January 7, 2013

repost


Day 1


     Today is day one in concept development class with Professor Moss. We spent most of the entire class meeting getting to know each other. We started by pushing all the tables to the far back of the room so that all the chairs can be placed in a circle facing each other. Jimmy gave each of us an index card and had us put our names and major(s) on the card. He shuffled them while we all sat down. He wanted us to play a game to get us all talking to one another and also to learn a little bit more about ourselves and how each one of us handles the art of persuasion. He told us to tell the class three things about ourselves, two things being true, the third thing being false and in no particular order. He pulled out the first one, with the name Carlos Godoy. This regular boy with dark hair, medium built wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt got up infront of the class and told us his three thing. The funniest things that I remember was the fact that he still own a pair of ninja turtle boxers at home. This fact about himself was funny and quite unbelievable at first because of his age and with the way he said it with a smile and almost laughing made it seem like it was the lie. On the contrary, most of the class was wrong about believing that the boxers was the lie. His lie was about his surgery on his elbow, which was so convincing because he even showed us a scar on his arm. It turns out that he did get hurt there from skating but he did not have surgery!
     Even with the first student up and playing this game, you can already feel the excitement and laughter in the air of the classroom. People can really believe anything you say by how you say it, how fast you say it, with your body language and your eye contact. Lying is an art and it's an art for actors and those with strong persuasive personalities, or for the great minds of advertising.
     My three things were kind of silly, but I said them anyways. I worried so much about what others students or Jimmy would think of what I was going to say. My three things were; 1.) I hate cats 2.) I'm allergic to cats, and 3.) that I've been a student for 8 years. I thought that
     What I learned from this lesson and game in relations to my field of study of graphic design and visual communications is that in the game of marketing yourself or the marketing of any product for your client(s) is that it not only how good a product is, it's about how well you sell it! Making a desired audience believe that a good or product is everything that the manufacturer is saying is in fact real, is the real goal of meeting a clients expectations in marketing and will later foster into their sales. And even better, if you can get your audience to be enticed with mystery and suspense about a product or the arrival of a new product, the better. No wonder talk about new apple products are released way in advance before the product is actually on sale on the shelves of retail stores. Being convincing is not the only thing that we as designers have to worry about when we start a new campaign. We have to worry about the integrity of the company and the whole dismay of being genuine in your self worth as a designer or following orders from your paycheck signers.