4.1 week 4-1 article assessment
learning assignment - due friday january 27
description:
industry representatives tell us over and over that they are looking to hire competent designers who are able to express themselves well in writing and conversation. in the design world there are plenty of people who can create amazing things, but few who are able to communicate clearly and effectively. these little article assessments will help you to understand the industry and get practice in communicating your ideas. winner!
assignment:
the article this week is about craftsmanship.
- i want you to read the article and then post your comments here. i want at least a paragraph of writing. the idea is to do some reflective thinking so i do NOT want you to summarize. go beyond just regurgitating the ideas.
- i would like this process to spark some conversations, so the second part of this assignment is to read and comment intelligently on someone else's post. let's get a dialogue going here.
grading
this assignment will be worth 20 points in the learning assignment category. grading will be based on...
- 10 pts for intelligent comments on the reading
- 10 pts for intelligent comments on someone else's post
I agree with the idea that a person's job is their craft and just the way they do their work is what makes their work unique above others. I think the only way to become the best at something is to do it tons of times and explore new ideas in your work along the way. I also think it's good to get feedback in the end so you can critique your work to what someone else may like. I think being a craftsman or a designer requires you to have a true passion for your work and to make it the best you can.
In response to your first sentence, I agree. A person's "craftmaship" is specific to each individual even if they share the same craft.
I really liked that read. i loved it so much that i would read it again at some point if i was told to. The heated floor idea that that persons father had was fantastic. He spent a ton of time on all those additives. According to the author the father spent a reasonable amount of time. the article makes a good point that being a craftsman, is just to strive and work hard.
I think a heated toilet seat would be nice...but yeah i also liked this article and l agree that working hard is the only thing you really need to do to be a good craftsman.
i agree! working hard at what ever your're making makes for a good craftsman
you're not your're Levii
I like the idea that it doesn't matter what your trade is. Your product is your craft, and you are the craftsman of it. And you want to pour your heart and soul into that craft. So that you can be proud of it, and willing to call it your own. You put all the "behind the scenes" work into everything so that it's ready for the final goal. The thing that everyone is going to see. So you want it to look good. And you want it to look professional.
Well said! That's what I got from it too.
Love this, totally agree with every bit of it!
I have to say that sounded pretty professional.
reply to austin lounsbery......i dont agree with you one bit....lol nah im just kidding. i also agree with what you mean. get critique, work hard, explore. being a craftsman doesnt only mean builder, it means craft and create the world how you see fit.
I agree with all of his points, especially the fact that small details are what make a huge difference (like the coils under the tile). I know I buy clothes for that reason, because they have subtle little details that make something different in a special way. Overall the article was really well written, and I personally think it sounded beautiful too; you can tell the person who wrote it was passionate about the subject and wanted to convey the same thing he saw about his dad to us.
That's funny about how you buy clothes for the little details because I do that too! In fact, I bought the shirt I'm wearing right now for the same reason! Details definitely make a difference.
I like the last paragraph the best when it talks about improving work by learning from others and watching people use your product. I can imagine how exciting that would be if I made a pattern or something and saw someone using it. I know that I get a lot of inspiration and improvements by seeing the work of others
i liked the last paragraph too, its deffinatly a good idea to get feedback from a user because you will usually know a whole lot more about your site that everyone using it, like since you made the page you know by memory exactly what to click on to get you where you wanna go, if other people have difficulty finding it you wouldnt know untill somebody told you
"Craftsmanship is universal. Designing a product (or site) shares the same core values as any other craft. Quality, passion and experience are still the ingredients, the difference is the outcome." This is a good quote because it is true! :)
I really liked this quote as well and I agree that it is true.
Overall i learned from this article that craftsmanship can be anything. If you enjoy doing something and put your best foot foreword it can be considered good craftsmanship. I believe that this is true and will always will be till the end of the earth. Even then that might not be the end of this idea.
I really like at the end when they stated to make the most simple form of your product and let people make it better for themselves and then you take that and learn from it. There's always some way you can perfect your product just a little but more.
I have to agree with the article. You should defiantly take a sort of passion in the work that you do every day. I think if you want to do a job, you should do it well and with lots of quality and effort and not "Half-Ass'ed".
What i got out of this is that no matter how long you do something for a career you will never be a complete master at it. Being a craftsman means trying your hardest to be close to perfect but not quite reach it.
I disagree I think after you do the same thing for so long you can become a master at what you do. I think after a while you will still be very particular on your work and see the smallest flaws but to other people it may seem perfect because they don't have the eye that you have for your master pieces.
i really liked this article because normally "craftsmanship" is noticed more toward wood work, or building a structure. but this guys makes you realize that craftsmanship is in any kind of artwork. and your craft that you make is what you love making and doing in your life, and you work your hardest to make it look good with great quality and looks.
I think that good craftsmanship is applicable to anything done manually. If you're going to do anything the hard way, why not put as much effort into it as possible? If you are doing something that you love, I think that you will automatically put a good amount of effort into your work. If not, you should rethink doing the task.
I can agree with what youre saying but i also think just because you love doing something doesnt mean that youre gonna give it youre all you can do something completely sloppy just because you enjoy the actual doing part. I think its a good reminder that do what you do as well as try your best and keep trying to improve your self and your work
My dad told me a story about when he was in college he worked for a heating / insulation company and his job was to go to customers houses with other workers and insulate the houses. they mainly worked on buildings that housed younger people or elderly people, the people he had to work with were lazy potheads and their idea of insulating was to shove a badly fitting piece of styrofoam into the hole instead of correctly doing the job they were being paid for. my dad refused to work like this and went to his boss to tell him what the other workers were doing and the boss didnt care so my dad quit because he wouldn't cheat unsuspecting people.
You have to want to do some thing right even if you could get away with doing it wrong, if you put passion in your work you"ll have all the motivation you need to do a beautiful job.
i would have to say the point of this article is to help remind everyone that we do the things we do because its what were good at and enjoy, or should be, and even though youre good at something doesnt mean you should just do what you know you should always keep improving and doing all of you things as neatly as you can so it is presentable. I think the point of the persons father is that he does those things because it feels good not only to do them but to be able to show them off to the guests in their home. I think its ideal to fallow in your dreams and not completely where the money is.
I like the last article because people really shouldn't think about what other people think. If they don't like your work then oh well. It is your project and if you wanna be different then that's good. People create different things.
I agree that we spend too much time worrying about what others think. If you are passionate about who you are and what you do then that's all that matters.
I liked the paragraph about reflecting on yourself. I think that it is important to stop and think about what in life makes you happy. If you aren't happy then what can you do to improve, what should you keep doing to stay happy? Personally, I think that this is really hard to think about as I tend to go on everyday without a real goal in mind.
I just realized that the link might have sent me to a different article. I think it was definitely relavant to a designer's work though. The article was more about personal happiness but I believe that it can be applied to a designer's work.