In any case, I just wanted to take some time out and talk about what I did in 2008.
Before coming to Japan to teach English to the various members of the Japanese population I was but a lowly assistant. An assistant in the financial aid department of the school I formerly attended, Pratt.
It was often a source of frustration, but looking back, it wasn't all bad. It was also my first "real" job and I learned quite a lot from the experience.
One of the perks of the job was that I was able to take some credits at Pratt at reduced cost. I really would've like to take a graphic novel class they were offering or if possible, another figure drawing class, but unfortunately I was unable to do that and I ended up in Communication Design II.
I took it mostly because there wasn't much else that I could take that wouldn't be a hassle, but also because graphic designer is always a fall back for anyone in the visual arts field. Graphic Design has some really great talents out there, and I don't think I have what it takes to be a great or anything, but to make money as a graphic designer doesn't demand as many skills as it would to make money as a fine artist or an illustrator. I guess because an annual report has more use than a painting of a nude figure... I don't understand the world sometimes.
Anyway, the class was interesting. We had about two projects throughout the semester. The first was a brochure for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. It was interesting and I think I did a decent job, but I'm not going to show it off.
The second was identity, branding, just about everything, for a salsa of our naming.
I went with Piquant. Which is reminiscent of the words in Latin based languages that mean hot or spicy. Which I believe come from a root word that means something like prick or thorn.
First we had to come up with a bunch of logos and a brand identity...
By the by, the colors aren't as vivid as the originals...sorry, save for web sapped the energy out of them.
A southwestern theme, with the wanted poster type lettering. Three peppers for the symbol set against a desert night scene. Second one was a lighter theme, more of a Florida, Caribbean thing.
First two variations were supposed to be more "sophisticated." Like a wine bottle label.
The last is using colors as more of a theme. Though the green and off white is supposed to be a cross section of a pepper with seeds.
And finally, fire and warning tape! Everyone had to vote on each others labels to decide what we would go with and this is the one that everyone voted on. I like this one, but I think I liked the southwestern and the colorful one a bit more. Oh well.
After that, we had to create some print ads with a slogan. Here's one of my sketches...
The main image has a tag line of "Pure Awesome." I put a bunch of things that I considered to be of the awesome persuasion, such as Vikings, and dragons, and unicorns.
My other ideas were on the side and have a tag line of "Natural Kick." It was supposed to be an all natural salsa, so in my sketches I adorned the bottle with various fighting gear, thai boxer shorts, a lucha mask, a black belt, etc.
All those ideas were shot down in rapid succession. I struggled and struggled. I must have made about 5 or so tag lines with tons of variations and sketches for each, all of them shot down. It started to get to me, and I was getting rather annoyed. So I threw up my arms and decided to make a kind of passive aggressive slogan and ad...
...because if the salsa is so good, why do I need to catch your attention with some "jazzy, hip" copy. It's just good salsa, that's it. Enjoy.
I gave it to my friend to submit it to him and didn't come to class (I had an excuse, but I forgot what it was) and I heard that he was really annoyed with it, and said something like, "I don't want this trash."
Which further frustrated me to the point that I almost felt like I couldn't continue the class. I had to talk to him, and basically say, "Tell me what you want, so we can get this over with."
...and this was the result. A random picture of salsa with a "hip" slogan. *Stereotypical African American voice* "Yo, Piquant is where da PARTY iz AT!"
Can you sense the sarcasm in my writing?
Anyway, it passed and I could finally finish up my project.
After that we had to make a poster for an event our brand was sponsoring. I did a jazz festival in New York.
With that finished I was able to wrap things up and do my final presentation, which required us to present our ideas to a professional chef who was considering launching a real food brand.
Surprisingly I was one of the top three picks for best design and ideas. I was shocked and amazed, but of course happy.
And that was my brief experience in graphic design for 2008.
More 2008 writings and drawings coming soon.
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