Final Project

The link to my final project for the Concept Development class.

Just in case it doesn't work, here's the Vimeo version: http://vimeo.com/38713538

Thurs, March 15, grading systems, more final project info

On Thursday, Jimmy went over the course syllabus again. He told us about the importance of our school's Learning Policy and our classes "learning outcomes." I kind of wish I had considered this ages ago, especially during those times I've thought that the classes I was taking wasn't helping us really learn any sort of way. Aside from that, he went over a bit more stuff that was on the course syllabus. Why though? Why on the last day of class before finals? Well, he then told us what he wanted on Final's day, and proceeded to tell us his previous grading system. His previous grading system, as he described, seemed a tad complicated, but from what I understood, he would rate the project or assignment from a number scale of 1-5. He would also include notes on what needed improving or possibilities of making it better. The problem with this method of grading was that a lot of people would end up believing that if one would receive a 3, it would mean they have received a "C," when in actuality, it just means you're doing "average."

I think in my own way, I had found some sort of way to understand Jimmy's earlier methods of grading. I thought that maybe it wasn't Jimmy's grading method that really seemed too complicated to understand and that maybe it's our original grading system that's been wrong this whole time. What do I mean? Well, in elementary school, I learned that getting an "A" meant you were doing excellent work. You were doing work that exceeded the outcome. "B" meant that you made a few mistakes but the work was still excellent. "C" was always marked as average. Yet everyone would receive an "A" because they've either completed to work, despite it being excellent or exceeding the outcome. Though the elementary grading systems can't really be compared to a college leveled grading system, the general idea is still there. So the question I ask is: Is being average so wrong? It's true that we're supposed to try and aim for that "A," and that we should always try and exceed out expectations. But what if that "A" bar has been lowered by so much that to get there, all you needed to do was do "average." Maybe I've confused my readers, but just ask yourself: "What if?" "What if... getting an A only meant to match the following criteria? And that matching the following criteria was simply meant as 'average.' What if 'C' was really meant to be 'A'?"

 I also couldn't help but think how awesome it'd be to get written feedback on ways of improving because we all do learn from our mistakes, especially if it's pointed out to us. Though it would be time consuming and hard to keep up with everyone, especially if the class is as large as ours. (Our class has about 26+ students)

He went on to tell us the pros of his new method of grading. Us not really knowing how we're doing has an emotional influence on us which can help or hinder us. This all then came together into an assignment. We are to write a one page self assessment on what grade we think we should be getting in the class. The paper would not influence the grade that we'll be getting in the class, though he wants to understand the nature of how we're doing in this class. I'm actually finding this assignment interesting because if ever I were a teacher, I'd want to how my students consider themselves to be progressing in class. Especially when we've never really received an actually written grade the assignments we turn in. It definitely would make reading student's papers more fascinating-- not that some already aren't, I'm sure.

The very last thing we did in class was discuss the difference between Art and Design (communication). We came to the conclusion that design was to solve problems, where as art isn't necessarily problem solving. Someone also mentioned that art sells itself whereas design sells something else. To emphasize more on the difference between art and design, designers solves problems not for ourselves, but for a potential audience. And normally when there is a problem, the problem comes from your client in order for you, the designer, to solve, thus... a Designer (for Communication).




Adj:
Excited - happy with a lot of energy
Pleased - satisfied
convivial - friendly
Iridescent - colorful
Insidious - harmful

Tues, March 13, Modern Dog Design Co. and final

On Tuesday, Jimmy talked a bit about the AIGA event that they had on Saturday. He talked about  Robynne Raye, who was a special speaker at the Portfolio Event, also the founder of Modern Dog Design Co. He explained to us that what makes Modern Dog Design Co. so successful is money. They do work for corporate. This company designs many types of things, from products to simple posters. I remembered something interesting Jimmy said, which was something like this in not his exact words: "Though corporate pays a lot, it's not a lot of fun. This company enjoys doing posters--Not a lot of money or no money at all, but a lot of fun." I liked what he said here because every now and then, it shouldn't be just work we don't really enjoy doing but we do it to pay the bills and stuff. But on the side, there's always the fun stuff.  

After coming home from school, I took the time to look through Modern Dog Design Co.'s website and though they work for several corporate clients, a lot of their stuff is fascinating in it's own sort of way. I think my favorite piece is this: Go Intercourse Yourself and this: Ramen Soup Packaging. When stumbling upon these two products, I was surprised by how such a successful design company would make such silly (yet awesome, in my opinion) product designs. Their logo headline even says, "Tons of shit delivered daily." I suppose my point here is that Modern Dog Design Co. seems like an awesome place to work at.

The second half of the class was dedicated to working on the problems we were having with our final projects. Jimmy gave us the advice that a computer is not a creative tool. It's a production tool. So before starting the project at all, it's important to brainstorm first or to know what you're doing. (Thus the project brief.)

He gave an example of making a tagline for our video by using one of a student whom volunteered to what her video's tagline was. We spent some time trying to make the tagline better. The original tagline had been changed to: "Different than your local art school." But we were to make it better. Not many were successful by the time class was over. But the point of this short exercise was for us to critically think: How would we make this stronger and more focused. Something we should keep in mind.

 Adj:
Hungry - wanting to eat
Visual - seeing
 Passive - steady; not doing anything

Thurs, March 8th: What if...?

On the way home from school, a friend and I (we're both in the same Art 220 Concept Development class), were discussing "What if..." possibilities. The reason for this was because in class today, we did an exercise where everyone in the class had to come up with a "What if..." For some of the what ifs, we took the time to discuss further upon it, thinking of the possibilities that would arise from it. We even learned fascinating new facts or would be told interesting articles or studies upon certain what ifs.

After coming home from school, I would do my regular check ups on facebook. This is my honesty. At the very top of my newsfeed, someone had posted an article on "6 Terrifying New Creatures Science Just Discovered." You'll not be wanting to be eating or drinking anything if you choose to click on the link provided. But it certainly got me thinking: What if... humans have been trying evolve this whole time, by being born with a third arm, or a tail, or wings? But because we see these as deformations, we would have these surgically removed. I once had a professor who told us he was born with a tail but had it removed. I'm a tad skeptic on whether this is true or not, but I wouldn't doubt that there had been other cases like this. Ah! But the point is, after today's class, I feel that my mind has been opened up to more possibilities. Can a mind have suddenly increased it's creativity levels? If so, I think mine has just gained 100+ points, leveling up to a new level--In game terms.

Tues, March 6th, 1,10,11,100

Today's class started differently. Every morning, we would sign in on a sign in sheet but today, we were to individually instruct the next person what to do for the sign in sheet. The instructions were to sign in like we normally do, but to also write down an adjective of how we were currently feeling. We were not allowed to repeat an adjective that was already written though.

By the time the sign in sheet was complete, Jimmy saw that there had been three people who wrote down the same adjectives. Jimmy then proceeded to tell us that this was a communication exercise. It was similar to our previous exercise of "This is Who" and "This is a What." He then talked about Visual Communication, breaking down the words and explaining "Visual" and "Communication" separately by describing the written texts of "Visual" and "Communication."

The second part of class was another group exercise. We had previously been told to divide ourselves into two groups. Each group had to have the equal amount of males and females. The task proved to be fairly simple. I think the reason for this was that we had become used to reorganizing where we sit or having to put ourselves in groups.

After separating into two groups, Jimmy wrote on the black board some numbers in this sequence:

1
10
11
100
?

We were to figure out what the next number would be and discuss why, so that we could later explain our reasoning for our numbers.

Within our group, one of the students came up with a number, mostly because he had searched it on the internet. Of course, we were then told not to use the internet. The next number we came up, about four of us had chosen this number, it being 111. One of the four students explained to the group that the reasoning for this was because it was a pattern. From what numbers that were given to us, we saw that from "11", "1" another "1" was placed after 1 to become "11." And for 10, we saw the same pattern but with a "0." So from 10, it became 100. So it would be logical that the next number, "1" would be placed after the previous given "11," thus becoming 111.

We came to an agreement that the number would be 111. Jimmy then told us that he was going to choose one of us to explain our reasoning so that everyone in our group needed to be able to understand and explain it properly. Everyone in the group then looked at me, making a high assumption that Jimmy would choose me to explain. So the group then had me explain to them why our next numbers would be 111. I had explained it fairly simple, all who had seemed to understand. Jimmy later then came up to our group and asked me if I was ready to present. I don't know why but I kind of freaked out. Maybe I was intimidated. But I sunk into my chair and squeaked, "Um, no?"

 I'm not sure what changed his mind but he moved around the table and asked two other students who were fairly quiet as well. A different student was chosen.

We had to prepare her to be able to explain the numbers to us. She struggled and didn't seem confident but eventually her words were enough to convince us that she was ready. When the time came to present our number and reasoning, some information was left out. The other team who had gone before us had seem to have presented their number well, explaining to us that it was a pyramid. Their visual representation was something like this:

      / 1|  \
     /  1|0| \
    /   1|1|   \
   /    1|0|0   \
  /     1|1|0     \

The pattern was that the number sequence in the middle would change from 0101 where the numbers on the left would remain all 1's and the numbers on the left would remain all 0's. It had seem to make sense to us at first. But it wasn't until Jimmy asked our team to figure out their next number that we realized that it was impossible to figure out.

 Both teams had presented both numbers nicely visually. But the communication didn't work well. So what I took from Tuesday's class was the difference between Visual and Communication, as well as having fun with teamwork.

Adj:
congruent - agreeing
dreamy - unreal, daydreaming
 illusory - imaginary

Thurs, March 1st, John Maeda and Finals

On Thursday, we were given a video to watch from Ted.com. Before watching the video, Jimmy briefly went over how Ted.com came about, created by a man named Richard Saul Wurman. He also talked about a woman by the name of Maria Giudice who went out and built her own foundation. After he finished telling us about these two amazing designers, he gave us some more of his words of wisdom as well as some things to always be thinking about. "Who do you want to be today? Know what you want to do. Find yourself. Build your own foundation." These were just some of the wisdom he had given us.

The video he had us watch from Ted.com was another Ted speaker by the name of John Maeda. The video can be found here: John Maeda on the simple life. John Maeda talks about simplicity and complexity. He talked about the importance of simplicity but also adds how we love complexity. The video goes on about John's own life, eventually pointing out that simplicity is about enjoyment. I found the talk enjoyable and interesting because he also points out statistics towards life like brain strength, physical strength, vision, social responsibilities, and wisdom. He points out that wisdom is always going up.

After the video, we were asked if we wanted to watch another video on John Maeda. Majority said yes. So we watched another video afterwards, a lot of it mixing in with the first video. By near the end of class, we were given time to work on our final though about 75% of the class had walked out to protest for Cal State's budget cuts. Since there were only few of us left in class, we took the time to film each other and take photos of each other for our final.


Adj:
Predominant: most common or important
Inescapable: incapable of avoiding
Stupendous: astounding

Tues, Feb. 28th: Brief review and Final Project ideas and Discussions

Today in class we briefly went over the essential things that were needed for our final project and then we did a review on the things we had learned throughout the class. We listed several topics with great emphasis on visual literacy. There were many more things that were listed but it is quite a long list. Since we had only briefly gone over many of these topics, Jimmy suggested googling or wikipedia all of these if we wanted to learn more.

After briefly going over the topics we had learned for this class, we were given time to work on our final project. A lot of us moved into groups to discuss amongst each other the ideas that we had for the video, that is our final project. A lot of us had different opinions that a one minute film was a lot or too less of time but we all agreed that it was going to be a lot of work.While discussing ideas, we discussed problems that might arise when doing the film. We did make friendly conversations amongst each other. After class, I noticed that students were walking together whom I normally didn't see walking together. So I suspect that this class has allowed students to bond together in a new found friendship.


Adj:
Auspicious: promising success
Copious: plenty
Adventurous: seek adventure