Wk 13 – Portfolio Website Pt 1 – Research

Calendar

• Week 13 – Monday Nov 16 – Sunday Nov 22
• Week 14A – Mon-Tue Nov 23-24, Nov 25-27 Fall Break
• Week 14B – Monday Nov 30 – Sunday Dec 6
• Week 15 – Monday Dec 7 – Sunday Dec 13
• Art 110 Final – Wednesday, December 16, 2020 – 2:45 – 4:45pm

Schedule

• This week, Week 13 is a normal week
• Week “14A” is Fall Break/Thanksgiving week. Wed-Thu-Fri are LBSU holidays. Only class on Mon & Tue. I’m giving you Week 14A off. No class on Monday, nothing due that week.

What’s Due This Week?

1. Art Activity – Professional Portfolio Website – Part 1 – Research – On Medium
2. Last Essay – What is art? My (not so) final answer! – On Medium
3. BeachBoard Discussion – On BeachBoard

When is this week’s stuff due?

• This week, Week 13, ends on Sunday, Nov 22. I’d suggest getting your 3 pieces posted by then so you can have a nice break week with nothing due. Nothing for Art 110, at least.
• However, since nothing is due in Week 14A, Fall Break week, I’ll give you the extra week if anyone would like the time to finish this week’s projects. So the final deadline for this week’s 3 projects will be Sunday night, Nov 29.

Applied Art

As we discussed in class today, we’ve mostly thought about Fine Art in the Western Tradition this semester. Fine Art in the Western Tradition tends to be non-functional art. It could be an abstract painting without a subject that tries to experience the sublime. It could be a bold political painting that critiques Trump or Biden or Immigration or Consumer Protection. But it’s generally not a mask to wear in a ceremony or a table to eat off. Those we might call functional art or craft.

Design

Similar to the way Engineering can be thought of as Applied Science, Design can be thought of as Applied Art. We take all the principles and techniques of art, but instead of fine art expression, we apply them to solve communication problems. We design logos, furniture, houses, identity systems, brochures, websites and more.

Professional Portfolio Design

We will spend 2 weeks designing a Professional Portfolio Website to showcase what we can do for employers or clients.

• Part 1 – This Week – Research – learning who our audience is and how professionals with careers we’re interested in present themselves
• Part 2 – After Fall Break – Web Design – pouring our content (school projects, papers and any other relevant work you can think of) into a website. Since Squarespace is a pay platform, most of you probably won’t choose it. Wix is “freemium” so you can get your website up and running for $0. Or any other platform you choose. If you’re a CECS major you might think about WordPress.org, Joomla, Drupal, or HTML. But more on all that next week.

Useful

Each week I include a “Useful” section where I offer some ideas of how the week’s activity will not only inform you about art and ideas, but could also be useful in your career whatever your major is. I hope the connection this week is easy.

When you graduate you will have:

1. a handshake from the president (or a virtual handshake if it’s still pandemic)
2. a nice (if expensive) piece of paper
3. a head filled with knowledge, experiences, and abilities

You can show the expensive piece of paper to a potential employer. But you can’t “show” them your head filled with knowledge, experiences, and abilities. If you get far enough to be interviewed, you can “show” them then, but how do you get the interview? A professional website is a great tool in opening that door and landing an interview. Even as you start your career and gain successes, it’s something, like a resume, that you should keep updated. You should always be able to show people what you’ve accomplished and what skills you can offer to solve their problems. We’re starting that process this week with research. Next week we’ll pick a platform like Wix, Squarespace, etc, and build a professional portfolio.

Part 1 – Research (this week!)

• It doesn’t matter what Brotman Hall thinks your major is. If you want to change your major, consider it changed. If your Pre-Nursing or Pre-FEA or Pre-anything else, just consider yourself Nursing or FEA or whatever you’re interested in. If you’re Undeclared, pick any field you have a bit of interest in and might like to do some research on. Your Major/Career is whatever excites you the most this week.
• Research 3 or more Companies or Clients who might hire you either as a full-time employee, or as a consultant, or who might give you a summer internship.
• In your Medium post, list each Company or Client. For each company or client, write 1 paragraph about what they do and 1 paragraph about how you see yourself offering value to them.
• Research 3 or more People who do what you’re interested in doing. Find their website. Find their blog. Find their resume. In your Medium post list each Person you found. For each person list a link to their website. Write 1 paragraph describing how they present themselves.
• Based on your Research of Companies/Clients, and your Research of Professionals in your field, write 1-3 paragraphs in your Medium post describing how you would use a website to position yourself as a promising candidate to be an employee, consultant, or summer intern for the companies/clients you’ve listed
• Title your Medium post: Wk 13 – Art Activity – Portfolio Research

Final Essay – What is art? My (not so) final answer!

At the beginning of the semester, we had a discussion about “What is art?” Now it’s time for you to update your answer. Your essay should be the equivalent of a 2 to 3 page, double-spaced typed paper. In your Medium Post:

1. Describe what you though Art was at the start of this semester.
2. Has your idea changed? Does it include anything different or more?
3. Describe what art is to you now, at the end of the semester.
4. Useful – only a few of us have arts related majors – most of us are in different fields across the spectrum of campus majors. Explain what your major is, what your career goals are, and discuss the ways you can think of that art, aesthetics, and design could contribute to your career.
5. In addition to career relevance, art can also be something that enriches your life. As you prepare to leave Art 110 – your last art class for many of you – think about the ways that art might enrich your life. What art pleasures might you enjoy? Can engaging with artworks and art ideas help to make you a more complete human being?
6. Does art matter? Describe what things would be like if Art, Artists, and the Artistic Impulse all suddenly vanished from planet earth.
7. A past slogan of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was “a great nation deserves great art”. Do you agree? Explain why you do, or do not, agree with this idea.
8. Final thoughts – summarize what you’ve experienced this semester and what art might mean to you going forward in your life and career.
9. Title your Medium post: Wk 13 – Essay 2 – Art!

BB Discussion

5 bitz as always! 😀

For our discussion this week I’d like you to group your posts by majors. I think that will be the most useful way for you to share and interact. The posts we discuss on BeachBoard will mirror the research you’re doing for your Art Activity this week. Since many majors have only 1 or 2 Art 110 students in them, let group some majors so you’ll have classmates posting relevant content for you.

• Comm-PR-Journalism-Languages-History – we have 4 Comm majors, 2 PR majors, 1 Journalism, 1 English Ed, 1 French, 1 Spanish, 1 Language/Linguistics, 1 History. Let’s put the 12 of your posts together under “Comm-PR-Journalism-Languages-History”.
• CE-CS-EE – we have 6 Computer Science majors, 3 Computer Engineering, and 2 Electrical Engineering. Let’s put the 11 of your posts together under CE-CS-EE.
• Engineering – We have 10 other Engineering (Civil, Aerospace, Biomed, Chemical, and General) Let’s put the 10 of you together under Engineering
• Biology-Marine – We have 7 Biology majors and 1 Marine Biology major. Let’s put the 8 of you together under Biology-Marine
• Psych-Soc – We have17 Psychology majors and 1 Sociology major. Let’s put the 18 of you together under Psych-Soc
• Nursing – We have 7 Nursing majors. Let’s put the 7 of you together under Nursing.
• Kinesiology-Recreation – we have 8 Kinesiology majors and 2 Recreation/Rec Therapy majors. Let’s put the 10 of you together under Kinesiology-Recreation
• Criminal Justice – we have 7 Criminal Justice majors. Let’s put the 7 of you together under Criminal Justice
• FCS – we have 6 Family and Consumer Sciences majors (Children/Family, Fashion, Nutrition, Consumer affairs) Let’s put the 6 of you together under FCS
• Bus-Econ – we have 5 Business Marketing majors, 1 HR major, and 4 Economics majors. Let’s put the 10 of you together under Bus-Econ
• FEA – We have 5 Film & Electronic Arts majors. Let’s put the 5 of you together under FEA
• Health-Chem-Geology-Environmental – we have 6 Health majors, 1 Chemistry, 1 Geology, 2 Environmental Science. Let’s put the 10 of you together under Health-Chem-Geology-Environmental

I think that’s everybody. LMK if I missed anyone. We also have 11 Undeclared majors. As I said in class today, you can pick whatever of the above you might be leaning toward or curious about. For anyone who wants to change their major, consider it changed (for Art 110 purposes!) and post under whatever your new major will be.

For each of the 12 choices above, there should be 2 discussion threads. Whoever posts first can start them, and everyone else can reply.

For example, the discussion threads for Comm-PR-Journalism-Languages-History will be:

1. Comm-PR-Journalism-Languages-History EMPLOYERS
2. Comm-PR-Journalism-Languages-History PROFESSIONALS

Under each thread heading, list URL’s of Employers in your field and the websites of Professionals in your field. You can also discuss what you’ve found. What employers look interesting? What requirements do they have? What elements do you see in professional websites? What content can you add to the website you’ll make next week to show your strengths in your field?

Don’t stress that you don’t have a giant professional portfolio yet! Seniors should have a bit more than freshmen, but we’re all students! Don’t be intimidated by someone’s awesome professional website, be inspired by it. Consider it an aspiration to put together a career like they have, but in your own generation.

Not Required, but super-awesome

When you find a professional in your career you can optionally reach out to them by Email, LinkedIn, etc. Ask for a brief conversation by Email, Zoom, or whatever media you or they like. Tell them you’re a student at Long Beach State University, that you admire their work, and that you’d like to learn a little bit about their career.

Of course some won’t reply to your message. But everybody was a student at some point and many would like to give back. “Can you hire me” is a big ask! The answer to that is often going to be “no”. But “I think your work is awesome, can we chat about it for a few minutes” is a small ask! You and this professional have something in common: you both think their career is great! They might love to share about it with you.

I already know that no one in Art 110 will do this part. But honestly, why not??? It’s your career! Don’t you want to start connecting to professionals in your field and building a professional network?

Also Not Required, but also super-awesome

Find out what some professional groups in your field are. Check them out. Consider joining if their students memberships aren’t too expensive (they often are not!) Or at least attend one of their meetings. ATM they’re probably going to be on Zoom and hopefully free. Get involved in your career! Connect!

The professional groups for your career/major will, of course, vary. For artists it would be groups like the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA), the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles (SILA), the College Art Association (CAA) and so on. Find out what groups there are for your career/major!