Monday was nothing out of the ordinary. Woke up and finished up my work for Com design 4 and then was off to school. The Big Picture Lecture was boring as ever. I am glad it was the last one of the term and should be the last one I ever am forced to go to! After the lecture it was off to Com Design. Class was short again and I don't think much progress was made. Hopefully that will change today as I get started on the work due for tomorrow.
Since class ended early that gave me some extra time to hit up the laser labe and cut more cardboard for packaging. After that I ended up going home and doing nothing. I was supposed to get stuff ready for printmaking but decided that veggin out was more important and much needed.
Sidenote: The past weekend at a party a Art Center teacher and Alumnus was shot and then later died. It was pretty said seeing the flag at half staff on Monday. There was a impromptu memorial held on Monday and there were a couple news trucks there covering. Even though I didn't know the teacher I had seen his drawings in some of my classes. Condolences to his family and students that he played an important role in shaping.
Since I had decided to veg out, Tuesday did not start for me until 9:30 which was half an hour after my class had started. No worries though Tony doesn't mind like other teachers do as long as you are getting your work done. After showing Tony what I was planning on doing it was off to Kinko's to get some over-sized prints done. After going home and relaxing for a bit it was back to school so I could start my prints. For my fourth project of the term I will be doing image transfer and possibly silkscreen. I kind of don't want to do silkscreen but I will talk to Tony and see what he says. I have done image transfer before and what was in my head on how my image would look once transferred turned out nothing like what I had envisioned. It came out very ethereal which made it even better but totally threw me for a loop since what I had planned to do needed to be revised. This morning I came up with some new ideas which should be even better than what I wanted to originally do.
The Master
Sneak peak at the first of three layers.
Printmaking after dark
For pretty much the entire semester after Printmaking was time to get shit done for Art of Research hard time. Thankfully that was not the case. Homework was simply getting questions arranged for interviews that needed to be conducted for next week. Since I had been thinking about this for a while now and had already had some written, finishing this up only took a couple minutes.
With the Y Conference coming up this weekend. And since I didn't have a class on Thursday my plan was to leave sometime on Wednesday depending on when Jesse was going to get out of class. Since AOR was going to be covering interviewing and I feel pretty confident about this subject. I decided it was the perfect time to ditch class. I did send in my homework just so I was covered.
I woke up on Wednesday with a full tank of energy and got started. I cleaned my room, cleaned up the kitchen a bit. I packed and tried to get things situated for the trip down for the weekend. Jesse didn't end up getting out of class til 7 and we didn't leave til 8:30.
The drive down was pretty easy and time flew by. Once we were down in SD our first stop was Adalberto's in Point Loma. A California Burrito is a must in San Diego! Then it was off to my mom's house. After unpacking and hanging out for a bit we headed out to Torrey Pines beach to soak up some midnight ocean air.
A little background on me and AIGA. I have been a member since 2007. In 2008 I was a student volunteer for Y 13. When Y 14 came around I wanted to do more and joined the planning committee. Between the time I joined the planning committee and the actual Y Conference a lot happened. I decided to go to Art Center and was accepted. So in the middle of planning process I moved to Pasadena. That didn't stop me from participating in the committee. I planned my school schedule so that I was able to drive down for the meetings. Let me tell you that was rough but rewarding.
Anyways they managed to get me to help out this time around even though I wasn't on the committee. AIGA is like a gang once they have you it's por vida homie(for life friend). So my Thursday started early. Not only did I have to pick up some things up and deliver. I had to swap out my wheels for new ones.
I needed new tires bad. When I drove out to Texas I got an oil change. The service manager came out to talk to me since I had CA plates. He then told me that I needed tires, which I knew, and then said, "I don't want to say you can't make it back but you need tires bad!" This term I had been looking for tires and found them a couple weeks back. Seeing as I can't work on my car here at my apartment I had to wait until I was home in SD to change them out. And Thursday was my time to get it done.
After getting the blood flowing it was time to get ready and run some Y errands. Jesse needed to get a haircut so we headed over to Mission Valley Mall. I needed a new iphone case since I wasn't feelin mine anymore. Since The haircut place in the mall was going to take to long. Jesse went with me over to the Apple Store at Fashion Valley Mall. To those of you not familiar with SD. These are two huge malls located about 5 minutes from each other. Imagine if The Paseo was bigger and there was another equally big mall near South Campus and you have Fashion and Mission Valley mall's.
After getting my iphone case it was off to Ocean Beach to pick up water for the conference. Again for those people not familiar with OB as Frank put it, "This place reminds me of Venice." The place I went to pick up water was run by some cute grungy hippie chicks. Once we had a couple of 5 gallon jugs of water, a dispenser for the silent auction and a huge Gatorade jug it was time to head over to USD.
Once we were there we dropped off some of the the stuff. The rest needed to go over to Candice's loft for the speaker party. One of the perks of being involved with the Y Conference is the private speaker party. It's hosted by a long time friend and teacher of mine Candice Lopez at her beautiful loft in downtown San Diego.
So we dropped off the water and talked to Candice for a brief moment before we were off. We headed over to Santana's for you guessed it. A California Burrito. Then it was over to Sunset Cliff's to catch some sun and surf.
Then it was time for Jesse to get his haircut and we headed back to SD's Valley. Once Jesse was done we went back to my mom's house to hang out for a bit. That night we were meeting up with my boy Jimmy and going to Stone Brewery. After going downtown to pick up Frank and Brett we were off to Escondido.
I had heard about Stone's brewery but I had never been there before. It's a pretty dope spot. They have a huge restaurant and outdoor gardens. After some drinks it was time to grub. The food was pretty good. I had some fried chicken in a lemon cream sauce and garlic mash-potatoes that was delicious. After dinner it was late and it was time to go home.
Friday was the first day of the Y Conference. Rick Grefe was the moderator this year and the speakers for Friday were Eileen Gittin from Blurb, Michael Lejune from Metro, and then Art Center's own Doyald Young. After Lunch was Jen Bilik from Knock Knock, Art Center Alum Arvi Raquel- Santos, Phil Hamlett from Academy of Art in San Francisco and then finally Guillermo Troconis of Adobe.
All of the speakers were good in their own way and the morning session of the conference was off to a great start. For lunch we headed over to J.V.'s which was close by USD for some more Mexican Food. Frank was about to have his first encounter with a California Burrito. He said it was pretty good. Now J.V.'s food is good but its not the best so I knew Frank was going to love a Cali from Santana's. The afternoon session was just as good as the morning and day 1 was done and a solid start to the Y.
That evening the plans were to go to Pokez and then walk over to the speaker party. My sister and Jimmy were supposed to meet up with us but as you know plans don't always work out. My sister and Jimmy weren't able to meet up with us. And instead of going to Pokez we went straight to the party.
One thing about the Y that I love is the socializing. And the speaker party is a great place to start. The party was great as always and after a couple hours it was time to leave. After we left we were in much need to more California burritos. It was time for Santana's. Now Santana's is always good but today it was like the hand of God came down and blessed these burrittos. Frank finally saw what all the hype was about. Once we were finished it was time to go home.
Day 2 speakers were Babak Elsahjou, an architect from Toronto, Luis Fitch from UNO Branding, Patrick Coyne from CA and then Jakob Trollback. Lets not forgot one of the most important parts of the Y was also on Saturday, the Thinkshops. These are workshops put on by speakers and other industry professionals.
Here is a list of the Thinkshops this year.
PATRICK COYNE: Designer as Entrepreneur: Becoming Your Own Client
DAVID LECOURS: Shift into a Creative Superhero
EILEEN GITTINS: Hands-on Print-on-Demand for Self-promotion
CINDY WESTEN: Your Production Department Action Plan: Real World Tricks for Getting Work Done Right
ARVI RAQUEL-SANTOS & PHIL HAMLETT The Best of Compostmodern: How Do We Design a Better World?
RIC GREFE: The Future of the Design Professional and AIGA's Role in it
JEN BILIK: Graphic Design for Retail Products
LUIS FITCH: Inside the Creative Brief: The Most Important Document in Marketing Communication
MARK MURPHY: The Power of You
ANGELA HILL: Social Media for Graphic Designers
I chose to do the creative brief with Luis Fitch. I have been following his work for a while now and wanted to see his process. It was a really good Thinkshop but they are always good.
Luis Fitch letting it all out.
After lunch I had to cut out early and missed Jakob Trollback's lecture which I heard was really good. I had to head over to Subtext to deliver the water for the party. Jesse came with me and we headed over to Candice's to pick up the beer and wine that left over from the night before.
Getting to Subtext was a little difficult. Subtext is gallery space near the airport that sits on the corner of one of the major intersections leading to the airport. A sink hole had developed causing as you can imagine tons of traffic. Luckily I was able to get through traffic and find a nice spot right in front.
With traffic and the conference running over it was a little while before people started showing up. But like the night before it was prime socializing time. More great conversations were had and new friends made. If you aren't a member of AIGA I strongly encourage you to join and experience conferences like the Y. Jesse after 2 years of me telling him to join finally saw the light and had a great time and came away enlightened.
After good food, and conversation it was time to head over to my mom's to pack up and get back to Pas. Lots of work awaited us and we couldn't spare another night in SD. We made it back to Pasadena around 12:30 and it was good to be back. Sunday was catch up day.
Y Conference Goodies
Silent Auction Pick up
Both are signed copies
Grab bag freebie
No comments:
Post a Comment