Book Layout

So now that I have the photos decided, I have to decide on a book design. Here are the three I have so far:

First critique

So I have my pictures and drawings and wordlist that I need, and after discussing it, I think that pictures will do the best job of completing the experience. I now have the wonderful challenge of sifting through my many many many...many pictures to find the ones that I can initially test for the final cut. At least it will be somewhat easier to eliminate the pictures with my sister and me in them-that should cut it down by a third.

Back from Muir Woods

Well, I'm back now from Muir Woods and I gotta say that is tiring work hiking for 9 hours, but I got a lot of great pictures that I can use for the project. Still don't know how I'm going to present it, I was imagining what I could do to try and bring all the senses into my book (even including real bark from the forest, but my sister wouldn't let me take anything). I also thought of bringing in the smells too, but I don't know if they have redwood incense to buy anywhere. Oh well, I guess I'll figure something else out.

Spring Break 1

So I am in San Francisco right now and I am about ready to head to Muir Woods now with my sister. Planning to take the entire day hiking in the forest to take pictures and end at the beach for lunch. Supposed to rain, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem because the trees shield most of the rain.

Book Project Experience

I am thinking that I will be doing the Redwood Forest because it is a special experience that I know will be appealing and I will be going there for Spring Break anyway to take pictures with this project in mind. I figure I'll also be able to do some drawings just in case I decide to go that route instead.

Book Project Day One

I really have a terrible time with keeping up with this blog. Oh well. I guess acting out everything I was thinking and doing each week will suffice for now. So, considering it is the week before Spring Break, I am really looking forward to having a nice week lng vacation in San Francisco! I can't imagine what I'll be doing, but I hope I can find an experience that will work-maybe something that has to do with nature? I don't know...

Latest Poster Idea-Also, Margie, if you got this e-mail, could you check it over for me? I added all the suggestions and I even tried coloring it on Illustrator and it seemed to do well. Let me know what you think.

Final Poster Design

Poster Designs

Here are the final three poster designs...it was unbelievable how long these took to load.



Clay Model

The model was a little hard to keep together with the clay I used, but it cooperated for a picture. Others will be in the process book

Poster Concepts and Final Color Drawing

After all the drawings were completed, I wanted to draw a color picture of what I thought the final treehouse should look like for my project. Also included are some poster concepts.

Blueprints

After all the interiors were drawn, it was time to see how they all fit together.

Further Drawings and last concept art

This was just further continuation of what I had already started with the room interiors and house exteriors...along with another concept art.

More Drawings and Persona

From here, I did some more concept drawings, but moreso because it was required. I knew my persona would be a family of 2 parents, 2 daughters, and a son -- modeled after my family. I know the tree would be a banyan tree on a hawaiian island, and I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted it to look like. From there, I started...

Treehouse Concepts 1

Here are the first 40 sketches for the treehouse concept. From here, I decided on a multiple hut plan for the final design that would blend in with the tree itself.

Preliminary Tree Sketches

Here are the preliminary tree sketches I did for the treehouse project-my apologies for the lack of contrast

Treehouse Beginning

Considering I haven't done any writing for the treehouse project, I figured I would just show my work that I have done over the past 3 weeks in the time I did it. For Feb. 15, it was the beginning of the project and I decided to think up preliminary ideas for the projec. I wanted something like the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, but I also needed it to have more innovative ideas like running water and electricity.

Final Testing

The Final Testing for the project has been conducted this weekend and the final touches are being put on for our tuesday presentation. I am hoping that we covered everything that needed to be covered and the process pdf should be getting done today and tomorrow. To be honest, I will be glad when this project is over. Not that I didn't like wayfinding, but a better initial description of what the topic was would have helped to find what we needed to do. As a good clue, if the instructors do not even fully get what needs to be done, how can the students know? I have a better understanding of it, though, and I am glad that we did the project. A more thorough description would have sufficed, however...

Initial PowerPoint

Wayfinding tested

We decided to initially test where people tend to go without signage to figure out their own path and if it is even necessary to add anything extra than what is already there. We found that our initial tester was very good at delivering the desired results and found that he went clear off the fastest path and ten minutes out of his way. He eventually got to the building, but much later than he should have. Now we need to plan out our signage program to make it very clear where to go when trying to find a building-in this case, the Art and Design building.

Wayfinding Continuation

After our presentation to Richard, I think we have a pretty good idea of what he wants us to do and how to test it. It still seems a little strange to me, but I think we are more ahead than most considering he seemed to hate the other teams ideas. Oh well, maybe that's a good sign, but I can't really tell. Altogether, we came up with the idea that most people cannot find the Art and Design building when they first learn about it. Asking around, we could see that most people could not help because they did not know either. Now, our job is to create a way that anybody can find the building having no prior knowledge of its location.

Wayfinding Defined

To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what wayfinding is at this point. It is trying to solve a problem, but it seems very simple, but also very complicated considering it has to be very simple. We had our preliminary idea brainstorming today and I think we have something to work with, but who knows if it relates to wayfinding or not.

New semester

Considering I have been behind on my posts lately, I figured I would roughly begin with a summary of each week until I get caught up, for the beginning of the semester, we began with the new project entitled Wayfinding.

Lamp Final

As the process is nearing the end, I think that my lamp finished very cleanly and well defined. I would describe it as "curved whim" due to its many belts on the inner and outer part of the base. Originally, holes were in the plans, but due to many battles for the holes, I eventually had to go with what the "client" wanted-and it turned out very well. Overall, I think it was a very well defined product and the process was very fun and enjoyable.

Lamp Lite

Tuesday's work day went very well for me as I decided what to finally develop for my project. I decided that I was going to pick the cylinder with all the "belts" around it and I am now figuring out ways in which I can fasten it and what form it will take. I think Andrea and I both agreed that simplicity will be best for the design and I should not add any other flouyrsishes to it. Also, I have decided to use the thick inner core and thinner belts - it gave the best quality and I think it will do just fine.

Tuesday

Tuesday went very well with creating the idea for our project. I came in with a whole mess of "pattern samples" to try and I spent most of teh time getting the samples to be in the right shape for my lamp. I also decided to look at different methods of work to determine the right style I wanted. In the end, I think I will either do a ceiling light or a wall light, but I don't know...

How taking a picture matters

Most of when our group was taking pictures, it was from a point of view of straight on shot, or at eye level. It wasn't until we got tired of the same old shot that we decided to experiment with different altitudes. We found out that extreme highs and lows have made EXTEND seem more evident in its meaning and it explained the concept much better. Also, our placement of distance between letters made it more clear as well as placing the letters along extensions like ramps and sidewalks. Overall, I think we showed the meaning through our work.

Group Reflection

Looking back on the entire assignment, it was remarkable how good the end result turned out. To date, this was the most labor intensive project for me personally (including the 250 drawings project), but I learned how interesting a word can be when placed in its own environment. Towards the beginning, I really did not understand why we were doing a word that we would not end up doing in the final process, but once I picked up on how it taught us versatility, it became clearer, especially with the color experiments and refinements. Then, when it was time to work in different groups, it got a whole lot more complex. We finished the letters in a week to start picture taking over the weekend and spent a little more time later finishing up any loose ends that needed to be attended to. As far as the locations, I think it worked really well where we placed the letters and conveyed the meaning without any explanation. In the end, we finished up the book and were ready to turn in the last of the project.

Reading Response Refection

As far as all the readings went for the project, I think the “Photo Ops” article was the most interesting to read and pertained to our group word. The power point did very well to describe letters and vocabulary that I did not even know existed, like serifs and barbs, but they did not work as well to provide ideas that we could use when taking our group pictures. We already had in mind what we were going to do and we used those techniques to help convey the meaning of our word more fluidly. As for the photography essay, it was a lot of words for a visual topic. More photos would have helped convey the author’s point and meaning. As for the content itself, it was very interesting how the author presented his/her viewpoints of how photography has changed the way people look at the world. I also like how the author brought in examples from the American and Spanish civil wars to show they have affected warfare and documentation. Overall, it was a good essay, but it did not initially suggest what a photography essay should be. As for the rest of the readings overall, some were more helpful than others, but they all did their part to bring helpful ideas to the project.

EXTEND

Well it took a very, and I mean very long time to get the word oversized and dimensionalized, but we finally did it and are now ready to take pictures. I gotta say that it is pretty cool having an oversized word, but I'm not looking forward to finishing the color experiment and the accordian book and the process book and the pictures for the words and the......etc. Sometimes I think these projects don't have an ending.

E X T E N D

As far as the group word goes, the sample letters have been made and location scouting has already commenced. Staircases, hallways, and ramps have been used so far and Monday will be scouting more and potentially outside this time. It is a little concerning that we have such a short time to complete this project, but that is what "end of semesters" are all about!

Color Refinements

Well, color has been added this week to our words and it has proved to be more of a challenge than I ever suspected. Day by day the compositions become more apparent in their meaning with the added color, but it is still not there yet. There's promise, though, and this next week will be further exploration.

spuorpt

Once again, it was time to critique the class's work of the color experiment and I went in thinking it was just going to be another heart wrenching critique, but thankfully it was a lot better than before. I don't know if my work improved or I'm getting used to people not liking my work but thankfully I could leave thinkiing I was on the right track!

Troppus

Well now that refining the drawings have been finished, it was time for us to look at them together as a huge class and see what we did well and what we did not do well. I guess I did not do many well because not very many people "starred" them. I gotta say that it is kinda depressing to go from a critique that they did not find my ice cream scoop poster appealing to now another thing that does not stand out. Oh well... I guess I just need to step up my game.

Support

Well, Support is getting underway and I have finished my work on the 20 finished sketches. The first cut/paste models were very difficult at first to find good ones, but I think I found some that can be used with refinement.