Meredith Davis Keynote Reflection

I found this article interesting because there seemed to be two contrasting viewpoints.  Or a strong viewpoint which is "questioning" the older, frequently used one.  I soon came to realize that the viewpoints are ones that I have seen in my teachers as I take classes from PCC.  I would be reading a paragraph and think to myself, "That sounds just like this teacher."  

I have teachers who have told me that "The computer is just a tool."  Where we have been encouraged in other classes to start with the computer and encouraged to know as many facets of the technology available to us as possible.  I personally think that a balance of both is practical and preferable to the way I like to work.  I like to work alone on single pieces of design art, but I have also found and see an importance to working in a group for something more communal. I have done both kinds of design, enjoy both, and can see the pro's and con's on each side of the spectrum.  

I think something to take into consideration, especially when the article moves into the importance of technology and community, is that the world is going digital.  Everything is on the web now.  You can read books, go shopping, learn sign language, talk with long lost friends on the opposite side of the world, have a digital portfolio that anyone can see, etc.  Not only are you as a designer "sold" or broadcasted on the internet but there is this plethora of information, images, ideas, and inspiration to glean off of the internet and the whole world is joining in.  You can't go to school today without a computer, businesses have to have websites, and designers have to have websites.

Here is my website of DeviantArt.  http://rustedangel7.deviantart.com/  This is a website where artists can post their creations in a gallery online.  It's free of charge and built specifically for artists who want to network, share, and browse other works.  People post their  mini films, animations, designs, illustrations, sculptures and whatever else they want to share.  They give you a favorites list where you can bookmark your favorite artist and get notices when they have added more to their gallery.  I go on almost everyday and look at my favorite artists' new submissions, tutorials they've made and read about media, programs and techniques they used to make their artwork.

I took a look at the two examples of "design" in Apple.com and Amazon.com to get a visual with the keynote.

www.apple.com

www.amazon.com

Process Description

                WHAT I WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR AND MADE

      At the beginning of the project we all decided to go home and sketch up many different ideas for branding proposals to bring to the table and vote on as a group.  Everyone came to the conclusion that they liked my "branches" idea and that we wanted it to have it done in real media vs. digitally done.  So Jordynn and I got together during the weekend and I spent the better part of a friday drawing pages of branches, passion flowers and painting brush strokes with india ink and watered down acrylics.  I scanned everything we did in and e-mailed to everyone in the group.  While the others were working on logos and formatting I went into Adobe photoshop and illustrator, imported the images, and put them together coloring the paint strokes and whitening the branches.  Now that we had our branding I e-mailed it to everyone and made an additional "backstage" larger illustration for the stage.  I then was put in charge of making the website which I brought to class and got critiqued on and which was eventually given over to mark because I was asked to do the Poster and Handbill. 

              WHAT DID vs. DIDN'T WORK

        I think our group did a really good job of working together, meeting outside of class, and making decisions together.  Everyone had a say and was happy to hear and consider the other group members decisions.  Everyone was extremely willing to put in the time and effort into their share of the project.

Sometimes there were difficulties in splitting up jobs because of the nature of the jobs themselves.  For example I felt bad that Jordynn was always in charge of bringing/ keeping the poster board but she was the only one who lived on campus.  Or we had the poster and handbill to do but instead of giving 2 people one each to do we gave it to one person because they are so similar and we wanted the pieces to have a cohesiveness.  Or we wanted everyone to work on the actual painting in the beginning but some people had work, others couldn't make it but if we did it all separately on our own we would all spend hours on different styles of painting that might not be used in the end.

INSPIRATIONS

Initially I was inspired by the willow branch which has such character and texture and thought they would be white with a very faded very soft greenish grey in the background.  We were told in class that we needed bright bold colors for advertising purposes so splashes of color seemed to be something modern and fun that could add an extra punch.

I looked at Anthropologie (www.anthropologie.com) for inspiration.  I used to work there and it seems to me like a very earthy, fashion, store and I always always enjoy their branding.

I also have pieces/photos of inspiration in my first post.

www.anthropologie.com

http://nymag.com/fashion/fashionshows/

http://www.vogue.co.uk/

www.sustainablestyle.org

Final Banner Proposal

Heres our final Banner, although we stuck "May 20th" at the bottom.  We went for the simple look again, with a long vertical format so it can either hang or stand our from street poles.

Final Website Proposal

Our final website proposal done by Mark.  I think he did a good job incorporating the elements we were told were important and putting them together, especially for the time restraints we had.   I'm interested in maybe designing a page for our 3rd project.  Taking this idea but putting the time and effort into making a website page.

Final Logo proposals

Our favorite logos, we ended up putting them all on our proposal board for them to choose although we chose the first scroll flourish one as the title for the board itself.  We decided on this one because the format was what we had room for next to everything else on the board.

Final Stage Embellishments

Our final proposals for our stage embellishments.  We added stitching in the branches to make it have more of a multimedia look and to add character to the branches.  In the middle of the stage we have our model with the title to give it a more modern, fashion show feel.

Program proposal

Our final program proposal, the side wings fold in and the model is on the cover.

Poster and Handbill

The final Poster and Handbill proposals.  I wanted them to have a clean look to them with a classic high fashion typeface in a modern formatting.  The text will obviously change and be added to if it's used.

Webpage preliminary

I looked at the best web designs from examples that Mark found and designed a preliminary web page.  I love clean website designs that aren't cluttered.

After meeting in class today we will be changing this design a lot.  (Mark is now heading this up.)

Final Branding

I finished the stage embellishments which are just pure branding,  I already had the Left side but I added more paint strokes and colors and finished coloring in the branches white.  Then I did the Right side but with different brush strokes and colors so that it wouldn't look too uniform.  And finally I did the same but for the body which will be much bigger and go on the back and sides of the stage. Jordynn is working on the front center piece.

Branding Illustrations

Initial renderings of our main branding design, working on different colors, paint brushes, quantity of color, background colors etc.  After class we decided to use a medium amount of color but whiting out the branches like the fourth design so they stand out.

Reflection of "An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth"

1.  People can be too stuck on what they think they know or are like.  People should travel and live in different countries, it will change who you are.

2.  This really confuses me. "As long as you stick with good you have no growth?"  I'm assuming we're talking about design where this could mean to not worry about designing something bad because bad ideas can help springboard bad ones.

3.  Process is very good and helpful to explore a variety of outcomes.

10.  You can be surprised by what people come up with, don't underestimate others' input to creative solutions.

16.  Working in groups is difficult but very rewarding when you can bounce ideas off of people and get better results.

18. Very true, I come up with the weirdest things when my brain is only half-functioning.

24.  I love working with pencil and paper, i find I can express my ideas much better.

35.  Sometimes imitation can help teach you new things.

39.  I like to get out just to look at things, I'm very visual and the more stimulation I get the more ideas I'll get later.  Go on a walk or look at a new book, everything can be implemented in design.

41.  I constantly need to remind myself to keep design fun!  It's hard to think of assignments with their deadlines as purely a grade but I need to remember to enjoy the experience and the artistic process.

(A few thoughts to my highlights of the reading,   www.brucemaudesign.com/manifesto.html)

Inked Branches

I used india ink with a bamboo brush to get some nice strokes which we can colorize and use to add texture to either the background or the twigs themselves.

Branches and Paint Strokes

Branches I did in graphite, some are soft and curvier than others but I figure we can tweak a lot of it in photoshop if we want.  Jordynn had made some wonderful paint splatters and I thought in contrast it would be nice to have some fat brush strokes too, we'll see what looks good.

Sketchbook Ideas

My initial ideas for our branding solution.  I sketched out a passion flower, then later a bud.  I took off on my original idea and made some branches sketches so I could visualize what the stage could look like.  Some other rough poster designs using other branding ideas.  Some Logo ideas etc.

Leaves?  Maple seeds for the logo maybe?  Birds nest for texture and background color palette?

Even more...

Willow branches are my favorite, I looked for some models/poses too although we may need to take our own photos.  I also started looking for some handbill ideas.

More Inspiration

I had the idea of using branches as the main motif, again just looking for some kind of inspiration springboard.