While the cold entries are still in the microwave, I'm going to post some freethinking for my Professional Presentation of Self. Warning: this is very very faithful to my thought process, which means it's very very thorough, very very redundant, and at times very very misinformed/dumb/nonsensical. Proceed reading at your own risk.
At the instant the assignment was …assigned, the rapid-fire thought was “I already have that…my online portfolio”. Then I continued, “Wait, I don’t really have a portfolio. More like a blog and an account on an art social network. That’s not something I’d feel comfortable handing into someone for a job. Hm, maybe a digital portfolio on my own domain?” Then I felt…bored. All of my stuff is digital. I have no hard copies of anything to hand out ever because I’m creepily attached to the idea of virtual space. I need something…tangible. Something pretty. Something WELL MADE.
My thought was "art book". Art books are the one type of tangible book I will still spend money on. It is my guilty pleasure; if I had enough money, I could probably replace all food with art books and THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING I LOVE FOOD. Art books are just collections of art (and sometimes cool stuff like sketches, interviews, or a walk through of the artist's artistic process) from an artist (or several). They're usually shiny and very verrryy good looking, and everyone can find one they like, as long as they have eyes. And it’d be so awesome to have one of my own work.
I kept thinking. An art book is good for my actual ART, but I don't consider myself solely an artist, and sometimes, I don't like to say I'm an "artist" at all. At least not with the connotations currently assigned. To only address my artistic body of work for this assignment feels like I'm neglecting the bigger picture, and I am all about the bigger picture. So...next thought was "style book". My imaginary label in my head has a very specific set of standards for design. So why not practice applying that to a product (assignment)?
In my head, a company that deals with Beautifying Da World (I promise to never put that in an official document) should have something in it's arsenal to show people: a definitive resource that is the essence of their aesthetic. Something that clients could consider, fans could collect, and designers and fellow innovators could keep on their bookshelf. Also, it sounds really cool. As of this moment, of course, I don't have a company. But I have an aesthetic concept. And I have a crumply piece of paper with blueprints for a store on it! Moving on, a "style book" would need to be consistent throughout. My initial thumbnail sketches laid out around 15-20 pages. This is a large workload in terms of work, money, time, and...stuff. I'm amazing, but usually fall a tad short of "miracle worker". And in the case of budget for materials...let's say the $$$ is in the double digits and one number is not higher than "2". So maybe 10 extremely essential pages? Maybe I can do 15, the thumbnails allocate a few pages to such features as: "Pretty Space Wasting Title Page", "Table of Contents", "Weird Blank Page That All Books Are Apparently Supposed to Have at The Back, Possibly Called an End Paper, I'm Not Sure", "Introduction" (to something, the concept? The back-story?), and "Biography/Credits". The other pages would include a page devoted to concept work, sketches, and idea revision (essentially showing the first steps of the creation process), another page with completed works (maybe one digital page and one traditional page, if I can scrounge up any photos I took of them, pages about my goals for the future (entrepreneurship), and pages maybe detailing a step by step through a piece? I do have some really cool pictures throughout my time doing some wall art for my grandma. …Why does any sentence that ends with “for my grandma” sound really uncool? DISCLAIMER: I LOVE MY GRANDMA AND ANYONE WHO WANTS TO SUGGEST OTHERWISE WILL GET A FACE FULL OF FIST.
Moving on, I guess I should include a resume. Maybe I can work the resume into the biography page? Essentially, I want it to leave no questions unasked. I feel a little bit like it’s leaning towards art book a bit too much, but…working through it. Overall, I want something tangible. I’m currently working on the various ideas I have for the form it’ll take, and I’ll probably make an entry on those pretty soon (I’m giving myself a Friday night deadline for the decision). Until then, please find something to entertain yourself with.
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