After watching Larry Lessig's lecture on modern day creativity and the battle between the bootleggers and copywriters... well, I really don't have much to say about it at all. I'm kind of confused. I thought that there were good points to his speech as I was watching it, but now that it is over, I don't know what to do with any of the information he offered. I'm still not convinced that it is wrong for people to bicker about who owns what piece of media. It seems natural to me. And quite frankly, I don't really see it as a problem. Lessig seems to have some kind of personal obsession with finding a cure to a problem that I think only he may feel is a problem worth obsessing over. If he actually went into detail about what the middle ground he spoke of was, maybe I would be able to sympathize more with his argument. But he didn't; nor did he offer any sort of closure as to how we are supposed to handle "our kids" becoming pirates forced underground. What he did do, is complain. He pointed out many ways he thought modern society was repeating past mistakes and in one way or another acting foolish or taking part in silly games. Maybe I'm missing something. Maybe the average person, or even my more rested self, can decipher his list of complaints and define a possible solution. But at this point, all I can tell is that Lessig thinks that people need to end what he thinks is a childish war over copyright because... I don't even know why. I don't even know that he does.
The lecture, overall, was quite interesting. Lessig is a good speaker, and his presentation made him seem very knowledgeable. I just don't really get what it is I'm supposed to do with the information. If I want to mix up some anime to a Prince tune, I'm gonna do it! And I'm gonna be glad that there are places where I can post the abomination of a video to show all of my web-linked friends when its done. If I was Prince, on the other hand, or owned rights to a song of his that had been edited to an anime music video, I may be a little ticked off. It's the same complex that happens when you find out that you have a termite infestation. You get a little pissed that some termites are abusing your things for their own purposes. But the termites just want wood, and your house is some perfect wood for them to do their termite business in. The only difference is that the music industry hasn't really come up with a pest control service yet. But it doesn't seem like Lessig wants pest control. He, "as a good liberal," seems to want a happy medium where termites could maybe be allowed to play around in the older wood or something. Like a corner in the closet or something. But who knows, he never really said.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Its typeography in motion and poetry with animation.. it's some damn gooood inspiration!
A friend of mine posted this to facebook. After watching it, I wanted to post it to my facebook and tell everyone to watch it. But I didn't want to steal his status-post-thunder... So here you go! This is one of the coolest videos I've seen in.... forever.
If someone besides Andrea reads this, watch the credits to get an idea of the man power something like this takes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U&feature=player_embedded
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Hillman Curtis Inspiration
The work I saw in all of the videos I watched, Pentagram 07, Sagmeister 08, Paula Scher, and David Carson, was very inspiring. But now that I'm done watching them, I feel unexpectedly lethargic. As I have been drinking coffee all day, and have now secluded myself in a small room with blank walls and a broken computer, I can't attribute everything to the videos. Though it did make me wonder why the vast majority of documentaries about design, regardless of length, have such drowning music. Paula Scher's film was the acception, with a upbeat funk track playing over a slide show of some of her work. But other than that, all the music was slow and monotonous. I suppose you don'e want something with so much life that it becomes distracting, and again, it could be a combination of other things... but really, when a quiet guitar playing slower than 120bpm under rides Sageister talking about how worrying doesn't help, it kind of makes me want to go hibernate.
Other than that, I really loved hearing what everyone had to say. My favorite video was Pentagrams, the way it was edited was fantastic, as is their work. Nothing particularly jumped out and spoke to me. Normally, I think it would; which is why I'm attributing my negativity toward the music to the small blank room. Anyway, David Carson's video was great too. I've heard so much about him, but never heard him talk. It made me think of my own work.. I mean, my type book was the complete opposite of his. I tried to be as clean as possible, and have no unnecessary flare. I was even reluctant to use a color scheme. And his point about the computer making it more important to make sure we are personal in our work was interesting as well. I try not to be personal in my work. Most of the time, my work isn't about me. I can love it, but in the end, it has to make other people feel things. I've carried that mindset for a while, as far as design goes. I mean, he says he is self indulgent, and I indulge in my work. But I'm not so sure that the self indulgence should show through the work. Its something to think more about I suppose. I definitely do admire what he has done, I mean hes like a design rock star, like Elvis or something. But everything that I have been taught seems to lead the opposite direction. "Don't try to be original, just try to be good," has been something I always seem to come back to. Maybe there will be a point where I can do both. So far though, being good has been enough to worry about.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Design Thinking in response to Tim Brown
I listened to Debbie Millman interview Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO and author of Change by Design. As someone who says he, "fell into industrial design." Tim seems to be an incredibly knowlegable and intellectual thinker who has a keen ability to disect problems in a way that allows for incredibly innovative solutions. I thought, at first, to pick a different interview, because I didn't think that hearing the point of view of an industrial designer would be as relevant to what I am currently working on than someone who deals more with motion. However, after a few minutes, I was convinced that I needed to read his book.
The interview somewhat revolves around what Tim calls Design Thinking. We hear those two words paired together quite often at this school, on various design blogs, in design books and other publications, but I am not sure that I have ever really given it as much thought as it deserves. Possibly I have taken the term forgranted; design thinking is creative problem solving. Its a way to come solve a problem. In the interview Millman reads Tim's definition from his book. Basically he says that the difference from a design problem and a math problem is that there is no definitive answer for any design problem. This creates room for creativity to take precedence in the problem solving process, leading to an innovative solution where new ideas or methods that have never existed are born. I thought that was brilliant. It sounds so obvious, but then again, many profound things do.
Other than this, there was in fact some information that applied to our current project. Tim is asked about story telling and how it relates to different mediums. He comments that programming for interactive design is a time based medium so there is room for story. But then he explains that as an industrial designer, his objects have a time base as well. A good example is a train seat. You have to sit in it for a period of time and that time allows for change to happen. Probably, your thoughts of your seat should remain constant throughout a train car. However, this made me think about the print advertisements I make at the Kansan. It is a common belief at the Kansan, that a viewer only lingers on an ad for about 3 to 4 seconds. I would say that it depends, but many times, the time spent is even less. Regardless, playing with the notion that because there is a time frame for one to view print, I decided that there are 3 basic ways to embrace story within the ad. The easiest and least effective of the three is a sequence. This is basically what happens in a comic book. You look at images that are divided by graphic elements to convey a sense of time between images. The second, which I think is more effective but harder to achieve, is a snapshot. This is basically one frame of a sequence that provides enough context information for the audience to determine the momentum of the scenario and fill in the spaces before or after the event. The third is sort of a mixture between the two depending on the way you look at it. in a way, it is what is happening when you read a paragraph. In my notes, I called it the "Hierarchical method" basically its a snap shot where the viewer is forced around the composition in a certain order. By manipulating what happens at the different points in the order, a story can be created. I can't think of a good example. I mean, a paragraph is a really simple example. You know where to start and end and you get there reading what is intended at the right time. I think I want to experiment with this in future work. And I probably need to think more about other options for non time based story telling.
I feel like I'm rambling. At one point I was going to relate all this back to our project with the Speeches. Basically, I noticed in class that many of the speeches (in book form) didn't have any sort of drive to get the audience from start to finish. Although we are supposed to visually articulate the audio of the speech, I think that it is also important to convey what the point of the speech is and what the viewer is intending the audience to feel (or at least how the designer is wanting the audience to interpret the speech). I wanted mine to feel like a pointless and endless debate because thats really what it is. So I have really tried to design the two speakers as characters through how I treat their type. I think that it has worked well, but it is still hard to create the tension between the two.
The interview somewhat revolves around what Tim calls Design Thinking. We hear those two words paired together quite often at this school, on various design blogs, in design books and other publications, but I am not sure that I have ever really given it as much thought as it deserves. Possibly I have taken the term forgranted; design thinking is creative problem solving. Its a way to come solve a problem. In the interview Millman reads Tim's definition from his book. Basically he says that the difference from a design problem and a math problem is that there is no definitive answer for any design problem. This creates room for creativity to take precedence in the problem solving process, leading to an innovative solution where new ideas or methods that have never existed are born. I thought that was brilliant. It sounds so obvious, but then again, many profound things do.
Other than this, there was in fact some information that applied to our current project. Tim is asked about story telling and how it relates to different mediums. He comments that programming for interactive design is a time based medium so there is room for story. But then he explains that as an industrial designer, his objects have a time base as well. A good example is a train seat. You have to sit in it for a period of time and that time allows for change to happen. Probably, your thoughts of your seat should remain constant throughout a train car. However, this made me think about the print advertisements I make at the Kansan. It is a common belief at the Kansan, that a viewer only lingers on an ad for about 3 to 4 seconds. I would say that it depends, but many times, the time spent is even less. Regardless, playing with the notion that because there is a time frame for one to view print, I decided that there are 3 basic ways to embrace story within the ad. The easiest and least effective of the three is a sequence. This is basically what happens in a comic book. You look at images that are divided by graphic elements to convey a sense of time between images. The second, which I think is more effective but harder to achieve, is a snapshot. This is basically one frame of a sequence that provides enough context information for the audience to determine the momentum of the scenario and fill in the spaces before or after the event. The third is sort of a mixture between the two depending on the way you look at it. in a way, it is what is happening when you read a paragraph. In my notes, I called it the "Hierarchical method" basically its a snap shot where the viewer is forced around the composition in a certain order. By manipulating what happens at the different points in the order, a story can be created. I can't think of a good example. I mean, a paragraph is a really simple example. You know where to start and end and you get there reading what is intended at the right time. I think I want to experiment with this in future work. And I probably need to think more about other options for non time based story telling.
I feel like I'm rambling. At one point I was going to relate all this back to our project with the Speeches. Basically, I noticed in class that many of the speeches (in book form) didn't have any sort of drive to get the audience from start to finish. Although we are supposed to visually articulate the audio of the speech, I think that it is also important to convey what the point of the speech is and what the viewer is intending the audience to feel (or at least how the designer is wanting the audience to interpret the speech). I wanted mine to feel like a pointless and endless debate because thats really what it is. So I have really tried to design the two speakers as characters through how I treat their type. I think that it has worked well, but it is still hard to create the tension between the two.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
good
Good.is is a pretty awesome place. I really enjoyed the recommended video about the cost of the Iraque war. As with many videos of this kind, I think that the sound really ads to the professionalism. Nearly every animation that happens is correlated to some sound effect. Doing this really brings a video to the next level because it makes forced animations seem more naturalistic if done well. If you think about it, generally, when something moves, sound follows. So it makes sense that such scrutiny would ad to a video.
Other than that I was really impressed with the site as a whole. I really like the idea behind a source that exclusively produces the kind of news they do in such an attractive way. The other day, I was thinking about what it meant to be a designer. To have a better ability than the average person at visual communication. It's almost like a superpower that you cant help but to use once you have it. I mean a very utilitarian one, much in the same way as being a surgeon or lawyer. However, it is a power regardless, and it seemed interesting to me that the majority of those with that power choose to use it to advertise or brand businesses that may, but probably don't, make the most ethical choices. Its really an interesting complex: designers design for larger companies with more money so that they will have more money so to buy more things from companies that have good design (at least I know my purchases are influenced by the design of name brand products).
Right now, I don't care about this choice. I would be thrilled to get a job at a large advertising firm. And I am perfectly happy making my personal income by working on the UDK ad staff. But I wonder, if I continue along the same path of advertising and branding, if someday I will look back at my work and feel empty about its worth. I could see it happening. So, the search for other options begins.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
The one thing that stuck out to me in this lecture was when Trollback said, "Storytelling is about imagination... Feed it by leaving things out." I think that is brilliant! It seems so obvious. But I think that it is something that I forget to think about in my own work quite often. He is right that Story doesn't happen as much in print, and its sad. It seems that the best you can do without requiring more than 10 seconds of an audiences attention is to at the very least elude to a story. Most print ads don't even do this. And when they do, the story usually sucks.
In motion leaving things out seems to be key. However, once you leave something out you are then faced with the question of how long will it be left out. Most major motion pictures end with a full circle or a simple cliff hanger for a sequel opportunity. Yet they keep you in your seat because there is always something left out until the very last frame. proof of this can be seen in films that run material relevant to the story during the end credits. The difference in the amount of people that stick around is monumental.
In print leaving things out is an interesting concept. If you leave something out in print. It is out for ever (unless there is some kind of sequential story). However, I think that leaving out information in print can be successful as well, as it involves the audience in imaginative thinking. Nevertheless, the outlier must be eluded to so drastically that the audience is consumed with thinking about it... which can be – about as hard as changing someones mind. One of the most successful ways I have found to do this is to set up such a concrete and engaging moment that the viewer begins to create the story themselves. You offer them all the pieces of the puzzle, and then allow them to do the fun stuff. They should be asking " What would I do?" or saying "Ive been there," or relating to it in some personal way.
I'm leaving the conclusion out.
(but that's just because I don't want to write one and not because whoever reading this will be thinking about what else I had to say)
In motion leaving things out seems to be key. However, once you leave something out you are then faced with the question of how long will it be left out. Most major motion pictures end with a full circle or a simple cliff hanger for a sequel opportunity. Yet they keep you in your seat because there is always something left out until the very last frame. proof of this can be seen in films that run material relevant to the story during the end credits. The difference in the amount of people that stick around is monumental.
In print leaving things out is an interesting concept. If you leave something out in print. It is out for ever (unless there is some kind of sequential story). However, I think that leaving out information in print can be successful as well, as it involves the audience in imaginative thinking. Nevertheless, the outlier must be eluded to so drastically that the audience is consumed with thinking about it... which can be – about as hard as changing someones mind. One of the most successful ways I have found to do this is to set up such a concrete and engaging moment that the viewer begins to create the story themselves. You offer them all the pieces of the puzzle, and then allow them to do the fun stuff. They should be asking " What would I do?" or saying "Ive been there," or relating to it in some personal way.
I'm leaving the conclusion out.
(but that's just because I don't want to write one and not because whoever reading this will be thinking about what else I had to say)
Motion Inspirations
Troika
These guys just have an awesome body of work. Their style is really flashy and corporate, which can be nice to pick apart for some things. It kind of sucks that they only upload reels to their website though. There is so much to all of their projects and they look great when mashed up into a montage, but it would be really nice to see what they actually had to give to the clients.
adNau
These guys don't really have a lot of type in most of their projects, but their work is really great.
These guys just have an awesome body of work. Their style is really flashy and corporate, which can be nice to pick apart for some things. It kind of sucks that they only upload reels to their website though. There is so much to all of their projects and they look great when mashed up into a montage, but it would be really nice to see what they actually had to give to the clients.
adNau
These guys don't really have a lot of type in most of their projects, but their work is really great.
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