Returning to Writing: Why blogging is important to me

(Above: My notebook)

My dreams of being a writer fell between the cracks of wanting to be an astronaut, a baseball player, a marine biologist, and a graphic designer. Somewhere in between my career goals, I was a columnist for my high school newspaper. “As the ceiling fan spins,” I called the column. It took some convincing for our advisor to go with the title. I wanted to poke fun at myself; I was a sixteen-year-old kid who knew that his ideas weren’t revolutionary or exciting to a good portion of people. Instead of “As the World Turns,” it would be something far more trivial.

Background

I am the product of two college-educated journalists who met during their time at the Cal Poly Mustang Daily. While neither of my parents are still directly involved in journalism (communication, maybe), the itch to write is in my blood. My writing career at the school paper ended quickly; I became “graphics editor,”a title I tried to get changed to art director. I still was an “editor” which I liked, which meant we all got to hang out on an odd saturday every couple months and put the paper together. And even with a desire to be a page editor my senior year, I was cut off. My advisor and my fellow editors wanted me to be the “graphics editor.” That was the last time I wrote regularly.

(How odd, that it took me a good portion of my time at The Orion to connect those two storylines. While my time at The Eagle Eye (high school) was a much different experience (I don’t think we knew a thing about design theory), it gave me a lead-in to my career path as a graphic designer. That was really the beginning).

Why blog?

As I stated in my first post, I’ve begun many a blog. But all of them failed because I took it too seriously, tried too hard to perfect it, couldn’t stay organized, and when it fell short, I gave up. So how could I get back into it? I needed time, inspiration, motivation, and organization.

The time came during the past winter break, when I was able to relax and get my thoughts in order (blogs need thought). I was inspired by my Dad, as I often am, to get one going. He has one of his own, that he keeps updated regularly, to feature his open-water swimming love and the new work he produces for clients (he’s an illustrator/designer). Motivation comes from my friends at The Orion! All the section editors write a column each week, which is a skill I’ve always admired. I’ve toyed with the idea of writing a guest commentary a couple times, but my writing skills were just rusty. I needed to flex my brain a little bit.

Organization followed. I decided to keep all my ideas in this little notebook (you can find the inside page at the top of this post). Every time I had an idea, I would jot it down and keep it. I update it almost every day. That way I never forget exactly what I want to write about. A lot of my good ideas just come from reflection, simple pondering, and relaxation. If I’m too busy, I’m too focused to let a new idea spoil my concentration.

So finally, the three elements came together and I realized that I might actually have the momentum to carry this project through. The blogging system is something I fell in love with. It’s like newspaper work, with less restrictions on what you can write about. And I could make it my own! I didn’t want to pigeonhole myself and force a “design blog.” Because I’m not just a designer. I’m a Giants’ baseball fan too. I love scotch. Mad Men is my favorite TV show. I play the guitar, play video games, wield a DSLR, and sing to myself. I wanted my blog to be all about that.

That’s why I came up with the name “The Smörgåsblog.” It’s a variety of everything.

The Most Important Part

Communication is the most vital part of our world. Communication can help any career, any person, any relationship. The ability to let others know what you are thinking, and what message you want to convey is a very important part of life. Communication could solve a lot of the world’s problems, indirectly.

Writing is a fantastic way to organize your ideas and solve problems. You begin to make connections, ask yourself questions, and find answers. I wish I had been doing this years ago! Blogging really lets one be free, sort of frolicking through the world of the Internet and developing ideas.

I’ve always wanted to be better at communication. “How do I develop those kind of skills?” I asked myself. “If only there were a way to share my ideas with the world in more than 140 characters?” I pondered aloud.

Of course, you know the answer.

Outlook for the upcoming semester

My weekly schedule for the semester, balancing IMC, The Orion, and my classes

I’m entering my eighth semester at Chico State. I’m past the part of college where the whole experience is new and exciting, and not yet to the point where it’s exciting because I’m nearly graduated (I still have another year after this semester). I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I’m still in the middle-gray zone as far as school goes.

I’m lucky; my major is interesting to me and I know I’m studying what I really want to study, so my classes haven’t bogged me down too much. On the contrary, they’ve actually all been pretty damn interesting. So as I begin the twilight of my collegiate life, things are still looking up.

The New Internship — IMC Productions

But talk about busy! This semester will probably be my most diverse and most busy yet. A year and a half ago, I added The Orion to my workload. This semester, I’m adding another graphic design internship at IMC Productions. IMC is an on-campus production facility, and actually a pretty diverse organization; tackling everything from video production, website management services, public relations, and print & design. That’s the category I’ll (presumably) be working with. And I can’t wait!

I have my orientation for the new position tomorrow, and I’ll put up a pretty lengthy post and keep everyone updated. As of now, I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be doing.

The Orion, or, There and Back Again

Plus, I’m staying at The Orion, as sports designer for the talented sports editor, Allie Colosky. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty with editorial design again. The last year I’ve had to pinch hit for my staff occasionally but I haven’t had a regular, consistent section to design. And it’s going to look goood. Sports (Section B) will be competing with another high-octane editor-designer duo: another former art director, Mark Rojas, and hotshot editor Ben over in the features section (section D, for those of you who are wondering).

But Allie and I have this in the bag. I’m looking forward to a stake-raising design game.

Oh yeah, I’m taking classes too. 

I’ll no doubt be up to my neck in design this semester. For the first time, I have a chance to really immerse myself in design work, with The Orion and IMC such big parts of my week. I’m also taking three different creative classes! I’m finally taking Advanced Typography, something I avoided as Orion art director because I could never get enough sleep, and it’s an 8 am class. But type has always been one of my favorite design subjects, and I’ll be glad to go back to it.

I’m taking Packaging as well, with Chico State design legend Gregg Berryman (he started the design school!), another class I’m looking forward to. The best part of this class is that it’s something I’ve always wanted to get my hands on as a designer but never had the chance to. I get to think in three dimensions! Oh, and Samantha‘s in class with me.

The other class Samantha and I share is probably the most unique class I’ll take this semester: Fine Art Photography. I’m a little apprehensive, because although my foray into photography (high school) was a fine art style, I’ve been studying the less traditional forms of photography during my time in college. My favorite classes so far have been photography classes, and I’m looking forward to getting back into it on a regular basis now.

I’m also going to get a little more exercise, with a 2-day a week Softball class. Nothing exciting, but I figured it was time to take P.E. classes again (I used to, but life got busy).

Finally, there is the enigma that is Men, Women & the Land. It’s an upper division honors theme class; something I need to complete for my upper division theme. I have very little knowledge of what the class will cover, but I’m interested. It’s these kind of classes that usually surprise me by broadening my perspective.

A followup: My final essay/timeline for The Orion

The timeline I submitted to Dave to chart my progress as art director.

Our esteemed and now-retired adviser, Dave Waddell, always had everyone on staff submit a 750-word personal essay detailing our experiences on The Orion that semester. I always liked to have fun with them. Here’s the one from last semester that I think goes along well with my earlier post.

(NOTE: I think I accomplished this in all of 8 hours. It was a buttload to write and figure out how exactly I was going to display the whole thing. You’ll notice my writing seems to grow tired as time drags on).

Another semester at The Orion! (and why it’s such a wonderful place to work)

There are two things I worry about as a designer: the big picture, and the details. That might seem pretty obvious, but it’s important to keep those two concepts on the front of your mind. I focus on the details, but I always have to take a step back from anything I’m working on. This is a concept I developed at The Orion.

The Orion is the best decision I’ve ever made in my college career. Yesterday, we had orientation for what will be my fourth semester on staff. It’s amazing to me that it’s been less than two years, because it’s become such a huge part of my life and who I am as a designer and as a person. I spent all of 2011 as the paper’s art director, a wonderfully rewarding experience. I was in charge of the way each section of our five-section newspaper looked each week, and it was a blast.

But the best part of my experience on the paper has been the people I’m lucky enough to work with. The tight-knit community at The Orion is fostered by the work we do each week to produce such a great product. It’s a family, really, especially the editors. We care about each other’s problems and we try to find solutions. And like a family, we have our arguments and we have our drama. But in the end, we’re all better for it. More than a few of my favorite collegiate memories involve the friends I’ve made here.

The Orion is really a place where people grow up. Most of the staff is within a couple years of age twenty, which plays a big role. And we’re all in college, which says a lot as well. But it’s more than that. The Orion is the first job where I’ve made my own decisions. And big decisions. I don’t mean deciding which side of the store to start mopping. And I don’t mean deciding exactly what shade of blue to use on a project. Decisions that you will be fully responsible for. Decisions that will be your sole responsibility.

Before my stint as art director had officially begun, I had to hire my staff. I had six candidates for four open positions and had to break the bad news to two of them. I nearly misfired and didn’t hire the woman who is now our art director. Decisions, decisions. I had to make decisions each week that would cement any legacy I have as art director. Each week it was a different decision: one week it would be sizing the headlines correctly (pretty subtle) and the next week it would be a complete overhaul of a section cover (a pretty big task).

I realized that professionalism mattered the most. You can make a product look amazing all you want, but you can’t forget about the details. My first semester as art director was all about the big picture, but in my second I started to work in the details. That’s when I began to develop the theory I stated at the beginning of this post.

This power as a decision maker is really what makes The Orion such a transformative place to work. I suspect many of the editors I’ve had the pleasure to work with have felt similarly.

When you’re looking at the staff of our newspaper, the product you produce and the effort you make as a group is the “big picture.” But you can’t forget about the friends on staff and the people that make the paper as unique and successful as it is. That’s the detail.