It Has Come To an End

So my post comes to an end in here. I would have to say that having a blog for school is a very brilliant idea. It made me think about things that I would have never thought about before. This semester have been amazing even though with all the pressures and stress I believe that it had made me grow and gave me more experience that would prepare me for my future job.

Though my posts comes to an end here, I believe that I will continue to think about things that we have learned in this class and things that I have talked about in this blog. This blog has thought me to be more aware of things that surround me and to learn from it. But as for now I am ready for summer and what it has in store for me. But for now I would like to say have a good summer friends and also Mrs. Heather.

P.S California Here I Come!!!!!!

My Creativity, My Education

It was a few weeks ago since we talked about the obstacles that people had to go through to be able to do what we want. In this case, for it is to be a designer. I believe that I have always been born with the talent to be creative. Just like the few post I have read, I believe that I am blessed to have supportive parents, and understanding, supporting me through out the way on my way to being a designer.

I believe that my creativity started when I was 7 years old when I have discovered the technology of carbon copy, where I would copy ninja turtles photos and would sell them to friends at school. It was good business I would say. Those were the start of my creativity where even at school I am involved with every aspect of art from preschool to grade 5 just before moving to Canada. Back in elementary, I would be involved with poster contest, leader for room decorations for christmas and a drawer that would draw a picture just for my crush when I was 9.

When I migrated to Canada back in 2001, Not much has changed. My involvement in art has toned down going into grade 7 and then has yet been highlighted in art class in grade 8. This was a turning point for me, because this is when I started thinking what I wanted to be. Back then I wanted to be a cartoonist or a illustrator. Back in grade 8 I would be the main competition by many friends and many of them also supported me till the end. People knew me for my artistic abilities that when it was my graduation and missed the award for Most artistic, people were mad and curios because people were expecting me to get this award. But I would have to say that having my title page used at our yearbook is my main highlight in elementary

After this happened, I was not discouraged nor put down, I continued my passion with art and took art classes from 9 to grade 12. Yes, I was still one of the top student in my high-school years. During these years I was not sure what I wanted to be till it I was grade 12, I was encouraged by my teachers at Applewood Heights to do something creative because they have seen me excelled with artistic work . Not till my art teacher introduced us to Graphic Design and the opportunities that a Graphic Designers could do. This was a start of a new passion for me. I love being creative and loved technology and thought that it was appropriate for me to take such artistic work. My teacher then led to promoting Humber College to me, and I would have to say that I was not mistaken to making this decision.

NO TTC STRIKE?

Well, this was not really what I was expecting about the TTC strike. It might seem selfish but I actually wanted a TTC strike. I wanted reason to not go to school on a certain day this week but I guess I have to. I just find it a bit weird about this whole strike issue. Because I have recently found out that these workers earn 26 dollars an hour, I find it kind childish and selfish to ask for more when the ones getting affected are commuters by the raise of fair.

I find that here in North America, were are really spoiled. We always want more more and more though we know we have enough. Sure these TTC workers work their butt off but back in the Philippines, we would be millionaires if we earned 26 bucks an hour. Also I have heard from a friend that he found out that there was a TTC worker who earned 1 million a year. I was shocked because that would be more than I would be earning when I am working in the friend of Graphic design. So it makes me wonder why people always want more.

Source from www.citytv.com

Facebook Ruins Lives

I would have to say, that facebook can get really addicting and sometimes I find it sort of disturbing how many people have to go through facebook everytime they have an access over the internet. I am not saying that facebook is bad, I actually love it because of the easy access with friends and easy organization of photos and coming events. I jsut wonder if the facebook fad would ever end or woult it never stop. But I would like to give a big compliment to the developers of facebook for creating such a successful website.

Facebook has become the new email, photo gallery and fore most a resume. I have been recently informed by my best friend that employers now check a employee applicants facebook page to find out more about a applicants personality or true attitude. I find this kinda freaky, so I suggest to all facebook users to be aware of all the information we set for everyone to see because we cant be sure who would be reading it.

Source from facebook.com

Jolibee VS. McDonalds

I have been wanting to talk about this for a long time and now I am going to. I have always wanted to talk about a comparison of Mcdonalds and Jolibee. Jolibee is a Philippines based fastfood restaurant equal to McDonalds. When I was still living in the philippines I would have to say that Jolibee could beat Mcdonalds anyday. Because of the service and the food served in Jolibee.
I believe that looking at a Jolibee mascott is alot more kid friendly than a clown that sometimes scares me a bit because a face of a Ronald mascott cannot be hidden. Unlike a Jolibee mascot, the mascot is very friendly, lovable and cuddly, almost like a Barney mascot. Not only that Jolibee beats McDonald by the mascot but also by the food. For those who have not try it, I suggest you give it a try, if you happen to be t california were there are a couple of franchises are built.

A Given Oppurtunity

So few weeks ago, I got an email from my cousin who is a wedding photographer. In the email he had offered to me a opportunity to shoot a wedding in july. As a lot of people know. Other than music I also love to explore my creativity through photography. I am amazed how lighting works and how much emotion a photo could express and how much techniques you could do to achieve amazing photos.

For me, I am honoured to be asked by my cousin to shoot photos with him. Because I do not think that I am that good in photography and am an amateur compared to his photos as shown on top. My cousins name is Billy Mallari, and he started of as designers such as me, which is quite interesting, in my opinion.

Over the summer, I look forward to do the shoot with him to earn some experience and learn how to work as a photographer in the field and a wedding. Though, I am curios to see how people would look or treat me because I have never been to a shoot where the event is not by someone I know.

Sources from billymphotography.com

My Compliments to: Mae San Juan

A hard question in my opinion, If I were asked who I really would want to pay my compliments to. It is obvious that it would probably be God. But to make it different for this post. I would like to pay compliments to my wonderful best-friend whose been here for me whole through out the way from the time I met here once upon a time 4 years ago.

For all this time, for the last 4 years, I have come across a number of new friends and lost old friends. But it never really cease to amaze me how far me and her have been such good friends. Through all the pain and sufferng I have put her through I would have to say that my best-friend beats everyone I have met. She is kind, patient, tolerant and most of all loving in every possible way. She is probably the person I always vent to, when pressured with work and stressed with design work, I get mad for no reason at her and release my frustrations at her and yet in the end she never cease to put up with all the crap I have put her in. She encourages me when I am about to give up and supports me when I am about to just break down from all the responsibilities I am under in.

Overall, I would like to say that Mae, you are an amazing friend. No matter what happens I want you to know that I have always appreciated everything you have done for me even though I don't say it often. I wanna say I love you and thank you so much. I am blessed to have a friend like you!

Design Power

So I was reading Andrew Clanahan's blog post about design power and It was instilled in my mind what he mentioned. He said that as designers we are lucky to have the privileges that we have as designers. As designers I think that there are many ways that we can use are power. Many cliches such as, bring world piece, make a difference in the environment and etc. But for me I believe the best I can do is use my power to promote what I believe in. Truth that I know can help and benefit a world that is full of suffering and hurt.

As many of my friends know, I am serious about my faith and ever so proud of it. So this response might now really come as a surprise to many of you reading this post. I want to promote my faith in God and believe in Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour for who I truly am thankful for and would not have any second doubts about using the my power as a designer to promote. Because I believe that everyone could definitely use the love and compassion that he freely gives to many people, though many do not see it.

Living Hope Baptist Church Anniversary = Exausting

So about two weeks ago, My church had our 10 years anniversary celebration. A celebration that took months of planning on the event. As a member of the church I was involved with many areas of the event such as, Playing music (guitar), Making a Video history of the church, and in charge of setting of the projector. This responsibilities took a lot of my time and effort plus balancing and organizing my time in order to also do my school work.

During this planning time, over the weekends for two weeks, I would spend 10 hours at church on Saturdays for two weeks, from 10am to 8pm and sometimes longer. During this time pressure and stress built up, having in mind the countless projects that I had due every week. But thankfully, God was good and gave me the time and energy needed to do all my work and hand-in projects just in time.

During the actual Anniversary, It was the day that the whole church and my friends were waiting for, because it was a big event that hosted about 600 people. Setting for the event took hours upon hours, requiring me to get up at 5 am in the morning on a Sunday after spending 10 hours of practice the night before. From 7 to 9, I had to set up my guitar, projectors and the video and graphics needed in the event and made sure everything was working smoothly before the main event at 5pm.

Overall, I believe that the anniversary went very well and through Gods grace I was able to handle both pressures from school and the preparations for the event. Actually, the next day Typography assignment was due and I ended up finishing it an hour before class. I would have to say that I was lucky to get it in on time but I wouldn't say that I am at all pleased about the design. Could have been a lot better conceptually and design wise.

Creativity in Food Bento Style

While browsing around on the web today, I saw this creative arrangement of bento lunches decorated as album covers. At first I thought that the lunches were printer won edible paper but as I looked closely, I realized that it was actually the entrée arranged creatively to create an image.

What an creative way of serving lunches to people. Taking an ordinary lunch and having fun with it gives more interest to consumers and will attract more people to come to the restaurant. Not basing taking the serving time in consideration, I wouldn’t mind going into a restaurant such as this to experience something different.


Sources: Pink Tentacle.com

My Manifesto

Last week in class we have talked about Manifestos. We looked at Bruce Mau’s manifesto and I have found it inspiring to see some of his beliefs because some of it I also strongly believe in. Listed below is my own set of manifesto.

Surround your self with great designs - being surrounded by great designs helps you to become a better designer.

Be Proud – being proud of your design helps your design to look a lot better, even if you don’t feel all that confident about your work

Ask for opinions – what you feel as great design but may not work for others. Ask your mom, dad, brother and colleagues what works and what doesn’t.

Be aware of your surroundings – research trends, and popular designs that people are in to at the moment. But be careful not to follow them all the time. Breaking trends might work in different situations.

Less is more - some designers (including me sometimes) feel as if doing more means better design.I find that simple designs are a lot more interesting that complicated once and simple designs easier to remember that complicated once.

Have fun – I find it hard to design when I am struggling with problems. Ideas come faster when you are in a good mood. If your not having fun, then you’ll probably have to rethink being in the field of study.

Mistakes are great – mistakes lead to better design, we eliminate what doesn’t work and what does work. That is why we need to value the time for critiques.

Appreciate Process – I find that many of my ideas come from rough work that I would have never though I could use. So keep drawing/writing those ideas, you never know when it might come to use.

Don’t be a default designer – don’t use default font, default colour and stay in same design style. Learn to challenge and seek for a collective of different styles. You do not want to be labeled as the guy who can only do a specific style.

Stay true to your self – we all have moral beliefs, learn how to take a stand and say no to things you don’t believe in. Do not be a conformist, if you don’t agree on something say NO even if gives big bucks.

Would I do Pro Bono Work?

Doing free work could depend in different situations. For myself doing free work is not an issue when doing work for people such as close friends and for the church for it is my service to the church and a gift to my friends for special occasions. But there is certainly a limit when agreeing to do a free work. A limit for friends because doing design work does take time. In the end I am not obligated to do any free work but I would do free work to for some people.

If its not free then the price would be cut down a lot depending who I am doing it for, family, or friend. One example is, recently I have been asked to do an invitation for a friends 18^th birthday. I was asked if I wanted to get paid and I thought right away that making an invitation could just replace a gift that I could give for her. So it really depends in the situation weather I would do pro bono work.

AIGA Competition & Design Trends

Watching the overall AIGA competition was quite intriguing for me because I was curious who and what solutions the competitors would come up with during the presentation/critique. In the end I was surprise by the overall solutions that the competitors came up with. As I had mentioned before from my part 1 reflection about the competition I question if they are still the best student design from all the choice since I am surrounded by great designers in my class.

I was a bit disappointed by how the judges critiqued the work of the students since I was expecting more of a constructive criticism rather than helpless humour that they seem to do in each work that are up.

Overall I am intrigued by the overall competition and look forward to see other related competitions.

The design trends that I noticed through ot the competition was humour. Many designs seem to come up with humourous solutions; This for me only works because it does have a longer impact than having a great design, if it is the main goal of a product or service. But for me I believe that designs should not be judged based on humour but the concept and how well

Another trend is offering experience. I have noticed that many of the work that they have done seem to offer experience that made an emotional experience to the audience that made the work a lot more effective, which is probably one of the reasons that Michelle Narcisi had won because she had made an emotional connection.

Is Writing Design? AIGIA response

Is writing really design? In my opinion I believe that writing is a starting point of a design but necessarily design itself. When I say writing I am talking about an essay written on a word document with default Times New Roman Type, set on a 12 point font. Basing on the AIGA command X competition, The reason Michelle had won the competition is because the writing contained a powerful meaning at the same time arranging her text perfectly that the word “Except you”. Also I believe that writing is design once it is written creatively. An example are creatively written writing are poetry, music lyrics and or strategically written writing just like Matthew has done with design piece for the competition. Overall I believe that writing is only becomes a design if it is made with an artistic intent.

Subliminal Messaging

I’ve had this video for a while and I thought that it fits well in graphic design field and also advertising. This video is about a British Magician/Physiological Illusionist named Derren Brown who does experiments with people, playing with their physiological thinking.

In this episode Derren Brown holds an experiment about subliminal advertising. How messages sticks to our minds consciously and subconsciously. In this episode he hires two advertisers to do a adverting job for him, after driving the two across the city. Before Darren brown has asked them to do a job he does his own rendition and predicted how their final designs would look at the end. The result was shocking to me for the result was almost completely alike design wise and concept wise. But what the two didn’t know that in the he explains to them in the end of their job is that he had carefully placed different signifiers and objects that he knows will affect their concept and design piece.

This is a great example of how we as designers are affected by messages such as advertising, logos, objects and more on how we design. How we design is pretty much a collection of messages we take in each day. This sets a trend that carries across for years until a new trend comes along that we designers transition into.

Design Works That I Refuse To Do.

This has always been on my mind when thinking about working in the field of graphic design. If I were asked I would refuse design work that go against my moral beliefs. These are basic things such as, promotion of sexuality, drug use such as cigarettes, discrimination, and homosexuality. Though I am not totally against some of the issue, I believe that it is just right not to promote such things when I do not agree with it.

Being a Christian, I believe that those are some issues I hope not to tackle or encounter in the future, but if I do, I will have no second thoughts of accepting such jobs. Even huge amount of money is involve. In doing this, I know I will earn self respect for being able to stand for what I believe in. I will stand up for my own moral beliefs as a Christian no matter what.

Source: Cap.org

Delivering Experience: In-Class

Looking at ads and designs that are out there, it is evident that advertisements and graphic design is moving to delivering an experience. Everyday we are targeted by ads and products that promise us that we will feel good or better if we try what the advertisement has to offer. I will have to say that this is the best way to hit the target because people want to see the outcome for using the promoted product.

A great example in my opinion is the IPod ads that ran few months ago. Why is this good example and effective? It’s because it offered an experience that listening to IPod brings. This is probably one of the reasons why I purchase one myself. Watching the commercial ads made me feel that owning an IPod is the best decision I could make when deciding to purchase a quality product.

Let’s face it, as graphic designer I believe that the best way to hit a target’s interest is to find out the most appealing experience they would like to have. This is also why in my opinion music videos today are successful to younger teens because they offer sexuality that seem to be successful although the lyrics do not make any sense at all.

Overall, I believe that in the end ad graphics and graphic design will lead to a total experience delivery. Because people likes to feel good and see the experience they will get when using a product.

Source: Apple Ads

The Future of the Church

The future of the church? amazing structural design that shocked me. This could verywell be the future look of a church. Certainly would make people to want to go to church. At first I thought that it was a office building untill I read what the article is about Chinest largest christian church designed by Architect GMP. But the church design is not all looks, all the vertical lines are to reprsents reaching the heavens and the open concept is to show the openess and enlightenment.

Great concept! certainly make sense to me. I just wonder if this will be carried out in the future. But I am certainly happy to a church that looks like this.

I wonder how much this church cost to build?

Designed by: Architect GMP
Source: Yanko Designs

Genealogy Ad

I was browsing ads of the world and I saw this ad about a show doing a special about genealogy. At first I thought that this ad was an ordinary ad until I carefuly examined it and find that the photo is made out of nude models of every race. I was shocked when I discovered this and I realized the great concept behind this ad piece. The message comes across strong and at the same time it is fascinating how this ad piece have been made.

The only problem with the ad is that it is not distinctive enough to realize that the face is made out of nude models since they are very small. Otherwise, it still works

Advertising Agency: RazorJunior, Sydney, Australia
Creative Director / Art Director: Josh Moore
Copywriter: Nigel Clark
Photographer: Andreas Smetana
Agency Producer: Danielle Solden
Retoucher: Electric Art

Source: Ads of the World

Steve Jobs Mosaic

I found this just not and I thought that it was interesting. It is a mosaic of Steve Jobs face using all apple products. Il l keep this short, amazing.

Photos taken from "Sea of Garbage" article by Maxy

So I saw this a while back and I saved it on my bookmarks and I thought id share it since we have talked about the environmental responsibility of a designer. This place is found in Indonesia and is the most polluted river in the world. Now, in the future we will probably be designing packages that are not recyclable and could harm nature. This photo comes to a shock to me because I came from a country that also suffers to a similar problem but not as chaotic as this. I also look to the future and thought that many of this garbage are garbage that a designer has designed. These photos are definitely and eye opener.

AIGI Student Competition Episode 1 Reflection

Watching the AIGI student competition episode 1 was very entertaining and also quite disappointing at some areas. It was entertaining because I was able to draw myself into the competition and imagine being in the competition myself. Plus, It was really entertaining for me because the students talk they way I do when explaining a design rationale. I was quite disappointed because some of the designs were not as I would expect, being in front of 2000 of people. But I do understand that they are under some time constraints and I know how stressing it could be, especially when hitting a designer’s block.

Some of the students approach to the design brief was interesting to see. All of them gave a different solution and approaches when designing the Broncos logo. But I will admit that some are disappointing. That makes me wonder why they were even chosen. But there was one presentation that I was specifically impressed with, even though the design itself was not great, made me realize that presentation could also mean a lot when pitching an idea or a concept. But id also have to agree with a comment made by Andrew Clanahan that I have seen much better work in our Graphic Design class, so hands down to Humber Graphic Design students.

The way the judges critiqued was quite fun and laid back but at the same time disappointing. I thought that their judging could have been more constructive and what they could have done to make it better. I could almost imagine myself being in front of them and wondering “is that it?” I felt as if they needed to mention more helpful criticism. Also disappointed because they have chosen some logos that in my opinion are worst than the ones who got eliminated.

Overall I enjoyed the first episode of the show and learned that presentation counts as a big part of the power of your design and concept.

Traveling!!

I have always wanted to travel around the world, but the financial crisis holds me down in doing so. In the future I think traveling will always be on my list, there are just so many places that I want to see and visit just before are die. These photos defenitely would be on my lists if I were asked.St. Andrew's Cathedral, Singapore by Chrisptoher Chan

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco by Christopher Chan

Cherry Blossom Viewing, Japan by Jeff Epp

Click here to see more amazing photographs.

Combat Global Warming!

Early morning for me and nothing to do, so I decided to browse around and found this pretty cool flow chart drawn by someone from Australia. This is about ways to combat globalwarming. With all the times we have tackled issue (lots of times for me anyways) in globalization, art direction and watching the inconvenient truth. I thought that this chart was pretty interesting to see and some that we could definitely do even though we might think that we don't make much of a difference.

Original 6: Book Set

Recently, We handed a big project for  Mrs. Dawn Lamberts class for editorial design class. I just wanted to share my experiences with process of this project. The experiences were a mix of bad and good. So I will start of with bad.

This project was a very expensive project that cost many people in-class to spend at least 50 dollars, from printing many pages of roughs and the finals that needed  to be printed on a cover stock. I find this very frustrating since as a student we are all are short in money. The other bad thing is the project is very time consuming over all taking at least 10 hours just assembling the project. Third thing is being exposed with the smell of glue for a long period of time caused massive headaches.

For good experiences, the project turned out really well. The topic were entrely up to us. Having to experience long hours of assembly was good I guess. And lastly the project could be used as one of my portfolio piece.

What makes you happy?

There are many things that make me happy but there are a few that I can come up with at the moment.

Having faith in God

Friends and family time (spending time and bonding)

Being surrounded by technology (i.e Internet, Camera, my Mac)

Playing my guitar and our band

Reading the bible specially reading verses that encourages and cheers me up

Helping others and seeing them smile and happy

Being loved by my best friend

Seeing wonderful designs that inspire me(natural or unnatural)

The environment itself

Being home, it is where I am most comfortable and safe in.

What I have learned so far.

- Being punctual is always good

Competition is good since it forces you to be better

To humble myself specially being in a field where pride is  everywhere

To be more responsible

Being organize with my time

Learned how balance my social life and school life and my faith

Working ahead of schedule takes a load of your back

If in doubt ask for a colleagues opinion 

Teamwork is great since you learn how others work and you learn to adapt

Hands on work is great

Being surrounded by things and people that inspires you helps you become a good designer

There is always a room for improvement

Being open for suggestions and ideas of other people.

Be unique. Don’t steal ideas if you do. Take other bits and pieces of idea and make it your own masterpiece

Good design should give a nice feeling to the audience

Clients will not choose good designs so make a safe design and ones that you put your effort to.

There is no such thing as a stupid idea because it’s a start of a great one.

Be aware of your surroundings you might not know what can inspire you

Be good to others for they might be your colleagues in the future.

Instructors are great mentors.

Don’t have high expectations.

Ford "Powered By You"

So I was watching the NBA skills competition, but I was also trying to be aware on the commercials. One commercial in particular caught my attention and this was the Ford commercial "Powered by You". The commercials concept in summary is that a car is not car till it is used by you. The commercial would show what I believe are acrobats assembled into a exterior of a car. I found this commercial pretty amazing because of its concept and the whole feel of the commercial.

PATTERNS!! PATTERNS!! PATTERNS!!

I've always had a love for patterns and how it creates a wonderful design feeling. I have been recently using patterns more often for my designs, which is why this caught my attention, patterns of animals.

I saw this and I saw how fascinating the patterns on animals could be. Looking at these photos as national geographic channel. I was amazed and inspired because not only the patterns work together but also the colours. The colours in my opinion make a lovely colour palette for designs. So I posted this to share and maybe inspire some of you guys for your future designs. I hope you guys enjoy this