester to cover client relationships as well as something like starting your own business.
Back to the book, it was an enjoyable read. it stepped away, even for just a minute, from concentrations such as typographic style and building your page layouts and websites on a grid. It was refreshing to look outside our fairly small class mindsets and see a much larger picture of the real world and how it is constantly operating whether we choose to participate or not. There is obviously not enough stress put on branding and identities in recent days, or else many more companies would probably be succeeding. These are things we are blessed to realize before we get into the field so that we are not shocked to realize them once we are thrown out into it.