Capstone – Week 2 Recap
If you have not done so yet, please read my previous entry “Intro to Capstone” here.
Man, time flies. And SO much has happened in the first couple weeks of capstone! I’ve learned so much valuable information. Here are a few of the insights I have gotten from my capstone class so far:
1. “This is just another class! There is still a lot to learn!”
I think that I started this class with the mentality that I’ve learned everything there is to learn about graphic design. I must be crazy because that is so not the case. Designers are constantly learning! Our field is ever-changing. This may be one of our last classes in school, yes, but the learning doesn’t stop when you run out of classes to take. Capstone sums up every class you’ve taken throughout college and forces those ideas to merge into your project, but there are many things to learn along the way.
2. The Make It Stick Book
A book we are reading, Make it Stick, contains helpful information about why people are drawn to certain ideas and projects and what makes them succeed. The book provides great real life examples of good ideas that people have remembered since the beginning of time — for example: the “bird in hand” proverb.
“a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”
This proverb is used to exclaim it is better to hold onto something you have rather than risk losing it by trying to get something better. They are great words to live by, but they’ve been passed by word of mouth for thousands of years, from generation to generation, language to language… why? This is what the Make It Stick book discusses.
3. Different People See Things Differently
On the first day of capstone, we did a drawing exercise. Everyone picked out some sticky notes and a Sharpie marker and drew the globe in the center of the classroom. We did this three times. Our instructor gave us different amounts of time each round and one instruction, “draw it differently this time.” At the end of the exercise, we all put our sticky notes on the white board and gathered around to look at them. They were all so different. It turns out that there can be hundreds of different meanings of “draw it differently”. We do something like this each class. These exercises really help me to step out of my small reality and into everyone else's’ around me. They also keep me inspired. It is so easy to get one idea stuck in my head and roll with it. These exercises force me out of this bad habit and open my eyes up to different directions and possibilities.
My Project Idea
After thinking long and hard on an idea for this project, I’ve agreed on one specifically, and I’m pretty excited for it– A book that answers complex questions in as little words as possible. I did not expect to come up with this idea. I was set on some sort of immersive experience or activity, but I wanted it to be different. I wanted the idea to be unique and significant, but I just wasn’t happy with any of the ideas I was coming up with. I asked myself the question, “what is something or someplace you don’t have but would enjoy if you had it?” I was doing research at the time, and asking myself questions I always had but hadn’t ever taken the time to find the answers to. I had a lightbulb. What if there was a book for this?
I am very excited about this idea. I am hoping to learn a lot and answer a bunch of the questions I’ve been wondering about while producing an inspiring and interesting book.
