Project 3

Thursday is print day for me...that is the schedule I've set forth. I'm very happy with my revised design for project 3 but the writing needs a little tweaking and so I'm working on that now. The front of my postcard needs something more than just that image, while still remaining consistent with the other pieces to show it is all one campaign. I'm kind of glad we are easing back into the workload this week because I'm finding it difficult to motivate myself and gear back up after the break. Maybe I just need some coffee...although sleep sounds pretty damn good right about now...

midterm review

I was happy with my outcome, but my writing needs refining abit. I have alot of good random thoughts, but need to unite them to one common purpose. The most frustrating thing is when you think something finally clicks and you find out after critique that it only half-clicked. I guess if "getting it" was that easy, they would be selling degrees instead of making you work for it!

street art

Found this street art on the http://www.woostercollective.com/ site. I just thought it was really cool for how simple it is.

BANG

Okay, so I just wanted to write "BANG"....

Seriously though, Molly Bang's book is pretty interesting and quite a fast read...thank goodness because I'm still settled into this nice little break we've had.

I just hope she didn't name her kid Harry.

revised cause-effect

I stuck with the texting while driving theme, but I totally revamped my approach. I think the result is a hipper, more suitable attack at the 16-20 crowd. Comments are welcome!!
(single girl: mag ad
single boy: poster
2 girls: post card)

busy week

Just when I thought I was going to have a break...Wednesday I left work with a 24 hour stomach flu and I generally don't get sick. Thursday I gradually felt better and was able to take my wife to her regularly scheduled doctor visit for the pregnancy. That evening, she goes into false labor and so from 6-11:30 we were either on the road or sitting at GBMC for the labor check. So much for working on schoolwork that night. Friday my in-laws were able to take our son Jake for the day and so I was able to continue painting his new room and work on schoolwork. Now, after running errands all morning with Jake in tow and finally getting him down for a nap (car rides will do that), I have more time to work on revisions and hopefully finish up some household chores so I can actually relax tonight and watch a movie with my wife. What a week so far!

random thoughts

• Happy St. Patty's Day
• I'm satisfied with my first two projects, keeping in mind that grades for project 2 have yet to be released.
• I have a sh-tload of work to do to revamp project #3.
• ...and some decisions to make about the direction I want to go in
• How bad are the Orioles going to be this year? BAD
• It would be really cool if kids could learn how to go potty in like 5 minutes.
• Cinnamon Toast Crunch might be the best cereal in the world.
• I need a new job, preferably utilizing my graphic design skills.
• Too bad the market is such that I wouldn't feel comfortable being low person on the totum pole.
• When will these 400K houses start selling for 300K?
• I might have a drink tonight....seated of course
• why do I feel like I can't relax even though it's spring break?
• relaxing would be a mistake...
• I need to stop eating so much, but it's hard with a pregnant wife and it still being cold outside.
• sh-t, it's 10 of 2:00...too much stuff to work on to Blog.

just a little taste

Well I'm still refining this comp. I am trying to put to use the comments from my per revision, namely sprucing up the typography. The new typography needs some tweaking...not sure that art deco is working in the header and I hate that question mark.

profile writing

It still needs tweaking (bold parts):
Frank Cipolloni has owned his trumpet for 44 years. This brass companion has been there through it all; Colts games, proms, nightclubs. To understand the indelible mark this trumpet left on Frank, you must first know that instruments allowed teenagers to enhance their social lives during the 1950’s and 60’s, despite being primarily viewed by parents as a way for their children to earn money in the difficult job market.
In 1966, a year removed from becoming the Baltimore Colts Marching Band’s youngest member at 15, Frank and his friends began the Top 40’s cover band “La Moures”. This name was contrived by the band to have a Spanish feel and became a running joke amongst its members as numerous fans attempted to guess its meaning. With its 15 members, “La Moures” was an original participant in the Fells Point Festival and used this exposure to propel them into other gigs. “One weekend we decided to see how long we could play” quipped Frank, “so from 7-11:00 on Friday night we played at a Perry Hall teen center; then traveled to Chambersburg, PA to play an after-prom party from 2-7:00 AM. From there, we went to the Eastern shore for a bull roast from 12-7:00 PM, and then finished at Kale’s Nightclub from 9-2:00 AM.” Summing up this fond memory, he added that the band felt relieved once the final gig had ended so they treated themselves to a relaxing Sunday at the beach.
Frank still stays close with the core group from the band. His teenage years were spent earning money and building friendships that would last a lifetime; none so important as his friendship with this old brass trumpet, which helped shape his life and remains never far from reach.

6 word autobiography

High strung neat freak: loves sports

Venting session

Regarding the profile project, I'm not especially happy that I kept my writing under...rather "at" 250 words. My interpretation of 200-250 words is no less than 200, no more than 250 words. I mean, every other time they've told us "at least 150 words", etc. so we knew we had to be over a certain amount. I also think that should have been one of the main challenges for this project too since it is damn hard to keep it that short. It was obvious that many other classmates went well above...sorry, had to step away to change a dirty diaper. Welcome to my life...that pseudo word count. Not that I'm mad at people in the class, but I think this criteria should have been made much more clearer so some of us (Okay, ME) didn't spend all that time refining their writing, only to now have more work to do to add text back in. I'm not especially excited about wasted time these days, but I guess this is the nature of the beast in the design and writing world. Moral of the story...ask more questions about the requirements for all projects going forward. Oh, and while I'm at it, is anyone else just slightly amazed at this kind of ambiguity in our daily sheets? I also noticed that the one we received on March 1st had the titles of projects 2 and 3 as "Make your Friend a Star". I'd like to see our handouts held to the same high standard our projects are. Maybe it would avoid confusion. I digress...

Cause/Effect advertisement

Hey Gang. I don't ski, but this ad is very cool!! Visually striking, good example of cause/effect, and contains the call-to-action.

FOCUS!!

Okay, my choices had grown to 3 for the cause-effect project, but I think I've narrowed it down to 2. Still conjuring up thoughts and thumbnails for the "children under 2 watching TV" idea, and came up with another one for text messaging while driving. I really think the images and titles would be more striking for the text messaging bit, but I the children idea may have more substance. Not the time to be wishy washy, that's for sure.

I got my mind on my projects and my projects on my mind

Okay, so I'm very glad I did so much for those first drafts of project 2...it's really making that part of this week not-so-stressful (knock on wood of course, cause that could change). For this cause and effect project, I am seriously considering doing the effect that television has on children under 2 years of age. There have been studies which show that children who are inundated with television aren't developing the expressive language they need during the early stages of childhood which could lead to a number of different things...acting out/aggressiveness, frustration, obesity, etc. It looks like for this idea, people may have to "take that walk". Another really good idea is one my wife suggested, but I haven't decided how depict the cause/effect...the new head of Baltimore City Schools (Alonso) has tried to institute paying students for better academic performance and graduation. I'll need to research this more, but I'm under the assumption this isn't the first time this has been done in the country and I'm still deciding whether the cause would be the bad grades, or the cause would be the payoff, thereby making the effect....???