O_O

Oh, God. One of my advisors has agreed to meet with me in person when I go to Mexico City.

This is good good good, but my (self-diagnosed) social anxiety disorder is going "GAAAH!"

I need a lobotomy to get rid of the gringa accent I have when I speak Spanish... STAT!

Un cambio de lengua

Consigio la carta para mi advisor, Marina, oficialmente pidiendole ayuda departe de mi escuela para mi proyecto.

No he oido noticias de mis dos advisores, pero es temprano todavia, y voy a esperar hasta el viernes para preocupar.

Las fechas para mi viaje se acercan rapidamente y estoy bien emocionada, pero tengo que tomar la decision sobre que voy a llevar... claro que quiero vacaciones, pero como que no tiene internet en la casa de mi suegra, supongo que voy a tener mucho tiempo libre y sin distracaciones. Por eso, quiero llevar un sketchbook y cosas para dibujar mis carteles. La cuestion es si quiero llevar las cosas pesadas, como mi laptop y mi libro sobre diseno grafico en Mexico. Estoy con la idea de comprar otra copia y regalarlo a mi profe Natalia.

Estoy tan emocionada dejar el frio y lluvia detras para todo el sol y calor de Mexico :D

A few emails sent

Just shot off a couple of emails to my advisors, letting them know about the new dates for 11th week reviews, and that I would be in Mexico City the week after next, and if they wanted to meet with me then in person.

It's terribly intimidating but somehow being awkward in person seems much better than being horribly awkward and silly over the internet. I think I'm just better at hiding my awkward personality in person.

Also, I had zero edits to my email draft that I had my husband look over. My Spanish must be acceptable enough! Using it this past semester has made me get better again. :)

An unexpected change

Aaaaand.. 11th week reviews just got pushed back a week? To the first week of April? While I'm sure everyone will be happy to have another week to work, I am wondering if this throws a wrench in my advisor's plans, since I've already informed them that it would be the last week of March.

Hrm. >:|

A little something stumbled upon

!!!

Check it out! Packaging incorporating Posada's engravings! How cool. :)

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2011/6/24/the-dieline-awards-2011-second-place-espolon.html

A mini meeting

So.

Got Natalia's approval for the poster ideas, and can move forward with that. Yay.

Also discussed the 30 second spot that she wanted me to do, and she's not budging. Have to do it. I was hoping to swap it out for some sort of packaging take-away, since I'm much more interested in packaging, but now she wants me to do both. Ha!

Was thinking of doing cute little teeny jars of my homemade green salsa, that is deeleshous.

Still waiting on Natalia to do my formal letter for my advisor, asking for her help with my project. I hope I don't have to nag her too much to get it done, but I bet I will. :3

An interview

An interview I found when searching for advisors. This is an interview with Dr. Marina Garone Gravier, who has agreed to be one of my advisors. She's speaking (in Spanish, sorry) about publications in the indigenous Mexican languages during the Colonial period in Mexico.

I should set up skype dates with my advisors but I'm soooo terrified of looking stupid, either with my spanish or just in general with what I say. Oooooh, social awkwardness.

A snippet

My (unrevised) artist statement for the BFA catalog:

As an avid learner, my expansive education background in liberal arts and technology has led me to have a unique approach to design. However it is my ancestry that directly influenced my degree project; in design history classes I eagerly soaked up information, but found my favorite country of Mexico absent from the teachings. As a descendant of Mexican immigrants and understanding the importance of the latino influence in our own United States culture, I felt that this deficiency should be corrected. Buscando Raices is the culmination of a year’s worth of study of design in Mexico from 1880-1940. The final posters educate the design community about my findings, and influence my own creations through experience.

A connection

Straight from Jean François Porchez' lecture about designing type from last wednesday:

A few pictures

Here are the images I'm hoping to use for the direct influence for my posters.

Ideas for Native Mexican influence in Mexican design.

Ideas for Posada-influenced layout.

Idea for my death + art nouveau theme.

The main issue here is that ALL of these concepts have minimal text options, mostly just a headline. Since my idea is educating, I wanted to include a sentence or two about the design of the poster. Although I did just get this awesome flash in my head of all my posters lined up and in their different styles, with the headline just being "Diseño México." That would be pretty rad.

Hopefully Natalia has an opinion on it tomorrow so I can jump right into these three. I had an extremely unproductive weekend (BFA-wise, but I did finally finish my invite!!) but the breathing time was good for creative process, I think. I'm ready to push forward now.

A lazy long weekend

Eeek. I think I've been in shock since my 5th week review, and that's why I haven't updated. I haven't really done much, either, since I feel like it was such a push to have stuff for my review, and then it was disappointing that they didn't like my stuff. Meh.

I'm going to pull together some poster samples that I would like to copy for my own poster series, and have that ready for this coming week. I know I already have 3--a couple for the indian influence, a ton for Posada, and one for the art nouveau/death poster. The other two will be harder, but I figure I can work on these three and bust 'em out real good, and then worry about the rest.

In other news, I officially bought tickets to go to Mexico City for spring break... The main reason being my husband's family, but also both of my advisors are down there, so it would be really neat if I could set something up with them. Spring break is only a couple weeks before the 11th week review, so maybe I could go through that with them and make sure we're all on the same page and so they don't tell me anything too life-altering (or project-altering, same thing) via skype on the day of the review.

That's about it on this front. Close to finishing my invites, I think, or I better be. Yikes.

A pleasant surprise

Well, the second person I emailed to my advisor just responded saying she would be happy to help.

Um? That makes me 2/2 when I thought was going to be 0/2, so that's a nice plus to my rather downer week.

So now I have Gabriel Martinez Maeve, author of the font Lagarto, as well as www.kimeratype.com and  www.meave.org, and Marina Garone Gravier, whose lecture I saw on youtube: http://youtu.be/1dUxbN3SzRI and whose essay about Ignacio Cumplido (first printer in Mexico) was published (in English! wow) by MIT.

Only issue now being... I'm not sure how well they read/write English.. and Marina has just requested to read my previous studies, which, well, would take me quite some time and effort to translate.

I'm now seeing that I really should have included this point in my initial email, since it is something.. rather important.

Eeek. And they both want to talk via skype and I'm horrrrribly shy, which makes me awkward, which makes me shier, which makes me awkwarder, etc. I was hoping we could just send emails.

I guess it's silly to complain. I got advisors when I didn't think I'd get any. I'm feeling a little worried that they might not be able to skype for 11th week reviews, but, well, the less people watching me, the better I feel anyway...

A load off my shoulders

My 5th week review went as I expected, I guess.

I'm just disappointed because they didn't really like my posters at all, and I was really getting excited about them -- and excited about having something DONE for the show. :/

So now I start my posters over. I'm supposed to sketch more, which I don't like. I know I should, but I like to have my idea, and sketch it, and execute it.

Meh.

My final posters should be pretty cool though. Copies of posters that have already been created. Because I need to represent my research more, and show less of my own "aesthetic/style."

An amazing occurence

AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

Gabriel Martinez Maeve, creator of the font Lagarto that I've been raving about, just emailed back saying he'd be happy to help me/be an advisor.

WOW!

(Goodness. I hope he speaks some English..)

A day with too few minutes

Holy jesus where does the time go.

I've been working all morning but have barely gotten anything done! I've only scanned and edited images for the review tomorrow. Have gotten no where on my draft for poster 2, need to set up a digital presentation for my review, and need to go over what I'm going to say.

I am seriously considering skipping my humanities class and working til I need to leave at 4:20. 15 minutes to decide.

This is my displeased face: >(

A mini update

Just emailed a couple potential advisors... with my letter in Spanish that my husband helped to translate just to be sure I didn't have any embarrassing grammatical errors (they always tend to slip in there, no matter how many times I re-read it for corrections). I figure better late than never, right?

They're both Mexican designers in Mexico, and so far I haven't really found anyone local or even really state-side that I'm interested in contacting. Closest is an art historian in Tacoma that specializes in 16-17th century sculpture and painting from the Yucatan peninsula.. which seems a little too far removed from my project to make sense. So still looking for someone who speaks english that could potentially help me...

A little better

I am becoming quite the type lover. Too bad it's so late in my design education; I could have used this inspiration quite a bit earlier! Searching for typefaces designed by Mexican or Latino type designers.. little things like an embellishment on an italic z get my heart racing. Unfortunately, there is little budget for me to go off and be buying every font I see that I like.

Arlt is a nice looking face, with so many varieties.

My cold is under control today with a variety of meds, which has left me feeling more or less normal, if a little more easily tired. Tomorrow morning I think I'll go in and work through to lunch and my humanities class so I don't have a freak-out for the review on Wednesday.

All in all I've been very calm about it, besides the one anxiety dream... I was much more nervous for my second-year review. I figure there's not much they can do besides tell me I need to "make" more.

My schnauzers are helping me work this afternoon.

A little progress

First final rough draft of poster one

I was going to add more colors to each skull.. but I think I might like the simplicity of having each skull be only one color.

Also, I might just print out the photoshop file without the black, and ink in the black parts with a marker to give it a more hand-done effect. In fact, I'm debating on whether I want to paint the whole thing itself or not.. Would look pretty awesome on one of those huge canvases I have just sitting around...

But I figure this is good enough to show for 5th week reviews. Need to start sketching for the second poster asap, but I'm feeling pretty drained now.

A miserable time

My cold is seriously making me unmotivated to work. It's all in my head, which is making me miserable. Considering taking the day off to nap and try to get healthy in time for 5th week reviews.. and just working harder on monday during class time and my free time on tuesday morning in order to be ready for my own review...

I do work better at school anyway.

A cold slows things down

5^th Week Review Outline

Intro

            What is my degree project

            Why did I get into it

            What is my end result

Last Semester

            Posada research

                        Posada sketches round 1

                        Posada sketches round 2

            Sheet music Cover – Dulce Beat

This Semester

            Research

            Finalize end result

            Posters

            What am I trying to exactly communicate?

            Rough idea of gallery space (?)

A revelation

BFA Seminar: the class in which you get sudden anxiety attacks because you have no idea what to do for your BFA show.

A slow, rainy day

I haven't gotten a lot done, which is slightly disturbing, because I have all these plans in my head but they seem to like staying there... I haven't gotten that itchy feeling yet in my fingers that indicates the idea's ready to come out.

I hope to mostly finalize my first and second posters. I'm close with the first one, but haven't hardly gotten anything set for the second.

Ugh. And I have to print out those sheets of indian pics vs spanish pics. Dun wanna.

Anyway, I have this fabulous idea for my second poster which features Posada as the "creator" of the skull/skeleton motive in Mexican design. I really wanted to do a portrait of Natalia as a skeleton... I just have this picture in my head of her looming over, with that arched brow and pointed finger when she gets really excited and says "Yes! Do that!" It's slightly morbid and hilarious at the same time in my head, as I guess those feelings represent the Mexican vs. USA duality in my self.

However, preliminary sketches just aren't turning out the way I want them to, so short of having Natalia pose for me, I think I'm scrapping that idea.

Second idea is my go-to, in that I will do a self-portrait of myself. Most likely working at my desk in senior studio, probably working on my first poster idea. My illustration will have to look like it was engraved, per Posada's style, so that will take some time. I'm a little tempted to use my self-portrait in said style that I did last semester, but I'm feeling like that might be too much of a cop-out. Maybe as a place-holder for 5th week reviews.

The only problem is that I see this second poster in black and white in my head.. and my first poster is supposed to be saying what bright colors mexican design has.. so... I wonder if I should just add colors.

Well, I'm going to think on that. This weekend I need to make an outline for points to cover in my 5th week review; 10 minutes of talking will hopefully go by super fast. I go at 2pm on Wednesday.

Still waiting to hear back from kimera type about getting that gorgeous Lagarto font. I soooo want to put it in my invites. Maybe I'll just have to print out the specimen book and hand-copy the letters I need for my invites.

Right. Like I have that much free time!

A sidenote

I wonder if I can use my wedding invite in the 5th week reviews? I'm doing it using mexican designs... And I have to finish it this weekend and get it sent off to print...

Heehee.

A sunny day (:

Today I scanned the sketch Natalia liked, and the work I'd done on my custom lettering for the first poster. Tomorrow, I hope to put them together and get a rough final idea for the poster.

I also got two books from the library, a book of Posada's prints, and a book about Mexican Printmaking in 1920-1950. I brought the Posada book home to start coming up for the illustration for the Posada-based poster. (aka poster 2) Haven't gotten to sketching though. Tomorrow, too, I think.

Plans for friday include scanning and perhaps printing a whole bunch of stuff that I haven't made but can put on the wall as visuals for my 5th week review. Hrngh.

A shift in the sands

I am getting... frustrated. I feel like as soon as I get started on something, I get told to go in another direction. Honestly, I just want to finish something! Then I would finally have something to show for 5th week reviews!

I like what I'm doing with my first poster, so I might just go ahead and finish one, and then start making patterns (?) like Natalia wants me to. I'm not sure how patterns will help, except to have pointless fluff content for my 5th week review. I don't want to do fluff. I want to keep working on real stuff. The fluff may or may not make it into my real stuff, so it seems like too much of a risk to take when we've already lost a week of work.

Sorry for a post of complaining. Blogs are for complaining, aren't they?

A migraine intervenes

So, I did manage to finish one essay in the book before a migraine took me out last night. Migraines are bad, but at least I got twelve hours of sleep because of going to bed so early.

Except now I've switched from having anxiety dreams about the wedding to anxiety dreams about 5th/11th week reviews. Eek! Just about not being preparing and running around like an idiot trying to be ready on time.

Oh well.

I finished another essay this morning, too. Once I get into the groove of reading in Spanish, it goes a little easier. And I'd say I know 95%+ of the words, or can figure them out from context. So far both essays have been a lot more general on type and design, but they're interesting anyway: I wish they were in English so I could share.

The last one I read was about how design was about finding solutions. I know I've already read/learned this before, but I guess having to really piece together the words in Spanish and really focus on the reading makes it stick in my head better, and sound.. smarter.

However, so far, no good fodder for my DP (degree project). I haven't lost hope, though, because I know there's at least one essay in there about Ignacio Cumplido, THE guy that revolutionized type/printing for Mexico. But, in the 1800s. A little old. Hmm.

In other news, today will be a day of sketching ideas for my posters, while I avoid watching the superbowl at a superbowl family party. I despise football. Que asco. Luckily, this should translate into a very productive day, but as I am the queen of procrastination... we shall see.

This next week I need to get into gear and (hopefully) crank out maybe two posters. I'd settle for finishing one awesomely, and having a good start on the other.

Happy Sunday, all.

An unexpected surprise!

My book came early! So totally thrilled. I've already leafed through it and found a gorgeous font called Lagarto. Google it. Beautiful alternative chars and swashes, makes me swoon! I think I just might have to acquire it, if not for my posters, then of course for my wedding invites, which I was supposed to be finishing this weekend. Whoops.

Anyway. Time for some curled up in bed reading time, book and google translate app in hand. Such an exciting weekender, aren't I?

A frustration

I think the reading for bfa seminar is stupid so I'm not doing it. That's a big deal for me--I'm a dedicated student. But I can't get past the first paragraph because it's so pretentious and badly written. Ugh.

As far as BFA news, my last post inspired me to look up books on Mexican design.. again. Instead of just googling, I searched on amazon and actually turned up some good results. There's this book that would be a companion to my own, but it is much too expensive: http://amzn.com/6076050233. But since that was too expensive I just bookmarked it.

BUT! I did have success! I found a book called Ensayos Sobre Diseno Tipografico en Mexico, or, Essays About Typographic Design in Mexico. Yes, it's in Spanish, so it might take me a while to slog through, my reading-Spanish has gotten rusty since I stopped reading Harry Potter in Spanish, but can we say "SCORE"!

Natalia's going to tell me I'm not making enough. v_v

After talking with her yesterday, I'm abandoning my "Diseño Mexico" branding in mid-process and jumping into posters so that I have something to show for 5th week reviews. Kinda disappointed since I don't like stopping things in the middle, but Ashley thought that perhaps the branding should come last so that it was more cohesive with the style of the posters.

So that is that. Trying to find solid "facts" or "info nuggets" that I might express on my posters. That is difficult. I figure general statements will be best. I am afraid that all my posters will look too different though, as I progress through the semester... and I haven't picked a size yet... Anyway.

I'm rambling.