BHO & FDR

I'm not very good with presidents, but from what I can tell, FRD and BHO are very alike in the way that they've come in a time of need. Both appeared like heroes to the people when there was an economic downfall. People saw them as a light in the dark, a hope when there was none, after an era of people like Hoover who did nothing and Bush who only seemed to make things worse.

FDR changed things by interacting with his people and taking action instead of just sitting back and letting the economy take its own course. He said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," and calmed everyone's panic about the great depression.

Obama came and swept the nation off its feet with his campaign about change, and inn his inaugural speech, he said something similar to that of FDR. He said, "the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met. On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord."

Both of them were quite popular, as well. FDR gained popularity by coming during the 1930s when everything was going wrong and he was the solution to all of the problems Hoover had left untouched. Not only that, he connected with his people through the radio air waves and amazed them with how many acts he passed to help them--billions of dollars in relief. Obama seems to be popular because he's the first black president, but not only that, he seems to be the type of person who can relate to his people. I've seen and heard news about him going bowling, visiting the Grand Canyon with his family, and working out in gyms like normal everyday people. He also seems to be changing things, as he has promised in his campaign.

Both are the heroes that emerged from a battlefield of a quick but heartbreaking war against the economy. They came to fix things that people have messed up, and they are fixing it.

Sources: FDR Chapter 4, CNN Obama's inaugural speech

In the Dust Bowl

If SkinIt or graphic design firms had existed in the Great Depression era (computers or graphic design didn't even exist at that time), I doubt it would survive. Their products are just luxuries, not necessities, so they wouldn't last very long in a time where money was scarce and people would rather spend it on food and water. However, there is the rare chance of a big cropping industry, like the ones that printed the "Come to California!" flyers in Grapes of Wrath, would go to a graphic designer and ask them to create an attractive brochure. These attractive brochures would work their magic on families like the Joads. In that case, the designer would get paid a good amount but it would only be a one-time gig, and then the designer would be out of a job too. The design industry of that time would definitely sink.

One GOW Character

4 Quotes and what they reveal about the character

Jim Casy

"Yes sir, that's my Saviour,/Je--sus is my Saviour,/Je--sus is my Saviour now./On the level/'S not the devil,/Jesus is my Saviour now." - Page 19, Chapter 4
This is the very first thing Jim Casy says, and I think it reveals his alignment of religion quickly. Right away, it states he's a Christian with this quote.

"Got a lot of sinful idears--but they seem kinda sensible." - Page 20, Chapter 4
This quote intends that Jim Casy thinks a lot and has his own mind and ideas. It's also a foreshadow that tells that he will reveal those ideas, maybe slowly, and how they go against his religion. It also says he thinks it's okay, since he did say "sensible".

"Then I'd feel bad, an' I'd pray an' pray, but it didn't do no good. Come the nex' time, them an' me was full of sperit, I'd do it again. I figgered there just wasn't no hope for me, an' I was a damned ol' hypocrite. But I didn't mean to be." - Page 22, Chapter 4
This reveals the doubt and mistrust Jim Casy has in himself, and how he feels about it. He's also mindful, as he knows what he's done wrong but doesn't fix it even if he tries.

"Before I knowed it, I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. It's all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain't nice, but that's as far as any man got a right to say.'" -Page 23, Chapter 4
Jim Casy reveals his beliefs in the matters of sin and virtue after wondering if it was okay to lay with girls in the grass. He seems to be enlightened by his ideas, but he's always mulling it over, it seems.

Examples of good student work

Dani's Photo Essay - She uses a common subject, and her essay is like a narrative story, which captivates the reader. I know I was captivated by the first few words! She uses the writing tips (make meaning early, etc.), as well as the rules of photography, really well. I love how each of her photos have a different and unique perspective too, like the one with the glass down the middle. It almost looks photoshopped but it's not! Also the first picture with the blurred foreground, and the gorilla portrait with the rule of thirds.

Audrey's Photo Essay - The photos' composition were neat and clear, and the essay had a visible theme in resources. She uses the rule of thirds, foreground/background, contrast, and other photo techniques beautifully.

Madison's DP - Organized, simple, easy on the eyes, and it doesn't stretch the page. It's also colorful in an artistically pleasing way, and the featured projects are clear on the page. The navigation is also very user-friendly.

Internship Photo Essay

The Fountain That Spurts Chocolate Flowers

Final Designs – What did I make?

Sakura

I’ve always been skilled with illustrations and design, and I’ve always thought about my future. Ever since I entered high school and I heard about internships from my brother, I thought about where I would like to be placed. At the very end of my sophomore year, a future High Tech High Media Arts teacher saw me working on a photo manipulation, and he talked to me about what I liked to do. When I mentioned internships, he offered to set up one for me with his friend at SkinIt, a company that creates vinyl stickers that protect and personalize devices. In January of 2010, I spent three and a half weeks interning for John O’Brien. I spent my first weeks working on daily production, and then I got to move onto creating my own designs, not only as a project but as a personal goal to improve my graphic design skills and put my talent to the test. I had never done anything to such a large scale like this before, and I was excited for the opportunity to get my work into a world outside my own. Cherry Blossom was my first design. It was inspired by a box pattern that I thought was cute and my fascination with the Japanese culture. I created this design in Adobe Photoshop at the end of my first full week, using it to experiment with Smart Objects. I made nine color variations on it, and when I showed it to my sister, she suggested that I create a Jacaranda version of the Cherry Blossom design, so I did. It added to the color variations, and I think it looked nice. When I was creating it, I got a few critiques from my coworkers and mentor. For instance, I added scan lines behind the flowers and John told me, “I think it adds texture, especially for something like that where it’s a plain gradient.” I personally love the vibrant colors of the design as well, and I’m glad this was my first design.

Coffee

Spiral Dots, my second design, is, in my own opinion, my most original design. The inspiration for this came out of nowhere, almost literally, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with coffee, which is interesting because I don’t even drink coffee. This design started off as a grid of dots on Photoshop, which I tried to warp and transform in various ways, but it didn’t quite work the way I wanted it to. I tried bigger dots and smaller dots and it still didn’t look right. I had to then place every dot exactly where I wanted it, and exactly the size I wanted it. The whole process was really annoying, and there were so many layers that Photoshop became extremely slow, but it mostly came out the way I imagined it would look in my head, so I was happy. However, it caused me a lot of trouble, since after I got the dots arranged the way I wanted them to be, I couldn’t apply any Smart Filters to it because the file took up so much space that my computer ran out of space to render anything. Eventually I found the alternative in a fisheye warp, which looked a lot better than I thought it would. Then there was a problem with saving it—it took half an hour. I had to do a lot of waiting for this design, and then some more for the color variations of this design—there were over two dozen! I loved this design, but I also hated it. Well, as John said to me once, not being satisfied is part of being a good designer.

Sprout

Dream Fountain was the design I made after Spiral Dots. I hadn’t actually planned this to be my third design to begin with, and I had something more along the floral and going-green kind of theme in mind, but when I talked to my sister this idea came up and I started working on this at home on a weekend. I learned my lessons with Cherry Blossom and Spiral Dots, and I created the shapes for this design in Adobe Illustrator to save myself the trouble of a boatload of layers. I finished it at the art department office where I worked, and made a little over a dozen color variations. While I was laying this design out on some skin templates, John gave me some pointers on how to lay it out, since the lace at the top had a feminine touch to it and the design was somewhat gender-neutral. The top got cut off a little on a cell phone with a screen on the front or an iPod, but I didn’t mind it too much. I personally love this design—it’s simple and elegant, and it’s dedicated to my sister.

Skinners

After I created my designs and laid them out on the three archetype templates for laptops, cell phones, and music players, I used a premade Photoshop action to create skinners of them. Skinners are photorealistic models of the skin on a device. I did this because obviously, I had many designs and color variations, so instead of printing it all and wasting resources, I printed only a few and created 3D models of the rest. That way I could see how all the designs look, since I didn’t have three iPods to put my designs on or a Motorola Razor to skin. After I created the skinners, I arranged them in Adobe InDesign, so that I could have some comp sheets to print out. Comp sheets are layouts used to present some of the designs, along with the skinners to show how they looked on the devices. They were useful because my designs could be presented without actually having a skinned device with me. After all, the point of creating a skin design was to see it on a product!

Skinned Devices

After I created the comp sheets, the designs were printed and I actually skinned some of my own personal devices, along with some of my sister’s devices too. My final skinned devices look positively beautiful. I skinned my phone, my sister’s phone, both of our Game Boy Advance SP handheld gaming platforms, my Nintendo DS, and my Compaq laptop. A majority of my devices are decorated with my Dream Fountain design, but I absolutely adore my Cherry Blossom laptop. I’m very satisfied with the outcome of my project, my time at SkinIt, and my new personalized devices! SkinIt is something that is really addicting and I would definitely skin more things in the future. Unfortunately, my designs are unique to my own devices right now, since they are not up on the website, but I’ve talked to John and maybe someday everyone else can enjoy them too.

Hopes, Dreams, & Aspirations for Ampersand

On my part, I kind of want to have two of my articles published. My mentor interview is something I feel is really good, and it gives advice to beginners and lots of wise words. However, I also want to show off my project a bit, so maybe I'll write a second article or use my photo essay to detail my project.

As a published book, I like the title of Ampersand and I hope we can keep it. Maybe a uniform look for the covers, too, because I like the contrast of black and white, but perhaps we can change the image. I remember seeing a beautiful night scape on my way home yesterday, and I thought it would make a wonderful eye-catching cover.

My Mentor Interview Piece

John O’Brien: The Design of the Job
Things move quickly in the art and design industry, and SkinIt’s Creative Director John O’Brien gives a few words of advice to keep it fresh.

By Lynn Le

I pass many gargantuan, almost monumental structures on my way to work, one of which is the huge, wiry white pyramid that is Ashley’s Furniture Home Store. As I turn the corner of its mirror-windowed exterior, a long building comes into sight. At the end of it, a large black and green logo reads “SkinIt” as if it owns the whole edifice. I straighten my suit, enter through the front door, try not to get lost, and hope that I don’t seem too shy. I’m still intimidated by the whole idea of being an intern and working in a world outside my school. It’s just after 9:00 AM. I’m early.

John O’Brien walks into the art department office soon after I arrive. He’s wearing a T-shirt with a black polo over it, and there’s a striped collared shirt draped on the back of his chair that never seems to be worn. He sits down at his messy desk and gets straight to work, ignoring the scatters of paper around him. He checks his email, opens Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, and starts designing. Within the hour, he gets countless phone calls and rushes off to go to various meetings. When he comes back he talks to a coworker about what was said at this meeting or that thing that the sales department wanted them to do. The ideas bounce, they get back to work, and the office falls awkwardly quiet.

John is a native San Diegan who went to school at Chico State in northern California, where he was an avid art student. With encouragement from his friends and family, he pursued his passion for design, and AP art classes in high school and the Otis College of Art and Design pushed him along the path to his career. However, he didn’t quite get out of college with the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree he had aimed for. He had been two classes short of getting it because he switched from Bachelor’s Fine Arts. He was okay with it, though. “I’ve realized, in my particular field, a degree is a nice thing to show people, but it’s not necessarily going to help you get a job depending on where you’re going. Some people look for it more than others,” he told me with a smile. The experience of college was enough for him. When he was going to school he worked at the Instructional Media Center on the campus and took glass art and steel sculpture classes.

Interestingly, John admits to having about twenty jobs over the years. He’s done everything from oddball things like being a driver and moving man to construction and glass-blowing. Of course, he’s had plenty of design experience, as he had worked as an Art Director in Silicon Valley, a freelance designer, and he’s worked in places like the media arts lab. His hands are rough and sometimes he wears a wrap around them, because if it’s not hot metal and melted glass that hurts him, it’s the tablet mouse. He sits at a desk in a somewhat small cubicle all day with his hand in one position, only his index finger moving to click down the dirty white Wacom mouse. He only gets up to go to meetings, but even then he’s just sitting. It was no wonder he hurts himself so often. When I first arrived at my internship, he gave me a little guide titled “Repetitive Strain Injury”, which detailed things to do so I wouldn’t cramp up or hurt myself by sitting at work too long like he did. Though his work might cause carpal tunnel or back problems, he still went into the office every day, and he persevered. It’s obvious that he’s a very hard worker.

John has a few hobbies outside of work, though. He hangs out with his friends, runs and surfs, reads, watches movies, and he likes to travel—but he’s constantly checking his email, at home and on the go. It’s what takes up a lot of his morning when he comes into work. When I went out to lunch with him, he took out his phone when we finished and commented, “I got thirty emails in just my lunch hour.” He’s an important man in SkinIt, and half his emails aren’t even addressed to him. “People CC me and some people just hit ‘reply to all’.” He’s in on almost everything going on in the company.

He first joined SkinIt by answering a Craigslist advertisement, and he’s been with it since the beginning. It started in Colorado about five years ago, but it merged with the San Diegan personalization company Cellfan a year later and moved to California. It’s become a large company that helps its customers personalize their devices using professional-grade vinyl and popular licensed designs, which are more than just gumball-machine stickers. Their products are high quality, protective, and they leave little adhesive residue, which makes it easy for a customer—like me for example—to take off the skins or switch them out. They “skin” everything from laptops to music players to cell phones and more. The business is booming, and I had the chance to work with them for a while.

While John is a busy man, he put aside half an hour to sit down with me in the office and answer some questions.

Lynn Le: When you were in high school, where did you see yourself headed? Did you ever expect that you would be working at SkinIt or in graphic design?

John O’Brien: I don’t think anyone even knew that skins would be something people would buy when I was in high school. Cell phones didn’t exist at that point. Things move pretty fast, and I had no idea I would be doing this. I really thought I would be doing something more along the fine arts side of things, or maybe a college art teacher.

LL: You studied glass and steel sculpting in college and had a glass-blowing job. Was that job fun? How does it help you now?

JO: I like working with my hands and doing that kind of work. I think it is definitely helpful as a designer. I saw a lot of people who just studied design, and their work was pretty stale. I don’t think it necessarily has to be, but I think if you’re not exposing yourself to a wide range of what’s out there, you’re going to be kind of weak as a designer. A big part of being a designer is problem solving: it’s how creatively you can approach the situation and how good you can make something look. In design there’s a lot of compromise, and that was one of the things I liked about art: there was very little compromise.

LL: What do you do around the office? Do you just design or work on daily production?

JO: It ranges a lot. I’m trying to manage the team and get the best work out of the ten-person art department, while at the same time it’s basically going back to compromising. I’m getting requests from people in sales and marketing, who often have concepts that are challenging for one reason or another. As a designer you always have a client and there’s always someone paying, so it’s basically trying to get the best possible design when you’re given often very difficult constraints. But basically what I do here, ranges tremendously. We’re working on projects for the web, we’re working on projects for print, we’re doing stuff for retail, we’re building a community website, we’ve got white label websites, we have all sorts of marketing initiatives, and we have a busy production environment… There’s a lot going on.

LL: How do you deal with your collaboration with others?

JO: In design, you’re almost always in a form of collaboration. Generally, someone’s coming to you asking you to solve a creative problem, to make something look good, to communicate a message effectively, to help sell a product. So if it’s someone in sales, they’re coming to you asking for something, whether it’s a packaging project or a POP [point of purchase display], or something for a trade show. That can be trade show graphics or marketing collateral. Whether it’s a brochure or something like that, you’re basically trying to put it together so they look good and they can make their sale. When we’re collaborating with the tech department, we’re working with them to design something for the web. It’s my job to make sure there’s a good user interface, following the tenets of Heuristics. It’s basically common sense, so that someone can know where to click, so the user has a good experience. They know where to go, it makes sense. So collaboration can be really fun and really inspiring. Other times it can be frustrating, especially if you’re collaborating with someone you’re not on the same page with.

LL: Is what you do rewarding to you? Are you happy when people buy your design?

JO: Yeah, there are times when you feel a certain satisfaction, when you design something well. Basically, you’re taking pride in your work. It’s more a personal thing for me, where if I design something well, I’m generally happy. The flip side of that coin is when I don’t have the time to put my best effort into something, or a lot of time we’re rushing and I don’t get to do the best possible job, and I like to do quality work. When I get to do quality work, I enjoy that, and if for whatever reason if there isn’t time for that, that could be de-motivating.

LL: So is it worth it to do all this work, the project managing, listening to clients, etcetera?

JO: There are elements I like, and there are elements that drive me insane. My favorite aspect of my job is when I actually get to spend time designing, or when I get to work with the designers in the room on a project that comes out well or I think is successful.

LL: Do you ever take your work home?

JO: Yes. Basically, I’m always doing email, sometimes managing projects on the Base Camp software from home, and actually doing design at home. I used to do a lot more, but I don’t have a home office set up anymore, so I do less of that, and if I need to come in on a weekend, I’ll come in. I like designing stuff at home though. I prefer working at home to working at the office because there’s less distraction.

LL: Do you feel successful? What is your idea of success?

JO: I feel alright. Though I guess when I was your age, I thought I would probably be more successful. My idea of success is being more in-control of your own destiny. I assumed I would have something that was more mine.

LL: What would you advise aspiring graphic designers to do?

JO: For anyone who wants to be a designer, you have to put in way more work than you probably think you do. There are so many people who think they’re designers, but are lacking. They either lack the drive, the intelligence, the creativity or the motivation to be really successful with it, there are a lot of mediocre and bad designers out there. The flip side is that there are a lot of good designers out there as well, so there’s a lot of competition, and if you don’t offer something really special, you’re a dime a dozen. Part of design is having a unique perspective, especially if you’re getting more into illustration. Design is also challenging because of the competition from overseas, it’s a very global marketplace. You’re competing with people in China, India, Europe, Brazil, and people all over the world.

There are only a handful of people who are design-stars. They’re the kind of designers who get to pick their clients. If Nike or Apple or whoever is going to them and saying, “We want you to do the work,” they get to choose who to work for. To be a star in design is something like being a star in professional sports, where you’re going to have to put a lot of effort in and on top of that you have to have the talent to back it up.

My advice to anyone who wants to pursue a career in design is that you need to be working really hard and you have to always be looking at what else is out there. Don’t compare yourself against other students. Compare yourself against the best work you can find in the world, because that’s what you’re up against, not the other kids in your class. When I was in high school I was always thinking, “Oh, I’m the best artist in my class,” but it’s really, “Alright well, that’s thirty kids, so what?” It’s not whether you’re better than the thirty kids in your class, it’s whether you’re better than the five hundred thousand people you’re competing against. There’s a lot of people going into design, so I’d say it’s basically finding something that’s original about you and working really hard at it, not being satisfied with where you’re at.

LL: So not being satisfied is a good thing as being part of a designer?

JO: I think not being satisfied is a good thing as a person. I mean it’s fine if you want to be a Zen monk, “hey it’s cool, I’m happy with how things are,” but if you want to grow professionally and keep pushing yourself, you shouldn’t be satisfied. If you’re doing something “artistic” or you’re in any type of creative profession and you find yourself satisfied, then I’d be curious to see if you find anyone else that’s satisfied in the work you’re doing. The people whose work I liked were the ones who were more unsure, they were challenging themselves and always trying to grow, to one-up themselves.

LL: Where do you see yourself in a few years? Is there someplace better you want to be (promotion, better-paying job, etc.), or are you satisfied with working at SkinIt?

JO: I really don’t know. I have no idea. It depends on what sort of time frame we’re talking about, but I think I’d be here, maybe. I worked as a freelance designer for a while, so having my own design studio would be cool. I did that for four years prior to SkinIt, so maybe I’d go back to that, or maybe I’ll work for another firm or do something totally different. Maybe I’ll get into teaching, perhaps.

LL: Maybe at High Tech High Media Arts?

JO: Maybe I’ll be a bartender, I don’t know. People always need drinks.

Introductory Article Draft

My intro draft is below. Some things to consider while critiquing:
-Is it too long? What can be omitted?
-What isn't clear/needs to be added?
-Are there any spelling/grammatical errors?
-Does it flow?
Anything else that can be critiqued, please do critique it. Thanks.
---

I pass many large, almost monumental structures on my way to work. I pass a huge white church that looks more like a modern day palace, the Hyatt Regency on La Jolla Village Drive, and the huge, wiry white pyramid that is Ashley’s Furniture Home Store that anyone driving along Miramar Road can see. As I turn the corner of the mirror-windowed pyramid that’s currently having a rug expo, a long building comes into sight. At the end of it, a large black and green logo reads “SkinIt” as if it owns the whole place. I straightened my suit, entered through the front door, tried not to get lost, and hoped I don’t seem too shy. I was still intimidated by the whole idea of being an intern and working in a world outside my school. It’s just after 9:00 AM. I’m early.

John O’Brien walks into the office at around 9:30 AM. He’s wearing a T-shirt with a black polo shirt over it, but there’s a striped collared shirt draped on the back of his chair that never seems to be worn. He drops his black backpack under his desk and sits down in the black chair, and he gets straight to work. He checks his email, opens Adobe Bridge and photoshop, gets a phone call, checks his schedule, and goes off to a meeting. When he comes back he’s talking to Michael Miller about what was said at this meeting or that thing that the sales department wants them to do. The ideas bounce, they get back to work, and the office falls awkwardly quiet.

John is a native San Diegan who went to school in northern California, and he’s an avid art student with a passion for design. With encouragement from friends and family, he pursued this path. Classes of AP art in high school and scholarship classes of Otis Parsons Art Institute pushed him along as well. However, he didn’t quite get out of college with the degree he was aiming for, being just two classes short of getting his Bachelor of Arts degree when he switched from trying to get a Bachelor’s Fine Arts degree. He was okay with it, though. “I’ve realized, in my particular field... I guess it’s like anywhere else, a degree is kind of a nice thing to show people, but it’s not necessarily going to help you get a job depending on where you’re going. Some people look for it more than others,” he told me with a smile when I asked about it. The experience of college was enough for him. He had a good time at Chico State University, working at the Instructional Media Center on his school campus and taking glass art and steel sculpture classes.

Interestingly, John admits to having about twenty jobs over the years. He’s done everything from oddball things like being a driver and moving man to construction and glass-blowing. Of course, he’s had plenty of design experience, having worked as a freelance designer and in places like the media arts lab. His hands are rough and sometimes he wears a wrap around them, because if it’s not hot metal and melted glass that hurts him, it’s the tablet mouse. He sits at a desk in a somewhat small cubicle all day with his hand in one position, only his index finger moving to click down the dirty white Wacom mouse. He only gets up to go to meetings, but even then he’s just sitting. It was no wonder he hurts himself so often. When I got to my internship, he gave me a little guide titled “Repetitive Strain Injury”, which detailed things to do so I wouldn’t cramp up or hurt myself by sitting at work too long like he did. Though his work might cause carpal tunnel syndrome or back problems, he’ll still go to work every day and persevere. It’s obvious that he’s a very hard worker.

John has always been that diligent, but he is also a guy who likes to get out and do things whenever he can, especially with his hands. However, despite being an art student, he doesn’t draw or spend his free time doing that sort of stuff. He hangs out with his friends, goes running and surfing, and he likes reading and watching movies. But he’s constantly checking his email, at home and on the go, and it’s what takes up a lot of his morning when he comes into work. When I went out to lunch with him, he took out his phone when we finished and commented, “I got like, thirty emails in just my lunch hour.” He’s an important man in Skinit, and half his emails aren’t even addressed to him. “People just like to CC [carbon copy] me and some people just hit ‘reply to all’.” He’s in on almost everything going on in the company.

He first joined SkinIt by answering a Craigslist advertisement. It started in Colorado about five years ago, but it merged with the San Diegan company Cellfan a year later and moved to California. He’s been with it since the beginning, and currently he’s the Creative Director and the business is booming.

Semester 2 Blog 1

Rolling Stone: The Battle For Facebook

Five Questions For Bill Gates

Some things that I think make a good interview is that it contains content that people want to know about, things that are interesting. And sometimes, making the interview short and to the point would work too--I know that I don't want to spend too much time reading one thing. Like the nightly news, people are always going from one story to the next quickly so that they can fit everything into a short amount of time and get on with their lives.

However, even if things are short, concise, and to the point, they still have to make sense. That's what the editing and revision is for--to take an interview that took half an hour to conduct (and then some for follow ups), three hours to transcribe, and ten minutes to read--and turn it into something that takes less that two minutes to read. Not only that, it flows and has some sort of chronological time line or order. In all of this, it's only highlighting the most important information, the things that matter most.