May 15, 2008

Blogs, School, and Helvetica (the movie)

I woke up this morning to yet another lovely piece of news. Fellow Etsy seller DecMeadow has featured me on her blog! Read her lovely feature of me here.

I had my last typography class of the semester on Tuesday. (Phew!) It was pretty laid-back and even involved cookies. The only issue I'm having now is that our teacher collected our projects. In fact, he still has ALL our projects from the entire year. He'll be returning them all to the Continuing Ed office by the end of the month (after he grades us) for people to drop in and pick them up.

The only problem with that is I can't "drop by" since I don't live in the City. I live an hour away. More than an hour away, if you factor in traffic. Sigh. The office will supposedly hold student work for up to a year, but I don't want to take that chance. Especially not with potential portfolio pieces. But I'm also not going to drive all the way down there just to grab my work and drive all the way back home either. I'm thinking I'll have to take a personal day off of work next month (hopefully I can convince the hubby to play hooky with me) and make a day of it. I have a couple RISD pals down there who I haven't seen in ages anyway.

The result of me not having my final project in my possession is that I can't take photos of it to post on here. It came out well, but it's not really the impressive masterpiece I expected it to be, so I suppose it's no big deal. The challenge of organizing and arranging 250 business cards was a real obstacle to overcome. I tried and tried to avoid going the Rolodex route. I even recruited my mom (who has some experience with amateur book-binding) to help me brainstorm. In the end, the only way out of my self-inflicted mess was to use a Rolodex. Someone has already stared down (and solved) the "too many business cards" problem, and their solution clearly is the best one. I did create a front and back book "cover" for the Rolodex (hand-painted and everything!). I categorized, alphabetized, and slid each card into a clear plastic Rolodex sleeve before putting them in. So, if you can imagine that, you can probably live without pics for a little while longer.

Now that I have an iota of free time before the fall semester, I plan on getting my studio in shape (you literally can't take one step in there without putting your foot down on some randomly scattered art supply or project). I'm praying that I'll have time to finish a couple paintings I started last year and work on some new ideas I have brewing. I'll be working two jobs this summer though, so we'll see if this is a pipe dream or not. (o:

I've already started to relax a little bit. Last night, the husband and I had a "dinner and a movie" date. (The stay-in-the-house kind, not the go-out kind.) I made a massive pan of my ever-popular healthy (or...healthier, anyway) lasagna and we settled in to watch...Helvetica. That's right. My husband voluntarily watched a documentary about graphic design and typography. I swear, I didn't tie him to the chair or anything! He even tolerated me whooping every time a famous graphic designer (or even a term I learned this semester) came on the screen. Not to mention all the laughing I did at design jokes. Though, my behavior might have had a teeny bit to do with the 2 or 3 glasses of Chianti I had. *Ahem* Anyway, Chianti or no, I enjoyed the film. I especially enjoyed my non-artist non-designer husband watching it with me. Then again, I've watched an awful lot of sports with him. I regularly hear him cheering (or swearing) at the tv from 3 floors above. He probably knows that he owes me.
Next up? Basquiat. (It's already in our Netflix queue. Shhhhh...don't tell my husband!) (o:

2 comments:

Kellybot said...

Congrats on the end of school! My final type project didn't rock as hard as I wanted it to, either. Can't wait to see yours!
My dude watched Helvetica with me and now he can't shut up about it whenever he sees it somewhere. I get him back by pointing out other random fonts.

Nicole Huot said...

Kellybot - I guess that's what happens at the end of the year. It's crunch-time, and you do what you can. Oh well. I'll post pics once I get my projects back.

That's so funny about the Helvetica documentary. I had to call my husband last night because while watching tv, I noticed EVERY SINGLE commercial used Helvetica. I'm a bit horrified. Maybe next there will be a "Times New Roman" film or something! Lol.