1st Post :)

Hi guys! As a freshman hoping to get my BFA in Fine Arts, I'm super excited for all the art classes to come, as nerdy as that sounds but I'm sure you all understand. :) I can't wait to get into painting (especially oils) and ceramics later on in college. I'm attatching a photo of a mural that I worked on with 3 of my friends which is now up at our school. It was so fun spending days and days in a garage getting crazy and dancing while we painted away!
As for inspiration I fell in love with Carravaggio this year after one of my teachers showed us a film on his life; he was not only a great artist, but a revolutionary and led a rebellious life as well. If you haven't heard of him, definately look him up.
<-- This is my favorite painting of his.
Anyways that is alllll i have to say for now! See you in classs:)

h e l l o f a 1 0 2

Although I've never taken an art class before (let alone blogged about art, or anything for that matter), I'm beyond excited. I've spent my entire life futzing around in my own creativity, while staying focused on what I thought was important - academics. While I'm very glad I've been able to maintain a strong GPA throughout school, I'm bummed I missed out on exploring my creativity in school and with others. So, I first want to say how nice it is to be around like minds.

My taste in art is a little all over the place - I love old-fashioned photography and polaroid pictures... I'm really fascinated with typography and graphic design... I enjoy book design - combining words and pictures to create a consistent theme in the simplest way possible... I love anything unique and aesthetically pleasing. I'm still trying to figure out where I stand in all of this, but that's why I'm here : )






http://www.thinkartmakeart.com/gdshapedtype.htm
















the shallows book cover






















http://aubreyrd.tumblr.com/post/1011208909/via-papertissue

















jackson pollock






















http://www.impactlab.net/2010/07/29/amazing-miniature-pencil-sculptures-by-dalton-ghetti/dalton-ghetti-6/

I'm Katharine Glasheen. Freshman, BFA fine arts. I love the patterns that occur in nature, and some of my favorite art is about the unexpected alteration of those patterns. I especially enjoy working in collage, and I included one of my collages:









I'm always inspired by reading about astronomy or physics, and of course by National Geographic, my favorite photography magazine in the world.


Here's an artist, Jason Willome, whose work I found on Flickr and really enjoy:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawil/sets/72157603789901966/







I love the band School of Seven Bells, and their album art is also beautiful. This is one of my personal favorites:
http://www.soniccathedral.co.uk/images/sleeves/FTH068.jpg

Joyce Lau.

Freshman

Fine Arts Major (B.A.)

This photograph is my favorite photograph from the

photo book compiled by a design studio called the Design Army. The book is called Wonderland and it features the Washington Ballet posing to depict various ballets in their repertoire. All though this photograph is actually missing the text that is printed in the book, throughout the entire photo book, text is extensively incorporated into photographs to add both interest as well as narration and hints to elucidate the story it is depicting. I enjoy looking at all these photographs which gives ballet a very contemporary and designerly feel to a performing art that is most times viewed as a rigidly structured dance form.

Hi,

my name is chale and I am a senior who's favorite style of art is illustration/ figurative. Art to me should inspire and change the world for the better. I am a born and raised Angeleno and Art has been a major part of my life every since the age of 3.One of my favorite artists Kehinde Wiley inspires me. I am fascinated by the designs and appropriation he uses to make modern day artist( rappers and actors) look like old masters. The above piece is one of Kehinde's most famous works of Ice T.

Let Me Introduce Myself

Hi all, I'm Cygne. I'm currently an undecided freshman, but I'm definitely thinking of majoring in Fine Arts. Actually... I'm like 99.9% positive it'll be my major. Thus, the reason for my being in this Design class.

For all of you who I haven't met, I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska in one of the smallest schools in the state (my graduating class was 29). Every activity at school was accessible and I tried everything I possibly could. I happened to find my niche in journalism as the Design Editor of my yearbook, in Portfolio art classes, and on the speech team as a state competitor. The more I thought about what I really wanted to do in life, I kept coming back to some form of art. So, I've finally made up most of my mind on what I'll be studying and hopefully working in for the future.

Today in class, I brought two PostSecret books as my "artistic item" and I wanted to share the site with you all. You can find it here. Basically, it's a compilation of postcards sent by people from all over the world sharing their funniest, deepest, or most scary secrets. Each person designs their own postcard and sends it to Copperville, MD without a return address. What I love about this, other than reading people's secrets, is observing how people put their ideas and their feelings on a 5"x7" card. Although it confines the artist to such a small space, the emotion and feeling you get from some of the postcards is incredibly powerful.

So, there it is. I hope you all enjoy a little piece of my inspiration (and, yes, I have sent a few in).

Victoria Hoff

Hi! I'm Victoria, a freshman fine arts major! I'm so excited to start my art career here at SC. I've always created art more by way of painting and drawing, but I would like to explore design and photography over the next four years. I find my inspiration everywhere, but especially in nature and I love people-watching too!

One of my favorite artists of all time is Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. His posters and prints for the Moulin Rouge and other nightlife places in Paris are so revolutionary and gritty for his time. Here is one of my favorites:

La Goulue (1891)

Another favorite artist is Alphonse Mucha. I had the opportunity to see an exhibition of his work in France last summer and I was blown away! I love the illusion of depth and texture that he creates in his prints and posters:

Cycles Perfecta (1897)

I focused on texture as the concentration for my AP portfolio during senior year of high school. Here is my favorite work that I created by dripping acrylic paint on a big canvas:

In Distress (2010)

My Intro :)

HI! I'm Gabrielle Mahdesian and, as a freshman fine arts major, I am excited to expand my artistic horizons and learn about more contemporary works...With an emphasis on drawing and painting I am fairly new to the art scene, but I've always loved art ever since I was little and visited the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Though my style is nothing like his, I was immediately drawn to his bold colors and thick brush strokes. Van Gogh's work definitely got me thinking about the process of HOW art is made for the first time.

However, my favorite type of art is more of the French impressionism because I find it extremely aesthetically pleasing...and I want to learn how to break out of my comfort zone to make something look so soft and beautiful with such broad brush strokes and colors! Most of my work is more particular and detailed, which is probably why I have such an appreciation for the impressionist artists. Some of my favorites are definitely Renoir, Monet, and Degas.

I love to travel and actually studied drawing and art history for

a summer in Florence where I was definitely inspired

to study art in college. I kind of jumped into AP studio art my senior year and fell in love with it, so hopefully I can keep it up and try tons of different styles! I am really hoping I will learn to be more conceptual with art throughout college and let go of my compulsive precision a little bit. Here are a few of my AP concentration paintings:

Hipster Weddings

Oncewed.com is an awesome website! I randomly stumbled upon this site and I became obsessed! Personally, this site is appealing because it focuses on wedding design and photography. Even if you aren't interested in looking at wedding pictures or invitations, the style of design is unique, the weddings are trendy, and the type of photography is my favorite! It's actually really cool because there are numerous links to vendors that have put work on the website (which is primarily why I love it so much). Ahh and even while I was just looking at the vendor guide I came across this website! --> http://www.wscottchester.com/ I am pursuing a career in graphic design, and I would love to be able to do a website that looks like the page of the link I just included!

Nikolai Blokhin

My first blog post for my Design class. I am just posting a picture of a painting done by Nikolai Blokhin. He is a Russian artist and is very talented. Blokhin is one of my favorite artists and this is one of his pieces.

A Little Intro.

Hello everyone, my name is Huy most people calls me Huey now and it's starting to grow on me. I'm from the Bay Area (Sausalito) and originally from Vietnam so English was not my first language. I started liking art at a very young age mainly because art is really interesting and universal. It is easier for me to connect with people through the visual world. I rather interpret the stories visually than having it told or read. I took art classes all four years in high school and advanced into AP Studio Art during my junior and senior year. I was also a member of The National Arts Honor Society back in high school. I am majoring in Fine Arts, emphasizing in graphics design and editorial design. I want to work for a firm or a popular magazine company. My ultimate goal is to someday be a creative director. At the moment, I hope to learn as much as I can about adobe photoshop, illustrator, indesign, and more popular art programs that will benefit me later in life.

My name is madeline wilson, I'm a freshman majoring in fine arts and planning on emphasizing in photography. I like color wheels, and greyscales, so I wasn't upset about taking design at all. I feel like a basic understanding of color, or lack thereof, is essential in any form of art- especially photography- so Im looking forward to the rest of the class. Oh, and I'm just attaching this because I'm in a new place, and need to build up people/places to take pictures of. So an example I guess?

Introducing Storm Thorgerson

Given my life's recent theme of introductions - to a new school, a new semester, a new crop of classmates, and a new medium - I find it fitting to introduce an artist and designer that has opened my eyes to new things many times over. Traditionally, album covers have served as not only the visual interpretation of the meaning or mood behind the music and artists they correspond to, but they are a symbolic introduction to the music itself. No one does this better than Storm Thorgerson, a British designer of several iconic rock album covers.

The piece shown above, the album cover for Pink Floyd's final studio album The Division Bell, is quintessential Storm Thorgerson. It's clear looking at the cover, that the theme is one of opposition, but it is the design of the cover that brings it to life. Through his surreal juxtaposition of objects in a photograph, he creates a message and sets the tone for the meaning of the album, thus introducing the music to us through art.

Thorgerson's sense of placing objects in foreign places is what I find fascinating, and it is a style that I personally would like to replicate and expand in my own work, whether it is through digital photography or graphic design.

While rock groups like Pink Floyd and the Mars Volta may not be your cup of tea, Thorgerson's use of surrealism and juxtaposition in their album covers is a mastery that my fellow Design students surely can appreciate as his techniques create messages that are not only addressed to the musically inclined, but to us as artists.

Hello

Hello! I am Michelle Armstrong. I am pursuing a major in fine arts with an emphasis in drawing and a minor in animation. Since I was a child I have always love to draw. I especially enjoy drawing figures and animals. I would like to be a character designer for an animation studio. I have been interested in animation for many years now. I like mostly 2D works such as Disney and Miyazaki animations; however, I also enjoy Pixar and other 3D animations. My new favorite 3D film is How to Train Your Dragon. Some of my favorite animations include: Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Howl's Moving Castle, and Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime).

I know I have a long way to go to improve my art and I hope this class can help aid me to accomplish my goals!

I really love giraffes and thus love to draw them. I included two of my drawings that I have done from looking at photographs I found on the web. I would like to continue to do more giraffe pieces that express a mother-child love.
class.)
I am also currently learning Japanese. I really like the language and hope to return to Japan again and be able to explore the country in greater depth. (In case you are wondering...my username is in Japanese on blogspot because I originally used this website for my Japanese class.)


One of my favorite artists is Rubens. I really love the movement in his paintings; everything seems to be swept elegantly towards a vortex. His work is so mesmerizing. I also like such sculptures as The Rape of the Sabine Women and the Laocoon. I love the detailed and precise anatomy and curving flow of movement displayed in such Hellenistic and Mannerist pieces. After seeing these pieces in person I was even more amazed by them, but I wish the people in the group I went with had appreciated art more so I could had shared my enthusiasm! However, this year I am looking forward to being with other people who love and appreciate art and design!

Hello, my name is David Layton, and this is my first blog entry for Design Fundamentals FA 102. (It's also the first time I've ever posted anything on a blog in my life. Perhaps being in this 'wired' generation it's assumed we all have, but I'm not sure.) The two above images are my own art. The black and white one I created with black and white pastels on paper, and the colored one is oil paint on canvas. I have always loved photorealism and have aspired all my life to honing my abilities in this. One of my favorite artists is Edward Hopper, famous for his Nighthawks painting (featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.) His paintings portray reality, but with very distinctive moods, which I love. I especially love images that feature high contrast and depth, focused on lights and darks. My favorite medium is oil paint... and that's all for now!

Ffffffffffffffffffound

Ffffound (sometimes fuh-fuh-fuh-found when
I'm feeling fanciful) Dot Com

My spare time quakes in its little blue galoshes when it comes to FFFFOUND.COM; nothing eats it up quicker, but oh, is the time sink a delightful one.

On a plain white background, countless squares of art scroll past your eyes in a never ending parade of photography, painting, typography, package design, poster design, sculpture, product design, animated gifs, you name it.

The content is supplied by its members (invitation only) who share the beautiful and intriguing photographs they encounter on their day to day journeys through the internet.

I like it for its variety (of media, of styles, of creators) and its uncanny ability to suggests other works that I will like. It's also a good way to find other good design websites when you trace back the origins of the images you like.

Tina Barney

Tina Barney is a New York photographer who works primarily in portraiture.

Her subjects don't just exist as bodies placed in an arbitrary environment but are defined by the rumpled curtains, hair brushes, dolls, and piles of clothes that overwhelm each photo.

I think that I am so drawn to these photographs because of Tina Barney's ability to make these ordinary household objects personal, revealing and essential in describing her subjects.

draplin design company

I don't endorse many things at the risk of being one of those people who endorse too many things, but I endorse the Draplin Design Company. What they stand for: Nostalgia, simplicity, wiener dogs. Their tools: Industrial Chic, Futura Bold, and an American sense of humor. Their trade: Logos, Merch, and Pride in the "let's look backwards in time for inspiration" aesthetic.
You may have seen him on the inspirational design call to arms video "Why America Is F***ed"; or you may have seen his design baby: the Field Notes brand of pocketbooks; or even on the side of a highway (he had a hand in the Recovery and Reinvestment Act Logo).
I see him every time I see an old sign, crusty and forgotten, with bold letters and a warm, worn feel. I think, yeah, he would have liked that.
What I'm saying sounds like a commercial, but I have little else to say. This guy rocks big time.

rune guneriussen

Rune Guneriussen is one of my favourite modern photographers. Born and raised in Norway, his photos usually involve the vast Norwegian natural landscape, mixed with various man-made products and structures. Though the contrast between the subjects and the setting is evident, he is able to synthesize the two to a point where the unnatural segments seamlessly blend together with the natural. The installations themselves are never exhibited to an audience, only the photographs.

"The objects are implemented mainly in scenes cast in appropriate landscapes, and here they are subject to a certain character carefully laying out a story. It is an approach to the balance between nature and culture, but also a multiple reading of stories."

Define: DESIGN 8/28/10

AIGA USC's first event of the 2010 school year THIS SATURDAY (8/28/10) in Harris 101 from 2:00pm to 5:00pm. Define: DESIGN will bring panelists from the design industry to talk about their lives and how they got to where they are now. The panelists will be Haven Lin-Kirk (the design department chair at USC) and Daniel Chou (art director of Inheritance Magazine). Join us for some good conversation, networking, and information about design. Light refreshments will be served following the program. Invite your friends and we will see you at Harris Hall 101 at 2:00pm. See you there!