Graphic Design Workshop 2

Artist Statement for Senior Show Project

Life presents an abundance of stimuli. This stimuli impacts culture, influences social dynamics, and informs our way of thinking. Media, television, music, and literature have a strong presence in our environment. I am a product of this media heavy environment and this in turn influences the  way I approach design and visual solutions. Video games and television were constant forms of entertainment when I was a kid. There were times when I played a game or watched a show that I would daydream or imagine the creation of my own scenarios. These scenarios would sometimes have elaborate complex story lines, or sometimes be very simple. I am older and more experienced now; I am not only a recipient of information fed to me via the media, television, or advertisements but a shaper of influence as well. Ideas and dreams are not limited to myself, but now others can share and experience my conceptions.

 

Last thoughts before graduation 

Since I am almost finished with school and about to graduate I have been thinking a lot lately about hunting for jobs. I have been looking around a little bit for jobs that look like good prospect; Mainly ones that are entry level. I have also been working on revising my portfolio since I want it too be almost perfect for our portfolio reviews that are on the 24^th of April. My spaghetti western stamps need a little revising, but some minor Photoshop touch ups should do the trick. I also decided to print off the complete code for my game instead of just the main script. The entire code is about 9 pages in length, which I feel is more impressive looking than a page or two of the main script even though it is more complex and intense to work with. I have also been putting more thought into my personal branding. The ideas are coming along slow, but progress is being made. Right now I am not looking for any specific job, but I am interested in what I can get considering the shape of the economy. Freelancing also sounds like a good idea I am currently working at a rest runt and ever since I have worked there I have always wanted to work on their menus. I feel I have a good relationship as an employee, and I think I could really make some great changes to the look of their menu. Other than that I am open to trying anything.

 

Cindy Li talk

Cindy Li was invited to Chattanooga to talk to our class about networking. Her talk was very informative and incite full. When she was talking about avatars and how people use them instead of photos of themselves I thought to myself she has a very good point. How are people going to recognize a person if they don’t use a picture of themselves for their Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, or other social networking. I myself have never used an avatar. I think they can be neat and creative but I agree with Cindy. Privacy settings are something I need too look into more. My Myspace page is a good example since I don’t have it set to private. Almost anyone can view my profile and try to add me to their friends list. This made me think, maybe I should go through my friends list and do a little cleaning. I do have a lot of real life friends on there, but I also many people that were just random invites. I think now is the time for me to clean my page of people that I do not know and talk to people that are in the same profession or have similar goals. Her talk also made me think about using other networking tools other than Myspace. I have a Twitter account but I have not used it as much as my Myspace page. Her talk has encouraged me to think about Twitter and Face book more as well as some other the other networking tools that she suggested.

The Show was awesome 

The Senior show went much smoother than I expected. I got lots of positive feedback on my keynote presentation and project installation. I was very nervous before I was about to give my presentation, but watching the presentations of my classmates that went before me helped ease the tension some. When the gallery opened there were so many people. The turnout for our show was amazing to say the least. I was very pleased to see people that I didn’t even know sit down and play the game that I have been working on since last semester. From what I could tell people of all ages liked playing it. Jessica told me that her son liked playing the game and said that this was a good sign since kids tend to be very picky, and kids make up the biggest part of my target audience. I know many adults play video games but I first got into them when I was a kid and not as an adult. The game itself is a reflection of my childhood experiences playing games in the 8-bit era. Feed back during the show was something I hoped for, but I did not expect to keep getting feedback after the initial launch of the show. Many of my fellow classmates and students from other classes have given me lots of positive feedback. I have also been encouraged to enter my game in a show at create here. The show itself is about the history of games, and I feel my game defiantly covers a historical moment in electronic games.

 

Preparing for the Senior Show

This weekend is spent the majority of my time working n my Senior show exhibit. My project is a video game which I talked about in my previous blogs. The games itself is ready for the show, though it is far from overall completion. I also made some screen shots of my maps and characters. This took longer than I expected since I had to use Photoshop some to touch things up a pinch. Friday I printed all 4 maps and 10 characters off and spray mounted them onto illustration board. Saturday was the big install; I was on campus from 9 till 4 trying to wrap things up. I had to borrow my parents lap top for the game, as well as find the right podium size to place the lap top. Positioning all the maps and characters also took a while since I had too make sure everything was level. Once I accomplished all of this the only thing left to do was create a display for the game instructions. The instruction went through several revisions before I came up with a look that I was satisfied with. After the installation I started working on my keynote presentation. The presentation will be fairly simple explaining my influences and experiences creating the game. As far as visuals half my slides are screen shots from the game and the other half pertain to my java script.

 

Busy week

The past couple of weeks have been hectic and busy for me as a student preparing for the senior show and working with my group for the Taste Buds food guide campaign. For the campaign I have been working on shirts and posters. Thinking of ideas for the shirts has been frustrating; good ideas just aren’t coming to me for the shirts. Ideas for the poster are going much smoother.  My video game was finished for the show for the most part. I spent a long time over the weekend wrapping things up as far as errors and possible performance issues. I was also finally got the function that plays music in the background to work. This function much like the map switch had been giving me problems for months, but after extensive research I found a script code that worked. Not only does the function play music in the back ground it also switches music once a map has been switched. There was also a function for a random player, but playing midi files randomly for a game is a bad approach for an adventure/rpg game. I did not compose the midi music myself for I am not musically inclined enough to compose musical scores. I could possibly if I had more time, but I am basically a one man development team aside from the information I have gathered from the forums and help guides. The only thing I lack now is to make print outs of my screen shots, and work on my key note presentation for the project.

 

Game in progress

Over Spring Break I had the opportunity to work on my video game some. At this point I had already created 3 maps, 9 characters, and the text box and talk functions were working properly, but I was still having difficulties getting the function that switched maps too work. After lots of research and some trial and error I got the map switch to work. This is a very substantial step in the game process since now all the maps are like a world as a whole instead of 3 or 4 mini games. I also did some research concerning character movement. The main character for my game has been able to move North, South, East, and West. This was not the case, however, for my non-player characters. Through my research I found 3 different codes for non-player character movement. I tested each of them out and two out of the three worked. The first code was for characters to move in place, and did not require code in the main script but in the individual inputs of each character. The second code was a lot more complex as it should be considering it allowed characters to move around on different coordinates of the map. The first code was two lines of code, but the second code required several lines of code on the main script and then each direction and number of steps could be input directly into each character. The third code, which did not work, was for characters to move randomly using various algorithm formulas. There is still a lot to do before the game is ever resolved, but I feel I have came a long way in the development so far.

 

My Thoughts on blogs

I feel blogs are a convenient way of expressing ones thoughts. At times writing a blog feels like writing an entry into a journal. This could be do to me writing about subjects which pertain to activities or events in my life. One day I could be talking about logos another day it could be my thought about which fonts I like to use. When thinking about what I wish to blog about I never plan or think ahead as I would with a paper. My thoughts are about what is on my mind or what has interested me lately. As a designer there is so much going on in my life. Creativity is a must as well as the ability to explain why the composition is the way it is. How does this solve the problem; how does it connect. For every project I undertake there is a statement that could be written. Writing in a blog is different in that my thoughts are free and do not constrained. These thoughts have the potential to be viewed by many people since the internet has limitless opportunities to discuss and express thought with.

 

Daydreaming

I feel daydreaming can be a very helpful part of the creative process.  Drawing thumbnails and sketches is a good way to get a variety of quick ideas but sometime it helps me to just let the mind drift freely.  I remember reading in my Slideology book that Dali would draw and think of ideas in his bath tub.  I have a similar approach, but I literally take a bath when I do.  It helps me relax and gather thoughts perfect for day dreaming and brainstorming.  Another thing that helps is eating snacks, or as I like to think of it “food for thought”. Listening to music is also a help sometimes; it puts me in the mood to be creative.  Sometimes when I’m in a car and not the one driving I like to just stare out the window and just zone this is not as effective as the bath but it sure is a lot more time efficient.  Thinking about projects and ideas as you go to sleep is also very time efficient, and sometimes I even end up dreaming about it.  Day dreams are indeed helpful and without them projects can feel less resolved or interesting than you originally intended.  I can be the difference between and good project and a great project.

 

Sr show

For the past week or two I have been working on posters for the Senior show at UTC.  From the group meetings my group decided to go with a san-serif font, simple layout, and some strong colors.  The current font I have been working with is Eurostile.  Eurostile was not my first choice for the project but after comparing a few fonts I feel it is the strongest choice for my simple design.  For my posters and post cards I did not use any visuals.  The composition is strictly color and typeface.  For colors I am using a very saturated orange red, some yellow, and a little black and white as well.  Since there are no visuals my piece relies on colors and arrangement of the information.  For me the toughest part was figuring out the order in which I wanted to present the names.  There are a total of 22 names which will take up a fair amount of space.  The best way of handling the big list of names was to put them in order according to the length of the names as well as arrangement according to which dates the work is displayed for the show.  I feel my poster is fairly resolved at this point but my composition does not fit my postcard and mailer quite as well as far as the treatment of the names.  The colors fit everything and so do the fonts its just the names that are posing a problem.

 

presentations

My current project was a keynote presentation that has to be no more or less than 5 minutes.  The presentation is based off an action verb “transform”.  My take on transform is the fact that it means change of some type.  The change I am representing is a change in career which transforms the persons life into a happier one.  I tell my own story of my struggles in school and how changing from a BS to a BFA changed my life substantially.  This transformation made me a much happier person and my goal is to help motivate others to find a career they enjoy rather than just get by.  I created very simple visuals in the forms of stick figures to convey my story.  I could have used pictures but I felt the stick figures made it more of a story telling experience.  I did lots of brain storming for this project and feel confident that the presentation will be successful.  I also have very few words in my slides since most of them are on notes to give my presentation a very visual experience.

 

Art and Fear

A few weeks ago I read a book called Art and Fear.  When I read this book I really took it to heart; it was originally written for artists but graphic designers share a lot in common with artists.  For instance everyone can relate to the feeling that ones work will be unworthy or not good enough even when a person is at the top of their game they may not fully realize their own potential.  Art and design can both feel like a gamble sometimes in that you never know how the viewer or client will react to the work you submit.  It would be all fine and dandy if we could just pull the ideas out of thin air and produce instant results, but design is never that simple and if it were everyone would be doing it.  This book brought up many insightful points into how all designers and artists feel.   When reading this I took note of a few quotes I felt were very helpful such as “the piece you make is always one step removed from what you imagined, or what else you can imagine, or what your right on the edge of being able to imagine.”  I can totally relate to this quote in that the pieces and projects I work on do turn out to be successful but none of them are ever as grand as what I first imagine them to be.  Even when I put in all the effort and time I can I feel there is something extra I could have added.  That is just one of many examples I found that I could relate too, and I would encourage any artist or designer to give it a read.

 

Logos

 I have recently been brainstorming and sketching ideas for a group project.  I feel my hand skills are not my strongest attribute when it comes to logo design.  I feel comfortable sketching logos with pen or pensile but when it comes to generating them on the computer my thinking process tends to change.  Instead of thought getting put into the hand my brain tends to lean more towards the live trace options in Illustrator.  I enjoy using live trace a lot and feel it can be a very powerful tool when used correctly.  Photoshop also comes in handy since I can lasso pieces out of pictures and then place them in Illustrator for a live trace.  For me sketching the ideas to paper is the first step, and then once I have decided on what I want as the shape or look of the logo I think about how I could use live trace to accomplish this idea.  For me my camera is like a pencil or pen sometimes.  However, the camera and live trace combinations do not always produce the best results.   When pictures and live trace do not work for me I usually try to scan in one of my hand drawn sketches.   For me scanning a sketch or thumbnail is something I try to save as a last option, but I have produced a good logo before doing so since the image I was trying to produce did not look like anything a person could take a picture of.  The logo for that project was one, which symbolized the word home.  Sure I could have went with the approach I normally go with but sometimes a persons imagination has stronger ideas than what is naturally presented, and when a situation like that arises it gives me time to work on my hand skills which I take for granted. 

 

The Beauty of Code

As a graphic designer I can appreciate the value of code or scripting.  Most of the projects I have worked on do not require code, but there are a few exceptions such as web design which requires XHTML and CSS.  The video game I am working on requires code as well , as a designer I can relate more to the visual aspects of a video game.  However, my current project does not have a development team or programmers of any sort; It’s all me.  The Sphere program which I have been using uses a scripting known as Java script Spider Monkey.  Most of your big name game developers have programmers which use C++ which is the standard .   Java script is not as complex but it is still trial and error teaching it to myself.  Through my process I have really began to appreciate code in terms of how it looks on paper.  I feel it has a beauty which is taken for granted; code isn’t meant to be flashy visually since it is used as a necessity.  In other words without code there is no game, only visuals which do nothing.  When I had a class in web design one of the requirements of our process books was to print out our html and css.  Looking at the printouts I always enjoyed the complexity of the script and really enjoyed it visually.  As part of my senior project I plan to display the programming code which I used to make the game.  I do realize that not everyone can appreciate programming or script code visually but that is the case with art and design in general; Not everyone is going to like the same thing.  

My video game

For my senior thesis project in graphic design I am undertaking the task of creating my own 8-bit video game.  As my game developers and my research broaden I have noticed that there are still some companies that work with 8 bit graphics.  An example of this is the release of Mega Man 9, which takes the series back to its roots with old school 8 bit graphics.  Seeing Mega Man return to his a bit glory is very inspiring for me.  In my development process I would say that creating the characters is my favorite part.  Making it 8 bit may be simpler but when all you have is squares and colors on a grid you really have to put some thought into how it’s going to look.  Sure its low resolution 8 but the shape should not be too far off and the borders should not either.   I enjoy creating the maps as well.  I try to make sure each map is interesting but not to confusing and the are fairly simple in their pathing.   The code is the hardest part for me but the most rewarding as well.  The Program I am using to create the game uses a java script, which is not as complex as C++ but has still required a lot of research.  Even after this project is finished I plan to keep developing the game and possibly others.  I feel it’s a good idea to practice the new skills I have learned since they may possibly help me in other areas of design.