Ornoth

unicornpearlz asked: How the heck did you get so good at marketing?

I’d say there are probably three factors.

The first is just simple observation. Since no one can escape being marketed to, it makes sense for an engaged member of modern society to learn how mass media manipulate individuals and groups. This requires examining those media with a critical eye, giving thought to what the media are doing and how they go about doing it. I see that as just basic visual literacy.

The other is that it’s kinda of been part of my job. I’ve been designing Internet information systems since 1983, and that has included information architecture, data visualization, and (especially with the rise of the web) visual design. As such, I’ve gradually become attuned to the fact that layout and illustration do a whole lot more than just make a page look pretty; they control what information the user focuses on, what they perceive as important, and even how they react to that information.

In the early days, web developers and designers had to be jacks of all trades, and I was strong in technology, business strategy, and information design, but my weakest point has always been the creative side of visual design. Thus, the third factor: in 2001 I started classes at the New England School of Art and Design, with the idea of picking up a certificate in electronic graphic design. In 2005, due to extraordinary events in my life, I walked away from the program with just one class left to matriculate. But by then I’d gained all the knowledge I was going to get from the program.

Knowing I sucked at graphic design, that was an interesting and conscious exercise. When one is young, you always play to your strengths, looking for a job you will excel at; when you’re older, you start thinking more about new, more ambitious challenges and the value of exploring and strengthening the areas you’ve always found most difficult. When I started classes at NESAD, my work was actually well ahead of that of the kids in my classes, but over time, my work stayed at about the same level, while theirs improved dramatically. What I did gain was a better understanding of design and designers, and the incredible insights of the Bauhaus movement.

At the same time, it pretty much confirmed my lack of confidence in my creative ability. While I have expert skills providing critiques and making suggestions, and moderate skill at taking an existing design and improving it substantially, I’m an utter failure if I have to start with a blank page; the ideas just don’t come. So I didn’t overcome my weakness, but I definitely learned a lot, and refined my understanding of my limitations.

What’s ironic is that this lack of creative confidence has spread to my fiction writing, as well, which is one (of many) reasons why I decided to end my involvement with DargonZine. Fortunately, at least it hasn’t interfered with my blogging or photography, which have been my major “creative” outlets in recent years.

But really, I think my first two survey courses in graphic design were the most valuable in terms of gaining a degree of visual literacy. They taught me how to look at a piece of media and evaluate it from a designer’s perspective, and some of the techniques and methods used to influence the viewer, whether subtly or otherwise.

Funny that just as I’m putting so much time and energy into being someone else’s pillar of strength, so many bad things are happening to me.

Yesterday it was the bike. I took my bike to the shop for an unrelated fix, and they say they need to replace the headset, which they installed brand new just five weeks earlier.

As if that wasn’t enough gross incompetence, they don’t have the parts, and the guy who took my bike apart isn’t capable of putting it back together again using the old parts, so I have to survive the next ten or more days without my primary mode of transportation to my job or to the hospital to support my best friend in her time of need, and without any ability to continue training for my charity ride.

On top of the existing issues with the ceiling leak, falling behind in class, and being behind schedule in the fundraising for the charity ride, this is really getting discouraging. June (and perhaps now July?) seems to have been officially declared “National Kick Orny in the Teeth Month”. What crisis am I gonna have to endure next?

A week ago, I helped put up my art school’s senior show, wherein our graduating class of about 18 graphic designers show off their stuff.

Now that the show has been up for half a week, yesterday was our artists’ reception, the tacky little party where all the kids get to show off their work to their family and friends in the school’s main gallery.

I intentionally did not check the show out before the reception, because I wanted to have something to do that night other than stand around looking conspicuously uncomfortable. I despise parties to begin with, and I purposely did not invite any of my own friends or my geriatric family to the show. Irrespective of that fact, the show was an absolute crush of people, and the gallery was more comparable to a noisy mosh pit than an appreciation of the displayed art. I even saw people walking away in disgust because the gallery was too hot, too crowded, and too noisy for them to actually look at the work.

Early on, before it got too crowded, I did take the time to look at the show, and I was really impressed with both the quantity and the quality of what my class has produced.

On the other hand, I remain acutely disappointed with my own work. Two years ago I would have told you that I was surprised that my work was among the better stuff, but I seem to have lost a lot of ground since then. Other than photography, I don’t think I’ve done anything of decent quality in a long time, which discourages me.

In the end, only three pieces of mine were selected for the show. One was a passable magazine spread I did two years ago, another was a handmade book which I’m not entirely happy with because it had very little graphic design to it, and the third was a collaboration with three other artists, who were largely responsible for its final quality. You can peruse those pieces in this photo gallery.

With this semester ending in a week or two, the only class I have left will be a short portfolio prep course this summer. I’m still glad that I went through this program. My goal was to learn more about graphic design and address a known weakness. I think I’ve learned that I’m still definitely deficient in graphic design skills, most notably visual creativity. However, I understand the process much better, and I realize that I am capable of competent, albeit not innovative, design.

Most of my self-worth is derived from competence—nay, expertise in whatever I choose to do. For that reason, it was very challenging for me to go into art school, because I was putting myself in a position where I had to reveal a known incompetence to people with vastly more innate talent than I will ever have. It remains intensely difficult for me to admit that although I’ve been through art school, I still am not able to predictably and reliably create anything as aesthetic as many people do naturally.

However, I’m slowly coming to accept that shortcoming, and am increasingly able to objectively assess where I fall on the continuum of artistic skill. I find it’s all very reminiscent of the discussion I described in this recent LJ post about arrogance, acknowledging my own fallibility and respecting those whose skills and knowledge exceed mine. But, boy, that doesn’t make it less hard.

I spent a lot of time out shooting, but only tied my images together vaguely with verbal bullshit. However, here are a few of the images I kept.

The top row includes: a nice shot of the Big Dig with a tangle of rebar in front of the Customs House tower, a basset hound shot in front of the State House at the annual “Patriot Plod” basset parade, and a stitched panoramic shot of a support for the old High Bridge in front of one of the towers of the new Zakim bridge that replaced it.

The images in the second row are intentionally a little obscure. The first is on the grounds of the JFK Library, and the second is in the park around Cambridge’s Fresh Pond.

In all, I’m pretty happy with how this assignment turned out, as well as how the class overall went. Hopefully this won’t be the end of the photos that I take or post here. I really enjoy the work, and would love to be able to turn it into something I could make some income from.

The next week we walked over to the State House and shot the protests (both for and against) during the debate over same-sex marriage. The first shot you see here is from that. It’s not a great photo, but shooting a protest is surprisingly difficult. If you can’t see it well at this size, it’s an eight year-old child holding a placard saying “Sodomy is sin”. I wanted to stop and ask him if he knew the definition of “sodomy”, but I was trying hard to maintain journalistic neutrality.

This week we wandered around Boston’s South End, which was a little more fertile territory, but I still wound up with a favorite image that isn’t particularly artistic, but more found humor. In this case, it’s from a bill that had been taped to a lightpost and later torn off, leaving only the well-taped shreds of paper and the very Zen message “Everything Must Go!!!!”

Maybe things will improve in coming weeks. I’d like to have something a little more artistic to show you than these…

While I haven’t talked about it much, I’ve been in art school for a couple years. I’m going for… (take a deep breath)… a Certificate in Electronic Graphic Design from the New England School of Art and Design (aka NESAD) at Suffolk University. (Okay, breathe again).

This semester’s class is Digital Photography, which has been one of my passions for over a decade. The good part is that we’re learning more about general photographic techniques than the technology, which is good, because I could teach courses in the latter.

But since my readers have given me positive feedback when I’ve included photos in my journal, I thought I’d share a few of my better images for class from time to time. So here are two.

At our second class meeting, there was a Suffolk outreach program going on at NESAD, so we rushed upstairs to shoot it. While looking for shots, I spied a sandwich on a plate underneath a chair; some college student was still too finicky to eat the crust of their bread! It was right next to one of the paint-spattered art stools with two outreach flyers and a cup of water, which perfectly complemented the sandwich. I think the photo’s a real winner.

Our next class was spent wandering all over Boston on an architectural shoot, but again serendipity provided a wonderful shot of these flavored syrup bottles in the window of a North End shop. I wish I’d had more time, so that I could actually set the shot up properly.

Of course, both images are much more appealing when printed 7x10 or displayed full size, but I’m not going to put all the biggies up for you. Though perhaps it is almost time to put up an online portfolio of photos, print work, and Web design.

More images as the class progresses… I hope you enjoy.

In one of my art school classes this semester I did a series of collages based on famous paintings: the Mona Lisa, Whistler’s Mother, and American Gothic. The point was to draw a parallel between visual collage, a long-accepted art form, and audio sampling as “aural collage”, which has been villified as copyright infringement. My Mona piece appears at right (click for a larger version).

Brian, my teacher for that class, spent the spring break on a long-planned trip to Paris. Being a professional illustrator and art school teacher, he of course went to the Louvre. Can you see where this is headed?

Yes, he saw the one and only original Mona Lisa. And when he did, all he could think about was my project. Yes, I completely ruined it for him! I have that power. He couldn’t so much as glance at that masterpiece without asking himself “But what about the blue hands?!?”