Monday, December 27, 2004

Spirit of Giving (and receiving).

With the first quarter done and the holidays here, Lyndsey, her sister and I traveled back to Texas for a little R&R with the family (hers and mine). Unfortunately, since a couple of us had to come back for work, we only had 3 days to celebrate. So between planned lunches, dinners, birthdays, Christmas breakfast, grandparents, cousins, and my family, it was a fast and furious Christmas. Fortunately, it was great to see everyone. They all seem to be having a great time, life is well, and we were all in the spirit of giving. We were given a lot! From Seinfeld DVD's to rent to a new portfolio case, it was a holiday to be thankful for and to tell all our family and friends how much we love them. Of course, by 'we', I'm including Lyndsey as an author on this blog. To everyone out there, Merry Christmas!

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

1st Quarter Complete.

Monday night at 8pm, I presented my final projects to a panel of 4 instructors/professionals from school. 17 minutes later, each of them spoke their minds about my concepts, execution, craft, and professionalism; and you know what, it wasn't as bad as everyone kept saying it was going to be. They were constructively positive....and negative. Craft was good, presentation was good, some concepts were great, some were not so well executed, mainly my work was too neat, too organized, and they wanted me to get dirty, get gritty, experiment more. The times where I was experimenting just needed to go further. And that's fine, no problem, that's been the design criticism of a lot of my work. So I'm making my New Year's Resolution now, design related, to get messy, not over-analyze my cleanliness (except in terms of not slicing through our dining room table with my x-acto knife), and let my ideas flow to infinity....as one of my instructors says, "Get Over It." Let's see what I can do.

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Studio Week

We are on the quarter schedule here at Portfolio Center, which means we have 11 weeks of class and then a 2 week break. Of those 11 class weeks, 9 are actually in-class, the 10th is Studio Week, and the 11th is Final Critique Week. Today is Tuesday, studio week, and I have approximately 6 days to complete all my final projects (roughly 11 separate deliverables for 4 classes) and go over my short presentation. It's the time everyone cringes about. Admissions reps talk about it, former students ponder the importance of it, and our instructors constantly inflict pain through our skulls with just a mention of this moment in time. 2 ways these critiques can go: 1. Panel, where the student presents and defends his projects in front of about 4 instructors/professionals in a 25 minute time frame. 2. Round Robin, where a few students set up in a room as instructors go by each one to discuss their projects. Round robin takes longer because you have to present to 4 people individually, and the panel critique offers openness for a more intense critique. I'm hoping for panel, simply because I hope to be reamed severely, and it feels more like an official presentation. My only hope is that I convey my excitement and ideas for these projects thoroughly enough to keep the panel intrigued. First things first, let's get these projects done.