myself as an environment

so i thought to myself, what if i represented myself not through a tangible object such as a book or poster but instead through an environment? what would this environment look like, what kind of objects would it contain, and what would it be used for?

i came to the conclusion that the best environment to represent me would be my idea of a perfect studio. i took the liberty of deciding what i want in my studio someday and laying out a floor plan. i am very particular about how i like rooms arranged so everything is very thought out. the couch has to be against a smaller wall, facing opposite a window next to the bookcases.. the desk cannot be on the opposite wall from the door because i cant have people walking in and scaring me from behind. i HAVE to have a whiteboard wall to doodle on.. yadda yadda.

you're all jealous now and cant wait to design your studio huh.

So one day I was at an outdoor mall and saw this cute little mod shop. It was a clothing store but i wanted to see if i could find a way to show the same idea with furniture since i seem to be leaning towards that kind of store anyway. So i know its kinda silly, and in case you can't figure it out the things in the windows are those pod chairs that hang from the ceiling, but it looks like a little boutique. The kind that people our age go "oh my gosh! have you ever been there!? i freakin love that store!" like people do when they talk about ikea...well i should say, when I talk about ikea at least.

As for the exterior my interior design and architectural background is coming out when i find it oh so awesome to have a trim and proper building with old classic style, crown molding and all, paired with bright colored lights modern textures and asthetics displayed in signage and perhaps a glass door, as well as an interior full of funky furniture. Love! I would totally live there

Day 4

I've noticed these past few days there has been a lot of exchange of sweets between some of the people I know and wondered what Soto would be like if it was a line of chocolates and made the front of a box of chocolates. Tried to use the texture of paints (as chocolate was unavailable) for the background to make it feel a little more organic.

The Taste of "flamenca"

I was hesitant to do something food-related because it's been done already for this project, but, what with my brand directly involving scent experiences, I felt this exploration would be appropriate. I spent time contemplating the sharp/smooth contrast of "flamenca, " and determined the characteristics of ginger ideally define the complexities of that contrast. By itself, ginger is a bitter, shocking taste. In food, and particularly chocolate, it tones down and develops a sensual, enveloping aroma that is experienced beyond taste buds and into the olfactory. And it doesn't hurt that it's delicious.

FullGive (Day 4)

This mock-up is an idea that I had for a catalog of the FullGive product line. FullGive uses random found objects (ie: the soles of shoes, textured fabrics, etc) with interesting patterns for stamping, which add interesting textures using acrylic paints. I wanted the cover of the catalog to show part of the creative processes used to create these products.

Day 4: Neverland

So this was a light box that I made. I was going to take more pictures but my camera battery died. My camera still hasn't full recovered from kanarraville falls hike.

Of Love Possessed

If love is like the wasp and the orchid; love becomes an engagement in the production of subjectivity. It is no longer spontaneous, romantic, or passive. It then being a production of affective networks, schemes of cooperation, and social subjectivities is and economic power. This leads to the production of the common and under these circumstances love itself becomes susceptible to corruption.

Lets have love defined by the common and then through the introduction and reoccurring encounter and experimentation of singularities within the common we can produce more common and more singularities. It is in the reproduction of singularities that we can study how people are and analyze the passions that actually animate them.

The productive, passionate, and industrious bee and its relationship with the flower as a common overtakes in its singular relationship the hedonistic relationship of the wasp and the orchid.

This is a response to an art forum article, Reckoning with Empire. The piece produced today is a further response to the issue of love, self, and identity.

Many "trains" of thought

After going through a couple of ideas about what I wanted to do to work off of what I did yesterday, a little. Without being so damn dramatic.

So I remade K.O.D. as if it was my own album cover. I knew that I loved the music I listen to because of where it can take me, or where it can take me from. Obviously how I relate to it, as any of us do. So I just put myself in it, hope this doesn't seem to egotistical heh heh.

Recipe for a perfect Tuesday Afternoon

These daily blog uploads certainly do make you think!

I decided after my last Tuesday Afternoon image that I

liked it as a music label. I guess it could be something

that encompasses a creative way of life—with everything

from how you live and surround yourself at home, to

what is important to you as a person. What kind of music

do you listen to, how do you spend your free time, and

what are your passions in life?

For me, music is a way of life. I wrap myself up in it

like a blanket on a cold day. I play it, I breathe it, I live it.

I know Autumn is a little bit past, but I thought it goes

so well with Mozart. I was imagining if I could bottle up

the perfect day I would capture a beautiful cloudless sky,

bottle some beautiful fall leaves of all shapes and sizes to

remind me how amazing life is when you live in the moment.

And, I imagine hearing Mozart because his music is so uplifting

and happy.

Would anyone care to

comment on the logo

I made? It probably

still needs a bit of work.

FYI that little lightening

looking shape above the

(a) is a symbol for a rest

in music.

Day 4: Cendrillon: A frame of mind.

So I know that the parameters call for a 6"x 6" but my idea called for a little bit more room than that. I totally forgot that I had a Kolob Canyon Review meeting on Thursday, but I think there was a reason for that. I fell in love with Cedar again on Thursday. I took this video as well as some amazing photos the day of the morning snowfall. I just had this feeling that I needed to go for a drive that afternoon and see what happened. I found heaven on earth. As I thought about this, I really didn't want to use this for any school assignment, but keep it for myself. But that has changed.

What if Cendrillon was a frame of mind instead of a tangible object. When I uploaded this video a lot of the quality is lost but the idea and emotion are still there. Design is all about portraying a message through type and imagery. Usually the type is what's "loud" and grabbing or even yanking for someone attention, just like my last post. But what design offered peace, and quiet like this snippet of heaven on earth?

Glo Mobile

So I was really trying to think of a way that I could portray or design my brand to fit another sport or something along the lines fitting an energy drink but that is not really what came out.

Some of my friends were watching one of the "Tomb Raider" movies. Now in the movie there is a part where she is in an ancient tomb and happens to be in the rights spot at the exactly right moment to see some hieroglyphic-hanging-mobile-type-thing. That gave me the idea that I and the huge desire to make my Glo Logo out of a mobile, like the movie.

Then I was trying to think of a good slogan befitting the design. I was thinking "It helps you at the exact time you need it" or something like that but I don't know if its that good because you almost have to have seen the movie or require an explanation. Anyway I'll think of a good slogan later. I hope you like the "Glo Mobile!"

Day 4 - Altable Interior

Today I was thinking of how the Altable product line could be expanded and I realized why not cover whole rooms in the product?! Hanging pictures, whiteboards, and posters would be a cinch. It could also have a great potential in craft rooms or workshops to hang tools and supplies. People with OCD could also easily align everything in their room using the holes as guides. The holes pattern might look pretty cool, especially if the wall behind the board was a bright color. And you would never have to go through the awful task of putting up ugly wallpaper ever again.

It might be kind of hard to see in this photo, but the picture above represents a craft room with the walls covered in the Altable peg board system.

Essentials

So today i was thinking, What is the core of Kenpo? it doesn't have any fancy flashy stuff. It is just basic "what works" moves. Its not showy. So i thought of welding paperclips together to make the logo. Its not flashy, fancy or showy. its just the base "what works".

Today I wanted to do another "add-on" for the lemonade stand. Kids can now purchase matching Lemon Time aprons to wear while selling their lemonade.

Seeds

Today is cold and dead, so I wanted my project to have life and warmth to it, cause I'm not a fan of cold.. So when I was thinking about how I could do that, I started thinking of life and how everything starts from something small and grows. which led me to this Seeds. I mean what better way is there for Nature's Niche to go, but back to it's roots? (sorry I for the awful pun couldn't help myself). So naturally (oh god I did it again, its been a long day) I decided to make nature's niche into a gardening company. I wanted it to have a different look than the generic seed packaging that already exist so that it would stand out on the shelf and make my target audience chose my brand over the others. So I added COLOR and PATTERNS to my design, aren't you surprised? I know using color is a bold move for me but I felt that it needed to be done... Enjoy

Freudentisch and Knock-Off Brands

This morning I thought about parent companies and knock-off brands. I especially contemplated the Great Value, Western Family, Kroger, Kirkland Signature, and other similar generic brands. I wondered if they were designed poorly on purpose. That thought led me into the idea of becoming your own competition. If people are determined to buy knock-off brands, then that would be ample motivation for big name brands to create their own knock-off in order to have a share in as many portions of the market as possible. I set to work trying to make a knock-off of freudentisch. At first I focused on a close English translation, Happy Table, and I made a paper maquette with the face in the style of a generic brand. Since I was going for knock-off, I even went with the stereotypical yellow 'happy face' color. After fiddling with it, I realized that it was very close to street warning signs. So that's where today went.
"Warning: Designer at Play."

once upon a time, i was a swimmer. i was given an energy drink before one of my races and i cut 2 seconds off my time. it was pretty awesome and i was excited so from then on, i had one before that exact race. i thought it might be kinda cool if there was an energy drink marketed specifically for swimmers. i put a shark with it because it's a pretty fierce type of animal in the water and so i went with that. after this design and thinking about all the fun memories of swimming, i've learned that i miss it...but making the design was fun.

Kenpo - empty hands

"I come to you with only karate, empty hands. I have no weapon, but should I be forced to defend myself, my principals, or my honor; Should it be a matter of life or death, of right or wrong; Then here are my weapons, Karate, my empty hands."
-Ed Parker-

fullgive (day3)

I thought that I would make a banner graphic for the website that my brother has been selling the FullGive line up on. I wanted something simple that would relate with and reflect the look and feel of FullGive. Materials and a DIY approach that are used in the making of the cases them selves was used.

Soto Pets

Today I got to thinking of other living things I interact with besides people and got to thinking of my pets, most especially my fish. I know, fish can be really boring, but they are the perfect companion if you can't have a dog or cat in your home, or want to worry about cleaning up messes. So I got to thinking if Soto was a pet shop that sells more aquatic animals like fish, turtles, crabs, etc. I felt the type would still work with the organic movements I originally went with, but wanted to see how it worked just by changing the mark, so I drew a simple looking koi fish.

"Don't Sweat, Glo"

This is my Glo logo just placed in a completely different branding strategy for a different audience. I am a cyclist so I have been really wanting to insert my logo into something dealing with cycling, so I did! I placed the Glo Logo on my cycling shoes! I hope you all like it!

Day 3: CendrilliMEN

Niche market here I come.

friday the 13th

don't judge me. it's been a weird day.

i hate peeps, and have been trying to come up with a use for them ever since my grandparents mailed me a care package containing several:



that being said, i hope you laughed at this (cause i giggled for about 10 minutes after i took this photo), i have been brainstorming more ways to make typography interact with the environment i place it in. instead of adding typography after the fact (placing it in pre-existing photo like i usually do), i literally put typography in the environment. and i had fun doing it.. implementing my favorite design rule that i posted yesterday.

no peeps were harmed in the making of this photograph.

okay, that was a lie

Rebus

Today I decided to make a rebus out of my product.....can you figure out the puzzle? I thought it was a fun twist of how pictures can be associated to words. This could also help kids make different ways to make signs advertising their lemonade stand.

Cable Table reDesign.003

Today's project led me a lot more off track (in an interesting way) than the past two days. I have been thinking lately about how not everyone likes to hide their cables and everything in their office or room, some people are content to have everything showing as long as it is well organized. I consider myself one of those people with everything other than cables. Later in the day, I was watching a lindy hop team routine with five pairs on the dance floor. This can easily get messy with lindy hop, but I was amazed by the choreography. Their formation changes and the ways they organized the high number of dancers on the floor was incredible. One of my favorites was the human piano, shown above, that they created for a strong, bold piano part towards the end of the song. It was an awesome way for them to emphasize the music and each couple.

Also, here is the original video if anyone wants to watch (it starts off kind of slow but gets awesome). 2009 ILHC - Team Performance: One2Swing's The California Rolls

The reazon why

I wanted to backtrack today. I attempted to take a good hard look at why, when, and what activities I'm doing, while I'm listening to my music. And in doing so, why I'm so picky with it. To try and make a long story short, I ended up doing some deep thinking. Lately the only reason I try to use to get done what I know I needed to do, was to think about my friend Tony who passed this august the 28th as a result of swine flu. I don't wanna get morbid or depressing with this, but I guess I tried to force something positive out of a negative feeling. In doing this I wrote a few song "quotes" down, and tried to just sketch either things that came to my mind to try and work them out, or the things I enjoying doing while listening to music, while listening to certain songs the whole time.

It almost became like therapy to a point for me...

Forcing something beautiful from pure chaos.

i never go for anything natural. i love the taste of energy drinks, but other people i know really don't. so i asked a couple people what would make them want to have an energy drink, and a few answered that if it was more of natural energy and not so much of the sugary taste, they'd drink it. this is something that goes for the more natural look.

Day 3 - There's no biz like snow biz

I wanted to continue exploring different kinds of companies that Altable could be. This got me started thinking about products that are easily changeable, or alterable. My thoughts came to rest on the Altable Snowman business. The company would be similar to the those who sell Christmas trees during the holidays, only at Altable would you be able to purchase your snowman starter kit. This kit would include a small, medium, and large snowball which the costumer would then be able to alter in their own way. Like adding arms, scarfs, hats, eyes, ears, and so on... The target audience for this would be families that live in small apartments with no yard full of snow, or anyone without access to snow. The picture above is a depiction of a client paying for one of the snowman starter kits. Notice the Altable signage or the ground and the dressed up snowman mascott in the background (his named is Kevin Frankels).

So what would make something as seemingly bland as furniture (shout outs for interior designers who love furniture) become interesting and creative. Well, the furniture of course! Since i used internet pics last time i thought i would just draw what i found and a couple things that i was thinking of could be in a Suite (sweet) specialty furniture shop. Its my mix between ikea, love sac, and a funky furniture design store. I mean really who wouldn't want these things, a hand chair with flexible fingers, a gaming bed (how lazy can we get) with built in tv, glowing furniture, a mouse trap bed, chairs make of you very own custom fabric, paper lamps with unexpected shades, pod beds, faux grass ottomans, bean bags you buy by the dozen and last but certainly not least a table that looks like an old school nintendo paddle. This is what dreams are made of!

Freudentisch and What?

What is freudentisch? First impressions are, after all, very important, and I wanted to see what impression people had when all they knew was the brand name. So I went around campus today and asked people to tell me if freudentish was a noun, adjective, or verb, and then I asked them to put that word into a sentence. It was more a game than anything, and since people recognized that they didn't know what it meant (and that it wasn't even English!) they relaxed and compliantly played along, coming up with random sayings and using freudentisch to replace words in common English phrases. Some even ventured to give me a direct translation.

the repose i

I spent the morning teaching Brenna my four year old how to cut squares out of paper. She is getting very competent with her new scissors. Conner (my 1 year old) helped me paint the background of this piece. I was thinking about the "i" in identity and how it is a powerful signification today. I was also entertaining how the "i" in ourselves is in constant competition with the self. The "i" may be the true identity of our competitor.

Day 3: To Think Like A Kid You Got To Be A Kid.

You think since I am older that building a Fort would of been a lot easier to make. I slept in the fort the whole night and it was so comfortable that I accedentail slept in and missed my classes. Ooopppss! Oh well. So this is my last kid experiment that I will be doing. I am now going to try and focus more on experimental design to finish up this week.

Today I thought I'd try the music direction

so I made a new logo for a music company

called Tuesday Afternoon which seems to fit.

I also wanted to include a sound clip of debussy's

Arabesque for your listening pleasure, but I'm

not that blog savvy yet. So if you want to hear

a really good version please go to this link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWpV7L4YHuU

enjoy.

natural beverage

After making the smoothy I thought I would turn that drink into a natural beverage that can be sold next the Naked juice and Bolthouse Farms. The ingredients were inspired by the smoothy concoction from yesterday.

The Movement of "flamenca"

I've related the movement of the Flamenco dance, the basis for the perfume and typography, to those of whipping clothes drying on a line on a windy day. The movement is conceptually related due to both the softness and sharpness seen in the dance style and the effects of the wind on the fabric.

juice

I am trying out a new creative angle, I was Literally looking for my creative juices. So instead of sitting in front of a computer or a sketch book to work something out I decided to raid my refrigerator. I took house hold essentials and made Nature's Niche into a found smoothy. My final ingredients included Raspberry preservers, Some Pulp Orange Juice, and Home-Jarred Peaches. Other trials included apples and iced tea, those were failures. The final one ended up being quite good.

Swift Identity

So I spent a bit of time today walking around with Brenna, my 4 year old daughter. We picked up leaves and she was not selective at all when it came to the old ones, color, size or shape, she just collected. We took the leaves to my office and I scanned seven that mirrored a change. I then sketched an aging portrait of Taylor Swift. I overlapped the two elements to see what might come of the juxtaposition.

Cable Table reDesign.002

I think the perfect world would be wireless, but I've completely forgotten that there is at least one benefit to cables. The more there are on your stage, the more you look like a rock star. With this concept in mind, I found a photo I took years ago of just the cables on the stage at a concert. I originally took the photo to observe the patterns and lines the cables made in the photo. I have now added the detail of the band's name written in the cables to show one way that cables could be used for decoration and flourish rather than just pushed to the side, taped down, tangled and tripped over.

Freudentisch and Old Lace

So, I got to thinking about that fantastic production "Arsenic and Old Lace." My final idea has very little to do with that, but maybe that might help make this make sense.
What if Freudentisch were a social society? Like a book club, or lunch group, essentially a forum for people to get together and get to know each other, to keep up with everyone else and their everyone else. Just a place to talk. A group with whom you can slow down in order to keep up with the fast pace of life. Hence the teacups and the good ol' "Jeeves & Wooster" in the shot... it's all about society! (And, why yes, that is my table Freddie under all that stuff... how could you ever tell?)

Day 2

From my original idea for Soto I was following a type of meditation I'm more familiar with that I do myself: focusing more on soft subtle movements resembling the flow of water. I got to thinking, "What other forms of meditation are there out there?" I realized my two roommates are a lot more active physically than me, and one of the ways they let out their stress and anger is practicing karate for their class. So I watched them practice their movements and the way they moved their bodies, along with breathing exercises to see how the brand of Soto could work with a different type of meditation.