i didn’t get to use color all semester so you damn know this book is going to be full of it. By Olivia MacGillis
This book goes out to my Ota.
To the man who always inspired me to create to my heart’s content. Thank you for always believing in me, even when you couldn’t remember.
Gott beschütze dich!
Overview Hey y’all! Thank you for taking the time to open my book. I made this for Intro to Design, and let me just say, that class was a roller coaster, but like a fun one. There were some ups and downs, projects that I didn’t really like but learned from, some that I had a blast making, etc. The one thing that I really wanted to do in this class was use some COLOR! To be completely honest, only working in black and white got to be uninspiring at times, but I worked my way through. I understand why we couldn’t use color, but it still would’ve been nice to switch things up once in a while. So, to make up for the lack of color throughout the class, I have taken it upon myself to organize my book with color. Have fun looking through my first semester of college art I guess! I hope you like it...
...I’m crossing my fingers
D School For D School, we had to collaborate with another student to expand on their ideas. We only had 10 minutes to create a small piece that captured their idea of gift giving.
Discussing my artistic ideas with another person changed the path of my project a lot. I wanted to please the “client” by getting their input on what they did and didn’t want, and it was hard for me to understand their vision. My client wasn’t too picky to begin with, so I didn’t have a lot of direction either. Showing my unfinished work to someone else made me feel vulnerable because I tend to be hard on myself and I definitely want people to only see the best sides of my work. I hate being wrong or unsuccessful, so showing people my unfinished work with many flaws was uncomfortable. Fortunately with this project though, it felt more playful and funny, so I didn’t take it too seriously. The pace of this project also reflected how my work was made and set the tone. It was way too fast for my taste, with only ten minutes to create. I tend to juggle ideas around, and deciding what to do on a whim was difficult because I was in my head a lot. If I had more time to go back, I would think out my idea more thoroughly. I decided to make the first idea that popped in my head, and it was not a great one. With more time, I could have brainstormed many different ideas and chosen the one that made the most sense.
This was my sad excuse of my D School project. I tried to make a 3 dimensional guy out of springs that was carrying a box. It slowly started to fall apart though.
Dot Line In my opinion, gestalt is how the composition of a piece and the objects within it make it successful. This whole project had to relate to figure ground relationships (though it was abstract figures) but it was important to see how all the elements relate to each other and make for a successful piece.
I have always dreaded and hated doing abstract work - in high school, my art teacher for AP studio would always make us do an abstract piece and mine would always turn out really poorly made with no direction. I would have so many different ideas and use so many different materials that made absolutely no sense. I appreciated this unit of abstraction because it had a purpose and wasn’t just me throwing materials and ideas together to make some Frankenstein looking project. It was abstract, but clean and understandable.
My first abstract piece, made during my junior year of AP Studio.
A group abstract piece I made my senior year of AP Studio.
As someone who is a perfectionist and has OCD, I absolutely hate when projects have terrible craftsmanship. I think it is important to take the time to put the finishing details into a project and make sure that they are clean cut and look neat. I think I successfully showed craftsmanship in these Dot Line pieces, with clean cut shapes and paper. It was certainly hard to convey certain images through abstraction. I could formulate in my head how my pieces would reflect my ideas and chosen emotions, but it was hard for other people to see my thought
process and convey my emotions. As someone who always uses an illustrative approach to my art, it was difficult trying something new, but it was refreshing to do something that didn’t require as much time and detailing. I will use the idea of gestalt to consider how to make my pieces more visually entrancing. I may try to venture out to using abstraction once in a while, but I probably won’t use it frequently. The one thing I did take away from this project is the fact that abstraction doesn’t have to be a big detailed mess. It can be simple, clean, and meaningful.
My original ideas for each of my dot line compositions. Compared to my finished pieces, you can see that my ideas changed a little bit as I made the finished project.
Thumbnails of all my possible ideas.
Exhaustion I wanted to show exhaustion by showing everything tumbling down, almost like when you are over tired and start to feel the collapse.
Chaotic I felt that I showed chaos through this piece by showing the point right before everything hits the fan.
Energy When I think of energy, I think of bouncing off the walls. I think I almost captured energy with this piece, but everything is too close
Letterforms For this project, the class each choose a specific word to focus on. Each student was assigned to carve out two letters in the alphabet - we then had a whole classroom alphabet to use!
I chose the word “tantrum” because it is a song by my favorite band, Waterparks. The song is about being done and over everyone’s bullshit, and I really felt that while I was making my project.
I really liked carving the letters instead of just typing them on a computer - I felt like I got a dose of history by doing it by hand. This is how people in the past used to print books, newspapers, etc. Though it was nice not using technology to print letters, it was also challenging to try and line everything up perfectly. I personally love printmaking, specifically hand carved linoleum stamps, but if I am doing letters
with it, I usually carve out the whole word instead of singular letters. If I were to continue working with the same letters, I would definitely want to practice precision and patience. A lot of the time, I forgot to take the time to line them up perfectly, so it was the slightest bit off. I also would want to experiment with different options and mediums; I feel like I could’ve come up with a more creative and enticing idea, but didn’t.
These are some of my first renditions of my ideas. Above: an example I brought in for process critique, which eventually inspired piece number 4. Below: some hand drawn calligraphy that I did in preparation of our typography unit.
Tantrum #1
A clean, straightforward iteration
Tantrum #2
An iteration that captures the violence that comes with a tantrum, like ripping, punching, and destroying.
Tantrum #3
An emotional, crying mess.
Tantrum #4 *screaming internally*
Object For this project, each student picked an animal or recognizable object to create in various of ways. We played around with different styles, mediums, and techniques. The animal I chose was a sheep
With this project, I learned to go outside of my comfort zone. I love to draw, but I never really draw animals. Now that I am comfortable drawing sheep, I know that I can push the limits even further and start drawing/creating other animals. The most enjoyable part of this project was being able to draw. My two favorite iterations (both my Master Artists) were the ones that I drew by hand. I did end up editing my Tattoo Flash Art one a lot on Photoshop, which was really fun as well. I also learned that collages are pretty cool too. I had a notion in my head that collages are cheesy and childlike, but after playing around with them, I realized that they can make an image come to life. I love the idea of thrifting and reusing things, and collages were like reusing images to make new images. The collages were definitely the most challenging, but not in a bad way. I struggled finding shapes to construct a sheep, but I slowly learned that I can find patterns and cut out shapes to slowly create textures and forms.
My original drawing for my second Master Artist, Tattoo Flash Art.
Iterations →
Throughout the duration of this project, I learned so much about Photoshop - I learned the basics and I’ve actually been starting to make projects in my free time on it! I have been playing around with different brushes and tools and I thought that I was going to hate using Photoshop, but now that I know how to use it correctly, it is a great tool that will help me in the future. I used it help me edit my photos and add more contrast, fix areas I messed up in, and to fill in different shapes.
→
My finally arrangement of my sheep! I really enjoyed how it all came together.
My poster in action! This is a picture of the real, physical poster.
If I had to continue making my animal for a year, I would try and push the limits even more - I would want to make my sheep in the simplest form possible. I would experiment with new mediums as well. I think doing something with mixed media (like adding textures and elements that pop out) would be interesting. Overall, I think I did a really good job with my sheep and had a great time creating them!
PSA Poster For our PSA Posters, we got paired up with another classmate and they were our “client.” We had the assignment of capturing their vision using only text. My client’s focus was on ending hunger in the community and getting people to donate to De Pere Christian Outreach.
I thought it would be a lot harder to be limited to only text, but I figured it out. It was a nice challenge to try and make the words pop. I’m such a visual person and tend to work with images, so it was a good way to change it up. I tried to create visually hierarchy by making certain words and phrases bigger to make them the most important. I also played around with the fonts and the typefaces to make words look different as well. I tried going for a zigzag layout with my words and negative space to move the eye around my poster. What did I learn from this? Well, I obtained a better understand of InDesign, as well as not being afraid to go more simple. Simple is good. I feel like that is an My poster in action, hanging on the bulletin board underlying theme of the class... in Madeline Lorraine
In America, 40% of the population is facing hunger struggles every day, yet we are
still wasting food.
If we save 15% of food waste produced each year, 25 million Americans could be fed. This means
60% of Americans ďŹ ghting hunger would be saved.
Donate your
non-perishable food items you have at the end of each semester to the
De Pere Christian Outreach Food Pantry
to help rescue hungry Americans.
Go to deperechristianoutreach.org for more information
#DonateWaste #ZeroAtStake My final PSA Poster
Presentation DDiicckk BBrruunnaa Dick Bruna was a Dutch artist, author, and illustrator from the Netherlands. He was born August 23, 1927, and passed away at the age of 89 on February 16, 2017. He wrote and illustrated over 124 picture books, including Miffy, and did a significant amount of other charity work.
I was drawn to Dick Bruna when I was searching the different designers up. and he really stood out to me because he made such a recognizable character. I appreciated his simple faces of each of his characters. I like to consider myself a good public speaker and don’t get scared. I didn’t do so hot on this presentation because I had no time to practice. My presentation that I was halfway done with didn’t save because my computer crashed, and I had to start all over and I was a ball of stress for 3 days about getting this done. Even though it wasn’t my best public presentation, I didn’t do the worst. The one designer that was presented that really stood out to me was Victor Moscoso. I loved the way he made his posters because the bright colors really mess with your head and make you look closer. It feels like I’m on an acid trip when I look at his work. I’m also a huge fan of the 60s and 70s era, so it’s fitting that I enjoy his work.
Dick Bruna and his beloved creation, Miffy.
The first Miffy book ever produced!
One of Bruna’s illustrations for the Black Bear pocket series
Vocational Questions Are you called to creative work? If so, how do you recognize that calling? I have always been called to be creative. I grew up in a household that always encouraged me to make new things. My major is art education with a minor in graphic design. I have always known I want to go into a field where I am able to help people, and by going into teaching, I can inspire kids to get excited about art. Art was one of my favorite classes in grade school and high school; it gave me a nice break in the day from my boring classes and gave me the chance to do something I love. What, if anything, distinguishes art and design? If you have to pick a side, which do you choose? Why? I think that art and design are two separate categories that tend to overlap frequently. You can have a design for a toilet and not have it be artistic, and you can have an art project with absolutely no design concepts. I think that in order to be successful, you need to use aspects of the other in each project. I personally have a better grasp of the artistic side; I like to create without rhyme or reason. I try and use design concepts to make my pieces visually appealing, but I don’t go out of my way to design projects for other people. If you were guaranteed it would support you financially, what would you want to design or make for a living? I don’t know if I could. I have the graphic design minor as a backup just in case I can’t find a teaching job. My true inspiration is being able to help others and inspire generations to have a love of art and design, and I feel like if I did graphic design, I would feel unfulfilled.
What is the difference between a good life and a significant life? What is the greatest failure you’ve experienced in your life? A good life is one where you are happy and feel fulfillment; a significant life is one where you impact a people through your work and actions. My greatest downfall of my life would be with my mental health. I have struggled with OCD tendencies since I was a child, and a lot of those signs were reflected in my artwork. I spent two weeks on a two day project in 4K making hearts. I took so long because I needed my hearts to perfect. Growing up, I ended up developing severe depression and anxiety. While it has set me back at times, I have grown so much as a person. What’s something you’ve made in the last two years that you’re proud of ? In AP studio art my senior year, I made a self portrait completely out of glitter, hot glue, and sequins. My art teacher in high school doubted my ideas most of the time and I felt like she didn’t believe in me to create something unique. She was very unenthusiastic when I told her my idea for this project because, like most art teachers, she hates glitter. When I finished this, she eventually came around and I ended up getting a 100% on the project!
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2019. The fonts used include Monaco and Basker ville. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center.