Unlock Your Creativity

1. Trailer: Have you ever felt like your creative juices need a filling up and an extra splash of flavor? In this class, we will talk through many ways to help ideas start flowing and ways to stay creative when the going gets tough. The project I set will stay with you throughout your creative careers, helping you come up with quick solutions to many design briefs in the future. Or if you're already working in the design industry, this class will help you get your sparks back and your creative buzz feeling really renewed. By the end of this class, you will feel creatively raring to go, your brains will be full of awesome ideas that you can carry forward onto many design projects. So please join me in this class, unlock your creativity and learn to think like a designer. 2. Introduction: Hello. Welcome to my class, Unlock your Creativity: Learn to Think Like a Designer. In this class, we will be focusing on creative thinking and ways to get inspired. Before I talk too much about the class, I'll just briefly introduce myself. My name is Faye Brown, and I'm a designer and animator based in the UK. I worked in SoHo for about 10 years creating motion graphic projects from title sequences to commercials and music videos. I then went freelance, and since then I've worked on a variety of print-based jobs, from branding and I still do some animation as well. Nowadays, I mostly work from home by myself. Occasionally, I will also work in a studio. I also do online teaching and have a few Skillshare classes now. Most recently, a series of classes called Branding Your Creative Business. My first Skillshare class was the art of typography. So please do check out those classes as well if you wish to. Quite often, I'm asked about what skills you need as a graphic designer. Aside from the technical skills of using programs like Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, there are a lot of other skills that help enormously in graphic design. You could know Photoshop and Illustrator inside out, but that doesn't necessarily make you a good designer. In my first year of doing a graphic design degree, we hardly even touched a computer. So in this new series of classes, I want to share with you some really important skills needed to be a good graphic designer. I'm hoping with my background of working in a variety of environments and aspects of the design industry, I can share all the tips and skills I've found useful over my career. These projects are good for any age too. If you have any aspiring designers in your household, these are great projects to keep older kids and teenagers busy and engaged. The project I set in this class is one I did at 19 during the summer holidays before starting an art course that was a forerunner to me doing a graphic design degree. It's a project that really set the tone for me and helped me realize I wanted to be a graphic designer. Other people took it in a completely different direction. So if you're already working in design or illustration and finding it difficult to hone down a style, this project can help with that too. Throughout the class, I will discuss many ways to help you look at something in new ways and ways to, excuse the cliche, but think outside the box. The project is quite simple in its nature, and it's great for really exercising those creative muscles and helping you through designer's block. Everything else we will learn in this class will help you on a variety of design or creative projects in the future. We will start with setting your project brief, I will then tell you my top five tips for idea generation. These are the processes I go through on most design briefs I'm given. We will then talk about 10 quick sure-fire ways to stay creative or give you a little boost when you need it, and then I'll give you some ideas for mark-making. Ones that don't always involve a computer, but will train your brain to think creatively. So let's kick off with your project brief. 3. Project brief: Your project brief. This is such a simple brief, but equally one of the hardest to complete, so I hope you're up for the challenge. Basically, you're given one item and you have to think of 100 different ways to illustrate that item. You're free to use any medium you wish from simple pen and ink, sculpture, painting, photography, potato printing, drawing in the sand, whatever you want, in fact, by the end of this, you might have tried all of them. You can either collect all the objects together onto a big piece of card, maybe like A1 size or using photos for any non-flat solutions you come up with, or just post them up as when you create them, maybe post them on Instagram as a project. If you need help deciding on your item, I've made this sheet with 12 objects on, print it off, put them all in a hat and pull one out or decide on an item yourself. The key is to not think about it too much before you pick your chosen subject. Don't think, I'm not picking a robot because there's only ten ways I can think of illustrating robot. You will never think of a 100 based illustrates something straight off, we need to exercise that part of your brain throughout this challenge. The only constraint I would suggest you give yourself is to choose an object that essentially has a very simple shape. Throughout this class, I will use the sun as an example and you can't really get any more simple than a sun. So if I start with something so simple, it gives you the scope to come up with a range of solutions without getting too bothered by the intricacies of an object's shape. 100 suns or a 100 fish will be a lot easier to achieve than 100 castles for example. Throughout this class, we are going to work through lots of fun ways to stay creative when the going gets tough. Think of me as your personal trainer. I'm going to have you do like a 100 push-ups, actually no, I'm not going to do a 100 push-ups, that's no fun. But this project will help you dig deep when you think you're all out of ideas and solutions. You might have seen a lot of a 100 day challenges on Instagram or Twitter, and I started one called #The100DayChallenge, and within that, challenged myself to do a different piece of hand lettering each day as it was an area I wanted to improve on. I could see over the time my skills were improving and becoming more confident with my drawing, and the project is a little bit different to those kinds of challenges, but equally, it trains your brain and creative thinking. I wouldn't worry about only doing one a day, some days, you might want to do 10 other days you might only do one. So you find at the beginning you are full of ideas and they might just keep flowing out and then you hit a dip and you have to work your way through this dip before something clicks and suddenly you're full of good ideas again. This graph illustrates the general process people go through with this project. The key to a good designer, and most people in creative industries is this dip. When you're all out of ideas and how to not give up and just to keep plugging through. Sometimes I've worked on logos and nailed it at this stage, let's say I've got a logo brief and I know one of my first designs is almost perfect for the client, I will still try to work on just to see if anything else develops, but sometimes you can crack it straight away, sometimes, however, my graph looks more like this to begin with on a project. Literally, I'm faced with no inspiration or ideas and then I hit upon something that sparks off a load more potential routes. Different projects will connect with you differently. We all have those projects where no ideas come straight away. The key is to push on through this dip on the graph and get to the stage of the ideas flowing, and this is why the 100 project is such a good project to complete. You will almost certainly hit that dip at some point, and this class will help you overcome those thoughts of being downbeat or disheartened, about not thinking of a brilliant idea straight away. So that's your project. Illustrate one item 100 different ways. You can start straight away, just get some drawings or designs than to start. Some of them you might literally spend 10 seconds on, others you might sit down and spend an hour on, there's no real set time limit, just do what comes naturally. Work your way through to videos to help you kick off some ideas. If you work better with deadlines, then why not set yourself the challenge of completing this in x amount of days? This will all depend on your circumstances where study and job's, family commitments, so I don't want to set that for you, but there's no harm in setting a little of deadline, you will have them all the time and on design jobs. Also, the key to finishing this project is starting the project. So right away, start by simply drawing down five quick ideas and either scan them in or take a photo and start uploading your images in the project gallery on Skillshare, like today, do it today. I'll be checking in regularly and I also encourage you all to comment on other people's projects, give each other feedback and encouragement. In the next video, we will talk about five top ways to get those ideas flowing. 4. Top tips for idea generation: Creative Thinking: Five Top Tips to Idea Generation. Creative people are often hit with flashes of inspiration, sometimes those flashes don't happen straight away. Most of the time, they happen when you are thinking about coming up with a flash of inspiration. A lot of time, my best ideas happen when I'm about to drift off to sleep, and then yes you guessed it, come in the morning, I've forgotten it. But I know it was the best idea ever. So here's a little tip. Always leave a notebook, or a sketch book by your bed, or in your handbag, or coat pocket, and a pen, don't forget pen, and then write down these little gems. Even if they don't make much sense at the time, just write them down because these inherent thoughts might lead to something or somewhere. In this video, I'm going to talk to you about some ways of starting to think like a designer. This isn't a series of steps that you should take, it's just a bunch of ways to get some ideas flowing, see which ones work for you best. These are also the techniques I use on many design briefs that I'm given, from designing logos to designing an info-graphic, to doing animation. Brainstorming usually consists of a group of people all chatting freely about random ideas that major sparks some great ideas to develop. Brainstorming in a group only works well with people who have a very good connection with each other. Now, I've been in brainstorming meetings and been afraid to speak up sometimes because I've got outlooks with some wacky idea. That's not what you want from a brainstorming session. Brainstorming needs to be completely open. Now quite often, as I don't work for a studio anymore, but I'm freelance, the idea of stage starts with me and ends with me, unless I have some creative clients. But you can still brainstorm by yourself. I usually do this in the form of a spider's web, where words start flowing from one to the next thought. So here's a spider's web I've done for the word "Sun." If this was a branding job, I'd also have strains coming out for companies target market, any preferred colors, their tone of voice and style, etc. But with this project, we can be much more free. So I have the word "sun" in the middle, and coming out of that, there's lots of random words. These words might help spark off other ideas for how to interpret the word sun. From one word, you might think of another route to take. For example, I started thinking about the solar system and how our sun is a star. Then that led on to thinking about stars in the forms of celebrities and Hollywood. So one thought can progress to lead to another thought process. So try this with your chosen object and see if it opens up any ideas for you. Share your process in the project gallery, and let us know how you find this exercise. I do this with most project briefs I'm given by clients. It's one of my preferred methods of starting to form some ideas. Research. Quite often in design, I need to research what I'm designing for. I did in info-graphic lately about bee keeping, and I know nothing about bee keeping, so as I got some good information from my client, I also needed to read up a bit about the subject myself, and that can lead you to other ideas. Just by quickly looking up about the sun on Wikipedia, I can learn about the composition of the sun, the religious aspects of how the sun has been viewed over time, I can see closer pictures of the sun's surface, all of this could easily spark off some more ideas for ways to illustrate the sun. So even if you think you might know everything there is to know about, let's say an apple, do some research on apples, I bet you'll find out something you never knew, or you'll read something which sparks an idea of how to interpret an apple in a different way. Questioning. Ask questions about your subject and answer them. So for the sun, I might ask, what does the sun do? How does the sun make me feel? Where is most beautiful sunrise I've seen? What are the characteristics of the sun? This may or may not lead you to some more ideas. When answering the question, "How does the sun make me feel,? a sunny day immediately makes my mood happier and refreshed, and this would be something I tried to communicate in my 100 suns'. Mood boards. Anyone who's taken any of my previous classes knows I like a mood board. In the branding your creative business class, I encourage students to create a mood board of their ideal client, for example, finding pictures of objects that target market might be interested in trying to get an idea of who they are aiming their business at. Now, mood boards are great for those of us who are more creatively, visually inclined. I don't mind reading, but much rather look for a book with some inspirational pictures in, for example. So with this project, create a mood board relating to your chosen subject. You could do this on sites like Pinterest or you could go down a more a tactile route of collecting the imagery from magazines or fabrics or textures. Maybe try both routes and see which one you're feeling more connected to. Be careful how deep you go with any searches on the Internet, for example searching for sun logos will show up a lot of results, some of which I've included in this slide. Now you don't want to copy anything you see. Mood boards are there for inspiration. If you have a brief from a client to design a logo incorporating the sun, be careful to not overly search existing logos on the Internet, as it can then be very hard to think of your own, especially if you see something you really really like. So share your mood boards in the project gallery and let us know if they have led to any more ideas. Take a break, play. It's so important to give yourself a break. There's very few people who will get their best ideas sat or slumped in front of a computer screen or TV. Like I said before, some of the best ideas I've had when not thinking about the projects I need to do, maybe I'm just driving the car or singing in the kitchen. Try to turn off sometimes, you can get really bogged down when thinking about protect too much. I was lucky enough to study a graphic design degree in a beach town. For me I love being by the water, and I found living and studying near the sea pretty inspiring. Often, just going out for a run or walk down sea front. I used to get some great ideas when doing that. So do something you enjoy and find relaxing. The other aspect I've really started embracing since having kids of my own is play. As for when we grow up, a lot of us forget how to play. Since having kids, I have loved playing Lego again, or running around the soft play center, going down slides and getting stuck in ball post, making silly models at Play-Doh. If any of you have seen documentaries about Pixar or Google, you will see how their workplaces embrace the idea of play. So I want you to really try and let go with this project. You will find you get to a point where the ideas start running out. At this point, take a break, go and play with Lego. Go for a walk and keep toys on your desk to play with, play with Play-Doh, look at buildings from a different angle, try and act like a kid again and be a bit silly. I have an Etsy shop selling principle items called Miss Principles. What kicked off this idea, was when I was playing with my son and his toy kitchen, all his pretend food boxes we're looking a bit tired and squashed, so I thought I could create templates that you reprint whenever you need new ones. So the idea of my Etsy shop was pretty much formed out of playing. Now I want you to try these five tips and let us know how you get on in the project gallery. Did some of them work for you more than others? Post steps on your images that you were inspired by using these techniques. In the next video, I'm going to go through some 10 real, real quick ways of being more creative. 5. 10 quick ways to be more creative: Now you can search online for ways to be creative, and some are more touchy-feely than others, like work with all your heart, which is fair enough. It's important to love what you do. I genuinely love being a designer, but then again, I've had projects I've not enjoyed, ones where inspiration runs, very dry. Ones where working with all your heart is very hard work. I've put together a practical list of 10 quick ways to be more creative, even when you are working on a project you aren't particularly in love with. Number 1, doodle. I've always been a doodler. At school, I'd often doodle in lectures. It was almost like my way of writing notes. We are all aware of how big the coloring in books for adults have become in the last few years. Proven way to relax. If I need to calm my four-year-old down, I'll try to get him to sit down and draw or color in. You could doodle like a brainstorm. Start off with your object in the center and doodle around it, and just see where it takes you. Drink water. I'm the first to admit, I'm slightly addicted to a famous brand of soda drink. I don't drink coffee, and sometimes we all need a caffeine hit. But honestly, when I feel the best is when I've drunk water. Water refreshes you. We aren't all perfect, but try to stay relatively healthy and get enough sleep, as this will help your mind feel alive and awake, which is very important for creative thinking. Listen to music. Depending on the projects, I have a few playlists setup from classical to dance music to indie bands, whatever mood I need to be into design. I know it sounds cheesy, but often if I'm designing some Whedon stationery, I'll listen to classical music. Yes, I will stick on the Christmas tunes when designing a Christmas card. Set up a playlist of five songs, pretty extreme from each other. Maybe one classical, one cheesy pop, one rock, one R&B, and one dance track. Doodle your object whilst listening to each track. Share your results in the project gallery. Did the music have an influence on me? Travel, go somewhere new, walk away from the computer screen. Now, I speak about this in the previous lesson, but it's worth repeating. My husband and I went on a sabbatical when we were both 30. We managed to get three months off of our jobs at the time. Yes, we did have some pretty cool bosses, and we traveled around the world. I can't tell you how refreshed and full of ideas we were when we returned. But you don't have to travel the world, just go somewhere you've never been before. A new cafe or bar, a day trip to somewhere you've always wanted to go. Go on a bike ride. Just get away from your computers. Surround yourself with creative people. Go to a museum, go to a gig, go to a life drawing class, even if you can't or don't think you can draw. Go to a pottery class. One of the biggest things I missed when going freelance was working in a studio full of creative people to bounce ideas off. It's important to be around creative, enthusiastic people. The buzz they can give you will help your creativity grow. Don't worry about making mistakes. In fact, even if you make a mistake on this project, why not include it? We learn from mistakes. Mistakes can lead to other ideas. Think about people you like. How many people really like the person who is perfect all the time? Mistakes are human, embrace them, build on them, and move forward. Go on, post up a few mistakes in the project gallery, or at least a couple that you weren't too happy with. Try new techniques, learn something new. In the next lesson, I'll speak about lots of different mediums and techniques you can use for this project. Never stick to what you know you are good at. Push yourself out of your comfort zone. When I first started a career in graphic design, I played it very safe, keep into what I felt comfortable with. Nowadays, I'll try something that's not necessarily in keeping with my style. Learning something new keeps you creative. I've taken a lot of classes that don't really relate to what I do on a day-to-day basis, but I enjoy trying new things like calligraphy or using watercolors. Create your perfect environment. I'll be the first to admit my desk often gets messy. But I find I don't work so well when it's cluttered, I work best in a clean, spacious, light environment. Other people might prefer a cozy corner. Others will prefer working outdoors if possible. Create your perfect environment where you really feel at home and relaxed. This will help your brain to focus on your job and not keep looking at something that's maybe out of place or needs putting in the bin. Dance. I know it's cheesy, but just stick on a favorite song. Close the blinds or curtains and dance your heart out for three minutes. Get your body moving. If dancing is not your thing, just do some star jumps, jog on the spot. Something to get your heart beating a little faster and blood pumping around your body, and most importantly, your brain. Get those creative juices going with a little exercise. Finally, write lists. I'm a massive list writer. I find writing a list every morning of what needs doing helps me to cleanse my mind of thoughts that keep popping into my head whilst I'm trying to focus on a project. Once I've written a list, I'll cross off as many as I can. The little jobs that only take five minutes, get them out away with. If you work from home, you might often have other thoughts like need to put the washing on, take dog for a walk, etc. I'll try to get any small jobs just done and dusted so you can take things off your list. Ticking things off your list gives you a good sense of achievement in itself. Anything like taking the dog for a walk would be good to leave until the middle of the day, if you can, as a walk can give you a little energy boost when you're starting to fade. That's 10 really quick things you can start on straight away. Post up some of the imagery you create after doing some of these tips, the doodling, listening to different music, trying something new, something you've created after a dance or a little workout. Don't forget to include some of your mistakes too. In the next video, I'll talk you through some ideas of different ways of mark making for when you start hitting the dip, and the creative juices are just really lacking. 6. Different ways of mark making: Different ways of mark making. Now we've spoken about quite a few techniques and tips for getting creative ideas going. In this video, we will talk more about physical ways of mark making and how can you reach the magic 100 for this project. So you don't have to stick to this, but when the ideas start running dry, try to complete as many of these as you can. You'll be amazed at what ideas might spark off from starting some of these. Don't forget to post them in the project gallery. Let us know which ones you found hard, which ones you really enjoyed, which ones you might try again. Use food. Try producing 10 solutions to your object using food; potato prints, flower, rice, squatty cream, think about a negative space too. Using flour or couscous could be great for creating shapes within it. You can sprinkle flower over cut out pieces of paper, for example. Using the clementine segments in this way, might inspire some sort of logo for a certain project. Photography. Depending on your chosen subject, this will be easier for some than others. Ten flowers would be easy. Ten fish might be a bit trickier, but think about the shapes of the fish. Go out and photograph anything that's slightly resembles an element of a fish for example, or something that sums up the essence of your subjects. Maybe it's the colors you associate with your project. Don't worry if you haven't got the latest SLR camera, just use whatever tools you have. Smart phones are fine. Remember, this is mostly about idea generation. Use nothing but paper. Cut it, fold it, use collage, use different colored paper together or patent paper. Look at artists like Martith for inspiration. Drawing. So you've probably all drawn your object a few times by now. Now, I want you to try 10 ways of drawing differently. Maybe it's using your other hand, closing your eyes and draw. Use other materials like lipstick, drawing in the sand, crayons, felt tips, chalk, draw on different objects like pebbles, napkins. You can see here, this is the sun. One is drawn with my left hand and one is drawn with my eyes closed. I was trying to make the same shape with both, but it can lead to some interesting shapes and solutions. Let's give it a go. Modeling. I want you to think about three-dimensions with this. Use play-doh, plasticine, clay, salt dough, cardboard, sand, lego, wood, metal beads, anything you can get your hands on. Remember the tip about playing. Try to think like a kid again and play. Don't overthink it. Remember, don't worry if you make mistakes. Try to include about 5-10 models of some kind in your 100. Painting. Just paint, even if you think you can't. Paint on different materials, paint using a variety of paint, from watercolor to acrylics. Some people will be more into painting than others but if you think it's not your thing, try anyway, remember the tip about trying new things. Typography. Try illustrating the word using type. Maybe it's simply choosing a typeface that represents your object or maybe you do something more elaborate with type. Maybe a quote including your word. When looking at typefaces, think about the qualities different typefaces have. Here's four different typefaces illustrating the word sun. I think the three rounded ones represent the sun and how it makes people feel much more than the square one bottom right, for example. Have a go at producing at least five typographic solutions in the 100. Whereas these are quite specific to this project, you might find it useful to draw upon some of these in your everyday design jobs. I quite often try drawing with my other hand. I'm always taking photos, even if they aren't relating to a particular project at the time. Typography is a skill you will always need as a graphic designer. If this is an area you'd like to learn more about, then please do check out my off typography class on Skillshare also. As for using food, you never know when this might come in useful. Here's some styles from a title sequence I helped design for a TV program called Britain's Best Dish. This was lots of fun by the way. Although some of these techniques might seem silly at some point in your careers, as designers, I promise you, you will use them. Post up some of your works of art that you create in the project gallery. I really can't wait to check in and see what you guys come up with. 7. Final thoughts: I know that's probably a lot to take in in one go, so I've made up printable sheet for you guys to print out, post up on your walls and just to look at when you're starting to feel a bit of a creative vibe falling flat. All the techniques we've spoken about in this class can be applied to a variety of design jobs. If you're feeling really overwhelmed with the prospect of creating a 100 solutions, break it down, either by the suggestions mentioned in the previous videos like using food or modeling, or maybe be more specific, try creating 10 logos, incorporating your object for 10 made up companies, or 10 illustrations, 10 greeting card designs, or 10 posters. Breaking it down into 10 is a lot less daunting and can also help you in an area of design that you want to build upon. Before I sign off, I just wanted to give you a few more tips that are useful in this project and beyond within the design world. Be passionate. I spoke earlier about how a lot of people advise you to love what you do. If you're working as a designer and not loving your job the majority of the time, it's probably time to start asking yourself some questions. Designing is a great job to have. I feel privileged to make money doing something I genuinely enjoy and get a buzz from. Remember, you might not love every project that you work on but try to be passionate about it. Your client has entrusted you with their project. Being passionate will shine through in your work. Break the rules. Now, this helps if you know the rules in the first place I guess, but sometimes, that's not necessary. When it comes to typography, I think it's useful to have an understanding of good typographic practices. Once you know them and they come naturally to you, that's when you can start having fun breaking the rules, like the famous designer, David Carson did with his illegible type. Be critical and confident. Tell us which solutions to this project you're really happy with and which ones you aren't so keen on. This is a good skill to have as a designer. Being able to realize that not everything you do is amazing, will help you have the confidence in knowing when you really have come up with something quite awesome. There's this magic zone to be in on this matter. You don't want to be too self-critical and you don't want to be overly cocky. It took me far few years to gain that confidence in my work. The beauty about completing your 100 projects is that it stays with you. You will find that you might be working on a project in a year's time. Remember one of the solutions to the 100 project and think, "Hey, I could try something similar with this." I really encourage you to complete this project. The best way to complete it is to start it. Post up in the gallery five solutions straight away. I also encourage all of you to comment on other people's projects and encourage them along. I will be checking into the projects myself very regularly. If any of you are on Instagram, then tag me in any posts you upload for this project and I will comment. My Instagram is @faberdesigns. Do try to use the project gallery also as that is where we can chat the easiest. Thanks a lot for signing up to this course. If you enjoyed it, please do check out my other Skillshare classes, and keep an eye out for some new classes this year, talking of which I will be creating some more classes that will help your skills as a graphic designer. I'll create a discussion forum in the class. If there's any element of graphic design that you would like to know more about, just let me know and I'll see if I can incorporate that into a new class. Good luck in your projects and most importantly, have fun. 8. Update video - what to do with your projects next... : What to do with your finished projects. Just so I would upload a new video up to see in some of your finished projects and those that are still work-in-progress. A few people suggested, I gave a little tutorial on what to do with your final designs. So a tutorial is a little bit tricky as you've all got semi different solutions to this project. So a tutorial could be too specific for something. So I thought maybe I'd just talk through a few potential routes you could take with developing a few of your designs or artworks. Print On Demand sites, you could think about developing something and uploading it onto a Print On Demand site like Society6 or Zazzle. You need to prep your artwork in a few different formats, and then you'll see your artwork on anything from t-shirts to clocks. Now, don't expect to become a millionaire overnight. These sites are notoriously hard to get found on. But it's a nice way to see your artwork on products easily and maybe order yourself something to promote your own artwork. Pattern design, a few of you have already started to make patterns as part of your 100 project, and that's really great to see. You can upload your designs to a site like Spoonflower and order fabric from them. Now, there are some great classes on Skillshare teaching Surface Pattern Design. I'd highly recommend Maja's course, Elizabeth Olwen, and Bonnie Christine. Greeting cards, why not turn some of your ideas into greeting cards? You can either do these as hand-drawings or get batch printed professionally. Logo design, if you're looking to get into the branding side of graphic design, or develop your portfolio, why not make up a fake company to design a logo for? Now, this is a bit tricky as there's a lot involved to branding, and using a fake made-up company is not ideal as you want work into a client brief. If any of you are interested in this, then get in touch and tell me what your chosen object was, and I will create a brief for you to work with. Also, pop along to my branding classes, which might help. Now, there's probably a 100 things you can do with your a 100 projects. I will start a discussion in the class announcements and if any of you would like to add your ideas, then please do add them on to that thread. So keep up the good work, everybody. Seriously, there's some awesome projects being uploaded. I've been blown away by your creativity. Thanks again for taking part in this class.