All about Lines

This is my response to our project with Lines in class. Shown are the tracings I made of my original drawings, designed with three different ideas for filling in the shapes and spaces.

Cooperative work: Cool Book

Cool Book is a book that collects fun staff. And we show these fun things in a way that things are shown on Internet, like Tumbler. We try to make some games that readers can actually play with their hands, like flipping, folding, cutting and drawing. We focus on the concept to make people notice more about fun things in real life rather than information from Internet. We make games that readers can direct play with simple but fun designs in this book.

My main jobs are pages below. The first one is a 3D figure I drawn. We originally want to put a pair of 3D glasses in this page so the reader can use the glasses to see this figure.However, because the limit of time and money, we do not completely finish this page.But the concept is really fun and is very suitable for the concept of the whole book.

This is a page of eyes that people can doodle on it. We provide a pen with Cool Book.

I got this idea from flipping works that show two opposite scenes on two pages.

I also did some other pages like animal models with simple colors that readers can cut them down and fold them to let these animals stand on the desk, but I forgot to take pictures. 

Overall, this is a book of real games that readers can directly have fun. And I mainly did pages of games that readers can play with their hands like cutting and flipping. However, because of the limit of time and money, the book itself is less attractive. If we could have more time to focus on the material of the book and put other tools like glasses and pens in the book through a fun way, this book must be better. 

Reflections: Collaboration Project

Given the constraints of designing objects displaying personal promotion, my group decided to design leave behinds. My group consisted of 402 students, David and Maureen, and fellow 102 student, Darwin. We each created different leave behinds that referenced our own personal aesthetic and interests. For example, I created a leave behind in the form of a paper lily and pad. I decided to use this design because a lily and pad are symbolically connected to the Impressionist movement, as exemplified by the work of Monet. Generally, I enjoy painting impressionistically, so the form of a lily and pad for a leave behind made sense symbolically. Furthermore, to follow a group theme of the importance of materiality, I crafted every part of my design by hand. The lily pad base was modified by a process of staining the paper through adding paint and oil to a bath of water and submerging the paper into it. Additionally, each flower petal was hand painted by a three layer process. Lastly, the words "thank you" were hand scripted on the back of the leave behind. Through my leave behind, I tried to convey a sense of my aesthetic and my skill with color and paint.

The final product:

While we ended up producing an adequate project considering the constraints, I wish we had come up with a project that was truly a collaborative project. In essence, we all created different leave behinds, but it could have been interesting if we had designed something truly cohesive. In the end, due to conflicting ideologies and the waning of time, we decided to adhere to a project focused more on individuality. In future projects, I hope to make cohesion more of an importance.

Overall, I enjoyed this project. Working with design 402 students allowed me to adopt certain advanced design skills. Moreover, I saw what a higher-level design class would be like. This design project was beneficial in many ways, and I am glad we did it.

Reflection on Collaboration

The Say Thank You Movement was a collaborative project rooted in the idea of giving thanks in a more significant and meaningful manner through thoughtful and personal design.  This movement is a call to action and a reminder that "thank you is not a static word; it's a responsibility to pass on the love received."

Check out our movement, the stories behind our postcards, and see how you can get involved at: http://thesaythankyoumovement.tumblr.com/ or follow us on instagram @thesaythankyoumovement

This collaborative project has been my favorite design project thus far.  I learned several valuable lessons about designing in collaborative groups.  This included the importance of strong, clear communication to avoid misunderstandings during the production process.  Communication is an art in itself.  It is important to focus on the positive and simultaneously push each member to their full potential to create a strong, cohesive final product.  Furthermore, being passionate about a project is helpful--passion fuels greater creativity, increased dedication, and an overall enthusiasm about the project that makes staying up until 3am worth it.  Finally, I learned that you do not have to know everything about design if you choose team members that have distinct values and talents to add to the project.  The project has given me the confidence to approach future design collaboratives with excitement for the challenges.

--Amanda G.

Collaboration Project: Hangover Elixir

For the last design project, we paired up with students in the upper level class to collaborate on something of our own creation. I have to say that this was my favorite assignment so far. It may have been stressful at times and we didn't always know what we were doing, but it was so much fun to work with my fellow students and I think we did an excellent job! It was a great experience and I feel I contributed a lot to the project.
I now present the result of several weeks' worth of sketches, brainstorming, reworking ideas, mock-ups, facebook messages, and more reworking: Hangover Elixir.

Our premise for the project was to find a niche in the juice market and create the packaging for such a product. The result is shown above. We envisioned a brand of pressed juice designed and engineered to reduce the effects of last night's party. There are four different labels - The Usual, The Physical, The False Dawn, and The Apocalypse - and each juice treats different hangover symptoms. We wanted a blend of older print and modern color and layout in our packaging that would blend with a simple glass bottle. Credit to myself, Connie, Brittany, and Karen. 

 We also hid a fun fact about hangovers under every cap and made a booklet containing information about the product and each of its designers.

Collab Project

My group for the collaborative project designed a surf brand, complete with logo, surfboard, and apparel. I personally loved this concept because I am a huge beach girl (Santa Cruz native)! We decided upon the brand name High Life, inspired by many stereotypes of surfers. Since I was raised in a beach town, I am very familiar with the different types of surfers and the habits that they posses. Our brand name incorporates their favorite beverage (40's), their agriculture fetishes (stoners), and their crave of the ocean life (the euphoria that comes with successfully catching a wave).

My first assignment within the project was to design the logo! After dozens of attempts in my sketchbook, this was the design we chose to work with:

Since our brand is represented by a squid, Geo had the brilliant idea to incorporate the tentacles into the logo! After he drew that and Julian added color, this is the final product:

There are certain aspects of the original that I wish had been retained (the relationship between the letters and the circle), but overall I think it has a great surfer feel about it. I think this logo could definitely be seen on stickers and surfboards everywhere someday!

Defining Design

Conveyed in the assembling of our project is our understanding of the definition of design. In the arrangement of shapes, colors, and text, our understanding of design is an executed plan with an intended purpose.

Created By: Feibi, Sean, and Janelle  

Design Project 1

Here is the design cube that Ivan, Kyle, Michael, and I built:

Defining Design by Michael, Rajiv, Cody, and Jackson

This is the defining design project we made out of a magazine. We cut out words that are associated with deign into the different pages of the magazine. Each word is in the foreground of an image that is directly related to the word.

Made by: Michael, Rajiv, Cody, and Jackson