We really haven't been getting a lot of schoolwork, which is bittersweet. I would definitely prefer to have at least A BIT more to do. This weekend I had two main things to work on: A series of book covers for editorial design and a presentation for Packaging.
The books were chosen by me and the preferred style of cover was also left to personal choice. The assignment is very, very open ended. All he said was to make sure they look like they belong in a series. Well, okay. While working, he showed us a few Photoshop/ InDesign tricks, so rather than do my normal illustrative route (I don't know where to find a scanner anyway...) I used those tricks to make the covers. He told us that a cover could be just an abstract shape from distorted normal image. While mine aren't abstract, I took images and distorted them with posterization. I made them grayscale, then took them over to InDesign and messed around with the compositions while adding color. The slab type that bleeds off the edges and touches together is the recurring theme that makes the books a series, along with the images all being posterized. I think I got better at the process as I went, and the last two I am most proud of. They incorporate the text a bit more into the composition than the others.
I don't even want to talk about the Packaging presentation. It is so boring. We need to create a presentation of the brand San Pellegrino. The goal of the presentation is to present two types of new packaging we design for a new brand of flavored water, San Pellegrino Smart. We haven't gotten to anything that could be considered creative. For some reason, the presentation must include coverage of the company's background, marketing tactic, etc. I find it strange that we would have to present these facts to a company while pitching them new packaging. Wouldn't they already know their background? Some things, like moodboards for the new products, make sense to show as preliminary work. But the example presentation is 106 slides. It seems excessive to me. It is also very tedious to find information on competitors, images from the internet of products, etc. And this professor barely speaks English, so I cannot really get feedback from him. I'm sure he's a great Italian professor with a lot of credentials, but to us Englishmen he's a guy reading the whole lesson slowly off a piece of paper. Torturous.
Drawing class continues to be fun, as we need to compose an interesting scene of a funeral for homework. I believe we have an Italian test on Wednesday too. For Italian Design History we will soon need to give a presentation on design icons from our home countries, but I have yet to consider that. Branding has us doing something very similar to the Packaging project, but in groups.
That's all the schoolwork we have right now. I hope we get something more to do, but more importantly, get something more INTERESTING to do. I'd like to have a few things for my portfolio when I get back. The program certainly doesn't feel like a waste of time as I get to experience Italy, but I do feel I am falling behind what my classmates back home are doing.
When I saw the TKAMB cover I was like, "why is there an eye? I don't remember that from the story. Did he even read this book?" Then I realized it was the hole in the tree. And that's when I hung my head in embarrassment.
ReplyDeleteThere's several eyes in the story. I think most every character has at least two! But yeah it's a tree knot. I guess that one might not be done well if you couldn't identify it right away. Or maybe that's exactly how I wanted it!
ReplyDeleteAsking for more homework!? Are you sick?
ReplyDelete