What is a story? How do you tell it in a logical, compelling way? What are the different components of it? How can audio and video add (or subtract from it)? These were all questions that I started to ponder when I joined DS106. I felt like I had a pretty good decent understanding of […]

I selected the last scene from the Gangs of New York for my look, listen and analyze assignment. This is a movie that I remember watching when it first came out….although I couldn’t believe that it had been filmed 12 years ago! How time flies! In watching the scene, I noticed different things when I isolated my […]

There is a saying that behind every good man is a good woman. This week, I learned that behind every good director is a good film editor. Truth be told, I had never really thought much of moving angles. This might be because my favorite films are rom coms. So, reading Roger Ebert’s How to […]

I constantly feel like I’m being overwhelmed by noise that begins with my alarm clock (that goes off way too early in the morning) and ends with email alerts coming from my laptop (as my India team gets working as I’m heading to bed). This week, we learned all about sound and the profound impact […]

I got my inspiration for this week’s DS106 audio assignment by reading a follow classmate’s blog on Craig’s List’s Missed Connections. Truth be told…I’ve never been on Craig’s List. But, I read her “Missed Connections” interpretation and got inspired. Since this week is all about audio and using sounds and audio to tell a story, […]

Last week, I proposed doing a final project on how the usage of fonts can create a mixed message. The professor suggested creating a self-help group for misunderstood fonts. That got me thinking…could I create a story about a misunderstood font and his bad news bears group of friends – other fonts with other notorious reputations. Based on Pixar’s […]

My sister is getting married in about 6 weeks. So, wedding bells and relationships are hot topics within my family. One of the comments that everyone keeps telling my sister is how fast the wedding day actually will go. They then usually proceed to ask my sister when she’s planning on having kids! Talk about […]

Recording my own voice…the thought terrifies me! So, when I saw the assignment to record myself pretending to be a newscaster, I got a little freaked out. I also realized that I would have to learn how to use yet another new tool, SoundCloud [since this is audio week, I'll let you know that I let […]

Life has been a little crazy! My project is launching at the beginning of June, my sister is getting married, I’m getting a new roommate and I’m finishing up with school…all within the same two week period. So, in reviewing the Design Safari blog posts from fellow DS106 participants, I realized that I had missed […]

This week, for one of my design assignments, I opted to do the One Story/Four Icons assignment. I wanted to attempt to reduce a movie to four symbols. Although I am not a huge movie-goer, I realized that after completing the Five Card Flickr activity last week, I needed practice in brevity of storytelling. My […]

I had to chuckle when I watched the John Stossel on Graphic Design video that ends with “never use Comic Sans”. It reminded me of an email that came out a few years back. As context, Dan Gilbert, a highly successful businessman from the Detroit area and owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, published an open […]

When I was little, one of the commercials that ran locally featured Detroit Pistons guard Isiah Thomas teaching kids about electricity safety. In the commercial, Thomas asked a little boy, “Look up.” To that, the little boy responded, “But I don’t see anything?” The commercial went on to discuss looking up for power lines. However, […]

I create training material for a living. Grammer and punctuation play a HUGE part in helping people understand the content. I saw a post on Facebook earlier in the week about how the correct punctuation “saves lives” when used correctly. Below is a another good example. For my final project, I’m toying around with the […]

This week, we learned about the importance that visual pictures can make in telling a story. I started by watching a fun video that played off of words and their “definitions” using images. It was interesting how they linked all of the images together but that each definition had its own unique meaning. I think […]

I haven’t spent a lot of time with PhotoShop or other picture editing software. I got a little nervous when I saw this week’s request to go into the Assignment Bank and complete an assignment using a photo editing tool. I picked two assignments near and dear to my heart. In my first assignment, I […]

I’m competitive and hate to lose. So, when I heard photo safari, time yourself, get as many pictures done as you can, I really wanted to get them all. However, then I remembered the advice provided in this week’s class video. We were encouraged to not just take photos but to sit and think about the […]

Take a photo that shows a repeating pattern

Take a photo that is looking through a frame or opening to something else

Take a photo of someone else’s shoe or foot

Take a photo of two things that do not belong together

Make an inanimate object look alive.

Make a photo that uses converging lines to draw us into the photo

In consulting, I am frequently asked to take a concept and break it down into a version of the 2 X 2 matrix. The purpose of the 2 X 2 matrix is to take complex information and break it down into easy to understand, easily digestable concepts. I felt like I was doing a similiar activity while working […]

Growing up, my mom used to always say that we were given two ears and one mouth for a reason. She said that we need to listen more than we talked. I have used that skill while working as a consultant. I try to let my clients talk and share information and then perspective before […]

I travel about 75% of the time so I spend a good portion of every week on an airplane. Most people think my life is like the George Clooney movie Up in the Air. In a lot of ways, it is. BUT…in a lot of ways, it isn’t. When I’m on campus recruiting, I often get […]

The commercial tracks closely to the viral experience architecture discussed in this week’s reading as well as few of Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling. The story unfolds with Hank, a Clydesdale horse, who isn’t picked to pull the Budweiser Cart. The element of surprise is introduced early on in two forms: 1.) When Hank isn’t picked […]

“Are you listening to me?” It is a question that is frequently asked between conversations with my boyfriend and I. I’d like to think that he’s the guilt one but I have been known to multi-task when I’m on the phone with him. He says he knows he’s lost me when all of my responses […]

This first week of readings and activities made me take a step back and rethink my notion of stories and storytelling. The “TouchCast” video about Storytelling and Design took my initial concepts and added details to things I knew but didn’t necessarily articulate in my initial definition of a story. A good story has a character […]

I’ve had a dog for about 10 years. He’s my best buddy. About 4 years ago, I took a job where I travel each week. My dog stays with my parents Monday – Thursday. There are lots of different articles on how to be a single parent and how to be a great dog owner. […]

When I think of Storytelling, I think of my dad. The association is most obvious because he used to read me a story every night before going to bed. I always associated the stories with the beginning, middle and end. My dad also did a great job of bringing in different characters through the use […]