One Iteration Just Won’t Cut It!
A look into the process it takes to become a designer.
A Process Book for Introduction to Design by Natalie Moon
I dedicate this book to Professor Katie Ries for introducing me to the world of design and to my classmates of Introduction to Design - Fall 2016 at St. Norbert College, for all your constructive critisism throughout the semester. You all have immensely helped to improve my work and I could not be more grateful. 2
Table of Contents
D-School...........................4 Dot Line............................5-7 Typography......................8-10 Object Iterations................11-14 Presentation......................15 Data Visualization...........16-17 Overview............................18
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D-School D-School was the very first in class assignment given to us. We were given parteners and asked to make low resolution prototypes of a gift that they would want to give to someone important to them. This assignment was very hands on and we really had to learn a lot about our partner before actually creating the prototypes. We started out by asking simple questions about each other and about who and why we would give a gift to them. Once we got all of our information about one another, we started thinking about different gift ideas that could be given. At the very end of our class we were given five minutes to make our gift prototypes. It was very fast paced but I enjoyed this because it inspired me to work fast and get my ideas out so my partner could have a visual idea of the gift idea.
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Above is the prototype of the gift that I made for my partner. It is a picture frame prototype that my partner would want to give to her mom for her birthday. It was very difficult showing my partner this unfinished product because I thought she would be very skeptical about my work when seeing this unfinished product. As a whole, I wouldn’t change my prototype because I know my partner was very interested in the main idea. But if given more time, I would definitely want to clean it up to make my ideas more clear.
The objective of our second project, Dot Line, was to build strong abstract compositions with very little elements. The end product was three compositons made up of a certain numbers of dots and lines, and each of these arrangements stood for specific words. To start this project, we first had to choose words from a list and the three words I chose were rejection, stability, and chaotic. After I had to cut very perfect circles and lines, which I found to be difficult beacuse of the size parameters. Once that was done with, it was time to arrange the circles and lines to try and represent my chosen words. This project really changed my perception of the whole idea of abstraction. In the past I never really thought about the meaning of abstract art and really just thought it was shapes where ever on the piece of work. But now that I have done this project, I realize that abstraction can actually show meaning by the way it is composed which makes me appreciate the idea of abstract art much more. One the next two pages you will find just a few of my iterations and my three final compositions. This project took many iterations to truely express rejection, stability, and chaotic. Although this project does not involve words, and stricktly involves dots and lines, these abstract compositions are still able to express emotions.
Dot Line
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Iterations
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Rejection
Stability
Chaotic
Final Compositions 7
Typography There were three major goals of this project which were: to test many hand letterings, understand how the typography of the letters impacts the actual word being written, and then compose four different typographies for a specific word. The word I chose to express in my Typography assignment was ‘stuff.’ To start this assignment, we had to make a mind map (below). A mind map is a diagram that shows connections to the one single concept. In this case the concept was the word ‘stuff.’ One of the main reasons why I chose this word was because there is a lot of stuff in this world, and I knew it would be very simple for me to connect my creation of letters to the actual meaning of the word, and that it was!
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One thing that was very difficult for me throughout this project was that it was so time consuming and I refused to stop until the lettering was perfect. Although the lettering was very time consuming and precise, I also enjoyed this project a lot. Before this, I never really looked at different typographies having a meaning, that could connect with the words, so I enjoyed learning that the type can connect to the words. One the next two pages you will find iterationsion on the top , my four final compositions of typography on the bottom and explanations of why I made the text, the way I did.
My first typography of ‘Stuff’ was bold, block lettering with a shadow behind it. For this piece, it was simple but at the same time really strong. By adding the shadows behind the word it really made ‘stuff’ pop and draw the attention of the viewer. It was a little hard for me though, to create the shadow behind the letters perfectly.
In this version of my project, I used cut out pieces of paper to spell out the word ‘stuff.’ Although this version was very simple I think it really contrasted the idea that there is a lot of stuff in the world that can represent this word. I placed it on the bottom of the paper beacuse I believed it helped visualize a bunch of random stuff placed above the word.
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In this compostion of my typography project, I continued to have the type filling the center of the paper. But one thing that I did different was go off of one of the words on my mind map. When I think of the word ‘stuff’ I immediatly connect that to the word ‘stuffing.’ In this version I used ink and created a variation of line puffiness to spell out the word ‘stuff’ showing ‘stuffing.’
In this iteration I decided to represent the word stuff by actually spelling out the word ‘stuff’ with a bunch of stuff found in my dorm room. I thought this iteration was really cool becasue of the phisical objects involved with it. I also really liked that the contents of my typography connected directly to the word. I beleive this was my strongest iteration because of the connection it made and the uniqueness of the typography involving actual 3-D objects in the picture.
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Object Iteration
“Pick any object or animal you want, and you will be working with that object or animal in particular for the next few weeks of class.� Those were the words spoken to myself and my classmates of Design 130, by our professor. I wasn’t really sure where this project was going to be going, but I knew if I had to I would be chosing an animal, so I picked a rhino. Th objective of this assignment in particular was to re-create your object or animal in a great deal of different ways. There were a few parameters though, for the final project piece. One parameter was that each iteration had to be in a square grid. The second was that you needed to have one continuous line , one collage, one typographic collage, one geometric, and two master artist iterations. With these parameters, it gave a lot of wiggle room for being creative. One downfall of this assignment, was that the final poster had to be in all black and white. I believe that it would have been beneficial having color (like some of my iterations have before Photoshop). In my continuous line iterations, I had two very different versions of a rhino that I put in my final poster. The first being of just a rhino head and the second being a full body rhino. Although these two are both very different, I still somewhat struggled with never taking the pen off the paper to draw them. It took many, many iterations to make them actually look like rhinos.
My collage iteration was the most challenging media for me to
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create. I had to cut pictures out of magazines to create the image of a rhino. This one I found to be difficult because it was hard to make things perfectly come together and not look weird when trying to create a rhino figure.
I found the typographic collage to be very fun. This iteration involved many different kinds of texts cut out from magazines. Connecting this to our typography project, it really made me again realize how many different types of texts are actually out there.
My first geometric iteration was a rhino head. I created this image using oil pastels. The oil pastels really brought out texture to this piece and gave it a lot of uniqueness.
In the middle of my final piece is where I placed my strongest piece, which is my second geometric iteration. This iteration I took a different angle in drawing, a frontal viewpoint. I really like this image because it really is easy to see that it is a rhino. I belive it shows a strong body and big horn which is what, essentially, a rhino is known for. I placed it in the middle of my poster and surronded my other iterations around it becasue viewers typically look right at the middle of posters first. Also to make this piece stand out more than the other ones I inverted it and made a black background to its box to really make it draw to the viewers eyes.
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One of my most enjoyable iteations was my first master artist, Eric Carle. Eric Carle is a writer and illustrator of children’s books. One of his favorite things to illustrate is animals and this was perfect to connect with my rhino. I used Carle’s methods of gluing down plain tissue paper, then painting over it to create this image. I believe this image to be one of my strongest, in this project. My master artisit iterations allowed me to look at the styles of both of my artist and then interpret them in my own way using my rhino. Another one of my most enjoable iterations was my second master artist, Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi Kusama is an artist whose methods are a little bit interesting. She takes an images and covers all of it with black or white spots. She uses bright colors and these dots to really draw attention to her art (one of the reason why I wish this project was not in black and white). To create this iteration I did just that and drew and rhino and covered it in white dots.
This project was the first that I got to learn how to use Photoshop and InDesign which I enjoyed because they really came in handy. At first I was overwhelmed with them, but by the end of it I had learned so much.This project really excited me because it allowed me to really show my creative side more than other projects did. Since I was able to used a variety of medias, I believe my poster better because of it.
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To the right you will find my final poster for Object Iteration. This project taught me that there is a large number of different ways to show rhinos through art/ design as long as you just try new things. These iterations are all very different but are all able to depict rhinos. I really liked being able to show my creativity in this poster, which is why this project was my favorite this semester.
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Pecha-Kucha Presentation
The purpose of the Pecha-Kucha Presentation was to research a master artist and present information about the designer along with my own explanation of specific pieces.
For my master artist, I chose April Greiman. April Grieman is know for being one of the first designers to ever use computer technology in design. Her style of design is very unique and some may even say futuristic. That is one major reason why I was so drawn to her work. It is so unique and not many people can’t create art like hers. Below are two of her most popular works, ‘Hands Holding a bowl of rice and ‘Does it make sense.’ Without her seeing promise for the design world by using technology, who knows where design would be today. She continues her amazing work today and is regarded as one of the most influencial women in the design world.
**Photos above came from http://www.madeinspaceshop.net
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Data Visualization The intentions of this assigement was to use principles of design to illustrate and accurately represent some form of data. For my data, I decided to take a survey of my friends and family about their favorite season and why that season, in particular, was their favorite. To start this project I first had to gather all my data. Once I gathered the data, then I wanted to represnent the four seasons with big icons. For Spring I chose a flower, for Summer a sun, for Fall a leaf, and for Winter a snowflake. I created all of these by hand with colored pencil, which I belived really helped to create texture in these icons. Along with these icons, I drew much smaller icons that represented the why part as to why one of the four major seasons was liked.
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One major aspect that helped make the icons better images was bringing them into Photoshop and changing the lighting and contrasts of the colors. This was very important because I would not have been able to make the icons look this way without Photoshop. This took up a lot of time but was a crucial aspect to my Data Viz as a whole.
Favorite Seasons and Why We Like Them
This was the first project that I was able to incorporate color into and I think without the color, this project would have been nothing. For all my icons in this Data Visualization they would not have looked as good without color. They all represented something specific and having color added to them, really made them all stand out and represent what they were very well. I love colorful things so I was very happy with the way the colors I used help make my piece.
Below you will find my whole final product for my Data Visualization project. I really liked this project because it taught me that I can create data visualization out of any kind of information. I never really thought that ‘Favorite Seasons and Why Weople Like Them’ could be shown in an appealing way, but this project opened my eyes to the numerous ways data can be seen. ro
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Favorite Seasons and Why We Like Them
n
Ice hockey
Winter
Spring
4th of July
ie
tal
Na
M
Ice cream
Gabby Kaylyn Jake
Snowboarding and skiing
Sheri L.
Summer
Tori C. Whitney
e
Henry
ik
Leanne
Swimmimg
Christmas
Tori
Mud Football
Kirkie
Courtney
Pretty colors
Sheri
Casey
Golfing
No school Hot weather
t
ge
id
Br
Greta
Jerry
Fall
Cool weather
Sam
Morgan
Halloween
This data comes from interviews with family and friends.
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Overview
This class as a whole has challenged me in more ways than I ever could have imagined. Coming into this course I never would have thought that many of the concepts that we touched, even existed. From day one D-School to this final Process Book, I have learned so much throughout my semester in Introduction to Design. Although at times this class got stressful and I wanted to quite because of all the time needed to be put in, I am very glad that I took this course and thankful for all that it has taught me about art, design, and life. I believe I am called to creative work no matter what the subject. I believe that creativity is inside everyone and I especially see it in me no matter what. I love to be creative and feel as though being creative can bring forth a light from within you. Creative work is my chance to show everyone what I really feel inside, which is why I believe that I am called to creative work. Because of my creativity, I think that I have a significant life. There is a very big difference between having a good life and having a significant life, which is why I stated that I have a significant instead of good life. When people have good lives, I think of just your ordinary life, with a boring job and not experiencing very much fun. But when I think of having a significant life, I think of the complete opposite. When you have a significant life you go outside of the box. You adventure, dream big, and have fun. When you have a significant life, you know you are important and what you do everyday has a special impact on the world. My creativity makes me have a significant life because it allows me to have fun, show others what I really believe in, dream big , think big, and love. Introduction to Design was a class like no other. I really struggled with time management because I had no idea, in the beginning, how much time it would truly take in becoming a designer. Once I got time management down, everything fell into place. When I was able to execute the assignment well and have fun doing it, I believe that I was succeding. This class has made me a designer. I will take what I have learned in it, into my life, for years to come.
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