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Nature and Creativity

I always feel like nature sparks my creativity. I’m often inspired by natures beauty. Also, the peace and quiet is conducive to spawning new ideas. Its during those quiet times with nature that your mind can wander and think about things that you’d normally be too distracted to think about. Thoughout our daily routines there’s a million different things competing for our attention. Our phones, our daily tasks, errands, stress about homework that’s due. But when I’m out in nature, that’s the only thing I have to think about. And that’s usually when I get the most creative energy flowing. When I’m in the throws of a homework bender and I feel like all my creative energy is used up, I try to go outside for a walk and look at some trees and leaves and usually that puts my mind at ease.

Whenever I’m feeling really stressed out, nature is usually the best thing for me. Thats when I know I need to go hiking or camping. When I spend the night out in nature is when I can really use it as a reset button and I always come back feeling refreshed and rejuvinated. So thank you for this great prompt because thinking about it now is bringing calmness to me.

Types of Design Work

In the design industry there are different types of job; Freelance, Part-time, Contract/Agency and Fulltime.

Freelance is when you work for yourself. This means that you have a business license and pay your own taxes. You either have a sole-proprietorship or an LLC. The plus side is that you’re your own boss, you get to choose what projects you take on. Although I see this as more a hustle which is susceptable to the feast and famine of being an independent artist.

Part-time is when you’re employed but work less than 40hrs/wk. The plus side is that you will probably have a less demanding schedule. The down-side is you may not get full benefits package and full paycheck that full-time employees get.

Contract/ Agency means that you work contract jobs that are brought to you by an agent at an agency. The plus side is that someone does the job searching for you, the down side is that the agency takes money off the top of your paycheck. Although you usually set your asking price and your agent will assure that you get that rate.

Full-time means that you are fully employed by a company. The plus side is that you will have a steady paycheck but the down side is you will have a boss and a schedule that may be demanding.

This week I was inspired by textures in nature as well as outdated, sub-urban restaurant branding.

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For this jersey, I extracted the color palette directly from this year’s festival poster and website in order to enforce strong brand recognition. I used the palm trees which have become a symbol and major motif of the festival which takes place in the desert. I added a graphical element of the desert with mountains in the background to match the natural aesthetic of the festival. I colored in the color fields in an off kilter way which captures the fun and creative side of the festival while giving it a artistic vibe. Therefore, I think this jersey encapsulates the spirit of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival while maintaining a strong and cohesive brand identity.

Who am I? That feels like a trick question. There’s probably a big difference between who I think I am, who everyone else thinks I am. Let’s lay down the facts. I’m Preston, I’m thirty, I’m here because I love design. I want to become a branding specialist for small local business’s and eventually the creative director for Nike. Why do I want to do that? Because there’s no better feeling for me than making that one change in your design that makes it work. That feeling you get when something you created looks fucking awesome, is fucking awesome. I want to take a brand’s vision, mission, tone, and feel, and turn it into something tangible. Something that is visually stimulating and powerful. I want to help their business make money and make myself some money as well. The bottom line is I want to make a living doing something I love, and this is what I chose.

Where do I want to go? Everywhere. Mainly the woods and high alpine environments. I want a job that gives me the flexibility to travel when I want, and afford a 4×4 camper. Then I want to work from that camper in beautiful natural places. I want to be able to afford a house too. Right now seems like a long shot but who knows where I’ll be in ten. I’ll be forty, hopefully still doing what I love, and hopefully reaching heights I never thought possible.

I was first introduced to Cut on social media years ago when I saw “Grandma’s smoking weed for the first time” on instagram (still probably my favorite Cut video). Last week I saw a few more examples of their work when Brooke played those two cringe-worthy videos. I was most moved by the one where strangers rated eachother to their face. This one made me feel really uncomfortable. I’m worried that hearing negative rankings will stick with those individuals for the rest of their lives. In the end, it seemed like the moral of the story they were trying to teach was that beauty is subjective and that everyone is beautiful in their own way. This was completely different than what I actually took away from watching the video. What the exercise showed me was the opposite, that beauty is objective. The same people were generally ranked the same by all participants across the board, particularly the long haired guy deemed “unattractive” and the tall short hair girl that was widely accepted as the most attractive in the bunch. I just felt bad for the people involved that got ranked lowest in the line-up. I think this sort of activity could potentially be traumatizing and really hurt their self-esteem. I didn’t like it at all.

While that video showed that beauty is objective and that beauty standards are societal, I want to imagine a video activity that can highlight the facts that looks aren’t the most important thing. My activity would involve 10 strangers, mixed gender. They would hear a 30 second audio clip of each contestant describing themselves, including their interests, life views, and self reported flaws. Contestants would then choose who they want to go on a date with based on hearing their voice only, without seeing what they look like. Once a partner is selected, they would actually go on a date and see how well they connected. Once the date is completed, both contestants would be asked how the date went and if they would go on a second date with the person or not. I think this would be a good test to see if personality is more important when choosing a partner than physical appearance.

I was unable to attend any live metaverse events this week but I have participated in the metaverse before buying NFT’s. I found the metaverse fascinating and perplexing since I first learned a little bit about it. What compels people to spend thousands of dollars on pixelated pictures of animals? The more I learned about it, the maire it made sense. NFT’s are essentially like virtual trading cards. They’re collectibles and have the potential to increase in value over time, just like rookie baseball cards and pokemon cards. Another major attraction about buying NFT projects is that it enters you into an exclusive community only accessible by owning an NFT. In these communities you can make friends all over the world, attend virtual as well as in person events, and receive unique rewards, such as clothing, and other NFT’s. The metaverse has a large connection with the gaming community and there is a large overlap in the demographics of both groups. This is a group that is typically the younger generation that spends a lot of their time online already. For them, it can be a way to make friends and have fun without having to go outside. Am I a supporter of that aspect? No. I think the metaverse has many potential downsides, but many upsides as well, which is why big tech companies are investing billions of dollars in building infrastructure that could be shaping the newest version of the internet as we know it. We’ll see what happens.

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I thought what Adam said about always delivering quality work to the best of your ability was very meaningful. Sometimes I find myself not always putting my best foot forward just because external expectations are low or because I don’t really care about the project. Hearing Adam talk made me really think about that. When people see the work that you put out, they don’t care about the scenario or your head space when you were making the work, all they see is the work, and that is what they have to judge. So if you put out work that is below your personal potential, viewers, potential employers, colleagues, will judge you based on that work. So therefore it is important to always do your best no matter the expectations, or how motivated you are. I guess the important thing is to have a high standard for yourself and don’t let external standards determine the quality of your work. Always hold yourself to a high standard and try to live up to that as best you can. There’s definitely been some of Jason’s projects this quarter where I feel like I have turned in work that was below my standard because I didn’t like the assignment so I wasn’t motivated to put in my best effort, instead I focused that effort into other projects that I was more interested in. But I think when you enter the workplace, you have to do your best to make sure anything with your name on it lives up to the high standards that you set for yourself, and that is how you will succeed.

They say “hard skills will get you the interview, soft skills will get you the job”. To me, this means that employers are looking for qualifications when deciding who to invite to an interview, but once in the interview, they are looking at what type of person you are, and trying to get to know you a little better. I’d say my top 3 skills to get me an interview are my knowledge of the Adobe Suite, branding, and design. In terms of branding, I think I’m good at understanding a company’s feel and distilling that into designs that match they’re tone and business goals. I would say my three top soft skills are adaptability, creativity, and collaboration. I think I am good at collaborating because I’m a good listener and know how to take the best aspects of peoples’ ideas and combining them into one cohesive final product. Two hard skills that I’m excited about gaining in this program are html and css programming and layout design. I had no experience in coding prior to entering the program and feel so far, that has been my biggest area of improvement. It’s been a rewarding challenge getting better at something that is so daunting at first. Two soft skills I would like to develop during the program are networking and time-management. Being in such a demanding and rigorous program has already forced me to exercise my time management skills. Forcing myself to get to work when I would rather eat a snack or watch NBA is something I’m working on getting better at every week. I think I have the hard skills to do a job, but networking, finding the right opportunities, and selling myself to the right people is something to improve that can increase my chances of landing a quality job when it’s time to get hired. I think the follow through part is important for me when I meet new people that could lead to potential job opportunities, but at the same time, I have a lot on my plate right now and not a lot of extra capacity to take on new challenges outside of school at the moment. I just want to get through school, improve my hard and soft skills as much as I can before I graduate, in order to be ready to enter the workforce in a year and a half.