Tuesday, May 4, 2010

About the Book



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+VIEW THE PROCESS WORK
+VIEW THE SPREADS

This book [DAYDREAM] began as a senior project meant to explain the way I take the world in as a designer and as a person. We did several experiences out of a book [How to be an Explorer of the World: Portable Life Museum] to initiate the thinking process and shift our frame of reference from the design world to that of the mundane and mediocre in hopes of finding the connection to everything. The end result is more an artful non-linear documentation of why I am the way I am and why I think the way that I do. Ranging from childhood memories to make out charts, this book is the silent pause in between my inarticulate sentences. It’s my battle with pack rat genetics and the collections of inspirational material flooding my life. It’s the people who have touched and inspired me, even a few who have completely dismantled me. It’s all there, the pieces of the journey towards my destination of creative expression and success.


WHAT DID I LEARN?

The book was difficult for me and for a good portion of the class because of the lack of limitations. A blank page is intimidating, an open-ended thesis is terrifying. I realized a trend in my design, and any creative execution, is my debilitating fear of imperfection. I never pinpointed the issue directly until this project. Wikipedia can elaborate:
“The psychological causes of procrastination vary greatly, but generally surround issues of anxiety, low sense of self-worth, and a self-defeating mentality. Procrastinators are also thought to have a lower-than-normal level of conscientiousness, more based on the "dreams and wishes" of perfection or achievement in contrast to a realistic appreciation of their obligations and potential.”
I have a problem with putting myself in a position to make mistakes. If it’s not going to be perfect then I don’t want to bother. It’s terrible, and it has made my four years at this school almost unbearable.

This book dealt a lot with introspection, my favorite spread, conceptually not aesthetically, is this one with the cats:



It really shows so well how I handle everything with a laugh. The dead cat I found while searching for found type, the overlayed black cat I took pictures of for the "signs" book assignment and the lolcats are a total guilty pleasure of mine. The image of Disney upside down is one of the many pieces in my great image collection.