bugcatcher forfourseventy

100 Days Project

Thesis thinkin’ happening right here. For the past five years, Michael Bierut “taught a workshop for the graduate graphic design students at the Yale School of Art. The specific dates always change, but the basic assignment goes something like this: Beginning Thursday, October 21, 2010, do a design operation that you are capable of repeating every day. Do it every day between today and up to and including Friday, January 28, 2011, the last day of the project, by which time you will have done the operation one hundred times.”

In preparing your thesis ideas… you will want to head here and read the whole article and check out the ideas! Here are three to start you off!

“Finally, when Jessica Svendsen told me she wanted to create 100 variations of Josef Muller-Brockmann’s classic 1955 poster for a Beethoven program at the Zurich Tonhalle, I never thought she could pull it off. The original just seemed too iconic and singular to withstand that kind of focus. But to my surprise and pleasure she pulled it off, and then some. Some people noticed the project on line midway through the process and started following along.”

“Zak Klauck: “Over the course of 100 days, I made a poster each day in one minute. The posters were based on one word or short phrase collected from 100 different people. Anyone and everyone was invited to contribute.” The perfect exercise for a graphic designer.”

“The most famous graduate of the 100 Day Workshop is, without a doubt, Ely Kim. When I asked him what he had planned, he responded, “I’m going to film myself doing a different dance in a different place every day.” He said it with such absolute assurance that I was taken aback. “Are you a good dancer?” I asked. Ely said: “Yes.” The resulting video, “Boombox,” has been viewed over half a million times and won Ely invitations to dance in, among other places, Sao Paulo, Brazil.”

“…what, exactly, is the point of this project?” Michael Bierut has ”always had a fascination with the ways that creative people balance inspiration and discipline in their working lives. It’s easy to be energized when you’re in the grip of a big idea. The only way to experience this kind of discipline is to subject yourself to it. Every student who has taken this project had a moment where the work turned into a mind-numbing grind. And trust me: it won’t be the first time this happens. The trick is to press on. For each new day (whether it’s Day 28, Day 61, even Day 100) brings with it the hope of inspiration.”