Projects Crash Course Dot Line Letter Forms Object Iterations Public Service Announcement 20 x 20 Talks
The Beginning Prior to the start of the semester, I was looking forward to this class. I was aware that design knowledge is very valuable in today’s society, so I knew this class would benefit me. I did not expect to struggle with Photoshop or InDesign, however, I experienced many struggles. By utilizing Google, in class notes, the help of Professor Ries, and practice, I was able to be more comfortable with these programs. I am thankful for the opportunity to gain these new skills!
Reflection Questions I feel called to create work and I know this because I find joy and fulfillment in the process and finished product of my work. Although working on some of these products can bring about frustrations and stressful situations, seeing the work completed in the end truly pays off.
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2021. The fonts used include Optima, Brush Script MT, and Didot Italics.
In response to one of the reflective questions, I believe there is a difference between a good life and a significant life. A good life contains happy moments, good people, contentment with situations, and little struggles. A significant life is made up of struggling circumstances that were persevered through, living for something bigger than yourself, helping others with the eyes of faith, and pushing yourself to be the best version you can be. I strive to live a significant life instead of a good life because I believe all individuals are called to be significant.
Crash Course OBJECTIVE: Working with a partner, we shared goals or wishes we had and first drew out our goals and wishes on paper. Next, we made comic strip versions of how our partner was to accomplish their goals or wishes. Then, we used random objects to illustrate how our partner could accomplish their goals or wishes. We then shared these solutions with our partner and received feedback.
Dot Line
Pictured below are thumbnail versions of my dot line pieces. I played around with variations of the dots and lines until I found one that truly caught my eye and expressed the word it was representing.
My partner had never gone to a SNC football game, so my suggestion was to go with her friends, get sushi afterwards at Phil’s, and head back to her friend’s apartment in Xanten to hang out. I utilized the random objects that were placed on my desk by Professor Ries. Seen above are stickers, tape, wine wrappers, a part of a playing card, and a plastic duck (seen on the football field).
REFLECTION/PROCESS: Engaging with a real person, made me more cautious about how others would interpret my prototype. I wanted my project partner to approve of my work and understand why I made the prototype the way I did. I was not afraid to show my partner the unfinished work, since we did not have much time to complete this, and my peer’s works were not finished either. I believe that unfinished work was a big aspect of the project, considering the limited time we were given. The pace was quick, however, it made me think ahead and learn how to adjust when I made a mistake or wanted to change the
direction of the project. This time frame was very different than what I am used to. Generally, I take my time and do projects over and over if they do not end up how I imagined them to. Based on what I learned, I think I would have asked more in-depth questions and dug deeper into my partners goals and wishes in order to have a more meaningful project. I would have asked more about their lifestyle or habits. This would have helped to make the project more meaningful. However, I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish with the information I had received.
OBJECTIVE: Picking from a list of words, we were to select three words and make five thumbnails of each word. This allowed us to be creative and to explore many variations of dots and lines. We were only able to use certain combinations of dots and lines. Then, we cut dots and lines, planned the layout, glued them on paper, and spray glued the paper to cork board which we cut ourselves. I originally chose the words rejection, comfort, and exhaustion, however, later in the project I ended up changing one of the words I had originally planned to use.
REFLECTION/PROCESS: Throughout this project, I struggled cutting the cork board as I kept cutting it unevenly. After many tries and a few hours, I finally left the studio with semi-straight cork boards. Another problem I came across was making sure that the spray glue did not leave spots on the paper. My work had a few spots from the spray glue, but not enough to totally ruin my work.
REFLECTION/PROCESS (continued): Each project in this class we have in class critiques which is a period of time in which our peers provide suggestions for our work. As a result of my in class critique suggestions, I chose to change one of my words. Instead of comfort being one of my words, I replaced it with longing because that was easier for me to express. I made more thumbnails and starred the iterations that I felt most content with. Reflecting on this project, I think that Gestalt is how we view a piece of work as one piece rather than focusing on each individual small piece. This relates to the project because when viewing the artwork, we cannot focus on the dots and lines
alone, but rather how they work together as a whole to create something that shares a meaning. In any design work I would rather spend extra time to get small details right, otherwise I will not be satisfied knowing that I could have given better effort. Personally, I found some difficulty in representing ideas in a way that was not illustration, which helped me to decide which words to use. I think that this exercise will be very helpful when viewing other abstract art pieces. Prior to this, I did not like looking at abstract work, but now I have a better understanding and appreciation for the work.
Final Exhaustion (1 dot 1 line)
Longing (all dots)
Rejection (2 dots 2 lines)
Above from top to bottom are rejection, longing, and exhaustion.
Letter Forms OBJECTIVE: This project helped us to understand how letter forms can impact how we perceive a message. We were to carve out letters by hand and practice using them with ink. Then, we practiced writing words and phrases by hand. In addition, we made mind maps of different words and ultimately used ink letters to create the word used in our mind maps.
Above and below picture lettering practiced in my sketchbook. I had fun playing around with these techniques.
REFLECTION/PROCESS: We learned kerning and leading by doing this process by hand. We played around with the letters and also learned how to properly write different fonts and styles. I learned that you can be creative with letter forms, but it also requires following set rules, such as often keeping the kerning in between letters consistent and the baseline to maintain the same. If I were to continue working with these letters I would test out more designs using the photo copier. I enjoyed working with this took and would like to see what else I could come up with. I found it super amazing that the photo copier, something I have used for most of my life, can truly be used in an artistic way. I never thought of it in a creative way prior to this class.
Mind Map
The word free was chosen for the mind map. As seen above, free can have many different meanings. I focused on the typical American idea of being free as well as what it means when an item is free. In regards to free items, I kept thinking of donations and cheap items at garage sales that are put out for free in attempt to get rid of them.
Final I used the smearing technique to create the product below. First, I placed the heavy inked letter onto the paper and applied pressure for about ten seconds. Next, I dragged the inked letter in different directions across the page.
The technique utilized below is called ghosting. As can be seen, there is the initial lettering of the word free in the middle of the page which is also the boldest. Then, using the leftover ink already on the letters, I pressed them again onto the paper.
Above is a version of my word, free. In order to create this, I used the carved letters, put ink on them, and then after placing them on the paper I let them dry. The next day I took the letters to the photocopier, copied them, could out most of the chatter, and colored in the lighter spots with sharpie. Then, I photocopied the new and improved letters, cut those out, and placed them on the copier in a diagonal. After copying them another time, I ripped the paper and copied it with the top open to create a black background.
Here is a straight version of my word. This version allows us to practice kerning.
I think the chatter seen on this version highlights the process of this project as a whole. At first, I was very against chatter and thought it looked messy, but after hearing my classmates’ opinions on the chatter my mind was changed. Being able to see the process behind the word is part of the charm and shows the hard word that is behind even simpler forms of art. On the next page another iteration of the word can be seen.
The image to the right is my favorite iteration of the word. I used the ink letters and placed them as straight as possible on the page. Then, I photocopied it, cut out the chatter, and used sharpie to make the letters darker. Next, I photocopied it again with the improved letters. Finally, I crumpled the paper and photocopied it with the cover of the copier up in order to get a black background.
Object Iterations OBJECTIVE: We learned how to engage with subject matter and capture its essence in a variety of styles. This helps us to work iteratively, help us experiment with a variety of media, and improve our design skills of communicating a subject clearly. We created collages, continuous line drawings, and artist iterations. REFLECTION/ PROCESS: Through this process I learned how human like my object was. I was able to learn more about their behaviors and coloring. I also noticed how much fur my Bonobo Chimp has! The media that was the most challenging for me were the artist iterations. At first, I really struggled wondering how I would get the pieces to look decent. My most enjoyable piece was also the artist iterations because once discussing the iterations with Prof. Reis and my classmates, I had ideas on how to start the process. I thought learning how to edit with curves was very helpful. This will be useful going forward so I can easily make quick changes to lighting on photos. If I had to continue this for a year, I would consider have iterations and collages depicting the Bonobo Chimp in a tree, eating, and with its family. This would help to give more context to my chimp. I looked through many magazines, cut out sections, and glued them onto paper in order to create the collages found on the following pages. For this project, all the final iterations were in black and white, but for the purpose of this book I chose to have most of them in their original color.
Above is a Bonobo Chimp created out of magazine pieces.
Below is another iteration of the Bonobo Chimp. His mouth is made from a picture of a One Direction band member’s eyebrow.
The subject of my choice is the Bonobo Chimpanzee.
The Bonobo Chimp is pictured here with a jungle tree. If you look closely at the chimp you can see that his fur is made out of a magazine picture of hair.
Below is a form of type collage. As can be seen, lots of type is shown in this collage.
Above is a geometric iteration of the Bonobo Chimp. Note the use of triangles, a circle, an oval, and many rectangles.
Here is another geometric iteration. Please note the many circles utilized in this iteration.
The chimp shown above is an iteration of a continuous line drawing. I then went back into Photoshop to color in the chimp a light gray. This allowed the shape of the chimp to be seen better.
These collages are called type collages. They are made up of words that were found in newspapers. In creating them, we had to be cognizant of the words we were choosing to be a part of our work. That being said, specific words such as rain forest, canopy, and pool advertisements were used. This all reminds me of warm weather, and places that Bonobo Chimps live.
Artist Iterations The top iterations on both pages are based off of Paul Klee. He made a lot of work using cubism styles. As you can see, the final draft is more cubism looking than the first attempt.
We had to chose an artist from a list and iterate their work. In order to do this we used similar processes as the artist and made our work look similar to their style. I struggled with the first iterations and as you can see, my final products are a big improvement from my first drafts.
The bottom iterations are based off the artist Roy Lichtenstein. His work is cartoon-like, which you can see based off of the final draft.
Improved Artist Iterations
Public Service Announcement OBJECTIVE: In class, we studied how PSAs are important. They serve as messages that warn, encourage, educate, and chastise us. We researched a topic or organization and met with a client (classmate). Our client then made a PSA for our topic, and vice versa. We then provided suggestions for the PSA and photographed them hanging different places on campus. Throughout this process, some of the difficulties that appeared regarded not being able to talk to my client face to face due to testing positive for COVID 19. Overall, we learned it is important to make PSA posters appealing to the eye and attentiongrabbing. This allows more people to notice them.
These sketches are rough drafts of the PSA poster. I played around with many different designs and showed them to my ‘client’. Then, I let them chose which one they thought was best. We then talked about why the final layout is better than all the rest. This helped us to analyze the designs more thoroughly.
Here is the PSA placed on a wall.
REFLECTION/PROCESS: I think that it is important to make PSA posters appealing to the eye and attention-grabbing. This allows more people to notice the commercials and announcements, which will in turn allow more people to hear the information. I found the PSAs on The Truth website were very colorful, which made them stand out. There were not a ton of words which is helpful because when a PSA shows less words, it allows the viewer to focus on what is important on the poster, and also might leave them with an open ended question. This will make them think about the PSA long than a longer and wordy PSA would. If I had to redo this project, I would make the horizontal box a bit lighter so that the wording is more visible.
20x20 Talks To the left is a photo of Art Chantry and to the right one of his works. This poster is from 1983 and was designed for a performance of Macbeth but the setting was changed to be around the time of old west cattle barons. Chantry said this is a picture of his grandfather that was burned a little. He placed the title into a bloodstain shape to cover the burned parts of the photo. He used Helvetica font for the top.
OBJECTIVE: This project consisted of a short presentation of a graphic designer of our choice. Professor Ries provided us with a list of graphic designers, and I came across Art Chantry. The presentation was made up of twenty slides, each showing for twenty seconds, hence 20x20 as the title. This allowed us to learn about outstanding designers, share information with our peers, and practice our public speaking. REFLECTION/PROCESS: I was drawn to my designer by his name. I randomly chose a designer for this project and then I had to present on Loom due to being ill, so I was not affected by presenting in person. For me,
this process was different than my peers since I was not in class for a couple weeks. However, I started researching Art Chantry and found out that he is a designer who steers clear of commercial and corporate clients and chooses more unique genres. Most of his work revolves around hot rod culture, exploitation magazines, vintage sources, and underground grunge music. His work is described as being on the fringe of what is socially acceptable. When being asked about his work, he stated that his goal is to accurately represent the times.
Overall... Reflecting back on this class as a whole, I want to say thank you to Professor Ries for all of her advice and guidance. I enjoyed this class more than I thought I would which surprised me because I typically avoid anything art related. This class also gave me a greater appreciation for the work and time that is behind each design. I hope to continue to improve my skills of the platforms we used.
This is a random photo I took during the semester and I thought this would be a pretty back cover for my book.