{the final post}

okay--so now that my light has made its debut in class, I can now reveal it on my blog. I absolutely love how it turned out, and is definitely the newest & coolest accessory in my little office. I have had such a wonderful semester in this class--such a great group of people lead by an awesome professor {snaps for Austin!} it makes me sad it is over! until next semester, see you people laterrr.

*sidenote*

So, I am happy to say my final project is COMPLETE {yay} actually, it is sitting next to me all prettily lit up right now as I write this! However, I want it to be a surprise for my class tomorrow--Austin I know you're out there reading this--so I am just going to end tonight with a little side-note instead. This fun little thing happened to me where I became t-shirt chair of my sorority (who would have guessed, right?) Anywho, I got this random key passed down to me along with the new title/position. Come to find out it unlocked this mystery room in my sorority house that I have now converted into my own little studio/secret office. Let me tell you--in a house full of 100 girls, a extra little cubicle is like my own little sanctuary. Of course I added a few fun little touches to make it my own getaway, so I thought you'd like to see at least something fun since I'm not sharing my light until tomorrow. Peace out world..time to get some zzzz's before the final day of class tomorrow...ahh!

a little process work

just some pics of my "lite" in the making!

LIGHT — LITE — LANTERN / Materiality / Immateriality & Design

The fourth and final project challenged myself, as well as my classmates, to construct light sources SOLELY made of paper---oh and with no adhesives, of course. To begin this journey of a project, we started by exploring different types of paper--folded, crumpled, wet, thick, thin, etc. After we made our discoveries here, we proceeded to construct many different "skins" of paper--to develop paper folding techniques. After this we then scaled our folding techniques up, producing many large models to make way toward the final product. With many challenges overcome, I am so pleased with how I grew {design wise} through this project.

THE END {project three}

THE hard work paid off for this journey of a project. From long nights to extensive group and class discussion, the final project proved that every member of my group learned from this experience. Personally, I couldn’t be more pleased with how my group went about interacting with each other, and completing our final piece as a team. I hope that when the pedestrians passed this out front of Watson library, they stopped to take a second to view and think about our creation. I like to think they did though, as it really was an eye catching piece of art. 

IN CONCLUSION, I really enjoyed this project and all the knowledge I gained from it. I definitely think this project and process will benefit my creative abilities as I continue onward in design school.

photo journal.

TO CONSTRUCT a photo journal, our class underwent a short lecture over the art of book making. I began with the basic folds as shown in the lecture, but was very dissatisfied with how simple they were, and how they lacked creativity. I promptly tossed them aside and let my creative juices take over. I constructed a “box book”, where the edges of my box expand to be photos, and the middle expands to reflect the graphics of my process book, with minimal information pulled from it. I had a great time learning about book making and constructing one of my very own. In the end I am quite pleased with how it turned out!

the process.

THROUGHOUT the study of the word obtain, myself & our group overcame many challenging obstacles. To make the process easier to tackle on a large scale, we each individually began the long project by constructing twenty different graphic arrangements of a single word. This gave us the ability to “see” one word many different ways, which came into play when we joined into groups to tackle the large word. From here, we each chose a letter of the word to individually construct to start experimenting with model building. These letters were then transferred to the three-foot scale letters of the final piece.

OUR final concept was collaboratively thought of by brainstorming how “obtain” is used in context. We came to the conclusion that in terms of college students, the majority of the time when one “obtains” is when obtaining information, commonly done at the library. Thus this became the location of our large model.

INSPIRED by the concept of the library, we chose to make our model appear to be a book, to fully engage in the location it would be placed in. To build this, we used many large sheets of cardboard that were scored, folded, cut, bent, painted, and glued. Oh, and a lot of teamwork, too.

the {group} word

OBTAIN

(verb): to come into possession of; get, acquire, or procure, as through an effort or by a request.

Photography Essay

Steve Edwards discusses photography and its role in the everyday lives of modern society. Not only is photography part of daily life, but it is also a growing part of the culture that makes our society exactly what it is. Whether we know it or not, photographs effect people very directly. Although photography has this influence over the human race, oftentimes people misunderstand what exactly is happening within a photograph. Many times the photo is altered, so it is not a truthful representation of what is actually happening in the actual setting of the photographer. 

Edwards goes back and forth the ongoing debate on whether or not photography is considered an art. In my opinion, photography is an art.  Photographers have the ability to capture emotion and passion in a two dimensional portrait. Just as if an artist were painting or a drawing, a lot of creative thought goes into photography, and just as any other medium, has a long history and string of famous photographers to support it. 

Though we may not all be professional photographers, I truly believe that everyone should appreciate photography and consider it just as much an art as any other working medium. It is a core item of everyday life, and honestly, life would not be the same without it. If that’s not art, then I don’t know what is.  

PARTS OF THE letter

TYPOGRAPHY evolved from handwriting; handwriting evolved from a series of marks made by the hand-- therefore, the fundamental element in constructing a letter is a linear stroke. Each letter of the alphabet evolved from a simple mark whose visual characteristics separated it from all others. As a designer, learning this helps one understand and grasp the visual sensitivity and harmony of the actual complexity of our alphabet. 

pathfinder exercises

TO TAKE the next step onward with our individual discoveries, the class was assigned to experiment in Adobe Illustrator with the pathfinder tool to manipulate our word of choice further. Change was an exciting word to work with, because I was literally changing the word’s appearance.

word collages

To begin the process of this project, we were assigned to hand-construct twenty different variations of a word of our choice. I chose the word change, and went about constructing different ways in which this word could be rendered. Below is a selection of a few of my favorites.

to {change}

(verb): to make or become different; to take or use another instead of

(noun): the act or instance of making or becoming different

the next project.

WHAT LANGUAGE LOOKS LIKE...

Myself, along with my class, were given the task to explore how to express the meaning of a word through using size, shape, placement, spacing, and letter manipulation in both 2D and 3D. Secondly, to complete this project, we were challenged to express this word through a photo essay of the words in context, both on site and through placement and structure in a book.

reflections of the "make it better" project--

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. I liked being challenged to think critically about objects that surround us in everyday life that are often overlooked. I really like my group’s final idea and product as well. I would definitely own a glue pen if we were to ever create one! I feel as if it would be really useful. As far as the group project goes, it definitely seemed disorganized at times to coordinate everyone’s efforts equally and to receive parts of the project that you needed from others. Lack of communication was sometimes a hassle as well. But overall I think my group pulled through and had a very successful project, and the glue pen is the perfect product of that statement.

final poster.

The final poster, done by me, was inspired by a fun graphics poster I found online. Tweaking the concept with my own creative juices, this is what i ended up with.

{models}

the prototypes for our glue pen!

the {redesigned} object

This final rendering illustrates just exactly what our group envisioned the glue pen to be. Sleek in design, aesthetically pleasing to the eye, and highly functional. To begin with, the plastic tube that holds the glue within it is clear so one can see how much glue is remaining before running out. The ends are slanted for optimal performance, so whether in need of a skinny end, for say scrapbooking, or a wider end for larger scale work, the glue pen provides both. It is easy to click more glue out of the pen when running low with the buttons and swivel notches provided for the user as well. Completed with a pen clip to secure the device to whatever the user pleases, the glue pen reduces its chances of getting lost and will last as long as one desires. The glue pen is a drastic upgrade from the once popular glue stick, that will fade away with time because of this new and wonderful invention.

what i did not originally consider

Some things I learned throughout the process of just sketching and gathering ideas about the “glue pen” were what seemed to be a few tiny issues. Firstly the issue of if the glue would be liquid or solid, if solid...could one replace it to keep the efficiency of only buying one pen? The angled tips posed a challenge to design as well, I found myself “seeing it in my head” but having a very difficult time translating it to paper. Another thing was designing lids to keep the glue air-tight and resistant to drying out. The clicker button was also another thing that took a lot of refinement. The list seemed to drag on with things we could do, do again, and do again to result with a better product...but it wouldn’t be design without this I suppose, right?!

THE GLUE STICK

This is the object my group decided was most in need of a totally fresh design. We wanted a new, innovative approach at something everyone knows and is familiar with. But do people love it? Not necessarily. That’s because it lacks aesthetic beauty, proper function, and overall good design. That’s where we come in. Our fun, fresh, and funky approach on the old and outdated glue stick would surely be a hit with today’s ever-changing design and craft world. With our three minds and creative juices combined, we took the glue stick, to the glue pen.

understanding comics

These comic chapters were very interesting for me to read. As the tile says, I never really took the time to understand them, or pick a comic up and read one. I really enjoyed reading this because it brought to my attention how much little detail goes into the making of a comic book. I never realized everything from the text font, to the pictures, to the words are planned down to the tiniest detail, all to engage the viewers attention further. This really applies to not only this project, but also all of my future projects, to remind me to think as a comic book illustrator would...to think about what every element of my design and how it will pull a viewer in and entice their full attention. This was a great read and I am very glad it was a class assignment. 

the {writers} toolbox

This article made me realize to think more critically about the writing, thinking, and designing process. Its main theme was that a mind map is the visual that forms all ideas. It is good to start all projects like this, which is exactly what my group did. This article really stressed the importance of how this applies to visual thinkers (me!) and how much it can get your brain thinking even more creatively. This method is to be used quickly, so the brain keeps thinking more and more. It basically was an article for the visual learners to realize how useful and important it really is to lay out your ideas and SEE them before hand. I found this to be very true in making our mind map, and it is a strategy I know I will regularly use in future projects to come.

I D E O

This short segment taught me to think of my product in term of a verb, rather than an noun. It opened my eyes to stay focused and concentrate on one thing at a time. It preached to strive for quality design, visual design, and build on the ideas of others.

the glue stick.

This was my final item under five dollars I found to study, sketch, and prepare to make better. Ultimately, my group agreed there was large room for improvement, and thus we started re-designing the glue stick.

make it better.

For this project our group looked at poorly designed objects and explored ways to make them better. To begin this project we gathered objects that cost less than five dollars to evaluate for redesign. We brought these objects as well as five sketches of each to class, and chose our object of interest from those chosen. 

We chose the glue stick as our object, and got right to work breaking down what we liked and disliked about the item. Our mind map, pictured right, depicts our thougts. Basically we came to the conclusion that the glue stick can be too wide, thus producing too much excess glue, it is not aesthetically pleasing, and there is only one thickness. Through this process book you will discover my group’s new design for the glue stick, and you will never think of it the same again.