Reading Response 5

Of all the readings this week I was most intrigued by “A Note for the New Millennium”. When I think about corrupt corporations the first thing that comes to mind is the company’s logo, slogan, or brand in general. The visual presence becomes so intertwined with the company that it takes me a moment to remember that someone had to create that image which is now synonymous with greed, unethical behavior, or whatever the offense may be. There are several logos that immediately come to mind as representations of bad company behavior...

These logos were all designed by individuals hired to perform a job and deliver a high quality design to their employers. According to Stuart Ewen, the author of the article, "Designers must come to reflect upon the functions they serve, and on the potentially hazardous implications of those functions". Well, if designers began to create logos as true representations of the company for which they function, we would be seeing things more like these...

 

However, now that design has, "become a corporate profession", I doubt design reform is anywhere in the near future. Mass media has proliferated too deeply through society for us to be able to change quickly. With more and more individuals gaining access to programs such as Photoshop and illustrator, altered logos such as the ones above are becoming increasingly commonplace and these alterations are done at just as high a quality as the original logos. It may be cynical to say that those with the money have the power... but I think that so long as corporations are willing to shell out big bucks for designs that, "regularly mask destructive patterns within our society" or "aestheticizes hazardous ideas" there will always be someone looking to get paid. So I suppose as Ewen states, "Only by critically confronting this concern and by integrating it into a conscious, ethical practice of design will meaningful alternative be possible."

Reading Response 4

This week while reading about the elements of motion and time I couldn't stop picturing a music video by the White Stripes from 2002 entitled "Fell in Love with a Girl". The video was shot frame by frame using Lego Building Blocks. Each shot required the blocks to be rebuilt and formed together to give the illusion of movement.

It is obvious that the blocks were not rebuilt in order to capture every individual movement of the characters and their ensuing actions. There are gaps in the motion, but our mind is able to fill them in automatically in order to give us the illusion of fluidity. It would be really interesting to see every individual frame used in the video in a storyboard form laid out on a wall. From studying the video, I think that in storyboard form the viewer would still be able to visualize the tempo and beat of the song. The director primarily used red, white, and black Lego Blocks and manipulated change in color to enhance the appearance of movement. In addition to this, layering the blocks created change in depth and allowed for a more 3-dimensional feel despite the fact that the blocks were photographed.
Now shifting gears...

 

...to the TED talk of Jonathan Harris. What strikes me the most about WeFeelFine.org is the simplistic design of such a complex algorithm. On top of that, the organization of  the resulting content is so elegant and evocative. It almost didn't feel right that a lot of the circles I clicked on just stated some mindless chatter about feeling guilty about wanting a new kitchen or feeling like using Nutrisystem for a diet was the greatest decision ever made. It seemed like for every 20 blurbs I read there was only one or two that were of any real emotional substance. However I think this site is a great commentary on the concept of Noise. The internet is jammed full of content and only a fraction of it would appeal to any one individual. As I found myself clicking faster and faster through the circles I realized I was dismissing sentences as irrelevant to me after glimpsing only a word or two. This action is very reminiscent of our everyday lives. We travel through the world all the while quickly dismissing things we deem irrelevant to us when in actuality we have made that judgment in a split second. As designers we need to constantly be thinking of the world as that cluster of circles; sometimes it is only coincidence that a person clicks on or comes across our content, but when they do we need to be sure that it has the ability to capture one's attention long enough to delay dismissal and instead provoke the user to interact with or at least consume our message.

Visual Response 3

Layering and Collage
While doing the reading for this week, Chapter 9 of Digital Foundations specifically caught my eye. Here's my go at it...

 

Visual Response to Readings for February 3rd

Beyond the Copyright
- Point, Line, Plane. Layers. and More

 

Visual Quickstart Chapters 5-8 Response

Workspaces, Panels, Pixel Basics, and Layer Basics.

 -A screenshot trial run

Visual QuickStart Chapter 1 Response

The Importance of Color Management

-As told through the words of the world's best manager, Micheal Scott













"Fool me once....

... strike one.

Fool me twice...

..................

... strike three."

Final Presentation - The Jist of It Anyway

Finding "Me" Online

What's the greatest thing about the internet? You can find anything on it. Suddenly limitless information is just a click away and questions asked out loud all receive the same answer, "JFGI" (Just F***ing Google It). So in the midst of all the mess... how does a person establish themselves online? Entering and navigating around in the working world can be a daunting process, one which has some people trying to bury their online profiles and others trying to make theirs more easily found. Social media is rooted in personalizing online experiences and developing relationships, so it would seem that to be successful online, one must establish their online presence.

So what do I mean by this?

One thing will remain constant throughout time, in order to get a job you have to stand out. There has to be something about you in which an employer sees potential. As location seems to become more and more irrelevant, competition for jobs has only increased; now with one less stipulation standing in the way, applicants can apply to a wider range of opportunities which means standing out becomes more important still.

Websites such as LinkedIn offer pools of candidates for the picking. Now there are even further steps a person can take in order to establish his or her integrated presence online and it all starts with finding and organizing "Me" within the vastness.

So, who is Joanna Clark? Well... JFGI. To make a long search short... None of the links on the first page even come close to being me. Actually it isn't until page 6 that one little hint of my online presence pops up from clarku.edu. With a name like "Joanna Clark" I wasn't holding my breath for originality. Just for some reference I plugged in my friend's name next; and now that I know there is only one "Darcey Kurashige-Elliott" in the world, it's back to the unlucky rest of us whose surnames rank in the top 25 most common in the US (at least as of 2000).

Now if I did want to hide my online presence, I would have a leg up on the Kurashige-Elliotts of the world especially in this mess...

but no... I want to stand out. So how do I start finding myself in it all?

A Facebook search yields 306 matches. MySpace? 111. I don't know if I would enjoy being professionally confused with some of the other Joanna Clarks in the world, especially if I started getting requests to sing in interviews or express why I think I'm qualified through interpretive dance. Now, I only have myself to blame for this, but refining the search to "Joanna Clark Massachusetts" seems to just add anyone named Joanna who has attended Clark University in Massachusetts to the results. College application fail.

So here's where I try to make it easy for all those companies out there chomping at the bit to find and hire me. First step... use JFGI's powers for good, not evil. A Google Profile is a great place to start organizing all my information in one place. By simply Googling "Me", the first link asks if I would like to setup my very own Google Profile. Within five minutes I had created "Me" and in the first .23 seconds of my next Google search, there I was... little old me on the first page of results. My mom would be proud.

Finding "Me" didn't end there however. As with any social media marketing campaign, everything should be integrated. Just like a user subscribes to RSS Feeds in order to avoid going out and finding each individual piece of news, an employer should have all the necessary links to your professional campaign right at his or her fingertips. So let's go to the Profile Checklist

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Personal Blog
• SlideShare
• YouTube Channel
• Personal Website
• Flickr

Now not all of these social media outlets may be utilized by you, or perhaps you aren't participating in all of them professionally. If this is the case then first consider if you would benefit from joining any of them. If the answer is yes begin to expand your presence, but if not focus on adding more value to your current outreach. Clearly everyone in the class for which I write this blog is proactive about individual learning and developing new skill sets, otherwise we wouldn't be here. These new proficiencies will be useless if we hide under a rock though. It's now just as important to learn how to organize and market our own selves online as it is to market the companies for which we do (or hopefully will one day) work.

Here I am, crawling out from under the rock as an integrated online presence. No longer will I have my lousy surname doing all the work. The biggest challenge for myself and the likes of my generation will be maintaining a line between my professional online presence and my personal online presence. Social media has taught us that transparency is important from a company or professional, but now in a time were privacy is no longer sacred, we must all work to personally market our professional talents rather than have our personal presence interfere with our professional goals.

Powerpoint Presentation

MarketingMe_JoannaClark.ppt

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