Yeah, I only had a 2 day break between semesters and 6 major projects over the holidays BUT it’s a new semester and surprisingly, things have been easing in. Work wise, that is.
My semester looks like this so far: Layout Design, Portfolio, Typography, Illustrator and Photoshop classes. It’s feels much better to be moving into more technical classes where I can actually learn to create designs now. One thing that has been frustrating is having ideas but without having too much software experience I haven’t been able to necessarily create them as I would like.
Typography is turning out to be my favorite so far! They are all looking pretty promising though. Our portfolio class revolves around one project for the whole semester: basically, we have to pick a client and then choose a design style and create an 11×17” poster for them. My client? SFU’s Philosopher’s Café and I am designing it in Polish Poster Art style. I didn’t actually know too much about this design niche BUT after some research learned that it is super interesting and really cool. Poland, apparently is really well known for its movie posters. They’re a lot more artsy and subjective than the standard North American, smiling actress and actor poster pose. Yeah, boring. These posters are not though! Check out some of the designs here: http://wellmedicated.com/inspiration/50-incredible-film-posters-from-poland/
One thing that has surprised me shifting from first semester to this new semester is generating ideas. I remember before I started the program I was so so so worried about how I would come up with ideas when I would be told what they would need to be about. It’s one thing when you’re thinking about something you want to do a design for, or when an idea just pops into your head, but what about when your teacher gives you a topic? For example, in my layout design class we were all given a different topic and we had to sketch four 3×4” double page magazine s[read thumbnails. My topic: LA lifestyles now. Ummm…so not something I even think about. What is interesting to see though is how once there is a topic in your head, your mind just takes off with it. Once you start doing some research and start writing down ANYTHING that comes to your head regarding your topic, I mean anything. Ideas and creativity seems to bounce off of random ideas and thoughts you have. That’s not to say that it comes within seconds, but there is a process. Whether you’re sketching, mind-mapping or writing down anything you think of. You really just have to be keeping inspired. As in, always looking at new design sites, taking photos, seeing new things and discussing your ideas with other people. THEN you have that random moment with a perfect idea, then you’re left with the question where do these random inspired ideas really come from?
