Some Adjectives

quaint
repulsive
unsightly

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines day

On Tuesday our game presentations were due, I was the third person to present their Pitch to the class.  After seeing my other two classmates present before me I noticed that I needed to revaluate my strategy.  I personally know that I am not the greatest presenter in the world but one of my biggest fears and weaknesses is presenting in front of my colleagues.  Another big fear that I have is being critiqued.  I do know that the profession that I am currently trying to pursue is based on being critiqued in front of clients or colleagues.  What I did do was rehearse and organize the way I was going to present my game.  Prior to presenting I tell myself that I do not know these people and I am never going to see them again.  I take that feeling and apply it to how I feel and for the most part my nerves go away.  The other approach that I kept in mind was to keep my presentation short and concise and only touching upon key points.  I did not receive too many critiques from my classmates, which I was for the most part actually disappointed in.  One point I did note was how as confident as I was in the beginning of my presentation I do need to be in the end of my presentation. For the most part I felt that my presentation was well presented compared to the other presenters but there is a lot that you can learn by listening.  Noticing the little things matter, from the words you use, to the way you communicate using your hands.  Try to be inviting while speaking to your audience.  The little things do matter. 

Day 8 for Tues. 7th

On Tuesday my Concept Development 220 class was a game day.  Each classmate had to bring in a game, whether it was a board game, dice game, or card game.  So we spent almost the entire class period playing a different game, with a different person every 30 mins or so.  All in all it was a repose class period day with laughs and fun.  What was different though about our activities in class, was that we had to stop and analyze what the game was about.  Why and how it created emotions from us.  I have never once stopped to think of these things while or after I played them.  That is probably how into the games I am.  All of the games that I took part in kept me beguiled in the game.  Also my competitive nature took over.  As a designer I believe the goal behind us playing these games was to feel emotions. Somehow as a design major/visual communications major must create emotions in the targeted population.  This is exigent in trying to create a successful product.  So our assigned homework is to create a new game, and come up with 9 concepts for this game.  We must create a type of process map which includes all of these concepts and rules but make it visual as well.

Day 7 for Thurs. 2nd

On Thursday, Professor Moss had the entire class pin up our Process Maps that we developed as the homework assignment.  The process map had to be a visual of how we as a student earns an A in the course.  As students were pinning theirs up on the board, I noticed that mine was very different compared to the rest.  What I had noticed was that not only did my process map not relay the message correctly but it had been done wrong entirely.  Professor Moss pointed my work out to the class asking everyone else's opinion about my work.  I did not want to claim that the work Professor Moss pointed out was mine.  What I had failed to do was create an actual map.  But what I did was create a Pie Chart.  I felt atrocious knowing that my chart was being judged and renamed and critiqued at.  But in another perspective the class practiced their skills of seeing what is presented and not reading into the work.  It helped the class practice our innovative skills with graphic design.  Thursday's class was a bit overwhelming  for me because I tend to not like being picked out from the crowd or in this case my classmates.  Especially since it was a major mistake.

Day 6 for Tues. 31st

In class we discussed and exercised the ability to illustrate a way to get an A in the class.  Now the quick assignment given in class was very enigmatic to the subject at hand.  Reason being was because Professor Moss wanted us to use our creative side.  So as a class not one person took the leadership role and helped explain what the exact goal of the assignment was.  So as a class I feel we all failed to communicate with each other on a common goal.  The idea behind this was to be able to plan and map out the process of passing our class.  Visually we were to show in the minutest amount of words as possibly the mapping of how to get an A in the Art 220 course.  I personally felt precipitous as I was trying to complete my assignment.  I did not feel like I did a great job of getting my point and message across.  I found the assignment to be quite difficult in the alotted time given.

Day 5 for Thurs. 26th

In class we broke up into two groups to discuss our assignment that was given to us. The assignment was to create ten different phrases for an image that we showed.  With each phrase we were to change the view and mood of how we looked at the image.  This assignment was some what hellacious due to the extreme the mood chage must be.  What we learned in our groups was that we did not complete the assignment as described.  We actually did a suboptimal job.  It was not until Professor Moss stopped out group and did a ver good job of explaing how we should brainstorm properly in a group environment.  He made us expeditious come up with ideas of what was going through our head.  That class made me take a different perspective on how I as a student come up with ideas and/or brainstorm.

Day 4 for Tues. 24th

In my concept development class on Tuesday January 24th we discussed mainly about creativity.  We spoke on how we go about being creative, where creativity comes from, and ways we communicate these ideas to others.  One topic that was touched upon the most was how we got our ideas.  Not everyone is the same when it comes to creating ideas.  This topic was very titillating to me because this was an issue I personally never spoke to anyone about.  I found it titillating because I know now how some people have different ways of creating.  As weird as some may sound, it works for them and it also brings the possibility of also trying them for myself.  Our class was instructive due to all of the communication that was happening in regards to our in class assignments.  We later broke into groups with 5 pictures that each of us brought into class.  Our goal was to create a story with at the least 3 pictures and at most 6.  In this exercise we had to communicate and be creative.  Reason being is that the story had to be unambiguous to the viewer.  I found this task to be quite fun because my group mates and I had several stories but we did in the end choose the best story.
Through my creative career I personally have had trouble with creating ideas.  When I try to create an idea I usually just sit and stare at the wall or ceiling waiting for some thing or idea to pop in my head.  I have found that when I wait for an idea I happen to wait for a very long time.  I have yet to master a way of creating ideas.  I will usually ask friends or family about their thoughts in regards to an assignment that I am presented with.  At the end of the day I come up with an idea from several ideas that I have heard throughout the day.  I just put all these ideas in my head and come up with something original.  So I still need to find a better process of creating ideas.  Its a work in progress.