From Unit 7′s discussion board: “I’ve just been shut down! Bianca Wyatt, Cindy Erella, Alfonze Prince, Josef Wolfe, Scarlet Hood and Aggy-Lee Steppesista, all healthy Facebook characters prior to these 5 minutes are no more.”

FB shut down my project which is essentially a social (mostly negative) commentary on FB using a Disney FB profiles platform to satirize relationships that play out online.

Here’s how the project came to be, from a trip in time to Unit 6′s discussion board: “I’m thinking of using social media (Facebook) to comment on social media and how much I loath it. Please don’t misunderstand me, I am not passing judgement on anyone. My wife loves Facebook and she’s my favorite person! I just don’t like Facebook and I don’t like how it sizes down people and relationships. Anytime I try to interact on Facebook I end up with the feeling of having ingested too much empty-socializing calories. I feel mentally sick like my body feels when I eat at McDonald’s, and I don’t even get to enjoy the process of posting/reading posts like I enjoy the process of ingesting fries with a sugary drink and some obscure parts of a cow (supposedly). Who: My target audience is my circle of friends (they friended me btw) and maybe the friends of my friends? What: My message is Facebook can ruin relationships if not used carefully and in moderation.Why: I’ve seen it happen. How: My tentative idea is to create a whole bunch of fictitious Facebook characters (Cinderella, Stepsister1, Stepsister2, Big Bad Wolf, Snow White, etc…) and have these characters’ relationships deteriorate (humorously) one thoughtless posting at a time.”

So what now? I’ve found out that I get this delicious and tingling happy feeling when I hit rock-bottom, usually hidden under layers of despair and self-pity. I guess that a little part of me realizes that from this point forward, the only direction things can go is up. I got a second wind. I am feeling energized. The project just grew in scale. I need to recruit fearless volunteers who can lend me their IP adresses and their long-standing email accounts to start over on a new attempt at etablishing my platform.

Fingers crossed…

I’m taking advantage of this open blog to take a break and share a few great links (IMO):

NewSilk at http://new.weavesilk.com/?uopf shared by Curtis Nelson

This superb website lets you use different colors combined with mouse sensitivity and symmetrical or asymmetrical brushes to create stunning visuals in a second. It’s like a Design cheat tool or even God Mode, so much so that I would rather spend hours on photoshop creating lighting effects that use this thing in a real project…

Drag and Drop Music at http://www.incredibox.com/en/#/application shared by my brother Ramez Mrad

You just HAVE to take the time to explore this incredible website. Well you don’t HAVE to no, but it’s your loss.

http://27bslash6.com/ is an awesome ‘thing’ shared by professor Jason Fox at SCAD

Read the ‘foggot’ thread. It’s hilarious.

Hope you enjoy those, and please share any outstanding resources. Back to real work with me.

I guess it’s a fair question to ask in a Design Methodologies Seminar…

Going through the compilation in Hugh Dubberly’s : How Do You Design? I found myself attracted to the simple and effective diagram on page 26, The Gradual Shift of Focus from Analysis to Synthesis after Bill Newkirk (1981).

I am attracted to the diagram because it’s a visual of my own process at it’s simplest. I believe that I would like to keep that essence of the process intact, no matter how much and how deeply I dive into the specifics of Analysis and Synthesis.

I am finding that a focus on a step of the process really comes in the way of the whole ‘flow’ and tends to blindside me/ og me down. I am thinking of the linear try I had at Concept Map -> Outline -> Writing in 701 or Concept Map -> Ideation -> Design in 702. The concept map opened up an abyss in front of me. I’ve since learned to use that tool not within a linear process, but in conjunction with writing/ ideation and design.

Going into specific Analysis techniques: I tend to think in metaphors/ similes and all kind of visual and conceptual juxtaposing techniques, but I think a different POV tool such as Noor’s ‘Pyramid’ or the ‘Manipulative Verbs’ technique can really help me out of a dry spell, especially when I zoom in down a path a little too quickly. These tools are a kind of ‘soft’ reset.

As far as Synthesis techniques, I’ve mentioned in an earlier post my lack of use of thumbnails and sketches and how I would like to disrupt my process by re-exploring these time-honed techniques. I am still wary of breaking my synthesizing heuristic biases though. I guess I’m afraid I’d hit a wall while trying something new and I really can’t afford any walls right now. As it is, I’m barely meeting deadlines (all kind of deadlines, including wifely ones).

Thanks for reading.

Harris Kim, 2003.
Martin Shoeller

The notion of disruptive wonder is not new to me. That concept comes up in any and all context where transformative change is discussed, be it a the Landmark Forum (a powerful educational workshop – slightly cultish with a hint of pyramid scheme) or the introductory course GRDS 504 (the 4th order of design – Tony Golsby-Smith).

The process varies slightly but is built on the same foundation: finding new perspectives. It sounds very easy right? Well it’s not, for a couple of reasons.

We are hardwired into seeing the world from our own perspective. How many of us can really maintain a lucid frame of mind and realize that our reality is and always will be subjective?

Let me explain: I believed as a kid that the ‘moon follows the car’ somehow when my dad was driving. His vague explanation involving distances and perspectives made absolutely no sense to me. I believed my eyes and they told me what was true. A few years later, I knew that the earth and the moon were a long distance apart compared to the car and the trees, so it was a matter of prspetcive and perception that the moon seemed to be stationary to the moving car while the trees were going past.

If my reality could change within a few short years then, what new reality am I going to have in another few years into the future (assuming I survive another few years)? How is my reality now different than my wife’s? Is there a range of reality for the common masses that makes nationhood, wars, and suffering in distant places on earth seem somehow acceptable?

How deluded are most of us when we live day after day as if we were not dying?

Am I lucid and do I have a higher plane of perspective that most? If so, how many individuals out there are on an even higher plane of consciousness and are unable to reach out to others just because people are only able to see within their own frame of reality? Whenever one of these Gurus finds a way to reach others (by words or example or a visual) disruptive wonder is created.

So there are two prerequisites to creating disruptive wonder:
1- See something with ‘new eyes’, meaning; an unusual reality.
2- Find a way to share the unusual reality with others.

The first part comes easy-ish to me. The second part is where I have trouble.
Seeing something with new eyes is a time-consuming endeavor that involves a lot of personal growth and an introverted/extroverted exploration.
Sharing that necessitates unusual empathy and a mastery of communication skills.

I would like to share an mundane, fun, and striking example of disruptive wonder to end this blog on a less ‘psychological’ note. Check out Martin Schoeller’s gallery on female bodybuilders.

Buddhists advise us to “act always as if the future of the universe depended on what you did, while laughing at yourself for thinking that whatever you do makes any difference.” (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “Finding Flow”)

The psychologytoday.com article particularly resonated with me. I have gone through a bad depression a few years ago and the way I found to pull myself out of it included most if not all of the concepts discussed in the article. I found that reorganizing the physical space I lived in helped. I also found ‘flow’ and relief from stress and anxiety in physical exercise. I re-discovered martial arts and yoga. I developed ‘mindfulness’ and really started listening to my senses of taste, touch, hearing and vision. I learned how to recognize flow and I started to look for it. I have quit ‘dry’ jobs at huge economic risk to myself to fill my life with the activities that gave me ‘flow’. I’ve left behind management (more than once) to find my way into teaching, learning, and creative pursuits.

I currently ‘flow’ every day at work coding for web design. Every single day. Music helps me find the flow and stay on it (I like French oldies, chillout lounge, and acoustic lounge right now – subject to change without notice). When I’m not on a contract or working a full time job, I juggle two sources of flow: Strenuous physical exercise and Design (freelance, personal, a gift for a friend or a family member, whatever. As long as it keeps me busy). As I mentioned earlier, teaching and/or learning also provide immense satisfaction.

However, I do experience moments where I feel ‘empty’ after periods of excessive productivity, which leads me to believe that there is such a thing as excessive work and to have balance in life, one needs those periods of ‘sitting in the sun and doing nothing’ away from work – even work that ‘flows’.

Thanks for reading.

The typical creative process as described in Unit 6 of GRDS 701 Methodologies: Seminar looks like this:

1- Research
2- Brainstorming
3- Thumbnails
4- Sketches
5- Refined Comps
6- Execution

My process is not typical. I remember during my undergrad when I got professors who were sticklers for thumbnails and sketches. It was torture to me. My hand does not have a brain of its own and refuses to sketch out ideas. It would rather wait for something more substantial to come out of the brain: Ideas really emerge when I set out to ‘do’ or ‘write’, not ‘ideate’. My process looks like this:

1- Research
2- Brainstorming (speaking out my thoughts help, concept maps: not so much)
2b- Brainstorming while driving (works great for me)
3- Execution/ Refined Comps (the relationship between comps and execution is weird and non-linear for me)
4- Sleep (This is where my subconscious kicks into overdrive)
5- Back to Refined Comps/ Execution that starts to look finished

Repeat Steps 2b, 4 and 5 as needed.

What works:
• The process is fast (Minimal amount of actual design hours which makes me competitive).
• Lots of subconscious stuff.

What doesn’t work:
• A big chunk of the ‘divergent phase’ ideas never make it to comps. They remain in my head for to draw on for future projects only till I forget…
• My ideas stay (relatively) superficial. I’m not sure though. I think thumbnailing tends to bring out a whole sleuth of shallow concepts that I would otherwise dismiss in a second.
• I feel it’s harder to break out of my heuristic biases.

What I would like:
I would really like to be able to write outlines or draw sketches without feeling like they get in the way and confuse my process. I love working with anyone really, as the process of explaining what goes in my head either out loud or on paper speeds up the process even more and helps me flesh out ideas.
I would love working with a person who would challenge me to create idyllic work when I’m overly pragmatic.
I would love working with a person who’s an expert in his/her field.

These are my disjointed thoughts for now.
Thanks for reading.

rachidMrad_ProjectApart2

Wow Self, you did a decent job. Horrendous accent still after 12 years in the United States, but the crazy ‘stache photo makes up for it.

Introduction: EXCELLENT
I did a good job introducing the subject in an entertaining way and tying it in to my personal life.

Tone: EXCELLENT
I sound like I ‘got this’. I had to imagine I was addressing class to keep from sounding completely retarded.

Vocabulary: EXCELLENT

Visuals: AVERAGE
Meh… Remember that post about my ‘crocodile metabolism’ (702 Unit 5)?

Flow: EXCELLENT
nuf said

Timing: POOR – AVERAGE
I went over the time limit.

Very enjoyable presentation, even if I say so meself!

In this revisit to the definition, I’d say that very little has changed in my perception of what Graphic Design is. Well I did get a solid A in GRDS 504!

Graphic Design still encompasses the craft of visual communication, tedious and unfulfilling design execution, and the grandiose, fun, not-in-demand-in-my-world Design Thinking.

I just finished a meeting with a client (an ongoing freelance project) where we discussed window decals, back-lit signage, and wine selection. The client really got my lecture on layouts and visual weight and my design partner is going to be thrilled with the clear make-sense direction the execution is taking from here. That’s Graphic Design.

Yesterday, I made a hundred little aesthetic decisions on how to implement the static Photoshop mockup into an animated responsive webpage. That was Graphic Design.

In a few minutes, I’ll start over on a grand website project for 701 where my self-stated target audience and goal is to reach teenagers with an interactive and yet informative (on drug-abuse) online puzzle. Grand Graphic Design.

Heck, a couple of months ago I laid out a page design for my wife’s book-club meeting which she was hosting at our pace. That was Graphic Design too.

From Unit 1 – Blog 1: “Graphic Design, like Art, is now whatever a designer and his client(s) agree is Graphic Design.”

Thanks for reading.

Exploration A has been interesting. If you don’t know what exploration A is, jump to www.rachidmrad.com and behold the mess.

Before I elaborate any further, let me remind you that I am the ultimate pragmatist. I also have a crocodile’s metabolism, meaning: My natural state of existence is one of minimal effort interspersed with bursts of incredible energy and creativity.

I am a sprinter, not a marathoner. A Ferrari, not a Toyota.

It’s hard for me to sustain a continuous high RPM of 16 hour days (between work and school). So I go into a highly efficient mode to survive.

What I hate about such situations is the ensuing lack of sleep  – of course, Ferraris need a lot of maintenance -, and the necessity to compromise on the quality of the work I produce so I start resenting any and all that make demands on my time.

Back to exploration A; it’s one of those school projects (sorry about the dirty words… It’s true though, it IS a school project) that produces an idea with enough weight to survive beyond the scope of the classroom. I’m at a point where regardless of the grade this ‘thing’ earns and whether I will use it in my half-point review, reworking the prototype into some kind of polished version is on my to do list.

The process was interesting but not new to me. It’s a process that I learned in undergrad but seldom got a chance to use (I was never able to command the kind of compensation something like that warrants. So screw it).

It was a combination of collaboration and of finding patterns and making unusual associations. The concept map was a nice touch. These were the succsessful parts of the process.

The major shortcoming was what I would call ‘design quicksand’. I love working in a messy, non-linear method but I hate the housekeeping that comes with it: Organizing ideas, files, graphics, the need to flippin document everything, the constant going back on my steps and the resulting tedious grunt work. I just wish I had an assistant to do the menial stuff so that I could focus on the ‘meaningful’ parts.

The time spent on the Exploration is one third productive result-oriented work, two thirds clerical paraphernalia.

That sums up the process.

The actual website succeeds on a core level (my opinion). Testers who got passed the first puzzles (or who were shown how to) had a genuine ‘coool’ reaction to what was happening onscreen. Testers also showed a tendency to peruse the content looking for clues and to share the concept with friends/family.

The website also fails in so many ways. The design is underwhelming, the content is incomplete, the ‘grab’ factor is still low losing a huge number of potential users.

Time to go back to the “drawing board”…

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

Art by: Paolo Ceric

Yup. It’s pretty cool isn’t it. And it’s not Flash, it’s GIF (Graphic Interchange Format).

GIFs are used in a couple of ways. Some static web images are saved as GIF because the format renders flat areas in an optimal way (compared to PNGs and JPGs, the other web formats). In other words, the same flat-color illustration will be a smaller file size (and therefore more optimized)  if saved in GIF format. GIF also renders simple transparencies, which JPGs cannot do (however complex transparencies like drop shadows require PNG format).

Animated GIFs have become synonymous with horrid animation on bad websites (examples abound. Here’s one http://www.galaxion.com/) but this Serbian 22-year-old student has taken GIFs from the gutters of animation to new heights.

This is another example of work where the boundary between Art and Technology is seamless.

For more on Paolo Ceric and his animated GIF Art, go to the original article on the Huffington post.

My thanks to Curtis for sharing this with me, and my thanks to you for reading.