Art 130
Spring 2020
St. Norbert College
From The Pool To The Studio By: Riley Englebert
About This Course Being a grpahic design major and begining my work towards getting my degree in ARt 130 has been one of the best experiences I have had here at SNC. From printmaking to Indesign I have learned a lot about not just my particular interest but the whole art profession and I have expanded my interests to different skills to further my goal. The hardest challenge for me in this course was getting more hands on with my work and sketching first. I am more used to going straigh to the computer and working though multiple iterations and changing my art as a go. Going through the process and planning ahead and critques opened my eyes to how it works in the professional world and how the process leads to better work and how it brings out the best.
Over the summer and into next semester I hope to take my work further. I want to continue to learn the Adobe suite and I want to contine to improve my skill set. I plan to revisit old school projects and personal projects to apply what I have learned. Next semester I plan to continue to take art classes and I am excited to see what these classes will show me and teach me about the art world. I also plan to continue to explore my major and dive deeper into what I can tie into it.
About My Style My desire to become a graphic designer began in high school. I took an art class that worked with the Adobe suite and computer design. Later on I took web design classes and from that point on I was hooked. My first experience with graphic design was t-shirt design. I designed a t-shirt for my swim club specifically for our training trip. My design unfortunaly was not used but I kept designing t-shirts well after that. The pool and my passion for swimming remains a hugh influence on my work and continues to be apart of my style. My most recent piece of work being the team shirt for the SNC swim and dive team.
This class has helped me to discover more about my skill level and what I can do as a designer. Every project taught me more about different techniques and styles that I want to use and emulate as I continue to puch forward and continue on the path I have layed out.
The team t-shirt designed and used for the SNC swim and dive team during the 2019-2020 season.
First Project This was the firt project we worked on this semester. The focus was getting use acclimated with working with other, meeting a deadline, and working under constrants. It also gave a taste of how it works in the real world. The project focused on presenting a solution to an issue on campus. First I started interviewing my partner on their background with campus and the issues that affected her the most. I then picked the issue they felt most strongly towards and began to sketch solutions. I then refined my sketches and presented the solutions. My partner picked the best solution and then I began to work on the first iteration. Below are the results of my first iteration. We never intended to continue the project after this point but if we had i would have improved on my design and continues to recieve feedback from my partner.
Sketches & First Iteration
How did engaging with a real person, change the direction your prototype took?
You had to keep in mind what your partner wanted and think of an idea to showcase your best work and a good solution to what they wanted. For me it was hard to know what my partner wanted. I had to try to get into their head to and use my thoughts to come to a reasonable result.
What was it like showing unfinished work to another person?
It was a little embarrassing because I knew it was not my best work. I know I could have done better and my partner knew that. It felt like showcasing a rushed or unfinished product.
How did the pace feel? Quick, iterative cycles – how did that feel relative to how you normally work?
It felt rushed and sloppy because you could not plan out your work and put time into it. Normally a lot of time and changes are put into the project before it is finished. For me I spend more time planning. Normally I would use that time to think more about an idea and brainstorm a better way to display that idea visually.
Design thinking is an iterative, self-directed process. Based on what you learned—what would you go back and do next? What would you do over again?
I would spend more time planning. I would use that time to talk more about ideas and brainstorm a better way to display the ideas visually. I would also change the design more based on the feedback.
Dot Line This project involved representing and idea/word using just dots and lines and simple colors like black, grey and white. For me the easy part was choosing the words. The next part was more difficult: choosing the best iterations. I made about 15 different sketches in my sketch book and choose one design from each word to contiue with. I then made rough compositions for critique.
I choose my designs because I felt they were the best compositions of each word. Once we did the critique I modified my designs to fit more of what my fellow artists thought which I belive lead to the best my work could get. This project opened my eyes to using limited content to create a concept and the impact it can have. The hardest part for me was not the brainstorming or creative process but the craft. Making sure each little piece was cut correctly and glued properly was harder then anything else I did during the project.
Oppression
Chaotic
Stability
In your own words, what is gestalt and how does it relate to this project?
Gestalt is a way of perceiving things around us. In art it is the different components of an artwork.
How difficult is it for you to make a “well-crafted object�? Would you rather make things quickly and a little less perfectly or spend extra time to get small details right?
I would spend the time perfecting all the details. Every detail matters and I would rather have an artwork that I know is made to the best of my ability.
How did this project change or affect your idea of abstraction?
Before my perception of abstraction was making an object out of shapes without making it look directly like the object. Now I see it is representing a concept or object with a conceptual interpretation.
Was it difficult to represent ideas without illustrating them? Why or why not?
Yes and no. Some words were easy to represent with dots and lines. Others you had to think and really play around with different iterations before reaching the final product.
How else might you use this exercise or the ideas of gestalt and abstraction?
Representing people or objects with combinations of shapes, words, number, etc. to represent them.
Letterforms
Similar to the dot line project, this project invovled making a word and making the word represent its defintion. For me this project was learning about the beginnings of printmaking and how the different parts of letterform affect the piece. Starting off the project the class made linoleum cut out of the letters. I found this part of the project a little tedious but fun none the less. Then came the time to chose my word. I wanted to pick something I was passionate about. Being a swimmer I chose swim as my word. Next came practice printing and working on the representation of my word. I really enjoyed the process because prior to this I had never printed before. Getting started on the practice was difficult because the ink tranfer was not always consistant and sometimes the ink was bad. After a class period of constantly printing and working on placement the work became easier. Once I began to work on my final prints I found this to be harder. getting the ink transfered was easy but placement was a little more difficult. I found that creating guidlines with a pencil to be extremly helpful to finishing the project.
Practice Prints
What did you learn about letterforms by working this way?
I learned about the different parts of letter form and how they affect the topography of the work artists do.
What would you do next if you were to continue working with these letters? I would try looking at how the different parts of the letters affect the word they formed and changed my work according to the feedback received and the forms of the letters.
Object Iterations The object iteration project had us create six or more different iterations of an animal or object. Continuous line, master artists, collage, type, and geometric where all the iterations we had to create. For my object I chose the Mallard Duck. I chose the duck because I really For my master artists I chose Banksy and Piet Mondrain. I searched this list provides and researched names going down the list until I found someone’s work that interested me. I chose Bansky and Mondrain because while thier work is simple and it says so much. Also working with Piet Mondrain helped me continue with abstraction throughout the semester with helped me learn more about creating more with less. Creating the continous line and collage were the hardest iterations to make. This is because I found choosing the right collage to be difficult and continuos line would allow lifting the pen off of the page. To remedy this I used process of eliminationn and blind sketching. I narrowed down my choices until I picked one that I thought was the best. For continuos line I drew my classmates blindly and focused on capturing the details and not focusing on what my hand was doing.
What did you learn about your object through this process?
I learned more about the shape of the duck and how the shape affects its flight and swim.
Which media was the most challenging for you? Which is the most enjoyable?
I found the continuous line to be the most difficult and the master artist to be the most enjoyable.
What did you learn about Photoshop that you think you’ll use going forward?
I found the curves tool to be very helpful and I want to continue to use it.
If you had to continue with this object for a year, what else might you do to represent it in new ways? I would work more with geometric shapes and different iterations of my master artists.
Practice Iterations Continuous Line
Letterform
Collage
PSA Poster Creating a poster was just the beginning of the project. We were limited to type only and a singular color for the background. I found this project harder then most of the previous projects because I am a very visual person and I like to use a lot of colors and pictures. Choosing the color was easy and arranging the text was difficult. I choose yellow because it is often assoicated with hazards and danger. Arranging the text was the real challenge. I started by creating the titles and headline to grab peoples’ attention. I then placed outlines around the headlines because I felt it gave me more of a srtucture to work on. After adding the information I arranged the words to read top left to bottom right. This made the poster easy to read and it gave me a format.
Original
Don’t Drink
Remake
What Happens When You Drink & Drive • 10,511 People Were Killed in 2018 • 300,00+ Injuries Every year • DUIs & DWIs • Loss Of Drivers License
Don’t Drink
What Happens When You Drink & Drive • 10,511 People Were Killed in 2018 • 300,00+ Injuries Every Year • DUIs & DWIs • Loss of Drivers License and Job
and Job
How To Stop Drunk Driving • Call an Uber or Lyft • Have a Designated Driver • Have Drunk Friends Sleep Over • Call Someone to Pick You Up • Give Your Keys to Someone
How To Stop Drunk Driving
& Drive
• Call an Uber or Lyft • Have a Designated Driver • Have Drunk Friends Sleep Over • Call Someone to Pick You Up • Give Your Keys to Someone That Isn’t Drinking
& Drive
That Isn’t Drinking
For More Information Visit: madd.org
For More Information Visit: madd.org
Was it challenging to be limited to type only?
Yes and no. It was harder to visualize the poster without images but I was able to work it out.
How did you use scale, opacity, rhythm, orientation, and negative space (among others) to create visual hierarchy?
I used scale and negative space to create a structured layout that read easily from top left to bottom right.
What skills or ideas did you learn in this project that you can take forward to other work?
I learned more about indesign features and working within project limits.
Remake For this project I decided to redo my poster based on my classmates feedback. I felt since working exclusivly with type was something I had never done I would continue what I had started with. While the changes are sutble I think they made a big difference. Making the color lighter helped make the poster easier to read and less aggressive. I also changed the spacing between the text boxes and extended them to eliminate words that were by themsevles. This created a better looking layout that made the text flow better.
20x20 Talks Adjacent to the PSA poster I was working on a presentation on graphic designer Milton Glaser. We had to create a presentation on an artist and their particular art style. We were given 20 slides about 20 seconds long to use. Working with the 20 second intervals was tricky at first but i got the hang of concisely presenting each point and using multiple slides if needed. I really did like this format because I knew exactly what to say and when and it helped to cut out any unneccesary information I did not need.
What drew you to your designer?
He is one of the most celebrated graphic designers in America. I want to become a graphic designer one day and I wanted to learn more about someone who helped to pioneer the profession.
How do you feel about presenting to your classmates?
It was not that bad because I knew what I had to say. Making sure I hit the 20 second time limit was harder.
Which of the designers your classmates presented might you research further?
I might research Chip Kidd. I found his works on book covers really grabbed my attention and I found them to be really creative.
Bob Dylan poster designed by Milton Glaser.
Reflection
This class has expanded my skill set and helped me to advance my knowledge. Some things I found to be the most helpful was the PSA poster and the first project. Both helped me to understand more about timelines and working within limits. If I wish to continue on the path to become a graphic designer I have to learn to work with the clients and keep my content limted based on what they want.
Elaborating on my introduction over the summer I will revisit projects from this class and previous projects and use what I learned in improve upon them with the skills and techniques I learned from this semester. I specifically want to revisit some posters I designed awhile back and I want to revisit the PSA poster project. I want to experiment and learn more about indesign since most of my experience is in photoshop and illustrator.
Are you called to creative work? If so, how do you recognize that calling? If not, to what do you feel called?
I feel called to creative work because I find joy in the act of design. Anytime I design something I feel a sense of self completion and pride in what ever I am working on. To fullfill and recognize this calling I create in my free time. I love making personal pieces and I find it helps to relieve stress. i also answer the call by dedicating my future career to graphic design. I plan to major in this field and devote my career to the creation of digital art.
What’s something you’ve made in the last two years that you’re proud of?
In the last two years I have created a multitude of pieces from posters to websites. But the piece I am most proud of is a coat of arms I designed to represent myself. The latin phrase means to “go toward freedom.” The p is is the greek letter rho which in our language is an r, and is the first letter in my name. The pheonix represents my efforts to rise above and challenge myself.
Libertatem Introeuntibus
“This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the spring of 2020. The fonts used include Sitka, Javanese Text, and Impact.�
Made with Adobe Indesign.