tradey trade!

as nicole said, we decided to trade projects for this last day of collaboration.
i approached nature's niche as a brand of my choosing: if i had a brand called nature's niche, what would it be?

i started making all sorts of associations with the natural themes and organic concepts that nicole has been working with and was particularly drawn to the idea of a nursery. which is funny, since i branded a nursery earlier in the semester.

nature's niche would be an extensive nursery specializing in fruit trees meant for organic home gardens.

my twist on nature's niche:



these are my uncle's orchards that i photographed over thanksgiving break.

one more week everyone!

What do kids sell on the corner?

Tonight I asked my friends what they used to sell when they were little on the corner. I got a wide range of things. One of my roommates sold flowers they picked from their own garden, one used to sell her own personal artwork, others sold lemonade, and kool-aid, cookies. I personally with my friends (when we weren't selling lemonade) sold rocks, and we tried to sell my friends hair bows once also. Kids are creative and even if it doesn't make sense what they are selling, people buy it because it's made by a kid and they're just so cute :) I thought this was some good insight into more ideas of what kids could sell on their stand on the corner.

Freudentisch: Your Table Pet

Heidi offered her creative services today, and I willingly accepted. She told me that she thought it would be awesome to have miniature collectible tables; you know, the desk pet variety. I wholeheartedly agreed, and I began to think about the sort of crazy table pet one could have on their office desk. After all, one of my psychology professors had a miniature wheeled garbage can (the big black plastic sort that people usually leave at the curb) and I had teachers from my childhood who had small toilets (complete with flushing sounds!) as part of their retinue of desk toys. Anyway, this idea also took me back to the day where I thought it would be neat to cover a table with faux fur. That would say oodles about one's personality, if they had a faux fur-covered table on their desk at work! Plus, with a smaller variety of the table pet, it would certainly make collecting lots of tables more reasonable.

Cable Table reDesign.018

For this final collaboration, I really wanted to tap into the resource of my chiari friends online. Everyone has different, varying symptoms, but we could all use something that makes our lives a little more streamlined. One of my friends had all her outlets raised to the middle of the wall because bending over was tough and exhausting (I feel the same way, it's a weird symptom. Leaning over can sometimes make me feel like suddenly I'm 100 years old or have been up for 50 hours.) Another person experiencing the same kind of symptom recommended a recessed pen holder so that it wouldn't be able to tip over and make you have to pick things up off the ground. Everyone wanted more storage, which makes plenty of sense. It's much easier to have everything at hand than to have to constantly get up and move around or search for things.

However, since we all have different situations, I think it'd be great if there was a custom table optino for cable tables. The mark up wouldn't be insane, just about like what blurb.com does for books. Most of the cost would be controlled by the options you choose for the table. This can be things like a lighttable section, a custom number of power outlets, whatever drawer layout you want, extra accessories like a light or hot plate or fan built in. It's about conforming to what the consumer needs, so that cable table can ultimately make their customer more efficient and comfortable.

No more harpsichords?

So I was thinking about how when you listen to more modern classical music, you never hear a harpsichord anymore. My grandmother had one when I was little and even she never played it. Don't remember what ever happened to that thing. But anyways, personally, I enjoy listening to someone play the harpsichord. I'll take it a step further, I enjoy listening to baroque music...chamber music to be more specific. This is where you hear an ensemble of musicians rather than a whole symphony. You will most likely hear a harpsichord being played in this setting.

Basically I am really into minimalist style design. But I do have an affinity towards all things baroque for some reason. I know, it goes against all things minimalist. I'm hoping to bridge the gap somehow for my logo.

Getting Around with Glo!

So after this whole week I was just thinking of different ways I could use the weird geometric art that I have been enjoying into my designs. Well then I was thinking more along the lines of my original Glo Target Audience (which was those who practice extreme sports). Then I started thinking about snowboarding coming up soon and that lead me to think that to do all these things, many times you need a vehicle. So I decided to make the Glo Car... Actually it was kinda an experiment on mimicking Nikolai Cornell but I still think it turned out pretty fun and good.

... oh and for those who don't know of Nikolai Cornell I recommend looking him up his site is obscuradigital.com he does Awesome interactive motion graphic type stuff but he also did and does a bunch of cool work with super extreme high power projectors.

... oh and by the way this was a collaboration with Hyrum... using his vehicle and his projector. Thanks Hy Man!

The Valor of "flamenca"

Everyone has fears, some of them insurmountable. Today I was crippled and frozen by those fears. Looking back on today, I found that it related to an experience I had as a 3rd grader. I grew up near the Royal Gorge Bridge in Canon City, Colorado. As 3rd grader Kate crossed this 1053' high suspension bridge, I was terrified that I would slip through the 1" spaces in between the slats of wood. Of course this fear was entirely illogical, but I still experience these. Once there is a trigger to dissipate these fears, I know and can feel that there was no danger the entire time. "flamenca" is a trigger.

Portrait.

One last portrait this week as a collaborative effort.

More than a table

So during the break, as my family crowded around the dinner table waiting for the feast to begin, I realized that tables are more than just a place to set your plate. They are a place to make memories with family and friends. I think we take tables for granted just because they are always there, just standing the tests of time. But why couldn't your dinner table be more? Lets say Christmas rolls around and you need to fit 12 relatives around your small table. Wouldn't it be grand if your other furniture like shelves and desks could easily be arranged to accommodate the whole herd? If think a series of simple, connectible, table-like structures that could be combined to form many different shapes to handle various space problems would solve many problems.

Day 18

I asked a friend who was familiar with my original idea for my zen garden table to draw out what she would do with a table for relaxation. The two of us aren't alike at all when it comes to style or the way we work. When she gave me her idea, I was quit surprised to find out she loved my original idea and just expanded on it. She left the original idea of the sand and rocks that I thought of, but included a large rock with a small waterfall to give the sound of trickling water. I would definitely consider this if I could find a way for it to work. I guess I learned something new about someone I thought was the complete opposite of me.

Day: Lego

I was sitting with a buddy of mine and we were think of what you could build Neverland out of? We came up with all sorts of ideas, like glass, clay, Lincoln Blocks, rocks, and etc. Then it hit me! Legos! I got to give props to Sage because he did mention about Legos in an earlier blog. So here is the word Neverland in Legos.

sound waves

"I always remember listening to music (I saw that as a comfort type of situation) and as I learned to play interments, my music tastes started to expand. I love the intricacy of the symphony and the counter melodies. I apreciate how vastly expansive and encompassing music can be, there are so many different types of music out their to experience." is roughly what my grandma told me when I asked her why she loved listening to music. I talked to her about how she felt that sound vibrations can influence humans, sense everything is just a electric or chemical reaction, basically.

Instruments can put somebody, mentally, w/e you might need to go. But adding lyrics, real meaning full lyrics can cause your thoughts to rome places you would have never expanded.

FullGive (day18)

Wow, a laptop case who would have guessed? Over the long break I was able to collaborate with many people and this was the result. Input was given on many levels for all of the little details that went into this project; from the colors all the way down to the hardware used to assemble the final product. I also took the feedback that I received form you as a class into consideration and put it to work.

New View

Today's collaboration involved Danelle and I switching ideas. I have had many thoughts of what I would do for her topic if I were given the chance. So today thats what I get to do.

I thought of quotes that reflect how I feel about the art world and how I create my design.

Don't take things too seriously. Thats not going to do anything but stress you out and end up ruining your creative flow.

Don't design for the NOW design for the THEN.

Have a Plan. sure it might not all work out necessarily as you planned, but at least that way you have a direction.

Express yourSELF.

Music is all around us

I was watching August Rush the other day

and thinking about the beginning of the film

when August was out listening to the wind through

the wheat field and how he's always hearing music

all around him. I remember going out near the end

of Summer (August). I went out into my

back yard and tried to do the same thing— I listened

to the wind through the trees, the crickets chirping, the

bird song and the sun rising up through the mountains

and I wish I had footage of it so I could say I collaborated with Nature

but it's very very cold out now and there are no crickets, not much bird song

and so I thought of something else. I put together a little video of sounds

from a forest along with images. I hope it works, or I will be resubmitting something else.

So my collaboration today actually happened a few days ago when i asked my family about color schemes. I took a few that i had done on previous blogs and a couple more that i liked. The consensus was this color scheme. I edited out one of the colors that i had so its a little more simple. I actually found all these colors in my first mood board in all the natural vegetation. But i also thought that it would go well with contemporary style and work well with vibrant colors that may find their way into the store. Oh and i also thought of the ingenious logo right there, no collaboration but i had to put it down, always comes when your not trying for it. Its a throwback to the S i had in my first logo but has the representation of chairs. Two functions in one and it looks contemporary! i think I've got it!

Day 18

I know that in life we wish that there were instruction manuals to most everything we do. So what if we did have manuals or better yet, picture diagrams (I like pictures). Would it really help? The image below is of an Audi V12 TDI (Turbo Diesel Injection) engine. Audi will be using this engine in their newer race car called the Audi R8. If you click on the picture you will get an enlarged view of the engine. So... even though we have this great diagram of an engine, can we really put it together and make it run? I submit that we cannot. Just as life continues on and we continue to learn, so it is with an engine. There are specifics that the eye cannot see just from a picture but can really only be fully understood by experiencing life first hand.

Now I know that all of you are in awe of my super image of a "perfume bottle" here. I know, I know, you may be asking your self, "How does he do that?" well, lets just say, it's MAGIC. So we have this other diagram here. It is simply demonstrating how a sample of a perfume bottle may work. There really is no further explanation needed on how to use this. So do we really need instructions on how to apply perfume or cologne?

What about "Pop-Tarts?" There is actually instructions on how to prepare one of those scrumptious breakfast pastries using a toaster. I'm sure there are many other examples out there on various explanations or directions on how to work complicated or simplistic devices. My idea is this, sometime to understand something in life we need to experience it for ourselves so that we might be able to help others along their way in life. And sometimes we just know what to do and no explanation is needed.

mob mantality

When people get into groups it sometimes seems like common sense goes out the window. Riots start spontaneously, panic strikes much easier. It reminds me of sheep. one gets scared and it spreads to all those around them and then to all. riots and mobs will happen but it takes someone who is thinking right to see the situation for what it is. It takes someone who has knowledge of yourself and reality to fully understand what you need to do. Thats what training gives. control of yourself and the ability to get away from a bad situation if needs be.

worm

i asked a bunch of people what came to mind when they heard the word "glow." i got the expected answers like glow sticks and florescent lights. i also got the morning sun coming through the window, a pregnant woman, someone being happy, and the answer i never would have thought of was worms. i looked up what glow worms were and thought they looked pretty cool. maybe "glo" could turn people into a glow worm or make some random appendage glow like the worms do.

Geometric Stuff

Well I was talking to one of my friends from back home, online this weekend. And I was telling him some of the cool things that we have been doing in this class and when I was showing him some of my stuff he was telling me that I should try to do some of the stuff ive been doing just in more 3D form. So I collaborated with him and I came up with this low relief piece.

Child Imaginations

This weekend I decided to have "aunt day" And took my two neices and nephew and just have a crazy fun day with them. I wanted to get into the minds of 5 year olds as they are around the age who would be using my product. Their imagination is amazing and saw it as we built an awesome fort, it would have been better but we ran out of blankets. We played dress up, and learned dances and did some arts and crafts. It was a wild day to say the least, but It helped me come with an idea for a new "ad on" for the brand. How about a craft kit that will help kids design their own signs? I think they'd love it. :)

Procrastination

I have noticed that people are prone to procrastination. I find myself in this trap quite a bit. especially school work.

People put off almost everything to the last second, Including health. They put off practice to the last minute, which is not kenpo. Its more selective and requires more time and dedication than the average person is willing to give. So procrastination is more of a filtering mechanism for kenpo. its obvious when you procrastinate.

words of wisdom

today i had the opportunity to visit with my grandmother for awhile before i headed back to cedar. she is the only one out of my grandparents, parents, or aunts and uncles that has studied art in college as well. i have a large family (75 people on my mother's side alone), so that is somewhat surprising.

for today's post, i wanted to ask her advice for myself, or any art student for that matter. i wanted the perspective of someone who has been there, done that, and knows the game. she studied traditional art and a little advertising layout, so the techniques, tools and technology have drastically changed since she was involved but i have found she always still has valuable insight.

her advice was: do it because you like it. and you might not be able to have art as a career, due to marriage, family, children or other circumstances, but don't give it up completely. prioritize if you have to, but don't ever let it all go.



my great grandmother handpainted this entire china set.


my grandmother painted these decorations, along with several others, on the walls of her home.


my grandmother.

hope everyone had a great holiday! see you all tomorrow.

Inquisitiveness

Caught my cousin Sarah playing around on the piano. After noticing that she was making many mistakes trying to figure out a tune, again I started thinking about the way children view the world. As we ourselves get older, do we lose most of our "child-like" inquisitiveness?

Cable Table reDesign.017

Today, I started out by asking other people I knew with chiari how a table could make their lives easier. That idea is taking longer than a day to flush out, so I went to another source of creativity - instructables.com. One of my favorite projects to look for is the modified Altoids tin. People have hundreds of different uses for these little tins, all in the pursuit of making life easier, less boring, or more creative. The first one I'd make is definitely the travel kit, something simply but thorough to throw into a bag at the beginning of the day. Must haves: medications, tape, paper, pen, pencil, scissors, spare change. I also think it'd be cool to try and invent a MySpace Starter Kit: Portable Version (if you've seen my most recent project from Packaging).

Conner...

So this being one of the last days to collaborate Amanda requested I try my hand at doing a sketch of Conner.

The Sincerity of "flamenca"

Today I wanted to choke the falsities and bravado out of a young man. His over rehearsed verbiage and personality was off putting and obnoxious, similar to smoke getting in your eyes. It stings and burns your glands while penetrating your skin and clothing and suffocating your lungs. The plume envelopes you with aggravation and agony. I obviously didn't like this fellow :)

Day: Different Kind of Movie

I was talking with my friends and family about movies and how the word Neverland could be use in about any type of genre of movies. In motion I am working on a spooky movie title called "The Voice," and my family suggested that Neverland could also be a scary movie. So this is what my family and friends came up for the poster *starts to talk in a spooky voice* NEVERLAND.

Freudentisch: Your Brain is On It, Why Aren't You?

I was still collaborating (in a sense) with my mother for this one. I asked her: which parts of the brain would interpret which parts of the brand? She replied, "that's a research project." So I began to research. This is the very rough beginning of a hypothesis about which parts of the brain handle which mental processes when it comes to the brand.

Occipital Lobe: (sense of sight, lesions in this area may produce hallucinations) the entry point. This is where the brand is visually processed.
Temporal Lobe: (processes smell, sound, complex stimuli like facial recognition and scenes) this lobe would interpret the presence of product in the homes of friends, might also be helpful in distinction of face types on table.
Parietal Lobe: (integrates sensory information, manipulation of objects) would determine how product is used. Feel, touch, etc would be combined into cohesive package here. Manipulation (actual use) processed here.
Frontal Lobe: (conscious thought; damage may result in mood changes, see case study of Phineas Gage) this part may be, on some level, responsible for decision to purchase product and/or in deciding optimal placement/use of product in home. Again, this would only be on the conscious level; decisions that would utilize a lower amount of cognitive resources would not be processed here, probably more likely to be processed in parietal or other lobe depending on type of processing and level of awareness. (This is also very likely the part of the brain that is processing these terms.)

With further research I'll specify the particular areas responsible for which process when it comes to the product's mental interpretation. As it is, multiple parts of the brain are responsible for several facets of each action; I'm merely trying to pinpoint the area that is likely to be doing the majority of processing in each instance.

Day 17

After returning to Cedar from home I asked a friend who has seen what I've been doing for branding all semester what she herself thought of a brand, without my influence. I told her she didn't have to respond like I would, just what she herself believed, but she had so much to say she wrote it down.

"What get my attention focused on a brand is mainly this: the simplicity. Bold colors are nice, and good fonts or drastic pictures certainly catch my eye, but the thing that doesn't leave me with a headache is an advertisement that is simple and get to the point. These state confidence in their own ability to sell, saying simply "I am" instead of "oh, please oh, please oh, please buy my product!" I like the brand to be able to stand on its own, to be something that I can rely on, so to speak. Brands that periodically change its logo seem permirance wish-washy, and without a backbone, terrified that no one will like them anymore because they look old fashioned or boring. When that happens, I think "oh no, not again," because their "new" look just looks weird, or familiar, and I am afraid to use the product for a long time, until I get used to their look. So that is what draws me to an advertisement: simplicity, confidence familiarity, and a bit of permanence."

It was interesting to read a response about a brand both in the point of design and advertisement, rather than just one.

love potion

what do you do when you drive for a long period of time? think about branding! on my road trip today, i was noticing things people love. like people love to go walk around at the hoover dam and admire it and they love to take pictures. i put together small collage of things i love and came up with the idea of a love potion. it includes photography, texture, typography, and the potion type of look.

Day 17

I have been watching my Mother and Father this weekend, and I have observed them in their domains and their home. I watch as they have had all sorts of experiences throughout their lives and how that has made them who they are today. They are a living legacy of trials and heartaches, of wonderful days and prosperity. They are who they are because of their willingness to work on specific goals together, instead of giving up and dividing. I am a believer that we are who we are because of the shoulders that we now stand on.

This is a antique toy from about 1900. This is the first edition of the viewfinder. When you look through the lenses your brain interprets the image as a 3d image, thus at the turn of the century it provided hours of entertainment for children and adults alike. I still use my mothers! But what it did was take the fascinating stories about all of these locations around the world and brought them to your home, even your fingertips. Instead of dreaming about seeing the Eiffel tower, you could see it in near reality.

Today we have hand-held computers that don't only take us around the world in a life-like reality, but they let us talk and play them in games and competitions too. We have gone from seeing pictures and letting our dreams live on in them to instantly talking with other people around the world that live in these majestic lands that we have never been to.

It use to be that all you really needed to survive in the world was a spot of land, farming knowledge and a good sturdy back. That is much different today. In order for us to survive, we need money. To get money we need a job. To get a job we need to be educated and for most of us that requires us to go into debt. So while working for this schooling we have other temporary jobs of which we need an automobile to get to and from and there are a number of other costs that you can come up with.

So my observation comes down to this... We live in a time where we are trying to create all of these wonderful time-saving devices and in so doing we are spending all of our extra time working to save up money to get these things. I am not saying that one is better than the other but rather that, I think in our society today, from what I have observed and thought about today, it seems to be easer to expect something now and not be willing to work at it for the long haul. Just as the old adage says, "Good things come in time." Or as my roommate says, "Use it up wear it out, make due or due without." But what are we taught by our society today?

FullGive (day 17)

And now for the finishing touches, the nuts and bolts. Fullgive's grass roots feel is all tied together here with some industrial hardware.

Christopher's Idea

I asked my boyfriend what he thought about my brand and what direction he would go with it. This is what he came up with.

Christopher Cane: What I was thinking about was that your name is natures niche, so it should deal with the niche that nature has in our lives these days. and what I came up with was that natures niche is being that plant in the corner of our living rooms, or the planter box in front of a store, or the median in the middle of the road that has grass and maybe a few trees. natures niche seems to be all about looking good, or making some area that would be bland without a few trees or bushes here and there look better. natures niche these days is all about being aesthetically pleasing and not being in anybodies way, or it gets torn out, and/or replaced. natures niche is whatever is convenient for us.

Myquarium

Today I asked my girlfriend that if Altable were her project, what would she change? I told her that could use or change any of my previous branding, packaging, or product design that she wanted. I handed her the sketchbook and this is what she came up with, a aquarium inside of a table. I think that this is pretty inventive. She even explained to me how the oxygen would circulate and how the owners would feed their pets through a series of hidden doors. Man, I guess my idea wasn't that good since she changed everything, including the name and logo. Haha. I do like the simplicity of the logo though. She also pointed out that the tail of the Q resembles a fish tail. I thought this was pretty darn good for a psychology major! It's always neat to see how others approach design problems.

Let's make music

Every year on Christmas Eve our family gets together to eat drink and be merry

and since many of us play a musical instrument, we often play music together and

have a little talent show. This year my Mother and I are going to do a duet with me on

cello and her on piano. So I thought this would be a fun opportunity to show some

musical collaboration. Music is a partnership— kind of like design collaboration. You

each have to do your part otherwise it's going to sound (or look) terrible. So here is

our visual and musical collaboration (Thanks to my Dad for taking the picture. Next time we

plan to get him on his harmonica).

Well we procrastinated yesterday but today my collaborator and I are on the ball, and now i have two posts pretty much in a row, anyway... Today was Suites Gourmet Confections I thought the name might suit better because its expandable into cakes! Making them i confess is another career dream of mine. And today we made an awesome cake design. the type of cake you might see in my kind of sweets store. This ain't your grandmas homemade cake! its basically cake for cool people. Not that grandmas aren't cool but this is like new styles and designs that make people remember you as that awesome cake shop. I'm thinking it would incorporate new technology as much as possible like machinery and junk to compliment forward designs.

Okay first of all don't let people experiment with illustrator if they have never used it before. Just in the nick of time we thought of couple of awesome pieces to go into a Suite furniture store. The first, the hammock, i know it doesn't look like a hammock. That hangs from the ceiling and is made out of comfy fabrics like fuzzy stuff and scarf materials the next is a stand up desk that is glass and has an e reader and tablet built into the bottom of it for easy access. This one might be nice for designers. and finally the last thing we thought of was a clear dry erase board that could hang from the ceiling or be set up anywhere in a room. Just a few specialty items sold at Suite Furnishings.