Influences

In my life I have let many things influence what I do. On page 11, the author of the book "Steal like an Artist", Justin Kleon, states "You are, in fact, a mashup of what you choose to let in your life. You are the sum of your influences." I can agree with the statement because in my life I have let many things and people influence my decisions and what I do. I believe that a person can be influenced to become a better person by surrounding themselves with positive things. Some of my influences include family, friends, sports, and music.

One of my biggest influences is family. My family and friends are very supportive and I wouldn't be who I am today without them. My parents and my 3 siblings mean the world to me and we always find a way to help each other out. Its really motivating when I see my younger siblings ask me how school is going and what projects I'm currently working on. My friends are also very driven and thats always something good to have. Surrounding yourself with people with a good mindset and a good future plan is always a good influence. 

I think that sports play a big influence in my life. They teach you so many valuable things. For example when I played soccer a few years back I lost a very important championship game. I felt as if I could've done so much better to help my team out so I trained more. Last year, my team won that championship. The lesson I learned from this was that failure is an opportunity to do better. I also became more motivated through this. I realized that everyday is a chance for yourself to become better at something. This is something I use in design today. Everyday is another day to learn something new, and to become a better designer. 

Music plays a big impact in my life. I don't necessarily have a favorite genre because I find myself listen to everything depending on where I'm at and my mood. I think music plays a big impact because if I find myself feeling tired I can always listen to something loud and electronic. If I find myself needing to concentrate on something more I listen to more instrumental. I have different music for many different occasions. Music for working out, studying, cruising, and just chilling with friends. I think that music plays a similar role in most people's lives and is something that can influence you everyday.

I am satisfied with the sum of my influences. I don't think I would change anything about my life right now. I live a happy life and my influences play a big part in that. I wouldn't be who I am today without my current influences. 

Herb Lublin collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg, George Lois, and John Pistilli. Lubalin and Ginzburg played a big role in the creative visual beauty of the magazine designs for Eros, Fact, and Avant Garde. These magazines were an important part of Lubalin's work. Lubalin also worked with designers George Lois and John Pistilli. George Lois was an art director, designer, and author best known for his 92 covers he designed for Esquire magazine. John Pistilli was a type designer who also created work with Herb Lubalin. 

Ralph Ginzburg

George Lois

John Pistilli

Steal Like An Artist

Talk about your first impressions of the textbook

My first impression of the textbook was that its got a unique shape. It also has a unique overall design. It uses many interesting contrasting images, text, and illustrations. It gets its point across pretty well and from reading the first chapter I can tell that it includes very good information.

How do you feel about stealing other people's ideas? Is this legal? Is this moral?

I think stealing peoples ideas is a must in graphic design. I think its important to be able to steal from other designers in order to draw inspiration from them. I think it should be legal to an extent. You cant completely steal someones idea but you can steal bits and pieces and design something similar or better. All creative work starts from somewhere and each work builds on what came before.

Isn't originality valued in art? How can you be more original?

Originality in art is valued, however, rarely anything is original anymore. Everything is a mixture of something that was once original. Its so hard to develop something original but I think the best possible way to take various ideas and combine them into your own unique style.

How can you be a better collector? Where do you stash your non-digital collection so that you can access them later?

You can be a better collector by actually collecting stuff and having a spot to put them in for future use. I don't really have a non-digital collection but I think they can be important for future inspiration.

Where do you stash your Internet links? If you're not using a cloud-based bookmarking app, start now and share your stash of links. 

I have a digital collection though. I bookmark things on Pinterest that I think might be important to look back on. I also have a folder on my laptop where I save screenshots of designs.


Creative Typography | Pinterest

Choose a thinker as a mentor for this semester and begin studying him/her. Start by posting a sample of your mentor's work.

A designer I really look up to is Herb Lubalin. His work with type is so creative and has played a big impact in typography in the modern day.

Which is your favorite quote from this chapter? Why?

My favorite quote from chapter 1 is David Bowie's "The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from." The quote is so true to me. I don't really like to keep art that I wont be able to use and take inspiration from later. 

Introduction

Hey guys,

I want to start off my blog by introducing myself and by discussing what led me to choose Graphic Design as my major.

I grew up and went to high school in Arcola, a small town 35 miles South of Champaign. It is very different from Champaign. Many people say Champaign is small but have no idea what its like to live in a town of only 3,000. The community is very close and thats something I love about living in a small town. However, there aren’t very many opportunities there which is why I plan to move somewhere bigger in the future. I plan to get my degree and move somewhere where I can find a good job in graphic design.

There are several reasons why I decided to choose Graphic Design as my major. The first one being that I love Photoshop. The amount of things you can create are limitless. I also really like working with computers and using other Adobe programs. I have always thought that using creative visual graphics for communication is something I would like to do someday. The main reason that I chose it is because I love being able to use ideas and create them visually.

My creative process starts with writing down key words the topic I am designing for. Once I have most of them down I try to find a way I can incorporate them in a design. I start to researching designs similar to the one I am going to be working on. I then begin sketching ideas and then attempting to do a quick mockup of my top ideas on the computer. Once I find an idea that I feel confident with I stick to it and try to come up with the best final design.

There are many places I get my ideas from some include social media, Pinterest, or just simply googling key words. Much of my inspiration comes simply by seeing designs on the web. I see many advertisements and graphics on social media and I save them on my phone. I don't follow one specific designer but I do admire creative people. I usually search around and just grab ideas from different designers but I don't usually stick to just one person's style. 

I really look forward to working on project 1 and I also plan on beginning research for project 3 as soon as I can because it seems like it will be a bit more lengthy.

One of the designs that I consider adding to my portfolio is a billboard advertisement that I designed for Chladny Orthodontics. I consider it creative because of the humor between adding braces to animals. I think the humor makes it more memorable.

This is my research for project 1.

I think these designs are very successful because they are very attention grabbing and colorful. I also like that they are very abstract. I look forward to working on this project.