process

All nighters, chugging the coffee, busting out the work until 3 o’clock in the morning. No, I’m not talking about our studio week. But Portfolio Center provides students with the environment that gives us the “process” skills. I’m actually talking about the professional field. You know, that place that we will head after we are done with our two year initiation here at Portfolio Center. To get a grasp of web design, I decided to interview Dan Lynch.
My first meeting with Dan Lynch was at Avenue A Razorfish where Jessica, Jackie, and I sat in their lounge with coffee. Dan enthusiastically took all of us on a tour of the office, where we got to meet several other members of the Razorfish team. Running into him at the Octane party, Jackie and I got the chance to really know Dan, and I could feel the passion and excitement that he has for the design field, which lead me to want to interview him for Mason’s class.
Meeting at 97 Estoria, I knew right away that Dan was a relaxed and comfortable type of person. The type of person that can makes others feel relaxed. His approachable and enthusiastic attitude about design makes me enjoy afternoons where I can sit and have a conversation like this.
Maybe it’s the fact that we are in the middle of studio week, but our conversation went directly to the process of design. Now that I am in the completion of the execution phase, I can clearly understand what Dan means when he says “busting ass” to get things done.
Having several different jobs and a lot of freelance experience, Dan has definitely learned the web design world from both the small firm dialogue, as well as the large. But he seemed to enjoy his time doing freelance. Having the freedom to go anywhere, do great work, and take time off if you need to would definitely be a great way to keep loose and not get tied down into doing the same thing over and over again. From my past design experiences, I have seen designers get into these comfort levels and don’t strike out of that. Freelance is a great way to stay out of that.
Although, I have to say that Dan seems to love Razorfish. “The creative director that I am working under now is very understanding. If there doesn’t seem to be a lot of work because your projects are waiting for management and client relations, he’s like, ‘Sure. Get out of here.’ And when it’s time to bust ass, then you’ll be putting in your hours. I’ve had creative directors in the past that weren’t understanding of that.”
Dan also gave a lot of insight into the web design world. I’ve often pondered how the whole scheme worked, and I’m sure that it can be different at many firms. I know that I was scared when I started to jump into the DreamWeaver/Flash/CSS world. Of course, I want to learn more about all of these programs and be ready to build my own website. But Dan put my mind at ease for the fact that when he completes his design he takes it to the ‘technology’ department. Of course, there is still a strong communication of what needs to happen with the design, and knowing this technology and what it can do is crucially important. The knowledge will definitely serve us well in the future, but it is always nice to know that you have a backup system of some sort to help make things flow.
In a previous meeting, Dan had mentioned that he was an instructor at Portfolio Center. With every meeting I have had with him, I could see him as a great teacher, and I hope he considers coming back to us.
There is so much more I could say about Dan Lynch, but I wanted to keep this simple. And I hope that you all can take something away from this interview. I want to add more, so look for another blog later.

Hitting Too Close To Home

Sitting in a bar interviewing Dan Lynch from Avenue A Razorfish, I saw that a girl from Kansas was killed after being abducted from a Taget very close to where my sister lives in Kansas City. That night, while talking to friends back home, I learned that several people knew her. She recently graduated high school. And while I have been through the college life, she was just about to start hers. Of course, horrible things happen like this all the time, but we never think that they will happen to us or anyone we know.

CNN has been following the case closely, and even goes so far as to site the perpetrator’s MySpace page, listing Edwin Roy Hall’s interest “eating small children and harming small animals.” It’s sad that there are people like this in this world, but why didn’t anyone take notice and address the issue. Probably because we thought he was joking around, since he seemed to be friendly and have a nice family.

holy cookies batman

Today is a wonderful day because I get to take my posters to the printers. The first light of completing our second quarter is finally visible. In celebration of this event, I went over to Grace and Jackie’s place to make cookies. I brought the cookie dough and turned on the oven. Jackie actually put them in the oven, and Grace took them out. Team work. Actually, I think it’s funny that I didn’t follow through with making the cookies. I just seem to get carried away with something and the next thing you know, I completely forget to do something I was planning on. Like when I sit down to work sometimes, I’ll think of something else, and run off to do errands, or decide to make broccoli and carrots. And, yes, I burn the carrots. Because I forget about it and start doing something else.

Anyways, I go to grab a delicious cookie that I brought over and Jackie and Grace so graciously prepared, and as I go to pick it up, the center of it decides that it is not leaving the pan. These are the type of things that always happen to me. I’m like the trusty sidekick of Batman waiting to say some clever line when something goes wrong. Enjoy your cookies!!

break down

This time of the quarter, the pressure is on. Time to wrap everything up and show everyone how amazing we are. This quarter has taken me on a great adventure, and no matter what happens during critique, I know that I have grown so much. It’s amazing how much can happen over such little time. Although I have enjoyed all of my classes, I feel that I grew the most in my emotive type class. And what I enjoyed about her class the most is that we were presented with the concepting challenge within the first few weeks. I feel that I learned to build on to my projects and make them better with a full month of bringing in comps. Using that much time to strongly think through your project and how to make it better.

But this is a stressful time because there seems to be so much to do and we want to make our projects as perfect as possible. I finally had my break down today. There always comes a time in the quarter where I’m just so frustrated and tired that I emotionally cannot work (for at least a good hour). Tonight, I a taking a break by going to Tacqueria Del Sol. I suggest every PC student have their own form of intervention. Go to your favorite spa, go for a walk, go out to dinner, or something.

Good luck with  studio week!

Also, I re-shot Jamie’s photo shoot today. A bit of her frustration came out in the photos. You will survive, Jamie!

Playing in Trees

Fifteen percent of the worlds rainforests has been destroyed in the past 25 years. Today, I shot my photo project with Jessica. I had so much fun playing in the trees, and I think that it turned out great. I posted a lot of the pictures to my flickr account.

But this got me to thinking of how it will affect our future. Are our children really going to finally address this awful issue that we avoid? And how severe are the conditions going to have to be to get us to finally listen?

Anyway, I feel really passionate about this issue and I want to encourage you all to recycle. Think Green.

Greenpeace has so many great ways for anyone to get involved with spreading their message. Their student network helps to spread the message worldwide about all of the harmful and long-lasting effects that our culture is leaving. Thanks for being such a great model for me, roomie!