Weekend Assignments

Students:

I am feeling a little better.  As you can see I am up at 3 am writing to you, since I slept most of the day yesterday.  Hope you don't get this "bad friend" to visit you.  I am not a good patient as I have no "patience" for illness.  I am rarely sick.

Since we missed a very important class.  I was hoping to catch you up on what we were going to discuss last evening by doing parts of it on your own.  By doing, you are learning, and we learn most of what we know in this course by doing.  However, we reinforce our knowledge by discussing our findings in critiques.  And here is the magic of the next phase of our learning.  By asking yourself what you already know in this course, I want you to build a list of knowledge.  For now, put a title on it and call it your Knowledge List.

Knowledge list

What I want you to do is list all the things you know about design up to this point.  Yes dump it--right on the paper under the title Knowledge list.

Next I want you to break this list into categories.  A category could be one of the principals of design or an element.  Its your list, so you figure it out , and certainly categorize the list in a way that makes sense to you.  Once you have established categories for the listed items, then I want you to sort out all the items and place them under their categories.  You may have sub categories, but it is up to you.  This is similar to making an outline for an essay, however, I want this to be in list form.  So your List will have categories and subcategories and possibly categories of you sub categories. 

The best way to get this list of knowledge started is to look at all the handouts I have given you so far--everything.  Then look at your notes and your writings on the two critiques we have already had.  With all this information, you should come up with some really substantial lists of knowledge.
This list will be used for an in class assignment on Monday, so please be well prepared. 

Idea List

Now I want you to itemize all the things you do every week.  Yes I mean all of it.  List it out and you can also put things on this list of the things you want to do.  This is important--list the things you would like to do, but aren't doing, because you are making excuses or simply think you don't have the time to do them.  Please keep personal stuff off this list.  After you have listed all your daily activities, make a category list.  This is the hard part, but its your life and I want you to categorize it.  Yep...it might look like this:

1. Personal
2. Marketing
3. Studio
4. Teaching
5. Education

These are the five main categories in my life.  I can list all the activities I do under these five headings.  I even have folders with these names on them on my desk.  So when I have something to do in this category, or an idea...you guessed it...it goes into that folder to be worked on.  I then have things organized nicely so I can work more efficiently.  You don't have to make folders.  I was sharing some of my stuff.  However, you do have to come up with the list.

The good news is that you can then take this list and plug it into a weekly calendar.  There is one on google calendar
http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/tour.html
Yes I do this and it makes me more organized.  I even find time to do the things I thougt I didn't have time for in my life--like play and think and write and read.  I find time to do things like pay bills and go to the movies and yep--be spontaneous.  You list is up to you.  Start with the basics like work, school, studying, commuting, kids, and then go from the basic to the more personal stuff like meals and laundry.  List all of it and then categorize it and then sub categorize your listed items.  You can start at the beginning of the day.  You may start your day with meditation and prayer or exercise.  Put it all down.  You will be surprised at how much you do. 

If you do this right, you will have a better understanding of yourself and be able to "design" a rich schedule for your life.

These are two very different types of lists.  The knowledge list is a list of things you know.  The idea list is a list of ideas or things that you do or want to do or want to know.  There is a big difference in these two types of list.  A knowledge list can be built by making an idea list.  The two can be used together when building a system of ideas or a paper.  So these two kinds of lists are great for dumping whats up in your head to sort out visually.  And that is what we are doing.  We are dumping our brains and sorting the information so we can make some visuals. 

We will be making two kinds of maps during our next class.  We will be building Concept Maps (Knowledge lists) and Mind maps (idea lists).

Bring some colored pencils or color markers and your drawing pad. 

I will give you my lecture on mind mapping and concept mapping and we will have some fun drawing our concept and mind maps in class this coming Monday.  The maps are only as good as your lists, so spend some time with them. 

The class assignment and thumbnail handouts are located:
http://www.joanmariegiampa.com/teaching/basic_design.html
 

Yes...you will be doing some thinking with your pencil this week.  Thumbnails are thinking with your pencil.  They are tiny visual notes that collectively add up to some bigger visual notes called roughs.  We will go over this method on Monday when I give you my "Recipe for Successful Design"

I want you to fill this thumbnail sheet up with visual ideas for the next assignment "Line Dynamics" 

After you fill in the sheet, I want you to pick the best 3 thumbnails and make larger visuals...6" x 6".  That's right, make 3 roughs from the thumbnail session.  Bring your thumbnail sketches and the three rough sketches you came up with to our next class.  This will take some time and I know you are probably wanting to skip both of these steps, but don't.  Make your thumbnails first and then pick the best three and make your rough sketches.  If you do the work, you will get to the final step.  We will review your thumbnails and roughs on Monday and then choose the best rough to be taken to the final stage for a critique next Wednesday, February 11.  Your comp or comprehensive will be due next Wednesday.  If you do the first two stages, then by Monday, you will be one step away from your Comprehensive Design and it will be an easy step to lay it out by Wednesday.

So you will bring 5 things to class this coming Monday.

1. Knowledge List
2. Idea List
3. Thumbnail page
4. 3 Rough sketches 6" x 6"
5. colored pencils and pens and sketch pad
   

Class will go as follows on Monday>

I will lecture on "the recipe for successful design", we will take a look at thumbnails and roughs and then the second half of class we will be making our maps.  Come prepared with paper and colored pens and pencils and this should be a really fun class...but you must be prepared.

Best,

PP