The Ups and Downs of Design

The Ups... The Ups...

Vocational Question I Vocational Question I

I believe that I am called to creative work, I feel that I have a very different way of looking at things than most of my classmates. I would say I tend to be more spontaneious with my art, most of the time I don’t know what I’m painting until it’s painted. I’m very drawn to paintings and seeing how they were created, seeing each brushstroke. I then start thinking about my paintings and how long they took, then thought about how long the most famous paintings in the world took. I think it’s when I go on tangents like that is when I recognize my calling to creative work. I also get reminded every time I see my family, I bring art home almost every time and they always praise me for my creative techniques. I am one to be hard on myself and definitely compare myself to my classmates, I usually get humbled pretty quickly. That’s okay though, it’s okay to appreciate others work. I just have to work on appreciating my own work the same way.

“Are you called to creative work? If so, how do you recognize that calling? If not, to what do you feel called?”

Dot & Line

We were given a list of words we could choose 3 from and had to represent that word through the use of dots and lines only. That list included: Comfort, Energetic, Chaotic, Joy, Abundance, Longing, Terror and Freedom. We were not allowed to do any illustration with this project, meaning we couldn’t make the dots and lines into other things. We were given 6 categories, for each word we had to create 5 sketches or iterations, 1 dot and 1 line, 2 dots and 2 lines, 1 dot and 2 lines, 2 dots and 1 line, all dots or all lines. After we created our sketches we had to cut out lines and dots and glue them to the paper. I only made 3 final iterations, we had to show the emotion or feeling of the word without illustrating it. The reason we had this project was to learn about Gestalt and how the whole of something is more than the sum of its parts. Something I would do differently is I would manage my time better so that I could’ve made the final iterations to be neater and more professional. The ending result I was somewhat embarrassed by because I know that I could’ve done better.

These are my initial sketches of my dot and line iterations. I think it was a little difficult to draw out my ideas without using imagery, it wasn’t until I had cut out the dots and lines and played around with the postitioning physically that I understood or felt more comfortable with this project.

We were asked to define the word Gestalt in our own words, I would define it as looking at something as a whole rather than the parts that make it up. It was difficult for me to create something that was well crafted for this project, I find it harder to put my all into a project I’m not necessarily attached to. When I don’t have an attachment to the work it tends to fall on my priority list. When it comes to projects where I’m not too excited about, I would rather make it quickly and with less quality. Projects that I do get excited about and have a personal attachment I take my time and make it as good as I can. I would love to be able to put my all into every project, but I rarely have the time or energy to go all in on everything and make it as good as I’d like.

This project helped me understand abstraction and how you can manipulate the designs to show emotion or a narrative. There are endless narratives you can create with abstraction. At first it was difficult to show ideas without illustrating them, but I quickly realized that I had to think more outside the box and play around to see what works. I would use these techniques to add more detail and emotion without adding illustration that could potentially distract from the subject of the work.

Chaotic

Exhaustion

Scarcity

Letterforms

For this project we were given a piece of unmounted lenolium and were asked to carve out a specific letter or two. We were asked to carve the letters out so we could get a better understanding of how negative space or curning can affect the way that the letters/word is interpreted. Together we created the alphabet for everyone to use for their project. We then had to come up with a 5 letter word to print, I chose the word shine. We had to create 4 samples of the same word printed on a sheet of paper. We were given the option for more “out of the box” compositions, using things found outside, using Photoshop or InDesign. I decided that I didn’t want to use Photoshop or InDesign since I’m not well versed in those programs. Instead I decided to create a print using black paper and white ink to really make it pop. I was the only one to use white ink and black paper, most of the students in my class used Photoshop to make their composition. Looking back I wish that I had decided to use those programs, again I wish I had devoted more of my time and energy into this project. If I were to do this project again I would choose a word that gave me more composition ideas, and I would use the programs to edit and make a more interesting composition.

We were asked to play around with different fonts to see the differences between them. Showing the different ways that letterforms can be interpreted.

This is my mindmap for the word Shine, we start off with our base word and write down anything that correlates to that. We do this so we can get an idea of what kind of things we want to include in the composition.

These are the fonts that were provided to us by our Professor, we had to draw these out and label each part of the letterform. This was for us to get comfortable drawing letterforms as well as learning the specific details of fonts.

I learned that you can get letters to portray an infinite amount of emotions or actions. The more you play around with it the more experiences it will give you. I think that if I’d put more effort into this project I would’ve ended up loving my outcome.

If I were to continue this project, I would take the black background with the taped-on letters. I would like to cut out lines coming from the letters and then I’ll tape it to a window to get the light shining through the lines and show that the letters are shining light. I want to take the one with white ink and take a picture with the flash on to see if the ink will give off any kind of glossy effect.

This was my first print composition, I realize that I should’ve made the gradient go the other way where the lightest letter would’ve been “S” to make more sense of the directionality of the word.

For this one I traced the letters and cut them out with an exacto knife and taped the letters onto the black paper. This is where I got the idea for the white ink on black paper.

Something I would do differently for this is, for the dot of the “I” would have “light beams” coming out from it to give off that shining effect.

Iterative Illustrations

For this project we were asked to pick an object with moving parts or an animal. We were to represent the essence of our animal in many different ways. We started out with blind contour drawings, then collages, geometric and master artist iteration.

I also carved a linolium block to make a print. The point of this project was to get used to using different materials and different techniques. We had to create different iterations using different positions that the object can be in.

These were my first iterations of the bats for my poster!

In this project I learned that bats can either be really easy to draw or form or they’re almost impossible to recreate, there is no in between. The house bat is the only type that intentionally goes into houses. Collage was the most difficult part for me, even though it was the majority of my poster I found it difficult to recreate because I would usually try to get the small details that I like the most, like the veins in the wings and the little fur that they have. I wasn’t really able to get those fine details that I would’ve liked. I learned how to isolate the subject of a photo and make it isolated. I might use this going forward for stickers I may want to make, or taking people out of photos. If I were to continue working on this project I would finish the wire sculpture, I would create a painting and drawing. I would make more iterations with different positions. I would like to make a clay sculpture as well. If there were more time I’d love to be able to do all of that, unfortunately I don’t have the time nor energy to do that. This is mu final iterative illustration poster!

PSA Posters

This project was all about learning how to work with clients and overall how to create a pleasing easy to read poster. We were told to come up with a topic that another student had to design for you. This was to get a little bit of an understanding on how designers work with their clients who want personal designs. We talk about attention grabbing, creating a visual heirarchey, experience handling type properly.

Personally I think that topic I had to make a poster about wasn’t one that needed anything other than text. I didn’t have much of a problem with figuring out different iterations of the poster without needing the help of imagery to make the composition.

I used different fonts to show different emotions or vibes, some were bolded and larger and others were not as bold and in your face. I used a big bold font for the title because that’s what I want people to be drawn to, grabs their attention.

I learned what works and what doesn’t and why. The first poster I made (or my shitty first draft) I realized was too much to look at, there were too many contrasting boxes that made it look busy. By my last iteration I used those black white and grays to show more of an organized poster.

S T O P CHILD ABUSE

Types of Abuse: Physical - Neglect - Sexual - Emotional - Abandonment

Signs of Abuse or Neglect: Unexplainable bruising or injury - abnormal hungerkids falling behind in school - out burst behaviors

At least 1 in 7 children have experienced child abuse or neglect in the past year in the US.

In 2020 1,750 children died due to abuse or neglect, this is likely an underestimate because most cases go unreported.

If you know a child suffering from child abuse or neglect, WE MUST SPEAK UP!

To find out signs of child abuse please visit: https://tinyurl.com/5yn5fjmp

For more information on how to help abused children visit: https://tinyurl.com/m3zbnnzh

STOP CHILD ABUSE

5 Types of Abuse: Physical - Neglect - Sexual - Emotional - Abandonment

Signs of Abuse or Neglect: - Unexplainable bruising or injury - abnormal hungerkids falling behind in school - out burst behaviors -

At least 1 in 7 children have experienced child abuse or neglect in the past year in the US.

In 2020 1,750 children died due to abuse or neglect, this is likely an underestimate because most cases go unreported.

If you know a child suffering from child abuse or neglect,

WE MUST SPEAK UP!

To find out signs of child abuse please visit: https://tinyurl.com/5yn5fjmp

For more information on how to help abused children visit: https://tinyurl.com/m3zbnnzh

Who Designs

Marian Bantjes - A Canadian Designer

Marian Bantjes is a designer, typographer, writer and illustrator working internationally from her base on a small island off the west coast of Canada, near Vancouver.

Marian’s art and design crosses boundaries of time, style and technology. She is known for her detailed and lovingly precise vector art, her obsessive hand work, her patterning and ornament. Marian’s work has an underlying structure and formality that frames its organic, fluid nature. It is these combinations and juxtapositions that draw the interest of such a wide variety of designers and typographers, from experienced formalists to young students.

Her career spans 3 stages: she worked as a book typesetter from 1984–1994: she co-founded and ran a graphic design studio, Digitopolis, from 1994–2003; and since 2003 she has worked on her own as a designer/artist/letterer. It is this latter work for which she has become internationally known.

Vocational Question II Vocational Question II

The greatest failure I’ve experienced, was when I was a Junior in high school. We were making coil built bowls, one side of the bowl had to show the texture of the coils and the other could be smoothed out. I created an almost jungle scene, most of the coil shapes were very organic and I had a butterfly and dragonfly in there as well. At the bottom of the bowl I had pushed clay through a strainer to get a grass like texture, and covered the bottom with that grass. Then I constructed a skull and spine with parts of the ribs attatched. On the outside of the bowl, I had completely smoothed it over and decided to add some shelf mushrooms all along the circumference. This portion took me HOURS. After I had decided I was done with the project I wrapped up the bowl in a plastic bag so that it wouldn’t dry out. I sprayed it every once in a while, something to keep in mind is that this class was during the outbreak of covid. We were working from home and had to drop off pieces at the school when they were done. All of a sudden I hear the rustling of a plastic bag, then something fall. When I tell you my heart shattered into a million pieces. Unfortunately the bowl was beyong repair, fortunately for me my teacher had seen the bowl before the disater and said for herself that it would have been the best thing I had ever made. She ended up giving me 100% on that assignment because I couldn’t control what had happened.

What is the greatest failure you’ve experienced in your life?

This book was made as part of Introduction to Design at St. Norbert College in the fall of 2022. The fonts used includes Sukhumvit Set, and The Meshroom. It was digitally pronted and saddle stapled at the colleges print center.