Talent is the starting point.

In my search to be more knowledgeable in the graphic design field I was looking up different podcast to help surround myself with more knowledgeable people that I could listen to as they share their finds and facts. Through my search I found a well known podcast called Rookie Designer. I love it and make sure to listen to it every day! I am way behind (on podcast 92) and am trying to get caught up (to podcast 137).

Adam Hay shares a lot of helpful and interesting tips ranging anywhere from client relations to the physical layout and design tips. Although his podcast are quiet lengthy he is not one of those people that has a really boring voice that puts you to sleep and I listen to them when walking to class and doing laundry and homework and other college like things.

I would recommend it to just about anyone, mostly designers but designer or not it has some good and interesting information. I plan on contacting Rookie Designer sometime when I get caught up and giving my own feedback but this is just me letting you know that you should check it out.

I found this game “So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica?” My score is almost perfect except for that stupid MATTEL logo that gets me every time. So try your best and see if you can guess which is Arial and which is Helvetica.

We had to look up a famous artist for my class and I chose Roy Lichtenstein. I really did like his work before I knew that his work was due to being “Inspired” by other artists (taking their work and making slight differences to it). I understand that this was the style at the time but I guess I just have a personal problem with it. Each to his own…

Roy Lichtenstein was a huge pop artist during the 60’s in the US. Pop art, as described by him is “not ‘American’ painting but actually industrial painting”. Lichtenstein was born in Manhattan on October 27th, 1923 and attended school at Manhattan’s Franklin School for Boys where art was not in the curriculum. His introduction to art was more of a hobby for him, drawing sketches and portraits of musicians and performers. This passion pushed him to enroll in summer classes at Art Students League of New York and then to Ohio State University where he strived for a degree in fine arts. After a three year break for the army  between 1943 and 1946 he then returned to Ohio for school to receive his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1949. He taught at Ohio state until 1951 then moved to work in Cleveland. After that he moved to Oswego State College in New York, then to Rutgers University in New Jersey. Not long after that he gave up teaching to paint full-time.

Lichtenstein was influenced by both Cubism and Expressionism but it wasnt until 1961 that he started his first pop style paintings featuring cartoon techniques from commercial printing with the occasional use of advertising. With the pressure from one of his sons saying “I bet you can’t paint as good as that, eh, Dad?” while pointing to a Mickey Mouse comic book, he created his first Ben-Day dot style work called Look Mickey. In that same year he produced six other works with recognizable characters. This caused many to challenge his originally in his work. “The closer my work is to the original, the more threatening and critical the content. However, my work is entirely transformed in that my purpose and perception are entirely different. I think my paintings are critically transformed, but it would be difficult to prove it by any rational line of argument” Said Lichtenstein in reference to his own work.

Got my hands on some other good games:

Deep Font Challenge: 52800 was my score. Not so great, but for knowing little to nothing about typefaces I think it was pretty awesome.

and

Color: I can’t seem to get my score above 8.8.

Just finished reading @issue vol.10 no.1 and I learned crazy amounts of things. I thought the Jones Soda issue would be the most interesting but to my surprise the interview with GE’s Healthcare Technologies CEO, Joseph M. Hogan, was the most informational and interesting to read.

He talked a lot about how within GE the engineers and the designers have to work together and it just doesn’t bump from one to the other. He also talked a great deal about how designers have an “Out of the box” state of mind that is often needed.

Hands down, my favorite questions that were asked of him were,

“Why is design still important when your medical products often represent major breakthroughs in technology?”

as well as,

“How is design relevant to your corporate goals?”

I did not only like these because of the wonderful questions but because of his answer as well.

He responded well to the first question with,

“Cutting-edge technology is not enough…Design is what sets us apart.”

And to the second saying,

“It improves or corporate image. It helps us communicate more effectively with our customers. It helps us sell and break into new markets. It helps us increase profits.”

I strongly recommend this to anyone, even non-designers.