web design inspiration

I have been researching websites for inspiration in designing the ENF site and really enjoyed looking at the CSS Gallery from Design Shack. I've been getting great ideas from looking at all the different websites. Thought I'd share the goods.

spring break

I'm on my spring break right now and just returned from a roadtrip with friends to Texas. We went to Fort Worth, San Antonio and Austin. I had a really nice time, being in a different place and just relaxing. But I'm back in TN and ready to get work done. I've been working on my multimedia website for awhile. I am redesigning the website for my film friend's at Watkins: Eric Night Films. You can see their current site here. I plan on further developing the site and also adding Adobe Flash components to it. I'm really looking forward to doing another website. I'm going to try to get as much experience in interactive design and media as possible. I really hope I can take more multimedia classes and just complete as many tutorials as I can. Watkins is going to start offering concentrations in Graphic Design in multimedia and illustration, which is great, but I must admit I sure wish I would have had those as an option. None the less, I can learn more about those things anyway. I hope everyone is enjoying their time off and will feel refreshed next week.

internship update

I've been interning at redpepper for about a month now and it's been a good learning experience thus far for various reasons.
Probably the biggest thing I have struggled with is the feeling that I just don't know enough. I have been racked with the fear that I should be further along in my education at this point. For example, I should know how to use InDesign, one of the programs in the Adobe Creative Suite. I will skip the rant on why I did not learn it and just say I wasn't taught in the class I should have been taught in. So in the last week I was given an assignment to do in InDesign and I figured I had played with it enough to figure it out. Unfortunately I still didn't know enough of the basics and ended up staying super late at the office to complete it. I felt awful when my creative director looked at the project because I knew it wasn't up to par.
That night, I went home and did tutorials on InDesign.
Instead of feeling frustated like I have been for awhile, I finally snapped out of it and remembered that if I want to learn the program, that I need to go and do it. Sure it stinks that I wasn't taught, but I can be taught, and I can teach myself.
So the next day I went back to redpepper feeling confident and had a great day. I sat in on a few big brainstorming sessions and had a great time. I felt comfortable and spoke up when I had ideas. I even stayed late on my own choosing. I am determined to make this a good experience.
One of the biggest lessons I've learned thus far is that this is a learning experience. I am an intern and they don't think I can do everything. So I need to treat myself gracefully. And thank goodness this is an internship. I really would get a slap in the face if it were a real job and I couldn't perform. So now I will have a better idea of how a creative firm works and how I need to think and create as a part of it.
As soon as I snapped out of my frustration from my internship last week, it also lifted off the funk I'd been feeling at school. I felt motivated and inspired, and I plan to take that into the coming week as well.

I suggest to any student, at Watkins and elsewhere, to get an internship if possible. You can't learn everything at school. To really know how the industry works, you have to be immersed in it.

designing magazines/film sets

In my Typography 3 class, our current assignment is to design our own magazine. It's been an interesting journey so far, considreing I've never done a project like this and there are so many details you have to think about. But it certainly has been fun to research and find truly good magazine design. Here are some things that caught my eye: This editorial spread is nice and clean and I like the way the imagery flows nicely throughout the entire piece. As a reader, it would certainly intrigue me.




In other news, my filmmaker friends from Watkins are currently in my apartment filming on friend's production 2. It's always nice to help out a friend, and having a new experience is good too. It's been so great developing friendships with people who are studying film, because honestly I have come to appreciate movies in an entirely different way. I see them differently, and I think about the story more compared to when I would turn a movie off if it was "too slow." My boyfriend is also a film student at Watkins and he has taught me a lot too. They always talk about film with so much passion and I always love to hear people when they are passionate about something.
So if you get the chance, ask a film student why they love film making so much and I promise you will be in for an interesting conversation.

the creative life

I'm always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning. Every day I find something creative to do with my life. - Miles Davis

“Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”

These words were once uttered by Pablo Picasso. The same man also said, “Art is a lie that tells the truth.” Which is a profound contradiction any way you look at it. Much like the following phrase:

“Creative people are adults that never grew up.”

Which is mostly true, depending on your idea of “grown up.” Because while there are a handful of “creative people” who behave like adults, function well in society and are productive, the people who do the most creative work are often rogues and rebels. They move against the grain, have a hard time conforming to certain norms and almost always have a penchant for all things “weird.”

In groups, the most creative people will just say whatever comes to mind. They throw ideas out into the world with reckless abandon. Many of which are, at a glance, silly, seemingly irrelevant, and to most people - wrong.

Which is the main reason why many of us born artists grow up to be something else entirely.

Think about it. When you’re born, as you begin aging, your mind starts filling up with different notions about the world around you.

For instance, at a very young age, you learn to recognize your name. Then, you learn to recognize your own image in a mirror. Then, you start to equate the sound of your name with that same image and before long you develop the concept of “I” or “me.” That’s when your ego is born. About that same time, you begin learning to discern between “right” and “wrong.” And before you can even walk, you get the sense that being “right” is better than being “wrong.” Then, you get into school and your whole life hinges on how many times you are right versus how many times you are wrong. Thus, the ego is conditioned to prefer the reward of rightness over the consequence of wrongness.

It is around this time that the natural creativity we are all born with begins to fade. Still, there are those who manage to hang on to it. They remain creative their whole lives. This is because, somehow, they’ve managed to hang on to the notion that it is okay to be wrong.

To live the creative life is to live without the fear of being wrong. Because if you’re always afraid to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything creative.

*This was posted on redpepper's site and I really liked it and wanted to share it here.

week one at redpepper

So tomorrow will mark the end of my first week at redpepper. It's going well and I'm already doing a lot. I've been working on a website for a country music singer, uploading videos and editing songs to post on the site when it goes live Monday. I've been making notes about a college publication that needs some design help, and will be assisting the creative director in making some design guidelines for it. I've also been helping with a fun project that they are doing for the upcoming Addy show this weekend, a peer choice award and I've been buying materials and helping to put that project together, painting and gluing. You don't normally think crafts are always part of design firms, but its a fun project to do and everyone is having fun with it. I've also been fixing small issues on various projects and sitting in on meetings to get the feel for different projects and how redpepper operates. They have a really extensive client list and I'm pretty excited about doing work for some big names.

Here is the list:
Averitt
Averitt Air
Averitt Recruitment
Billy Dean Music Group
Boult Cummings Conners Berry
Brand Vaughn Lumber
Brothers Wine
CAO
Capio
Clymer Facial Plastic Surgery
E.R. Alley & Associates
Ernst Homes
Ernst Remod
Evermore
Finworth Mortgage
Georgia Trust Bank
Gwinnett Convention & Visitors Bureau
Gwinnett Habitat for Humanity
Holder Properties – aspyre at assembly station
JC Reed
John Deere Boots
M2consulting
Magnolia Pediatrics
Marena Group
MGLAW
Music City Moves
myAVguy
Nashville CARES
NationLink Wireless
Norcross, GA
Notre Dame Academy
Ordner
Silverton Bank
Southeastern Pine Awareness Network
Suwanee
Sylvias Wine
The Monkey's Treehouse
The Reliance Network
Touchstone Builders
Trevecca Nazarene University

I've really had a good time this week and have gotten the chance to learn some new things already, like editing music for one. Everyone is really nice and helpful, and I'm certainly grateful for that. It was pretty nervewracking to start last week but this week has been much smoother, and I'm keeping a positive attitude. I'm looking forward to settling in more and taking on more responsibility as time passes.

addys!

Oh, I meant to post about the ADDY Awards.
I wanted to congratulate all the graphic design students who won an addy this year. That's an exciting thing! I'm afraid I don't have a list of the names at the moment, but I want to post them soon.
The show is the 24th of this month and I, along with the other design students will be attending to find out what pieces won awards (we aren't told until the show).
So that was really great news :)