Josh Lambert Design Blog

B I R T H D A Y C A R D

2010-06-03T15:39:00.000-07:00

Laura (my girlfriend) made me this card. I think it's was pretty amazing!

[DP] Mid Semester Degree Project Summation

2010-03-10T04:04:00.000-08:00

I sure would like to make this project great—and I will... eventually. This project is something I've been interested in for awhile, and will continue to keep interest. That being said, I am very behind. I don't know what's going on and why I am having such a hard time at this. My mind is all over the place. I know part of the reason I am behind is because I am approaching my project like it's a math problem– or a trick question. I'm searching and searching for the right answer and am hoping I will stumble upon it eventually, when deep down, I know I will never find the "correct" answer. Who knows.

This project has led me to some interesting experiments, thus far, though. I started out experimenting in After Effects, trying to sync sound with visuals. Which I found out was harder than I though. I then moved away from the computer and experimented with more hands on ways of visualizing music.

Focusing on Rhythm (an element of music), I attempted many ways of literally representing, in print, rhythmic patterns. Without thinking of what I learned from this I moved on to a different experiment. (As I'm writing this, I'm thinking there are some interesting things about these. The power of nonlinear visuals)

Again I tried capturing rhythmic patterns in a more literal way– similar to the way an audio recorder records the sound of music, I tried recording with a visual recorder.

I was caught up in wanting to represent music in the most natural way possible. I didn't want this project to be about my interpretation of music (like most visualizers), I wanted nature to take over and portray itself– I just wanted to help. After this experiment and my continuation of research, I found that this would take way to long to find this "natural way" of portraying music and was too hard of a goal to reach in the period of time we have for this project. So I decided to not go down this path.

So after shifting gears (and for some reason was hard for me to do), I mapped out the relationship between music and design.

I sketched out ideas and thumbnails of how I could represent elements of sound with element of design.

Currently, I've attempted to put my sketches to motion. I have shapes representing instruments/sound/timbre.

I have also discovered a way to get individual instruments of just about any song, to make this a lot easier on me. MIDI files are free files you can get online, which can be plugged into garageband to see synthesizer versions of each instrument. I knew this would help me in synching visuals with sound, but seeing what MIDI files look like, really inspire me and, I think will push my visuals for this project in a new direction.

For the rest of the semester, I will still attempt to create 4 motion pieces, as well as a small book

let to go along with the motion pieces. Each motion piece is going to represent 1 element of music and the booklet will go more in depth with the information about the elements, as well as other aspects of music theory.

I really need this spring break to work and catch up. More importantly I need this break to breath and think. After that is when I'll have a better understanding as to what I am going to do.

[SE] KC Auto Show

2010-03-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

Practical:

This sign instructs visitors of the Auto Show that the ground here is unbalanced... or there is gold here.

Poetic:

This engine is a poetic way of telling a story of the engineering and design of cars, without showing the whole car.

Persuasive:

He did magic and impressed the crowd he drew in.

Creative Block

2010-02-11T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a wonderful post by Alex Cornell on Scott Hansen's blog about overcoming creative blocks. "I decided to ask some of today's most exciting artists and creators what they do when the ideas aren't flowing. I left the question fairly open ended and asked, What do you do to inspire your creativity when you find yourself in a rut?"

There's 25 designers and artists, including Nicolas Felton, Audrey Kawasaki, Build, Mark Weaver, Chad Hagen, Erik Spiekermann, and Invisible Creature, that leave some great suggestions. Check it out!

[DP] Design Project & Timeline

2010-02-08T20:23:00.000-08:00

[DP] Degree Project Question

2010-01-27T07:45:00.000-08:00

How can multimedia design shape music enthusiast' understanding and appreciation of music theory and experience?

I'm curious to see how this evolves over time.

[DP] What is your dream job?

2010-01-26T20:46:00.000-08:00

I want to work with all types of creative and smart people. I want to experiment with other designers (print, motion, exhibit, interactive), directors, photographers, film crews, scientists, artists, cartoonists, writers, chefs... etc. I am also interested in doing a variety of types of design work. I am currently in love with motion and want to continue exploring this, but I do believe I will always want to work in print, like posters, and editorial design, as well as books and packaging. I'd also like to continue developing my chops in web design, but right now it is not a huge interest of mine. A variety in clients and the kind of work I produce for them is probably the most important for me. I want to make sure my portfolio is broad and exploratory.

I want to work with friends (if I have any), people that have the same philosophies as I do – about design, music, and possibly life. This will probably be a small design firm, but we will have a lot of friends in other small firms that we will work with on several projects (that's where the film crew, and artists come.) I am going to either find this place and/or start it my self. I would like the location to be somewhere in a city, such as, Seattle, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco, maybe Los Angeles.

I do have a dream studio loft I want to live in when I am working at my dream job, but I would also like to get away every now an then and live in my cabin I'll have in a forest and hide out for several months to be alone. Here I will create art - all and every kind of art. I'll paint, draw, work on the ceramic wheel, build things out of wood, maybe create a type face, play with legos, create music, make beats...etc.

Last thoughts – I want to do a crazy project with my brothers. I want to perform more music with my friends. And I want to learn to play Jazz on the drums and do this for the rest of my life – to die an old man playing in a jazz (and other related genres of music) trio.

The new 2009 Annual Report is out!

2010-01-26T14:02:00.000-08:00

Nicholas Felton finished his Annual Report for 2009 and has posted it to his website.

I would suggest buying this - although the price is now twice as much (now $20), the Annual Report is four color, 16 pages, and is letter pressed! Also, as far as the content goes, Felton didn't do the documentation himself. He instead had his friends and other individuals fill out surveys to document his life. I'm curious and anxious to get this! He's not shipping them out until March though. But hurry and get one, because they are limited!

[MX] Project Two Final

2009-12-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

A screen shot of my (in process) portfolio site.

My intentions for the main feature I have on the site is to provide a type of interaction that engages the user to basically design with my design. Here you see icons for each project located at the bottom. The icons are elements pulled from the specific project. They are all pretty abstract and are mainly icons of form, as appose to a cropped image, or a detailed part of the project. For the finished site I'm wanting the have a pretty large collection that all look and feel good with each other. This way the artwork will always look good, no matter what you pull to the stage.

My inspiration was from this video on Siggi Eggertsson's site. I like the idea of while viewing this video you get a sense of his work as a whole. I wanted to have these icons and artwork represent my design as a whole.

When you click on the name of the project, located underneath the icons (right now they are a grey bar) the project will come to the stage and this is how you view my portfolio pieces.

While working on this project, I've learned how I want to show my work, what is the most successful way to do this, and how the viewer would enjoy it. Also, while talking to Travis, who I work with at L9 (he also gave me the code to get this started), he told me that users like interactivity and playing games - specifically games where you get to create something. So, I felt pretty confident in my approach to this site because of that. He mentioned that creating something and being able to put it in an online gallery for others to see and take. That was one feature I wanted to do - after you create the artwork you'll have the ability to download the image (which you can) and it uploads to a gallery, so you can see everyone who made something. This would have taken a crazy amount of space and was actually an unnecessary feature for a portfolio site.

[VA] Degree Project Brainstorming

2009-11-02T09:44:00.001-08:00

What do I enjoy about design? What am I passionate about? What do I want to do? Where do I want to be? Who am I? These are important questions that are rather difficult for me to answer. And this upsets me. Simple questions like, ‘what do I want to do’ or ‘where do I want to be’ are things that easily put me deep in thought and get over analyzed, where I then usually end up going crazy and end up either forgetting what I was thinking about or get depressed over the smallest things.

Being open minded has been/is important to me. I enjoy listening to opinions and new ideas on different subjects. I thought this way of thinking would lead to me to strong opinions toward my beliefs and ideas (and maybe it will over time), but instead it has lead me to become neutral about a lot of things. At the same time, I usually tend to feel strongly about both sides of a debate and have a hard time committing to and I like to understand and learn from every experience. That being said, I’m not quite sure what I’m passionate about and what I enjoy the most about design and I don’t like that. It might be hard to believe, but I enjoyed every assignment I’ve had at this school. All of them! I guess this means I just like the practice of design. –Experimenting, theory, communication, narrative… etc.

Because of our class Visual Advocacy, I really do care about the environment. I’ve always been interested in the earth and weather as well as, how people live there lives and humanity, but because of the knowledge I’ve gained and sources this class has lead me to, I now think differently and do want to make a difference. More than anything, I want other people to share the same opinion. Although I am very interested in sustainable design and culture jammers/guerilla design, I’m more interested in the other aspects of being green – the lifestyle and practice of caring about earth outside of graphic design. I can see how this type of thinking and designing can play a role in every aspect of design so, going forth with a semesters project dedicated specifically to green design, doesn’t really spark my interest.

Looking back at the design classes I’ve taken these past years, other non-design classes, and college in general, I’ve decided I really enjoy narrative… which, I know is very broad. The idea of what graphic design is – visual communication, is super interesting. Sharing, Listening, and Learning are three things that are important to me and is what I want this next semester to be dedicated to. Ranging in the different ways to communicate, through non-linear narratives like, posters and the many ways of image making, to linear narratives like, motion graphics, informational graphics, editorial design, and even interactive, the story telling and experiencing aspect of graphic design is what interests me.

What gets me excited, are the different kinds of stories people share and even more exciting, the ways we can share and ways to view stories… especially nontraditional ways… which I’m not sure what that would be. The B-flat video we saw early this semester is an exciting project I immediately fell in love with. What I’m interested in is both how it came about/ how it’s generated/created (web 2.0) and how easy it works, to how it works, as well as what is it, what are the ways to view it, and what it is doing to you as the viewer (how it makes you feel). Although I enjoying learning and questioning both the ‘how’ and the ‘what’, I feel the ‘what’ is something I’m more interested in. I want to raise questions, excite people, and just make people feel something.

Changing the world isn’t what I want this project to be focused on. I’m looking to do something on a smaller scale and something more personal. I almost want this to be a project just for me, not about me, but something self-expressive. I feel I can be an advocate for many things, once I learn about them. But, I’m truly not an advocate for anything really… am I? I want this to be okay, because at this point, I feel bad about this and I feel like I’m lost.

This paper seems to be about self discovery, and I’m not sure if I’m interested in this as a topic or if I’m just confused about my own life. My mind really wonders. So, I’ll just end with what I’m interested in. I collect and record (not a lot). I record my habits and time spent… I’m not really sure why, though, also collect/record images and sounds. Perhaps I do this because I enjoy seeing the progression of things (to see the story of something). Experimenting, color theory, information graphics, editorial design, and sound and motion. This paper was to figure out why… don’t think I did that.

[MX] Craft Day

2009-10-31T16:51:00.000-07:00

Buttons and hanging cylinders. The perfect website.

[VA] Design Ignites Change

2009-10-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

Clean Water

Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of water pollution in the country. Polluted runoff happens anywhere people use or alter the land. People going about their daily lives are the leading source of stormwater pollutants. Most people are unaware of how they impact water quality.

Using guerilla design, a system is being designed to educate our neighbors in Kansas City about simple and easy ways to help prevent water pollution, both individually and as a community. The case study is specific to the Southmoreland neighborhood, where the institute is located. This system provides information and tools to encourage people to protect our water.

[VA] Research & Possible Directions

2009-10-15T09:32:00.000-07:00

This semester, for my Visual Advocacy class I have been looking into the issue of polluted water in Kansas City and ways to prevent it from happening.

As a reminder from my presentation,

Stormwater runoff is the number one cause of water pollution in the country.

I've focused my search on stormwater because of the harsher impact it has to our water. The rainwater is actually the cause of wastewater going into our streams. When it rains excessively, the water that ends up in our sewer systems ends up overflowing into our wastewater sewer systems, causing it to overflow into our streets, homes, and streams. So, if we took care of where the rain goes, then wastewater ending up in our streams won't be a problem.

Polluted runoff generally happens anywhere people use or alter the land. People going about their daily lives are the number one source of stormwater pollutants. Most people are unaware of how they impact water quality.

Some common examples include over fertilizing lawns, excessive pesticide use, not picking up pet waste, using salt or fertilizer to de-ice driveways, letting oil drip out of their vehicles and littering.

Like many parts of the country, Kansas City's stormwater does not receive any treatment before it enters our waterways.

The quantity of stormwater is also a problem When water falls on hard surfaces like roads, roofs, driveways and parking lots, it cannot seep into the ground, so it runs of to lower areas ending up in our waterways. To give you an idea of the difference a hard surface makes, consider the difference between one inch of rain falling onto a meadow and a parking lot. The parking lot sheds 16 times the amount of water that a meadow does!

Preventing pollution from entering water is much more affordable than cleaning polluted water.

Educating state residents about how to prevent pollution from entering waterways is one best management practice.

From researching and talking to Julia Cole (INDA head of department who is involved in the community on environmental issues, especially water) I've found out that there is a lot already being done to help out. There are some non-profit organizations as well as KC's government planning large scale projects to clean up our city and prevent polluted water. It's really cool, but looks like it's going to cost a lot of money and take many years to get to a good place.

I believe targeting individuals and getting them to change small habits or help out in simple and easy ways can and will make a difference. From an interview I had at the beginning of this project, Julia said that many people are aware of the water pollution and that it is a problem. But, no one really takes the effort to help. I don't really want to plan an event where we all get together and plant a rain garden, but that would be a good idea to help.

A quick prototype I started (Not sure if they were successful, b/c I didn't get any feedback) is this pamphlet which, I see as a series, contains some information on the main facts about water pollution, basically what I stated at the beginning of this post. Part of what I am trying to do is to get people to actually do something. And people are lazy, don't care, or want to take the time/effort to help out. So, if it's easy and doesn't take much time then who wouldn't help.

I provided some seed bombs (telling how they are made so they can make them themselves) for them to toss anywhere and help create some land where water can filter into. These bombs have native plant seeds in them which are plants that can survive under server conditions and have roots and are good for transporting water back into the ground.

I think the amount of information I put on these pamphlets are crucial. Right now there is too much. Maybe just stating one fact in large format would be more affective? My idea is to hit as many houses around the neighborhood multiple times. I think starting off quiet and friendly will bring my audience in slowly - to care and want to help. The idea with this is to make people care, but to not scare them off and yell at them, telling them their life style is wrong.

I'm not sure what kind of start-up-kit I can provide with the others pamphlets. This first pamphlet (I hate this word by the way, I want it to be in a different formate b/c of this hatred I have) talks about what the everyday person does that is affecting the water and that they just need to pick up waste and not to litter. So, I provided something they can litter that actually helps (seed bombs).

Other topics I have in mind are: rain gardens, rain barrels, rain harvesting, house drain (gutters), paved surfaces like their driveways, and snow ideas.

I've been thinking about possibly talking about wastewater and the affects people have with that. Since my audience are everyday individuals and their life style (specifically our neighborhood – Southmoreland) and small things they can do to help, why not talk about how we use all water. I mean the reason why I'm interested in this is because of the people who don't have access to clean what (1 billion people), how all of us (especially America) take our water and how we use it for granted. All of us have had access to clean water our whole lives. Most of us don't even know how much water we use a day and what we really don't need to be doing.

"In the U.S., water still comes out of your tap clean and ready to use, for pennies a gallon; that contrasts with, say, oil, which costs a lot and is only available through targeted supplies. But like oil, demand for water is rising. Cities, companies, factories and agriculture all use a lot of it, and depend on it for function. Water is essential for life and for business, and there’s only so much of it. And increasingly, the price of water is rising."

Water is to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century.

Another prototype I started, but didn't get to actually go through with because of the weather, is tagging storm drains.

Storm drains are everywhere and it's how our stormwater gets to the streams. The best location to talk about a problem is where the problem is happening, which is why I want to tag these storm drains.

I made a stencil to use with liquid chalk.

I did this is photoshop quickly. This is the idea I have–to paint a drinking straw next to a storm drain with a small explanation saying that this is what we drink, whatever ends up in here, ends up in our drinking water.

The idea with storm drains is to inform people that this water is never treated or cleaned, it goes directly to our streams and to tell people to pick up the streets and not to dump waste in them. Only rain belongs in a drain.

I think there are better things I can say to have a greater impact. Any suggestions?

I'm not very confident with these couple ideas. I guess I just want to make a huge impact and change everyone (which will never happen). Perhaps I need to narrow my audience and ideas more? I just don't feel like anyone is going to care enough to help out. I also don't know if my suggestions to people are good ideas. What I really need to do is talk to the organizations already tackling this problem and see what the biggest problem is and what I can do to help.

I need to know where design can come in, to help in the best way. Because, beside getting people together, I'm not sure if design can help. But, getting people to come together is a great thing, isn't it?

These past couple of months, I have learned a lot about this issue, though. It has gotten me excited! I believe knowing what kind of issues that are going on in your community and being involved in your community is important for designers. I want to do every suggestion I'm providing to the community, myself. I'm excited about environmentally and sustainable design. I'm also really interested in guerilla art and advertisement.

If anyone has any suggestions or information that can help me out, I would very much appreciate it!

I'm not very confident in what I have so far.

[L9] Reel Design Film Series Posters

2009-10-05T13:26:00.000-07:00

With each new event series, AIGA KC is starting to feature the guest designers on their blog. I was lucky to get interviewed last week for the posters I did for the Reel Design Film Series. You can go to our chapters site and click blog to check it out! Thanks Laura for helping me with the interview :)

[DS] Process.

2009-10-05T13:13:00.000-07:00

Aura is the Weather Service I am branding. Here's our essence and brand attributes (taken from my keynote presentation).

The identity is designed based off of these attributes and essence. Here are some screen shots of what I have so far.

[MX] Community Poster final

2009-10-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Still haven't paid for the print of this.

[MX] Community Poster (process)

2009-09-11T01:31:00.001-07:00

[VA] Research (little off topic)

2009-09-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Water.

charitywater.org

[MX] Web 2.0 Web Communication Model

2009-09-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

Summer Internship II

2009-08-27T14:14:00.001-07:00

These are a set of posters I created towards the end of summer. They are for a film series called Reel Design Film Series. The first one just past and the next one will be playing September 15th. Frankie is the Communications Chair of AIGA KC and this was his project, but part of what he is wanting to do as the Communications head is reach out to the local AIGA students and make a more connection as a community. Thus, he let me create the posters and - I think, wants other students to work on future projects as well!

Frankie let me have my way with the posters, so I did something more of what I like. When creating images, I love working with abstractness, shapes, collage, and color! I looked at other film series posters like Martin Venezky's sundance work and the work of Wolfgang Weingart.

Here's what I came up with.

Visual Acoustics is a documentary about Julius Shulman, who is a famous photographer who captured architecture like no one did before him. The film is for both architecture and photography lovers - it looked interesting, but they were unable to actually get ahold of the film to show at the Tivoli. I had already started creating this poster before knowing they weren't able to show it and I liked what I was doing, so I finished it and put in a fake date.

The posters weren't required, but Frankie thought it would be awesome if we could get some printed, so he found a print shop that printed them. What was required are the two thumbnails that are on the website and in the AIGA KC emails.

These are some concepts I was working on for the actually Reel Design Identity. They weren't really digging what I was coming up with, which was totally fine, so Frankie quickly made what they are using now.

Summer Internship

2009-08-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

This summer I did an internship at Liquid 9 here in Kanas City. Liquid 9 is a post/production company made up of directors, editors, motion artists, animators, composers, audio engineers, and graphic designers. I worked with Frankie Oviedo, who was a student of Tyler's awhile back and is currently on the AIGA KC board. I mainly helped him out with the heavy load of t-shirts he had at the time.

Here is some of the work I did over the summer.

This is a poster I did for a local band called Sometimes Three. I had a chance to sit in on a meeting with the team at L9 with the lead singer of the band Chris talking about his direction for his solo project. It was a neat experience to see how they go through the process of creating a visual identity. This poster wasn't just for Chris, but for the band he was still in. Sometimes Three is kind of a Coldplay, Keene, The Fray sound - Alternative rock, with lead piano sound.

The content was up to me, as long as I kept the overall tone and style true to the band's sound.

Lots and lots of shirt graphics. Tech N9ne and the Strange Music crew had a lot of cd releases and a tour in which they needed lots of merchandise for. These are just some of the shirts I made. Strange Music as a specific style they like and it was at first a challenge creating graphics to meet their needs. Some of these are pretty bad, some are okay - there are also so very bad ones that I will not put up. Non the less, these were fun to make and a very nice experience.

These weren't used, but we worked on a handful of AFI shirts. Joy Division's visuals was a stylistic direction we kept in mind. Simple.

My Chemical Romance's new album is a classic rock album and they wanted all their merch to look like old 70's vintage metal t-shirts. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest...etc.

I like the way mine turned out.

Some of the other things I worked on was, a business card, type setting cd cases for singles, learning how to prepare documents for printing, templates, editing photos for documents and to be animated, and working faster than I ever have before.

THIS is a music video for Krizz Kaliko. Krizz is a local rapper, part of the Strange Music team - He is always on tour with Tech N9ne!

Liquid 9 worked with Krizz on coming up with the idea for the video, shot the video, and then edited it. I was on set for the video, taking pictures and helping out with small tasks, and just kind of watching how everything was done. It was quite the experience and nice to see how the behind the scenes work - especially in an art directing stand point.

[IA] Collection Site

2009-04-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

Stub Records

It takes awhile to load and it's still not finished...

[IA] Collection Process

2009-04-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

[IA] Collection

2009-04-22T07:10:00.000-07:00

Comment about my Collection site here.

Here is a song to listen to while you do that.

The Girl And The Robot - R�yks...

[T4] Some Visuals

2009-04-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Cleaned up some of the components and applied our colors scheme.

Pulled out some interesting segments to use.

First attempt.

The above style plus the red overlay is in the process.

[T4] Concept Map and Timeline

2009-04-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

[IA] For Now... Again.

2009-04-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

[IA] For Now... Again.

2009-04-08T05:44:00.000-07:00

[IA] For Now.

2009-04-03T09:09:00.000-07:00

[T4] Theme Development

2009-03-27T05:18:00.000-07:00

Title and written description.

Active Perception

Typography and the User

Input, engage, interact, explore, think, play. In an ever cluttered visual landscape interactivity is a fantastic way to make messages resonate. What ways can typography require input from the viewer both on screen and in print? Active Perception will take a look at current and future perspective on interactive typography, its challenges and innovations as a new field, and its relationship to traditional type design. There will be international keynote addresses from contributors such as Peter Cho and Siggi Eggertsson, on the practicality and application of interactive typography to design media. There will also be break out sessions discussing the place of interactive type in the design landscape and address issues of graduate and undergraduate education in the field of experimental typography.

Short Bio for one of the Keynote presentations.

Revised after reading Tyler's comments.

The marvelous work created by Siggi Eggertsson is a combination of modern technology with very simple conceptual imagery from children's toys, like Lego blocks. He works with a grid for everything he creates. Working this way is a way that forces him to make things he wouldn't have thought to make, "this restriction opens up new possibilities that you never would have thought of if you were working freehand." He also uses the grid when working on graphic design and typography.

Siggi is an illustrator that enjoys drawing portraits, animals and landscapes, as well as create typefaces and graphic design. He was born and raised in a small town on the north coast of Iceland. Around 14, Siggi became interested in Graphic Design which lead him to design programs, making posters for jazz concerts and art exhibitions. For school, he went to the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik and started working for his type teacher in his first year.

Siggi's resume consists of featured articles/interviews in magazines, books, exhibitions around England, Spain, Iceland and Finland, also clients such as, Coca Cola, ESPN Magazine, Iceland Airwaves, Microsoft Zune, The New York Times, Nike, Print Magazine, Urban Outfitters, and Wired Magazine - just to name a few. In 2006, Print magazine selected Siggi as one of 20 brightest design stars under 30 years old.

[T4] Theme Development

2009-03-23T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ian and I are partnering up for this conference, so there will be revisions dealing more specific with our interactive topic.

A quick list of words/possible titles.

illegibility

legibility

interactive

experience

decoding

seeing

viewing

misleading

discover

playful

new

experimental

sign

machine

layers

cover

responsive symbols

coded type

letter decrypt

illegible interaction

meeting type

engaging in typography

a look at interactivity

An interaction between type and you

Short description of conference.

The conference will explore a range of interactivity with posters, books, images, programs, websites, and new media. With a variety of interactions, we hope to bring the viewer closer to have a more exciting experience with type. This conference is based around experience wether it's hands on interactivity or decoding information, it's all about discovery. It will feature a keynote presentation by Siggi Eggertsson, where he will pushing legibility by abstracting and interpreting in new ways. This is a type conference for anyone and everyone.

Short Bio for the Keynote presentation.

Siggi Eggertsson is an illustrator that likes to draw portraits, animals and landscapes - as well as create typefaces and some graphic design.

Siggi Eggertsson was born in a small town on the north coast of Iceland, in 1984. His mother, who is an artist, raised him. Around 14, Siggi got interested in Graphic Design and started to fool around in design programs, making posters for jazz concerts and art exhibitions. For school, he went to the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik and started working for his type teacher in his first year.

Siggi's resume consists of featured articles / interviews in magazines, books, exhibitions around England, Spain, Iceland and Finland, also clients such as, Coca Cola, ESPN Magazine, Iceland Airwaves, Microsoft Zune, The New York Times, Nike, Print Magazine, Urban Outfitters, and Wired Magazine - just to name a few. In 2006 Print magazine selected Siggi as one of 20 brightest design stars under 30 years old.

The work that Siggi creates is a combination of modern technology with very simple conceptual imagery from children's toys, like Lego blocks. He works with a grid (graph paper) for everything he creates. Working this way is a way that forces him to make things he wouldn't have thought to make, "this restriction opens up new possibilities that you never would have thought of if you were working freehand." He also uses the grid when working on graphic design and typography.

Relief Revival: Mid-Semester Critique

2009-03-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

Revival is a Printmaking elective I have been taking this semester, where we learn about and how to create different woodcuts. We had a critique over the four projects we've done so far this semester and it went pretty well. It was a way different kind of critique that us designers are used to. Before I handed in the prints, I photographed them and put them on flickr, where you can check them out. I wish I would have photographed the process - especially the self-portrait reduction print, but who the hell has time to do that. Speaking of time, I put a lot of it in that class, which took away time to work on design but it felt good to spend five hours working on a project that didn't require me to sit in front of a computer or waste time trying to come up with ideas. The long process of drawing, cutting, mixing ink, rolling ink, running the paper through the press (correctly) and repeating several times was at times frustrating, but most of the time it was very therapeutic. It also felt good to do something physical while working on a project, rather than sitting in a chair and staring at a screen all day long.

I've never done a woodcut before, so this class has been a learning experience. The first project was to take a line drawing and cut away the negative space. I did a drawing of hands that I found in a collection of images of different parties from last year. MDF is a really soft wood, which is nice and easy to cut on, but it's also easy to loose lines when you're cutting.

The second project was to do the opposite - cut away the drawing so that you print the negative space. We were suppose to have an organic feature, something that you draw a lot, and text. I did a whale. He's saying "ooorrryyee" which how you spell (according to Ian) a common phrase of theirs. I messed up the R's while cutting them out and overall the MDF leaves a dumb texture.

The third project was to work with shapes, color, and layering. I like triangles and wanted to make an abstracted landscape. I cut way too many shapes and that was not fun to ink up every time. This was a fun one for me - it was nice to not know what the outcome was going to look like as well as all the different compositions I am able to make with them.

I spent the most time working on the last project. We had to do a self-portrait and we had to do a reduction cut. A reduction cut (or suicide cut) is when you cut out the first layer (the lightest color), print it, then cut the next layer on the same block and repeat until the end. You end up with a block with the last layer - so you are unable to remake the print. I printed ten and about six came out pretty sharp and two really neat mess-ups.

I wasted time posting this. Damn.

[T4] Concept Map

2009-03-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

[UE] Project 1: Practical Experience.

2009-02-25T15:54:00.000-08:00

A collaboration project on how to change a bicycle tire. Miss Morgan Ashley Allen, Eithen Josh, and myself put this together wanting a relaxed approach toward changing a tire. This is a do it yourself (with our help!), more of a conversational manual, as appose to step by step one. We wanted the inside to be more of a kick ass poster than a manual (meant to be hung). I did the illustrations, Morgan did the body text, and Eithen. did the cover and headline text. The first opening was laid out by Eithen, the inside was laid out by Morgan, and then outside was done by Morgan/myself. I'm proud of the final piece as well as my teammates.

[IA] Point of View: Layout Process.

2009-02-25T15:21:00.000-08:00

These are the three versions I've been working on. All three were approached with simplicity and clarity in mind - Modernism. On the first one more than the others, I like the idea of starting simply and building to a little more complex, with overlapping and illegibility.

The first one is the one I'm going to start building in Dreamweaver with HTML and CSS coding. I still need to fix some design issues as well. Any suggestions?

This first view is what you would see when you first come to the website. The top three paragraph tells you what you are looking at and a couple options to do.

Scrolling down. Under the images of the two designers there is a quote from them and then you see an outline of their essays (for a quick read). I want to change the outlines and write them in a point of view from myself, so you get an input of where my opinion is when comparing the two.
Scrolling down to the bottom. I'm going to put some icons under the designers images where you can view their biography's, images of their work, and a couple videos of them relating to the essays. This would be Massimo's biography.
A video of him.
And a piece of his work.
At the top of the website there are roll overs on the two titles of the essays. Like so.
When you click on them the full articles open.

Another approach. All of the squares are clickable and each one pulls up something different. This is more for an exploratory experience, so I'm not making it obvious which square shows what. I think you would figure out that the blues are the article, green are the biography's, yellows are the videos, and reds are images.

Opening a biography after clicking on Kathy's blue square. Click anywhere and it collapses.
Kathy video.
Kathy image.
All of the orientations of these different approaches are different. The first is a vertical layout, the second is a small horizontal scroll, and this one is a horizontal scroll.

This one is pretty straightforward. Opening view.
Scrolling to the right. Lines guide you to some quotes and above the box are tabs to view their info.
Which ever one you click on, that information is revealed to the right.

This is an essay.
Images.

Here is my website. There's nothing there, only what Eppelheimer had us complete. We were suppose to customize it, but I have yet to do that.
And speaking of CSS!

[T4] More Research and Process.

2009-02-15T20:41:00.000-08:00

I haven't found any designer that play with stereograms and typography together. I haven't even found any designers that work with just stereograms. And you can tell by looking at the Magic Eye books. There really isn't an autostereogram (Magic Eye) image I have seen in which I enjoyed because of what I am seeing, I only enjoy them because how I am seeing them. That's probably the case for everyone though - no one really cares what they are trying to see, they just want to see it.

Anyways, Siggi Eggertsson is an illustrator that I've started to see more and more of this past year - but I didn't really know who he was until we started searching for designers for this project. Siggi was born in Iceland and was raised by his mother who is an artist as well. He got interested in design when he was about 14 and made posters for jazz concerts and exhibitions. He went to the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik and started working for his type teacher in his first year of school there.

This guy doesn't like to be in the same place for too long. After school in Iceland for a bit he "escaped" (quoting him) for an internship with the design studio Karissonwilker in New York. Same year he went to Berlin as an exchange student. Also same year he went back to Iceland to finish school. He moved then moved to London for 1.5 years to focus on his illustration career where he signed with Big Active agency. Moved back to Iceland and now he is back in Berlin where he says that is the city where his heart lies. ya.

He has quite an impressive resume and has been featured in magazines and exhibitions everywhere. He was selected as one of 20 brightest design stars under 30 years old by Print Magazine in 06. Siggi's has a unique way of depicting images - images like portraits, animals and landscapes. He simplifies real life into flat, colorful, fun shapes. A lot of his work looks childish, because of these colorful shapes, but they are also sophisticated with how they are abstracted, fragmentized images - pulling influences from cubism.

As I mentioned in a previous post, while looking through his work I came across a piece he did where he used maritime signal flags to write a text. You have to decode the message with the key that came in a catalog at the exhibition. Before coming across this I was thinking about messing with legibility by manipulating the letterforms themselves - which was an obvious approach. So this is when I thought of the Bright Eyes CD and learned what stereograms are.

The maritime signal flags piece is on his site it's called Pretending

Also, on his site if you click blog (left side) he posted a video of a lecture he did which is pretty hilarious and worth checking out - it's 15 minutes long, so I don't expect anyone to watch all of it.

I figured out how to make a Anaglyph image, but haven't made one yet and while researching that I came across a method called Red Reveal, where you can reveal a hidden message by placing a red gel over it. The site I was at wouldn't explain how it worked, they just wanted you to send in designs so they can do it for you and make money that way, but it was pretty simple to figure out (it only took a few minutes).

I wrote out the message in cyan and overlaid random (not completely random, I chose letters that best covered up the messages letters) yellow and red text on top to hide the message.

I multiplied a layer of red to mimic a transparency decoder to place on top. The red blocks out the red and yellow type and clearly shows the cyan.

Oh, and make sure to multiply all the text so the blue shows completely through, otherwise the red text will chop out some of the cyan's letters.

I figured out that the Cassadaga CD design is made with a Focal Decoder. No clue how it works, because once again they won't tell me. I tried some tests, but so far it's a no go.

[T4] More Research and Process.

2009-02-15T01:00:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been studying how stereograms work - I've found some good books (which I am still currently reading) and lots of weird websites about different types of stereograms and I'm interested in all of them. The first two images are to be viewed parallel viewing. The idea is to combined these two images to create a 3D image in between them. Do not cross your eyes, try to keep your eyes parallel and look behind the images. I know this sounds pretty hard because it is. And I'll be coming up with a better explanation on how to do these later, I just needed to post some process.

So, those two images look best (at least I think) when viewed the parallel viewing way, but easier ways of viewing them is with a stereoscope or as a wiggle-gram.

Autostereograms are what I have been looking at the most. After reading about these and finding that it is possible to do it with type I figured out how to create my own. I'll explain the how they work and how to create them in a future post, but I'm pretty excited that I am able because of what I learned on my own.

Not many people know how to do these "Magic Eye" images and it does take time to learn. So, I'm going to create some other stereograms that are easier for someone to view. Firstly, I'm going to try and make some Anaglyph images (3D glasses). What I really want to be about to do is to create something like the Cassadaga - which is what I originally wanted to do, but found out it is much harder than I thought - mainly because I can't find out how it's made.

So, all of this has nothing to do with typography unless I make it - which is fine... I think. But, I have been doing some other little experiments with type itself. All of which need work still and I'm not even sure if I'll continue working on them. It's just fun messing around with type.

I think I have too much I want to do.

I forgot all about these stretched out phrases until I saw it in one of the books I'm checking out. It reminds me of the first time I saw them, which was in a Garfield coloring book. Anyways, you should be able to see it clearly if you tilt your screen down and close one eye (of course it will be upside down).

And these are a couple quick fonts I've made (not completed). The fist one is made up of a pattern of triangles. For each letter started with a rectangle of the pattern and tried taking away the least amount possible of triangles in order for you to depict the letter form. The different versions are are the same letters forms, I added color do the apposing triangles as well as some small highlights to give them some dimension (bubbly).

Zoomed in detail.

I had some ideas in the beginning, before I started the stereograms and one of them was to see what it would look like to reverse letters of a font. I thought this would be a nice way to play with the forms to alter them just slightly - enough for someone to maybe not notice.

So, here I merely flipped each letter of Bodoni either vertical or horizontal or both. A couple of them I left so it wouldn't be too noticeable.

This is reversing the positive and negative space of each letter. But, I'm not just reversing what's being shown, I deleted some of the negative space too - as much as I can in order for you to understand which letter they are.

[T4] Research Trends

2009-02-05T21:59:00.000-08:00

Hidden Messages.

Fragmentizing letters using a single shape to create fonts (modular) - often an unusual shape, striping down each letter to expose only the main components of one, building fonts out of a single shape - complex or simple, hand rendered funky type, or even creating your own alphabet/language are just some ways people are playing with typography today. One reason people are doing this - which I am interested in, is to push the design to where it is almost illegible for one to read (and sometimes it is).

I enjoy looking at a poster, not knowing exactly what I am seeing besides beautiful colors and shapes to realize after awhile that it says something. Hidden messages are fun for everyone - when someone figures out what a scrambled word says or encodes a secret that's written in a bizarre alphabet, or perhaps figures out an optical illusion you feel cool, you feel a connection with what you are looking at - like it's a secret only you and the person who created it have. I love Modernism and I love grids, but making things complicated and opaque is a fun experiment that I want to take on.

While researching designers and illustrators, I came across a couple people that I was most inspired by; one of them is Tauba Auerbach (actually I've known about him for awhile). I'm really into the the idea of showing something that usually isn’t visual and presenting it in a visual manner, or something that already is visual and placing it out of context – kind of like an infographic. Tauba does some experiments like that with typography. He does a series alphabets that a unusual, like – Maritime, Morse code and a Semaphore alphabet. He also makes pieces presenting you with only pieces of letters, like – the counters of capital letters. I like looking at these and not having to know exactly what they are, but enjoying what I am seeing. It’s seeing things that I usually enjoy but in a way I’ve never seen before.

Siggi Eggertsson is a design/illustrator that I just discovered. He has a style in which he fragmentizes the world and makes it into flat colorful shapes – he also creates some typefaces similar to how he illustrates. There’s one particular poster he did where he wrote the text using maritime signal flags. You have no clue what it says unless you look at the key to decode it (which would take forever!)

This got me thinking about hidden messages and decoding them and I remembered artwork for Bright Eyes latest cd Cassadaga; which was created by Zack Nipper and in the inside it looks like TV static. The cd comes with a small decoder in which you place over the static to reveal images. This is called a stereogram. There are many kinds of stereogram and I want to continue my curiosity with pushing legibility by creating optical illusions with typography. I think this could be an awesome interactive design idea for a series of posters or books that come with decoders.

I am not sure how hard this would be and/or time I would spend researching stereogram – that could possibly take me off topic but I’m very curious about this and I think if this doesn’t work out I have plenty of other experiments with legibility I can take one as well. I actually hope this takes me to a place I wouldn’t have thought I’d be.

[IA] Point of View: ouline and Point of View reading

2009-02-04T02:04:00.000-08:00

Here is an update of my two outlines. I watched Helvetica and found some good sources (esp. since Vignelli is in the movie) Also the articles on AIGA - for them both are what I've been looking at.

How did Wurman's text effect my view on these readings ?

It made me think more about my view and opinions about other things than these readings - mainly because I am having a hard time forming my opinion about Modernism. Wurman says we form our point of view based on our history/past, what we learned and how we learned it. I am tend to not have strong opinions because my lack of knowledge for certain subjects/topics. Like he was mentioning with understand painters - basically, the more you know about the painting the better you can form an opinion on them and actually understand, respect and appreciate them and their work. I enjoyed this reading and I gained a lot more than what I just typed - but it is 4 in the morning and I'm not thinking straight.

“Long Live Modernism” – Massimo Vignelli

Vignellis is all about Modernism – to him, it is an attitude, not a style. It’s greater than the passing trends in art. This essay is defending Modernism for the fact that it is much needed and is the only solution.

Modernism improves the design of everything.

· Making it better from a functional and mechanical view, but more importantly – to design it to reflect cultural and ethical values.

· Figure out the problem and search all possible solutions, not just alternatives I may like, but ones that answers all of the questions posed by the problems.

Modernism’s ideology

· designers have the responsibility to improve the world around us – to make it a better place to live, to fight and oppose trivia, kitsch, and all forms of subculture which are visually polluting our world.

· It is an ideology of the fight, the ongoing battle to combat all the wrongs developed by industrialization during the last century.

· It is the search for truth.

Modernism for today

· much still has to be done to convince industry and government that design is an integral part of the production process and not a last minute embellishment.

Post-modernism

· It should be regarded at best as a critical evaluation of the issues of modernism.

· Followers of the post-modernist fad are gone, reduced to caricatures of the recent past.

· The lack of a profound ideology eventually brought post-modernism to its terminal stage.

“Rethinking Modernism, Revising Functionalism” – Katherine McCoy

McCoy explains how she started off with learning Swiss modernism and enjoyed it very much, but she talks about her doubts with it as she got older. She was/is more about the role of design and it’s function as well as communication – which doesn’t always end with Modernism (like Vignelli)

Modernism was an appropriate response to the current trends.

· A professional rationality and objectivity that would define a new American design.

· We can hardly persuade them to give up their hold on “Swiss”

Functionalism and post-modernism

· I cam to view this desire for “cleanliness” as not much more than housekeeping.

· We found a new interest in verbal language in graphic design, as well as fine art.

· There seems to be a habit of functionalism that shapes my process.

· Each cycle of change during the passing years seems to have added another visual or conceptual layer laid upon that foundation of functionalism, but inside every project it is always there.

[IA] Point of View: readings/outlines

2009-01-30T12:37:00.000-08:00

I chose to do the Modernism essays mainly because the educational essays weren't as interesting to me as I thought they were going to be and everyone else is doing branding - Plus Vignelli's essays was pretty inspiring, although (like McCoy) I'm not leaning only towards Modernism as the only way to go about design. I'm opened minded to a rang of design - which of course I should be as a student.

I'm still trying to form my opinion and work off that - as well as understand more about Vignelli and McCoy's opinions.

I just have a summarization of the two articles right now. I will update with an outline here shortly.

No clue on how I will design this - after finishing the outline, I'll think about that while researching more.

Long Live Modernism!

by Massimo Vignelli

We need to be able to do design everything - to make it better, not just functional or mechanically, but to design it to reflect cultural and ethical values.

Figure out what the problem is and search all possible solutions, not just alternatives I may like, but one that answers all of the questions posed by the problem.

As a designer I have the responsibility to improve the world around us, to make it a better place to live, to fight and oppose trivia, kitsch, and all forms of subculture which are visually polluting our world. ( like)

Modernism - was an ideology of the fight, the ongoing battle to combat all the wrongs developed by industrialization during the last century.

It is a commitment against greed, commercialization, exploitation, vulgarization, cheapness.

It's is the search for truth (i like), the search, for integrity, cultural stimulation, and enrichment of the mind. (also like)

It was never a style but and attitude. (nice)

Yes we can make the world a better place by design, but not just design - of course. Still we have too much trash around us - material and intellectual trash - so don't forget about design. "In that respect - I value, endorse, and promote the continued relevance of the Modern movement as the cultural mainstream of our century.

The revision of many of the Modernist issues have enriched out perception and have contributed to improving the quality of work. The increased number of architects and designers with good training has had a positive effect on our society and our environment.

But much still has to be done to convince industry and government that design is an integral part of the production process and not a last-minute embellishment.

Man of the current modes are created, supported, and discarded by the very media that generates that change and documents it to survive. It is a vicious circle. It has always been, only not it's bigger than ever.

Post-modernism should be regarded at best as a critical evaluation of the issues of Modernism... In that perspective, it has been extremely helpful to correct, expand, improve the issues of Modernism. None of us would be the same with out it. (jeeez!)

To change the world into a better place in which to live.

Rethinking Modernism, Revising Functionalism

by Katherine Mccoy

- these are what could be called a philosophy or an ethic, a personal set of values and criteria, a thread that winds through the lifetime of work and sustains its rigor, the continuity in the cycle s of change.

At that time - middle 60's, even the best American education in graphic design would not have gone much further than an intuitive "ah ha" method of conceptualizing design solutions and an emulation of the design masters of the moment.

Working in a "real" swiss style - her work was about clarity and cleanliness.

This idea was fairly foreign to American clients - 1968. Now, one can hardly persuade them to give up their hold on swiss, so completely has the corporate world embraced rationalist Modernism in graphic design.

More expressive design - Text anc be animated with voices and images can be read, as well as seen, with an emphasis on audience interpretation and participation in the construction of meaning.

The cycles of change continue - Modernism may be re-emerging somewhat, a renewed minimalist that is calming down the visual outburst of activity of the past fifteen years.

EAch cycle of change during the passing years seems to have added another visual or conceptual layer laid upon foundation of functionalism, but inside of every project it is always there.

Part of the ethic that is always there i a strong conviction and enthusiasm that design is important, that it matters in life, not just mine, but in the lives of our audiences and users of designed communications.

Only through change can we continue to push ahead in knowledge and expertise, theory and expression continually building our collective knowledge of the process of communication.

[SM] TV show opener

2008-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

You can comment here, Jessica.

Thanks.

[SM] Sound process

2008-11-10T10:56:00.000-08:00

So, from my original idea to my final product, it didn't really change much. From the beginning I wanted to have the viewer to be able to play a drum beat with multiple drums. Above, my initial thoughts were to have three different kinds for each drum - to have three different style of hits for each drum. Another first idea was to grab and move each drum to a scale, to put them in a narrative and then able to play your composition. After working the flash demo, I scrapped that idea.

Here ^ I sketched out some ideas for the layout and buttons for each video/sound clip.

From the beginning I wanted this birds eye view, looking down on the set as my main screen basically to set up this environment of the viewer sitting at the set. I used the main image of one of my previous videos as shown above.
So each drum and cymbal is clickable and does something different. The three drums play my three videos, the crash cymbal brings up my game, the ride changes the colors of the set, and the hi-hat brings up a stick bag, which is also clickable to bring three different kinds of sticks, which each play a song.
After clicking the crash cymbal these smaller top view of drums come to screen and they each play a hit of what that drum/cymbal sounds like when you roll over and click them. They also change colors when you roll over. The three even smaller ones are loops, so when you click on them the sound loops until you click to stop it. The loops are to create something consistent for you to play along with when playing with the others.

Here is some of my action script which was the main thing I learned during this project. Knowing absolutely nothing about action script, I feel like I have came a long way over these past couple weeks and I am excited to work with/learn more about action scripting.

In the beginning, I wanted a new screen to come up when you go into the sounds and when you go into the game, but I kept everything on one screen so you have the opportunity to play videos, play songs, and mess with the drum sounds at the same time playing off each other and having different videos/songs influence how you play the drums.

[VL] Communication Models: system postcard

2008-10-31T05:52:00.000-07:00

[VL] Communication Models: postcard research

2008-10-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

RYAN, you probably should not read this.

I did some searching of articles on technology and how it has made us lazy and stupid.
Most of the articles I found where lame and didn't inform me with information I wanted. I feel I need to find a better way of researching.
"Technology lets us do things that once seemed like science fiction. From thoughtless navigation to limitless recollection, machines have made nearly every facet of our lives easier. But in doing so, have they also taken away skills that were once second-nature? An expanding argument suggests the internet and general abundance of technology may, in fact, be making us stupid.
"The Atlantic's Nicholas Carr points out how his mind doesn’t work the way it used to. Reading long articles or books, he says, seems like an impossible feat now; he loses focus after a few pages. The idea of getting information so quickly and easily has seemingly shifted the way his mind works."
A scientific study conducted a couple years ago found the ability to remember personal information — anything from a birthday to a phone number is significantly lower in younger people who have grown up with cell phones and computers than in members of previous generations. geeksaresexy.net

Here is an article about the Wii sports-tennis I found on joystiq.com

Simple, intuitive and fun are buzzwords that have been shoved in our face ever since Nintendo announced the Wii, but I can't really think of any better words to describe my experience with Nintendo's distinctive tennis game. Sure, it's just a tennis game, but it's one that requires you to wave an imaginary racket in the hopes of hitting a clump of polygons representing a ball. I wouldn't say that the game is more immersive or realistic for it, as it still feels like a very laid back and simple session of whacking a ball back and forth. The controller is very reactive to your motions, and I quickly felt confident regarding the location of my virtual racket within 3D space. It didn't take long for me to start balancing on one foot and grunting like a pro each time I waved the wiimote.
The only thing that seems confusing about the game, at least initially, is that it doesn't seem to allow you to control the movement of your character on the tennis court itself. My character seemed to gravitate towards the ball on his own, positioning himself just within reach of the ball hurtling across the net. Still, I found that the simplicity merely added to the fun and lightheartedness of what was essentially two grown men waving invisible rackets around. Great stuff.

What I got from Ryan's alteration to my postcard is a product of technology - a negative feeling towards technology and how it is requiring us to do much less (physically and mentally) than the real sport itself.

There is no need to be outside, no need to leave one spot, no need to do any real physical activity or mental activity (80% of the game is mental), no human to human contact, or even racquet to ball contact.

Thinking about this more upsets me. The Wii is giving tennis a bad rep - it isn't nearly as challenging as the real game. When playing tennis, there are multiple things to be thinking about when playing - where the next ball will land on court, the placement of your feet and placement of hands on racquet, the actual motion of the racquet, what kind of stroke to use - forehand, backhand, overhead, slice, volley, using topspin, also where to hit the ball on court, where to make your opponent move, trying to get in your opponents head, how to keep calm and focus, and many more. But, with the Nintendo Wii and other technologies to come what do you have to think about and how much do you have to move?

“All of us—not just children—learn best when we can engage multiple senses and our entire bodies,” said developmental psychologist and ION game designer Dr. Erik Strommen in the same February 2005 press release. “Kids playing the ION exercise their minds and their bodies as they duck, dodge, tag, tickle and really move, while mastering letter and number skills and more. This system engages the whole child in a way most learning technologies do not.” insidevandy.com

I realize what I'm saying about the Wii taking away from the real game of tennis is more about it at a professional/on a team level. Playing tennis for an enjoyment, not having to know anything about it, but to play it as a pure fun activity (which I'm sure is the audience the Wii tennis is targeting), is still being affected negatively and is taking away from the game

[VL] Communication Models: postcard interpretations (FINAL?)

2008-10-24T09:56:00.000-07:00

[VL] Communication Models: postcard interpretations

2008-10-22T00:32:00.000-07:00

[SM] Sound

2008-10-19T19:27:00.001-07:00

I saw this about a year ago, but for some reason, thought about it right when we were introduced to this project last week.

I don't know if this a good find and share for this project, since I have no clue what we are going to be doing, but it is interesting. He also did this.

[VL] Communication Models: object postcard

2008-10-17T01:19:00.001-07:00

[VL] Semiotics: Final again

2008-10-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

[VL] Semiotics: Final

2008-10-15T05:39:00.000-07:00

[VL] Semiotics: Procesos

2008-10-15T05:32:00.000-07:00

Some inspiration for this project.

[SM] Motion Capture: final animation?

2008-10-13T06:06:00.001-07:00

I couldn't get my video to upload on here so I have my final animation on my vimeo page.

[SM] Motion Capture: animation process

2008-10-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

This is what I have for now. Pitter-patter will not go across the screen from left to right, but stay more in the middle so the abrade makes since. Abrade appear more like the pitter-patter.

[VL] Semiotics: Image Matrix

2008-10-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

The Best American Comics 2008

2008-10-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

Houghton Mifflin Company is an educational publisher in the United States. One of their popular releases is The Best American Series - which is an annually-published collection of books, each of which features a different genre or theme.

"The Best American Comics" is one book part of the series they release every year.

This just came out.

Here's the list of contributors:

Lynda Barry
Graham Annable
David Axe and Steve Olexa
T. Edward Bak
Alison Bechdel
Nick Bertozzi
Lilli Carre
Martin Cendreda
Shawn Cheng and Sara Edward-Corbett
Eleanor Davis
Derf
Rick Geary
Matt Groening
Eric Haven
Jaime Hernadez

Kaz
Michael Kupperman
Joseph Lambert
Evan Larson
Jason Lutes
Cathy Malkasian
John Mejias
Sarah Oleksyk
Kevin Pyle
Seth
Chris Ware
Gene Luen Yang

My older brother Joseph, has a comic called "Turtle keep it steady" which is featured in this book. He also did the endpapers for the book.

My brother went to The School of Visual Arts in New York for a year, The Art Institute of Colorado for a year, and two years at The Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont - where he graduated last year.

You can pick up this book at any book store.

Check out his blog under my "Friends" section to the right of this.

I also have a copy of "Turtle keep it steady" and other comics of his, so if anyone wants to check it out, you can come find me.

I am very proud of my brother.

[VL] Semiotics: Matrix

2008-10-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

[SM] Kinetic Type: Storyboards

2008-09-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Carrying on from last time, I narrowed down my three verbs and put them together in three different storyboards - each a little different.

Picked the best direction and ended up with the mounted one at the end of this post.

The animation will be approximately 21 seconds of animation.

So, some things to consider would be maybe addition of color, photography, cut out type instead of hand type, switch direction of pitter-patter (second action) to switch up the reading from left to right, is the crack really legible?

[VL] Exhibiting Signification: Process

2008-09-24T22:02:00.001-07:00

I found some images of icons, indexes, and symbols for my tennis racquet.

Icons:

Index: tennis ball, tennis court, other tennis gear, like tape, case, bag, towel, and wear - skirts, shorts, head and wrist band, shoes.
Symbol: tennis icons and logos, lines and diagrams of court, weaving of strings on racquet, trophies, scoreboards.

[SM] Kinetic Type: Process

2008-09-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

For my activity Playing Drums, my two objects I chose were hi-hat and snare.

I ended up going with snare. The three verbs I have for his noun are - vibrate, pitter-patter, and abrade.

Here we goes.

[VL] Exhibiting Signification: Choosing an object

2008-09-23T20:33:00.000-07:00

Racquet

I already tried posting this but blogger messed up and wouldn't let me. So now I retyping all of this and it will be a lot shorter.

We were suppose to bring in an object from a junk shop, qntique store, grandma's attic, goodwill...etc.

I found this Bancroft signature Billie Jean King tennis racquet. No clue who Billie Jean was, but thought the racquet was interesting.

- define an audience that would be interested in this object.

Professional tennis players range in an average of 16-30 years of age.

Children and families play tennis for recreational and young adults/adults play it more for the physicalness of it.

- how were they introduced to this object?

Introduced in their childhood.

- is it related to a hobby or career?

Yes. Both.

- what kinds of feelings/memories are associated with this object?

The memories and feelings or past matches and practices.

- why would this person want to see an exhibit about this object?

To know the history and evolution of the tool they use as well as the game itself.

[VL] Rhetoric 1: Final

2008-09-18T16:51:00.006-07:00

My formal approach to this project was to use texture, color, and paper cut outs, which was a way to relate to my audiences culture. Using paper cut outs was a way to give my poster a more hand made, earthy feel, as well as crafty. This crafty, hand made style is a reference to Mexican American form and culture.

I used metonymy for my education poster. This as a metonymy gives this poster detail and layer. Having indexes/ icons for heritage, education, and voting, plus the copy give this poster a narrative.

Metonymy was used for my bull poster, as well as pun. The pun shows a neat relation to how Mexican Americans relate/fit in with all of America. And the metonymy is a simple way to connect with my audience.

[VL] Process 4 (junior/senior crit)

2008-09-18T16:51:00.005-07:00

I enjoyed meeting with Curtis, it was nice to have a critique with someone new.

For my 'Of Great Importance' poster, we talked about the layout and how it was necessary to leave the three icons horizontal and not change to vertical layout. Having them placed vertically would have created some hierarchy in the icons - which is exactly what I don't want - they are all of equal importance. Out of the number of different copies I had, 'Of Great Importance' worked the best, we felt.

I tweaked a couple of the icons and reshot the poster.

For my 'so is our vote' poster, we talked about my copy and fixed some of the wording. Curtis thought it might be a nice idea to make some smaller animals to put in the background to create some more depth - which is what my shadows are slightly doing. But instead of making smaller animals I thought it would be a good idea to stand up my animals to create real depth. It's nice to not have both posters shot the same way (flat) and having this 3D is more interesting.

[VL] Process 3

2008-09-18T16:51:00.004-07:00

[VL] Process 2

2008-09-18T16:51:00.003-07:00

some screen shots.

some images.

[VL] Process 1

2008-09-17T22:19:00.001-07:00

[SM] Motion Capture: process documentation 3

2008-09-15T23:11:00.000-07:00

[SM] Motion Capture: process documentation 2

2008-09-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

story boards

two actions

twenty frames each

[SM] Motion Capture: process documentation 1

2008-08-30T18:40:00.000-07:00

Stroke 1

Stroke 2
Stroke 3
Beat 1
Beat 2

Beat 3

lame

[VL] Rhetoric 1: Audience

2008-08-29T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hispanic

1. What are some predominately shared values of this group?

Hard working. Honest. Loyal. Dedicated. Family oriented. Cultural practices. Conservative values.

2. What political policies/issues are particularly important to this demographic in the election? Immigration. Healthcare. Education - want quality and affordable. Crime. Concerns of terrorism.

3 Are there any cultural references your demographic identifies with?

Salsa music/dancing. Salena. JLo. George Lopez. Religious tattoos. Black letter. Frita.

4. What does their graphic landscape look like?

Crafts. Homies. Stand and Deliver.

5. What are the issues cited for this group not voting?

Too busy. Too young. Voter registration problems. Illness or disability. Not interested. Did not like candidates or campaign issues.

[SM] Motion Capture: Choosing a Semester Activity

2008-08-25T20:55:00.000-07:00

The number one theme I have in mind right now is my hobby of playing drums.

I am thinking this might be a bit difficult because of the lack of variety in actions.

Playing the drums is merely a combination of strokes and not much else.

So, I'm thinking about micro actions - the motion of a hit, which could vary in what drum/cymbal is being hit and how is it being hit, which limb is being used, maybe a variety in sticks/brushes/rods. Mainly about the motion of each hand or foot.

There's also the action of playing different types of music or playing a certain fill. Though, would this be a little difficult to understand with multiple limbs to watch, and would people actually know what is going on?

I'm really worried that showing different ways and combinations of hitting will be too repetitive and boring.

Any suggestions on different actions??

Even though this theme is something I'm familiar with, I'm thinking this will be a nice challenge this year.

Also, I've had this idea for awhile, and have been wanting to work with it more, of visually showing what the different rudiments (which are the foundations of playing the drums) look like. I've experimented a little this summer and started to make small, abstract compositions of each individual rudiment, to eventually have a series. I think sound and motion can be a very nice addition to my idea.

More Process

2008-05-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

Check out my Flickr account for a little more process work.

Poop

2008-05-04T23:56:00.001-07:00

I added additional imagery to each placard to make each one more personalized (as suggested in class). Also, because of critique, I went back to splitting the layout in half. I think this creates a stronger contrast between the person and the icon. I brought in a nun to have more of a variety and so it's more about religion and not just about priests. The extra imagery I've now added hopefully brings in more meaning and relationship. Still using layers of drips, stains, acetone transfers, and icons to add texture and some humanness to it. I didn't end up using hand done type, because I feel with all the sloppy layers, the dirty images, and the sketchy icons that there was plenty of hand quality to it, I think it's nice to have a more clean bible feel type. Also, I changed my title from Pleasurable Pain back to, Blessed These Gift I'm About To Receive, which I thought fit the theme well.

Process

2008-04-30T08:59:00.000-07:00

First three are of a previous concept - Park rides.

Some photos (not all) I messed with on photoshop.

Some Concepts

2008-04-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

As of now, here are some possible image concepts.

Types of people that wouldn't be addicted. (Opposites)

Eating - skinny starving person/child

Shopping - poor/homeless person

Smoking - Elderly with air tank

I thought of the audience as the addicts and showing them what is going on in the word while you miss use each object.

Religion.

Here I thought of showing a priest, pastor, minister, bishop, monk, nun, sister...etc juxtapose with my more harmful icons. I also, thought of using famous religious icons like, jesus, mosses, mother teresa, saints...etc.

With this I think it would be nice to use really bad addictions like drugs, alcohol, and pornography, but I didn't end up doing a icon for porn and I think drugs, and alcohol are a little similar. No?

I have other ideas that I'm having a little trouble having them work for three icons ( at least having all equally strong).

Addictions are harmful and what would prevent these harmful things?

I'm trying to think of a concept that doesn't have people involved as well.

And I've been been trying to come up with having images that are saying how pleasurable and fun these addictions are (kind of in a sick way?)

An example could be the theme of a carnival and have a different ride for each addiction.

Food - carousel

Gamble - roller coaster

Caffeine - water ride

Also, playing along with the addiction as a good thing, looking at the object and seeing how they can help you and not harm you.

Drugs - medicine

Gamble - money

Food - nutrition

As you can see not really set on a idea, or even three.

I'm going to start messing around with images for the religious theme, to at least get started formally.

Boom.

2008-04-21T08:58:00.002-07:00

An article about drug addiction and free will, plus seven tips to overcome drug early drug addiction.

And one informational graphic about the amount of Americans addicted to each addiction and some negative side effects that comes along.

After finding information about my addictions and looking at different informational graphics I decided from the beginning that my main goal was to have the hierarchy be abstract shapes, and to make them attractive enough with scale and color, so that the viewer would question and read the information provided. This worked well with the percentages and the amount of side effects I came across.

I wanted to have my article spreads and infographic consistent but with a lot of variety. I did that with carrying out the graphic shapes from my infographic over to my spreads and using my type and type boxes from my spreads to my infographic, but with color and scale changes.

This was my biggest challenge with this project, making my article spreads and infographic feel like they belong together, as one, and to be satisfied with both equally.

For my infographic and especially my spreads I didn't want to go overboard with my sketchy, ruff, addict theme, for reasons of clarity, but did incorporate the addiction theme with the use of texture, color, and grouping/overlapping.

I decided to take out a couple of my icons to make my infographic stronger, but carried one of my objects over to my article so the viewer would still be informed about that addiction in a more detailed way. I thought this was a good idea to have the article be about drug addictions then to see an infographic dealing with addictions everyone deals with.

Here is the link to my digital process.

Tez, I posted on your blog but it said you need to approve it first!

2008-04-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

You can also post here, Tez.

Here is some more process. I still unsure of what I'm doing exactly.

I'm going back an forth between using lines and not. I've been trying to think of additional information I could used to keep the colored rings and have them mean something different than the side effects so I can use both lines and colored rings.

Not sure about this. Will try some more experimenting with this though.
I wasn't sure how the centered look would end up looking like with this being a full spread info graphic. I think some of the information would get cut off. I might like the centered look, how I had before, a little better though.
I still have more information about the overlaying between the rings I need to add. There's already a little bit of clutter starting to happen.

Poop.

Info GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG

2008-04-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

I have hand process work on my flickr account that you should probably check out before looking at this post. The link to my account is on the right.

This first image is what I had done for today.

As I was working, I took some screen shots every now and then, for some process. Here are a couple of them.
I've mainly been messing around with the placement of my main text and icons.

Below is where I currently am. I might end up taking the lines out and use only the rings to show more information. If I stick with using the lines (which I mostlikely will), I still would like to add some color to some of the rings, like I have here. I plan on trying lots of different styles.

Research

2008-04-04T13:55:00.000-07:00

Here is my written process for my Info Graphic. You probably can't read it, but I decided to put it on here for process.

I got most of my information from addictioninfo.org. The research I have has to do with Americans being addicted to each object, death, side affects, chemicals, please an addict gets out of each one, and other interesting statistics.

As of now, my information graphic will be about the percentage of Americans addicted to each addiction and negative side affects after being addicted. I'm leaving my razor blade out - I realized that cutting is a harmful thing from the start and the rest aren't harmful until being miss-used. I'm also not sure if I'm going to use my dugs icon. My article for type will be about drugs and I think it would be nice to focus on other addictions besides the obvious drugs. Plus, as of now I don't have much information about drugs in general, it's more about specific drugs. It might change later.

I'll also post my hand process work of the actual info graphic later.

Image: Seven Deadly Sins

2008-03-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

Sloth

Wrath

Lust

Envy

Gluttony

Greed

Pride

For this project I wanted to convey each sin using the same person. When taking these photos, I thought of each sin and imagined what the mouth would look like when being performed. The reason I chose to use only one person (myself) instead of multiple was to show that everyone is capable of doing each sin. I added a different color to each one to add variety and to enhance each sin. I think the slight color and props in some, gives the set some variety so it doesn't feel too repetitive. I think some are more successful than others, but over all I'm pretty satisfied with them.

And I'm changing the name of my icon set, by the way.

Project 2: Statement of Purpose

2008-03-26T08:58:00.001-07:00

While developing an icon set for my addictions theme, I wanted to continue my sketchy, messy, addict look that I did in project one, to create a cohesive set. I kept these connotations in mind from the start, the way I rendered, the color choices, and tilting the set. This project was challenging when it came to legibility and consistency for me. I tried to create enough messy and imperfect line work to each icon without having it be distracting and too illustrative. It was easy to have too much going on and for it to take away from the nice positive and negative space of each icon, when I mixed in shapes of color. Also, I wanted to create a color scheme that was intense enough to say addiction, but gross/ unattractive to emphasize the feelings of addictions. Throughout the process from the beginning with the changing of scale and color I had to do a lot of revising, removing, and changing objects completely to make a stronger set.

The previous post are my final icon set, connotations, and title.

To check out my process work for the second phase (color) of this project, click on my flicker link on the right side of this post under 'links'

BLESSED THESE GIFTS I'M ABOUT TO RECEIVE.

2008-03-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

Connotations

uncomfortable

sketchy

dependence

habit

obsession with

imperfect

pleasurable

painful

harmful

tasty

expensive

satisfaction

pastimes

self-indulgent

thrill

desire

ruff

sloppy

life ruining

unhealthy

dirty

overcoming

death

juicy

caution

aggressive

dangerous