Times New Ceecers

Life During Wartime

The semester is coming to a close and I'm toiling away on project after project, some of which are definitely more fun than others.  In one class we have an ongoing Rock Poster Campaign project, which includes designing many elements consisting of a poster, backstage pass, tickets, CD cover and CD design, and a promotional item of our choosing.  I ended up picking the Talking Heads mainly because it was one of the first things I thought of and I knew I could do something creatively interesting.  Plus I had an idea for floating heads that I really wanted to execute.  Here's my poster, which fooled some friends on Flickr into thinking it was real.  That, to me, says I'm doing a good job.  :)

Class Project

Please visit my Flickr and click on All Sizes to see it bigger & better!

I really enjoy being a design student.  It has its fair share of making my brain crazy, but overall I'm glad I am able to think in a certain way instead of another... if that makes any sense.  As in, this will be my job, and that's totally awesome, and I don't have to think too hard about.  I always thought that when I grew up I wouldn't want to be sitting at a desk all day in a cubicle.  I still don't, and will strive not to, and this field allows me that freedom of choice.  Yes, I'll be working at a desk but it won't be a dreary "The Office" type of existence if that is not what I choose.  It's a job where I can still kinda be a kid, and then when I have kids of my own I can work from home. 

I've always been attracted to shapes, patterns, typefaces, colors, symmetry, balance, juxtaposition.  I've got a creative family and have surrounded myself with creative and talented friends.  But I often felt like a fraud because I had all these ideas, but didn't really do anything.  I like a million things.  I can't paint masterpieces, play a dozen instruments, write stories for the New Yorker, make crazy YouTube videos, I can't even take a decent photo anymore (funny, that).  I thought I'd never find anything I could do that would be fun and cool and interesting besides karaoke. 

I'm doing things now and it feels really good.  I have goals and they aren't unrealistic.  I'm reaching them every day with the patience I previously lacked.  It took me a long time to realize what I wanted to "do," but when I did, it was like a brick wall hitting me in the face.  A big, huge "DUH."  Thank goodness it's something that is creative, yet won't leave me living an unrealistic (for me) starving artist type of life.  

"I'm a graphic designer because I like nice sheets & towels." - Carin Goldberg

Happy Halloween!

Here's me as a zombie, a project we did in Illustrative Imaging.  Not perfect, but better than my first attempt. 

Feeling Zombiefied

I haven't updated in a while, life has been hectic!  Project after project in school, plus decorating the homestead and living life in general keeps me from being able to blog properly.  

Yes, continuously working on the home design.  We've painted the living room orange!  The color is called Tiger Stripe, and I really love how it looks.  It lends a separate sense of warmth and coziness without completely alienating the room from the rest of the house.  We painted the ceiling and window trim bright white (it was previously teal and dark brown), which helps dissipate the otherwise overwhelming qualities of having an orange living room.  

IKEA Gunvor fabric

I had the good fortune of visiting IKEA for the first time a couple weeks ago (we went three times!!) and acquired a bag of this fabric in the fabled As-Is section.  The fabric came in long strips only 18" wide, so it can only be used on narrow areas unless sewn together.  Over the weekend, I bought three 16x20 canvases from Michael's, borrowed a staple gun and stretched my fabric over the canvases. 

I put them on the wall in the living room thinking they would compliment the orange, which they do, but after seeing them against the green of the bedroom I'm thinking about moving them in there.

panels

panels on wall

Alright well.. I will post more as time goes by!  Thanks for reading, if anyone is!  Happy Halloween. :)

Type in the Landscape

This is a project we did as a class in Type 1 where we had to decide on a word, the construction materials, the placement and meaning.  We chose "green" because it seemed relevant as a buzzword of today.  Arial Black was the font of choice, which I suggested, because of its width and simplicity.  It turned out to be awesome because the project ended up being basically free of charge for us to construct.  We researched recycled materials and decided on what objects should cover which letters.  Bringing stuff from home made it really simple to construct these letters.  We traced the letters on giant pieces of cardboard using a projection screen and cut them out, covered them in fun stuff and put them out in the school yard.  At the end of all this, we got to put them in the display case for the school to see. :)  Bigger versions of the photos can be seen on Flickr.

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Type in the Landscape

Give a hoot

Here are my playing cards for Illustrative Imaging.  This was a tedious and fun project, I learned a couple of new shortcuts and had a good time choosing the birds.  And of course, there is a row of owls. 

Playing Cards Project

Home sweet home

Ornate frame (salvaged)

I posted some photos of our house (thus far) in my Flickr!

I want to ride my bicycle...

I created two flyers for this Friday's Critical Mass meetup.  I believe the second one is being put to use.  I can't tell which one I like better.  I haven't designed a flyer in a while so... whatever!  

CRITICALMASS_1

CRITICALMASS_2

Thanks to Joey for being so nice and always smiling and letting me do this.  If anyone wants to join in the group fun, feel free to meet up at the time and place listed on the flyer.  It looks like it's so much fun and the people are generally pretty nice and not judgmental jerks.  You get to ride around the city and clog up traffic to raise bike awareness in Charlotte.  Pretty cool stuff. 

Not as easy as 123

Politically Incorrect Alphabet

In one of my classes we are coming up on a project where we will create the alphabet out of anything we want.  However, the font has to be consistent, so if one has serifs, they all have serifs, etc.  You can use just about any materials.. nails and twine, noodles, dirt, leaves, hair, needlepoint, your cat, your friends... 

I've brainstormed a bunch of ideas for a couple days now and I think I've found one that will really work for me and be creative & fun.  I will keep it on the DL for a bit or until the project is over, but I wanted to put this out there so that if anyone has ideas they want to throw my way, I'm game!

Obamarama

Shepard Fairey's Obama prints

Yesterday Rhett and I took separate journeys to the Obama rally downtown.  I didn't even know about it until the night before when my friend April said she was going.  I told Rhett that, hey man, even if it means we have to wake up early on a day off, this could be a really cool sight to see. 

I didn't really know what to expect because I'd never been to a political rally before.  I wasn't sure if the event was being held outdoors (it was) or what, or where all the people were supposed to fit.  I parked a couple blocks from the event's epicenter only to find that you had to join a long line to get "in."  Volunteers near the front said that the line wouldn't be very long, but I think they had a lot of miscommunication between their people because that couldn't have been further from the truth.  There were thousands of people there.  THOUSANDS!  I'd never seen this many people in one place in my life, ever!  So I began the long walk to find the end of this rainbow of people.  The event's entrance was on 4th street... I entered the line on 11th street around 11am or so.  Obama was to speak at 1pm.  I kind of felt hopeless and jilted because I knew the reality of this line.  It began wrapping around the block, so much that when I moved forward, I could look to my left and see people on the other street in the same line.  

It moved, slowly, and thank goodness I had a book with me.  As I got closer I realized it was around 1pm... but I couldn't hear anything because of all the buildings and the people.  April texted me to let me know when he came on, which I think was around 1:30.  I got to a point where I could kinda hear him... then I could see the gates but they were no longer letting people in.  I felt so upset for all the people behind me, the hundreds of thousands of them who wouldn't even know the event was going to be over soon.  At the same time, it was an amazing feeling and such sight to see so many there in support of what they believe in and they change they want for their lives.  I heard Obama speaking.  I didn't see him, but hearing his voice echo around all the buildings of downtown Charlotte gave me chills.  All the cheering and smiles and signs, all the different types of people, all the children and families, it was so cool.  Getting the chance to chant,"Yes We Can!" with 20,000 people was something I will never forget, no matter what happens in November.

Rhett's experience was similar when it came to waiting forever and not getting in.  However he was waiting in a different line on the other side of the event area and got to see more sights than I did.  He saw an anti-abortion group with their disturbing signs (I get it, freedom of speech and all, but where's the respect in holding giant posters of dead fetuses when there's little kids around?), and he even got to see Obama when his motorcade was making their way out of town.  He said Obama was in an SUV clearly sitting in the backseat, waving back at all the people who were going buck wild as if they had just seen the Beatles.  So awesome.

Photo © April Swartz

Chilly.

Yes, it is excruciating waking up to make it to an across-town 7:30 am class, but I always seem to make it on time.  As for being awake, that's another matter.  

In Illustrative Imaging we're working on a couple projects, but I decided to take time out of this loooooong period to check out the tutorial links our instructor had posted on her teaching weblog.  I found one that taught you how to make an "attractive arctic landscape," which you can find here.  It sounded kind of fun so I jumped right in... and this is what I came out with. 

sweet arctic landscape

If you looked at the website, mine obviously differs from theirs, but this is mostly because the person creating the original drawing has more experience than I do with specific tools, making it easier for them to create subtle environmental changes.  Some of mine are harsher, but this is what practice is for, right?  

I think I might find another one to do and post later.  In the meantime, we have to do a project where we design a deck of cards.  For some reason, that is stumping me.  I admitted to my instructor that, hey, I'm not a mormon or anything, but I don't even know what a deck of cards really looks like or what parts I need to do or how many even come in a pack.  Ideas anyone?  Emily, I'm looking at you!

p.s. this landscape feels totally ominous because one of the Harry Potter scores is playing over the loudspeakers in here.

Times New Ceecers.

Hello friends!  This is my newwwww blog.  I've had blogs in every area code, but never one I felt completely comfortable with.  I decided it would be nice to be ballsy with a new blog in a neutral space, which would help me along the way as I plan to chronicle what I'm learning in and out of school currently.  I want to document the things I do in class, as well as projects I tackle at home or with friends.  I feel it will help me better understand myself, push me along as an artist (hopefully) and help me with confidence where I need it most.  So thanks for reading, and I hope to open up more within this blog, as well as open up to others on theirs.  Here goes my first post (aw).

In class, we were assigned to read an interview and choose two quotes which we found personally interesting or inspiring.  Then we were to illustrate them in some form to express what the artist was saying.  In this class we don't use computers - everything is done by hand (which I really value because this is the sort of experience I need and want), however my idea was begging to be executed using Illustrator, which in the end, was fine.  This was what I came up with:

__

I think it's funny, more I suppose in an "inside" joke with myself way.  

It's probably time I get to bed, as I have a 7:30 am class each Friday!  Yuckers.