Tim's Q paper

In class Q taught us a lot of cool techniques and shortcuts that we could use when designing things like holiday cards, or logos, and how useful symbols can be.  Out of all of the techniques and tips that Q taught us about the ones that I thought were most important were, using symbols, swatches/patterns, and color/work paths.  Although Q went through a lot of techniques the main thing I got from the workshop is to think outside of the box when designing and don’t always listen to what your teachers tell you.  In real world you’re not going to focused on doing things “the right way,” you need to get your work done and it has to be good. 

Coming in to class that day the only expectations that I had were that I was going to learn something from Q.  Whether it was about graphic design or good tips to upcoming artists about how to get themselves into the art world I knew I was going to come away knowing more.  Being what I consider to be an experienced designer and artist I was excited to know what she was going to tell us about.  Like her first visit Q made sure to say hello to everyone in the class and see how everyone was doing.  That’s something I focus on because I’ve gone to artist talks where all the person does is go straight to their work or what they’re going to teach which completely cuts off any good interaction with the audience; also the fact that she is very friendly and welcoming helped. 

            Out of all of the techniques that Q taught us, I thought that most interesting and most important ones were when she taught us about symbols/patterns and color paths.  She taught us how to create patterns and make them swatches and that when you make symbols to always save them because they could come in handy for a later project.  The other technique that she taught us was about were color and work paths.  This technique would come in handy when we want to create graphics from photos or other vector images.  Color paths allow you to grab certain colors and parts of an image.  This comes in handy when you want to make a photograph in to a vector image without image tracing the photograph.  Color/work paths make it easier to make more accurate representations of the originals for your designs.

            All in all I learned a lot from both of Q’s visits.  She taught the class how to “cheat” while still doing great design.  She told us about a lot of great websites to get ourselves into the art community and to keep making work; whether it’s your best work ever or just some side design put your work out there.  Although Q went through a lot of techniques the main thing I got from class is to think outside of the box and that everything your teachers tell you is not always right.  In real world you’re not going to be focused on doing things “the right way,” you need to get your work done when it has to done and it needs to be good.