Jonathan McFarland / Visual Communications Emphasis
A designer is part historian, part architect, part mechanic, part geologist, part anthropologist, part counselor, part physicist, part linguist, part kinesiologist, part God, part philosopher, part human.
This was a list I scribbled down on the back of a receipt as I was driving from San Diego to Granite Bay, CA for Christmas this last break. It was something that I had come to realize after a long creative week in San Diego working with my friends at Dirtywurx's and an even longer fall semester. But let me back up to where these ideas came from.
This last semester I was working my fingers to the bone and burning the candle at both ends everyday. I wanted to kill it last semester and really push myself as a designer using my communication skills, and personal style. Some days I would think to myself, "Why? Why do I push my self so hard?." It always came down to: "How bad do I want it?." Are you willing to give up sleep?; willing to spend countless days in order for things to be perfect? How bad to you want be a successful designer? I found out if you really want to be successful --if you really want it bad enough-- then you've got to be willing to give up sleep, stay up for three days in a row, and forget to eat so you can make dreams become a reality and not let vision disappear.
Last semester for experimental typography these ideas, these emotions, and this mind set were never truer. I set my goal to make a music video for the moving typography assignment. My friends at Dirtywurx remixed a song for me; and, from that, I made a vision for my video. However, for my vision to become a reality, I had to learn a whole new software --Cinema4d. I had never touched a 3d rendering software, and had no one clue how to even open a new document. It didn't matter because I had the desire to learn. I spend countless days and night teaching myself everything. I had an opportunity to make my dream a reality --I wanted that reward of success. Making this video has pulled together a lot of my talents as a designer. I would use Adobe Illustrator to set up majority of my layouts that would then translate into moving type in Cinema4d. I not only had to know how to make an effective design in order to communicate my message, but also how a flat image would then become a 3d moving object that would interact with principles like gravity. Working with this program has really changed my way of thinking about design. All my knowledge and observations about how things work in the world can now be used to develop my design skills. I can use these observations to make stronger communication objects that are full of information and meaning. It's no longer just a design I make on a computer screen that looks cool, but it's more of a holistic view as to how a communication design project should be tackled. Now, in order for me to make good work, the design must hold a lot of depth and be full of information. That's where the list comes together to express me as a graphic communicator.
A designer is part historian, part architect, part mechanic, part
geologist, part anthropologist, part counselor, part physicist, part
linguist, part kinesiologist, part God, part philosopher, part human.
I'm sure this list could be expanded on by myself and others, but the idea is that all this knowledge can be put together to make fuller, more impacting design projects.
