First day of classes

Today was quite a day. My first day of classes in Italy. I didn't know what to expect, besides that they would likely be easier than my normal classes. I think it will be easiest to go class by class.
We got to our first class at 9am, right on time. At about 9:30 we started, due to the teacher starting late and then waiting for more students to arrive. There were only about 7 of us in a class of 20 people. I still don't really know what happened to those people. The class was Editorial Graphic Design, a 3 hour class taught by Paolo Borrelli ("call me Paolo"). He was rather nervous, and told us many times that his English was terrible. Despite this, he spoke better English than my landlord Simone. He was terrible. Oh yea, to start class he brought a bag of mice for our computers. the computers didn't have mice.
He is a nice man who seemed eager to be corrected in his English. He wanted to get better. Nonetheless the lesson was fairly painful. We were taught things that were painfully obviously to students 3 years into their major, yet we were also asked about specific Italian art movements that we were supposed to know. There is a disparity in knowledge for sure. He looked up about 10 words online throughout the class which he did not know in English. Floodgates, plausible, fairies. Random words like that. He also wrote words on my paper (I sat front-most) and asked how to pronounce them: "Seymour"? "Thriller"?
His lesson was rather bizarre as well. The part at the end I remember best was kind of abstract, as you might guess from a European art class. Paraphrasing:
"Imagine you are making a design for a cold drink. The important word is cold. So you should ask yourself, 'what does cold mean to me?' 'how would cold apply to my senses?' If you could hear cold, what would it sound like? High or low? If you could feel cold, would it be rough or smooth? I think smooth. However, cold is a zigzag line!"

That sort of thing. Explaining a new kind of brainstorming method. It did not have a ton to do with editorial design, but I suppose he found it important enough to explain first. It was a bit stressful working through English with the guy.

The next class was Packaging with Luca Ferreccio, another 3 hour class. This one was worse. Dryer than burnt toast in the Milan canals during winter, he simply read. He had a prezzi presentation up, and clearly spoke even less English than the last teacher. To compensate, he had a packet of notes he read off of that I'm fairly sure were full sentences. I think he just read our whole lesson to us, and we not very good at responding. At one point he was asked how the coffee vending machines worked, and he did not understand what that meant exactly. This class will be very stressful, I can tell already. He gave us lists upon lists of things pertaining to packaging. He started with a list about 'aspects of Packaging' I think we will learn about. I started writing after #5 because I didn't know the list would be so long...

6) Number of colors on a given product
7) Diecuts (left unexplained)
8) Different techniques on different packages with similar designs
9) Package design must be able to expand over other mediums (web, poster)
10) Packagaing can relate to other components of graphic design; i.e. editorial design.

Then he listed what packaging is for...

- Defense/ protection of contents
- Transport/ containment of contents
- Communicate what the contents is
- Function: helps the content be used (ex. shampoo that is made to dispense the shampoo)

Then he listed possible tasks when creating/ editing packaging:

- Create a new product
- Extend brand
- Restyle brand
- Create a special edition product
- Restructure the package
- Change packaging material

THEN he listed the method of creating packaging......

1) Kickoff- a meeting in which you choose who does what
2) Analyze the market
3) Personality, positioning
4) Creativity
5) Production, control during a print run
6) Continuity

If any of those points confuse you, especially in the last list, then you are in the same boat as me. I really hope this class gets more interesting. Oh, and our homework is to make a moodboard for a company. That will be interesting to figure out.
Lastly was our Italian 101 class. Could you believe this was the least stressful class? 95% of the class was in Italian. The teacher, who introduced herself only as Giulianna (I think? Something like that?), was very articulate. I could understand her Italian fairly easily, and she barely had an accent. I view my first Italian 101 class (which was almost laughably easy to us) as an introduction to this class, which will be more difficult. We only learned a handful of things in my first Italian class; so little that I still cannot hold a conversation. This class will most likely be different. And we got to impress her by knowing some things already! She was impressed we said 'qui' (here!) when she called attendance.
So those are my impressions so far.
I have 3 other new classes this week to experience, as well as a second Italian class. Tomorrow I have off and will be going to another museum. Wednesday I will be back with more class info for you, and maybe I'll be back a bit tomorrow for a museum review. Stay tuned, thanks for reading!