it's always good to look back and see how you've grown as a designer,

as a person.


it's funny,
how we change.
we learn.
we grow.


and then one day everything is  d i f f e r e n t.

cabinet of curiosity

 

my cabinet was built to house a triangular necklace holder, a box to hold hair ties, and a rectilinear pencil holder. with all of these hard, straight lines i wanted to contrast them with a circular form for my cabinet. i wanted each artifact to have its own moment of display so i made the cabinet a series of circles that could be mounted to the wall. doors can be added or removed for versatility. the light, smooth acrylic contrasts the wood of the objects as well, making them really stand out. 

signage precedents

after looking at examples from asi signage and apco signs and thinking about the office space we're working with i stumbled upon a few sign systems that i found inspiring.


first i came across many frosted glass sign systems. these are clean and simple, without many colors or patterns to distract.

i also thought about using wood for the signage. my spaces are warm and rich and have wooden floors and i thought about using wood for the signs as well to keep with that feeling. i didn't see many successful signs online but i still don't see why it's not possible to try!

i came across some three-dimensional signs as well. i think that it could be interesting to have all of the letters individually recognized in the signage.

whatever i choose to do, i'll have to make sure it's purposeful and fits in with the concept!






sources:
http://www.impactsigns.com/interior-signs
http://www.signs.org/signdesign/
http://www.thesigncenter.com/product_gallery.html
http://www.bestsigns.com/gb_wood.html
http://www.signagenewyork.com/
http://www.miladisplays.com/glassnameplates.htm

halloweeeeeen!

i made my own costume this year. i have a white fitted dress and i went to the store and got some felt. i cut circles out, sewed em on and....

twister!
easiest costume ever. yay halloween! (:

hospitality design mag!

yesterday i met with my adviser to start to figure out what classes i should be taking to specialize. he gave me some resources as far as a direction to go in to see what i want to do future-wise. when i told him that i wanted to do hotel design he referred me to hospitality design magazine. who knew there were so many firms that specialized in hospitality! it was awesome. the magazine is way too expensive to subscribe to but thank goodness they have a newsletter!

blog that assignment 004

How will natural and artificial lighting improve your space?   



i think that by controlling the natural light (there's a LOT that comes into the space at the moment) it'll be an instant improvement. we've thought about incorporating light shelves into the space to help with that. as far as artificial lighting we've talked about utilizing it on our glass floating wall that we're going to bring into the space.
Will you use focal lighting to direct people?
by bringing focused lighting onto the glass wall we'll draw people's focus to the wall and consequently the desk for sign-in and information.
How will you create moments of interest within your space using light?
besides the wall and its created lighting interest we'll have moments of interest at the stairs where there's natural light as well as directed natural light in the space to the left of the wall where there is seating and teaser exhibit space. 

thumbnails for history group...

here are a few quick thumbnail sketches of what i think the signage for our exhibit could look like...

instructional compositions

these compositions focus mainly on the images so that one attempting to make the thing they're making can check in and see if they're doing it right along the way. the second image contains limited but important text to help further understanding.



sources: www.ikea.com
http://www.socialphy.com/posts/art/948/2_000_000-Origami-Cranes.html

my contribution to the [i]lounge exhibition

my role in the [i]lounge group lies in graphics and signage. to come up with our proposal much brainstorming had to occur. our group had to think about location (gatewood building), signage (banners outside to draw people in and on the glass wall to tell them what's there), and way finding in the space. i've contributed in helping the group get together and figure out our exhibit. i've also talked with ayten and daniel about what the space will look like and the graphics going into it. from here we need to talk more about a statement that describes our exhibit, specific graphics that will be displayed on the signage (we were thinking about silhouettes of the artifacts), fonts that coincide with the look and feel of the exhibit, and the way finding on the floor (enough contrast to stand out but not too much to set it apart from the exhibit). for me, the main part right now is getting together with my group and discussing all of these elements and moving forward from here. i've had to play some catch up due to conflicting schedule details but from here on out i am 100% plugged in!

in class sketches

blog assignment 004

the ghm project.....currently.

principles:
RHYTHM: our design for the museum is history, history, history. from the railroads to the war history to the textiles industry everything will be cohesive with the exhibits and reflect the fact that its a history museum.
BALANCE: the entire space will be used whether its for storage, exhibit space.
EMPHASIS: the walls will be the emphasis as well as signage and color use.
UNITY: by bringing the history into the lobby we'll give the museum an identity and create unity.
PROPORTION: i think that by addressing the height of the ceiling we'll keep the proportion right.




elements:
LINE: most of our lines are going to be curved to keep with the curvature of the original space.
COLOR: we're still working on color. our first ideas were not so great (booooring). we're thinking of some sort of pop of color/fresh space!
SHAPE: circles. lots of them. well, curves. but that hints at circles. the huge curved wall in the space is responsible for that.
TEXTURE: for this i would say it can be seen in the way we bring in the textiles industry (like maybe some literal textiles?). the textiles industry is a big part of greensboro so bringing it in would be an awesome opportunity to bring in texture!
FORM: all of the curvature and breaking up of the space will totally change the form.
SPACE: by breaking up the space we'll be able to make it not so overwhelming when you first walk in. we want to utilize the entire space and do it effectively.

photoshop compositions

in class we've been working on putting compositions together via photoshop. we took our reception drawings and composed them together into a composition for today. here is my progress:

 first, i edited all of my images and started playing with how i could arrange them together

 then i experimented with adding background images

next i added text and a more appealing background image. i think this one is my favorite.

i played around a little more and this is my final composition! i made the background image lighter so that it wouldn't distract from the foreground images. i wish i could have kept more BLUE in it though, because that was the concept.

composition precedents

this poster is successful because it's balanced. there aren't any empty spaces, really.

this poster is interesting because it's not one single image-it's many that make up an image

http://graphicdesignjunction.com/2010/12/35-best-movie-posters-of-2010-and-2011-movies-poster-showcase/

http://www.lifeclever.com/supercool-typographic-posters-of-supercool-cities/

photo studies

 for class today we were told to observe different types of reflections around different spaces.



floor reflections:

vertical surface reflections

shadow from daylight:

shadow from artificial light:

two point perspective exercise

for this assignment we were told to make abstract shapes that represented our concepts. mine was a bluebird feather. i'm not happy with the outcome-i think it turned out to look like floating french fries but i was trying to convey the movement of a falling feather.

reception space compositions

bringing the HISTORY to the history museum

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES.


just kidding. but it was the revolutionary war. i'm talking about the battle at the guilford county courthouse in 1781.

after two years of cornwallis (british army) hot on his trail, nathaniel greene (us) stopped and gave him a battle at the courthouse. basically the americans attacked the oncoming british, the british fought back, many lives were lost. although greene was the one to retreat, the british lost 300 more men than the americans. this left his army tired and weak when they made their way up to virginia and their final battle where cornwallis eventually surrendered and the americans won their independence from britain.


and they all lived happily ever after.
just kidding again.



i think that it's a pretty important piece of history for greensboro and it can definitely be incorporated into the museum somehow. i'll be doing more research as to how to go about that.

source:http://www.britishbattles.com/battle-guilford.htm

tumblr

i'm in love with it. well, mine. and i don't even care if that's lame.

it's amazing how many photos are out there and how seriously inspiring they can be. my page is clean and classy but also cozy and simple. its what i turn to when i'm stuck on a project, need some inspiration, or am in a bad mood. inspiration can really pick a girl up. well, probably because most of it is clothes and interiors. but they're inspiring!

blog assignment 003

so when we had the two presentations from the speaking center i was a little skeptical. i'm taking a 100-level communications course to complete my gen ed this semester and i related it to that class. which was weird...because i was sitting in the gatewood building. anyways, besides the fact that both presentations started at 9am i think they were successful attempts by the speaking center. i liked the first lady better because she was more exciting and, let's be honest, that's needed for that type of presentation. the packet from the second presentation was helpful when outlining my speech, though.

as far as my speech i think i did pretty well. i covered the points i wanted to cover and i wasn't really nervous. i think that i'm comfortable enough with the group that i really have no problem giving a speech or speaking publicly. after watching a few uncomfortable presentations (no offense to anyone) i made sure i tried to be as comfortable up there as possible and make it more like i was just sharing thoughts rather than giving a formal speech. my powerpoint slide wasn't the greatest but it got the point across. i actually revised it and made it better here in a former blog post.

overall d.c. was amazing and i'm glad i got to share some thoughts on it with my classmates. and i'm glad we got the formal speaking-intensive part out of the way.

ghm meeting #2

today we presented four conceptual boards to the folks at the ghm. alex and i presented the TAILORED SUIT board which featured her desk idea and my kiosk idea. i think that it went pretty well. we got a lot of good feedback from the tables. the majority if not everyone liked the floating wall idea alex brought in behind her desk. it not only covers the gaping open space that no one really wants to look at but it also provides versatility in regards to the information presented on it. the majority also liked my kiosk idea in that it brought people into the left side of the space and connected the shop to the exhibits. i decided that the kiosk, if chosen as our final one, should be made round to keep with the space. we also discussed making the back half straight and the front curved so that it could still be pushed up against the wall for events and such.


as far as the way we collected our information i think it was fairly successful. splitting up designers/architects and committee members was an excellent idea. i do wonder how it would be if the architects could have worked off of each others ideas to help but then the ideas wouldn't be evenly distributed. i feel like the smaller the groups, the more feedback we're able to get because no one has to fight to get their two cents in.

i think the blog will be a huge help in keeping them all clued in and up-to-date. we still have a LOT of work ahead of us.

museum precedents

we're beginning to talk about color schemes and materials in our group [greensboro historical museum renovation]. what better time to check out some precedents? here are a few museums that i think have a successful identity and look to them.

queens museum of art

information is posted and there is a central focus...not to mention tons of light.

denver art museum

 

denver art museum

because the space is so light, the dark stairs stand out as a form of wayfinding, leading visitors to what lies beyond the lobby space. the white walls, as in the queens museum, let the artwork and the wayfinding do the talking.

seattle art museum

 

the vaulted ceiling guides visitors up the stairs and beyond. like the others, the space is white with tons of natural light coming in.


so basically what i want to bring to this space is the open, airy, museum-like feeling these have. i think if we strip away the "80s green" as patrick calls it the space will instantly open up. by using well thought-out methods of wayfinding and guiding people through the space it will have more flow to it. more ideas to come!