Week 3 Lab 1, Article 1 of 2
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/savingthespark
As a choreographer, I tend to think of myself generally as a creative person. But I rarely have to operate
in the realm of a designer with a roster of clients, all expecting you to apply your creativity to their concerns, on a tight
schedule and budget. Boulton’s article on “Saving the Spark” of creativity is something all
artists should read as many of us tend to wait for or create the “perfect” situation in which to be creative.
I like his notion of the 4 R’s, revolution, re-expression, related words and random links.
My favorite is random links because I’ve used it before in collaborations with poets and in audience participation exercises
at performances. I’m always amazed at what audiences come up with, which sometimes proves as the basis of a new
dance work. I’m intrigued about the possibilities of applying these notions to web design. My sense
is that web design started as a very creative, though not terribly functional endeavor, followed by the current state of generally
good content, used primarily for marketing. I’m intrigued by the idea of revisiting the notion of web design as
an aesthetic exercise, perhaps works of art specifically made for the web.
Week
3 Lab 1, Article 2 of 2
http://www.creativelatitude.com/articles/article_200701_rashkow.html
Several years
ago a professional designer designed the logo and web site for my dance company. It is now time to update all of our
marketing material, including logo, website and overall look of all of our material. In that time I focused on creating
the dances I wanted to create, keeping the supporting documentation simple and elegant and within my skill range to execute.
It is become clearer to me that the company’s marketing material doesn’t accurately reflect the work we’re
doing.
Thus, Charlene Rashkow’s article on “Do You Look Good on Paper” is timely. It’s
prompting all of the thinking required to update our material. I’m hoping to update the look of our website and
all of our marketing material in a way that more accurately reflects our work and is scalable in a way that can accommodate
my hopefully improving web design skills.
