What's this about Graphic Design?

Why Design?

When I was in middle school and really into playing video games I used to marvel at some of the computer generated graphics I was witnessing while shooting aliens.  The cutscenes to these video games were especially intriguing.  I decided then that I wanted to do artwork on the computer for most of my life, although at the time I limited it to video game design.  I slowly developed a want to do design in general and go with a more freelance discipline as I got older.  Then one day I bought Beck's Midnite Vultures album.  I loved the album artwork, and had recently been intrigued by album artwork.  Midnite Vultures was just the deciding factor in my choice to do album artwork with design

Define Design and Stefan Sagmeister

Sagmeister is a graphic artist best known for work on a few album designs (like what ima be doin) with the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, and a few other musicians.  His company, Sagmeister Inc. is located in New York City and he know lives in Indonesia.

The video with Stefan and the two readings only stressed this idea of design I received my first semester at this school.  During a discussion I had with Hugh Merrill, he told me a little story of a graphic artist he knew that went to New York City to help advertise a school.  Long story short, he had to figure out a way to effectively get the name of the school out to the public.  He had to explore his environment a little to find a good solution to the problem the school was having.  He was a problem solver and when I heard this story I had never felt more certain that design was the choice for me.  These readings only enforce this same idea.  Designers are innovators and problem solvers.  They must develop unique and effective ideas to portray a message.  They must establish styles that can stand the test of time and still be appealing decades later. They must always innovate and create and always keep a circulation of fresh ideas about themselves

Midnite Vultures is Why I'm Here

http://blog.pandora.com/pandora/archives/2009/11/dusted-on-the-o.html

This is the cover of Beck's Midnite Vultures album, which contains some of my favorite album artwork.  It's also the album that made me decide i wanted to do music related design like posters, album artwork, band logos or whatever else musicians need.  There's a lot of energy and tension between each figure on the front.  I think the most notable source of this tension is the correspondence between each figures pants.  The close proximity also increases the tension as does the zig zagged line going from crotch to crotch between the two figures.