Why I have been away for so long

 

Long holiday, fulfilling life, countless engagements, lack of inspiration to write... and the ISTD project!

Now, how can I write about it just after it is over and be fair? No idea, I think it is going to be difficult.

First approach: I wanted to do it so much I could not wait for the briefing session to take place.

The tutors, Paul and Ben, chose to go for the reinterpretation of Flatland, a Victorian novella by Edwin A. Abbott, quite interesting and unusual. As the brief from the ISTD asked, we were supposed to produce a new edition of the novella which was not necessarily a book as we could generally think of it. Apparently so a huge amount of freedom on our side, especially considering the organization's conservative approach toward typography, according to both Paul and Ben. Five weeks to submit an almost final version of our idea, at least close enough to clearly see the potential of it and if our skills were at a remarkable level to go for the real ISTD assessment.

Brief clear, strict timetable made up by the tutors, to help our time management, because of the relatively short time given to work on the project. Everything started out smooth and exciting, off I went, research and first rough ideas in few days time. Piece of cake, I was so excited I could not ask for anything else. Little drawback: it had been clear from the very beginning that I would have spent the next five weeks just deep inside Abbott's paradoxical universe and nothing else...

A very long time...

I just can not believe it took me so long to make up my mind and get back here writing. I am not in the mood yet, if I have to be honest, but I suppose it is better to start somehow something I have to do.

Where did I leave it? Two and half months ago, straight before handing in my pdf for term 1, it seems.

Result: 57%, average (some 65, more 55). Disappointing, no more, no less. Slightly upsetting at the beginning too, no more after a while and a more careful, less emotional, analysis of my outcome. It pretty much looks like shit. Not disturbing, unsettling shit however, which would not be so bad after all, but just like soulless, useless shit. Maybe an accountant could achieve similar results after some little efforts. This is what makes me really sad in the end and understanding why I ended up creating such a worthless piece of work does not make me feel any better.

Cool enough, I can find a good number of ways to blame on my tutors for my disappointing results, like I have been listening too much to their generic/general, foggy advices. I tried to create a pdf that does not steal attention from its contents because of a too flamboyant look. I tried to be tidy and keep it simple. I tried to make it functional and easy to navigate. I tried to keep it in the mood of the variables, to show a bit of subject knowledge.

I ended up in total, unmistakable dullness!

Fair enough, it is still better than I could expect, considering how much I disdain each one of the variables given. Unfortunately, it is a further example of how dull my works can be most of the time.