WMMNA
I was surfing the web today, on a whim, and ran across another blog. This blog is called "we make money not art." I was looking through the blog and was surprised at how expansive there subject matter and content was. I am not really a hard core blogger, so i am not sure how good this blog is. I have heard rumors that it is one of the best in the world. I can't vouch for this though, until i see at least 1000 more blogs. There were some things that i really liked about the blog. The articles were often light hatred and it made reading the articles enjoyable as opposed to tedious. From the few blogs that i have read, i have noticed that a majority of them are stale. The way that WMMNA is run, is kind of like a news paper, that is run by a bunch of quirky young people. Also, the blog is very helpful if you are interested in something that they are talking about. They have tons of del.icio.us links that take you to more information concerning topics in their articles. So, it is a very good blog, and i really like the content. However, i dont know if its the best blog in the world....
Ambient Occlusion
I made this model in Topmod, a very cool 3D modeling program. It has very basic controls, but it is still a powerful tool. Right now it is free software, and is liable to crash a lot. However, if you save your work frequently then you can make some really cool forms.
This is also my first ambient occlusion rendering. There were a ton of steps, but the end result was well worth it. It gives the form a matte board look that is really clean.
Menu Final
Menu in Action
Combinformation
This is not my real Combinformation. My real Combinformation is the image i have posted on this blog. The reason i dont have a link to my real combinformation is because when i went to save my actual combinformation on my laptop, a username / password box popped up. I didnt want to loose all my work, so i just took a screen shot of what i had.
As for my composition. For my search i used words that i use in my own design process. I used the words: visceral, structured, design, patients, and exploration. The images that i got were very diverse. The easy mac is a very important piece to my composition. You know the saying "you get what you put in"? Well the easy mac is my way of showing that. For my architecture, i tried to get a diverse selection of buildings and time periods. This is representative of the evolution of design through the ages. I also have a several people in my composition. Jack Bours evil brother for example. If you watch 24 you know that this particular image was taken from when Jack was torturing his little brother for information. Well, Jack's little brother actually knew secret information, but would not give in to jack's torture. This shows a level of determination boarding on insanity. Finally, i have my Life magazine cover shot, along with a mysterious woman in red. I thought that they way they both held themselves was very poise. Their steadiness is something that is necessary when confronted with a difficult design problem.
Menu design 2nd draft
This is my revised version of my last menu. I have the complete menu this time. I also have a sort of color coding, kind of. I am not sure how much i really like this design. I might do something totally different. The guy from Coffee station still hasn't emailed me back so I am just assuming i will be doing a paper menu. However, what i have here could be still go either way. The one thing i do like about my menu is that, to me, it is easy to read and looks clean. The thing i am worried about is that it is too boring. I don't know how exciting a menu can get before you cant read whats on the menu anymore, but I am definitely far from that. I will see what my readers have to say, and go from there.
Metropolis article
I liked this lay out because they took elements from the design of the library and used them in creating their layout. I think that this gives the layout a very intellectually engaging style, that is cleaver and attractive. They use puzzle like shapes the fill the negative space. The cut out shapes are inspired by the eco friendly furniture that was designed specifically for the library. On the last page of the article we see a diagram of how the chair pieces fit together. They continue this theme by cutting puzzle shapes out of the actual pictures. The biggest praise to the library in the article was its functionality coupled with its eco friendliness. The furniture reference touches on both those points.
Another thing that i really like is their color usage. It is very cleaver what they are doing. The non photographed colored elements all follow a color "guideline." Any of these elements must be a color that is already in one of the photographs on the page. If the dominate colors of a pictures are orange and red, then the puzzle pieces will be orange and red. On the first page, the red puzzle piece brings out the red hue under the eve of the library. This gives the composition a feeling of unity. It also makes the colors of the picture seem more vivid.
According to the article this library is a huge success to the Ballard community of Seattle. It's form is suggestive of a maritime vessel, without seeming too "cute." Ballard has a long history of seafarers. It does an excellent job of bringing in ambient light even in the the poorly lit Seattle climate. The library is also very green. It has a green roof, and many sustainable aspects. I already mentioned the furniture, on top of that they only used recycled wood.
Labels: magazine layout
205 project
This is my project for one of my studios. The project was to take a painting, and interpert it into a 2d drawing. Then take that 2d drawing and interpert that into a 3d space.
Architecture + future = ?
Rough Draft
For my rough draft i wasn't worrying as much about the details of my design. I wanted to establish an easily readable color coding that would take away a lot of the clutter that was in the old menu. For example, I noticed that there were only two sizes for drinks, so i could just assign each their own color. This makes the whole menu very easy to read and visually pleasing. Later on in the week i will see if i can classify anything else into color categories. I don't wont to go crazy, and have it look like some elementary school arts and crafts project. For the background, i didn't want something too overpowering. However i still want it to be interesting. I don't know if i will keep what i have now, but it does accomplish my desired affect. The background is supposed to be an interesting afterthought. The logo you see is from the photo that i took earlier this week. I will be adding some more images to keep the composition from becoming too spartan. As for what kinds of images, i noticed that on the original billboard they have little cartoon representations for some of their drinks. I am deciding weather to emulate that original idea or do something completely different. For the dimensions of my menu, i went with 1000 x 800 pixels. I went with such a large size because i still don't know if I will be putting this on paper, or an actual board. For now i am operating under the notion that i will be using an actual board.
Coffee Station Ideas
So we have an assignment that is to "re design the menu for a local coffee bar." The original assignment called for a re design of an actual paper menu that you hold in your hand and read personally. I wanted to do something a little different. I want to re design the billboard style menu that they have at the coffee shop, which is something that a lot more people will utilize. I took it upon myself to email the owner of Coffee Station. I am awaiting a reply to see if he will consider a proposal for a re designed billboard along with the other paper contestants. A colleague of mine, made an interesting suggestion about my project. He suggested i make my design, project it, and then trace it with colored chalk. I think that this approach has a lot of possibilities, but i am still thinking of other veins of execution. The thing is, i think it would be interesting to use different forms of media, like woods, metals, materials for fonts etc. It's just that I just discovered a scrap metal yard and i'm a little obsessed with it. I was able to get some scrap steel for a previous project that really worked well.
The lay out that they have right now, is a series of several chalk boards, there is a main chalk board that i have photographed, and then two "auxiliary" boards with other miscellaneous information. The reason that they have to do this, is because there is a pillar that is in the way just to the left of the board. They already have built in spot lights, even though the right light is burnt out at the moment.
This is a photograph i took of a local starbucks billboard. There is a level of sterility you get from these types of billboards that I feel takes away from the charm that a local coffee bar has. I think that there are aspects of this cooperate style that i can take advantage of, but i want to stay away from making our local bar feel like just another conglomerate.
A thoughtful look at architecture
I read this article.
HERE Wow, man what a crazy article. While i was reading this article i had a mix of feelings. First of all, he is so sarcastic you just must laugh at what he is saying. Funny as it may be it hits pretty close to home on a lot of points, and i was starting to get a little depressed. I especially liked it when he made the comment about architects explaining their work. According to him "98 percent of architects appear completely delusional. The other 2 percent seem criminally insane."
This guy gives a lot of great reasons for not being an architect. If you arn't sure if you want to be an architect or not, then don't read this. Read this after you have decided you do want to be an architect and then decide if you want to reconsider.
T Party!
T HouseAs some may know, i just recently came back from a trip to Beijing. While i was there i had the opportunity so see some of Steven Holl's work in progress, including the MoMA building he is making right in downtown Beijing. What you may not know about the MoMA that Steven is building in Beijing is: it is actually a very high end apartment complex... strange right? I thought so too. Anyway, the reason i know this is because my parents had a brochure of the spaces. The interior's of the Beijing MoMA are actually really fascinating. Holl uses a system of swinging and sliding walls to open and close space for privacy/exposure depending on the situation or mood. John Fairey would go nuts. So the reason i talk about his MoMA in Beijing is because it is nearly the exact same thing as this "T House" design in Copenhagen. Now, if you think i am downing this, you are wrong. It's interesting what he is doing. In Beijing, lack of space is a big issue. In fact when i was there it was just announced that the max allowable square footage of apartments was going to be reduced due to issues of space. In Copenhagen, he is solving a different problem. He has made the structures into the shape of "Ts" because it increases the number of rooms that will have a view to the "Scandinavian sky" which is apparently breath-taking, and specific to the buildings location. Also, the T House and MoMA have a very similar color scheme and style. Hats off Steven, hats off.
T- Husene: Copenhagen, Denmark
Modern MoMA: Beijing, China
Ghery's new shoes
I read this
article about a new Frank Ghery building! Alright! No matter how ostentatious his style is, you gotta love him. Yea, he uses unnecessary and environmentally detrimental materials in most of his buildings. But hey, they look cool. This time he is going all glass. This is going to be the Luis Vuitton headquarters, and to be honest it doesn't look very LV-esque. The Prada building in Japan by Herzog and Demuron does an amazing job of emitting a "Prada vibe". Now, this new Ghery building looks cool, but not like a Luis Vuitton building. In fact its seems to be following a completely different vein of inspiration. For example, the building is going to act as an entrance to Jardin, in Paris France. I didn't know what that was so I googled it, and found out that it is a botanical garden/school for botanists... What??? Then i was looking at the building, and I made a kind of elementary observation, but i thought it was funny so i will share it with you. To me the building looks like a giant beetle or cicada, heh.. So i am asking myself, is this a building that is for Luis Vuitton, a world renowned label and bag manufacturer, or is it for Jardin: botanical garden/school? Now to be fair, the article mainly focused on the buidlings positive impact on the residence in and around Jardin, so maybe it has nothing to do with Luis Vuitton, except in name... I am not sure.
InDesign tutorial
Alright. So. Wow, this tutorial was crazy. When i saw it i had like a million ideas at once. So I'm going to go ahead an caution anyone reading this, if you watch the tutorial, brace yourself. This one was really my only favorite, because all of the other ones showed me things that i did when i worked for my high school newspaper (The Flame). So, magazines obviously have much cooler layouts than high school newspapers. The picture i posted is a representation of one of the crazy ideas that nearly gave me an aneurysm upon watching the tutorial. So again, be warned, watch at your own risk:
CAUTION
Free music?
Steve Jobs, oh Steve. I should have bought your stock when you came back to Apple, damn. If there is someone who knows how to market a company its Steve. So if Steve says that taking DRM (digital rights management) tags off of mp3s wont hurt the music business i believe him. See for yourself it's on
Steve's own blog. In fact according to Steve, taking DRM off digitally sold songs will give the music producers a boost in profits. But i can see why a record label would be nervous about doing something like that. First of all, Steve kept on talking about how 90% of their revenue came from the sale of non DRM, hard copy CDs, and
only 10% came from digital sales. Well, 10% of your entire revenue is not small. And it according to Steve, Apple is selling billions of digital songs through itunes. So why fix something thats working? There are a lot of people who dont know how to download illegal music, albeit few. Taking away the DRM would be an open invitation for the rest of the world to share digitally purchased music illegally. But, lets just assume that everyone already knows how to get music illegally. So ,why does Apple still sell billions of songs online? It could be because people just want to support their favorite artists. In fact my roommate buys every new episode of Scrubs (through itunes) because he is afraid if he doesnt they will cancel the show.. haha. Well, who knows why apple sells so much digital media. Personally i think DRM is very annoying and if they removed it i might just be inclined to buy more music online because i wouldnt have to type a password whenever i wanted to hear my purchased song. I also think that Apple giving their DRM "secrets" to other companies is rubbish, laughable really. They're just mad they suck.
PARAMA-ter
Parama is a new program that is going to make life a lot easier for people who design in 3D. Basically, what PARAMA does is allows you to change a part of your design and have the rest of the design that is related to the specific part you changed, change as accordingly. The way it can do this is by using a type of programing language that is catered to human usability. It is very difficult to translate the design concept from human thought to computer language. So Parama uses human thought to set parameters that will allow the user to have much more freedom in designing complex systems.
In Design
Indesign is a powerful tool for layout design of things like, newspapers, magazines, or an architecture portfolio. The tutorials at
atomic learning were very helpful. I have used something like this before, but i dont think it was InDesign. I used to be an editor for my high school newspaper and we used something like this, but it wasn't made my Adobe. However the most i learned how to do in high school was take text overflow and move it to a different page. It is really awsome that i am going to be learning how to use this now, because i will be making my portfolio for my application into upper level classes at my university.
Blog design
Writing in CSS is alot harder than i thought. First of all, i didnt know what a widget was, and then i found out that the html and css are not all in the same spot when you are editing your blog html. Its mostly just css. Then i realized that to follow the examples that css zen garden was using i had to be able to code my html to match the style headings for the css. So it was very confusing for me. My site still isnt what i want it to be, but i haven't figured everything out yet. I eventually want the text to disappear at the pseudo white wash text background. I also want to make some links out of images, and replace them with the graffiti looking ends 170 writing on the wall to the right of the page... Basically just turn those pics into buttons. Another thing that took a long time to figure out was that its very difficult to create a new element, and placing it is difficult as well. I found that firebug was very helpful in understanding the architecture of the code for most pages. Firebug is a FireFox add-on. The way that i learned how to do what i have done, is by re-reading the tutorial on
w3schools and then looking at the css/html code on
css zen garden for a long long time.
Even though i have spent a long time trying to learn css, i havent been very successful. What i have so far is just some minor manipulation with padding and margins. I did the background in photoshop. The original image is actually from one of the shots that i took in Beijing.
