Wow does this ever sound self centered. I've actually thought about this to myself quite a few times but I'd like to get it down in writing for once. They say it helps. So where do I begin ...I wouldn't really call myself a misfit. I'm enough of a people person to make new friends. In fact I hold no information back. You ask me and 9 times out of 10 you'll get an answer. But finding someone who shares my passions, understands me and where I'm coming from with a sentence I utter - those kind of people are hard to find. And I haven't found one yet.
WRITING
Straight after high school way back in 2001, it was off to Douglas College to me (well, following a three month stint working at super store and utsuwa no yakata that I got fired from but I'd prefer to forget that time period altogether).
This was a point in my life where I had absolutely no idea what to do with it. My first semester at Douglas College, I took Creative Writing and Marketing. Creative writing was a lot of fun but Marketing was nothing but theory and boring research on products, goods and services ... just pure shit that bored me to death and nothign I could contribute effectively to. Second semester, I took another creative writing course - fiction this time, along with philosophy and economics. Philosophy, now THAT was interesting but still ... no future in it. Anyway point is after a stint of creative writing, marketing, philosophy, economics, sociology, english 130 (boring as hell class but made some good friends along the way) political science, anthropology (our teacher looked like an austrolipithicus), mandarin, acting, and computer science, I'd pretty much covered everything Douglas College had to offer aside from math and the sciences.
But the one thing that remained consistent was creative writing and I actually considered a career in it until our teacher told us it was really hard to get published. And I'm not even that good at writing - I just enjoy it. Something about creating characters that people remember really drew me into it.So the one thing that interested me enough to want to make something out of at Douglas College, turns out there's not much of a future in it. That's when I started thinking - well what can I do that this school offers? Had a meeting with the career services people where I considered a Math major - sure that's pretty useless to but at least it carries some respect. But i wasn't all serious about it. I also considered a major in political science to start a career as a translator whether for the tourist industry or a political career based on my interest in learning languages. But I didn't feel a hundred percent into it either.
Then my mom saw an add in the paper - a joint program offered by BCIT and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. Seriously, art? Something I've been doing as a hobby for my 21 years of existence? And it balanced practicality with creativity so I decided to give it a shot ...
GRAPHIC DESIGN
The only reason I chose to study this in the first place was because I always had a passion for art and I needed to balance that out with something practical. When I first started studying this at BCIT, i knew right away it was more fun that the crap I've been doing at Douglas College for the 2 years prior. I thought I'd found what I wanted to do and cruised on through the classes. Then Portfolio 2 happened and they failed me. It was one of those pass/fail classes, no grades involved. Then I started questioning why I wanted to be a graphic designer and the answer to that i realized, was because I could - not because I wanted to. But I still wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. So then, nose to the grindstone, i retook portfolio 2, made sure I did everything right, communicated back and forth with the judges who were going to be passing me. I made it, and I made it past the rest of the classes and graduated 1 semester late with flying colours. It was pretty good, and it felt good.
But after working in the graphic design industry for abit, doing meaningless internships whie working at Chapters, I realized I couldn't go on working days on end and not being paid. I started wondering where my life was heading and if I could continue on this path much longer.
But I did learn some very important design theory that I still hold onto to this day. typography, colour palettes, layout and branding. Everything is interwoven consistently and specifically to establish the brand of a company, product, a service, a character, and environment ... EVERYTHING has a brand idently. Graphic Design is the tool by which that brand is understood by everyone else.
Also the kind of people I had to put up with. Not that they were evil people and need to be shot dead in a drive-by, but alot of the graphic designers I've met have a kind of subtle sass to them. Like they're better than you because they know never to put type on a curve. They were nice people overall, but it was just that underlying pretenciousness that I didn't like. That wasn't the sole purpose of why I decided to stop pursuing graphic design as a career. Another opportunity decided to open up. And at the time, a 22 year old just kickstarting his career, i figured I had time to still go to school and do what i really wanted to do since i was 15 years old.
VIDEO GAMES
Now we're talking! I'd visited AI before (around the same time I was researching more about Emily Carr and BCIT) but at the time I was more concerned with being practical which was why I chucked the idea of going to AI at first. But after touring their campuses for the second time, I knew there was somethign about the creative energy in this place that appealed to me. The students, the cafe, the drawing tables, the cement-warehouse-loft feel of the place. I was only walking there and I felt like I wanted to sit down and draw.Maurice, the guy who was showing me around the place did a great job suckering me in to applying - which I found out later, he really did make a sucker out of me, lol.
So the Game Art and Design program ended up costing somewhere around 30,000 dollars. I wanted to save as much as I could so I decided to go for the early committment offer where if I committed to the program 6 months in advance, I could save 1000 bucks, which I did.
Finally, June 2006 was orientation day for all the new students which I attended. My first impression - all these kids, lol. I was the youngest in my graphic design program so being around all these people younger than me gave a real high school vibe - where i found my real maturity level months later, hahaha. Wiggers calling each other homie, annoying anime freaks everywhere i looked, yet I was excited to get started on the program.
Along the way, I found that as far as gaming interests were concerned, I didn't belong in any specific category. I wasn't a gamer anime freak, I wasn't a WOW addict, or an FPS player. I just played the games I played. So connecting with people on the video games level was pretty hard. Now I'm a resident evil fan and a capcom fanboy in general, and an ex-Final Fantasy fan. And I have one Dance Dance Revolution game that I thoroughly enjoy. Thing is my interests I realized was more in the series of games, not in the genre. And one of my first friends I made at the school, was already judging my interest in video games.
Along the way, I learned to break out of the fanboy mentality and play games for what they are, not for who's featured in them. Really opened my eyes to in-game mechanics, controller systems and the player's skill, not just the story and characters. And I've found more games that I enjoy as result. Don't get me wrong, I still hate first person shooters though.
SO WTF AM I???
Out of all the graduates from my quarter, me and about 2 or 3 other people still take drawing seriously. I was the only one who paid attention to typography and layout. I was the only one who took interest in the backstory James shat out for our GPW game. I'm not good enough to be a fiction writer - and I don't have that much passion for writing even though I need to write a story every so often just to get that creativity out of me. I don't know enough about traditional art to discuss styles but I love to draw enough. I'm not big on graphic design and the industry's movement but I know and appreciate good design when i see it - which in turn inspires me to make my own. I love playing video games but don't play enough to be seriously hardcore with them.
So wtf am I? I dunno. If employers ask me to tell them about myself, I wouldn't know how. I haven't found an answer to that question yet. So for now, I just say I do what I do cause I love it. Call me whatever.
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