Looking to the Stars for Inspirtation Ali Fox
Intro to Design Spring 2016
My objective for this classs was simple gain some sort of basic design skills, and it was not easy. Each and every project in this class challenged me to think creatively, and budget my time more effectively. I have found a passion and enjoyment for art that I hope to continue moving forward after graduation. I hope to tkae the skills that I have gained in this class, and bring forth into a career for Brand Strategy in Marketing to help bettter understand design work that is more appealing for the consumer. This class has definitely helped gain more insight on being able to do so.
Dot and Line In this project I was able to gather more insight on exactly what gestault means. I find that it means that the whole general idea of the concept is more than the pieces that bring it together. In this example I have multiples two simple dots both different colors but by their size and how they are postioned, I hope to have convery the meaning of attarction.
In this project I definitely struggled to make a well-crafted object. I found the construction paper impossible to cut into delicate circles, and if I’m being completely my back board for the squares looked awful. I tried so hard to be careful, and it looked a dog had chewed on it. I would rather do something well done efficiently than spend hours exhausting over every excruciating detail. This project allowed me to able to embrace abstraction in a way that I do not get to do with a business degree. It opened up my mind to thinking more freely, and in a way more minimalistic. I found the ideas of joy, rejection, and attraction very easy to represent over exhaustion. I feel it’s such an automatic emotion, which makes it harder to convey. If I’m being completely honest I will most likely end up using gestalt or abstraction when decorating my house or apartment one day. My career field is pretty straight forward and since I’m in sales right now being abstract usually works against me. I found it fun to work with restrictions, because it makes you get outside a comfort zone of being able to do just anything
Finished Pieces
Expressive Text The project surprised me with how working with text can be very technical and creative. I was surprised how much meaning can change with size, width, and height of different of a word. I changed the size of my words and letters, and also the spacing in between the letters. I also experimented with spacing between the words, illustration, and different mediums. For example, I used tape as one of my different mediums, and used black construction as a different way of presenting the word. I did not know all the different ways to express words and meanings. I also didn’t really how technical doing certain techniques such as slanting or bolding a word can become. I feel now because of the project I understand how to put emotion and value into a text. Also, it is interesting to for different interpretations like touring the world or a concert tour. The greatest challenge was narrowing down all of my ideas. I found it very overwhelming, and honestly I did not handle in the best way. I think next time around I would do better if we had smaller critique groups rather than 15 people voicing all their opinions when in process of my work. I would do some many things differently. I would work on a word per a page when in process with the design and work with different mediums such as ink. I would also try to incorporate cursive and maybe punctuation into the words. I would also experiment more with color.
Final Expressive Text
Object Iterations I absolutely loved everything about this project. First off, I love elephants and being able to see all their different forms. I found the collage the most difficult one, because I overwhelmed myself with some many choices that I became too excited, so I went excessive with the amount of mediums. But, I honestly think it worked out the best considering the class enjoyed my use of buttons to pull together the object. Thanks Dot and Line project for helping me think more abstractly!
I opted to present my object horizontally over vertical like the rest of the class. Elephants are powerful creatures, and I wanted to give them more power by putting them horizontally to make them look as a herd moving across the page. I absolutely loved everything about this project. First off, I love elephants and being able to see all their different forms. I found the collage the most difficult one, because I overwhelmed myself with some many choices that I became too excited, so I went excessive with the amount of mediums. But, I honestly think it worked out the best considering the class enjoyed my use of buttons to pull together the object. Thanks Dot and Line project for helping me think more abstractly! If I’m being honest I learned absolutely nothing about Photoshop, I did a lot of my work by hand. The only technical work I needed to do was scan my pieces into the computer, and going forward I hope to just learn more in general. If I had to continue with the object I would want to do some work with water. Some of the most beautiful works of art with elephants involve them in the water, and I think it would fun to do a play on that with water colors. I would continue to experiment with unlikely mediums like the buttons.
Final Object Iterations
Mary Blair I loved the bright colors and whimsicality that is presented in the art work of Mary Blair. I found it so inspiring that she was successful in her time frame for the work she has done. Also, how prevalent her work is today, since basically anything apart of Disney stays immortally classic. Also, I found it inspiring how she still found more than one success. She did more than work for Disney, she also did a lot of amazing work for ad campaigns. I was absolutely so embarrassed the timer was not working for my presentation. I think that had something to do with sharing it via google slides, and next time I would have a back up plan just in case that happened again. I would also go into how her work influenced other people getting into the works of animation since her work with color was ground breaking. I can’t remember the name of Lisa’s designer, but I found the amount of different organization he has worked with, and how he takes so much of his background into his life especially with a few of his ceramic pieces very interesting.
Children’s Book Illustrations I had the chance to work with two partners. I found it very surprising how vocal one partner was, and the other never said anything. Also, the fact that it took them until the Monday before the book needed to be turned in to give me a title. The joys of working with others. Both were very open to listening to my ideas of creating the characters into animals instead of them being children, and both were very passionate about the project.
I received no feedback from my partners, communication was poor on both ends. My partners wanted to rely on FaceBook (which I never go on), and I tried to communicate via email. It definitely made a more difficult. Honestly, I had a hard time envision how I wanted the characters. I really wanted to create them on the computer, and it was not working. I was so frustrated, but I realize that was for the best. I love how they turned out doing them drawn by hand.