As we reach our final few weeks of school I realize that we have been running these blogs for an entire school year. It went bye so quickly! In honor of Graphic Design, I'll be summarizing the past months. Graphic Design has been such an interesting field to research and definitely a fun career path. It follows the line of my interests of drawing and art and math. There are an endless amount of colleges that offer programs for Graphic Design and a large amount of prestigious schools that branch off into different sectors that include animation, architecture and film. Some local schools that I am interested in that offer this career choice are UCLA, Cal Poly, and San Francisco. Even though they don't make the annual income of someone in the 1%, Graphic Designers will have a more interesting and exciting work field. For instance, Pixar offers each employee an amount of space to create, design and build whatever their hearts desire for them to feel comfortable and less stressed at work. Many designers are working either online or in offices where they can let their imagination run wild for thousands of viewers to see. Magazine articles, interiors or fancy houses in pictures, modern and future car models, are all made by people in the field of Graphic Design. Walt Disney and Steve Jobs, both innovators and remarkable men were Graphic Designers. The list goes on for the heroes I have, but my goal is to emphasize how awesome this job is and still can become. And with that, the only where to go from here is into the future. Farewell
Karl
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Spring Break
This upcoming Spring Break I will be going down south with my dad to some colleges to check out the campuses and look into some of the classes they provide. My dad also wants me to contact some of the schools to make appointments with the professors and give the schools a heads up that I will be coming by. As of now, I will be going to look at UCLA, UCSB, UC Davis, UC Irvine, and Cal Poly. I still have to contact the schools, but I will most likely be doing that today. I'm most excited for UCLA because in an earlier blog post I found that Pixar does internships with UCLA.
I was also told to contact both Pixar and Dreamworks to find internships that they offer and what classes they most likely look for on applications. Most of the classes they look for include computer programming or any computer science class, a certain level of artistic skills whether it be drawing or computer graphics, and even some business degrees. This seems like a good path to follow when asking the colleges for passes to see some classes.
I was also told to contact both Pixar and Dreamworks to find internships that they offer and what classes they most likely look for on applications. Most of the classes they look for include computer programming or any computer science class, a certain level of artistic skills whether it be drawing or computer graphics, and even some business degrees. This seems like a good path to follow when asking the colleges for passes to see some classes.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Heroes
So, to start take things back a notch, let's go over my inspirations of this field. Dr. Seuss, Walt Disney, Steve Jobs, and Jeffrey Katzenberg are my biggest inspirations in the animation field and artistic. For starters, if you don't know these people, then shame on you. You'll learn some basic information about most of them. Dr. Seuss, who the heck doesn't know about this genius? I honestly own 99% of his books and still occasionally read through them for a quick smile whenever I'm bored out of my mind. He is, in my opinion, a better rhymer than most modern rappers. And the amount of color and creativity in his books not only makes you feel like you're on an acid trip but also inspires me to stay creative. My parents used to read the books to my brother and I when I was younger and I was always fascinated with his works and stayed out for countless hours just scanning over all the little details and colorful pages.
Walt Disney, most likely the greatest man ever, creating "the happiest place on Earth". I may not go to Disneyland a lot, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a true inspiration to me and always has been. Every time I could do a biography in school, I would immediately jump to Disney. Not because I knew a lot of him, but to learn MORE or even just relearn some things that always blew my mind. He ran a paper route as a boy when he lived on a farm. I bet most of you didn't know that! P.S. the Disney Channel has changed over these many years and if Walt was to watch a modern show, he would cry.
Steve Jobs. He is beginning to change my career path believe it or not. He was a very big prankster in middle and high school. I'm reading his biography as we speak. Well, not at the same time but I'm reading it presently! He was the cofounder of Pixar (my dream company partnered with DreamWorks) and then created Apple with Steve Wozniak. All of our generations and the generations after will always be affected by their works.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who most of you probably do not know, is the CEO of DreamWorks. His mastermind has been behind famous movies of the companies since the start. He also worked with Disney side-by-side on many movies including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Aladdin. So, there's a little bit of learning for you all!
-Karl
Walt Disney, most likely the greatest man ever, creating "the happiest place on Earth". I may not go to Disneyland a lot, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a true inspiration to me and always has been. Every time I could do a biography in school, I would immediately jump to Disney. Not because I knew a lot of him, but to learn MORE or even just relearn some things that always blew my mind. He ran a paper route as a boy when he lived on a farm. I bet most of you didn't know that! P.S. the Disney Channel has changed over these many years and if Walt was to watch a modern show, he would cry.
Steve Jobs. He is beginning to change my career path believe it or not. He was a very big prankster in middle and high school. I'm reading his biography as we speak. Well, not at the same time but I'm reading it presently! He was the cofounder of Pixar (my dream company partnered with DreamWorks) and then created Apple with Steve Wozniak. All of our generations and the generations after will always be affected by their works.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, who most of you probably do not know, is the CEO of DreamWorks. His mastermind has been behind famous movies of the companies since the start. He also worked with Disney side-by-side on many movies including The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, and Aladdin. So, there's a little bit of learning for you all!
-Karl
Monday, February 4, 2013
DreamWorks
So as I was browsing the web like I usually do, I stumbled upon DreamWorks' website and I began to snoop around. I somehow managed to find their partnership for colleges and where they seem to have the most hires from. The amazing thing is, out of the maybe 50 colleges, 15 are in California. As my chances go up, they also go down. DreamWorks wants colleagues that are well suited in more than one position so they can be helpful at anytime. Now that I know this I have to branch out and take more than just a graphics class but also animation (obviously), computer programming, art, and other technical as well as business categories. DreamWorks wants the best of the best for their company, as they have the top 2,000 animators. Roughly 50-60 leave yearly and then another 50-60 are hired again to keep their solid base structure.
I have never taken an art class. They always seem so boring and slow pace. I feel they spend weeks on shading techniques and how to draw perfect circles. Unfortunately for these classes, I'm a quick learner so that will probably take me a couple hours to get the hang of it before I want to move on. I know that I'll need to perfect my skills in ever field that I can to be apart of the team and make an outstanding portfolio. The problem for me is that the BEST drawings that I create are for my friends or the people that asked for a drawing. So all my best work that I have to my name is scattered across the bay area and even other states. So this will be a new experience for me; all of this will be. It'll be an exciting journey to get to the top of the top, but I'm willing to do it to become one of them.
I have never taken an art class. They always seem so boring and slow pace. I feel they spend weeks on shading techniques and how to draw perfect circles. Unfortunately for these classes, I'm a quick learner so that will probably take me a couple hours to get the hang of it before I want to move on. I know that I'll need to perfect my skills in ever field that I can to be apart of the team and make an outstanding portfolio. The problem for me is that the BEST drawings that I create are for my friends or the people that asked for a drawing. So all my best work that I have to my name is scattered across the bay area and even other states. So this will be a new experience for me; all of this will be. It'll be an exciting journey to get to the top of the top, but I'm willing to do it to become one of them.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Other Categories
Since I'm short on time and mental capabilities, this will be a shorter blog post, my apologies.
Graphic Design has many categories that branch into animation and other art fields. For example, Steve Jobs worked at Pixar and moved on to Apple. He studied electronics and computer sciences. Even if I was to go a different route and not work for Pixar, I could go to college and study graphic design, computer programming to work on interface design, architecture and work on houses, buildings or even landscape, or photography and travel the world. Scratch that. Photography is such a high growing topic that it would be close to impossible to make it instead of breaking. My father is an architect, and it never hurts to continue the family path! But, I feel like that is his own path meant to be traveled alone. I should either follow my own path in another direction or maybe cover a different field of architecture. Even engineering has its own way of slipping into the topic of design. I could design blueprints for major engineering processes or even plot out the development of a new computer system; interesting!
Mr. Pinza said earlier this week that it's good to dip into multiple waters and have a sense of a bit of everything, that's what some major businesses like these days. I thought again of Jobs and how he later on left to start a new multibillion dollar company. I feel if I was to ever see my limitations crumbling, that I should be able to fall back or even branch off of what i studied in college. Taking economics or accounting or even different fields of engineering would have an interesting mix of flavors for a final solution, which in return could be the best decision I would have ever made! With the love for math, art and now engineering, my path may have many doors waiting to be opened. To the best of my knowledge, the best combination of those three topics mainly would be some form of computer programming/art job. And going back to previous topics, that is the basic definition of computer animation/storyline! Meaning, Pixar may actually be in the near future if I play my cards correctly.
Karl Kohlsaat
Graphic Design has many categories that branch into animation and other art fields. For example, Steve Jobs worked at Pixar and moved on to Apple. He studied electronics and computer sciences. Even if I was to go a different route and not work for Pixar, I could go to college and study graphic design, computer programming to work on interface design, architecture and work on houses, buildings or even landscape, or photography and travel the world. Scratch that. Photography is such a high growing topic that it would be close to impossible to make it instead of breaking. My father is an architect, and it never hurts to continue the family path! But, I feel like that is his own path meant to be traveled alone. I should either follow my own path in another direction or maybe cover a different field of architecture. Even engineering has its own way of slipping into the topic of design. I could design blueprints for major engineering processes or even plot out the development of a new computer system; interesting!
Mr. Pinza said earlier this week that it's good to dip into multiple waters and have a sense of a bit of everything, that's what some major businesses like these days. I thought again of Jobs and how he later on left to start a new multibillion dollar company. I feel if I was to ever see my limitations crumbling, that I should be able to fall back or even branch off of what i studied in college. Taking economics or accounting or even different fields of engineering would have an interesting mix of flavors for a final solution, which in return could be the best decision I would have ever made! With the love for math, art and now engineering, my path may have many doors waiting to be opened. To the best of my knowledge, the best combination of those three topics mainly would be some form of computer programming/art job. And going back to previous topics, that is the basic definition of computer animation/storyline! Meaning, Pixar may actually be in the near future if I play my cards correctly.
Karl Kohlsaat
Monday, November 19, 2012
College Anyone?
I've put a lot of thought into this blog and have a pretty strong idea of what this week's topic will be about. College opportunities. Yes yes yes, college! This is not only the year that all of this stress and pressure is piled on top of us, but we're also required to find somewhat of our future path. Hey, don't rush me okay? I'm 16 years young and I didn't (and still don't fully) know what the heck I'm going to be when I grow up. It may change, it may not. That's life! But, getting back on to the topic at hand, college is the next big step in our lives. Looking online, I have found somewhat of a good taste in what Pixar, Disney, and Dreamworks all require of their employees. Some level of art, whether it be in Animation, Technical Directing, Computer Programming, Art, and Graphic Design. Pixar employees that work towards the animation have some level of computer animation or graphics. Dreamworks is located in southern California, and look for animation, art or any skilled position in design/computer work.
Now, the only challenge is list of challenges. What? The biggest challenge is to make it, obviously. But there are hundreds if not thousands of mini challenges as stepping stones, if I may, to achieve the final and total goal. The challenge at hand is to find the college(s) that have best interest to both me and these super organizations. I will save you the fun part and leave out the list I've organized that has some of these requirements met. Some are located in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and even Canada! Some colleges are USC, NYU, Academy of Art, CIT, Brown, and other Art/Design schools. Most of the colleges are either Art based, or Computer programmed. That's a given, hopefully...
The only problem and grey patch in all this is that I don't know where to begin. I could enroll in fifty different classes directed towards the Disney/Dreamworks fantasy future, but will that work? Every journey starts with a first step, but where is that first step needed for me? I could take one class and master it and get just as lucky. The only problem is the first step: What college? What courses? Who to contact? What can you do but trust your gut, follow your heart. I feel in order to become the professional that I have dreamed about, I need to take certain classes that specifically branch towards the position of "Title Creator" or "Word Maker". The title isn't necessary right now, mostly because I don't know it. The first step must be taken, but Where? Only time will tell.
Karl K.
http://www.aimeemajor.com/anim/pixarcollege.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081119173541AAzxOYZ
Now, the only challenge is list of challenges. What? The biggest challenge is to make it, obviously. But there are hundreds if not thousands of mini challenges as stepping stones, if I may, to achieve the final and total goal. The challenge at hand is to find the college(s) that have best interest to both me and these super organizations. I will save you the fun part and leave out the list I've organized that has some of these requirements met. Some are located in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and even Canada! Some colleges are USC, NYU, Academy of Art, CIT, Brown, and other Art/Design schools. Most of the colleges are either Art based, or Computer programmed. That's a given, hopefully...
The only problem and grey patch in all this is that I don't know where to begin. I could enroll in fifty different classes directed towards the Disney/Dreamworks fantasy future, but will that work? Every journey starts with a first step, but where is that first step needed for me? I could take one class and master it and get just as lucky. The only problem is the first step: What college? What courses? Who to contact? What can you do but trust your gut, follow your heart. I feel in order to become the professional that I have dreamed about, I need to take certain classes that specifically branch towards the position of "Title Creator" or "Word Maker". The title isn't necessary right now, mostly because I don't know it. The first step must be taken, but Where? Only time will tell.
Karl K.
http://www.aimeemajor.com/anim/pixarcollege.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081119173541AAzxOYZ
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Job Opportunities
As you can tell by the title, this topic is about jobs. Jobs involving graphic design and anything in the fields of the graphic world. I've been thinking a lot about this topic and I will probably cover this topic again in the future. I took into consideration Ayham's comment about Pixar and Dreamworks and it's funny how I was thinking about that originally and how I love the movies and shorts they produce. I remember in the eighth grade...right? Yeah! In the eighth grade we had a career day I believe it was, and a design specialist from Dreamworks came into Mrs. Velasco's class and showed us what his job is and how important every single person in their community of Dreamworks is truly linked and intertwined with the story. He showed us a preview of the newest Shrek; though it wasn't truly complete, it was in the last stages of polishment. From what I can remember, that was the only profession that truly captivated me. I was amazed at what he did and so thrilled to be hearing from him! But as an eighth grader, it was immediately sent to the back corner of my brain in the pile of trash just collecting dust until someone files it all.
Back to Pixar and Dreamworks. I did some research and found the job listings within both systems and rooted almost 75% of them back to the general category of graphic design. Amazing, right! Probably not to you, but to me, yeah! I mostly like drawing straight lines and words, which could most likely put me onto the storyline team that creates the actual title of the movie. i mean, how cool would that be...seeing a movie that you were apart of and seeing the title on a poster that came from the hands of your own. But then again, I feel that drawing straight lines is just a time waster because of school. I feel that I can open up more doors to other types of drawings that I could get into, maybe even help create the structure of the characters or something of that sort. I even looked through all the Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar movie titles and found errors where I would put my own little spark to make it more appealing to the audience and fit the movie scheme better.
This is only animation. I looked through other job ideas and opportunities, the most common were for online businesses, or magazines. Then again, I feel like that is the most interesting sub-category to the whole area of my expertise. I don't like those words; I'm no where close to an expert. Yeah, both of those have the boom and the pow, but where's the zang? I'd feel more interested and happy with my job working with the hotshot animation companies. But I feel there's more to these jobs then just having a wicked freehand. When I think of animation, I think of lousy claymation figures meeting and greeting and then fulfilling an unusual activity for the objects. That being said, I can't stand the Tim Burton movies. I'm not basing on him, his movies just scare the hell out of me. Even though it's more than that, I have never been the type do the real world hands on animation. I'd rather be apart of a computerized animation crew behind the scenes of Brave or Tangled.
And then again, isn't animation truly based on imagination and creativity? All movies that I've seen created by those companies are more than just creative; their brilliantly put together and perfectly shaped. I feel I can contribute my own creativity. Even though most of you don't actually see it, but I am. Not to sound conceited but I feel that I'm a bit of an odd apple in the basket. I see most things differently than you, but that also makes me human. We all have our similarities and differences. As of right now, I'm wearing my extremely large Captain America pajama bottoms and the 3D glasses that you get at the movies without the lenses (it makes me feel more like the "blogger" stereotype, judge me all you want) and I'm drinking my suicide from Safeway. A suicide is a mixture of all the drinks on the vendor, not to be confused with anything else. I see shapes and details I never thought I could see. I have finally started to realize that I do just a couple years ago. It's not an OCD, I checked. I'm a special being, and I just think I would have a blast working at Pixar or something like that.
Thanks everyone, have a wonderful day!
Karl K.
Back to Pixar and Dreamworks. I did some research and found the job listings within both systems and rooted almost 75% of them back to the general category of graphic design. Amazing, right! Probably not to you, but to me, yeah! I mostly like drawing straight lines and words, which could most likely put me onto the storyline team that creates the actual title of the movie. i mean, how cool would that be...seeing a movie that you were apart of and seeing the title on a poster that came from the hands of your own. But then again, I feel that drawing straight lines is just a time waster because of school. I feel that I can open up more doors to other types of drawings that I could get into, maybe even help create the structure of the characters or something of that sort. I even looked through all the Disney, Dreamworks and Pixar movie titles and found errors where I would put my own little spark to make it more appealing to the audience and fit the movie scheme better.
This is only animation. I looked through other job ideas and opportunities, the most common were for online businesses, or magazines. Then again, I feel like that is the most interesting sub-category to the whole area of my expertise. I don't like those words; I'm no where close to an expert. Yeah, both of those have the boom and the pow, but where's the zang? I'd feel more interested and happy with my job working with the hotshot animation companies. But I feel there's more to these jobs then just having a wicked freehand. When I think of animation, I think of lousy claymation figures meeting and greeting and then fulfilling an unusual activity for the objects. That being said, I can't stand the Tim Burton movies. I'm not basing on him, his movies just scare the hell out of me. Even though it's more than that, I have never been the type do the real world hands on animation. I'd rather be apart of a computerized animation crew behind the scenes of Brave or Tangled.
And then again, isn't animation truly based on imagination and creativity? All movies that I've seen created by those companies are more than just creative; their brilliantly put together and perfectly shaped. I feel I can contribute my own creativity. Even though most of you don't actually see it, but I am. Not to sound conceited but I feel that I'm a bit of an odd apple in the basket. I see most things differently than you, but that also makes me human. We all have our similarities and differences. As of right now, I'm wearing my extremely large Captain America pajama bottoms and the 3D glasses that you get at the movies without the lenses (it makes me feel more like the "blogger" stereotype, judge me all you want) and I'm drinking my suicide from Safeway. A suicide is a mixture of all the drinks on the vendor, not to be confused with anything else. I see shapes and details I never thought I could see. I have finally started to realize that I do just a couple years ago. It's not an OCD, I checked. I'm a special being, and I just think I would have a blast working at Pixar or something like that.
Thanks everyone, have a wonderful day!
Karl K.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Beginning
"Graphic design is a creative process—most often involving a
client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with
producers of form (i.e., printers, sign makers, etc.)—undertaken in order
to convey a specific message (or messages) to a targeted audience. The
term "graphic design" can also refer to a number of artistic and
professional disciplines that focus on visual communication and
presentation." Okay, well what the heck does that mean? Graphic design is very artistic and commonly takes the form through the designing of logos and magazine articles. I'll spare you all the history and beginning of all this because this isn't a report. Know that there are many sub-categories that I could go into and bore you all. Some careers that hone into the specific skills are the graphic artist, art director and graphic designer. Pretty fancy, I think.
Alright, the reason I chose this was because I like to draw. Scratch that... I love to draw. I really don't want to sound conceited, but ever since I was young I was told I was good at it. When we were younger, it was, "Wow, you're a good drawer!" and as we got older it got to the point of, "Karl, you should think about becoming an artist or architect." My dad is an architect, so that's most likely where I got the genes of straight lines without the need of a ruler or the capability to write really well (otherwise known as 'girly handwriting'). I thought about joining him and making its a Kohlsaat combo business, but I thought there was more for me out there. I also really like math, which is why I got a lot of comments on becoming an architect, because of all the technicalities and hullabaloo. I just didn't think was quite my forte.
I like to draw words. Sounds really lame when you put it into words, I know. But that's just always been my interest. That's how I came to the career topic of Graphic Designer because that's right up my alley! Once in a while I'll draw shapes or objects, but mainly words. I try and make my own style of fonts or copy company logos to help get a sense on the way they positioned everything. Recently I've been creating fake company titles and drawing different shapes and styles on how to write the logo. I looked up that type of graphic design and it somewhat put me into the Visual Arts with, of course, architecture. But this also includes making logos, whether it be for a company or website, and animations. I bet if I put as much effort as humanly possible, I could help create an animation like for Disney or Pixar. All I can say is that I have no set path, but the options slowly appearing in my vision. For all I know is that this is an interesting topic that I will look further into.
Thanks,
Karl K.
Alright, the reason I chose this was because I like to draw. Scratch that... I love to draw. I really don't want to sound conceited, but ever since I was young I was told I was good at it. When we were younger, it was, "Wow, you're a good drawer!" and as we got older it got to the point of, "Karl, you should think about becoming an artist or architect." My dad is an architect, so that's most likely where I got the genes of straight lines without the need of a ruler or the capability to write really well (otherwise known as 'girly handwriting'). I thought about joining him and making its a Kohlsaat combo business, but I thought there was more for me out there. I also really like math, which is why I got a lot of comments on becoming an architect, because of all the technicalities and hullabaloo. I just didn't think was quite my forte.
I like to draw words. Sounds really lame when you put it into words, I know. But that's just always been my interest. That's how I came to the career topic of Graphic Designer because that's right up my alley! Once in a while I'll draw shapes or objects, but mainly words. I try and make my own style of fonts or copy company logos to help get a sense on the way they positioned everything. Recently I've been creating fake company titles and drawing different shapes and styles on how to write the logo. I looked up that type of graphic design and it somewhat put me into the Visual Arts with, of course, architecture. But this also includes making logos, whether it be for a company or website, and animations. I bet if I put as much effort as humanly possible, I could help create an animation like for Disney or Pixar. All I can say is that I have no set path, but the options slowly appearing in my vision. For all I know is that this is an interesting topic that I will look further into.
Thanks,
Karl K.
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