Paper Experiments

Greetings!

Thanksgiving break is right around the corner, and I cannot wait any longer for it to be here. I've been waiting way too long. I'm pretty sure that I haven't stopped thinking about it for weeks. It's not that I'm excited to be home, I'm just excited to RELAX. Just a break from school and stress. All of my friends will be back at home too. I haven't seen a lot of them because we haven't been out of school at the same time yet, so I'm pretty pumped. I plan on hugging SO MANY PEOPLE over break. It's gonna be good.

For class tomorrow, our assignment was a little out of the ordinary. We were told to experiment with paper and how light shines through it. We could do almost anything to it: crumple, score, fold, burn, cut, or even wet it. We had to do 25 experimentations. At first, I had trouble doing this because I felt overwhelmed. "THERE'S SO MANY THINGS TO DO. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THIS. WHERE DO I START? I'M ALREADY RUNNING OUT OF IDEAS. WHAT?" Just my usual freak out before starting homework, you know? Anyways, I ended up with some neato experimentations! Just because I know you guys are dying to see a few examples... here ya go:

So for this final project (woah that's weird to say), we will be constructing a lantern of some sort. 

We have to keep several things in mind while making the lantern/light: the lightness of light, the immateriality of light and how paper can serve as structure, skin, filter, veil, allowing light to leak out, glow, radiate, shield, etc..

I'm anxious to see how this project turns out. I will keep you all posted!

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//Happy Early Thanksgiving!

Gettin' Sketchy

Oh hey, it's me again. 

I know y'all have missed me lots. Welp, the weekend is wrapping up, and I'm ready to tackle these next few days. I only have two days of class this week because it's THANKSGIVING BREAK AFTER TUESDAY! YAY!!!! So basically, this week shouldn't be too painful.

Anwayssssssssss, I've been sketching LOTS lately for my drawing class, and surprisingly, I'm not minding it. We've moved on to ideation drawing, and I'm enjoying it a lot more than the dry/boring geometric and perspective drawing.

I wasn't too thrilled about having to take a drawing class. I'm not going to lie to you and say that it's my favorite class, but I have definitely learned a lot. I've also improved significantly. So I mean, I GUESS taking this class was beneficial. I GUESS. Here's a few of my recent sketches/drawings:

We were told to extend the the original picture with our own drawing.
We could do whatever we wanted. So why not turn the man into a
merman? 

An airplane with legs. HOW COOL COULD THAT BE IN REAL LIFE?

There's days that I can't stand drawing, and then there's days that I don't mind it too much. I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to learn quite a bit over the semester. You never really know what you're capable of until you try, right?
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"You are confined only by the walls you build yourself."

Saturday Afternoon Musings

Hello, friends!

Saturdays are the best days. Stress free and relaxed. After a long week, I've waiting to kick back and relax this weekend.
I know what you're thinking, YOU'RE BLOGGING FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK WOAH. I know, I know. I'm on top of it. Maybe I'm blogging because I feel like it.... but maybe I'm blogging because I have to have 32 posts completed by December 13th? I mean, those are both good reasons.

Anyways, I've been looking at designspiration.net this afternoon, and I've come across two really awesome posters. It's crazy to me that I can look at these posters, knowing absolutely nothing about what they are advertising, and immediately feel drawn to them. That's what good design is about. The viewer wanting to look at the poster because it is well executed. I still don't know what these posters are about, but I can't stop looking at them.

The texture on this is really appealing. The lines inside the letters give the poster
movement and intensity.

I love the feeling of this poster. There is something to be said for how well 

the colors work together. It's calming and soothing to the eye. 

The two posters are almost contrasting in their connotations. I think it's nice to see two designs on separate ends of the spectrum because it just proves that the design world is endless. What was communicated through these two posters is what the designer pictured in their head. It's like we're stepping into the designer's head for a second and visualizing things from their point of view. How cool is that? 

On another note, earlier this week I was just gazing out the window of my dorm and I somehow managed to capture the sky at the perfect time:

How pretty is the sky? And how pretty is this campus?! The tenth floor of Ellsworth isn't too shabby. It's simple things like this that remind me how lucky I am to be here. I never want to leave. Ever.

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"We lose ourselves in the things we love, but we also find ourselves there, too."

Dribblin'

Greetings!

Guess what? I'M DONE WITH MY THIRD PROJECT! Woooooooooo! I haven't posted an update on this project in a long time, so this is about to be one lengthy post (BUT SO WORTH IT DON'T LEAVE ME BECAUSE IT'S LONG).

When I last left you fellas, I was constructing my cardboard letters with my group. They turned out looking really cool. Here are some of the final pictures:

How cool are they?! Taking pictures and installing them was a lot of fun. Obviously, we felt that Allen Fieldhouse (KU's basketball arena) was the most appropriate place for our letters. My group even got lucky enough to take a few pictures during the basketball team's practice. YEAH, WE DID THAT. AND I TALKED TO BILL SELF. IT WAS AWESOME. The last picture is one of the shots taken during their practice, and if you look closely, you can see Wiggins!!


Sooooooooooooooooo after constructing these letters we had one last portion for the project. Individually, we made a book that documented the definition of our group word (dribble). We did this by making sure the site photos, working photos, book structure, and page layout all contributed to the meaning of the word. Constructing this book was a lot harder than I had intended it to be. I was really stressed out about it for awhile, but things came through eventually.
Here are my three preliminary ideas for the book:

One-

 


Two-

Three-

I ended up going with my second idea. I thought it was the most interesting out of the three. One of my classmates had the idea of attaching a 3d ball on the ends of the accordion. So immediately I was like, "OMG YEAH I HAVE TO DO THAT."
So I cut a tennis ball in half, painted it orange, and then drew black basketball lines on it. I know it sounds so easy, BUT THAT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S NOT AT ALL. The basketball didn't turn out the way I really wanted it to, and I had a little bit of a breakdown. To overcome the frustrations with the book, I came to terms with the fact that not everything can be perfect at all times.

This is how the first attempt of my book looked like:

 

It didn't close up right, the circles were flimsy/falling apart, and it was hard to cut the circles out perfectly. I went and talked to my professor, and he gave me some great ideas on how to improve the book.

So here is my final attempt:

(front)

 (back)

Annnnnnnnnnnd...

BOOM! It closes correctly!

Also, I think we should all take a moment to appreciate this page in my process book:

Here's a zoomed in shot of the paragraph:

So much truth in that paragraph. Amiright?

This project was definitely a learning experience. The easiest portion, for me, was the cardboard letters. I had a fun group, and I was really happy with how well we worked together. The most difficult part of the project was creating the book. Brainstorming the idea of the book came naturally to me; however, constructing the book was not as easy as I had hoped. As an individual, I learned my strengths and weaknesses throughout this experience. Overall, the project has opened my eyes to many things. I have learned several things about who I am and where I stand as a designer. I’m looking forward to applying this new knowledge to projects in the future. 

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"Worry is a misuse of your imagination."

Project 3: In Progress

I've been working on my third project for a couple of weeks now, and it's been a fun project. I've definitely enjoyed this project more than the last one.

Throughout the course of this project, we have been exploring how to express the meaning of a word through type. At first, we were individually assigned one word. We made 20 compositions of how we pictured the word. Eventually, we refined and narrowed down the 20 compositions to 5 compositions. After this, we were placed into groups and our groups were assigned one specific word. We constructed the word out of cardboard, making sure the structure helped define the word. From there, we placed the cardboard letters on a particular site where the word fit in with the setting around it. 

For the individual compositions, my word was contrast. These were the five compositions I ended up with:

There is a striking exhibition of unlikeness in each of these. These 5 compositions define the word contrast in unique and different ways. 

The group portion of this project has been really fun. The word my group was assigned to was dribble. Once again, I got lucky with my group. They are all so hardworking and fun. Here's some photos of us building the cardboard words:

COOLEST GROUP EVER. I'm just throwin it out there.

Anywho, want to know why we constructed our letters the way we did? Of course you do. I know you do. Don't lie. Don't you worry, I'll explain.

We made them a triangular shape because when you dribble a basketball, the ball bounces down, and then it bounces back up. We thought that a triangle was the perfect way to mimic that movement. We also colored the letters blue and red because they are KU colors. There isn’t a better way to represent basketball other than with KU colors. The entire KU campus lives for basketball season. We also decided to paint the dot of the ‘i’ orange. This orange dot is there to symbolize a basketball.

Be on the lookout for final pictures of our cardboard word. IS GUN BEE GOOOOOD.

Also here's this cause I know you all lovvvvvvvvve mah face:

You're welcome.

PEACE AN BLESSINS <3