I finished The Umbrella Academy in one sitting, versus Blackest Night which I just got in the middle of. Maybe because I was looking for a different kind of story that didn’t involve typical superheroes. The Umbrella Academy is about 7 “heroes” with extraordinary powers who were adopted by one “father.” They save the world from Apocalypse. Although the story seems typical, it actually sounds like the tv series “Heroes”, it is told in a fresh way. The 7 heroes each have their own history and challenges. I really like how the story is paced. The writer, Gerard Way, is also the front man of the band “My Chemical Romance.” Which probably why the rhythm is very deliberate… almost like a song. By the end of one chapter, I kept longing for more. Possibly also similar to the pace of TV series. The art too is unique. Gabriel Ba is a Brazilian who does comic book illustration for realist series rather than superhero comics. The art adds more to the words, things that were just implied, were spelled out in the art, which in turn completed the story.

Although the series was published in 2007 and this review is 2 years late, I still think it was worth every penny.

So I open up processing to see how technical I am or maybe exercise and learn to be more technical and creative at the same time. And upon booting up, I found an old sketch that I did, I guess at another point when I felt the need to escape or was feeling frustrated. The short sketch involved dots with random sizes and hue. As I move the mouse around, the dots “paint on the canvas.” Look:

It’s flattering to see people wearing your design. Even though it was a gift, I saw that the people genuinely liked the shirts that we handed out to them. Although I was just limited by 3 colors, I had the freedom of designing what the shirt would look like. I made the logo of Novare act like a sports brand and did my liberties with the circles and lines.

Cue sound 
http://www.moviemusic.com/audio/gattaca_1.mp3

I spent about 2 hours this late evening/early morning looking at CSS and HTML code, tweaking colors and fine tuning little elements that make the page.  After 2 hours and countless debugging, I gave up.  I looked at what I had finished and just saw something so plain that I can’t believe I spent so much time in it.  I just wasted time and effort to come up with a so-so design.  Back to the drawing board… but at this late a stage, where do I get inspiration?

I rummage through my files, looking for that spark.  I stumble upon the opening credits for the movie GATTACA.  This hits the spot.  Aside from being one of the more well made visual motion graphics out there, it reminds me of the movie.  The sound is so haunting and moving that it brings me back to the first time I saw it.  I am inspired.  GATTACA is a move about the triumph of the human spirit.  Even when all odds are against you, with passion you succeed.  It touches me.  I get inspired… but not to go back and code.  But to think about bigger things, things that I am passionate about.

But this post isn’t about the holidays where people are rushing to buy gifts nor is it a scrooge post saying how Christmas makes us melancholy.  Nope.  This post is about how prevalent the web is in our lives that some of us, present company not excluded, are spending some precious time online during the eve where we should be spending it with family.

One family in our clan tonight had to rush home to Skype with a family member from abroad.  Of course this is still time spent with other family, albeit through a screen.  Even my mother recently joined Facebook, I caught her changing her profile picture while preparing dinner.  We are not absolved from this either, upon coming home, we automatically sit down in front of our PCs and “facebook” to check photos of the parties we’ve missed tonight.  Yup, gone are the days where you have to wait for the line at the local photo store to have your film developed. Gone are the times where we pass around sheets of pictures and make remarks… now we just comment on a photo posted on facebook or flickr. You even see a friend logged in facebook and start chatting, sending Christmas cheer. 

Blogging, twitting, plurking is no exception.. I am doing it now.  Has it improved communication between families and friends? Or has it replaced valuable face time with virtual time?

My concept was simple but I thought was solid: There were 2 landmark spots and I thought that they should work to support one another.  My concept was to make icons out of the Philippine flag.  The result was the 3 stars of the flag will be on the smaller landmark, while the Sun will occupy the bigger one.  I had submitted an elaborate essay on the materials, the idea, even the interaction of the landmark.Time passed and the promised date to announce the finalists have passed.  I thought, I didn’t get in the top 10 which is why they didn’t contact me.  Below is the model I submitted.  I used SketchUp to draw the model.
 

A month after the deadline, I got an email saying I was part of the top 10, but only on the bigger landmark part.  I guess this was the start of the breaking of my concept.  Alone, one landmark might look weak.  Still, I was happy to get in the top 10.  Now all I had to do was to come up with a scale model in 2 weeks! It was an exciting time, I worked with my uncle who is also an architect, he referred my to a scale model maker.  They said it would be hard to do, but it is possible.  Below was the result:

I was very happy with it.  I could already see its 8 storey granduer glowing from a distance as people drive to the airport.  I told myself, this is what great artists, designers, architects do.  This will immortalize my name.  I shall build my design empire with this iconic work.  I shall be the next great national artist.I was sure that I would win.  Family, friends and colleagues were also giving me confidence that I would.  But alas, I did not. Today, an awarding ceremony will be held in the airport.  I was invited, but I won’t attend, not because I am bitter but because I have to go back to little bites of work.   So it goes, I lose but live to fight another day.  I am still looking for that day… someday.

The past month was very busy indeed and one of the events that passed was my birthday.  This in turn leads me to question my career choices.  I ask myself: “Another year has passed, and what have I done to progress in my design career?”, “Is digital design a profitable career?”, “Am I lagging behind?”, “Am I too old for this?”

I sometimes look at the up and coming studios here in manila and realize that there are more talented people out there, and as time passes, more and more people will be better than me.  This leads me to believe that it gets harder and harder to get clients and design rates get cheaper and cheaper.  Some even don’t see the value in hiring designers and think they can do it themselves.

So I am at a point where I am questioning the design career.  In a developing country such as the Philippines, does it make sense to be in design?   Will design in a developing country be limited to just as and “add-on” and unessential?  Is design only profitable as a tool used in advertising and marketing?  Will design ever be given the respect it deserves?

On the otherhand, design has never been so big in the country.  Numerous design studios are cropping up everywhere while older firms are still alive and kicking.  So there is a market for design… but is it big enough to serve all that are passionate?  My professor said that questioning is good since it allows one to stop and look and then take positive action in identifying the problem.  But doubting just means to give up.  I do not think I am in “doubting” mode, but I do question the design career a lot… more often now than ever.  What do you think?  Do you live and work in the industry?  Do you doubt or question?

I suggest reading the link above to get an idea of how massive their campaign is. It is also nice to see the evolution of the Starbucks logo.