Got Style?

I blaze ever forward on my quest toward a portfolio. Over the last week, I’ve done a lot of sketches, and even a few rough comps to see if the style I was planning is going to work. Check ‘em out.

I know the style is unconventional for a portfolio, but that’s exactly why I’m doing it. If I have to look through one more neutral colored overly crisp gallery style portfolio, I might just throw my hands up and give up on the world of design. It’s one thing to keep it clean and simple, and another to do exactly what everyone else is doing. It’s my hope that this portfolio will be able to first, attract attention and intrigue people, and second, be a showcase of good artwork and design in itself. Of course, I also hope it’s a good way to show of my work! This coming week, I’m moving on to some organizational things, like coming up with a site map and a master list of things to do in order to complete the site.

My internship is also continuing smoothly. You can check out one of the sites I’ve been working on [EDITED]. Mostly I’ve just done some tweaking and image prep, but it’s been nice to see things come together over the last few weeks. After tomorrow, I’ll have worked there for three weeks.

I have also, of course, done more reading this week. HTBAGDWLYS (that's almost as long as just typing the full title!) provided some insight on the design process from conception through to finished project. One point that was heavily stressed was the importance of good briefs, and the ability of a designer to find the core issues in a brief. Isolating and understand these issues will provide direction and guidance throughout a project. There was also a good point made about using drafts and iteration not as a means of collecting a pile of stuff you simply aren't going to use, but rather as a way of collecting materials that will inform your future versions. This made a lot of sense to me. Just because a given comp doesn't work does not mean that, by observing its strengths and weaknesses, it can't guide you in the right direction.

One pursuit I haven’t mentioned yet is the independent study I’ve been working on. I’m putting together some character animations in Maya. I figure that rigging, skinning, and all that jazz is pretty much the biggest gap in my Maya repertoire, and I aim to plug that gap. So far I’ve run through the appropriate tutorials in Maya at a Glance, and now I’m moving on to some more advanced materials. I’ve already done a walk cycle on a simple character, and while I’m not sure what kind of final product I’m going to strive for, I’d like to tell some kind of short narrative with a character.

Well, I’ve work to do, so I must be on my way. Until next week!

Onward and Upward...

The plot thickens this week yet again. I’m taking a service learning course on the life and philosophy of Albert Schweitzer, and as part of the course, students must volunteer with a chosen non-profit group on a regular basis. I’ve been in contact with the Greater New Haven Cat Project, a group that cares for stray and feral cats, and when it came up that I was an interactive designer, they wondered if I could give their website a face lift. As you can see, there is room for improvement. This could be an excellent chance to apply some of the skills I’ve acquired, and some of the tricks I’ve picked up at my internship.
Speaking of which, the work I’m doing for Caffeine Interactive has gotten a lot more interesting over the past week. Beyond simple image manipulation, they now have me working on things that bear a strong resemblance to actual design. Just yesterday I was planning layouts and designing graphics for a page that I will be assembling tomorrow. It will be my first complete from-the-ground-up page with Caffeine.
My reading continues in “How To Be a Graphic Designer…”. Topics covered this week include clients and self promotion. The section on clients hit home with me, pointing out some of the observations I’ve made myself over the past few years. I think the most important issue addressed was the power struggle that can occur between designer and client. All too often I have had to suppress a deep sigh as a client requests something which is contrary to good design sense. The Book recommend forging a relationship where you both have a say, and should be firm when you need to. Easier said than done.
I’ve also been progressing further in “Designing a Digital Portfolio”. A brief section on developing old work to a higher standard was of particular interest to me. As a young designer (still a student, even) I do not have an enormous body of work to draw from. The fine art of taking old, lackluster projects and polishing them up will be something I will probably have to master in the coming months.
What other news? I have chosen a logo, and applied it to a range of media, including business cards, envelopes, and letterheads. I cooked up several versions of each, and still need to figure out just which ones to use. You can check ‘em out below.
Well, as usual, I am being whisked off somewhere by the forces of obligation. Until next time, dear reader.

Another Day Another Dollar...

This week I began my internship at the illustrious Caffeine Interactive. I’ve only been there for two days so far, but they’ve already found lots of important work for me. This mostly involves the kind of repetitive maddening jobs that would drive actual employees insane. “Dan, could you resize these 400 images to fit this template? Thanks.” Fortunately, most interns are already insane for agreeing to work for no pay- but this internship does pay, so I don’t think that rule applies to me. Did I lose anyone?
In all seriousness, however, it’s already proving to be a valuable experience. It’s interesting to take in the process of web design and maintenance from development, to testing, right on through to application. I’ve even learned one or two shortcuts in Photoshop that I didn’t know before.
What other news then? Work continues on my logo design. I’ve narrowed down the specific style I’ll be pursuing (see image below), and it’s only a matter of picking which version exactly I’ll be settling on. I’ve also given more thought to the overall design of my portfolio site, and these logos, whichever I decide on, will definitely be right at home.
Reading also continues from Shaughnessy’s “How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul” and also Cynthia L. Baron’s “Designing a Digital Portfolio.” The latter spent some time discussing researching potential clients and customizing yourself to fit their needs. To me, the process of constantly tweaking, rebuilding, and generally poking at one’s portfolio seems like it would be a tiresome endeavor, but then no one said this was going to be easy.
In any event, I am off to class. The sun is shining for the first time in 40 days, and my dove has wandered back with an olive branch, so I believe it is time for me to depart and see what the wide world can offer me today.

And oh- here are those logos.

To move a mountain...

The last seven days have been a banner week for me. Toward the middle of last week I sent a resume and portfolio to Caffeine Interactive, a design group running out of New Haven, and they called me in for an interview on the coming Friday. My first impression of the place was that it’s exactly the kind of environment I’d hope for in a design studio. A voluminous brick interior with two story windows draped in crimson curtains, neon signs, air hockey… atmosphere. The kind of place that immediately puts me in the sort of creative mood I usually have to put on some heavily electronic music to get in to.
The interview went well. I liked the people as much as the place, and I guess they liked me too, because I received a call the following Tuesday offering me an internship position. Now here’s the real kicker: They’re even going to pay me. Design gods be praised! I’ll be doing 20 hours a week beginning next Tuesday. It’s going to be a tall order considering my substantial workload at school this semester (and a few independent projects) but I’m confident this will be the real world exposure I need to make a comfortable transition after graduation.

I managed to procure a copy of Adrian Shaughnessy’s How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing your Soul this week, and promptly dove in. Immediately striking about the book is its shocking lack of what most conventional people would call, well, design. Its plain blue cover with white text offers almost no initial graphical pizzazz. Each page is densely packed with small black print, and pictures are few and far between. To the casual onlooker, a person with this book might appear to be reading the manual to a large and complicated calculator. The funny thing is, hugely unconventional for a design book though it is, it does have style. As you make your way through it, you begin to appreciate the Spartan simplicity with which the book is put together. There is nothing flashy, but everything is in its place, and done right. I would compare it to the subtle and careful work of Steven Spielberg, whereas most design books hearken closer to Michael Bay.
Another surprise the opening pages of this book have thrown at me is that it’s actually enjoyable to read. Chapters melt away readily, and it is full of useful gems. Of particular interest to me were sections on interviewing and portfolio presentation, as, as I have said, I went through this process over the last week. I was happy to find an emphasis on presenting yourself as an affable person who is easy to, “get on with” as Shaughnessy puts it. I make a point of this in interviews, and try not to focus too much on my ego. I guess it’s panned out.

Finally, I’ve begun work on putting together some logos for myself. One possible option is now visible in the header of this blog. Others are still more in the planning phase . The letters “D” and “T” were not really made to mesh together in an attractive fashion, so I’ve had to, well, get creative in some areas. Some of the logos, however, are less typographically oriented and more graphically oriented. I’m actually leaning toward one of these, but nothing is final yet.

That’s all for now my friends. It appears this body cannot be sustained on high speed internet access alone, so I head off in search of food.