It’s odd that it’s only the first time today that I’ve ever heard these words in a sentence. I feel like these words are the cheat codes for every athlete who has ever become a GOAT.

I’m still wrapping my head around this concept even though I only heard it a few hours ago from another friend who is a designer. We were talking about how I’m doing these designs just to get better and surprisingly, I do feel that I am getting better and have already been able to use some of the techniques from these layouts at work. However, when I told him how many designs I was making and how I thought to an extent it was somewhat of a waste, he calmly replied, “That’s what you’re supposed to do when you practice Type. Rather than perfection, go for quantity.”

I think I heard one time that Steph Curry before going to school when he was younger, he would shoot 500 free throw shots. It didn’t matter if he didn’t make them, he just had to do them. I can imagine that at first he probably didn’t make that many. But over time, the probability and his accuracy got better. I bet he even made all 500 at one point. Case point, keep shooting because over time, the hours of work put in will compound into something great. The important thing though is to actually start doing the work instead of laying around.

For these designs, the constraints were add rules (lines) and shapes

Week 6

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using rules (lines) and shapes

Design 1

For these designs, I was a bit lazy and just decided to pick the best designs that I had already made and just add to them if I could to make them look a bit more interesting. I’m not the best with lines and shapes because I usually work images. The most I could do here was do what I saw on a submission which was to rotate the layout and draw lines that would differentiate the 3 sections.

Design 2

Similarly, just boxed the Mast head in a black box and drew a line to differentiate. Not really sure if I added visual interest. Still feels a bit off.

Design 3

One of the designs that I’m most proud of even if I don’t know if it’s executed correctly. I rotated the layout and drew 2 lines to form a T

I think it looks pretty good this way.

Design 4

One of my weaker designs in this set. Not really much that I did here except add the boxes to an old design. I tried to remake this design later on in some other versions.

Design 5

This was my 2nd favorite in this set. I just like how the lines add a heavy feel to the Mast head. Also, I’m not sure if flipping the copy makes it the easiest to read. It makes it something to have to stop and look at, but it might not be the best practically. However, I do like this design a lot.

I’ve only been doing this for a week, but surprisingly, it’s easy to stay in a habit. Not to say it isn’t hard, I’m just fortunate enough that when I want something, I stay really focused on it until I can get it. Maybe that’s the reason why I stopped writing down 3 good things everyday? Another topic to explore for another time.

Making something today was pretty hard. Even though I had a really good day biking to work/most of the work day, I got a little stressed at the end of the day. Also, biking home at night was a little stressful, but also a lot of fun.

Like I said early last week, if you don’t want to start, just start. For today’s constraints, it said to add rules and shapes. I usually work with shapes because of the pictures that are used in the brochures, but it’s a bit harder with just shapes. Photos usually inform how a layout is going to look. Fortunately, after watching a video submission from The Futur, I was able to see how rules (lines) are used. I ended up just modifying old layouts that I made last week. However, I have a lot to learn about the basics. I didn’t even think that I could rotate the design until watching the video. It stinks how I’m not good right now and how I could have been so much better if I had been practicing for the whole year. However, I did make last year a point to focus on skateboarding and animations. A little sad that I’m not skating as much, but then again I didn’t skate as much until February of last year.

For these designs, the constraints were 2 weight size and 2 pt sizes

Copy of Week 5

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using any weight and any size

Design 1

This one is ok. I believe it’s set on a 9x9 grid. However, it’s not as visually engaging. It also just seems very centered. Definitely would need to re do this one.

Design 2

I’m pretty sure I modified one of the first attempts of week 5 with this one. I just liked how DZN was rotated and made really big and just decided to try to do the same thing one more time. This one was probably mu favorite one.

Design 3

Really standard design that i could have made last year. It stinks that I don’t think I’m growing. But what I’ve found out is that I won’t get the results that I want by doing nothing and I won’t get those results until the later part of me practicing.

Design 4

Same design pretty much as Design 3. Still gotta work on layouts that don’t just align left.

Design 5

This one is my 2nd favorite or rather, I’m still arguing in my head on if Design 2 or Design 5 is better. I like this one because it does one trick which is rotates In this Issue and Features upside down. It also keeps everything aligned right after I flipped it. There’s a lot of white space, but the focus is there and hierarchy is well established.

I’ve gotten into the habit of whenever I’m idly doing something to have a podcast teaching me something about self development playing the background. It’s surprising how motivating it can be to want to start doing something. It’s sad how I’ve had access to the videos I’m watching now for the past year and haven’t started listening to them until now. But hey, things happen when they’re supposed to happen.

One of the things that The Futur talked about today was to seek positivity when things started to go amiss. To do so, it means writing down 3 things that you’re grateful for when you wake up and right before you go to bed. It doesn’t seem like it will do much, but I remember when I had the most fun in my life it was when I was writing down 3 good things that would happen to me every single day. During those times I ended up in a short term relationship and the other time I moved across the country. Both were pretty great.

My question though is why did I stop writing those 3 things down daily? I know why I stopped after the short term relationship because everything blew up and I didn’t want to see the good anymore. Real depressing, but for another time. When I finally reached NYC, I stopped. Positivity kept coming to me as I kept seeking it in three good things that would happen. It’s like the opposite of opposites attract. Something about training my brain to be optimistic made it so that a lot of good things would happen.

As of today, I’m going to make this a habit. Let’s see if I can keep it up for 3 weeks.

1. Having a warm bed to sleep in

2. Hanging out with friends later today

3. My dog Gemma

For these designs, the constraints were 2 weight size and 2 pt sizes

Week 5

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using any weight and any size

Design 1

Bold and Light

124 and 12

For this one, I put together 2 golden ratio grids- one on the top, a spacer in the middle, and one on the bottom. Originally, I was going to have everything run normally and not having anything flipped. However, it just didn’t feel as interesting to look at. Consequently, I flipped the design to give it a little bit of interest. Looking at this again, it’s a cool design, but the practicality of it depends on the client. If this was just for a magazine, it would be valid. If it was for a nonprofit, I think it wouldn’t be. However, if it was just DZN flipped, I think there might be some negotiation.

Design 2

Bold and Light

8, 11, 117

This one was probably my favorite design to make. It’s made on a 9x9 grid. I had been wanting to do something like this since the very start of this Typography self training, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to do it. It’s funny because I could have done something like it in the beginning, but I wasn’t thinking about how I could vary the font by ALL CAPS. The major points on the page don’t have to be the biggest size. They can be the smallest size on the page, but be in All Caps. I like how I only did 2 tricks here to make it look interesting which was rotating DZN and separating In this issue and Features from their respective content.

Design 3

Medium and Light

11 and 112

Not my most favorite design out of this set. I was actually trying to redo a lot of the ones that I did in the past weeks because I didn’t like those ones and wanted to improve upon them. I tried to execute techniques that I’ve learned in the past week such as aligning right and aligning left on one axis and keeping things simple with only a few tricks. I Think DZN should be bold rather than medium. This does look more like the other ones I’ve made, but it definitely looks better than the one I wanted to redo.

Design 4

I arranged this one on a 9x9 grid. I wanted to put DZN on the bottom and see if I was able to draw the most attention to it in the hierarchy. Usually, hierarchy has to be done top bottom. However, I decided to make it really large on the bottom and made it bold. The next thing that I want the reader to read is “The Journal for Graphic Design.” I had this flipped originally, but I thought about hierarchy and realized that by keeping it regular, it would show movement. By having features flipped upside down, it has to be the last thing the reader reads because it is the most strenuous thing to read because they have to actually pay attention to it/ flip it. This would work well on a book because there would be 2 designs, but not so well on a vertical poster.

Design 5

Probably the weakest of these designs. I believe I was redoing Design 3 with this one because I didn’t like it. I tried to do what I did in Design 4 and have DZN be the focus and everything else small. However, I’m not really exploring other types of layouts here anymore. These are a bit too safe. I still have difficulty just aligning everything to the right. It’s the same exact thing as aligning left, but the issue is that I know that english is left to right.

I’ve been watching a lot of self development videos from The Futur lately and these have been extremely helpful in keeping me motivated. There’s always something that Chris Do says that I’m able to write down and use as my mantra for that day. One of them that I like a lot is the one that is up above. Even though the only voice that is in my head is my own voice, it can also be the words of someone else. This goes a lot into psychology and how an individual is reared, but as a sociologist, (yes I have my BA in sociology so fight me and say I’m not a pro) I understand that the way people are today is based on the environment that they grew up in. If you come from a home where you were built up and taught to believe that you’re great, you probably believe that. Vice Versa, if you were put down at home, you probably have a negative outlook on yourself. Note that I say probably because there are many exceptions. But even then, I’m sure many people who are exceptions still have had to deal with words of other people in their head.

In short, from all this, the voice that’s in your head that’s saying those negative things, probably isn’t you saying that to yourself. It’s probably from the words from a traumatic experience like a bully or a parent saying something crude to you. Now what to do with those words/experiences is up to you. Many keep it with them and use it as an excuse. Many get angry and try to show that person wrong. In the past, I’ve used anger as my motivator to show someone that they were wrong about me. Recently, I’ve also learned that the motivator doesn’t have to be a positive one. The point is as long as you have one. But from The Futur, they suggest another option which is remove those negative voices and replace them with positive ones. This can mean making new friends that are positive or are where you want to be. It’s been said, you are the sum of the 5 friends that you hang out with the most. If you don’t think your friends are where you want to be, go out and find friends who are. They might just be up the street.

For these designs, the constraints were 2 weight size and 2 pt sizes

Week 4

Using all of the text provided, create a layout using 1 weight size and 2 point sizes

Design 1

Bold and Light

12 and 24

For all of these designs, I switched between using a 9x9 grid and the golden ratio as a grid. For this one, the only thing that is in Helvetica Bold and at 24 points is the Mast head. Instead of making “The Journal for Graphic Design,” “In this issue,” and “Features” at 24 points, I kept those at 12, but made them Helvetica bold and used ALL CAPs on them. This was to create hierarchy and point out that DZN is the most important. I think this is still a pretty safe design. SOmething that I would have been able to come up with last year, but the technical application is very different this time around.

Design 2

Thin and Medium

For this one, I used the Golden Ration. I tried to place most things on the hang lines and align everything in some way or form. I still feel like I missed the mark here. Elements are too spaced out evenly. Hierarchy is established, but it just doesn’t feel dynamic.

Design 3

Regular and Light

33 and 11

I used a 9x9 grid here, but the elements still very much feel the same as the last two. I’m not sure why, but this just feels a bit more dynamic than the other ones. I still don’t feel like I can break out of aligning everything to the left. However, I unified most of the elements so everything feels connected.

Design 4

96 and 11

Medium and Thin

I think immediately after I created Design 3, I went ahead and used the same elements from it to create this one. The only difference is that I made DZN size 96 which definitely makes this layout more dynamic. However, I still align left with everything.

Design 5

11 and 12

Bold and Light

This is literally the same thing as Design 1 and Design 3. It’s a bit frustrating to see right now. I’m not entirely sure, but I think after I finish this, I’m going to re do the whole self study again. I’ll post only the good ones.