Rosko Going with the Flow
Prudence Rosko Introduction to Design, ART 130, Fall 2023, St. Norbert College
Dedicated to my classmates who had to put up with me.
In this introduction to design class we learned how to view art pieces with a better understanding and use a bigger vocabulary in describing the art work. We also went over a bunch of different techniques on how to cut out and print type, use a photo copier to scan and do different effects with it and how to use Photo Shop and InDesign on our computers to edit and layout our projects and designs. In this book I will be showing my work from the class and all of the refection questions that I answered when I finished each of the projects.
Crash Course What we had to do for the Crash Course was interview a member in our class and create a 3d prototype of something that would be helpful for that person based on what we learned about them during the interview.
To answer the reflection questions about the project... Engaging with someone in person while doing the crash course was very different to what I’m used to. I will say it did change the way I work because I had to make sure that my partner liked my work and that it was what they wanted and were looking for. I definitely enjoyed getting to know my partner for this project, we got to connect on a deeper level than usual and so quickly too. I did not like showing my unfinished work to someone else. I like to have what I’m presenting finished so that I can feel confident in my work and what it stands for.
I felt that the time that we had for interviewing and creating was a little too fast/too short. I’m used to the slow and steady, thinking it over for a bit kind of process so having to just go and create something in such a short amount of time was strange and slightly uncomfortable for me. Looking back, I definitely would have asked more thoughtful and personal questions. That way I could have gotten a better understanding of them and tried to have that really show in the piece that I made.
Crash Course work using random stuff from the classroom.
I decided to make a little garden for my partner to be able to go and relax outside.
Dot Line
For the Dot Line project we had to pick three words from a list and create a bunch of compositions that conveyed the words meaning without being too illustrative.
The question for this project was to describe what Gestalt in our own words so... Gestalt to me is how our brains put images or things we see together before we get all of the information. It is how we pick up on the main ideas of an image, even if we only look at an image for a few seconds. I can see how it relates to our dot line exercise because with the dot line project we were taking meaningful words and gave abstract ideas/ representations of said word and our minds had to finish and interpret what was going on.
For me I like to think that it’s not too hard for me to make “well-crafted objects” I actually enjoy taking the extra time to really focus on the little details to make sure that it turns out how I want it. This project, I would say, did change my perspective on abstract art. Before doing this class I seriously couldn’t understand abstract art and stuff at all. After these first few weeks of viewing and talking about other people’s projects and abstract art I’m really starting to see the deeper meanings that can be found behind abstract works of art. Yes, it was a big challenge for me to represent what I wanted to in my art instead of just illustrating it. I found it challenging for me to work quickly and less precisely because my background in art is making things look as close as i can to the thing I’m working from and taking my time in doing so.
in progress dot line thumbnails
Joy
Final Dot Line
Freedom
Joy
Scarcity
Letter Form In the Letterform project we carved out letters from vinyl, then picked a word and had to come up with different ways to make it interesting and fit the meaning of the word chosen. In answer to the questions about this project... With the Letter form project I learned that it’s a lot harder than I thought it was to print the letters in a straight line and clean of smudges or chatter. It also taught me how you design or place the letters has a massive impact on how we interpret the words meaning. How the size, spacing and placement can have a big effect. I found it super cool seeing all the different words that everybody in class came up with and what they did with them to emphasize their meaning.
If I were to continue working on this project for more time, I’d try to be more experimental with my prints, try using different textures or materials to see what kind of emotions or meanings I can get from them to help convey the different aspects of the word I chose.
These are my improcess works where I was abel to try all different effects
Final Letter form
Iterative Illustrations For the iterative illustrations we had to pick an animal or simple machine and research it. This was to teach us how to properly find sources and it allowed us to gain a deeper understanding of our topic.
In doing this project I learned that orcas are the largest members of the dolphin family, that they live in pods of up to 50 and that orcas live in every ocean of the world! The most challenging media or version for me to do was the master artist ones. I found it challenging to think of how to do something in that different style without using a reference image of what I needed to do. Having to come up and envision how that person would do it. The most enjoyable style for me was the collage, I found it super fun to find all the different pieces pictures and put them all together and see how it all comes together to make a new image out of scraps.
The thing that I learned from photo-shop that I’ll use again is how to use the curves and how to use layers to separate the different edits or changes that I made on one. If I were to continue working on this project for a longer amount of time, I would like to try a sculpture or a mosaic version, I think it would really help make my piece more diverse and have a bigger variety therefore making it more interesting composition.
Some of my in process works for iterative illustration project. I have collage, drawing and spray paint.
Final iterative illustrations
PSA Poster The lesson behind the psa poster project was to learn how to interact and work with clients. This was practice for when you are given a real client and have work with them and their taste not just your own.
Now to answer the questions about what difficulties I had and what I learned. I found it slightly challenging to only use text and not use any form of illustration, because of what my client and I were discussing, and I feel like having the extra little bit of illustration to add would have really helped to bring some clarity to the topic. To create a sense of visual hierarchy I placed the headline in a bigger sized font going in a banner shape across the top of the page and then had the subhead in knockout text boxes to help highlight its importance without drawing the attention away from the headline.
Things I learned from this project and will most likely use in the future are how to do the text on a curve, knockout text and also how to communicate with a client more thoroughly.
Draft compositions for the PSA poster
Final psa poster
r e e f f nt i D is t u i f a ul e B
Accepting people’s differences, no matter how extreme they may be is a key part in creating a better world for everyone. People with autism are just like us and it is important to treat them like it.
Be understanding Be accepting BE KIND To read more about awesome stories of individuals with autism, scan the QR code!
Reflection Questions What, if anything, distinguishes art and design? From what we’ve gone over in this class the biggest difference between art and design is that design is more focused on the aspect of creating in tighter parameters like for a client, especially advertisement. One would hire a designer to make a billboard for their company, a logo or possibly design a building. There are lots of different types of design. For art I feel as though it’s freer and more expressive, there are less rules, you can create what you want with less specifics. There are still aspects of working for a client, but I just feel like overall when you think of artist you think of them creating on their own terms. There are also loads of different kinds of artists. I’m not sure as to which one I would choose; I can see the plus side to both. For design I think that I would enjoy it since I like having tighter rules and being told what to do. On the other hand, I like being able to do my own thing without having to worry about if it’ll please other people. Another note on this is that as of right now my preferred style and medium is realism and oil paint of charcoal/ graphite. So, I feel like I’m leaning more towards art rather than design. What’s something you’ve made in the last two years that you’re proud of? Something that I’ve made in the last two years that I’m proud of would be an oil painting that I did in my senior year of high school. I took an art class that was taught in the atelier style, my project that I did was a master copy of the painting Gabrielle Cot by William-Adolphe Bouguereau. This was my first time using a full palette of color on an oil painting and it was also my first time painting a portrait. I am proud of this piece because of how I was able to learn how to do these two complicated things at the same time and have the finished piece come out well and close to the original that I was working from.
“This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2023. The fonts used include Californian FB and Script MT Bold. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center.”