How I Spend My Time

For this week we were asked to break down the hours roughly spent on each of the following activities during an average week:

Reading
a) Books: 13 hours
b) Newspapers: 0
c) Magazines: 0.5 hours
Listening to the radio: 4 hours
Listening to music: 70+ hours
Watching TV/movies: 9 hours
Email
a) # of messages sent: 10
b) Received: 60
Web use
a) General surfing: 40 hours
b) Facebook use: Likely 30+ hours (constantly being used in the background of other activities)
Playing video games: 0 hours
Cell phone use
a) Talking: 6 hours
b) Texting
i) # of messages sent: 50
ii) # of messages received: 70

How I approach a new design

When I am given a new project, I rarely jump right into it and fully immerse myself. I rather read over the brief, my notes, and any sketches I took down during the briefing to familiarize myself with what needs to be done, what is expected, and what the client is looking for. This happens the same day I am given the project and for the next couple of days I let it sit in the back of my mind, which helps me notice things during my day-to-day activities that relate to the project and that ultimately give me inspiration. For example when I was working on an assignment campaign for the TTC I noticed all of the existing TTC ads on billboards, bus shelters, in newspapers, etc. that I would have otherwise not paid as close attention to but since I had this campaign assignment in the back of my mind, it helped me to see what is currently being done and how it could be done better.

Further brainstorming and sketches follow the information and inspiration gathering and I will brainstorm with friends and classmates whenever possible. I find the best ideas come from this because the complete nonsense that comes out of those conversations sparks greater ideas.