Class Take Away 3 (As Well as an Update on my Book Project)

Today we once again covered what everyone's (or mostly everyone, as it was whoever wanted to talk) projects.  Overall I thought that everyone's project was pretty well done and interesting, particularly the video about slightly illegal/frowned upon activities. (Although, granted, it could have been rather bad for the filmmaker...)  I have to say though that I was pretty impressed with the various ways people broke rules.

After that we took some time to talk about book covers/repurposing books to make art/first impressions.  I have to say, that even though the adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" exists, I've purchased the vast majority of books that I own based almost entirely off the cover. (Whoops)  Call me superficial, but I don't care how well written the book is, if the cover looks like it was designed by a 3 year old, I don't care, I probably won't buy it unless I've already read a decent portion/know I like the author.  The inverse is also true: if the book has a kickass cover, I'll be more likely to purchase it, even if it reads like it was written by a three year old.

First impressions are extremely important and cover design is very important.  Cover design can also be moved into other realms, like website/homepage design, opening scene of a movie/trailer, etc.  I've always been told that in person, you have approximately 60 seconds to impress someone when you first meet them, and if you fail to do so, it takes a lot more effort to fix the problem later and impress the person.  I think the same is true with any sort of media.

Now as for the repurposing book part and the update on that, I'm going to have to dump some back story to explain what I'm doing.  Second semester of my freshman year, I almost failed out of college.  Long story short, it's taken me awhile to get back into good standing with the university.  Anyway, I still have my notebook from that second semester filled with various class notes (or lack thereof) and doodles, and I'm going to be cutting them up and turning them into one of my favorite quotes which I think is relevant to my situation (and also happens to be from one of my favorite books, so I thought it fit):

“The only thing all men have in common with one another is their inherent capacity to make mistakes. But there is wonder in the attempt, knowing we are all destined to fall short, but forgoing reason and fear time and time again so deliberately.” - Joe Meno