I don't draw

I Don’t Draw A Process Book By: Amanda Reding Introduction to Design: Fall 2018 Taught By: Professor Ries

Introduction During the spring of my first year at St. Norbert College, I started considering a Graphic Design Minor. In order to see if this is what I really wanted to do, my advisor suggested I take Introduction to Design. I had always classified myself as someone who wasn’t very good at drawing, but I decided to go for it anyway. Everything was okay, until the middle of the summer when I recieved a very scary email, informing me of all the different art supplies that I was going to need for this class. I had honestly never heard of half of them and I was officially scared. I then decided to email the professor, informing her that I was not good at drawing and wondering if this class was truly for me. Professor Ries emailed me back a few days later and reassured me that even if I wasn’t the world’s best drawer, I could still survive in the class, I may just need to work a little harder than some of my peers.

Being someone that has never been afraid of hard work, I decided to go for it. Fast forward four months later and I have successfuly finished the course and am much more confident in my artistic abilities because of it. So thank you Professor Ries, for believing in me even when I didn’t.

D-School Objective: The goal of this project was to work in a fast paced enviroment, help us trust our instincts, and to show us that iterations are important and can help develop an idea to make it better.

During this project, I really liked that we were able to engage with another person, as it was good to get feedback from them and to combine their ideas with my own. Because of this, I was able to use the strong part of my own ideas, take their suggestions, and then combine it all into one great idea.

I actually really liked the pace of this assignment. There wasn’t any time for me to doubt my ideas and it forced me to roll with my first instincts. Normally, I am the type of person that likes to plan out exactly what I want to do, however, I felt that this pushed me out of my comfort zone and I realized I was still able to succeed.

If I had the chance to go back, I would have liked to spend more time on making the prototype. I feel as though there were some details that I wasn’t able to add in the time we were given.

Also, I would have liked to have been able to make another prototype after getting feedback from my partner, as they had good ideas on how I could improve it even more.

Showing another person unfinished work for me was a little challenging as I consider myself a perfectionist. I like to be able to show my completed work that I know is done to the best of my ability, rather than something I know I can do better on.

Dot/Line

Objective: The goal of this project was to work with both simply and abstractly, only using dots and lines.

By working simply, later on we would be able to better appreciate more complex images. By using iterations, we were able to further develop our ideas and see the impact of scale and visual hierarchy. Lastly, because we worked by hand, we were able to practice our cutting and gluing skills.

From this project, I learned that gesatalt theory is the way in which information and art is presented visually. This relates to Dot/Line because as an abstract project, each person may see something different in the final composition, depending on how the information is presented, other details may de highlighted.

Process Thumbnails Longing Process Thumbnails

Scarcity Process Thumbails

I am the type of person that will spend the extra time to get the small details exactly how I want them. If I know that I am capable of doing something, I always want to be able to do it to the best of my ability, even if it takes me more time than expected.

Oppression Process Thumbnails

Final

Product

This project helped me better understand abstract art.

Sometimes, when looking at art, you really have to think about what the artist is trying to convey in order to see the message. I like the fact, however, that two people could create very similar compositions and they each could represent two very different meanings.

Oppression It was difficult for me to represent my ideas without illustrating them or being able to explain my compositions because I knew what I was trying to convey as the illustrator, but that doesn’t mean everyone else necessarily did. The critique was helpful because it made me realize that maybe my compositions didn’t represent the word as well as I originally thought.

Scarcity I think that this project was a great way to explain gestalt theory and the idea of abstract art. By creating my own abstract art, playing with negative space and going through multiple drafts, I feel as though I am a stronger artist and I better understand abstract art as a whole.

Longing

Text Iterations

Practice Lettering

Objective: The goal of this project was practice with different types of hand lettering and experiment with the different ways in which text can impact the meaning of a word. By creating multiple iterations, we were able to develop our words to the best of our ability. Lastly, this project helped us learn about working by hand and refining our craft.

Hand lettering taught me that there’s a variety of different parts that contribute to letterforms. The different curves and styles of letters all are things that can impact and change the style that the letter is, which in turn can completely change the style of the word.

Out of all the different techniques, I think that I would have liked to continue working with ink. The few times that I had tried working with ink, my letters weren’t as steady as I would have liked them and so I think with more practice I would be able to have cleaner and more steady lines.

Center: Progress

Center: Final Product In looking at my finished pieces, I would say that half of them have stronger content, while the other half of them have stronger form. When taking a step back, my finished pieces all look different for the most part, but they all have the same feel. This is because the word center is in the center of something.

Object Iterations Objective: The goal of this project was to work with one object or animal using different types of media.

By using different types of media, we were able to show our range as designers. In addition, this project also taught us how to go broad before we go deep.

For this project, I decided to choose Pandas because they have been my favorite animal for as long as I can remember.

When I was little, I liked them because they rhymed with my name, however, now I like them because of their simplicity and kind nature.

For these reasons, I thought that they would be perfect for this project.

Continous Line Drawings: Classmates & Pandas I would say that the line drawings were the hardest thing for me.

I don’t really like drawing and what ended up really helping me was going in with the mindset that it’s okay to mess up and they don’t have perfect. They’re just line drawings. The media that I liked the most was the collage part. I liked being able to cut things out of magazines and reimagine them into something completely different.

Master Artist

Collage Iterations Through this project, I learned the beauty of photoshop. I liked being able to manipulate photos and add different things to them in ways that you can’t on your phone. The curves feature for editing is my favorite part and I know I will continue to use it after this class to edit photos.

Alex Katz

Yayoi Kusama Through this process, I learned just how important object iterations are. The more you work on an image to develop it, the better it will likely become. This is exactly what happened to me and I am now beginning to see that it’s okay to make shitty first drafts, you just have to power through them.

Geometric Iterations

Final Drafts If I were to continue with this animal, I think that I would like to try and make it out of bamboo. Bamboo is a staple in a Giant Panda’s diet and I think to make it out of something that is closely associated to it would be cool. If possible, I would also like to photograph a live Giant Panda in it’s natural habitat.

Data Visualization Objective: The goal of this project was to combine all of the skills that we had learned so far to create a poster advertising the Fast Facts of SNC. After analyzing the data set, we were able to use visual hierarchy in order to tell a story that would appeal to prospective students.

Within this project, I created visual hierarchy by going through all of the information that was on the SNC Fast Fact webpage and looking for things that I thought were important when looking at schools. Once I had that information narrowed down, I went through and ranked the titles from what I thought was most important to least important. The idea that I had was to present my information in a list form and so I put the more important information at the top of the list.

SNC Fast Fact Iterations

One of the things that I learned, especially when working by hand, is spelling is important and it can help to pencil it out before out draw it. For one of my first drafts, I was super proud of the hand lettering, but when I went back and looked at it, I noticed I had spelled guarantee wrong. This meant I had to go back and redo it. Rough drafts are also very important and it’s okay to keep working at something.

SNC Fast Fact Final Product

I loved being able to use color in this project. By using color, we were able to highlight words or objects in a different way. I do think, however, that there is a time and a place to use color and at times it can be over-used.

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* 40 Majors * Studen t/Facul ty Ratio: 13-1 * Average Class Size: 19

* Total Students: 2,165 * Undergraduate Students: 2,067 * 43% Males & 57% Females

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Final Thoughts I believe that art and design are two concepts that are connected, however, I don’t believe that they are the same thing. Someone can be an artist but not a designer and vice versa. When I think of art, I think of it as someone creating something, while design is used to communicate a message. If I had to choose a side, I think that I would pick design over art. I have never really classified myself as an artist and I feel as though I identify more with communicating a message through images, rather than creating something from a blank canvas.

In looking at the difference between a good life and a significant one, I believe that a good life is one where a person is happy with whatever it is they’re doing and a significant one is when you impact others. This impact can be big or small, there is no limit. I think that through art and design, it is very easy to impact someone and have them relate to you’re work, which in turn is making your life significant.

A Speacial thank you to all of my classmates, Professor Ries and to Elyse. Thank you for pushing me to be the best designer I could be. I couldn’t have done it without you!

This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the Fall of 2018.

The fonts used are Marker Felt & Minion Pro. It was digitally printed and saddle stapled at the college’s print center