Evaluation Time

Evaluation time is upon us (my graphic design class and I) and it is always an interesting experience. This year since we are last in the wing to be evaluated, we have nearly two weeks without classes that we can work on our projects. The extra time is necessary as we were handing in projects right until our last day of classes, but it is interesting to see how everyone manages their time. There is a group of regulars who come throughout the day and then a group who come at night. I like to keep a regular routine, I feel that working regular office hours will help to prepare me for when I graduate.

It is always a stressful time, but looking back the times I got the most stressed was when I didn't take breaks. Going to the gym for an hour might mean I have an hour less time for homework, but it's refreshing and helps you concentrate when you get back to work. Planning out my time and allowing for breaks makes the difference.

Cookie-Cutter

While I’m mildly grossed out by playing with my food, this take on chess is a neat idea. When playing board games snacks are often brought out, this cookie-cutter set skips that step and integrates snacking into the game. Each piece contains your choice of snack and when you take down your opponent, the snack is yours.

Social Networking

I usually use social networking outlets to connect with friends, but I also find them useful for inspiration. Two of my favourite pages to check out are 420 Characters and The Cool Hunter.

420 Characters posts short stories, 420 characters (the maximum status length) in length, about a variety of topics. Although the stories are short, they create vivid images in your mind and make you yearn for a good read. The length is perfect for a quick break from your work day.

The Cool Hunter is an image sharing site, multiple times a day they post photos to their albums. Each album has a theme related to art or design. It’s a great place to find inspiring photos and helps to keep me current with what designers and artist are currently working on.

Minimalist Web Design

While researching for my personal website, I came across a great post about minimalist web design. There are links to a ton of great sites and some general tips and trends.

Tips

Less is more; use only elements that are essential, that have a necessary purpose.

Omit needless things; if it isn’t necessary for the website to be functional, don’t include it.

Subtract until it breaks; take things away until it is no longer functional, then revert one step.

Every detail counts; with minimalist design, every detail counts. Think of the feel you want to project and decide on details to communicate that.

Colour minimally; once again with minimalist design colour really counts. Think about what the colours mean and how they interact with eachother.

White space is vital; necessary for minimalist design, white space or negative space is essential for hierarchy, to emphasize some elements more than others.

Trends

Gray; use it in combination with black and white for text, backgrounds, graphic elements, anything.

Big typography; often used in place of images to add more interest to a website.

Background patterns and images; subtle patterns and bold images can give a minimalist design punch.

Simple grids; bring order to a bare design.

Circles; found on many minimalist sites in headers or as accents in navigation.

Transparency; while it is not very common, it can make a huge visual impact.

What to do!

I’m sitting at lunch, enjoying a break from homework and related subjects, when my friend says to me, “Where do you want to work?” Work seems so far away, but realistically in only a few months I will have to start making decisions. I’ve realized in the past two years that one of the things I care about most is being close to my hometown. I miss my friends and family now and I only live half an hour away, I can’t imagine having to drive from Ottawa, Toronto even seems too far sometimes. Ideally I would like to start in a design firm where senior designers will help me further my skills, but in house design does sound nice. I worry that if I don’t choose the right junior job, my future career will take a downward spin. It’s impossible to know if things will work out, but the one thing I do know is that I won’t be happy if I spend all of my time working.

Spent

While reading my guilty pleasure, Psychology Today, I heard about the book Spent. Spent examines human spending behaviour and critiques consumerist culture. According to author, Geoffrey Miller purchases are powerful indicators of our personality, we use them to lure both friends and mates. The book agrees with the notion that individual personalities vary along six axes; intelligence, openness to new experiences, conscientiousness, agreeableness, emotional stability and extroversion. Miller believes that variation in these basic categories reflect genetic inheritance, preferences for each vary among societies, moments in time, and within individual lives. He jokes about popular culture and at the things we buy to inflate our self-esteem and to try to make ourselves more attractive. One of the things I find most interesting is how the book is said to give us a better understanding of our own personalities to help us avoid consumerism. Miller also discusses how after millions of years of evolution, we still resort to expensive and ridiculous substitutes for our true personalities and identities.

I know what book I want for Christmas.

Hi, I'm Amy!

One of the projects I’ve been working on as of late is my personal identity. I’ve heard quite a few of my classmates say “I don’t know who I am” and have thought the same many times. While I feel like I know myself, I have a hard time explaining it to others, and an even harder time communicating it visually. How can I communicate to potential employers that I’m hardworking, detail oriented, into knitting, love crafts and can be quite fun once you know me, with a brand. I’m sure it’s possible and am getting closer each time I work on it, but I still feel like part of my personality will be missing.

Networking with people in the business and potential employers can be very intimidating, add in the judgment that comes when you hand over your business card and it’s almost too much. My professor strongly suggested that my classmates and I have our business cards ready for Design Thinkers (a design conference in Toronto) and I thought it was a great idea, until I realized he wanted us to hand them out. Hopefully all goes well and it is a successful learning and networking experience.

Project: Interaction

While looking for ideas for a skate park re-brand, I came across Project: Interaction, a project to invent, design and change. Project: Interaction is a ten week program that helps high school students use design to change their community. Each week students take on a new lesson to help them improve storytelling, communication, creative thinking, and problem solving skills. Here is a re-cap of each lesson:

1 - Look at Times Square: How does design work, how do people interact with design?

2 – High Line: Take a look at reinvention, how can something be completely transformed?

3 – Union Square: How does the design of a space meet the needs of those who use it?

4 – Into the Wild: Students visit a design studio to see how the concepts they learned play out in the working world.

5 – Did you Check in Here: Check out the app Foursquare and see how it relates to the city setting.

6 – How to Find Info in NYC: What is the difference between a good and a service?

7 – Green Buildings: Examine what designers have done to make buildings more environmentally friendly.

8 & 9 – Final Project: Students work on their final project and have one last lecture from a guest speaker.

10 – Reflection: Students informally present their work and discuss the solutions they came up with.

While programs of this sort are popping up in large cities all over the place, small towns are still missing design in the classroom. Maybe by the time I have my own family; design will be available more readily in the classroom setting. Maybe I’ll be the one teaching it?

Create-A-Thon

Although I’m nervous, and have been anxious about it all week, I’m getting kind of excited for Create-A-Thon. For 24 hours I will be doing pro bono work for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Waterloo Region. After the Cambridge and KW branches amalgamated the group was left with outdated campaign materials. Our goal is to get their new name and logo out there with new brochures, signage and a new booth display for employees to take around to events in the area. I hope everything runs smoothly and that we have enough time to get everything done. Big Brothers Big Sisters is a great cause and they deserve the attention of the local community. Keep your eyes peeled for the groups’ new look!

DIY Bag

Every year for around the last ten years, I have participated in the Alzheimer’s Walk for Memories. Each year I get a new canvas bag filled with goodies for my fundraising efforts. While the bags are nice, they are a little bit boring and I wouldn’t mind if they were a little bigger. Design*Sponge offers the perfect solution; add a pocket to the outside. After adding a cute flowered pocket over the logo, my bag is personalized and has more space. Perfect!

The Sketchbook Project

While looking at Design Sponge I came upon the Sketchbook Project. The Sketchbook Project allows artists to display one of their most prized belongings, their sketchbook. To get the artists started they select a topic, they are then sent a moleskin sketchbook in the mail. The only rules are that they must stick with the topic they choose, must fill their book, and most importantly must avoid messy supplies like glitter.

Sketchbooks are collected by the Brooklyn Art Library then toured across the United States. All sketchbooks that are submitted by the deadline will be included in the tour and artists are able to have their sketchbooks scanned for $20.00. After the sketchbooks are finished the tour they will become part of the permanent collection at the Library and the scanned sketchbooks will become part of an online gallery.

I can’t wait to check out the site when it is launched, I love looking through artist’s sketchbooks more than looking at their work. I am always amazed by the way artists can casually sketch something and it be better than anything I could ever do. I guess I best get back to the drawing boards. Pun intended.

Many Thanks

Last year around this time I was just starting to plan how I could positively change society with design, this year I'm re-designing that project and making it a live website. Formerly called 1000 ThankYous, Many Thanks is a website that promotes positivity and the lost tradition of saying thank you.

With a positive outlook on life everything is just a little bit easier, your body is a little bit healthier and you appreciate your loved ones that much more. The website gives visitors a place to submit their thank you notes and read the stories of others who have submitted on the site. MANY THANKS also includes a variety of printable thank you cards to promote the giving of physical cards. Even if you don't have a story to submit, check out the site and see what others had to say, I guarantee it will brighten your day.

The Internet Case Study Book

To help improve the designism (Design for positive social change) project I am working on (1000 Thank Yous) I have been doing some research. Dave, a classmate suggested that I read The Internet Case Study Book to find out what successful websites have done in the past. In the social media section I read that there are three things that most good websites have; publishing, participation and personalization. Users like being able to add to the content of the site, participate in games and blogs, and personalize their own area of the site. Users need to be engaged, have a reason to stay on the site and a reason to return.

One of my favourite websites was last.fm. last.fm is a website that collects information on your favourite bands then suggests other songs and bands that you may like, your own personal music guru! On top of suggesting cool new music, the site has free MP3 downloads.

Some other websites that I found interesting were the Eternal Moonwalk in memory of Michael Jackson and Green Peace Brazil’s online web campaign. Green Peace Brazil created videos speaking out against the government and the things that are affecting the environment the most. Their creative and diverse approach helps to touch a wider audience and keeps repeat viewers interested.

While I don’t anticipate my website becoming an instant hit, if I could brighten at least one person’s day, I’d be satisfied.