It’s a beautiful thing to feel whole, but still pursuing wholeness. There are a lot of things to be thankful for. For one, I’m standing up for myself and being assertive. There were 3 instances today and one of them stood out to me the most was while I was riding the subway. Usually, I don’t ride the subway because I prefer to bike, there are less people, and I’m not underground for hours on end.

However, another main reason is because the turnstiles like to eat my swipes whenever I swipe in. Today, it happened again. I was at the turnstile for a bit swiping and it finally let me in, but it took all of the money that I put on there. All $5.50 cents. Now it’s no big sweat, but for someone who is frugal, I don’t like getting ripped off and I’m practical. In the past when this happens, I usually just let it be, never pursue any questions, and end up paying another $2.75 because my initial thought was that there is nothing that the MTA could do for me. As soon as I thought this, the saying “The answer is always no if you never ask.” There’s always an internal battle inside me when it comes to matters of putting myself out there. I don’t like doing so because I don’t want to bother people/ be rejected. However, I decided to model off a grad school speaker who said to me after I asked a question about dropping out after getting your masters, “who says you can’t do that?” At that moment, my resolve was to go to the booth when I got to my destination and inquire about the subway turnstile eating my subway swipe.

When I got to the booth in Times Square, I told them what had happened and even though MTA couldn’t offer me a refund, they told me as a courtesy they would let me through the turnstile without having to pay again. Even though I was on my way to work, I knew that if I just went to the booth and asked the same question that they would let me through and they did.

Growth is sum of the small, but significant steps like these to be the individual you want to grow into. It doesn’t seem like much, but this was a good day navigating NYC on my own.

Regarding design, work was good. I was really excited to just make a lot of designs and at a certain point did not even want to go to lunch because I was having fun. It looks like my resolve is finally back.

For these designs, I copied the layout in the slide if you press the next button. The parameters were to create a design that uses any weight and any point size.

There’s nothing wrong with copying because it’s like cooking as Chris Do says. I want to taste the original many times before so that I know what works and then eventually branch off and make my own dishes.

Week 5.2

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using all the copy, any weight, and any point size.

I know there are probably a lot of people who love to watch the sunset and I’m one of those people. But some sunsets, I wish my eyes never tasted them. If you’re not sure what I’m referencing, I’m referencing when someone passes away. If you look on some gravestones, a sunrise represents someone’s birth and a sunset refers to someone’s passing.

Back in 2002, my family lost our mother on this day. There’s no need to go that much into detail about it because I’ve already worked out a good majority of that trauma and because after 16 years, it’s just another day. When I first started working on my trauma 2 years ago, it was really hard for me to understand why I never could feel an emotion when I thought about my mom, but felt so worked up about a short term relationship. With some help, I found that my frustration is called complicated grief. What helped was skateboarding a lot and also getting a tattoo of my mother’s favorite flower, a pink rose. However, 2 years later, I still look at that tattoo every day, but I don’t really think of my mother still. It’s almost as if I wasted money and my skin (haha). But that’s not the point. Even though it doesn’t hurt as much as when I was younger, I think I’ve finally outgrown those feelings and don’t feel as frustrated. Sure with time, my wounds heal because I will outlive those painful experiences and replace them with better ones and sure I might forget over time, but the point is I’m alive, my family is well, and I’m still chasing my dream of recognition.

For these designs, I copied the layout in the slide if you press the next button. The parameters were to create a design that uses rules and shapes so I can still interpret this as trying to copy other people’s work to see how other designers design and as well, just improve by copying. There’s nothing wrong with copying because it’s like cooking as Chris Do says. I want to taste the original many times before so that I know what works and then eventually branch off and make my own dishes.

Week 6.2

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using all the copy, rules, and shapes.

If you’ve ever heard of busy work, then you know that busy work is what it is. It’s work that keeps you busy. But does it make you productive? Even though you’re working and you’re spending so much time on different tasks, are you actually accomplishing what you want to do? As I’ve found out, probably not because I’m not focused on what I should be doing because as I’ve heard from a teacher on skillshare, I don’t feel that I have the knowledge to do so. One way to combat that is education. It’s taken me a whole year to feel fired up about graphic design again. I really coasted this past year, but I focused on getting into the skateboard world which is actually a good thing because that is my people. However, I’m not going to get far by talent alone, I have to keep working at my craft. To do so, it means cutting out the busy work and doing the really hard tasks that I don’t want to do, but know that I should be doing.

For these designs, I copied the layout in the slide if you press the next button. Since the assignment is experimental, I interpreted that to mean that I could make a real layout or rather just copy someone else’s work to see how they did it. I went on behance and found underneath the typography section several layouts that I liked and replicated. Currently, I’m learning how to write case studies, but I’m still in the learning and research phase. I’ll be adding to these after I learn how to write these case studies properly. These will be my warm ups.

Week 7.2

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using an experimental constraint

If you’re following, I’m doing this project so that I can get better at graphic design and track my progress. I’ve been doing this now for 11 days I think and I’ve learned a lot in the last week just doing a lot of designs even if they may not be perfect. With 11 days down, that means 19 more to go which doesn’t seem that hard because the halfway mark is coming up. However, I’m trying to go past this. In the past, whenever I would reach a goal, I would stop and not worry. I think that was a very college type of mindset and now that I’m out and don’t want to mess around that much anymore, I’m thinking big picture. At some point, I’m going to have to work a 40 hour week so that I can sustain myself. Right now, I’m getting by pay check to pay check, but I need benefits because I’m going to be 26 in 2 years. Time is running out and at the same time it isn’t. I don’t want to be a 30 year old still trying to make it. At 30, I want to have already made it. The question does become, what am I trying to make? Recognition is usually the answer for me.

For these designs, the constraints were experimental

Copy of Week 7

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using an experimental constraint

Design 1

Not really experimental here. Most of these are really safe designs. Everything is kind of smushed in the corner and aligned as if everything is centered. It works as a design, but not very experimental.

Design 2

I think what’s going on right now is that I’m anticipating that I’m going to re do these designs later so I’m just redoing designs and thinking how they could look.

Design 3

One of the more experimental ones because I repeat DZN and have a white block of space in the middle to put the rest of the copy. It’s not the most interesting to look at though.

Design 4

This one builds off of Design 3. I tried just cutting DZN vertically and splitting it up. It’s kind of cool, but I’m not really feeling it exactly.

Design 5

Probably the most experimental that I got by adding the wave effect to this design and repeating The Features copy. There are some interesting shapes that come about from this, but not entirely sure if it works.