A VERY BUSY CHRISTMAS BREAK!

I know you already heard many times that being student is hard and this post will only just whine more about the stressful life of a student because this blog post is made by a stressed-out BSIT 3rd year student - ME. 

Third year is the time of most bachelor degrees where students are flooded with demanding, time-consuming, soul-eating, sleep-repellant, dietetic, and stressful major subjects. And I am currently experiencing this dilemma. We were given so many things to do - BUT I can’t say we were given insufficient time. It’s just that we can’t really work on our tasks everyday because it’s the holiday season – it’s CHRISTMAS TIME for crying out loud.  We also need to celebrate with our families.

We were given the following tasks:

Software Engineering

·        System Design Description

·        System Test Plan

·        At least 20% of the system properly running

Technoprenuership 2

·        Initial drafts of all chapters of the business plan

Future Technology

·        Technology Proposal

Network Technology

·        Powerpoint Presentation for the Topic Sharing

Multimedia

·        Design a logo for our college

·        Study 166 videos for the exam

Project Management

·        Powerpoint Presentation for the Topic Sharing

Thinking only of the list of tasks to do already stresses me out. I already finished my logo and half of the SE tasks are almost done but the others are still to be worked. It is really hard especially some group tasks needs to be managed by one person and some of those are managed by me so I have to allot time to plan the flow on how we will finish the task and the proper dissemination of tasks to the others.  Another bad news is we are to return immediately in January 2. That means I (and my group mates) only have five days to finish the remaining work.

I know some of you might think, “So why did you even make this post if you were busy?” or “Stop whining and do your work!” Aside from being a student, I’m also a teenager who gets easily distracted with other things like facebook, 9gag, animes, mangas, and other things so I rather blog about this than browse 9gag or read some updates in facebook(This is also my chance of updating my blog :P ). But no worries, I have been in the same situation many times before and I have finished all my tasks. I know that this kind of pressure may come back when I work in the future so it’s better that as of now – as a student – I can calmly manage my time and work.

So that’s it, WISH ME LUCK! 

[NOTE: I'm doing this 3 in the morning so I wanna say sorry ahead of time for the unchecked typographical and grammatical errors.]

Photo Credits: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTBsuejK_h5buGtm2apkms-LLf9vcvB8bxACDpMAnFmwrS4rU94fKiXIh6qBSFjyi39nr5BKCfSXLB1ku5oApQ-8SpqzWHrTsjYRhuvBo0HIBoI7wN_mGSUPPsfmIemWSfhDuIeP6Wdjs/s320/polls_stressed_out_kid_doing_homework_1840_174414_answer_1_xlarge.jpeg

GRAPHICON 2011

On the first day of December, the Davao Association of Animators and Designers organized a graphic design conference at the Abreeza Ayala Mall. The event was dubbed as GRAPHICON 2011. The event was addressed to graphics and motion design enthusiasts as well as to students who want to venture on this field. A group of respected individuals coming from Manila, Cebu and Davao was invited to be the speakers of the said event. We were educated in motion and graphics design, copyrights and many other topics in which every person during the event listened intently.

The first speaker was Sonny Leon, an instructor from PCCI. He discussed about how to find the right balance for your design. What strikes me the most during his presentation was I thought design was all about being creative but he explained that logic is also needed to design to form the right mixture. He also showed to us that even with simple tools (e.g. Microsoft Powerpoint) coupled with a creative mind can result to amazing results. Another speaker, Drei Boquiren, told us that we were our own piggy bank so we must invest in ourselves – there is nothing wrong on spending our money to satisfy our wants. Eric Su, founder of PicLyf.com, discussed to us what design is and where it is headed. His explanation of design changed my perspective on the matter. I learned from him the difference between art and design. Design is how it works while art is only focused with aesthetic value. Elaiza Cristine Magno also taught us that in real life, having a good job doesn’t mean having a good salary but doing what you want to do. But the speaker that inspired me the most was Seph Mayol, a Multimedia Designer, who has been working with clients abroad making microsites and animations. Aside from his very interesting topic what amazed us the most was his story on how he go to his position right now. We learned that with determination we can defy all odds and achieve our dreams.

I always has been fascinated with design specifically with graphics and motion design and web design but I knew that I was not that creative to make this things yet after I knew that design is not merely an aesthetic value it gave me a light that I may have a chance to pursue into becoming a designer. The whole convention was a success and hopefully it will be a yearly event this will not only help the design industry of the city but also to discover new prospects for the next generation of designers.

Photo Credits:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/GraphiCon-Davao-2011/196679520411559

Neue Haas Grotesk (Helvetica)

                        

I have been using computers since I was in elementary and during that time whenever we have an essay to pass or a project where we have to do magazine cutouts or print words to paste on our scrapbooks, we always make sure that we attract the viewers starting by the fonts to be used. Since before I knew that proper font selection is essential in order to add aesthetic value on the words where we often use decorative fonts. Before I never distinguish any major differences between a serif and non-serif fonts and when we had our typography lesson during our multimedia class, the discussion didn’t changed my perspective on dealing with non-decorative fonts. But everything changed after our instructor made us watch the documentary film, HELVETICA.

The documentary film was about typography and graphic design centered on the typeface which is also the title of the movie, where its first name was Neue Haas Grotesk. The film was able to change my point of view in dealing with typefaces. The film was able to express that typefaces did not only contain mere strokes or weight neither that it can’t only form a letter or express a word but it actually contains a story where Helvetica was, if I may say, the prime mover of the typography industry during the age of modernism. The director was able to collect information from credible people like Massimo Vignelli , Rick Poynor and other world-renowned typographers where it intensified how promising and great was the impact of the said typeface during the 1950s.                         

The director was also brave enough to include in the documentary film the decline of Helvetica. Its popularity became its own disadvantage – it became dull and boring. The film was able to shift from uniformity of modernism to the “free” post-modernism where typefaces with no sense of uniformity and was hard to read that was made by typographers who thought that it was their time to make something unique. The clash between the modernism people with the post-modernism young people was also shown during the final quarter of the movie. But, as we may alls observed, Helvetica still is one of the kings of typefaces in print, logo, graphic or motion design. I recommend people who have interest to be future designer especially in the typography field to watch the movie to have a clear view on how to deal with typefaces in various conditions and projects.

Photo Credits:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Helvetica-film.JPG