I had a go at it yesterday for the first time and today again the weather Gods were kind enough to send another rainstorm my way. Here two more photographs that I got today – after shooting more than a thousand on my Sony 12.1 Megapixel Cybershot.
Shot at night while it was raining – under cover wherever I could find some.
I’ve added these to my Flickr as well in case you want to see the larger versions.
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TweetMy brain could not stop thinking about how to solve two design problems – one an Annual Report design for a Mobile Wireless Telecom major and the other a logo design for a Leather Works company. Because of continual focussed thinking, after a while, it became mechanical thought and I could find no ideas being generated. If there was indeed an idea that caught my fancy, I couldn’t get myself to convert it into a deliverable on my laptop. So here is what I did to put my mind at ease and bring it back to relaxation to foster some natural creativity rather than forced, deadline-induced creativity. Sure there are times when nothing generates more ideas than a forced deadline, but this time, nothing worked – except the following :
A copy of Grazia magazine.
A copy of the Femina magazine.
A copy of Filmfare magazine.
A mug of cold-coffee sipped while reading mindless articles about which are the latest accessories that every girl ‘has to have’ in her ownership – no matter if she never uses them – but the piece itself is good as a collectible, expected to double in market value within the next month. [ I had no idea that the accessories market, like handbags and clutches, was operating like the art market where buying art is also an investment. But since designer handbags are even available for rent, this came only as a slight surprise. ]
A 30 minute drive to a market called Galleria and back.
I love the dress in the picture above and asked my Fashion Designer sis if she would kindly stitch it fo me and she agreed! Yay!
The formals that the second girl [ I know its the same model ] is wearing, look smart. I need to get one of those thin belts. I already have the perfect trousers and the shirt.
I love the photograph on the cover of Femina – Bipasha Basu is good-looking, the photograph itself is good and then the post-processing has made it just perfect. The photographer is Prasad Naik.
Bought myself a box of Loaded Baked Potato Pringles, a Lindt bar, a packet of Double-Stuffed Oreos and a bottle of Hershey’s Chocolate syrup. Have munched on the chocolate and Pringles, the Oreos and Hershey’s still to be inaugurated.
Fortunately it rained and I picked out my camera to try and get some lightning photographs. Got one.
Met up with a classmate from school [ Kunal Udawat ] and indulged in some completely pointless discussions about how difficult it is to survive in Gurgaon and Delhi once you’re used to living in cities like Bangalore and Bombay.
My brain is relaxed once again and I have the weekend for catching up on lost sleep.
I would like to apologize for the non-graphic design related blog post – and would like to point out to the editor of Grazia that John Mayer did not post a ‘blog’ about how his ex was stalking him. He wrote a blog post. One post in the whole blog is one ‘post’. The collection of all posts and pages is the blog. Peace.
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Jason over at Speakup has written about the flippant description of design as “interesting”. I can’t even begin to count the number of times when I have met apparent seniors in the design industry who, for whatever reasons, look at a design piece and say, “Wow! Interesting!” I have always considered that response to be more as a shield to hide behind, so that the person does not have to be entangled in lengthy discussions.
But of course, if the goal is to generate discussion [ as Jason is talking about design students using the word "interesting" ], then it would be prudent to analyze why a certain design piece is attractive enough to be called “interesting”.
Looking at design and judging design has as much to do with asking questions as giving answers. So before you decide to summarize your critique in one word with interesting, ask yourself what you mean to say, then say it like you mean it. And most importantly, when you’re in my classroom, do not use the word interesting.
The same rule [ although different words ] would also apply to feedback received from clients. Some clients usually respond with “It doesn’t feel right.” and there is no further discussion on that. When attempting to extract what that ‘feeling’ is, some clients also get irritated with the incessant questioning. While the client has hired the designer because of her skillset, without constructive feedback / criticism, there can be no evolution on the existing design piece. Graphic design is not pure art and is not isolated from the business strategy of the client’s company. Graphic design is a communication solution and requires inputs. It an evolutionary process where the graphic designer needs collaboration from the client and cannot work in a vacuum.
You might dislike eating a particular food for example. Lets take Cheesecake for example. Over the years you have developed a dislike toward Cheesecake. You don’t like how it tastes and how your mouth feels after you have taken a bite. So you have decided that Cheesecake is not for you.
Cheesecake is a solution to the “Dessert” problem at the end of a meal. Your disliking Cheesecake does not make it a bad solution to the Dessert problem. Quite simply put, your disliking Cheesecake is a personal opinion – an individual’s choice – and you’re welcome to it.
Applying the above analogy to a logo design : you might say “This design doesn’t feel right.” for whatever reasons [ knowing and articulating those reasons is a very prudent method to achieve a design solution that fits your personal likes and dislikes as well as caters to your company's goals ]. But your not liking the design does not mean that it is bad design – it could very well work brilliantly for your business strategy and in order to understand how it might do that, you need to put aside your personal biases and look at the design from the problem-solver’s point of view – the graphic designer’s point of view – the view point built on the creative brief you provided combined with years of prior design experience. Prior problem-solving experience.
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TweetUPDATE : all three invites available to me have been used.
As George reminded me in the comments for the last blog post about Photoshop Express, there is also Aviary – not developed by Adobe – but released as an alternative to Photoshop for sure.
Aviary is a suite of web-based applications (RIAs) for people who create. From image editing to typography to music to 3D to video, we have a tool for artists of all genres.
The module meant to be the replacement for Photoshop is called Phoenix – the Image Editor.
I love their branding – the colors – all the birds.
All details of each tool are available on the Aviary Tools page.
They also have an interesting blog that updates with what users of Aviary have been upto – sometimes with source files and videos of projects.
If anyone’s interested in giving it a try, I have three invites [ and so does George, ] – leave a comment here or use the Contact page.
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