Calligraphy

This quarter I'm taking Calligraphy for the second time - and definitely not the last. 

On top of yet another quarter of calligraphy, next quarter I'm planning on taking a class called Typeface Design with Kris Holmes who is an RIT professor & famous for creating the Lucida typeface that is seen on your computers! Pretty cool! It's going to require a fair amount of movement in my schedule and possible a bunch of late nights but I think it will be more than worth it for the experience.    

To get into the class we have to show a sample of some of our best lettering so far. It's what were going to be basing our typeface on. Last night I worked on pulling that together and it's definitely going to need some tweaking but I think it's finally headed in the right direction.

Each quarter of calligraphy is a different hand. Spring = Foundational, Fall = Italic, Winter = Blackletter. 

I've been waiting since last year to take Blackletter so I'm pretty excited for that!

Art History Midterm

The big topic of the past 48 hours or so of my life has been art history. I have a 1900-1950 art history midterm at 12 today. 

As a graphic design major, we're required to take 3 quarters (what will be 2 semesters of art history) + 2 different art history classes of our choice. Since the 3 quarters left off around the turn of the 20th century, I thought I'd pick the next 2 classes to be more modern.

Now, I realize art history sounds totally intimidating.  Give me a sheet with 60 Slide Identification names and tell me to memorize their name, artist & date... quite daunting. And for someone who is rather horrible at memorizing things this is no small feat. 

Art history professors (and classmates) tend to be enormously helpful. My Survey of Western Art & Architecture professors used to hold (non-mandatory) breakfast study sessions on Saturday mornings the week before the exam. Since it wa a larger class (around 60) it was really nice to get a little bit more 1 on 1 time for questions. This quarter, someone in my class voluntarily set up a group study session in the library last night. Super helpful! Our professor had given us a full write up for a study guide- so nice! So we were able to talk through possible essay questions & some unknown terms.

As of a few minutes ago, I've cut the 60 images down to only NINE ones that have been tripping me up! Not bad! Plus I still have a few hours to go before test time. The nice thing about the study session last night was that I felt that I could actually talk through topics rather than just rattle them off the top of my head = better memory. 


-- From my RIT blog post

Learning to Run

Let's start this story out by reminding everyone how much I hated running.

I would never in a million years have considered myself a runner in any stretch of the imagination. Maybe if I was being chased. Or that forced mile for volleyball in 90 degree weather. Sounds fun right?

Except then I got to thinking. Running is a sport I could do on my own, determine the time spent, and involved nothing other than a decent pair of shoes (and well, an inhaler).

I got this crazy idea in my head that for my 21st birthday, my present to myself would be running a 5k. Yeah... I pick cool presents, be jealous.

So I started working at it, slowly as to not discourage my "can't run a mile" self. Eventually after a few weeks of running at 7 am even with my struggles to want to stay in my toasty warm bed, I worked up to 2 miles and finally to 3.

Despite my 6th-8th grade P.E. teacher and the River Hill volleyball coach's efforts to remind me that I sucked at running, I managed to prove them wrong.

But more importantly, I proved myself right. And I can actually say that I enjoy running. For real (mom).

As in. I ran 3.1 miles.

And I lived to tell about it. Let's just say, this won't be the last.

The sub-40 degree temperatures yesterday morning along with wind & rain put a slight damper on the run as well as a hint of blue on my legs.

Jon came out for some moral support and much appreciated body-heat stealing as I waited for the race to start. It. was. freezing. Plus I can pretend that I have my own personal photographer :) -- pictures to come later maybe.

Now Here

365q

Internet Changes

There have been a HUGE number of changes to the web lately. Between Facebook, Amazon, Pandora, etc... and now Blogger! If you haven't checked out my actual blog site yet (if you're on google reader, etc), you should probably mosey on over and let me know what you think. I'm not 100% sold yet but I definitely like the new more modern (and ipad friendly) layout. 

Still chugging along on the school front. This year is flying by (already!). I can't believe it's already week 4. Yikes. I've got to get moving on some of these design projects that are on my to-do list. 

Been kind of a weird week for classes - three of them were cancelled! Which seems like a nice idea, but I really like the structure of going to class so I'm struggling a bit when it feels like I'm just doing homework for hours on end. It's been really helpful to have another graphic designer living in the apartment (working on the same projects) for motivation! 

Tomorrow is basically an all day conference on Social Media - I'm really looking forward to it. Clay Shirky is the keynote address in the afternoon and a few others are going to be speaking at it so I'm going to go check out some of those. 

Last weekend Mom & Dad and Nana came up for a short less than 24 hour visit. Always good to have family up here - especially when they come with cookies and other deliciousness :) And my winter coats! 

Figuring things out: Life outside of Graphic Design

Clearly this is the year of figuring out what I’m going to be doing after college. As seen in my frequent posts lately on design lectures and week one. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve been asked what my plans are.. Come back and ask in say.. May? Might have a better idea then.

I came in 100% sure that I wanted to be a graphic design major. No doubt about it.

As I’ve progressed through college, I’ve started learning about new areas of work that I could potentially pursue and they started tugging on my once definite career decision. One of those being social media & higher ed - which I found by working at none other than the RIT Admissions office! Go figure.

I fell in love with Twitter and came to see it as more than just a platform for talking about my peanut butter and jelly sandwich but rather a place that has definite results & impact on companies and organizations.

This summer I interned at a place in downtown Rochester called We Make Nice Websites where I got to help out with a bit of social media consulting. I liked explaining Twitter & sharing my love for it... Oh hey there new potential career path.

But then I see information graphics and oh goodness.. they’re beautiful.

In my Digital Entrepreneurship class we had a speaker (RIT Grad) come in and talk about his line of work and how he’s become so successful in business. One of his major points was that if you’re not excited and bounding out of bed in the morning to work on something new, you’re in the wrong major (or career). Point taken.

So here I sit with all of these lovely new things vying for my attention, I prefer to simply think of them as “options.”

(taken from a recent post at RIT Admissions)

Operation Smile

Unrelated to anything else, but this totally made my day.

Bruno Monguzzi

There are definite advantages to living on a campus with 16,000 other students. It means there are things to do all of the time. It always makes me laugh when we get people on tours asking “Is there anything to do on campus” -- makes me imagine 16,000 people sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

Being in college (and well, being a nerd) has gotten me to attend some events that I might have never even thought about in high school. Since when was it “cool” to go to a lecture that was not required by class. Ha. I surprise even myself sometimes.

Tonight after a few hours of class and work there was a lecture by a designer named Bruno Monguzzi from Switzerland. I was debating whether or not to go and part of me wanted to go home, make dinner & get started on homework. The other part of me (thankfully) realized that this was one of those “once in a lifetime” kind of events and I should get my butt over there.

Good choice.

Bruno Monguzzi spoke for almost an hour and a half on his life, design career & specifics on the thought process behind designing posters. Saying the lecture was “awesome” would be an understatement.

He spoke about how graphic designers need to be both good people & more importantly good communicators. Went over dynamic vs expressive typography. He talked about how we should “Disobey rules when they don’t allow you to reach your goal”.

Probably the biggest point I took away from it was the idea that “You have to be in love with the problem”. Maybe this was because he was about 2 feet away from me screaming this by that point. Quite the enthusiastic speaker. But it’s a great point, there’s no point in doing something and working on it unless you’re 100% behind it.

I actually had the pleasure of hearing another lecture today in my Digital Entrepreneurship class today as well but more on that later because this is long enough!

(taken from my admissions blog post today)

Last First Day

Today is my last first day of school. Ever.

Unless I have some total change of heart within the next year or so (and a surprise full scholarship to grad school) or decide that I miss homework. Unlikely on both accounts.

(mom & dad suggested that I wear plaid like day numero uno way back when)

(this picture was not day one of school but it was kindergarden)

Within the past week I've been asked not once but THREE times how old I am & what year in high school I'm in. Clearly I need to start wearing professional clothes or something. Haircut? Giant sign on my shirt with my age? Of course everyone apologizes and says that I'll appreciate that in 30 or so years. For now I don't like being chunked in with the 12 year olds.

Off to go celebrate labor day with 7 hours of class. RIT really knows how to spend holidays - At least Thanksgiving falls at the end of the quarter so they're required to give us the week off :)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This summer has felt both ridiculously long yet short at the same time - if that's even a possibility.

I've managed to fit in a solid month at home, a trip to New Jersey (with a side trip to NYC), long weekend in Wisconsin for Grandma's belated 80th birthday, and almost two months of an internship & working at the admissions office.

Classes start in just four days and I'm trying my best to rest up & get ready for the whirlwind that is Fall Quarter. For some reason I'm more anxious than ever to just get this quarter started with - it feels like a giant hurricane coming thinking about all of the projects & homework that are going to be completed in the next 10 or so weeks.

This week wasn't going to pass without a bit of last minute summer fun though.

Jon & I decided to take the day off yesterday & drive 3 hours up to Toronto (Canada). Originally we were going to leave around 7 am, however we didn't get out the door until almost 8.. oops. Made it across the border with no problems even though I have to try ridiculously hard not to crack some joke with border patrol. Their questions make sarcastic answers just so tempting.

Basically the theme of the day was parks, walking along the lake & looking at houses for when dual citizenship is acquired.

We ended up stopping just short of Toronto at Lakefront Promenade Park to walk around. Went a bit further & found a lunch spot at Marie Curtis Park overlooking Lake Ontario. A walk through the water left my pants rather soaked & I discovered a new fashion statement of high-rolled jeans.

Drove further through downtown Toronto (past the Hockey Hall of Fame!) stopped by Coronation Park to see all of the boats and planes taking off. Met a couple that was biking over 1,000 miles all over Canada. From there we headed to yet another park called Ashbridge's Bay Park up on the north part of the city.

So many volleyball courts.

This one included a considerably longer walk along the sand & rocks. In the parking lot on the way out Jon asked a guy for a good local food recommendation. He gave us directions to a bar/pub as well as a hole in the wall burger place not far from there. Unfortunately we couldn't find them (we did most of the day without a GPS or map - success!) even with the GPS so we found a cute restaurant called Red Moose on that same street. Great food & it had an outdoor patio with blue skies and everything.

After dinner we wandered through the neighborhoods looking at awesome houses & officially decided that Toronto is on the list of job searching. Or I might just not wait and move there tomorrow.

my face at the thought of leaving Canada.. or just waiting for Jon to balance photo-y things.

We eventually (rather reluctantly) left Canada and headed back to Rochester but not without a stop at the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I've only ever been to the American side before and oh my goodness.. commercialization overload. Especially after an entire day of nice beaches, walking and hanging out in parks, the flashing lights, hotels & casinos were a bit much but it was definitely cool to see the falls.

Finally made it back just after midnight & promptly fell asleep. Well worth the drive up north, we're already talking about when we can go back next :)