The Mac Lab

A girl should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across her mind from within, more than the lustre and the firmament of bards and sages. Yet she dismisses without notice her thought, because it is hers. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility than most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson / Self-Reliance (gender edit)

All of you should be familiar with that quotation. You’ve been instructed, twice now, to read this post. Yes, please read it again. Whether it’s for the first, second, or third time, you need to understand the 5 Stages of the Creative Process as we’re going to be using them the rest of the year. As the father of a daughter, I wish more of the quotations I post were gender agnostic rather than aimed at the guys. So, if you’re an XX chromosomer (girl) rather than an XY (boy), the sex-change operation (above) is for you. If you’re a boy, and the altered gender in the quotation bothers you, you’re a regular RWAC (Aaron L).

Speaking of Rebel, last week Theatre approached us to design the poster for their upcoming play. Our instructions (on Monday) were: Red jacket, no face, this information, and we need designs by Thursday. I tossed out the project to a few students and here’s what they came up with after only three days of work: Austin W | Christian L | Danny O | Philip B (and you’ve already seen Aaron’s). They liked all of the designs but chose Austin’s because the play is about a teenager who’s about to explode and they liked the metaphoric look of his design. Austin’s frantically working on the redesign so we can print on Tuesday. Deadlines happen.

Now, getting back to Ralph’s advice to pay attention to our own ideas… Sherman, set the WABAC Machine to 1989…

I was browsing the used CD bin in a bookstore in Santa Cruz prior to the LPQ when I happened upon a recording by Heart. But when I picked it up, I thought, for a second, that it said Earth. What the?! Looking at the typography, it suddenly clicked and I had the coolest idea for a t-shirt design. I went home and sketched it out. Today, that idea is safe, somewhere, tucked away in a box in a corner of our garage.

Over the years I’ve returned to this idea several times but never acted on it until printing a few posters last year. They, of course, sit in a box on a shelf in the Mac Lab and haven’t seen the light of day since they were created. Because I recently talked about my belief in Richard Bach’s declaration: You teach best what you most need to learn, I’m going to publish this idea right now. This is a painfully plodding rough cut of a much more ambitious concept that I’ll have to learn After Effects to produce. I’ve also ordered the first t-shirt with this artwork and will put it on the Mac Lab T-Shirt Shop for resale ASAP. (Redesigned store layout coming soon.) Since I know you’ll ask, yes, of course you’ll be able to design, print, purchase (about $20 with shipping), and wear your own custom t-shirts. Profits go to the Mac Lab Foundation.

That felt good. Now it’s your turn.

Next up are poster designs, the last shared project between classes. Those of you in 3D, listen to this: Keep it simple, elegant, and purely typographic because you’ll be taking it into Cinema 4D (that goes for your logos too). Please heed my advice or you’ll pay the price. Here are two examples of what you’ll be doing with your logos: Austin W and Trevor C (your typography will be better than those). Back to the posters. I’m opening this up to ideas beyond public service. What I care about is good composition and an appropriate message. Please read up on the Elements and Principles of Design before beginning (yes, there’s a lot of reading today). I’ve begun to set up third party galleries to give you ideas: 01 | 02 | 03. I’ll set up a couple of 3D galleries and add the links either today or tomorrow.

Mac Lab multitasking begins now. You must have an online portfolio (your Website). By Friday that portfolio will contain your self portrait, logo, and poster (coming soon). Don’t worry about finishing. Everything is a work in progress at this point. See the Project Page for links to assignments. In honor of James Cameron, I’ll be awarding extra credit for Avatars. Details will follow but you’ll be posting your proof, if you catch my drift.

Last for today, I’ve updated the time sheets (as I do every week) but this time I spent a few hours reviewing the district’s records. It’s your responsibility to check your balance (each week) and alert me if you think there’s been a mistake. For those of you who’ve cut class (according to the district quite a few of you have), the penalty is stiff. It’s your responsibility to clear truancies with attendance. I have no control over truancy records. If the district thinks you have one, you have one until you clear it. Friday is the D and F report deadline. I’ve scheduled a Mac Lab Saturday School™ for this weekend to help some of you avoid the infamy of inclusion. Look at the time sheets. Is your ID number red? See you Saturday at 7 am!

1103: Just a reminder to update your Websites. I’ll be checking them this weekend. Oh, and you might want to watch this video if you want to avoid inclusion on the D and F Report. What about the self assessment? Reminder about simplification: 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | Please review this designer’s logos: 01 | 02 | You have to learn the rules before you can break them. When we break rules (and break them we will) we will break them intelligently.

Student Logos: Gallery 021 Where is yours?

1104: Someone from Dhaka (the Rickshaw Capital of the World and the most densely populated city in the world) in the People’s Republic of Bangladesh spent a few minutes wandering about the blog to bring us to 129 countries. I wonder what he or she thought of our little classroom in the Web.

Speaking of thinking, how about you? Do you think you understand the logo project? If you do, you’re one of the few. Please allow me to explain. <<< You should probably click that link and do what it says. You must understand kerning, tracking, and leading!

1105: We’ll hit our 200,000th page view this morning. (Sitting at 199,968 right now.) That count doesn’t include videos or JPGs. Just the blog’s self-contained pages. Update: 200,002 as of 5:58 this morn. A quarter million should happen in early December. The last 50,000 views came from 47 states (+DC) and 84 countries.

Reminder: Minimum Day/Parent Visitation Day tomorrow.

Hint: Sure hope you guys (my students) have read the instructions (above). I’d hate to be disappointed when looking at your Websites this weekend. That’s all. I’ll let you work now.

1106: Visitors from 134 cities in the United Kingdom have pushed Canada (107 cities) into third place in the global visitor standings. Jolly good showing from across the pond! Likewise, the folks in 81 Florida cities have moved past New Jersey (74 cities) to take second place in the US standings.

Mac Lab students have a growing global following!

Welcome parents! Today the kids are updating their Websites using these tutorials (if necessary). Note: Use Working with InDesign — Take 2. I want to see works in progress and correctly formatted portfolios. See this video for details. (Correction: To change margins go to Layout > Margins.) Here’s the example site. Is your logo in the gallery? Get designing! (Use the graphic tips and tricks video.) And speaking of galleries, is your self portrait in this one? Let me know if you think it should be.

Free Software: Mac users, MacHeist is giving away 6 free apps. Offer expires next week. (Thanks, David!)