Dreams and Nightmares

I used to remember my dreams a lot more often when I was younger. Now, they are easily left behind in my bed. Every once in a while, though, a dream sticks in my mind. I'll wake up completely freaked out and so relieved that what I envisioned while sleeping isn't really happening. The ones I remember most have to do with a) breaking up with my fiance, b) being chased by bad guys, or c) screwing up at work. So it's pretty clear that I only remember the bad stuff.

I wish I'd have some inspiring or motivating dreams. Dreams about my actual life dreams would be ideal. But that doesn't seem to happen. Wouldn't it be cool to actually dream about yourself in your dream job? That's never happened to me. Or if it has, I simply have no memory of it. Stupid, unmotivating sleep.

Calls to Action and Cause-and-Effect Posters

These campaign posters use calls to action and/or cause-and-effect methods. Some are obviously better than others in both concept and design...yeah, okay, the meth one is really bad. But it does the cause-and-effect thing, that's for sure.

Social Campaigns

VERB Campaign

I found this poster for a campaign called VERB, aimed at getting kids involved in more activities. I think some other concept might be better for this campaign. An opposing image, like kids watching TV and eating snacks (AKA, being lazy), would help make the message more effective. Or it could go a more positive route and show kids playing soccer and having fun. But vans with lots of bumper stickers? They kind of annoy me, making me think the driver is one of those overachieving parents who makes their kids do everything under the sun. That isn't really what the campaigners want people to do here, is it? I mean, they probably want people to start small, with just one or two activities, instead of acting like they should dive into every possible after school activity imaginable...right?


RAINN Social Norms Campaign



These posters for the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) Social Norms campaign focuses on the role college men play in preventing sexual assaults. The posters use statistics to show that the majority of college-aged males respect women's wishes and would help a woman in danger of being assaulted, creating a "norm" that men should want to fit into. I think it's an innovative angle that veers from the normal "Respect women!" kind of imperative statements that just tell guys what to do. It creates a majority group that men should want to fall into in order to be like everyone else, something that college students are always trying to achieve.


ADPSR Boycott Prison Design Campaign

Winner:


Runner-up:

Runner-up:


These posters are submissions to a poster design contest for the architects/designers/planners for social responsibility (ADPSR). The topic was boycotting the design of and increased spending on prisons in favor of allocating those funds to building and renovating schools. I actually like the two runner-up designs better, as they are more striking with more thought put into type, contrast, color, and text placement. The winner incorporates lots of statistics, but they are hard to read within the image, and the big block of text on the left is kind of clunky and people might not feel like reading through it.

When Will Winter End?

Winter in Maryland is ridiculous. Not that I know how it is elsewhere; I've lived here all my life. But for real, can we get more than four months of nice weather? I know it's only February, but I'd be much more inspired to do great work on my projects if it was nice out. Actually, maybe that isn't true because I'd want to go outside all the time. How do Cali people get anything done?

Headline Brainstorming

At work, we are often tasked with brainstorming for headlines, even for projects we aren't writing ourselves. This can be frustrating because the client wants a bunch of headline ideas from us (the other writers on my team and me) without giving us a lot of background on the project. And of course, they want it YESTERDAY.

When I'm brainstorming, I try to think of a twist, as Sean would say. A pun on words usually helps. Words with multiple meanings are key. Still, oftentimes the headlines or slogans a client picks are the least clever ones. Whatcha gonna do? It's a crapshoot half the time, but it's worth trying to create clever headlines and hoping they pick yours once in a while.

Valentine's Rewind

Funny that I mentioned the marketing scheme that is Valentine's Day and then got engaged that night. I suppose my fiance really was suckered into this pointless day! Actually, he said he wanted to throw me off since we don't get that into V-Day. Smart move.

Descriptive Tap

Some of you bloggers who were in Visual and Verbal Rhetoric last semester might remember that I "performed" a little tap dance on the first day of class as part of my introduction. I grew up dancing, and tap was my favorite type of dance, because it involved so much intricate detail and rhythm. Getting a step right felt like solving a mathematical equation (something I've never been very good at). I liked solving the puzzle of the steps and making every piece fit so well together. Hearing the metal clicks tap on the floor or stage sounded better than any song ever could.

I found some descriptive text about tap dancing that I really love—you can almost hear the tapping...

Tap dancing is an amazing musical accident of the human body. It is a natural magic trick originally discovered by untrained people with relaxed feet and comfortable shoes.

Some of the many steps in tap dancing include flap, flap heel, cramp roll, buffalo, Maxie Ford, time steps, pullbacks, wings, cincinnati, the shim sham shimmy, Irish, Waltz Clog, shuffle hop step, running flaps, running shuffles, sugar, and the paddle and roll, slap, stomp, running slaps, brushes, and scuffs.

The goal in tap dancing is to produce clear, clean sounds, with various levels of tone. Body weight should be held slightly forward, allowing most of the dancing to be done on the balls of the feet. The knees and ankles should be relaxed at all times. Beginning tap dancers are sometimes told to dance as if they were dancing on a glass floor.

Since Lindy Hop is such a grounded swing dance with knees bend and the body tilted in a “ready-set-go” position. This athleticism is essential for Lindy Hop because it is such a fast-paced whirl-winded style of dance. With this grounded style, hoofing—a style of tap dance that uses the legs only, creating louder noises with the shoe itself (not necessarily a shoe with taps)—has become quite popular in Lindy Hop. The stomping between steps as a break from the basic Lindy swing out creates an energetic and typical Lindy persona to the dance itself.

Valentine's Day

Sponsored by the color red, chocolate-shaped hearts, and love, Valentine's Day is quite a machine. Really, it was created by marketing execs, but somehow many of us buy into it, don't we? I just don't feel right about ignoring the holiday, even though I know it's useless. I still go out and buy a card and some chocolate for my boyfriend and he gets me a card and takes me to dinner. Nothing extravagant, but we definitely buy into the marketing for this silly day. All that red probably just makes us hungry and crazy.

Folding@home

After a few days of researching and struggling to pick something new that I care enough about to write an article on, I found out about Folding@home. My boyfriend has a PlayStation 3, and he's mentioned this to me before. It's a distributed computing software application he downloaded for free, and it works together with all other worldwide users' software to make one big old supercomputer. This particular application, Folding@home, simulates the process of proteins folding over and over in an effort to understand and ultimately cure the world's worst diseases, like cancer and Alzheimer's. I'll save the rest of my description and writing for the article...just wanted to share that I'm happy to find a new technology that is really working to fix huge problems.

Grave Design

Okay, this is depressing, so sorry in advance. But for me to post to the blog today, I have to talk again about my dad. Today is my father's birthday, so of course I'm thinking a lot about him. I also tend to think of his grave on this day, even though I don't believe that is what should really represent him. Not to get too religious or controversial, but I don't think a person's soul lives on or anything happens after death, much less do I think the grave or cemetery houses their soul or spirit.

Still, it's where we go to remember someone we've lost, so it should in some way reflect that person. I think my dad's grave does do a nice job of portraying him as a person. We chose a spot with a tree and shade, because he never laid out in the sun, even at the beach. His gravestone is very sleek and modern, which reminds me of how he was always up on pop culture and into the latest gadgets and technology. The type used is very clean and sophisticated. Even if it doesn't matter much, where he was laid to rest does nicely symbolize and memorialize my father.

Thinking Like a Designer

For a writer, thinking about design takes a lot of effort. There are just some things I never consider when beginning a writing project or proofing someone else's design. I certainly look at another designer's consistency in type style and format when I edit their work, so in that way, I am examining the layout and design. But thinking of how I will put it all together is going to be a whole 'notha story. This profile will be a challenge.

Inspired by My Heritage

Church of Spilled Blood

The Fountains at St. Petersburg Palace

The Red Square in Moscow


For my father, art was everywhere. He sketched the things he saw, and he took in the beauty of the world wherever he could find it. I loved that a man of science--a computer engineer who helped send shuttles into space--had such a deep appreciation for museums and architecture.

As a young man in college, he could have focused solely on his studies, as he was expected to do. Instead, he chose to live in St. Petersburg, a beautiful city showcasing some of Europe's most amazing artistry and buildings. Much like a student who lives in Small Town U.S.A. dreams of moving to the Big Apple, my dad wanted to breathe in the big city life and the rich culture in St. Petersburg.

I am deeply inspired by my roots and by my father's life. After he passed away in 2005, I searched for new ways to connect with him. How do you feel close to someone who's gone? I thought of him in his purest form, before the cancer, before he had a family to provide for. His college days in St. Petersburg, those were the times I wanted to feel closer to. So my mom and I journeyed to Russia and went to the same masterfully designed churches, to the enormous Hermitage, to the golden fountains at St. Petersburg Palace, to the Red Square and Lenin's Tomb in Moscow, to the ballet, to the little cafés and shops, and to the circus.

The details that went into every massive building and palace were astonishing. Even the smallest city gardens were landscaped to look luxurious, like the backyard of a Queen. I could see the cities through my father's eyes, and picture how he became the man I knew him to be by exploring these places.