4 - Destructive creativity

So the world of designing compositions for my website has been an interesting task. There seems to be an internal struggle between parts of me that want something, then see it, decide that I don't really want it, discard it, wonder if I really do want it, recreate it, discard it again, then come up with something completely different and repeat the entire process over again. It's been exciting. I'm debating if I want to do some incarnation of the banner that I had for my SAS website, but I don't think I want to revisit the past on that site and pull too much from it. I've come to one conclusion though:

I am absolutely, positively, undeniably, maybe indecisive.

Logo redesign is going, slowly but surely. Looking to redesign the wolf soon enough, more rugged look and less-seal like is the plan.

In other news, Chapter 4 of Designing a Digital Portfolio has led to a few ideas rolling around in my head. The main one would be possibly creating a second portfolio for my photographic work. I don't have a ton, namely only really what I have from going abroad. But I have a nice camera, I consider myself halfway decent at taking said photographs, so I figure it's worth a shot once I get my design work all squared away. Granted, that will most likely never happen, as I'm never satisfied and will probably be picking at various bits of code and design aspects until judgement day, but until then I can hope.

Also looking at various ways to transport data was a nice touch in this book. I know for certain until I get a new laptop, I'm not letting my current one out of it's cage. Seriously, it's old, cranky, and isn't house trained. It's the one I got freshmen year, and it's on its last legs. I, for one, never even considered zip disks, which I'm figuring is for the better considering how God-awful the book made them sound. I think CD's are the primary way for me to go, with e-mail attachments being a close second for those little tastes.

The chapters of "How to be a Graphic Designer, without losing your soul" are starting to run together a bit, but I'll try to sum up what I've seen so far and how well it's influenced me. First and foremost...

The interview. The dreaded interview that I long and dread simultaneously. Few good points were made about this, primarily about showing the interviewer the portfolio instead of yourself. It's a common mistake, and I don't think I would have been likely to make it beforehand, but I know for certain I won't now. And certain is better than likely.

Secondly, the whole section of freelance design intrigued me. I've considered going into freelance from time to time, although I see now that I'm not yet confident in my web design skills to feel as though I could pull that off. Although to be honest, making sites for myself has proven much harder than if anyone gave me any sort of direction, so I suppose I'd have to wait and see.

The whole personality aspect I think I'd be somewhat strong in. I consider myself a somewhat likeable person, although the ruling is still out on that, I think it moreso depends on who I'd be working for and what their attitude is. I'm somewhat timid when it comes to putting my foot down on things though, which means I'd be horrible at charging people money, and therefore would have a hell of a time making by. Just like when I was abroad in India, and people were latching themselves onto my arms to the point where I had to drag them shouting "No, I don't want to buy that". I felt so bad afterward.

The idea of running a studio is an interesting one, but not one that I'd like to think about in this stage. I'd like to take things one at a time, step by step, get out of college and see how the world works from there. From what I can see though, it's just a glorified portfolio for the masses. That is to say, you come up with your identity, you show your work, and then you take on jobs to sell said work. The difference is that it's with many more people, you need a common space to do it, and there are a larger list of variables.

At any rate, there will be a continuation of posts as I progress further and further through the books. I leave now with my complimentary video-at-end-of-post. It's not flash, or anything graphic design at all, but it's a funny video regardless.

This one's for you classical music fans: A rant about Pachelbel's Canon in D