Someone I Admire

As part of Personal and Professional Practice we were asked the plan how we might make contact with someone that we admire. I have chosen the creator of a podcast called Welcome to Nightvale. It is very difficult to describe Welcome to Nightvale but the essence of it is that it is done in the style of the first war of the worlds radio show; it is as if we are listening to the local radio show of a small town in western north America. Apart from this the best way I can describe it is bizarre. There is a URL below which you can use to listen to it your self.

http://podbay.fm/show/536258179

The main reason I admire Joseph Fink is because he and the rest of the people working on the show do it in their spare time, they all have full time jobs as well and started the project off out of their own money. I may just add here that the podcast is free so after the show was started they pay for productions costs from donations made by their fans.

Joseph Fink acted as the catalyst for this project and is still one of the main writers. The attributes that make me admire him are things that are all shown through the creation of welcome to Nightvale. To start with I love the fact that he had so much enthusiasm to create something that would entertain and amaze people that he does it off his own back just with a group of friends with the money they can scrape together. It is hard to come across people who are truly enthusiastic and passionate about something and I find it really refreshing that he is. I also love the fact that he has collaborated to create something wonderful, it reminds me that people can collectively produce something that the individual couldn’t dream of.  Easily the biggest reason, however, is the content of the podcast, its random unpredictable weirdness constantly keeps the listener on their toes. This original and different way of thinking that is communicated by the content of the show amazes me, and most of all I wish I could think like that. Listen to just one episode and you will understand what I mean.

How Would I make Contact With Him:

As previously mentioned the show is maintained by donations made by fans. On the end of each episode they make an announcement thanking a few of the people that made donations, this is because you can write a message with a donation. I could write a message and a specific question (to show a close interest) and my email. This could start a correspondence. However, I also feel that it would seem like I was paying him to answer a question as if I expected him not to be a nice enough person to just answer one I emailed him. Another idea is to write him a letter by hand, this shows that time and care have been spent, once again asking a specific question or two in a conversational tone.

If I had to illicit a response in 24 hours I might use email instead, finding it on their web page, but structure the email in a letter like way and possibly in a slightly more friendly tone than the letter because email is a cold and distant medium through which to communicate.

Reflective Thoughts on Final Crit for Studio Brief 01

Today we had our first final crit. I was very unsure about what I had produced and in all honesty I feel that this was because I had gone so far out of my comfort zone stylistically. Usually I stick to quite natural and earthy shapes but this time I was trying to capture a sharp and almost mechanised look in an effort to "damage" the eye of the reader with the high contrast in line weight in the letter forms. I think my uncertainty definitely came across and affected the way the others in my crit group reacted to my designs. In future I will attempt to portray more confidence in my own abilities, even when the confidence is not in face there. 

In the past I have struggled very much with summative criticism because I get so involved in each project that it begins to feel like personal insults. However, I am trying to balance this involvement with being able to step back and be objective about my own work. This is difficult but I am already starting to feel the effects in that I become slightly less stressed and paranoid by a brief even when I am trying my absolute best with it. This balance of working hard, being able to step back from my work and understanding how I can improve as a designer is hard and requires on going effort but I feel that I am starting to improve already. 

I know it sounds ridiculous but not being good at something that you think is your vocation is hard, and experience and perspective are things I feel I would have gained form doing a foundation. So I will make a concerted effort to be aware that if I were good already I would not need to be on the course and that improvement is what I should be measuring my success by.

Introduction to Personal and Professional Practice

As far as I understand  this blog is devoted to documenting personal interests within the world of design or that have influenced my design, demonstrate and improve critical and reflective approaches along with my practical and creative investigation and all siphoned through my communication skills. 

This blog is also for self evaluation to create an awareness of my design and thought process and therefore improve it. 

In our introductory lecture for this module we also discussed how we will be exploring the assumptions concerning our personal learning through the medium of tasks and research set during the module. 

This seminar really got me thinking about the way I work and how psychologically bogged down in a project I can get, to the extent where I am so close to my work I can no longer see anything positive about it. However, this is because I can so much about the out come of the work and that I have done my utmost to produce the best work I can. So, how can I pull back from my work to view and evaluate it but still care about it and be involved with it enough to enjoy it. This balance of involvement in a project and ability to evaluate it properly, not just at the end but during its gestation, is difficult to maintain. Now that I am aware of it at least I can start to address this problem with my design process, possibly through more self initiated crits. 

We were also asked to look into contacting someone we admire. The problem I have just mentioned could be the beginnings of a question for that person.