the list.

Here's what I have as of November 2008.

1. Teacher brand

2. 365

3. Junk

4. Make Data

5. Poem Book

6. RQ

7. Language based project

8. Something on change and green

9. Sketchbook

10. Current Events Painting

make data.

I want to do a very experimental project. I don't know where it's leading quite yet, but I'd like to "make data." I think the way it will start is that I am going to do a series of drawings while listening to Radio lab. As I draw, I will be inspired by the sounds I hear and ideas the broadcast shares. I will also take notes on each show. Somehow these various bits of information collected will be turned into some sort of code that produces some sort of data that somehow creates something.

There are a whole lot of somes in there. I've still got a lot of thinking to do.

radio lab drawing 1.

Hippo in ballet shoes. Taking a HUGE concept and dumbing it down to the appropriate level of acceptable stupidity.

Layers of sound to make an enriching story. They explain science as though it were a story.

Getting in the book. Love a book or story so much that a person want to be within the book physically.

Biological laughter. Being linked to other humankind biologically.

Science as entertainment takes science back to the level of third grade before it became nothing but memorization.

What would be want the aliens to know about us. A gesture more than a practical idea. Laughing babies of every species and Bach.

the author of peter pan.

Whoa. I just listened on Radio Lab about the Peter Pan author, J. M. Barrie, and people believe his physical growth was stunted from emotional stress - psychogenic dwarfism.

His mother's favorite child died. She was so distraught that she remained in bed for almost the rest of her life. He would come in the room and she would ask if he was the other son. His physical growth was stunted at that point on. The mother seemed happy that at least her favorite son would stay a little boy forever, Barrie yearned to fill the shoes of his departed brother. Very interesting considering the story he wrote about never growing up.

2 new potential project ideas.

1. Graphically represent, or tell the story of, an episode of Radio Lab.
If I had assigned this to a class, it would be neat to assign each student a different one, and play them during class for as the students work.

2. Take a song and graphically represent the sounds. Come up with a representation that communicates what the sounds are - ie: Zoe Keating the Quantum Cello player.

wnyc public radio, i love you.

I'm listening right now to one of the most inspiring things I've heard in a while. I'm listening to Robert Krulwich's commencement speech at Cal Tech this year. He's talking about the importance of approachable narrative for the masses in high-level intellectual discourse.

His manner or speaking is just that. It's approachable, beautiful, poetic, funny, and intelligent.

We live in a time where information is easily created and distributed. It's wonderful, but it's also frightening. False information can be sensationalized. It can be turned into compelling stories that hook the masses. Krulwich spoke of cheaply produced, beautifully, skillfully written text books in Turkey that are providing high school students with a creationist view of the world. There are chapters on "The Darwin Conceit." He said that 25 percent of Turkish people believe in evolution and 40 percent of Americans believe in it.

Though I really do trust science, I'll admit that I think it's possible that evolution could be wrong. I believe in it, and at the risk of sounding ignorant, I will say that science has been wrong before. BUT...and this is a huge but, I think it is absolutely horrifying to literally interpret a book that has been translated over thousands of years by cultures much more primitive than ours. I can only imagine that amount of errors that exist in those books. The number must be huge.

I also think it's horrible to condemn people to hell for not believing this information. I'm not sure I believe in hell, but who knows? Exists or not, I think it is plain mean to poison our collective conscience with these ideas.

Back to Krulwich, he spoke of the importance of sharing information that is tested, studied and true in ways that the masses can understand. To make it a compelling story. Don't be like Sir Isaac Newton (in his typical British snobbery) who did not care for common people to hear his scholarly idea. Be like Galileo, who published is information in ways that people can understand.

We don't have the answers and we probably never will. But why not keep trying. What else do we have to do while we're here on this earth.

Contest.

Green Earth Contest.

Hmm.

Ideas...what does it mean to have a greener earth. my big concern is preserving human interaction with the earth that has existed for thousands of years. Somehow represent a timeline. Preserving the timeline. The earth will go on.

These don't seem strong. Keep thinking.

Definitions.

Justin was urging me to start oil painting. I don't feel quite ready to start something yet, but I feel ready to start planning something – especially when I'm in Taiwan. I think I will have the time, inspiration, and focus to try to build something with my painting.

Here are ideas of which I might want contributing in some way to a meaningful body of work:
1. Change
2. Collage of Elements
3. Typography
4. Solution/Statement/Questioning
5. Elements that are extremely realistic
6. Complex
7. Taking figurative expressions and making them literal in their visual form

Brainstorm:
1. Haha...a literal Brainstorm about a subject of importance
2. Illustrating (in a fresh complex way) headlines from CNN.com

Anything I do would be in hopes that I could put on a show and have something that would apply to a graphic design portfolio.

idenity (not the graphic kind).

I've spent, for just about as long as I can remember, wishing "things" could be better. I've wished as hard as I possible could that my family didn't have the problems we were constantly having. Most of them were centered around the stress of a large family not having enough money, but there were certainly others.

I came to the conclusion this morning, that I'm really okay with these problems. I've accepted them. They were a challenge, but they made life and interesting (sometimes scary). We're lucky because we've always managed to be okay. We're healthy and happy. Maybe things didn't turn out how my parents envisioned their lives would be, but I think we've made it through the bad stuff, and we can keep moving forward.

I think this is interesting when I ponder my lack of a cultural identity. Yes, I'm American, but America is so large. We have a lot of regional subcultures, and I've never really been able to latch on to one. I'm from the North, I'm a transplant, but I got here before we started having transplants, so I don't quite feel like I fit in there. I definitely don't feel southern because I was raised to feel outside of southern culture. I cling to having long-time-ago english roots because I can at least sense some of that I'm my upbringing (food, stories, personalities), but that idea is laughable and even ridiculed because both my parents and grandparents grew up here. I think that's a reason I like to travel. I don't necessarily feel culturally tied to one place. I do love the south though. I really love Raleigh. I think it is a wonderful place. A strange, confusing place, but a wonderful one at that.

I wonder about what attracted me to the art and design world. I feel for a lot of people, art is something people turn to when they are at a loss. When they feel ill at ease. There is a desire to create a new reality when the one at hand doesn't seem quite right. I think it's closely linked to problem solving.

I feel sort of disheartened in not having a tight cultural identity to feel locked into, but I feel better when realize that design is my identity. I grew up in a culture of searching for solutions to work hard to make things better. It begins at some of my earliest memories.

I think design, a place where everyone is welcome, a place that belongs to humanity itself, will have to be my identity. I intend to keep that going.

idea for when i'm a teacher someday.

First day of class. Each student is given a cover for a book to make. Small and hand-held. It will be the place to put any idea that can be applied to something later. It will be a practical tool. It would be an idea database for student to go to when they have ideas that they might want to do later.

It would be THE thing to go and write down ideas in as they come.

I would like to it be different from a sketchbook. It would be more specific. These are idea that I can eventually use for work projects when I'm stuck.

You see a commercial that's using a really cool, fresh type treatment. Right it down.

You think of a logo mark that would be awesome...you just don't have the company to make it for.

The benefit would be the keeping this inquisitive idea search very top-level in their mind.

Justin brought up the point that I would have to make it so students would be inclined to actively use it. Maybe 10 minutes at the beginning of each class...I write something on the board that could inspire an idea. I don't know if these solve the issue.

FUN

plans.

Portfolio pieces as of now right now.

1. 三百六十五 (that's 365 in mandarin)
A record of one year's time in Taiwan learning mandarin. Photos, drawings, collected artifacts, lesson plans, ideas. Learning Chinese is important for career development. China is big and being a person who understands it will be a key asset in my career--especially in design because 1,000,000 people a year graduate in graphic design in china, compared to 200,000 overall american designers right now.

2. Type portraits
Use typefaces to do intricate, large paintings of typographers.

3. Junk sculpture
Guerrilla art: use one year's saved junk mail to make junk mail monsters coming out of mail boxes. Done in efforts to vent my frustration on a the design medium I love so much (in its pure forms) that makes me create junk mail to sustain myself financially...sidenote: I am fully aware that it is necesary that I should "pay my dues" and I am happy to do so, but I think that while I'm paying my dues, there is no reason why I shouldn't be trying to understand things and make them better.

4. AIGA
Type-night poster. Band posters for alterna-fest

5. Make Data
Do something awesome and fun...a drawing...video...song...intensely, not knowing the direction that it is leading into. Use this drawing to inspire an intelligent document of important information which is designed very carefully, intricately, and intelligently.

6. Teacher Brand
Use the power of design to facilitate and strengthen something of importance. Teachers don't have the money to invest in design but deserve it.

7. RQ
Using design in a facet that will inspire creatively and make life more meaningful. The future of design will be inspired my the rising creative class. More and more we are seeing that science cannot do everything on its own and we need creative thinkers to drive good change.

8. Sketchbook
Evidence that a person is always thinking and always in search of new ideas.

9. Sustainability
Something?

10. Sagmeister
Postcard and photos. Important because I enjoyed being a part of something that was dedicated to a designer who has made his way doing what he think is right.

vacation makes me think.

I got sad while at our family tradition summer vacation home because it make me consider somethings. I am so interested in sustainability that I want to dedicate my career to it. I want to study change and understand what it takes for communicate the need (or lack of need) for different types of social change. The sustainability issue is so important, in my opinion, because if we don't do something about these problems, we will destroy human interaction with the earth. I say human interaction, because I believe the earth will go on just fine.

I got sad because I started thinking about my dear cousin, who has always been a part of the fond memories I have from my whole life of taking this vacation. She's 2 years younger than me and surprised us all by having this very impressive engineering career. The highest paid of all the engineers. I was sort of proud of her. Good for her, being a female doing something many females might shy away from. But I started to consider what her job is. She, as a petroleum engineer, is looking for ways to get the most out of oil fields. Get oil in the most efficient way.

Everyday I think about ways that will make oil a thing of the past. Oil sustains our reliance on gas and cars and global warming. Global warming will destroy the world as we know and love in ways we can hardly predict. It is disheartening to realize that you just might profoundly disagree with someone that you love, who you have grown up with, someone of your own flesh and blood.

I don't know her side of the story. I am scared to ask. I fear that I don't like it, and I don't want to know it. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she is doing this because she is looking for a career where she can help. Maybe she wanted to join a flawed and dirty profession with the ideas that in the future she would be in a unique position to make it better. Maybe I don't know what I think I know. Maybe what I think to be true is wrong.

I got sadder when her brother told me that she might move to the outer banks because there might be oil there that could sustain the United States' oil consumption for 70 years. That is most likely the rest of my life. It makes me sad to think that for the rest of my life we will be using oil because I want this to change now.

I felt better though, when I heard that by 2015, Mercedes will not be making cars that use gasoline. Mercedes...a company being socially responsible and who will appeal to the greedy, brand-hungry masses. Put that way, it sounds kind of awful, but I am hopeful because what we need is for eco-effectiveness to be mainstream. We need sustainability to continue to shift full-speed ahead to be the acceptable standard. I really hope it does, and I think it will.

everybody watch the 11th hour.

So, I was just repeatedly made fun of for taking notes on a Friday night as I watch a documentary in my living room. It was so good. I didn't want to miss anything.

Some ideas...

The wrong growth reduces quality of life. That's sort of how consumerism makes me sad. A psychologist in the film was saying that our obsession with new things is because we are craving a replacement for earth's beauty. My mom said once that she thinks it's because we are denying ourselves the primitive instinct hunting and gathering.

We are connected to nature physically in our DNA.

There is a rise in cancer and asthma because of our "progress" and industry. We try to treat these things with more study and research - which is good. That needs to happen, but I can't help but hope that at the same time, we are looking for ways to avoid prolonging our production of the chemicals that are making us sick.

I love culture. An interest in reducing consumerism and redesigning industry is not to say that we have a dull existence. Like McDonough says, we want 400 kinds of cheese in France. We just want it in a way that does not destroy our planet and species.

Fight the power. Stop being lazy and unhappy. Make a statement about things that are wrong. Immobilize for common good. Like Billy Warden was saying, this is an exciting time in history. We can as a generation be heroes like the WWII generation. This is wonderful. The opportunity is amazing.

McDonough: Redesign design.

John Todd is an ecodesigner. Interesting. Want to do more research on that.

Tesla!

On the film they were talking about a dance club that is powered by the dancers. The floor would absorb the energy from the dancers and use it to power the club. It's being developed in the Netherlands.

Love makes us human and love makes us care.

heteronormativity.

I just found out there's a word for how I'm oppressing homosexuals. I feel so bad. I don't want to do that.

Maybe our growing acceptance of homosexuality (as slow as it is) is evolution's way of telling us that we should stop all our reproducin' because we be destroying the world.

so much.

There is so much to think about and do. I don't do enough. I want TV and I sleep late.

question (the verb kind).

Noam Chomsky. Hmm. He's a buzz person. I wish I were cooler and could say that I have always been a huge fan of his. Sorry, but I am slow on the draw for this one, but I will say that should not deter anyone from wanting to absorb his words and ideas. In fact, the impression I got from him would condone the newcomers. Why not? If it is for the common good, then why put a stop to it.

Some things I liked. Intellectuals should look to themselves and question where their fault lies rather than always looking at where others are wrong. The American media should look at what America is doing wrong and question what could be done better.

He spoke about manufactured fear. That is crazy difficult to avoid. It's an interesting idea. I need to start looking for ways.

He said we should not deny who we are as people. I took that to mean that I should look for ways to improve the world in the areas in which I am suited to do so. I don't necessarily need to rally steel workers (his example). I think that's why I am interesting in teaching.

He spoke about the faux-conservatives who want lots of control so a chosen elite few can be in charge of everything. It made me think of the idea about student loans and credit payments. I am obedient because I have to be. My security will be threatened when I choose to act.

I am terrible. I love ideas, but I love comfort. I do not yet know how to threaten my comfort to do what is right. I am very selfish. I don't know what to do about that. I guess I should continue to think and try to do the right thing.

cloud cult cult.

So, my niece was christened this weekend which makes me ponder a bit about human spirituality -- a continuously perplexing subject. We are so intelligent. So advanced. We moved so far from our primitive ways of the past. That's mostly true, but I feel that our early primitive tendencies are still lingering somewhere in our DNA.

I guess for me, it is nice to feel connected with thousands of years of human tradition that has a common good message. I participate in it, so it doesn't die. I don't know what renouncing Satan means literally, but I do know what I think in a symbolic way it means to do your best to be a nice, loving, responsible human being. The meaning of Satan has changed since the years when we thought he was a woolly red man with horns and a pitch fork.

Seeing a band I love, Cloud Cult, makes me think consider some similar ideas. The band culture. So hip. Too cool for...lots of stuff. Especially church. When I got to church services and I see people singing with their eyes closed and holding there hands up in the air for Jesus, I can't help but roll my eyes a bit. It occurred to me that I am just like that when I see bands though. Maybe I shouldn't poke so much fun.

Cloud Cult was amazing, though. It felt like religion.

it said thank you on his crotch.

I really enjoyed Sagmeister's lecture. I often worry that I am not critical enough. So, I will start by saying something critical. He kept standing in front of the projector and his thank you slide projected onto his crotch. He should be more careful than to let his crotch say thank you.

But seriously, I ate everything he said up. The biggest thing I can take away from the lecture is having guts. Be brave and do what you think is right. Be critical about what might be right, but when you feel you are right stand up for it.

The lecture also inspired me to be more diligent. I should edit my ideas to come up with the best solution. I should work to not be satified with sub-par. What's my hurry? I am always working to get something done and wary of delays.

Sagmeister's ideas are so creative and solid. I think the key is lots of careful thinking and absolute dedication.

Favorites: Spending almost the entire budget on an expensive mold for an annual report, using photos under different light for all the illustrations. An art party where the art is the party. Sugar typography. Inflatable bar graphs. Urination typography.

He also wrote in our speech bubble about have guts. I think that might be the biggest message. Having guts.

icons.

So, I was thinking a nice aspect to my portfolio book would be to categorize each piece I do. I have 3 parts to my purpose for going back to school. I think each piece within my portfolio book should refer to one of the parts, and should have a clear icon to depict where is falls. It would just be another level to take in as one peruses the work. I think it will also help add more depth to aspect that might seem like self-expression. If I have a clear, informed way of supporting the value in my documentations, I think it will be a stronger piece.

Parts:
1. Change
2. Designs ability to make life meaningful
3. Take the guilty conscious out of graphic design

4d.

http://designmuseum.org/design/r-buckminster-fuller

I like this dude. He had a philosophy of 4 dimensions to consider when design, the fourth being time. He suggested a careful consideration on long-term consequences over the span of time for the things we create.

Sometimes I feel cheated. I want so much to do what is right for the world and planet, but I do not feel that the design of the world we now live in makes this entirely possible. In order to succeed in planning to fix the things that are wrong, we still do damage. I suppose the hope is that the good will have an exponentially good effect.

damn, rick poynor (in a good way).

I eat up Rick Poynor's words. Brits have such a good way of seeing the world.

When questioning the search for that newness to which humans are so obsessively attracted, Poynor says, "One thing you might start to wonder is whether all the effort that goes into this search might be better directed into trying to gain a deeper insight into what you have already discovered."

That's another thing that really interests me. I want to study change, and this idea has a deep connection to change. Just because I intend to study change does not mean I am pro-change all the time for any reason. Change should happen when change is needed.

Like church. WHY DO WE NEED DRUMSETS AND ELECTRIC GUITARS IN CHURCH!!!!!!!! Can't there be one thing in our lives that celebrates hundreds of years of tradition. Something that stays solemn and beautiful. It seems to me that church would a decent stage for keeping it pure. I like feeling connected to centuries of humans before me celebrating the deep and meaningful philosophy of our own existence.

But that was off-topic.

Poynor says that "more information does not necessarily add up to greater understanding." I feel that comments like these are very helpful for me personally when needing concrete information to help support my intentions in returning to school. I want to study it all. Learn it all. Understand it all.

making my mother worry.

So...Josh is visiting now and got me really excited about an idea. I think I am going to teach English in Taiwan starting in January.

Why?

Josh loved it there. It will be good experience. I will work 20 hours a week, make more than I make now, and spend about 100 dollars a month on rent and utilities. WHAT? This just seems to be a good idea of something to do before I head off to grad school. And I can save some monies.

After a year there, I hope to go teach English somewhere French speaking. Then...I'd like to go do the school stuff.

I am getting certified to teach English abroad in May. It's a six week course. I don't necessarily need to do this course to get a job, but I think it would be interesting to get trained in this stuff. I really would like to teach, so this is a baby step in learning how to do it.

I am so excited about all this stuff. Writing it out helps me not totally flip out from all the excitement, and since I just want to sleep for the next 9 or so months and wake up and be doing this stuff...I should probably search for ways to calm myself and focus on my current position in space and time so not to take it for granted. Sometimes I get so caught up making plans for the future that I forget about my life in the present.*

*That non-sentence is the kind of bad grammar makes English teachers cry. Kind of ironic, since I am thinking about teaching English. Hopefully, the knowledge I have to share will stay sort of basic. Haha.

500 sheets of paper = 6% tree.

I am researching how to start a guerrilla tree-planting project. I don't think this will necessarily make a difference, but it might make a statement.

I don't have the audacity to say I am right. I screw up all the time. I am trying to the best of my knowledge, and I want to know how to make things right.

List of Names?
TreesNOW
Seed Theory
Guerrilla Tree Club
Urban Jungle
Tr[ees]
[SEE]D
Hypothesis
[Plan]t
City Jungle

i watched the Gandhi movie.

Ever since I first learned about Gandhi, he has always been really special to me. Knowing a person like that existed at one point in time leaves me with a positive feeling about mankind's possibilities. But we live in a world of polar opposites. It seems whenever we have a person as great as Gandhi, there is someone despicable enough to carry out his assassination.

It infuriates me that there are problems like this in the world.

i just wanna get my learn on.

So, I just found a program for an online Masters degree. It's at UNCG and prepares grads to teach at the Community College level. It's a Masters of Arts in Liberal Studies.

The courses are things like Biorhythms, the Contemporary World, Age of Revolutions, and many more totally awesome courses that I want to take so much. I just want to learn and study for the rest of my life and make that my job.

People might say: Well, you can do that no matter what your job is.

My response: I want more than that. I want my job to be learning and I want to learn more outside of my job.

I want to study humanity present/future/past from a design perspective because design is what makes us human. It is what separates us from animals, it is why we have a complex civilization. I feel akin to the early philosophers (but not as smart) in wanting to spend every moment studying what we are, why we are here, and what we might be capable of in the future.

butter.

I would like to take a moment to applaud Ramada Inn. As I cruise through the jumble and mess that is our visual landscape, I often pause and take a relaxed, almost therapeutic, breath when I come across a billboard or ad showing Ramada Inn's new identity. They have made a leap away from the clunky, screaming logos of other comparable hotels.

Apparently, this new identity is a part of a huge branding effort made in order to upgrade their image. It is nice when a company's brand translates the message to its visual counterpart with such fluidity and grace.

So, what is Days Inn trying to say with their new logo? I see butter packaging. I'm not sure if that was their intent. I read on the Wydham Worldwide site that the goal was to translate their company pledge "A promise as sure as the sun" into their new branding. Promise? Wait a second. That's a kind of butter. Slippery, greasy, artery clogging butter. Seriously, what is their deal with butter?

I suppose my interpretation doesn't not coincide with Days Inn's intent, but I will say that I personally feel that Ramada wins this rebranding round. Good job, Ramada.

on green.

All this green stuff is daunting and a bit ridiculous. How is it even possible? We are certainly doomed. There is just no way. We've gone too far in the wrong direction. Anyone who tries is just a hypocrite.

When bad thoughts like that start creeping into my mind, I remember that I am an optimist, and I prefer to play on the team that at least tries. That's why I want to make design problems like these my career.

It is going to take at least 100 years to change the world, just like it took about 100 years to get as bad as we are now.

Go green.

skiing = near death.

A trip to the North Carolina mountains did provide me an excellent 3 hour drive by myself where I could think and come up with some new ideas.

However, those ideas could have easily been utterly pointless had my first run down the non-bunny slope killed me like I thought it would while in progress. Let's just say people were staring and saying "Oh, my God" as I zipped by them screaming for dear life and unable to stop.

I made it back to the safety of my computer unscathed and ready to jot a couple thoughts on career development and future ideas.

Portfolio Ideas:
1. Figure out how to make entire portfolio book compostable
2. Take UNC online courses
3. Start a guerilla tree planting club

Blog ideas:
1. Days Inn versus Ramada
2. Phonebooks out of date

today.

So, I met with MD today. She gave me insight about various programs and the sort of degree that comes out of particular schools. She stressed the importance of choosing the right school.

Right off the bat...NC State seemed to be the correct for me. She talked about programs geared towards a polished body of work (Pentagram-like work), ones geared toward self expression and experimenting (using design forms and ideas to artistic pieces), and mentioned ones based on research and the future of the practice (NC State).

Future of the practice?

That is exactly what I want to do. I have that tiny seed of a dream to figure out how to do what McDonough and Braungart are doing for architecture and industry. I feel the need to go to school to earn a more intensive education where I can focus on these ideas and gain an informed perspective.

So. She also mentioned that the problem with NCSU undergrads coming back for grad is that they have trouble making the leap toward having different relationships with professors. She said a good way to counter that is to gain experience. She said it was good that I want work more to get more experience, and she said a year abroad teaching would be good experience as well to counter those challenges.

She also gave me some places to start researching. Even though I feel strong about NCSU, it will be good to keep looking to see if I might be better suited somewhere else.

Another thought. If I cannot apply while I am abroad because of interviews, maybe I should spend a year when I get back working on my portfolio and working at a less demanding job.

Crazzzzzzy.

I hope this stuff works out. I know this is where I want to head. I just need to plan, take advice, and work really hard.

laughable?

So. At such early stages in my thinking and ideas, I have a feeling that I will look back on these early stages of posting and think "laughable."

That's okay, I suppose.

So, here it is after months of coffee shop lunches:

I would like to be more informed of the design of human communication with a focus on how our ideas have changed and will change over time.

Some goals:
1. Use design to make life meaningful.
2. Fight social ills with communication and collaboration.
3. Take the guilty conscience out of graphic design.

I wonder what might happen in the future with all this.

what and why.

I thought it might be time to start organize my thinking.