After Class-2/3

For the first day of class we began by making introductions. I got to know a little bit about my peers by having a few minutes to talk to them and ask simple questions like "Whats your major?" or "Whens your birthday?". After the introductions we went straight into playing with play-doh. At first I must admit I had no idea how play-doh correlated with the history of graphic design, but I did not complain because well...we got to play with play-doh. The activity called for the class to break up into smaller groups, then each group was given a phrase that they had to depict by using the play-doh. The only rules were that no numbers or letters could be used and the play-doh had to be a flat image, so no building was allowed. The phrases that were handed out were not common sayings whatsoever, which made things difficult when it came time to guess each groups phrase. For example, my group had to work off of the phrase "The chicken and the cow danced at midnight", the other groups understood the images that we made but they did not get the phrase. After fooling around with the play-doh we began to discuss what we can expect to learn from this course, and what is necessary for us to get a good grade. From what I grasped this course is going to cover the history of graphic design, it is going to be a writing intensive class in which we learn about styles of the past.

After the first day I must admit I am both anxious and curious. I cant wait to get into the thick of things and start to understand how and why graphic design began. As of today the most meaningful concept to grasp is from the play-doh activity and how difficult it is to create a visual image with limited supplies in order to convey an idea...or in this case a phrase. I also found it interesting that we are starting by looking at cave drawings as the first form of graphic design. I have taken other art history classes and am always intrigued when I learn about the beginning of art because it is truly amazing to see how far the design world has come.