Day 14: FINE LINE (GRADUATION)

April 26, 2017. I aint never never never gonna forget this date. This is the day I did my final portfolio show; This is the day I showed what I've been doing over the past 4 years; This is the day we gathered around as a family..........We graduated.

My start of ACAD was pretty dramatic and I'm sure I was the very last one who got accepted by the school that time due to my issues with the high school transcript. I almost failed the registration, but I made it eventually.

The very first photo I took at ACAD 4 years ago.

My first year was....pretty awkward, I remember the very first class I took at ACAD was Silas' Colour Fundamentals. The first day was Thursday, and I was still a kid swaggering around the campus in a Spongebob T-Shirt, having my headphones on. And I spent over $500 dollars on the supplies, which was massive. I was pretty young that time so I didn't really know what college meant to me. And of course, I think that Spongebob T-Shirt, a pair of heavy headphones, hoodie was the very first impression I gave to most people at this school. When the name "Jimmy" was brought up, people always associated it with rap music at that time. I was wearing my headphones like 24/7, and I even got my first warning letter because of it. That was in Justin's MADT class. I was wearing headphones during the class presentation. Like I said, I didn't know what "College" was. It was just another building outside of high school. 

Colour Fundamentals definitely was one of my favourite courses in first year, I did make a lot of fantastic friends from that class. Every Thursday after school, we spent time on mixing colours, making charts and doing projects till midnight. We played loud music, we watch films. It was just a room full of creative heads doing things they loved. We had the craziest time every, my friend Lara, the sweetest of all time, wearing my green winter coat and jamming to the Eminem song we were playing. I loved the environment when everyone gathered around, doing things. Every late night, every fun talks we had, music we shared, these things were what I wouldn't get in upper years. When people getting older, those things are disappearing sadly. 

I was never a rule-following kid back then, I broke the rules like all the time if I thought I had to. Actually, I forgot about the rules when I was getting high on the project. Every creation was spontaneous, and I was just the person who watched myself creating. 

Halloween 2013 I remember Silas was wearing a gorilla costume walking into the room while I was dressing up like a rock star? Anyways, it was fun, and before the actually Halloween day, we had a really fun party at Camillie's house, and it was that party I met Zack, the guy who got stabbed to death in 2014. 

My first year was very exciting and overwhelming at the same time. One of the biggest things that is worth mentioning is me discovered the AV recording lab up on the top floor. It was Kyle taking care of that room at that time, and he was a really nice guy who would let me use the room all the time recording stuff. Trust me, Kyle was like a shorter version of Justin Timberlake. I remember that room was my biggest passion back in first year, for I could spend the whole night and weekend recording in that space along with myself without taking any washroom breaks. And it was that time I decided to make an entire album to track my 4 years college life, for every emotion I had, everything that happened, I wrote them on the paper, I recorded them into the song. Sometimes I recorded at school, sometimes I recorded in my closet where those clothes did a fantastic job on noise cancellation. I called it my "casket" because the space was so tight, and it was that small space which made something big happen.

I say no one's life was a typical ACAD life if you aint taken Design 101. The class which got tons of people stressed out and dropped out, the class which got your hands on over hundreds and hundreds of thumbnails on the paper. I was with Suzanne for that class, and I remember the first time she asked each of us what we wanted to do in the future. Everyone gave her an answer, but I didn't. I simply told her "I don't really know". It was not that because I got no plans, I just wouldn't speak out my plans easily. And again, I met some fantastic people from that class too: Julius, the guy who were deep into rap music and graffiti; Alexandra, the sweetest sweetest sweetest girl! Also a shy person, too. At the first time I told her she looked like Selena Gomez, and I didn't get too much focus on her untill 2nd year. 

One of the most fun classes I took in first year was Ceremics, the class which was totally out of my expectation for my career. Before, I'd never see myself doing ceremics. But I actually took it, and I found it pretty fun! At least that gave me a little break from those design classes, I felt like I was in the elementary school. One of the pieces I remember the most was my Michael Jackson pot. I hand painted it, and it turned out really good. Again, I had a lot of fun time with that class. Like I said, that was the only class that differetiated from the rest of the design classes.

Another thing that was proud of myself was Art History 120. That class was like rollercoaster to me, for I failed the essay assignment because of plagiarism (I only got 10%), but I made 86% for the final test, which saved my ass from failing the course. The fun part was, it only took me 2 days to memorize all the flash cards and stuff. I guess my good memory is why my mom always wants to send me to law school. 

Then we got into second year, the most frustrating year for me. My goal for second year was to become a better rule-following student compared to my first. I tried, and I failed, obviously. But that was the year I started to feel real about myself, get aggressive and explore what design really was to me. And yes, I made a lot of songs in that year, because I was getting more and more aggressive at that time. I had a lot of troubles with most of the instructors there, which made me want to transfer to OCAD in Toronto so bad. But for some reasons, I didn't. And I'm glad I didn't.

Some good instructors I met in second year: Jeff, the guy who used the word "provocative" a lot, I used that word a lot after him; Trevor, the Toronto guy who appreciated my industrial design feel  on making the typeface. (Before I got into ACAD, I was applying to Industrial Design at OCAD cuz I wanted to make my own smartphone that time.) Also, there were some hard ones, Neil, the guy who signed me with the "F", because I failed in following the rules. The way I described my second year was like.....a what-the-fuck year. 

I have to say that Jeff is one of the biggest inspirations to me. We had a lot of fantastic talks and he always knew where to find me on campus, the room with the music blasting was probably where I was at. I remember we had a long talk on what "provocative" means in design, and that talk changed me in every way I'm sure. I remember we had this album cover design project which required each of us to pick a song and create an album cover out of it. I picked my own song, I wrote that song to express how I felt about my other classes. It was an angry track, so I made an angry album cover. And by the time I was presenting it, I stuttered a lot cuz I was too shy to show people my music. But I did, and I told the class, that track was made because I got an "F" on a project from another class. Then Jeff walked up to the whiteboard and wrote the letter "F" and told me "This is how you turn an "F" into an "A"...and he did sign me "A" to that project. And it was that time I started to dig inside of me to let that inner energy out, because I was tired of hiding who I really was.

The "F" Project from Design Tech Class

The "A" Album project from Jeff's 

Then I was in my 3rd year, the year that I brought the name "JIMMYRECKLESS" to the spotlight. It was actually a nickname I got when I was in high school... I was skateboarding by the school yard. I didn't use that name for my design untill 3rd year, while 3rd year was really the year I started to feel myself, know myself and express myself through every way....Thanks to Jackie, another fantastic instructor who encouraged me on everything I did. 

Jackie was....a really nice person, really really nice person. Some people complained about having a hard time with her class, but I didn't feel that stress at all. I think she was one of the few instructors who appreciated students for showing off their own idividualities on a project. And I was that type of person. Like I said I just wanted to be true to myself, and design was all about feelings. I just followed where my passion took me to. 

Jackie was one of the intrustors who I had no problems to talk to. I was with her in my 4th year, and she literally appreciated everything I did on the project. Every week, I showed her something new, I loved to surprise people that way. I want heart attacks, I want ambulances. 

An infographic project created for Jackie's.

Speaking about my 3rd year, Ian was definitely the one who I would spend pages of pages of pages talking about that guy. Ian was my branding instructor and he was absolutely a fun guy. I was in 2 classes with him, the other one was marketing class. It was kinda embarrassing that someitmes I ditched his marketing class (I hate evening class in general) to play music in the studio room and got caught by him after. He was asking me "Did you understand all that stuff in the class?" And I was like "hum..............yeah?" But anyway, Ian was the one who understood my creativity and way of working. He knew I always got something for him. One time we had this Village Brewery project to do, and each of us were to present a concept, and all the concepts were sent for students to vote. Mine was inspired by my cousin who travelled around the world rollerblading, but it wasn't voted for the final tho. But one time, I met Ian in the hallway, and he told me he really loved the concept I presented and really wished it to go further. And from that time I knew he was my man. He understood a crazy guy's thoughts, he understood a psychopath and his world.

One of the most frustrating things in my 3rd year was the first portfolio show I did at ACAD. A Chinese lady came from nowhere just ripped me off on every single project. She was asking questions that were not relevant to the project at all. That caused me nightmare.

4th year, time flies. It is the fastest thing on this planet. The year that was faster than a cheetah, the year that was faster than a cougar. The only thing I liked about the final year was you got more freedom on the projects. It was the year that required you to show yourself in all ways, and that was what I loved to do. 4th year had really brought a clear definition to "JIMMYRECKLESS": creative, expressive, provocative. My transformation went from being a introveted person on a project to an expressive creative head on a project. 4th year was really an enjoy-your-time moment, for it was the last year, I just wanted to do what I loved to do. And I knew what I wanted to get out from my own education.

So I had this fun illustration course with Charles, and basically what I did for the class was to showcase how well I could do in illustration as a graphic design student. I combined my music, my illustration, my storyboarding skill altogether on a frame-by-frame animaiton video which took me 3 weeks to get over 1600 frames done for the project. Some people said I'm not a pro at animation, but I just wanted to enjoy myself. 

Another fun instructor I met was Lynne. I only had her in the second semester of 4th year. It was a pretty short time, but I felt that we were connected to each other. She was just so passionated about the class and I love that attitude. It was a branding class but we literally talked about everything from fashion to music to all that. She was the one who would sit with you to learn about your story, and she was the one who would get high on Alexander McQueen's Savage Beauty. I took advantage of what I could do in 4th year, to express not only my skills but also my philosophy on racism, fashion, design and life. I started to rethink human races in 4th year btw and I always questioned myself "what white people are", "what black people are", "what Asians are". And for all those weird topics I brought up with, I could always shared with Lynne. She was like...a buddy. 

4th year was the year I saw design from skill perspective to a philsophy perspective. I started to make design mean something for people and started to make people feel. I see myself as someone living in the fantasy, and that's how Kevin describes me as well, "Jimmy you the guy in the fantasy".

April 26, 2017. I aint never never never gonna forget this date. This is the day I told my story, and of course along with that album I made out of it. I've got so many memories at this place. This place took me on a rollercoaster and got my head squashed like a watermelon.

Now it is my time to leave this school, but I feel like I could never walk out of that red block.

I was born there. 

WHAT ART?

FIGHT RACISM LIKE A RACIST

I always got this thought in my head: fight racism like a racist, because sometimes you gotta put yourself on the same level with everyone else. It is right to convert negative to something positive. Sometimes, the inferiority comes from yourself.

YSL: I'M IN LOVE WITH THE OPIUM

This is a YSL Opium fragrance ad inspired by the use of opium back in Qing Dynasty. The design of the ad follows a typical YSL ad style of placing a black and white image along the side of the text. The photograph is some Chinese people smoking opium addictively. Sometimes I love to make fun of the history and people with design. The way to expose the ugliness will remind people how beautiful we can be.

THIS IS NOT AN ESSAY FT. AI, WEIWEI

This is an intro page created for a class essay. The photo credit goes to Ai, Weiwei, a very controversial Chinese contemporary artists who flipped off to the Tian 'Anmen Square. 

MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO

This is obviously inspired by Ai, Weiwei, a photo of myself flipping off to my school. No hating, it is for fun.

GUCCI MAO

This is a parody of Mao, Zedong by using the Gucci bloom print. The theme is inspired by Gucci's #GucciGram art movement along with Gucci Tian collection, which is an integration of both past and the future

GUCCI: THE BEAUTY (UGLINESS) OF FOOTBINDING

This is another parody of foot binding in the old China with Gucci Tian print. Women's Foot binding in old China is one of the most disgusting things to me, which also turns to be something that western world will never ever ever ever understand. However, in old days, foot binding used to be considered as a symbol of beauty.....What a shame.

TRUMP 'AN MEN

Yes, this is the Tian 'Anmen Square.....but a little different. #Nuffsaid

THE HUB

I don't want to talk about it..It is the trend.

THE DOLL

This used to be an ad concept create for gender inequality. The girl's face is replaced with a blow-up doll's face. 

Tom Ford Talks About Marketing

I always love Tom Ford's way of thinking on almost everything, and this video is about how Tom Ford explains marketing. In this interview, he argues that he don't like the word "marketing", and I have to say I don't like the word either. During my stay at my school (Clearly I'm from art/design school), everybody in the class is talking about "marketing", how would they promote a thing on social media blah blah blah....well, turns out, I'm not enjoying it at all because I find it so templated. 

I hate when people in class burst out the word "marketing" so easily just to act like they know everything about it as designers. Clearly, "marketing" is not a simple word, and it is not what we think as. "Marketing" is more like operating the business in a cohesive environment in order to make things work in a right way. I appreciate the harmony brought by marketing to the brand, and I also appreciate the glitch triggered by the marketing to the world's market. 

It kinda makes me feel sad on how design schools like my school introduces the term "marketing" as a cheap theory to students, because marketing is way more than just a brief, an outline etc.. When it comes to the word "marketing", I always associate it with the word "environment", which means things work in a cohesive way. It is the community we create for the brand as designers, it is how we communicate. 

I used the word "templated" to criticize how people see "marketing" in my class a lot. "Templated" means things get worked in a rigid way, like a template, and such way of working is the biggest killer to "marketing" because marketing is moving all the time. I almost hear all everyone in my class talk about social media advertising like "we can post this up on instagram", "create a Facebook page", "hashtags this" etc., but the problem is I don't see any motions in their ways of marketing, for they're all executing the marketing in the same way. To me, marketing is moving all the time, like the nature, like the environment, it is changing all the time. When a project is assigned, everyone is trying to bring up as many social media portals as they can, showing that they have considered everything, but literally they have considered nothing.  Even a six-year-old kid knows the power of social media, but the difference between a kid and a designer is how you get through all those plans to get your brand worked in a cohesive way.

To me, marketing is organic. It is closely connected to the core of the brand. If marketing lost such connection with the brand, it will break all everything up in the system, and things will not gonna work in a friendly way. 

Running Through the C with my Train

I was on the train today to school, and I filmed this with my phone, which feels like I was the man driving the C-Train through the Calgary city. The view is just oddly satisfying to me.

From Alexandra to Alexandra's

It takes up a lot of efforts to come up with a good name. And such efforts are not intentional at all. My inspirations come from the weirdest ways you've ever heard, for example, I came up with "JimBuffy" as my stage name when I was taking **** in the washroom, or came up with "JIMMYRECKLESS" as a name when I was on the bus. I am probably the most person you've met who is bad at naming. Many times it takes me hours and hours to think a good name for an artwork, a song or a collection. But I came up with "Alexandra's" as a name just under 5 minutes, and I think it is one of the best names I came up with.

I know Alexandra back in 2014 when I was still a first-year. I didn't really have much feeling on her the first time I saw her. To me, she was just another person sitting in the class like the rest of the people. The only impression she gave me that time was she was really quiet. Honestly, it is really hard for me to get impressed by others. In fact, the only type of people that can impress me are those who carry a strong energy inside of them. I don't really remember since when I started to get impressed by Alexandra, but I feel like she did strike me with something. I did sense a strong energy inside of her, even though she is quiet. To me, the quietest person is the rowdiest person in this world because only quiet people know how to roar.

The feeling Alexandra gave me is like drowning down deep under the ocean where there are tons of tons of stories to explore. There are mysteries; There are secrets; There are something even oriental, something gentle, but powerful at the same time. You might find it improper to describe a girl in this way, but I do describe her as the smoke of opium. That is kinda like the Opium perfume introduced by Yves Saint Laurent back in 1977. And yes, I love to have that opium smoke around the name "Alexandra's".

Autism makes me bad at communicating, especially communicating with girls. I don't remember how I broke into the very first message with her, but I guess I probably just asked about the weather, school and stuff, which is kind of nerdy. I feel like I'm in a labyrinth where all the excitements are invisible until I walk my way out to find them. I feel excited, curious, nervous and scared all at the same time when I talk to her, but I love this kind of adventure. I don't get impressed by people's works easily. In fact, I get impressed by people themselves, the stories behind them and the quality. 

I introduced "Alexandra's" as a name back in 3rd year brand design class. It was my very first time using the name for my cosmetics brand. People started asking me why "Alexandra's"? I simply told them "because it is mysterious, romantic and I love it."... I love to be straightforward sometimes.

I always want to start a clothing brand with the name "Alexandra's". I want to make the most romantic clothes...even for the least romantic people. Well the Gucci brand under Alessandro Michele is definitely my biggest inspiration to think this way. Michele's design is so storytelling, for he uses the fabrics as canvas for prints and embroidery instead of just tailoring everything up to make a jacket. 

With all that, I really wish that one day I could put "Alexandra's" as a brand out in the spotlight. At least that is what I always wanted to, for I think it is really a good way to spread romance across this cold shallow world. The romance the name gives me feels the same as the Alexandra girl, which motivates me to create something beautiful and something opium-feel. 

One last thing, not all the girls I've met can be my Isabella Blow. 

Put Everything in the Motion

I've been living in Calgary for college for like a couple of years now. During my stay in the C, I do see art and design here are just as frozen as the weather. The only thing I don't like about the city is nothing is moving here. And I find it sarcastic to take art and design here because the city is not as entertaining as places like LA, NYC or Tokyo. I always tell people art and design in Calgary is cold like winter, people here don't like to change. Me, as a designer/artist, my mission is to bring motions to the city. I'm like a glitch to this city while everyone is enjoying a static lifestyle. I love to create glitch, a distortion that shakes everything. 

One thing that bugs me the most at school is not so many design students here are brave enough to handle criticism. No one breaks the silence. no one is love to be controversial... while I always love to be controversial, because that means I'm trying to push something further. For every new thing, a new idea, before it comes out, people always question on it, which is like you are exploring deeper in the universe, and people will not believe in it until you actually succeed in doing it. I'm always and will be a controversial person, for that is what I do. Art reflects culture at a specific time, design reflects the development of human sense. I would rather believe art is dead than make it static. Art can't be static, nothing should be static. 

This Alexander McQueen video is one of the most inspiring videos to me. When I show this to people around, they always relate the video to the craft or talent or skills McQueen has in his design works. But what I love about the video is he became active when he was drawing. He always got his brush spinning, sparking the ideas out through his mind and drop 'em on the paper. To me, art is a feeling that connects, not a plan that conceives. That is freedom, that is the true meaning of art/design. Every time i see this video, I do enjoy a lot watching McQueen spinning his brush on the paper to draw. I love the motion, I love the energy, I love every drop of color became every bullet that penetrates the blank space. So now, let's get back to Calgary, the only thing this city lacks of is the motion.

What I love the most about McQueen is the aggression beneath his skin. Aggressive is romantic. It is the behaviour that every artist must have.

Oh My Gosh

I have no problem to admit this is the best music video of the 2016. Maybe to some people, it is not that storytelling. But to me, it is so inspiring and emotional. It means something, something that is deep inside myself...maybe just an energy that I always wanted. The reason I like this music video is I understand the video. I totally know what it is all about.

Happy Chinese New Year With This Girl

I'm not a morning person at all, but this morning I know I gotta share this! It is almost Chinese New Year, so fist of all, Happy Chinese New Year to everyone!

Victo Ngai, a Chinese illustrator from Hong Kong brought her new Chinese artwork "The Lucky Rooster" to the headline of the Apple website (China) to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The color of the artwork really gives all of us a strong taste of the traditional Chinese culture, and it kinda tells us that the Chinese New Year is here.

But more importantly, besides her stunning artworks, what I like about this her is how she fights the prejudice people hold on artists/designers with her own artworks. There is a great energy behind every work she created, which turns into a strong message to tell people that artists/designers can still make something happen...something amazing, something that would shock the world. In the video below, the girl talks about the prejudice most Chinese parents hold on art/design, and how she proves them wrong with her efforts and achievements.