I had to research a lot to even begin this project. What type of wood was best, where is it the cheapest, what are the best screws to use, and so on and so forth? I had to figure out all of those things and do the math to find how much wood of each type I would need. I ended up using many different types of 2×4″s and beams and plywood so I had to take each product into account when creating this 9×5′ bar.
Production
For production I’m just going to drop in the pictures I took along the way of creating this bar.
Bases of the bar laid out to show the shapeAdding support beam to the bases to keep the shape of the bar, and create a heavy bottomLining up the bar top with the basesAdding wooden beams across the bases to create the effect of a wood pallet barCoating them in paint thinner than painting previously mentioned beams
Addition of layered/staggered bartop
Addition of border to the bartop
Applied sanding, paint thinner, and paint to the bartopAddition of shelving on the right-hand side of the barClosing off the left side of the bar with planksClosing off the right side of the bar with planks
One perspective with cards applied onto the bartopAnother view with more cards and Cavaliers programFinal product
For my last and final project of the year, the class was given the task of giving a gift to an upperclassman within the design program. Not just any gift though, something catered to the person themself, designed by us, students. In a traditional setting, the class would have most likely created something physical and actually had the chance to give it to them in person. However, with times being different at the moment the class was strongly encouraged to take a more digital approach to this assignment. The objectives for this assignment were to experiment with compositional attributes in both analog and digital forms. Try to find the relationships someone can make with either of these forms. Combine elements of 2D and 3D principles and techniques towards a complex project, demonstrate descriptive writing and design-centered communication and secondary research techniques. Finally, to explore the design process from a different perspective, specifically the viewpoint of another design major.
The class started with two exercises, these were just to try and get the class in a gift-oriented mindset. First using words or images to represent and describe the best gift someone has ever given to us. Going in-depth on why this was so special to us and why it stands out. Personally, the best gift has been a backpack given to me in 8th grade by my grandparents. As two people I am extremely close with, but do not get to see all the time it was really nice for multiple reasons. I grew up on basketball, so the bag was used for that and no matter where I went, I was able to carry a little bit of them with me which is what makes it different from maybe a more elaborate or bigger gift. This one held meaning between us which is why it is so special to me. The next exercise was to look at the given readings and find a phrase or quote that stood out or holds meaning to you. I ended up finding a quote out of The Gift by Lewis Hyde that really stood out to me and it goes, “where gifts have no public currency, therefore where the gift as a form of property is neither recognized nor honored, our inner gifts will find themselves excluded from the very commerce which is their nourishment,” (The Gift, Lewis Hyde). This quote resonated with me because a really good gift to someone may not hold a lot of monetary value, but if there is a special connection between the person and the gift it does not have to be worth a lot of money for it to have real value to someone. I think it’s amazing that something can have no worth in our world’s economy but can still hit home with someone. So, inspired by this quote, I borrowed a photo from my mentor, and I recreated a sketch of it in my own interpretation. This sketch is not going to hold any value in terms of money, but it holds money in his eyes because of how sentimental the picture is.
After these examples, it was time to begin research on who, what, where, when, and how a gift is viewed. All five of these pillars will play a role in the entire gift-giving process. After researching all of these individually I had definitely grasped the concept of a gift much more than I did before. From there it was time to actually analyze and review this information and what it means in terms of design and this project. The plan was to take the quote found from The Gift and create a narrative around an idea not holding value in society, but value to oneself. So, my statement is a direct quote stating, “where gifts have no public currency, therefore where the gift as a form of property is neither recognized nor honored, our inner gifts will find themselves excluded from the very commerce which is their nourishment,” (The Gift, Lewis Hyde). I will take interests and things my mentor enjoys and find a way to craft a narrative that is shaped around an idea only holding value catered to a single individual.
Iterations
Now with multiple ideas in play, it was time to experiment and try prototyping these ideas. I used Notability, Shapr3D, Photoshop, and Classtools to experiment with all of these ideas. I went back through and refined the sketch I originally created.
Next, since I want to pursue industrial design, and my mentor is an industrial design student himself, I explored different shapes and mechanics on Shapr3D. I ended up making my own replica of the marching band hat because he loved being in the band at OSU and that was a time of his life during school that he loved.
After these explorations, I wanted to take a more interactive route which is what led me to Photoshop. On Photoshop I created a board game around what gameday looks like here at Ohio State. Being someone in the marching band, my mentor always had to be there on game day, and I wanted to create a board game replicating that process with some trivia along the way. However, I was unable to find a way to make this interactive online or have the time to physically create it which led me to experiment with Classtools.
So, I took his love for OSU and created a set of questions, and put them into a set of classic arcade games using Classtools. All of these ideas stemmed from the quote from earlier. None of these ideas hold monetary value, but they hold meaning to him. After all of this, I decided on pursuing the idea surrounding interactive vintage arcade games. The other three ideas just did not include an interactive feature. I wanted to give him something that he could play or interact with rather than just look at.
Concept Statement
The goal of this project was to explore gift-giving and translate that into giving a gift to an upper-class design student. I got partnered with a student named Aaron who was a down-to-earth, level-headed, fun person. It was great getting to meet him and learn more about what he likes and what makes him unique. He’s a kid who loves his family and friends as well as his memories growing up as well as being a part of the marching band. Growing up he was also very fond of the times he played classic arcade games. One common theme I found between a lot of his interests was that they were based more around memories and not on physical objects. With that I went on to learn and read more about the meaning of a gift when I found the perfect quote for the project, “where gifts have no public currency, therefore where the gift as a form of property is neither recognized nor honored, our inner gifts will find themselves excluded from the very commerce which is their nourishment,” (The Gift, Lewis Hyde). In my opinion, this represented exactly what I saw in my mentor and exactly what he cherished. All the things he loved do not hold a lot of value through the lens of society, but they do through his eyes which is what is important. So, with that being said I used a web tool called Classtools to pay a bit of homage to his love for vintage arcade games and his passion here at Ohio State. I created a set of questions, 14 specifically, surrounding design, the marching band, and just general lore of Ohio State. These were incorporated into vintage arcade games to remind him of his past and connect two of his loves, past, and present. What was so cool about working with these games was since they were made so long ago, they rely solely on color, shape, and space to make them unforgettable and still playable in today’s day and age.
Production
It now was time to start creating a final refined form. Considering I really wanted this to have an interactive aspect I pursued the vintage arcade game idea due to all of the possibilities that came with it. The website used was classtools.net and what makes it so resourceful is all the possibilities it gives. The format of this site with all of the available options makes it exciting to see how much you can explore and play with. In the final product, you can choose between eight games from PacMan, to Snake, to even Space Invaders. Each game has different controls and can be played on any device with a keyboard. Since there are so many variants of this one final product below there will be some screenshots and gameplay from some of the games along with the link to play. At this point, I have not had the opportunity to gift him the gift, but the main focus was on the gift itself not how it was given, but mostly the sentiment it will cause him inside.
Instructions
Once clicking the link there will be the main home page titled “OSU Trivia Adventure.” Near the bottom of the screen, you’ll find a drop-down menu where you’ll have a selection from PacMan, Manic Miner, Asteroids, Snake, Pong, Wordshoot, Flashcards, Space Invaders. Once led to the game you will be given instructions on how to play, most are done with arrow keys and the space bar. When the game ends, you’ll receive the offer to play again or play a new game and you can go from there. If you select to play a new game, it will take you back to the previous homepage that you started with.
Citations
Publications – The Gift – Excerpt – Lewis Hyde, www.lewishyde.com/publications/the-gift/excerpt.
For my final project of the semester in my second fundamentals class, I have been tasked with redesigning a new narrative for the game of chess. Since chess is a game played by two players this is a collaborative project where one person designs one half of the game while the other person designs their half. The rules and mechanics of the game are not changing, just the pieces and their designs. The goal is to use the elements and principles learned to create a narrative between the two opposing sides. While also reconstructing the pieces to have each tell a story and give off the feel of what their mechanics are. Each piece will only be represented by shape so the goal is to use shape and form to help display the movements and story that each new piece will contain. The objectives of this project are to analyze an interactive system by researching the part and their relationships, evaluate opportunities for storytelling in a new form and narrative. Find some sort of conflict within the chosen narrative, apply the design elements and principles to support the concept of the narrative. As well as to work on intentional craft and abstractions, and build upon the harmony of these concepts using craft.
After reading the brief and fully understanding the project it was time to get started. First, I started by learning more about my partner to help us work better together. While learning more about our design and creative selves we researched the game of chess in its entirety. We learned about all the mechanics of the pieces, special moves by certain pieces, their role in the game, and how significant they each are. I learned that every piece has something unique to it in role and movement. This led me to start thinking about how I can use shape and form to represent these differing ways of movement. After learning about the game it was time to start thinking of a narrative. We both individually brainstormed and came up with ideas and then we came back together to talk about our ideas. We both first came up with the idea of Star Wars. It’s got a load of characters and two very split sides that have created a great narrative in the past and present. We also brainstormed other ideas like different shoes using positive/negative space to distinguish them. Also, we thought of logos, from fast food logos to dine-inn. We felt that we could not make a strong narrative with the other two ideas as opposed to Star Wars. So we decided on that and I decided to represent the good side otherwise known as the Republic or Alliance and he took the bad side, the Empire. Now with a determined narrative, it was time to brainstorm characters, vehicles, and planets to represent not only the Republic but the chess pieces and their roles. My partner and I decided that with Star Wars being such a huge universe we were not going to represent each piece with a character. Rather we wanted to pull from every corner of the narrative to represent something different. For my brainstorming process, I went to a database of all things Star Wars and pulled out some of the most important characters, weapons, planets, and just listed them all down. I then went ahead and went through the list and matched each character with a piece I felt they filled the role of and after that I went backward to determine what piece would be depicted by what Star Wars reference.
Iterations
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Concept Statement
For our chess redesign, mine and Jarret’s goal was to create a chess set based on the world-renowned series of Star Wars. Through the use of cardstock, bristol, and chipboard, we depicted various characters, objects, vehicles, and locations that are seen throughout the Star Wars movies. Using only the front and side silhouettes, we created a 32-piece chess set. We used contrast in the colored cardstock and the black and white bristol to represent the opposing sides, the Empire and the Alliance. We chose the subject for each piece based on the similarities between the chess pieces and the character/object/vehicle/location. We incorporated unity and harmony into our composition through the use of similar subjects for each piece (Weapons=Rooks, Locations=Kings, Vehicles=Pawns, Characters=Knights, Bishops, & Queens). We chose to place each subject on a stand made from chipboard, marked with the matching logos for the empire and Alliance, to create stability and add balance (visually & literally). When looking specifically at Darth Maul, the E-11 Blaster, and Coruscant, we used negative space to help identify the subjects more easily. Finally, to secure each piece to their corresponding stands we used hot glue, which adds integrity and strength to the pieces adding greater longevity.
Production
With the ideation stage done, I created illustrator sketches that were done as a test run with a representation for the X-Wing. These forms were slowly abstracted and refined and the final product for each illustrator file can be seen below. Doing the test run for every piece was extremely beneficial when we went to cut our final forms on the laser cutter because we knew where to put the slits and keep pieces connected if the slit was going to cut it off. *
Finally came the construction of all of them and the use of chipboard to add a factor of support to all of the pieces. So all the pieces had a front and side view, but there was no top view. So we thought it would be a cool idea to throw the logos onto all of the chipboard pieces to add almost a third dimension to all of the pieces to build the narrative of Empire versus the Alliance. After all the construction we ended with two complete sides to a chess game with a whole new twist and narrative added upon each redesign of the pieces.
So for determining each character here is the thought process I went through along with the final product for each piece:
X-Wing: The X-wing is a fast tactical piece that really only moves forward, just like a pawn. Just like the pawn can move two spots from its starting position, the X-Wing can take off at a moment’s notice and come to a cruise. So their movement and representation are both smooth and simple to connect the pieces
DL-44: The rook is a piece that only moves vertical and horizontal. So, we wanted to use a weapon to represent this piece and I decided on the DL-44. As a blaster it only shoots in the direction it’s pointed so the movement of the laser is straight. It cannot bend and curve hence the connection to the rook. This is why the gun is crafted as a very pointed piece to use form to draw emphasis on the movement of the rook. Also, the rook and pawns also work hand in hand in supporting each other, and in a lot of the Star Wars movies while the ships are battling the weapons are being used right behind them as support. So this felt like the only logical connection to use from the Star Wars series as a representation of the rook.
R2D2: I decided to use R2D2 as the knight for many reasons. The knight is a chaotic piece that can be moved and manipulated in all sorts of unpredictable ways. A lot of the same can be said about R2D2 as well. He is always swooping in bailing out the heroes in the film and I feel the knight acts in the same way. To depict this randomness of the knight I designed R2D2 at an angle to emphasize the L-shaped movement of the piece.
Yoda: Yoda is another character that could’ve been used to represent the knight, but due to his wisdom and sneakiness I used him to represent the bishop. The bishop is a sneaky piece because of its diagonal movement and Yoda’s sneakiness can be compared equally to that. Yoda is a simple character though, I needed a way to show the movement which is what I used the lightsaber for. The lightsaber is angled diagonally to help directly correlate the movement between Yoda and the bishop.
Luke Skywalker: Luke Skywalker is considered one of the head people serving the Alliance. He is one of the strongest characters in the Star Wars universe and with that being said it was only fitting that he represented the Queen. A piece that can move any direction limitlessly and is considered the strongest piece it makes sense to connect it to the strongest character. Luke and his lightsaber are both depicted in a power stance to make that connection between the power and strength of both the character and the piece itself.
Note: Luke’s lightsaber fell off when transporting him so in the front view is partially missing
Coruscant: The king is the most important piece, but with that being said it is not the strongest. So it felt right to connect it to the home planet for the Alliance, Coruscant. Just like the king if this planet is compromised it is all over for the Alliance and the chess game. With the planet just being a circular form I used line and negative space to represent the planet in its entirety and give it an ultimatum. The king has very limited movement in the game, only one space in any direction at a time. A planet is the same way in its limited movement a planet cannot really move which is another great connection between the two.
For my second fundamentals project, I got the opportunity to collaborate with someone else on this project. The project was to conceptualize, design, and illustrate the idea of movement through paper mechanisms. The end goal is to use Bristol and/or cardstock to demonstrate kinetic motion or stop motion to emphasize the true principle of movement. My goals along the way were to practice and expand conceptual building strategies. To experiment through modeling and prototyping, designing and constructing interactive 2D images, and demonstrating material sensitivity through thoughtful, intentional, and functional construction. I would do all this through my knowledge of craft and vocabulary along the way while using insight and critiquing from my classmates and partner.
The first thing I started completing in this process was getting to know my partner better. What kind of design they are interested in, their design style, their interests, and hobbies, or anything else that would make collaborating easier? After a while of talking, I found out my partner was very similar to me with some of the same common interests along with similar design goals and ideas. This made developing our project easy because we were easily able to brainstorm and communicate our ideas.
We now needed to come up with a theme where we felt we could reach the project goals as well as do something we enjoyed. With that being said, we ended up using Christmas as our theme for the project. Now we had to start to ideate how we could communicate the fundamental principle of movement through Christmas. We first realized time and form would be the key to communicating this idea. From there we came up with ideas and sketches that we thought would demonstrate our ideas. Along with creating sketches we started to explore and experiment with different forms of paper movement. Ranging from circular motion, to push and pull action we wanted to gain knowledge and experience with all types of mechanisms so we could eventually find which way best relates and displays our final ideas. We used YouTube videos and inspiration from the professor and c classmates to find and then craft small-scale versions of these mechanisms. At the start, I found we were more interested in circular motion and movement, but that idea eventually changed as the process continued.
Iterations
In the second week of the project, I ideated more and more with mechanisms and fine-tuned some of my previous sketches. The first round of sketches consisted of a lot of “Christmas characters” that could be formed and manipulated through ways of circular motion like throwing them into a snow globe or making Santa move up and down a chimney. After these steps, my partner and I started exploring with mind maps to really explore all of our options within form and time. This was extremely beneficial in expanding my ideas of how many concepts there are within Christmas that could be manipulated into the project. These mind maps lead to a better idea of how I could work with my partner to construct multiple iterations regarding movement, harmony, and shape.
The following week we started to eliminate ideas and mechanisms that we felt did not fit what we wanted to do. We eliminated the idea of circular motion after we made more mechanisms and just felt it was not enough of what we were looking for. So, we decided to start using what is called a dissolve tab. It’s two sheets of paper with slits made in opposite directions that when one sheet is slid into another sheet the bottom layer can be pushed and pulled to show and then cover up the old image with a new image. We felt this was a much better fit for our imagery as well as our ideas to demonstrate a pure form of movement. This new mechanism in turn turned into new sketches, ideas for form and time, and a rough draft of a concept statement. We now geared our sketches in a new direction toward ideas like a nutcracker opening a closing his mouth and the wrapping and unwrapping of a gift. Since the project is creating a diptych, which is a composition consisting of two uses of mechanisms, we needed two ideas that could go hand in hand and really convey a sense of movement that involved the passage of time and use of form.
Concept Statement
This project is focused on the two elements of time and form. The time aspect is depicted through before and after scenes in the dissolve panels. It can be assumed that the heart is unwrapped and then wrapped in the first panel’s motion. Then, in the next panel as it is seen not appearing under the tree, and then is placed under the tree through the dissolve mechanism as well. This passing of time goes hand in hand with our interpretation of gift-giving. Next, the form can be seen in the use of simplistic shapes. The heart is a simple shape used as a form of symbolism and the box it is wrapped in stays consistent between the two panels. We included familiar aspects in both panels to make them tell a cohesive story. The tree was also done in a simplistic style using basic triangles as the body, filling the tree with circular ornaments, and adding the star when the gift appears under the tree. Our stylistic choice of using elementary shapes was aimed to provide emphasis on the recognizable shapes and their meaning that is associated with holidays and gift-giving. Also, we used line work in the decoration of the heart and gift wrappings to provide designs that would enhance the aesthetic appeal of the dissolve tabs. By combining simple forms with more intricate patterns, the contrast contributes to the significance of the heart and gift since these were the main aspects of the narrative being told. Lastly, color was considered throughout this project to replicate a Christmas sensation. Although not everyone celebrates Christmas, most people associate red and green with the holiday, so this feature upholds the gift-giving season. In addition to all of the elements, the physical mechanism can be used to represent gift giving. As the tab on the left of the composition is pulled it covers the box. Simultaneously the tab on the right is pushed in to reveal this gift under the tree. So, going back and forth with the tabs can also be seen as a gesture of receiving and giving by the motion of pushing and pulling. Overall, the panels convey a heartfelt narrative of gift-giving during Christmas by showing before and after depictions using form, line, and color.
Production
The fourth week was a major setback week for the two of us. After discussing with our professor, we realized our sketches and illustrations were not directly meeting our ideas. We discussed a lot and had to re-discuss what we wanted to convey in our composition that would emphasize both form and time. We ended up with the idea of gift-giving. We decided that gift-giving is a symbol of love and we wanted to convey that the best and biggest gifts may come in the smallest of packages. So, we wanted to create a composition that embodied that. We wanted to represent a heart symbolizing love getting wrapped on one side with a dissolve tab. While on the other side we would use another dissolve tab to represent a Christmas tree and then when the second image was revealed you would see a star atop the tree with more gifts and the special gift that stands out and has the gift of love in it.
Now with this game plan, we split the work and she did the composition with the heart and gift box while I depicted the change in the tree and the presents. I used Adobe Illustrator to draw and construct all of the imagery within multiple layers. I could now remove and add layers to cut into different colored cardstock and stack them to create the layered image. This process took a lot of trial and error runs so that we could get to an end product that I felt confident about. There was some disappointment near the end of the project because the final product did not turn out as good as I wanted it to. The goal was to finish the project on Friday and work on the finishing touches over the weekend, but after scheduling for Friday I was unable to get in to cut it and finish the last cuts I needed. So, I had to finish it on Monday, and I think it played a role in the quality of the final composition. I liked the illustration and how it turned out, but the mechanism was not where I wanted it to be, and sadly did not have the time to fix it. It works to a degree, but the design is nowhere near as smooth as I would’ve liked it and if I had to do it over again, I would’ve tried to replan to give myself more time on the mechanism. I like how the layering worked within the composition and I think it does a great job of demonstrating movement through form and time but the mechanism itself is not smooth and I wish I would’ve had a chance to do it over. Overall, I think we accomplished our goals as a group and had a good time working together towards a common goal while working both independently and together.
For my next visualizations project, I was given an assignment called “Infinite Story”. It consisted of exploring storytelling through 2D and 3D connections and interactive features. The main goal is to take a series of events and create a set of 4 compositions that turns into an infinite story. Using visuals and texts crafted digitally or with analog techniques to contextualize the story and turn it into a cyclical story so that the end transitions perfectly back into the beginning. This story will have to be shortened into just 4 scenes that make use of the physical actions and qualities of the flipper to harmonize the story with the cycle and different movements that the flipper entails. The objectives are to cleanly craft one of the flippers, apply visualizations to a narrative that demonstrates time and the relationship between the 2D images, 3D forms, and dynamic actions. As well as, editing information to maintain intention over the passing of time that practices intentional and functional crafting in both analog and digital methods.
So, considering that the craft for the flipper is one of the key parts of this project, I started by making multiple flippers and watching videos to get a feel for it. After making a couple I started to put simple sketches on the flipper to try and understand how the physical aspects of the flipper could enhance the scenes. I used the story of Little Red Riding Hood in the sketches and it definitely was so beneficial to helping me learn how these two elements tied together.
Exercise 1:
After experimenting with the flipper, it was time to think about a story or anything that I felt could be put into a cycle that incorporated a sense of movement that could be used within the flipper. Being someone that has a long history of playing sports and going to games is the first thing that came to mind considering how much movement there is. But I have played and seen so many games, I needed to think of one that was special, that holds meaning, and has distinguishing events that would in turn lead to a confident narrative. Someone who was born and raised a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, I decided what better game to do than game 7 of the 2016 NBA finals where LeBron won us our first championship. A game is normally a huge compilation of numerous plays spanning over a set amount of time, but right off the top of my head, I knew there would be multiple images I could pull out and start to eliminate to eventually find my final four scenes.
Exercise 2:
After brainstorming for what would hopefully be my final composition, I had an in-person class where I worked in groups to again help discover more ways to make connections between images and the movement of the flipper. We were given the prompt of “let’s not talk about what happened last Saturday night”. My group decided to illustrate a group of friends getting abducted by aliens and then eventually sent back down to where it all started which can be seen below. We were able to take the vertical movement of the flipper to demonstrate how the aliens abducted them up into their ship. This was just as beneficial as the first example in gaining more knowledge on how this flipper can be utilized. It was also helpful to see all my other classmates’ examples because we all ended up using different types of movement which just added to the already great amount I learned from that class. So, I ended up leaving that class with a better understanding of what images I want to extract and how I can display them in the form of a cyclical narrative. So, as the next step in my process, I began finding images from the game abstracting them in my own way to see which ones I should keep helping create the cyclical feeling within this narrative. After consideration, I decided I needed to communicate the two events that can be seen as the climax where LeBron James has the game-saving block which in turn leads into Kyrie Irving hits the shot that eventually won the game. I still needed two other scenes that would communicate the cycle of a basketball game. Every basketball game starts with a jump ball and this particular game happened to end with the ball being thrown into the air. I realized I could use the physical features of the flipper to demonstrate that idea of them throwing the ball up to symbolize the ends of the game that also turns right back into the game starting again which is the jump ball.
Iterations
I now have gathered my four images and could begin the iteration phase. I experimented with multiple angles and different imagery for each scene to try and piece together which combination of the four would best communicate the goal established at the beginning of the project. Going through the iteration phase helped me realize the ball in each scene will be the main image that communicates the movement that works hand in hand with the flipper. The conflict between the two teams would help build up the narrative while the ball helped to move the narrative along in what would eventually become a cycle. Because I wanted to stress this movement, I decided that coloring the ball would be a great way to emphasize its impact and the importance it holds within the narrative.
Here are some of the images I would like to credit as inspiration I used going through the iteration process.
Concept Statement
The chosen narrative over the course of time has been reimagined multiple times that have eventually led to a final composition. There are four abstracted scenes from game seven of the 2016 NBA Finals. The ball is the main image that conveys movement and passage of time throughout the physical aspects of the flipper. In the first image, you can see the ball at the top half of the composition. A sense of conflict can already be sensed by the two outstretched hands for the ball. When the flipper is opened like a book the bell splits in half and the conflict arises. The next image seen is a layup being blocked and although there is no one who shot it in the frame, it is supposed to come off as a defensive play because the rim has been removed from the scene so that the idea of scoring wouldn’t be assumed here. Next, the flipper opens up like a letter and the ball leads from going off the backboard to what is a depiction of a ball being shot and then a zoomed image of the ball headed into the basket. The flipper then again opens like a book and the conflict is seemingly resolved as the ball is getting tossed up in the air and the Cavaliers celebrate. Then to keep this entire story like a cycle when you open up the flipper like a letter the ball being thrown in celebration. Now it turns into the jump ball for the next game because basketball is a sport that is always about the next play, never holding onto the past. So, I tried to use the images and physical movements of the flipper to encase that feeling throughout this cyclical narrative.
Production
So, finishing these iterations and narrowing it down to my final four images I was ready to finally construct my final and end product. The chosen narrative over the course of time has been reimagined multiple times that have eventually led to a final composition. There are four abstracted scenes from game seven of the 2016 NBA Finals. The ball is the main image that conveys movement and passage of time throughout the physical aspects of the flipper. In the first image, you can see the ball at the top half of the composition. A sense of conflict can already be sensed by the two outstretched hands for the ball. When the flipper is opened like a book the ball splits in half and the conflict arises. The next image seen is a layup being blocked and although there is no one who shot it in the frame, it is supposed to come off as a defensive play because the rim has been removed from the scene so that the idea of scoring wouldn’t be assumed here. Next, the flipper opens up like a letter and the ball leads from going off the backboard to what is a depiction of a ball being shot and then a zoomed image of the ball headed into the basket. The flipper then again opens like a book and the conflict is seemingly resolved as the ball is getting tossed up in the air and the Cavaliers celebrate. Then to keep this entire story like a cycle when you open up the flipper like a letter the ball being thrown in celebration. Now it turns into the jump ball for the next game because basketball is a sport that is always about the next play, never holding onto the past. So, I tried to use the images and physical movements of the flipper to encase that feeling throughout this cyclical narrative.
My first project to kick off the academic year of 2021 was a conceal/reveal composition. The project wanted me to explore and develop a composition from a single word, a homonym. A homonym is a word with one spelling, but multiple meanings. I was challenged to explore compositional techniques and principal elements to develop this word into a three-dimensional tunnel book. Your denotation of the word would be seen in the physical composition, and the connotation of the word would be inscribed into the back layer and seen when a light is shown through. The design process through all of this would help me reach the end objectives. One of which to show I can use compositional elements and principles of design to construct and demonstrate design intention, to experiment with components of 3D to 2D forms and image building techniques with vocabulary, and to define and apply observational analysis techniques to define and build my design intention.
Exercise 1: Text, figure, ground, closure
So, to start off this project I did a small-scale walkthrough to just start generating ideas around text, figure, ground, and closure. I was tasked to use my initials and throw an image that represents me into the negative space of the letter. The combination of my initials and image would be personal to me and give a small impression of myself and what I like. The goal was to create a simple image to take up negative space and be cut out on the laser cut and continue to use Adobe and vector software to create a final composition.
So, after the example, it was time to start progressing in the project. In the past, I have had trouble staying focused and being motivated within a project when it isn’t something I enjoy. So, with that being said there was an unlimited number of words to choose from, but I wanted to do something personal. To begin brainstorming I came up with about 10 homonyms and homographs that I thought were somewhat interesting. So, after brainstorming I landed on the word grace. The denotation of grace is to move with elegance or to show courtesy or goodwill. At first, that seemed like really the only definition of it, however, grace can also be the name of someone. So, I was able to find something that was personal to me. My final idea may not come across as easily as other words would, but I liked my idea and wanted to pursue it.
Iterations
So, I started the iteration phase where I drew out tons of drawings representing both the denotative and connotative definitions of the word. The denotation of the word was the simple part. I just had to do some image gathering to find out what things demonstrate and display grace. The hard part would be showing my personal relation to Grace. There is a long story as to who Grace is. She is somehow who I was extremely close to for a long time, but over time things changed and I lost the person who I once held so close to myself. So, my first thoughts were to demonstrate almost the opposite of grace where I display the negative emotions and feelings that came with this person while trying to construct an element of elegance in the same composition. After running through multiple iterations and ideas as seen below, I came to the conclusion that I was stretching my idea too far outside the box.
I now went back to the drawing board. I first reworked my imagery of what grace looks like in a denotative way. After that, I decided I wanted to make my definition of grace the reveal aspect of my composition. I decided to focus on the entire composition having a sense of grace while still showing a sense of loss of this person Grace. One of the problems I ran into while doing this was there is not one definitive thing that represents grace, so I had to come up with a way of explaining it while still being subtly. So, I had actually gotten inspiration from a song on my idea. I found that some people see grace in the stars as they are such a vast thing that brings peace, and a lot of people find purpose within stars. In turn, I had come up with the idea of writing her name in the star so that maybe the viewer could make the connection between my images of grace and the silhouette of her. I also decided that if I am going to make this personal to myself and Grace that I should find a way to properly represent so I used an actual picture of the two of us and abstracted our arms to fit within the context of the composition. So, although almost all viewers would not recognize the silhouette I know if I or she looked at it we would immediately recognize ourselves. At this point I had created about 3 rough drafts of my imagery that I felt good about that can be seen below. All displaying my ideas in different ways working differently with similar and different images and different perspectives and placements.
Concept Statement
The homonym used with the composition is grace. Someone’s initial thoughts when they hear the word grace tend to be something along the lines of compassion or possessing elegance. Grace be seen in little things like a starry night or flower petals falling in the wind. Another representation of grace can be seen written in the stars. The other meaning for grace is more personal to me in the fact that it is the name of someone that I used to be close to. Grace is someone I used to know like no other person however, over time that seemed to change, and I had to lose someone that I was once so close with. Within the reveal of the composition, there is a depiction of Grace that is an actual silhouette of her. The foreground is representing the denotation of grace within the starry night as well as the flower petals. In addition, when the composition is hit with the light the connotative definition of grace is revealed al0ong with the sense of loss or distance. So, grace stands for both a sense of elegance, as well as losing a person named Grace and the feelings she represents to me and I have tried to create the bridge between the two.
Production
At this point, I had my images ready and I just had to play with placement and perspective to help emphasize certain elements of the composition. I then settled on a final design and began constructing the physical tunnel book. The dimensions are 10”x8”. I felt a landscape orientation helped communicate the feelings of the composition better than a square figure would have. I was not able to use the laser cutter for my final composition, but I was still able to create my layers on Adobe Illustrator to practice that aspect of the project. So, I created the tunnel book out of Bristol based on resources given to us. After finishing the book, I created the layers with my images and had to use multiple layer techniques to hide images until the light came into play.
My first visualization principles project this semester was an in-depth project for an interpretative collage. I was to explore how visualization can be applied into a process to reflect upon based on my interpretation of one of three stories. The objectives of the project are to identify important parts of a story and how one’s interpretation can be communicated through design elements and principles, applying visualization as a reflective process to find meaning, evaluating different interpretations by finding what design principles were applied and which were most important. As well as, applying color theory to help support my principles, element, and interpretation, and applying intention through the means of a digital collage.
Exercise 1: Seeing Words
The purpose of exercise one was to read other poems introduced within the class and create five visuals pulling imagery from the beginning, middle, and end. I had to opportunity to create my own, edit current images, or just pull images from the internet to describe the setting and area and create a random set of images. This was a good introduction to the research that would eventually lead me to my image gathering for my final composition.
So, I began my process by reading through each story. After reading through all of them one immediately stood out to me. After reading “Oranges” by Gary Soto I knew it was the story I wanted to choose. Of the three it was the story I visualized most easily and immediately had my own interpretation for. The story follows a young boy and girl as they go to a corner store and he buys her candy bar with only a nickel and orange. I knew that with this story I wanted to shed light on the little things and what the children saw as valuable. For the boy, this was trading his only nickel and orange to get something the young girl really wanted, a candy bar. Although this was not actually enough for the candy, the cashier let him buy it with everything he had. With all of this being said, through my interpretation I wanted the small items each child had to represent them and the emotions they had. In addition, I wanted to use color to help emphasize these things even more. Because although an orange and a nickel do not hold much value, it meant a lot to the boy to give that up, so it shows how he felt about the girl and was able to sacrifice all he had to make her happy.
Exercise 2: Resource Gathering
Exercise two was all about finding images that you liked for your selected story. This builds right off of the first exercise where I continue to do image gathering, but now towards the final composition. I was now at the point of pulling in images to help represent my ideas. I tried to find at least 10 pictures to represent the important items, children, and settings. After a while, I was able to gather a decent-sized library of images to choose from. So now everyone doing the same story was able to share their images with each other and I was able to find more images I wanted to incorporate in my story that I hadn’t seen myself.
Exercise 3: Creating Harmony
Exercise three was my first experimentation with photoshop, and it went surprisingly well. It wasn’t something we turned in, but it was to just experiment with actually making collages with a little bit of purpose. I personally worked with diagrammatic space and just played around in Photoshop to get a feel of what that type of style feels like. I did enjoy working with it, but I didn’t feel like it could translate to my composition, but I think it was still helpful regardless.
Iterations
After gathering up all these images I was able to start piecing together which ones worked with other ones and how I would be able to create a sense of harmony in my collage with all of these random images. I first noticed that I was going to need a way to draw emphasis to these images when realistically they are very small. My first thoughts were to play with color. I would create a black and white background and only color in the objects that contributed to the emotions within the story. So, I began to experiment with that and realized that that just wasn’t enough, I needed something else to help emphasize them. My next thoughts were to play with scale; however, I was unsure of how I was going to approach this. After talking to my professor, we defined the differences between a composition being credible and realistic. For this project we want it to be very credible which means that you’ll lose some realism within the collage.
Concept Statement
After reading “Oranges” by Gary Soto I knew it was the story I wanted to pull my own interpretation from. I immediately felt that the main takeaway from the narration was how important the little things can be. Everyone values things at a different price, so for kids, it is definitely different than what we value. So, a young boy giving his only nickel and orange to get a young girl a candy bar shows just how much he cares for her. By giving up all he had to make her happy was beautiful in the sense that most people do not see much value in a coin and fruit. But for the boy, it’s a lot and it was enough to help him do what he wanted to. I knew then that I would use color, scale, and quantity to draw emphasis to these items. My focus was to draw the viewer into the small items like the orange, nickel, and candy bar to hopefully get across the emotions felt between the young boy and girl. I think the composition captures the usage of the principles I mentioned nicely to show the harmony between all aspects of the composition to successfully communicate my own interpretation of the story.
Production
After experimenting with some random abstraction where I fluctuated scale and played with the number of these items, I found that my composition became more credible when I toyed around with the smaller items on the right. My whole interpretation is to make the small objects stand out and represent each character’s emotions towards the other. So, this experimentation was really good for my final product as it was something that was still realistic, but its strongest feature is its credibility while still communicating my interpretation of the story.
My next project assignment was an extension of our last project, A4, the mandala project. This project would be incorporating color into our digital compositions for my mandala. This project is designed to have me further explore the development of dynamic patterns to include essential color vocabularies. I will continue exploring my mandala studies of abstracted natural and synthetic shapes by testing some basic color theory applications and definitions. As well as I will experiment with translating value color applications. Illustrate color’s impact on pattern and visual movements through observation, evaluation, and testing as it relates to your natural or mechanical abstractions. Plan composition organization through strategies related to essential underlying color theory structures. Develop and describe ideas through iteration. Demonstrate intentional crafting techniques digital applications and tools.
I started tackling this project by learning about colors. I learned about how large of a role color can play within a composition. I started to discover there are many different color harmonies and I decided to find five color schemes for complementary, split complementary, analogous, and monochromatic color harmonies. I now found these different values and put them into a chart to compare them between each other and figure out which ones felt most confident within my composition. All of this was done through Adobe Color and that resource can take a lot of the credit for my color research and everything I learned throughout this project. Adobe made it easy to research all these colors it taught me how many colors fell under each definition, what they meant and the differing shade applications that came with all of them. This made doing research really simple for this project because I was able to do all of my information grabbing in one place.
Iterations
I now decided on one set of values from each harmony and tested it within my mandala. With the majority of my composition being line, I decided to focus on line rather than fill and debated what colors would give certain lines more pop than the others to have them stand out. Each iteration can be seen below along with some experimentation with a background to try and make certain colors stand out.
Concept Statement
For my first mandala, I used an analogous color harmony consisting mostly of shades of blues and purples. The inspiration behind the mandala is water, wind, fire, and Earth. So, with that being said the feeling I want to be captured by my composition is a harmonious feeling. I believe that these values accomplished this goal very well. The composition consists mostly of lines. So, I had to find a way to make the important lines that form each design with the mandala pop. The wide range of shades of blue and purple made this goal achievable and it turned out very well. The brighter shades made certain lines stand out while deeper shades brought emphasis to the smallest detail and this contrast created a great composition that was not drawing attention to one area, but to the entire mandala. After experimenting with this color scheme with a colored background, I felt it was being too demanding and it was distracting from the actual composition that is why I chose to use the open white background rather than the black-filled composition. For my second mandala, I wanted to take a different approach. I had already used a combination of different shades within one value. Now with there being four different elements or parts of my composition I wanted to try and extract four colors that could be put into the mandala that still kept that feeling of harmony. However, after experimenting I did not feel confident in any value set with four different colors. Certain elements stood out more than others and they did not fulfill the intended feeling of harmony. After this, I decided to experiment with complementary color harmonies. This way I was able to take two opposite colors, but I could still play with differing, values, shades, and hues to keep the intended feeling. I ended up finding a color scheme that emphasized each part of the composition while upholding a harmonious feeling with a complementary color harmony consisting of blue and brown/orangish colors.
Production
After experimenting with all of these different types of color schemes I had figured out what route I wanted to go with each mandala. From these iterations, I figured out that although there are four elements in my composition, Earth, wind, water, and fire, I won’t be able to do a color scheme consisting of four different colors. So, I decided one mandala was going to be one color with four variants of it whether that meant changing the hue, saturation, or the value itself, while the second mandala would be a complementary set with two opposing colors and abstraction of hues and saturations between those two colors. After applying and experimenting with how I wanted to implement each color into each element I eventually arrived at my final deliverables that can be seen below.
In this project, I was challenged to utilize both essential forms and organic drawings to invent/draw abstract portraiture of myself. Portraits should not represent a face per se, but rather a combination of non-objective geometric and organic forms with an emphasis on dimensionality that expresses the underlying nature of portraiture. My goals were to contemplate, reveal, and reflect upon self-identity and mental states. Draw with explorative and/or deliberate placement of forms. Create rapid prototypes using basic shapes to inform geometry in later portraiture. Manipulate simple geometric forms and shapes and inspire them with dimensionality using linear perspective techniques. Use line weight, color/shading/texture, over/under-exaggeration of forms as a means of expression, and emotional intentionality. This project has been split into two deadlines where the first is focused on my process, iterations, and conceptual building. While the second half is focused on putting it all together and constructing a final deliverable.
So, to help myself eventually achieve these goals in the first half I started off by doing some rapid prototyping. I created a mood chart to find two to three moods that I wanted to use within my portrait. The moods I ended up choosing are unorganized, whizzing, and calculated. After finding these moods/emotions I began the rapid prototyping process. I quickly created iterations that I felt described the emotions and I just kept drawing until I ran out of ideas. I ended up creating a total of 50+ iterations combined between the three emotions. Along with these iterations, I also started to create my frame that these forms were going to rest upon to create an abstract portrait. I felt confident going into the second deadline with everything that I have created within the first couple of weeks and was excited to begin the transformation to the final deliverable.
Iterations
The iterations were the entirety of the first half of this project, so I put extra time and thought into this process and it really paid off. I came up with my three sensations and from there I just let my brain run. Ended with 50 iterations varying between the three sensations and ultimately what looks like a bunch of simple 2D shaped turned into complex 3D shapes in the end.
All of my iterations between the three sensations
Production
I started production with the abstraction of my 2D figures to 3D. I narrowed my iterations down to 5 drawings pulling from all three emotions. I then began figuring out how I would turn these two-dimensional drawings into three-dimensional forms. I used my previous knowledge from visual principles as well as foundations to help this process. I created these five forms that can be seen below each two-dimensional drawing corresponds to the three-dimensional sketch below it.
After designing my forms, I began rapid prototyping again while placing the forms in different positions on my shoulders to see what I felt the most confidence in. However, I didn’t feel confident in my previous body abstraction. I felt it was too simple and found inspiration from one of my classmates on the final shoulder design. So, I went back and created a new body for these forms to be configured around. I didn’t think the three-dimensional forms looked right sitting upon a two-dimensional frame. So, I took a new reference image of myself, one with a little depth to it, and that became my new frame for all of the forms. After experimenting with different forms in different places, along with multiple color schemes I had finally found one I was confident in. The final color scheme was a triad containing shades of blue, red, and yellow.
After rapid prototyping, I found that some forms just didn’t feel quite right within the dynamic. So, I got rid of one of the forms and split one of the forms into two parts, and scratched the two other parts within this one form. So now at this point, after experimentation, I had figured out where I wanted each form to go. It was time to finalize the frame of the shoulders as well as add onto all of these forms. Just like previous drawing projects in the past I had found the project becomes much more complete when you add small details and shading. In addition to those things, I learned how to play with different hues and saturations. However, with the triad color scheme, I used I felt like some colors just didn’t pop so I tested it against a 50% grey background as well as a black background and the colors stood out great against the grey, much better than the black or white. The combination of hues and saturation plus the grey background helped my shading and made the yellow aspects of my composition nonrelevant. It quickly became replaced by pink and maroon and the slight change in hue and saturation to all of those colors created a great look of shading and gave the figure some life to it. I felt confident with my new placement and added simplistic forms to help add detail to the final product. After that, I finally had my forms placed and color scheme down, so I started to shade, add texture, and depth to the forms to help really emphasize their three-dimensional figure. I used a combination of saturation, hues, and light to balance all the colors and make them all pop while still accomplishing their intended emotions. Contrary to the two-dimensional shapes, I felt their three-dimensional forms fit some different emotions better. The dark red forms fit under unorganized, the light blue forms fit under calculated, while the pink forms fit along the lines of whizzing.
My most recent project was a pattern-based project centered round mandalas. This project is designed to have someone explore the development of dynamic patterns through analysis of natural and human-made forms. I will develop abstract patterns that relate to both nature and synthetic shapes or structures (without being a direct representation) through the use of design elements and principles primarily focusing on line, shape, texture, rhythm/repetition, movement, symmetry and asymmetry, and scale. These pattern studies will be organized in mandala form. Along the way, the goals for me were to identify and apply a range of elements and principles that play a role in pattern development. Illustrate pattern evolution and development inspired through observation, evaluation, and testing relationships of natural and mechanical forms. Plan composition organization through strategies related to essential underlying grid structures. Develop and describe ideas through iteration. Demonstrate intentional crafting techniques in both analog and digital applications and tools.
First, I did some research on Mandalas to learn a little bit more about them because that was what the project is centered upon. I learned that a radial degree of 45 is what they considered perfect as well as a mandala is generally a representation of the circle of life and being complete. Before I could start creating grids for my mandala, I started by finding 10 natural objects and 10 synthetic objects and throwing them into a chart to create abstractions. I played around with symmetric/asymmetric, dynamic/static, curves/straight, repetition/rhythm, positive/negative, and macro/micro principles. After experimenting with breaking down each object into my own abstraction. I used the results from these iterations and newfound knowledge to begin drafting grids. I made grids that were symmetrical, asymmetrical, and some that played with positive and negative space, and even some that were just for fun to get the ball rolling and try and get the creative juices flowing. After creating the grids, it was time to test the abstractions I created within these grid spaces to get a feel for what I did and didn’t like. These experiments can be seen below. I hadn’t settled on one grid yet, so I tested multiple abstractions within multiple grids.
Iterations
A lot of what was talked about in the research sections can be found in the iterations portion of the process post. First came the image gathering and the iterations of all 20 of the images gathered. I decided to create a chart and create iterations involving a bunch of design principles to see which ones would inspire me or turn out very confident.
Iterations for all 10 natural and synthetic objects
After my sketch iterations, it was time to focus on the grids. There were so many different directions to go with this. What radial degree, symmetrical or asymmetrical, how would pattern affect the radial differences, a lot went into the grid creation. So, I just made a few of each to see what stood out or which grids stood out more than others as being confident. Some grids were made only with lines others were made with images or shapes.
Concept Statement
For my digital mandala, I took inspiration from the four elements, Earth, wind, water, and fire. I thought this idea was a really abstract concept in the sense that someone could take it in many directions, and I wanted to give my interpretation of it. I decided to abstract all four elements while they were moving. A landslide, wind flowing in a certain area, water rushing down a creek, and fire rising. Some of these are hard to abstract because you cannot see wind, but we see the Earth everywhere we look. Overall, the result was to give off a harmonious effect because I feel that is what the embodiment of a mandala stands for. So, I used symmetry, positive/negative space, grayscale, line width, movement, and texture to help communicate these abstractions I’ve created. So, next is my analog composition which was inspired by a pair of shoes. The mandala is a breakdown of a pair of shoes from the laces down to the form of it. I wanted to keep the design simple, as shoes are a simple object. However, I pulled things apart and left gaps between objects to give a sense of complexity because the shoe itself isn’t complex, but the process of creating it is complex. This is the effect I was hoping to give off, complexity. Even the simplest of objects can be complex if you break them apart. I also took into account symmetry, line width, positive/negative space, scale, and deformation to help give off this intended effect.
Production
Now I had come up with the idea to do an Earth, wind, water, and fire iteration for my analog composition. However, after talking to my professor we decided I wasn’t truly using my own abstractions so I decided to start over on the natural iterations for each element and the transition can be seen between my first draft analog mandala and my later digital iterations. After seeing how much detail was put into my abstractions, I decided it would be best to do my natural mandala digitally with the same grid. I wanted to make sure the details were consistently carried over so I changed my mind so that my digital composition would be of my natural objects and my analog composition would be of the synthetic objects. I continued to create multiple compositions for my natural mandala until I found one, I felt truly confident in.
I now could shift my focus more towards my synthetic objects because I was still unsure what I wanted to do for that mandala. I just didn’t like any of the first objects I chose or the abstractions for them either. I decided to shift my mind towards something I’m passionate about. I started thinking and realized I love shoes, why can’t I just do that. So, I did, I started researching pictures of shoes to give me inspiration and when I began creating rough drafts for my shoe-based mandala, I already felt more confident in it. This had to be done by hand though, so I thought about how I could get my ideas across while keeping it simplistic to help keep the symmetry and detail. With this shift in mindsets, I also felt I had to change my grid. I changed the grid to something more simplistic that I felt fit the mandala better. I then came up with the idea that you can see below, and it was inspired by the pictures I found that is also pictured. I played around with the ideas and iterations digitally and then when I came up with a final idea, I took it to Bristol and began working by hand.
I now had done multiple objects and grid iterations to the point where I had focused on two different ideas, one for each mandala. The production for my digital mandala was all done on Sketchbook using the radial tool. It took many attempts of trial and error until I eventually came up with my final composition for my digital mandala. My analog mandala was much harder simply because it was done by hand. I had to figure out how I was going to take a 12×12″ canvas and create a symmetrical composition on it. I ended up doing multiple trials digitally of what I wanted my mandala to look like so when I go to do it by hand, I have an idea of how I’m going to do it. With all that practice, and the addition of a guide/stencil I made I was able to pretty accurately create a symmetrical hand-drawn mandala that I was happy with at the end of the production.
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