In Response To: A very hectic week

"Hectic" = Busy to the point that my friends think that I'm lying when I say I can't socialize because of deadlines.


I swear, syllabus week just isn't what it used to be. 

Moving on, my first response is dedicated to my classmates, Erica & Laura.  I credit both of them for their winning designs this week... (good job, ladies!) Sure, it's a "competition," but it's hard to be at all bitter with the understanding of how much work it takes in order to create the kind of designs you want under such tight time constraints.  Oh, the pressure.

The winning cover utilized "the bathroom man," who was illustrated doing various actions that signified his journey in becoming a man. When I initially saw it, I had one of those "duh" moments.  You know... where it's such a great idea, which involves something so common in everyday life, that you wish you had thought of.  I feel like some of the best ideas come from the obvious, yet not so obvious, things in life. In other words... I now find myself looking at everything more critically. And I mean everything. 

"Hm, my bedspread would be a great color palette for a design... and look at that doorknob..." 

Yeah, it's almost a problem, and it's only been a day. My brain hurts.

Erica's feature design, the evolution theme, was a bittersweet thing for me. It was the first idea I had for the spread, but after about an hour of trying to think of how to make it work, I realized that no matter how many tutorial videos I tried to cram into my brain, I just didn't have enough time to figure out how to do what I wanted. Erica, however, executed it like a pro.

Aside from looking at each others' designs, our class also served as City & Regional Magazine Association 2010 preliminary judges.  For over an hour, we analyzed and critiqued awesome (and some not-so-awesome) spreads from City/Regional magazine designers. This experience verified my love for this form of creative expression; design is so inspiring and unpredictable.

When I got home, I sat on my bedroom floor, ripping out my favorite designs from old magazines to collect in a folder.  And, after an hour, I realized that a) I had more designing to do, and b) I had found my new favorite form of relaxation.

Yeah, I think it's safe to say that design is taking over my life :)

- Cassie May