For the second assignment in Residential we were given a DC townhome. I went with a soul food, sultry concept rolled into one - "savor". Here is the end result.
On second thought, my computer chooses not to load my photos. I will upload it very soon.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Assignment 6: Pres. Tech.
Moving along to this assignment..
We were asked to design packaging for an object, any object. I chose this Zuni bracelet and thought of a venue it would be appropriately sold at. This piece of jewelry is like a diamond in the rough. A piece of jewelry that is more then what it seems. There are no diamonds or crystals, but it hold a lot of meaning and depth. That's what I love about it. My father, of mexican/spanish/ and Apache heritage; purchased it from a welder on a reservation, in the 1960's. The pure and honest energy I get from it is overwhelming. There is also a twing of sadness, appropriately so.
I was drawn to Oregon, since so many of my favorite (Alela Diane, Mariee Sioux, Joanna Newsom, etc.) musicians are from the west coast. I researched and found psychadelic Oregon Country Fair 2011. NOW. I know the scene of carefree hippies may not be the exact best place to buy expensive native american jewelry, but I figured these fairs are becoming more and more popular, policed, commercialized, and higher priced- new vendors would probably be welcomed in order to meet the demands for authenticity. I've never been to Oregon, or even a country fair but I figured this would be a win-win situation.
Drawing from my inspirations, I decided to create packaging that was simple and showcased the jewelry, in a realistic way. Jewelry boxes are nice, but they're clunky, not creative, and can even accidently open. With the clear packaging, it takes up less space, it's flexible, you can see the jewelry, and protects the jewelry even better since it's not going anywhere. I added the thread at the bottom, which to me resembled a road. This was done in Illustrator, and in the end I am happy with the results.
Monday, March 14, 2011
PRESENTATION TECHNIQUES: Spring of 2011
Hello again. This semester, I am also in Presentation Techniques with Professor Volchansky. We have done several projects in Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign so far. After spring break (we are on it now) we will be focusing on SketchUp. Truthfully, I feel this course should be split up into 2 different courses.
If it were up to me, the first Presentation Techniques course would focus solely on Photoshop/Illustrator practice and a hint of InDesign. The 2nd course would focus on advanced Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign compositions (like business cards, postcards, and packaging), (with time for roughs and to consult with the professor, before you even begin- so 3 projects in 6 weeks.) and sketchup (for the remainder semester). I just feel like combining practicing the programs with an actual design assignment (ad, postcard, packaging) is almost like combining two lessons at once, which gets confusing. These two lessons should be separate. Once a student feels confident in his/her abilities, then and only then can he/she tackle a design problem effectively.
I know this is not the professor's fault, the program is just beginning to advance, which I am looking forward too. Also, the 2nd course would provide an effective opportunity for the art background students to refresh their adobe design skills, and progress to SketchUp soon afterwards. Regardless, this program keeps me exhaustingly busy, so a part of me wonders why I'm asking for more work, when there is rightfully so little time. :)
If it were up to me, the first Presentation Techniques course would focus solely on Photoshop/Illustrator practice and a hint of InDesign. The 2nd course would focus on advanced Photoshop/Illustrator/Indesign compositions (like business cards, postcards, and packaging), (with time for roughs and to consult with the professor, before you even begin- so 3 projects in 6 weeks.) and sketchup (for the remainder semester). I just feel like combining practicing the programs with an actual design assignment (ad, postcard, packaging) is almost like combining two lessons at once, which gets confusing. These two lessons should be separate. Once a student feels confident in his/her abilities, then and only then can he/she tackle a design problem effectively.
I know this is not the professor's fault, the program is just beginning to advance, which I am looking forward too. Also, the 2nd course would provide an effective opportunity for the art background students to refresh their adobe design skills, and progress to SketchUp soon afterwards. Regardless, this program keeps me exhaustingly busy, so a part of me wonders why I'm asking for more work, when there is rightfully so little time. :)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Loft Space: Reflection
With the completion of my first assignment for this course, I've narrowed down a few keypoints.
5 Things that I've learned in this loft assignment:
1. Your floor plan should be done to the fullest- thoughtfully and with sufficient detail, by the time the schematics are due. No materials needed yet at this stage, but the feel for the space is essential.
This is the most challenging part of designing for a residential client. It effects your elevations, your axons, what furniture, art, everything that you pick. Do this WELL and you will save yourself a lot of hours, stress, and tears!
2. Stay one step ahead. I am a slow worker. I design best when I take my time. But if you need to get something done soon, you need to get it done. Plan your time well and constantly work on your project.
3. Document your work along the way, so you will have it ready to put together in the end. Otherwise, you'll be scrambling to put your presentation boards and process work together.
4. Label and write. Less is more, but if you want to go down the fine artist route, your boards have to speak for themselves. Which they did not quite do on presentation day, for me. I did have several beautiful ideas for my presentation boards, but I couldn't follow through because of time. Regardless, some board "road mapping" can be helpful for the viewer. Some people grouped the materials, furniture, and such for individual rooms, which I liked. Some people also included their concept statements on their board, parti diagrams, bubble diagrams while others made it clear what the assignment was (eg. - LOFT SPACE Prince Street for home and work, NY etc). Either way, the viewer got a better visual understanding as to what they were trying to design.
5. Ask questions and/or do your research. I didn't quite understand a parti diagram, so I should have asked or done my research. I also wasn't sure at times what was exactly due for different parts of this assignment, and I should have asked as well.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
This was an emotional process for me. The amount of work that had to be due was staggering, and it really hit me in the face in the end, all because I did not work on my floor plan to the fullest. I thought roughing out the space, and making several not to scale sketches, helped, and they did take considerable time to do. But doing it to scale matters 10 fold, and so does throwing around several different ideas. I did neither which is why I got nowhere in large heaps of time. I was so focused on utilizing that large window, as I scribbled plan after plan, it's a no brainer where I went wrong.
Ready to put this past me. We will get our next assignment next week.
5 Things that I've learned in this loft assignment:
1. Your floor plan should be done to the fullest- thoughtfully and with sufficient detail, by the time the schematics are due. No materials needed yet at this stage, but the feel for the space is essential.
This is the most challenging part of designing for a residential client. It effects your elevations, your axons, what furniture, art, everything that you pick. Do this WELL and you will save yourself a lot of hours, stress, and tears!
2. Stay one step ahead. I am a slow worker. I design best when I take my time. But if you need to get something done soon, you need to get it done. Plan your time well and constantly work on your project.
3. Document your work along the way, so you will have it ready to put together in the end. Otherwise, you'll be scrambling to put your presentation boards and process work together.
4. Label and write. Less is more, but if you want to go down the fine artist route, your boards have to speak for themselves. Which they did not quite do on presentation day, for me. I did have several beautiful ideas for my presentation boards, but I couldn't follow through because of time. Regardless, some board "road mapping" can be helpful for the viewer. Some people grouped the materials, furniture, and such for individual rooms, which I liked. Some people also included their concept statements on their board, parti diagrams, bubble diagrams while others made it clear what the assignment was (eg. - LOFT SPACE Prince Street for home and work, NY etc). Either way, the viewer got a better visual understanding as to what they were trying to design.
5. Ask questions and/or do your research. I didn't quite understand a parti diagram, so I should have asked or done my research. I also wasn't sure at times what was exactly due for different parts of this assignment, and I should have asked as well.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
This was an emotional process for me. The amount of work that had to be due was staggering, and it really hit me in the face in the end, all because I did not work on my floor plan to the fullest. I thought roughing out the space, and making several not to scale sketches, helped, and they did take considerable time to do. But doing it to scale matters 10 fold, and so does throwing around several different ideas. I did neither which is why I got nowhere in large heaps of time. I was so focused on utilizing that large window, as I scribbled plan after plan, it's a no brainer where I went wrong.
Ready to put this past me. We will get our next assignment next week.
Progression Pt. 2: Loft Space
Here are my presentation boards. My floor, elevation, and axon boards were all similar to my concept board. Here is a close-up of some materials I assembled together, which I put on my axon board.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Progression Pt. 1: Loft Space
I did a few sketches during class (out of several) as to where I'd like my space planning to go. I immediately wanted to let in as much light as possible from the main large window. Along the way however, I discovered that this was not an efficient goal. Light can come through just as effectively through the other windows, which if I focused on that I would have been able to be more creative with the space planning. But since I was so adamant to the end, to utilize that large window my plan ended up becoming boxy and not as interesting as I planned. I will further write more- about the key points that I learned throughout this Loft process.
This week in Res. studio, we are getting a series of lectures from Professor Speck about codes. I constantly have to pay attention heavily, because there is so much to take in. I'm grateful for this since the code compliancy thing does not come natural to me. But, the more restrictions the more creativity :).
We talked about last week:
Piet Boon (and wife)
David Neto's Children furniture
studioprintworks.com
Founding Farmer's bathroom handlebars
Loft Space
This is my concept board and the study models I brought in. Usually study models are done in chipboard or bristol board, so I got a little chuckle out of my fellow classmates for disregarding protocol. They were allowed to be as abstract as possible though! I felt these models truly illustrated my concept of beginnings. Although, I replanted the plant in the glass jar, so I couldn't show it in my final presentation. That's something I should consider for my next study models.
Monday, January 24, 2011
RESIDENTIAL STUDIO Spring of 2011
Hello everyone. So happy 1 person dropped out at the last minute for Professor Travis' res. class. I happened to have pulled an all nighter that day, and noticed this immediately. Here is a list of people we've looked into thus far (designers of the week):
Vicente Wolf
John Pawson
Kelly Wearstler
(and I like Jonathan Adler a lot. I believe in minimalism, but his colorful direction reminds me that I believe in a heart and soul in designing as well.)
We have two big projects for this class. Each assignment is divided into several chunks. For our first assignment we are concentrating on a home / work environment in a loft space in Brooklyn NY. I remember a long while ago taking a bunch of photos of the DUMBO NY area. I couldn't find these photos anywhere in sight though. I must have thrown them away. Bummer!
I look forward to the rest of this process, along with my progress in Presentation Techniques.
Vicente Wolf
John Pawson
Kelly Wearstler
(and I like Jonathan Adler a lot. I believe in minimalism, but his colorful direction reminds me that I believe in a heart and soul in designing as well.)
We have two big projects for this class. Each assignment is divided into several chunks. For our first assignment we are concentrating on a home / work environment in a loft space in Brooklyn NY. I remember a long while ago taking a bunch of photos of the DUMBO NY area. I couldn't find these photos anywhere in sight though. I must have thrown them away. Bummer!
I look forward to the rest of this process, along with my progress in Presentation Techniques.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Preservering.
I came across this article on yahoo.com. I love technology, but it saddens me that it's going to completely take over. Somehow we should try to preserve all that is simple and retain that familiarity of old fashioned hands-on labor, small or large, that people before us did.
The comment about paper maps made me cringe. If a person is stranded, how will they know where they are if their electronic gadget that holds the map, is broken, has no connection to the internet, or is dead? Paper maps (in a protective sleeve :) with a compass can be a life saver.
There will come a time when everything will be either solarly, wirelessly, or effortlessly recharged in some other way. By then, would they also be unbreakable, 100% useable no matter what? Will a wireless connection be made possible everywhere, throughout the country? Only then, will paper maps be obsolete.
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