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Research

The final assignment for the Visual Principle class was redesigning chess game pieces while collaborating with a partner. We were asked to create 3D crafted pieces or slice forms for each piece. The research for this project was to get to know my partner, Danny, who has been in the same tablemates since last semester. Danny was the classmate who I felt most comfortable with, and we shared similar design principles. Just like the previous project, we were asked to complete Collab-O Miro Board to get to know each other better and break the ice.

Then we were asked to learn about chess, such as the roles of each piece and the rules. I used to play chess when I was young and felt pretty comfortable with the rules and each piece’s role, but I did careful research since there were rules I did not know, and the roles (status) of pieces were way much different than I thought. After the research, my partner and I played to experience playing chess and get closer to each other.

Exercise

The first exercise our class did was playing chess jeopardy with a partner to examine our knowledge. I was not fast enough to answer the questions first but fortunately knew most of the answers due to careful research. The second exercise was to make a slice form with the partner. It was the first time for us to make a slice form, so we decided to make a penguin slice form that could easily be crafted. The craft did not come out well, but it helped us understand the mechanisms and the methods of crafting.

Iterations

The first idea that came to my mind when I heard what this project was about was an American football. The formation of chess pieces and football players looked alike, and each piece was very similar to some positions in football.

I thought football would be a great option until thinking about crafting. Football players all wear helmets, jerseys, and cleats. It is hard to distinguish which player is who because they all look the same with the equipment on. When making pieces as players, it would be hard to recognize which piece is which, and the crafting method would be almost the same for all of the pieces. Therefore, I left this idea behind.

My partner provided various ideas, such as pirate, totem pole, and Roman column. I started imagining the narrative and mechanism of slice forms from these ideas, but it was challenging for me to create clear stories or narratives. After thinking about other ideas, cultural differences suddenly flashed into my mind. Danny is from China, and I am from Korea, so I thought showing each other’s countries using chess pieces was a good way to show ourselves as international students and also was a great way to show and tell about our culture. I was also excited to take advantage of being a foreign student this time and thought this was it.

 

However, my partner claimed culture would be hard to craft out since architecture was involved in this idea. I told him that we did not have to create many architectural slice forms, but he still did not show interest. The fact that we were running out of time and other groups started making pieces had me nervous, so we had a group meeting with the instructor. After finishing the meeting, we finally decided on the idea to be life versus death.

My partner wanted to do death by making skeleton slice forms, and I decided to do life by doing animal hierarchy.

• King: human
  • Humans are not the physically strongest animal in the world, just like King can only move only a single square, but they rule animals and are on top of the hierarchy.
• Queen: lion
  • Lions are known as the highest predators on Earth. They can kill other animals whenever they want to, just like a queen. They are also fast, and active animals as the queen can move unlimited squares and go straight, back, diagonal, and side.
• Rook: Dog
  • Dogs are known as friendly animals, but they can kill other animals with their strengths. Rooks is a piece whose initial performance is significantly limited by the same team’s pieces blocking their path. However, when there is open space, they become strong and active, just like dogs get active and fast when they are in open areas like grass fields.
  • Dogs usually let their owners know when there is a disaster and try to evacuate them. The rule “castling” is similar to this case as Rooks can help the King evacuate and escape to the corner.
• Bishop: Horse
  • Horses are fast and active animals like Bishop can move unlimited squares. Bishop becomes more threatening and active as the game progresses into the latter part of the game as horses have good stamina compared to other animals.
• Knight: Kangaroo
  • Kangaroos can jump up to 10 feet high as Knights can jump over pieces. Their physical look is also similar to each other.
• Pawn: Egg
  • Eggs are not animals but can be animals in the future. Eggs are weak and fragile, just like pawns can only move forward only a single or two squares. However, pawns become more threatening and dangerous pieces as the game reaches the latter part. Pawns can promote to another piece when they reach the other side of the board as eggs can turn into birds (promoting the status and getting much stronger) when they try their best to break themselves and to be born like pawns try their best to reach the other side.

Productions

I started making vector files for each piece. I tested out the prototype first and realized the piece was unstable when making it with cardstock. So I changed the material to chipboard. The thickness of the chipboard was about 0.03 inches, so I made the squares (where the chipboard overlapped each other) with the same thickness.

I first made an egg slice form as a prototype. I made the egg slice form with two layers of paper at first, but it did not stand up and kept falling, so I made ten layers of slice form. With this thickness, the egg stood up and maintained its form.

 

Then I drew out a human figure assembly view. Using Adobe Illustrator, I took advantage of the mirror feature to make the figure, so when I drew the left part of the body, the right part automatically got drawn out.

For dogs and lions, I made them a little more complicated to distinguish one from another since their appearance is similar to each other.

 

 

Then I made the assembly views for the kangaroo and the horse.

 

Below images are chess pieces final images

Research

The final assignment for the Fundamentals class was to design a gift for a mentor you chose based on his/her discipline and interests outside of design. I looked up the available mentors who had the same discipline I wanted to get in (Industrial Design) and chose a guy named “Chuck.” There were many other mentors available, but I chose him because we shared similar hobbies: On the sheet, it said his interests are basketball, spending time with friends, and watching sports, so are my interests. I usually make friends by playing or talking about sports and believe if I showed a shared interest, we could easily be friends in a short amount of time, which could lead my outcome to be successful.

Exercise 1

The first exercise for this project was to demonstrate the best gift I have ever received in my life. I said the best gift I received was a pack of clothes and the birthday cake I received when it was my birthday. On that day, I visited my friend’s dorm to receive stuff he borrowed from me. He told me to come to the standard room, and when I opened the door, my close friends started singing the birthday song and gave me a bunch of clothes. The reason I chose these as the best gifts was not because of the price or the amount, and it was because they were surprises and my close friends gave them to me. This exercise reminded me that the gift should not be expensive or fancy to be the best. Instead, it is about how memorable and meaningful it is to that person.

Exercise 2

The second exercise was to make a container/packaging. We were asked to pick a random given object and create a container. I worked as a team with Ava, and we chose a bee that looked like a toy. We decided to make a yellow hexagon box and a black top for the box. The bee was attached to the top with a string and went inside the box when you closed the box with the top. When grabbing the top and opening the box, the bee would look like flying. This exercise made me realize that the packaging can affect the quality and significance of a gift.

Iterations

Selecting a quote or inspiration from artists was the first step I needed to take. I looked up some famous quotes from designers about design and came up with three favorite quotes.

“Make it simple. but significant.” – Don Draper

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Art is anything you can get away with.” – Marshal McLuhan

The first two quotes fascinated me because they accorded to my gift principles. I thought making a gift for the mentor did not have to be super crafted complicatedly, and it just needed to be something that impressive and touched one’s heart. I was going to select one of these two quotes until I found my favorite quote by Marshal McLuhan. “Art is anything you can get away with.” Art might be stressful for a few people, but people usually find art relaxing and gives a sense of calmness, especially students who chose their major to be related to art like Chuck. Designing a gift for him and enjoying the gift is also part of the art process, and it is beneficial to both of us since we are design (art) students. Therefore, I decided to move on with this quote because it accorded with my principle and related to the definition of a gift.

To begin with designing, I asked my mentor some sets of questions in order to get to know him. However, I introduced myself and what the assignment was about to the mentor so he could have a clear idea of what the project was and be prepared to answer the questions. The questions I asked him were

• What is your hobby?
• If you get to live on a deserted island forever, what are the three items you will bring for entertainment?
• If you were a food, what would it be?

These questions are meant to be fun and make the responder feel comfortable. My mentor answered:

• Some of my hobbies are playing sports, watching OSU/Cleveland sports, and going to new places with friends.
• If I lived on a desert island and had only three things, I’d probably bring a basketball, my Nintendo switch, and a deck of cards.
• If I were a food, I’d be Chicago deep-dish pizza.

After receiving these answers, I also answered these questions to start a good conversation and make him feel comfortable. After gathering information about him, I decided to design a gift that is related to basketball since he is a basketball lover.

I started thinking about the possible gifts based on basketball.

1. Basketball hoop on door
2. Trash can under a basketball hoop
3. A necklace with his name on it
4. A both-sided metal with his name on it and a picture of himself playing basketball
5. A basketball board game

I really wanted to move on with either of the first two options (basketball hoop) since every basketball lover loves this item, but it seemed challenging for crafting because there were so many other works I needed to do besides laser cutting. The third and fourth options also caught my mind, but I wanted something he could enjoy himself and with his friends. Therefore, I set my mind to craft a basketball board game. There were three reasons I chose this option to be the gift. The first reason is that Chuck loves basketball, and I believe he could enjoy playing this board game so much. The second reason is Chuck also loves playing games, as he mentioned he likes playing Nintendo Switch. The last reason is that Chuck loves hanging out with his friends, and I firmly believe he and his friends could enjoy this game together.

Production

I decided the board game to be shooting the ball to hoops using a technique of a catapult. I gained this inspiration from arcade basketball shooting which is enjoyed by people who love basketball. I planned to make this arcade game a smaller and portable version that he could enjoy anywhere he wanted.

I wanted to ball to come back after shooting, so I decided to make it tilted. After shooting, the balls would come back to the shooting area through small passage balls can go.

Then I made three same-sized hoops that would be located at different heights to make the game more fun. I used grid paper instead of a net and a red pencil instead of a rim to make it look like a real hoop.

 

 

I also made a back panel where one of the hoops will be hung.

The next step was to build a catapult that could change the directions (left-right and right-left), so he could aim at different hoops. I used to make catapults back in my high school days and was able to build one that shoots pretty far. I attached all the stuff I made and successfully built a portable basketball arcade game with three hoops.

The final step was to build a container. I wanted the container to have a handle so he could carry this easily and play whenever and wherever he wanted. I also attached a small piece of paper on both sides of the opening section of the container to let him know he could put his index finger and thumb, grab the box, and open the container.

I put the green paper on the box container as a package design and give a sense of a board game using a standout color.

 

 

Shooting Ball Action Video

Research

The goal of Assignment 2 for the Visual Principle class was to learn the idea of movement and crafting paper mechanisms. We are asked to work as a team for the second time after the Mask Up assignment. Dawson and I were the duos for this project who I felt comfortable with because have taken Principle classes together since last semester. We completed Collab-O Miro Board for the ice breaker and were able to get to know each other better.

Our class went to Thompson Library to explore printed compositions and pull-tabs that had some movements and paper mechanisms. I was surprised by the techniques each medium had and started looking carefully at mechanisms for future reference.

Exercise

The exercise for this project was crafting paper mechanisms. We were basically asked to make a mini-pull tab following the instructor’s instructions. I drew a football in the pull tab, so whenever I pull the tab, the football drawing would come out. It was an easy exercise process for me to follow and helped me understand the paper mechanisms.

Another exercise we did was visualizing music by trying to sketch the sound and emotions. The instructor played a few instrumental music, and we used our imaginations to draw out what we hear and feel. I felt kind of awkward while sketching, but this exercise helped me a lot when my partner and I were choosing the music later.

 

Iterations

Then we started selecting music samples to prototype. The music should only contain instrumental, no lyrics or words, so we added the favorite instrumental music to a Youtube playlist where we can share and listen to each other’s music. I added music that had at least two different parts so my partner could craft based on the first part and I could craft based on the second part. We spent a good amount of days selecting one music believed it was the most important part of the process because the music would decide the paper mechanism, theme, etc. We came up with the final two songs, “Fly O” by Coldplay and “Moves Like Jagger” by Maroon 5. Choosing one song between these two was the part my partner and I struggled with. After discussing with the instructor and careful consideration, we decided the instrumental to be “Fly O” because it had more clear feelings, tone, and emotions. It also had ascending and descending parts in the music, and we thought we could make interesting outcomes from ascension and descension.

 

I focused on “ascension” while he focused on “descension” to start thinking about possible outcomes based on the word itself. To be honest, it was quite challenging for me to come up with ideas with that word because we decided the primary technique to be pull tabs. The reason for choosing the pull tabs technique was we knew more about pull tabs than other techniques, such as stop-motion since the exercise and printed compositions we looked at in the library were pull tabs. However, we were unable to come up with suitable ideas for crafting, so we both confessed our struggle and decided to change the technique to be “stop-motion.”

 

Various ideas came to my mind since we changed the technique we were going to use. I could simply use materials and make them look ascending with stop motion animations. I first tested out a physical handmade stop motion out of Bristol paper. The first stop motion I made included a bird flying from a tree to the sky since the music selected has the word ‘fly’ in the title.

It was not a good outcome but came out as I expected; I just wanted to see how it would look and try different phone applications for stop motion animations. The next stop motion I tried to proceed on my Ipad. The digital process was way much more comfortable and less time-consuming than handcrafting.

Because the song sounded like nature with whistle and bird sounds, I chose my theme as a life of a flower. Ascension is shown as the growth of the plant, and conversion from 3D to 2D is also one of the settings I set. I believed setting the composition as a plant growth not only accords to the music theme but also displays a sense of ascension. I set my composition as navy blue on sky blue while his craft is sky blue on navy blue to display the correlation between our works.

Production

To begin the crafting, all I needed was glue, scissors, blue scale paper, yellow paper, and a pencil. I overlapped the blue scale paper in order from light to dark scale with glue. Then I tore off the middle part of the paper and took a picture: I repeated this process until seeing almost a circle of navy blue paper. I took pictures from the top of the composition. The next step was making a paper plant. When lowering the camera angle to take pictures, I made the plant longer by sticking additional paper on the bottom of it. Then when pictures get to the front view of the composition from the top, it gets converted from 3D to 2D.

I drew out the scenes (2D and 3D and made them look almost the same scene.

The process gets easier from this step. I simply needed to make the plant get bigger. I drew and cut out different sizes of 21 plants and took pictures of each. I made it a 5-seconds video out of 64 images.

Research

The second assignment of the Fundamental class was Mask Up. This assignment aimed to experiment with compositional attributes in volumetric space and form using complementary shape relationships or connections. The significant part was that each student had to collaborate with another student(s) to illustrate and communicate a thematic narrative. I was assigned with two partners from the instructor (Deb), Bryce and Ava. I moved to Deb’s class this semester and did not know much about them. The class did an icebreaker in order to get to know each other by asking some personal questions picked from several cards.

Iterations

Then we, as a group, took photos of ourselves with masks on and drew each other on a large scale paper to start off the project. After drawing, we began thinking about how we were going to create a narrative and present our work together as a unified concept. We decided our theme to be the Covid pandemic that we are currently experiencing.

The sense each of us concluded to use was

• Me: Smell
• Bryce: Touch
• Ava: Sound

Since there were three of us in the group, unlike other groups, it was challenging to combine our ideas into one main concept. After doing a 1-on-3 meeting with the TA, we finally brought an idea together. Connecting three of each mask with a string to show the relationship was the thing we all agreed with. We were going to connect our masks through the senses we were using (smell – touch – sound – smell) with a string like a triangle, but it seemed hard for others to understand the relationships and the unified concept. Therefore, we decided to highlight the sense and make them stand out instead of using a string.

Among the other human sense, the smell was not an easy sense to be expressed on the mask because the primary purpose of wearing masks is to cover the nose. Moreover, our theme was the Covid pandemic, so covering the nose was one of the essential parts of constructing a mask. My first idea to utilize the smell was to make a mask with flowers which best represents smell, but it was closer to one of the other senses, sight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Highlighting the nose part was the next idea I came up with. I could fully cover my nose and demonstrate the sense at the same time in this way, so I decided to move on with this idea. I also put a personal story in the mask. Watching Masking for a Friend reminded me of an Asian culture that Asian people tend to wear masks often. It is not only because of plagues and viruses our ancestors had dealt with but also because we tend to hide in public. In my country, people wear masks for several reasons:

• To keep your germs from infecting others and prevent diseases
• To be anonymous in public
• To hide bad face conditions

Celebrities in my country began wearing masks for these reasons, and it has gradually influenced younger generations, including me. Therefore, I decided to put my personal story and my country’s culture in the mask by hiding most areas of my face for my narrative and particularity.

Group Narrative/Theme:

The “Masked Up” assignment is a way to address the theme of masking as related to a pandemic, that being either a made-up pandemic, a past pandemic, or the current COVID-19 pandemic. When thinking about a pandemic and how it has affected our senses, the first thing that comes to our minds is how it has caused people to lose their taste and smell. However, when just looking at the senses that are influenced by the actual sickness, we underlook how the pandemic as a whole has impacted our senses. So, we began thinking about how else we could interpret them. We switched our focus to how we’ve adapted to the change in our senses during this time in our lives. Each member of our group picked a different sense to focus on; touch, smell, and sound. We then took our individual senses, dug deeper into how it has been affected and started designing our separate masks.

 

Written Narrative:

Our main theme is masking as related to the same pandemic we are currently experiencing. We are also dealing with the pandemic in the same location/ place we are living in. Our group is making our own masks (3), and each of us is using different senses for our masks: touch, hearing, and smell. The sense I am using is the smell. Therefore, the nose is the main feature of my mask, and I attached the chenille stems to the nose part for emphasis. I am going to make a mask just for myself who has to cope with full of diseases and viruses. My mask will cover the entire face in order to prevent viruses from infecting me. One of the other reasons I made a whole face mask was that I was born in a conservative country and tended to want to be anonymous outside. I will use this mask whenever I go outside for safety and anonymity.

 

Production

I started the construction process off by drawing out how I would make the mask. The two main things for my mask were making it as a whole mask and highlighting the nose.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I divided the mask into three parts to see how I could construct it: nose, eyes, and forehead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I drew out the planar figures to estimate the number of pieces and converted the file to Illustrator. I measured the length and size of some parts of my face, such as the forehead and eye, for good proportions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After making the pieces in Illustrator, I used the Cricut machine for the cutout process. I successfully got the cutout pieces with TA’s help since it was my first time using the Cricut machine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I roughly put the pieces together with tape to see what the mask would look like. The mask looked what I expected, but I decided to use other materials to further improve the quality.

I put greyscale paper on each piece except for the nose pieces in order to show emphasize my sense because the smell is the strongest sense, according to my narrative. I also put chenille pipes around the nose to highlight my sense and rhinestones around the mask for visual effects. All the materials I used were colorless (black-grey-white), and the purpose of not using colored materials was to show an atmosphere of the pandemic. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected the world negatively and resulted in a depressive atmosphere, and I believed using colorless materials would show the theme more clearly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Final Images

Research

The research of this assignment was to learn about Gestalt principles first of all. The instructor gave us a lecture about the principles and finished it up with an explanation of the Exercise. I went through the PowerPoint again and the assignment description to get some clear ideas about the project. Briefly, this assignment was designed to explore paper layering techniques to emphasize and exaggerate a sense of depth and space. We were to create a composition in greyscale cardstock that visually illustrates our space. Using a minimum of 5 flat layers of paper, we were supposed to explore the principle of scale to convey foreground, middle-ground, and background.

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Exercise

For the first part of the Exercise, we had to select five fonts for our initials. The fonts should provide a chance to use the negative space to hide an image in its negative space that reflects our personalities and something about ourselves. The first word that comes to my mind when I think about myself has always been ‘soccer,’ which has been my favorite thing and played an important role in my life. I started thinking about how I was going to design my initial ‘B’ with characteristics of soccer. Then I came up with an idea to fill the negative space of the initial up with a soccer ball and a leg kicking the ball.

I first created a design that did not follow the rubric; I tried to connect all parts together so that I would come out as one piece when I used the laser cutter. As in the image below, I connected the ball and the leg with the word soccer to make it one piece.

However, I realized that the puzzle should have a maximum number of ‘three parts’ (3 per letter form). I did not fully understand the meaning of the three parts, but when I had one on one review with the instructor, I knew my puzzle had more than three parts. So I removed the word ‘soccer’ and the logos to meet the requirements. After fixing some design errors with the instructor, I finally created the puzzle of my initial that communicated something about me, and it was ready to be cut.

The cutting process must have been more straightforward than I had experienced before. Still, I had some technical issues using the laser cutter that delayed the process, and I had to reserve another appointment for the machine. However, I utilized the cutter to print the puzzle out and successfully finished the Exercise.

Iterations

Due to illness, I missed a class and had to ask one of my friends for catchup, and I had to complete my own research. Since the project was about creating deep space, I started thinking about what scene or element would visualize a sense of deep depth. Sky (space) and ocean were the first two things that came to my mind that strongly relates to deep space. Thus, I began to create sceneries with five layers using Illustrator.

 

The first scene was the deep ocean where oceanic organisms exist, such as coral reefs, starfish, and clams.

The second scene was four layers of mountains with the sun on the top of the composition.

 

These two compositions were rough drafts, and I just explored some of my ideas on them.

Then I created another composition where the village and the Eiffel Tower exist together. I simply trace the image using Illustrator. The purpose of this composition was to see how different elements look together.

 

It took some time to create these three compositions, and my progress was a little later than other students; however, after carefully reviewing my scenes, I was able to move on to my final composition quickly. I decided to create a final composition by combining my second and third compositions together. The theme was traveling, which is my favorite thing to do. I decided the theme to be reflecting my personality (hobby), which I gained inspiration from the Exercise. Things (building/ architectures) in my composition are places where I have visited before. Things I decided to include in the scene:

• First layer
  • A plane
    • It’s the transportation I use when traveling. I believe this element fits best with my theme.
  • Plants and Sky (clouds)
    • They are the frame of the first layer. They provide a strong sense of scenery and boost the traveling theme as well.
• Second layer
  • Tower Bridge
    • I wanted the second layer to be expressed as a river, and it was one of the most beautiful architectures I’ve ever seen.
• Third layer
  • Opera House
    • It is located near the ocean, so I put it above the first layer
    • European-styled houses and a windmill: They convey a sense of European feeling that I’ve been missing so much
• Fourth layer
  • Effiel Tower and Christ the Redeemer
    • They are also one of my favorite architecture I’ve seen in person. The reason I put them in the fourth layer was that these two would create deeper depth; these architectures are big and tall, and by making them look small and putting them behind, it would seem like to have a deeper depth.

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Productions

I created all layer files on Illustrator and made them ready to be cut; they were all vectorized, 0.072 pt, and black stroke with transparent fill. Then I began to gather the materials I needed. All I needed were greyscale papers and cardboard for the box frame. I luckily was able to get the greyscale papers from my friends and cardboard from Hopkins Hall for free. My cut-out file was originally 12×12 inches, but since the paper was 12×8.5 inches, I reduced the file size to 8×8 inches. Everything seemed perfect at this point, but I was unable to reserve the laser cutter due to being full of reservations. I definitely was complacent as I thought there would be plenty of available times for the machine. I have to make sure to be proactive next time. What I did to get access to the laser cutter was wait for the person to be done and use it. The appointments were hourly, and people kept coming in for their reservations, so I had to stop the process and continue. It took much time for the cutting process due to stopping and resuming, but I was successfully able to get the cut the five layers out with the greyscale papers.

I needed something that would hold the five papers together and decided to make a box with the cardboard. Using laser cutting, I made four of 2X8 inches of cardboard. For each cardboard, I draw five parallel lines with equal distance and gently cut them using a knife to put the five papers into the lines. I combined the three cardboard first using glue then inserted papers into the gap. Then I put the other cardboard on top of it to finish the composition.

Concept Statement

My composition is based on famous architectures and buildings where I visited before. Traveling is one of my favorite things to do, and I decided to express my hobby by layering a space of five layers. The primary element of the first layer is a plane, which is flying in the sky with clouds around and grass underneath. I wanted to depict the river and ground simultaneously, so I had the second layer with Tower Bridge in the middle. The third layer is layered with an Opera House, a windmill, and European-style houses because the Opera House and these architectures are usually located near a river, so I layered them above the first layer where the river is. The fourth layer is mainly based on two worldwide landmarks I visited, Christ The Redeemer and the Eiffel Tower. They were placed higher than other buildings in other layers because not only are they tall and big, but they also are the top(high)-ranked landmarks I have visited. The last layer is mainly the Sky with four clouds. The Sky is so deep and endless as it leads to the universe, and since the theme of the assignment is deep space by layering compositions, I believed it would be best to make the fifth layer with the Sky and clouds. I made the layers with greyscale paper, with the first layer brightest and the last layer darkest.

Research

The research of this assignment was watching a video titled “Doodlers, unite!” by Sunni Brown, where she talked about positive aspects of doodling. From this talk, I learned that doodling:

• is spontaneous marks to help people think
• protects them from losing focus.
• is highly related to creative problem-solving and deep information processing.

Another thing before starting iterations was reading books titled “The Pleasure in Drawing” and “Sketching as Design Thinking.” I did not have access to these books and was able to read part of the books. They examine the medium of drawing in the context of the production of form, as a formative force, and as a birth to form. The main idea was that drawing opens more toward a finality without end and the infinite recurrence of ends, toward lines of sense marked by tracings, suspensions, and permanent interruptions, than it does toward its achievement, intention, and success.

Exercise

The exercise was mainly focused on designing and constructing a mini sketchbook. I first gathered a material, which was just a piece of paper, and made a mini sketchbook by following the instructor’s instructions. The making process was all about cutting and folding, and easy to create one. My first one did not come out neat and clean. I used this to write down some answers to the instructor’s prompt questions, such as “what animal would you be?” and “what kind of help do people ask for you?” Then I made a better mini sketchbook for the second attempt where I drew a mindmap with the topic of “What is the best season?” For the next part, my tablemates and I drew a mind map on a large piece of paper with the same topic. We all had less experience in mind-mapping, so ours was not perfectly composed but still had good subtopics and related ideas. After making and reviewing the mindmap, our group concluded that fall is the best season.

Iterations

For the first step of making a sketchbook, I created a wishlist where I wrote down some basics and features I wanted to include in my sketchbook. My primary focus was to secure the sketchbook and the pages inside. I have used many different kinds of sketchbooks before, but most of them were damaged very quickly since the covers were made out of fragile materials. Therefore, the first thing I decided was to use a hard/ solid cover that would prevent any damages. Wood board, a material that is solid and unusual for any crease, was the best option for me. I also decided to use a paperboard for the back cover, which is a typical material for most sketchbooks. The cover design was the next thing I began to consider. At first, I wanted to put my favorite painting, The Starry Night by Van Gogh, to give some aesthetic value. However, when I talked about this with the instructor, I realized that it was not going to be an easy process to put a picture on the cover using a laser cutter and would require a lot of testing. I decided not to process this. The purpose/ use of my sketchbook is primarily for drawing. I love traveling and have been to many countries before, and I wanted to use mine for drawing landscapes whenever visiting other countries. I determined to put a contour world map and the word “sketchbook” above since I must include text. I used one of my favorite fonts for the word so that I get a little more excited and gain some motivation before drawing.

The size was the next thing I began to consider. I wanted to use the sketchbook for drawing purposes and make it easy to carry. I was initially going to make it 7″ x 9″ or 6″ x 9″ but later decided to 5.5″ x 8.5″, which was A5 size. The reason for this decision was because I believed it would make the process faster because all I had to do was get A5 papers and combine them with the covers together; I did not have to use the laser cutter to cut the papers out for my desired size. Also, I usually draw on A4 papers but often find them a little large and thought A5 would be a perfect size. I believed a spiral-bound would combine the covers and the pages together stable and firmly and determined to go with it. I also decided to get a sketchbook cover made out of cloth fabric that would further protect my sketchbook. It not only secures the pages but also has a pen holder and some pockets inside, and I believe this material will make the drawing process more comfortable.

 

Production

To begin hand-crafting, I began to collect the materials I needed.

• Cloth fabric cover: It can only be bought online. Due to snow, I knew it would arrive later than expected, so I ordered the same material on three different websites.
• Wood board and paperboard: I was able to get these materials for free from the Art Department.
• Spiral-bound: It was provided to students who needed one.
• Cutting method: I had access to laser cutters on the campus.

After getting and planning to get all the materials, I started working on an Illustrator file for my front cover. The first thing I did was make the file 5.5″ x 8.5″. I chose my favorite font for the word sketchbook and used tools to make it look more aesthetic. I added two round squares around the world to give a sense of the title. Beneath the squares, I drew a contour of the world map; I simply searched the image on Google and traced the outline. Then I wrote my signature on the bottom right of the page to indicate it belonged to me. (At that time, I did not notice that I must include your name, course, and year on the back of the book, which was one reason I put my signature on the front.) Based on the length and number of spirals of the spiral-bound, I decided to make 24 holes where the bound goes in. I put 24 circles with a size of 0.01 inches on the left side of the page. This process was not a challenging task for me since I have used Illustrator lots of times. However, cutting using a laser cutter was the part I kind of struggled with the most.

The first thing I needed to do was to reserve the time for access to the cutting machine. There was a class period time when we could use the cutter without reservations, but since I worked in my file during that time. The only way for me to use the machine was through the reservation. I reserved the time and visited Hopkins Hall for the laser cutter. I thought I would take less than an hour because I had all my files ready; I vectorized the file and made the stroke black and 0.072 pt. When I put the wood board in the machine and started the process, the cutter did not completely cut the board as it was thick. I raised the power of the cutter, but it still did not cut it completely. I repeated this process three more times, and the machine finally cut it out. Then it was time for the paper that went between the two covers. I already had the A5-sized paper, and the only thing I had to do was make 24 circular holes on the left side of the paper using the laser cutter. I set the speed 70 and power 15 for cutting four pages and repeated this process ten times for other papers. It took plenty of time for completion, but the reason I did this because:

• I knew the laser cutter would not cut 40 pages at one time.
• There would be some burn marks around the circular holes if I tried to cut all the pages at high speed.

For the back cover, I copied the same process as the papers but increased power to 80 instead since it was thicker than them. I had to clean up the cut material with wet tissues because of ashes resulted from the cutting process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got all the materials cut, and the final step was to make the spiral go in the circular holes. I aligned the front cover, papers, and back cover together and made the spiral go through each hole. I wrote down my name, course, and year in the back with a pen and fitted the sketchbook in the cloth fabric cover. I was able to complete the project on time, and the outcome was what I expected it to be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

For the final assignment of the Visualizations class, the goal was to explore communication and construction of lettering and words using isometric drawing techniques. The task was to design and create a poster that illustrates the definition of an invented word. Basically, adding applying a range of elements (color and value) and design principles was what I had to go through.

For the research, I was asked to watch a 25-minutes long podcast named 45: Mashups, Remixes, and Frankenfiction. After watching, I learned the definition of mashup and how it can be created and used. Then I brainstormed words for practice. I started some mashup words but was not able to create ‘good’ combined mashup words. For this process, I gained an idea of what the mashup is and decided to move on to the next step to create some better mashup words.

Exercise

The exercise was to select a font that would represent some aspect or quality of your personality. I decided to use a smooth and curved font that reflected some of my personality, such as flexibility and gentleness. Then I had to write my name or initials using the font selected. After writing it down, I transferred the text to an isometric grid and created an extruded 3D isometric illustration of my initials using Illustrator and Photoshop. My font was challenging transferring to the isometric grid since there were so many curves in it. For color application, I chose blue because it not only was my favorite color but also symbolized imagination and intuition, which were also one of my aspects.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iterations

I started off this process by making a list of a minimum of 30 different words, consisting of nouns, adjectives, and verbs. I was asked to make a list while looking for possible associations between words. Then I created word mashups using one noun in combination with a verb or adjective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mashup words I made were lossion, foobowl, elevatus, optillusion, and mountunnel.

• lossion: love and passion
• foobowl: football and SuperBowl (I decided not to go with “footbowl” because it just sounded exactly the same as ‘football.’
• elevatus: elevate(d) and status
• optillusion: optical and illusion
• mountunnel: mountain and tunnel

Then I applied color and designed the letter of the words.

• Lossion
  • I made the letters overlap with each other to give a rhythm and a joyous feeling. I replaced the alphabet O with the shape of the heart.
•  Foobowl
  • I designed this word by simply replacing the letters with things related to football and SuperBowl. I used college and NFL football team logos. I also drew a football and the logo of SuperBowl to replace the letters.
• Elevatus
  • I was going to design this word by giving each letter a different height to show elevation but ran out of time and could not design.
• Optillusion
  • I first replaced the alphabet ‘O’ with a drawing of an eye to symbolize ‘optical.’ Then I replaced other letters with modified letters that gave an optical illusion.
• Mountunnel
  • the consecutive alphabets N were my key to this mashup word. I drew the first n for the entrance of a tunnel and the second n for the exit of a tunnel. Then I designed other letters using things related to mountains and tunnels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Productions

 

For the final composition, I decided to go with the mashup word ‘elevatus.’ Even though I could not design the word in the previous step, it was because I believed I could design the word that would give a good visual representation.

• Definition of elevatus
  • noun
    • an elevated professional and social standing of a person
  • verb
    • to elevate the position of someone or something

I started this process off by selecting a font and giving each alphabet a different height (e with the shortest height and s with the tallest height). I illustrated shading using a yellow color scheme. The reason I chose yellow was that this color represents accomplishment and cheerfulness that correspond to the meaning of my word. I also put shadows underneath the letters to give more elevating value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was going to move on to the next step after applying the color and the shading, but the word did not stable and was a little challenging to recognize due to the shading, so I drew black edges (or borders) for clarification and stability of it.

 

Then I added an arrow that goes under the word then goes up for representation of elevation and put shading on the arrow as well to give elevating value.

 

Putting drawings of items next to the words and the arrow was the next thing I did. I added a trophy, an arrow on a target, three towers of coins, two bundles of bills, bills falling, and a paper airplane. They were to give some “status” value because these items usually represented and symbolized that word. Trophies and money strongly represent my mashup word since when a person’s status is elevated, he or she earns more money and respect. The paper airplane in my poster is used to represent a message that lets someone inform that his or her status is elevated, which is a kind of old-school way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I created a background for my poster using a blue color scheme. I also added a shading of this color to make viewers’ eyes go from the bottom to the top for elevation value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last thing I put in the poster was the full definition of the mashup word and the way to pronounce it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

For Assignment part 1 (Patterning and Abstractions), the first step I took was collecting ten natural forms and ten human-made forms and drawing abstractions from the collected forms. I searched and copied 20 images and pasted them in the Sketchbook application. Then I drew four abstractions from each form. Drawing four abstractions out of one picture was a little complicated but a great way to use my own creativity and imagination.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I ended up drawing only four human-made forms because the time was running out. The instructor said it was okay, so I moved on to the next step. Then I took lessons from the instructor on how to make curvilinear lines on the Illustrator application, which would be our primary tool for this assignment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exercise

 

The next thing I had to do was choose two of these abstractions (one from nature and one from human-made). I decided on a contour of the railroad and a contour of the petal (floral leaf) to create a pattern using both of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason I chose these two abstractions was that I believed that I could create a strong movement using these two. I put the floral leaf in the center and four of the railroad’s contours around the floral leaf. As I expected, it seemed like gravity created by the petal pulled our attention to the center of the composition, and railroads made the movement (gravity) stronger by supporting the center composition.

I then created a pattern using this combined composition to create one of the design principles, harmony. I placed the nine of the composition together, and they well harmonized each other and had a visual satisfaction due to combining the same compositions. After creating this pattern, I attempted to create another pattern of harmony. I rearranged the position of the railroads and the petal to see how it would make harmony. However, I did not come out as I expected, so I decided to stick with my first pattern.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Iterations

I began to move on to Iterations, which was to create grids for my mandalas. At first, I decided to use harmony for my mandala and made grids based on that design principle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I started working on my mandala, I did not know that we were supposed to use the two abstractions from the exercise; I thought I was allowed to use random shapes and forms. I used basic shapes (circles, triangles, and squares) and gave curves to some of the shapes for visual satisfaction. Once I made any shapes, I used a tool on the Illustrator app called “grid,” and this tool provided me with my shapes repeating in a circular frame. Exploring the app with a bunch of tools was the most interesting part of this assignment, and seeing the outcome of mandalas boosted my enthusiasm for the project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, after doing a one-on-one review with the instructor, I realized that I was not able to use random shapes to create the mandalas. I was supposed to use the natural and human-made abstractions from the exercise. I was a little frustrated and could no longer work on the above mandalas I created. However, the wrong mandalas I made gave me a better understanding of mandalas and a good experience.

Creating a mandala using only two abstractions was not an easy task at all, as I ended up producing a bad-looking mandala (photo below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept exploring the tools on the app and found out the more shapes I used, the more visual satisfaction it would make. Now that I learned how to make a mandala more aesthetically, I need to apply my design principle (harmony) firmly into the composition. I used railroads and put them around the round composition to make it look like the sun so that I could apply a color scheme, primarily red and orange, to my mandala.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, I realized that I was not able to apply color in my mandala. I was initially going to put color in negative spaces and thought Illustrator had a tool for that. Unfortunately, I could not find the tool and was unable to color any of the shapes because they were not closed shapes. I also learned that using at least five abstractions was a requirement, so I had to create three completely different more mandalas. At this point, I was so frustrated and nervous that I could not finish this project on time while other students were almost done with theirs who were only one step behind finishing the project. However, recognizing that it was my own fault to make all these mistakes, I started working on creating new ones even if it took plenty of time and effort. For five abstractions, I used the railroad and the petal I originally used and also used the contour of the bridge (from the exercise), a plant with a snail, and a shell (from another search).

 

 

Production

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally created three mandalas using five abstractions. The first two mandalas are based on the harmony principle, and the last one is based on the movement principle. I just put color application just to see how they look, and fortunately, they looked the same as I thought they would be. I decided to go with the third one with the movement because the movement appeared more robust than the harmony in the first two mandalas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then It was time to do a color application using Adobe Color and color charts. I originally made my mandala look as if it were the sun or the whirlpool in the ocean. Because red-yellow-orange represents the sun and blue represents the ocean, I decided to use these colors for my color scheme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used Split Complementary for the first color scheme and Analogous for the second color scheme. I carefully applied these colors to the two mandalas. The principle was movement, so I colored the outer parts lighter and the inner parts darker to produce a stronger movement. I also gave some shades to each shape to create a bit of three-dimensional effect and helped viewers see the movement more clearly. Then I added a shading background to provide them with some depths. I used a stroke for my second mandala (one with a blue color scheme) to shape clear outlines and did not use a stroke for my first one because I believed the stroke disturbed the viewers to see an apparent movement.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

The research of this assignment was to explore slow looking as I learned about it by reading the first two chapters of the book.

From the book, I learned Slow looking is:

• Taking the time to carefully observe more than meets the eye at first glance.
• Happening in each of these vignettes, and it happens anywhere people take a generous amount of time to observe the world closely.
• An essential counterbalance to the natural human tendency
  toward fast-looking.
• Tending to be under-emphasized in general education.
• A shared human value.

After getting basic ideas of slow looking, I took advantage of this technique to begin the assignment. I went outside to take pictures of objects in the Oval.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After taking these pictures, I took a lesson called “Composition,” which is the deliberate placement of subject matter in relation to a frame. This element is crucial since it not only makes images more dynamic and visually interesting but also supports a mood, feeling, or narrative. I learned fundamentals of Composition and structural elements: proximity, angle, continuing composition, rule of thirds, symmetry, leading lines, diagonals and triangles, frame within a frame, and golden triangles and spiral. I then retook the pictures of the objects I took before taking the lesson. It helped me understand the importance of those elements when taking photographs and creating a composition.

Exercise

The first step of the Exercise was to choose a destination for creating a map. At first, I decided my destination to be the back door of Thompson library because:

1. I was very familiar with that place where I visit there every day.
2. The distance between the starting point (Hayes Hall) and the library was short, and I could visit the path anytime I wanted.

However, as I explored multiple paths with many approaches, there were limitations due to the short distance:

• There were not enough non-visual senses. I only could smell trees and hear the sound of transportation (car and bus).
• My recorded path was supposed to include a minimum of 10 steps according to the rubric, but mine only had five steps.
• There were only a few paths from the starting point to the library, which prevented me from exploring multiple ways.

I changed my destination to be Lincoln Tower Park, a soccer field, where I visit every Saturday. This destination had more paths, visual senses, and enough steps, so I believed selecting this destination would let me create a successful outcome. I used multiple ways to get there and decided my path, as shown in the image below.

 

 

 

 

 

I composed a written direction after following the path many times and based on my experience. I included 11 steps and what I saw and heard during the journey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I followed the path again to take pictures of significant landmarks and symbolic objects.

Iterations

I honestly did not have clues of how to create my map. The instructor recommended the students iterate our project by creating a collage map. I knew the path and a visual representation of the map, so I drew outlines of the Oval and Lincoln Tower Park and cut-out pictures from magazines. Because my priority was a clear path from Hayes Hall to the field, I put red lines as a path to let it stand out in white-colored paths in the Oval. Collage was a great way to start to actually think about details I wanted to put on the map and gave me some ideas that would be useful afterward.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to design my map as two-dimension and add five magnified images of important places or buildings throughout the journey, which would help users understand the direction and path quicker.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Production

The above image is a rough draft where I basically just drew the 2D map with the magnified images. I used Google Earth for my primary source, and the scale of the buildings was not as correct as the actual map, so I had to fix it afterward. I was overall satisfied with my drawing but still was unsure what to choose between smell and hearing as a non-visual sense. Half of my journey passes through the Oval, and the smell was the most important non-visual sense to stand out among other senses as I could smell trees, grass, damp moss, etc. However, when the journey passed the Oval, there were no unique or specific smells during the other half of the trip. Therefore, I decided to use hearing as a non-visual sense since there were many sounds I could hear, such as sounds of transportations (cars, buses, helicopters), people talking, etc. The instructor posted a PowerPoint called Map Tutorial, which showed how to add shadings of buildings and trees. After getting inspiration from the lecture, I put shadings on my map for visual appeal clear classifications between buildings and roads. I was supposed to use only one color for my map and chose green because most areas were filled with grass and trees. Then I added the path from the starting point to the destination with three colors filled (light, regular and dark green) for clear direction because my map is almost colored with green, and I believed just using one of them would not make the path stand out. I finally the last requirements, a map legend, and added a direction represented by a compass, which would help users understand my map better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

The research of this Assignment was to choose a shape from the previous Assignment, Shape Grammar. I chose a shape (image on the left), a two-squares-combined shape, and it became the plan view of my final composition. My other 2D compositions were complex and tedious, and I believed the form on the left image would create many interesting 3D shapes.

Exercise

The first Exercise we did was to build a perfect cube. I made a 3D cube before, but it was a long time ago, so the whole process felt new to me. Drawing the template was an easy process to complete. I would say cutting was the most challenging part as I had to cut it as straight as possible. Attaching the lip to the shape with glue was the second most straightforward process for me. My first cube came out in bad condition; there was a hole on edge due to bad attaching skills and some stains because of the glue. I attempted the second one, which came out in a better condition than the first one. There were no stains, but I still could not attach the lips and shapes together, which resulted in making a hole on edge again. Making the cubes helped me understand what it’s like to make 3D shapes, and I believed the mistakes I made in this process would prevent me from making the same mistakes when building other forms in the future.

 

The next Exercise we did was to build a 3D F shape with a given template. The 2D template was given to us, but we had to draw a template on Bristol paper, cut it out, and build the shape. Drawing the template was not as complicated as building the shape with tacky glue. It was tough to attach the last flap (or lip) to the shape. The outcome was obviously was not perfect and made me realize practicing making shapes is the key to a successful final composition.

 

 

The last Exercise was orthographic drawings. I decided my top plan view to be simply the letter F. Then, I drew the front side and side after observing based on the top view.

 

Iterations

I built a 3D form of my chosen shape, and it came out as I expected due to Exercise 1, where I learned how to cut and build the shape better.

After making the 3D version of my chosen shape, I began adding parts to the shape on the selected shape and created three iterations. At first, I was going to make the template on Bristol paper, but the instructor advised adding shapes instead of creating the template would be an easier and less time-consuming process. The first iteration was just a basic 3D shape of the chosen shape with inclined shapes in the front. The second iteration was an advanced version of the first one with thinner middle parts. The third iteration was the 3D shape of the shape with a prism on the top.

 

 

With gaining inspiration from the iteration shapes, I started creating a final 3D form. I combined the front side of the first iteration and the prism on the third iteration, but instead of the prism, I put a pyramid shape on the back of the shape. To get some basic ideas of how the template would look, I added shapes on my chosen shapes with tape. The image on the left is a dismantled shape of my final 3D shape, and I started drawing the template.

Production

For the final composition, we were supposed to choose one option among four options to further our study. I initially chose option 2, which was negative space: cutting into the form and constructing negative shapes within the form. I planned to create negative pentagon spaces on the front side and negative cuboid spaces on the back like the image below.

However, I realized option 2 was not my best choice for my shape; the negative spaces were supposed to serve as tunnels, doors, windows, etc. My negative spaces would not work for these structures and had no symbols or patterns. I spent a good amount of time thinking out what option would be the best among the other three options. I was just playing with the shape to get some ideas, and a thought flashed across my mind. I could make three more shapes, and if I put them together, it would create an interesting look. Therefore, I chose option 1, modularity.

It took approximately 2 hours to build my final 3D form, and I knew making four of them would be time-consuming. So I decided to make a perfect template to create four perfect shapes. After making a perfect one, I thought it would take less than 2 hours to build one 3D shape. It actually took 9 hours to build four of them because I had to be careful drawing, cutting, and attaching the lips and shapes together. It was a mentally tough process as I devoted my full attention to making perfect forms.

After making the shapes, I joined them together, and the result was what I expected. On the top view, there are six squares you can find—one in the middle empty space and the other four created by the pyramids. The last square is my favorite: it is made by optical illusion due to the outline of the four shapes and only catches when looking at the top. On the front view, you can imagine many things with the shapes: a stove with fire coming up, a robot’s face, a crown, etc. I thought it would take forever to make the shapes and felt frustrated when I could not decide which option I would choose. However, I am satisfied with my final composition and kind of feel proud of myself for achieving my ideal design.