Overview:
At the beginning of this course, I did not know the difference between art and design. Throughout this course, I have learned skills such as using Photoshop, and InDesign, and pretty much learned a whole new set of skills. I now know the basics of design, and I enjoy it. I enjoy it so much that I switched my major to design. This class has brought to light what I want to do with my
future, and I am very thankful for that. The most challenging part of this course was going out of my comfort zone.
I did a lot of projects that I would not have done if it wasn’t for this course. I am usually scared to try new things so that was tough for me to do. It was hard for me to learn how to use InDesign and Photoshop but I have gotten pretty good at managing them. I
would like to continue to grow as a designer and eventually become one. I would like to work on finding my unique style as a designer. I still have a lot to learn, but I am hopeful for my future.
1. Crash Course
Where It all Began Objectives
We were assigned a partner for our first project and given a packet of directions we had to follow. We charted our experiences from the beginning of our semester to the end. Then, we had to interview our partners to get to know them and gain empathy for them. We had to come up with different solutions to the problem our partner presented to us. Then, we made them a prototype of an item they could use to help solve their problem. This project was difficult because we were forced to work fast and under pressure. We had to listen to our partner and come up with creative solutions.
These are my rough sketches trying to come up with solutions for my partner. She needed to find a balance between work, school, and her social life.
My final prototype was an alarm clock made of cardboard, rope, a bottlecap, and a sharpie marker.
Reflection:
Engaging with my partner gave me insight into the different issues she was facing. It made me more passionate about designing the correct prototype because I felt her emotions from talking with her, and I wanted to help her. Talking with her motivated me in the design process because I got to know her. I usually would be nervous to show someone unfinished work, but my partner made me feel comfortable so I was not nervous at all. This process was not as scary because we got to know each other. It was like showing one of my friends my unfinished work. The pace felt extremely fast compared to what I’m used to when I work. I usually take my time when I make art to make it look how I want it to. It stressed me out
a little bit because of how fast we worked. I also felt like my drawings needed to be perfect, but I was unable to do that due to the amount of time we had. If I could go back and change something, I would try to make my drawings more detailed and take a longer time on them. I would also take more time to design my prototype. I would try to fix a different issue that my partner had. The problem I picked was kind of hard to find a solution to.
2. Dot/Line
Objectives:
In my opinion, this project was the most difficult. For this project, we were given a list of words we could choose from. I chose rejection, exhaustion, and joy. Then we were given specific guidelines about how many dots and lines we could use to create each piece. We then created three different pieces using only dots and lines to portray our feelings.
This was so difficult for me because there was a lot of precise cutting and gluing that needed to be done. I also struggled with trying to convey my feeling using only dots and lines. This project showed me that we can create emotion using shapes. I have never looked at shapes this way before.
These are my thumbnail sketches where I played around with different concepts. The sketches with stars next to them are the layouts I chose.
Here are my final pieces.
Exhaustion
Reflection:
I recall that Gestalt is an art theory that explains how we view art. There are different components like; similarity, anomaly, parallelism, figure and ground, and color. Gestalt relates to this project because we used many of these ideas while creating our designs. In my designs, I used a lot of similarities in my patterns. I also saw a lot of floor-ground relationships in pieces my classmates and I created. We pretty much used all of these ideas somewhere throughout our designs. It can be difficult for me to make a well-crafted object; in this case, it was a little more challenging. It was tough for me to perfect my cutting and gluing. I redid a lot of my pieces because I couldn’t get the cutting and gluing the way I wanted. It was also hard to measure and use my Exacto knife correctly. I struggled with using my Exacto knife the
most out of everything we did. I think I like a good mix of creating things a little less perfect but still paying attention to details.
I like having a little bit of creative freedom, so it was difficult for me to follow this very strict rubric. I like having a little wiggle room to make my art not so perfect. I think it all depends on what kind of piece you are trying to create. So overall, I enjoy a little mix of both. I never really thought we could see emotions in something as simple as a dot and a line. It was amazing that I could feel something from looking at lines and dots on paper. It was crazy how such a tiny change in the composition of a piece could change the whole meaning of the picture. I found it interesting how we all could feel different emotions from the same picture. One person would think that the image represented the word perfectly, and
another thought the opposite. I didn’t believe it was difficult to represent ideas without actually showing them until we critiqued our work. I thought my compositions reflected the words I chose perfectly, but my classmates didn’t always agree with me. So I guess it was difficult to create an idea with just dots and lines that everybody agreed upon. While I created my project, I truly felt that my compositions portrayed the emotions I chose. I have never created abstract art before this project. I would love to play around with this style and create more pieces. I enjoy the idea of creating feelings from colors, shapes, and patterns. I look forward to playing around with abstract art in the future.
Joy Rejection
3. Letterforms
Here are my first drafts that I handprinted. I struggled with conceptually grasping the word time.
I did not end up using any of my original designs.
Objectives:
Letterforms was a challenging but fun project. We carved out 2-3 letters each that we later used for stamping. It was tough learning to carve the letters out of linoleum. Although I have previous experience, it is still a time-consuming process. The word I chose to stamp was time. We had to make four different iterations of our word that grasped the word conceptually. This was another
challenging part of the process. I struggled with arranging my letters so it gave the feeling of time. Throughout this process, I learned a lot about arranging letters, carving, ink, and fonts. I had a lot of fun.
The word map that I used to generate ideas for which word I wanted to use.
My Final Iterations.
Reflection:
I learned a lot about letterforms that I never thought about before doing this project. I learned that you can take one word and make it feel completely different just by how you arrange it on a page. You can give the word a whole different feeling. That was very interesting to me. Like the use of the word space. My classmate made it different by how she arranged it. She put
a space in between the individual letters and it felt like space as in distance. Then, she put it on different planets and it felt like outer space. It is just amazing how much you can do with one word. There are so many different variations. I also learned how much of a difference a font can make. Different fonts can give different feelings to writing. If I were to continue working with
these letters, I would explore different ways to arrange my word. I would experiment with different forms of media and continue to grow my work. It was difficult for me to come up with ideas while working on this, so I would continue brainstorming. Maybe I would incorporate a clock or a watch in my piece.
My basic final iteration.
4. Iterative Illustrations
My collage iteration before I edited it.
Objectives:
The rough draft for my Keith Haring iteration.
For this project, we got to choose an animal or an object we were interested in drawing. I chose a red-eyed tree frog. We created a typographic iteration, a geometric iteration, a one-line iteration, a collage iteration, and two master artist drawings. We had to learn to simplify our complex animals into shapes. Then, we edited our drawings in Photoshop and created a poster in InDesign. This was my first time using Photoshop and InDesign and I learned a lot of useful skills. I enjoyed using these different platforms to edit my work. It challenged me at first to get the hang of it, but after I did, I enjoyed it.
Typographic rough draft
One-line rough draft
Geometric rough draft
Roy Lichtenstein rough draft
My final poster, we were unable to use color.
Reflection:
I learned a lot about the way the red-eyed tree frog looks. I was able to break the tree frog down into geometric shapes. Before This project, I didn’t see a frog and think of all the different shapes that make it up. I was able to simplify my object. It was interesting to look at an animal and break it down into simple shapes. After a while, I got sick of looking at tree frogs. The most challenging media for me was the geometric shape iteration and the collage iteration. I spent the most time with the collage iteration. I think these two were so challenging for me because it was hard
for me to simplify my animal because it is so complex. I had a very hard time breaking my animal down into shapes instead of looking at it as a whole. It also was challenging for me to cut out such small, complex shapes and glue them down.
The most enjoyable for me was the two master artists I chose to do. I enjoyed this the most because I could get creative and replicate an artist I like in my interpretation of their work. I had a lot of fun with those.
I think I will use photoshop to play around and edit different pictures. I’ve always loved taking pictures, so I think I will
use these skills throughout the future. I would like to learn more about the app and continue playing around with it. If I had to continue with this project, I would try to simplify my animal in different ways. I would look at more reference photos too. I would also try out a few new master artists and play around with them more because that was my favorite part.
5. PSA Poster
Objectives:
For our PSA poster project, we were assigned a client to create a poster for. They gave us a brief and we had to include everything in the final poster. My client wanted me to create a poster about women’s ADHD symptoms. We did this project to get the opportunity to see what it’s like working with a client and following orders from a client. This was challenging because we couldn’t add anything to the poster without speaking with the client first. We also were unable to include illustrations in our posters. It was difficult trying to find ways to keep the poster visually appealing with no illustrations. Overall, I enjoyed working on this project and it was surprisingly easier than I thought.
Here are my thumbnails generating ideas for the poster.
This is the first draft I presented in our in-process critique.
LADIES, ARE YOU EASILY DISTRACTED?
Do you find yourself daydreaming, find it hard to retain information, or even find it impossible to get your daily tasks done?
Women’s symptoms are more absent-minded and not really on the surface, men’s however have more visible symptoms like being extremely fidgety, chatting a lot, or moving around a lot. You could have ADHD, if you haven’t been diagnosed but experience these symptoms you may be part of the female population that gets overlooked! Women are statistically underdiagnosed with ADHD compared to men, mainly because the symptoms are drastically different in men than in women. It’s unfortunately not as noticeable for us ladies.
For more information: https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-in-women-misunderstoodsymptoms-treatment/
As you can see, my first draft needed a lot of work. My measurements were off and it was not a strong design. So, I continued working.
LADIES, ARE YOU EASILY DISTRACTED?
Do you find yourself daydreaming, find it hard to retain information, or even find it impossible to get your daily tasks done?
Women’s symptoms are more absent-minded and not really on the surface, men’s however have more visible symptoms like being extremely fidgety, chatting a lot, or moving around a lot.
You could have ADHD, if you haven’t been diagnosed but experience these symptoms you may be part of the female population that gets overlooked! Women are statistically underdiagnosed with ADHD compared to men, mainly because the symptoms are drastically different in men than in women. It’s unfortunately not as noticeable for us ladies.
For more information: https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-inwomen-misunderstood-symptoms-treatment/
The final revised poster design I created. I printed it on light yellow paper.
Reflection:
When we were first assigned this assignment I thought it was going to be very difficult to find a way to make a poster visually appealing without using any illustrations. After working on it for a while, it got easier, but it was still challenging. I found myself thinking about different ways I could make the poster better by adding illustrations. It was tough to only work with type but I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I created a visual hierarchy by making my title the largest text on the page and making the other text smaller. I made my title appealing, but I
also had it arranged so you could read it left to right and up to down. I made my subheader opaque and bleed off the page, so it served as a ground for my title. It also served to separate my title from the rest of the information on the poster. I put my information into two separate boxes. One was more opaque than the other to add some contrast to my piece. Finally, I put the URL in medium-sized text at the center of the bottom of the poster. I left the text floating so that the light yellow paper would act as the ground of the poster. I learned a lot about how different fonts can give off completely different vibes
to a poster. I also learned that you can do a lot by arranging words on a page. I never really thought of this before, but it is crazy that you can make so much just from words. I could arrange my posters in thousands of different ways and give a new feeling every time. I will use these skills in the future when making art that contains words.
My poster hung up.
6. Who Designs
Objectives:
For this project, we got to choose a designer that interested us and we wrote about them, I chose Art Chantry. We researched our designers, read articles, watched videos, and learned more aboutt who they are and their work. This project gave us a chance to research a designer who we found interesting and look at their work. I enjoyed doing this project because I found out a lot about my designer’s history that was interesting
One of Chantry’s posters from 2004. A photo of Chantry. His 1995 poster.One of his types from 1998.
One of his album covers.
One of his album covers.
His poster from 1997.
Art Chantry:
I chose to research Chantry because his bright edgy designs interested me. His style was used heavily in the grunge music era and it quickly spread all across the world. It really caught my eye because it gives off that punk rock feel. He worked outside of the box and used many different materials that not many artists use. His art is used to describe an era of time. It is very recognizable as he designed posters for many popular bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Pearl Jam. I love listening to ‘90s grunge music and it would not be the same without Chantry’s designs.
Vocational question #1:
What is the difference between a good life and a significant life?
In my eyes, a good life is not necessarily a fulfilling life. When I think of a good life, I think about someone asking me how my day is going. I don’t want to say bad, because I don’t want to explain, but I also don’t want to say amazing, so I just say good. A good life means that your life is good, but there is something that could be better. Something is missing. Maybe you are not reaching your
full potential. You’re comfortable with the life you’re living because it’s not bad, but it’s also not what it could be. We tend to dislike change throughout our lives when in reality, change is a beautiful thing. It is not always as scary as we think it is. On the other hand, a significant life is a life that you are beyond satisfied with. A life you can say was worth living. You did everything you wanted to accomplish and more
throughout your lifetime. You feel fulfilled with the life you live and you wouldn’t change it for anything. We should all strive to live a significant fulfilling life rather than just a good life.
Vocational question #2:
What, if anything, distinguishes art and design? If you have to pick a side, which do you choose? Why?
Art and design can be distinguished in many different ways. The biggest difference for me is art is used to express creative freedom . You can create your art however you please and no one can say anything about it.
People either enjoy your art or they don’t. Design, on the other hand, is when you have to create art for a client that is universally visually appealing. Obviously, everybody
won’t like your designs, but you need to please your client. You could be forced to create something that you never would have if your client needed that done. Art is more therapeutic than design in my opinion. You can create whatever you want, in your style, and everyone else could think it is ugly. The only thing that matters when you’re creating art is that YOU enjoy what you’re making. I would
pick art over design because of the freedom that art gives you. Art however is incorporated into design. A client may see your art and vibe with it which is why they hire you. They go handin-hand with each other which is why they are both equally important.
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2022. The font used includes Futura. It was digitally printed and saddle stappled at the college’s print canter.