Earth Hour

Look what google did in light of earth hour, no pun intended.


My house is definitely participating in Earth hour, I think it is a great opportunity to help a lot of people realize that the planet needs help. My mother, in fact, thought it was such a great idea that she decided we are going to hold this event twice a week. the net energy savings add up to about 12kW/h per month(we turn off computers as well). It may not sound like much, but it will build in time.

The TTC

Alright, since I actually encounter this problem very often, despite never having been on a street car, train, or any other form of TTC, I have experienced it.

My current problem is with the Street car;
There is law that requires you stop and wait if a street cars doors are open. Although these laws are "strongly enforced",in the past 2 years I have been driving, I've not seen many people actually stop. I do, and when I do, ignorant drivers get annoyed with me, because apparently they are in such a huge rush they can't wait for the people getting off the street car.

TODAY
I stop, as everyone should, when I saw the doors of a street car open. An already very enraged (from what I could tell by the way he was driving) man in a beamer has to stop behind me. My guess was that he didn't want to stop, or he had no clue of the law in place that says you must stop. Anyways, he waits for a moment, but decides to be a complete ass hole and try and go around me by using the parking on the side of Lakeshore Rd as a lane. Me being the driver that i am, i like to let someone know when i think they are driving ignorantly. I noticed that the doors of the street car were closing and said street car was starting to pulling forward, so with my hand pressed firmly on my horn, i began to tailgate the offending driver. Of course he only made it about 30 meters ahead of the street car and turns left, as he is doing so he's obviously yelling at me and giving me the finger. Being the big, tough man he was to give the finger and swear at a teenager, he was wearing full out winter ensemble, including really thick gloves and a toque with a plump, fuzzy ball atop it.

So that whole event really got me angry and got me thinking. TTC really needs to either increase the size of the signs that say it's a law to stop, because honestly they aren't noticeable unless you happen to be looking directly at it. Or, they just need to have law enforcement come down heavier on the people that do it.


But I honestly think the biggest problem is people don't know, I didn't know, until someone in front of me stopped and I had now clue why they were stopping until i looked directly at the street car.

AIGA Student Competition and Future Trends

I believe that current trends are bringing design to a much simpler, and possibly even more towards a humorous attitude. People over time have developed a lot less patience for advertising that takes longer then two seconds to fully understand. Time is money, and time and money are some of things a lot of people don’t have to spare, so ad’s need to be quick, understandable, but also descriptive in a glance. Humor has also taken a different course over the years it has gone from completely unacceptable to somewhat acceptable, to acceptable. Society has learned to lighten up a bit, and they don’t mind being called stupid to their face without actually recognizing that that’s what is happening in most cases. I think as far as the student’s work went, most of them hit almost dead on with what I said. I honestly believe that because of the luxuries those students these days have grown up with, that when we hit the industries, there could very well be a HUGE change.

What Design work would I refuse?

Honestly, if it pays I’ll do it. I don’t think that it is my responsibility to keep the public from anything, like cigarettes, it is their responsibility. If they don’t have enough will power, or smarts to do research or to make that decision on their own, then they deserve to be influenced.

Are Designers Obliged to do pro bono work?

I think at certain point in a designer’s career, it should at least be considered. I don’t think that we should be requested to do it any time soon, especially so early in our career. I understand that it does give the designer who did the pro bono work will receive considerable credit for the work they did, but I don’t think it is really necessary until a fair time later in a designers career. If I was offered pro bono work, my answer to whether or not I would do it or not would definitely depend on what point of my career I am in, what company it was for, and how financially stable I am at the time.

Things I have learned so far

+Bragging does not make you feel as good as you think it would.
+Despite any precautions you take to avoid it, your going to get hurt some how, but it will almost always teach you something.
+Nothing ever goes the way you want it to, and the way it does go almost always ends up working out better then the way you wanted it to.
+High school was a joke, and still is.
+One of the hardest things to do is to try and convince our parents to admit that they were wrong. (not all but certainly most of the ones I have come across)
+We want 20% more then what we have.
+Kids are expensive.
+Teenagers are ignorant.
+Adults are... (I can't even explain it)
+Never depend on people, just pretend you do to avoid hurting their feelings.
+Lieing can ruin you.

‘Writing is Design’

(image: telus.com)

I agree to the fullest that writing is a major part of design, Especially now with simpler advertising which seems to be advancing in popularity quickly. Straight forward and eye catchy words on a simple background with 1-3 images, that’s what hits big now. It gets the most attention from the public. I do believe that as designers we should know a bit about somewhat ‘clever’ writing in order to provide not only a well thought out design, but also copy that goes along well with the image, coming from the original designer.

Are Advertising and Graphic Design Moving toward delivering ‘experience’ as the end product?

I believe that they have already started selling the experience in the process of selling any product. I believe the reason for this is that companies believe that in order to make the customer understand the product fully, they have to show them how it would make them ‘feel’. Companies like Apple sell the feeling of music and how it can make you feel, Using colours and simple shapes that could easily be replaced with things the consumer can relate to. Like being able to put themselves in place of the cutout like dancing people. Beer companies such as Guinness, Labatt Blue, and Canadian also commonly use selling the experience. Using the beautiful women crowding around the men that are drinking the beer, or a group of friends all enjoying the game at the bar while drinking beer, they make the consumer feel like that could be them.

Reflection on AIGA part one

AIGA Command X was an excellent experience for not only the students that participated in it, but also for our own class. It was an excellent experience for the students that participated in it; because of the opportunity they had for people that are high in the graphic design industry to give their full opinion on what they thought about their work. It was also a good opportunity for our class because it almost reassures us that what we are actually doing in class could easily match what the students had done up there.

The only thin I had a problem with was, the judges and the host. They where either to busy talking about what they had done in the past, or cracking corny jokes, rather then giving full detail feedback. And the host...he was so cheesy, it became annoying.

Other then that, I would love to have participated in something like that with the short time limits, because most of my best work is done when I am under pressure for a time limit. It is also very reassuring to me when I get feedback from people I have either never met, or are somehow correlated in the industry.

This Commercial makes me so mad.

There is this Whiskas ad out where a man shakes a little bag of Whiskas cat treats, the camera switches to a shot of a wall with several patched and unpatched holes in it. Then suddenly a cat flies threw the wall, putting a giant hole in it and makes a mess as it slides across the hardwood floors.

Who on earth would willingly ask for an animal to plow through their drywall?


No one wants holes in there walls!

Every time I see this I just want to kick the cat out of the house and yell at the man that tempts this cat to perform this "amazing" feat, multiple times, or ever at all, because he's an idiot.

10 things that make me happy

10. Blue skies, sun, warm air, lots of clear highway, and good music.

9. Finishing an assignment and actually being happy with what I did.

8. Shopping.

7. When my dog acts like a human.

6. Laughing so hard I cry.

5. Talking about the past present and future with some of my closest friends over coffee, it really helps you appreciate how lucky you are.

4. Carl.

3. Watching movies with the fireplace on and a blanket.

2. Helping my mom.

1. The Christmas Holidays.