Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewikdv7hT-Y&feature=youtu.be

Video for Concept Development  

Day 17 (March 6, 2013)

At the start of class we discussed what topics we had for the final project. The final is a video project with the duration of 2-3 minutes. We went around the class hearing the different topics each person had and see if it would work for the project. Everyone in the class had a different topic. Some of them may be similar, but they were not the same. After this we were given about 30 minutes to create a storyboard for the project. With a storyboard one can show what kind of progression the video will take. While creating the storyboard we are suppose to think about: what is to be done, what is to be thought, what is there to know, what emotions are expressed and who the audience are. I had a problem thinking about these and was not able to think of anything before the class ended. I will continue over the weekend to find what is needed to progress.

Day 16 (March 4, 2013)

Using the magazine images we were suppose to get for homework, we made a three panel story and put them on the boards for class. I found out it was little difficult to find images for a story that didn't relate to each other. But after trying a while I started to get a hang of it. During class we saw the different stories each person's three image stories. The goal was to see what story you could see by looking at the images other people brought. This was an interesting exercise allowing us to use our imaginations to come up with a different story from the person who originally brought the images. For many of the images brought many of them had different stories hidden in them. As a class we tried to find as many stories as we could.
After we finished going through everyone's images the second part of the exercise was to use three images from all of those that were put on the board to create stories. This was a group effort to increase the effectiveness of our teamwork. There were many possiblities for stories in all those images. Even though the images are no where close to being related they can still make interesting stories.

Day 15 (February 27, 2013)

The class started with us forming groups of three to create and story. This story would be formed by the uses of only three images. The goal was to create a story that used only three drawn images done by the group, but no words can be used and it must be clear enough that others outside the group can understand its meaning. This is probably how stories are created, the beginning, middle, and end which are foundation of a story. The story that the group I was in did a funny type of story. The story we did was a three step process to tasting poo. Using the facial expressions of the character we were able to convey the story clearly. After the 30 minutes we had to do this was over, the stories were put on the board and was put up for voting. Sadly our story only had 1 vote. The assignment for the next class was about the same, using images to tell a story, but this time with images from magazines. After that we watched a video that would be our final project for the class. The project is to create a 2-3 minutes video on sustainability.  I have never created a video before, this is going to be a interesting project...

Day 14 (February 25, 2013)

The day started with a game that tests the listening abilities of the class. Using an object we would pass it around and ask a question that must be repeated around the circle of people. Using one item to pass round was easy to do, but when the second item was introduced it made the game harder. It was hard to concentrate on both questions at the same time. I found it easier to try to filter out the noises that did not relate to the questions being relayed around the class. 
After the game we looked at different briefs from different design firms. Before this I never knew what a brief looked like or what the contained. This was a new and good experience for me and the class. We learn how important a brief can be. Using it as a way to keep track of what the client said during a meeting or the uses of personal brief as a record for what needs to be done. With this information in hand, we set off to do a brief for the next class.

Day 13 (February 20, 2013)

Day 2 of presentations start today.  Like the day before I was able to see some interesting concepts for games.  This time i was able to hear about my presentation from my peers.  I learned that I had a problem with hierarchy on my presentation board.  But I was kind of aware of it, something didn't seem are with my board.  I also found out my presentation was a little dull.  It looks like i have to do some more to make my presentation interesting.  Today the concepts were interesting, but i thought the ones on the first day were more intriguing.

Day 12 (February 18, 2013)

Today is critique day for our game concepts.  I was able to see some interesting ideas that was not shown in the first critique.  There were also those that were seen from the first critique, but now more refined.  As people got up to do their presentations, those in the audience were to listen carefully about the concept and the person's oral presentation.  Some people talked too fast or didn't clearly explain the concept.  These may be bad things in a presentation, but these are just things we all have to work on.  Mistakes and failures are not bad things, learning from these mistakes and failures can only make a person better.  The problems in the presentations were learning experiences for not only the presenter, but also the rest of the class. Now I know what to avoid because of the critiques of my peers, but I'm very certain my presentation won't be flawless.  My flaws will help peers and I get better for future projects.  We didn't have time to get through everyone, so the presentations are extended till the next class.

Day 11 (February 13, 2013)

During the last class we were given an assignment to do.  The assignment was to create 9 original game concepts.  Today we did critiques on the game concepts.  It was nice to see all the different ideas people had for a game.  Some were ideas I would have never thought of.  Everyone had some different kind of concepts that were not identical to each others'.  We were only able to critique only half the class, but i was able to see interesting things.  The concepts I created were based on cards games an boardgames, because I was most familiar with those types.  The ones I found interesting were the ones that did not use the card or board game format.  Some of these were quite intriguing on how they functioned, their rules and the goal of the game.  There were some game concepts that were interest. but need more thinking over to make the game work.  At the end of the day the most interesting concepts were the ones I was not familiar with.  I i was hoping to see everyone's concepts, but we didn't have the time to do so.  For the next class we have to fully develop the concepts.     

Day 10 (February 11, 2013)

This is Game Day.  Everyone brought a game to class for the sake of researching how games function.  While playing the games we were to carefully examine the rules, story, goals etc...
There were many game to choose from, but I decided to choose something I was not familiar with which was Tarot cards.  The Tarot cards gave this dark eerie feeling.  The images were interesting and had a dark theme to it.  While examining the cards, it was hard to tell what  each card represented.  Each of the cards told a different story, but since I'm not familiar with them i don't know what they are.  The Tarots work by having a person choose a card randomly while thinking of a question about himself/herself.  Then think about what the card means by looking at it.  After that the symbolism of the card is explained to relate with the question that was asked.  The Tarot can bring out different emotions depending on the questions you ask.  It can lead to hope, sorrow and even fear depending on the question asked.  It was quite an interesting type of game since it was new and different from anything other games I've played.

The second game I played was miniature basketball.  We stuck the hoop on the window and began to play.  The game rules are simple just throw the ball in the hoop like regular basketball, but with a smaller hoop and ball.  This may look like people just throwing a ball in a hoop, but theres a lot to think about while playing.  Aiming is important, you need to know where the hoop is.  Math is a part of the game as well.  You need to know how much arc is needed in your throws and the power required to get the ball to the hoop.  It also is trial and error, if you fail you just adjust the power and angle then try again.  This game doesn't have a definite rule.  The rules are made by the players and the game as well the ball and hoop are just pieces of a game.    

Day 9 (January 6, 2013)

The class began with the us displaying the 7 Deadly Sins assignment we did.  Then we walked around to look at each others work.  Most of the work I saw were different, but there were some similarities as well.  I wasn't too surprised because we all have different ways of thinking.  I found this out in this class.  Each person did different things like drawings and photography.  After this we chose criteria for "awards" for people's work.  The work ranged from story, self portray, sinister types of work.
After this we looked at slides on how to clear the mind.  Doing this can allow for easier thinking.  Then we learned how to effectively brainstorm ideas.  This is helpful for developing ideas fast and generating many different ideas.  Instead of following the normal brainstorming format by using images as well.  The more ideas you generate, the better the ideas will appear.  I've tried this and its true.  But I still have problems with thinking of a lot of ideas in a small amount of time. This exercise should help me come up with ideas faster.  For the next class we have to make a concept tree.

Day 8 (February 4, 2013)

The class began with a group activity.  In the groups we looked over the Competencies of a 2015 Designer.  As a group we were  discussed the different understanding that is needed to be a designer of 2015.  There are 13 of these competencies, but I didn't understand some of them when I was reading them over.  Many of these we learned from school or from home.  Many these are things we experience in our daily lives.  When we discussed some of these things i started to understand them a little better.  There are others I understand but couldn't put them in words.  Discussing these with others was a good experience, if we hadn't done so i wouldn't had understood some of the competencies.  No design has all the 13 competencies, which is why a group is important in design.  I may not have any certain competencies that other people do, which means if we worked together we could achieve all 13.  The next thing we did was watch a video about Polish designers.  It was about how design was in the past for the Polish designers, and what changes occurred as time progressed.  I found it interesting how they did their own designs with the American movie poster.  They were clearly quite different in style.  After the film we were given an assignment for the next day, which was to illustrate the 7 Deadly Sins.

Day 7 (January 30, 2013)

The class started with us splitting into 2 groups.  In these group we talk about ourselves using the questions given on Day 6 of class.  The questions related to the fear-based reaction of our career choice, and the creative process we go through well creating.  As we began to share our answers with the group, I realised that many of us have similar answers.  One similarity would be parental support with the choice of our studies.  The more people I held from the more I saw how similar I was to them in the ways we think and do art.  This was a good experience that allowed us to get to know each other a little better.

The next part of the class was 2 videos.  We watched a TED talk with John Maeda and another with Tim Brown.  Maeda's video was interesting in how he did his work.  His way of thinking and what he did with regular items like french fries blew my mind.  I would have never even thought twice about the things he found interesting.  I might have to look at objects with a whole to light now.  As for Tim Brown's TED I was there for the beginning, but dosing off due to my lack of sleep the day before.  Will re-watch and continue.

Updated

Tim Brown's TED talk intrigued me with his talk about design thinking.  Instead of designing for the sake of money, it should be done because it is important.  Designing something useful that would help people for a long time.  Many designs are today are slight improvements on things that already exists such as the iphone.  Personality I don't see much change from each of the new versions.  But no matter how much it changed or not its just designed for money.  But innovating is not a easy task to accomplish, while watching I wondered how design now can change the lives of the people.  I believe this is something designer should think about as they design, but of course money makes the world go round and i doubt anything will change that.    

Day 6 (January 28, 2013)

Today the class split into 4 groups and we shared our  assignment with our classmates.  The assignment  was, from what I understood was to choose a word or phrase, then use that word/phrase to change the meaning of 10 images that we have chosen.  I found this part easier than the previous one which we had to come up with phrases for a single image.  It was a difficult task to complete, while finding 10 images for a single word/phrase was somewhat easier.  While we were sharing our images, I saw many interesting ones, some of them I wouldn't have ever thought of.  Later each group chose the best within the group.  We further discussed as a class, the 10 images of the 4 chosen.  I had problems thinking of ideas for the 4 phrases.  The others students had some ideas which made sense with the word/phrases.  Overall the 2 assignments were good to do, and will benefit future designers.

After the group thing, we watched 2 videos on 2 designers.  They talked about their creative processes.  This made me wonder what processes I go through when i create.  The second video later talked about fears in her work.  She said things that i also went through as well.

The fears I had was that my work was not any good.  I always doubted myself and my work.  When I saw my classmate with his artwork, it hit me hard.  I believed that I would never be that good.  Its not surprising that I felt this way, my parents never supported me taking art.  They would say "You'll never make money" or "It's better if you became a doctor".  I over came this by just working harder on my work and tried to ignore all the negatives.  I was able to get my parents to support what I did, but not full support.

My process when I create is simple.  I try to do simple designs, nothing too complex.  Then from the simple design, I would build on it if the design requires it.  When I get into the work, I prefer listening to music while I create.  When a room is loud with chatter it's hard for me to concentrate, but if the room is to quiet I can't concentrate either.  I know its weird, this is why I turn on music.  This is the process I take when I start designing. 

 

Day 5 (January 23, 2013)

The class started with a visualization exercise.  The goal was to come up with what would after a certain event in the story told.  The exercise allows the class think creativity and explore the possibilities that fictional world has to offer.  The story was a fictional one starting with a boy in a town, then a road, then a forest and on a cliff.  A bird take the boy to a cave and opens a door.  Thats what i think the story was, but it was hard to pay attention.  The exercise is a great experience for the class, because there were no limitations set on it.  Even though the story was the base of what happened next, it had little to no effect on what was beyond the door.  This was a wonderful exercise, it showed us that even though the base of the story was the same, it doesn't predetermine what the middle or ending or a story can be.  Each person in the class had a different way of continuing the story.  Each visualizations were different with some similarities in tone, but besides that they were all unique.  This was a great experience, but I'm sure that its not something new for many of us.  A creative mind has boundless potential.

The next part of class was grouping up and choosing the best phases that a student had produced for a magazine image.  Each group chooses the best sets of phases for the corresponding images.  Coming up with phases was not a easy task to accomplish.  Having the phases work with the images to meaning different things was quite difficult.  As I heard the ones chosen from the 4 groups, i could see many that connected well to the images.  I believed those to be well done compared to what i had.  Hearing these can help me expand on my way of thinking, and produce better results later on.    

     

Day 4 (January 16, 2013)

Video, pictures place things person

Class began with a video.  The video was an interesting one.  I could see a design being burned out.  When a person is burned out it is very likely the quaitily would suffer as well.  I've felt this many times, may it be school work or not.  I've felt the lack of energy to do what i love most, which is gaming.  When you feel this it becomes more like a choir than fun.  When you don't enjoy what you do its not worth doing, thats how I see it.  When your just not feeling it, get away and come back when your ready.  The video talks about a year break to get one's creativity going.  I could see that, when you do something else you can come up with better ideas later.  I think this is good for every designer.

The Next thing the class did was involving a magazine page of a person, place or thing.  In this exercise we were to think about phases that could be used for the certain picture.  This exercise helps us test our creativity.  How can the phase work with the picture and also make sense was the key to the exercise.  The phase had to be clever, but also had to make sense or it would be a failure.  I found it to be a bit difficult for me to grasp, but I'm it would be a great exercise for me to explore.  The task for next class is to come up with 10 good phases for 1 chosen picture, this will be an interesting experience.       

Day 3 (January 14, 2013)

seat placement,Group work comic ranking, Movie concept

The third day started with the class rearranging ourselves.  The mission was to seat ourselves in order by date of birth.  The exercise was to see if we could work together and complete the task at hand.  This task seemed easy enough, but was far from it.  From what I was able to see, we lacked communication as a group.  There were a couple of people leading the class, but due to the lack of communication with the class, the task took longer than expected.  We were also not organized due to the lack of communication.  In the end we were able to complete the task with perfect results.  I did however questioned our arrangement from what i saw, but it was done right.  I still believe it could of been done faster.

After the seating arrangements the class was given another task that required us to work as a group.  This time the class had to think of a way to rank each of the comics we did in the previous class.  We were given 30 minutes to complete the task.  The class began brainstorming which is a good way to start things off.  We were able to come up with 4 main criteria with ease.  Like before there were a couple of people leading the group.  This time from what i saw, we were organized, but we lacked execution.  20 of the 30 minutes we had were spent on brainstorming, but without doing the task a can not be completed.  Brainstorming is good, but with limited time it can only hinder us.  In the 10 minutes we had left, we began voting for the rankings.  When the task was complete, from what i saw we failed to meet the objective of the task.  This was because of our indecisiveness.  We were able to come up with 4 criteria to judge the comics, but when it came down to execution it was no good.  With the time we had left to vote, I doubted anyone even used the 4 criteria to judge the comics.  I know, I didn't use them.  From what i saw we failed the task we were given.

The last part of the day was another group exercise, but this time it was with smaller groups.  This time was to think up a movie idea.  From experience in other classes, the smaller the group the better the results.  This seems to be the case for this exercise as well.  Because of the smaller group sizes, there was more communication between each of the members.  Because of this the task was done easily and with better quality.  Comparing the small group and the large group, the smaller is more effective.  In the larger group only a low percentage of the group voiced their opinion, while the rest including myself didn't do so.  These exercises were good ways to show us how we worked as a whole.  We still need more practice with this so will be able to work more effectively.          

Day 2 (January 9, 2013)

Second day of class we started to explore the meaning of visual literacy.  To me visual literacy is understanding what meaning of an image without the need of words. We viewed images and tried to analyze the basic details of the images.  This is done by relying on what you see and not what you think you see.  It was a little confusing at first, but I got the gist of it by the end of class.

After the image analysis we watched a video on a comic artist.  After this we did a 4 panel comic about why/how we came to Cal State La.  We were given 20~30 mins to do the comic.  I couldn't think of anything till near the end.  I drew a maze type think to show that I was lost in life and didn't know what to do.  I used a coin flip to symbolize the chance I took to get me to College.
 

Day 1 (January 7th 2013)

This is the first week of classes at Cal State LA.  In my Concept Development class on on the first day (Jan 16) we didn't do much.  We went over the class syllabus and went over the materials required for the class.  The most interesting part of the first day was the game we played as a way to introduce ourselves to each other.  It was a simple game, the chosen person is to tell the class 3 things about himself/herself.  Of the 3 things 1 must be a lie.  Those who weren't chosen were to guess which of the 3 was a lie, simple.  The game allowed us to learn a little bit of our classmates.  The 3 things I said about myself were...

• I had a Super AWESOME!! Mole on my right arm.
• I once got a ticket for walking.
• I am a Gamer. (After 30secs pause)

The first day in the Concept Development was somewhat entertaining.  It was at least better than just going over the syllabus for the whole time class.  That was pretty much the first day.

The walking ticket was a lie if you cared about the answer.