Video finally

My video   I made the video password protected for some reason. The password to the video is: Northerngyre

Last Day

The last day of class is upon us and I find myself feeling more relieved due to the fact that only a few days remain until final "celebrations". This class we talked about something that felt like a day one topic. The idea of what a "designer" really is. On this subject it was quite the conversation lasting well over an hour on trying to define and determine what a designer is or at least what a solid definition for a designer could be. In the end upon some sense of irony a student looking up the answer on their phones ended up with an answer literally describing the current situation. It did however open up the channels of thinking since we had to think of a definition for ourselves. The amount of time we had and trouble was the most entertaining once it became clear that our profession, no matter how it was worded or described, overlapped and fit into far too many aspects of other trades and professions. For the remainder of the class we reviewed some things but it was the first conversation we had that was truly interesting and equally funny once an answer, or a close enough answer, was found.

1 week reamins

The last week remains for this concept class, and now I'm some part excited and some part not looking forward to the last project. this class was quite fun and I look forward to seeing everyone again in the only available class next quarter. The several videos we watched were as usual helpful if not entertaining. These TED videos are quite impressive sheerness because they are so helpful and so full of creative insight even when not in relation to design or art at all. That day however we found ourselves out leaving early to work on the final project, so overall only the videos were played that class day

Its all coming together

This concept class was also another interesting experience. Our group activity was to assemble a 3 shot story in groups of 3's and using no words only images. While it was interesting seeing what people wanted to do, at least in the groups near me and my own group included, I was curious to see how and what stories people would be creating in the end. Our group was the sore thumb in the room at the end of the project due to the fact that our story resembled something out of a Tarantino film, while the other stories carried much more positive or comedic narratives. The goals for everyone's story were only partially met however it seems. Many people depicted very base and boring stories that, while well portrayed and rendered, simply were not interesting whatsoever. Some stories like my own groups were just not sequentially working in their favor, they could have been excellently rendered but it doesn't matter if the story cannot be found or determined. So it was unsurprising that our next assignment was to create a story from 3 entirely different magazine images. To better help us develop that ability to show a narrative or concept in a few shots. Another thing of interest is that the final project as announced to us, the creation of a video that brings together design and the concept of sustainability and saving the Earth if you will. However a very mediocre example of the project as shown to us in class, I can't help but feel the professor did that on purpose to perhaps trick people into making one just like it.

a who?...a who..Oh a who!

Today's concept development class was quite interesting, and by interesting I mean the almost the entire first half of class was spent on a game. However the game was fun/tedious, some how managing to be both. It was a good tests of memory and teamwork, and I was surprised at how many time we didn't lose/fail. Although the game was more for fun then that single lessons or two lessons technically. After going through the game, which left some people mentally burned out somehow, we moved on to a very important topic;project briefs. These briefs are a very important piece of design paperwork and they can help the designer and client in terms of goal accomplishment. The briefs track what is needed for the project, and many other logistics, the brief itself helps to consolidate the project and forms the essential backbone of the project due to the vital information on it;who, what, why, when, where, and the how of the project. This document is extremely important to design work, and I'm glad this was assigned as homework, so we could properly form one.

Game Day 2

Today the rest of the concept class finished presenting our game concept boards, I was among them. I volunteered first due to anxiousness as well as the critique, which I was looking forward too. I tried to cover everything but as usual many things are lost in translation but the critique, as well as questions, proved very useful. The information that the class and Jimmy gave back to me was very valuable. I saw that my board was not balanced and I needed a better sense of visual hierarchy. The attention to detail must also be followed and never ignored, because those small details make a huge difference. I can see why some people find critiques hurtful or unsatisfying but honestly these kind of critiques do nothing but improve your skills. They tell you what you need to fix and what should be changed. The information they reveal to you tells you how to become a better presenter and how to present with a stronger and more powerful presence. The other people after me had similar issues. Although there were still new lessons to be learned, presenting with a mumbled or monotone voice is unsatisfactory, as it should be. The next class we're going to refine our presentations and boards even further and make sure they are even closer to a perfected concept, ready to be made.

Game day 1

This class we all brought our "developed" concepts to class on our presentation boards,  in hopes that we were ready to present. Like my some of my other classes this presentation was merely a test of our concept and presenting abilities.  As we gathered in the room and began presentations it became clear that no one here would have a perfectly developed concept and presentation, at least not now. Many people had interesting ideas while others simply re skinned existing games or changed them ever so slightly, so as to reflect some amount of creative effort. However no one person that presented had a truly solid concept. Through critique we all learned a number of valuable lessons regarding the development of a board or game in general, as well as presenting. The importance of visual hierarchy and color was lost on many of us and boards were either empty or too lop sided with imagery. Nothing but important and valuable data came from the whole class. The importance of proper body language, as well as verbal language, can make or break a presentation. It also forced many of us, especially those who presented, to look even harder at our concepts and think about what needs to be fixed or simplified.

Hard games

This past concept development class, a majority of us came prepared with our 9 ideas for games. However upon review by the professor it became clear that we had not tried our best. I know I personally had not done all I could, which I should have done. This another issue I found educational, to some degree. I mean should we be working on something for clientele, this kind of attitude would not be acceptable. Of course this was also for class, not payment or work, so therefore not much work or thought may have been put into it fully. Although I don't think this is a good excuse either, let alone any excuse. Another interesting point was that although many of us till had 9 games we had very few good ideas at this point, personally I realized my ideas were all far too similar. So really this class taught me about being thorough, working according to guidelines and general workmanship issues. The only idea I had that people express interested in seemed to dark and similar to other board games so I now have time to create an actually interesting and innovative game

Games time children

Today's assignment had us playing a variety of games we all brought in. Their were some expected game like candy land and trouble and some unexpected ones like an airplane themes chess-like game and tarot cards. The class revolved around 2 different games trying out new games with new people. I realized the goal was deeper then just playing with people, but it was to see what made a game an effective game. The attributes and ideas that cause a game to be successful and remembered. Several of the more popular games were played over chess and dominoes, seeing as more people were looking to have fun with the games rather then actually think or play a strategy based game. The successful games had good presentation and the ideas they were based on were attractive to the player. The game, aside form being designed to look attractive and enjoyable, also had to present the idea in a clear and coherent manner. The game has to be playable as well as attractive. I think the most important part of the game is the emotional response you get form it, our professor wrote some on the board after we played. The emotional impact is what dictates a good game, whether the fear and frustration from monopoly or the joy and competitiveness from Catch-a-phrase. Games have to have a good emotional impact to influence people to play them more then once. 

sins and games

The following  class, when the 7 sins project was due, I was eager to see everyone's own personal depictions. I had stuck with the idea of them as demons or primal evil beings who embodied the sin itself. The amount of variety was quite interesting. There were people such as myself who went with the drawn approach and sketched or drew their own personal depictions, other people with less talent, or perhaps less patience found and printed images that they thought depicted the sin as well. It was interesting to see who did what and perhaps what personal style or influence they have that may transition into their future design projects. The interesting part was when the professor left us to award individual pieces from sets, dictated by criteria we had spent a large amount of time discussing. The awards ranged from the idea itself or the most creative. I couldn't help but notice how some people simply refused to award and those that awarded far more then they needed. to. As curious as this was its a design class not a psychiatric class, but the designs and creations from my peer ranged from cool design work to lazy print outs. The next assignment from the following class, much like this previous one is also intriguing. To bring games and play them with the class, I find myself interested in how this project activity will further our design work as a whole or teach us some lesson we may not know.

Late stuff

A bit late on these updates but their updates nonetheless, Mondays concept class was interesting.there was nothing extremely spectacular about today in my opinion, due to the fact that we watched a long video, at least if memory serves it was long, it could just be I found it dull. I can't remember however it was the assignment for next class that truly got my attention today. The assignment to create a visual communication of the 7 deadly sins. This was a project I could get behind. Such a large amount of options and ways to depict them, I found myself almost over whelmed by ideas. I however stuck with my original idea of depicting them as demons, however that may have been a  poor design choice(more on that next time).

Feelings

This time in Concept Development class, we spent a majority of the day in 2 separate groups discussing two of the questions that had previously been assigned to us for class. In these groups we each went around and discussed our own reactions and answers to these questions. I think the exercise was a bit fun, I mean clearly there were some people who were more into it then others. That's always the case in life though I guess, or more specifically in forced group settings, there are always those who are not so supportive or accepting of working with a large amount of people or they simply aren't that social. However not to confuse people and make them assume that everyone was like this it was a small amount of people since the majority were more then willing to share and continue discussing. The exercise got more exciting as soon as both sides were done answering questions it turned into some sort of social networking party. The TED talks we viewed after the exercise were also very insightful. The idea of simplicity from John maeda and the less inspiring talk from the presenter after him.

Q/A and other stuff

This latest class of concept development was quite enjoyable. We had brought 10 images that changed the meanings of a word or phrase we chose. It was entertaining to see what we could come up with and I found it to be a very fun and beneficial project. We were also assigned questions that had to be answered here.

Have you experienced your own or other people's fear-based reactions to your creative education and career choices?  

Oh yes but only when I was younger around the time of early high school and late elementary school which is  of course a strange time to worry about a future career. Although most of t hat worry came from the odd friend and never from family  some of my elementary school faculty thought it was odd.a waste to sign up for a high school that had specialized media and art programs when I could just go to another cheap ass school instead. Other then that I on't think I've truly been worried about my future, as I intend to design video games, I can fall back on regular design work, and if that somehow fails I can easily fall back on IT work, really never had these fears or had them expressed to me.

How have you successfully overcome these reactions?

Well I think I prematurely answered this question in my previous answer. Although like I said before outside of some odd comment from when I was quite young I never truly had these fears of working with my creativity nor did I really have it expressed to me. So there wasn't much to overcome

What is your concept of your creative process?

I do mostly basic creation. I first get an understanding of what I need to make or design and then I just kind of go with the flow. I've never been one for planned layouts or specific routes, I often only follow guidelines when they're related to a school project of some sort. Although I imagine when working for someone else I will also have to follow some form of guidelines  But my creative process simply does with me drawing or on the computer and playing with concepts. My creative process also tends to be oone of borrowing, as in I borrow elements from previous works or things I've seen throughout my life, a life of inspiration one might say.

How do you approach creating, making?

I don't do anything special I simply turn music on, if I feel like it, and set about brainstorming.  I of course thing about what I'm trying to create and head down a certain direction in hopes of finding an idea and refining it. More often then not I'll sketch a large amount of rough ideas only to find one idea I truly like more then the rest, and at that point I go ahead and set about refining and improving it. My creation doesn't always take place in a sketchbook either as I often have ideas swirling in my head when on my computer, and with digital media there's a lot more fine creations in terms of brainstorming as I find work on the computer far harder to replicate then work made by hand.

Images and their meanings

This week we only had one class of concept development, due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday. This class was quite entertaining however. In context we needed 10 mood/image changing slogans for a single simple image. The results were quite interesting and how the images were twisted were also intriguing. In my personal opinion I enjoyed this project because it really forced me to think, and even then I know my best 10 were not the best they could have been. I could see the same issues reflected in other peoples work, it was actually more difficult for people depending on the actual images they had. Those people with pictures of people often had the easier time spinning the message or the mood, since they could make indirect references to people or go in the exact opposite direction of the base image. Some people with more complicated pictures also had a harder time because with more elements in the image it was harder to make the image mean more then a couple of things let alone 10. There were of course more then a couple of people that succeeded in this project although I have to admit that no one, in my opinion, had a perfect 10, although a lot of us had several good ones. With this next assigned project, an almost opposite of the previous assignment, we have to match a word or phrase to 10 different images. I think this will be more successful in general as the range of images to match or add to a word or phrase is much easier to find, especially since we can use images from the internet.

Week 2, coconut killers

The Wednesday of the second week rolls around now, bringing another interesting bout of concept development class. Due to a previous assignment by the professor we all brought several images of single items or simple looking images from magazines. Then with a coconut and paintbrush image plastered to the wall we had to create slogans or text for it, that would alter the image and mood. While I know I'm just repeating what I did a bit of an explanation is needed for any of the forthcoming text to make sense. With ideas, or lack of ideas, in head we started shouting off text that we feel could alter the meaning of the coconut. Several allusions to Hawaii an travel were made, of course, I found my own creativity lacking because I could scarcely think of 1 good one. The one thought about coconuts that kept running through my head was the one funny statistic about them: That falling coconuts kill more people per year on average then sharks. Some silly fact I learned during my usual bouts of shark week, but that's  the idea I was trying to formulate into short interesting words. The idea never fully came to me but I'm determined to use it somehow. My peers however came up with several very good slogans, for both the paintbrush image and coconut. The follow up assignment so far has proven to be both fun but challenging. To make 10 good slogans for 1 of our images, with his own advice to make 100 just to be sure we have a good number to choose from. This assignment is a bit hard I won't lie but at the same time I like the need to think harder or sometimes less about the ideas I need to formulate.  

Week 2, rough starts

Well the second week has rolled around for me at school. This blog starts off later then others, due to my own negligence. However I am determined to catch up. This concept development class is very interesting to me. With game design as my own side hobby/goal concept development is a core issue in this case. Of course its  a core issue for a majority of creative outlets, whether its for game design or marketing. So far the class has also been very entertaining. The activities we do, often in groups, are quite fun due to the fact that they require creativity and a good amount of cleverness to meet the goals at hand. These activities, while fun, are of course good teaching mechanisms for design as well as group work. Personally I have never liked group work unless it was done with close friends who I know I could trust. In all my previous G.E. classes whenever a group project or paper was announced I cringed and often asked if I could possibly do the assignment solo. However with this class its different since before it was a large number of majors jumbled together, in this class there's nothing but interest for art therefore everyone is willing to contribute. To leave on a serious note, the class while fun does have its goals that need to be met, we must be creative but it has to be a clever use of creativeness to truly be appreciated or outstanding.