My opinion on Opinions

This was something I started writing several months ago and for some reason it never got posted. For the few of you who still read blogs and the fewer still who still read mine, here's a bit on my opinion of opinions of one who my opinion of is smaller than his opinion of me. Opinion.

I overheard a conversation at school recently from my least favorite teacher ever to some of my fellow students.

This teacher was commenting on a student who had written a paper about an artist who the student didn't like and thought their work to be rubbish. The teacher's response was something to the effect of "once you become a rich artist who sells their paintings for millions of dollars, then you can talk."

So, in other words, you can write the paper with integrity or fail. 

To me, that's a huge load of donkey crap, as well as indicative of some of the things wrong at that school, or at least in that department. What they're saying is your worth isn't based on your arguments, or your intelligence but on your future success. (Success they have no way of knowing, naturally). Not only that, but basically, the teacher is saying you're not allowed to have an opinion unless yours agrees with me. That's pretty much par for the course as far as that teacher is concerned, but it irked me more than usual.

Some of you with insanely good memories may know I had a similar rundown with another teacher in the past. I think that event was much different, and I'll get to why in a minute.

College is supposed to be somewhere that you learn. Ideally, where you learn what you intend to do for a large percentage of your life. It's also where you acquire skills that are supposed to assist you no matter what you choose. One is having a difference of opinion and then supporting why. If you're not free to present a dissenting opinion, and give reason for it, then a large part of college and in some ways one of the most important parts, is null and void.

But what does it matter, as I haven't sold paintings for millions of dollars, and therefore my opinion is worthless. Never mind the fact that artists like Van Gogh never sold or only sold one painting in their life, who cares, he didn't make millions.

If money is used to value a person or their artistic integrity or worth, you'll find that we'll all be in debt. How dare you try to ascribe someone's worth or even opinions on what they make. I'm being careful not to mention that as a college professor, many graduating students are getting better paying jobs than you have, so you just made your own opinion invalid. But I would never say a thing like that.

Though my opinions of this teacher are less than glowing, I understand my low opinion of his opinion may stem from my loathing towards him. As Oscar Wilde put it, "Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike." It's true, I dislike this teacher immensely. My one redeeming thought is I'll soon be free forever.

Like a Bat out of Meatloaf

 The Semester from Hell is over. I can't remember the last time I was so relieved. (Probably the semester before). While it was a heck of a lot of work and insanity and spousal/parental neglect, I'm grateful for it, for several reasons. I did learn a whole lot, believe it or not. But mostly, I'm grateful for it because I realized if I can get through that semester with work, school and family, I can do practically anything!

For your sake but mostly mine I'd like to break down my classes, and then talk about next semester and a few other things.

First the worst: Graphic Design 2. I used to really like the teacher, now not as much. It went from unclear assignments to indecipherable. I'm happy with what I did on my final project for that class only. And, as several others of my classmates can testify re: their own projects, it's because I didn't listen to the teacher's suggestions. The assignment was to rebrand and repackage an existing brand. I chose to redo the logo and bottles for Masquerade Wines. I'd just as soon forget the assignment, but I'm happy with the end result, despite borrowing heavily from existing wine bottle designs. (My second-to-last presentation of the assignment is above, and imho looks nothing like canned corn or $5 wine. $6 at least.)

Second the best: Senior Seminar. The class got boring at times, it's true. But a lot of the lectures had to do with accounting and the business aspect of being a designer, which I find boring. What I did like was how much of the class was practical, I had to/got to brand myself, (that is, create business cards, letterhead I'll never use, envelopes I'll also never use, and a logo for me) I redesigned my resume into something I'm actually happy with, and created a portfolio website I'm not embarrassed about, or as embarrassed about as my last one. (You can see it here at austindm.wix.com/portfolio). The teacher was a lot of fun, really helpful and intelligent. Best of all, he was willing to compromise with students and let us know exactly what he wanted for us to do, a surprisingly rare skill in the UVU design dept. it sometimes seems.

Now the rest: That would be Art History: Renaissance, Intro to Museum Study, and Advanced Layout.

Art History was good. For the main research project I wrote a paper on Jacopo Pontormo, an Artist often classified as a Mannerist and I wanted to argue the case that he belonged to the Renaissance. After about page 2 (of 7) I realized that he actually WAS more Mannerist than Renaissance, so I had to B.S. my way through the rest. The teacher took pity on me and gave me a B-. I liked the teacher but I've had much better Art History teachers in the past. Nothing against this one, it's just comparing a Wendy's Hamburger to Red Robin. It's good, but it's not awesome good.

Intro to Museum Studies was a mixed bag. On one hand, I learned a whole lot about museums, their function and how they operate I never would have. On the other had, I think a lot of what I did wasn't so much meant to teach me and my classmates as it was to get free labor at the museum. Still, I'm mostly glad I took it but also glad it's over.

Finally, Advanced Layout. This went from my favorite class to biggest disappointment of the semester. I felt the teacher was eager to leave, but then, so was most of the class, before class was over. I stayed several times for one on one help with my magazine but the teacher never got to me. That's not anything against the teacher per se, except maybe their time management. In the end I just kind of threw it together and I think it really shows. The only 2 parts I'm completely happy with are the cover and the infographic. Perhaps not surprisingly, the 2 parts I spent the most time on. Like the rest of the semester, the best I can say about it is it's done.

My two favorite parts of this semester (besides the fact that it's my last fall semester EVER) were 1) Touchstones and 2) 30 covers in 30 days. Things that were not class related. I'm so glad I was able to do both of those, and wish I had done extracurricular things like it sooner, tho it's probably better that I haven't as I haven't felt like a "real" graphic designer until the end of last semester.

Touchstones was a beast but awesome experience and I got to work with some really talented people, specifically the inimitable Heather Duncan as Editor in Chief. My one regret is I wish they'd listened to me and got it printed at McNeil printing, but c'est la vie. It's still a great product and I'm proud to have been a part of it.

30 covers in 30 days was my favorite design project of the year. I'm already looking forward to doing it next year, assuming I can find another 30 NaNoWriMos who want a free book cover. ;) I'll also be designing one for the actual website, tho free, it should give me some good exposure, so I'm looking forward to that.

Now on to the new semester! Post #2 coming up now!

Update: in case anyone's curious, I got my grades today. They were all better than expected, so I'm posting them now for posterity:

Graphic Design II: B-
Art History Renaissance: B+
Senior Seminar: A-
Advanced Layout: A-
Intro to Museum Study: A
Not bad, especially when you factor in that I had a job, a family, and chose to layout a 130 page literary journal and design 30 book covers in November.

30 Covers in 30 Days

I am done! I set out to make 30 book covers in the month of November, and I finished at about 35! It was a lot of fun and I had a blast doing it. I enjoyed it more and learned more than probably about 80% of my school assignments, which is kind of sad, but I'm looking at the positive.

Thanks to all the writers who gave me the opportunity to design their book covers, and congratulations to everyone for writing their novels for NaNoWriMo!

What the HECK was I thinking?

November is supposed to be a restful month. I mean, besides a few loved ones birthdays, the only real holiday of the month is one we celebrate by overeating, then the next day overspending. Somehow I think it's going to be my most stressful month of the year.

Not only do I have to build my own portfolio website, a branding campaign for myself as a designer, write 5 papers on 5 local museums, design a product line for a wine company, and finish my fake magazine, but I've also got to layout and typeset Touchstones, the school literary journal.

Also I've been growing a beard for Movember, which is a sacrifice in and of itself, as it itches like the dickens (very itchy, that is), but more upsettingly, Tracie refuses to kiss me until I shave it, so I have to be content with hugs. It's nice that she's certifiably the best hugger in the world, but I do misses the kisses from my mrs.

Finally, some of you may know that November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. I realized I wouldn't have enough time to write @ 50,000 words in 30 days, but I figured I could try to design book covers, 1 a day or 30 covers in 30 days. I toyed with the idea of designing covers for a collection of my favorite books, and/or design covers for stories I have or have yet to have written. But I decided to give a little something back to the NaNoWriMo community and design covers for those who wanted them for free. The initial response was decent, but it wasn't until yesterday that I had all the slots filled. If you'd like to see my progress or my finished work depending on when you read this, you can go here:

http://pinterest.com/austindm/30-covers-in-30-days/

Though this 30 covers in 30 days thing adds to my busyness, it feels good to give back, not to mention that it feels good to receive all the praise I do from the writer's whose book covers I designed. :)

anyway, I'm very very busy this month, which is good because I'm busy doing a lot of things I love, but it's still hard and stressful.

Midterms and Registration

I figured the month is nearly over and I haven't updated in awhile. I wanted to post on how my classes are going, what's up with life, and that I'm already registered for next semester. What's so awesome about that? Well, it's my LAST SEMESTER EVER!!!!!!!

So, as a refresher my classes I'm taking now are:
Graphic Design II
Advanced Layout
Senior Seminar
Art of the Renaissance
Intro to Museum Study

Graphic Design II: Possibly the most frustrating class of the semester. My first logo I spent time and energy and even a little bit of blood, sweat and a few tears, and got a B-. My second project I had no motivation to do and so totally phoned it in, got a B+. Learn your lesson, kids: Don't try. Looking forward to the next and last assignment of the semester: branding the crap out of a company.

Advanced Layout: My favorite class of the semester by far. It's amazing what you can accomplish when you have passion, ability, and a teacher who knows what they're doing. I did a photo shoot this week for the cover and one of the features, more to follow I'm sure. The main project is a magazine, mine is called Falstaff, it's basically a magazine made for Austin and by Austin.

Senior Seminar: A very helpful class, I really like the instructor and most of the assignments, but it can get boring, probably because a large % of the class is talking finances.Currently working on making my own logo and brand.

Art of the Renaissance: It's Art History, what can I say? Love it, know it, live it, breathe it. The teacher is fine, not incredible as some of the other AH classes, but at least she doesn't challenge my love of the subject as some design teachers have.

Intro to Museum Study: Challenging Graphic Design II as the most aggravating and Sr. Seminar as the most boring, there are some days I feel like the class should be called manual labor for college credit. It's cool to learn about museums "behind the scenes," but a majority of class time is often spent painting the walls, moving the museum objects, cleaning, etc. etc. I have no problem with work, but it feels like they're taking advantage of us a little in the name of education. How that's different than the rest of my experience at UVU I'm not entirely sure yet.

Here's a sampling of what I'm working on:

^This is my latest rendition of my self logo for Senior Seminar. I liked it until i looked at it here and saw it reminds me of a law office. I'll change the colors.

 ^This is a "support graphic" for the fictional technological device "Lango," a handheld translator. The support graphic is supposed to support both the logo and the product, I wanted to have 2 different people communicating and thanks to "Lango," understanding each other.

^Here is the current cover of Falstaff magazine. The photographer is my cousin Charlotte, the model is my other cousin Carrisa. I got to Art Direct a photo shoot that I might blog about later. I'm pretty excited with how awesome it's turned out.

So that's how Fall semester is going. But last night was early registration for Spring semester, and since I am a senior with only 2 classes needed to graduate, I got to register.

Because of my grant, I actually have to take 4 classes, but I decided to take 2 other classes, partially because I'm about as fed up with most of the art department at that school as I can be, and partially because it's my last semester of college so I'm going to make it count.

To graduate I'm taking Contemporary Art History from one of my 3 favorite art teachers, my favorite art history teacher, it should be awesome. I'm also taking Flash Animation, even though I said I wouldn't learn Flash as it's becoming obsolete, at least more so, it's one of the few classes I'm allowed to take to graduate.

I'm also taking Intro to IS/IT Programming which should be fun, I've heard the teacher is great & I'm getting sick of being the odd man out when 2 or more of my guy friends get together that's practically all they talk about, plus it will hopefully make me slightly more marketable.

Finally and most excitingly, I'm taking a Minimalist Literature class from my favorite teacher EVER. Not favorite Literature teacher or favorite college teacher, but favoritest teacher ever! It should be fun.

And that's school for me, thanks for reading, any of you who still do, until next month, happy Halloween and dia del Muerte!

Pinterest & Me

I've heard of Pinterest, of course. Even looked at it once or twice. Well, in my magazine design/layout class, our teacher assigned us to make a Pinterest account, so I did.

In addition to finding inspiring graphic design and art (I haven't really used it for fashion, decorating or recipes (yet)), I've also made a few quote images for it, that I would like to share here as well, for reasons. Some are my quotes, some are quotes from others, some are quotes I don't know where they came from so I take all the credit.

The Hush Sound Logo

For Graphic Design II, our first major assignment is to design a logo for an Intangible Product or Company. The teacher explained it "Madonna is an intangible product because you can buy a Madonna CD, but you can't buy Madonna." While some of us may have argued that example, the point had been made. Most of the class did logos for events or fictional companies, I decided to make a logo for one of my favorite bands, the Hush Sound. We were supposed to design a wordmark as well as a pictorial logo, and have them "go together."

After dozens of sketches and tries, I decided to make their logo an owl, as it's a silent hunter, as well as a cool animal. (the runner up was a "rest" in musical notation, but there wasn't much customization to a rest symbol.)

Below is my original wordmark, done by hand, followed by the evolution of the owl, to the finished product at the bottom.