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Project 07: Azif Factor
For this project we were to find two quotes from a blog entry at the Design Observer blog, one quote from the author of the article, and one quote from a comment on the article. Then we had to design two 18"x18" posters constituting a dialogue between the two posters. One of the posters had to show the Azif factor which is kind of like typography without rules... its sort of a vague term that im not sure how to explain. And then the second poster was to work in a more traditional typographic way. We were also to pick three pantone colors out of the pantone library and those were the only 3 colors we could use. This is definately my favorite type project so far. And im falling more and more in love with type. So these are mine. (Azif is first, traditional is second) Click the pictures and they will enlarge so you can read the quotes. If you dont read the quote you wont get the full effect.



Imaging
Project 06- Rebus
We had to pick a well-known phrase and create that phrase through imagery, like a rebus. Then we had to screenprint that image onto a t-shirt. This project cost a boat load of money, but it was all stuff i had wanted to buy before but could never fork out the money. Turns out the whole class bought the same screen which we were later informed were "craft screens" and wont last us very long. bleh. Im going to ask for a metal one for christmas. To create our rebus we were to find images of what we wanted and then use the pen tool (which i love now) in illustrator to create an outlined image. Then we had to clean our screen, coat it with chemicals, let dry 30 minutes, then coat with thin layer of emulsion (which is light sensitive so this had to be done basically in the dark). Then we stored our screens in a cabinet for 2 hours. Then you place your screen and image (printed on a transparency) on this special light table and it vaccum seals it and then it burns the image onto your screen in the emulsion. Then you rinse off the extra emulsion and let dry for 30 mins. Then you print by squeezing the ink through with a squegee. So i burned my image backwards the first time and had to redo it. I was banging my head on the wall when that happened. But then the rest went fine until i had to print. I only got one perfect shirt out of the 4 i bought. But at least i had a perfect one to turn in for a grade kik. Now that i look back on it, and on everyone elses, i think i definately should have made my lines thicker and it would have printed much better. But we made our images before we were taught/shown how to screen print so i didnt know thin lines would pose a problem. I had screen printed once before but it was the old school way with a screen, a piece of paper, some tape and an exacto blade. Yeah for technology!So anyways, heres my rebus. Im not going to tell you what it is, youll have to figure it out yourself. You can leave a comment if you really cant figure it out, and ill tell you, but 95% of people have gotten it. I mean not to make you feel bad or anything...
This is not my perfect print (its being graded right now) so this one is a little faded at the bottom, but you get the idea. The ink showed up much better on the other shirt.
This is a picture of all the sophomore GDers wearing our rebuses. Of course we would organize ourselves based on colors...

Further Design
First Year Algebra Book (circa 1923)
I found this book at a used book store and knew immediately what to do with it: deface it. I am officially done with math classes for the rest of my life and feat i never thought would come true. For those of you that dont know, math is my greatest nemesis. I hate everything about it. No matter how simple it is. Numbers and i dont mix. So... im covering up all the math in this book with things i think are more delightful. Such as audrey kawasaki drawings. I actually started this about a month ago, but just havent had the time to put it up here. The first drawing is a drawing of one of her paintings, and the second started out as a drawing of one segment of one of her paintings but kind of got exagerated. Its a work in progress, and im sure it will take me a long time to finish it, but my goal is to cover every page. (Theres like 200 or something)

Miscellaneous
So this is my adaptation of another one of Audrey Kawasaki's paintings. (my favorite artist if you havent noticed). I first drew this in my sketch book, then scanned it in and then put it in illustrator and outlined it with the pen tool. It represents the dual sides of my personality-- both the laid-back, care free, artsy side; and the prepared, organized, designer side. I've realized lately that i really am a contradiction in myself. But, i wouldnt have it any other way.

Original kawasaki:

Photography
So i found these photoshop actions online that are awesome and went crazy applying them to some of the photos ive taken recently. These are my favorites.

Little Italy, NY

NY, NY

Sunset at the Tetons in Wyoming.

This one is Pseudo HDR, like HDR photography. Its amazing... (Tetons)

HDR again... i loooove these bacterial mats. I could stare at them all day. My favorite part of yellostone.
Sunset at my grandparents dock in Savannah, Georgia.Retro photography. Waxhaw, NC

Chicken house in Waxhw, NC. (11,000 chicks)

Life outside design:

Sushi-- er... shrimp wontons.

State Fair

heh.

Squirrel Nut Zippers LIVE
I gave up going to the design school's halloween bash to go to a squirrel nut zippers concert at Cats Cradle, and it was so worth it. I think this is the best concert i have ever been to. I've been listening to SNZ since i was like 12 and am obsessed with them right now. They were so lively and entertaining and all so talented! Katherine Whalen has an amazing voice (and she reminds me vaguely of imogen heap). These pics arent from my concert (i didnt bring my camera) but katherine was wearing this amazing dress and 50s fedora. Jimbo Mathes was so tiny but was really energetic. And the fiddler was amazing, ive never seen someones fingers move so fast. They also did one song to the video of a cartoon (which i think is on youtube) and they sang and played along with the cartoon in the dark. Amazing concert.

Food (im such a foodie)
If you're in the area:
Red Room Tapas Bar-- great tapas, and delicious paella! (half off on thursdays)
Nofo at the Pig-- great sunday brunch. the tastiest grits ive ever had.
LocoPops-- best popcicles ever. mexican chocolate, rosemary chocolate, cranberry orange, and raspberry hibiscus are my favorites.

well that was quite a long post. but it had been a while since my last post and ive been busy! ta-ta.

Fall break

A few pics from fall break in wah-haw...


this horse walked over to us, and all the rest followed, each one taking its turn to pose...



if these horses look like they're looking down on me, its because they were. They were freaking huge!
i think if i had taken one step past the fence, this bull would have killed me. he was watching every step i took, while also doing his manly bull pose.there was an adorable baby black sheep that was so tiny, but as soon as we walked up all the other sheep herded him away and made a wall of sheep protecting him from our cameras.

Corn, knives, GDers, and FAT DAY

Studio
Project 02- Timeline
**you'll have you excuse the awkward looking colors... they're in CMYK which is for printing, not web use. There is probably a way to change it to RGB, but im not exactly sure/too lazy to figure it out. They're all a little (actually a lot) off, and the last one is more green than brown. gosh they look awful on the web...**
So basically, we had to create a timeline with the information from our concept map we made earlier. The timeline also had to have a sub-problem which was supposed to a story telling aspect of the timeline, but myself and others didnt get this from kermits explanation, so I just did my sub-problem as popcorn, as a social aspect of corn. So that will be the main thing i fix in my revisions. I had images of hunter eating popcorn (as you can see below in an early version) which would have been perfect for the sub-problem, but kermit said they were a nuisence because the reader only wanted to look at the pictures and not read the information, which is the main point of a timeline- to get the information across. So i guess I'll try to somehow incorporate the popcorn eating narrative without over-powering the info.
Printing was a nightmare with this. Most of my colors were made by transparencies, which i found out (the day of printing) dont print well on printers. So i had to go back and handmake the colors using different mixtures of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (instead of just choosing a pantone color) oi. what a mess. but i now have a better knowledge of how to make the color i want kik. i suppose it was a good lesson.
When im making something big like this, i often save lots of different copies in case i want to start over at an earlier version, so i thought it'd be interesting to post all of the ones i had saved. I had more, but i deleted some of them along the way. So these are the ones that made it. The last one is the one i presented at critique, but we have until wednesday to revise it before we turn it in, so ill probably change a few things. Ill come back and post the real final one on thursday.
edit: ok so i updated this since monday (or whenever i oringially posted this) and now the last one is my FINAL timeline. i changed the sub-problem to a narrative of hunter eating corn on the cob. I think it works much better than the popcorn sub-problem, which was just me misunderstanding the sub-problem assignment. hooray its done! now time for posters...





Imaging
Project 05- Adbuster
For this project we were supposed to find a magazine advertisement (one that is mainly visual, no paragraphs of text) and analyze it to find the message behind the imagery. Then, we had to scan the ad and manipulate it in photoshop to create an entirely new message. Our goal was to create as vast a different message as possible with as little manipulation as possible. So I chose this Sketchers ad that says "nothing compares to family" and has a mother and her daughter holding hands, implying the mother takes care of her family by buying them quality shoes like sketchers.
this is the original ad:

So... see if you can see the difference in this altered ad:
Further Design
Micheal Beirut Lecture
Today, Micheal Beirut came to NC State to give a lecture and Q&A to the graphic design students while he was in Raleigh working on the identity redesign on the NC Museum of Art.
Short Bio on Beirut in case you didnt know:

Michael was born in Cleaveland, Ohio, studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning. Straight out of school he first worked for Massimo Vignelli (famous designer/amazing first job!-- http://www.vignelli.com). He worked his way up to become vice president of graphic design at Vignelli Associates. In 1990 he switched jobs to work for a studio called Pentagram, which does all sorts of design, from architecture, to industrial design, to graphic design. Here Michael leads a team of graphic designers who create identity design, environmental graphic design, and editorial design solutions. He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented permanently in places such as MoMA, National Design Museum in New York, Library of Congress, SFMoMA, Denver Art Museum, Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe in Germany, and the Museum fur Gesaltung in Switzerland. Michael is very active in the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), serving as president of the New York chapter from 1988-1990, and president of AIGA National from 1998-2001. He currently serves as a director of the Architectural League of New York and New Yorkers for Parks. In 1989, Michael was elected to the Alliance Graphique Internationale, in 2003 he was named to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame, and in 2006 he received the profession's highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in recognition of his distinguished achievements and contributions to the field of Graphic Design. Michael is now a senior critic in graphic design at the Yale School of Art and is a co-editor of an anthrology series of critical writings on graphic design, and co-founder of the online journal Design Observer. His commentaries about graphic design in everyday life can be heard nationally on the Public Radio International program "Studio 360", and his book "Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design" was published this past spring.

Impressive, eh? He was also very nice and funny.

Heres some examples of his work:
Design Observer
GO MAD- Museum of Arts and Design Identity Project
Pentagram Blog- List of Bieruts Work
His lecture was about the Robin Hood Foundation Library Initiative which you can see an entry about in that last link above.


IBM Pathfinder Mentoring Program
So I signed up for this program IBM does with ncsu where they pair you with someone within IBM that does a job relating to your major (they do it for computer science, engineering, communications, GD, and ID). And you meet with that person once a month to just talk to them, ask them questions, etc. And they also do about one event a month, with events like mock interviews/portfolio reviews, job shadowing, and networking events. So today I met with my mentor for the first time. Her name is Lisa and she is a user experience designer at IBM. She graduated from a design school in Iowa, and started working at IBM straight out of school. Shes been working there for 20 years. She used to work at their inhouse studio, but she now works from home, as she said many of the GDers in her section do. I havent talked to her in-depth, but i think user experience designer basically means the user web experience, but that includes much more than just web site design. So a few other people from my studio that came and all of our mentors went out to lunch and it was really cool to talk to all of them about their jobs and how they got there. I think this program will be really cool. Plus its FREE!

Life outside design
speaking of free... tomorrow is our self-proclaimed "Fat Day" for our dorm! At 12:45 we're going to the Chocolate Festival (which grace got us free tickets to, because shes an RA and shes awesome) which raises awareness for breast cancer. Once you go in you get 5 tabs and theres like 30 stations and you get to pick 5 stations to get chocolate from and stuff your face.
And then for dinner we're having a dorm program (because word got out that molly loves to cook, and i love to bake) where molly is cooking mexian dinner for the dorm and im making peanut-butter bars! So yeah, tomorrow is basically the best day ever. Possibly pictures to come...

Also outside design, Hunter and i went running at Lake Johnson (and by running i mean walking), and we saw like 15 ducks sitting all in a row on a log in the lake taking baths! It was so adorable, and unfortunately i didnt have my camera. I also tried lamb for the first time! And i also realized that i seem to take pride in the vast array of animals i have eaten, so i think im going to make a blog post about all the animals i've eaten. It sounds grotesque, but oh well... hopefully no vegetarians read this blog.