There is this guy that sits in my Typography class and usually ends up coming in after me. Tends to always sit next to me and pretty much smells of body odor. He generally looks clean by visual means and for the past few weeks I did not suspect it was him. He’s been singled out several times during our teacher’s long lecture, which just so happens to be one of our teacher’s biggest pet peeves. He seems to always bring in his work unfinished and I remember him saying to another classmate last quarter (I had a fundamentals of design class with him also) that he can’t stand critiques (yet he attends a school that teaches design and much like an art school involves critiques.) So I know he doesn’t particularly enjoy the critiques in our Type class; especially since this teacher is really blunt about what he likes or doesn’t like or what might be passing or failing and can use some harsh verbage when expressing his feelings towards a student’s work (although in observation, he is extremely forgiving in that, as long as you turn it in, you can redo projects until you reach the maximum grade.) So this kid who sits next to me shows up sleepy, half done work and apparently has not showered in the past few days. He’s still kicking around and its after midterms already (usually people drop classes by now if they’re not doing well.) I guess he just wants to barely pass this class, which doesn’t make sense since there’s several other necessary type classes and type is pretty important in being a graphic designer (which is his major.) It’s not a particularly big deal, just an observation of my peers. Although it can be distracting during lectures to get a big wif of body odor.
I think in some of my classes I come off as an over-achiever but I kind of have an advantage over a lot of my peers at this school since I’ve messed around with the applications and I’ve kind of taught myself certain techniques to pass as a “graphic designer.” I will admit it is nice to get a good critique from my type teacher but I think he should still find something that could make it stronger. I used to think he made a habit of scrutinizing a piece heavily but it seems he has the tendancy to be sold by something then never look back. I still think he’s a very intelligent teacher (certainly well read) and probably one of the more interesting ones I’ve had yet. Part of me also thinks he’s not as harsh at this point since we’re all technically beginners.
I’m hoping at some point someone will come along in my classes and broadside me with some amazing work. I kind of need to feel that tension of competition among your peers. So far most of my projects have been some of the same old “tricks”, if you will, that I’ve used before and kind of bore me but it new to everyone else so I can get away with it. I haven’t yet been challenge by a teacher (in a creative way) or by a peer by comparison and I guess I don’t expect it in the first few quarters. I’m really hoping someone amazing will come along and force me to really drive at this hard and get back into that creative sprint I’ve been so desperately been waiting for. I know I can’t intimidate myself enough to do so, I think I’ve been trying that for several years now.
Also on a sidenote I think I’m going to redesign the site again. We’re being introduced lightly to grid systems in my type class and I want to try and implement them into web design (although some rules are changed with web) and go about thinking it a grid fashion instead of “oh this looks good here” although it’s kind of surprising some of the stuff that I just did by instinct ended up being similar in terms of what a grid system consist of.