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Abstracted Metamorphosis

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Research and Abstraction

For my three forms I picked a toad, armadillo, and a lily flower. I wanted to choose natural forms that had a unique geometric feel to them, like the toad and armadillo. I selected a lily because they have been on my mind lately and felt like it was needed. You can view my original breakdown of these forms here: forms

 

Reconstruction

I made 15 iterations for each of the three forms. This helped me to think of ideas because I put all of my ideas on the page even if I thought they were bad. Below is the process of the reconstruction of the lily flower. This reconstruction was the biggest challenge for me and required the most drawing from imagination rather than drawing from another image. Below are the beginning reconstructions of all three forms, and then a more in depth reconstruction process for the lily.

 

The Armadillo Amphitheater

This theater I had in mind to belong to some sort of summer camp held somewhere in Arizona. The stage is perfect for end of camp talent shows or inviting the locals to a small acoustic set. I wanted the theater to feel small and homey for those who would visit.

 

Bed Side Hero

This rough and tough action star is the purfect protector against the monsters under your child’s bed and is especially good at scaring off the boogey man in their closet. This dynamic character is equipped with movable action joints, a soft plush body, and detachable armor. Sensational for fighting all things that go bump in the night, the Bed Side Hero really is no scaredy cat.

 

Full Music Immersion experience chair

The FMI chair is great for any child, teenager, or adult that has been on the hunt for that perfect place to listen to their new master playlist. Not only does this chair form perfect to each persons unique body, but it submerges you in the music experience of a lifetime. Find yourself humbled while you are swallowed in a cocoon of immersive sound.

 

Final

This project definitely challenged my ability to draw from imagination. Creating ideas based off of these abstracted forms did however seem really encouraging and exciting from an industrial design viewpoint. Talking with others in critique was actually one of my favorite parts of this project because everyone seemed so eager and excited to be creating these things purely from imagination!

Color and Pattern

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Introduction to Color

Our first introduction to color was a RadioLab podcast over color and how it affects us. Following we had questions about how colors affected us and how they affect the way we see the world around them. Following the podcast we had to make a color collage of the words “soft” and “energy”. This portion of the project made me look at color from a new perspective. I struggled when I would begin to put things on the collage that I was favoring for texture rather than color. I did end up using textured objects, but only after I originally picked them for their color.

On the left is “soft” and on the right is “energy”

 

Introduction to Pattern

Taking natural forms, we trace the components, directional lines, values, and proportions, to begin observing organic and natural versions of pattern.

Above are the rough sketches I did to showcase these patterns. I wanted to pick objects from nature that had a cozy energy around them, or objects I favor. From this table, I initially chose the directional manatee photo and the baby platypus’ foot. Eventually I switched from the directional manatee to the proportional cauliflower because I felt the cauliflower had a more dynamic and asymmetric layout which achieved the feeling of “kooky and bubbly” which was intentional.

This was the very beginning stages of the directional manatee

 

Color Iterations

I knew I wanted one design to be bright and bold and the other I wanted to have more muted natural colors. For my iterations of both, I planned on giving the paw bright colors and the cauliflower muted colors. Although I later changed this mindset, you can view some of my original color schemes here: Color iterations

I decided agains those color schemes of the paw because I felt as if the static design felt better with a more muted color scheme. I ended up choosing the orange, blue, green color scheme for the cauliflower to keep the sense of “kooky and bubbly”.

 

This is my final symmetrical design. In the draft critique I had a white background and a yellow or green one was recommended. I feel like the yellowish/ ivory background makes the colors work together to form a harmonious balance.
This is my final design for an asymmetrical pattern. In the draft critique I had a white background and a yellow one was recommended. I felt that the comment was right to add a background, but yellow washed out the brighter colors and I wanted to stick with a color that kept the vibrancy.

 

Taking into account what I had learned from lessons and from classroom critiques, I was able to develop a final product which will be inserted below.

Interpreted Journey

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Developing the Point of View

Originally I planned on doing the journey through the point of view of being chased; I decided to do the alien view because I felt it would be a different challenge.

See my iterations and notes here: interpreted journey iterations (there are three sets of being chased, one of flying, one of alien, and they all are read horizontally left to right)

Weening off the idea of being chased, I didn’t want to insert a lot of people because I wanted to focus on the landscape aspect. This is why my final doesn’t have the alien in the jacuzzi or him riding a bird scooter.

I used canted angles to signal confusion of the alien. I also made University Hall from a high perspective on with the bird sketches, but I decided to put a low angle of University Hall to make it seem overwhelming for the alien.

 

Choosing one Path

I was most excited for my alien path because I felt confident in portraying his confusion. My critique group did help me realize that my initial ideas were a little too imaginative and reminded me to continue to focus on the angles/ perspective. This helped me to stick with the views being from his perspective.

 

Final

For the final I used gray scale markers, which I really enjoyed. I outlined the drawings in black to make them have harder edges, but it may have made the drawings not as bold. I really wanted to focus on perspective and portraying the mood through only needed details. I have a bad habit of drawing too light and focusing too hard on details rather than the big picture; I felt that the markers really helped with that.

You can view my final here: interpreted journey

1.) My first drawing is the first thing the alien takes in on this new planet. He is looking at some unknown objects (acorns) in his hands that have a dizzying perspective. Hayes Halls is seen blurred in the background.

2.)My second image is a canted view of a tree and recycling bin somewhere on the sidewalk after Hayes Hall and before University Hall. The canted view gives a feeling of confusion as he’s worriedly exploring this odd place.

3.) My third drawing is a low angle view of University Hall. I meant for this to give an overwhelming feeling.

4.) My fourth drawing is a drawing of Thompson Library. I included it to show the contrast of modern architecture compared to the more traditional architecture of University Hall.

5.) I included this fifth drawing of a propped open door to show how the alien got into the RPAC. I inserted odd symbols and writing on the door to show that the alien is unaware of the language on the door.

6.) The final drawing is the destination of the alien. The jacuzzi has a longer stretched distortion to it and a semi-glowing effect to it. I included odd letters in the jacuzzi as well to continue to show that he doesn’t know the language.

 

 

 

 

2D to 3D Orthographic

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The First Cube

I was determined to get a perfect cube on the first try (I didn’t), but the second time I was more conscious of my pressure on the blade, lining it up with the ruler to avoid cutting into the actual planes, and how much glue to use on the tabs. The second cube took me around two and a half hours but I ended with a product that I was proud of.

 

The First Orthographic Drawings

The orthographic drawings seemed easier when it was being taught to me but I learned quickly that it was a genuinely difficult practice to get used to. After the first worksheets with it though, I was definitely more confident with orthographic drawing. See this first worksheet here: orthographics

 

Iterate

I wanted to focus on building and make sure that my shapes gave me the opportunity to learn a solid foundation of building through Bristol paper. I struggled with making ideas that stood out in detail and pattern because I wanted that firm foundation. I now know that I will be extremely confident later when building for other projects. Below are images of my first rough sketches for ideas.

 

Orthographic Drawings

I felt more confident going into this second round of Orthographics, yet I still struggled to visualize where things belonged. The lines seemed to get confused in my head and I feel like I could visualize them more with breaking apart the drawings and simplifying them. You can view these orthographic drawings here: Scan Oct 8, 2019

Construction

Most shapes were smooth-sailing due to them being rectangular prisms. The first design, however, was the hardest despite its simplicity. I went through around 6 cone templates before I got it to work.

Above is my first attempt. To get a rounded cone, I thought scoring it with vertical lines would help make the curves more fluid. I was wrong and it gave it a bunch of little edges. My final attempt involved soaking the cone template with water which helped it to curve flawlessly.

To insert the cone into the rectangular prisms, I calculated the circumference of the cone for each side it would be entered into.

 

The rest of the templates were straight forward. They took the most time solely because they were simple and I wanted to perfect them.

 

Final

The final project is overall something that I am very proud of. I feel like this project looks simple to many people who are not in design, so it is easy to get discouraged when those around you are acting like it is easy. It is a hard, exact, and necessary process and skill to have that goes unseen by most people, and that is okay! This project also taught you how to be confident in your own abilities and time commitment. You can see my final project and aerial views of my final below.

 

 

Spatial Assembly

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Learning the Technique

We began learning how cubes are shown through one-point and two-point perspective. You can see the beginning process of that here. Through this I learned how high/ low or to the right/left an object should be to get my desired perspective.  We furthered this by applying more complex shapes to the perspective techniques and adding shading, which you can also see here.

 

Designing the Room

It was time to apply the new uses of perspective and shading to a comprehensive room. We began with a practice room/ perspective grid and placed a simple cube within it, which you can see here. I knew I wanted my room to be simple and minimalist. To do that, I would have to find a way to add some complexity to the drawing somewhere, so I took another spin at practicing shading and the way that it can affect a space. I feel as if I could improve upon my shading skills or try new shading techniques like stippling or cross hatching. I also included a cat with my room; I would like to get more practice at drawing organic objects in perspective. I tried to be conscious of depth cues like darker objects being closer and closer objects having more details (I tried to do this especially with the leaves on the front porch).

 

Contents of the Room

I wanted a clean room that I could see myself actually working in. You can view the final project here.

-I added a hanging chair that has a track attached to the ceiling. This would allow me to easily move myself to different areas in the room without extra floor clutter.

– I added a large window that would let in tons of sunlight and would be a nice place to swing my chair towards if I needed a break (also an excellent place for the cat).

-The candles allow a soft and welcoming environment for when the ceiling light becomes too much.

-The desk is against the wall with minimal decorations to allow all focus to be on whatever project I am working on.

-In the back of the room is a tiny door. I’ve always wanted some sort of interesting passage (or even a secret passage) of my own.

 

2D Principles and Squares

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Research and Iterations

To make accurate representations of six different words with four squares I researched the words and used the elements and principles that we learned in class to create concept ideas. To see this research, click: research

Making squares using combinations of the elements and principles helped me to think of ways to manipulate those techniques to create certain moods and environments. To see these, click: elements and principles variations

From there forward, I began to sketch versions of these squares to see which deliveries of the concepts were most successful. To see these iterations, click: square iterations

 

Draft

Narrowing down the squares, I tried to pick the ones that resonated most with myself. One of the many things that I can take away from this assignment is to make sure to look at it from an outside perspective, which is something that I initially struggled with. With a lot of my designs, I used my own reasoning for the square placement and color instead of a more general interpretation. I now feel like, especially projects that have so much minimalism, it’s important to have a more problem-solving approach rather than a personal goal in mind.

Top row from left to right:

1. For playful I originally used this design because it was the most vibrant one that I had. I tried to use movement by not allowing the viewer’s eye to be directed in any particular direction. Although I liked this design, and those in my critique group agreed, that it doesn’t necessarily fit into the word playful. I would say that this design was too abstract and rigid for the word ‘playful’, but I may keep it in my back pocket for later design inspiration.

2. Increase proved to be the most successful for my draft critique. I feel as though the minimalism of this design makes it more effective by giving the viewer only one thing to look at. I attempted to use both scale and movement in this example. The extreme increase in size widens the scale moves te eye from smaller to larger.

3. For bold, I used the same concept of minimalism as I did in increase. This is purposely the only image that goes outside the 3×3 square; I feel as if “breaking the mold” is a big part of bold’s meaning. I used contrast and going outside of the margins to create emphasis. I also used symmetry so there was no confusion on the eye.

Bottom row from left to right:

4. This design for congested was actually lightly criticized in the critique because the four squares got lost in the background. However, after playing with different colors and line widths, I think I’ll stick with it because I feel as if the lined squares give the eye more things to look at which makes the image feel congested. I used a lack of balance to create a more chaotic and unplanned image and lack of contrast to make the image feel stuck in one spot.

5. For tension, I used the idea of a build-up to express the word. Using unity, I placed squares closer and closer together to signify an increasing build-up of potential energy. It was suggested in the critique that I make the boxes slightly closer/tighter to lessen its bouncy effect.

6. Lastly, for order I attempted to use movement to show boxes going in order one after the other. I found that this idea was too representational and was not received as well as I had hoped.

Rethinking Playful and Order

So it was back to the drawing board for playful and order. I was almost excited about this setback because it gave me a chance to get better at knowing how to make a design decipherable to a first time viewer.

The first image was a redo of ‘order’ that was better received with my peers. I wanted an incomplete pattern because I felt as if the incomplete pattern made there a feeling of more possibly being added to it. The second image and the fourth image was a redo of ‘playful’. I liked the spiraling effect that they had, but I felt as if I could expand upon that more. To see that expansion of ‘playful’ designs, click: playful iterations

 

Final

Journey to a Treasure

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Process

Drawing using Triangulation made me feel much more in control when doing observational drawings. It helped me to create the correct proportions a lot easier than I had before.

Walking the path given to me was the first task. Finding something new along an almost familiar path was the second task. Finding meaning along my way came almost naturally. There’s something for everyone on this campus.

 

My 5 Places

Drawing five meaningful stops along the way, I found inspiration in most pictures. Sitting and drawing something gives you a lot of time with that certain something, Maybe the reason I was drawn to so many buildings was because of all the possible stories they could hold. My lunch and the hot tub may seem mundane to others, but by giving an anecdote with them I hoped to involve the viewer in the drawing.

Triangulation is a new method of drawing for me, however not being perfect at it yet, I know it will help me exponentially and I am excited to involve it more in my process.

Creating the Designer-Bio

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The Thoughts I Thought Along The Way

A photo that represents you

Finding a picture that represents yourself is easier said than done. I chose this picture because though content, only I know why. Only I could hear the waves crashing behind me, the seagulls screeching above me, and the wind whipping through the tall grass on the sand dunes. The viewer, however, has none of the context I do. By redefining the clouds in the background I hoped to use the color to capture the mood I was feeling. By blurring the edges I hoped to make the image resonate the feeling of being a memory or a dream. One of the skills I want to strengthen is relaying a message to a viewer despite them not having any prior context to fill in their own blanks.

Sandwich of yourself


Exercises like these are a very resourceful way to simplify yourself. Writing a biography page about yourself can be easily overthought. This sandwich was a way to remind myself of my basic principles like calmness (chamomile tea), strong connections to my hometown (getting sonic slushies with friends), or just reminding myself of the things that I enjoy without any explanation. This is like a massage for the brain. (The ‘average joe bread’ is supposed to be a Trojan Horse-like message. I don’t think that I’m bread.)

The making of the bio!

Navigating the website definitely found itself to be a struggle for me. A lot of the ideas on these pages changed during the making of my bio. I’m sure my bio will likely also change over time as I grow as a student, designer, and person. However, central ideas seemed to stay throughout the process. Writing my thoughts down, as simple as that is, was something new for me. I felt more clear as I worked through this project, and it is definitely a tool that I can’t wait to utilize more. (Apologies for the image quality. Out of two different scanners, neither could pick up my pencil marks.)