The Greyscale of Design
Rita Hamm
Introduction Hi. Hello. Here’s a thing I made for my design course during the fall of 2019. It contains all of the things I made during the semester. Look at it or don’t, I don’t care.
A good life is when you dread going to work every day. You have a job that you aren’t happy doing. After work, you go to the place you live, probably your mom’s house, because this generation can’t afford to live on their own, and eat a packet of ramen while sitting in the living room. All and all, not a very happy existence but a good life.
A significant life contains a job that doesn’t feel like a job. You have a career instead with goals and promotions. When you go home at night, you have a person you love that you promised to grow with for the rest of your life. And yeah, maybe you still eat in the living room but at least you got someone eating ramen with you. When you’re gone people will remember you for your kindness and the positive impact you had on everyone around you.
A good life is sad and lonely. A significant life is happy and whole.
If it was guaranteed that I was supported financially by the career path I chose, I would chose to be an interior designer or architect. But as long as I am designing or creating something I will be happy.
D-school The first project of this semester was an activity to get to know our classmates better. We were partnered off randomly to interview each other about our gift giving experiences and the problems they have giving gifts. We also had a time frame to finish the draft - 5 minutes- so that way we didn’t worry about details what we were doing and the activity only had to span over the time of one class period.
I thought it was really cool being able to work with peer to bounce ideas off of each other as well as see how they felt about the ideas I had come up with. I did have some pretty out there ideas and my partner brought me back to what would be more realistic for her specific gift giving problem. It wasn’t that big of a deal to show her the unfinished piece because it was a rough draft thought up maybe 10 minutes prior.
The pace of this exercise was a good change of pace for me because I’m a detail orianted person which means I would normally work slowly depending on what I am working on. Working at the pace that was set was a bit stressful for me because I had to have something to show my partner after 5 minutes.
If I were to do this again, or something similar, I would be sure to ask more specific questions while interviewing my partner because I had a hard time starting out with the interview. I would also attempt to come up with more ideas because I thought I coud come up with more but I didn’t. The problem my partner had was she never had away to organize what people wanted or needed.
The soultion I came up with was to make a list that she could carry around and write down things to remember what the people in her life wanted.
Dot Line Gestalt is seing things from multiple different perspective. The perspective of the artist, as well as from your views and other’s.
The objective of this project was to make an abstract piece using only dots and lines and craft it well. We also had to get into the mindset that the viewer won’t see things from your perspective, especially if it’s an abstract piece.
It was actualy challenging for me to make a well-crafted piece because I work fast, and I don’t necessarily focus on tiny details when it comes to abstraction. But with this project I knew that I would be graded on my craftsmanship, so I knew I had to, at the very least, cut circles nicely and as well as cut straight lines (all of these things I suck at).
Terror
My first run of thumbnails for the word terror.
Second run of thumbnails for the word terror.
In-process of the word Terror. Notes from my in-process critique.
Chaotic
First run of thumbnails for the word Chaotic.
Second run of thumbnails for the word Chaotic.
Stability
First run of thumbnails for the word Stability.
Second run of thumbnails for the word Stability.
Final
This project didn’t necessarily change my perspective on abstraction because that is kind of the area that I am most comfortable in. Which made it easy for me to represnt my idea without illustrating them. I will probably continue to do abstraction past this project because abstraction is more about feeling something rather than seeing something and that is what art is all about.
Letterforms The objective of this project was to learn how different letter forms impact the way people interpert the word. We also learned how useful it is to have many different iterations.
I learned during this project that it is hard to get the letters on a straight line while also keeping the spacing of the letters throughout the word even. I also learned that there are so many different ways people understand and interpert words. Thumbnails and ideas for this project
Mind-map for the word demons.
One of the first practice hand prints done.
Initially I wanted to do a line from a 5 Seconds of Summer song but I figured out right away I wouldn’t be able to fit the entire line on a piece of paper. But here was my initial drawing. Hand drawn of course.
A practice print where I was trying to get each individual letter to look different.
I think if I had practiced more with the printing itself I could’ve gotten more different results. I probably would’ve spent more time on each one of mine because for the “cleanly” printed iteration and the variation iteration I scanned both of them into a computer on the same piece of paper. There’s literally a straight line going through the variation one where I had placed the cleanly printed letters. All I did was edit the saturation for both of them.
The Problems with my Demons
First draft of this idea.
For one of my iterations I wanted to do a reflection below the straightly printed letters with light gray ink. The first problem I ran into was there wasn’t a letter that looked like an upside ‘e’ as well as the letters I did use didn’t match up perfectly with the normal letters.
The soultion to my problem came to me while I was asleep... oddly enough this is how I solve all of my problems. My soultion was to emboss the paper with the letters and somehow flip the letters around so it could be read. I was actually initally going to use this as the reflection of the dark letters but during in-process critique I was told the embossment was a better idea over-all.
Final rendition of this idea.
Another problem I faced during this project was figuring out how to scan the piece of paper to show the wrinkles. The first time I scanned the paper it didn’t show the wrinkles at all because I closed the lid which flattened the paper.
The second time I scanned the paper, I didn’t close the lid to the scanner, the result was decent but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.
The third time I scanned it, I kept the scanner door open as well and the results were less promising than the first time I scanned it with the lid open.
During in process critique, it was suggested that I photograph it instead of scan it so that is what I did.
Final rendition of this idea.
Finals
Embossment Iteration
Cleanly Printed Iteration
Kerning Iteration
Wrinkled Iteration
If I were to continue working with these later, first I would change where I would put the word on the page for at least one of my iterations because 3 of the 4 were centered on the page and I hadn’t noticed they were centered because the technics I was using were all so different I figured I wouldn’t need to change the lay out that much. I would probably also work with the printing a little bit more because I realized early on that I didn’t necessarily have to print each one individually. I took the easy way out (in my own eyes).
Chipmunk Iterations The objective of this project is to work with a variety of different media to created many different variations of an object or animal.
Continuous Line About halfway through this project I really started to hate even looking at chipmunks, even when I wasn’t working on the project, I would see one just on the sidewalk outside and just shake my head at it. But after we finished the collage iterations and we moved into editing our drawings in photoshop I started to appreciate the project for the lesson that it was meant to teach us - to make as many iterations as possible, even if you hated what you were making, because eventually you will make something that will be great.
Collage Drafts I would say that I hated the collage iterations the most, the normal collage was worse than the typographic collage for me. With the typographic collage all you really had to do was draw out the shape you wanted to use but for some reason with the normal collage I had the idea that I had to find shapes in magazines that would look like a shape from my chipmunk.
Geometric Drafts
Random Iterations
Master Artist Iterations For two of our iterations we had to choose two “Master Artist” to create our iterations.
Haypeep I chose Haypeep as one of the “Master Artist” to recreate. I chose her because most of the prints she does are based around cats and I thought the concept was hilarious.
The Haypeep print that I took inspiration from.
My Haypeep inspired Chipmunk iteration.
Tattoo Flash Art Although not techincally a “Master Artist” Tattoo Flash Art was on the list of “Master Artist” to choose from. The example image I had for Tattoo Flash Art at the begining of this project was not the best example of the subject. I made two iterations using that image and I hated both of the drawings that came out of it. The reference image I had orignally.
Ultimately I found a different reference image that was a more realistic example of Tattoo Flash Art. First and second attempt at Tattoo Flash Art.
My final Tattoo Flash Art Chipmunk Iteration.
Final If I were to continue this for another year I would probably consider going out into nature and going to see them in their natural habitat and take pictures.
My final chipmunk iterations.
I never used Photoshop before this project, so I guess I learned everything I know about Photoshop from this project. Although we spent a lot of time with it in class, I feel like there’s still more to learn about Photoshop that I will defiantly continue to learn on my own outside of class.
PSA Poster
For this project we had to work one on one with another peer, in a client / designer relationship. We each did research on a topic we thought need more attention and then handed the research off to our partner to create a PSA poster. We were also limited to only text for this project. Working with only type was a fun challenge more than a hard challenge for me.
Some of my thumbnails for this project.
Composition drafts brought to my client for aproval.
This is the composition my client approved.
For my final poster, I created visual hierarchy by making the attention grabber bigger and slanted off the page. Everything else I made centered to the left of the page and, starting from the top of the page moving down, I made each different line a different size depending on the importance of the line.
Drafts I learned from this project how to work more in In-Design, specifically how to make posters. I also learned how to pair fonts together well.
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First iteration.
First iteration on bulletin board.
Help spread awareness of the beneficial uses of cannabidiol on those with anxiety.
For 3 0 F U N FA C T S a b o u t C B D O i l v is i t w w w.b e s t c b d o i l s .o r g
CBD won’t make you high. It is impossible to overdose on CBD. For More information on the Uses of CBD on anxiety visit www.medicalnewstoday.com and wwww.healthline.com
Second iteration.
YO WI CB U F LL D RE SET E
Help spread awareness of the beneficial uses of cannabidiol on those with anxiety.
For 30 F U N FACTS a b o u t CB D O i l vi si t www. b e st c b d o i l s. o r g
CBD won’t make you high. It is impossible to overdose on CBD. For More information on the Uses of CBD on anxiety visit www.medicalnewstoday.com and wwww.healthline.com
Final Iteration.
Second iteration on bulltin board.
Final
My final in context.
Timothy Goodman
Timothy Goodman is a muralist based in New York who shares his feelings with the internet through Instagram. He started his career by working with Apple but decided he wasn’t happy working with Apple. His main medium is sharpie but he does use paint occasionally. For the last of our “projects” of the semester we had to research a contemporary designer who’s work we thought was interesting and present them to our peers. The designer I chose was Timothy Goodman. I chose him because he wasn’t afraid to share his raw emotions with literally everyone. I was also drawn to his combination of words and illustrations in his pieces.
My favorite thing that he does is his “Insta-therapy” posts because they are filled with raw emotions.
This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2019. The fonts used include Rockwell, Arial, and Gill Sans. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center.