Graphic Design Protips from Actual Pros, Plus the Lengthy Context in Which I Was Around to Even Hear Them

   My priorities place Art 130 projects (due on Tuesday at 3:00 pm and generally being pretty labor intensive) over Art 125 projects (due on Wednesday at 5:00 pm and generally being pretty basic.) Wednesdays (with the early morning Book of Mormon course getting out 8:45 and no classes at all after that until 3:15 Pearl of Great Price) are a fairly nice respite in the middle of the week, with that chunk of open schedule there giving me enough time to put in my first plasmapherese of the week (with my second being on Saturday.) Do that, perhaps finish off my Book of Mormon study for the day, and there's still time left over to finish and print my Art 125 project in time for 5:15 class.

   This week's project involved doing physical, pencil-and-paper design sketches, and scanning into the computer. There was a similar project in Art 130 once, which took me, how much time did I estimate, 16 hours, to complete (with everyone else talking about how very long it took them to do theirs, like 4 whole hours-- my module that week, may have been turned in, late...) but this project's rules were much more relaxed, and so I could knock it off during the course of, more Vin Diesel (The Last Witch Hunter, actually a really good movie, at least insofar as giving me loads of inspiration for TTDECBA. Dylan Dog: Dead of Night is another great film in the same vein. And probably also the comic books upon which that film is loosely based. (LWH is an original concept, though, so the principle holds through, even more so.))

   Sketches, well I probably should have knocked them off sooner, nonetheless, easy. The problem arrived when it came time to scan a 4"x4" version of one of my initial sketches. No sweat, just hit the computer lab, scan it there; the toughest part about that is signing in (the computers there have a thing against network accounts, and 120% especially mine.) The computer lab is busy, when I get there, though; there are day classes in there, who knew. So... I can't just... go in there, can I? There are people sitting at those computers, listening to the presentation being given.

   Oh well. Maybe there's a scanner at the library, then? Don't freak out; between completing the tutorial assignments and digitizing this sketch in both Illustrator and Photoshop, and also preparing for your presentation, that should all take you, two hours. And, subtracting time in FDREL327, you've got... two hours.

   There is a scanner at the library, at the back of the commons, but I've got no idea how to work it, at least not to the specs I need. It's one of those scanner/printer dealios, like a copy machine + I guess... To access the printers around you need your I-card, and, though it doesn't seem to be true of this one, I didn't bring my I-card either way, and I don't have enough time to try to figure the thing out anyway; my Pearl of Great Price class is in less than an hour now.

   I head back home, figuring I can just digitize my sketch by eye, head to class, and swing by the lab after, when the class there will have had let out.

   Only I hadn't grabbed my keys, either, and one of the apartmentmates has the subconscious habit of automatically locking the door behind him when he gets in, though we always leave the door unlocked...

   Alright, then. Scanning first it is then. Let's try the lab again. Might as well. People sit in on classes that aren't theirs in the lab all the time, no biggie. Down in the lab, I peek in then at the presentation that's being given...

   And the presenters are the team behind FamilySearch's new design.

   I stuck around. Even managed to scan in there, as well as practice my line styles and thicknesses in Illustrator (I was assigned to do a presentation at 125, like I mentioned, either on some aspect of Photoshop or some aspect of Illustrator, of my choosing.) Mostly, though, I listened. And managed to collect some PROTIPS for myself, which I'm graciously sharing with you.

• When a designer's showing off his portfolio, one who explains why he did what he did is always more interesting than one just with "cool" designs.
• Show your portfolios to people!
• I like to open up screenshots of apps and replicate them in Illustrator, studying the choices that the app designers made.
• We're always hiring.
• Something else about design I guess?! (Another thing I didn't have on me, aside from my keys and I-card-- a pencil. I wish I'd brought a pencil. I can't remember like half the stuff that the team said.)
• Pay attention to what your product would look like on the shelf next to other competing products, and think of ways how your design could stand out in context.

   They then went around checking out the students' designs, from this assignment apparently where they had to design (and create!) soda pop bottles and their cardboard containers. But that's not me. So.

   I went home. The door was unlocked. Pearl of Great Price class this week was scheduled for catch-up time, but we're already on schedule so turns out class had been cancelled today, so I had time to finish the rest of my assignment on time. Phew. Although, there still remained the printing to do... luckily I started my printing attempt a full half hour before I had to turn the job in...

   My presentation went swimmingly, anyway.

   Comic Book Workshop was packed this evening. It's nice that so many people are interested in it now, but one of the best parts of CBW is being able to collaborate with someone to do your own comic and I'm afraid these late(r)comers will miss out on getting to do that.

   I finally brought both Unbeatable Squirrel Girl TPBs to the comic book table this evening, though it was just as crammed as the class was. Still, Squirrel Girl. My SQUIRREL POWER is being borrowed until the CBW lab on Saturday. It's so great to be able to spread the love; presumably then I'll be able to share Volume 2.

   And meanwhile, "sexualized squirrel[s]" (???) disturb Toben.