Final Process Book by meghanlowery

Business in the Front

Party in the Back Meghan Lowery

Vocation Growing up, I was raised in a very creative household. My mom loves interior design, and my dad loves to garden. They love getting my opinion on their projects and ask for my help when needed. Each room in our home has been carefully put together by my mom, but it’s always changing. I’d like to think that a lot of the final touches are my doing. My dad uses his creativity on the exterior of the house. He loves to plant things in our garden and make the outside of the house beautiful. From landscape, to furniture, to planting, our backyard and frontyard are always flawless. I’m really grateful because my parents have always embraced being creative. I am encouraged to listen to music, read, and express myself in any ways I can. As a result of my upbringing, I do gravitate towards creative work. I recognize that through my appreciation for fashion. Whenever I go into stores, turn on the TV, or go on social media, I always look at what people are wearing and who’s wearing them.

If I was guaranteed to be supported financially, I would love to design clothes. It is my dream to work in fashion, but it is such an intimidating industry full of competition. My brand would be based on sustainability, inclusion, affordability, accessible, and good quality. While some companies might cover several of these today, it is nearly impossible to find all of them. As a plus size woman, it is very challenging to find pieces that make me feel confident and like myself. Even in advertisements, most people are slender and white, which does not reflect our community. I would love to make all genders, all races, all sizes, all people feel good in their skin and happy with the product. Fashion is a way to express yourself and your creativity and such an important part of my life. 2

Crash Course This project was one of the first days of school. We had to interview a classmate for several minutes and learn about their experience at St. Norbert College. After the interviews, we had 10 minutes to make something that would help our partner while at SNC. My partner and I had a great conversation which gave me a direction to project onto a medium. The pace of working was fairly quick, but I liked to be on my toes. We were provided with materials on our table, 3

and everything I used was at a close proximity. At the end of the 10 minutes I was scrambling to add final touches however; my work was completed. I tried to make a table at the activity fair for students interested in traveling and adventure. Based on my final work, I would go back and reinforce the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;neckâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; below the dog. I would also like to cut the excess cardboard surrounding the space clipping from the magazine and add more things behind the plane.

Dot & Line Dot & line taught me skills of craft, abstraction, and gestalt. There were several combinations of dots and lines to choose from however; compositions with all dots and all lines could only be used once. Each composition correlated to a word, and it was interesting to convey the word in my work. It is not difficult for me to make a well-crafted object if I have an ample amount of time. I would much rather spend extra time to get small details right.

The most time consuming part of this project was me trying to perfect every cut, angle, and glue. This project helped me gain a better understanding of abstraction as I know how to critique it and the concepts behind the work. Abstraction has structure and some rules to it which has made me appreciate it more. I intentionally chose words that I felt a stronger connection to and moved physical dots and lines around to see what composition struck me the most.

Thumbnails

Gestalt is how we view a whole composition before looking at the specific principles of the concept. It relates to this project as the dots and lines were used in a way that could create parallelism, closure, continuation, anomaly, similarity, and proximity. Each composition was unique and had different variations of these principles. With the new information and experience I have regarding gestalt and abstraction, I not only have a greater appreciation, but I will use these skills in my future work.

I felt that the word stability was reflected through the two lines and single dot. The lines are holding the dot in place and keeping it still. The negative space in this composition is very interesting as nothing is centered.

Stability

When I think of energy, I think of chaos and fun. I used both gray and black dots and lines of different sizes to demonstrate these themes. The larger gray dot takes the eye off the page and insinuates that the composition has something bigger.

Energetic

Opression This is the word I felt most called to. When creating this, I felt like the lighter gray should be bigger and on top whereas the smaller black dot is on the bottom. There is space for the black dot to get on top, but the thick line between the two is blocking it. I have always been very passionate about social issues and this year has been a time where I feel comfortable using my voice. I have become more educated and engaged in conversations with others about difficult topics, and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m very grateful for that. 2020 has been a year full of change through several social movements. It is essential for me to recognize my privilege and see the systemic oppression and racism in this country. I want to continue to grow as an individual and be an advocate and ally for others.

Letterforms When working with letterforms, I learned to be very precise and detailed with my execution. The class carved an alphabet in a sans serif font into linoleum squares, which was not easy nor fun. Once completed, we transferred ink onto the letters and began creating 2-D work. If I put too much ink on my letters, they would slip. It was challenging to flip paper over to better press the letters and very difficult to line things up correctly. Additionally, I found that the way letters are shifted and positioned can have a significance on how a word is interpreted. 9

When we walked around in class and looked at our peer’s work, I was able to react both positively and negatively to compositions. If I were to continue working with these letters, I would illuminate the chatter on the linoleum, as it made the project messier, and I did not like the appearance. I would also enjoy making more ‘free style’ versions where I could use different mediums and reflect the word ‘lime’ in other ways. After mind mapping, I had so many concepts for my work but could only choose one.

Version 1 used tape to create a pattern on the letters and had an overlap of each character. The word is almost unrecognizable, so version 2 simplified into only using tape. In the final version, different widths of tape were placed, chatter was removed, and more pressure was put onto letters as they were printing. 10

Object & Animals The purpose of this project was to experiment with new media and create several iterations of an animal or object of our choosing. Much time was spent on critiquing and fine tuning work. I made several versions of Dalmations, and by the end of the project I learned more about the spot variation and personality of the breed. I looked online for more information and to better understand the dogs, and I think it helped me in my work. The most challenging iteration was my Basquiat iteration. I love his work so 13

much however; I tried several times to incorporate several key components from his work into mine, and I hated it. No matter what I tried, I was disappointed with my renditions. I tried to create texture in acrylic paint, used ink washes, outlining, writing, mixed shades, and nothing seemed appealing to me. On the contrary, the most enjoyable was the typographic collage. I loved all of my final 3 pieces and had the most fun working on them. Collaging is a hobby of mine, but Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not used to having structure

when doing it. I liked being challenged to create so many collages with different requirements. Going forward, it will be useful to be familiar with Photoshop and InDesign in my potential career. If I had to continue with the Dalmatian for a year, it would be interesting to work on a childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s story. Every page would have a different style or iteration, and I would be able to experiment with several mediums.

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My one line iteration evolved quite a bit from start to finish. I used Photoshop to darken the lines of the dalmatian and add spots. I later went in and added a darker background to add more contrast. After critique, I adjusted the curves of my work and brought the neck of the dog to the bottom of the frame. Artist Iteration: Basquiat V1 was created using acrylic paint. V2 was created using acrylic paint, paper towels, and ink washes.

V3 was a scanned image of V2 and rendered in Photoshop. I adjusted the curves of the image and used the brush tool in some areas.

Each version of this collaged developed by changing the colors, highlights, and adding a background.

My final geometric iteration reflected the most recognizable trait of the breed, spots. I wanted to create motion in my typographic collage, and the legs allude to the dog walking off of the page. I refined a few edges and cuts in photoshop, but both versions are very similar. 16

LOOKING FOR A DOG?

LOOKING TO ADOPT A DOG?

pet stores source their dogs from puppy mills.

puppy mills house dogs in horrible conditions with chances of little food, water, proper shelter, and low sanitation all leading to sickness or death.

ADOPT FROM A SHELTER OR ANIMAL RESCUE

an estimated 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year, but only 3.2 million are adopted. approximately 1.5 million of animals in shelters are euthanized in shelters due to overcrowding.

for more information go to https://www.onfocus.news/puppy-mills-remain-prevalent-in-wisconsin/

an estimated 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year, but only 3.2 million are adopted. approximately 1.5 million of animals in shelters are euthanized in shelters due to overcrowding. for more information go to https://www.onfocus.news/puppy-mills-remain-prevalent-in-wisconsin/

LOOKING TO ADOPT A DOG?

pet stores source their dogs from puppy mills. puppy mills house dogs in horrible conditions with chances of little food, water, proper shelter, and low sanitation all leading to sickness or death.

ADOPT FROM A SHELTER OR ANIMAL RESCUE an estimated 6.5 million animals enter shelters each year, but only 3.2 million are adopted. approximately 1.5 million of animals in shelters are euthanized in shelters due to overcrowding.

for more information go to - https://bit.ly/2FYjMLr

PSA Poster Not only was enlarging some text was beneficial, but changing the opacity of black to add contrast to my work was too. During this project, I learned several skills. I was At first, I felt given information very challenged by my client and and didn’t know instructions on how I would put how to execute expression into my work. Working my work. Negative with someone else space was wasn’t difficult, but something I tried it was new. I wanted The PSA poster to work with the to make something was the most most in order to my client liked intimidating create an effective and envisioned. project we had this visual hierarchy. Learning how semester. We were There is a nice flow to work and limited to using to the text on my communicate with type to illustrate the poster, and as a others is essential, ideas of someone result, the hierarchy and I will be taking else in class, our is effective. I this forward to client. I created scaled the text other work. Whether several thumbnails biggest at the top, or not I end up in a for the final 8.5” and towards the career of design, x 11” black and middle I included these skills will white poster. the call to action. help me succeed. 18

20 x 20 Designer Talks This project was an opportunity to research a designer that interested me and critically analyze their work. Giving a Pecha Kucha style presentation helped me develop stronger public speaking skills. My artist was Massimo Vignelli, and I focused on his work with the NYC subway. In 1972, Massimo Vignelli completed his project of the NYC subway system map. He used 45 and 90 degree lines, dots, and a typeface that was clear to read in order for passengers to have a greater understanding of the system. 19

Some of his other work included designs from Unimark International Corporation for Design and Marketing, the first design agency with international offices. Massimo was senior vice president for the company and helped establish the corporate identities for Ford, JCP, Gillette, Knoll, American Airlines, Bloomingdales through designing their logos.

All images sourced from design culture @ http://www. designculture.it/interview/ massimo-vignelli.html

This book was made as a part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2020. The font used is Galjiv. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the collegeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s print center.

Woohoo! Party!!!