TABLE OF CONTENTS BOOK DESIGN VETERAN COALITION OF ARTS POSITIVE INSTINCTS SVA UNTITLED PRODUCT DESIGN COLLAGE EXPERIMENTAL WORK
BOOK DESIGN
This project comes from Nic Taylor’s typography class. The problem was to redesign a book of our choice. I wanted to reflect a few elements of the story and after a handful of attempts I came to the solution you see on the opposite page. The story is told through letters written by the book’s main character on a typewriter he recieves as a gift. When someone looks at this cover, I want them to experience the feeling of sitting down at a desk to write. I chose to mute the colors to reflect the melancoly feel of the story. The type on the cover was actually typed out on the same typewriter I photographed for the cover, and then scanned into my computer. For the inside pages I decided to use Garamond since it is easy to read. I wanted the pages to be almost as if you were reading the actual letters Charlie had sent.
We a c c e p t t h e l o v e w e t h i n k w e d e s e r v e .
The
Perks
of Being a
Wa l l f l o w e r Since its publication, Stephen Chbosky’s haunting debut novel has received critical acclaim, provoked discussion and debate, g rown into a cult phenomenon with over three million copies in print, s p e n t o v e r o n e y e a r a t # 1 o n t h e Ne w Yo r k T i m e s b e s t s e l l e r l i s t , and inspired a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman a n d E m m a Wa t s o n . The Perks of Being a Wa l l f l o w e r i s a s t o r y a b o u t w h a t i t ’ s l i k e t o t r av e l t h a t s t r a n g e c o u r s e through the uncharted territor y of high school. The world of f irst dates, family dramas, and new friends. Of sex, dr ugs, and The Rocky H o r r o r P i c t u r e S h o w. O f t h o s e w i l d and poignant roller-coaster days known as g rowing up.
By Stephen Chbosky
By Stephen Chbosky
Since its publication, Stephen Chbosk y’s haunting debut novel has r eceived critical acclaim, pr ovoked discussion and debate, g rown into a cult phenomenon with over three million copies in p r i n t , s p e n t o v e r o n e y e a r a t # 1 o n t h e N e w Yo r k T i m e s b e s t s e l l e r list, and inspired a major motion picture star ring Logan Ler man a n d E m m a Wa t s o n . T h e P e r k s o f B e i n g a Wa l l f l o w e r i s a s t o r y a b o u t w h a t i t ’ s l i k e t o travel that strange cour se through the unchar ted ter ritor y of high school. The wor ld of fir st dates, family dramas, and new friends. O f s e x , d r u g s , a n d T h e R o c k y H o r r o r P i c t u r e S h o w. O f t h o s e w i l d and poignant roller-coaster days known as g rowing up.
VETERAN COALITION OF ARTS
The Veteran Coalition of Arts is a very unique club at SVA that is very near and dear to my heart. Like the other members, I am a veteran and an artist. My experience in the military definitely influences my work. I have been very fortunate to meet and work with the great people in this organization. I started off creating the graphic design and advertising campaigns for the club and next year will be taking over as president. When I was tasked to create a logo I wanted it to represent the fact that we are artists, but also show our military roots. The eagle and circular design is a nod to the seal of the United States and emblems of the armed forces. Instead of an olive branch and arrows, the eagle carries a camera in one talon, a palate and brushes on the other. This symbolizes that we have traded our old lives for a new path in the arts. On the following pages I have included some of the postcards and flyers I have designed for our groups art shows from the past year.
declassified: Presented by the Veteran Coalition of Arts & The School of Visual Arts
The price of freedom is evident here
Featuring artwork from: Joel R. Chapman ESSAM Brian Kelso-Gillespie Brandon Michael Hall Kylene A. Kasch Chris T. Miller Rebecca Storer Frankie Torres
The Hotel George Washington 23 Lexington Ave New York, New York 10010
Declassifed. This title has been a part of The groups themes since the beginning and in carrying on that tradition I wanted to keep the look close to a military feel. The first show this year was in mezzanine of the George Washington building. The theme being that the price of freedom was evident, I wanted to use something iconic of our freedoms and liberties. For the postcards, all of the veterans in the group remember what it’s like to get orders, and we wanted to convey that. This determined the style and approach I took for the first show. Stenciled letters, report times, and a minimalistic black and white design that mimmicked the papers we all recieved from our higher ups was the way to go. For our next show, we were being hosted by the Calumet Gallery on 22nd street in Manhattan. En Avant carried on the Declassified tradition, but I wanted to stray a little from a strictly military design aesthetic. It was about this time that the President, Rebecca Storer, had approached me about doing a logo so it was the perfect time to experiment. I was also honored to have the privilige of designing the catalogue for the show, of which a copy now sits in the SVA archives.
POSITIVE INSTINCTS
My passion for skateboarding and love for writing, layouts, and photography led me to create Positive Instincts. In early 2013, I began laying out what became the first issue. It has been an amazing experience so far, putting me in contact with unique people all over the world. The magazine is published digitally via issuu.com. Positive Instincts reaches thousands of readers worldwide every issue. I cover skateboarding, music, art, and culture around the New York city area, and beyond. This year I look to expand even further, moving into print and selling advertising space. Thanks to the global reach the web presence allows me, my readership has grown far beyond my dreams.
SVA UNTITLED
SVA Untitled was the school’s editorial style print publication run by students for students. I came on to the staff as a graphic designer last year with the responsibility of putting together layouts and shooting photos. As this year went on the print version evolved into an online platform known as The Dialogue. Starting in the Fall, The Dialogue will be bringing back print in addition to the online presence and producing events under my direction as Editor-in-Chief. What follows on these pages are the layouts I created for various topics in the print versions of SVA Untitled.
PRODUCT DESIGN
Product design is something I want to focus more on in the next two years. Over the past year I did a lot more designs for functional, real world items and found it really enjoyable. The range of products that can be designed facinates me. Album artwork, promotional items, business cards, phone cases, clocks, apparel and more, the world of product & package design is endless. I began selling some of my work, a small selection can be found online at: www.society6.com/digimil
COLLAGE
When I first stepped into John Ruggeri’s class in September I had no idea what to expect. We started to draw shapes and then would cut up books and magazines and place them over the outline drawing we had just created. This concept was foreign to me and my work did not resemble anything worthy of mentioning here. Somewhere around the middle of the first semester amid a large amount of frustration, something clicked and I stopped trying to over think what or why I was doing things and just did what felt rightto me. Placing down the pieces in a way that please my eyes I began to create these mechanical feeling pieces that I included in this book. I prefer to use found objects such as wood, cardboard, and burlap over other items. Among everything else that goes on in my day-today life I find making collage work very relaxing and peaceful. It has influenced my design a lot since I started to develop new works the past few months.
EXPERIMENTAL WORK
This year I took Frank Young’s class, which pushed me very far outside of my comfort zone as far as design goes. I constantly found myself fighting my own frustration and trying to remember Frank’s mantra about frustration. “It’s good to be frustrated, that means you’ve run out of ideas that have already been done. Make something unexpected,” he is fond of saying. Some of my attempts were failures, in fact a lot of them were. But when I looked back over the work from the past year, I saw a lot of things I would not have ordinarily tried. More importantly, I saw a lot of things that I liked. What follows are some examples of me stretching outside of my comfort zone and creating the unexpected from myself.