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just another work-in-progress

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For week 12, I listened to the Design Matters podcast featuring Tina Roth Eisenberg and read chapters 83-91 out of my Layout Essentials book.

There are very few things more inspiring to me than hearing someone gush about how they get to do what they love as a career. Tina Roth Eisenberg was such a delightful listen as I wrapped up two projects for two different classes in the same week. She talked about how ordinary objects that we see and use from day to day contain undiscovered beauty. To form this idea into a project, she carries a camera with her everywhere to photograph everyday life as it happens as well as the objects we interact with. This project helps capture a new appreciation for the ordinary in life, and I think that is very important, especially in times of distress and anguish. It truly is the little things in life that make it so beautiful, and it made me so happy to hear about how Tina expressed this through her work. As I kept listening, I grew more inspired by her outlook on life in general. She stressed finding small things to make yourself smile, which I think is something that we can all benefit from. But it was when she started talking about work that I was struck the most: “I love my studio. I love coming to work every single day. It’s my happy place.” Same, Tina. Same. My happy place is my “studio” as well; whether it is the design lab at school or my desk at home, my workspace is where I am most comfortable. As the semester progresses, I find myself—despite all of the stress I have endured—becoming filled more and more everyday with a love for design. I have a blooming love for every single part of design, from the struggles to the instant ideas, from the successes to the failures, and everything in between. You could wake me up and spin a roulette to determine my general mood on any given Tuesday or Thursday morning, send me to class in the lab from 9 to 5, and watch me leave with a smile on my face. It just makes me so happy, even when I am frustrated with a project. This semester especially, I feel a fire igniting in me—in the best way possible—with the work I am completing. I cannot believe how far I have come with my classmates, and I am so proud of all of us.

This week was certainly one to be proud of. We had our final critique at Stewart & Associates for our Packaging class, but on a more relevant note to the content of this blog, we finished our Dutch Designer portFolios and presented them today. To be perfectly honest, this project caused me an immense amount of stress. But I do not say that spitefully. I gained so much out of this project: I developed better communication skills, learned the trial and error of the printing process, and built upon my problem-solving skills with the physical assembly of my piece. Overall, I am very proud of what I accomplished. I know that there are still areas of this piece that can be developed and fine-tuned more, and I am looking forward to making these changes and truly transforming the work into a strong portfolio piece. The image I have included is a snippet of my piece featuring a quote from Sven Lamme himself. I will remember this quote as I begin new work. I am so very excited about how much I have grown and will continue to grow.

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For week 11, I listened to 99% Invisible’s Ten Thousand Years podcast and read chapters 74-82 from my Layout Essentials book.

Ten Thousand Years piqued my interest in a much different way compared to the other podcasts I have listened to so far because it got me thinking more about the language of design rather than the process. The podcast talked about the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico, the United States’ only center for discarding nuclear waste. This is where all of our country’s nuclear waste will be stored forever. A major issue here lies in whether or not WIPP is a good solution to the problem of a necessary storage area for discarded radioactive materials, but there is a greater question to pose here. If this waste is supposed to stick around basically forever, that means that it will last from birth to death and beyond for ourselves as well as for future generations. The generations of the future are going to need to understand what WIPP’s purpose is and the various dangers to human life that are associated with it. That’s when design enters the picture. When a government-organized panel got together to discuss this unresolved communication issue, they turned to symbols—the skull and crossbones, namely, per the suggestion of Carl Sagan. Like verbal language, however, the connotations of symbols can evolve over time. The symbol of a skull and crossbones has had many different meanings throughout history thus far, so it becomes more difficult as time goes on for us to predict how future generations of people will comprehend such a symbol. As designers, it is our duty to be able to visually communicate in an effective manner to all walks of life, including lives that have yet to exist. Connotation is so, so important in all of the work that we create. It looms over us while we are designing, and I think that it adds to our careful, precise nature in a way that isn’t noticeably visible in our process. Our final pieces—if they succeed—will display the meaning we are striving to convey, but outsiders don’t really see how we get there. It almost feels like a sub-language that only designers speak. For me, that’s one of the coolest things I’ll ever know.

The book, once again, is targeting the issues I feel like I am currently facing with my portFolio project—no surprise there. Chapter 74 is about interruptions to the grid, which is one of my weak points in my project. Everything is so grid-heavy right now, and I need to find a way to break it up a little more. A perfect example is my front cover for my portFolio, as seen above. I’m starting to play around with the type, and I feel like it is heading in the right direction, but I’m going to experiment with breaking that grid in particular. I’m excited to see the end results. This project has admittedly caused me more stress than usual, but I think that I am really starting to get a lot out of it knowledge-wise, and I’m finally beginning to enjoy it more.

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For week 10, I listened to the Design Matters podcast featuring Stefan Sagmeister and read chapters 65-73 of my Layout Essentials book.

Stefan’s podcast was a pleasant listen. I especially liked when he went into talking about art as an experience rather than an object. This is such an important concept for us to grasp as students because a huge objective in the mind of a student is what our final grade will be. One major thing that Leslie, Steve, and Meena have all stressed to us time and time again is that we should not care about grades. Yes, everything we work on for class is attached to a grade. Yes, that feels very important right in this present moment. But that tiny little letter should not be our sole focus when we are creating in the classroom. The process is what truly matters most at the end of the day because that is what causes us to grow as designers. When I entered ART 205 with hopes of admission into the design program at UofL, project grades were my top priority—process took a back seat, even though it was still very much a part of my final product. As I’ve continued to advance through the program, I find myself starting to care less about my grade and focusing on actually taking in new knowledge and producing my work from what I have learned. (I could go on for days about how much I hate grades, but that’s a rant for another time.) As a result, I feel like I am improving on a daily basis while also becoming more passionate about the work I am creating. Of course, I don’t feel this way all the time; when I start to hit a wall with a project, I start to see it as an object that is causing me stress and worry. But Stefan’s words presented themselves as a gentle reminder to focus on what I’m getting out of the project rather than worrying about the grade I’m receiving or feeling resentful when I am struggling to solve my work.

As always, my Layout Essentials book seems to target the exact problems I am facing with my work head-on. Right now, I feel like I am struggling to create flow and bring the piece to life. Chapter 67, Pace Yourself, says that “layout is storytelling,” and I need to remember this as I tackle my arrangement of text and images. Pairing the book with the feedback that I got from our 50% scale critique, I think that I am starting to find ways through the wall currently in front of me with this project. I still have a moderate way to go before I can call myself close to being finished, but now, I feel like I have the tools to head in the right direction. The image I have included today is my 50% scale dummy book in front of one of my spreads onscreen. Physically seeing and holding my piece definitely helped me figure out what is working right now, what needs adjustments, and what needs a complete overhaul. I’m excited to keep changing and building this project, and I can’t wait to see everyone else’s final products.

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For week 9, I listened to the Awareness podcast from 99% Invisible and read chapters 55-64 of my Layout Essentials book.

The podcast this week discussed the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and how artists came together to bring the movement forward into the public eye. Patrick O’Connel, an artist from New York City, joined up with other local artists and formed Visual AIDS to create artwork related to the illness. The group would display their work in gallery shows and host events for the public, but what really got the public on board with the movement was the red ribbon symbol. The ribbon itself was inspired by the yellow ribbons around trees at the time that were meant to honor those who had served in the Persian Gulf War, and the red hue of the ribbons was decided upon because it was the color of blood. The ribbon really began to take off as a movement—celebrities began wearing them at award ceremonies, and it grew in popularity with the general public from there. It was such a versatile piece for explaining such a large, difficult topic. People would wear the ribbons and be asked about what they meant, so it served as an educational tool in addition to its other functions, such as honoring a loved one suffering from AIDS. It’s so amazing how one creative idea can bloom so quickly into a huge national movement. This tiny symbol is now recognizable worldwide, and it has even been adapted to other awareness movements by merely changing the ribbon’s color (read: pink for breast cancer). 

Until I listened to this podcast, I had no idea that a group of artists was the original creator of the ribbon that I see everywhere today. What really inspires me is that they did it selflessly—they were not trying to promote themselves through this movement. Rather, they were trying to build awareness for a subject that many people at the time may not have understood very well. This is the type of artist that I want to become. I do not seek fame through my work; I just want to be able to make a difference in this world. I’m not sure that many people actually realize how important artists and designers are to our society. I hear a lot of people sort of brush off art majors with the classic phrase, “Have fun getting minimum wage for the rest of your life.” Excuse me? We literally shape people’s perception with our work. When it comes to creating a major movement, such as Visual AIDS, we are the ones who start the fire. I’ve been gradually teaching my closest friends, all of whom are music majors, about the work I am training to do and showing them that examples of it are all around them. I wish that every single person who has ever doubted the importance of an art degree would listen to this podcast because I think it would be a true eye-opener. It blew me away, and I am an artist myself. Imagine how much it would change the perspectives of someone else!

As for this week’s Layout Essentials excerpt, I find it very clever how the chapters I read on a weekly basis correlate to specifics in our projects. These chapters mainly dealt with experimental typography which, coincidentally, is one of the parameters for our Dutch Designer folios. I’m definitely going to keep going back to these chapters as I finish up my project. I don’t want to call myself afraid of experimental type, but it’s newer territory for me, and I am still a little hesitant. I think that referencing these chapters will help boost my confidence as I play around with type in my project. The image I have included this week is the cover spread of my folio, and so far, my type is falling very short of experimental. But that just means that it’s time to start playing around and having fun with it, which is always a good time!

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For week 8, I listened to Design Matters featuring Marian Bantjes and read chapters 46-54 of my Layout Essentials book.

“Wonder is at the heart of my work.” I absolutely loved this quote from Marian Bantjes; she was very interesting to listen to. She started off as a typesetter but ended up very unhappy with her career, so she entered the world of graphic design. She talked a lot about how she prefers finding new ways to solve problems to avoid predictability and make her viewers think a little more about what her work means. Something she mentioned that really resonated with me is that she sees so much design work that lacks visual communication—many designers will create pages and pages of text with a few accompanying illustrations, and even though they are supposed to relate to one another, they do not always connect quite how they are supposed to. This hit me as something very important to consider with the next stage of our Dutch designer project: the [port]folio/lookbook. For this project, we need to use lots of imagery to represent our chosen designer accompanied by only 200-500 words plus a timeline. Body copy is obviously very informative, but with a placed limit, it is important that we convey our designer’s work and mission through visuals. This project is going to be an excellent way to develop exactly what Marian stated is necessary for great design work: visual communication. I think at this stage, hearing her emphasize that importance is going to help me focus more on that aspect of my work and improve it for not only our current project but for future projects as well. I also really enjoyed hearing about her self-described tendencies to be unconventional in her design work. She looks for unique ways of solving problems, which is something that I want to be able to attain in my own work. Qualities like that really set her apart from other designers, and that is something I hope to achieve someday.

My Layout Essentials book is going to be a lifesaver with this project. I am so glad that I have such a strong resource to refer to as I build and rebuild my grid for my Dutch designer lookbook. I felt kind of overwhelmed when we received the parameters for the next part of the project, but after bouncing ideas off of my classmates (#teamRGB forever!), I am starting to feel more confident. I also keep thinking about everything that I accomplished with the $5 Toy project in such a short span of time, and it motivates me to keep going and discover what else I am capable of.

The image I have included is of one of my research spreads. I decided to pursue this project with Sven Lamme as my featured Dutch designer! He was so kind in his email to me, and the scope of his work is very inspiring to me as well. I can’t wait to keep working with him as the project develops!

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For week 7, I listened to the Guerrilla Public Service podcast from 99% Invisible and read chapters 37-45 of my Layout Essentials book.

I was very intrigued by this week’s podcast. One day, artist Richard Ankrom was driving on the 110 freeway in Los Angeles and need to merge onto Interstate 5 North, but failed to make his exit. After realizing that he missed the exit because the freeway sign was not properly labeled, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He made his own I-5 North label for the sign and took the process very seriously, going so far to look up the exact California Department of Transportation specifications online and create the sign according to their standards. He even knocked down the shine on his sign so that it would blend in with the smoggy signs that were already on the interstate for a number of years. Then, on a quiet Sunday morning, he took his homemade label up to the original sign and installed it himself, risking getting in trouble with the law. Caltrans actually commended him for his work on the sign, although they asked that he would not do it ever again. This story really inspires me to be bolder in both my design work and my general life. Similarly to Ankrom, if I spot something that is incorrect, minuscule or not, it lingers in my mind and bothers me to no end sometimes. He took the initiative to try and solve the problem on his own, risking his own well-being, and ended up being applauded for his efforts. What is stopping me from doing this as a designer? Even if there is a chance that my solution would not be acknowledged, I shouldn’t let that stop me from trying it out and seeing what happens, whether it pertains to a class project, a real-world design problem, or a life scenario. Boldness is something that I want to acquire as a trait, and while I may not want to go so bold that I break federal laws like Ankrom, I think that there is definitely a reward that comes with taking risks in both design and life.

The chapters in my book are growing more and more in depth with different aspects of grid design, and they are certainly helpful to me as I begin to design spreads for our latest project. The image above shows a snippet of an email I received today from Sven Lamme, one of the Dutch designers I am researching. I was very excited to hear back from him so quickly, and I really enjoyed reading his responses to my questions. I am hoping that the other designers I emailed will reply to me soon as well.

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For week 6, I listened to Design Matters featuring Maria Popova and read chapters 28-36 of my Layout Essentials book.

I loved hearing Maria’s thoughts on creativity. The way she explained both of them made a lot of sense to me. She started off by explaining the connection of creativity to our own intuition. They are often pattern-based, and they are reflected in different ways across all of the different aspects of our lives. It stems from what we truly care about, be it things or people, and this same theory is channeled into our creativity: we create based on what we love. A quote from her that I particularly admired was, “Our creativity comes from all these existing pieces of stuff that we gather over the course of our lives.” Basically, she explained that everything that makes up us as individuals, from inspiration to memories and knowledge, can be recombined into new ideas as we create. I had never really thought of creativity in this way before, but I can definitely pinpoint ways that I prove her theory to be true in my own life. When I think about it, everything that I create carries a little piece of myself within the work, whether it is my general design style, an interest of mine, or something that I feel very strongly about. More refined creative details emerge from those broader categories: my style evolves over time as I gain more knowledge, design-related or not, and experience more of my life. Even though my work carries similarities as time goes on, it will always evolve in the same exact way that I do. That is such a bizarre (yet totally amazing!) thing to think about. It definitely reveals the symbiotic nature of design work—I am a part of my work, and my work is a part of me.

The chapters I read in my book this week began to shift focus towards modular grids and how to work with them. I have a strong feeling that this book is going to become my best friend over the next week, and that’s definitely not a bad thing. I’m looking forward to beginning our next project and diving deeper into the bookform!

The picture I’ve included tonight displays tonight’s workspace. After packing up to travel to Clemson for the weekend with the Cardinal Marching Band, it was nice to be able to wind down and relax with the podcast and my book. I find it very therapeutic.

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I stumbled upon this spread while I was browsing sports magazine layouts on Behance. This is from the 2015 Minnesota Vikings Gameday magazine, designed by Taylar Jacobson. I think that the layout of this spread conveys excitement (as it should, being an athletic design) but also the sophistication of a professional athletic organization versus that of a collegiate institution. I think that the sophistication comes from the single column of body copy paired with the light, airy quote to its left. The text definitely adds weight to the spread, but it doesn’t overpower the image because much of it is so light. It is clear that the image is supposed to have more immediate emphasis, but the diagonal guides the reader’s eye to the body copy. I admire the extension of the imagery across the whole spread; I think it’s a clever way of adding excitement while also balancing the necessary text.

As a side note: This woman is living out my dream. This is literally what I want to do as a career. (But for one of my favorite teams instead!)

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After a five-week ride on a very emotional roller coaster, I am proud to be able to say that I have finished the $5 Toy Project! Seeing my printed, fully finished 17″ x 22″ poster in person was extremely gratifying, and as I carefully folded it into a booklet, I felt two things: 1) that a weight was finally being lifted off my shoulders, and 2) a great sense of accomplishment.

In only five weeks(!), I managed to purchase $5 worth of random items from a hardware store, brainstorm them into a toy, assemble said toy, design a logo for the toy, create packaging for the toy, and design a booklet that unfolded to reveal a poster on the back. It is literally insane to me that I was able to do all of that in such a short period of time. If you had told me two years ago what caliber of work I would be doing right now, I would have laughed in your face. I cannot believe how far I’ve come.

I really think that this project accelerated my growth as a designer. I worked on many different aspects of design for a single project, including areas (re: LOGOS) in which I feel I have weaker skills. Throughout all of it, the importance of sketching—tons of it—really stood out to me. I like to think that I already know that I need to sketch before going digital with my work, but this project really brought that knowledge to the surface. 

I also realized just how much I am capable of creating on my own. Every physical piece that I assembled was a result of my own imagination, my own critical thinking, and my own sheer creativity. To be perfectly honest, my level of creativity is one of my biggest insecurities. I worry sometimes that I am not creative enough to solve problems like a true designer, but I really believe that this project helped wash away a lot of that fear. I literally started out with pure nothing and ended up with physical work that I am very proud of. Having completed this project, I am truly starting to feel like I am growing and getting better as a designer, and I am certain that I’m beginning to reach new potential that I had never thought possible.

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For week 5, I listened to 99% Invisible’s Revolving Doors podcast and read chapters 19-27 in my Layout Essentials book.

The podcast told the story of Theophilus Van Kannel, a man who had such severe social phobia that he invented the revolving door in order to avoid the socially awkward moments that accompany the polite act of holding a door for others. What had started out as a solution to his internal social problem turned out to be a genius invention that ended up serving a greater purpose. The revolving door was found to be much quieter than a traditional swinging door in addition to saving energy—it also prevented outside weather from creeping into the building while disallowing the heat or cool air inside the building to escape. Despite being such a major innovation, the doors were hardly used. People were afraid to use the doors for the fear that they would get caught in them or worse, stuck in such a small space with someone else. (I’m not going to lie; I, too, used to have a low-key fear of getting caught in a revolving door. I have since grown out of that phobia.) Andrew Shea, a designer in New York City, took notice of this issue and created signage to accompany the doors. These simple messages to the public increased revolving door usage to 71% from the mere 20-30% that MIT had calculated in 2006. It’s incredible to me how much Shea’s design work impacted the public in such a profound way. This truly reveals just how important designers are to this world. We have the ability to help solve problems that are bigger than ourselves, even if the solution seems very distant. It’s very inspiring to know just how far my reach extends. Last week, ESPN’s College Gameday came to Louisville for this first time in our history, and my best friend asked me to create a sign for him to hold up, as is tradition with Gameday. He ended up making it on national television a few times with the sign and got it featured on their official Instagram. I was completely floored with excitement. Even small things like that, though somewhat superficial, help me realize how much of an impact I leave on the world as a designer, whether it is on a small or large scale.

Chapters 19-27 in my book went further into grid structure and elements that will help make it more visually interesting. I really appreciate this book not only for the information it is giving me about creating and establishing grids, but also for the inspiration I feel from all of the example work.

The image I have included today is a small sample of my $5 Toy poster. I struggled with this for quite a while, but it all started to come together towards the end. I’m super happy with the final product, and I can’t wait to see it printed out at full-size.

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For week 4, I listened to the Design Matters: Jessica Hische podcast and read chapters 9-18 from my Layout Essentials book.

This was definitely my favorite podcast so far. I felt a connection right off the bat with Jessica Hische because she has a cat named Olivia Benson, based off of her love for watching Law & Order: SVU while she works. I just discovered SVU this semester, and I also watch it while I work. (Coincidence? Maybe.) I loved hearing about how she got to where she is now—she was overlooked by her choice school, but then she went on to become extremely successful. I always felt like my high school AP Studio Art teacher was skeptical of my skills, but now, I think I’m starting to prove him wrong. One of my favorite points that she made was that student designers need to study design history and gain the actual knowledge of design processes and styles rather than basing all of their learning successes on the outcomes of their portfolios. I think this is a very important thing to consider as a student. When all is said and done and there is a degree in my hands, I do want to have a strong portfolio to show my accomplishments, but if I don’t actually retain the skills that I have learned along the way, how will I ever be a great designer? Another part of this podcast that I absolutely loved was hearing about all of her quirky side projects. Her Should I Work For Free? website is absolutely fantastic. Not only was it hilarious to read, but it was actually pretty helpful! My friends constantly ask me if I can design things for them (and usually offer to pay me, to be perfectly honest), and I am still trying to figure out how much to charge them, if at all. Listening to her talk about her self-generated projects inspires me to do more of my own projects outside of class. I think I’m going to keep going with Al, even after we have moved on from the $5 Toy project in class. I’ve loved creating him and designing for him so far, and I know that I’m definitely going to keep him around for a long time. I may even decide to make him some friends...

Chapters 9-18 in Layout Essentials continued to discuss some basic grid principles as well as dive into more complex considerations with creating grids. All of it is becoming more and more helpful now that I have started creating my booklet for my project. I especially enjoy paying attention to white space—I think it’s starting to become part of my personal design style. I love having this book as a resource, especially one that I can keep forever!

The photo I have included this week is of my printed and tiled poster-in-progress. There are a lot of good feedback comments written on it that I’m going to explore over the weekend. I really feel like I’m heading in a positive direction with this project, and it’s feeding into my passion and love for design.

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For Week 3, we were asked to listen to “The Broadcast Clock” from 99% Invisible and read the first eight chapters of our textbook.

“The Broadcast Clock” was a great listen, talking about the structure of the NPR show, “All Things Considered.” I had never really thought about the structure of public radio—the idea of a timeline and schedule for a single show had not crossed my mind, but it makes perfect sense. Each segment has a certain time allotment with breaks in between for newscasts, advertisements, music cuts, and more. Timing is absolutely critical to the success of carrying out the broadcast; this is emphasized by the clocks and time calculators strewn across the studios. Running late on different segments is not the only issue producers must worry about—it’s not good if a segment finishes too early within the timeframe, either, whether it falls short by whole minutes or even as little as 30 seconds. The producers then have to problem solve for a way to fill the remaining space. When I listen to a broadcast, I don’t tend to think about the process of how it was produced and structured for the public ear. I am in the moment, listening to the show and enjoying it. Similarly, as designers, we are producing for the public eye. Our audience views our work and (hopefully!) enjoys it in the moment, but they may not always realize what goes on process-wise. (Sidenote: I think this is where the misconception that designers are able to whip out a final product in mere seconds came from.) Behind the scenes, there is so much that designers do that is invisible to the general public. We brainstorm, we sketch, we plan, we adjust, we probably cry, we adjust some more, we finish. But the world doesn’t see all of that; they just get to view the end results. In a broadcast, every single second is precious, and I think that can be said for the design process as well. Having a timeline and setting little deadlines for things helps the whole project go much more smoothly rather than winging it without a plan, and of course, using as much of your allotted time as possible will benefit you in the end.

Diving into the textbook for the first time was a great experience. Reading for a class is sometimes excruciating for me, but that is because the content does not always pertain to my personal interests. This is the first class textbook I have ever outright purchased instead of renting and returning it at the end of the semester. It is the pioneer of the design library I plan on growing within my bookshelf. I love grids, so I think I’m really going to enjoy reading this book over the course of the semester and going back to reference it later on in my career. The first eight chapters went over basic grid structures and elements in an easy-to-comprehend fashion—and the book itself having a beautiful structure itself certainly maintains my interest alone. It is definitely getting me geared up to start working with my booklet and poster for the $5 toy project.

The images above include one of the product photos that we shot in class on Thursday as well as my final logo. I’m totally in love with how Al has turned out. I absolutely cannot believe what I have accomplished in only three weeks of class—a handmade toy and packaging with its very own original logo! I’m so excited about what I have done so far, and I’m looking forward to creating the booklet and poster.

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For Week 2, we were again asked to listen to two different podcasts: “Structural Integrity” from 99% Invisible, and Design Matters featuring Massimo Vignelli.

“Structural Integrity” described a situation in New York City with the CitiCorp Center, an interesting piece of architecture in Manhattan. While the building had seemed to be okay at first, a student that had been studying the building for a project discovered that it was not completely sound architecturally. In the event of a windstorm, the building would not have been able to sustain such forces in its corners, which would have then caused it to completely collapse and potentially kill thousands of people while also inflicting extreme damage on the city. The student actually pointed this out to the building’s original engineer, and the issue got resolved before anything disastrous could take place. I can relate this heavily to my logo design process with our $5 Toy project. When we come up with ideas and start to develop them further than just basic sketches, it is very important to have feedback from others. A new set of eyes is going to be much better at spotting potential issues than your own. Spending immense amounts of time with one project trains our brains in an odd way where we become so accustomed with the qualities of said project that we do not always notice when something seems off. Critiques used to stress me out, big time—I was always afraid that my peers would think my work was stupid or horrible or wrong. But now, I really look forward to them and get a little disappointed if my work doesn’t get talked about much. Feedback from others makes us better designers. In the case of CitiCorp, investigation and feedback saved thousands of lives and a whole city skyline. For me, it shows me what areas I need to improve upon and helps foster my critical thinking skills.

Massimo Vignelli’s feature on Design Matters gave me some more insight to overcoming design challenges that I face. Sometimes when I am faced with a new project, I become incredibly overwhelmed. With our current project, for instance, I was completely freaked out right off the bat. I had no idea how I was going to make something, let alone something creative and thoughtful, for under $5 from a hardware store. That was simply not my domain. Despite feeling this way, I came up with an idea that I really grew to admire. Vignelli talked a lot about how sticking to the design process will lead you in the right direction with your work, despite any fears you may have about it. I sometimes start out shaky with new projects, especially ones that push me into completely new territory (re: this one!). But once I start to get the ball rolling, it rarely, if ever, stops. That’s exactly how I am feeling about Al, my toy. I felt totally lost for logo ideas, but I kept sketching and sketching and found an idea that really excited me.

The top photo shows a comforting workspace: my bed, my Cardinal blanket, and my laptop with the iterations of my favorite logo idea. I am starting to feel more at peace with this project—not that I am not ready to face any further tension. The bottom photo shows Al sporting his “unamused” expression. His eyes are interchangeable and can be mixed and matched to suit the user’s desire. It truly amazes me how much can be expressed through only the eyes! I have a feeling that Al and I are going to become best friends by the time this project is complete. (I already love him, if I’m being perfectly honest.)

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This week, we were asked to listen to two podcasts: “Holdout” from 99% Invisible, and Design Matters featuring Chris Ware.

“Holdout” was an interesting listen, telling the story of Edith Macefield from the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle. As the small town grew more populous, developers wanted to build a mall in the same location as Macefield’s property. She refused their buyout offers, and they built the mall around her house on three sides. What really resonated with me about this podcast was Macefield’s resiliency during such a great change. Despite the mass construction going on around her—not to mention the constantly increasing offers for her property—she remained put until the end of her life, leaving her home to a construction worker she had befriended meanwhile. Resiliency is a great example of a trait that a designer should have. The world of design is everchanging, and it is up to us to adapt when necessary and remain through it all, just as Macefield did. She could have easily sold out—and she had many opportunities to do so—but she rolled with the changes and didn’t let it stop her from living her life. As designers, we must be able to keep up with the changing world and resist intimidation. On a more personal level, Bookforms has proven to be a much more different design class than those that I have priorly taken. I am starting to delve into unknown territory and experience new kinds of stress, but I am going to be resilient with the help of my passion.

Design Matters with Chris Ware gave me a lot of inspiration. Ware talks about how strongly he feels empathy for others and how it impacts his cartoons. “If you feel empathy for a group of people or a nation, you are less likely to attack them,” Ware says. By including atypical characters in his work, such as one he modeled after a real-life amputee that he met, he is able to not only reach out to those who go through the same experiences in real life, but he also helps foster empathy in others who may not quite understand the conditions under which these people live. It is important to him that his work reflects the true human condition in all its variations, and writing about it helps him learn as well. Listening to Ware describe life—“long periods of waiting,” often with anxiety, nervousness, sadness, happiness; basically, the whole spectrum of human emotion—gives me hope. I think that too often, we try to hide the imperfections of our lives instead of embracing them and powering through them. Everyone goes through these feelings at some point in their lives; why hide them? As designers, we have the power to evoke emotion in others with our work. My goal with my work is to give people a window into not only my personal world, but also the world of others whom they may not have considered. I like to consider myself very empathetic, and I want to use my work to help evoke that in others, just as Chris Ware does.

The photo above shows my work-in-progress for our $5 Toy Project. Everything pictured cost me only $4.90 total, and the finished product is going to be cute and quirky. I went to the hardware store on Tuesday night feeling completely overwhelmed, not knowing where to even begin looking for things to purchase. I found a roll of green twine, black electrical tape, two small “S” hooks, a rigid strap, and two power outlet plates. From there, an idea was born; an idea that will continue to grow and change and develop over the next few days, just as I will as a designer throughout my career...