DLUX

So after getting all set up and ready to go I’m about to get the 3 magic words of the day at the X design showcase / competition.

For those who need a quick catchup on shit, X works like so:
1. you show up with your gear (macbook, whatever….)
2. get your space ready next to the 2 other designers competing against/with/near you
3. you get 3 words to influence your design piece, on which YOU SHALL BE JUDGED!

snap snap!

The media that you are designing for, is essentially an invite to the the X event.

Ok, we just got our words…

Empathy
Creatives
Commitment

I have no clue what to do… should be fun!

David Fogle and I

Me Screwing around… people were forced to watch my screen on a projector… hahaha.

The judge!

SO…. now the competition is over, everything wrapped up and was announced at 10pm.
And here is what I turned in:

So I used a few images that I felt were powerful enough to fulfill the vocabulary requirements of the Curator/Judge.
Technically my comps are based around using some pleasant vector shapes as masks, and trying to achieve a design that could span across, Projected Media, Poster Media, and smaller Invitation sized Media.
I noticed that X does not have any sort of guideline for media size, which it could really use.

After a brief chat with the other designers, I recommended a size of 4″ x 6″ @ 300dpi, a standard postcard size at most presses.

I started out working in illustrator, with a completely different composition. I abandoned this, and began to dig a little deeper into what I was asked to visually produce. One of the words, “commitment”, was really eluding me. I think for Westerners’ we gravitate towards the image of marriage… Which I’m not interested in illustrating in my piece.
It was only after I used a human brain for “creatives”, and after I rifled through images of abused animals for “empathy”, that it struck me on what needed to be done.

The images needed to transcend smaller personal relationships and go outside of the self.
I immediately searched for the “Burning Monk” image. A very famous picture of a Buddhist Monk Burning themselves alive to protest the Chinese Militarization of Tibet.
I remember finding this and feeling very satisfied, and leaving the raw, very large image on screen for everyone to look at for about 10 minutes.
I also left the abused Dog, with a arrow from a crossbow lodged in it’s scalp on the screen for about 10 minutes as well. The dog was conscious, and looked healthy, other than it’s obvious suffering at the hands of some very cruel humans.

I made a pile of vectors over the weeks before the show, and wanted to use some shapes that looked like bacteria or pollen. And used some Spirals I had made.

My end piece can be summarized as such: My pieces are about life. Much like the composition, pleasing in color and presentation, but upon closer inspection very grotesque and graphic images lie within these very pleasant shapes. Life may seem pretty on the surface or in passing, but upon using observation and attention, it can be cruel, in desperate need of repair, and rather unimpressive.

It was my sincere hope that as people watched my process that I gave them something to think about. That maybe I inspired one person to look over their backyard fence at a starving dog, to think twice about buying a product from china and to realize that creativity lies in every living things brain.

NOW, while all of that sounds good… I certainly did not win the competition.
My designs masking was complex, and the visual images are subdued and require a certain level of inspection to harness their power.
The curator really liked my process and work, but noted the masking made the images hard to grasp.
Oh the irony. I want to spread a message… but I designed my piece to gently whisper vs. screaming out.
Oh well… I can live with that.

The winner, had a very clear bold image and title. Bam!
Any of us could have won really, and the competition certainly isn’t about the winning of prizes, but the sharing of process.

X gives designers a chance to make people see their process and appreciate the time and effort and thought that goes into the often disposable works created on a daily basis, like the invitations to events we designed.

Technically X was a little lacking in the presentation department.
They were running the RCA cable out of a mini DVI adapter.
So no high resolution digital support!
So all 3 of us, the participants, had the joy of working on cropped screens and semi blurry monitor projections.
fun times.

I also noted earlier, that X has no guidelines for media size. This really should be strictly enforced. As far as real life work goes, design work must be produce-able… And therefore output at the correct size, resolution and contain all of the required information.

I think it’d be very easy to create a better rating system which helps examine a piece from a technical standpoint in addition to the curators personal selections.

I think if X taps into the sponsor market, it’d easily resolve the technical issues, and garner much more serious prizes for ALL of the entrants.
Currently the winner walks with all spoils, and everyone else… you pack up your shit.
BAM! for REAL!
Which is cool and fine, and that’s how it is… but I think it’d be a good attraction to sponsors to create consolation prizes for all participants.

God knows Apple, and Adobe should be there in person listening to me bitch about the shit their stuff does to make my day LESS productive. Apple should be down there giving out iPhones, macbooks, and replacement hard drives and keyboard bezels to those of us dumb enough to buy their first round releases!

Ok, ok.
So X is awesome, don’t miss out on the next one! They are only getting better!
Thanks so much Graham and David!!! It was a BLAST!