Response

I enjoyed our discussion today in class about creative people, and about stuff being practical. I think it is an important discussion with our jobs as designers always seems to be motivated by pushing the envelope. We've talked about toning down someone is easier than bringing them up, but this is hard to get a hold on for practical people like myself. I always strive for my work to be something people enjoy and I go into a lot of assignments thinking about how my editorial audience will perceive the work as opposed to what the people want. I think this might be a flaw in my thinking that I need to work on. It seems to often to me that when you bring work to people they have in mind a certain solution they want to see. It is almost as if there is a right answer all the time with things we do like the contests. But we are taught that there are no wrong answers in design; there are only ones that are not content driven enough. But the thing that gets me is there are always better solutions apparently out there, because these seem pretty clear during judging I've watched, and discussions I've heard. This is a constant battle to fit inbetween this line of creating something that is content driven to me, and creating something that is what everyone (especially the editors) will really like.
It is a relevant discussion. I think the 20/10 assignment is a good model to help with this. I think if I came up with tons of solutions everytime, I might find ones that go both ways on the spectrum.