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.

Facial Expression

So for a different view, what could be more different than the way a child views the world. So I was at my cousin's house and was sitting next to the trampoline. I kept hearing my little cousin saying my name over and over. I looked over to see her smiling face and snapped the second photo.

Her expression reminded me of how carefree I was at that age. I don't think I enjoy a trampoline as much as I did when I was a kid.

Graffiti Halo

Well I was just thinking about doing another one of my graffiti-type art pieces, but before then I was doing some review for art history and was just looking at a bunch of old art and observed that a lot of them obviously most religious the main subjects have halos. Also even though there are many cultures quite a few have this symbolism or design in their art. That got me thinking that even though our cultures are very different from those of the past there are still many similarities. Then that got me wondering what would halos look like in our day, haha... well this is what I think they could look like in our art. I also talked my brother into posing for this pic so it was kinda fun.

... school is getting close to being done this semester, keep up the good work everyone!

The Experience of "flamenca"

Today I walked into Big Lots and almost got sick. The whole place smelled like "made in china, like everything came off of dirty crates and was then sprayed with bathroom deodorizer purchased in 1984. The consumers' relationship with scent can mean everything to their buying experience. I literally wanted to flee the store it was so ghastly overwhelming, much less touch or buy anything. "flamenca" has no connection or connotation of "made in china."

a little somethin-somethin

so- for today's collaboration i asked someone who knows me extremely well what project they would think suits my personality best. in essence, instead of my quote book, what project would they pick for me?

i was told that a collection of photos of things that i love and inspire me seems fitting. when we discussed how to present the photos, he suggested that i needed to use them in a form that would sell my work (which is exactly what this project is for initially, right? to establish and sell our personal brands?)

i remembered a conversation i had with Jay about the possibility of making some product that i could hand to friends, family, and future clients that is 'cool' in such a way that they could/would display it on their desks, shelves or bookcases. in doing so, they would have a constant reminder of my personal brand and easy access to a way to contact me for projects, instead of a small business card they could lose.

it all fits, right?

i'm all about functionality. how about a day by day calendar, photographs and design exclusively by moi?

page out of calendar for today:



i know you all are dying to get yours.

Rivals

Today was the big "Rival Game" for the state of Utah. If you're not from Utah, i'm sure you've heard about it and am constantly being asked which 'side you are on' and there is always only one 'right' side. Today I observed many different attitudes and behaviors that occur from this day. Facebook status's are out of control smack talk befor the game, after the game the smack talk is full of excuses and more smack talk from the winner side, people around my neighborhood go crazy in decorating their houses, but the best was what I saw today. I went to Viewmont High School and we have a big "V" on our mountain, well I didn't get a good picture of it before it was ruined, but someone exteded the V to make it into a "Y" for BYU! By the time I went to get a picture of it it was already ruined but you can see the white stuff off to the side how it used to be. Conclusion: People will do a lot of crazy things over sports, it brings people together, and it tears people apart, but overall it's a good day :)

Day 16

Today I was thinking about traditions in the family while putting up our Christmas tree. Every year, even now that my sister and I don't live at home anymore and it's just my parents, they still feel like we should put up the tree. This year in particular was different because neither one of us will be home for Christmas, too. It just made me think about how iconic some things (in this case, the tree) can be. You would think that since the kids are out of the house you wouldn't bother putting a tree up since you don't have anyone to spend Christmas with. But it's the memory of putting the effort into a project together and waking up in the morning or coming home from work seeing it and that memory immediately returning. Sometimes even the most simple things can leave a lasting impression.

reflection...

There in a reflection one finds a rejection that tears fragile souls all apart. It's not in a face that you'll ever find pace, the stride of your will is the start. A man without mirror is a man without fear for his wits are then found in his heart.

FullGive (Day 15)

Almost done, can you make it out? These are just a couple pairs of the mitts that have been a part of the week's project. Fullgive is all about getting involved with what you love on a physical level; you have got to jump right in and get your hands dirty if you are going to do it right.

Music connects us

I spent the day with my cat Mimi and away

from most of my family.My cat was going to collaborate with me today,

but she decided not to cooperate and play the piano duet I had scheduled, so it's onto plan B.

Today I got thinking of crowds since it was Black Friday yesterday, and there was supposedly a big Football game going on downtown. I value my sleep and my sanity so I did not go out at all yesterday, but I have been stuck in crowds before — either on the street or jammed like a sardine onto the Trax trains after a big event that I didn't know about.

One thing I have observed about people is that they are often stuck in their own little bubbles, either as individuals or with the people they are with. We tend to like our space and carry with us our I-pods, cell phones to text on, hand-held games or books to entertain us and make us look busy so we don't have to interact with strangers. (At least this is my theory).

Then I got thinking of how different I feel after attending a concert. We all go in as strangers, often sitting next to people we don't know. But music- whatever it is- has a way of uniting us and often I will find myself turning to someone next to me during intermission, or after the concert and I'm sitting on the Trax and I'll ask strangers beside me how they liked it, and wasn't this part amazing, etc, etc. Music makes us more humane humans. It has a way of uniting us and creating good feelings among perfect strangers that make us want to reach out and connect to people we didn't know before.

elf!

i was watching "Elf" today and i really enjoy the whole thing about an adult acting like a kid. buddy was a man but acted like his kid brother, but he could still teach people things. he taught people how to have fun even when you are grown up, how to have a snowball fight, and believe in christmas again. i liked how he enjoyed the little things out of life like skipping down a sidewalk, seeing a very large christmas tree, running as many circles as fast as you can in a revolving door until you feel sick, and eating as much syrup as possible. i wish that more adults would enjoy the little things in life more often. kind of like the whole thing of neverland and never to grow up. no one really should ever have to act so grown up all the time. the kid inside you should be able to be set free sometimes. so today's observation was adults who still bring out the kid in themselves.

Freudentisch: Would You Like Salt With That?

"Saliency can be defined as how perceptually distinctive the information is in the context in which it is presented (Fishbein, Haygood, & Frieson, 1970; Sanfey & Hastie, 1998). Saliency can be affected by both bottom-up and top-down processing. Itti and Koch (2001) define visual saliency as a bottom up, stimulus-driven signal defined by the distinctness of an object from surrounding objects which can be modulated or overridden by top-down, user-driven factors. Saliency can be affected by bottom-up or preattentive processing based on features such as size, line orientation, form, sound levels, color hue and intensity (e.g. larger sizes and more intense colors can increase saliency). Additionally, saliency can be moderated by higher cognitive processes that are experience-based such as priming, recency, availability and expectancies (e.g. if searching for yellow squares in a bin of multicolored shapes then yellow and square items will be more salient than red triangles.)"

Fishbein, H. D., Haygood, R. C., & Frieson, D. (1970). Relevant and irrelevant saliency in concept learning. American Journal of Psychology, 83(4), 544-553.

Itti, L., & Koch, C. (2001). Computational Modelling of Visual Attention. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2(3), 194-203.

Sanfey, A., & Hastie, R. (1998). Does evidence presentation format affect judgment? An experimental evaluation of displays of data for judgments. Psychological Science, 9(2), 99-103.

As cited in:

Kramer, H. (2009). The Cost of Saliency: How saliency relates with relevancy to support or impede information search. (Unpublished Author's Copy.)

For today's project I collaborated with my mother. To give you a bit of an introduction, my mother is a computer programmer who decided to become a grad student in Psychology (go figure). The above is taken from a draft of her proposal outline. Since her research regards saliency, I asked her what would make my product more salient. She stated that "the key is to make it more distinct in the context." So, just like when one is "searching for yellow squares in a bin of multicolored shapes then yellow and square items will be more salient than red triangles", then a red octagonal shape will be more salient than square blue ones.

(PS, does anyone see the blue dots in the intersections of the white lines? Yeah, it's a fun optical illusion to play with...)

Cable Table reDesign.016

I was watching Get Smart today and thought it'd be fun to make a ridiculous spy table. After all, the spy is the ultimate lifehacker. I was especially inspired by things like the silence cone and the exploding floss, little daily things that they took and made into awesome undercover tools. I sketched out a table with a few radio buttons and speakers, an invisibility button, a skinny screen where you select your weapon and it is then dispensed "under the table" for you, and a main screen for whatever info you need. This entire table can be disguised by a thin overlay material and buttons flush to the surface - either you have the buttons memorized or you can quickly undisguise the table for extensive use. I also collaborated with my Dad by having him redraw most of my original sketch, since medication was making my hands really shaky (as you can see by some of my handwriting)!

So continuing along a similar line as yesterday, I asked my brother what advance would he like to see in future tables. Since he's an engineering major, he thought that a counter top that could rotate and reveal all your appliances like a microwave, stove top, oven, and a mini fridge would be his favorite advancement in table counter technology. It would save lots of space and look much neater with all your appliances tucked away, plus it would make you feel pretty James Bond-like and who can say no to that?!

Day: Youtube

I was thinking to myself today of where I can find interesting people in Cedar City to observe? That only lasted for a minute or two of thinking about that, and so I decide to watch my daily Vlogs on Youtube. That is when it came to me. I can observe people on Youtube!

On a daily bases I watch two Vlogs in particular, iJustine and Charlestrippy. It amazes me to see what ideas they can come up with every day. iJustine is a very wacky, crazy, spontaneous, and fun girl that just keeps people entertain every day. Charlestrippy on the other hand is silly but also a very cool and chill type of guy that makes Vlogs about his life.

It made me realize that ideas come from anywhere and about anything we do. I think that it is hard for some of us to see that because we don't think about what we see or do being all that entertaining to other people. This week is something special for the class because we get to see what other people are doing that we may never had thought of doing in our own lives.

If you want to check out this cool people go to iJustine and CTFxC on Youtube and don't for get to vote for CharlesTrippy vidoe for the Youtube awards either! :)

Barbie

For this day of collaboration I asked my friend Barbie Sellmeyer in Florida what she thought nature's niche was all about, and how she would express her thoughts of the brand.

Barbie loves the outdoors, especially the beach. When I told her about my brand she said that she felt it was something that would represent our interaction with the beauty of nature, and the impact we make on that beauty. "We all have a choice of what kind of mark we leave. The mark I want to leave is that I lived life along WITH nature, and enjoyed every bit of it."

This is what she came up with to visually describe her feelings.

time zones aaahhhh

i keep getting confused about what time i need to post by. ugh..


for today's collaboration i asked my cousin to interpret the quotes in my book and make photographs for them. he is crazy like i am so he had a lot of fun coming up with ideas for it.

it is interesting to apply someone else's photographic style to my project:

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."


"Work your ass off. Figure out what you really like and get good at it."


"Computers are to design as microwaves are to cooking."

The Age of "flamenca"

It's interesting how people's perceptions of themselves changes and doesn't change. I asked my mom what age she thinks of her self in terms of and who she expects to see everytime she looks in the mirror. It came as no surprise that she said "around 22." And yet, she loves the smell of her rose perfume, which I think smells like yuck.

Cable Table reDesign.015

Today's collaboration was something that I originally meant to do during the first stages of the actual project but never got around to. Lifehacker.com has an open thread every Friday where you can post any comment you want, get answers, help people, etc. I went straight to the source and asked my audience what they would want in a table. Unfortunately, the open thread is HUGE ,and I was lucky to get even 3 comments. I decided to collaborate with Danelle (without her knowledge, haha) in the presentation of these wants and needs, by displaying them in a very straight forward and to the point graphic like some of her posts (especially the wooden background one, which is currently my laptop background). This is very representative of the lifehacker lifestyle as well. No fluff, no unnecessary decoration, no distraction. Actually, even the background might be pushing it a bit for their usual style. Anyway, I plan on taking this list into consideration when building the final brand, as my brand originally included blueprints for other variations on the table. Now I have more table ideas to consider and add to the brand, requested directly from my audience. Right now I am only fulfilling the first idea on the list, so this is a great start for expansion.

Glenn Dale and Conner Austin

October 8, 2008 vs. October 3, 1926

FullGive (Day 14)

Getting closer… here is a bit more for you to feast your eyes on. I know it is not much to look at now but just you wait. It has been fun to take input from everyone in the fam; great ideas abound.

Unexpected.

I have noticed that no ones reality is the same. in my course of conversations with several individuals, and my brief study in philosophy, I noticed that people formulate their own reality. The way they see the world.

Some people have a very strict, small reality on how things interact with each other. Wile others are very expansive and include ideas that are currently thought to be "stupid"

For my brand i was thinking on how My personal reality changed as i studied the martial arts. When you learn something that changes your reality it causes you to rethink alot of your philosophies.

I thought this image was appropriate for the kind of reality transformation that happens with some as they discover that they have more potential than previously thought. as they find that they can do what they thought was impossible and that the world is at their fingertips.

Cendrillon: The Company that creates things you forgot you used...

Just as many of us have today, I watched many, many people run for their kin's sake and try to find the very best deals and the absolute lowest prices. What the hell? I can understand getting excited over a great bargain, but when people are willing to injure one another for their self gain... that is a sorry excuse, nea, that is NOT an excuse, that is uncalled for. Sorry, I'm done with my little shpeal.

But just as a perfume or cologne is something that most of us use, or for those that have a vehicle and keep the oil levels at optimum operating level I was thinking about this idea of a shopping cart. It is such an awesome idea and yet most of us forget all about them except when we go to a store and there are none there at our finger tips because the are all clustered in the parking lot. Or we may remember a shopping cart when we get the "crappiest" cart in the store that has the broken or stuck wheel the pushes or pulls one way or the other.

People get busy, and I am guilty of this accusation/realization, but what would this world be like if anything even remotely close to a shopping cart was never invented? Or what about perfume or cologne? Motor Oil? From one shallow perspective, life would be a little more frustrating at the grocery store and sense we would not be able to carry as much at a time we would have to visit it more often. We would all have to ride bikes or something because there would be no oil to lube all of the moving parts in an engine and prevent it from ceasing. Then we would all stink, really bad because we have no perfume or cologne. So then there would be nothing to cover our B.O., even for our deodorant.

Wow we are really lucky that shopping carts were invented.

The holidays are for eating, and as much as one would like a comfy couch to sit on one would probably prefer comfy food to eat. So suites gourmet candy ideas were concocted out of clay for possible signature candies for the store. My little brother and little sister helped me make these colorful clay candies of awesomeness and we are very proud of them.

Day 15

I understand in most cases how people around my age and older relax to get a fresh start after being absent minded for a short amount of time. The answer I always get though when I ask seems to be sleep, which I don't disagree with. So I asked my sister, since she sleeps more than anyone I know, what she needs specifically to get a good nights sleep to help get her creative juices flowing. She was very specific and said she needs at least 4 pillows and 2 blankets, no matter what time of year. It's crazy how picky someone can be when it comes to sleep!

Glo and Gamers

Today I went to a video game store and spent some time there observing people. Not much was really different other than it seemed much more busy that usual. Obviously because of the season. Anyway this is what I decided to make... a Glo themed Xbox 360. Happy holiday shopping all LOL!

Black Friday

This morning at 3:30 I waited in the freezing cold and observed all walks of life waiting to get their hands on the best deal for the holidays. Mothers had maps of the stores assigning different people in their group to split up and get the different items. It felt so good knowing I could help one of these mom's grap a hold of the last Xbox 360 Arcade. haha...anyways...after all my observing I hope that someday the lemonade stand will be on a mothers list of the black friday madness.

Freudentisch: In Lights!

Yesterday, my niece and nephew apparently found the old LiteBrite toy. After they were finished taking their respective turns, I asked my niece Timbre to help me with my project. With her assistance (finding and choosing colors) this version of the Freudentisch logo came into being.

Day : Kid Day

I spent some time with my nephew and niece today. I observed them doing what they do best, and that is having fun. Everything kids do is a learning experience for them. The funny thing is that when kids are growing up, they want to become bigger so they can do big kids stuff. When I am getting older, I want to become younger and do little kids stuff. It is funny how things work in life.

What is a gateleg?

So I asked some of my family what feature they most enjoy about a table, and they replied that like really enjoyed gateleg tables. While I had seen these tables before, I never knew that were called gatelegs. So I began researching about them. They're pretty cool. The sides can fold up to create table space or down to conserve it. The ability to adapt and change to different environment kind of mimics the idea behind my original product and I thought that was pretty neat. Who says tables have to be static objects?

Jessie playing a rubber band banjo

This weekend I went home and got to spend some time with my Parents, Brother and his family. My little niece Jessie is three and we collaborated on making some fun homemade instruments. We took some paper plates, took some rubber bands. She provided the nice decorating and I made my own instrument and until she discovered a much cooler toy (the Barbie Mobile) we had maybe ten seconds of music making. Lots of fun. I highly recommend making your own musical instruments. Sometimes you gotta dance to the beat of your own drum.

save the earth

While our family was going around shopping I saw a store that made me think of Nature's Niche. It was one of the natural dead sea scrub like places, and I asked my brothers what they thought of companies like that and who their target audience would be and my younger brother said health nuts, and my older brother claimed Dirty Stinking Hippies. So Todays about the Hippies.

the can

this morning, at five in the morning, i participated in the crazy shopping that occurs the day after thanksgiving. all of those people, minus myself, have so much energy! getting up really early or staying up all night just to be part of the madness and get good deals on christmas presents! in one store, i was almost run over by the manager and definitely would have ended up on the ground and all that fun stuff. scary. all those shoppers and employees seem to have a plethora of energy...it just seems to continue for hours and hours!!! anyway, i decided i wanted to explore bottling (or in this case canning...haha) all the energy that black friday shoppers have. i have some figures demonstrating energy and crazy motion and they are trapped in a can.

Day of Thanks

My family is spending thanksgiving in vegas, at the Marriott Grand Chateau. This is the first Thanksgiving in 7 years that we are all together. Because we are in a hotel our food is mostly pre-made. Our turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy are provided by Whole food's Marketplace, and the rest we are putting together ourselves. I was thinking about how we are collaborating with these different companies to make our holiday successful. So it got me thinking about how the brand I have come up with could do the same thing. Nature's Niche could easily become a company specializing in natural foods and merchandise, much like Whole Foods. I thought I would represent this by having Nature's Niche Marketplace hosting the First Thanksgiving dinner.

FullGive (day 14)

Here is a sneak peak of what I am currently working on with my brother. It is amazing what working with others can do to move you forward with new and fresh ideas. I am excited to work with him and others while I am here at home (American Fork) during the break. Everyone is so creative in their own unique way and it is fun to tap into their creative wells for inspiration.

Day... what ever

So I wanted to keep running with the idea from yesterday. I am at my parents house and so I asked them what first came to their minds when I said the word identity, and then what came to their minds with the work cendrillon. They actually have no idea that we have even design a product dealing with cendrillon as a perfume or as any tangible object for that matter, so the results are actually interesting. I didn't have all of my resources at my disposal here in St. Jiggity but I think that the results speak for themselves. I was hoping that my bother and his family were going to be here but I forgot that they are out of town. So... I think this experiment will continue in this direction.

momentum...

It has been too long but I am finally back in my studio working. I collaborated with both Amanda and Brenna on this, the nose is Brenna's, the ears, Amanda's. This is a prototype that will eventually be cast and then hopefully ready for an installation I am trying to get done before the first of the year.

Kids and Music

Ah the soothing sounds of Mozart....zzzzzzzzz

(Below— pictures taken from my Mother's first

grade class).
Today I collaborated with my mother who is a first grade teacher. We got talking about the effect of music on kids. She talked about playing different kinds of music for her first grade class. It's interesting how instantly they react to music she noted. When she puts on something calming like Mozart after recess they come in and they are generally more relaxed and more focussed. When she puts on something with a more upbeat and faster tempo they start dancing around and acting hyper. That's not to say that children shouldn't be exposed to all different kinds of music. I believe they should learn about all kinds of music and broaden their horizons, but music does have an impact depending on what they listen to.

I grew up listening to things like Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin, but not exactly by choice at first. My Mother listened to it. It wasn't until many years later when I discovered Vivaldi's Four Seasons that I fell in love with Classical music.

observation

i am at this very moment sitting on the floor inbetween a row of payphone and a row of slot machines in the las vegas international airport.

what better place to observe people than an airport? people from all walks of life can be found in this one building. i got to the airport many hours before my flight left so i have spent my time working on various projects, people watching, and considering the impact design has on crowds.

what is the purpose of design? i would argue that the most important purpose of design is to communicate. i might even go so far to say that the most successful design communicates to large groups of people, no matter where they come from or are going, in a clear and concise manner. airport signage is the perfect example of this.

it is however, not captivating. no one studies the beautiful forms and intricacies and details of the signs in the airport. those here stop and look at it to acquire the information they need and move on.






so: the conclusion i have come to after all this observation?
make it simple. make it universal. make it easy to understand. (great design is transparent -paul rand)

BUT- give it that extra little OOMPH to make people sit up and take notice.

I gave a piece of paper to my family with the name of both the companies that i've made up and this was the result. I ask them to think of things to describe what they think the company would be about. It was kinda cool to see an outside look at it.