D-School
Engaging with / testing with a real person changed the direction my my prototype because doing so gave me an instant response to whether or not my prototype was on the right track. Being able to have instant input from the person you are creating the design for was incredibly helpful in that sense, because if something wasn’t woking you would know immediately (and be able to make a change).
The “D-School Crash Course” was the very first day of class, and it was quite an experience. We were paired off into groups of two, and using the D-School process we had to redesign “the gift giving process” for each other. First, we had to interview each other to get information and determine their issues with giving gifts. Then, we had to brainstorm ideas very quickly, and then share them / get feedback. Fianlly, we had to come up with a final solution based on feedback, and then build a prototype for our partner (all in very small increments of time). At the end, we shared our prototypes with each other and gave/received feedback.
It felt really embarrassing to show unfinished work to someone else. I had a solid idea, but little time to execute it and could only show my unfinished piece, which was really awkward to do. I liked the rush and flurry of excitement that this process had, but I also hated how little time we had to come up with ideas and to create a solution. I was actually surprised that doing something like this was even possible in the short amount of time we had.
2 pages from the D-School packet, showing my brainstorms and final solution.
Based on what I learned, I would go back and refine my idea some more, adding a few more concepts and changing some things around (rather than just throwing it together as quickly and as nicely as I could). As for what I would do over, I would basically do over my set of solutions and keep the final idea I settled on for my prototype. I think the process D-School uses could apply to many other things. The quick brainstorming and deciding upon an idea in such a fast manner could be used in any situation that requires creative decision making. For example, if you were working in a group and were stuck on something, you could share this method in order to come up with a solution.
Dot / Line The dot / line project was the very first project of the semester. The assigment was clear - visually represent four words by only using just dots, just lines, or specific combinations of dots and lines. At first the task seemed simple enough, but as I went forward I realized just how hard to is to work abstractly like this and utilize the principles of gestalt (which my understanding of it is that is it the instant response you have to something when you first see it, you see the entirety of something before picking out the smaller details). I wouldn’t say it’s overly difficult for me to create a “well-crafted object.” I would rather spend the extra time to get things right, even if it means doing something over to get it exactly how I want it. It took quite a bit of time to get my dots and lines as perfect as I could get them, but it was well worth the time and efort in the end. This project really expanded my idea of abstraction. Having to come up with representations of words with minimal dots/lines really opened up my mind to what you can accomplish with so little, and how to get the idea across in that way. I really liked making work with such tight parameters during this project. It was easier, since with strict guidelines you have a place to start, which allowed me to get excited about the work faster than normal, as evidenced by my first thumbnail sketches, seen below.
I think it was a little difficult to represent ideas without illustrating them, but once I got started it became a little easier. After the first few compositions, working with the dots and lines in an abstract manner became a little more familiar, and therefore not as hard as when I started. This exercise could apply to many situations, in my opinion. The idea of stripping away your work until the bare minimum (that is needed to get your point across) is left is very universal. The simplicity required for working with the lesser amounts of dots/lines could be applied to almost any work, as it’s about being clear and getting to the point. Shown above and below are more of my original thumbnail sketches for my four words: freedom. chaos, rejection (above), and discipline (below).
Freedom
Rejection
Chaos
Discipline
A couple of pages of my experimenting and playing around with hand lettering.
EXPRESSIVE For the expressive text project, I had to creatively “evoke” the meaning of a word through its typography. I first just experimented with hand letetring in general (on the page to the left), and then had to pick 4 words to create many different iteratiosn for. Out of these four I picked, I had to choose one that I would do for the project. I chose “zone,” becuase out of the fours words I worked with I thought my ideas for it were the strongest and had the most potemtial. Shown to left left is one of many pages of “zone” ideas I created and refined.
TEXT
Shown is a mind map of my chosen word, zone (top left), and various pages of brainstorming / drafts I did. I then went though all my ideas and then refined the ones I liked the most.
Final #1
The abundance of ideas I had to create for just one word surprised me about this project, along with the fact that I only used four in the end. It just shows how you have to work abundantly, and then cherry pick your best ideas down the line. It was a little surprising how much easier it was to pick four when I had pages and pages to ponder over. I took advantage of letterforms to communicate meaning in a few different ways. To represent “zone,� I made letterforms that squeezed into a triangle shaped area/zone. Additionally, I used letterforms to fit letters inside of another letter(s), to enhance the meaning of the word. Basically, I played off of the word zone by using letterforms that conveyed the word though the placement of the letters (inside of each other or created inside a certain area).
Final #2
With the exprssive text project, I learned a lot about type that I hadn’t previously known. Labeling the words/letters was really interesting, because I had never head of descenders/ascenders, ligatures, or finials before. I have always been fond of playing around with lettering (cursive especially), so it was very informative to learn the terminology behind it. Additionally, I had never worked with ink like this before, so it was fun to learn and practice that. The greatest challenge of this project was really refining my ideas/concepts. I had a few that I really loved, but struggled a bit with trying to improve and make them more clear. I handled it by simply focusing and trying my best to creatively alter my designs to better suit the final outcome. However, I did learn to always keep working on new ideas if one of my original ideas didn’t pan out.
Final #4
Final #3
Object Iterations Continuous Line
For the object iterations project, I had to choose one specific animal (or object) and create many different iterations of it using various methods. My animal of choice was the polar bear, mainly becuase I wanted an animal that would look good in black and white, and also becuase I was born in Alaska. The four different mediums I had to use to craete polar bears with were continuous line, typographic collage, collage, and geometric. In addition to these four mediums, I also had to imitate the work of two “master artisits.� For my master artist iterations, I picked Rene Magritte and Keith Haring.
Typographic Collage
Collage
Throughout this project, I don’t think I really “learned” anything about my object (polar bear), but I just became very familiar with it. I wanted to do something that would look striking in black and white - and what better than something that is naturally that way? I grew to be very familiar with the shape of the face (ears, chin, etc) because the face is what really defines the polar bear. Having to do many different iterations using the different mediums really engrained the polar bear in my mind. I don’t know if the presentation of my iterations really changed or amplified them. It was somewhat of a challenge trying to fit them all together nicely, because I wanted something more interesting/ dynamic than just perfectly aligned boxes (hence why I chose to stagger the 3 against 2 of my bigger iterations). If I were to contnue with this project, I would probably try to do more physical representations of it, as I liked photographing the origami polar bear (so I’d like to try more of that), along with trying different poses, since I stuck to just a few for my iterations.
Geometric
Rene Magritte
Master Artists
The most challenging medium for me was the collage (non-typographic). It was really hard to make a polar bear out of what I could find, since they are pretty simple (visually) creatures. Trying to get the perfect face collage was kind of hard to do, since the face is what really makes a polar bear “look like a polar bear.� I liked doing the geometric collage the most, since I could do an origami polar bear. It was fun making a little set to place it in (cotton balls make fairly decent snow...) and photograph it. With this project, I also was able to expand upon my knowledge of Photoshop. I had previous experience with it, but just from a photography point-of-view. It was interesting to learn how to create backgrounds and work with multiple layers, which I had never done before. It was also nice to start learning shortcuts, which I’m sure will come in handy.
Keith Haring
F i n a l
Children’s Book
The children’s book was the final project of the semester (not counting this process book). I was paired up with a student from a different class, Andrew Baert, and he provided me with the text for a children’s book that I had to typeset and illustrate. I was provided with a fun little story titled, “Why is the River Green?” It’s about a scientist who wonders why the river is green druing the summer, she does some experiments and research, and comes to a final conculsion at the end. Shown to the left are my storyboards for the book, the first step I took towards planning out how I was going to go about illustarting it.
Concerning the project, I was surprised that my partner basically gave me total freedom with the illustrations. He really didn’t give me any restrictions or any ideas about what he wanted, so it was nice to just run with my own ideas and not worry about having to meet any authorial criteria. He was very relaxed and always liked what I had to show him when we would meet. My partner bought a really simple and short story to the project - which I am really grateful for. It was really easy to decide what to illustrate and setting the type was easier to, since there isn’t more than a sentence or two per page.
First, she looks at what other scientists have said about the river. Her friend Jimmy says that the river is green every summer for as long as he’s been watching it.
The only critical feedback I got from my partner was that he didn’t like my handwritten cursive I was using from some of the text (namely, the cover). He was fine with it being handwritten, but wanted it to be really readable. I’m really attached to cursive writing (I really, really love the style/look of it) but I agreed that the book’s text should probably be very easy to read, and cursive doesn’t really work in this situation. Anyways, I still got some unique hand lettering in on some non-story text. Shown above and to the left are two versions of the same page, my very first draft and the finished result.
I think the hardest part of this project was the actual illustrating. It was somewhat easier to storyboard and generate page layouts/ideas, but the actual drawing and painting of the pages was really difficult at first. Sure, as I got deeper into it I was able to reuse my previous drawings to create new pages, which was nice. I knew the medium I chose to work with would be a lot of work up front, but would result in totally complete pages without any digital work (besides some simple color editing, nothing drastic). If I were to start this project again, I would probably start a bit earlier and try to mange my time a bit better. Working with the acetate (drawing on it, painting it and waiting for it to dry) was really time consuming and I think some more time practicing would have been helpful. Sure, once I got started I moved at a pretty decent pace, but if I had started a bit earlier / managed my time a bit better I could have been a little easier on myself and not have felt as rushed. My main source of inspiration for this project was traditional hand drawn animation. I drew my character, sets/locations, text and objects in Sharpie on various layers of acetate (thin plastic sheets) and used acrylic paint of the back to color them in. To cut down on the workload, I only drew the main body of my character once, without arms. I then drew different arm positions of new layers of acetate that would just lay right over the base body. I took multiple finished layers of acetate (set/location, main character body, character’s arms, text, various objects) and stacked them, taping them down over a sheet of colorful card stock and scanned it (resulting in a finished page of the book).
Julie the Scientist has a Question. Why is the river green during the summer?
Julie is curious about these little green balls. She wonders what makes them grow in the summer but not the winter.
Julie decides that the sunlight and heat make the little green balls grow better. She writes down her results in a Journal, so other scientists can find what she did.
This process book was created as part of Introduction to Design in the Fall of 2015 at St. Norbert College. It is typeset in KG Piece by Piece, Noteworthy, and American Typewriter Condensed Light.