Jesse Dean

Jesse Dean

St. Paul MN

I decided to join the military to get my schooling paid for and it took much longer then expected.  I originally wanted to take fine art and the last minute switched to graphic design.  I’m terrible with using computers and will more then likely have a ton of problems in this class.

My top three online activities are probably just checking my e-mail, looking for free things and purchasing concert tickets.

My offline activities include painting, getting pulled over and paying rent.

Three things I have interacted with today are the coffee pot, my snow shovel and my car. ( pulled over )

Brittney Schneider

Brittney Schneider- Junior at College of Visual Arts

Age: 21

Hometown: Jackson. Michigan

Current Location: East Saint Paul

How I Got Here: I came Minnesota because of a crazy ex-boyfriend. He was supposed to attend McNally Smith College of Music but like all crazy ex-boyfrieds he didn’t, but I had already fell in love with CVA so I kicked him to the curb to come do something I liked a little better then watching him play World of Warcraft on the couch.

3 Things I do Online: E-mail, watch Futurama, and explore the art and music community

3 Things I do Offline: Play bass and drums, eat, talk

3 Things I interacted with today: Car, toaster oven, notebook.

Claudia Poole

Age: 20

Name Origin: My real name is Chole, named after coal, since it’s used to heat up  metal for sculpting molds. My mom named both me and my twin after art elements that relate to my dads profession. I just don’t like it, so I go by Claudia.

Home town/current location: North Minneapolis

Online activities: Facebook, youtube,  and tumblr

Offline activities: Biking, cooking, sleeping

Bio: Grew up with art, loved art, wanted to do art for a living. My father John Poole does sculpture, mother Nancy Poole dabbles in the arts but has a different profession. Twin sibling Smyth, older sister Cassie, both do non-art related majors. Went to F.A.I.R., liked the media art classes. High schools I attended were Patrick Henry and Main Street School of Preforming Arts. Toured colleges (MCAD, CVA, AI) and fell inlove with CVA. I love designs on shoe boxes, wrapping paper, wall papers, and decorative elements to packages or company identities.

3 Useful items I interacted with today: Chrome Bag (affectionally called Phillip), bus card, and my planner.

this is a blog post about maria cameron

Oh, hello!

My name is Maria Cameron and I am 19 years old.

I hail from Rochester, MN… just an hour and a half away. Which is pretty nice.

I am currently located in the computer lab of CVA. But, generally, I reside within the Summit-Hill area of Saint Paul, MN. I love it here.

My story leading to art school is not very exciting. BUT, I’ve always had a passion for art – whether it be performance, visual, digital, or informational – and knew I needed to go to school for something art related. I’m currently here for Graphic Design and I have a love and appreciation for info design and an intense interest in communication.

My top three online activities – It begins with tumblr. Then I venture over to flickr. And finally, inevitably, facebook.

Luckily, my offline activities make up for all of these. I’m an avid biker – weather permitted (and sometimes not!). I also appreciate a really good book. And I’m a traveler. Ok, wistful traveler. I haven’t quite had the chance to go that far yet.

Useful objects that I interacted with today include – my best friends, my front door, and my favorite number two pencil.

Until next time,

Maria Cameron

Jacki Hurley

I am 24 years old from Mendota Heights and I love graphic design.  Through trial and error I have discovered my passion and CVA has helped me learn more about graphic design in the past 2.5 years.  Online I like searching for new and interesting things, emailing, and facebook. Offline my interests are hanging with friends and family, playing with my dog, and baking.  Of course I always like to find new things to be interested in when I can.

Claire Marrinan

My name is Claire Marrinan, a 27 year old originally from St. Cloud, though currently settled in St. Paul.

I started college with an English degree from St. Catherine’s University, but upon graduation was left with little idea of what to do or make of myself. Writing tends to leave you able to do both everything and nothing, and I have found is best paired with another line of interest. Since then, I’ve found myself working at the Bibelot Shops as the assistant jewelry buyer, and on a sudden spur of motivation, I’ve wound up back in school to focus on a more career driven goal in graphic design. Design blends my interests in art, imagery, type, photo, layout, digital media and writing into a focused direction and future plan.

My online activity primarily involves email, Facebook, and participating an fiction writing community.

Offline, I engage in character design and illustration, costuming, and jewelry.

Today, I have found interactive use with my bed, pencils and sketchbook, and my favorite tea cup.

Adam

Thinker

Doer

I’m 31 (which is the new 21).  Hailing from St. Cloud, but now residing in the heart of suburbia Eagan, I am very glad to be a resident of the Twin Cities.  After gaining valuable years of life experience in areas such as saint, sinner, prophet, and roustabout- I taught myself to draw and decided that the world would be a terrible place without my graphic input.  This epiphany lead me to CVA, from which I hope to stake my claim in the world of graphic design.  I’m a libra who enjoys long walks on the beach, heart-felt conversations about drapery, and Sally Jesse Raphael.  Kidding- I’m actually a newborn snowboarder, like to exercise, tease people, and hang out with friends.

Maggie Munkittrick

Age: 20

Home town: Hopkins, MN

Current City: Saint Paul, MN

Short Bio: I started out my college career at The College of Saint Catherine for nursing. I believed at the time that nursing would be a practical field to be a part of and that it meant I could be a helpful member of society. I quickly found that I needed to change my focus to something I loved if I was going to succeed. I thought to use my irrational love of product packaging design to guide my way to a school that would be the right fit for me. I found CVA and have been here since.

Online Activities: Facebook, email, banking

Offline Activities: reading, being with family, sleeping

3 Things I Interacted With Today: alarm clock, coffee maker (more than once), my car

Welcome

Starting on January 18, 2011, the Principles of Usability class at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota will be meeting every Tuesday and Thursday evening. Each student will be taking turns recapping our class on the blog. The class will meet almost 30 times, and the class is about 10 – 12 students. So we’ll hear from each student 2 or 3 times. These posts will be graded, and should contain the following:

• Title

• Introduction and overview paragraph (What did we do?): Topics covered, Class activities, etc.

• Visual examples of the topics covered in class discussion. Be creative! (5 minimum)

• Conclusion: What the author truly learned, or was inspired by during today’s class, and explain how this will apply to their work as a designer

Other Requirements (only follow if you want a good grade):

• Use of subheads and attention to “scan-ability”, i.e. Keeping paragraphs at a desirable length, using helpful subheads

• Blog length of at least 500 words, but not more than 1,500

• Crediting visual examples if taken from another source, and linking to them

• Use of Categories and Tags that pertain to the subject matter

• Correct spelling and grammar — this will affect your grade

• Reference Smashing Magazine’s blog posts, and other well-known blogs. We will discuss what makes a good blog post, and who’s assigned to what blog.