701 has been a hybrid course on design methodologies and a 2-part research paper. I would very much like to use this last open Blog to recap my impressions on both parts of the course.

Dissecting and analyzing art and dissecting and analyzing the way it’s created is a major part of any artist’s/ creative’s growth, but it can be such a turnoff while it’s happening… I feel that there is something sacrilegious about exposing the workings behind the magic, or analyzing what should by all rights be an instinctive process. Someone told me: “Work is not fun. If it were, no one would get paid to do it.” Unfortunately, I keep realizing how true this is. The ‘instinctive’ bit has only so much mileage in it. We have to keep getting outside of our comfort zones to stay healthily productive, and that’s a painful process. It’s especially painful because we keep getting fooled into thinking that what we do as designers is ‘fun’.

The research paper(s) “Convergence between Art and Code” threw me into readings and writings on the state of Web Design these present days. There are no authorities on the matter and the only common thing in the ‘market’ and in ‘academia’ these past couple of decades is a wariness from technology and a trend of slow and sluggish responses to the latest developments. The technology and art love-hate relationship is a Telenovella that seems far from over. The most relevant observation for Graphic Designers is that businesses are choosing to err on the safe side while looking for new recruits and it’s common to see job postings asking for applicants to be knowledgeable in an impossibly wide array of artistic and technical skills.