Blog12: Video Feedback 2

We watched another half of our classmates videos in the class, and some of them were brilliant and impressive. Everybody had a different thought about what is design and I have learned a lot from my classmates. Especially Nolan's video was interesting and impressed me.
I liked the way she approached what is 'not' design, which I did not think of. Also, she showed how design fulfills its requirement with detailed explanation and example so I understood clearly.


Here's her video link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BzvsOu6JTDw

Blog12: Label Project

For this label project, I designed a label for rice. This rice brand is East Asian oriented, and has a traditional Asian theme. The brand name is called “Rice 米”, which is pronounced rice “mi” or “mee”. “米” means rice in Asian language, so the brand is all about Asian rice. 

The primary target audience is people in North America, 27 to 60, who love exotic experiences, healthy Asian food, and are willing to pay more money on organic or high quality food. They mostly dwell in urban cities. The shape of the brand logo is from the shape of rice, and I used black as a colour to make it look high quality and fancy, which black represents. Also, I put orange as a colour on the bottom to show it is about food. For the brand name, I put the actual Chinese character “米”, and how to pronounce it so people can still read it and have an exotic experience when they buy the product. 

 Left - Front - Right - Back

The primary display panel shows the brand name, product information, and net weight. On the back panel, it shows nutritional facts, ingredients, the barcode, and there is a recipe inside of each bag explaining how to cook rice.

The design theme is all about Asian tradition. The rice products are in brown paper bags closed with labels, which has Asian writings with different colours for each product, for example, the label colour of brown rice is red, and fried rice is blue. The label has a string that wraps around the whole package so that it looks like a traditional Asian binding style. Because of this style of label, the packages look unique, more authentic, and exotic to North American customers.

Blog11: Video FeedBack

We watched a half of classmate's videos. Everybody tried to explain and visualize their own design theories with their videos and some of them were really impressed and fun! If I have to pick one that I think is the best, I would pick David's video. He explains his design theory with a story, which is easy to understand. Also, the video is very neat and clear, and funny. I enjoyed a lot while I was watching his video and thought it was the most understandable among others. That is why I picked David's video as my favourite. Good job, David!

My Design Theory Video

This is my design theory video!

Blog9: My Mentor

I have met a lot of great and inspiring people in my life, but I have never really met any mentor yet. If I have to pick someone who has played an influential role in my life, I would not hesitate to pick my mother. She is my motivation, inspiration, and the reason why I am into design and art. My mother was a painter herself (she does not really draw anymore). When I was a child, I always saw her drawing and that is how I started drawing and getting into art. My mother and me used to draw together and it was always fun.

She used to want to be an artist but because of no family support, financially and emotionally, she could not even be able to go to college to study art. Because of that, she was so happy when I got into university for design. One of the reasons I want to be successful as a designer is because of my mother, and that is actually my big inspiration. Whenever I get a hard time and feel frustrated I think about my mother. It reminds me of how much support I get from her and how lucky I am.

Since I came to Canada, I cant spend time with her much but she still gives me good advice for not only design and art but also life even though my mother and me are far apart.

Thanks to my mother, I grew up as a very independent and artistic person now.

Blog8: Command X

In the class, we watched Command X, and in the show, students were presenting their work. They presented their redesigned American Idol logos and Arizona tea packages. Each student had very different ideas and thoughts, and it was interesting.  As the show is a reality show, most contestants looked nervous. Also, some judges gave contestants a hard time to answer and sometimes, they made some contestants feel little bit embarrassed due to their criticism. Overall, the show was very entertaining, and I got inspired and made me think about what I really need to prepare for presentations.

The best five presentation techniques include

1. Explaining your design with logical thoughts.

2. Answering questions with wit and confidence.

3. Ability to give brief background information about your design.

4. Always having logic to your design elements, for example, shapes, typography, etc.

5. speak with proper gestures and attitude.

The five worst errors committed

1. Reading off something that you are going to say for your presentation.

2. Look at the audience, not the monitor or the show host.

3. Never say, “It didn’t export right.”

4. Research related information about your design. Some contestants seem to be not really aware of what their design is about, for example, colours he used.

5. Some contestants said too many of “..um, well…, I mean….” although they were not answering questions. It looked like they did not really practice or prepare the presentation professionally.