Monday, September 10, 2012

Alexandra Castro, Reading Week 1




I found the focus of this graphic design book refreshing, as it provided numerous helpful methods for brainstorming and improving your creative process. Generally, I find it difficult to get ideas for designs, so the fact that the books provided numerous solutions will be helpful to execute a design project.  The fact that the chapter provided brainstorming methods for client situation is also very helpful because I am a Public Relations and Advertising major, so this will be very useful to create concepts for campaigns. I think the that the most helpful solution was creating designs that embody action verbs. This allows for a more insightful look on how images can communicate a word beyond text. The fact that this books provided concrete examples through case studies make the book more engaging and relatable. The case studies also makes the brainstorming method easier to understand and gives the reader an understanding which method is suitable for the situation.


7 comments:

  1. Brainstorming is such a crucial step when starting any project, which you illustrate by stating that you will use these techniques when working in the Public Relations world. I believe that although this book is written with a focus on graphic design, the methods that are highlighted can have an impact on industries and tasks that pertain to more than just the creative process. These techniques would be useful in many other areas, and I too, will use these strategies not only in my design career, but in all my other ventures as well.

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  2. I agree with you, I sometimes have allot of trouble creating or giving life to my designs. at times I can be innovative and efficient while I design on the fly. And other times I sit in front of my computer completely dry and tapped out of any visual stimulation. Using a technique like brainstorming or any of the mapping tools is incredibly helpful to anyone, in any field doing any job that requires a flux of new thought and ideas. This book is more or less making me understand that the techniques like the ones that we have read about this week, aren't going anywhere.

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  3. The fact that this book gives so many different examples to solve a problem is extremely beneficial. As you have stated not only is this book great for graphic designers, but also for people solving problems in different fields of work. They give great solutions to numerous different scenarios making the book great to keep for future reference.

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  4. Agreed, also in that Lupton provides readers with the comfort in knowing that even if you are stuck in the brainstorming stage, you ARE still involved in the design process. Instead of just throwing together the first thing that comes to mind, Lupton suggests breaking-down the project at hand to pinpoint exactly what is necessary for that project in particular.

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  5. That is exactly what I talked about on my post. The various methods for approaching a task is very helpful. It is a good book to keep as a designer.

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  6. Yes I agree with you. I think the action words tip in the book will be the most helpful in developing new design ideas for projects. I also think that the case studies did a good job at showing us another way to learn the information that the book was teaching. Overall I think I’m going to learn a lot from this book.

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  7. Although I like the fact that the book let you dictate yourself how you go about designing and instead suggests ways of thinking and preparing, I do not like brainstorming in general and much prefer to dive right into a design knowing it will not be my best work. Then after I've done a few I will decide a direction to take.

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