With Facebook lauching their IPO and making its creators billions of dollars I'm still wondering are advertisers really making money by advertising on Facebook? Or are advestisers really making money through any kind of social media site? I have looked on the web and haven't found one success story where an advertiser advestising on Facebook has generated profits though they continue to throw billions of dollars at it just because of their large user numbers, numbers that show that over 80% of its users that are on Facebook are not only overseas but is on a mobile device. Recently GM stopped advestising on Facebook and it makes me wonder as someone who uses the Internet I as I'm sure many do hate advertising on the web. From pop-ups, spam, and many videos on the web forcing the user to watch an advestisement before the video I wonder how effective is online advestisement? Or is word of mouth still king? What I'm trying to say is what good is a user, fan or follower if they don't fully buy what you're selling and if they don't what does it say about social media as a whole? How effective is social media really?

Why does everybody seem to be slaves to social media? The last thing I want is a business card with your facebook information on it, you know? Is nothing sacred. Tweets feel emotionless and anonymous and the majority of my fellow students seem to be stuck to facebook like flies to sticky paper. So much so that they tend to not even pay attention in class. A site has that much hold on you that you can't wait 3 hours to log on? On one hand I love technology but on the other I'm wondering what is it doing to our society as a whole.  

DESIGN READING
A notable theme in Jay-Z’s book Decoded is objectivity, defined as “a focus on external reality.” In fact, this objectivity is a major difference between graphic design and traditional forms of fine art, which can be subjective without contest. Our messages must give people what they need in a way they didn’t expect, while looking holistically at the client’s message. As designers, do we resist the urge to take a message at face value? Or simply absorb and move on, cranking out a predictable solution? 

Though very different than graphic design, the music industry is deeply rooted in story telling. There are many supporting elements in this niche of the arts, but while comparing and contrasting the process, I think Jay-Z’s book deserves some attention. His popularity and persona have been at the forefront of the rap scene for decades, and the release of his book is another way of gaining access to his charisma. Check out page 57 for the real story behind "99 Problems" - pretty interesting.

DESIGN READING: Joshua Foer’s book Moonwalking with Einstein describes his stumble into the weird world of memory mastery. What began as a casual interest rapidly sucks him into an existential crisis. The more intrigued he becomes, the more stumped he is: “I didn’t have a clue how my own memory worked,” he says. Foer finds himself shadowing memory champions and chatting with neuroscientists, who, eager to persuade, turn him into the subject of numerous psychological and intellectual tests. He hears repeatedly, “Anyone can do it. It’s memorization. It just takes practice.” So he dives in, emerging one year later in the finals of the USA Memory Championship.

What I found most interesting about Moonwalking with Einstein is how quickly we all dismiss our “half functioning” memory. I wonder what our profession would look like if we began to explore the full capacity of our memories, especially since a designer’s work is always referential. Are we aware of these points of inspiration? What role does memory play in the design process? And if “our memories are indeed improvable,” should we be spending more time on improvement?

I am a senior design student graduating in May, and for my final portfolio class, the professor is requiring us to print 100 letterhead and 100 envelopes of our identity for the final project.

We, as a class, find this to be excessive, and wanted to get the feedback of the professional design community. 

Is 100 of each excessive, since as emerging designers we are most likely to change out identity in a short timeframe, or should we just suck it up and waste the paper and money?