the outcome

The in between...

So from these blog postings, I created a book. But did I really? Actually, that was the idea, only that I went about it a different way. I got off to an interesting start on this blog. It was the first time I'd ever used one. I couldn't seem to get the hang of posting everything I collected. All the explorations. Finally, I started to somewhat get into it only that by then, it wasn't about the blog anymore. Now we were talking about using what we had posted, finding connections, and making a book of it. The blog was just a place to record our findings, but the book is what transformed those ideas and brought them all together. Well, my professor suggested different ideas on how to get started, but the one that stuck was when he said I can do a book based on color, although, not intended to be the underlying theme of the book. Well, after that, I couldn't seem to get color out of my head and what to do with it. I was thinking of a topic on camouflage animals and how they use color for protection, communication, etc. Another section on colorblindness. And although I knew the entire book wasn't to be only about color, that was all I could think of. Then I became a bit frustrated because I felt I wasn't getting anywhere. I wasn't really making connections with anything else I had previously posted and so I thought of a better idea. I didn't want the book to be about something we all already know about. I wanted to make it personal. About me and what's important to me and how I think, what inspires me, my process...that kind of thing. Which was really the bottom-line of the project anyhow. So, surely color is important to me, but is color blindness really something I care enough about to make a book chapter on? Nope. So I felt I got my mind back on track, now I just had to do something about it. The blog wasn't going to go anywhere, so I figured I'd stop posting for the sake of posting and just really figure out what works for me instead. That meant abandon the blog and come back to it later with more information and ideas to patch the cracks. I just feel it's too organized for when the ideas in my head aren't even yet organized. I like to just gather things and more things without any explanation. So, what's the point of posting without an explanation, you know? Rather than taking a picture of my collections, posting it and staring at it for days wondering what to do with it, I like to collect things and accidentally lose them in my mess and when I randomly decide to clean up my room, find it again. So that was what I did. Gathered ideas, didn't know what to do with them right then?...fine, toss it aside. Few days later, I run into it again and see it differently and ding! I'm struck with a brilliant idea. It may not have had meaning before, but it did now because I saw it from a different light. Same with photographs. I just shoot and shoot. Whatever looks interesting, whatever catches my eye. Do I instantly attach a meaning or metaphor to the photograph? No. Few times, but not usually. So, I shot photos, then did almost all of my writing for the book, then sorted everything out and made connections using the two. From there, my book just began to evolve on it's own pretty much. I seemed to have all the pieces. Then it was just a matter of piecing them together. And about the color situation...well, yes, there was a section on color and how nature inspires many different color schemes. That was just one section though, and as for the rest of the book, it was just simply...colorful. Which basically sums up how it is a big thing for me. And there are a billion photos I haven't yet used because i have yet to do more writing in order to make connections, but that is what this book is about. Process. I JUST started. It isn't anywhere near finished. Maybe published, but not finished. I have to say that I have learned an awful lot to see things and approach everything differently from this experience. I will continue to build on this project as time goes on and as I continue to grow as a designer. Thank you Higgins!