You didn’t think I’d let October go by without posting, did you?  I never imagined a semester full of liberal arts requirements would be so time-consuming.  Written assignments instead of designed assignments has been a weird change that is proving hard for me to adjust to.

I haven’t made much progress on my thesis yet, either.  We spent the first half of the semester doing semi-unrelated assignments like visualizing a book, designing a personal timeline, and bringing in our favorite piece of work we’ve created. To say the least, it wasn’t inspiring.  I kept producing info graphics for any assignment that called for a designed solution, and I got reprimanded for stealing typefaces from an old internship and using them on a personal project for school (that was also one of my favorite pieces that I planned on bringing into class.)  Word of advice: even though everyone else does it, that doesn’t mean it’s OK to steal typefaces from your internship… even if you’re a poor student and are using them for school projects only.

At first I thought I wanted to make a mash-up of fffound, flickr, and delicious where you could upload inspirational images and tag them.  If you found an image you liked on the site it would automatically download it to your ‘inspiration folder.’  Then I realized how boring and uncreative that idea was, and that even though I’d learn a lot by building it, it is just too big of a project to take on and build in 4-6 months.  Then, in an effort to scale down, I thought I could tag all the images I had saved on my computer and create a data visualization of what inspires me.  Then I realized that nobody cares as much about me as I do.  And so… I moved on.

I read Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin for fun—and it reminded me of my experiences in middle school/high school (I think honestly every girl could relate to it.) Then I found Culture Jam by Kalle Lasn at my local library and started reading it (I think everyone should read this book, I wish I had read it sooner.)  This was around the same time we started talking about media and body image in my Psychology of Eating Disorders class, the Situationists in my Urban Branding class, and cultivating identity in my Uniform Fashion class.  All of a sudden it was like I finally felt that fire again—like I had discovered something to care about enough to make/design/build something around it.  I’m not really sure how this will tie together in the end…  but stay tuned.

Smashing Magazine offers 45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires.

Computer Arts has 31 Tips for a Better Portfolio.

It has nothing to do with design, art, or anything of the sort—but sometimes you just need to smile and watch a little kid paralell park his toy car.

I’m addicted to Auto-Tune the News, if you’re not familiar CLICK HERE.

Kris Atomic has a new layout.  More importantly she has updated for the first time in forever with a handful of new drawings.

So far I’m in love with the following S/S 09 shows (keep in mind I’m writing this on Saturday): Charlotte Ronson,
Rag & Bone, and Costello Tagliapietra.

Something I haven’t told you yet is that I’m now guest-blogging 2 times a month for Underground Art School. My first post went up Tuesday morning—and my plan is to repost them here a couple of days after, so here it goes:

Some nights you will find yourself sipping on a Red Bull trying to stay awake to finish a 2-D project due the next morning. Due to the caffeine shakes you won’t be able to fall asleep when you finally finish and wind up having a mere two hour window to nap before class. Don’t sweat, we’ve all been there before-you can and will get through this! Here’s my guide to surviving your foundation year:

Defend Your (Good) Ideas

One of the hardest parts of foundation year is being told “No” to an idea that you think is awesome. Sometimes the way you explain your best ideas make them an easy target to be shot down. Learn how to explain the most important parts of your ideas with confidence, and when you are met with resistance, learn how to defend your ideas with persistence if they are, in fact, a good idea. This leads me to my next point…

Don’t be Afraid to Throw Away an Idea You’re Invested In

Art school is about learning how to come up with a vision, following it through, realizing it’s awful, understanding why it’s awful, and tossing it to the side. You will have a lot more awful ideas than good ones when you start, you will spend a lot of time trying to make these awful ideas into good ideas, and you’ll be hesitant to cast them off due to the amount of time you’ve invested. Chalk it up to experience and move on. It is OK to have a bad idea. The best part about a bad idea is it always leads you to something better. Art School teaches you how to weed out those bad ideas from the first seed.

Critique Without Bullshitting

Nothing is worse in foundation year than staying up all night, putting your blood, sweat, and tears into finishing a project due the next morning and then you get to class and have to listen to a bunch of timid students either say nothing in response or bs about your work.
“I really like that you used green. It’s very organic”—that is not a critique, it’s a comment, and the word ‘organic’ is possibly the most overused word in the average art student’s critique lexicon. Don’t be that student. It’s OK to have an opinion in a critique, we’re not here to rub noses, we’re here to offer our honest opinions on the work presented and offer ideas on how to make it better. I remember being nervous in my foundation year that if I was to say anything too harsh that it would make it harder for me to make friends (as I would be labeled as ‘that bitch in critique this morning’). Don’t take critique comments as being a jab at you, the artist, the student. You are learning skills in foundation year, these skills and how they are applied are being critiqued. In the same vein, learn how to critique your own work in the same way.

Learn How to Generate Ideas

Always, always, always idea-generate before starting a project, regardless if it’s an applied arts or fine arts class. Even if you think you’re dead set on your initial idea; sketching, envisioning, and talking over other options might help you to make that first idea stronger or realize that there is an entirely different route you should be taking. The ideas you come up with when you are pushing yourself to brainstorm oftentimes can be the best ones. Make lists, write word associations, flip through books at the library, sketchbook, .

Save your Unused Ideas

I always wrote down lists in my sketchbooks of ideas that I—someday—wanted to pursue. Occasionally I’ll go back and read lists from freshman year and I’ll say “Wow that’s brilliant.” But more often than not I’ll say, “What the hell was I thinking?!!” No matter how small, write down your ideas that you haven’t used just yet, you’ll never know when they’ll come in handy, and if anything, they will show your progression and commitment to your art.

If you have questions you’d like answered about art school please email me! You can always check if I’ve answered it already. If your question becomes a post topic you will always remain anonymous.

So the internet has been a-buzz with the news that IKEA has switched from their modified version of Futura to Verdana—citing a need for a typeface they can use globe-wide, even in Asian countries, and on the web.

A lot of designers are getting heated over the whole thing, but my opinions on the matter can be summed up by Connecticut-based designer Matt Hunsberger’s post on the subject.

“Verdana actually makes sense. Aside from IKEA’s probably-bullshit reasoning about wanting one font for both web and print, Verdana is an accurate reflection of their brand. Think about it, Verdana is a utilitarian typeface that is kind of crappy but everyone has it on their websites. IKEA is utilitarian furniture that is kind of crappy but everyone has it in their houses. See, it makes perfect sense.”