My “Favorite” Gift Received
When I was eight years old, I received an electric scooter for my birthday. It was at a time my parents where going through a divorce so I was not expecting it at all. I was very happy and excited that I rode it as soon as it came out of the box. However, I do not really like receiving gifts rather then gift giving but I would say this gift was a big surprise and made me feel better.
How do gifts make you feel? Concept Map
This concept map is shows how gifts make someone feel once they received the gifts.
Exercise 1
For this exercise, I found a random object in Hayes Hall to then create to make a “gift” out of this object. I choose a SCAD catalog. SCAD stands for Savannah College of Art and Design. However, the design of this catalog is very artistic and inviting bringing a viewer to want to open the book up. It consists of patterns and bright colors and clear and yellow plastics to cover the book itself.
Process
I wanted to create a cover for someone that is a Future Student receiving this catalog to be surprised and enjoy the process of opening up what is inside to see this incredible designed book.
Lettering & Pattern
I begun by tracing the SCAD logo letters to design a stagnant design with patterns for the cover. I used shades of pink for the main connection between the card-stock and letter because of the cover of the catalog has a pattern the consists of pink shades.
Gold Lettering
I wanted to add gold to add an element of surprise within the letters on the back of the cover pages so that they were not just plain.
Assembling the Cover
I scored the ends of the over by 1″ inch so it makes a binding around the catalog. In addition I created a 3D layering effect with the letters to enhance the composition with the patterns creating depth and an illusion for the viewer. Afterwards, to make the cardstock more cohesive with SCADs’ yellow plastic cover design, I added an additional clear plastic piece as well.
Cover Assembly
As I assembled the cover and made the letter covers stagnant with the clear plastic, I included Bristol board to develop a “wrap around” cover. Since the Bristol is not strong/durable enough to hold the cover and catalog, I took Cardboard to make it sturdy in the inside. At the end of this, since the lettering cover where stagnant, I needed something to close the whole composition. In result, it now contains a slip pin and string for closure.
The Writing
The writing on the outside of the piece states what the “gift” is and in the inside of each letter, it has SCADs’ statistics.
Final Composition
With the Final Composition for this Exercise, I wanted to create a cover for the catalog that was interactive and design appealing since it is a design school. I made this for “Future Students” to SCAD. The decorative flaps with the statistics written on the inside, brings an element of invitation to the viewer (giftee) while the composition as whole can be reused to now put anything in the inside. I think that any “Future Student) giftee would be exciting if they received this in the mail.
Gifting Design
Concept Statement
“Fauvism in a Box”
My mentor is Ana Suhayda and I learned that she loves traveling just like me. Her favorite art period is Fauvism. As a designer she is inspired by color and likes to paint and do conceptual design. I asked her what Fauvism art means to her and she responded and said “I would say that Fauvism art are topics of realistic things displayed unrealistically through color altering how a person perceived it. I like it because it pushes the boundaries of traditional things.” With gathering this information, I wanted to create a piece that provides a memory of her favorite traveling sites and how I view them as realistically unrealistic as abstract shapes and lines with the use of color that Fauvism is known for. I want Ana to look at this piece and know what memories she had created while traveling and to be inspired by another form of Fauvism art. Furthermore, Van Gogh inspired Fauvism and I choose the quote “What color is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life” by Vincent van Gogh. This speaks to not only Fauvism as an art form but to enjoying life and getting the opportunity to explore new places.
Research
Mentor Research
My mentor is Ana Suhayda, a third year Interior Design Student.
I got to know Ana communicating through via text message and sent her a list of questions with the topics being: About Yourself, Design, and Gifting. For her to get to know my I also answered the same questions. I found a lot of interesting information about her for me to figure out what gift I could give her.
I asked more in-depth question as to her traveling in different places, what type of art she likes, and what inspires her. I wanted to find things that we had in common so that I could connect with her and the gift I am making to give.
Questions
Ana’s Traveling
Ana has traveled to a lot of many places so I asked her what were her favorites and what sites did she like when she was there. She sent me these photos: Niagara Falls in Canada, Stairs in Tennessee, Streets in California, Desserts in San Diego, and the OBX Sunset in South Carolina. Since she loves traveling and I do too, I thought, it would be a good gift idea if I center my gift around something we both have in common and is exciting to experience.
Fauvist Art
This link provides my art inspiration of Fauve Art: https://pin.it/24CYIyd
Ana’s favorite art period is Fauvist Art. My idea is to create a composition around her favorite art era and traveling images.
Fauvist Art is a genre of “modernized” art such as impressionism. It was inspired by Picasso, Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat and many more that consisted of bright, vivid, bold colors and visible brushstrokes on a painting. It created movement within the work. Colors were not blended but as placed onto one another so that they can emphasize layering.
Inspired Artists
Top (left to right): Georges Seurat and Paul Gaugui
Bottom (left to right): Van Gogh and Picasso
I asked Ana “What is Fauvist Art to you?”
She answered: “I would say that fauvism art are topics of realistic things displayed unrealistically through color altering how a person perceived it. I like it because it pushes the boundaries of traditional things.”
Later, I looked up “How to Paint like a Faurve” and read this article: https://www.liveabout.com/how-to-paint-like-a-fauve-2578246
Idea Concept Map
Doing a concept map not only did it condense down my ideas for incorporating both traveling images and fauvist art, from the question Ana told me she like collaging. My thought process for the gift wanted to use mixed medias but the restrictions on how many resources you can used discarded that idea. Therefore, I begun looking at the images I took from the Brooklyn Museum and Pinterest for inspiration.
Gift Inspiration
Brooklyn Museum
I went to New York for spring break, and found this piece intriguing bc of how many mixed medias the artist used on their canvas. However, the bright colors peaking out and the movement that leads to the middle of the collage is interesting that all of these different materials led to one designation into the middle.
Additional inspiration: https://pin.it/1nOw4cd
As I begun to look for inspiration of mixed medias and abstract works, I came across sculptures that unrealistically represented realistic things as how to what Ana described Fauvist art. I think that this would be a good idea to combine both Fauvist art and Ana’s traveling images. They use line, shape, form, and color in a way of layering that is exciting and appealing to the viewer.
Sketches
On Paper
While sketching my ideas, I needed to know what shapes I wanted to use to represent what I wanted in some of the images. I explored until my shapes and lines became simple and abstract to bring out those realistic things unrealistically.
Niagara Falls in Canada: Spirals to represent Water
Dessert in San Diego: “Flowers” to represent Poppy Flowers
OBX Sunset in South Carolina: Circles and Lines to represent the Sunset
Streets in California: Triangles to represent Palm Trees
Stairs in Tennessee: Squares and Line to represent the Colors
Digitally & Grid Structure
A grid is needed to insure that everything lines up with other pieces throughout the composition. I used guide lines in Abode Illustrator to make sure there was a grid structure applied for me to follow when assembling.
Color Palette
I used the eye dropping tool to form my color palettes in each photograph.
Process
Mockup
I made a mockup out of chipboard and hot glue to get the idea of how to assembly the sculpture and to see how the shapes lined up. Although, I did have extra pieces left so I did add them onto the composition. I added the quote by Vincent Van Gogh “What color is in a picture, is euthuasiam is in life,” as well as brushstroke texture to get the concept I am trying to portray with Fauvist art.
Laser Cutting
I decided to use MDF board because of its density and affordability rather than birch wood or plywood. It will give the effect I want in the sculpture of the idea of using real wood fibers and the implied thickness from the side view of the composition.
Cut Files
My laser cut file are simple shapes and lines arranged on a 18×16 artboard.
My other cut file is for the container my composition will be going in a 18×16 inch box.
Composition Attempt 1 Cutting
In attempt 1 of laser cutting, I purchased 1/4″ inch MDF board to cut out my file. I did have troubles when cutting due to the laser cutting not being abled to cut all the way through from how dense the board was. In result, I had to take the board to the woodshop to use the band saw to “shave” down my board in order to get my pieces out. This caused my pieces to not be straight cuts of abled to sand them down to smooth out the edges.
Composition Attempt 2 Cutting
In attempt 2 of laser cutting, Deb gave me 1/2″ inch MDF board that the laser cutter can cut through. This was successfully as to get smooth edges and straight lines as seen in the final composition.
Composition Attempt 2 Cutting
For my box, I used 1/2″ inch MDF board to keep it consistent with the material I used for the composition.
Painting
Before I assembled my sculpture, I painted the back of every individual piece black with oil paint. I painted the back black because Fauvist art is an era of Modern art and I wanted to bring that element to the back of my piece to make it more versatile and it can be placed on either side. Although, oil paint does not have a dry time, so it was very difficult to start painting the front side until it was dry. To speed up this process, I painted over oil paint with acrylic.
Back
Front
The front of my composition is where I wanted to showcase those colors, lines, and shapes that portrayed Ana’s favorite traveling spots unrealistically. I tried to make the color palette from above by color mixing to the best of my abilities. However, for the from I did use acrylic paint so that it dried very fast and indeed needed apx. 5 coats of paint per piece.
Rasterize
I rasterized the quote “What color is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life” by Vincent van Gogh and the pattern of my of my full composition on the front, the side panels, and the back. I wanted to add value to the box so that it was not just a plain box.
Assembly
At the beginning I tried to use wood glue to assembly my composition and box container but the dry time for that was not applicable for how much movement with flipping the piece back and froth to apply layering of the line and shapes. I decided to use the hot glue gun because of the fast dry time and hold that it can provide.
Composition
With the composition assembly, I did have some good pieces from the 1/8″ inch MDF board so I decided to add two different thickness to add depth.
Box
After the assembly of the box container, I painted the inside black so that it does stay consistent with the modernized theme of the back side of the sculpture.
Afterwards
From my pieces, I had left over spiral rings and decided to add them to the back of the composition so that raw rings of MDF coal “peek” out with the colors and unite the container together.
Giving the Gift
Ana was very excited and surprised when opening her gift. Her first reaction was “This is so cool, I can see the Fauvism!”
I then proceed to ask her “Do you know what it represents?”
She said no so I then told her what it was and that it was her traveling images presented abstractly through color.
Ana replied and said, “I can see that now! “Right now, I am doing a moral of my traveling photos on my wall and this could be the centerpiece.”
She said that I nailed Fauvism and represented her images very well.
In addition, I asked her “How did this gift make you feel?”
She said surprised because she did not know what to expect since my questioning was all of the place but now that she looked back, the gift makes sense.
Full Composition
I wanted this gift for Ana to be memorable of her favorite traveling sites and of her favorite art period, which is Fauvism art.
Container
With the container, I used Matte board so that it can be a united piece with the sculpture itself. I wanted the box to be decorative and abstract and to become something unique to Ana. I place the quote “What Color is in a picture, enthusiasm is in life” by Vincent van Gogh to remind her of living life and exploring new places and seeing color everywhere. I rasterize the box with the digital sketch I made for the sculpture to add value to the box and texture. This container can be reusable for anything she wants and can become a keepsake.
Fauvism Sculpture
Fauvism is all about color and how you portray realistic things unrealistically. It is a modern genre of art and I used her traveling images that she sent as to what shapes and lines I would interpret to what I saw. I tried to color match as close as possible to the colors in the images which the composition as a whole takes on the qualities of Fauvism. The geometric shapes with the color aspects brings ‘enthusiasm’ to this piece. The raw spirals brings an element of surprise to the piece and ties in the container it comes in as well as a modern touch.
Modern Sculpture
I wanted this piece to not just be colored on both sides. I wanted versatility and a neutral color to “calm” down one side of the sculpture. Therefore, I used black paint to settle down the Fauvism side and to incorporate a Modern look to the piece so Ana can choose which side to display. The raw spiral material being placed on this side as a different effect to brightening up the piece and to add movement with how black makes every shape and line stop in a sense. In addition, then again the raw spirals tie into the container itself.
Reflection
In this project, learning about someone who you do not know to give a gift to was difficult but if you ask the right questions and learn more about them, it becomes very clear on the idea you have for them. When giving a gift, you worry about if the recipient will like it or not but I think I learned that it doesn’t matter what gift you give, they are grateful for the time and effort you put into it or what meaning it can have behind it. I wanted to focus on the design elements that both of us find interest in and wanted to create a piece that can be display as wall art. For me, painting is not my strong suit, and I had a challenging time painting within the shapes and line to where the paint spilled over the edges. However, it does add an element of painting technique of messy but controlled. If I could do this project over again, time would be my biggest thing for using actually wood glue to to pan out the drying time for each piece as well as taking a lot more time to tape and paint. All in all, I am proud how this turned out and I am glad that Ana liked her gift.
Portfolio
View final detail project at: Project 3: Gifting Design