Not hitting the nail on the head.

It seems I have one of these projects every semester.  The VA prize was one for me.  I know these contests are set up to have such a level of obscurity that there is no wrong answer.  But I felt like my entry lacked architecture.  I banged my head against designers block for hours this weekend.  Sketched, scratched, read, researched, abandoned.  I was having trouble finding a concept, but I knew I wanted to tell a story through my design.  So I decided to write a narrative, a brief story with illustrations.  I should have used this storyboard to influence my design, but instead, it became my design.  While working on it I was thinking if the story was working visually and textually, and I do believe it did.  So I finished, tacked it on the wall of my room, washed my hands of the project and relaxed.  But no sooner than when I start to relax I look at my board and a question pops into my head....Wheres the architecture?  Ahhhhhhh, I got so caught up in telling a story, that it was all I did.  I hated looking at that board for the rest of the night.  I guess it was a decent storyboard..., but I don't think the competition was asking for storyboards.  

I tend to be my own worst critic, which is a good thing... I think.  All though through all the stress, lack of sleep and disappointment.  I still loved the experience.  It was a great challenge and I look forward to the next one.  I really enjoyed coming in today and seeing all the other unique results the rest of the school came up with.  It was also nice to know that I wasn't the only one dissatisfied with their end result.  It was funny seeing the pile of boards stacked up at the end of the room, where students would come in, walk past all the nice looking products.  Go to the end of the wall, and stick their board in the back of a pile and hope it couldn't be traced back to them, or looked at in their presence.  Lucky for me a fellow colleague took mine from my hands and read it the second I walked in.

Well, like the blog say's.  This is only my second year.  So the way I see it is I have three more of these competitions to eventually hit the nail on the head.  Thanks for listening.