Hey Mariana and Chelsea!

Hi Mariana,

Just wanted to say thanks for a very helpful typology. You really ran with what I asked for and I appreciate it.

I had a really hard time finding information about your region, probably just because I'm not there. So thanks!

-Tey

Hi Chelsea,

I don't know how helpful my typology to you was, but if you want more information I definitely have it. As you can tell, most of the photos are from the internet, but that's because a lot of the trucks have been shut down or gone out of business. Also, they tend to only be available during fair weather.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask me!

-Tey

About Me

Hey Nebraska!  My name is Mariana Serrano and I am currently finishing my last semester of my undergrad at San Francisco State University doing graphic design.  I grew up in LA and have now been in the Bay area for about 5 years. I just got back from a semester abroad in Dublin, Ireland which was awesome. I am interested in many different aspects of the field mainly typography/ lettering, identity/ branding, editorial design, illustration. etc. What I love about the design field is that it combines so many of my interests into one like photography, painting and drawing. I am really looking forward to looking more in depth at the relationships between California and Nebraska in regard to food and water. I am currently doing my final research project on urban gardening so I think this collaboration will help me look at it from a different perspective!

Two Postings

Research & Destroy
Upon reading this piece, I noticed a lot of placed where I agreed as well as opposed. I want to highlight a main point that I think all designers should know. The exchange between client and agency (or in our terms designers) has recently arose with tension, threatening "with extinction". This is due to the fact that "designer and client avoid the confrontation." In the era of more free lancers than you can count, this is a large issue. A client would rather go to a free lance designer with the same skills or better rather than deal with the multiple chains and hoops they have to go through to get to the creative ideas. I love this new finding because I have been doing free lance work for about three years now. This has really inspired me when I read it to start taking on new tasks that I never knew I could grasp hold of. The main take-away from this article is that us as designers need to redesign ourselves to appeal to a target market that we are best at working with. This does not mean stay comfortable in a setting and never leave- explore, yet make a name and creatively craft it.


Omnivore's Dilemma
It is interesting to find that with abundance of one thing, more ideas and new inventions follow. This can be new jobs for making the products, or it can be a health downfall in relation to the new abundance such as diabetes, cancer, or even disease. This article proved points that I thought my grandparents were lying about. The medicine for anything was whiskey and the pain for anything was whiskey. Alcohol was and still is a man/woman's best back-stabbing friend.

Me, Myself, and I

How I think I look.

How I actually look


Hey my fellow art enthusiasts. My name is Alexandria Morgan Angelina Justina Anderson... you can call me Ali. I enjoy long and hot baths, petting my two dazzling felines, scavenging for something random to do, and well -of course- eating. I grew up in a small town outside of Lincoln, Nebraska called Wahoo. I have lived in Lincoln for four years and plan to move (ironically) out to San Diego to stay with my sister who has been living there for the past ten years. I want to say I have a plan for myself ahead, but I really just go where the wind takes me... and I hope that wind takes me to a breezy beach. 


The low down...
School:
I am a senior majoring in Advertising.
Minors/Concentrations: English, Sociology, Graphic Design

Work (current):
-Lazlos Bar and Brewery: I server awesomeness

Creative work:
-Body Innovations/ BRIN: Created flash mob and guerrilla advertisement
-Latino American Commission: Annual (for two years) Convention Commencement- flyers, post cards,  brochures...
-More fabulous creations can be found on my website! AlexandriaAnderson.com

My names is Chelsea, I am majoring in Visual Communication Design. I grew up drawing and painting, taking many art classes from a small child and continuing on through high school. After studying Andy Warhol in high school, I knew that I wanted to become a graphic designer. I am very passionate about art history as well and would eventually love to do graphic design work for an art museum or gallery. I get inspired by art and design that I come across on a daily basis. I even become inspired by art done by children, they have such great imaginations! 

One of my favorite quotes is, "If the horse you are drawing looks more like a dog, make it a dog." -Unknown

I am inspired  by my classmates, by architecture, and by fellow graphic designers. Some of my favorite graphic designers that have helped influence my designs are David Carson, Neville Brody, and Steven Heller, to name a few. Art inspires me as well, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns are some of my favorites. 

I would love to merge my love for art history and graphic design together through working for a gallery one day. I also dream of working for Mucca Design in New York. I would love to travel the world, getting inspired by new cultures.

A Brief Intro

My name is Mandana. I am a graphic designer, visual artist and a dreamer from Tehran, Iran. I moved to Oakland California in 2007, where I now live with my husband and our two beloved cats. I've been on a long journey pursing my dreams and documenting them with my camera, or anything that I can write, draw, or paint with. I love working for/with nature that has been a major source of inspiration and energy for me on this planet.

Foster: the Myth, the Man

   Foster is not just a man, but an idea. His formative years were spent in a hick suburb outside of Sacramento, California. It was there that he went through several lifestyle choices until he moved to San Francisco to attend San Francisco State University. He is currently working towards a degree in visual Communication Design with a minor in human Sexuality. He has done freelance for work for several bands, music venues and events around the city. He also works as a very small part time graphic designer for Super Duper Burgers. 

    His interests revolve mainly around culture, fine art, music and concept. Influences include Barbara Kruger, M.I.A., Experimental Jetset and Jenny Holzer. He enjoys working with structured, ruled out layouts with a touch of psychedelic, utopian influence. He enjoys the qualities of print, but also the possibilities of working on electronic-based media. His goals are to work in fine art, but use his graphic design sensibilities to create work that has an influential and subversive tone. 

Hello!

     Hi everybody! My name is Nick Baldassini and I am a 5th year senior studying Visual Communications here at SF State. I grew up in San Diego and decided to move to the city because I was tired of being in a small boring town and wanted to be where all the action was. I recently spent a year abroad at the University of Technology Sydney where I had the best time of my life. I totally recommend studying abroad, you won't regret it. I just got back about a month ago and am hoping to graduate this spring and hopefully find a full time job doing graphic design for a magazine company or a small start up here in SF. 

     When I'm not at school or doing school work I like to hang out with my friends and have a drink or two and explore the city. I really enjoy going to music festivals, especially the big ones. I've been to festivals all over California, Australia, and even Europe and want to keep on going. Traveling and music go hand in hand for me and if I could somehow make a job out of that I would.  

     I look forward to meeting and working with all of you this semester!

Hello

Hello. My name is William Pauley. I study Visual Communication at San Francisco State University (with a minor in Marketing). I listen to music, exercise, take pictures, draw, watch Star Trek, design things, collect records/books, bake, etc. I was born and raised in California, and plan on working in the Bay Area after I graduate next Fall.

Hello!

Hi everyone!
I'm a senior at SFSU majoring in Visual Communication Design and minoring in Marketing. I transferred to SFSU from Sacramento City College in 2010. Currently I work part time at a hotel restaurant in San Francisco and live in Oakland. I was born in Seoul, South Korea and moved to California when I was very young. I grew up in a small college town in northern California, and chose to go to college in San Francisco because it's so different from where I grew up, but still not too far from home. What originally got me interested in design is my love for art.
I also have an 8 year old dog named Lola and she is awesome :)

Things I like to do:
Drawing, stencil art, silk screening
Going to the beach (I was really excited to find a star fish at the tide pools that day).
Camping and hiking
Playing the piano

-Sarah Jacczak

About Me

Hey y’all! My name is Ted Davis, and I am a 5th year visual communication design major at SFSU. I spend a lot of time on campus this semester, dividing my time between my coursework and a design job I landed here doing posters for the residence halls. In my spare time, I love to play music and make art. I play in a local band called Hot Flash Heat Wave with 3 of my best friends. I grew up in Northern California, and moved into the city about 5 years ago when I started school. Since moving to the city, I have faced some of the hardest trials of my lifetime, but getting through it all, I think I am a better person because of it. I am determined to keep my dreams and my artwork and creative expression as my highest priority in life, and use these mediums to create positive change in the world around me.

About Me /Ingrid Alfaro @ SFSU

 

 

My name is Ingrid and I was born in El Salvador. Moving to San Francisco, CA at the age of thirteen was challenging and difficult; meanwhile the process of learning a new language and culture became a norm of survival. Once I started to adjust to my new life I was fortunate enough to come across the right people who were able to guide me in my journey of pursuing a higher education. While I was in high school I was preparing myself to face the real world. I decided to apply to several universities even though I didn’t know at the time how I was going to be able to pay for it. Coming from a low income family I knew that even though my parents wanted to help me out it was impossible since they were not lucky to have an education; since family responsibilities took over their lives. My parent’s struggle has become my motivation and I am very proud to be the first generation to attend college. My journey has being long and difficult, I have worked hard since I was seventeen to be where I am today. Now as a student and as a mother of a beautiful 6 year old daughter, who has brought more motivation in life to reach my goal on finishing my program in Visual Communications at San Francisco State University; last but not least I am a very mellow and outgoing person who loves painting, listen and dance to reggae music, hip hop, as well as Latin music.

About Me

Hi! My name is Judy Chu and I am a design and industry major, focusing on visual communications at San Francisco State University and also minoring in business accounting. Originally I had plans to become an accounting major but had a change in heart when I entered SFSU, where I ended up majoring in vis. comm. instead. But I couldn't allow myself to drop accounting because I enjoy working both sides of my brain and one without the other wouldn't make me feel whole.

Born and raised in San Francisco, I get inspired by the history and culture of the city, which motivates a lot of my work. I was self taught since middle school when the Adobe Photoshop 5.0 came out and since then, I've been surfing the web, taking on mini design requests from strangers, learning as much as I can and taking it to school to be refined. Currently, I am working as a senior graphic designer for SFSU's Cesar Chavez Student Center, which I am very thankful for having because this has come a long way from the days when I designed signatures for strangers.

I have taken this course a year ago and was drawn back to the class because unlike many of the classes I've taken in the past, I feel that I can take the knowledge from this class into a real life work scenario. It's not only about doing a project and leaving it once it's done; we dive deeper and deeper into the subject matter and are encouraged to explore, which becomes a huge motivator.

I look forward to working with everyone at UNL exploring different ideas, concepts and getting a different perspective in regards to food and water.

RESEARCH AND DESTROY

I edthought his point that “invention and a design represent different stages of a technological development, but unfortunately, these concepts are being confused with one another.” Am I a problem solver or do I just aesthetically refine an invention?

“Is a designer someone who thinks up ideas, designs, produces and sells, or someone who holds a mouse and drags objects across a computer screen?” A designers is an “artist, editor, author, initiator, skillful rhetorician, architect…” I think it’s an interesting thing to consider the value of ones ideas. To me a designer is someone with technical, aesthetic, innovative and ideation skills. There may be two wonderful designers, but each will produce something different and that’s where the value lies, in our differences.

OMNIVORE’S DILEMMA

I really enjoyed learning about the history of American farmers. Overproduction became a threat in the 1820s and it’s a huge threat to our health now. I think its interesting that the outcome of public drunkenness, violence, family abandonment and disease was linked directly to whiskey, the child of corn. However today, I feel people are not putting the pieces together as clearly between obesity and the abundance of cheap, processed and harmful foods.

I was unaware the density of energy in processed foods and their outcome being diabetes and obesity. Our bodies are overwhelmed and our metabolisms are working against energy dense foods. Currently corn is the cheapest and most abundant form of energy, finding its way into every part of our homes.

I think we need to consider a few questions. Will the cheapest calories ever revert back to being healthy, not just fats and sugars? Will the 500 extra calories per day since 1970 ever go away? Will high fructose corn syrup ever be taken out of our diet, or will we continue to consume it in more than just sweets?

Hello fellow designers! I am thrilled to be collaborating with everyone over this topic of food. I find it fascinating and rewarding to be informed about what we are putting into our systems. I know that the research and visual information done over this semester will fuel my passion for both health and design.

A few of my most recent favorite things | antique stores, bookmaking, package design, Kansas city, half marathons, asking good questions, overnight oatmeal and sunshine, however that one isn’t very new :]

Omnivore's Dilemma

"One might think that people would stop eating and drinking these gargantuan portions as soon as they felt full, but it turns out hunger doesn’t work that way. Researchers have found that people (and animals) presented with large portions will eat up to 30 percent more than they would otherwise. Human appetite, it turns out, is surprisingly elastic, which makes excellent evolutionary sense: It behooved our hunter-gatherer ancestors to feast whenever the opportunity presented itself, allowing them to build up reserves of fat against future famine. Obesity researchers call this trait the "thrifty gene." And while the gene represents a useful adaptation in an environment of food scarcity and unpredictability, it’s a disaster in an environment of fast food abundance, when the opportunity to feast presents itself 24/7. Our bodies are storing reserves of fat against a famine that never comes."

This just makes me wonder, and in all seriousness, not at all trying to come across crass or morbid: Couldn't we just engineer a famine? Governments are already working on engineering natural disasters as weapons of war...wouldn't a famine fall under that? I don't mean for this to be a sustainable or even plausible solution, but if we want a band-aid fix so bad, couldn't we just make everyone hungry and expect the "lesson" to be learned? 

I don't know. Just a thought from reading that line.

More seriously, I think the solution is again, education. Everyone doesn't have access to all information regarding nutrition, laws, farming policies, etc. All of the stuff we're leaning in this class some people are learning for the first time. I'm not saying that just because people know they'll immediately change their practices and vote differently, and be more cautious. What I am saying however, is that once people know/see/hear something that can't be undone. Plus they'll at least be aware. They'll think about it. And that's a step.

Research and Destroy Response

This article sounds to me like a push to encourage designers to change the way they approach designing. Heads up: education is my soap box. All roads lead back to education.

That being said, in order for the way we design and the way we think about to change, we must change the way we teach design. My university is a perfect example. There is a journalism college, a fine art college, an architecture college, and a textiles, manufacturing and fashion design college. The weird part? They all have a design aspect until recently, none of them collaborated, worked together, or cooperated to teach students. At some point, designers of various things all need to learn the same fundamentals. You'd think it makes sense to have a design college since we have such various design programs offered...but no. We don't. Instead, we're isolated from one another and left to our own devices to figure out how to navigate as a design student.

Some of the colleges teach certain things really well. The J-School (journalism) teaches the programs really well. They also have outstanding connections to the job market. The Fine Art school (my college :D) teaches the conceptual side of design really well. We also have some amazing instructors with awesome experiences. The architecture college teaches work ethic better than any college I know. And their equipment...don't even get me started. It's beautiful, and I love it. The fashion college teaches design for something other than web, print, and sky so that forces students to think about their designs in a way that none of the other colleges do.

All of that to say that, the merging of the fine arts and architecture colleges is huge step in what I think is the right direction to influence change in the way we design. There needs to be more cross college design education. Like I said, my university is a great example because we have a lot of this going on currently. This university is home to a lot of talented designers. They can be even better with a broader design education to be prepared for whatever they may encounter, especially those instances where they have to be designers for the sake of design.

**This blog was in response to this paragraph, specifically: "It is not so strange that a branch of graphic design has evolved that no longer hangs around waiting for an assignment, but instead takes action on its own accord. It has polarized into the ‘willing to work’, who often have little or no control over their own positions, and the ‘out of work’, who, with little economic support beyond re-channelled subsidies or grants, work on innovation for the sake of innovation."**

Research and Destroy

I personally don't like the thought of designers surrounding themselves in desire. It seems like designers are starting to lose their artist freedom. Designers have the power to change the way people look at things. If the goal of the designer is to do big things, they should focus on the needs not the wants. 

I am inspired by those who design for pure enjoyment, they base their work off their passions. 

A Republic of Fat

This article makes me think of human health in the long run. I understand that eating a lot of the foods mentioned are not the best for us. It really doesn't help the fact that it is some of the most convenient means of food consumption. The pace of life around us grows, and we get caught up in trying to meet that demand of food. Its as if we traded convenience for health. 

Introduction to TeyAnjulee Leon

On this day, I was wearing a maxi skirt. It got caught in the escalator.

instagram.com/teyanjulee

Greetings!

My name is TeyAnjuleé León, and I know that looks scary, but I promise it’s not. It breaks down like this: TAY-on-juh-lee. Cool? Cool. Emphasize the “Tey” and the rest we can figure out later.

I’m a fourth year student attempting a BFA with an emphasis in graphic design. However, I maintain that I’m 21 years old and I don’t know what’s for dinner, so I don’t presume to know what I will do as my career at this time. All I know is that I want to make the world better. My hope is that this class will equip me with some tools to do that.

Originally I’m from Washington State, but as a kid—and even now—I move around a lot because my Dad is in the Army. Home is where my family is, and currently my family is in Southern California. I’m a mama’s girl. I love to travel. I love to cook…and dude I love food. So much. More than money. As much as air. So this food movement is something I stand behind.

I’m excited to work with the rest of you. If you’re not shy, I linked to my Instagram, feel free to follow me. Nothing crazy, lots of food, baby, and cat photos. If you are shy, that’s okay too. My feelings won’t be hurt. I look forward to e-meeting you guys and learning more about you and your work.

About Me

Hello, i'm Kris. I'm a transfer student from Old Dominion University, located in Norfolk Virginia. Currently this is my second year at UNL, i'm a Fine Arts major with an emphasis in graphic design. My hobbies are soccer, skateboarding, music.

This class will be interesting for me because i'm forced to look at food a little different then others. A few years ago, i was diagnosed with Crohns, so it is important to my health that i eat right. This class has been helpful with my understanding of our country's food, and the process it goes through to get on our plates. I will continue to show my view on food through my artwork for this class.

response

Research and Destroy

While reading "Research and Destroy" not in opposition to Daniel van der Velden's statements but more of they are unrealistic goals for a graphic designer, especially a new designer, to focus on.  I believe designers should be themselves but not at the expense of their livelihood.  While designers should uses there gifts for the greater good we also have to support ourselves.  Our clients and design firms have clear goals and ideas that one may not agree with or they may be trivial and only trying to sell the next best thing but that is how I will make money to support myself.  I could see that down the road if a graphic artist becomes well known or influential they could do there own things but as a designer starting out that would be very difficult to achieve.  

A Republic of Fat

Honestly this article does not really make concerned about our food.  I've known for a while that the food that we produce is not very good for you.  I think the biggest problem is the consumption of large amounts of food.  I myself eat to much but lately I have been cutting back because I was starting to gain weight.  I believe that the reason that we have so much childhood obesity is the over consumption of the food with exercise and better eating habits I think these problems would not be so prominent   

About Me

Hi, I'm AJ Oglesby I am a fine arts major with an emphasis in graphic design and a junior here at UNL.  I haven't been in lincoln long I just transferred from a community college in Ohio.  Before I lived in Ohio I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and Northern California for most of my life, until I was 16 actually.  I chose UNL for a few reasons but the main one was to try something new and just sort of take a leap in a new direction for my life.  Food wise I pretty much eat anything that tastes good to me.  I know things are bad for me but I consume a lot of food and I do not have a ton of money to spend on finding organic and healthier foods for myself, and even if I did have the money i'm not sure if I would change.  As far as my favorite food goes it would probably be Sausage Waffles, my mom used to make them for me every once in a while, its just cooked ground sausage that is thrown into the waffle batter, and in my opinion very delicious.

Introduction

Hello all! I’m Wendy Huynh.

I’m a junior getting a bachelor’s in art with an emphasis in graphic design and another bachelor’s in business administration, majoring in marketing. I have a year old Pomeranian named Bandit that is the light of my life.

Food wise, I’m learning a lot about where my food comes from-but I don’t really know how to feel about that. I’m one that loves junk food and has never worried about how much fat is in my burger, etc. so this was a huge wake up call. With the water, I had no idea states were almost in the danger zone of running out of. I guess living in an area where water seems endless sometimes, you don’t think much about what doesn’t concern you. I feel like we could really change things being so conscious about the world around us.

Research and Destroy

I feel like this quote has a lot to do with what we're learning in class right now, "We no longer have any desire for design that is driven by need" (Velden, 2006). I took that as commercialization of design. There's not many people that design for a cause. We see so much advertising about material-items, not that there's anything wrong with that path of design, but we don't see many things on problems dealing with society or our earth even. I think this class is teaching us that we should design with a purpose. Not only do we have the power to really bring awareness to the issues of the world with our work, but we have the power to make changes as well. Designers are looked at negatively, “anyone can call themselves a designer” (Velden, 2006). It’s nothing really special. To be taken seriously, designers need to start working towards becoming developers, which I think is what we’re heading towards. It’s almost impossible to find an internship or job that doesn’t require knowing how to code or do any of the background work that designers used to not have to worry about.

Omnivore’s Dilemma

I think it’s so interesting how much people drank in the 1800's. Coffee breaks were “late-morning whiskey breaks.” Just like in the 1800's, we have a huge surplus of corn from farmers producing too much of it. And like back then, “clever marketers figure out a way to induce the human omnivore to consume the surfeit of cheap calories” (Pollan, 2006). The only difference of today is that we’re eating, not drinking. A child born in 2000 has a one-in-three chance of diabetes because of the way we eat. Our busy lifestyles , income, technology, and marketing are the culprits to our poor and unhealthy choices. It’s the easiest route to eat cheap and unhealthy, and the government knows that and is sure to keep the corn flowing. We as consumers need to become more knowledgeable about our food to make a change to the way it’s processed.

About Me

Oh hey, I'm Karley. I'm a Senior at UNL, double majoring in Fine Arts, and Advertising/PR. My emphasis in both fine arts and advertising is graphic design and photography. I've had a passion for both for many years, so I'm hoping that throughout my design career I will be able to do a little bit of each. I've lived in Lincoln, Nebraska for my entire life, and although growing up here has been great I'm ready to move on to someplace new where I can pursue my dream job of being a graphic artist at a record label, designing album artwork, gig posters, t-shirts, taking pictures of bands, etc. Aside from designing things involving music, I also really love watching documentaries. And coincidentally enough I began watching documentaries about food a while ago, before I even knew that I was going to be designing things about it in class. I've watched every single one on Netflix, and it has really opened my eyes to what is happening with our food system, and what I should be putting in my body. As of last year, I decided to become a vegetarian, not only because of the treatment of animals, but for health reasons as well. What I'm looking forward to exploring in this class is the vegan diet, and the impacts it not only has on our health, but on the system of food as well. I'm very excited to continue learning about food, and I'm looking forward to collaborating with all of you cool kids in Cali.

The Two Articles

“Research and Destroy”

“It is not so strange that a branch of graphic design has evolved that no longer hangs around waiting for an assignment, but instead takes action on its own accord.”

This statement really stood out to me while I was reading this article, because I feel like as students we very are dictated by assignments. While that does allow us to do some designing, are we really being as creative as we can potentially be? Probably not. I know for me personally I have felt this way throughout all of my art classes in college. The assignments always have a list of requirements, and a due date. Creativity is usually encouraged in these assignments, but I feel like it kind of holds me back. In this class I’ve been thinking a little differently; we can basically focus on whatever we want to as long as it involves food and system. And that in itself opens up the floor to a lot more possibilities, and although it is an assignment, I feel like I can actually do exactly what I want to with little limitation. Overall as designers, especially in college, we too often are restricted creatively and maybe we shouldn’t be hanging around for assignments. We should be designing just for the sheer fact of designing something, even if it’s stupid, at least you’ll know you are creating something without the restrictions of a class.

“Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Republic of Fat”

While I was reading this article again for the second time, all that kept going through my head was this documentary I watched very recently called Hungry For Change. In the documentary I’ve learned how reliant we are as a society for processed foods, and that our bodies aren’t meant to be eating food that isn’t natural. During the whole movie they talked about how our bodies only want to heal themselves, and when we’re putting toxins in our body on a daily basis it is hard for our bodies to keep up with that, and therefore we gain weight and become obese. There are things found in nature that have the ability to heal us from things like diabetes, and heart disease, and obesity, but we ignore it because there is so much food around us. What even more sad, is that even food we think is healthy for us probably isn’t. They went with this rule throughout the movie that anything that has an expiration date that is longer than a few weeks, probably isn’t good for you. One thing that really stood out in both the movie and the article can be summed up in this quote, “Human appetite, it turns out, is surprisingly elastic, which makes excellent evolutionary sense: It behooved our hunter-gatherer ancestors to feast whenever the opportunity presented itself, allowing them to build up reserves of fat against future famine.” Today our bodies are being tricked everyday to think that we need to feast for famine, so that’s why it’s so easy for us to pack on the pounds, and make it very difficult to lose them. If you look back to the days when we were hunter-gatherers, you can see that in terms of keeping our bodies healthy we’ve been declining more than ever before in history, and I think that’s really saying something about our modern day food system.

About Me

Hey, I'm Robert M. and I'm a senior graphic designer here at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. I love everything fine arts related, with my forte being the the ranges of computer digital arts to hand-drawn renderings. I really enjoy creating art because it's a way for me to relieve stress and escape from my world issues. Many people know me and see me as the "class-clown", which is cool, but I really do have a passion for what I do whether people believe in my work and skills or not. Hobbies include making music, sports, art, poetry, and hanging out with friends. Look forward to working with ya'll..

Articles: Research and Destroy, A Republic of Fat

Research and Destroy:

The main point to the first part is obviously the differences between the goods that designers produce rather than that of a material good.  Material Goods being needs, like producing food or clothing, designers dive deep into making the things that we already have worth more.  Designers seem to be creating value in the things we already have, by making them look better, work better, and making them more desirable.  This is not a bad thing, but enhances what we as consumers get to choose from.  This customizes our needs into what we now have which is individuality.

The part discussing how the Graphic Designer must be a good politician seems like a funny concept, but only because its so true.  As a graphic designer you must design a pleasing work of art the portrays and displays legible information to consumers while maintaining the expectations and desires of your client.  That statement alone is giving me a head ache.  I swear, my emphasis may be in Graphic Design, but I told the Dean this and will tell anyone and everyone who knows me: "I am a Graphic Artist, not a Graphic Designer, there seems to be a huge difference that needs to be addressed here!" I feel as though Graphic Design has lost, or maybe never had the sense of freedom that an Artist is allowed to experience, simply because you must appeal to an audience, and it is required that information is displayed in your work.

What I find most interesting is the fact that anyone can be a designer.  No one has to have a degree, or any education for that matter.  Anyone can decide to design, if not for a client, for themselves - and so then, what is a Designer?  How they talked about defining a designer by what he/she is not, made a lot of sense, but would seem very mundain.  Who wants to describe what they do based on the direct correlation they have with other work, designers, or the opinions of other artists?  Seems to me like designers have once again drawn the short end of the stick!


A Republic of Fat:

It is sad that they compare "The Alcohol Republic" to our current situation when it comes to obesity.  I mean, how could we have possibly gotten ourselves to the point where there is so much cheap food that we just eat to eat and get fat without doing anything about it?  At least with alcohol it impaired your judgement so you kind of had an excuse!!!

It really is amazing how the 1970's is an american trademark year, not only for the beginning of a fatter america, but the huge boom in corn lead to not only an agricultural boom, but an industrial boom as well.  With the high and excess production of corn, it was used in so many different processes and created so many materials that america not only started to gain wieght, but gained a profit by exporting some of the material out of country.  This is almost a direct copy-paste of the Alcohol Republic timeline.  Makes me wonder when, probably soon, there will be some sort of prohibition or regulations on food production and consumption.  It can't be too far off I would think...

The fact that foods that are unhealthy have become the cheapest is not a good thing.  This only promotes bad health and seems to me like it would be bad practice for our country to allow such things.  The major factor here is that our bodies are tricked into thinking that unhealthy foods are also the tastiest!!!  This sucks because it is now a dangerous cycle where people eat what is cheap, it tastes good so they don't care that its cheap so they buy more and so on.  This continues and they get fat and get diabetes.  Way to go Mr. Butz... wonder if you can really place the blame on him, but I do, at least for now.

Intro to Me:

Hello, my name is Josh Sisco.  I am a Fine Arts Major at UNL with an emphasis in Graphic Design.  Really though I just fallow my passions and let my work reflect my moods or current outlooks on life and the world. I am laid back, like to relax and enjoy myself.  At the same time, I make sure to maintain good worth ethic as I believe it is important to get stuff done.  I try to make every moment count, and even use my school projects to explore myself and my artwork.  I still do not know what I am best at, or where I will end up, but I know that wherever I go, I will be fallowing my dreams, my passions and my favorite pass-times.  In my last semester of school I look forward to my future with a nervous grin in hopes of one day becoming a video-game designer.  I love video-games and digital media.  The entertainment industry has always been a big part of my life and will always be one of my top goals in life to be a part of. Maybe one day Ill get there...

A little about me

Hey peeps

My name is Randall Owens and I am from Omaha, Nebraska. I am a senior Graphic Design major at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I often eat many things that we talk down about in this class but it doesn't turn me off too much. So far in this course I have learned to pay more attention to what I eat and I have started to avoid certain foods in my diet. Let's see where this class takes me.

Two Articles

"Research and Destroy"

After this reading I feel that it was saying that designers shouldn't feel constricted to designing for consumers. Informing the public and attempting to change the world should also be an objective of designers. Also graphic design has gone through a segregation period, for lack of a better word, when it comes to the working and the out of work. which comes through in this quote:

"It is not so strange that a branch of graphic design has evolved that no longer hangs around waiting for an assignment, but instead takes action on its own accord. It has polarized into the ‘willing to work’, who often have little or no control over their own positions, and the ‘out of work’, who, with little economic support beyond  re-channelled [sic] subsidies or grants, work on innovation for the sake of innovation."



"The Consumer: The Republic of Fat"

This article highlights what I feel are some main reasons we have an obesity problem in the nation. The yields of farmers were getting better and that resulted in people not knowing what to do with their extra grain. The surplus of corn led to corn being in all of our food and that has led to the nation eating over processed foods.

Intoduction

My name is Nick Sharon

I am a Senior at UNL majoring in Graphic Design. I love to go backpacking, ride 4-wheelers, fishing. Pretty much anything outdoors. I also love sports especially basketball. I was born and raised here in  the great city of Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Here in the mid-west we are know pretty well for the corn that farmers grow, living here I had the chance to be apart of a summer ritual called "detasseling". For those that don't know what detasseling is, it is when you remove the pollen-producing flowers, the tassel, from the tops of the corn plants and placing them on the ground. This is a form of pollination control. It was hard work and for me it was not worth the money. At the time I didn't really care about that stupid corn! But now that I know more about where corn goes and what it is in, I find it very interesting and mind boggling.

Introduction

Hello!
My name is Paul Raymond, I am a senior at UNL majoring in Graphic Design.  My hobbies include, playing video games, playing some pick-up basketball and attending as many Nebraska football and basketball games as possible.

I grew up in small town Nebraska (a town of 6,500 people) so because of my close proximity to farmers, I have a general idea of what goes into farming/ranching.  This class has already opened my eyes to a lot of interesting information about food that I commonly consume and I look forward to researching and learning more about food in the coming months.

About Me

Hello! 

My name is Emma O'Connell and I am a junior double major in advertising and graphic design at UNL. I'm not quite sure exactly what I want to do when I graduate, hopefully something super awesomely cool. 

My opinion on food: 

I have a tendency to actually really enjoy food that has high fructose corn syrup/corn in it (ex: candy, McNuggets, etc) so this class has been interesting to me and I have really been thinking a lot more about the food I am eating. 

Thoughts on Research and Destroy

I find this article very accurate and extremely informative. It really elaborates on the issue at hand, the issue in which designers are constantly at work making the latest "new thing" look even cooler than the one you have. But as the article states, is this really what we need, or is this only generated out of want? When need is removed from the situation the future of graphic design will be open to new paths, in which the designer can use this opportunity to redesign himself.
 I really like the part where the author refers to the designer as an "artist, editor, author, initiator, skillful rhetorician, architect…" because I feel as if that really sums up all the processes a designer must go through when creating a new design. It continues to say that in addition to all this the designer must do other things besides designing in order to further advance in their careers.

Thoughts on The Omnivore's Dilemma

I found this article to be very interesting as well. After summarizing our country's national drinking binge that took place in the 1800's, he states outcome of this was not so nearly as relevant as the fact that American farmers were simply producing too much corn! This is extremely similar to our situation today. After watching the King Corn documentary it is clear that farms are becoming much larger, therefore in turn producing extraordinarily large amounts of corn each year.

"As George Naylor said, growing corn is the most efficient way to get energy — calories — from an acre of Iowa farmland."

This seems to me like it forms a direct relationship with the obesity epidemic (and yes it is now declared an official epidemic) going on in the United States today. The cheapest food at the supermarket is also the most densely calorie packed, and similarly have the most corn products in them.