The Origin Of 'Force Quit'

May the force be with you, Nicole

PC Is Rocking My Design Socks

I know what you are thinking.

PC? You really use a PC? Really? For design?




















Heck no.

I mean PC: President's Choice.  Everytime I go to the grocery store and see their beautifully simple designs and it just makes me smile.   Everything from the shape and size of this package to the colours feel perfect to me.

President's Choice has so many different products that it really is worth noting how good of a job they are doing when it comes to keeping their package designs simple and consistent no matter what the product they are advertising. 

PC for the win, Nicole

Today I Was Walking By The Internet... And It Tripped Me

And when I say 'tripped' I mean that I fell up the stairs and landed flat on my face while the entirety of the free world stood watching.  And like a high school stairwell, no one offered to help me up. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a tad. 

This is what really happened.

I was wasting time, looking through my friends facebook updates (don't judge me, you were online while I was doing this), when I saw a post that said,

“Curse you stumbleupon!”

Now unless you are already a design clutz I bet you are just as confused as I was.  So I am going to let you in on the secret, stumbleupon is a website.  One where you make a profile (which is completely free and simple) and choose topics you want to see.  Then, like magic, you press a button, and in my case say the word ‘stumble’ like a comic book sound effect, and BAM! it takes you to a new page.  Design is one of the topics you can choose to stumble through.  Some others are books, entertainment, fashion, etc... Basically anything you could want to trip over on the internet can be found on stumbleupon. While you make your way through the stumble pages you like and dislike the pages that come up and stumbleupon begins to learn what you like, and what you want to see.  With your profile you can also make your own pages for other users to stumble through. 

Now, you know when you fall up the stairs and it takes you a second to figure out what happened and in that second you're mind is kind of blank? Well, that is what being on stumbleupon is like. 

I tripped.  I looked up, stood and brushed myself off.  Then I made a rookie stumbler's mistake of looking at the clock.  I had been stumbling for 2 hours. 

This is the best and possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to me (extreme exaggeration). 

In those 2 hours I found more awesome than I think I usually find in a month.  Some of the pages are blogs, photography, fonts, architecture or something completely different. The list is endless.  In the process I was in complete awe of some of the designs that I came across.  I was even inspired out of the design pit of doom that some of my projects were becoming. 

Stumbleupon Definition: Bittersweet.  It is a blessing for the wealth of information, and a curse for the amount of time you can spend stumbling.

www.stumbleupon.com

Go there, but only when you have no pressing appointments with life.

Heading back to the stairwell, Nicole

Take A Minute To Stop And Smell The Galaxy

Artist Jon Lomberg had a dream.  He wanted to see an accurate diagram of the Milky Way Galaxy mapped out to scale in living plants.  And he saw his dream to completion. 

This once and for all proves that: Science + Art = Awesome

So take a moment and take a jaunt around the galaxy garden.  www.galaxygarden.net

Naturally, Nicole



Hey There Aladdin, It Has Been A While...You Look Different

WARNING:
The content below is possibly offensive depending on your age, sensitivity level and your sense of humour (or lack there of).














Have you ever been sitting at home watching a Disney movie and wondered;

What would happen if the hero of this movie was a Calvin Klein underwear model?

Well, I'm not sure if you have ever asked yourself that question or what your answer would be. But I do know what David Kawena from Deviant Art's answer is. 

I am going to use Aladdin as an example here simply because it is my all time favourite Disney movie.  Besides, we are all familiar with the 'good boys and girls take off their clothes' scandal in the balcony scene, so I am fairly certain I won't be ruining any one's opinion of the movie or characters. 

This is original move Aladdin, who we all know and love. 

And this is David Kawena's vision of Aladdin. 

This is the link to David Kawena's Deviant Art page where you can check out (literally) many more Disney characters and also other illustrations.  http://www.davidkawena.deviantart.com/  I strongly suggest you follow the link to this page because he is a truly talented illustrator (and just in case you were wondering, no... all of his illustrations are not this... graphic). 

I really don't feel like it is necessary to point out the differences here.  I'm pretty sure the artwork speaks for itself.  But I would like to clear up for a second why I am including this in my blog.  I think it is very important for designers and illustrators to think outside of the proverbial box of the status quo.  Most people would not think to put Disney hero's in this type of a compromising position.  I think the lesson here is that nothing is too weird to try. 

Experiment with your work.  Create things that most people wouldn't even dream of.

And, for David Kawena I have only one question.

Why no Disney heroine bikini models?

Always the conservative, Nicole

Authenticity Is Invaluable; Originality Is Non-Existent

Original design is a concept that is hard to describe.  We have all heard it, everything has been done before.  So as a designer when you are faced with creating something new it is always a challenge.  As an artist you hold on tightly to your moral beliefs.  You do not approve of plagiarism or stealing.  Yet as a designer you are faced with a need to provide the right answers for your client, and sometimes those answers have been used before.  

Design is kind of like a mathematical problem in that way.  2 + 2 = 4 is not an original answer, but it is the right one.  2 + 2 = 20 may be original, but it is also most definitely wrong.

So how do you design something that is original and right?

It is so hard to create something new, when in fact everything has been done before. This quote defines this concept perfectly to me, I hope it will do the same for you as well. 

“Nothing is original.  Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.  Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows.  Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul.  If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.  Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent.  And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.  In any case, always remember when Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from - it’s where you take them to.’ ” - Jim Jarmusch

The concept that you should take elements for your designs from everywhere you find inspiration, and then proudly piece them together in your own way is one that I wholeheartedly believe in and agree with. 

Everything has been done.  Nothing can be original.  So don't try to be original.  Try to be authentic.  Try to take in whatever it is you see before you, as you see it.  Once you have put your work together the world should be able to look upon it, and see it through your eyes rather than their own. 

Keep it simple, Nicole

The Design World Stage Can Be A Fantastically Scary Place... But Don't Worry, I Brought My Textbooks

What happens when you give a design student an assignment to blog their thoughts on the industry and world of design? Luckily for us, we will not have to hypothesize on this question for long.  We are about to find out.  Over the next 10 weeks I will be exploring the world of design, from an experts point of view apparently (which I find to be an amusing notion).  And lucky you, anonymous reader.  You just won a first class, all expenses paid trip into my mind.

What is going on in there anyways? Well self, I'm glad you asked.

My first thought is that it must be a fundamental necessity in the school curriculum for teachers to challenge their students with the impossible task of thinking for themselves.  And then, after having thought, we are expected to share our thoughts.

Go ahead, stand up and look your classmates in their glazed over, uninterested and generally unsupportive eyes and tell them what you really think about design.

This seems like a sufficient task in and of itself, does it not?

Well, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view point, because without this next fact you would not be reading this at all), it is the nature of my program to go above and beyond the customary challenges of college and to force us, its students, as far out onto the ledge of our comfort zones as is currently deemed legal by the government of Canada.  In this case, giving me a direct shove out into the spiders web that is the Internet. So...

Go ahead, sit down and look your monitor in the web cam, get your typing fingers ready, and tell them.  Tell the world what you really think about design.

So, what are you waiting for? 

Possible Answers:
a) a dramatic ending
b) an invitation worth more than 30 percent of my grade
c) as any other stereotypical tortured artist type, inspiration

Indecisive as always, Nicole