Sunday, January 11, 2009

Back in the saddle... sort of

The strike is still going, but it looks like things might be coming to a close soon... well, we all hope so, at least. For those who are interested, The Star has been running an article every day for the past few days about it.

I have, however, started my two classes at Sheridan College Wednesday, and I'm really excited about that. This semester, for my practical design courses, I'm taking Interactivity Design and Design and Image. One of my professors is a professional information architect/interactive designer from the States, and the other I had last semester in a lecturer-only class. I'm really excited to have him again! He said he hasn't ever taught a studio class, and hasn't actually been in a design studio since the 80's, but he's a really interesting guy, so this should be... well, interesting, to say the least.

For Interactivity Design, we're going to be learning some very basic interactive (web) techniques (HTML, CSS, grids, motion, etc.). Design and Image is supposed to build off of Visual Language, a class we had last semester (...or were supposed to finish... except the strike interfered with that a bit), which was a class where we had to make compositions that focused on techniques for communicating abstractly. This class appears to be more about communicating through use of abstract imagery concepts (symbols, denotation/connotation, icons) in conjunction with the formal elements/principles of design, rather than exploring the elements alone.

I'm really looking forward to this semester! I'm glad that I am still excited by all my current projects and all the things I'll be learning in the future. I think design was a really great find in the world of careers; I'm relieved that I know what I want to do with my life, and that every time I go to class, that feeling becomes stronger, not weaker.

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