i just kinda wing it honestly gia minneci art 130 fall 2020 st. norbert college
overview............
This book explores my journey through Introduction to Design in my first semester in college. It was a bit of a ride and I certainly struggled, but I think in the end I didn’t do too bad. This class aims to introduce compositional and conceptual elements in different projects that can be utilized in the future in any design project. As someone who is interested in graphic design, I found this class very helpful. I feel as if I have improved and really isn’t that all that matters in the long run? I believe I am called to creative work which is why I applied to St. Norbert with a major in graphic design. I recognized this calling during my sophomore year of high school when I was being pressured to pick a career and a college. I felt like fifteen years old was a little early to be planning out my entire life so I was very frustrated. To escape from my stress I would create art and designs and I would dream about a life where that’s all I would do. I decided to research potential careers and I found I actually could pursue my dreams. I went on several job shadows and held two internship positions and loved every step of the process and I recognized my calling in these experiences. I think the difference between a good life and a significant life is the volume of your impact on others. To lead a life of significance is to create change in the mindset of people; whether it’s rallying citizens to create social change for a large demographic of people or simply improving the standard of living for a single person, a significant person improves the lives of others. Art is a potential tool for those attempting a significant life because the use of art in a democratic society incites powerful social change.
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crash course.... ... This was the first project we did to kick off the semester. It involved working with a partner and designing something quickly with limited materials. We had to trade off with our partner over short intervals, interviewing eachother then building each other something we thought they would need to improve their life. I was partnered with Carsen and since I know her very well, I knew she needed a little squirrel. She had been interacting with the squirrels since the day we arrived on campus and I figured it would be a fun challenge to make her a squirrel from the odd materials we had. I ended up using a cork for the body, a piece of cardboard for the tail, pieces of bottlecap for the feet, and a sticker for the face.
squirrel front
Engaging with another person impacted the direction I took when designing my prototype significantly because my design had to be detailed enough to be understandable by another person. When making prototypes or thumbnails for yourself it’s easy to create something a bit more incomplete because you understand your own thought process. Showing unfinished work to other people is very stressful for me because I am a perfectionist who gets very insecure about my art. I only like showing people the finished product when I’m completely satisfied, which is rare. The quick pace of our tasks was also stressful for me because I knew I wouldn’t be able to create anything impressive and I felt very rushed. The changes I would make if I had to go back and do it again would include a design that allowed the squirrel to stand and a better method of adhering the parts. I would also redo the face of the squirrel because it was just a sticker that I put on the cork because I was rushed for time and didn’t have a quick or easy way to create a head for the squirrel.
......................... squirrel side
dot / line............ This project was focused on using minimalistic approaches to larger concepts and feelings. Only dots and lines were permitted with only two color options: black and gray. We had a four by four white square to work in, so planning out the spacing before cutting out shapes was very important. We were also limited on the different combinations we could work with (all dots, all lines, two dots two lines, two dots one line, or one dot two lines) which increased the difficulty and frustration. In order to convey the word we were working with, we used the concepts of gestalt such as similarity, continuation, closure, proximity, figure/ground, and symmetry. To me, gestalt is using smaller pieces to create a larger meaning by using aspects such as parallelism, proximity, and more. By utilizing these principles, art can evoke certain emotions in the viewer due to unconscious mental evaluation. Differences in the way objects are arranged drastically impact the interpretation of the piece and each composition can potentially evoke different reactions from
thumnail sketches of various ideas
refined thumbnails, tweaking favorite designs
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“energetic” final
different people. It was a little difficult to create a “well-crafted object” because I was so worried about messing up in the final stages and having to start over after spending so much time attempting perfection. This project affected my perception of abstraction because I’ve never attempted abstract art before so I never understood it. After this project, I can now appreciate an artist’s attempt at evoking emotion without spelling it out perfectly on the page. I found it difficult to represent ideas without
“longing” final
illustrating them because I’m not used to that art style. I gravitate towards a more literal expression of ideas and emotions so figuring out how to convey a mood through limited materials was a challenge. I might also use the ideas of gestalt and abstraction for future projects to enhance the piece. Even when using literal art instead of abstract, the abstract properties and gestalt concepts can apply and create more significance in the piece.
......................... “chaotic” final
letterforms...... ...
practice with different types of hand lettering
This project explored the nuances of type, particularly how different arrangements of letters completely change how a word is read. We began by hand lettering different words, experimenting with how words are interpreted depending on how they’re written. We then carved letters out of linolium and proceeded to use ink to print out our words. We then had to print three additional iterations, each time changing a different aspect of the lettering to create a new feel to the word. I learned several things about letterforms while working with printmaking such as the impact tiny variances has on the appearance of the word and how differing leading or the baseline drastically changes the overall vibe of the word. If I were to continue working with these letters I would try experimenting with the copier, seeing what I could alter by manipulating the paper.
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straight print final
smeared final
offset final
double printed final
object iterations. This project was a deep dive into one specific object or animal. I chose a hedgehog because I think hedgehogs are cute and underrepresented. The essence of this project was to use different types of art - collage, geometric, single line, and imitation - to explore every aspect of our object. Through this process, I learned about the general behavior of hedgehogs and their habits. Hedgehogs are nocturnal, which contributed to darker backgrounds in several of my iterations, and they are very shy animals, which is why some of my hedgehogs are curled up. The medium that was the most challenging for me was the collage aspect because I found it difficult to find pages that I felt were usable or interesting. The most enjoyable media were my two master artists. I did one with acrylic paint and one with Sharpie and I enjoyed making both of them. I liked the master artist iterations so much because their structure was a lot more free to my interpretation and less cut and dry. In Photoshop, I learned more about different layer modes and how they affected the look of the image. I’m sure I’ll utilize their design capabilities in the future. If I had to continue with this object for a year, I would represent it through different media such as printmaking, realistic painting, and maybe sculpture.
first draft wip
final draft
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V SA
E
O
CEANS O R U
Reduce Your Plastic Consumption
Every minute, one garbage truck
of plastic is dumped into our oceans
Every day, about 8 million pieces of
plastic pollution find their way into our oceans
The average U.S. citizen consumes 167 plastic water bottles each year - but recycles only 25% of them
first draft wip
psa poster.......... This project was centered around a designer-client relationship. We each researched a topic we were passionate about then were assigned partners who would create a PSA using our topic. My partner, Claudia, wanted to inform people of the sheer amount of plastic being dumped into our oceans, polluting the environment and killing wildlife. The poster was to be in black and white with no images or illustrations so that the content of the poster could speak for itself. We had to communicate with our partner to come up with a finished product that was both visually interesting and able to get the point across. I didn’t find it very difficult to create a type-only poster because sometimes adding illustrations or images can be difficult when the subject isn’t based around a specific image. I made my title and subtitle larger to put them at the top of my visual hierarchy, I increased the darkness of the boxes as I went down to keep the eye moving down and to set apart what I thought was the most hard-hitting statistic. I used negative space to keep the composition from being too dark and crowded which allowed the information to stand out more. During this project, I learned the importance of visual hierarchy which can be translated into every composition for both organizational and clarification purposes. I also learned how to manipulate text to create a visually interesting piece without the use of images or illustrations which can be carried over to future posters and designs.
......................... original non-specific thumbnails
vvvvsdvvvvvvv
final psa poster
refined thumbnails
E S AV
O
U
E A C N O S R
Reduce Your Plastic Consumption
Every minute, one garbage truck
of plastic is dumped into our oceans
Every day, about 8 million pieces of
plastic pollution find their way into our oceans
The average U.S. citizen consumes 167 plastic water bottles each year - but recycles only 25% of them
designer talks..... In this project, we were to research a designer who had an impact on the art world and society, create a presentation, and present to the class. Our presentation was to be twenty slides and we spoke on each slide for twenty seconds each. We were to discuss the way April Greiman our designers impacted the cultures in the time period that they lived in. My designer was April Greiman, a graphic designer who worked in Los Angeles and who is known as one of the pioneers of digital art. Her work is very interesting and beautiful to me, so I had a great time researching and speaking on her. I was drawn to this designer because her ability to create wildly interesting graphics while keeping them contained enough to get her point across was very impressive. All of her work was identifiable because she had a clear artistic style, but she was able to make the pieces clearly distinct from one another. Presenting to my classmates was a little bit intimidating and I did end up speaking a little too quickly, but overall it was a good experience because public speaking is a vital skill to have and practicing in a low pressure environment such as this was good. Another designer one of my classmates presented on was Corita Kent. I would research her further because I found her work very interesting, particularly how she ignored every cultural rule both within her city and her convent and created art to incite social change. April Greiman
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The Modern Poster, 1988
Does It Make Sense?, 1986
This book was made as a part of the Introduction to Design course at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2020. The font used was Georgia. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at St. Norbert’s print center.