1.16.13

The second class of the week was based on film and discussion. The series TED talks has speeches of designers/artist. We watched Stefan Sagmeister talk about how he works for 6 years and takes 1 year sabbatical to refresh his ideas. He explained these years come from his retirement plan and spreads 5 years throughout his working years. This got me thinking about how good of idea this is and that I would love to be able to do this. As an creative being, there will always be rough patches in your life that you won't be able to produce any ideas. I believe the only way to get over these creative blocks are to step back from the work and redirect your thoughts. If you try and push through your creative blocks it might start to feel like a chore. Designing can be the most fun that a job can be, when it starts become something you dislike or feel tired by it, it would probably be time to step back. 

I've done this with my photographs and art. For the longest time, even now, you won't find me having a camera with me. This happen mainly because my camera is piece of shit but besides that initial let down I found myself trying so hard to produce something I was proud of. It wasn't happening for me. Work, school, friendships and life had gotten in the way of me wanting to produce art. Now I still look at my portfolio and I'm sure I can still produce photos that I really want to. I think when the time is right I'll get back into photographing my life. 

Now the second half of the class was about the 5 photographs we were ask to bring in. These cut outs from magazines were to be a person, place or thing. Jimmy only picked two for the class discussion (i'm pretty sure he thought the rest sucked.) He choose a close up of a coconut half open. All that was shown on a black background was the empty inside and a thin layer of the hard shell. We then were ask to put titles on the photograph. Many were said, "Insert lime here," "Wear a helmet," etc etc.  Each time a different title was said it would change the entire mood of the photograph. One of these sayings was made for happy hour or anything related to drinking and relaxing. The other totally changed from cheerful to dark and eerie, maybe used for drunk driving poster. The next photograph was a picture of a paint brush dipped in white paint. This time everyone had to say at least 3 different sayings for this photograph. Again many were said and he said a lot were terrible. 

It's a lot harder than I thought to come up with words that will say exactly what your trying to say or sell. Every saying has a different meaning and can change it drastically. These words will tell you how to feel, whether its somber, cheerful, hungry or the need to travel. A lot of work goes into advertisement, having so much pressure on just a few words. As apart of our homework is to pick a photograph and come up with 10 good sayings for the photograph. I know this is gonna be tough because a lot of them are going to suck. I think i'm gonna drink a glass of wine before I start this assignment. 

'til next time