Creative Collaboration

I've recently partook in a certain collaborative writing class, the aim of which thus far has apparently been to test the stress level of college students at midterm by assigning dozen-page essays on such fascinating topics as "how collaboration is beneficial," and, "what makes collaboration necessary." Luckily for me, I chose the extremely broad topic of "collaboration in film," and, aided by a contemporary book written in 1938 and various documentaries on how Lord of the Rings was made, I breezed through the essay one fistful of hair at a time.

With all this affection for collaboration, I've found myself put somewhat at odds with the accepted perception due to my experience. For instance, a certain student-run ad agency at my university, which normally busies itself in creating various designs for non-paying clients, has been trying to update its logo. As the agency's web designer, I was shown a couple prototype logos to give me ideas for eventual website designs. Apparently the agency hadn't just been spending all semester on finalizing these two logos, but all of last semester as well, and possibly even longer. However, due to frequent meetings held concerning the logos, it is at least a relief to know that everyone was in agreement as to something.

Somewhat embarrassingly for them, I was able to sit down and whip up a (in my humble opinion) superior design from scratch in less than an hour. So much for the absolute power of creative collaboration.

I attempted to portray the concepts of "college student" and "art/design" in the best way I could imagine: by using a graduation cap and a calligraphy brush. Cliché? Perhaps, though I would insist that it is effective. I chose the colors in part because blue and gold are the colors of the college, but additionally because of the implications of the colors used. The calligraphy brush and graduation cap are both oriented to point to the top-right: a "rising" angle that reflects the group's acronym, "up." I intentionally avoided using the full name, "Unlimited Possibilities" in the logo for the sake of brevity and design tightness.