So this all stems from a blog post from UI designer Ben Pieratt from a few months ago. His idea is basically that in this new age of the internet, graphic designers have new opportunities. No longer must we design logos and brochures for clients looking to execute some vision within their head (that in most cases doesn’t match the vision within out own head). Now we can spend our livelihood designing experiences and building tools for everyone to use all over the world. He says

The internet, at this time in history, is the greatest client assignment of all time. The Western world is porting itself over to the web in mind and deed and is looking to make itself comfortable and productive. It’s every person in the world, connected to every other person in the world, and no one fully understands how to make best use of this new reality because no one has seen anything like it before. The internet wants to hire you to build stuff for it because its trying to figure out what it can do. It’s offering you a blank check and asking you to come up with something fascinating and useful that it can embrace en masse, to the benefit of everyone.

And then later…

As a designer, you enjoy building things for other people’s use. Your value is determined by the degree to which you can empathize with groups of people around a given topic. Historically, this relationship has required a large(r) company to act as mediator for the emotional mass-transaction. Companies provide you with an audience inasmuch as they have customers, and that’s enough for you because you just want to design stuff that solves stuff.

I am hesitant to jump into a work life that isn’t making the most of new opportunities. Are we out of the age of working as a junior designer for a while is the necessary order of operations? Is there any reason why a college graduate can’t start their own company and head straight in to the professional design world in a more meaningful way? 

The physics of the design business have changed, and no longer do we need to be close by to collaborate, work as a junior designer to get anywhere, or commit to anyone else’s vision. I intent to prove that the internet has shifted the landscape in favor of the small independent designer.

10:45 pm  Sep252011

Starting where I left off at the bottom of the last post. I think this whole “How we are shaped by our first jobs” idea has legs, and more importantly, could go out in a broader way if we looked at how people are shaped by their jobs, no matter if it’s their first or their last.

When I was starting out at my first job I learned a ton of things.

I hated dealing with customers face to face. In fact, I’d rather wash dishes.
Working for a bad boss makes your job much worse.
Working with your friends makes your job much better.
Scooping ice cream isn’t my calling.

Now, that I’ve began a career, I find myself with a good boss, not working with customers, and maximizing the relationships I do have at work to make it more enjoyable. The point is people spend enormous amounts of time at their work, and the lessons they learn there shape their lives in interesting and enumerable way. This idea is worth pursuing in a more than silly way.

My idea for tackling this is to find as many people as I can with different sorts of jobs and spend an entire day with them. Record them on video as they’re working, interviewing them. Also, helping them with their work where I can, learning how they do things, and seeing what lessons have made them better at their job or make their job more enjoyable.

The next step is to produce a typographic installation that utilizes the techniques, practices, or ideas they use in their work. A physical thing that is a quote from the worker. Perhaps something they’ve learned from someone else, but something that relates to their job.

A really boring example would be to spend a day with a tile guy, who teaches me the lesson, “Measure twice, cut once.” I would then construct some tiled piece of work displaying that phrase. That’s faily obvious, but what happens when it’s not a tile guy, but a therapist, or a waitress. What is there to learn from these jobs that might not be the obvious thing that one would expect, and how would one go about producing something in a correspondingly unusual way?

1:32 am  Sep222011

This statement, “I intend to prove [blank]” has proven to be very problematic for me, as there is nothing I want to convince people of. The whole notion that I have an opinion or a point of view that is worthy of convincing other people seems very conceited, presumptuous and rude. I pondered this long enough myself, “Why am I in this class?” I’m sure my instructors would say that I have it all wrong, and the goal is not to force your ideas onto other people, but to gain the experience of researching topics, gathering information from all sides of an issue, and present the aggregated information in a form that is both clear and innovative. It certainly sounds like an experience that would be very beneficial to me. 

At any rate, I find myself very frustrated, disappointed with myself for not having much to go on at this point, and overall, not very hopeful about what I will ultimately produce in this class. The presentation shown to us in class from last semester was very beautiful, it presented information in a compelling way, and was very interesting to look at, but at the same time, it’s a project I want nothing to do with. Parts of it totally had me gagging, despite how nice it looked. It was as if the designers observation was, “I am under-appreciated as a skilled graphic designer,” and her thesis was, “I intend to prove that I am hardworking, obsessive designer, with the ability to produce sound concepts and beautifully crafted layouts.” Perhaps that goes for everyone. 

Back to my dumb idea about seriousness vs silliness in design. I intend to prove that serious work is a dumb waste of time. I can do that by tackling a serious project in a silly way, or a silly project in a serious way. Doing a silly project in a silly way is just too silly. My idea for a silly project is about the oppression of rat tails in our culture. My serious idea is about your first job. What people learn from it, and how it shapes their future work. 

2:42 am  Sep202011

There is still not much of a thesis, but I knew that going in. Seeing my friends and classmates stressing out has got me wondering if should be stressing out myself. The answer thus far is no, and I’ve been having a great time this year. I still don’t care for late nights right before a crit, and I’m making efforts to both log my hours, and not procrastinate.

The feedback was mixed. They liked my zine, but kind of dismissed it as a product of not having much to go on. I was instructed to write a lot—to define the words humor, comedy, wit, silliness. Vanderbyl told me that comedy is something we see a lot in advertising (media) but not as much in design (goods/services). Why is this? Why can’t design be the entertainment. More and more, I think it is. I was instructed to look at Francois Robert’s Faces (totally love em!), and John Bielenburg’s Virtual Telemetrix Inc. I love this quote from John:

“In my experience, the reasons people go into graphic design have nothing to do with solving business problems for clients, and everything to do with making things, personal expression and the powers of communication.”

Maybe there’s something in there that has to do with something I could come up with for thesis. For instance, applying the quote to myself, I could say, “In my experience, the reasons people go into graphic design have nothing to do with creating thesis statements, and doing big presentations, and everything to do with making things, personal expression and the powers of communication.” However, of course, I’m interested in the powers of communications, but they seem so meaningless when you have nothing to present.

I also checked out some of Goodby Silverstein’s work. Recently, they took down their “Everything I do is Wrong” campaign because it offended some women. Some people thought it was funny, but of course it came down to the Milk People who ultimately issued a statement apologizing and took down the campaign. Some people just can’t take a joke! That’s a problem. I intend to show that a lighter approach, where you look for things to smile at rather than frown, is cultural progress.

Silliness - Having or showing a lack of common sense or judgement; absurd or foolish.

Humor - The quality of being amusing or comic.

Amuse - To find something funny.

Funny - Causing laughter or amusement; humorous.

Wit - Mental sharpness and inventiveness; keen intelligence. Or a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor.

Now, I’m starting to envision some sort of info graphic that explains these terms and their relation to one another, but that may not bring me any closer to an actual thesis.

12:55 pm  Sep192011

In an effort to “make something” (because that was the painfully vague assigned homework) I painted ten huge posters with sumi ink on butcher paper. I put them up around school, took photos of them in place, and printed a lil zine. The whole process was dictated by what I thought would be funny, and what I thought would be fun to produce. I did have a great time doing it, but my actual thesis is still as thin as your average painting and drawing student.

1. Stop cyber-bullying, it’s for nerds.
2. Always wear a seatbelt. (Naked man wearing nothing but a seatbelt asking, “Always?”).
3. Don’t steal library books. Steal laptops.
4. Never forget. (Your locker combo).
5. Eat your vegetables. (Little man going down on an ear of corn with female legs).
6. Use protection. (A gun).
7. Call your Mom. (Little man calling out, “MMMmmmmooooommmm!!” from a hill).
8. Drink a lot of water, it will help you pass a drug test.
9. Be nice to old people, they’ll be gone soon.

Woops, guess there were only 9. Oh well!

9:51 pm  Sep182011

Thesis Idea #2 seems to be the more popular choice here. The problems are about it not involving the word “work” enough, as well as having very little in the way of an actual thesis. I was encouraged to seek out Steven Heller’s book Graphic Wit.

Thesis ideas should state an unusual observation, then say, “I intend to prove [something people don’t already know].” That sounds easy enough. But I’m having trouble finding something that people don’t already know about comedy/ humor/ wit/ silliness in graphic design.

9:22 pm  Sep182011

We are taught to think of serious things as important and meaningful, and vice versa, our culture tends to think of silliness as negligible and useless. I aim to explore what importance lies in an antithetical approach. What advantages are there to silly problem solving, and what changes when appearing serious is not a priority? In addition, you add things together.

9:16 pm  Sep182011

Digital typefaces are falling short of their potential with respect to expressing emotion. Almost everyday I experience their limitations as my intent is lost in the translation that occurs between one party typing, and the other party reading. I intend to examine the ways in which enhanced typefaces can work better to express emotion in a human context. Additionally, I will explore ways for digital communication to integrate analog tools when type does not suffice.

9:16 pm  Sep182011