Recent Posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

The comm[UNITY] behind Design

Since I was in Middle school I have spent countless hours dreaming of these make believe houses and buildings and the people that would inhabit them.  I also spent hours doing a ton of community service in my community of Carlisle, PA and other areas around the country.  I spent a month in New Orleans right after Katrina.  I built a church in Canada.  I volunteered multiple times building houses with Habitat for Humanity in South Carolina, and countless more.  So I've always carried this passion for helping others and it only makes sense that I would combine that passion with my passion for design.  After spending last semester starting and working with the Global Studio project, I found that maybe this could possibly be my calling.  I purchased a book a while ago titled "Design like you give a damn."  Architects for Humanity edited and published the book, which showcases community design projects all over the globe.  I researched several types of community projects including a studio project at Auburn University.  This studio has taken on the role of improving the living conditions of residents living in Masons Bend, Alabama.  They recently built the "lucy House" which is made of 24,000 stacked carpet tiles donated by Interface.



            I also researched emergency shelters such as the Concrete Canvas Bag designed by Peter Brewin and William Crawford.  It is essentially a "building in a bag."

I then looked a product design and found the UNbathroom which i found very interesting.  
I looked at the history of humans response to natural and man made disasters and different organizations such as Architects for Humanity, Habitat for Humanity, and the Make it Right Foundation.  All of these organizations have taken on the initiative to improve our response to disasters.
            As designers and architects we have studied the history of our profession and have witnessed multiple “design revolutions.”  What is great about being a designer today is that we are a product of a revolution.  A “green” revolution has evolved out of our awareness of Global Warming and the rise in natural disasters that have taken place in the past decade.  All of these disasters have forced designers to not only design “green” but to focus more on community-based design.  We live in a world that is constantly changing.  Governments are being overthrown, awareness is being raised on poverty, child abuse, and countless more issues that have gone for years unnoticed.  The world is a much bigger place than the city, town, or state we live in.  It’s important that we broaden our vision of who we are designing for, how we’re designing, and the lives our spaces will impact. 

Sunday, April 24, 2011

[HOT]lanta

Oh yes we did!  Our class ventured several hours to the land we like to call [HOT]lanta.  We were given the chance to see several design firms including tvsdesign, Gensler, Herman Miller Showroom, Interface showroom, and another smaller firm that I am forgetting the name of at the moment but as soon as I find it...i'll put it on here!  The trip and firms were awesome.  We had a wonderful tour guide who set up everything for us!  Her name was Betty Russel and she works for Herman Miller.  She was absolutely wonderful and we probably would have been lost without her.
            The first place we went to was the Interface Showroom.  I loved this because I'm currently doing my internship at a flooring place so I was able to take some things I learned back to my boss.




  

The second place we went was tvsdesign.  Paula Carr spoke to us briefly about the firm and some of their work.  We were then given a tour of the firm's work space.














Next Was Gensler


This seems to be the motto of the design world in General.






Last but not least.. Herman Miller Showroom!!








Avenues Event

       In the past several years the Department of Interior Architecture at UNCG have done several things to enhance the amount of networking opportunities available to students. These events range from lectures to trips across the continent. Some have been successful, others not so much. We once tried to force all of our students to attend a lecture every Friday, that we weren’t getting credit for but somehow seemed to be looked down upon if we could not attend. This did not last very long. We then started hosting portfolio review events. Such events force us, as students to actually sit down and work up an impressive resume and portfolio. On Wednesday, March 23, the dept. hosted such an event titled “Avenues.” We were asked as third and fourth years students to choose a type of firm we were interested. Options ranged from residential to commercial to healthcare, all the way down to graphic design. I signed up for graphic design because at the time I was considering going to grad school for either that or journalism. My ideal job is to work for a design or travel magazine and be able to travel and study what I love and write about it. I wasn’t sure if Graphic Design as a masters program was the right avenue for me so I was looking on not only some feedback on my portfolio but on Graphic Design as a career choice in general.
        Before attending Avenues, I met briefly with several other professionals and professors to get some feedback on my portfolio. After receiving a good review from all I was sure that I had successfully illustrated my design works from the past four years in a clean, elegant, and creative manner. Low and behold, I was in for quite a surprise.
          I met with Keith Richards from out of our minds animation. I had done some heavy research on the company before the interview and appreciated all the animation they did. However, I was more interested in finding out how much actual graphic design they did that had to deal with logos, page layouts, etc. Everything that I felt was important to know to move up the ladder in my career goals. Keith was very nice and immediately started to review my portfolio. This is where the “surprise” came in! He gave me feedback on the type of images I chose to put in my portfolio and told me to take the “artistic” quality out of them. I found this rather strange coming from a graphic Designer. I think that if he were more of a commercial designer that I would have been more acceptable to his comments, but they seemed to contradict everything that everyone else had said. I then presented to ask him about things such as magazine layouts, working with photographers, etc. He didn’t really have a lot to say about the subjects because Out of Our Minds doesn’t work with magazines or newspapers a whole lot anymore. However he did give me some good advice about possibly working with a photographer or even a retail store as a visuals manager to get to know the graphic advertising business.
               The avenues event was an opportunity to meet an employer in your area of interest in the professional design world. I believe my area of interest is not the normal route for students coming out of this program but it still would have been nice to meet with a graphic designer that new a little bit more about the entire media world and not just one area. I very much enjoyed meeting several other professionals during the reception, including Paula Carr from tvsdesign. If I learned anything at all from avenues, is that doing your research on a company before the interview has more benefits than just making yourself look good. It allows you to know the type of questions you need to ask for yourself to find out if the firm/company would be a good fit for what you’re looking for. I believe Out of our Minds Animation would not fit well with me, but some other firm might.

IIDA: Momentum Group review

This semester I attended the IIDA networking event at the Momentum Group.  Here we learned about textiles and what a fabric/textile designer did.  It was actually quite interesting.  As a student in the Iarc program you are required to take a textiles class, but I actually never fully understood a lot about textiles and the manufacturing process.  We were able to do a tour of the warehouse and see the workers organizing the fabric to be shipped out and making fabric swatches for design students, designers, clients, etc.  I met with Leo Bushell for a brief moment.  Leo is a designer for the Momentum Group and was very eager to tell me about what it’s like being a textiles designer.  He said that it was rewarding to be able to see your designs actually go from paper to “press.”  However, sometimes with companies such as the Momentum group, they have a certain “image” that seems to be a standard for their company, making it not as easy sometimes to be as creative as one would like.  After talking with Leo, I’m not so sure I would be happy as a textiles or furniture designer.  I was also about to meet with some professionals and get some feedback on my portfolio. 
            I first met with Shannon Ferguson, a designer for ID Collaborative.  She was very nice and gave me some great feedback.  I was looking for more feedback about the images I chose to put in my portfolio as well as my initial Graphic Design of the portfolio itself.  She really liked my graphic design and logo but did give me a couple pointers in improving my logo and switching some of the colors up.  Jeff Lynn and I both met with Shannon and she did a really great job at looking at both of our strengths and interpreting what we should be putting in our portfolio.  She did say that if we have any revit work to make sure we put that in, but also to make sure our portfolio really speaks towards what we’re really good at.  To show mediocre work in several areas is not always better than showing your best work in one area. 
            I also met with Kelly Barger from River’s Edge as well as Blair Davis from ID Collaborative.  Kelly had a unique look on the design world.  She recently started her own design business and has made a very successful name for herself.  However she does most of her work with residential and has the chance to work with a lot of high end customers.  She said, that if you want to start a business and be on your own as a designer, you need to make a name for yourself first.  Find customers who love you and will be loyal and continue to come back to you, as well as recommend you to their acquaintances.  Blair seemed to agree with her, but stated that she’s not sure she would ever want to have her own business because of the liability that comes with it.  As a designer, having a firm to back you up if something were to go wrong with a project certainly has its advantages.  


 They had a bunch of fabric samples out for us to see.  This was really helpful because it allowed us to actually feel the fabric for ourselves and compare them.


We Received a great tour of the warehouse!   To learn more about the Momentum Group check out their webpage here!

Portfolio and Branding Package

I further investigated the branding of my name and work to produce a more completed portfolio and branding package.  I may change some things in the future, as well as add some more work to my portfolio but I think I got it to where I want it to be for right now.  Check it out:




I wrote the Cover letter to the person I was having a "mock" interview with.  He works at Our of Our Minds Animation, which is graphic design firm here in the triad.




Resume


Leave Behinds


Portfolio

















Initial Portfolio/Branding package

One of the first projects for my Professional Practice class was to come up with a resume, cover letter, and portfolio "preview" for ourselves.  We were to address the cover letter to our professor explaining what type of position we would want to have in the Mock Firms for his third year studio.  I started to play a little bit with my initials to see what I could do with the letters "C" and "D" to come up with a logo.  I decided on a universal shape and then started playing with colors. 


This is an example of my Resume.  The top logo is my initial logo for my name with the colors orange and Grey.  I then added some lines to each side of the "C" shape and changed the color from Orange to Purple for my cover letter.  I found by doing this and using the neutral color of grey that I could easily change the accent color as time goes on.  For now though, I think I'll stick to purple.


Next is my Portfolio Preview.  I took the same concept as my cover letter and reused the three striped lines.  I think played with layout and size of the images.  Not sure I'm totally ok with it yet.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Phase III- 1st Floor rough draft




Theatre


Cafe


Exterior View