Second Semester!

Hello, hello again. Yes... i just found sufjan stevens on someones itunes library.

anyways, i have been so busy since the first day back from christmas break, and i havent had time to post anything on here! but also i didnt really have any projects completed to post. But now i do so:

Typography:
Project 01- Type Blog
Just the class blog we have to post to- same as last semester.

Project 02- Type Sequence Redux
So our first project was basically just a exercise to delve back into type. We had to revise our Type Sequence Book (the last type project we did last semester). We had to change the grid system, convert it to black and white, and just generally make it better. We did this in a week, so it was really just a warm-up exercise. PS: it folds up into a booklet.

Project 02- Reading Systems
I love love love this project. We had to choose a text (we convinced Martha to let us choose fictional texts) from before 1950. Then we designed a booklet using all the traditional book design rules/guidelines. The final book includes a cover, half title, title page, complete text, and colophon. We also had to have folios (page number) and running heads or feet. Because of this project my knowledge of InDesign has multiplied by like 10. There are so many awesome things it can do! And i've officially fallen in love with book design. Its so fascinating to me the work and thought that goes into creating a book—things people dont even consciously realize. I chose The Twenty-One Balloons as my text and I love the way it turned out. We had our interim critique today and it went really well. As a second part of the project we have to create a modern book using the same text + a supplementary text. So thats what we just started working on. Then both books are due at the end of february, so we can make adjustments on our first book. I think I'll wait and post pictures of both of them then. So youll just have to wait. I'll show you my master page though. This page is the basis of every page, and it shows the grid system, the golden rectangle of the text box, and how the margin proportions are designed. You see how much goes into that book youre reading?

Imaging
Project 01- Panorama Montage
For our first imaging project we had to take a panorama photograph (which PS: photoshop can do awesome panoramas with the click of a button—it can merge 5, or more, pics into one panorama!) So we had to take our panorama and create a photomontage with it. I decided to base mine on a piece of japanese folklore about fox wedding processions. And just in case you were wondering... its all my photography—even the alligator (from the zoo) and the horse heads (from waxhaw). And i drew the foxes in illustrator. Click it to make it bigger.

Studio
Project 01- no name?
I dont really like this project... so im not going to talk about it right now. Well, ok i will. We were assigned a lecture series or workshop series going on around town and we had to first create a poster representing the series and then we had to choose a location and design an installation to help advertise the series using elements from our poster. But we arent actually installing the installations because we dont have the money (lame.) so theyre just in our digital imaginations. Anyways its due on monday so ill post the final pictures then. This is my element from my poster im using for the installation.
I made it using all the symbols of different religions (my workshop series is on religious discrimination. It uses the symbols of Sikhism, Islam, Judaism, Jain, and Buddhist. Also, we're using google sketchup to recreate our settings, which at first i hated, but now i kind of like it. i dont really want to do it again though. so i guess im glad im not in architecture or landscape.

Further Design:
Internship with Birds Inc.
In case you didnt know (im sure ive told all of you) I got an internship!!! Hoorah. And its much better than i could have even hoped for. With all the other internships i applied for id just be cropping photographs and other such things the senior designers didnt want to do. But this internship... im the senior designer! Birds inc is a brand spanking new poetry publishing company that will soon have non-profit status. Its made up of 4 poets (one in raleigh, two in NY and one in texas) and me and the web design intern. The first book theyre publishing is Chris Tonellis manuscript, called The Trees Around. I get to design the entire layout of the book and the cover of the book. SO EXCITING. Im already working on it now, and ill be working with them for about one year. At the end we will have published 4 books (each of the poets manuscripts). Then they have this special publishing conference thing in colorado where they want to unveil theyre new books (all designed by me). And they said I can come with them to the conference! ive always wanted to go to colorado. But thats not till NEXT april. Long time from now. But it just blows my mind that I was given this opportunity to design 4 books that will be sold online and in bookstores (they said maybe even barnes&nobles!) I WOULD FREAK OUT. But im freaking out anyways kik. I just cant wrap my head around my design being in someones home and being used in the real world. Anyways enough of my starry-eyed talk... heres my first iteration for the cover. Its a rough draft, and ill have tons of iterations completely different than that one, this is just the first one. I've also stopped working on the cover right now to focus on the layout of the inside of the book because I realized (after doing our type project) you are supposed to design the inside of a book before the outside. So now comes the difficult task of choosing the typeface... anyways, heres that cover draft.

This is the first one i did. its based on one of the poems from the book. they have such great imagery, i just had to work with it. I drew this illustration in my sketch book, then scanned it in and re-drew it in illustrator. I like how its a fine line between creepy and cute, which i think reflects Tonellis poems nicely. But again, this is just my first iteration. not the final. I'll do lots with completely different imagery and type.

Then I did this one as a sanserif and a little depth.


Then i did this one as i got a bit carried away kik. i made this at about 2 am. its the graphic design hipster version of the book. and it doesnt fit the book itself at all. general rule of design: often the coolest one is not the right one.

Badass T-shirt
So hunter sent me a letter saying that they can help design a tshirt for their flight to wear on graduation day. Each flight will have their own shirt representing their flight. But no one in his flight can draw so he told me if i had some time, i could submit something. He told me it had to have two things: their mascot is a bulldog, so it had to have a bulldog, and his entire flight says it has to be badass. So i was like, alright, i can do badass. And this is what i mailed him.
Outside of Design
In self defense news: I can now successfully gauge out your eyeballs, burst your wind pipe, break your nose, and break your symphisis pubis therefore breaking your pelvis in half preventing you from getting up for a while.
Also, hunter is still doing great. His tech school has been confirmed for Mississippi, and starting monday he'll be in Beast Week which is the toughest week physically. Also we got our tickets today, so i am officially going to his graduation now! I cant wait to see him in his uniform and little hat! so cute. er...i mean...badass.
And heres a pic from the NCSU vs. UNC game to show how close our seats were—row J! i could actually see the players faces!
Oh yeah and we had a SNOW DAY! like a week ago. Now im officially done with winter. I got snow. Lets move onto spring now.