.

A few changes and looking ahead

2008-04-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Copyright law is one of those things that I have been able to circumvent for the last four years because of my status and a student. This is because works can be copied and altered by students because they are doing so for non-profit purposes. The down side of this is that it forms bad habits of downloading images off of Google image search for use in a project. I did this during my internship and actually had to scrap and entire project because it would have gotten the company in a lot of trouble. Thankfully my boss, Joel Harss, was really understanding of this and laughed to himself while saying he made the same mistake when he first began working.
While reading the section “Respecting Others’ Rights” in Cynthia Baron’s Designing a Digital Portfolio, I became particularly interested in the section about derivative art and style. I actually had to read it a few times because I was confused about the difference between the two. Though I think that the difference lies in the content of the work. For example taking someone else’s work and modifying the details does not make it your own. However basing a design off of another, as long as your do not use and of the material (pictures, quotes, color schemes) featured in the original, then you are good to go. I think.
Reflecting upon this, I think that I need to alter my portfolio because it features an image that was taken from someone else’s work. I have this vector piece which features a character featured in the video game “Spartan: Total Warrior”. Now while I gave credit to Electronic Arts as the developer and explicitly say in the description that I drew this while looking at a screen shot of the game, I’m still nervous about featuring it because its not completely original. I drew it, added a bunch of interesting and original detail on top of it, but it is still not entirely mine. This really stinks because I really like this particular piece of work, but it’s not worth the risk of a lawsuit or seeming fraudulent at an interview. So bottom line is, I’m going to have to find another piece of work to replace it. Thankfully I have enough more than enough original pieces to present in my portfolio, so swapping one for another isn’t that big of a set back.
Another section in chapter twelve of Designing a Digital Portfolio that caught my attention discussed the idea of owning and protecting your creations. When employed by an agency, Cynthia warns that not all of the work you created is actually yours. Depending on the language of your contract you may actually be creating works for the company and thus only for company use. Meaning that you must first gain permission from your employer in order to use certain works in your portfolio. Cynthia went on to explain that his is largely dependent on your relationship with your boss. This worries me because I would much rather prefer to work for an agency than to work independently. I feel much more relaxed with the idea of working for an established firm than taking the (in my eyes unnecessary) risk of starting my own firm or working free lance. I think that free-lance designing is a good way to have additional income but I do not want it to be my primary means of supporting myself. It’s not daring, but it’s safe.

WR171NG (SP?)

2008-04-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, finally a week where I don’t feel like throwing myself off a bridge for fear of doubt and general inadequacy. Today’s topic concerns the contents of Chapter ten in Designing a Digital Portfolio, which focused upon the written element of a portfolio. Writing happens to be a subject that I have experience much success in, even though I have no formal recognition to prove it. I find creative writing to be fun, and indulging a design piece with a little history of the creation process is a dream come true. Far too often design comments get boiled down to whether it looks good or not, you never hear anyone say: “Wow that heart you designed in Maya looks great, you’d never know that you spent 8 hours fixing polygonal tears in the aortal chamber”. While I don’t plan on submitting a list of all the problems I encountered while creating a piece, it’s a rare to be granted the opportunity to subtly allude to the hardships involved. Being able to speak intelligently about the creation process shows determination and skill in one’s ability to communicate and design talent.

Now of course the book spoke about the needs for correct spelling and attention to grammatical detail, standard issue stuff. What truly took my interest though, was the author’s equating of minimalist design standards as the gold standard for describing your work. Truly this is where one’s skill as a writer will come into play, saying a lot with very little is monumental task, and I tip my hat to those that can do it with proficiency.

It’s funny in that the way I write is very similar to the way I design. I tend to throw all of my thoughts onto the page and then begin a screening process of reducing the content into a cohesive form. I believe the author referred to this as verbal diarrhea. Granted that that is an accurate, though graphic, description of my writing style, I stand firm to my writing style will let the finished pieces speak for themselves. I’ve found that it is easier to reduce rather than produce, and by putting everything I want on the page I can more effectively shape my thoughts.

My having chosen a book format as my alternative portfolio was certainly influence by my confidence in my writing abilities. With a book portfolio I can indulge my descriptions and give those who take the time to view my works a better understanding of myself. My works are a reflection of my interests, not necessarily of myself. The written content of my portfolio will do significantly better job of representing Simon Steadman. And hopefully it won’t show that he sucks at spelling!

I want to include a list of my favorite books with this blog to show my literary background. I feel that the writing styles in these books are defiantly reflecting in my work, though I do not claim to posses the same level of skill as the authors showcased.
The Things They Carried: Tim Obrien
Lord of the Rings (the whole series): J. R. R. Tolkien
MASH: Richard Hooker
Republic Commando (the whole series to date): Karen Traviss
Guests of the Ayatollah: Mark Bowden

Bad week

2008-04-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

All week I’ve been going from being inspired and excited about my upcoming career, to feeling insecure and doubting my ability to perform. Maybe its because this has been a particularly difficult week in terms of work and I’m feeling as though I am slipping behind in my assignments. Or maybe it’s because I’m beginning to feel the finality of the situation that my tenure as a student is about to expire. Whatever the cause of these feelings they’re beginning to negatively affect my work. Taking a long time to design something because you are experimenting with new ideas is different than being slowed by doubt. The Later is restricting and leaves even the finished product with the distinction of lacking something.
In trying to make sense of my sudden mood swing, I’ve equated the change in my sleep schedule, my relationship with Cary becoming strained as of late and the uncommonly large volume of assignments due this week as all being contributors. Feelings like what I’m experiencing now often become more tangible when I write them down, allowing me to focus on changing them.
In my business classes, fears of change like what I’m experiencing now would be called homeostasis, which is the tendency of organisms or systems to remain the same. It’s a survival mechanism of sorts that lessens the chance of unnecessary risk, an if it’s not broken then don’t fix it instinct of sorts. What I need to do now is not think of these feelings in terms of doubt but something along the lines of skills assessment. Perhaps I’m becoming more critical and restrictive in my work because my mind is making sure that I am prepared for graduation and the changes in my life that will follow.
Still when I was reading the section in Building Design Portfolio’s about portfolio’s that got jobs, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I just don’t get it. That I don’t have that daring creative talent possessed by the students portrayed there. I like my work, but secretly I feel it is more imitative than innovative.
This mindset I’m in right now really isn’t indicative of my personality. Usually I’m excited about getting a job and when I see the work of someone more skilled than myself I often think “man that’s awesome I’m gonna try something like that”. I’m hoping that alls I need to shake myself out of this funk is a fun Friday night and maybe a call home. Typically that does the trick

Crunch Time (almost)

2008-03-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

The semester is coming to a close, and while I wouldn’t use the word panic, I am beginning to feel the pressures of approaching deadlines for multiple courses. Unfortunately I have a feeling that certain amount of damage control will be the order of the day when crunch time truly sets in. I discussed this at length with my parents over Easter and they agreed that prioritizing my classes is much more important than giving equal attention to them all. Sorry History of Baseball, I will always think fondly of you in the years to come. I have to say though, that I don’t enjoy doing this. My grades are a source of personal pride for me. While A’s and B’s may not be the most accurate way of gauging someone’s understanding of the material, for me they represent my ability to adapt and perform under less than desirable conditions (sick, time management between school work and girl friends, money problems, diet, lack of sleep…life as I like to call it). While grades may not be an important factor in this field of work, I still want to make the dean’s list one last time. 6 for 8 would be good record, especially in baseball terms.
On to this weeks readings. What concerned me the most from Sara Eisenman’s Building Design Portfolios, were the resume examples she provided. They seemed scarce in terms of content, but were referred to as strong pieces. I can only assume that the information given must have been the Holy Grail and lost temple of design assignments. Thus giving the designers lots of room with which to be creative in their page-layout. In comparison my resume has a lot of content, but nothing remarkably impressive. I suppose that this is a disadvantage most graduate designers face seeing as how they have do not have much out of school experience to present. Still, I’m leaning towards putting my resume on a diet of sorts and removing a lot of the content and compressing the information. For example I could probably just put Adobe Creative Suite in place of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, etc., leaving more space for creative layout. Even though I do not have much to present in my resume, I could still make my resume something of a presentation (hi there! I barely know how to file my own taxes and still live off of a steady diet PB&J’s but doesn’t this look nice?).
The self-promotion section was another interesting method of getting your name out there. I’m not quite sure how I would go about doing this just yet, but the number of cost-effective examples presented by Sara is encouraging. I like the idea of a mini-pamphlet, perhaps something akin to the workflow guide in Adobe’s CS3 program box. Obviously not as in-depth as Adobe’s, but following the same idea of a 5.25”x7.5” layout. Making everything fit, while retaining legibility will be an issue. Strangely enough being gifted with very good eyesight is something of a curse for me when it comes to design as I can read small text clearly when other’s cannot. As a result I often have to go back and redesign everything, and unfortunately it’s never as easy as scaling down the images and magnifying the type. Perhaps one day laser eye surgery will become more common place and I won’t have to re-do my works as often.

After being forced to read books for 4 years, now I'm making one....the irony is astounding

2008-03-20T09:09:00.000-07:00

Standing in direct contrast appearance wise to Adrian Shaughnessy’s How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul, is Sara Eisenman’s Building Design Portfolios. With the later looking more like an actual portfolio and Adrian’s book taking the guise of a schematic; still I have to say the consistency Adrian’s design does work and the look of the book begins to grow on you with its minimalist approach.
What captivated me the most about the first reading were the sections on Book format, showing process and proper packaging. Having selected print and print styles as my area of focus, I really gravitated to the idea of making a landscape styled hardcover portfolio. Sara Eisenman actually advised that print format portfolios are still the most effective means for young designers, further encouraging my decision.
Admittedly I am concerned about the leave behind element when it comes to a book portfolio, while certain sites to provide good rates on small quantity publication. I still worry about the cost and time factors involve with giving every interviewer a book. That and it would be tremendous waste if it were to be thrown away. Perhaps including a CD with all the PDF files organized on it would be a more cost effective manner. Another thought I have for a leave behind would be to make t-shirts. A lot of my grunge/layered style designs would lend themselves very well to current clothing styles, a memorable and unique leave behind to include with a PDF CD of my portfolio works.
A brief foray in to book pricing has yielded some promising results for two websites. However I would feel much more comfortable if they would give the paper options, available fonts and cover materials. They do both posses 4-color printing though which is a plus. Curiously enough the pricing actually decreased with multiple book orders as opposed to a one-book print. Perhaps it is more cost effective to print multiple copies then to print a single book and have to reset all the machines involved, I’m speculating on this but it makes sense to me.

Properly filed doubts and concerns

2008-02-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Today in chapter six of Designing a Digital Portfolio, Cynthia talked about the necessities of properly organizing your works and computer files. She admitted this to be one of her more boring chapters, and rightly so. Still it did have its points, and it did highlight a few errors on my own part for keeping my files safe. My biggest problem is that I rely almost exclusively on digital copies of my work. My laptop is getting old and should anything happen to it I’d really be in jam, so based on her advice I’m going to begin printing out my stored work, so that if worst does come to worst perhaps I can try to recreate the lost files form the printed version. Ideally I’d like to have a back up hard drive where I could store a second copy of all my digital files, but sadly funds are tight and my birthday isn’t for another year. I’m hoping that when summer starts I can save enough money to begin purchasing such necessary items. I think a new desktop computer should also be on that summer to do list, but once again that is a few months and quite a few thousands of dollars away.
Going back to organization, thankfully I am very left-brained person so organization comes easily to me. In fact I often can’t stand it if my files are not organized, I’ve often suspected that I am mildly OCD, or perhaps it’s just a side effect of growing up in a predominantly military (navy and air force) family. However, when it comes to organizing web files, I fall flat on my face. I never really got the hang of keeping my slices in order or making sure that my master folder in Dreamweaver was in the right location. Print art and 3D I can handle but the web is a scary frontier for me and I’ll admit my dread in trying to create an online portfolio from scratch. I have lots of ideas about how I want it to look, but I don’t have the technical know how to program it. My current solution is to find a web hosting that provides lots of editing tools so that I can avoid the more scripting heavy approach of using just dream weaver.
I’ve considered buying certain tech pieces, by that I mean pre-coded items such as the “turning page” effect or the “genie” effect seen in MACs today. Yet this brings up a dilemma in the sense that I am using something that does not accurately portray my abilities in web design. I’m really afraid that using such tech pieces would work too well, in the sense that an employer would take interest in my because of the novelties of my website, not the contents of it. Perhaps I am over thinking this as was the case the Arsenal clip art files, but still a lot of this in uncharted territory for me so I feel compelled to make all my doubts known.

The cake is in the fridge and the box is in the mail

2008-02-21T07:36:00.002-08:00

Hello all, I thought that I would start off this entry with some good news: First, I don’t have food poisoning anymore and am on the road to recovery. Second, I GOT CS3 FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! (And maybe GO Media’s arsenal pack 2, if I can scrape up the cash). ** sigh- Why don't I ever have money laying around? Oh right cause I go to QU**

This week in Designing a Digital Portfolio, by Cynthia Baron, the issue of format was brought up. I am still largely undecided on what type of format I want to use, though I am beginning to solidify the contents of my portfolio. Seeing as how the bulk of my work will be composed of print design and imagery, a gallery will be the focal point of my presentation. I am envisioning this as a menu that branches into sub-categories: Print, logo, 3D, sketches and various. I don’t want to use “various” in the final version of the portfolio because I find it to be somewhat unimaginative and as possibly lowering the value of the works contained within. It’s like saying: “here is a bunch of crap that I couldn’t relate to anything else I did”, its like having “etc” in a store sign; its just bad marketing. Possible replacement ideas I have are: T-shirt designs, stickers, and stencil cut outs. For the later I am imagining a stencil that you could hold up to a skateboard, laptop or what have you and spray paint it on the surface.

Back to the larger issue of format, in keeping with the advice of the book I am leaning towards having website and two “leave behinds” in the form a DVD and a more traditional print out folder. Two concerns immediately arise with these ideas though. For the website it’s my own lack of experience in building and maintain such sites. The quick solution to this is third party web hosting, where a company does all the grunt work, leaving me to focus on the design. However, such sites have creative restrictions in the personalization of their web pages. I don’t want my portfolio site to be reduced by a restrictive template. Hopefully I can find web hosting with flexible parameters. My next concern has to do with the DVD idea I’m tinkering with. Cynthia Baron cautions against the use of CDs because of the risk of technical issues and the fact that they largely get thrown away. This is why I wanted to do a DVD, where the portfolio could be navigated like a movie menu using a remote. Unfortunately, I have no idea on how to do this myself and don’t exactly have a lot of money readily available, so this idea may have to be shelved until I get a steady income.

Hopefully as the semester progresses I will be able to resolve these issues, or come up with some innovative solutions. Too bad optimistic views don’t provide a clear direction in which to go forward.

The cake is in the fridge and the box is in the mail

2008-02-21T07:36:00.001-08:00

Hello all, I thought that I would start off this entry with some good news: First, I don’t have food poisoning anymore and am on the road to recovery. Second, I GOT CS3 FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! (And maybe GO Media’s arsenal pack 2, if I can scrape up the cash). ** sigh- Why can’t I have rich parents? Oh right cause I go to QU**

This week in Designing a Digital Portfolio, by Cynthia Baron, the issue of format was brought up. I am still largely undecided on what type of format I want to use, though I am beginning to solidify the contents of my portfolio. Seeing as how the bulk of my work will be composed of print design and imagery, a gallery will be the focal point of my presentation. I am envisioning this as a menu that branches into sub-categories: Print, logo, 3D, sketches and various. I don’t want to use “various” in the final version of the portfolio because I find it to be somewhat unimaginative and as possibly lowering the value of the works contained within. It’s like saying: “here is a bunch of crap that I couldn’t relate to anything else I did”, its like having “etc” in a store sign; its just bad marketing. Possible replacement ideas I have are: T-shirt designs, stickers, and stencil cut outs. For the later I am imagining a stencil that you could hold up to a skateboard, laptop or what have you and spray paint it on the surface.

Back to the larger issue of format, in keeping with the advice of the book I am leaning towards having website and two “leave behinds” in the form a DVD and a more traditional print out folder. Two concerns immediately arise with these ideas though. For the website it’s my own lack of experience in building and maintain such sites. The quick solution to this is third party web hosting, where a company does all the grunt work, leaving me to focus on the design. However, such sites have creative restrictions in the personalization of their web pages. I don’t want my portfolio site to be reduced by a restrictive template. Hopefully I can find web hosting with flexible parameters. My next concern has to do with the DVD idea I’m tinkering with. Cynthia Baron cautions against the use of CDs because of the risk of technical issues and the fact that they largely get thrown away. This is why I wanted to do a DVD, where the portfolio could be navigated like a movie menu using a remote. Unfortunately, I have no idea on how to do this myself and don’t exactly have a lot of money readily available, so this idea may have to be shelved until I get a steady income.

Hopefully as the semester progresses I will be able to resolve these issues, or come up with some innovative solutions. Too bad optimistic views don’t provide a clear direction in which to go forward.

The cake is in the fridge and the box is in the mail

2008-02-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

Hello all, I thought that I would start off this entry with some good news: First, I don’t have food poisoning anymore and am on the road to recovery. Second, I GOT CS3 FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!! (And maybe GO Media’s arsenal pack 2, if I can scrape up the cash). **Why can’t I have rich parents? Oh right cause I go to QU**

This week in Designing a Digital Portfolio, by Cynthia Baron, the issue of format was brought up. I am still largely undecided on what type of format I want to use, though I am beginning to solidify the contents of my portfolio. Seeing as how the bulk of my work will be composed of print design and imagery, a gallery will be the focal point of my presentation. I am envisioning this as a menu that branches into sub-categories: Print, logo, 3D, sketches and various. I don’t want to use “various” in the final version of the portfolio because I find it to be somewhat unimaginative and as possibly lowering the value of the works contained within. It’s like saying: “here is a bunch of crap that I couldn’t relate to anything else I did”, its like having “etc” in a store sign; its just bad marketing. Possible replacement ideas I have are: T-shirt designs, stickers, and stencil cut outs. For the later I am imagining a stencil that you could hold up to a skateboard, laptop or what have you and spray paint it on the surface.

Back to the larger issue of format, in keeping with the advice of the book I am leaning towards having website and two “leave behinds” in the form a DVD and a more traditional print out folder. Two concerns immediately arise with these ideas though. For the website it’s my own lack of experience in building and maintain such sites. The quick solution to this is third party web hosting, where a company does all the grunt work, leaving me to focus on the design. However, such sites have creative restrictions in the personalization of their web pages. I don’t want my portfolio site to be reduced by a restrictive template. Hopefully I can find web hosting with flexible parameters. My next concern has to do with the DVD idea I’m tinkering with. Cynthia Baron cautions against the use of CDs because of the risk of technical issues and the fact that they largely get thrown away. This is why I wanted to do a DVD, where the portfolio could be navigated like a movie menu using a remote. Unfortunately, I have no idea on how to do this myself and don’t exactly have a lot of money readily available, so this idea may have to be shelved until I get a steady income.

Hopefully as the semester progresses I will be able to resolve these issues, or come up with some innovative solutions. Too bad optimistic views don’t provide a clear direction in which to go forward.

Revelations from the ugliest design book ever, and a personal question

2008-02-14T08:45:00.000-08:00

In addition to my IDD major here at Quinnipiac University, I have undertaken a minor is business management (BM). Originally this decision was something of a ‘fail safe’ should my abilities as a designer not develop, based on the advise of my father that “any degree in business is useful”. Fortunately my design skills have progressively matured and my BM minor has taken a permanent supplementary role to my future design career.
Recently however, I have been apprehensive with my decision to go into BM; wishing instead that I had chosen a marketing minor. My recent foray into the working world with my winter internship at Healthtrax Wellness & Fitness in Glastonbury CT had me working almost exclusively with the marketing team. In fact, in this particular corporation the design team seemed to serve as an adjunct to the marketing department. I reasoned then that possessing marketing skills would be a valuable asset in acquiring a job and working effectively within a company. Unfortunately hindsight graced with me with its clarity far too late into my academic career, and I did not have the ability to change my minor.
The reason I am posting about this personal experience is that the book “How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul”, changed my feelings of missed opportunities to ones of encouragement again. Specifically in chapter five, the author Adrian Shaughnessy, spoke about the need of all designers to function well within a team, both as a leader and follower. Essentially Adrian was talking about the need for an understanding of team dynamics in terms of conflict, trust and high levels of emotional intelligence; the focal points of BM. The relief I felt after reading this chapter was immense as the sensation of missed opportunity left my psyche. Adding to this personal victory I so enjoyed, Adrian failed to mention anything in depth about marketing (though it would not surprise me if this came up in later chapters).
The second part of this blog has to do with a personal dilemma over a software package I discovered during an Image search on Google. Called ‘Arsenal, Professional Design Weaponry’, a series of software packages from GoMedia, this various sets contain a series of intense vector images that really relate well to the graphical style that interests me the most. Best described as a grunge in style with certain PUNK rock elements the software packages allow the user to create intense visual designs using a series of designs created by other artists.
My dilemma in this is that, by using this pre-rendered images am I lowering the authenticity of my own work? I almost feel as though it undermines the originality of my work, even if it allows me to create the designs I want in a vastly more efficient.
The counter argument to this is that I already do this in other programs, such as Photoshop, where I manipulate images taken by other photographers. Would using the pictures rendered by artists be any different? I’m certainly not a photographer, which is why I have to download images from iStockPhotos. I’m also not an artists, I can sketch and given time can recreate examples of the work contained within the Arsenal software, but it takes a great deal of time. In summary, I feel stuck between a fear of loss of the authenticity of my work versus the expedience offered by Arsenal. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Cooling hot photos and other articles

2008-02-07T07:32:00.000-08:00

I think the hardest part of creating a portfolio won’t be the design or feel of it, but rather the process of selecting works of similar caliber that also show off my abilities. Designing a Digital Portfolio, by Cynthia Baron, explains how less can often be more. She warns about the excessive use of work, which leaves your portfolio feeling bloated and uncoordinated. Suggesting instead that works of similar caliber (even if they are not your best) should be used because they do not draw too much attention from other areas of your portfolio. Cynthia used the example of including a phenomenal piece with others that are simply good as creating the sense that that one piece of work was a fluke and not indicative of your true abilities.

Cynthia also mentioned the need to show some level of diversity in your portfolio. Cynthia explained that presenting additional abilities in conjunction with your focus talent (for me this would mean including sketches with final Illustrator or Photoshop renders) creates a more rounded a complete picture of yourself for employers to see. Presenting more than one talent also indicated a level of adaptability and flexibility, which may give you an advantage over someone who only focuses on their central talent. In the book, Cynthia mentions Cemre Ozkurt’s online portfolio as an example of this (www.deluxepaint.net). What’s interesting about Cemre’s website is that, thought visually alluring, it doesn’t appear to be overly technical in it’s designer. Rather it’s his works that are the showcase of the site, rather than the site itself.

In addition to the article posted by Professor Belle on her blog from before and After Magazine “Design a Logo of Letters”, I would also like to talk about another interesting article of my own. Another interesting article by BAMagazine (www.bamagazine.com) is entitled “How to cool a hot photo”, which talks about using contrasting colors [blue and oranges for example] to tone down the more vivid features of an image. In the example they give, the staff is charged with taking a photograph of a Baltimore sunset and altering the colors of the photo (without editing the photo) so that people coming to visit the city won’t expect desert heat. Knowing how to take advantage of color contrast is a valuable skill in that, as was the case the Before and After staff, you can’t always directly edit the photograph that marketing team has chosen. In my own limited experience in the work field I too have faced logos and images that did not fit with overall design of my project and yet due to licensing agreements I could not edit those images directly. Had I known about the proper use of color contrast, perhaps I could have created a more professional final product for my client. Filled with visual explanations and an easy to read style, I thought that this was a particularly interesting article.

Blog1

2008-01-29T14:48:00.000-08:00

After reading chap. 1 for Designing a Digital Portfolio I have found myself leaning towards being a graphic artists specifically in the print field. The book described this career as “being skilled in their media, but also good at interpreting and executing the creative concepts of others”. With my internship at Healthtrax, that is exactly what I did. I would be given a broad assignment with a general description of how the marketing department wanted the logo or layout to appear. After a rendering a few concepts I would submit them back to the marketing team to see if I was progressing in the direction they wanted.
I found it useful to sometimes include designs that did not follow the description the marketing team would give me. Such designs either showed the marketing team a different direction in which the project could be taken, or (and more frequently) show me exactly what the marketing did not want. Knowing what the marketing people did not want seemed to make the job easier, or at least less constrictive, than being told precisely what they did want.
Logo design is possible one of my favorite design niches, though I do enjoy layout for web and print templates, as well as 3D modeling. What I enjoy about logo design so much is the vast repertoire of devices at your disposal. You can use text, images, font dingbats, almost anything to create a visual representation of yourself or your business. Most recently I have become interested by the technique known as ligature where fonts are manipulated to create a sort of picture. You see ligature used a lot, especially on television (think CNN of ESPN), but I feel that it allows for a unique portrayal of yourself, especially if used in conjunction with drawn images. That being said, I plan to pursue a series of ligature concepts for my logo creation.