Victory Lap !
Because ALL I DO IS WIN !!!
Michael Bernabei Art 130
Table of Contents D* School Crash Course....................................................4 Dot/Line...........................................................................5-7 Expressive Text..............................................................8-10 Object Iterations..........................................................11-13 Children’s Book...........................................................14-18
Introduction When it came to choosing for my last semester at SNC I knew that I wanted to try something challenging and new, and Intro to Design fit both those criterian. At first I thought I was in over my head with all the projects that I would need to complete, and at first I wanted to give in but I wouldn’t let myself do it. Now with the course coming to an end I am so happy that I didn’t because it has given me skills that I had not possessed before, and it was an enjoyable experience. So, here is a victory lap of my journey through Intro to Design in the Spring of 2015.
D* School Crash Course Purpose: The object was to learn the basics of graphic design and how a project will be conducted, also we got an idea of what it will be like to work with another person. I personally enjoyed the crash course, it was a great way to get out the nervousness of showing another person my work. It also an opportunity to hear from a partner about what things I could do in order to better my prototype. This also showed that even though you might think there is nothing that you could improve on that somebody else could always spot something that you might you might have not seen. It was also nice hearing feed back over a course of multiple processes so you were able to make smaller corrections everytime instead of doing it all at once and then have to make bunch of changes. The only thing that I disliked was the short time constraint that we were under, I always felt at the end of each time that if I had a few more minutes that I could have definatly made something better. From this process, I definatley feel less scared about show people my work in all aspects, and feel that this has prepared me for my future when having to hearing constructive critisim. Based on what I learned, I would definatly look at other things that I could experiment with, and formulate better questions that I could ask the person in order to get the best work possible.
Dot/Line Purpose: To create abstract compositions using only dots and lines to represent words. Before we started this project I had to learn the meaning of “gestalt.� After learning what it was, and doing this project I feel that I have a grasp as to what it is. In my words, gestalt is capturing the meaning of something throught the use of negative space and the continuation of an object. In the beginning of the Dot Line process I was at a loss with what I wanted how I to represent my words abstractly especially when you could only use 3 types of shapes. My original problem was actually thinking of possible iterations for my four words; joy, oppression, exhaustion and chaotic. Looking at my first iterations they all seemed the same and there was no real difference between any of them. Also, there does not seem to be much energy in them they just seemed in a sense popped on there, not having much of a purpose to them. But, when it came to the second series of iterations I started giving them shapes and they seemed to almost start taking on a meaning and finally started to become abstract When I started putting them together on the final 4x4 squares I finally started to see how the shapes worked together abstractly represent these words, and it changed the way I thought of abstraction, in that it can be done with only a few different shapes and small area to work with.
First Go Round
Final
Joy
Exhaution
Oppression
Chaotic
Expressive Text Purpose: To experiment with a wide variety of hand lettering styles, and to see how the typography of the lettering impacts the meaning of the word. When thinking about what word I should do I wanted choose something that would let me think of a bunch of different ideas. So, after looking at the words that I was able to choose from I ultimately went the word “melt”, thinking there could be a lot that I could do with that word. Going into I knew that I had a lot of ideas but it was just difficult to put them on paper, and it frustrated me. So, when it came time to the mind map it definitely helped organized all my ideas and thoughts. When I started making the 30 different iterations of melt I noticed that most of the words included the actual things that melt or things that cause other things that melt. The only problem was that none of them actually represented what “melt” actually is, what it means, or what it looks like. So that’s when I actually started thinking of ways to make “melt” look like it was melting. That’s when I thought of using a melting ice cube to make the word, and it actually drew/bleed onto the paper as if the ice cube was melting on it. If I could redo this project I would definatly trying to think of other ways to represent “melt”, since I feel like all my texts looked the relatively the same. After completeing this project I really saw the difference between hand lettering and digitally-rendered letters. Anybody can go on a computer and make a word like look like its meaning. But, hand letter actually makes a word look like its physically portraying its meaning.
First Go Round
Final
Object Iterations Purpose: Trying to find different ways to represent an object or animal that you chose. What I learned about my object was how all the moving parts worked together in order to give meaning to what it was. I also saw that each part was no more important than any other part. My main challenge with this project was the continuous line drawing; it was very difficult trying to capture all the different moving parts and curvatures in fluid motion while also trying to capture the object itself. After many attempts it was not until I focusing on the main focal point of the object ( the arm), that I finally started to see my continuous line finally capture the object. It was the place that until then lost what the image was supposed to be. The most enjoyable part of the project was trying to make the object come to life geometrically. It really made think outside of the box on what ways I should go about trying to represent the object. Then finally looked at the shape of the object when all the moving parts where closed and, that’s when my iterations started to incorporated the shape and length of the body of the body itself, which in turned, gave meaning and purpose to the other shapes. This project was also enjoyable because it was the first time that I got to work with photoshop. I feel that the basics of what I learned about it will greatly help me in the future such as cropping, earsing, and change the color spectrum. But, if I could continue with this project for another year I would look for different artists that could help me better represent my object.
First Go Round
Final
Children’s Book
Purpose: To gain experience working with a partner and to create a book for children. The thing that most surprised me about working with my partner was how easy it was with getting in touch with her. If I ever had a problem with how to do something or had a second thought about how she wanted something done she was very quick to respond. Not only was she easy to get in touch with, she also did an amazing in keeping in touch with me and seeing if I had any questions and also keeping tabs on how the project was coming along. Also, she did an exceptional job in her writing and made everything very visual and easy to imagine how should look. When it came back to receiving feed back from my partner I was very open to hearing her opinions on what she thought could be done to make thing better. After she gave her input I also shared my opinions as to what I think could be done to make things better as well. So, after we spun ideas off each other I implemented what we thought was the best of our ideas in order to achieve what we thought was the best for the novel. When it came to the project itself it seemed that all the progress that was in my work came together in this project. My entire problem solving abilities and my abstract thinking that I gained made this project extremely enjoyable and fun to work with. When I started reading the text instantly in my head I saw a cartoon playing in my head. So I started thinking about all my cartoon shows I used to watch as kid and how the characters looked like, and from there that’s how I decided how I should make them. Examining on how to construct these characters and seeing how they were to be shaped it made clear on how to draw them. For instance, when it came to starting to draw the “Brain” it seemed natural to draw it using a continuous line since it would make it look so much more fluid and clean, yet it would capture the natural shape that we associate with the brain. The main struggle with this project came when trying to think about what complementary colors should be used with the images. Noticing how many of the images had brighter, yet complementary colors to them. So, thinking about what primary colors are used every day together I thought about green and red. But, wanting to stick with the brighter contrast of colors I used a brighter lime green to complement the red text, which made it much easier to read for audience.
First Go Round
Final
Pages of the Book
Our first stop is at the heart. On Valentine’s Day, you see lots of hearts. That really isn’t what it looks like. Instead, it is about the size of your fist. The heart is my best friend. Its walls are super strong. It squeezes and then relaxes, and this gives me the push to be pumped all over the body. Without the heart, none of the needed good air would be able to reach the different parts of the body.
One of the parts that heart helps me move to is the brain. Do you remember what your favorite toy looks like? Do you ever have dreams at night? Your brain takes care of all of these things without you even knowing it! The brain my boss and the boss for the rest of the body because it tells everything what to do and when to do it, even when you are asleep.