John’s Process Book: The Journey Through Art 130
Vocational Questions What is your greatest failure?
My greatest failure is taking the fun times in my life
for granted. Growing up, you always hear from either your parents or a family friend that as a kid, have fun and enjoy yourself cause it will go fast. They were right. As I am typing this as a colleiate sophomore, it is hard to believe that the early part of my life is over. It is hard to call this a failure because as a kid, you arent supposed to be worried about rememebering all the great times you had as a kid before you had responsibilities. But in hindsight, I wish that I could go back and relive my childhood, and see what I couldve done differently. You only have one life, and to think that alreayd a 1/3 of it has passed is scary to think about. Living my life in the present is my future goal as taking life in as it is happening is something that not many people get to experience.
What makes a Good Life compared to a Significant One?
This is a very tough question to answer because everyone
has a differnt definition of a good life. Someone could say happiness while someone else says money. It different for each person. But for me, a good life is the one you want. Everyone lives a significcant life. It may not be significant to the general public, or their work space, or even to their family, but it is significant to that individual because it is their life. In order to have a good life, one should be loved. Being loved by someone or something is one of the greatest feelings one could experience. To have a good life, one must also have dreams and apirations. The big quesiton in life is what is our purpose here. Obviously no one can answer that with certainty as is is also dependent on the individual. If someone sets themselves goals, and if they dream big, they can dedicate their life to acomplishing that goal or dream. Once you reach that goal or dream, you have lived a good life. Not everyones life has to be significant in order to be a good life.
D School
Dot Line
Working with a real person really changed the way that the prototype turned out. Because you are face to face, learning in real time the influence behind that piece of art which you are about to make makes it almost easier to create a beautiful piece of art. Showing someone unfinished work never feels good, but in this case it did not matter because it was a fun project with harsh time restraints. Some of the interviews felt kind of long, as in there was time to spare, there is only so much to know about gifts. The quickness of the building period really made me rushed obviously, got the heart pumping a little bit. I would probably find more specifics in the gift she gave. If i could go back and learn about those specifics, then the finished work will be more personal and thus more valuable to the consumer. Objective: D School was a very fast paced project That tested not only our speed, but also our ability to decipher information from someone else (the consumer) It was to teach us that understanding what a consumer wants and how ton interpret the information you are given visually. A challenge of this project was the fast paced time restriction given. It was hard to both interview the consumer and build the project in less than 10 minutes. The project taught me that even with 10 minutes, a designer can make something aesthetically appealing that will satisfy the consumers needs and wants.
When I think of the word Gestalt, the word creativity comes to mind. I do not really know the concrete definition, but considering this project, its seems that all of Gestalt’s “theories” are related to creativity. Gestalt directly correlates to the Dot/Line project in many ways. The cutting of shapes, deciding on what size/length, where to put them, how to understand what a word really means, its all Gestalt. At times, the whole class would translate a composition into a literal meaning. Its interesting that even though the compositions were only lines and dots, the viewer can see so much in the positive and negative spaces present in these compositions. Abstraction is a very difficult process, but that didn’t hinder my ability to make a great crafted project. Just take your time and follow the steps and it’ll turn out nice. Depends on what time doing, but most projects, I would take my time and perfect the details. It was easier believe it or not to actually make abstraction pieces than it was to critique them on the board. In your own head, you have a very specific definition to certain words. That definition developed through years of living, experiences day-to-day. And it’s very difficult to recreate that feeling
about a word in abstraction and have the viewer see it the same as you do. Another way I would use Gestalt in the world is in design. Through graphic design and my work through technology, I will easily be able to use Gestalts lessons to greater effect my work.
Text & Letter
Dot Line
Objective: The Dot Line project was very uncharted territory for me and I think a lot of us. Abstract art definitely was not something I thought I would be doing in college. The objective of this project was to teach us principles of basic design with Gestalt. The challenge was the restriction of the number of dots and lines we could use plus the fact that this was abstract art! This project taught me that even with a few basic simple shapes with a couple basic colors can even create an appealing image that represents what you want it to.
There are many things that hand lettering has taught me. This project as shown me the importance of text and the role it can play in design. Before this classI had no idea there were so many names for different parts of texts anf fonts! I like hand lettering but as it is very difficult, it will take a lot of practice. I was never good at hand drawing before this class and coming into this project, I was dreading it. Hand lettering has taught me that every word, even by itself alone, has its own feeling attached to it. Just the slight change of the style could convey an entirely different meaning. There are many things to do to increase my skill
in hand lettering. My #1 thing that I am not good at is making straight lines when painting/ drawing. I actually believe that my execution of my ideas was strong. It is very difficult to drawing what you are thinking. Everytime someone has an idea, it always sounds better in their head compared to how easy it is to bring it to life. That is very true for me. As my drawing skills are novice, it was difficult for me to get across what I was trying to but in the end it ended up pretty good. All in All, This was a very fun and creative project and I had fun doing it!
Text & Letter
Objective: The Text and Letter project was one of the most interesting to me personally. I never knew that there was so much information on the design of fonts. This was one of theprojects you had to be the most creative because you only could use one word. The objective of this projoect was to teach us about text and letter and how even the smallest detail on a single letter can affect the overall feeling and appeal of the work. Having to create four different versions of the same word sounds a lot easier than it is. Because there are endless paths one could take to represent their word, it is hard to narrow your decisions down to just four. This was a very appealing project to me even thought I am terrible at hand drawing/painting.
Object Iterations My object was a Walleye, which is a very specific species of a very broad object (fish). I learned that although the walleye is known by its distinct color, you don’t need color to separate this species from the rest. I learned the shape of the walleye is really important to its function and its being. Throughout this process, my favorite technique was using my master artists’ work as a template. They are master artists for a reason, their work is amazing. Even though you aren’t making something exactly original like I did with sharpie, it was fun to make something that you know will be appealing. My least favorite media was magazine cutouts because no matter what you use, collages are not appealing to me. Collages are also very tidious work and very diffifuclt to create. The main thing I learned in photoshop was using curves to alter the lights and darks of a photo. I am used
to using pixelmator(mac) and I do not believe they have that function. If I had to continue with this object for a year, I would display it as more aggressive and with more action as the walleye is a very active fish. I would also use color for sure, it is what separates it.
Object Iterations Objective: This project was very difficult to start out but towards the end it got easier and more interesting. I hate drawing and it hates me. I am not good at it. So when I found out we were hand drawing and creating collages, I was bummed, Starting out, a lot of the drawings did not even look like fish. But after several tries, I took my time and some of my pieces came out really nice. The challenege in the is project for me is that I suck at drawing. Some insights I gained throughout this project were my drawing skills. I for sure got better by the end of the project. Also my photoshop skills greatly inproved after this project. The project taught me that basic shapes and shades can make awsome images, and you do not need color!
Data Vizulization For my data visualization project, I really wanted to emphasize shapes and color. There are hundreds of posters and infographics posted up every week at SNC alone. The ones that I actually read catch my eye. What better way to do that than with color! I used bigger text on the points I wanted to emphasize. For my images, the size definitely affected the visual hierarchy. I simply put the most dominant facts towards the top. Some very important skills I learned from this project include photoshop and simplifying a research topic. At first, I set my horizons very broad, which was not good for research. Knowing that this was not the only piece I am going to use to get my point across, I only picked out specific facts and only put the important ones on the infographic. If I had not done that, I would have ran out of room. I had
never actually used photoshop before this class because it is not free and I never really needed it. Because I was playing around with it so much, I got familiar. Now the more I use it, I will just sharpen my skills and get that much better. Using color was a relief after object iterations! The best thing about color is it really has an effect on everything from grabbing attention to impacting emotions. Because I was able to use color, I did not have to rely on strictly the image to get a wow factor. Color definitely helped better my work.
Data Vizulization Objective: Data Viz was easily my favorite project this semester. I love computers, especially Macs and that is one of the main reasons I took this class. This project was almost 100% done on the Mac through Photoshop and InDesign, which was only my second time using both of them (object iterations). A challenge of the is project was the research that I needed to gather. Even though I am a com/media major and I have several classes dedicated on how to find research, finding and deciding what was the most important research was difficult. There was a lot of information out there, but deciding on what made the cut was difficult. The main insight for this project was definitely on how to design with color. Throughout every project prior to this one, everything was in grayscale. Color just took our work to a whole new level. Learning the color wheel and everything I did with this project is essential for every designer.
Designer Presentation The initial thing that caught my eye about Herbert Matter was the fact that he was a pioneer in his line of work. To be able to create something that no one else has ever before is a amazing life accomplishment. When Matter was creating photomontage techniques, he had no idea that most graphics in the 40’s/50’s would use his techniques. That’s just a really interesting and cool attribute about Herbert. Presenting to my classmates was not that difficult at all because throughout my education, I’ve had to speak in public many times. I felt comfortable as I do not have the biggest fear of public speaking, although it is not something I look forward too. If I were to do this project over again, I think I would like to research Saul Bass because I really enjoy video and someday want to work with it maybe. Plus I have done some
work based off of his work in an earlier project in this class so that helps. This was a very interesting and fun project to work on. I cam into this class with not much experience with the art world. Before the designer presentation, I never knew how much contirbution graphic designers have done by creating their work.
Designer Presentaion Objectives: The project was the one I least looked forward to stricly because of the presentation aspect. Research Herbert Matter was actually very interesting and I am glad that I have the knowledge that I do now, The challenge with this project was the public speaking part , specifically the timed slides. I had never done a presentation where the slides moves automatically. This was very difficult to both practice with and present with.
I would like to dedicate this work to my mother, without her, I would not be in this class or at this college. I would also like to dedicate this work to Professor Katie Ries as she is one of the most enthusiastic, fun-loving, and kind hearted tearchers I have had throughout my educational career. Thank you for taking the time to read and enjoy my work from this semester.
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2017. The fonts used include Myriad Pro, Nueva STD, Tekton Pro, and Helvetica Neue. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center.