DS106 has gone in waves for me and I am still not sure what it is.  In the beginning of the class, I remember stressing out over my first story — I was still in the mindset of I needed to do a project as outlined and I need to do it to impress other people in the class.  I think this has been one of the things that has been difficult for me in approaching digital storytelling as a design instructor.  So much of what I do professionally relies upon production value and instilling the importance of it in my student.  DS106, on the other hand, has been about harnessing raw creative energy and I frequently find that I need to tell myself to let go and just let the content be king.

What I am most grateful for is the connections that I’ve made through the class.  There are some coolies out there doing some awesome work and the purpose of this post is really to show off that stuff that I love.  So here we go:

I love this image from image from Stephanie based on Tim Owen’s Big Picture Assignment.  The coloring on the image is striking and I love love love the font.  The font plays so great into the negative space of the photo.  This is really so good.

This image from Tim is great and reflects much of what I want to make art about in the coming months and years.  My wife’s impending birth is going to transform what I do as an artist and I fully expect to be creating monthly videos on the progress of my son.  In fact this image from Tim made me decide that I want to start a new art movement: Dadcore.  Any joiners?

I loved Andrew’s slideshare story “Andy Goes to the Apple Store”.  I have used slideshare before in my classes, but I never realized how it could be used as such a great tool for telling stories, especially stories that are more structured like children’s books.  It would be great to combine this delivery format with Alan Levine’s 5 Card Flickr story to create a more cohesive method of delivery.

Speaking of energy, Aaron’s 4 icon challenge was pretty killer.  I think I spent a lot of time getting caught up in how I would use Illustrator (which I don’t know how to use) to create icons.  Aaron instead uses the original Illustrator (a pencil) and comes up with some rad images from one of my favorite films.

Megan’s Star Wars Facebook project might be one of the masterpieces of ds106.  The project is so darn clever.  The writing style shows that brevity can sometime be the best component of good storytelling.  She says just enough (and doesn’t rely on Jar Jar Binks for the laughts).  Good work Megan!

While we are on the subject of masterpieces, I was thoroughly impressed with Tom Woodward’s Stranger Portrait Series.  They are compelling photograph’s and all really good examples of the way in which ds106 has pushed students to leave their comfort zones and move into some uncharted territory.  The above photo is so strong in terms of focus, color, and lighting.

I could keep going on and on, but I need to cut this off.  For the last part of my post I will highlight a few of my favorite ds106 dailyshoots:

I am so grateful to be in the presence of everyone in this class.  I’ve made a lot of important connections that I hope to maintain throughout the years and I know that the work that I have seen will continue to push me to challenge my own abilities as a designer and storyteller.