Category: Uncategorized

This week we heard from Eitti Wahl, the director of the movie “She the Creator”. We got our blog assignment from her. The assignment was to, in the coming week, to find a moment in the natural world that inspires us and why it speaks to us in that way. A few weeks after the original assignment I did just that. I was taking the light rail to my friends house in Columbia City when I experienced that moment. There was a man sitting in the seat across from me. The man was wearing large baggy black denim jeans matched with a pair of black Asics running shoes. He also wore an elongated t-shirt with a zip up hoodie that was much to small for him. Printed on the back of this black hoodie was a white corporate tech logo I didn’t recognize. It looked as if he had gotten it from a Christmas party from his employer. I thought it was beautiful. On a surface level I care a great deal about clothing and I love the black, but something spoke to me on a deeper level than that. My favorite type of designs are the ones that utilitarian in nature. Design that only exist to serve a purpose and not to look good or impress anyone. This is also my favorite type of clothing to observe on people. People who don’t even think about what they put on in the morning. For them clothing only serves one purpose for them and that is to cover themselves. Did this man on the train ever expect or believe that something he had put absolutely zero thought into have such an impact on someone? Probably not.

This week we were asked to create a mood board for an automatic dog treat dispenser. For my mood board I tried to show the who I think the person who would buy this product would be. In my mind this person is a tech-bro adjacent person with to much disposable income. To demonstrate this I used images of over expensive coffee makers and craft beers. This person also shops at Nordstrom, but purely for the aesthetic and not because the quality of cloths matters to them. I chose a black and white color pallet and a stainless steel texture because that is what I feel is most commonly associated with these people. I also used a picture of those copy and past “modern” apartments you see around Seattle because this seems like the person that would live there and even enjoy it.

For this weeks blog post I had to research the pros and cons of working for a graphic design agency. There are many pros of working for an agency. One of the benefits is if you work at an agency you will be working with other designers. This will mean the expectations will be high and you will be forced to produce the best work you can in order to keep up. Another pro is you can focus all your attention on the design work instead of managing client relations and the money aspect as most freelances will have to do. However there are also some negative aspects of working for an agency. One of those negative aspects is the rigorous work hours. At an agency you have strict deadlines that you are expected to meet, this could mean working late and at times you didn’t account for at first. Another con is there is a risk of job security. If an agency feels it has to many people at any given time for the project they are working on they could put you one temporary leave or even lay you off entirely. Below are 3 listings to agency work I found on the internet.

https://designjobs.aiga.org/jobs/522730/Junior-Graphic-Designer

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=088337d17a550c80&tk=1h1t9ppb92nlh000&from=serp&vjs=3

https://www.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=1f5bb025152bffb2&tk=1h1t9ppb92nlh000&from=serp&vjs=3

This week we were asked to create a hockey jersey for the Coachella Vally Firebirds in order to promote the Coachella music festival. The jersey I designed uses the same colors used to the market for the festival. I intentionally made to logo hard to read to create a more simplified design. The purple number on the back has stars in reference to the line up poster for this years festival.

This week we were visited by Brooke Montgomery, director/creative director at Cut. Cut is a youtube channel that produces videos that are meant to be thought-provoking, promote an open mind, and to pique an audience’s interest by showcasing sincere, genuine reactions to their prompts. For our blog assignment we were asked to watch 5 Cut videos then create an idea based of them that could be recreated at SCCA. My idea for a video would be “Best and Worst things about the SCCA” based on the “Keep it 100” formula. The “Keep it 100” videos ask a simple open ended question and allow for a number of participants to answer in any way they see fit. I think this would be interesting for the SCCA demographic because it is something we could all relate to. The types of people I imagine that would participate in this are an equal mix of visual media and graphic design students, allowing for insight to the other classes. I think a good number of people for this would be anywhere from 15-20 students from each class. This would ensure a wide array of perspectives and opinions.

The metaverse is unnecessary and purely a cash grab. Last week we heard from Micheal Peirce who seemed very passionate about the metaverse, and so, for our blog assignment this week we were asked to try it out ourselves. I attended the Taco Bell wedding. The metaverse seems like an over engineered Club Penguin or similar in browser game for kids. I think the only thing that differentiates it is over paid tech bros can link jpegs of monkeys they paid thousands of dollars for to their accounts. Nothing I saw in the time I spent in the metaverse did not revolve around money or advertising for a Crunch Wrap Supreme at Taco Bell. I just don’t get the point I guess, it seems like this concept has existed well before NFTs and the metaverse the only difference being that the individuals who use it can show off their wealth. I don’t see much of a future for this if it solely exists to advertise other products. I don’t see a future for this as an entertainment tool because their are countless other forms of entertainment that allow players to interact in a virtual world, not only that but they have actual content and things to do besides be marketed to.

After hearing from Adam this week we were asked to reflect on times in our life where we failed to meet expectations made by ourself. These could include delivering quality work, creating trust with the client, or adding value to the production. Out of these three I chose to reflect on a time I failed to deliver quality work. I was asked to create a series of movie posters in my graphic design running start class in high school. I had a very strong vision of where I wanted to take the project but shortly after beginning I realized it wasn’t going to turn out how I had hoped. Instead of trying to pivot and try something else I continued to try and force a design that wasn’t working. All three posters turned out awful but I learned a lesson from it.

1. I believe my top 3 hard skills are: Icon Design, Logo Design, and Visual Identity. I believe my top 3 soft skills are: Organization, Decision Making, and Adaptability.
2. I believe those are my top 3 hard skills because I am confident with my ability to design coherent icons and logos. I put visual identity down because I’m also confident in my ability to creating multiple different icons and graphics in the same family or style. For soft skills I put organization down simple because of how well I manage all my files while designing. I have decision making on the list because in design given multiple options for fonts, colors, ect I feel confident in my choices. Finally I put down adaptability because I practice non destructive design which allows me to go back and change details without starting over.
3. Two hard skills I would like to work on are: Typography and Motion Graphics. Two soft skills I would like to work on are: Persuasion and Stress Management.
4. I would like to work on my typography because I think it is a crucial aspect of design that I am quickly realizing I have very little knowledge about. I would like to work on motion design because its another aspect of deign I’m not very knowledgeable on and I think a good grasp on it would open many more job opportunities. I think I should work on my persuasion because although I am confident in many of my designs I feel like I sometimes have a hard time selling them when I have taken a strange approach to them. I also think I should I should work on stress management because I spend a lot of time worrying, and making mountains out of ant hills with certain assignments when I could just be working on them. This would benefit me because I would have more time to experiment and make revisions instead of spending that time getting stressed about the deadline.