Weekly Blog Post3 Part1

Timmmmyboy himself felt a dilemma when he gave up pursuing his fisrt major: Computer Science when he was in 1st grade of a university, and he was thinking that he should not change his major to Art since he thought he is not an artistic person. But he thinks now that it was a perfect decision.

Because artistic talent is not what we inherit. It is what we can learn in life. Ofcourse there are some parts that we can call it genes, but it is not everything. Like football players, nobody plays it without practicing it. Artistic talent is the same. By practicing it everyday, these talents foster. And these people are what ds106 is worth for. Just to be interested in daily stuffs such as taking pictures with your digital camera, you are already starting to become an artist.

Especially, the hungry people tend to be more artistic, and more than that they can be more challenging and creative. Also, it takes certain time and efforts to create masterpiece. During certain times of the day different people show higher results.

When faced with challenges and feelings of being uncomfortable humans often show their best results. These are breeding grounds for spurts of creativity. Certain art can inspire us in special ways which let us emotionally connect with the artist and the feelings they feel when producing art, such as photographs which push photographers to their limits.

What makes things interesting, what makes them viral?
1st Idea - Coffee filters might seem generic but boxes can be designed incredibly, letting the consumer know that the designer put deep thought into solving the problems which are presented, with the best solutions making something completely boring very interesting.
2nd Idea - Glee or shows like it present the idea of mashing two different ideas together creating something extraordinary with two normal themes simply by joining the two styles together. Mash ups are a simple way to create very interesting pieces of art whether it be theatre or music.
3rd Idea - Superbowl and similar events can be rather boring until events such as halftime shows can hype up the crowd and make it better. The producers took football and combined it with star performances during halftime
4th Idea- It is also possible to take something complex and make it simple by breaking them down further and further. It would make something very simple but because of the minimalistic designs there can be different degrees of complexity. These designs can be very powerful because they can be used as techniques to make different objects stand out such as setting up a empty room with a paperclip on a table. By having nothing else besides the paper clip the designer has empowered the paperclip making the audience wonder about the message behind the art, creating complexity by itself. Something else which is a powerful way to grab the audiences mind is through icons, or powerful imagery.
5th Idea- Vintage art or turning modern ideas into antiques so to speak is a creative process used as well. Designers can use techniques such as thinking what would an Apple commercial look like 50 years ago and then infuse those ideas into your current project. What would something modern look like if it were vintage is a very good process to inspire ideas and creativity.
6th Idea- Packaging and simple illustrations are good ways to spur up new ideas. In asian stores especially all of the different colors and simple texts are great to incorporate or learn from. Going back and looking at children books is also a good idea as simple can always turn a too complex idea into something more focused.
7th Idea- Antique Stores are great places to find old signs for text design and also in general items that inspire us such as engraved woodwork on tables. We often connect with our childhood in antique stores allowing us to think in different ways which open up new possibilities to produce new art.
8th Idea- Record stores are great places for art. Some of the best art was produced unto record covers often going unnoticed by those who now listen to CD's and I-Pods.

Tools that help with the creative process in design:
1.Kolur is a program which helps with figuring out your color palette to do better works with more eye capturing color composition.
2.Noun project is a site which helps you with handing out free icons from all types of categories.
3.Aviary is a site which allows you to not need photoshop, but still gives you tools to alter photos with somewhat of the same tools such as color editor, video effects, and it is totally free.
4.Defont is a site that provides fonts and icon deigns like the noun project. Tools such as a barcode program allow you to type letters which then produce barcodes afterwards allowing you to download those same designs you have created.
5.Stock exchange is a photo website allowing people to upload photos and sell them to people who need to use pictures for their projects. Sometimes you have to pay but most photos are free to use as long as you accredit the photographer who uploaded it.
6.Smashing magazine helps with using programs such as Photoshop better by giving you tips.
7.Threadlist is a T-shirt company which has great T-shirt design work.
8.Business card sites can also breed creativity by giving you restrictions due to the size of the design allowing you to better analyze how some of the ideas came about.
9.Dribble is a site where designers can post screenshots on what their working on and get feedback.
10.Book cover archives are also great ways to inspire creativity due to the restrictions of the artist and the expectations of the authors.

By using different outlets such as antique and record stores and combining them with viral websites such as Dribble designers are able to advance their progression of techniques as well as being inspired to create new projects in the process. In general, mash ups and combining different ideas is the best way to produce good art but to produce extraordinary art designers also have to remember to reduced complexity of those combinations, creating a simplistic well thought out art piece.