Amuse Me

As the result of a final project for my Print Productions course, I have recently published a book entitled “How to Design A Logo” with a team of 2 other designers. Although I also created many of the pictures in the book and the overall look and feel of the book, my most important role was to prepare the book to be printed using Blurb.com.

As a freelance designer, I have prepared many projects for print such as event flyers, tickets, menus, and most popularly business cards, but none of these processes compare to the process of preparing a graphic book for print!

Although Blurb.com is an online service for book publishing, I think that the site makes it fairly easy for artists as well as people of other disciplines to publish their own book. What I enjoyed most about the service was that the site gives you many options from how to build your book to what your book can look like, allows you to print and ship one book, and it’s fairly inexpensive.

As a designer, I chose to do all of the design work myself (even though they have many pre-designed layouts for clients to use), and because of my decision to build the book from scratch, I had to check for errors over a zillion times. Though it was an extremely frustrating process to organize the books content, Blurb’s “pre flight” software was very helpful in notifying me of possible errors before I sent the book to print.

Although I have not received the physical copy of the book yet, For someone who has never prepared a book for print prior to this assignment,I am optimistic that it will come out ok because of Blurb’s easy to use service. Outside of the sites vague instructions on how to use outside software to design the book,if anyone asked, I’d recommend Blurb.com to first time publishers.

In thinking about why I decided to create a blog inspired by art and museums, I have to give great credit to the curriculum requirement of Kings borough community college.

In fall 2009, I started as a freshman at Kingsborough Community College majoring in graphic arts. Anxious to dive into my major, I was fairly annoyed to learn that I would be required to take an Art History course before taking any graphic based courses. Excited to be in college and motivated to get a 4.0, I committed to attending my Art History 101 course each Saturday for an entire semester.

Although I didn’t expect to be, I found myself being extremely engaged in the lectures. I was so amazed at how much clarity I was gaining about design by learning about different artist, styles and art era’s. My professor was a great story-teller and encouraged us to share our thoughts and reflections about the lecture, which made me appreciate art more and resulted in my love for art history to this day.

Outside of the fact I received an A+ in my art history course, I am still very motivated and inspired by both ancient and modern art. Because I was required to take this introductory Art History course, I have been inspired to incorporate many different art styles from ancient-modern art forms and artists in my graphic design work to this day. Since 2009, my perspective and approach to design has been continuously developing and I’ve been able to refer to and use art as a go to reference for new ideas and concepts in my school work and freelance work.

As a graphic designer, I’ve learned that you can not be obsessed with the technical approach of your work; technology is always changing and can always be learned, but to be an artist first or to be knowledgeable of art history and it’s many eras will make you matchless in your creative approach as a designer in comparison to the designer who focuses their time on mastering how to use the new technology.

Make sure you all check out my guest post about Car Safety PSA’s on the Nothings Serious blog! I personally have no interest in cars, I don’t even know how to drive, but I was able to find an area of interest for me when I did a little research on Car Safety and how public agencies all over the world are trying to reinforce car safety through Public Safety Advertisement!

Branching off from what we discussed in Lend Me Your Ears Part 3 of 4, Henri Matisse’s quote touches upon the idea that to be creative means to takes risks. I interpreted this quote, considering my ongoing experience as a graphic designer and aspiring creative director, as you have to be brave enough to pursue your vision. One of the most valuable things I’ve learned while I am studying in school is that no idea is necessarily a bad one; you just have to have the courage to follow through and reallllyyyyy execute and deliver the idea.

Once you take that big brave step of brainstorming and sketching, who knows where your ideas will take you!

We all know that rapper and creative visionary Kanye West could be a little vain, but there is truth in his words. There is much more work to being an artist outside of creative work that is visually stimulating to an audience. Though Kanye may be better at it than most, many of the worlds most creative visionaries think highly of themselves, not because of their accomplishments, but because they have to. To pursue a career in art and creative solutions is hard work; it’s hard to produce and it’s hard to present. You may have the simplest visual solution in the world, but it may be no good if you do not step out of your humble shell and be a “creative genius” of presentation. Being in tune with yourself like we discussed in Lend Me Your EarsL Part 2 of 4, can really make the difference.

As a freelance designer or the Creative Director of a world known firm, a little “Confidence” or “Swagger” is always needed, and Amc’s original series main character Don Draper of Mad Men is a (simulated) walking testimony.

This quote from famous mexican “pain-tress” Frida Kahlo hits home for what art means to many artists, validates the “weird kid in the class is the best artist” stereotype, and focuses on one of the reasons why art expression is so imprtant. I interpreted this quote as art is not only an outlet and area of interest for individuals who are alone, but for individuals who have a greater relationship with themselves and intuition.

Art can be inspired by many things, as we discuss often on this blog and in Lend Me Your Ears: Part 1 of 4 . It may be inspired by your surroundings and events, it may be just a hobby, but for many artists like Frida Kahlo who was very in touch with and always critcizing herself, her culture, her role as woman

Painting from paint series “Deco Dames” by artist Davy Macdonald

Albert Camus, french noble winning journalist and philosopher shares his insight on art. There are countless opinions on why people feel the need to produce art, and how are is perceived, but I think Camus, in two sentences has poetically distinguished the function of human verbal expression verses a humans need to express themselves visually.

I interpreted this quote as verbal expression can be tainted, just as someone’s motive to “confess” or “proclaim” their feelings may be illegitimate. That someone’s visual expression, is a genuine response to their surroundings. Why do people place so much value on art? Because art, essentially, is a natural expression. Sure, it can be filtered and tainted as well as the words of the most persuasive congressman, but, because of its uniqueness in execution and stroke, composition,  and the time it takes to produce, one will feel and react genuinely to a painting and understand without words what the artist is saying, trying to say, or how they are feeling.

In addition to allowing me to inspire you all visually, I’d like to inspire you intellectually as well. In order to understand and create great works of art, it is important that you not only challenge yourself technically, but challenge yourself mentally, and think about what art means to you as an artist outside of the the work you create.

In order to get a feel for this blog writing thing, I’ve looked to Chris Brogan’s “100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Wrote “ post to practice. In searching through his list of 100 suggested topics, I chose to share “What I Spend Money On”.

In evaluating exactly where it is my money