ONE FOURCE by YSDN Saddle

ONE FOURCE

YSDN SADDLE ISSUE 05 / MAR ‘15

FORCE CONTAINING CONTENT

Letter from your fellow YSDNer

YSDN wisdom

Jordan Childs

Kevin Witkowski

Grace Lim

Emma Herlick

Firas Kauchali

Brock Donaldson

Saba Sobhani

Tracy Baker

Facing Our Forces - Hyojung Julia Seo

Problem > Solution - Lauren Holden

Kids on the Slope - Angelina Tjhung

The next Saddle

LET TER TO YSDNERS

I often take for granted the fact that I had the freedom to choose what I wanted to study in university, and that I now get to create my own design solutions for every project I am given. Most people outside of YSDN might see this kind of freedom as something great, something rare, and something lucky that I get to experience, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not like that all the time. There are those dry moments where the only force driving me to design is the fear of not meeting up to the standards raised high by my fellow design comrades. Being driven by this anxious force is gruelling, and no one should ever go there. Then there are those days where the force driving me to design is aligned with the universe and I feel like anything I do and say will be the next greatest galactic solution to that problem Dieter Rams and Jony Ive were trying to solve. Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an awesome place to be in. I should go there more often. In this issue we talk about the forces that pushed us to pursue design studies and the forces that continue fuelling us as we reach the final year of YSDN. Whether it be the desire to satisfy our craving to create something beautiful, the new wave of caffeine from the second cup of coffee, to show off our talents, or finally get that bachelors degree, there is always a hidden force that fuels us to design. If I ever lose this force, dump some water on me. From your fellow YSDNer, Hyojung Julia Seo

ABOUT THIS FEATURE

Welcome to this corner where we celebrate some of our very best YSDN wisdom. What is the force that drives you to design? Angelina Tjhung Ramis Hassan Heather McAlpine Taylor Emmerson Melanie Wong Carter Pryor

Sarah Hum Nathan Grimberg Michael Mifsud-Sweeney Jasmine Rock

F = MA Food. A more aesthetically pleasing world. Gravity. I like happy things. I just like to think of weird things and see how many weird things I can think of. Also, butts. Not doing science... and math. Making cool stuff man. That’s it. Problem solving without the math. I’m sorry but I don’t really have any profound or funny answers for you.

JORDAN CHILDS - ONE

In high school my main interests varied from, oil painting, life drawing, printmaking and photography, but I never thought that I would study design. To tell you the truth I choose design over visual arts because I realized that visual arts would not lead to success. When entering the program I had no clue to what I would suspect, from the actual courses and most of all how to use illustrator and InDesign.

As you can see that my style varies and that is why I enjoy this field so much because I can try so many new things. The fish painting on left side is one of my latest work done in high school. The piece below the fish was done using a Linoleum block. It is a combination of some of the best Banksy pieces ever made. I thought it would be interesting to comprise all of his work into one composition.

The poster above is one of my best pieces from the Design program. If you look at the two pieces I did in high school you can see that my artistic style merges into my design. If you look at the poster closely you can see that there are running black lines and this element is also included in the fish painting. The Banksy collage was produced like a stamp and if you look at the poster it resembles that style. Overall I would say that I purse design because of its diversity and artist element.

KEVIN WITKOWSKI - FOURCE

Driving Force. This should be an easy question. Just like how peanut butter is accompanied by jelly; it goes hand in hand. But things have changed passing through each year; different forces and reactions came and gone. There has been one continuing force. I would have to conclude on saying (corny enough), I was my own driving force. I regularly picked myself up and dusted myself off and trucked on through.

What currently drives me to pursue my practice? Honestly, my ambitions and dreams (again corny). I have been impressed and inspired not only by others in the program, but the design world. Many amazing things are being created. It’s fascinating to discover an interesting design and work that moves you. Not only visually but the process. I’m a fanatic in generating a path that displays my process. It can lead you to many paths, and each one is so intriguing. Initially, I wish to motivate and move people, the way that I have been. It’s an honour to even help people create such dynamic work. That’s my fuckin’ driving force right there.

GRACE LIM - ONE

There was a driving force inside me that pushed me to create things that I found aesthetically pleasing or expressed an idea in my mind. Some of them were relatively simple— —others required unconventional media to execute in order to communicate more thoroughly. I didn’t know what I was doing but all the explorations were exciting and design seemed to fit the description of what I was doing at the time. Could this even be considered as part of “design”? I still struggle with the answer to this question today. Now that I’m in a design program, I find myself discovering what aspects of the field I want to put more of myself in; specifically what works for me and what doesn’t.

A vector piece that was included in my portfolio.

What drives me to continue pursing design is no longer the finishing product but the experience I gain and what I learn from the process.

EMMA HERLICK - FOURCE

Coming into the program I really had no clue what design really was, all I knew was that it was a mix of art, marketing, and technology; which sounded like my kind of thing. In my first year I had no idea what I was doing, it was frustrating and difficult to adjust to something I was unfamiliar with. What really drove me at the time was when I completed a project and you realize that all that effort was worth it to make the final product. I like creating new, beautiful, and functional things—which is why I'm still studying graphic design. I am continuing in the field now because I enjoy the process just as much as, and sometimes more, than the final product. I am constantly learning of new ways of developing a product, using a program, or finding new designers whose style of work I feel compelled to try. I came into the field on a fluke and stayed simply because I love to create new things, plain and simple yet fulfilling. Jokes guys, you know coffee is my driving force.

The beginning of my design work I was 100% focused on the visual components to create more art focused compositions. It was always a mashup of styles and images because I didn't know where I wanted to go with each project, I was always experimenting and adjusting.

MOSHE SAFDIE

A r ch i t e c t . E d u c a t o r . Au t h o r .

- human -

As I developed my skills and personal style I’ve been able to add levels of complexity to my work. It is reflective of my artistic background but refined with the past experience in experimentation. I’m driven to continue experimenting and keep redefining my style with experience and study. DAY OF THE DEAD LA FÊTE DES MORTS

CULTURAL FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL CULTUREL

OCT 31 NOV 2 HARBOURFRONT CENTER, TORONTO

FIRAS K AUCHALI - ONE

I’ve always had a passion for art and beauty, but it did require some time for me to look into design because of the challenges associated within the creative industry. Earlier on, I explored the traditional “risk-free, guaranteed better future” routes to avoid the possibility of developing “starving artist” syndrome, but I couldn’t imagine myself in a colourless cube farm. From a young age, I enjoyed drawing, colouring, creating, and I was praised for my ability. During group projects, it was my job to draw the title on the Bristol board, and create the 3D model for science fair, and put together that excessively animated PowerPoint presentation. The infinite forms of art intrigued me. I realized I was in my element when I was expressing creativity.

I took an interest in design during my sophomore year of high school. I thought of it as the highest form of creative expression. I found it to be more challenging because it surpassed overall aesthetic to include a function. I also found it to be an aid to society, and a necessary aspect of our culture. YSDN has been quite exciting so far. Several Tuesday nights have been spent at TEL rushing to perfect those abstract compositions for the next morning. Aside from my terrible procrastination habits, I can see that I have improved my creative approach through exploration. I hope to continue learning, creating, and enjoying what I do.

BROCK DONALDSON - FOURCE

When I first started YSDN I really didn't know what to make of the projects. Throughout high school much of my visual art projects drove me insane as I have always been a perfectionist. Throughout first and second year it was no different. It wasn't until third year I realized that what I thought was a hindrance could help drive my work forward. Looking at design in a mathematic and structured manner, I feel strengthened it; learning techniques and little tricks that I continue to use in every project. D AV E E G G E R S

S H O R T S H O R T S

J O S E P H G . G R E E N S T U D I O T H E A T E R

STORY S L A M M a y - 2 5 - 2 0 1 2

Y O R K U N I V E R S I T Y

SABA SOBHANI - ONE

I have a really long, and strange history with design. If you asked my 17 year old self “what’s your plan when you graduate high school?” my answer would definitely not be “design”. The idea of crouching over a screen for the rest of my life really scared me. Up until a few weeks before my YSDN interview I was to pursuing a career in cooking.

However, during this period, design played an important role in my life. My eldest brother introduced me to Illustrator (CS2) when I was 13 and I used it as a way to let out my creativity, viewing design only as a hobby rather than a career. It was a place that I could get lost in after a boring day of copying notes off boards in school.

Junior High

SABA SOBHANI

STEVE JOBS

High School 10

My parents and my brothers noticed that I had some talent in design, and really started to push me into pursuing a career in the field. I was caught in a pickle, I didn’t know if I should cook or design. Late into the my first semester of grade 12, I learned about my school’s co-op program which I enrolled in, and then with the help of the teacher, ended up deciding that my talents in design outweighed my talents in cooking. At this point, was when I began working on my first portfolio for my future job at a branding and marketing firm in Halifax. That same portfolio ended up being used into YSDN.

TRACY BAKER - FOURCE

@tracylouwho

What initially brought me to design studies was the idea of merging my love for making with my passion for working with people. Four years later it is still what drives me to continue working in design but what it really boils down to is nothing more than a genuine curiosity for learning new ways to make things and explore what's possible.

Illustration by Hyojung Julia Seo (4th year).

LAUREN HOLDEN - SECOND YEAR

Problems > Solutions Learning to love the process

In preparation for this article, I surveyed my entrance portfolio (and cried), parced grade one “What do you want to be when you grow up?” projects for answers, and demanded that family members explain my life choices. The results of my investigation show that I have no clue about what experiences, conversations or events led me to graphic design. I do know that I’m a nerd. In the truest, JSTOR-5-ever, I-genuinely-like-the-library, Oxford-English-process-book sense of the word. Keener is also an accurate descriptor. A snapshot of me in high school: I was the one who was upset when the teacher moved the test to a later date, because it meant I had to keep studying when I was already prepared. Yup.

I like research and problem solving, which makes sense for a designer. But I definitely didn’t know how important those traits were when I arrived for my portfolio interview. So what got me here? A terrible grade ten Adobe overview course– taught by a teacher who had never opened Photoshop before– probably had something to do with it. This was not the class for artistic growth. Most of the time our “lesson” was a printout of a step-by-step tutorial found online. But there was a level of control involved in working on the computer that appealed to me. I've never liked drawing, but I've always liked making. Unfortunately, in high school art programs you usually can’t do the latter without the former. Hours spent sketching a table of miscellaneous objects was hardly a ringing endorsement to pursue post-secondary art education. Luckily, in grade twelve I had one art teacher who thought that drawing toad figurines was just as ridiculous as I did. I was in my element when he assigned limitless independent study projects based around broad themes like “the Impact of Social Media." In the process of researching, brainstorming and proposing, I realized that while I found making exciting, ideas kept me up at night (in the best possible way). Ultimately, I think it was a love for solutions that brought me to design. Now, it’s a love for problems. Don’t get me wrong– a blank artboard still scares the shit out of me. But I am (slowly) learning that if you stay with the process of researching, brainstorming, messing around, fixing, crying, and messing around some more, you will always find a solution. And it's always different from your peers. It’s not always good, but it’s never wrong. So, I am learning to love the process of finding solutions, rather than the solutions themselves. Solutions, after all, have one day to shine. The process is weeks of banging your head against a wall– you may as well put a cushion there.

ANGELINA TJHUNG - THIRD YEAR

Kids on the slope

This past reading week, I went home for a little while to get some rest and catch up on some work. On the last night, it dawned on me that I would probably never sleep in my room again. My parents told me that they were going to sell the house. For me, memory is embedded strongest in the places that we’ve been. To think that I’ll never be able to get back is scary and sad. I’ll miss the exact shade of blue that covers my walls, and the view of the sky from my window as I lay on my bed—just this expanse of blue bordered by an overhanging rooftop. If you think about it, it’s just our five senses that builds up the vast archive that is our memory. And yet, why does it seem to hold such emotional power, as if the sum of our experience is worth more than its parts? I don’t really know the answer, but the ambivalent feeling of both longing and celebration at the same time creates an interesting lens to look through, for some reason. I’m lucky that design gives me the opportunity to explore this feeling without explicitly having to explain it. But the best part is that in creating work that explores suburban

nostalgia, I’m able to share and recreate the experience with the people around me. That, in the end, is the only real way I can feel I’ve achieved anything. My work doesn’t really hold any value unless a discussion is opened between my audience and myself through the shared experience of communication. Even if nostalgia is just one of many ways to create meaningful experiences, it has the added benefit of being a very personal one. This might not be universal advice, but hear me out: when you’re stuck on a project, perhaps try and focus inwards instead and make something that holds personal value. You may figure out something you really enjoy doing in the process. Personally, I’ve learned more about myself in these short years, especially now that I’ve moved away from where I grew up. Even so, I find myself thinking back to the place where the only thing you can hear at night by the open window is the cars passing by every hour or so. Sun-bleached frames of trees lining the streets, electric lines hanging, the lens panning towards the sky to show a roof and a lone illuminated window.

NEXT SADDLE

The next feature of the Saddle will be distributed at the AIGA Design Educators Conference happening on April 16-18 at York Univeristy. This will give YSDN students the opportunity to share about their experiences in design education to design educators from around the world. AIGA Design Educators Conference seeks to activate three conversational platforms embedded in the conference title: 1) Design Education as Interface 2) Design Education as Diverse Cultural and Social Space 3) Design Education as Political Space. The conference will explore the idea that graphic design education is rapidly evolving: the social spaces we work in, and the practices of teaching and learning we engage with, are themselves mediated by larger contexts of social, cultural, political and technological change. Mindful of these changing contexts our conference will seek to pose questions about the assumptions we make about the relationship between making design, thinking about design, asking questions about design and theorizing design in as open and potentially interdisciplinary a framework as possible. We will also address how, as a specific discipline of making, we are uniquely placed to explore the limits of the emerging conversation about visual communication and visual culture in contemporary spaces of learning. Keynotes by Denise Gonzales Crisp MFA Carl DiSalvo PhD Sanne van der Beek MA Conference committee David Gelb MEd Robert Gill PhD Angela Norwood MGD For more information visit http://spacesoflearning.aiga.org/

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FEATURING JORDAN CHILDS KEVIN WITKOWSKI GRACE LIM EMMA HERLICK FIRAS KAUCHALI BROCK DONALDSON SABA SOBHANI TRACY BAKER WRITERS LAUREN HOLDEN ANGELINA TJHUNG ILLUSTRATION HYOJUNG JULIA SEO

SADDLERS ANGELINA TJHUNG HYOJUNG JULIA SEO