When I was around 15 years old, that was the first time my parents took me to the Tai Hang area, shown in the map on top, Tai Hang is the peculiar looking grid layout in the center. Said to be home to one of the oldest original settlers of Hong Kong island (Hong Kong is basically split in to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and Shatin district, 2 combined pieces of land attached to Mainland China). Another fun fact is that Tai Hang is actually where the coast line used to be…see that big chunk of land (Lee Garden and all) before hitting water? Yep, all landfill.

The first time I went there was the new golden age of Tai Hang, when rent was cheap and having attracted many young businesses such as restaurants, art and craft shops. An area with a rare sense of community compared to anywhere else in Hong Kong, and a haven of peacefulness and openness cramped with 3-5 story antic buildings around 30 years old, providing a rare view of relatively open sky. I thought to myself I want to live there when I grow up.

I eventually moved out on my own with my now fiancee, and Tai Hang was the 2nd place we settled in to, but it not being the Tai Hang I remembered some 15 years ago. The inevitable cycle has hit Tai Hang like anywhere :

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES > POPULAR WITH TEENS > REAL F*ING ESTATE > F*ING RENT BUMPS UP > EVERYONE LEAVES > AREA DESERTED

I still liked it. But with all the cool kids gone, dark, broken empty shops remained. Whole buildings emptied waiting to be converted in to some fancy residential building that doesn’t give a butt about blending in to the overall look and feel. It’ll probably be completely gone in 1 decade or less….but hey, that’s the way it is.

Anyway, the Palace of Lotus is on the very edge of Tai Hang, and that the street Lin Fa Kung East Street was named after this sacred place, having been built on top of a rock which legend has it The Goddess of Mercy (the closest disciple of Buddha) has made her appearance in the 1800s. The rare architecture has made it in to an officially protected building. The awesome thing is that the rare round structure of it has not made it in to a major tourist attraction (yet), it still quietly stands and is opened to the public for worship and fortune telling everyday.

Right next to the Palace is a cheesy government park, you know pebble paths, benches and a public washroom with no swings:(. In the back of the park, a flight of stairs hidden away from view, no signs to tell of where it leads to (they just assume people would figure it out themselves, how thoughtful), looks a lil’ sketchy and if you are not familiar with that area, most likely you might just turn around and go back to Tai Hang for a beer.

BUT to the poor tourist or citizens not having grown up on Hong Kong Island, they have missed out on another rare monument in the same area.

Lai Tak Estate is it’s own one of a kind building. Finished in the 70s, one of the first government public housing projects and the only 3 estate built in a pillar form, it is one of the most photographed buildings in Hong Kong.

Don’t get me wrong. As a local resident, I would not want this chain of spots to be over crowded by tourists. But in a sense I can’t help but feel a little sad for the sad flight of stairs, and is emotionally attached to it, it’s the view of it, its the unpolished rigidness of the concrete, it blending with the plants all around it. To a stressed out city boy like me, the walks I take up and down these stairs for leisure or for convenience is an escape for me.

So for this week i’m paying this awesome little flight of stairs some respect. Since it’s so faded and unnoticed with me wanting it to remain this way, my idea was to “un-highlight” it.

In contrast to the colors and details of the photos i have edited, the stair case (or the illustration of it) is uncolored, lacks detail but is alive in it’s own way when the frame climbs upwards. At first I was going to build a flyer with words on it but then hated the idea of doing something so “in your face”, so then I landed on the idea of doing a little animated gif. and learnt that sometimes the “piece” could be left unexplained itself, be abstract and I can leave my explaining somewhere else.

AND that is what you’ve just read.

ANDY was here

I share a room with my fiancee, and then there are two other rooms are occupied by my fiancee’s sister, and a friend of mine, it’s a 500 square feet lil’ apartment, and that leave my room with no proper chair which is seriously hurting my shoulders and back, my laptop piled on top of books and just stuff laying around with not enough space to work comfortably. So my fiancee and I decided to rent another space to work as a studio so I could set up a desk, while she could recieve her clients for tarot card reading and henna drawing.

So the past couple of week was a lot of heavy lifting, going back and forth two places (30 minutes away) when I have to work my job, work my side project and band practice.

I thought I had it all planned out nicely…A mindmap of a mindmap! Thinking it was the perfect solution to deliver a line drawing (actually a whole bunch of line drawings) for this week’s task.

When it comes to drawing, I’d say I sketch more than I draw draw…I am not confident in my line work at all. With a mechanical pencil i’m OK, but with line drawing pens, I know I probably shouldn’t waste the time attempting it.

So once the mindmap was finished, I went to my trusty AI to do the line work, I didn’t think much in to how I would treat it after I’ve picked out all my lines, I thought I was in control.

It was around this point, already having spent like 3 hours on this and it struck me…I am clueless to how I should treat this and make it presentable afterwards. I think this is the first task since the course started that I went in head first without a complete chain of processes to finish, and I honestly haven’t felt this feeling of defeat in a very very long time. BUT believe it or not it honestly made me feel much more alive!

It proves that my methods are not bullet proof, something I thought I was so familiar with turned out failing me completely. At first I felt a lil’ down…but then just a couple minutes later I thought to myself “holy shit, I haven’t felt like this since earning my degree 8 years ago.”.

For the past decade, I am used to having colors to fall back on to and it will just layer and prioritise objects for me, and in this case working in black and white has left me with a flat pile of mess.

I will remember the teachings of this assignment dearly, and it’s a good smack in the face to always have a complete plan before I act and not to focus on the small things and leave out the big picture.

Results

This probably doesn’t work out for everyone, but having done this mindmap made me think about how creativity and design is generated (for me at least).

There are the “words” that get pointed and linked to the most:

FIND, MEMORIES, FIND, LOCATE, HUNCH, FEELING, SENSES, TIME, SUCCESS

TO FIND = Research, talking to people

MEMORIES = What I already know, the things that relate to me that I could recall

FIND, LOCATE = To identify or picture solutions

HUNCH = If this would work, being confident or not (which failed me this time, but I STILL BELIEVE IN YOU!)

FEELING, SENSES = The considerations of how the viewer would view the piece, to put myself into their shoes

TIME = Oh we all know how important this is!

SUCCESS = Be it money or compliments, everything is done to achieve personal satisfaction of some sort.

So I do think this weeks challenge is a success. Although late…I took s dive in to my head and I didn’t even expect to gain my results this way. Unlike a solid set of guide lines, they are open and pretty much sums up the process, the drive and psychology of a design creative process for me!

Let’s see what you think about it.

ANDY was here

The recent 2 weeks is a real walk in to our own heads. Week 4 was relatively self-reflecting; then week 5 took us into thinking design process/ creative methods, and moved on to some science of how the brain is wired.

It’s interesting to see the Bauhaus’ first attempts in identifying the thinking process and how it was first attempted in hopes of making it a systematic step by step, and I reckon it was probably an effort to industrialize creativity itself; Would probably be an app by now that could just give us straight solutions and answers to a design problem if a fixed formula was ever identified. The irreplaceable, fun part to design is that of the human touch, considerations of feelings and aesthetics which cannot be programmed, an abstract creation with no weight or property yet can be so valuable now a days in this materialistic driven world. An idea.  

Having never succeeded in identifying a solid formula to creativity, the modern model is more time based and leaning towards project management, to me it looks more like: WHEN to identify the problem, WHEN to attempt a conclusion and test ideas. Then the Six Thinking Hats was also sort of more management and time based also, this time it’s about WHEN everybody in a meeting is to think within the same context, WHEN to change hats; but then there is the yellow hat allowing a brainstorm session which is more creative based. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with identifying timing and activities, but then there doesn’t seem to be a direct formula to assure the generation of creative solutions, and I guess the “best chance” to gain good ideas is to time everything right, manage everything right, (and from previous weeks) to set a studio right. Personally I think that mind maps, taking long walks, fiddle with a different material, work the best for me regarding idea generation and problem solving.  

I really enjoyed the RSAs’ Divided Brain, Iain McGilchrist’s point of views and speech is really captivating and the animation done on top is quite the spectacle!

It is awkward to find the abandonment of the right brain; I originally thought that it would be a smart world if the left doctrine took over. For me it was a lil’ confusing at first, but then when they concluded with Einstein’ “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the faithful mind is a faithful servant; our society has honoured the servant and forgotten the gift.”.

Then it all came falling down on me:

Cops going “F your hunch, we need evidence!”

“Alice stop wandering off and pay attention to your reading!”

Our lives have been programmed to fit in to the norm, the norm which has been taken over by tech. and the head that mass broadcasts’ their “good” word  to easier manage us; Our senses have changed (the gift) and been dumbed down, and our logic (the servant) has gone hyper-drive, pushing us along to keep up with the herd, distraction after distraction fogging our intuitive. What good are the mass amounts of schooling, movies and books when we don’t get the chance to live them?

There is a Chinese saying: “10 000 books is nothing compared to walking 10 000 miles.”, but none of us really have the time to travel, and for those who do the shopping list and the schedule based exactly on some show on Travel Network is busy being fulfilled. Then once our trip is over we are too busy thinking how we can climb the ladder sitting in our lil’ cubicals, and after the long ride home we are too tired to show how much we care for our loved ones.

I think that the point made about both sides of the brain trying to inherit one another is also very interesting; and probably allowing the constant tug of waring to happen is the best approach of going at creativity. Design is no ordinary job which might only require more one sided kind of mentality, and what is giving us designers all the headaches and spinning problems around is our ability to allow both left and right to slug it out.

There is a spiritual belief that humans are capable of a 6th sense; and in scientific belief Einstein has claimed that 90% of our brain is locked away. Set priorities, cut out unnecessary distractions, try something completely new often, cut down on sweets (apparently France is very successful in eliminating ADHD by cutting sugars from children’s diets), get enough sleep and devote to the work that you love I think is the best way to assure good creative flow. 

ANDY was here

Having to deal with moving stuff into a new flat this week, with band practice and work at the same time was super crazy! 

Still having managed to have studied all the materials that have been provided, I love self-reflective stuff: What are my values? How do I know the,? What is a value to me? Do I share a value with those around me? How am I influenced by those around me? Who am I? Where did I come from? There were lots of flashbacks to the psychology 101 I took in university: Nature VS Nurture, Fast Unconscious decisions VS Slow Conscious decisions. An interesting one i’ve never put into words was “Advertising can bypass the conscious.” by Edward L. Bernays.  

Well to start with the materials, Ill say I think I have a good grasp of myself, but then to put them into words and visuals is a totally different animal. So I started off with jotting down some adjectives and then had the plan to sketch them out directly as typefaces, so they could smoothly translate into mood board with colors and some textures. 

But the moment the line work was done on computer, I instantly think that it too plain…I would say the type designs don’t pop as much as I thought they would. 

Having told my “weird stories” in the previous blog, I thought of a Buddha head I did before which I loved but never applied it to anything really. So with my eyelids heavy and the clock hitting 1am I desperately grabbed it, took like an hour to match colors and slapped my type designs on top and called it a night.

Yet the whole next day I have that image of that smiling Buddha stuck in my head ; It doesn’t work. It’s face without emotion, and without that the story cannot be told. Antsy all day long I was spinning this project in my head over and over. 

Finally the guest lecturer for the day requested a class in one of the computer rooms for some Photoshopping for the kids (again I work and teach at a college), leaving me not having to teach anything for the day AND a Mac with Illustrator installed. I fired it up and just toyed around in Illustrator with the intentions of lifting the mood of the class by just casually building something simple myself for them to see. 

2 circles, merged them and a funky pattern with silly faces…..EUREKA! I’VE GOT IT!

Instantly I remembered the Pixar animated movie “Inside Out”; but instead of emotions, I will make my 5 in to characters that fuel my graphic designing, how I present myself and all, and here they are!

Convivial is a pleasant, sociable lil’ guy, and his colors were inspired by a tropical island paradise type scenario. He’s well mannered, comfortable to be around with a smile on his face all the time. (It’s how I’d like to further grow in to? A more tame, sturdy, approachable designer). 

Kooky is a wacky, hyper clown of a guy. He doesn’t mean any harm and all, but might appear uncool and a bit too goofy for others’. His colors were inspired by the most well known, annoying clown in the world! (I keep my crazy at bay now, Id say i was a bit socially awkward during my teen years. But I after I learn to slow down more and just stay chill, the kookiness could be fed in to my graphic design work.)

Logic is a robot compiled from the many images, sounds, performances and books. Logic is automatic and fast calculating, trained to turn ideas around, connect with another, cross things between English and Chinese and guide Andy to locations he might need to go. (It was about 3 years ago I developed this hunch, I often refer to the feeling to a calculation and the more I use it the more I feel confident about it.) 

Determination happens when Zen mode is turned on, he’s the guy which kicks in when there’s still a long way to go, the phone still ringing at 3,4 am with new requests for edits coming in. As sturdy as the rocks and the trees that gave him his colors. A bird shits’ on his head and he still stands, deep in his Zen mode. 

Passionate is the guy that supports it all. Without him there is no interest in graphic design, no staying up late to finish work, no browsing online and reading books…He got glasses on because others can’t tell when he’s looking at or that he is looking at all, but he is vibrant and full of energy all the time! ( And in my mind, this passion will always feel cool and hip, a general enjoyment of what I do).

I am generally pretty pleased with them, and I think Kooky is my favorite out of ‘em all. But for this course, I’d very much like to display other sides to my work and not having to go the “cartoon” route for later assignments, but this time I think everything just clicked and this will do.

ANDY was here

To relate my sense of self to graphic design, I would have to go into what I usually only tell my close friends. Later on some content might sound baloney, but you can take them as stories and just stop reading if you feel uncomfortable.

I took a pretty long and winding path before I discovered graphic design. First of all, I would consider my sense of self a lil’ messed up: I immigrated to Canada when I was around 3, picked up on an extremely Western perception of the world, and after 4 years in Vancouver our family returned to Hong Kong where I started grade 1 in a local school. Thinking back I didn’t really realise much of a difference at first: my grades were still ok and I got along with everybody. It was when I hit grade 5, my marks dropped aside from English, then my parents got all concerned and there was all the tutoring, being yelled at tears and everything, I barely made it through grade 6, and entered year one of local high school, after that one year my class instructor told my mom how I don’t fit in to the local system and will not be able to last the whole thing, so I got switched over to Canadian International School for grade 8, it costed my parents A LOT, my family is not super rich we live comfortably thx to my hard working dad, but boy the kids at this school were, growing up with these super rich kids made me feel a little…misplaced? My marks were even worse, and my English was no longer “better than others”. So after all that, my read and writing in both English and Chinese I would consider “could be a lot better”, it’s funny cause my pronunciation is super good both sides (thanks to my mom! I remember her pin pointing my speech when I was around 4), but til’ today I still lack range in my vocabulary.

With lots of last minute efforts in high school, I managed to pass all my classes marginally. Having always liked to draw, my first choice was Visual Arts. I was young and wanted to leave my parents and go out on my own, so I applied for universities in Canada only, and got my way. A LOT happened in the 4 years of leaving home for the first time, but to quickly go over the whole thing: I flunked out of university VA, then moved on to a college next town for an animation course, and afterwards ended up with a SERIOUS delusional breakdown and my parents had to force me on a plane back to Hong Kong.

I was “out of it” and didn’t really do anything for half a year, I was around 23 back then. To cut it short, one day some inner-voice in me told me “yo, you can’t go on like this”, so I got up told my mom I want to go back to school. Ended up having to start at a higher diploma level, but eventually fell in love with graphic design and now here I am studying for my masters’.

So I went from thinking “I’m an artist” to studying graphic design, and it sort of happened by accident. I was young and did not have an understanding of myself, I ignored how I like cartoons and the details in the character designs, I ignored how I enjoy seeing a smart, well-done logo, and I ignored how at a young age I already look upon a shiny new product thinking how much work goes behind it; I chose visual arts and animation cause they sounded cool.

Another thing would be young age and that in the heart I did not see the point in studying. That’s why interviewing new comers at the college I work at now, if they are not ready I tell them to go find a job and do not waste the time to study when their heart is not prepared for it. Hong Kong people have the perception of having to completing the whole education chain accordingly, and if kids fail to get in to universities, it seems like a shame and that it looks like a hard climb back to “a future life sitting in an office”, it’s really sad.

Thinking back to my childhood and teens, before I would sort of blame my parents for having put me back and forth causing a detachment from my homeland and anywhere. But I’ve learnt to appreciate the things i’ve seen and the openness I have towards different ways of life. I’ve also learnt to over-come my read and write problems not by tackling vocabulary (believe me I’ve tried) but by phrasing and describing, which I think results in my unique humor, it’s from: overcoming language obstacles and a blend in English and Chinese phrasing and logic. That unique view of the world is part of what makes me the graphic designer I am today.

Now for Something Totally Weird

Remember when I talk about my time in Canada, and that ALOT happened? Those were events that seriously formed me, gave me myself-reflectiveness, my further (or no) gaze in life.

To lay them out in order, I have seen UFOs twice during my time in Canada.

I was with a bunch of friends standing in the backyard, when all a sudden a friend pointed at the clear cloudless open sky, we look up to see 2 red dots, they were small and were whirling lined up together at first, then they broke up and were buzzing around each other, faster and faster until they suddenly stopped, and WOOOOSH, it took around 3 seconds for the pair of red dots to fade out of sight off into a distance, like out of PERSPECTIVE! I bet what I saw just broke the sound barrier and is not from this world.

The second time I saw another was not as captivating so I’m just going to skip that, but that first time changed me forever. Ever heard that talk about “how we’re just dust in the universe”? That feeling crept and got me stressed out all the time afterwards, but much then later on I reached the conclusion that there is nothing I could do about it, and I live my life. That’s why I included the word “numb” in describing myself, not in the sense that I have no temper and is in-confident (as you might have seen in my previous writing), but I have a rather empty attitude towards self-significance really, and I could exactly point to that sighting some 15 years ago.

Then for Something Weirder

It was after a year of my UFO sighting. One fine autumn day around sunset, my ex’s dog was all whining at the front door and that is nothing out of the usual, so I let him out thinking he needed to pee or poo. I was trying to finish some work and grew impatient with him just sitting on the lawn and looking up in to the sky, so I stormed over kinda rolling my eyes, as I was getting back up from picking him up I turned to face the open sky when I saw Buddha, or an image of him flashed for only half a second, he was dozens of stories high hanging in the sky in a lotus position and was a magnificent pastel yellow, like it’s a statue crafted out by the late evening clouds. BANG! In front of my eyes, and then my legs just gave up and I dropped on my knees on the front lawn and I started crying, I wasn’t sad or anything, but it was a mix of a majestic sight and something so holy and mighty that my crying lasted for what must have been at least an hour, I ran back to my room, locked the door and was just crying and crying uncontrollably .

I did not purposely started going reading Buddhist literature and all that, but then this has now given me a warmer groundedness to life compared to the harsh cold feeling of the UFO sighting. My big depression took place after these “happenings”, I like to think that “the man” showed himself to assure me I’ll be alright, and aside from my family and some friends at the time, he played a part in me recovering from darkness.

So!

at first I did think that I was different from others, not in a cocky kind of way, but you know “I’ve seen things yo!”, but then I’ve learnt to realise that specially in a city like Hong Kong, someone is bound to have had some other “weird experience” or enlightenment like I did. I don’t feel smarter and I yet to find out if I have super powers (but noooo I felt really sick like a year ago, stayed in bed for like a month), so I’m not above anyone due to the experiences.

But what I do feel is that my mind is more open and is easier to find peace, like I was never good at lying to begin with and I always pay attention not to take a life (I really try, but mosquitos…urgh!). Like I said before I still have a temper, I still tend to contain issues and not voice them out when needed, and I slouch. But is quick to self-reflect and apologize when I know I’m supposed to, but I am proud and glad to admit being a pretty nice guy 😀

The time when I was mentally unwell also shaped my concept of self a lot. For the longest time I would still worry about if my brain would suddenly just skip fuse and if I could lose control of my mind again. But having talked to friends having gone through delusional breakdown before (including my fiancée): the good thing about having gotten past it is that we are now more sensitive to stress, and that we would know not to stress ourselves to the breaking point. Pay attention to your own body as well: mental could affect physical and magnifying the mental stress even more, take breaks, breath deep and slow, meditate, feel your body and loosen up.

I live very much in the present, a very Buddhist related teaching that I really picked up myself and found out afterwards: since planning ahead usually disappoints and thinking of the past brings regrets, so I’ve really learnt to take things as they come. I’ve also gone through many different phrases with groups of friends; you know the high school “brotherhood” disbanded, certain bands I played for ended, studios I’ve started with mates ended up in dispute. It’s really disappointing at first but now that I get that it’s a way of life, I cherish the moments with my current jam, and will love the ones close to me with all my heart and loyalty.

So yay, I cannot talk about myself and my psychology without mentioning the 2 (3) experiences that totally changed and made me the way I am now.   

ANDY was here

What is a graphic designer in this day and age? Talking to a colleague today (him in his mid 40s), we both realised we have witnessed the height of the www. We recalled a whole range of fun times with a Flash built clothes matching site thingy, hopping around as a cartoon character on an open plain, bumping into random users and was able to chat with them, algorithms that imitated a buncha floating sand that scattered as your cursor ran across the screen… and that was 15 years ago! “No one goes on websites anymore!” commented my colleague, “they got their phones now and everything’s in the App Store.”. He was right, those time flew us by, and the skills required to build all those fancy bells and whistles back in the day could now be done by a 12 year old.

Then what good are we?

First let’s dial back 15 years and talk about GLOBALISATION. Boy was that a big word back in media 101, we were talking about long distant calls, flight paths opening up and ticket prices dropping, email and file sharing increase in speed. Look at us now, we have “globalisation” in our pockets with a simple swipe. There are obviously those who fear it, and the debate is that it’s turning our youth into neck bent, mouth drooling zombies.

The full force of globalisation was ignited with the emergence of the smartphone realm, it has levelled the playground in to a hot pile of…mess?information?opportunities? It really depends on how we look at it. We having been born before the 90s all had our share in creating the smartphone boom as it is and it’s understood that with it spinning out of control: the world seem isolating and cold, everyone knows it all, nothing seem to surprise anymore and we might be stalked by our government etc.

Let me suggest some ways around the issues above. Put down that darn phone yourselves. Personally I find it super rude to be tapping away at the dinner table, and that I don’t hold long conversations on the phone; it’s a phone, as friends we will meet up at a bar and talk over a couple pints. Once we lift our faces up, try and chat a lil’ with a stranger or a colleague from a different department, humor always works for me! Oh and yay, I don’t post on Facebook or Instagram (a lot), specially with what’s going on in Hong Kong now, I specially do not comment; do not leave my mark. I have friends here, overseas and all that are starting fights on the comments section…and why are we friends in the first place? Why can’t tolerate friends with different opinions in a few aspects of their lives? That’s for them to decide. But not leaving my mark on social media helps me see a bigger picture, keep my friends and feel a lot safer. (see what I did, I still haven’t given off my political views on this issue).

As a graphic designer, my advantage is how I perceive my surroundings, calm my mind and stay in tune with my feelings and observe with my eyes and ears. I listen to my music (the new Tool album is freakin’ awesome btw), but will not make a habit of it, I utilise the internet when I need my information and there are a few times a day I would scroll through Facebook to get updated on news and probably have an hour on Bus Simulator(thats’ what i’m in to lately, the radio in it is pretty cool!). I’ll check up on my friends with the phone when i’m too busy to see ’em all. Then the whole “globalisation” doesn’t seem so bad after all!

Ignore how others’ act and start the change with yourself. I’ve came to realise all this around 8 years ago I think, and i’m definitely a whole lot happier; and some of my friends actually acknowledge how different I act from the “norm”but can appreciate how I cut the crap and meet up for dinner if we have to talk. So keep doing what you’re good at, use what you have and not the other way around, go call up some friends and have a beer.

Graphic Design & I

Here are some of the categories that I could somehow relate to on D&AD awards:

Animation – Art Direction – Branding – Direct – Editing – Graphic Design – Illustration – Packaging Design – Product Design – Production Design – Sound Design and Use of Music – Spacial Design – Typography

It’s crazy now, having graduated from my degree about 8 years ago and that many of the above used to be totally different disciplines of their own, and now here I am just drawing every knife I have in my pockets from project to project and buying a book from Amazon wanting to learn 3D modelling.

I’m proud and have fun with what I do, but in this big mixture of IT, media, visuals and the fear of Artificial Intelligence being able to replace our jobs, I find the one true thing that has kept me “artist block” free since I was 15, 16 years old, and that I can still have confidence and enjoy what I do is how I remain “me”.

1. Playing in a band definitely helps, having another dimension of creative output of making demos with instruments and software, arranging songs with my bandmates, writing lyrics English and Chinese and flipping the whole process around once in a while, over time has triggered some part of my brain and that connection could be put back in to design.
2. I’m just born sick of smartphones, I don’t have a high tolerance for them
3. My passion to walk long distances, and that is sort of a meditation kind of state of mind for me. Lots of my thinking and self-reflection is done by taking long walks.

What i’m trying to get at is: I just be myself

Embracing of The Mix

But first, calming the mind from the hooks of the “norm” is a must, what good is a designer that buys in to the stuff that everybody believes in? Then comes the awesome blessing of the mighty pencil. I know what I like spending my own money on: Sneakers (Nikes to be specific), toys, movies, cartoons, cloths, music, instruments, others include: Animals, cars, weird products, packaging, bottles and cans, singing bowls and other buddhist trinkets. Once I have identified what I love, I go and create my own, and so far i’ve made progress with cloths, music, animals (I have a turtle and is looking to have a dog), toys: I draw characters and I sculpt (and is pursuing Zbrush) and I understand animation but not great at it, then I sketch sneakers with my free time, have had chances to draw storyboards and I bet I can come up with an interesting story when I do have the time.

SO that makes me me, and I bring all that to the mix. “The mix” is actually a very interesting happening to me, it caught me un-aware at first, but then after it having led me to think and look at how things work from a different angle everything just kind of seems possible.

So to reflect on my days of being confused by “the mix”, the letting go of the age of still, plain’o graphics was something hard for me at first, but after embracing the design part and the ability to generate graphics then falls right back in to place.

Finally after all that mumble-jumble my conclusion is to practice the basics, broaden aesthetics, keep a clean open mind and self-reflect, and keep in mind there are times when we can try and learn something, and there are times when we have to leave it to the pros.

Now For Something Special

One of my heros growing up has always been Banksy. There is still no trace of him (or is it a him?9_9) buying in to the whole multi-media, interactive pile of riches, but his messages and the big “F U” to capitalism, politics and society is as strong as ever.

His recent work in his response is something his manager advised him to do due to a law suite brought upon him by a greetings card company in pursuit of the name Banksy, and his way around this and to keep his good name is to: sell products. Unlike his theme-park project a couple years back, this time I feel the “dang it I really don’t want to do this at all”, but every body in the design and art world is going nuts!

Humble beginnings of stencil art on bricks and walls in corners of streets have now been recognised and has lifted his status to an art auction stature. Call him an artist if you may, but his graphic work mixed with dark humour and satire has achieved a strong impact we call visual communication, therefor I personally recognise him as a graphic designer.

As I mentioned above, there are no touch-screens attached to this “piece”, but he once again made his protest out loud with stuffed animal heads, an old helmet, wood, couple orders from local factories (UK made products was emphasised), in it I am able to identify:

Art Direction – Branding – Direct – Graphic Design – Illustration – Packaging Design – Product Design – Production Design – Sound Design and Use of Music (maybe there’s cheesy music playing?) – Spacial Design – Typography

This is the kind of expressiveness I strive for, and that I really enjoy the laughs, deep thoughts and reflection of society one still, single piece is able to bring to a viewer. A true reminder for me to just keep things basic. All the other mediums have been included in to “the mix” for us as an option, but I don’t believe it is necessary to include them in order to excite others, solve problems and to get a message through.

The Name Game

Now, if I am to give this sort of practice a name, ill first have to break it down:

Satire, Old School, Message, Graphic

Graphic Satura, Imaging & Satire Communications, Graphiques à la Satire (french sounds pretty fancy haha), Im-musing, Graphic Musing.

I think I can’t beat Graphic Satura. Referencing the Latin origins of the word Satire has taken care of the “old school” part and then the rest speaks for itself + the fact that it sounds like a font is totally freakin’ awesome!

ANDY was here