This particular class was a rebirth of my mind and creativity. A renaissance. There was more life and passion that I have been able to explore through breaking apart what I thought was the ‘right way of thinking’. There is no right or wrong way of process. There is just what works and what doesn’t work PERSONALLY. There is nothing that anyone can say to make me change my mind about this. You can borrow, steal, or trade ideas of what brainstorming and process really is. You find that perfect combination of what steps you must take, and then it just comes together and that is when the magic starts! So now, I will be taking this all in and compiling it into my memory. The feeling that I had this quarter is something that I haven’t felt for a long time, and now I feel like I have my ‘mojo’ back, if you will.

LOL

Cheers to a great quarter, filled with re-educating, exploration, wonder, failure and successes. But you know what? I did it was a huge grin on my face. Yes, even the failures, because with failure, came success.

www.samantha-prater.com

This brings me to my creative process. I guess procrastination can get to the best of us. But for me, I think the procrastination was part of my design process that I had never really looked too deep into. Yes, life and many things can get in the way and make it hard for you to focus and prioritize. But for me, procrastination became more of a coping mechanism with me not feeling confident in what I was doing. I shouldn’t have to have people tell me words of encouragement to get me to this very content place. But instead it should be the other way around. This is what I realized this week when devoting time to our Exploration B. It made me wonder, “Why is it so hard to believe in the work?”. This made me dig deeper into my thoughts about the creative process. Without have value within yourself, are you able to have value placed into your work? And if, there is value, would it become more negative as a result? In my personal experience with my work, I have found that I can’t just tell myself, “Hey, you kicked a**!” or “You knocked it outta the park!”. Constantly with that type of mindset instilled within me, I have found that I just cannot cut myself a break. This then takes a toll on my work, and in turn ends up being more safe.

This isn’t what I want to define my work! Being the ‘safe’ one. So what I have decided to instill within my process is that I take a moment to just focus on my successes, realizing that I cannot be the ‘people pleaser’ all the time, and be able to commend my work for being great when the recognition is there. This week was truly a revelation internally that I had found. I now want to really want to spend time devoted on celebrating my successes first, before my failures. I feel a sense of empowerment, that I have been able to take back what is mine, and that is my voice, my value.

“I think it brought a whole new light on how ‘ design thinking’ and how to make the old, reborn again. The whole idea of graphic design I think for the most part has been shrunken to web or print. Many outsiders look at it just as advertising. Many have forgotten that design is through the experience that you go through. I think Kelli nailed this when she talked about the disruptive wonder. Everyday experiences are long forgotten and it is on autopilot within our minds. Now, this is something that should be turned upside down and ‘reinvented’.”

I think I am constantly trying to make my experience through design more of a fun one, as opposed to a stressful, painful one. There Is something about wanting to push the boundaries of what give a design life. I think this was recognized when I was working on my senior project within the Interior Design program. I focused on a company that now is recognized by all, TOMS shoes. I wanted to take a company that is based on fun and a great cause, and highlight this in a playful environment of an experiential museum. It made the idea of charity work, not work, but a subconscious act. Many do not see charity work this way unfortunately, and I wanted to change that, by focusing on the ones of the future, the children. This project, not only was a fun experience for me, even through the little amounts of sleep I endured, but also my viewers. By having fun myself, I think it transcended into my viewers being enlightened and having a fun adventure through the building experience I had created.

This notion of disruptive wonder should be taken into play as a designer. It is something that helps us bring a design to a viewer through a different form that they may not have foreseen. By shutting out this notion, you are shutting off a huge part of the creative process.

So, with that said,

Let the disruptive wonder

The process that I applied to Exploration A was definitely very empowering as a designer. I think the collaboration sessions made such a large part to what my overall concept was. I think the biggest downfall that I had to deal with was the printers. I think if I had allowed more time with the actual execution of the design I would have been able to deliver a final outcome that would have matched the sophistication of what I had been able to achieve within the process. The execution is what I think was the biggest piece of what I wasn’t happy with. I plan on expanding on this idea and concept but potentially using this within a video format. I think it would convey the idea of masculine and feminine differences a little bit better.

I think this would be a great piece to add to my portfolio as it is something that I haven’t looked into. I think my success is through my ability to embrace the journey and the process. It is something that over the past few quarters I have been able to debelop and grow from. This is something that made me think, this is what I would love to teach within an education environment. I have such a passion and would love to help other grow and develop within this particular piece of the design field.

Overcoming the fear of not knowing th eoutcome is something that also does help me embrace this particualr Exploration. Just taking it day-by-day, collaboration session to personal design sessions was very relaxing without the constant anxiety. This is what usually will overtake a project for me. I plan on having the ability to continue the growth of this particular concept with the hopes of making a more completed look. I am excited to see what is next to come!!

Surprisingly what I found wasn’t working, actually was working! My collaborations were very helpful and gave me that confidence I needed to know that although my process is different, it brought light to what the goal of the process was: To have fluid thought.

I am looking forward to getting more in depth with this particular process

                                                    Micron Pen, Venus and Vivid

Hmmm…

All very different, but must have connections in some way. I found that just getting outside of my usual studio and going to the nearby Starbucks got me in a different setting to ponder these words. With headphones on jamming out to my Pandora quick mix, I was able to just start jotting notes down. I have always been most prone since my undergrad experience to have a Moleskin sketch pad on me at all times, along with drafting pens such as Microns. Now there was a challenge of 20 minutes for each word, but I liked that time constraint because it made you focus on what first came to mind as opposed to lingering for too long.

 This particular piece of the Exploration A wasn’t what was challenging for me. It was more of the collaboration. I think it was because I was thinking too much about not choosing words that were similar to what was already thought up by my teammates. This took a little bit more time for me, because I wanted to think of possibly other outlets that weren’t explored already. But once I had taken a break between both collaborations of my two teammates, I found I was able to relax and just let the ideas flow. I always hope though that my thoughts will be able to bring new perspective to a fellow classmate/designer. I suppose that is the perfectionism within me

After receiving the collaboration words that were explored by my teammates for me, I want to dig a little deeper on specific words that stand out to me. I want to incorporate some of the Universal Traveler methods that I had experimented with last quarter in my Methodologies course. This includes taking words and dealing with not just the ‘safe’ concepts but looking into the outrageous as well. This I think can bring everything to the table and really show a wide range. I want to push my mind and be able to really create something that is different that what I have been able to create in past classes. This is always a forever driving force to what I want to achieve every quarter.

Until next time,

Sam