Statement

To make a gift for a select partner in the design program

Ideation

The process began with ideating in my tiny sketchbook. I would write down many differing gift ideas such as a lampshade and packaging ideas. Nearly all the ideas involved more than 3 materials so they were scrapped. After iterating through a plethora of scrapped ideas I pivoted to asking questions to understand my partner better. I wrote a list of questions to better understand them. The questions were along the lines of, what are your hobbies? What is your design influence? What do you aspire to be? Among others. I continued to write more questions so I would have a good grasp of what I could make.

I thought of ways to package my project without using 2 materials. One way was to make the project out of the same material as the packaging so I could use 2 materials for bounding. Eventually, I had the idea to laser cut the project and packaging, this way both the item and the box would be 1 material so I could focus on binding. I wanted to bind the project using magnets, however, it proved troublesome due to the fact that the designs I had made conflicted with the magnets. I eventually gave up on the magnet idea.

After touching base with my partner I was able to extrapolate a lot of information to make a few prototypes. After having a certain amount of ideas about what my partner would like I narrowed my focus to a few aspects to make a final design. The aspects that I narrowed down were his favorite animal, a Shoebill Bird, a few of his favorite TV shows, Gravity Falls and Naruto, and his love for puzzles.

Iteration/ Production

I decided to start with the shoebill, I knew that I would need to make a custom line art design. The process began with looking for a plethora of minimalist clipart designs of Shoebills and then tracing the features of the animal.

I had issues making a simplified line art version of the bird because some of the features of the animal are subtle yet important. The curve of the bird above the eye is meant to insinuate a protruding forehead, so it took some trial and error to find the correct line.

After making a simplified outline of the animal I began to iterate on ways to make it into a substantial gift. I made one prototype with the idea of topology, I wanted to make differing side profiles of the bird to convey a 3D shape for a simple doorstop design. I began by making different sized slices of the shape and then took them to be laser cut. After cutting out the prototype I realized that the topology would be very tedious to accurately make so I scrapped the idea.

My second attempt at a prototype began with the idea of my partner’s love for puzzles. I had the idea to make a puzzle piece box for a shoebill bird-sized hole. I wanted this iteration to be simple yet coherent for the idea it meant to convey the shape of the bird and the puzzle. I laser cut each part of the form and began gluing each slice to make the bird piece and the box. Each piece was glued together properly, however, after finishing both pieces I attempted to fit them together and they became impossibly stuck. So I scrapped that prototype.

After all of my experience with the laser cutter, I had a good idea of how I could use it to make a proper shape and a box to hold it. So I looked back through my notes and came across the fact that my partner likes to drink and watch TV shows. So I had the idea to make TV-themed coasters. I wanted to make 4 coasters with each a unique design pertaining to a TV show, the shoebill bird, or design. After making the rough design for the coaters and box I wanted to have a unifying quote to tie it together and bring significance to the receiver. I went through quotes that my partner liked and settled on “Don’t Not Never Do Dumb Things” This quote was a good unifier because there is a lot of absurdity in the ideas that I put together, however, that is not a reason to not make things. The quote helps to tie together the silliness in all of the different icons I put together.

Since the box and coaster were to be laser cut I wanted to make them different materials so they could be differentiated better while blending into the space that they’ll be used in. So I made the box out of wood because my partner likes the color. I then made the coaster out of acrylic so they could stand out from the box and allow for the simple logos to subtly stand out.

Conclusion

This project was one that was dominated by the laser cutter. Because of the 3 material limitations, I found myself trying to kill 2 birds with 1 stone by laser cutting the form and the packaging. This project encouraged a good exploration of material and expression however I found it troublesome how most of the methods to achieve the limitation were hidden behind trial and error. I noticed that during this project there was a massive variety that was made by my classmates, I found the variance wonderful however the limitation of the project was a bit too restrictive. I found myself cutting corners because my true ideas involved extra materials. The aspect of talking to someone to build an idea for a gift is fantastic, I enjoyed the process of talking to my mentor while pricing together things that they would enjoy. There was a lot of learning to maintain conversation to find an idea for a gift. Overall this project allowed for a good exploration of other people’s design processes and life.

Statement

To design a custom chess set exploring slice-form techniques

Ideation

Once we began the exploration of iconic and symbolic exercises. My partner and I began to think of ways to make a coherent chess set with novel iconic and symbolic symbols. In the exercise we were assigned the idea of courage and bravery, while researching symbols of courage throughout history I began to think of other themes in historical contexts. Eventually, I was brought to the idea of fishermen and sea monsters. I thought that this idea would allow for an elaborate level of expression while maintaining iconic significance with the pieces.

After we established our theme we began to compile ideas for the set. My partner and I ideated on the particular forms for each piece. We narrowed down the ideas for each piece by making a list of all associated elements of the theme, So all types of fishers and their equipment and all types of sea monsters. Once we narrowed down the list to a good amount of ideas I made a Google Doc to compile images for form and creation style.

Iteration/Production

After each idea of a piece was decided we began to make the actual designs in Adobe. Many of the designs stemmed from tracing a reference image and then adding on the slice form attachments. My partner and I decided to split the pieces so the workload would be more manageable. After dividing up the work we began designing the pieces, there were a few designs that I made using a reference image. For the Kraken design, I took influence from a creature design from The Legend Of Zelda: Windwaker. This design of the squid monster allowed for an iconic design while staying playful. I enjoyed making this design for its playfulness. The other design that I made tracing was the net fisher, I found a clip art of a boy net fishing and found the position of the art dynamic enough to be a chess piece.

For material decisions we went through many ideas. At first we wanted to use the 3D printed to make all of the pieces however we decided against it due to conflicts with the program. Then we thought about using acrylic to make the designs however we realized that the plastic could result in our pieces appearing differently due to the color of the acrylic. So we decided to settle on MDF since it was relatively easy to laser cut and its natural tone allowed for a good expression of detail without being too chaotic.

Throughout the process of designing the pieces, there was a balance of making a piece simple enough to be a chess piece while maintaining the needed visual information to convey the form. Since we were using Illustrator to make each form much of the designing stemmed from making an outline of the piece to then be iterated.

One big aspect that we struggled with was the laser cutter. The process of making a file and cutting it was straightforward, however, due to the needed accuracy of the slice-form designs. Because of this my partner and I had to make multiple trips to the laser cutter in Hopkins Hall and the Innovation Studio at the 18th Library. Much of the time of the project was dedicated to tweaking the designs so they would be cut properly in the laser cutter. During this stage of the project there was a lot of back and forth and my partner and I experienced some frustrating mishaps such as Adobe Illustrator failing and some laser cutters deciding to give up mid process. Most of the ends that were meant to fit together were incorrectly sized leading to pieces not being able to be assembled. However after steady iteration, my partner and I were able to cut and assemble the parts as intended. Many of our pieces required to be wood glued since the forms were a bit too complex for the simple slice-form design.

After all of the pieces were assembled and dried we set them up on a chess board and set up a mock chess game to play test the pieces. The unique designs of the pieces and theme allowed for some very interesting and natural looking settings like the monster pieces appearing as if they’re attacking the fisherman pieces out at sea or the fisherman pieces are working together to kill the monsters.

On the left is the Shark Bishop design, done by my partner, Vivian.

On the right is the Kraken Queen design, done by me.

Conclusion

In retrospect, this project was one that allowed for a great exploration of form and visual context. The class activity that was about symbolic, iconic, and indexical signs allowed for use to have a good understanding of what makes a for or shape recognizable because we had to assign our own symbols to a theme and it allowed for us to conduct research about the history of such symbols. This activity translated well into the making process of the project since I was able to effectively research what i needed and I could condense design into a recognizable and creative design. Overall this project allowed for a good expression of what makes a design recognizable and iconic while also teaching the class about the slice-form method and exploring the 3D printer ans laser cutter.

Intention

To make a piece of wearable technology that fits the narrative of a carnival in the future.

Ideation

The project first began with researching the significance and cultural impact of the world’s many carnivals. My group members and I began by using the internet and the AI program Chat GPT to answer a variance of questions regarding the impact and significance of these celebrations. After learning about the nuances of the Mardi Gras color scheme and the reason for Brazil’s Carnival, we decided to zero in on a Brazilian Carnival of the future. The decision of choosing Carnival is because our group wanted to emphasize the performative aspect of the future and Carnival is one of the biggest celebrations of performance. We then began by making a google document to throw in loose ideas and concept images. One of the first ideas that our group thought about was making an Ohio-themed carnival with corn-themed elements. Another idea that our group came up with was the character design of the Daft Punk band members. The futuristic robot designs of the members made me think about how the concept of them could fit with a performative future body modification, after processing through a few more loose ideas involving VR, LED Suits, and a walking DJ set. With the concept of the Carnival, we began to brainstorm what element we could make a part of this future. In the traditional Carnival, there is a massive emphasis on color and animals. The animal that most encapsulated Carnival was their birds. So we settled on a feather motif to highlight the movement of the dancer and show off the colors of the festival. We thought to implement the color in a semi-dystopian future where most colors are inaccessible due to their pigments being extinct or extremely expensive. So in this future Carnival turns to colorful lights and reflective materials that would simulate the same pigments that were used in our times. We chose to incorporate white feathers so that they would reflect any light shined while the muted tone would add an emphasis to the semi-dystopian future, where color is no longer something that people can wear.

Our group thought about what body parts we would design around, and we all agreed on making a headpiece and a sort of limb attachment. we thought about making one for the leg however, after some group disagreements we settled on the arm for the limb attachment. We decided on the concept of a helmet and arm attachment that would both highlight and emphasize the futuristic aspect of performance. The production of the project began with making the modified arm, I started by basing the design of the arm on another futuristic suit. The design that I was inspired by was the praetorian armor from Star Wars. I drew inspiration from this design because I noticed that the layered structure of the arm attachments mirrored both a futuristic aspect and the many frills of a flamenco dancer’s dress. This distinction would allow for some great subtle elements to shine through allowing for a tie-in with the Spanish roots of the Carnival tradition. I thought that this distinction would allow for some great subtle elements to shine through the design without being overly complex.

The design of the helmet began with inspiration from the design of the Daft Punk robots. The idea was so the visor could obscure the face and also be a light reflective element.
The helmet design quickly went to the production phase so we could begin iterating on the design if there were any conflicts

Production/Iteration

After coming to a solid idea for the arm attachment, I began to think through the process of making the piece itself. I was thinking of possible materials that would allow for enough structure and flexibility while fitting the constraints of the project. I began the prototyping process by cutting out 7 differing rectangles from cardstock that would then be layered on top of one another like armor plates. Then I loosely attached each piece with a string and tape, I made this first iteration hastily so I could take the proper measurements to ensure a proper fit while also making sure that the design doesn’t conflict with itself. In this first iteration, I noticed that having a single piece of string made it difficult to position each plate in its intended spot. To fix this issue I came up with 3 solutions: 1. to make the point of attachment at each plate on the edges to allow for more stability 2. construct a sleeve to secure the whole arm to the piece without restricting movement 3. attaching a handle for the hand to be secured to the whole piece.

I made the attachments at each plate with a rubber band to ensure contact and flexibility with each plate. For the sleeve, one of my group members sewed a jean leg to fit my arm measurements which I would then attach to the whole arm with elastic bands. And the handle was a simple string attachment.

After assuring that this revamped iteration had no design conflicts I began to work on the final version. The cardstock was a functional material however its flexibility made it so the whole work lost some of its structure. So I switched the design to cardboard for added support and structure. I then followed up by creating a simple Adobe template of the arm plates to be laser cut. On top of the new cardboard design, I made a simple feather design that would be a part of the extinct pigment narrative that our future was based on. Once each piece of the arm was functional it was time for assembly. The process involved strapping the jean sleeve to the armor plates with the elastic band and then following with gluing each paper feather to the plates. The end result was a fully articulating arm with a comfortable fabric for easy attachment and removal of the piece.

The construction of the helmet began with taking measurements of the head. We took those measurements by wrapping a thin piece of cardstock around my head and fitting two thinner strips in a cross on top for the crown measurements. Once we had a simple prototype for the helmet we had an idea to make the helmet into a plague doctor style so that it would emphasize the bird motif of the augment. However, due to time constraints, it was clear that the more experimental of a plague doctor mask would prove to be too complex. So our group scrapped the original design and found a simple cardboard template video for an Iron Man mask. Following this guide with its step made the construction process much more manageable. Our group would make a prototype following the guide, after testing proved successful we moved on to making the final product.

The guide we were using had a simple template with pieces, which we converted into Adobe Illustrator to laser cut. We cut out the pieces needed for assembly and incorporated some elastic bands and paper screen attachment. After assembly of the helmet we spray painted the whole piece a solid color of beige so that it would match with the rest of the components then fitted the feathers, elastic band, and paper screen. The end result was an adjustable and comfortable headpiece that allowed the user to see fully while retaining some anonymity with the paper screen.

 

 

 

Conclusion

This was a project that had a very abstract yet limiting scope. I found the constraints of being limited to just 1 supportive non-planar material quite difficult. However, these challenges were solved by the process of just brute forcing and iterating. Within the first two weeks of the project we were all overwhelmed with what to do for the project, so the randomizing dice exercise allowed us to ideate without the stress of finalizing anything. I believe this exercise is what got us out of the hurdle of just thinking and actually making concepts and prototypes.

Another aspect that proved challenging was the conflict of ideas in our group, it would mainly involve the methods we were using to construct the projects. Most of the group idea conflicts felt like growing pains as we learned to understand each other as design partners. This project taught me a lot of things, most of them being technical skills involving crafting. However, a big part of what I learned was how to function in a group. Mainly creating concise ideas without straying too far from what’s realistic and within the bounds of the project. By spending time working with my group, I began to notice the strengths of each of my partners. For better or for worse I found myself delegating certain parts of the project. I believe this allowed us to focus on individual parts rather than the entirety of the project however, I also think that this stifled creative output from my group members since we were all so focused on finishing the project by the deadline.

Overall this project was a very big learning experience since I had to learn how to work within a dynamic of differing skills and traits while maintaining momentum to make things. At first, there was a lot of indecision however through some clever exercises involving the whole class we were able to zero in on the feasibility of each idea and iterate.

Intention

To make a short triptych that has corresponding songs or sounds.

Ideation

After meeting my group members we began by sharing music that we liked so we could decide on a theme for our project. Starting with showing each other music allowed us to understand each other a bit more so we could work together cohesively. We then began to ideate what kind of scene and setting we wanted to express. Many of our ideas were scattered about so we made a Pinterest board and Google Doc to collect our differing ideas and styles in one place. The Google Doc was a place for us to write down loose ideas and start to make a written storyboard. Eventually, we settled on telling a story in a city with a lot of short clips of the many shenanigans that would take place in said city. To tie together each scene we wanted to have a color motif, and we decided that the color of a traffic light would be the perfect motif to incorporate. After setting an intention for the theme we focused on choosing a song. We jumped from indie to rock to r&b, and out of all of these genres, we settled on a punk rock song called Deceptacon. This song we chose would encapsulate the bustling city atmosphere while keeping an upbeat tone.

After setting our song and triptych intention, we moved to the Pinterest board to find inspiration and art style influence. Most of the images that we began to compile on the board were color focused. We were looking for color schemes that would fit with the aesthetic and atmosphere we wanted to convey. We settled on a triadic color scheme involving red, green, yellow, and blue. With this color scheme, we could represent the traffic light colors while incorporating a blue sky to ground the work.

Then we began to write down the ideas for the clips that we wanted to make. We used the Google Doc to write and narrow down the ideas. Eventually, we came to 8 solid clip ideas for the project.

The Ideas were:

1. View of the city from afar  2. Shot of a grocery mart with a pedestrian and taxi  3. Dog urinating on a fire hydrant  4. Fish-eye lens view of Tom Nook (from Animal Crossing) knocking on a door    5.  Shadow of a person dancing in a window  6. Woman drinking coffee in a shop  7. Taxi crashing into a pedestrian  8. Pedestrian in a bed yelling in pain

Production/Iteration

The process began with making a loose storyboard of each individual concept clip that we had planned. I tasked myself with making the storyboard, It was a simple yet daunting process at first. Because, while drawing up the rough key frames I found myself wanting to make them more detailed and elaborate. However, since it was a prototype the level of detail was not the focus. I made a small concept storyboard with simple animations and line work that would sync to the music. After making the storyboard I noticed that the project’s scope felt much more concise. It felt as if we were already halfway through the project since most of the ideas were already structured with themes and sound. Below I have attached a link to the storyboard, (Sound Warning, Loud Audio)

Deceptacon – Small

After the storyboard was finished our group divided up the varying clips to make and began the production process. My two group members would focus on making a majority of the clips while I would make 2 clips with 3D paper structures. The first mechanism that I focused on was a collapsible paper cube that would be the setting for the grocery mart clip. The mechanism of the collapsible cube proved to be very challenging since most of the construction did not allow for the paper cube to collapse efficiently. Due to the mechanism now working as intended, we scrapped using it in the project.

The other 3D paper structure was for the pedestrian in bed clip, this one was a simple process. I made a simple paper bed design and used plastic paper stands to hold it upright. Then I took a printed version of the pedestrian and attached a modified mouth so we could animate his yell.

During my paper structure creation, my group members made the remaining clips in a 2D format. A majority of the clips were made using paper however, there were a few clips that couldn’t be realized properly with the 2D paper format. So after talking to our instructor, some clips were made digitally. Since some were made digitally we could tweak the animation process of the clips more accurately.

Then our group went to animating by taking photos, after an hour or so of shooting we had over 220 images to crop, edit, and refine. At this point, most of that workload was shifted into the hands of one group member which led to some conflicts. However, after communicating, we reoriented ourselves into the process of refining photos and editing the clips together. The photo refining process was simple yet time-consuming, this was probably the most “challenging” part of the final production phase because of the time commitment to refining all of the photos. Eventually, all of the photos were ready and they were compiled into the final product. Below I have posted a link to the final product.

Visualizations A2 – Dynamic Page

Conclusion

This project was an interesting change of pace, it pushed a lot of my creative limits in a visual sense. I appreciate the project for the avant-garde approach, animation is not a medium that I inherently associated with design but this project showed me the intricacies that design has in the medium. The fact that this was a group project made the scope and skills needed more feasible. I feel that this project allowed us to wildly explore the medium of animation, which was an amazing learning process. Much of this project focused on the concept-building process which left it very abstract. Much of the openess and abstraction of the project was beneficial since it allowed many of my classmates to explore different avenues. I enjoyed the process of working and learning with my group members, and it makes me proud of our final product. The most difficult challenge of the project was the process of making all of the images ready for the video editing process, this left me wishing that there was a tool for stop motion-based editing. All in all this project was a great change of pace from the other materialistic projects.

 

Intention

To make a ‘tunnel book’ out of layers of paper to show depth

Ideation

At first my ideas consisted of something surrounding a forest with trees. Ans then having a small visual element in the far center to be revealed along with the hidden element. My first idea was of a gnome fishing at a pond in the forest, and the hidden element was to be a big fish right at the hook. At first I really liked the idea, but I continued to think of others. A following idea was to be a massive view of highways, and the hidden element to be a train. Adding the laser cutter to the repertoire made me anxious with the new possibilities, however it benefited my creative potential because I am very comfortable with them. So I wanted a concept that worked well with Illustrator.

Both of these ideas I considered, However I was still thinking that I could think of something more stylized. As I was sketching out the Highway design it made think of cities, particularly this image from the Japanese movie AKIRA. I like how the skyline towers in to the distance with mega-structures. An that image immediately brought me to a skyline the came from the ground and sky. This idea would be a perfect balance between the top and bottom space of the project, and I could easily hide a horizontal space between the two for the hidden element. Having the image be like cities that span for miles. With the proper placement of the building in the forefront I could use each one’s perspective like cubes, allowing for each layer to be in perspective relative to the other buildings. Using this perspective, I could have the entire project feel like a true city with minimal information.

Production/Iteration

At first, I would iterate on the concepts that I created, The first two were the gnome and the highways designs. I filled a sketchbook page with the elements, components, and features that I was to incorporate. I spent a day filling a sheet with all the ideas related to them, and after finishing I felt like I wasn’t satisfied with the scope of the ideas. So after coming across the image from AKIRA I felt like I could relax Because that was a concept that I was very satisfied with.

I immediately got to sketching the scene with the perspective lines. after having this sketched out, I went o Illustrator to begin making the project itself.

 

 

 

I began by making a single layer with the perspective grids set up. Each layer was straightforward forward with no more than 5 buildings. After making enough layers, they would be layered on top of one another to give a sense of scale. After layering each part I worked on the background, which consisted of many small circles. This then brought me to the Innovation Studio where I cut out all of my layers in rapid succession.

Cutting out the final layer was a repetitive process since I set the cutter to raster. There was a lot of trial and error with how it ended up cutting the bristol. I ended up cutting out multiple drafts due to strength issues regarding the laser’s ability. My first cuts came out as undercut and they had too much laser ash. I learned that this mean the speed was too high for it to cut properly. After some additional rough attempts, the layer began to come out as intended.

Assembling the project consisted of simply arranging the layers into the lightbox. The design of my project was so that each building block would overlap without covering a full block. I wanted this crowded feel to show through so it would convey a lot of objects in the distance.

Conclusion

This project was one that at first felt very open-ended and confusing. I felt that the scope of the things being asked for had too much possibility and not enough guidance. Yet after enough time iterating ideas, I found a product that satisfies both the project outline and myself. There is nothing earth-shattering about my design but I personally fell in love with the simplicity of my project.

Statement

To make a custom sketchbook out of any materials for a unique and interesting book.

Ideation

To make a sketchbook with an emphasis on scrap to make something new. I have too many old sheets from last semester that I have no use for. So I had the idea to implement all of this loose paper into my sketchbook somehow. At first, I thought to use the sheets as is because I misunderstood the assignment as making a fully used sketchbook. However, after learning that we were only to make an empty sketchbook my mind was brought to “Upcycling” the act of taking an older item and remaking it into an entirely new thing. I took this line confidence exercise from Design Visualizations that we did last semester and cut it up into strips. After cutting it all up I weaved the strips into a rectangular lattice and used paper cement and tracing paper to seal the weave permanently. I continued this process to make 3 more of the lattices.

For the actual cover of the book, I looked on Pinterest for inspiration and I came across this wonderful image of a cover I really like the minimalism of the cardstock cover and the waves. So I wanted to emulate the aspects of this wave cover into my own sketchbook. I wanted to use minimalism and cardstock in my own design. For the actual cover exterior, I wanted a sturdy and brown material like wood, in class, I found a piece of hardboard that I thought would fit in nicely as a cover. After gathering all of the materials I was to move on to production.

Production/Iteration

Making the cover for the sketchbook came together simply. In Design Fundamentals we designed an initial with a negative icon for a logo. I thought that laser cutting the element as clear acrylic would be a simple and great way to have a logo that relates to me on the cover. I settled on Hardboard for the cover because I wanted something that could be interpolated as wood for the feel and color. I Lazer cut the Letter A with a fox imprint out of clear green acrylic, after cutting all of the pieces of the cover they fit together seamlessly and were secured with paper cement.

I wanted to keep the book’s cover mainly empty because I like the minimalist look of a clean cover.    I also decided to make “chapter pages” to mark every 10 pages or so with the upcycled paper I made.

I would cut out a rectangle in the page to then glue in the lattice sheet so it could be displayed once that page was reached.

On the morning of the presentation day, I had all of the components of my project together including some very nice handmade paper that I purchased on amazon. I was going to bind them before the showings began however, the paper that I purchased was not able to be bound to the book, effectively leaving my book unfinished for the showings.

After class, I was able to get some compatible paper, and I laser-cut it to ensure accuracy. After cutting everything the book came together quickly into this nice brown and green sketchbook. Along with the handmade paper that I made earlier, I could put them into the desired spots of my book and the contrast they provide is excellent.

Conclusion

This project was a satisfying way to make a sketchbook in my own image. I found it exciting in the minor detail of making the book enjoyable. The open-endedness of the project allowed for a lot of interpretation and exploration. Many of my classmates had intricate and genius designs. which inspired my own creations of handmade paper and acrylic inlay cover. In this project I noticed that my craftsmanship has improved along with the production of the project itself, excluding the mishap with the paper, I found the project to be a great exploration of materials and techniques which allowed for a satisfying final product.

Statement

This project is meant to be visualization-based composition to make a unique Greeting card based on our own abstractions of natural images.

Ideation

our professor assigned us to take pictures of various natural forms and then abstract those forms into more basic shapes to make them into patterns.

For the pictures that We were assigned to take, I decided to focus on rocks, mosses, and tree trunks. The abstractions that I used consisted of taking the most notable aspects of the images and exaggerating them. My favorite pictures that I took for the images were the ones of moss and stone. I personally liked how the patterns were complex looking yet simple.

After making the abstractions page I used Illustrator to experiment with the program in making the patterns for the greeting cards. Using the pattern tool I would layer multiple levels of a pattern to make a complex crosshatched pattern. These more complex patterns were a fun exploration of the capabilities of Adobe Illustrator.

At first, I made a simple repeating pattern from Various rectangles, I then made it into a pattern. Followed by making a separate artboard with different shapes like skinny hexagons, then making the fill of the hexagons the original pattern I made. The result is this complicated-looking arrangement of shapes.

After talking to my professor, she told me that having a pattern based on simple chaos as I did would not satisfy the requirements. So I decided to dial back the randomness, and I started with the images that I wanted to abstract. My first image was one of moss, So I simplified the moss to basic hexagons and made a pattern that was the hexagons in a 3D pattern. Following the moss pattern, I also made another based on stone. This pattern was more random than the moss because the abstraction was random polygons. I made a polygon tile and then extruded and made it into a pattern.

After checking in with my professor again I realized that The project was meant to be mainly in greyscale. So I decided to use mainly the stone pattern for my greeting card.

Production/ Iteration

The greeting card that I designed was based on sliding doors. I made the sliding door design based on the process that we used for Assignment 3. I made a net based of of the size of a mailable greeting card. Basing all of my measurements of an A1 card. These measurements gave my project the most sense of direction which allowed me to make the card in a simple and efficient process.

Making the nets helped me to structure my card. The constraints of the sliding doors left little to explore the visual aspect.

I mainly chose the sliding door design because I wanted to combine the envelope with the card itself to save material and minimize waste. So that when this card is mailed somewhere, there won’t be much trash.

I decided to use The stone pattern to satisfy the greyscale requirement of the assignment. However, I had an idea to make a colored composition as well. I wanted to take the moss pattern that I made and put it on top of the card to communicate the orientation and how to interact with the card. The interaction aspect was my biggest worry so I believe this would solve those problems.

I needed to use a locking mechanism to close the doors so they won’t open unintentionally, So I looked at how Babybel cheese packages its cheese snacks. They have a pull tab that opened up the wax capsule, thus revealing the cheese. Since I did not have access to many materials, I made the pull tab out on tape. Considering the constraint, it works surprisingly well.

Conclusion

This was a project that I struggled with. I found the scope of the project confusing, making greetings card is not something that I can experiment with. The constraints of this project were overwhelming because I really didn’t want to make a basic card with my pattern on it. The emphasis on the pattern of the project, caused me to be in some work paralysis. However, I eventually reached a point where I had to begin just making. And this allowed me to break through the paralysis and create a composition. This project was one that I didn’t entirely understand, yet I see how it forced me to think like a designer with very confining constraints.

Ideation

I wanted to make a word that I could use to describe myself in some way

At first, I ran through a lot of different random word combinations. Such as Did and Idiot to make Didiot, I thought this was a fun and simple combination however it was too simple.

I love the color green, so I began to find synonyms and descriptions of that color.

Iteration

I played around with the words Viridian, Malachite, Damascus, and Monk. I mainly chose these words because I like them, At the start, most of my combinations were only focused on play

I was combining them into interesting-sounding words. At this point, I was making words first and worrying about the meanings later.

I also toyed with the fonts a bit, I would take a simple font like Times Now Roman and edit and warp it to make a more interesting font that I would then extrude. However, extruding most of these distortions made Adobe crash since the shape was too complex. I was especially fond of the Pucker and Bloat tool.

Production

After enough consolation of differing words, I decided on the word Viridian and condition. Since both of the words had a similar sound and spelling, they could easily be combined to make a word. Viridition; A green condition, An obsession with the color green.

For my final composition, I wanted to express the Word through an interesting font while having a simple dictionary definition to make the word seem more official. I used the google dictionary engine as a model for my formatting.

While making the final composition I found this Phonetic alphabet to use for my project, I found the alphabet from the Neography Subreddit. Using a basic dictionary definition model with phonetics allowed me to see the project from a more complete perspective. Because up until this point I was unsure about the final composition.

After establishing the structure, I was able to continue with the exploration of the fonts. I initially had an iteration of a font that was slightly distorted text however, I felt that it was too simple of a design. So I used the Curvature Tool to draw my own letters. This result allowed me to create a much more interesting and dynamic font. after tweaking the settings and extruding the font I wanted to add a small motif that would complete the font with the definition. So I decided to color each letter of the word a different shade of green to emphasize the definition.

Viridition

Conclusion

This project was an interesting way to develop one’s Adobe Illustrator knowledge and apply it in an interesting way. This project, despite it being more graphic design-focused, had a light-hearted and intriguing concept. The idea to combine two words gave me a lot of fun just thinking of the possible combinations. This project was an enjoyable way to broaden my knowledge of the Adobe program.

Statement of Intent

To make a route using “map-like” fundamentals to guide the user to a particular spot

Ideation

Once the project was assigned I began to brainstorm differing concepts on to base my map route.

Our class did an exercise where we would walk around the oval and sketch notable places with corresponding poems. My first instinct was to go to my personal favorite spot, The Five Brothers Rock. After sketching this area I wanted this to be my final destination. I saw it as a perfect, beautiful place on campus to guide someone.

For the path to follow I wanted to have a visual cue that isn’t just a dotted line. So I thought about how roller coasters have many interesting twists and loops that interestingly bring a user around a certain attraction.

I wanted to bring that same idea to my composition so using a ribbon of paper I could make a roller coaster-like path to grab the attention of the viewer and guide them throughout. I also wanted to use the length of the ribbon between locations to signify the distance to travel. However, instead of it being a numerical value, I wanted it to be a visual value, such as if one part of the path has more loops, it means the next location is further away.

This assignment had a push towards the other senses rather than visual, I had the idea to create a simple playlist to guide the user through the journey. Using that plus a focus on the actual soundscape I wanted to encase the user in a thick and wonderful feeling of exploration and wonder. So I explored a few songs that I thought captured that aspect. After creating the playlist I would go on walks with the music to find the exact route I wanted to use. While walking around OSU campus I would log the trail on this map that I made for my project. This page became my main source of brainstorming and compiling all of the map-like aspects of the project.

My main idea stems from my conversation with a classmate the day after A2 was assigned. We were bouncing off ideas and they mentioned “having 3D shapes that slot into the paper,” I thought it was such an excellent idea that I had to try it. So I followed by making sketches of different methods to make the mechanism work on the sheet. One method was to have the 3D prisms fully constructed and have them slot into a box with inserts for the block to fit in flush. Another Idea was to make the prisms fold into the page like a pop-up book. With some ideas on how I was going to construct the map itself, I turned my focus back to the route itself. While listening to the playlist, I would go through the route itself and document the steps/ environment details.

Iteration and Production

The process began with me experimenting with ways to make the pop-up 3D prisms. At first, I decided to make the 3D cubes and have them slot into the paper, however, after talking to my professor. We talked about how making the shapes with a pop-up style would fit the assignment better. With the folding design chosen, I began the process of making iterations.

My first iteration was a test of the folding shapes. Since the space left between the cut of the paper, I glued a small piece of bristol to hold that small gap steady. Along with gluing a wider piece of paper so the shape wouldn’t be pulled out of the paper. This solution came with a problem, the wide bits of paper would intersect when the shape was pulled up, and this kept the shape from properly standing up on the page. So to fix this issue I bent the intersecting edges of the paper so they wouldn’t touch. A further development followed from the paper stoppers. When the prisms stand on the sheet the paper stoppers will lift the full canvas and make it droop. This was one of the largest problems for the project, to make the collapsing idea work I will need some sort of raised canvas to keep the project consistent.

Starting the production process I began to think about what information I would want to convey on the map. I believe this was the most difficult part, finding a way to compile the information in a digestible manner. I settled on the idea of having the shapes positioned to where they would really fit in on a traditional map. This allowed me to simplify the detail of my project, I then decided to have the sides of the prisms contain photos on the side so that the user would be able to connect their surrounding with the images on the map.

One of the shortcomings of this approach was how I put in the steps, the restrictive nature of the shapes only allowed me to fit the basic steps in a very traditional form. I had an idea to make the information more visually interesting and digestible, however, due to time restraints, I settled with the basic steps.

To fit the collapsing design and to hide the droop caused by the underside pieces, I decided to construct the composition as a box to disguise the underlying mechanisms. So to construct the box I made the sides of the box with “stitches” of paper and glue to hold. While creating this composition my peers and I named my composition “Frankenstein” I believe that joke perfectly encapsulated the process and composition itself.

During the creation process, I spent nearly a total of 10 hours creating the composition form. When I finalized the actual composition’s physical form It was a grand relief to me however the actual collapsing mechanism was not as well created as I would have liked. To make the composition properly collapse one would need to use their hand to hold the composition steady to properly collapse the prisms. In retrospect, I understand how I could make the collapsing mechanism more fluid. To fix the mechanism I would need to double the bristol on the prisms to reinforce the prisms so they can be pulled up more effectively.

After completing the actual making process of the physical paper I had to incorporate the main title and the Spotify QR code for the playlist. For the title, I wanted to include the visual element of the trees that I have a part of the entire path. So I made the title with a tree trunk/ root-like texture. The Spotify QR code was a bit difficult because each part of it needed to be exact. To make the QR code exact I used transparency paper which I held up to my computer screen to trace before using the light table.

   

 

Conclusion

The scope of my project was very wide. My ambitions nearly got the best of me and turned the project awry. I was able to complete the project however due to the span of my ideas the actual user experience of my project is seemingly left empty. The idea of making the folding prisms could be very interesting however with my execution, each prism is less interactive than I wished.  Due to my focus on folding prisms, the gathered information for the user to read is nothing more than simple text. Which must be read from awkward angles because of where it is placed, There are a lot of aspects of the project that don’t work as I intend. Yet I do have pride in my final product, I enjoyed the process from ideation to final competition.

Statement of Intent

To make multiple compositions of differing polyhedrons with complete digital drawings of their respective nets. Conveying either Modularity, Negative Space, Comparison, or Illusions.

Ideation

We began the first week of this project by making the “perfect cube” using a Net to construct the shape. We would use bristol and however many attempts it would take to make it accurate.

The following exercise was to make a polyhedron from a net. After browsing the internet for a bit I came across this image of an oblique pyramid. this shape piqued my interest so I began to make a net.

When making one of the forms, I read the 4th composition: Make a form from 3D shaped to create an illusion. So I decided to make a Penrose Triangle, a simple construction of 3 rectangular prisms to make a seemingly impossible triangle illusion.

This was a misunderstanding on my part of the assignment, nevertheless, I constructed the Penrose Triangle because I simply liked the illusion so I tried my hand at it. This was a small experiment of texting my handiwork with the geometry of the shapes and working with the bristol. Using the perspective to make the Penrose Triangle allowed me to hide the seams of the bristol better making the composition look more professional

I looked on the internet for more ideas for interesting and differing forms. as I looked on google images with the keyword of “3D Net” while searching I came across this image of an oblique pyramid.

I found its form very interesting because the top of the pyramid is offset from the base. So I began to research the math to find the proper relationship between the angles.

https://www.mathsisfun.com/definitions/oblique-pyramid.html

I found this website that allowed me to make my own pyramids so I used this tool to find the angles for my Pyramids.

I used this information to hand draw my own nets which I would then use as stencils to make many pyramids so I could move to the iterations.

Iteration & Production

My first iteration was a 3” scale of an oblique pyramid, after 3 iterations at that size I realized that it was an unsustainable size to make the iterations since I had only 5 sheets of bristol left. I followed up by making the following iterations at a 1” scale. With the 1” scale I explored differing radial patterns, and stacking among other arrangements for the iterations.

I would experiment with various arrangements and forms. Using some glue and tape to hold the shapes together,

during all of the various arrangements, I found using a radial pattern to be the most interesting.

After landing on the idea of making radial patterns I moved to Illustrator to make my nets. It was a simple and straightforward process.

on the date of October 25th, we were informed that the project was due on the morning of the 27th for a critique however on carmen the due date was the 31st. This set me in some sort of distress because I had not come to a final form. So I printed out 2 sheets of paper with as many completed nets as possible and I was planning for the 26th to be a day when I finalize the project. This led to the most difficult part of the project, I had to begin creating the final composition.

 

I sat down in hayes hall to work at 6 pm. With the small window to complete the work, I cleared my evening to finish the project. at around 10 pm, the others and I decided to have a sleepover together in the building. There was a lot of work to get done so it would be better to work in a social environment rather than an isolated one.

At some point during the sleepover, I found my mind wandering to other radical Ideas, such as making a spiral staircase of polyhedrons or constructing some sort of puzzle with my shapes. but since I had already printed out my nets I was stuck with my original radial Idea. Many times during the night I found myself wishing for a printer to be assessable in Hayes Hall so I could explore the more wild and more interesting Ideas that I had generated.

Overall the sleepover was a mix of fun and pain. Like being in Disneyworld with a killer headache. Since I was with my peers we were able to joke and make light of the situation but the truth was that we needed to finish our work.

I finished my project at 4 am. My final composition was inspired by the radial designs that I had been exploring prior and also I decided to tie in a space theme. So I made my composition based on the idea of a lunar lander. I believe my inspiration came from the ambient Youtube video named “you’re in an empty place for 10 hours and 3 seconds” This must have given me some form of cosmic inspiration. Nevertheless, I do enjoy the composition. Attaching the work on a string allows for someone to lift it and make it “fly” which I believe is a fun way of interacting with my composition.

Reflection

In retrospect, this project was a very grad and chaotic journey. I went through a great number of iterations and ideas. During much of the project, I felt that there was so much open area for exploration that it scared me in a way. because of the grand amount of freedom, I found myself too scared to truly explore my ideas for fear of messing up my composition and wasting my materials. The shape I chose was one that was interesting however very late on in the project I learned that since the base of these pyramids is a square base it didn’t allow for the shapes to fit in arrangements in ways that I would have preferred. Due to my fears of “ruining” my composition I was not able to thrive with the project as it was intended. There were moments when I would find myself looking at the fantastic forms my peers were creating and dreaming of more interesting and chaotic forms that I could make if I wasn’t already locked in with my shape (to iterate, I did not want to copy my peers work, I was only inspired by them)

My final thoughts about this project are that my final composition isn’t what I wish it was. I am unsatisfied with the craftsmanship, arrangement, and overall design. However due to my fear of ruining the “perfect” aspect of these shapes I couldn’t truly explore as I like to.