Overall...

If the purpose of my concept development class was to learn how to develop a lot of concepts quickly, mission accomplished.

If the purpose of my concept development class was to learn a little about business side of  design, mission accomplished.

If the purpose of my concept development class was to be able to socialize with fellow designers, mission accomplished.

If the purpose of my concept development class was to  learn what necessary design skills I should improve upon , mission accomplished.

Public Conservation: Transit

http://youtu.be/4AX1Z1gDSOI

Video link to my Final for concept Development...

If this is what an F feels like I don't like it...

As a student, I'm always concerned about grades to come extent but I feel especially unsure about my grade right now. It's an especially uneasy feeling because in retrospect I think I could have done more to help benefit my grade in a more positive way.

This Doesn't mean I don't care...

The problem is that I care too much about too many things. And my organization isn't at it's best. I can say in all honesty that I do what others call procrastinate. I feel like what I actually do is do things in the order of chronologically relevant. This blog for instance isn't  due until the end of the quarter so I left it all to do at the end of the quarter.


I do care Jimmy...!

Oops I forgot

Concept Development, you are kicking my arse this quarter. Why, do you hate when I like you so much.? I've been having trouble doing the things that I need to do in order to succeed in my concept development class the way I want to succeed. I'm not lazy I just haven't properly prioritized my my entire work load.

Boxers or Creative Briefs

I think I need work on creative briefs. I can see the usefulness and necessity of a creative brief but I just don't think I'm so great at creating one just yet. A question that I feel like I should have asked during the lecture portion of the creative brief is " how long should it take to write a creative brief?" I realize that there are different types of creative briefs and different levels of details that can go into a creative brief but I didn't explore the idea of the time it should take to complete a brief. Clearly, one wouldn't want to spend the whole time frame for designing then entire project on just the brief and conversely one wouldn't want to under research and make the project a lot harder than it needs to be. I think with practice and will come the balance for becoming a creative brief master.

You Idiom...

This is just a thought...


Have you ever thought about where idioms and common phrases originated from?

Frequently I find myself trying to figure out what situation could have spawned  and of the innumerable idioms that we use. Particularly / presently I have been thinking about the phrase "make sense". I've always though of marketing sense as being able to perceive on some sort of sensory level. But often times when we else it today it it interpreted to me able to mentally connect with the concept or idea. As a designer, I think that making sense, literally, is the goal of design, or great design. The more senses we can positively engage the or eater the potential for the design.

What are the rules again...

The second part of game project for my concept development class was to present my game to the rest of the class and have them critique the game. I think I faired pretty well as far as explaining the important rules and how to play. But I'm not sure if my game was on the top list of must play games. If our critique audience was really the "shark tank" I think I had enough of the sharks interested in my game, because they investigated what meat was in the water. But I don't think my game was enticing enough for any of the sharks to actually take a bite. On the other hand something key that I learned from my experience as a "shark" or critic of my fellow students games was that I'm good at critiquing, well at least the games for sure. While the presenters of the games were presenting I tried playing the game in my head and thinking of as many problem as I possible could. In return I was able to offer some insight that the other original game creators may not have thought of. And honestly I really enjoyed helping, and being a critical eye.

Can I play next?...

I found that making original games was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Then again, I thought it would be a lot more fun too. Don't get me wrong, being assigned to create a game for a concept development homework/ homeplay project was great. I think I would have appreciated it more and put more effort into the project if I knew we had more time. I honestly devoted the majority of my conscious and unconscious time to creating games. What I mean by that is, that I was thinking about these games so much that I even dreamed up at least on of my original game ideas. I guess that's ok, but I think if this was my regular job and project took over my subconscious like this I might go crazy, or something along those lines.

Get your mind Maps Here!

I've always thought that the mind mapping process ( brain storming on paper with visuals ) from my concept development class was very interesting. But I think that it won't be as good of a tool as I'd like it to be. I've found that when I created a mind map, it spread out and added ideas and connected those ideas in ways that I hadn't quite thought of. I can see how it would be helpful to me. If I were the type of person,who once I get a subject or direction, can easily focus and hone in on that I'd be golden. But for me I've found that with the mind map, while and once I've created it I have more ideas, yes, but they all seem so interconnected and related that its hard for me to pick the singular subject that would most effectively suit the objective.

Going Backwards

After taking in what Sonook parks points of view I took a few moments to reflect on that. I think the most profound thing that he spoke about was the cultural divide .  As we all know each group of people or culture has their own set of traditions an ways to look at the world. Park specifically chose how the American culture looks at the individual opposed to how Asian cultures, specifically Chinese look at the individual. The size of the world is a finite number but the world is getting smaller everyday. Besides the fact that there are more people being brought into the world and it's filling up the space of the world. We as a global culture are continuously finding new and faster ways to connect with one another and closing the gap between different cultures. I've secretly always had a slight obsession with how foreigners, especially those whom English is not their first language. My name doesn't translate exactly into other languages, Samuel is the closest. I am always interested in hearing how a person interprets my name because it is familiarly irregular. In any language the easiest way to pronounce something is my finding familiar combinations of letters and I've heard a few ways to say my name.
The same can be said about the other  ways of cultural interpretation. For example how Sunook  brought up how American tackle their problems steadfast and Asian cultures kind of superficially solve problems by walking about them. Also in reference to death Americans use the idiom "passing away" and other cultures use "returning".
It all boils down to our individual identity, where or who we have grown up and our personality. As an American, I understood the "finder, catcher, keeper, seller, manager" analogy using fish but I think it's more relevant to me to think about the product as being cattle or something to be hunted. In other cultures where eating meat or fish isn't as prevalent I would think that finding mushrooms would ring more relevant to them. 

The Art of Failure

Somehow during the course of this week I was able to shift into a higher gear. How is truly beyond me. Right now I truly feel existent, but in the most exciting way. Not just here, but exactly where I am at. I have no idea if this makes any sense outside of the confines of my mind. But I failed and accepted it and I'm ok, fine and probably better off than before I tried. 

For the past few weeks I've been fighting with myself in an epic battle of whit, perfection and idealism and none of those won. I believe that if it can be imagined it can be manifested either through your own direct action or through universal interaction at which an action of your own is the center. Basically anything you want or can imagine can be real by an unknown degree of separation. So many things in my life have come by one degree and I haven't allowed myself to fail and in turn the universe to react an cause what I can't create immediately. But I think that's over I'm letting go more knowing that reigns of control can be held too tight.

Amazing as...

I was just thinking that a good design is amazing weather it be a game, a t-shirt, or a logo. The good designs do their purpose well but great design eventually transcends its purpose and becomes its own entity. Take Nikes logo for instance it's identity is strong enough to stand alone and still be recognized. Quite frankly, so can a personal identity.

Here's to the Ladies who Lunch....

The past week or two I haven't written like I should have been and I feel a little bad. I feel bad because the deal was I write at least twice a week, and I haven't been holding up my end of the bargain. But in all due respect, I don't regret it. In that same period I've been going through a personal war of sorts. An epic battle, mostly in my head, that's been tearing me apart. I'm already practically the walking dead from depriving myself of sleep. When I do get some sleep to adhere to my physical needs as soon as I wake up mental exhaustion sets in and I'm back at square one, even though I doubt that I ever even left. I could easily blame my concept development class for being the powder keg that started this war but it's the easy way out. Yes, I've been redefining the concept of who I am, what I am, what I do, where I want to go, and so many other aspects of my life but if there was no inner conflict to insight a war the powder keg would have been a minor superficial wound no more damaging than the sun's rays of light.

Feels like.... Forever

It truly, feels like I haven't written in months. And the strangest thing is how I can feel this way and I haven't even had this blog for a month. But the past 10 days or so have been a whirlwind series of 24 hours cycles that have blended and coerced me into a mental hibernation. I have been thinking, it seems as though everything that goes on in my mind is analyzing something or finding an alternate solution to the same problem that may have sparked the question to ensite a solution in the first place. Part of it may be sleep deprivation. Of the 96 hours in the MLK Holiday weekend I was working just under 60 of those hours. And I think I was fighting off a cold and the onset of what felt like another case of strep throat...

But I'm back in the habit now. 

Thoughts in a Bottle

The Rules of Engagement

So I think I found the cure to schediophobia, well at least for me. I had a chat with one of my friends who is a professional illustrator and I asked him if he ever gets scared to draw or sketch anything. And to my surprise he said "Yes, every time he has to do something more than a personal doodle". I honestly relieved because when I looked up phobia of drawing I didn't find anything and I thought I was the only one. Just so you know schediophilia is the sexual attraction to drawings, so I dropped the philia and added phobia, to get schediophobia. The point of all this, is that my fear isn't as irrational as I thought in fact it's normal, because I have gotten the same feeling before I do other things that and more than something for my personal gain. Something else I learned or had an up close and personal experience with today is effort. I know that you get out what you put in but I hadn't really had any first hand experience on not giving full effort from start to finish until today. The short graphic novel that I turned in was voted by my Concept development class as the worst in class today. I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill but, my story was ranked last. I know someone had to be at the bottom, to I though there could be a possibility, but I didn't think it would happen to me. When I started drawing my graphic novel I put a lot of time and effort into it but that was before I added color. One of the requirements was color and I couldn't find any of my "pigment" makers except for water color paint and I didn't honk it was a good idea to add water color to non-water color paper. So as a last minute concession I bought a set of markers and colored my graphic novel. EPIC MISTAKE. I think I would have done my graphic novel more justice by just not having color. I think I need to plan without taking any big risks to be more successful.

محو الأمية البصرية

Today in Concept Development we had a conversation about Visual Literacy. But before we could really get into the subject we had to define what each word of the phrase means. Visual is what can be seen, and Literacy is the ability to read and write. So I came up with this: Visual Literacy is the ability to understand the concepts and ideas that can be experienced through sight. Reflecting on this a bit more I realized  that the concept of alphabet was the easiest and perfect example. When you see the letters that make up the words you're reading you understand that they make words and you understand the idea and concept behind those words and thus understand what I'm writing. There are  even a few things that the brain can understand even if things aren't quite written correctly. For example, spelling works backwards, or mixing up the letters one can still deduct the intended word(s) and understand the meaning. But if something were but in front of you in a different language you may not be able to understand the meanings of the character and thus will not be able to understand the concept or idea. And the same thing goes for images signs and basically anything that you can see. 

Next in class we shifted our thinking towards images, and how a picture is worth 1000 words, and how may words is a film worth. But I couldn't help but think about dreaming. I guess you can say I was daydreaming about dreaming, but it was all in reflection and on topic if Jimmy Moss ( Concept Development professor) is reading this. And what I got for my short period of reflection was that when we dream, usually we are very involved attached, even emotionally, to our dreams. But we don't technically see anything because we're sleep and our eyes ate closed. But the images that our subconscious creates is sometimes so vivid that our dreams can be more real and VISUAL than real life, at least to me. But when I try to explain my crazy dream to someone it's a minute or two of explanation, but this dream lasted over an hour. I'm sure unconsciously we don't have the same grasp and concept of time, but I think that our minds are so keen and adept at picking up details that just to process all the incoming information takes more time than it does to produce it.

P.S. محو الأمية البصرية means "Visual Literacy" in Arabic 

Schediaphobia...

I think I'm scared of drawing... It's been a while since I've had a pencil and a sketch pad, and now I have to draw everyday for a class assignment. I pretty sure I'm being irrational, but that's the thing about a phobia they are irrational fears so I think I'm perfectly within my limits. Honestly I think I care too much, most of the art that I've been producing is digital or photographic. But with drawing it's always either been there or not. Right now I don't feel it so I need to find something within myself to overcome my fear of drawing this is only day one of 70 and I'm totally freaking out man.

Wish me luck!

First Day Hum Drums

Today was the first day of the Winter School Quarter at Cal State LA. I'm usually not excited about the first day of school and today was no exception. Today marked the end of winter recess. I am how ever usually excited about the second time I meet for any particular class, unless its seems like its going to be a boring class, and so far that's not the case. Day one has ensured me that I have a quarter full of art work to from the creative corners and creases of my brain. Before the syllabi were passed out we played a game in my Creative Development class. You may or may not have heard or played this. One by one we stood up and stated our name and three statements about ourselves to the rest of the class. The kicker is that only two statements were supposed to be true and the other one false. My statements were...

1. I am a native Southern Californian

2. I speak three languages.

3. I have a younger brother that is 19 years younger than I am.

I have played this game before both on paper and in live action. But I didn't realize how good I had gotten at it. An overwhelming amount of the class thought that the first statement was false, but little did they know I've lived in Southern California my whole life, aside from my freshman year in college when I lived in the dorms of an Oregon community College. I personally was shocked because the one thing about me that has always been true and never changed about me was the one easiest to dismiss as an untruth. But the bigger question is if that's a compliment, to have transcended the identity of a Southern California in a world that is become more and more a global society each day. The second most popular answer of mine that was voted as an untruth was that my youngest brother isn't 19 years younger than me. There was some brief discussion and the debate focused on the specifics of the age difference. "Your younger brother isn't 19 years younger than you he's 17 years younger" the teacher Mr. Moss jokingly stated. But again he and the other voters of this statement as a non-truth were wrong. The one statement that was completely false, I don't think anyone guess correctly. It's a goal of mine to speak at least three languages, but as of today, I only speak one. 

"You are a very good liar"

Hesitantly I thanked him, as to add some humor to a slightly awkward situation. I didn't think to much of it at first but as my own silence set in. I personally made a conscious decision to tell the truth a few years ago, at all times, avoiding even simple lies because I had in truth become good at lying. Later in class I was reassured that the little white lies were told were evidence of each students personal persuasive power.  That same persuasive power is what gets us the job, gets us out of a ticket, gets us one step closer to being the individual that we'd all like to be.