You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
Just finished Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company by Robert Brunner and Stewart Emery. Great read! Very good ideas in this gem of a piece. Layout and size makes the book a pretty easy read. However, I don’t know if its the OCD or if I really cared about this book, but the grammatical errors and layout mistakes are a bit distracting. Content is designed to address owners of companies or CEOs, but anyone who is involved in product, transportation, branding, or graphic design can relate. I enjoyed it and highly invite anyone to read. For more info go to: http://doyoumatter.com
I’m still finding it hard to fall asleep. Although it’s been a whole week since the term ended, I find myself still on my “all-nightet” schedule, which is falling asleep on the early evening only to wake up at midnight or so to start working. It’s pretty frustrating. I’ll probably start using some sleep aids if the problem persists. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
Finals are officially done. I have cuts and bruises (literally) from finishing all my final projects up. I’m psychologically, mentally, emotionally, and physically drained from all the chaos that’s been going on for the past several weeks. I can’t say that it’s been a pleasant experience. This term was terribly painful. I’ve felt what its like to be in hell. This term changed me in many ways. Maybe good, maybe bad, but changed non-the-less. I know now what real tired really is.
A good friend on mine told me once that college isn’t about the lessons we learn or the experience we walk away with. Rather, the biggest lesson that college can ever teach us is to NEVER GIVE UP. Another friend, Erwin, was right when he told me before I began my Art Center career that 1st term was easy; 2nd term was when the real work begins. I feel a bit silly now complaining so much about the 1st term. I realize now that that was a picnic and I have a deeper respect for my craft, and the process more than ever.
I probably had 2 all-nighters a week this term. Yes, despite how tight I tried to stick to my schedule, I still needed 2 all-nighters a week to get all my work done–satisfactorily. And still, I think I could’ve done things better. I wouldn’t be surprised if I get a couple of “C”s on my report card this term. It was me at my best so far.
A good note is that some of my work got into the gallery. If you ever visit Art Center you can see what the students are up to by stopping by the student gallery, a display of the last term’s work deemed “worthy” by the faculty. When I first visited the school about 10 years ago as a graphic design student, I was simply inspired by all the work in the gallery. I wondered if I was good enough to be like these guys one day. Now, a dream of mine is coming true and it feels a little awesome.
Not everyone gets into the gallery. So, I feel honored and privileged to be displayed alongside my classmates and future colleagues. I was the only one in my term to not make it into some sort of gallery last term, and that felt kind of wack. Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come.
Why fuck up a good thing? My favorite Xmas commercial is back! AT&T Go Phone with Steve Buscemi and Norm McDonald. I just saw it playing again, same as last year. Good stuff. I included the original version and the local pitch. Enjoy!
One down, 3 to go. Oh, and more projects to finish on up before we’re dismissed for the term next week. I’m feeling quite optimistic at this moment that I’ll be able to pull this off. I had a awful and then wonderful Thanksgiving–fighting and then eventually reconciling with my parents, I had a great Thanksgiving with my closest friends, I had a great presentation will all of my teammates for my first final, as well as turning in a good paper, and now plunging forward ready to take the rest of these assignments on. I haven’t been running much or getting a lot of exercise, but I’m watching what I eat making sure to take in something nutritious now and then. But my nerves make that extremely difficult! (I tend to overeat when I’m nervous, or smoke.) But yea, as crazy as it sounds, I’m pretty much looking forward to the challenge this week.
Barry, my History of Ad and Copy Concepts teacher, told the class something simple yet profound this Monday that I’ve been thinking about. He said that we must “take in some input in order to get some output”, and pretty much wrapped up the class by summing up what we’ve been doing in the class for the term is exploring. He suggested that over the break we should not just lay dormant but should actually learn more. The thing that stuck to me was how he explained that the reason we probably feel like we’re “empty” when we came back from break is probably because we hadn’t gained any input. He was more than empathetic, he read that perfectly. Profound–well, at least to me it was.
I’ve found it increasingly difficult to get to work in the past several days. It’s been Thanksgiving break, and at an opportunity to catch up with work, I chose to catch up with life. My Thanksgiving didn’t go down so well. For one, my parents and I got into a HUGE fight on Thanksgiving day which really bummed out the whole point of what Thanksgiving was about. Then, I got into an accident while pulling out of a parking lot at the supermarket. I wish my Thanksgiving went down better.
So here I am, at the two week threshold of FINALS. when all final projects are underway. It sucks because for the next two weeks I’ll be working, working, working then sleeping 24/7. I can’t even think about how this will effect my health. I have 6 final projects to do. I can’t believe this really. But I’ll eventually get at it.
I’m feeling a little depressed as I’ve lost sight of what I’m putting myself through this for. This Thanksgiving I’ve tried to find reasons in myself to justify this mental endurance. I’ve tried to become inspired by delusions of money, women, power, sex, fame, glamor, wealth, love, romance, health, security, etc. But nothing seems to be worth it all. I don’t seem to know what to do it for anymore. Everyone who asks me how school is and I just say it sucks, because it all honesty–IT DOES!
I wish I could describe this. It’s not fun. Any instance in which I thought this was “fun” or “cool” in the past is strictly delusional. This is not fun, and anyone that is serious about this craft that says different is fooling themselves. I’m confused if its the creativity that hurts or the act of getting it done that hurts. This sucks. This really really really really really really really really SUCKS. Fuck this.
