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Blog Post #11 Final :*(

The final blog post! AHHH It feels quite odd to already be done this semester. As I’m in my final year, the semesters feel like they just keep getting shorter. Although I’ve been saying I want to graduate and be done with school since by first year, I feel like I may be back peddling and don’t actually want to graduate at all…time moves too quickly. Aside from that, my final post will be discussing how I felt about this class! I originally thought this class was about using photoshop and the merging of images, and although it didn’t end up being that I still enjoyed myself. I learned a lot about teamwork, time management, and creative thinking, but more specifically, how to push yourself to get to something worthwhile. The final zine designs I ended up doing looked quite good, and I’m happy with how those turned out! There was a poster design series idea I came up with in this class that didn’t end up being the final, so I might use some time over christmas or even after I graduate to complete those. Now that I have all these extra ideas and talking points for my pieces, I’ll be using them going forward! I don’t think I’d change anything about what I did in the class. I had a great time working with my partner, and we ended up both enjoying the final product! If I could, I’d probably spend more time on the assignments, but at the same time, this was the first semester where I’ve worked, and a design job at that. I think I was able to time manage myself enough to get everything done in both my school, work, and personal life, and that’s more than I could have expected. Thank you again Sheeraz for teaching this course! I’m glad I was able to have you in my first and final year at George Brown.

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Blog Post #10

“Series of 2-3 blog posts discussing your creative process…” This is the second blog post of a series of 3. This time, I’ll be discussing my creative process within this class. This project was definitely something I had to work at in terms of creativity and my process. Coming up with the final Phase 3 design idea with a partner was quite challenging, and not due to my partner, but due to my lack of understanding of how I'd get to the final assignment. We have eventually made it to the design work phase and that has been easier than expected, however, the process enveloped lots of research, lots of image ideation, and lots and lots of procrastination. I started by doing all the in class assignments and just using what I submitted as the backbone until I got here, as that was half of what we were supposed to do. If I had more time I probably would have spent countless hours reworking things, but my time this semester has been short, so I just used what I could. From there I consulted a lot with my partner, and from there we just kept completing as we saw fit. This assignment pushed my creative process however, as we used new design thinking skills and techniques. This helped us come up with a final project that was only impactful, but was something that could hold real world value, and if chosen to, change the world through design. Our final project ended up being informational zines used to help aid in users' mental health journey. These zines were sold by a crystal store, and were made out of eco-friendly paper to help aid in deforestation efforts. All of this connected back to our main concept, the 7 elements, as each zine was based off a crystal that was based off one of the elements.  Although it sounds a bit convoluted, the final project makes real world sense, and takes inspiration from many different places. This project wouldn’t have ended up like this if my partner and I didn’t spend the time doing our in class assignments and really pushing ourselves to make forced connections like the ones made above.

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Blog Post #9

"Series of 2-3 blog posts discussing your creative process..." This is going to be the first blog post in the final series. I wanted to start with discussing my creative process. My creative process is a little odd. Sometimes idea just come to me while other times I really have to work for it. In the next blog post I'll talk about my creative process in the class, but this one will be more of a general gloss over. On a really great day, when people are talking to me or I read a brief/RFP, ideas just come to me and I write them down so I don't forget them. I also like to add some sketches. Specifically with school, on my walk to the streetcar, I find I can come up with different ideas. Maybe it's ADHD, maybe it's just creativity, but my brain genuinely never stops thinking. Most of the time it's to my detriment as it can be quite distracting, but when I'm feeling inspired or creative it really works out for me. My mind totally goes blank when I'm trying to force creativity though. On days where nothing comes to me, I like to school online (specifically Pinterest) and look at visual aids. I love being inspired by others designs, and although my work never looks like my references, the visual queues help aid me in my research or just over all idea generation. An example of a 'bad' day is in my intro to design management class, as I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do for my Toronto Public Library redesign. I actually have already designed stuff for the TPL in another class, but when I went online to refresh my memory, the whole website was down (and still is). Because I didn't know what I wanted to do, I went on Pinterest and just looked up the work library. I ended up being inspired by vintage libraries and the colour brown, which lead me to design a logo/ad campaign based on the Toronto Public Libraries archives. The TPL has an amazing archive of images online, so I ended up grabbing a few of those and including them in my posters. It was also super cool to see how much is archived at the library, and sad to see how little they promote it in their advertising (although their advertising is quite poor to begin with). An example of a good day...well, I'm not too sure it's happened this semester. Looking back I've been a little too stressed out to have a simple design process. I found my Jellycat Annual Report design for Corporate 2 to be quite easy, but it also took weeks of work to get right. Some other things I do is listen to music, and talk to people I know. My sister and my boyfriend both help me generate great ideas, especially because they are both semi-connected but also detached from my realm of art.

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Blog Post #8

"Explore, and share an example, of the impact of storytelling on our lives and society." The example of storytelling and it's impact I'll be writing about is what I had put in the in-class discussion post, as I though it was very impactful and a great use of using real people to tell their stories, even if society doesn't want to see or hear it. The ad campaign for the CFRB 1010 Toronto radio station was titled "We need to talk", and showcased issues in Toronto its citizens would rather ignore. Using real people impacted by issues in Toronto, or people 'apart' of the issues in Toronto, this ad campaign showcased the lives of the affected and the ignorance of those who sit by and do nothing, or those who talk sh*t behind closed doors. As an example, the ad campaign actually paid real prostitutes and the homeless to hold up the signs to raise interest in the radio station. People can say all they want behind closed doors about others and their lively hoods, but try going up to them and saying their lives are less than to their face. Not only did the campaign support people in need/those who's situations they'd be discussing, but they were also able to humanize the people within different 'problem' sectors of Toronto. Everyone is human at the end of the day, and no one deserves to be treated less than for how they choose to live their lives. It was 100% effective story telling in that regard. The only thing I would have done differently is add less of a shock value to the fact that the campaign hired the homeless/prostitutes, however, the campaign is old and a product of its time. Plus, shock drives engagement, and the more engagement, the more awareness. See below for images

(people also wrote on the bus shelters as seen with the 'f*ck no'...so you know how some people reacted to this campaign)

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Blog Post #7 ✌✌

“With the current state of our world and the recent developments of yet another war in our midst, take a look at some of the ideas of 'Peace' found in our visual language today, and from the past. What is the most important, or relevant, symbol or design that comes to mind in regards to the idea of 'peace'.” I also agree that the peace sign is the most visually recognizable and distinct image of peace that we have in our modern world. However, for the sake of originality, I’ll be discussing the hand symbol for the peace sign. I use this peace sign in so many photos quite unironically. If someone takes a photo of me in a group, I automatically put the hand up. But why do I do this? I don’t even know myself. I think the origins of me doing this started when I was on tumblr and growing up watching Dan and Phil. Dan Howell made a joke in a video that his go to pose for photos was a peace sign, and I think I subconsciously adopted that from him; the two british gents were my favourite content creators after all. I see people do this everywhere, whether it be for a quirky pose in photos, or people like myself who get a bit camera shy when others take the photo and use it as a shield. The meaning behind this symbol, though, has washed away in the sands of time; or more realistically, the code of the digital landscape. Originally used as more of a ‘V’ symbol, it was used to show signs of victory after the allies won the second World War. Winston Churchill was actually one of the first people to have used the ‘V’ sign. However, during the war in Vietnam, the sign was used as counterculture for a symbol of peace, and is still being used worldwide as the iconic “peace sign”.  Now this symbol in photographs is actually inspired by Japanese culture! With the palm facing outward, the symbol is very commonly used by young Japanese people when posing for photographs. Known in Japan as ‘pīsu sain’ (ピースサイン), or more commonly simply pīsu (ピース), Americans and other nations worldwide have adopted this informal style pose in photographs. Although used as a symbol of peace after wars, now this symbol is used by quirky youth in poses. However, seeing this symbol everywhere might also show to people that you are cool to be around…almost peaceful.

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Blog Post #6

"Write about a wicked problem in the world today and what problem you see with them…" A current wicked problem in the world today that is truly troubling is the new/ongoing war between Israel and Palestine. I remember first hearing about the countries conflicts in highschool, as a recent friend I had made was Palestinian. She was able to give me good insight into exactly what the countries were fighting for, but also, on how the media was using propaganda to support Israel and not Palestine. I do remember media coverage at another all time high during COVID, and then again last week just as the war was officially declared. There is a lot of misinformation being spread around the internet, and I am no person to say anything is credible or not credible, but what I do know is that the media is portraying Palestinian people to be murders, although most Israeli forces are to blame for the mass deaths happening in the war; dropping 6,000 bombs on Gaza. (link to site here) The one thing I wanted to write about in this blog post was this one tiktok I saw. The creator was baking gluten free goods for Israeli soldiers and captioned it “Day in the Life War Edition!”. My jaw was quite literally on the floor. Whilst Israel was dropping 6,000 bombs, this content creator was baking goods to support the soldiers who were killing over 1,400+ people. They were also baking goods while Palestinian people have no access to water. The caption/title of the video just goes to show how much misinformation can alter perceptions, and how media literacy and over consumption of media can desensitize people from real world harm! The video is here: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMj49DPHs/ As I stated before, I’m no expert on this situation, nor do I intend to be. I don’t want to be a part of the spread of current misinformation regarding this war; I can leave the spread of credible information up to the professionals and people who are actively involved. I did, however, want to discuss the lack of morality people show on apps like Tiktok. Just because you have a phone and an opinion does not mean YOU SHOULD POST IT!

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Blog Post #5

"Tell us about the last thing you purchased..." I would have discussed the real ‘last purchase’ I made, which is either a Venti Starbucks Iced Pumpkin Cream Chai (i’m extremely addicted to these…), or some shirts I bought from Urban Outfitters for my birthday, however, I connected with a topic that was said in class. In class we discussed shoes, and the possibility of someone being so connected to a pair of shoes they never threw them out. That was me, and I genuinely wore a pair of Vans for 7 years straight. I bought these shoes in the 7th grade, and lucky for me that’s when my feet stopped growing. They were a flat shoe, black with a white band, and were SO trendy on tumblr within the aesthetic I was going for; picture vic fuentes emo fans with their vans, cause thats all I wanted to be. I bought them with my own money after years of wearing Walmart knock offs, and I loved them. I wore them while finishing elementary school, all throughout highschool, and even into my year off of school where I just worked.  Originally, purchasing these shoes meant that I would be slightly trendy and cooler than I was. It also ‘symbolised’ fitting in, and showing I had the money to be able to afford something that wasn’t a knock off, even though I bought them on sale for less than $50 dollars. At the time, I was mainly focused on looking cooler, but all the points above still stand. I personally wanted to fit into a certain style and aesthetic and bought the shoes to match it; the shoes themselves are supposed to be skater shoes, but were adopted by emo kids as their favourite bands wore them. I absolutely loved those shoes, and I actually still have them. I wore them everyday and it became a kind of joke with my friends and family that I would never throw them away. After 7 years, the shoes became faded, turning a shade of brown from being sun bleached. I wore holes in the soles of the shoes, and yet continued to wear them. The band became a dull cream, and was beginning to separate from the black fabric. The symbol of self expression turned into a hoarder style problem I have; I keep literally everything and will use it until it’s broken, which makes me incredibly sad. They also became a symbol of being broke to literally everyone but me. I had more than enough money to buy a new pair of shoes, but I didn’t want to. I loved the shoes even though they were getting old. Eventually, my mom forced me to buy a new pair. The shoes were causing back pain and were genuinely eating holes in my socks. We were going on a trip to Italy and she said she wouldn’t bring me if I brought the shoes. I decided to not get another pair of vans, but instead, get a pair of Converse. The same genre of shoe in my brain, but something slightly different. It took a lot of arguing to get me to buy the shoes (AND FOR NO REASON, LIKE 7 YEARS IS GROSS…), but I eventually caved and bought the shoes I’m currently wearing. These shoes have lasted quite well, besides the laces needing to be replaced after a summer of working in a bar. Now I have hello kitty laces ;-) I still miss my old shoes and the life I had with them. They took me many places and were with me throughout my teenage years. But now I have new jokes with my converse; like how long it takes to lace them up, and how I’m always the last to leave because of it. I also have new experiences with them, like my trip to italy, and the first dates I had with my boyfriend. I hope I can keep my converse for the same amount of time, and maybe I just buy a new pair of shoes for every new phase of my life.

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Blog Post #4

-What are you passionate about?

I’m quite passionate about illustration, photography, design (obviously), playing video games (specifically the Sims 3), listening to good music, eating good food, and learning stupid things from the internet. All these interests mostly stem from just learning about things I like. Once I’m invested in something I have to know everything about it.

-What culture/geography/region/country do you identify with?

Canada, not really, but I’ve lived here my whole life. I’ve actually never been anywhere outside of Ontario and Quebec. I’d love to travel around but I’m not rich :*). I’m also Portuguese, but I've unfortunately never been to Portugal. I’d love to go but I don’t know any of my family over there and they probably don’t know of my existence. However, my boyfriend and I would really like to go to Japan! I don’t personally connect with it, but we made plans to go eventually, sometime after graduation and I’m set on making the trip happen.

-Is there a design, object or product that you love or hate and why?

D2L/Brightspace!!! I hate it (lmao). It’s not awful but there are way too many ways to do the same thing, which makes everyone so confused. Blackboard was surprisingly much easier, and I kind of miss it (like Stockholm syndrome). I just wish I could see my grades properly in 2DL, blackboard had a nice grades panel and you could compare your grades with your classmates anonymously.

-Are there any recent events/news, Canadian or otherwise, that you FEEL for?

Yesterday (Sept. 26th) there was a guy swinging an axe outside of TMU (toronto metropolitan university). My sister goes there, so it was kinda scary. She thankfully is taking a course that operates outside of the campus grounds, but it’s so wild that people would go to a college campus and swing axes.

-Is there an experience that impresses you while travelling [people, place, service]?

I rarely travel, but I went to Italy once in 2021! The people were nice-ish even though I didn’t speak Italian, and the food was quite good. I was shocked however, that they rarely serve vegetables (I was dying for cucumbers or broccoli after the trip). The trains were also quite fast, but it was still a long trip when taking them. My family and I went from the top of Italy (Del Garda) all the way to Rome in one day. We actually went twice, but it was exhausting.

-Do you consider yourself a T-shaped individual? If so, what area/discipline do you know well? What other areas/disciplines do you know to some extent?

I would consider myself a jack of all trades when it comes to art (aside from sculpture, I suck at that). I’m quite good at photography, design, illustration, and pretty much use any kind of physical medium (oil, acrylic, pastel, water colour, ink, pencil crayon…) due to the years I spent doing art over having life experiences (T-T). I would say I have a deeper knowledge in design, as that's what i’m studying, and I like learning more about it to hopefully aid me in future job prospects. However, in terms of weird knowledge (my favourite kind), I know a lot about video games, but with specific video games, I know A LOT about them. More specifically, Undertale…I KNOW cringe. What am I 13? I got invested in the game when it came out and I still get really invested in topics I like. I will go out of my way to learn everything I can about them, almost to the point where I learn things that aren’t even true, just theories (a game theory :0 -matt patt).

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Blog Post #3

Experience with Generative AI… I honestly do not like AI. Is this opinion biased? Absolutely. I am not only a designer, but an artist. I worked for many years to develop my skills because it was something I enjoyed doing, and it’s a skill that requires hard work (even with talent). I didn’t spend most of my life for some lazy tech bros to STEAL work that others had also spent most of their life working on because they were too lazy to pick up a pencil and do it themselves, or better yet, hire the people who’ve actually WORKED FOR IT! I didn’t spend most of my life working towards an artistic career for people to tell me my efforts have been wasted now that AI exists. AI art is incredibly lazy, and to be frank, looks awful. Nothing will ever be able to replicate the passion of a true artist. I think AI text is also lazy. I think writing in of itself is a skill, and it’s a skill most develop through PAYING to go to university/college. Writing a poorly written prompt is not research, and IT IS NOT WRITING!!! I have a very intelligent twin-sister currently in University who writes scholarly essays on her own, and she has put in the effort to get to that level. Passion is involved in the arts and AI strips passion for people too lazy to try. I have used AI for a design charrette within the school. It was a mandatory aspect of the project, and I avoided it until I absolutely had to use it. Not only were my very descriptive prompts not enough for the AI software, but the images that were showing up were awfully difficult to see. Text was scrambled, logo designs were clipping and fading, and the image generation for plants couldn’t figure out where the leaves started and the pot ended. We were also required to use Chat GPT for name generations, and I have never seen such uninspired business names. Not only were they ridiculously long, but none fit the prompts we gave. Using AI for this project ended up taking away time from the overall work I had to do, and set me back a couple of hours. All in all, it is certainly not something I enjoy. The more I use it, the less I fear my career will end before it has even begun. Nothing will ever beat real human ideas and motives. I also hope anyone who regularly uses AI thinks on their own every now and then, or at least challenges their mind. We can’t be having elementary and highschool students come into the world without critical thinking skills because adults have shown them that AI can think for them!

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Blog Post #2

Textures in Unexpected Places

I wanted to include the images from the in class assignment here as I really did end up liking them. I wish I had my camera, I would have gone around with it instead; would have been a great opportunity to build my texture library. Regardless, after class I did go around with my camera and was able to get more photos.  I don’t want to write too much for this assignment, however, I did want to share what I did for this blog post. Thursday is a ‘free day’ for me, but not so free as I have to do homework/work work. As a break, I went on a walk; a common thing I do to relax. I don’t just walk in silence though, I create a curated music playlist and think about anything other than the work I was just doing. This time around it was a mix of old Panic! At the Disco, specifically the albums ‘A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out’ and ‘Pretty. Odd.’ with a mix of songs from their ‘Live in Denver’ show. The music was played at basically full blast as I have no respect for my ear drums, and off I went.  It was a relaxing experience. Although this is technically homework, the activity I made out of it didn’t feel like it was. I turned an assignment that could have been a hassle into a fun activity, and I’m glad I had a productive break. Below is the mix of the in-class and the after-class photos. Enjoy :)

(sorry some are screenshots, I wanted this to load quickly :D)

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Blog Post #1

I often try to avoid the discussion about how I got into art and design, as it’s not super inspiring or cool. When I was younger I had two friends, and we were all bullied (lmao). They were able to slide under the radar after a while because they had talent, and they both were labeled the ‘art kids’. I had absolutely no talent, was absolutely awful in school, and was incredibly jealous of my friends.

I decided to make it a goal that I would get so good at drawing that I would end up surpassing them in skill, thinking the final result would be I would stop being bullied. The bullies ended up leaving school, and I grew up and went into highschool still drawing trying to surpass them. By the time we were graduating, I hadn’t even realized they both stopped drawing, and I was racing against nothing.

I started designing out of spite. Worse than jealousy? Probably not, but still an equally disappointing story. In highschool my guidance counselor told me I had selected the most art courses out of anyone in my grade, which I decided to take as a challenge. 

I ended up taking my high school's yearbook course in the 11th grade, and absolutely loved it (I won an award for my grade in it too??). I was selected to be a yearbook editor the following year, which I happily accepted, not knowing it was going to be the worst experience of my school ‘life’. The people I worked with made the experience terrible and tried getting me kicked out of the course. By the time I ‘graduated’ (I was a 2020 grad), I had lost all love for anything art related.

I ended up taking a year off in between graduation and college to decide what I wanted to pursue. If I didn’t enjoy art anymore, then what other options did I have? I ended up getting a message from a friend around Christmas of 2020 asking if I could design a poster for her. She (apparently) really liked the ones I did in yearbook and wanted something fun in her room. I agreed, and we turned it into a little project. I ended up getting back into design because of her, and made it a goal that I would become a graphic designer to spite the people who (almost) made me hate it. I spent the next couple of months doing silly design projects with wild colours and wild fonts, and it ended up becoming my George Brown portfolio that got me into school.

The poster I did, and yes, it was a requirement to use comic sans <3

Most things in my life have started from seemingly negative emotions, however, not everything has been awful. After the initial jealousy and spite, I obviously grew to love what I was doing. I'm awful at math and science so there was truly no other route for me to have taken. Because I started illustration so young, I was immersed in online art communities and was always updating myself on new trending alcohol based markers or the new screen tablet to use that wasn’t a wacom. I would spend all my time drawing because I was passionate about learning and wanted to get better. I had already ‘beat’ my friends, they dropped the imaginary race, so I began working to ‘beat’ people online who inspired me.

I wake up at 6:00am to get to my classes because I always feel the need to be better. Over time it’s grown less into a need to please other people but to please myself. I like making work, and when it looks good I feel good. Everything I do has become an extension of myself, so as much as I hate waking up early and then spending all my time on homework, I still feel motivated to feel good about my work. 

To break this down, here are the 5 aspects that motivate/inspire me:

Jealousy (always want to be better)

Spite (proving I can do what people tried to stop me from doing)

Nostalgia and passion (grown passion and nostalgia for past excitement I got from art/design)

Friends (creating work with/for them)

Feeling good (feeling fulfilled and happy from the work I do) 

This list could have been made up of something consumable, but physical objects or media are never as inspiring as emotions and feelings. I believe my work is an extension of myself so it has to also start with me.