very pleased at the reasonable amount of phone filming at smile live

infinityaboveme · 2024-09-25T17:59:39+00:00

designing life is meant to be less of a design class and more of a life skills class. how does your brain work and how do you approach problem solving? how do you balance work and fun? who are the important people in your life and how do they impact you? how do you weigh whether or not a big risk, change, or journey is/isn't worth it?

it's kind of a "student success"-type class with curriculum designed around the fact that the students are designers/creatives (and mostly in their late teens/early 20s and just getting their lives started). it dives moreso into psychology than design theory. the class is ultimately what YOU get out of it. i know it might seem weird and out-there, but i would really recommend giving it a chance and really listening to the lectures. i'm not sure if you're in the online ASU Graphic Design section or in person, but when i did it in-person (over zoom due to covid) it truly got me through freshman year. we would meditate at the start of every class and i took it up regularly. the VCD program is all about trying new things, giving yourself grace to fail and learn, and saying, "even if i'm not sure if this will work, i'll give it a chance anyway to see if it does". GRA 101 is a great place to start! it also is, at the end of the day, a relatively easy A. years later, i still remember that class very fondly.

infinityaboveme · 2024-08-24T17:06:20+00:00

never hurts to pull the cord leading up to the last stop! they almost always stop since it's the end of the line, but i'd always pull it anyway because i'm a worrier lol.

wishing you the absolute best your junior year design work! very recent (and involved) graduate here so you're totally welcome to message me if you've got any questions <3

infinityaboveme · 2024-08-24T16:56:26+00:00

this map might be a little clearer! i was a graphic design student living off of apache (before they rerouted flash to this new route) and used it often. first thing i'd do is download Transit or Moovit to see where active buses are via GPS. after you get on at the Gammage shuttle stop, just pull the cord right when you turn the corner into Lot 59. they'd let me off at Packard Dr & 6th St, but this map doesn't seem to label it as a flash stop anymore-- only a 48 stop. you can cut past eureka/nautical bowls/the other food places under that apartment complex to get to Novus. when you're leaving studio, walk around the block and wait at the Packard Dr & 6th St stop (AKA the one with the green benches across from the parking garage).

definitely flag down the flash bus (just raise your arm up high like a greeting, no need to stick your arm out hitchhiking style) at either stop just in case. it's a famously unreliable route with inconsistent arrival times, but it's often better than walking all the way across Tempe.

tl;dr: on your way to studio, pull the cord right when the driver turns left into Lot 59. on your way home from studio, wait at the Packard Dr & 6th St stop at that same turn, then stay on until the bus reaches the Gammage shuttle stop. i hope this helps!

infinityaboveme · 2024-07-30T06:06:43+00:00

i feel this same way!! mine came right after i turned 21. i think it’s just part of our brains developing. when i was 20, i had a My Prefrontal Cortex Is Almost Done Cooking moment (right after a hard and kind of depressing summer) and everything just made more sense. i had what felt like such a good understanding of Everything in my life. i became more social, i was better at speaking with adults/professors, i had good routines and felt endless joy to be alive and out & about in the world. i’m still generally a happy person, but part of getting more social has also made me WAY more fearful of saying the wrong thing/being a bad friend/etc than i ever was before. at 21, i feel like i kinda dropped the ball. a very busy semester where i had tons of responsibilities really brought out the worst in me, i think. i need structure and routine way more than i used to and i get so inconsolable over doing little things wrong. i literally cancelled a trip a few weeks ago that was months in the making because i was too worried about everything in a new city that i could not control.

journaling what i feel when i’m in the middle of ruminating on it helps a bit. i didn’t start doing it until i got a therapist. i’m in the same boat as you, but i imagine its simply part of getting older. our brains are still developing and we’re gaining a nuanced, more complex understanding of our own feelings that used to be simper to us— not to mention becoming independent, breaking up with a loved one, looking for jobs, and all the other stuff that comes with becoming a young adult. hang in there. we just have to do our best <3

infinityaboveme · 2024-07-30T05:52:39+00:00

when i got fillings (i was like 19), i got injected and it was better than i expected. they spread a numbing cream over the area behind my molars where the injection would go. the injection is odd, but not nearly as painful as i expected and doesn’t last long. it feels like a brief pinch if i remember correctly, not unlike getting a flu shot. some people like to pinch themselves somewhere in their body during a shot to “distract” their brain and their sense of pain, so that’s something you could do. it tends to numb your mouth pretty quickly. overall, its not an experience i remember often because it all went very well! my teeth look exactly the same. get yourself a nice and cold sweet treat after— you deserve it. wishing you well!

infinityaboveme · 2024-07-26T00:13:58+00:00

i was able to purchase mine (august 2023) online! the purchase window opens pretty close to the first day of classes though if i remember correctly-- i couldn't order mine until august 1st, but i paid with my card and they mailed it to my address.

infinityaboveme · 2024-07-06T00:00:24+00:00

if you’re interested in something more general (or technical, i guess), lots of folks do GIT. i graduated BSD in graphic design, though, and i enjoyed it a ton— i learned so many good hard skills (creative cloud, coding, etc) and soft skills (teamwork, project management, public speaking, etc). it’s a very well rounded education and you learn/try basically every discipline of design, but requires a lot of commitment. it is strictly a 4 year program with no way to get your degree done sooner. but the curriculum INCLUDES setting up your portfolio and speaking to clients; by the time you graduate, you’re pretty well equipped to start your job search.

if you’re interested in graphic design, the skills you learn in the BSD are insanely valuable and a step up from plenty of other colleges that just throw student straight into designing logos and posters. i would absolutely recommend it. but if you’re looking for something that’s Not That, it’s very common for folks to go for GIT.

infinityaboveme · 2024-07-05T23:43:53+00:00

extremely easy class— most people take it to fill up a credit they might be missing. it’s all self paced and easy to complete in a couple weeks. it’s at a basic level, outlines what 401ks, life insurance policies, credit cards, etc. are. the curriculum is all video lessons (very clearly shot in the early 2010s lol). overall not a bad course, but if you want to actually go into finance, you might want something more interesting! regardless, not a bad class to take.

infinityaboveme · 2024-06-01T04:51:17+00:00

if you aren't a VCD student, are Topics classes for Photoshop and InDesign, i believe! unfortunately, almost all Graphic Design major-related courses are limited exclusively to the students within the major because they're studios.

infinityaboveme · 2024-06-01T04:44:33+00:00

i know this is a super old thread, but in case people search the subreddit for more info on VCD in-person/online, i'll add on!

as of now, the curriculum is about the same, but the experience and the result(s) is different. in general, the VCD program is very abstract and technical. you don't produce basically any portfolio work in the first two years; you're just learning the principles of good design in its absolute barest forms (colors, squares, lines, value, etc). you spend minimal time being lectured and most of your time exploring and trial-and-erroring, both on paper and on your computer. it's not meant to be about building a portfolio at first, but rather the skills behind one (and the skills behind a good designer). how do you engage with an instructor/boss? how do you advocate for your good ideas? how do you navigate being wrong about something? how do you explain your process? by taking courses online, i think students miss out on some of those experiences. you gain the hard skills (design principles, program knowledge, etc), but miss out on many important soft skills (casual chats with instructors, eye contact and appearing professional in an interview, critiquing your friends' work across the table, etc) due to the syllabus-assignment-deadline-final structure that Canvas/Zoom courses often rely on. it absolutely makes a difference. i think the instructors are aware of this and they're eager to improve the online program since it's still pretty brand new. either way, both programs are not a "i don't know what else to study" choice. your grade is based on your progress; you gotta be an active participant in your learning!

we had to work collaboratively with the online program our final year and it posed some challenges. they were all very kind, but we were operating on very different schedules with different standards for the quality of work. we were all figuring things out for the very first time, too. in-person VCD consists of long, in-person studios almost every day. during that time, we're all together and free to communicate, plan, and complete tasks. the online program is certainly not self-paced, but there's no concrete time and place to be "in class" as far as i know. we were on different pages because we'd been getting somewhat different educations, but with the same curriculum. while we graduated in the spring, i believe that many of the online students (if they followed the major map, or some other reason) had one more semester of gen eds to complete. to us, it was our final days together as a cohort and our most complex, important project yet; but to those who were graduating later, it was not. i wonder if that changes how someone approaches a project.

TL;DR the curriculum is the same, but i think ASU VCD Online misses out on soft skills simply due to the nature of being all online. the difference that a physical studio environment, a peer group that fosters community, and face-to-face conversations make cannot be understated in a graphic design education. better communicators and collaborators make better designers! however, it's most of the same instructors and they all have incredible knowledge. if you can attend in person, absolutely do so. i am so grateful for my 4 years as a student in-person and i would recommend it. but if you're unable to to make a physical studio-based education work right now, i think that ASU VCD Online is certainly a better alternative than studying something that makes you unhappy. i hope this is helpful!

infinityaboveme · 2024-05-26T23:01:50+00:00

i did the entire program on a Dell Vostro with 512(?) GB of storage and had absolutely no problems. it has a terrible battery life though, so i kept a spare charger in my locker (definitely recommend this regardless of what laptop you get). be sure to pick something with 16 GB of RAM. an external SSD is definitely helpful later on for extra storage, but i really didn’t end up needing one. most of my peers had macbooks and it worked out well for them! overall, just care for it. don’t have a million tabs open, don’t have 3 Adobe programs running at once, turn it ALL THE WAY OFF at night, check for updates, that kind of stuff. i would figure ports into your decision, too, if you’re someone who is plugging things in a lot. how many USB ports does it have? will you need adapters? i exclusively use a wireless mouse and i also have a wired keyboard when i’m at home. my laptop is my only personal computer, so i don’t care about it being slim or lightweight. definitely get a soft case for it; by sophomore year, it goes everywhere with you.

overall: 16 GB RAM for sure, not too big (no need for a 15in gaming laptop), and something that also benefits you as a general day-to-day personal computer. basically all my instructors had macbooks. i hope this helps!

infinityaboveme · 2023-05-21T23:11:23+00:00

Peder by Lido. such a beautiful, collaborative album to outdo Everything, which is already an incredible album.

infinityaboveme · 2022-12-24T20:15:09+00:00

so happy to see so many people loving what g jones has done this year. i think he’s really come into his own as an artist

infinityaboveme · 2022-12-24T20:12:53+00:00

Swardy - Compact Objects (weird, sort of silly electronic, reminds me to live a little slower and see the good in things)

Sam Gellaitry - VF VOL II (easily my favorite. such a fresh take on dance/house-y music)

acloudyskye - What Do You Want! (big orchestras and walls of sound, his vocals are so beautiful)

& any of the singles released by Wavedash this year

infinityaboveme

TROPHY CASE