Welcome to Room557

When the train is leaving the station

It's past midterm — are you keeping up with your schedule? Sure, you might be running at full-steam, but are you set to reach each station (module) on time? Time management is a crucial part of the educational process.

Remembering that education is a process — not a destination — is a crucial element to keep in mind.

If you're behind on your assignments, what do you do? If the train is leaving the station, but you're late to arrive on the platform, is it reasonable to expect that you'll be on it? We're here to help, but it's crucial that you keep a few things in mind — and be flexible with your expectations.

[If the train is about the leave the station, but you're late to the platform, is it reasonable to think that you'll be on it?]

 

Selecting Type (vs. Dying)

When I moved to San Francisco in the late 90s, I thought it'd be cool to buy — and drive — and old pickup... a 1953 Ford F-100. It was cool and all, but it almost killed me.

Take a look at the below video in which I compare that old truck to Futura and try to convince you to start to look at typefaces made during your own lifetime. While there's nothing wrong with old typefaces (and we should celebrate them for their historic value), there's likely been something designed more recently that might work better on screen, or over a wide range of deliverables.

link: https://vimeo.com/877641030

Week Sixteen

We run fifteen week semesters. Week sixteen is always interesting. Week sixteen is when final grades are due — and it is when students who haven't paid attention all semester get anxious about why they're not receiving a passing grade in a class. The good thing is that there's never a lot of these instances, but they're always the same. "I tried hard" ... "I made just one mistake" ... "It's not fair for you to punish me" ... "But I need to graduate next semester".

I've written a lot about grading and the idea of results versus effort, but I've begun to describe grading a bit differently.

Grades are not something an instructor gives to you — they are something that a student earns. Assessment (grading) is a very objective measure against known standards — including following assignments; timely participation; and, submitting complete materials by the stated deadlines.

This semester, Sylvester Stallone dropped some additional wisdom via his show Tulsa Kings.

The Uncle Sal Test ...

25 years ago in Washington, DC one of our clients used to annoy me to no end with one of the most brilliant ideas ever (well, at least one that makes a good story). Now, in the following century, I tell this story (his story) every semester. Today, I got this email...

Everything has a name

One day, my kid goes to step on a bug. I said: You can’t smash Randy!

… and he looks at me with some quizzical stare. Who’s Randy? he asks. I reply: The bug! Everyone knows Randy. Randy, why are you out of the garden? You should go back! Do you need some help? … and my kid picks up the bug he was going to smash and escorts it to a nearby leaf.

[File under: Things that make me happy as an Instructor... in this case Heather's graphic avatar, Sgt. Twinkle]

The Wine Mom Font

It's no secret that your instructors — including myself —have a value-based point-of-view about aesthetic things that surround us. That's our job: to maintain a level of aesthetic and functional appropriateness and pass that along to our students. We are in one of the professions where "being judge-y" is part of the job. That's what you're paid to do: to have an experienced point-of-view and hopefully charge handsomely for that.

To that point, the ubiquity of things on the internet — whether it is free mock-ups or free typefaces come into play... enter: The Wine Mom Font. I did not name it, but was keenly aware of it even before it was parodied on national TV.

What is Design Process?

Developing a personal, documented, repeatable process is a crucial part of learning in design school. I often say that a potential employer will not necessarily hire you for the good work you’ve done. They’ll hire you for the good work you’ll do for them — and the best way for you to show them that you can do this is to show them your process work. After all, when you look at a portfolio, how can you be sure how much of the work came from the student... versus classmates, the instructor, or even the internet*? In most every class we teach, we have students keep a process/sketchbook — and in some classes elevate this to a more annotated version worthy of a place in a portfolio itself.

Each week during critique, we generally quickly thumb through the books and move on to the work. We refer to it if something comes up — but otherwise, we just want to know it's developing nicely. However, distance learning has made reviewing process work a bit harder. I wanted to formalize it a bit more and add examples.

 

... A potential employer will not necessarily hire you for the good work you’ve done. They’ll hire you for the good work you’ll do for them — and the best way for you to show them that you can do this is to show them your process work.

(*tip: good process is also the best antidote for a plagiarism charge)

Flip the script

If you wanna be something other than a nerd with a scar on his lip, you gotta flip the script. — Johnny Lawrence

It seems like the best design lessons these days comes from TV and movies.

This one is from an old favorite franchise: The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai ... How can you flip the script?

Branding Inspiration from Hollywood

Inspiration for developing brands can come from the strangest places. I'm watching a scene from Iron Man 2 and am struck that this is an amazing lesson about the history, hopes, dreams, and limitations of brands.

Howard Stark breaks scene and faces the camera:

"Tony ... you're too young to understand this right now, so I thought I would put it on film for you. I built this for you — and some day you'll realize that it represents a whole lot more than people's inventions... it represents my life's work. This is the key to the future... I'm limited by the technology of my time — but one day, you'll figure this out. And when you do, you will change the world. What is and always will be my greatest creation... is you."

[As a dad... I'm not crying! You are!]

Nothing changes on New Year’s Day

On a stormy June night in 1983, the world got to know U2 in a way that no one could have planned. “Had it been another 78 degree day, it would have been just another concert. Instead it was an amazing concert” (– Barry Fey).

 

[What seems like a purposefully moody photograph was actually the result of everything going wrong — then right — then captured on film.]

No one will remember the time you did something great when everything was stacked in your favor... People will remember the time you pulled it off when everything was destined for failure.