Am I Doing This Right?! Brianna Braeger St. Norbert College ART 130, Spring 2018
Introduction
Brianna Marie Braeger A little bit about myself. I am a sophomore here at St. Norbert College. I came into this school believing strongly that I wanted to pursue a major and career in the medical field, but that changed real fast. My freshman year I was taking biology and chemistry, realized half way through the semester I hated it with a passion. Went zero to one hundred real quick. Now, I am happy to say I found my passion and currently pursuing a major in business administration with and emphasis on marketing. As well as a minoring in graphic design and spanish.I thought this course was going to be very difficult for not taking an art class since my freshman year of high school, but I was wrong. It was a breeze...when I didn’t procrastinate and when softball didn’t consume my life! Some things I enjoy is not doing homework and studying until I have to, but as a college student I started to like homework and understand the concept that you have to be on top of your A game in order to succeed in school and life in general. I really enjoy running, softball, sketching (funny random things), interior design, architecture, chilling with my friends, eating food (especially ice cream), watching movies, going on spontaneous adventures, talking, traveling, meeting new people, encountering new experiences, yellow roses, crotch rockets, taking my dogs for walks, and watching sunrises and sunsets. Plus many other things, but I enjoy these the most. So, this is my final draft of all my work I have completed throughout the 2018 spring semester.
D*School Crash Course Engaging with a real person changed the direction of my prototype. Initially it was somewhat difficult in the beginning to develop ideas, but engaging with the individual helped create a better understanding of what direction I wanted to take for my prototype. It helped me form a more solid understanding of what the person would appreciate, likes and dislikes. I liked working with a real person because it allows you to get to understand them more and yet challenged us to infer the intangible meaning to their experiences;provided a small challenge. I had completed my prototype and previous five sketches, so I am not sure what it feels like to show someone unfinished work. The pace felt very quick in the sketching and designing stages, but had spare time when asking the individual questions. Compared to how I normally work, I'm the type of person to take a longer time to generate an idea(s). Since design thinking is an iterative, what I'd go back and do next would make the prototype more appealing to the eye. Add 3-dimensional features and more splash of color. What I would do over again is
gather more feedback from the five sketches to be able to create an even more personal prototype. The objective of this activity was to design a gift for your partner after thoroughly questioning one’s views on gift-giving. The activity began with and eight minute interview scratching the surface of how my partner, Andrew, felt about the gift giving experience and the types of gifts he generally gives individuals on Christmas. We then began another eight minute session really digging at their core beliefs on giving versus receiving. I got to really understand that he is not a selfish person,but rather very genuine. He loves giving because in his words, “There is a deeper connection when I see someone appreciating the gift I gave them, than feeling joy myself after receiving a gift.� I then had to develop five ways he could decide how to pick out the best gift for someone using the information he had provided me during the two interviews. I then completed an arrangement of sketches that was similar to a poster.
Dot / Line The objectives of this assignment were to choose three words from the list we were given to create three separate, different compositions using gray and/or black colored paper, cutting dots, lines or both and arrange them to represent the word chosen. I chose the words oppression, joy, and stability. Challenges with this assignment were arranging the dots and lines and choosing the appropriate colors I deemed fit, value, scale, and creating more of a visual hierarchy. I also had a two day period when I did not like a word I was using and chose to try a new word, chaotic, but after drawing up some thumbnails I decided to switch back to my original words. Solutions I had when performing the task of placing the dots and lines to create three abstract compositions, was to just move the pieces around randomly, instead of thinking precisely where to place them. What I gained from this process was to really understand the art terms, specifically: positive/ negative space, scale, continuation, value, similarity, closure, and tone of voice. Which I can carry into my other projects.
I liked making thumbnails because I like working small, fast and when the pieces don’t have to be perfect!
Lots Of Iterations In my own words I would describe gestalt as many objects viewed as one image. Gestalt relates to this project because you had to visually design a word using few or many objects (dots and lines) that will be observed as onepiece, not many separate things. I do not think it was that difficult for me to create a "well crafted project." This is because using the pieces I had cut out and visually moving them into different places on my paper helped me come up with designs faster and easier than if I did not
use them when making my illustrations. For me I would spend extra time on my project to get the small details right, like in critique pay close attention to other people's critiques on other's projects and not just mine, so I could have an even better understanding on what makes a piece more appealing to people and not just myself. This project helped me better understand my previous idea of abstraction. This is because I thought it was just used with drawn or painted shapes not objects that you could cut
out and make a piece out of. It was a little difficult for one of the words I had chosen because I didn't feel it was as strong as I could have made it be. But, my other two pieces were easier to create an abstraction with because they did not require me to make as many illustrations and iterations as the other word required of me to do. I would be able to use this exercise, gestalt, and abstraction in my future works, and also to better understand other works of art.
OPPRESSION I thought my scale I used with the dots was a successful aspect to this piece. As well as the closure of the lines and proximity of the dots. But, I’d consider changing the orientation of the dots and scale of the lines to enhance the sense of oppression the lines and emphasizing on the dots. (This one is my favorite!)
STABILITY I thought I had a very clear concept throughout my piece depicting the word. But, I would consider changing the scale of the dots to be equal size to create a much more interesting negative space.
JOY I thought I had a strong idea of creating an arc to depict the growth of a person’s great pleasure and happiness (the person starting at the small gray dot) and ending at the largely scaled black dot in comparison. But, I could have performed the arcs better to not look like a wi-fi signal. I also could reposition the gray dots and rescale the black dot for a much better executed piece.
Hand Lettering The objectives of this assignment were to explore different types (hand lettering) and forms (typography) to discover the most appropriate, successful compositions. You had to decide on one word from the list given to us and develop four versions of that word. Some challenges I had with this assignment was deciding what type and forms best expressed the meaning of the word voice. But, before I knew I wanted to do the word voice, I made a brainstorm map of the word team and voice. After the brainstorm, it helped me decide which word to do. With my challenge of figuring out the type and forms I wanted to use, I just let my hand and mind flow on the page without specifically telling myself what styles to use. Insights I gained from this process is the importance of how words are placed, crafted, and designed on a page, can express to you different emotions/feelings.
I thought it was fun drawing random words!
Brainstorming
Made it rain with ideas!
Iterations Of My Word Hand-lettering taught me new ways of observing and learning to interpret words based on how they are designed. I learned that different fonts, styles, and sizes express words different ways. Also, how objects can express a word similarly based on their arrangement and appearance. One technique I would spend more time on continuing and refining would be enhancing my 3D photograph and play around with different backgrounds and lighting. Another technique I would also, choose to spend more time on refining would be working with more precise strokes with my paint brush working with ink, and better splashes of water mixed into the ink to create a better effect. Next,
I would create a more arranged, appealing, eye catching piece that would collaborate better with the word and the expression. I would also, be more thoughtful on the size and style font I would use. When I think of my finished pieces collectively overall, I would say their strength is the content. This is because in my pieces it is easily depicted where the form lacks slightly because not all the proper elements appear. Was more intrigued by finding images in magazines of people whom are of different race, ethnicity, gender, age, social class, and occupation whose voices are all equally powerful. My ideas seemed to be stronger.
I used a serif type with an ink wash. (This one is my favorite piece!) I thought overall I executed this piece nicely! Felt my contrast and the loose splashes of my ink wash was the best part of my piece. One thing I’d do differently would be to watch the spacing and running of the ink/ letters in proximity to the edges of the page.
I used an angular placement , but not sure if it was totally necessary. I definitely should have spaced out the letters, so the piece wasn’t squished. To also give more power to the faces inside the word. I placed magazine cut outs of all types of individuals, famous or not famous, different races, ethnicities, sexes, and ages to portray everyone has an equal and empowering voice.
I used a warbled serif style/form, using wavy lines to suggest the fragility of one’s voice. But, as I look back at this piece I’m not sure if I’d have the ‘E’ at the end of the word be smaller. I would also bring the entire word to the center of the page rather than tucked in the bottom left corner.
I thought my concept was good, but my execution could have been done way better. I should have nailed of tacked down the cord in place to have better luck in laying out the cord to say the word. To make it easier to read as the word voice. I’d also rescale the image to be larger and in the middle of the page. (I really did not like doing this piece at all, it made me pretty annoyed because the cord and lighting would not work out).
Object Iterations The objectives of this project were to use collage, typographic collage, geometric shapes, continuous line, and master artist interactions of our own to develop final pieces of our object or things. In my case, I chose to do an albino tiger because I really love them and think they’re majestic animals. I really struggled with the collage pieces of my “thing”, because I felt it was hard to decide what could be funny, but still visibly be recognized as a tiger. I also thought using Kara Walker’s art as media to help create my own piece was rather challenging. This is because I had to think of something creepy and uncomfortable because that is that type of media she works with. But, I came to actually like my final product. Insights gained from this process was that I can develop my own media to express my views.
Master Artist Kara Walker I chose to use Kara Walker as one of my master artists to mock up my project. Kara works mainly with cut paper and silhouettes, making them very disturbing and uncomfortable for the viewer. I was intrigued by it and thought it would be a good challenge for myself to put my skills to the test. I decided to do a cut
paper silhouette of a tiger jumping through a ring of fire at a circus. Because in my opinion it’s rather disturbing training/forcing a mammal jump through a ring of fire for entertainment. Also, the entire concept of a circus is rather creepy and unnatural.
Master Artist Lisa Yuskavage I chose to use Lisa Yuskavage as my second master artist. Lisa generally uses paint and her pieces are of strictly females. Exposing the female body parts, adding extra emphasis on the genitales. Scaling the genitales much larger in comparison to the rest of the female body. I thought it would be fun creating a tiger
with emphasis added onto their genitals. I decided to do a back view of a tiger sitting down gazing in the distance. I emphasized the butt of the tiger, scaling it larger than the rest of the body in comparison. I had fun painting this piece because I had never worked with this media before.
Thoughts
Through the few week process I had with this project I feel like I learned much more about tigers than I had previously known. Able to understand much more in depth about their body, how they lay, sit, stand, excetera, the difference in their stripes, the environment in which they live in, lifestyle and behavior. The media that was the most difficult for me was the master artist. One, for my piece that was alike my master artist Lisa Yuskavage was challenging. This is because in her paintings she emphasizes the genital areas and was difficult to emphasize the genital area of a tiger in order for it to still look like a tiger. Second, was my master artist piece alike Kara Walker. It was challenging in ways that it was difficult to cut the paper to make a good
silhouette. The most enjoyable piece I had was the collage. This is because I found it fun going through magazines trying to find fun images to use to create a tiger. I learned a lot about photoshop, since this was my first time using it. But, I mainly learned to save and save often and found the stamp tool the most useful to clean up my pieces. I definitely will use all that I learned in photoshop going forward in this class. I would spend more time creating new very difficult and in depth images. Showing the little details like the individuals hairs of the tiger and whiskers with more care, precision, and execution. And I would make sure to use more variation in the angels, scale, and background of my tiger.
Final Tiger Iterations
Data Visualization The objectives of this project were to use a small color palette, roughly four colors, so it would not take away from the data being presented in the poster. We needed to have graphics we had designed and online graphics, all edited and rendered in photoshop. I found it challenging when I was depicting my visual hierarchy. But, I narrowed down the issue by thinking what data was the most important and what message I really wanted to convey to people. I definitely prefer working in photoshop than indesign. This process helped me gain a better understanding and grasp on the two applications. For this
assignment I tried making the center of my piece the main focus for the visual hierarchy. I also created visual hierarchy with size and the amount of information presented for each piece of data I had collected. Skills I learned in this project is to better pick font styles and chose more descriptive language. be more precise when deciding on a title. and when using Photoshop be more cautious when editing images make sure they are not pixel like, and make sure I don’t have broken links. I found it quite fun when choosing my color pallet. I could have used more color in my text to make the color of my piece more interesting.
Vocational Questions The difference between a good life and a significant life depend solely on your opinion. In my twenty years of life I have really learned that the word “good” is extremely subjective. But, as we move through life we have up and down factors that create our own idea of a good life. What you value in life brings you happiness and drives you to figure out what you perceive to be a good life. Other components such as economic success, relationships, sense of purpose/importance, goal(s) striving, fulfillment, one’s human experience, choices, and beliefs shed light on the ways someone describes a good life. Which is opposite of a significant life. A significant life is about meaning. Unlike a good life, which is about one’s happiness. Living a significant life doesn’t include satisfying one’s own wants and needs, health, wealth, status because it’s not meaningful. You focus on the past, present, and future and distinguish the relationship between them to find meaningfulness. Significance involves giving to other people rather than the benefits of happiness from receiving. Feel more significance when denoting your time with loved ones, because there is much meaning within those relationships. A significant life isn’t all about happiness of the self, it involves stress and many other challenges that result in meaning. The way a person chooses to express oneself involves the caringness about their own identity and who they are as a person. Living a significant life you are prone to putting others before yourself giving your life meaning knowing you helped someone and not for your own benefit. The greatest failure I have experienced was during my freshman year, first semester at St. Norbert College. I came in head strong I wanted to pursue a career in the medical field. But, as time went on many negative significant events happened in my life that I stopped caring about my chemistry and biology classes. I chose to withdraw from biology and buried myself a hole too deep in chemistry to pass the course. After the semester ended I failed chemistry, but I have it organized that I am retaking the course. This failure opened up my eyes to see the bigger picture of the important things in life, and to really understand what I want to do for a future career. And that IS NOT pursuing a medical degree!
Appreciation I would like to personally thank my classmates. Throughout the class this entire semester, you all pushed me to become a better designer. All your positive and negative critiques and input about my work has helped me to develop stronger pieces from the beginning to the end of this class. I always looked forward to this class because you all were a joy and fun to work with everyday. And this is saying a lot because I am one to usually strongly dislike classes. So, thank you for being such kind and helpful individuals to help me better myself as a designer. An even bigger thank you to Professor Katie. You had developed an amazing, fun,easy to work in atmosphere this entire spring semester. Your passion and knowledge of art has helped inspire me to find what I love to do and enjoy every second of it. Your feedback on my projects and other nitty gritty assignments motivated me and advanced me as a young designer. To make me realize that design is a major like of mine.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!!!