Designing via Formspring
I’m going to break up this question into two posts.

1) What/who is your biggest inspiration in designing?
2) How long have you been designing?

Extensive/tough question. I’ll do my best.

01. I could never answer this fully because my inspiration is really endless. Three things really drove me in innovative design when I started getting serious about it four years ago.

a) Shepard Fairey.  (Him and his work pictured above)
Shepard Fairey is an influential street artist that emerged from the skateboarding scene in Charleston, South Carolina and is popularly known for the Andre the Giant Has a Posse/Obey movement. Fairey’s work inspired me because of the challenges his art poses to his viewers. A lot of his work is propaganda/ad style prints that deal with social and political views. He is very similar to the european graffiti artist Banksy. Much of my studio work dealt with the idea of media lies and with what ease politicians and media figures could fool a nation.

b) Phenomenology.
Fairey also bases a lot of his work on phenomenology. Phenomenology in short is the idea of being aware/conscious of your surroundings. It’s philosophical, scientific and psychological – but in general is the idea of the immediate conscious experience.

c) “The medium is the message.” - Marshall McLuhan.
Simply the idea that it’s not WHAT you’re saying but how you’re saying it. With what means (medium) that you’re choosing to say it with is what’s important. It can be a lot more complex than that and Marshall McLuhan is a very influential scholar and figure in media theory. Any graphic artist needs to be well schooled in this type of thought, in my opinion.

.02 Hah, when does the timeline start? Designing in general five or six years. Designing well – as in, making quality work..a different story.

3) I see a tattoo in some of your pictures – did you design that too?
4) Where do you see yourself in 5 years? 10 years? 50 years?

03. Yes. I have a fairly large tattoo on my left arm (right arm in photo booth, hah.) A lot went into the design of my tattoo. Started it when I was fifteen, the design is based off a Psalm that has defined a lot of my life. It’s painted on my walls in my room at my parents house, it’s plastered all over school notes and sketchbooks. I thought long and hard about it for three years before tattooing it on my arm and it means a lot to me. I also owe a lot toZack Spurlock and Anonymous Tattoo in Savannah for making it clean and tattoo-able. I wouldn’t get tattooed by anyone else.

04. I get this question a lot and I’ve faked a lot of papers with a lot of different answers. Two years ago I was supposed to go to a different school in a different state and study a different subject – instead I went to Africa and came back and ended up in my current state and my current school studying my current subject. That wasn’t in the plan. So I’m through with making them, really. Though I’m planless, I’m not directionless. There’s so many things I want to do and places I want to be and people I want to meet so I’m keeping my options open. I’m not signed off to any career or any boy but I do see myself in a creative career that means something to people and I do see myself eventually settling down with someone that means something to me.

Heeey,
Not sure who you actually are in the world of longboarding, but you’re cool as an inspiration to girls (like me) who wanna board with the big guys. I belong to a crew in a rural town in sunny Queensland, Australia. There’s five/six of us: (I don’t board yet, I’m the photographer). Just wanted to say that you’re one of my inspirations and to keep up the good work!

Skating honestly changed my life.
(Cue: sighs, disgust, annoyance, disbelief)
But really. My parents would never let me skate when I was under their roff and as soon as I moved out I bought a board. All of my friends were guys then and all of my friends are guys now. I definitely started out as the photographer/videographer with the group I ran with, still am every once in a while, but I got more passionate about skating when we starting spending all of our nights out until sunrise. There are girls that skate with us here and there but for the most part they skate to fight the stereotype and to break the mold. Once they can keep up, it becomes a low priority to progress and get better.
I never skated BECAUSE I was a girl and I don’t keep skating BECAUSE I’m a girl. (Although, I do use it to my advantage when cops are more likely to let us off the hook since there is a female present.) If anything at one point I skated because I finally had the opportunity and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. Well I did, and every single day I prove it to myself again and again. I’ve never felt as much success and personal drive to do anything in my life thus far. Maybe that’s embarrassing to some people, but skating provides a continually creative outlet for the other 90 percent of things I do. The personal drive and motivation I’ve seen in myself and other people I skate with is incredible. Working hours all day just to land a trick you saw in a video can be draining – but the second you land it, no matter how many falls and scars it took to get there – the feeling.. And even for those that just cruise, there is definitely something you feel.
To anyone else this could sound like a bunch of bullshit and hot air that only a girl would write about skating but I am thankful every day I wake up in the morning and have the physical ability to get on a board. Some people don’t have that and I think that it’s something worth sitting down and thinking about every once in a while.
Never doubt yourself. Gender has nothing to do with it. Passion, ambition, creativity and perseverance are the only things you really need. I’m glad I could help at all. Kick, push because it’s about the sport and you’re blessed that you can.

JANUARY

Starting off 2009 by celebrating a late birthday with 19 red velvet cupcakes and
13 of my Greek relatives.

Got my ears pierced for the first time at a 12 gauge, and started stretching my ears.

Went to see Reign Supreme and Backtrack in Atlanta before going back to school.
Also got a sleeve on the way home. I love vegetables and straight edge.

FEBRUARY

Started February off with a nice skating accident. Adding another scar
to my list of #iamsinglebecause boys like good legs and those I don’t have.

I participated in a 70ish person paint war.

Loaded released the Orangatang wheels and I started sliding on my board.

MARCH

Spring break and I made a lot of trips to Charleston. March held perfect weather.

Skating was always involved.

I fell in love with Chicago and a lot of people in it.

All are impossible to forget.

As for school, I spent pretty much all of my time in the print lab.
Whether school work was always involved is debatable.

APRIL

It got a lot warmer in April and we got to break out the Hamboard.

Spent the majority of my nights out skating and downing
energy drinks in the morning to get through classes.

Isaac Calvage directed a film and I got to be a part of it.

Attended Preston’s Gatsby  and celebrated college life and the closing of the semester.

MAY

In May, school was finishing up and I listened to a lot of good music.

I also took some road trips and appreciated life and beautiful weather.

Did a few things I thought I’d never do -
lived in someone else’s shoes for photography’s sake, and wore combat boots.

I went to Italy, Germany, Croatia, Austria and Slovenia -
saw some beautiful art and ate some of the most amazing foods.

I experienced beauty and learned to appreciate where I was from/what I have.

And met some foreign, and talented, friends along the way.

JUNE

I came back to the US and the very next day I moved to Charleston, South Carolina
for an internship with a strategic marketing and advertising company downtown.

Spent 40+ hours a week editing photos, shooting video, using the pen tool
and learning a lot about being on a creative team/working in the marketing/ad world.

As a stress reliever, I spent my weekends outdoors
and taking advantage of living 3 minutes from the coast.

And not to mention learning how to catch, de-scale, cook and try to love seafood.
Also learned what it was like to spend three days camping on a beach and
how to trick raccoons.

JULY

In July, South Carolina was blistering hot as usual
but there was the annual Greek family to the beach week.

Met some new friends, played a lot of sand volleyball and spent some good quality family time. And always counted on my brother to ‘keep it real.’

AUGUST

I moved back to school 2 weeks early for RA training.
Learning how to keep kids in line and being the youngest on staff.

Which involved a lot of Michael Jackson, synchronized dancing and swine flu.

SEPTEMBER

In September, school got started up for real and the  skate club was back up and running. Our first meeting a reminder of what it was like to run from security and city police.

I also met about 3 really great new people, one being Kyle Jackson.

From Kyle, I learned a little about lighting in photography and how my life was pretty average.

Josh found out that I love Have Heart and that they were not going to play music any longer. So I drove to Boston with Josh as an mega early birthday present for me for Great American Hardcore.

Saw Have Heart + more at Great American Hardcore Fest and got internet famous in this picture. Mom was pleased.

OCTOBER

I went to a dance party with some friends and did some hip hop dancing.
Found out that there is a pretty prominent hipster scene in Cola.

Josh and I started a rap crew called Techno Wonder.
We wrote a hit single called Stereotypical Whities.

Refurbished my father’s bike that he road across the country
and named it The Road Champion.

In October I also wrote a grant to do research in Germany in the spring of 2010.
This took over 2 solid weeks of my life.

The club held a mini impromptu skate clinic and  I taught some students how to cruise.

The club also got a entire street shut down in the city for a day and held a successful skate event giving away prizes and doing a ton of legal-for-a-day skating.

My brother also turned 22 on October 30th.

NOVEMBER

In November, I went to the Renaissance festival, got a pretty cultural experience.
Found out that living in the south is actually weirder than I thought it was.

Spent the majority of the days in November loving/hating the warm and
unpredictable weather. Also embracing pumpkin flavored things including
muffins, ice cream, bagels and cream cheese.

I made some great films/animations/shorts and skating past sunset.

DECEMBER

My mom’s 10 annual Christmas At Home art show.
Figured my Graphic Communications final was less important (so I skipped it) then
celebrating the Christmas spirit with family, friends and cookies.

Got dressed up with some close friends in celebration of friendship,
the end of the semester and the 1800′s with a fancy dinner at skyscraper level.

Josh and I took Techno Wonder to a different level and started writing folk/pop music.
We’re currently working on a winter EP for the holidays.

]]> http://hodgsona.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/sixty-four/feed/ 0 hodgsona 1jan_birthday 1jan_gauges 1jan_RGNSUPsleeve 2feb_fall 2feb_paintwar 2feb_wheels 3march_chas 3march_skate 3march_chicago 3march_lyell 3march_printlab 4april_skate 4april_skate2 4april_movie 4april_gatsby 5may_headphones 5may_michael 5may_shoot 5may_trip 5may_trip3 5may_trip2 6_charleston 6_logos 6_outdoors 6june_fish 7july_beach 7july_beach2 8aug_school 8aug_dancing 9sept_longboard 9_kyle 9sept_kyle 9sept_boston 9sept_GAHCF 10oct_danceparty 10oct_TW 10oct_roadchampion 10oct_research 10oct_skate 10oct_pumpkincarve 10oct_john 11nov_rf 11nov_skate 11nov_skate2 IMG_2856 12dec_banquet 12dec_indieband http://hodgsona.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/sixty-three/ http://hodgsona.wordpress.com/2009/12/05/sixty-three/#comments Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:35:20 +0000 anna hodgson http://hodgsona.wordpress.com/?p=439 ]]> Photos from my 365+ project:

Been doing some good and some terrible designing. Mostly for classes -

Florez is releasing a full length album called Sweet Tea.
I designed a full layout for them this is just the front.

Had to design some promotional material for a hypothetical independent film theater for my final in my independent film class. Here’s a fake poster for a film festival.

Here’s some funny pictures of a banquet that some friends and I attended:

In other news, I’m getting some internship material together and applying. Got lots of goals, so we’ll see how this goes.

Day Eighteen, 20th November 2009.

Day Twenty One, 23rd November 2009.

Day Twenty Five, 27th November 2009.

And I also regripped my longboard:

Finally done and you know – the slides are backwards..
Maybe when I give my brain a rest from it I’ll go back, fix it and re-export it.

Dylan Knight and myself shot some footage this weekend and made a short video:

We love fall colors.

Disregarding my hopeless crush on John Stortz..

Also, I’ll be part of a couple projects this fall/winter.
Here’s a little hint on one:

Day Ten, 12 November 2009

Day Eleven, 13 November 2009

Day Twelve, 14 November 2009

Day Thirteen, 15 November 2009

Day Fourteen, 16 November 2009

Day Fifteen, 17 November 2009

And I’m working on a an animation, here’s part of the base video:

Day Five.

Day Six.

Day Seven.

Day Eight.

Day Nine.

And a not-so-up-to-par page layout from my 364.
Couldn’t edit down the text any more so unfortunately it’s terribly text heavy.
Also had to use at least 3 photos and keep the tracking/leading as it is.
Killer restraints.