Author: Elizabeth Blake

Showing people my art. Showing people my art feels akin to stripping down in public and being like, “what do you think?” It’s scary it’s vulnerable, but I’m going to do it anyway. My idea for this post was to think outside the box, what hasn’t been done? (Well, nothing, but maybe I can find a new way to do something.) I had a number of ideas and I challenged myself to draw all of them. Some of them suck, some might be cool if someone else did something with them but either way, here they are:

So the ideas themselves aren’t bad but none of them are done. This is sort of just a visual list of things related to the project that have been rattling around in my head for a while now. I definitely want to explore some of them, maybe I’ll actually make the flip-book thing. My problem with these though is how opposed the whole class is to “getting ‘commercially’.” Like it’s the one thing no one is allowed to do with their ideas. I’LL MAKE A COMMERCIAL IF I WANT TO DAMMIT, STOP STIFLING MY CREATIVITY.
If you look at the picture, I’ve actually started censoring myself and abandoning ideas that might be great because I have the fear that I might be too close to making an advertisement. I need to remember that it is OK if I chose to express my idea as an ad. If it’s a good idea, it doesn’t really matter how I present it. Sooo, I’m going to present my commercial idea:

I kind of love the idea with the punchline being that the narrator of a commercial is the car itself and that it has something as ridiculous as false eyelashes on. Not many car commercials have female voice-overs so I think that would make it more interesting, and obviously it can focus on any (or all three) of the aspects of the VW brand. She can talk about her great gas milage (which is what’s in the storyboard) or her spacious trunk (insert junk-in-the-trunk joke here) or how you can’t tell her age by looking at her (enduring value and quality) or whatever. Regardless of what the commercial is about, and there are a lot of things it could be about, it would be funny and fresh and interesting so THERE. It’s a commercial. AND a good idea.

So I have a problem. I’m doing these wrong and I know it but I don’t know what to do about it. I find myself having a hard time focusing on just the IDEAS. Everything I come up with immediately becomes a commercial in my head or worse, it starts as a commercial in my head. This is a problem because I can’t focus on the brand when I’m doing this.

But all is not lost. I have a solution! (I hope.) I finally went and looked at some blogs from last semester’s brand and I saw this thing called mind mapping. Basically it’s starting with a word or concept and doing sort of an active stream (or streams) of consciousness on it. I love this! It allows me to focus on where the flow of idea is heading and divert it when it starts moving towards making advertisements.

Anyway, here is my first attempt at a mind map:

I am very uncomfortable about this because this is like grabbing a thread woven into the fabric of my thought patterns and tugging. If you follow that thread you see how I think, what I think about, where my ideas come from and how dumb most of them are. I feel incredibly exposed. I guess that’s a big part of getting out of the comfort zone though, and something I need to work on. I see my comfort zone as a bunch of blankets wrapped around myself, I am safe inside and hidden from the world. These posts serve to peel away some of those layers which makes me more visible, but more importantly, brings me closer to the world outside my comfort zone. There are less layers between the observer and the experience.

I don’t know that this counts as a post but I do think it’s a place to start. I didn’t end up with any IDEAS, maybe just a few “ide”s. I know there are things here I can explore more later, I just don’t know if I need to have one totally fleshed out every post.

So getting out of your comfort zone, that’s scary stuff. Where to start? My list, that’s a great starting point. Hm.. sigh. I know one that would work great: Social situations (talking TO people). Talking to strangers is one of the scariest things I can imagine doing. It’s intimidating and nerve wracking because it so often leads to rejection. I could do a survey. Ask people a series of questions about VW and… do something with it. What can I do with the answers?

1.) How do you feel about Volkswagen?
2.) Do you like Volkswagen (cars)?
3.) If yes, what do you like about them? (If no, what don’t you like? Why don’t you like VW?)
4.)What do you think about when I say Volkswagen?
5.) Why do you associate that  with the VW brand?
6.)Is there anything else you’d like to say?
Thank you for your time! 🙂

So obviously it wasn’t hard to come up with these questions and type them up. The hard part is what comes next: asking these questions to strangers. How will I record their answers? Voice recording or video or what?? I think a plan of action is in order.

Because I am a poor lowly college student with no recording equipment of my own I have two options: either I use my phone (which is sort of sketchy and unprofessional) OR, I check out recording equipment from the library. Augh, there’s another one. Asking for help. I am not familiar with checking out said equipment nor am I comfortable using it, therefore I will be forced to ask for help.

My strategy will be to go to the compass with a method of voice/video recording and just start approaching people. Yes it’s scary, but I have my list of questions and I look friendly enough that hopefully I can get at least twenty responses. And it isn’t like people don’t do things like this here all the time. It is an art(sy) school after all.

I’ll post the responses in some aggregated form later on. Wish me luck!

So I’m going to cheat a little bit and use both directives on this one. Also, things are about to get personal, but I think part of creativity is using what you can bring to the table so I’m going to let you have a peek inside my head.
I made two lists, things that are inside my comfort zone and things that are outside my comfort zone. Both are telling and there are a few things that are on one list that I wish were on the other. There are also a couple that overlap, that was deliberate. There are things that are both comfortable and scary for me and so the line isn’t as clear in those areas.

My Comfort Zone:

• staying at home
• public speaking (talking AT people)
• acting
• sitting
• cooking
• writing
• pets/animals
• my family
• texting (versus talking or calling)
• reading
• making art
• snakes
• the city
• feeling smart
• the library
• introspection
• trying new things
• being in charge

Outside my Comfort Zone:

• being naked
• sharing my secrets
• compliments
• awkward silences
• playing sports
• making phone calls
• social situations (talking TO people)
• dating (going on dates)
• failing in front of people
• heights
• kids
• acting
• asking for help
• getting lost
• swimming
• standing with people shorter than me
• feeling stupid
• this post.
• showing people my art
• rejection (I have a hard time saying no)
• singing
• having my picture taken
• parties
• bugs
• trying new things
• being in charge

This actually took longer than I thought it would and it wasn’t as easy as I thought. Surprisingly, it was somewhat easier to come up with things outside of my comfort zone than things I’m actually comfortable with. Maybe I take the easy things for granted but either way, This is a good starting point. This will help me set goals for this week. I can talk to a stranger who owns a VW and get some great insights that way. I can try making a video collaboration (asking for help) or actually doing art and posting it (D:). This is almost like a miscellaneous box of thoughts dumped on the floor and all I have to do now is sort through them and find the good ones.

What does your car say about you?

Here’s the thing: people use their possessions to define themselves. They use their hair, clothes, backpacks, cars, and everything in between to make a statement. even nonstatements like grey tee shirts and jeans everyday still end up making a statement. So my idea is a slideshow style series of pictures of people and their cars (Volkswagens, obviously) taken in a variety of interesting poses etc. Possible slogan: “be an individual”.

Snapshots:
A couple of kids playing in the open trunk of a vintage yellow Beetle, the bumper of which is covered in bumper stickers.
An elderly hippie couple sitting on the open back of a vintage psychedelic painted Bus with a ‘love den’ visible inside.
A street racer with a colored mohawk in the driver’s seat of a green and black race striped, tricked out Jetta.
A drag queen sprawled on the hood of a red Beetle with fake eyelashes on the headlights.
A hipster musician guy playing guitar sitting on the back of an open blue Beetle convertible with a bonfire in the background.

The ultimate goal would be about ten of these snapshots, maybe even have each or some be a home-video-style movie clip. Music should be something upbeat, maybe “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors or “Five Year’s Time” by Noah & the Whale.

So I was sitting in class when this idea struck me and even though it isn’t really a list, I still think it has the possibility of growing up to be a great idea. It started with a slogan, “Make Something Great” (which I just googled and is already a slogan for Stanley Tools. Good thing great artists steal.) And Basically the idea is to use great quality, in this case, cars, to do great things. I like the dual meaning of VW saying “we made something great” and telling buyers that they can use Volkswagen cars to make something great too.

So examples. Some of these are more fleshed out than others.
A stunt driver carving out a VW logo in the dirt with his car while a voice over talks about Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel Ceiling or something else ridiculously awesome, creating humor in the comparison of driving skills to the painting prowess of the greats.

clip series: Family.A couple getting steamy in the back seat of a VW. Same two but older, woman pregnant and freaking out in the passenger seat, obviously about to have the baby, dad driving. Same couple packing twins into carseats in the back of the same car (cue awwws)

A few more would be an artist packing supplies and art pieces into a VW Bus etc and driving to an outdoor show, then unpacking and unveiling at a lawn party, lots of applause and appreciation. Passing out food and aid supplies out of the back of the same van. Same van functioning as an unofficial recycling service, going around a poorer neighborhood and collecting bottles etc.

So the directive this week was to make a list.
Okay, vague.

When I sat down to try it I had no idea where to start so I tried to use the suggestion from Sarah Kay’s video and make a list of things I knew to be true. About Volkswagen. That didn’t go so well. In fact, it went so badly, I’m not even going to post that list. It was awful and cliche and I really wasn’t feeling it which was making me annoyed at the whole process. I suddenly just wanted to give up and go do something that made me happy. And then that got me thinking: “Hey! I can make a list out of that.” So here’s a few things I came up with that I thought might make people happy:

• Nice weather
• Vacations (in theory at least)
• Getting in bed after a long day
• Kissing
• Knowing someone loves you
• Waking up on a Saturday and knowing you don’t have to do anything
• When your favorite song comes on
• Feeling attractive and confident
• Getting off work on a Friday
• Good food
• Success at accomplishing a task
• Winning
• Pleasant company
• A beloved pet greeting you
• Watching cute animals
• The powerful feeling after a great workout (or maybe that’s just me)

Not all of them actually apply to me (I tried to be sort of general) but I thought it was a good start.

Well now what, right? I then made the mistake of overworking this into an incredibly detailed and yet cliche commercial idea that included a dash cam sing along, six different scenes, a seating chart for a convertible beetle, a soundtrack, and even the car colors for each clip. It was too much and all done before.

I then once again abandoned that train of thought. Well, close to an hour later, all I’m left with is one list, with some potential but no real successes. Maybe there is some golden nugget in the almost-screenplay I wrote for the stupid commercial but I feel no closer to a good idea than I did when I started.

(Here’s the word vomit associated with the commercial disaster.)

Project 54, which I will be using this blog for, is all about creativity and always coming up with new ideas so I figured that this would make a good first post. I see this as a way to remind myself that the ideas are the most important part. No matter where I take this blog, how weird it gets or how frustrated I become with it, if I just remember it’s all about the ideas, then everything else comes easy.