Wow. I want to go here.

Know of Columbus College of Art and Design? You need to. This college caters to what we would all perceive as the atypical artsy fartsy, extremely talented, and future design professionals of the world. In fact as I researched deeper into their website, I found that not only is their view-book for prospective students amazing, it has won "The Addy Award" Honored in How Magazine. The view-book was designed by teachers and the students. The feel is extremely relaxed and almost assertive. You feel as though the students are talking to you, even though they're aren't any quotes, because of the language they use and the words they have chosen. It's actually brilliant to have the students at such a prestigious art school create the pieces to get more students to come and learn what they are learning and experience what they experience. It builds high moral around the attending students and a great feelings of comfort for prospective students.

Not only is their view-book print, it's also made into a video.

On their website, they are also considerate to the parents of the students who are coming to the college. They figure that these are the parents who are possibly going to pay for the college and they need to be talked to as well, so their tab is called Future Students and Parents.

Dreadful Adverbs

"Most adverbs are unnecessary. You will clutter your sentence and annoy the reader if you choose a verb that has a specific meaning and then add an adverb that carries the same meaning. Don't write that someone clenched his teeth tightly; there's no other way to clench teeth."

"The adjective that exists solely as decoration is a self-indulgence for the writer and a burden for the reader."

- William Zinsser, On Writing Well: Chapter 10 Bits & Pieces

I am a writer who excessively uses adverbs and adjectives. I love writing that has some fluff to it. I think it helps my imagination picture exactly what the writer is seeing themselves. This may be because I doodle out my writings or that I design my work before ever thinking about what content will go in it. I think pictures speak louder than words, so when you have to describe a picture using words, adverbs and adjectives are exactly what are used. Many hate the dreadful "ly" terms just as much as they hate people who answer questions in circles. Me, on the other hand, love them. 

Now I completely understand the idea of over using adverbs and adjectives, but is it really that annoying? Does everyone really like to just get straight to the point all the time, anytime? I think putting some fluff, some imagination into your writing is great. It allows the writer to visually see the story come to life. Zinsser always talks about simplifying, about reducing clutter, and getting straight to the point, but many famous writers use adverbs and adjectives to fluff their story up, make it come to life. They may reduce some, but not a lot. They get to the point but in a imaginative way. In a way that their readers feel sucked into the story, that their readers are living in the story. In fact, in some cases, I think that movies that are based off of books, wouldn't be as successful if the writer of the book didn't use as many adjective and adverbs to describe things. 

For instance, Twilight. Yes, I know some people don't like Twilight, but look at it this way. The first movie was AWFUL! Yes, but why? Because the whole book was adverbs and adjectives describing how a young girl fell in love with a vampire. The book was almost 400 pages long of describing feelings of love, lust, and ever flowing emotions from both sides. However, the movie was straight to the point. It was like showing exactly how a person would describe the book: two people, from two different worlds, fell in love. Very exact with no feelings added. So in the movie, there was all this starring into each other's eyes. But in the book, all of that was described in adjectives and adverbs galore. It was all the fluff of the book, that can't be put into a movie because the director wasn't able to see how important the adverbs and adjectives were. I'm sure the director of that movie was one of William Zinsser's friends. (haha) 

http://charitythompson.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/twilight-why-actions-speak-louder-than-adverbs/

This is a critique of Stephanie Meyers' writing in the first book of Twilight. This person completely goes against everything I was saying and agrees with Zinsser. But then, she tries to re-write a passage from Twilight taking out the adverbs. I'm not a fan at all. I do agree with her "actions speak louder than adverbs", but I'm still saying Stephanie Meyers' is famous because of her use with adverbs. They suck you in and paint a picture. And that's why she's a millionaire. 

On another note: this is just something funny I found on another blog about adverbs. 

http://andrawatkins.com/2011/01/24/hopelessly-devoted-to-adverbs/

Always thinking...

I have been looking around lately trying to get my brain focused on the interesting objectives you can create with just type. I need to create a logo for my name, I constantly am getting inquiries for invitations (wedding, baby announcements, etc.) and I recently am starting to design my own wedding invitations and save the dates. My style needs to stretch out among all the audiences, grab people's attention, and fit my clients needs. Yes, my style is my style and many of my clients come to me just for that, but I want to be bigger, broader, more appealing. Type is something many people think so simply of. For me though, it is such a complicated matter. The type you pick suggests so many things: how readable it is, the genre you are trying to capture, the feel you are giving your piece. Many scripts are being used in traditional invitations now-a-days, but I want to break the mold and get out of the norm of wedding industry! I want something crazy, different, romantic, yet still wedding-y. And then what should my logo for my name look like? Too many things going on in my head right now. I guess the final thing is, is that I love typography. I look at it everyday, and I love the way you change change a typeface or a font and change the mold of your piece. Incredible.

Innovative Calendars

 design swan

Shawn Michael Designs

I had a lot of fun looking around at innovative and the most creative and somtimes even functional calendars on the web. Many of them inspired me while others made me question why anyone would make something like that. The most helpful adn intereesting website I found http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2010/03/11/15-unique-and-innovative-calendars/ gave tons of examples of calendars designers made for specific companies. It is quite interesting and extremely unique. Check it out!!

Hoping it comes to me!!

My mind is going crazy reading guidelines and looking at specific pictures, finding quotes, researching and feeling out my client. I just can't wrap my finger around what I really want to accomplish with this promotional college pamphlet. I think the hardest part for me is unfamiliarity. Trying to sell a college to a stranger when you know nothing about the school! My style is completely different than what I have been researching which is another difficulty. I am more vintage and illustrative while the school I am trying to promote is more modern and innovative. What I would like to see come in my mail might differ from the student that wants to go to this college. I wish I could take a ride up there and meet the people myself. Have some hands on interaction with the school.

In my career now, I interactive with my clients by asking them personal questions that they don't think about on a daily basis and many of my questions are things that don't even have to do with weddings. But these questions can tell so much about a person. In fact, I could ask a perfect stranger a question like... "what is your favorite flower?" and get a million personality traits that would put me on the perfect tangent of designing their wedding invitations. In fact, that is one of the questions we ask our clients. Simple things like where do you shop for clothes? These answers can tell me is you are a type A personality, most likely I can guess your hobbies or activities you like, and almost every time I can guess your favorite color. All by a simple couple of questions.

If I could just ask these questions to this school, the students there at most, I think I would be able to figure out or at least get inspired! I just need one path, one idea, one little piece of inspiration to unblock, unclog my way of thinking. To help my focus. Focus!!

Maybe if I just walk away and come back later....

Packaging at its Finest!

I was shopping around at REI one night trying to find inspiration for the placement of my design class's product- Vodka to get rid of poison ivy. I stumbled upon an aisle that I was right around the corner from the best placement for my product. This isle was the little utensil aisle needed for camping, hiking, or experienced outdoorsmen. It also was a fun aisle because of what they sold-- SPORKS! Who would have known that there were so many companies who sold sporks! (A spork is a spoon and a fork together) This particular packaging stood out to me the most because of its vibrant colors and interesting packaging. It almost makes the spork look "high-class". Against the other competitors, this spork came in a variety of colors, a paper box, and the windows focused on the spoon and the fork. You could feel the spork because of its open windows and even though the name was so generic, it popped at you. Next to it you can see a green spork in a plastic bag with a label that seals the items. It looks more like something you would pick up at a fast food restaurant, yet its being sold for the same price as the other more vibrant and put together spork. 

I have come to find that many people like to feel what they are buying. Subconsciously a lot of people touch products they like to reassure them of their purchase. With having your product in a plastic bag, you can't feel it. Then having your product fully packaged with open windows, adds the reassurance your customer needs to purchase your product. 

Although I didn't leave with that spork, I sure thought about it!