Final thoughts on Writing 105M

Honestly, this class keeps me going. This class may end up being the most important class I've taken at UCSB. I've realized that the path I am going on is not right for me; it is beyond my skill set; ultimately, the path I'm on is not fulfilling for me. Why should I force myself into studying something that I've come to realize I am really quite awful at, and simply do not enjoy. I can sit for five agonizing hours trying to master my major, or I can sit five hours and not even realize five hours went by because I was having genuine fun doing what I was doing.

If that doesn't speak to the quality of that class, I don't know what will.

Photoshop Tutorials: The Internet is Endless

Here is a fantastic resource for Photoshop tutorials: http://www.photoshoptutorials.ws/category/photoshop-tutorials/

Appropriately named 'Photoshop Tutorials', this website compiles tons of different step-by-step tutorials on how to do various techniques in Photoshop.

These are user submitted, so it allows the website to draw on the wide-range of talents of everyone, all over the world, who has developed their skills in photoshop. Photoshop is merely a medium for art; art is inherently creative, so this allows people to share the creative techniques that they have developed over the years and share them with others.

No Networked Media

So, I got to cheat on this one a little bit: I was in Budapest for 10 days and didn't have access to my phone or Wifi. During this time, however, it was extremely liberating to not even have the urge to look at my phone. I felt more connected with the people around me, I was yo-yoing a ton and just meeting new people and enjoying myself. I wasn't tied to any social media or text message: I was experiencing the world.

 
Here I am communicating with people in real life. Yes, real life.

I also had the opportunity to sightsee with some wonderful people I met from Serbia during my time of no internet:

I was more envloped in all the sight seeing around me. I didn't take any pictures (aside from the ones taken of me) which was also a new experience because I was just focused on taking it all in, instead of trying to record it to look at later... Which, to me, is far more important now that I think about it. Perhaps one or two photos, but the rest of the time should just be devoted to enjoying whats around me.

I will say one difficulty manifested itself in the lack of access to Google Maps. This app is my savior when it comes to getting around; not having it results in me being lost a few different times, but ultimately I was able to find my way.

All in all, I enjoyed my time without my phone and has made me rethink my dependency on it and hopefully I can use this to use my phone a little less.

Photoshop Project Compiled

Photoshop project

For my photoshop project I choose to do a series of fake magazine covers. Despite the magazine covers being fake, I aimed for them to look as realistic as possible so as to make them look more professional. The image depicted here is my meme portion of the project. This one was especially tough because putting a meme on the cover of a magazine was difficult so I tried to frame it as a hit news story that is trying to make use of popular culture to garner attention.
Admittedly, since my primary focus is emulation, my creative process is comprised of trying to look like a real Newsweek magazine cover. To accomplish this, I looked at plenty of different Newsweek covers and then tried to apply techniques and aspects of a real Newsweek cover onto mine. I took some liberties though as usually Newsweek depicts a person on their cover. I tried to explain this by adding the 'Special Edition' headliner and College Rankings--which further explains why the cover depicts UCSB.
I also specifically choose yellow as a direct contrast to red to highlight the breaking stories and interesting tidbits that were to be crucial to the Newsweek magazine selling copies.
Ultimately, I feel I was pretty successful at accomplishing my goals that I set before I had started this part of the project.

This is a shitty first draft

A huge portion of writing is knowing your audience; by extension, this also means having a well defined and targeted audience. This importance is the reason the process of writing changes depending on what medium with which your writing will be displayed. Most relevant to us currently is the writing of a podcast: because the podcast will be spoken I will probably want to tailor my writing so it sound more natural spoken versus what I would write during an English essay. When making a poster for a specific event, I would probably have to keep the writing short and to the point so as not to overwhelm my audience (which would be people walking by).

The most profound reading in the class thus far for me has been 'Shitty first drafts'. I incessantly have difficulty starting my writing projects because I have this insatiable desire to write masterpieces from the get-go. This is seldom possible, especially for me. This tendency can be very debilitating in my creative process and I eventually end up hating my first draft. Reading 'Shitty first drafts', then, opened my eyes to this. I still feel a little anxiety when writing, but I can remind myself that my first draft--hell, even my second draft--need not be perfect.

I think that is a very important lesson in writing. A lesson that surprisingly took me 20 years to learn.

Simple

"Amplification through simplification" is a simple expression that encompasses a very complex process. McCloud challenges us to realize this through his comic not only by explaining how this is effective but ultimately using the comic to demonstrate the power of icons and how simplification can leave a more profound resonance that perhaps a more intricate design could.

This notion is powerful.

I firmly believe simplicity is always better. "K.I.S.S.", or 'Keep it simple, stupid', is an acronym I was introduced to early on and it has dictated a lot of my approaches to design. It is far more pleasant to look at less busy pieces of art, websites and much more. Simplicity also gives off an aura of professionalism.

Straight lines, simple expressions, solid colors--all modes to achieve amplification through simplification. For this reason I always evaluate my piece of work when I am done and question if it is too busy, because, ultimately, if it is too busy, chances are it is also annoying.