Launching the Imagination: pg 357-370

The artwork on page 359 is hard for me to look at. It's called "Walking on Eggshells" and depicts two naked women in a bathroom where the ground is covered with eggs. That's weird enough, but the really creepy thing is that there are also snakes all over the room, including one coming out of the toilet. This suggests to me that all the eggs are snake eggs which makes the whole thing even creepier.

Launching the Imagination pg 331-357

This reading discusses several things including different strategies in advertisement. The six contrasting strategies it lists on pages 336-338 are rational, emotional, serious, humorous, realistic, and exaggerated. I feel like a lot of companies advertise using the humorous approach these days but most fall flat, while I think emotional is usually more effective Of course it depends on what is being advertised.

Launching the Imagination: pg 311-331

On pages 318 and 319 of this reading is a very compelling interview with filmmaker Sharon Greytak. It was revealed that before she became a filmmaker, she had studied painting in college. When asked what made her decide to become a filmmaker, she explained that she liked how film making is a collaborative art while painting is more solitary. I found this interesting and it goes to show how much certain art forms can differ from each other.

Launching the Imagination: pg 287-311

This section focuses on the aspects and elements of time in design. What I found most interesting is the use of storyboards throughout this chapter. It emphasizes that time is one of the most basic aspects of film . One example of this is from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and is on page 296.

Launching the Imagination: pg 256-287

This section featured an artwork unlike most I've ever seen. It is on page 263 in figure 12.3. It is a steel arch with all kinds of work materials protruding from it including work gloves, lights, straps, and asphalt. It is an homage to those who work with their hands, and I found it to be an interesting way of conveying that message.

Launching the Imagination: pg 231-256

I found an image on page 245 to be very strange. It is Jean-Pierre Larocque's untitled sculpture of a head in figure 11.9. The head was sculpted with clay. However, it looks very different from any clay sculpture I've ever seen. Strangely enough it looks like it's made from chocolate ice cream and brownies.

Launching the Imagination: pg 198-231

My favorite part of this section is on page 219. Figure 10.3 shows an artwork called "Many Times" by Juan Munoz. It is a series of sculptures of the same man spread across two wooden bleachers. This is interesting to me, because I have never seen sculpture that utilized multiple pieces like this.

Launching the Imagination: pg 176-198

The emphasis of this section of reading is three dimensional design. I found it interesting that the most frequently used examples of three dimensional design were works of sculpture. For whatever reason, when I hear the term "3D design" I always think of a blueprint on a computer screen, whether it be of a car or a house or anything else. However, this section of reading reminds me that 3D design is a practice that has existed for centuries.

Launching the Imagination: pg 149-176

My favorite part of this reading is on page 166. Figure 8.18 shows a photograph by Margaret Bourke-White entitled "At the Time of the Louisville Flood." This picture depicts a line of people who appear to be in line at some sort of shelter. They are standing in front of a mural that depicts a happy family and reads "World's Highest Standard of Living" and "There's no way like the American Way." Clearly, this piece is meant to be ironic as the people in the picture are in a very different scenario than the family depicted in the mural.

Launching the Imagination: pg 134-149

On pages 136 and 137 are a list of "Habits of Mind and Work" put together by Dr. Arthur L. Costa and Dr. Bena Kallick that they consider essential to success. The first characteristic on the list is flexibility. I can appreciate this, because I consider flexibility to be a very underappreciated characteristic among people.

Launching the Imagination: pg 123-134

This section discusses several things including effective brainstorming methods and characteristics of creative people. I found the discussion about the characteristics of creative people on pages 128-130 to be very intriguing. The seven characteristics of creative people according to the text are as follows: receptivity, curiosity, wide range of interests, attentiveness, connection seeking, conviction, and complexity.

Launching the Imagination: pg 111-123

This section discusses the design process, problems, and solutions to problems. Page 117 claims that for a professional designer, there are no bad problems, but only bad solutions. I found this to be interesting. This section also discusses convergent and divergent thinking. The essential difference between the two is that convergent thinking focuses on a pre-determined goal, while divergent thinking is more open to different endings.

Launching the Imagination: pg 98-111

This reading revolves around the design element of spatial dynamics. On pages 100 and 101, the Disney movie Mulan is used as an example of how to use space effectively. Displayed are multiple images from the film which are said to make excellent use of the following: angle of vision, linear perspective, and atmospheric perspective.

Launching the Imagination: pg 81-98

This section of reading included a very interesting interview on pages 88 and 89. It is with illustrator Bob Dacey. He discusses the cover art that he provided for a book called "Miriam's Cup." What I found most interesting about this interview was that he said he actually did all kinds of research in preparation to create this artwork, including research of Egyptian history and Jewish culture.

Launching the Imagination: pg 66-81

There is a segment of this section that talks about different types of symmetry. On page 76 there is a very interesting example which is "Tiger Hunt" by Peter Paul Rubens. The example uses extra lines to point out the use of spiral symmetry, which I probably would have never noticed otherwise.

Launching the Imagination: pg 54-66

This section talked about the roles of color as they pertain to emotion and symbolism. For example, the blues of Joseph Spadaford's "Illustrated Man" on page 59 "suggest both magic and melancholy." Meanwhile in "Our Fear Is Their Best Weapon" on page 60, the blood red that engulfs the poster incites anger. It is interesting to think about the way colors affect our perception of things, even when we don't realize it.

Launching the Imagination: pg 38-54

This section of the textbook concentrated on color. On page 41, it talks about simultaneous contrast which refers to the way colors look together. The example given was very interesting. In figure 2.8 C on the same page it shows a blue-green square on a blue background and on a green background. The different backgrounds make the foreground square look like totally different colors which is surprising.

Launching the Imagination: pg 10-38

This section of the textbook covered shape, texture, definition, value, and volume. The thing I found most interesting was the concept of using shapes to create depth in an artwork. Specifically, I'm referring to figure 1.25 on page 11. I've always been amazed at artists that are capable of making paintings look so three dimensional.

Demand for Graphic and Web Designers

I read a very interesting article on the growing demand for graphic and web designers. According to the US Department of Labor, there were 279,200 graphic design jobs in 2010. This number is expected to increase by 13 percent by the year 2020, which means that approximately 37,300 more graphic design jobs will be created. The employment of web developers is also expected to grow by 20 percent between 2012 and 2022.
 

Launching the Imagination: Pages 2-10

The emphasis of this first section was on the design element of the line. It discusses all types of lines including actual lines, calligraphic lines, organizational lines, and implied lines. The part that I found the most interesting was on page 6 in figures 1.14A and B. In figure A it shows the 1604 painting "The Deposition" and figure B shows a versions which is drawn in contour lines. Figure B brings to light, just how much of the painting is constructed through implied lines which was very enlightening.

Launching the Imagination: Preface and Intro

This reading basically discussed what design is and defined it in several different ways. On pages xviii and xix, it is defined four different ways as a verb and two different ways as a noun, which I found interesting. It's so easy to steer the term design into a box and only define it as computer based design, but there are so many elements to it. The writer also described beginners in learning design as being the most receptive and eager to learn, which is encouraging.

I just made a slight change to each character. I changed the character style to uniform and now it looks a little more ink-like.

First and foremost, I'd like to say that abstract type art really isn't my thing. I've always done things that are representational, so I really couldn't come up with any bright ideas on what to do. I just had to select my letters and then start messing with the anchor points. I chose the letters USA. You can see somewhat of a pattern in the letters, but that was unintentional. Surprisingly, I don't mind too much how it turned out.

My basic idea was to do the cartoon style concept of having an angel on one shoulder and a demon on the other. The angel and demon just happen to be Chris Farley and John Belushi. So I succeeded in that, but other than that I don't like how it turned out too much. I'm not that efficient in Photoshop or Illustrator yet, so hopefully my projects will get better from here.

I basically just took a picture of myself and erased the background and put in a sky. I tried to make it look like my arm is resting on a cloud rather than on the table that it was really resting on. The idea here was that Chris Farley is giving me some kind of Matt Foley speech about taking it easy on the booze, while John Belushi is telling me to slam it. Like I said, I like the idea I had behind it, but my projects will look a lot better by the end of the semester.