Exceeding Expectations: Pushing Outside the Box
By: Courtney Krause
This process Book is the compilation of my sketches and final works that I completed for the projects assigned in the Introduction to Design course during the Fall of 2015. This process book is typeset in ever after.
||Design Projects|| ::Dot/Line:: ::Expressive Text:: ::Object Iterations:: ::Children's Book:: ::Design and vocation::
Dot/Line This project was designed to get us working abundantly and iteratively with both words and images. We worked in a faster pace which helped encourage us to work looser and freer with an initial emphasis on quantity over quality. Our objectives for this project were to build strong abstract compositions with minimal elements, to build a foundation of using abundant iterations to arrive at successful solutions and to demonstrate a grasp of value, scale, line and visual hierarchy.
>>What is your understanding of gestalt?<< My understanding of gestalt is that it is the way we perceive the world around us; how we look at the whole picture before focusing on specific details.
Initial Iterations
>>How difficult is it for you to make a well-crafted object? Would you rather make things quickly and a little less perfectly or spend extra time to get small details right?<< It was not difficult for me to make a well-crafted object. I don't mind spending the time to get the small details right, however, I do get irritated if I spend a lot of my time ensuring my object is well-crafted, and then something happens near the end of the process and makes my craft less than perfect. I take pride in people being able to look at my work and see that I have spent a lot of time perfecting my craft.
>>How else might you use this exercise or the ideas of gestalt and abstraction?<< I can use Gestalt in my communication degree! In interpersonal communication, we talk about impression formation and the Gestalt approach is defined as the general formation of an impression is comprised of the sum of many interrelated impressions.
>>Was it difficult to represent ideas without illustrating them? Why or why not?<< It was difficult to represent ideas without illustrating them because my mind automatically pulls from my field of experience and tries to create something that fits with my experiences and thoughts.
>>Was it challenging to get excited to make work with such tight parameters?<< I personally found that the challenge of working within such tight parameters is what made me most excited to do this project.
Final Iterations
>>Discipline<<
>>Oppression<<
>>Exhaustion<<
>>Attraction<<
expressive text This project asked us to make creative forms that expand, amplify, contrast, and play off the content of the words they make. We were to choose from a list of words and then experiment with a variety of hand lettering, while thinking about how the form of letters impacted the meaning of the word. Two objectives were to build a foundation of using abundant iterations to arrive at successful solutions and practice excellent craft in our final solutions.
>>What did you learn about type that you didn't know going into this project?<< I didn't learned how many small variations there are to each font. I found the Lupton readings beneficial to kickstarting my thought process on how to use text to enhance my word.
Final Iterations
>>How did you take advantage of letterforms to enhance how your word communicated?<< I took advantage of letterforms that were very straight and to the point for how my word communicated, because the word Beam radiates support and simplicity to me.
>>If you were to continue to explore expressive typography what would you do next?<< If I continued to explore expressive typography, I would definitely want to try calligraphy. I have always been interested in calligraphy, but never actually picked up the supplies to kickstart my own work with it.
>>What, if anything surprised you about this project?<< I think overall, I was surprised to see all of the cool ideas everyone came up with and how we incorporated this new knowledge of text within our final pieces.
>>What was the greatest challenge of this project and how did you handle it?<< I think the greatest challenge of this project for me was to push myself to think outside of the box. For the longest time, the only iteration I kept focusing on for the word beam was light coming from a flashlight. I handled this problem by taking advantage of our time to ask others for critique on our iterations to see what they felt was working or what could be pushed a little more.
Object Iterations In this project, we continued to work iteratively while shifting our attention to images. This assignment required a longer engagement with our subject matter as we worked to distill, translate, and transform the essence of the selected object with a variety of illustration styles. We worked to communicate clearly while presenting our object uniquely and beautifully. This was an opportunity to explore laterally- to go broad before going deep in our thinking. This assignment was designed to help us experiment with a variety of media, and to ensure that we were entertaining possibilities as we strived to communicate the essence of our object or animal.
Chimpanzee Inspiration
Continuous Line
>>What did you learn about Photoshop that you think you'll use going forward?<< I think I'll use Photoshop if in the future I am looking to clean up a piece of my work to place on a poster.
>>If you had to continue with this object for a year, what else might you do to represent your object in new ways?<< I would try making a 3D model of my object for a different type of iteration. For example, using cardboard to create a 3D chimpanzee.
Collage
>>What did you learn about your object through this process?<< I learned a lot about the details of my object. I learned which details were absolutely necessary to include in order for my iteration to be clear, but I also learned which parts weren't completely necessary. I got to know the shape and characteristics of a chimpanzee's face very well.
>>How did the presentation of your iterations change or amplify your work? Did it?<< The presentation (Photoshop and InDesign) of my iterations cleaned up some of my craft, which helped amplify the work.
Geometric Collage
Type Collage
Flash Tattoo >>Which media was the most challenging for you? Which the most enjoyable?<<
The media that was the most challenging for me was creating my object through collage. I spent hours tearing things out of magazines, only to come up short for good, solid collages. However, I enjoyed making the Roy Lichtenstein iteration, because I was able to use paint and challenged myself to try the Ben-Day dot technique.
Roy Lichtenstein
Master Artists
Children's Book This was a semester-long project in which we collaborated with an author from Dr. Bonnie Johnson's class. The author supplied us with text to typeset and illustrate. We were required to meet with our partner outside of class and to manage our time independently. This was an excellent opportunity for us to learn the ins and outs of working with a client in a professional design setting. The first rule of this project was to practice empathy, for our author, our reader, and ourselves. The second rule was to work abundantly. Another objective was to create cohesive and visually-striking images in response to the content of the text and art direction from the client. Once we finalized images and typeset the story dynamically, we were to produce a printed booklet of our collaborative children's book.
>>What surprised you about working with your partner?<< When I found out that the Intro to Design course included a project illustrating our own children's book, I knew it was a challenge I'd love to complete! I was completely surprised when I found out that my author was a girl I knew from a previous course, but I was also extremely excited because I knew from previous projects, how well we worked together!
>>What strengths did your partner bring to the project?<< My partner brought her creativeness, big heart and open mind to this project, which proved to be extremely helpful.
>>How did you respond to the critical feedback (or lack of feedback) from your partner?<< I would send my author a few pages at a time, as I finished them, and she was happy with how everything was turning out. So, since I never received what I would consider "Critical" feedback from my author, I always made sure to extend the invitation for critical feedback. So in every email exchange I would let her know that she was always welcome to tell me if there was anything she wanted to be tweaked or redone. Since I didn't receive much feedback, I would turn to others in the class to give me feedback on my editing and page layouts.
Ali Monkey Goes to College
Initial Illustration
Final Illustrations
>>Which aspects of this project were the most challenging?<< Looking back, the most challenging part of this project was coming up with creative ideas for my pages and having my drawings actually illustrate what I had in mind. Otherwise, I really enjoyed using photoshop to clean up my drawings and add color to them.
>>What would you do differently if you were to start this project again?<< If I were to start this project over again, I would take more time to consider the layout and make more pages of illustrations so I could spread the text out evenly.
>>What were your sources of inspiration for this project?<< My partner was open to the many things I had envisioned and I found it beneficial that we went to the children's section of the library to explore the types of illustrations we both enjoyed. I found a few books that we both appreciated the illustrations, so I used those as my inspiration to begin my drawings.
Design and Vocation >>Q&A<< >>Are you called to creative work? If so, how do you recognize that calling? If not, to what do you feel called?<< I think I am called to creative work. I feel passionately about interior design. I think it is important that everyone lives in a space that is conducive to them. Everyone deserves a space that makes them feel at home and comfortable. I also think interior design in the business and medical field is an interesting concept to consider. I like that you can play with color and arrangement to make people feel a certain way as they walk into a building.
>>What, if anything, distinguishes art and design? If you have to pick a side, which do you choose? Why?<< Personally, I think art and design are distinguished by their parameters. Design is fit into parameters, whereas with art you aren't constrained by anything; it's whatever you want it to be. What I prefer, depends on the context. If I am working for a client, I would prefer parameters. If I am doing something for myself, it would be art, because I wouldn't want to be constrained within tight parameters.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< >>What is the difference between a good life and a significant life?<< I think the difference between a good life and a significant life is whether or not you make an impact. A significant life is one where you accomplish your goals and you're constantly working towards becoming a better person. You're behaving in ways that are impactful in a positive way.
>>What is the greatest failure you've experienced?<< The greatest failure I've ever experienced was losing my 4.0 GPA in high school during my parent's divorce.
>>What's something you've made in the last two years that you're proud of?<< Something I have made in the past two years that I am proud of would be my high school portfolio.
>>If you were guaranteed it would support you financially, what would you want to design or make for a living?<< If I was guaranteed it would support me financially, I would either want to illustrate children's books for a living, or be an interior designer!
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