WEEK 8:Mid-term presentation

Degree Project Mid-term

WEEK 7: This is supposed to be ironic.

I mostly did these exercises to be ironic. But, as I was doing them, I did realize how much harder this trend is to actually execute. I'm not even sure I did this successfully, but that's not really the point. As I was setting this type I was thinking about how I could compare my final designs to these comps of just the quotes set in helvetica bold. It could be interesting to see what people would relate to or be more interested in.

WEEK 6:"women kill me. they really do."

"Women kill me. They really do."

As you can tell I played with different imagery, and type layouts. I didn't want to stick so close to my thumbnail process, I just needed to get the general concept out on paper. A lot of good things came out of critique this morning. I was happy to see that two of my fellow classmates that haven't been following what I'm doing understood my approach and objective to this assignment, which was really re-assuring. Earlier this week I was feeling a bit defeating considering the challenges that came up in discussion (which were very valid and good challenges). Some points that came up were visual approaches of collage. Choosing objects that metaphorically represent the quote. Like what I was saying in one of my earlier posts I want the audience to not have to reference the text of "The Catcher in the Rye", so going about this way may be the best decision to get my messaging out there.

Overall, some thinks that I feel good about moving forward with are making these a series. At first I wanted to let them live on their own to expand my rendering styles...but re-thinking it I think that it would be a more successful project, and somewhat easier...which I'm not technically looking for, just thinking about doing the same thing to each comp would be a more fluid process of development. Also, an interesting problem to solve. Another thing to make this look a bit more complex and have more depth is to use hand lettering in all comps. Which is definitely something I've been wanting to do in the project. I'm excited to move forward and develop this as a whole.

WEEK 6: First Two

Here are the thumbnails I started out with for the quotes I'm working on this week:

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

"Women kill me. They really do"

Final first attempts to come...

WEEK 6: What's the point?

I was asked what is the point of this exercise for my degree project?

Besides it being a chance for me to practice my formal quality it's also a chance to do something I am personally close to. I guess I feel like this will be a time that I can show vulnerability in my work more obviously. Which is tough. It was even tough for me to type that out. So far in the graphic design department I've gotten to do a lot of really great work with interesting content, but I've never gotten the chance to show my own emotions and how I feel about a certain topic. At least I may not have taken the opportunity to do so.

I want to make this a fun, beautiful, and interesting project.

What I need to consider more is what is the point of the form of my design? Why am I choosing print? Why am I basically designing them in a poster format?...that I need to think more about, and I feel that will evolve. But, is it so wrong to have something large and flashy in your portfolio? I don't know why I feel so shallow saying I want to make posters, it's probably because I haven't considered the point of my form, and I just defaulted to large print pieces.

Two thumbs up to Kidwell for making me think about this at a deeper level than I was, but it is also very frustrating, because it's hard to design something without knowing what the form will take on in the end. Although, that's part of the process. There comes a point where you just have to start, and then most likely you'll start over, or built off what you've made.


Last thought: I want these pieces to be experienced the same way as when you listen to a song and relate to that. Does that make sense?

WEEK 6: Final Quotes

Here are the final quotes I pulled from "The Catcher in the Rye" for content to fuel my inspiration for my designs.

"Women kill me. They really do." 

(theme: relationships)

"I mean most girls are so dumb and all. After you neck them for a while, you can really watch them losing their brains. You take a girl when she really gets passionate, she just hasn't any brains." 

(theme: sex, relationships) 

"I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse." 

(theme: saying goodbye)

"Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell." 

(theme: depression, anxiety)

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody." 

(theme: regret, alienation) 

"A lot of schools were home for vacation already, and there were about a million girls sitting and standing around waiting for their dates to show up. Girls with their legs crossed, girls with their legs not crossed, girls with terrific legs, girls with lousy legs, girls that looked like swell girls, girls that looked like they'd be bitches if you knew them. It was really nice sightseeing, if you know what I mean. In a way, it was sort of depressing, too, because you kept wondering what the hell would happen to all of them. When they got out of school and college, I mean. You figured most of them would probably marry dopey guys. Guys that always talk about how many miles they get to a gallon in their goddam cars. Guys that get sore and childish as hell if you beat them at golf, or even just some stupid game like ping-pong. Guys that are very mean. Guys that never read books. Guys that are very boring." 

(theme: superficialness, relationships) 

"The thing with kids is, if they want to grab for the gold ring, you have to let them do it, and not say anything. If they fall off, they fall off, but it's bad if you say anything to them." 

(theme: innocence, vulnerability) 

To make something clear. These quotes won't necessarily be directly represented from the book. My goal isn't to exactly re-interpret what this piece of literature is about visually. It's about picking out things (content) that I personally have felt connected to. This also makes me re-think my audience for these pieces, and I'm still considering the audience to be anyone honestly, but I need to think more specifically about who would actually want to obtain these and hang/utilize them in their own space. So, to explain it simply I'm targeting an audience that is similar to me. Young adults who have been in similar situations that they have felt vulnerable and want something to relate to visually, or typographically.

The reason I'm not directly interpreting the quote visually is because not everyone has read "The Catcher in the Rye" so taking the quote as fuel for content for my pieces seemed to make the most sense. So when I was thumbnail-ing I considered what people would most relate to. After showing them on Monday I realize I still have some more pushing out ideas. Metaphors seemed to be more successful within my first round of thumbnails, because it's completely open to interpretation.