I realize that I'm happiest when I'm creating or in the midst of a creative process, even though I have a predominantly analytical mind. I sit in front of a computer, or sometimes a draft or drawing pad, put on headphones to tune out the world (lately, listening to Korean SS501 music to which I don't even understand most of the lyrics - haha), and lose myself in whatever world I'm creating. And when I'm in that world, everything wrong can be put right. Well, that is when I'm an inspired mode and phase out.
There are times when I can't force it and draw a blank. So I must take a walk, dance, watch TV or read - any other activity other than creating. Tune out thinking for awhile and just ... be. I love that part too.
So I wondered why I never considered the arts when I was thinking of a course in college. Maybe it was the practical side of me who dominated then? Maybe Accounting was more ... in tune with my realities then? These thoughts are brought about by the current book I'm reading called "The Tipping Point" which I will discuss on a much later post. I am recommending it however to all wanna-be artists and entrepreneurs out there. NO ONE IS BORN GREAT! THEY BECOME. It's really mostly circumstantial. So I still believe that life is how you make it. Happiness is how you choose it to be ;)
But I digress, my real topic is this. I attended a 2-day basic label design workshop last week. I asked my boss to let me attend even though design is only a small portion of what I do at work and I wasn't directly invited. (Thanks boss.) It was sponsored by DOST, SMED and Taytay sang Kauswagan. We were taught the basic design process (basically the same with my design process except for the mandatory music headphones). And we were also taught designing packages for food products, the requirements, the considerations. It was quite interesting. I have this website where I just look at product packaging for inspiration because you can never tell where inspiration will jump out.
Anyway, I was partnered with two creative students from WVCST, Arli and Jude. Our product was fresh milk in a bottle and we were given client specs and a filled up questionnaire by real clients. It was a test run for my laptop which I haven't really used fully. After drawing sketches on paper, we got to work. The next day, we got to witness the printing and packaging process at Taytay Sa Kauswagan. I hated it that I didn't think of questions to ask before going there because I had plenty and never wrote them down. Forgot to ask them while I was there. Anyway, we presented our product later that morning and we got good inputs and helpful criticisms. We were told that we couldn't use the designs we made for the workshop but I wanted to post ours anyway. I changed the names and certain details in the product label in case I get sued - hahaha. This is the edited version - post-criticisms. Being true to my OC self, I corrected everything that they found wrong with it :)
Hope they don't sue me for posting this but I'm quite proud of what we came up with - for first timers ;)
