The last regular day of class usually carries a bit of a revelation of some sort. Art 220 reminded me of why I prefer the quarter system so strongly over the semester system: I have a bit of a self-discipline problem when I’m not specifically interested in something.

The two troubling assignments this quarter were the infamous apple renderings and the blog.

The apple renderings were supposed to be a simple thing. We each received an apple on the first day of class, and were told to render it on five different days each week. At the end of the quarter we would thus have a collection of 50 renderings of the same apple.

The blog was just as easy, really. The assignment was to post one entry after each class talking about what we did in the class and where our own thoughts went after that, as well as six adjectives each week.

The first day I was pretty excited about the blog. That’s how this thing started. Pretty quickly I got lazy, and the lack of verification made it really easy to forget the blog. The apples were the same story.

In a previous class with Jimmy our daily homework was turned in via email, due before the beginning of the next class. Perhaps making emails with links mandatory for blog posts as well would help those of us who find it all too easy to repress these kinds of running projects.

And the apples…heh. Let’s not go there today.

Today we brought in our creative briefs and three poster concept sketches. A lot of the ideas, including some of mine, were fairly generic, but a few had potential. Chris’ “Evolve” concept won in a little contest we held, and deservedly so. The concept was evolution of a graphic designer, from a student to an intern to a designer to a CEO.

At first sight the idea seemed a bit cliché. Maybe it’s just my having seen the evolution concept done so many times. As we discussed it briefly it sort of grew on me, possibly because among all the various interpretations I’ve seen I couldn’t remember a single art/design-related one. It’s time we get one of our own.

The final project for this class is very promising. It is supposed to be a “map” of our creative process. The quotations marks are there to point out that an actual map isn’t the only way to interpret the project… I have a few ideas, and they all revolve around something resembling an interactive poster. We shall see…

• apropos
  opportune, pertinent

• impalpable
  not able to be perceived by the senses (especially by touch)
  intangible or insubstantial

• gilden
  golden, made of gold

• horary
  pertaining to an hour or hours; hourly

• rife
  widespread, common (especially of unpleasant or harmful things)
  abounding, present in large numbers, plentiful

• vulnific
  causing wounds

Mind maps are interesting things.

You can make one about anything and you really don’t know where it’s going until it gets there. You can go on a journey that starts with one little mark of ink on paper and ends wherever it does, and all you really need is more ink and paper.

When we were first told to make a mind map I thought I had some idea of where Jimmy was headed with the assignment. The intent of the class dictates that just about everything we do is supposed to be at least in part out of the ordinary, so the general theme of “thinking outside the box” (wow, I’m really starting to dislike that phrase) is always applicable.

What I hadn’t anticipated, however, was the little realization that came after I “finished” my map. Sitting there and jotting down all the things I was thinking of – and I was analyzing them a little too much for this exercise anyway – made me realize that my design process would benefit greatly from this kind of beginning. Just spilling all these thoughts onto paper makes for a great way to get things going, and the fact that the thought cloud then becomes a concrete visual adds even more to its usefulness. I’m a very visual person, and seeing my thoughts makes a big difference.

Next time I start a design project I will do so with a quick mind map. We’ll see how that goes.

• ethereal
  light, airy, or tenuous
  extremely delicate or refined
  heavenly or celestial
  of or pertaining to the upper regions of space

• cerulean
  deep blue, sky blue, azure

• helioelectric
  describing electric power generated by the rays of the sun

• olivary
  shaped like an olive

• tantamount
  equivalent in meaning or effect

• anaclastic
  produced by the refraction of light, as seen through water

AIGA/LA Education Committee Meeting (10/1/2009)

• Emerge 2010 – Postponed until Fall.
• Coca-Cola – Coca-Cola wants to do a big student project (much like Sapient last school year).
• Stimulatté – Next one is hosted by Westwood on Thu 10/15 at Silverlake Coffe Co. (2388 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90039)
• USC:
  • Beautiful Loser (January)
  • Ideo speaker (March)
• Woodbury:
  • Next AIGA Education Committee Meeting (11/4)
  • Zelda Harrison (11/5 6pm)
  • January Stimulatté
• CSULA:
  • Lecture Series – Fall speaker is Kim Baer (11/12 7:30pm in the Music Hall)
  • Portfolio Day 2010 (in Spring)

Time.

It doesn’t exist.

No, really, I promise. Time is a concept devised entirely by humans to bring some order into our chaotic world. There is no such thing as time; nothing tangible, or perhaps even measurable.

The unit system we use to talk about time – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millenia, etc. – is entirely dependent on the effect our solar system’s setup has on the lighting and temperature of various parts of our planet. Time zones exist to standardize certain concepts which are common across the world (like the standard 9-5 work day). Daylight savings is a correction that tries to deal with the fault inherent in trying to assign whole numbers to naturally varying phenomena. Calendars rely on the relative consistency of weather changes during our planet’s revolution around the Sun.

Time as a linear concept has been rather popular. Overall it works well for its intended purposes, which is why it is rarely questioned. While now considered possibly alterable, it is generally still viewed as a line that began at, well, the beginning of time, and goes into the future. That said, the general populace perceives time as something much more tangible, something that is just there. This is one of those boxes, if you will, out of which creative people want/need to break out.

Now that I’ve bored y’all to death and gone nowhere with it, I’ll let it brew a little.

So remember: there is no time.

Uhhh, wow. This I’m not used to. A class with Jimmy with very little homework due every class period? Certainly not the norm.

The class seems promising. It’s unusual. 50 apple renderings over the course of the quarter. Lots of thinking and perception exercises. Blogging. Thought-provoking films.

The first thing we did in class was answer two questions:

1. What do you think you will do in this class?
2. What do you think you will learn in this class?

There may be foreshadowing in these questions. This will be interesting.

Hi.

My name is Nik Kantar, and I am a graphic designer in Los Angeles.

I am starting this blog in part because of a class requirement and in part because I’ve wanted to start a blog dedicated to design for a little while now. The spiffy new domain is the direct result of sw33t.net not seeming nearly as clever now as it did back when I bought it. I guess I grew up a little.

In any case, I would expect most of the initial action here to be related the the aforementioned class. In addition to the required two class-related posts per week I’m going to try my best to also write about all the design events I attend, some of the work I do, and general design stuff that finds its way into my head.

For a few more words about who I am (or maybe some contact info) you can peruse the About page. If you’re looking for my portfolio you can find it at NKantar.com.

That’s all for tonight, folks.
See you next time.