irrupt \ih-RUHPT\, intransitive verb:
1. To burst in forcibly or suddenly; to intrude.
2. (Ecology) To increase rapidly in number.| verb |
| 1. | enter uninvited; "They intruded on our dinner party"; "She irrupted into our sitting room" [syn: intrude] |
| 2. | erupt or intensify suddenly; "Unrest erupted in the country"; "Tempers flared at the meeting"; "The crowd irrupted into a burst of patriotism" [syn: erupt] |
| 3. | increase rapidly and in an uncontrolled manner; "The population of India is exploding"; "The island's rodent population irrupted" [syn: explode] |
"How appropriate," I thought, going through my inbox Sunday afternoon and reading Word of the Day, after a blurred Saturday nighr road trip to New York. By that point, I was exhausted, but dutifully shifted gears from the Jersey Turnpike to Project 1 for our beloved Saturday class--to Safeway, Caribbean American Heritage Month, and exotic, delicious, toothsome fruit.
Opening InDesign, I grumbled about this signage project "irrupting" my life and otherwise decent mood. Admittedly, this has been one of the most challenging design problems I've had to solve. And I've designed a bunch of things -- business cards, corporate documents, training manuals, slide presentations, magazines, ads, flyers, posters, bumper stickers, T-shirts, as well as done a lot of technical, descriptive, and investigative writing. I've always effortlessly managed to easily whip together success for any design solution I've had to create. Somehow, this was difficult -- and I'm dreading this upcoming revision process.
The biggest challenge for me was relaying my concept on paper; on one count, while the concept was good, it might have been too layered, too inclusive, and therefore murky on the page; one another count, I felt stifled by the necessity to explain Caribbean American Heritage Month and why Safeway was choosing to promote it. Not only that, but I made an explicit choice to feature fruits only from Jamaica for my signs. Again, I felt it necessary to explain why Jamaica was the only focus. I also relied to heavily on concept alone to carry the comapre/contrast theme. Both grapefruits and tamarinds can be eaten as natural fruit snacks and desserts, they are both part of a typical Jamaican diet, one recipe was for a snack and one was for a dessert, one is not exotic (grown in the U.S. as well) and the other is only tropically-grown. ARGH! And then, of course, Caribbean culture in Baltimore is just not that booming...so I felt at a loss, though tied, still, to my concept (I guess that I'm involved in the making of this Month and that I have a personal stake in its promotion and "outreach," I refused to go anywhere else with my idea). I'm boiling over just re-living the back-and-forth internal debate about this...and the dissatisfaction I felt when I landed on the final concept.
I was sweating bullets as we sat in critique (which, I must add, was prettttttaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy long -- I understand the need and this just brings me back to college crits; I'm used to it, but I do agree with Mark's "half & half" suggestion). In any case, I was nervous, especially after Stephanie made it clear that some people flat out did it wrong. I knew I was part of that group. Seeing my work against the others made me more frenetic...not because I thought my work was inferior, but because I admired the way most people kept it simple while pulling off compelling themes. I was happy with my crit, a little disappointed at the lack of peer feedback I received (though I understood how difficult mine was to read and, therefore, evalutate), but grateful that I was not shred to pieces. I panicked that I did not just stick to my "truly initial" idea of a CAHM food/recipe demonstration stand in Whole Foods, with recipe cards and so forth, but left the critique feeling on track nonetheless and somewhat ready to edit.
Still, dread looms. I feel trapped by fruit. Girl, irrupted.
In any case, I bring some useful lessons to this final revision, some of which are refreshers: trust your gut, simplify where possible, don't bite more than can be chewed, grow and maintain thick skin, don't forget the price tag, nobody's perfect.
--
I see you bubbling all over the place -- you're yeasty, and I think it's grand!
