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simonejnews · 8 years

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Why TVOne’s Skinned Should Never Be Shown Again

On my usual commute this past Friday, I flicked my radio dial like I’m sure thousands of others in the city did looking forward to getting my bump on to some of my favorite R&B classics. On the air; Chubb Rock and Simon Baby getting candid with “The Playa Club’s” Lisa Raye gushing about the new for-tv-film, Skinned, in which she made her first ever directorial debut on TVOne. Skinned; a breakout film to shed light on the epidemic of skin-bleaching and self-mutilation of dark-skinned individuals around the world in attempt to match society’s gelastic standards of beauty.

The conversation around the film, and even the concept intrigued me. Being a far from fair-skinned girl, with natural hair living in the South, I had a more than personal, more sensitized connection to skin-bleaching, with the prejudice, the stigma and the struggle. That evening, I set my DVR to Skinned, and at 7:59 Saturday night, was waiting for the film to air the way I used to at 10 yrs-old on Christmas Eve for Santa’s gift delivery.

When I finally sat to watch the much-anticipated “Skinned” movie, I felt myself less than consciously roll through feelings of apathy, confusion and utter disgust before settling in to sheer disappointment. Another “post-slavery-black-movie” to outline the flawed, self-loathing and absolutely ignorant Black America, doing a shoddy job of showing the devastation of the skin-bleaching pandemic, and failing to bring awareness to its damaging effects without diminishing the I.Q of the entire black population.

Can I disclose?: I had the T.I.B.S. syndrome (this is bull**** syndrome for all 2hrs “Skinned” aired.) All throughout the all-hyped film was exaggerated dialogue, unrealistic social settings, lack of storyline and no character development to sit atop a giant mountain of ignorant, offensive innuendos designed to make dark-skinned women feel insecure if they weren’t before and even more so if they already were. A looming question of mine to TVOne, the creative team and entire cast behind the making of “Skinned”; what were you trying to accomplish with this movie? If it was to perpetuate the “light is right” conception and decades-old battle of dark-skinned v.s. light-skinned girls, you nearly nailed it, maybe. But in tackling the social injustice and devastation behind skin-bleaching, you missed by Big-Dipper, Delta-sky miles.

More than a few points throughout the movie had myself, and my fellow film-gawkers raising our WTF signals.

The main character in the film (never-mind what her name is):

Becomes infertile and then develops a skin cancer that threatens to kill her?;

I get it -- the chemical in many skin-bleaching agents can cause infertility in high amounts. With the acting ingredients in many skin-bleaching agents (e.g. hydroquinone) limited to 2% or less though, she would’ve probably had to be bathing, baking in and eating these creams in order to develop life-threatening skin-cancer. It would’ve been more realistic to show her experiencing toxic shock and having to be rushed to the hospital to be flushed of these harmful chemicals in her system.

Takes no pics with fam for being the “blackie”, but is a Fashion Model?;

The main character and her husband quarrel over her lack of pictures showing when she was young. Evidently, she’s discarded all her pics because she didn’t want to be seen as the ONLY “blackie” or poor “dark girl” in all the photos. If she had her daddy’s “beautiful African skin” like Lisa Raye had stated in one scene of the film, she wouldn’t have been the only dark-skinned person in her family photos. And since her skin was inherited, wouldn’t she have more relatives with a complexion like hers? This “black sheep isolation” is CRAZY?!?! But she then manages to become a fashion model and take pics for the entire world, still as a dark-skinned woman.

Gets spit on by light-skinned girls in grade school for being dark-skinned?;

Welcome to the part before Roots Chp. I. Through all this, she seems to be the ONLY girl in school with dark-skin, that has ever had dark-skin. And then she’s spit on without provoke for being dark-skinned. What a misfortune it must be to be dark-skinned! Thank you for showing white America exactly how much disgust Black Americans have for dark-skin. We dark-skinned peeps are so dirty, so hideously repulsive that we have to be spit-shined.

Gets Paper Bag Tested at a party?;

So it’s back to the played-out light-skinned v.s. dark-skinned battle here. Some air-headed dimwatt, (who happened to be light-skinned) throws a 60′s themed party and decides that the paper-bag test should be included at the party. (Really, this still happens in 2016?) The main character obviously fails the test and is then humiliated. Maybe this is the point she turned to bleaching? Because she’s obviously the only girl on this entire college campus that must bleach because she’ll never pass the paper bag test.

Sees a psychiatrist who believes she’s been passed over for a promotion at her practice by a woman that’s lighter skinned?;

Okay this is kinda played. The psychiatrist is a confident, educated, mocha-skinned black woman with a loving husband. Her black pride has preceded her throughout the movie -- that is until Ms. Thing starts working in her practice and her boss is over all Ms. Thing. Never-mind that Ms. Thing dressed and behaved like a total slut, but she’s given a promo because she’s a lighter-skinned black woman? Not saying that can’t/doesn’t happen, but still. The psychiatrist could’ve definitely used a friend to tell her, “maybe your boss gave Ms. Thing the promo because she behaved like a skank and was all on his nuts!” Sadly, there was no such friend written in the script.

And then, there’s my favorite: The comment that the token white girl makes about the boss hiring Ms. Thing and parading her though the office; “You know he likes them young and light”?!?;

Alright -- the film is wreaking of bullocks at this point. What white person in the history of humanity would ever say of a black person, “young and light”?!?! Being the most fair/light-skinned of any human race, a white person would never in a million years let a phrase like this slip through their lips. It would’ve been much more believable for the white girl to say “young and slim”, or even “you know how he likes them”, which would’ve still left enough room for the psychiatrist to assume that Ms. Thing did get the promotion because of her complexion. I mean, WTH wrote this script??

I’m not a film-maker, or a professional actress, but I am a college grad with enough sense and self-love to know that a movie like Skinned doesn’t make me more aware of the dangers of bleaching but perpetuates centuries long inequities and insecurities with color. Rather than going on and on about all wrongs, we can turn this around with pointers for making better movies on subjects like skin-bleaching -- ones that uplift us, provide us solutions and make us feel charged to make better decisions, and improve our self worth.

Show dark-skinned black women are not SOLE SUFFERERS in the skin-bleaching epidemic. Contrary to what’s media driven, skin-bleaching is a common practice throughout Asia; not just in America and sub-saharan Africa, which you’d never know from watching this movie. This movie focused on the insecurities and self-conceived imperfections of one-girl. However, there are millions of others that struggle with this issue, and it’s not just women, but men too!

Provide more support for the characters/people that feel uncomfortable in their skin because of its darkness. This movie had such a platform to show how people with darker skin could be embraced and celebrated for their unique and irreplaceable beauty. I would’ve loved for Skinned’s main character to have a niece; a neighbor or some young girl with dark-skin to mentor and inspire to not go down the same path. But addressing misconceptions and ill-feelings that individuals with lighter skin may have to people with darker skin and trying to correct them would’ve worked well here too.

Alert the audience of alternatives to skin-bleaching for clear, brighter skin.

Not all of us necessarily want to be 5 shades lighter (I don’t), but when all is said and done, we do want clearer and brighter skin. Skin-bleaching is not the only way to do that, (and certainly not the healthiest). I am a proponent of natural/organic cleansers, and there are products with soy and citrus that can be used to help to naturally bring out clear, blemish-free complexions. Even Microderm abrasion and exfoliating can do the trick. Might I add, an INCREDIBLE confidence booster. ;)

Sidenote though, do you notice how the law of attraction works? Most dark-skinned women that bleach reportedly believe they are more attractive to the opposite sex when they bleach, and in turn feel more confident. But the thing is, if they felt the confidence all along, they wouldn’t feel the need to bleach in the first place, and would still be attractive to the opposite sex. It really is all about the insides.

Let me take time to give honorable mention to Lisa Raye and team for bringing the skin-bleaching plague to the silver screen. (Rightfully so, it needs to be there!) Even still, I believe I’ve taken enough jabs at TVOne and the Skinned production team to hopefully get this movie taken out of the on-air lineup. No other girls, families, or communities should see or witness this production. Sorry ... it’s just AWFUL. Until a more polished production can be made, Skinned should be thrown into a digital movie abyss in which it self destructs and is never seen again. How did such a promising concept with such a substantial topic at hand (skin bleaching) see its ship sink before it even left the dock? Underdeveloped -- under-researched and under-explored.

Please, Skinned, go hide in a place the sun don’t shine and spare us of the tired racial stereotypes. And seek the advice a dark-skinned individual that has actually lived the “skin-bleach” grapple if you ever want to make a future movie with this concept successful, and weave their personal encounter into your storylines, (** cause I don’t think any dark-skinned women were consulted in the making of this film.””)

As for me, I’ll be busy empowering, enlightening and spreading love for self and the skin we’re in to every woman (and man), that has ever felt inadequate, outweighed or out shined because of color. And maybe waiting for, or even creating a film that shines the right kind of light on skin-whitening.

#tvone #skinned #dark skinned #light skinned #black #television #skinnedmovie

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simonejnews · 9 years

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Planned Parenthood Means Fewer Abortions

Read more of Michael Specter’s argument.

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simonejnews · 9 years

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My Leftie Life: #NationalLeftHandersDay Edition

It’s Thursday, August 13th 2015 -- and all into the a.m., folks all around the world (including right-handers) celebrate if only for one day, the creativity, sensation and overall intrigue that is the “leftie”. #NationalLeftHandersDay has worked in good grace to honor and bond together all lefties, including Albert Einstein and even Obama (most times?). Being a fellow leftie, I’m proud to own the unique awesomeness that is left-handedness (developed from years of right-brain thinking), as well as the creativity and intelligence much sought-after by my right-handed counterparts. (After all -- lefties only make up 10% of the worlds population!) Though it shouldn’t be taken lightly that left-handedness is a superpower of sorts, every leftie can speak to the courage, and a different kind of spunk/spark it takes for dealing with the struggles, hurdles and general urks of naturally being “left” in a right-winged world. And it maybe goes without saying that in a world where only one hand is right -- the rest of us can easily feel leftout. In spirit of #NationalLeftHandersDay, I thought I’d give a go in sharing some of the most interesting but little-known plights I’ve experienced as a leftie.

Playing Instruments Incorrectly For Months

In middle school, they gave us the option of taking a music class, and my first choice was orchestra. Within a few weeks of class, my parents bought me my first violin and I was well on my way to being a virtuoso. Except for the fact that for weeks, I held and played the violin the opposite way of everyone else. (There were no other lefties in my class). It took me so long to adapt and learn to play with my right hand like all the other students that when I did, I took home one of three trophies from our orchestra ceremony.

Bumping Elbows With Classmates

Teachers, especially in middle school, weren’t exactly the most efficient when it came to assigning seats. I was quiet though, so they’d often pair me with the loudmouths of the class in hopes that I’d help silence them. Right-handed loudmouths no doubt, which created other problems. During every writing assignment, my left-handed elbow would unintentionally bump their right -- more annoying than the lecture! It didn’t help that I’d accidentally smudge my writing whenever I wrote in pencil.

Being Forced To Use Right-Handed Tools

I am the odd-man out in my immediate family as a leftie. Every tool I’ve used, from rulers to measuring cups and gloves has always been for right-handed people. Hell -- even baseball bats. When I grew older, my family realized this and opt to buy me my own left-handed utensils to get stuff done around the house.

People Thinking Left-Handedness Is A Handicap

Senior year of high school, I thought a lot about college and how I could pay. Sitting in a psychology class, a couple of my classmates knew I was left-handed and told me I’d be eligible for special “left-handed scholarships”. My first thought was cool -- until they followed it up by saying it was because being left-handed was a “disability”. I was dumbfounded.

Giving Less-Than-Favorable Impressions To Outside Religions

Doing research for a grad school assignment led me to visit a Hindu temple once while I lived in North Carolina. I managed to sit through a half-hour of hymns and chants, not understanding a word that was being spoken while I gazed upon golden statues. Toward the end of service, as everyone was partaking to food offering -- I was ready to grab the plate with my left hand. A man that was standing in front of me turned around to quickly stop me from touching any dish with my left hand. I could see in his face that I’d nearly disgraced all attendees -- and all that was left was the silence before streaking tension.

Needless to say, with all the interesting, sometimes backwards and outright bizarre experiences I’ve had being a leftie, it is an integral part of my identity and very being. An essence I’d never think to change ever! To all my leftie allies -- you are amazing, empowered -- and appreciated! Rise up and own it!! ;)

#nationallefthandersday #lefties #lefthanded #leftiesareawesome #rightbrained #rightstateofmind

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simonejnews · 9 years

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A Taste of The Atlanta in Three Weeks

My experience Atlanta restaurant traveling in 3 weeks, 2 out of 3 are must recommends!

#food Atlanta international restaurants Chinese Italian SandySprings

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simonejnews · 9 years

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VDay Weekend Wrap-Up: Soulties and Bare Sticks Day

Valentine's Day 2015 hath come and gone again, along with "Gal"-entines, "Pal"-entines and other VDay spinoffs of the tongue-and-cheek day for lovers may lay. As the morning of the Saturday holiday reared its head - I was more than happy to spend the fatter part of my Saturday sleeping in. Unlike many lovers, this single's awareness day was an opportunity for me to preoccupy and subsequently recommit myself to my forever loves: me, myself and I. I wasn't concerned about buying bedroom candy, and since I decided to temporarily fast from social media, wasn't about to be bombarded with posts or tweets with romantic gifts or getaways. However my age, hidden desires and the VDay flame I saw ignite in my parent's relationship had my mind rolling over thoughts of love, passion and other precocious things.

Surfing on the web, I hopped out of one "Love Advice" column, and on to (by chance), a proclaimed Ancient Chinese legend with an undeniable message about love, as if straight from the mouth of Confucius. This simple message -- with an even simpler picture described a bond that never breaks, withers or tears. Biblically, this made me think of ties in the spiritual realm, or ones that are commonly associated with a soul-tie.

A soul-tie, being the official term for the seemingly impenetrable bond between two individuals, involves a gross entanglement of the soul, spirit and very essence of each human being. It is also noted that soul-ties not only exist between lovers, but between friends, family and future connections. What's more important is that soul-ties can be spiritually fulfilling (positive) or draining (negative). So what to make of these soul-ties? To date, there are many a' articles that give in-depth explanations on the root of soul-ties and how they interconnect you to the people of your past, present and future. (For further reading on soul-ties, consult the book: Seductions Exposed - The spiritual dynamics of relationships (Dr. Gary L. Greenwald)

In light of international love-fueled traditions, Chinese elders (and government) play a particularly significant role in couple pairing and matchmaking in modern-day China. Every year on 11/11 they commence what's known as "Bare Sticks Day"; a holiday dedicated to rectifying the romantically-challenged lives of their single/unmarried population. With the help of nationwide dating events and extreme discounts on goods for singletons and couples, observers of the holiday can choose to explore singlehood in style or attend a single-themed karaoke event or community date party. Which begs the question -- why don't they have this holiday here? And do I need to move to China to pull the strings of my soulmate closer?

A little less kidding, and more reflective thinking. In my opinion, too much emphasis is placed on finding someone over finding self in our society. And without the added assistance of "Bare Sticks Holiday" in the U.S.--soul-searching and self-discovery remain initial rites of passage to tying any loose ends with love.

#ValentinesDay soulties BareSticksDay Chineseproverb

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simonejnews · 9 years

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Food for thought. I realized things were bad in the U.S, but it looks even worse in comparison to other world powers.

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simonejnews · 10 years

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Oh, Mary Jane! A Media Maven v.s. A Lust-Crazed Vixen

Since the hit TV series, “Being Mary Jane” hit the airwaves on BET in 2013, the world has been introduced to life and times of Mary Jane Paul, the self-motivated, determined news professional who appears to dazzle with extreme beauty, personality and charisma. In “Being Mary Jane”, Mary Jane Paul is played by Gabrielle Union, and focuses on the 30-something year old newsroom professional with a flourishing career, loving family and seemingly peachy keen life to which distant characters envy. The show spawned from the hit movie “Being Mary Jane”, which follows the esteemed newsroom personality in an emotional mix of friends, foes and secret lovers as she entangles herself deeper into a forbidden relationship with Andre Daniels, a married man with two children (played by Omari Hardwick). Between the scenes, Mary Jane shuffles between her high-pressure job and increasingly dysfunctional family, while seeking Andre’s frequent company and comfort. Her frequent pursuit of Andre causes frequent tension with Andre’s wife, Avery Daniels (played by Robinne Lee). Heels, hair and career aside, Mary Jane’s story brings to light character that in the arena of relationships and class, represents a growing percentage of young women, yet is the subject of highly scrutiny in local media and abroad.

The highly acclaimed “Being Mary Jane” show is controversial in a variety of contemporary means, showcasing a seemingly confident and self-assured black woman in a modern mix of adultery and sexuality. In seeing this, the question that comes to pass is—who is Mary Jane? And what does this alpha black female character teach us about Black (women) America and where societal values are heading?. In a string of Instagram posts attributed to the Being Mary Jane series, young black girls all over the nation revealed their connection to Mary Jane, priding that they too, like Mary Jane seek the companionship of men already in relationships, justifying their actions with a strong belief in pursuing their desires for a mate by all means necessary. The problem exhibited here is that there is an overflowing amount of black women, especially young girls who haven’t seemed to identify their self-worth, esteem and credo to discern a healthy, prosperous relationship from a negative or despairing one. Perhaps the logic is fueled by the assumption that there isn’t enough men to go around or that the most desirable men are the ones that already have a fine matriarch figure on their arm. As we see these recurring themes flaunted on screen with strongly suggestive sexual intercourse and nudity, it can be argued that absorbing these types of images from Being Mary Jane not only don’t help, but in fact provide a pedalstool for self destructive relationships by means of a tarnished self image.

In many ways, Mary Jane’s character showcases aspirational qualities, honing a mature and ambitious black woman who exercises her commitment for her job and family. She just seems to have an unsuccessful run with men and with love, right? Bridging this pitfall in the Black female community, we must understand the purpose and calling we serve as black women, in relationship and in the media. Our call to action is to develop a sense of assertion and truth that we don’t have to compromise our bodies or our beliefs for men or television ratings. Even with sex selling through airwaves, societal pressures for intimacy and ratings, we must take the path to not be complacent in finding mates, or our portrayal in front of the camera. Mary Jane may seem like she’s got it all going on but it is all but a façade. The reality is there is so much power, beyond the need for the love of a man that willfully completes any woman (all Mary Jane’s included). It takes believing in the power of self, emotional confidence and an overall embrace of higher standards that we should overturn Mary Jane’s complex, and enjoy a more wholesome self-image, relationships and lifestyles.

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simonejnews · 11 years

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Web Development—So Angular JS

A couple of weeks back, when I felt a compelling need to network and feel design inspired, I ventured out to a meetup for designers in the Raleigh area. Being that it was my first meeting, I had all types of feelings of anticipation, enthusiasm and learning. When I first entered the meeting, I saw designers and developers alike huddled around a projector screen discussing the next course of web applications for site and graphic development. And as I pulled up a chair, I listened intuitively while taking notes.

The application that was the subject of the day’s meeting was closely related to the functional design of abstract web pages. As I was to find out at the meeting, Angular JS is a plug-in library, much like that of JavaScript or even Sass that is designed to make coding and calling functions more convenient than that of JavaScript. The application was created by Google, and possesses its own unique library of modifiers, classes and functions. Of those listed, the ones that were highlighted at the meeting was the ability for Angular JS to provide alternatives to error code and mesh the inconsistencies across browsers through traditional HTML and CSS. By the end of the meeting, I came away with the knowledge of what has notably been called the “JavaScript superhero”.

To admit upfront, my normal, non-coding before iMedia grad student self wouldn’t have taken such a vast interest in this topic or even in this technology. However, through the repeated building of websites and exposure to coding, I find this website will be my go-to hub for decoding.

#imedia550

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simonejnews · 11 years

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What's The Rage With iPhone, Anyway?--

Apple is all the rage, and has correspondingly built their brand around the presentation of compact information in sleek and sophisticated ways that are eye inspiring, sequential ordered and design-ambitious. And from that alone they’ve managed to remain afloat with a multi-trillion dollar empire that has billions of “MacHeads” and other loyal Apple followers. Not too shabby for a garage start-up.

In any case, when pertaining to the mobile marketplace, Apple is king for conceptualizing an efficient way to display information on phones that essentially combines our social-media, TV-watching, music listening and Internet browsing experience. Their domination of the mobile industry has been revered for two reasons: information display and graphical convenience.

I remember purchasing my first Apple possession over a year ago. It was the ever-so-sheer 4th generation iPod touch, which was a huge deal for me because it was in many ways was the iPhone, only lacking the ability-to-call feature and a data plan. The compact CPU case and the sheer thinness of the display screen remain a tidbit of the qualities that makes the iPhone and even the iPod touch chic and desirable. The notion of a device that so intricately blends designer input and developer statistics is just truly amazing and quite sophisticated and intimately attractive. The ratio of content revelation to conceptualized graphics and illustrations is just what Tufte delves into in his film introduction to iPhone Interface Design. I also outlined a compact list of qualities that he mentioned were essentials of successful digital design for mobile interfaces. There were four home-hitting arguments was that mobile caricature satisfy all of the following requirements:

Focus on minimizing administrative debris

Emphasis on spatial distribution of information rather than temporal stacking

Integration of text, images, and live video (non-hierarchal interface)

Simulate information as the interface as opposed to graphics

I'm digging this, slim!

And the design of the iPhone seems to fit this requirement botch quite adequately. Of the other perspectives he mentioned, I was interested and additionally enlightened at some of the points about its information design and hierarchy. And while reminiscing, I compared the two, which maintain similar principles of displays that are information driven rather than graphic heavy. All the while possessing an orientation of design that is neither overwhelming to the consumer eye nor short serving.

#imedia550

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simonejnews · 11 years

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Fast Four: Digi-Designs of The Future--from the past?

(Above Image Retrieved From Smashing Magazine)

So, there is all the rage as of late over trendy and quirky design techniques that are being employed by designers all across the country. These mesh of designs are sweeping the nation are reverting back to the minimalist and formalistic art styles that very similar to the ones we discussed in my Visual Aesthetics course toward the beginning of the semester. As I browsed through this article, I reflected differently on each of the design techniques and procedures, and it seemed to evolve back to golden days of design. The ones where computer animation was primitive, and all digital art was established via analog technique.

The first was geometric design, which is all worthy of digital praise for several reasons. This article, which is titled “The Master” from the Little White Lies series, featured a digi-media maven on the cover in block form, which outlined several intuitive shades of red, white and blue. All of which I thought was exceedingly clever and delicious. All of the colors were reminiscent of the American flag, but the aesthetic that illustrator Siggi Eggerston used is very minimalistic. The picture depicts a man that fancies the likes of Kelsey Grammar, with knitted eyebrows and a stout demeanor. But as I stared at it in marvel, the most impressive feature to this digital design was the amount of detail highlighted in the area of the eyes even the gentleman’s sideburns and ears.To think that this form of geometric design will once again return to the design world with a vengeance is highly anticipated.

As I peered through the article, I noted other noteworthy concepts of visual construction that were worthy of discussion. Stripping it back is a methodology that is continuously being employed. The article highlighted the use of colors in the eBay banner as a prime example. I contend that another fine example of this is the plain font Google logo with a surge of colors and a typeface that is highly specific to Google. Hand-drawn, much to my unconventional tastes, is also a popularly- employed technique.

Although I’ve always believed bigger is better, I am beginning to understand that that is a reversed perspective in terms of digital design. I am all on board for hand-drawing and geometric design, but have to work on scaling back with extra close attention.

Visit The Creative Minds Homepage!

#imedia550

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simonejnews · 11 years

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A Stumbling Upon Artistry--Professional Designers Mound

Before even gazing through each video in Hillman Curtis's Artist Collection, my anticipation provoked questions of "who are these artists" and "why are they significant"? I presumed that regardless of niche profession, it was observable that all artists to some extent remained anonymous figures in our creative culture—ones that had created buildings, billboards, posters and even graphic illustrations which subject more emphasized than even the creator themselves—a notion little reflected on by the masses.

However, through watching several of these short films, and denoting the roles of the architect, typographer, novelist and videographer, I further realized that design in its concept is the some of all parts (Gestalt theory), where all that comprises the design component is not necessarily narrowed to one element but is rather a composite of the whole. A “whole”, that is to be interpreted, engaged with and emotionally impactful to its audience at large.

The first video I watched was one that featured the architect Daniel Libeskind, and the founding principles behind his architectural creations. Outlining the intense years of planning, founding, mounting and executing, he offered introspective into the mind behind the buildings, and the design intricacies, such as high sensitivity to form, design theologies and emotional disposition for creating them.

"There is something about visceral appeal, a building needs to not just be a building but evoke something more"--Daniel Libeskind (The Architect)

Affirming a purpose and direction behind the design, Libeskind avowed that every work of design, no matter how vast or small follows the same envisioned perspective, to provoke visual stimulation, to initiate a particular attitude or sentiment and simulate the method of madness for construction from the artist’s/creator’s perspective.

There is a similar point of appeal to be understood from videographer/designer Mark Romonek, who outlined during his interview his video creation involves a random order of video capture that rarely follows chronological order or linear structure. When asked why he shot video the way he did, he paved an interesting perspective that abides creative content production and storytelling.

"One of the secrets of not having something complete is that it cannot be understood to easily left brain v.s. right brain—there’s something to do with leaving a question with the audience, as soon as it is interpretive then the audience is engaged" "If a broken chair has more potential meaning that an unbroken chair, then break the chair, at the end of the day, the resonating meaning is what matters--doesn't matter how I got the shot"--Mark Romonek (the videographer)

In shooting video and illustrating type alike, similar design processes continually resurface. Watching Lawrence Weiner, the typographer in motion, one such concept that he divulged is that “design is of the moment”. Currently evolving to radiate the collection of radical movements of thought on what art and design should and shouldn’t be. Similarly to the reformations of the past, formalism to expressionism, romanticism to post-modernism, this is a truth that has not been altered with time, but rather the advancing human perspective and technology.

As the times continue to advance, and our technology undertakes various shapes and capabilities, we as artists will be continually forced to create illustrations that are correlate with existing design principles and still maintain their relevancy in terms of audience construal. However, one can always apprehend that "knowing that graphic designers are artists in the 21st century is a tremendous benefit to the discipline".

#imedia550

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