{visuals}
Mary Walker
{Table of Contents} Introduction Dot/Line Expressive Text Object Iterations Children’s Book Design and Vocation
{Dot/Line} Objectives from the Professor
• To build strong abstract compositions with minimal elements (dots/lines) • To build a foundation of using abundant iterations to arrive at successful solutions • To demonstrate an appropriate grasp of value, scale, line, and visual hierarchy • To practice excellent craft (that is making things well) in your final solutions
dot/line combinations
1 dot + 1 line 1 dot + 2 lines
2 dots + 2 lines 2 dots + 1 line
All dots All lines
dot/line words: choose four
discipline fear rejection chaos joy freedom energetic exhaustion oppression attraction abundance scarcity
I started out doing many thumbnails of the concepts I chose to represent. I played with circle and rectangle cutouts of different sizes and dimensions to see how they would work together and then made my thumbnails. My first set of iterations worked with different combinations of shapes to illustrate each concept to see which combinations would work best.
After deciding which combinations worked best for each concept, I reworked them, playing with the scale, proximity, value, and placement on the picture plane of the elements until I was satisfied that I had represented the concepts in the best way I could. I chose the final design for each word which is what I based my final iterations off of.
FINAL Iterations
Fear
Attraction
I illustrated the word fear by the use of extreme contrasting scale between the black and the grey dot as well as the contrasting value between the black dot and the rest of the shapes. I also placed the black dot so that it is going off the picture plane. The placement of the black dot higher up in the picture plane than the grey dot is also effective in illustrating fear.
I illustrated the word attraction by the use of scale and value; the two larger dots are the same size and both grey so we assume a relationship between them. The placement of the small dots wrapping around the grey dots and connecting them also suggests a relationship.
Energetic
Chaos
I illusted the word energetic by using increasing scale as well as the placement of the dots within the picture plane, starting in the lower left corner and then going diagonally up and off the picture plane in the upper right corner.
I illustrated the word chaos through a combination of different shapes of differnet values and different scales, some fully in the picture plane and some going off of the picture plane, and none of them aligned with each other to suggest disorder.
{Expressive Text} objectives from the professor
• To experiment with a variety of hand lettering • To think about how the form of letters (typography) impacts the meaning of the word • To build a foundation of using abundant iterations to arrive a successful solutions • To practice excellent craft (that is making things well) in your final solutions
expressive text words: choose one
beam chip deal echo force mine note step tour vote wake yield zone
I chose the word “beam” and started out working and reworking different ideas with sketches and narrowing it down to which ones best represented the word.
I took a lot of photos of a paper cutout of the word “beam� using a desk lamp to illuminate it before I found the one that worked best.
Final Iterations
Finally out of my hand drawn iterations I chose the UFO beam, the “beaming” smile, and the flashlight beam. I had to mage sure the UFO beam looked like a beam without becoming so squished you couldn’t read it. I wanted the beam to be made up of the letters without having an actual outline besides the letters themselves. For the “beaming” smile I had to squish the letters into the mouth which was a little challenging because of the shape of the specific letters in the word. Enlarging the image in my final iteration made the letters more readable. For the flashlight beam I went with something a little simpler. The letters don’t really form the beam of the flashlight so much as suggest it, but because of the flashlight and the shape of the word it is still easy to see that it is a beam of light.
For my 3D iteration I had to try a lot of different things before I got it to work the way I wanted it to. I wanted it to look like a beam of light but the letters still had to be legible which was a little difficult. Eventually I found that if I hid the light source behind the bottom of the cutout it made it dim enough that you could read the word while still being bright enough to look like a beam of light shining out from behind the word.
{Object Iterations} objectives from the professor
• To experiment with a variety of media and modes of making • To show range, creativity and curiosity in experimentation • To create unexpected yet recognizable depictions with integrity to subject • To embrace the making process as a means of discovery and understanding • To challenge yourself to create in new ways • To acknowledge and work both with and past cliché • To refine and modify work to fit within set parameters (e.g. square format)
For this project we had to pick an object or animal that could move. I chose a cat. We started out working with continuous line drawings, then collage, then geometric or geometric collage.
We had to pick two well known artists/designers from a list of master artists and do iterations of our object that drew inspiration from their work. I chose Elizabeth Peyton (left) and Marcel Dzama (right).
Finally we did text or text collage. My collage iterations were much more succesful than regular text iterations.
We had to create a poster using our final iterations for each style we used to represent our object. This was the first draft of the poster. In this version it is difficult to see the collage iterations and some of my stronger iterations are hard to see because they are too small.
For the final version of my poster I rearranged the iterations so that my stronger ones were larger and more visible and edited the backgrounds of my collage iterations to make them more contrasting.
{Children’s Book} Objectives from the professor
• Gain experience working with clients in a professional design setting • Create cohesive and visually-striking images in response to the content of the text and art direction from the client • Typeset the story dynamically and in support of the content and context • Produce a printed booklet of your collaborative children’s book
I flipped through some differnet styles of children’s books in the library as well as looking on Pinterest to get some inspiration. Then I met with my partner to discuss what she was looking for in the characters and illustrations as well as the overall layout of the book. Above are some initial sketches I did to show my partner after our first meeting based on what we decided we wanted the characters to look like. I sent these sketches to my partner and we both liked the left one the best.
After deciding which one of my ideas we liked best for the characters, I did some more sketches, altering the original a little to make it more interesting.
Happiness Is from Within
Written by Fiona Hehir Illustrated by Mary Walker
I did all of the illustrations for the book by hand using pencil and pen and then scanned them onto the computer, edited them, and added fill color using Photoshop.
Finished book There once was a girl named Mikayla...
She liked to figure things out on her own such as puzzles,
where butterflies come from,
...who was made of many questions.
Mikayla loved asking questions because she got to see new things every day.
and what happens to the sun when the moon comes out.
One day Mikayla decided she wanted to know how things become happy, so she went to find out.
On her journey, she talked to the beautiful flowers that her mother had planted outside her front door.
The flowers smiled back at her and said, “We just are!”
She asked them, “How do you become happy?”
But Mikayla was not convinced so she asked her puppy the same thing.
Lexie wagged her tail and barked back, “I just am!”
She said, “Lexie, how do you become happy?”
She looked up at the clouds and wondered how they were always so happy. She noticed that the sun was always smiling.
But again, Mikalya did not believe it.
She saw that the trees were always dancing...
...and she listened to the birds as they sang their happy tunes.
So, she went to ask her mom. “Mom, if you cannot see anything making you happy then how do you become happy?”
Now Mikayla was very confused.
Her mom replied, “Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there!”
Mikayla looked at her mother with big bright eyes.
“I’ve got it!” she screams.
She ran outside and pointed at the grass, “Look! The grass is happy!”
“Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
Then she hugged the big oak tree outside her window and said, “Now I understand!”
And then Mikayla understood. Not everything you feel can be given to you.
Moral of the story: Happiness is found inside a person and cannot always be given to someone.
Sometimes it must just be felt.
{Design and Vocation}
1. 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 recognize that through drawing, painting, sketching and generally making things with my hands; photography; singing and making music; and writing. 2. What, if anything, distinguishes art and design? If you have to pick a side, which do you choose? Why? Art is more about expressing an idea or belief; you have a lot of freedom to do what you want, how you want. Design has a more specific purpose, that is it is meant to solve a problem. It has more implied rules that you are supposed to follow. I would choose art because I like to be able to create things to express myself rather than to fit a specific purpose. 3. What is the difference between a good life and a significant life? I think a good life is one that is lived well; one that you are satisfied with. A significant life is one that people notice; one that people recognize as having accomplished something. 4. What is the greatest failure you’ve experienced (that you feel comfortable sharing with our class)? I think the greatest failure I’ve experienced so far is not making it to state my senior year of competing in forensics. 5. What’s something you’ve made in the last two years that you’re proud of? Something I’ve made in the last two years that I’m proud of is this piece I did for an art show my senior year of high school.
6. If you were guaranteed it would support you financially, what would you want to design or make for a living? I think I would like to make art for a living; paintings, colored pencil drawings and other media, as well as photographs.
This book was printed in the fall of 2015 at St. Norbert College by the college print center. It was made as the final project for an Intro to design class. It is typset in Moon Flower Bold and Times New Roman. It was designed by Mary Walker. all images were projects done by Mary Walker both by hand and digitally.