Well, it seemed that the feedback from the class was mostly positive. I’m excited to put together the finishing touches on the video, and to have our printed piece put together as well. I didn’t realize how much I’d actually liked the process of editing, constantly replaying frames to make sure they make sense.

I’m glad I got the chance to do this project; I learned so much that I would not have otherwise.

However, the feedback we received was that we essentially failed to communicate the message.

I delved into some deep thinking about what that meant. It’s always easy to lose sight of your ideas when you’re that into it. Sometimes, it takes an external perspective to make you realize that perhaps you didn’t do as you intended.

So I’m in the process of figuring that out; I’ve shown the video to those who have no idea what this project is about, just to get their perspective. I’ve resolved to get some new shots in order to smooth the transition between certain cuts, and to reposition some cuts and add some copy to more properly convey the message. Hopefully this works!

So when I sat down to think about what concept I’d like to present for this project, I felt like I could go in many directions, but at the same time felt very constrained. My peers had similar ideas; I wanted to be more conceptual. This was evident especially after receiving feedback (or lack thereof) from the instructor; we simply did not have a solid enough concept. At least, from my perspective, we didn’t. We had something generic; we had ideas, but nothing inspiring or unique.

So, I thought about how we wanted to present CSULA’s Graphic Design/Visual Communication program, and how it’s different from other local schools; what did we offer that made us special? This thought process led us to think of things that were unique in nature; after all, work that comes from our school are all wildly different. Students leave with a good idea of what their design voice is.

Then, it hit me: why not do ice cream?

The idea seems absurd enough; however, I felt extremely confident that we could shoot it in such a way that was convincing, that would connect the two ideas together: that attending CSULA would enable students to discover their own design voice, in the same way that in trying different ice cream flavors, one would find the flavor that speaks best to them. I’m ecstatic to implement this idea.

But first — a preface.

Perhaps on a whim of spontaneity, our instructor assigned us a 2-3 minute video for our last project. It was not something he’s done before; he’s never assigned this kind of project for this class, and he had taught this class about (six?) times, he said. The purpose of the video was to promote the graphic design/visual communication program at CSULA. And, that was about it, as far as the requirements went. (There is to be an accommodating printed piece that comes with the video,but that piece could be anything we wished, so as long as it was not digital).

Over the weekend, many of the students were struggling to come up with ideas that were original for this video. We all have seen the formula for these types of things; highlight the success rate, highlight a student’s experience, show clips of the classroom environment and the type of work that is produced. We thought maybe it was a better idea to work on this video as a class, since we all had similar ideas and wanted to ensure a quality result.

However, the instructor essentially shot down this idea and told us we were creatively blocking ourselves, thereby leaving the room to allow us to figure out what makes CSULA awesome and how we could approach the problem.

Which brings me back to the point of this post.

It was an hour long talk, with multiple perspectives being provided to paint a picture of what students at CSULA feel when they’re studying GD/VC. Although I’m a graduate student, I did experience a good taste of what the undergraduates go through; after all, up until this point, I was technically a second bac and taking classes to help shape my graphic design voice. The discussion started to become incredibly touching; students confessing that they loved the peers and the sense of camaraderie that they feel when they’re here. All in all, a very enlightening and lifting hour spent; while we may have our disagreements, for that moment in time, we were united by our ideas.

It was great to work with my partner, who was patient and as accommodating as they come. I wish I had time to take a photo of our finished product, though! Alas.

1. It’s extremely difficult to direct yourself when you’re the model! So I would recommend against being the model
2. Directing models is also extremely difficult. I tried to convey what emotions I wanted them to express, and try as I may to get them to do what I want, I couldn’t exactly articulate what I wanted them to do in order to achieve the look I needed for my ads.
3. Everything in the picture counts – and if it doesn’t, it should be Photoshopped out, or otherwise completely reshot.
4. Photography takes a lot of time — and really, the more shots, the better. The more experiments, the better. You never know what shot is gonna be the winning shot.
5. Know why you are shooting. It’s so easy to just go out and take a picture for a loosely conceived idea, but the photographs work best when you take it knowing exactly how it will be laid out in a design.

And more. I mean, really — this art direction class has been a bigger lesson in photography than anything else. I mean, yes there’s always the conceptualization process and learning how to tie ideas and concepts with messaging and purpose, but photography is so important; it’s what drives that communication, the vehicle for the visual metaphor. I’m lucky to have equipment to work with, and a sort of perfectionist personality to continuously retake and refine the photographs; I don’t plan to really stop, either. I love the whole process of directing a photo shoot and setting up the props.

I don’t own a Subaru; my boyfriend does. He loves his car, and as far as I can tell, most Subaru owners seem to have a twinkle in their eye whenever they talk about their cars.

Which is why the Subaru’s marketing efforts focus on the tagline, “Love. It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru.” You can really tell that this idea permeates throughout not only the culture of the company, but of the people who buy their cars.

When thinking about what makes an ad great, I can’t help but constantly refer back to the one I’ve embedded above. Like I said, I don’t even own a Subaru, but the commercial speaks to me emotionally, so much that I get teary-eyed watching it. The idea of lending a human-like quality to a mechanical machine is cliche to be sure, but the way they illustrated it in this commercial is just breathtaking. The man returns to a junkyard where his old, totaled Legacy is currently parked. He returns to grab the manual, but decides to also take the shifting knob as a keepsake, all the while melancholic music is playing in the background. He looks longingly at the car, as if it had sacrificed its life to save his. And bam–enter the waterworks.

Which is why I freakin’ love this commercial.

Today the professor mentioned the idea of advertising work as addicting and its consequential rapport for being “evil.” I’m not sure how my colleagues reacted, but I could see what he meant; advertising has tangible results in the form of sales, which determines the success of a campaign. I’m not really sure if that’s the addictive quality that I find applicable to me, though; I find the entire creative process, from conceptualization to art directing, to taking my own photos, writing my own copy, and designing my own ad to be extremely satisfying. It’s like scratching that creative itch that I didn’t know I had.