As a designer and a person, you are a mash-up of what you choose to let in your life. I have been thinking lately about this and looking at what I have let into my life both as a person as well as a designer and how these things have an impact. I try to be an open person and except all ideas. I find my self a huge optimistic and try to find positive in everything. Even if its bad I use it to find the good.

 A big part of my life is music and I find inspiration within. That being said I try to listen to a large variation and range of it. Everyday my radio station has a different channel as I make my drive. I find that different generous put me in different moods and the way I look at thinks which I find very useful. One of the biggest things is I do not read which I would say is a downfall. I know there is so much information, knowledge and creativity with reading, I just can not get myself to sit down and do it. I just hate it.  To compensate for this I try to watch movies, much like I explained with music and having variety. I do love any documentaries and could watch them for hours at times which informs me of so much history and cultures around the world.  

People are a huge impact on what you let in or out of your life as well. Whether it is your friends, family or coworkers they are all effecting your lifestyle as well and most of the time I do not realize is it. That being said I try to be with people I enjoy and are positive. Creative people are a must to be around especially in the design world.

Overall I feel satisfied with the influences around me. Like I said before about being optimistic and I can see the good out of almost anything which keeps me a very positive happy guy. The one thing I know I need to work on more is reading and being able to enjoy it so I can learn from it as well.

I have not mention yet, but I will be following a designer throughout this blog and looking at him as a "mentor" and studding his work which is Armin Hofmann, who is a Swiss designer. The following pieces are his work and I will be talking about him more in the upcoming blogs.

Today I want to talk about a book I am reading called “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon. I have not read too far into the book yet but will be reading about a chapter a week. When I first heard about this book I was instantly confused. My whole life told me to do your own work and do not steal from others. I think this is what interested me in this book the most.

After reading just the first chapter it already gets you to question things and start looking at them in a new prospective. It goes to explain nothing in this world is new. Without even realizing it you are copying others work by what you see, movies you watch, books you read etc. This being said why not find the best way to take these ideas and make your work out of it, but in the right way. Use all good ideas you see to fit your application. Even if it does not go with what you currently working on copy it and save it for later.

The book itself is an easy read that consist of 10 chapters, about ten to twenty pages each. There is not much imagery throughout but I do not think it is needed. In the place of this imagery there is quotes to go along with the reading, some of which would be great to post around my desk and work space. I will be continuing to talk more about this book as I read it throughout the upcoming weeks.      

Hello, and welcome to my Graphic Design 3 Blog for GDS 222. Most people in this class know me y now but I will give you a little intro. This is my 4^th semester here at Parkland in the graphic design program and I will have one more semester until I graduate.

When it comes to my creative process I usually stick to what we have been taught here at parkland. What I struggle with the most is the research part of the process. I get so egger to get started in the design I often times find myself going back to research halfway thru to tweak my work. I do get inspiration from everything. I have multiple jobs, which help getting ideas from all sides of the spectrum, and I am a very outdoorsy guy so I use nature as inspiration quite a bit.

I always try to be around people I respect, enjoy and that I can learn from which falls true to creative people in our culture. Being around these people and seeing what they do, what works and doesn’t work for them is only going to make me a better designer and bring out a more creative side to me.

The attached image is the Christmas Card I designed last year for Parkland collage which was picked to use. I wanted something simple that would resemble the holidays but at the same time incorporate the school itself. As you can see I used school supplies to create an ordainment shape and used Parklands school colors.