…about the first day of second semester
And we’re back!
After a very eventful first semester, I’m back at CCS for the second semester of the MFA Design program. My classes this semester:
- Interaction Design II
- Design Graduate Studio II
- Contextual Design Research II
- Visual Communication II (Product Design)
- Business Practices I
Today I went to studio, research and VisCom.
Studio
This semester, I’m learning about branding and extending a brand. The assignment is to pick an existing brand and develop a product or system from beginning to end that will enhance that brand. For example, Tide to-go pens or Colgate wisps.
I have a few ideas swimming around about brands I want to expand. While I love and want EVERYTHING in an Anthropolgie store, there’s so much shit packed in there it doesn’t make sense to give it anything new. I do love my old school Schwinn,so maybe there’s an idea or two in there.
Research
This dude. This class. Bananas.
Due to my lack of blogging from, oh, I don’t know, the first day of classes on, no one knew the greatness of Graduate Seminar with Vince Carducci. Quite a remarkable and brilliant guy who really knew how to challenge and stimulate new ideas among our class. This semester, Allen Bukoff is teaching Research and fills that odd void left by Vince from the fall.
First of all, he didn’t introduce himself or as us any of our names. Second, he asked us to draw, write, free associate with the word “knowing”. Do it now. What are the first three things (images, words, etc.) that come to mind? What does it mean to know? Third, he had us make snot to show the benefits of tinkering and experimenting. Fourth, dude went to Kent and saw one of the first Devo concerts for a quarter in a basement. Needless to say, I’m fairly excited.
VisCom
Now I feel out of my league. I didn’t do a lot of adventuring around the Taubman building last semester because I was too busy. This semester, VisCom is on the 10th floor, the product design floor. My jaw was on the floor as soon as I got off the elevator. Posters cover the walls for a Motorola sponsored project about making portable devices to solve problems in Africa. Someone made a USB-looking device to test if a water source is contaminated. Turn the corner and there’s mocked up shoes. A new skateboard. A new bike.
My first assignment? Draw 2 views of a 1920s telephone: one dramatic and one detailed. Because the class is regularly 1.5 credits and grad students need electives to be 3, there’s an extra class Thursday nights just for us with extra assignments. Tomorrow I’ll post photos of my current drawing style to compare with the end of the semester.
In any case, I’m excited. I want to hit homeruns for each class, but that’s like saying, “I’d like to start running. I’ll start with a marathon.”
