Book: Final Book Jacket

For the final book jacket, I wanted to emphasize the simplicity that I had been going for throughout my other pages. I did this by enlarging the text and utilizing the gold band.

Book: Final Layout

Here is my final layout. After multiple revisions even in the final hour before printing, I decided to get rid of the CK on the top band on the second spread and opted for just the gold. I thought that it might not come out as I had envisioned in the printing phase.

Book: Final TOC, TP & Bio

Here is my final table of contents, title page and bio. For the table of contents I decided to continue with the vertical blocks and oversized page numbers. Each block is equally spaced from one another and offsets the horizontal line at the bottom of the page nicely. The title page continues with the horizontal band and ultra light font.

Book: Works Cited

Early on, my group and I decided that we would dedicate an additional spread to a works cited page for all four of our papers. This accomplished two things: 1.) we didn't have to redesign our layouts to make room for our works cited, 2.) made our book feel like an actual book with having a works cited page at the end.

Here is my final works cited page:

Book: Group

Mary Sniezek: Michael Rock
Morgan Petri: Horst P. Horst
Laura Blake: Eva Zeisel

Book: Less is More

After having completed the initial round of page design, I opted for a more minimalist approach. That can bee seen in the use of white space, minimal graphics, and ultra thin font that give a professional feel. I didn't want my book to be bogged down with crazy amounts of visuals that took away from stories, but yet I wanted it to compliment each artist.

Book: Book jacket ideas

Here is the website that I used for inspiration in molding my idea for my jacket.

http://redchn.net/58-minimalist-style-book-cover-designs-for-your-inspiration/

Book: 3 TOC, TP, and Bio

When it came to designing the table of contents, title page and bio, I knew that I need to some how incorporate a unifying thread. That thread came in the form of the gold from the Chip Kidd picture along with a thin band that runs horizontal on the lower part of the page. 

These are my initial ideas and not in the correct format:

Book: 2 refined layouts

As I began to narrow down the ideas I wanted to run with, I was able to find a picture of Chip Kidd with a gold color that I became fond of quite early on. I decided to make this gold my main color for my spread and eventually the book.

Book: 3 Rough Draft Layouts

When it came time to start designing the layout for my spread, I wanted to incorporate some sort of reoccurring visual and I didn't know exactly what that was at first.

Book: Chip Kidd

I decided to pick graphic designer and writer Chip Kidd because of his love of graphic novels and Batman! Well, and also because of the fact that his approach to design and design thinking is admirable. His TED talk says it all:

Photomontage: Project Summary

Over the course of the project I was able to learn about the use of perspective not only in photographs, but in general as well. It was fascinating learning about the origins of the technique and how the creators came up with it. 

To me, the most challenging aspect of the project was narrowing down the endless amounts of photos I took. Sorting through the literal thousands took a while and would've been better if I had a clearer vision of what I wanted when I went to take the pictures.

Overall, I found this project to be one of the most creative and fun in terms of the subject matter and arranging of the collage.  

Photomontage: Final Collage

Here is the final collage in all its glory!!!

Photomontage: Refined Collages

Some refined collages I put together real quick to get a sense of the setting and start working with the photos I took down in Orange Beach. 

Photomontage: Test Collages

Photomontage: Masters of Illusion Reflection

The Masters of Illusion video deals with the topic of perspective and how using various angles can create a completely different outcome from the previous position. To better understand perspective, the video takes a look back on when the technique of perspective was first used back during the Renaissance period where many artists such as Brunelleschi, Da Vinci and Raphael established these methods that are still being used today.

What I found to be most insightful of this video was how perspective technique is really as simple as managing line placement and making sure that your lines are cohesive. Being able to correctly manipulate perspective through photography can be just as easy as drawing, as long as you're able to identify parts of the photograph that can be juxtaposed.

Photomontage: Photography Changes Everything

In "Photography Changes Everything", Marvin Heiferman suggests that photography has become an integral part of society allowing individuals to capture both pivotal and insignificant moments of life. Everything from Wars to Selfies, the meaning behind a picture is in the eyes of the beholder and that many people view "what makes a good photograph" different. For instance, Heiferman says that if you ask a chef what makes a good photo, they might think that if it captures food at its finestest (and freshest) then it qualifies as an acceptable image.

Some of the most vital points that Heiferman covers in the book are six distinct categories how photography changes:

1.) What we want - photography allows us to fulfill our desires and define our needs
2.) What we see - photography shows us things that we can't usually see because it's either too fast or slow, big or small
3.) Who we are - how we represent ourselves as individuals to others
4.) What we do - allows us to follow impulses and curiosity
5.) Where we go - we can see things that we never thought was humanly possible, such as the ocean floor, space, micro-organisms
6.) What we remember - a photo acts as an archive that allows us to tap that part of our memory banks in order to recall a certain experience of our life

Photomontage: Setting

Right as we were assigned this project, I knew exactly where I wanted to take the pictures. Shooting down in Orange Beach, Alabama was amazing. The vibrant colors of the sky mixed with the vast textures of the water collided to create an incredible setting for the project.

Photomontage: On Photography Reflection

Susan Sontag offers a unique way of how photography acts as a way of capturing experiences and ultimately help to collect insight into various cultures around the world. In addition to that, Sontag makes claims about how no matter what type of photographs your taking whether they are meant to capture an ideal or the sheer beauty of something, "there is an aggression implicit in every use of the camera" meaning that the camera will not hold anything back in terms of what the viewer may or may not want to see. Sontag manages to bring up interesting topics concerning the use of photography rather than the form of it. I think it's fascinating to note how photography has become so vital in the preservation of experience as well as how photography itself has transitioned from being used solely by the wealthy and professionals to how everyone today can be considered an amateur photographer if they have a smartphone.

Photomontage: A Viewer’s Guide to Looking at Photography Reflection

After reading "A Viewer's Guide to Looking at Photography", I feel as though my understanding for examining photographs has changed dramatically. At first, I used to initially look at just who was in the picture and where it was taken at, but now after digesting what James Brooke pointed out that has all changed. Now, I look for the meaning in all of the contents of the image. Everything from shapes to colors, to facial expressions and lines. Brooke goes on to state that after the observation of the photos, how we interpret and make sense of what is taking place in the image is open to any sort of perception as long as it has validity. With that you need to take into consideration the logic of your findings, and are asking "why" of everything you detected in the photos. A strong point that Brooke mentions is that the first step of the four-step process of analyzing photos, Description, is the most important because it forces you to come to conclusions about the photo. The other steps (Formal Analysis, Interpretation and Evaluation) could essentially be gone away with because there will always be a certain form to photographs that rely on the description. I would agree that the first time you look at a picture is the most pivotal in terms of how your brain is able to capture the essence that is situation on the surface of the image. You look at the picture and instantaneously tell who's in it, what's going on, where are they, are the people/figures showing some sort of emotion, were they in the middle of an action, etc. These types of questions can be answered in a matter of seconds just by scanning the image.

Photomontage: Written Description

For the third project of the course, we are to demonstrate the relationship of time and space through photography specifically by the method of collage/montaging. The result of that is to create an understanding of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional area and showcase the perspective.

Photomontage: Ideas

1.) Kansas City: Downtown KC has a vast and rich history spanning centuries of architecture and culture.

2.) Campanile: One of KU's most recognizable landmarks stands tall and proud as does the University itself.

Example 1

3.) Beach: Life's a Beach.

Example 2

4.) KC Plaza: One of the city's most inhabited hotspots which is a culmination of everything immense that Kansas City has to offer such as culture and diversity. 

Vessel: David Pye's 'The Nature & Design of Aesthetics' Reflection

In "The Nature & Design of Aesthetics" by David Pye, he comments on distinguishing between limitations set on by our technique and by our ability as craftsmen. I related to this because at the beginning of the project my mentality was negative and I didn't believe in myself the way that I should have. The reason behind my trepidation was because of my lack of experience with a bandsaw and time working with wood. I had no idea what I was doing, nor the correct processes and materials needed to fashion a vessel out of wood, but I was able to figure it out. Pye says that if we can distinguish between what's actually unachievable based on our ability and readily-available materials versus these mental limitations we tell ourselves, then we can be able to harness much more of our previously unknown talent.

For me, it was a matter of trial and error (over and over again). Even when the situation looked grim, I had to motivate myself to look at the situation from another aspect, and come back to it later on. That being said, Pye goes on to say that the artist must "relieve suffering where he finds it" meaning if you find grief, to not get frustrated and give up, yet carry on and look at it from a different perspective. I was one of those artists who had to relieve much grief I found while working on this project and I ask myself if the suffering was worth it. To that I say yes because we don't learn by merely succeeding on the first try every time. We succeed by putting ourselves in environments and around people out of our comfort zone.

Vessel: Final Product

ALAS! My vessel is complete and oh what an immense amount of joy I have! To look down at my little 4.5 x 6 in. box and marvel at my creation. To have gone from not knowing what a bandsaw was to constructing a well-thought object, I'd say it has been quite a success.

Although this project caused me a great deal of anxiety (mainly over my own trepidation of the common shop), I am quite pleased to have gone in and actually crafted something that was once just a block of wood...with all fingers intact. There are some minor things I wish were different, but overall I'm satisfied.

Vessel: Coating with Polyurethane

Polyurethane was something that I had never used before. I recall seeing it atop my dad's workbench as a child, but had never actually been hands-on with it before. To my surprise, it was a lot...stickier than I had envisioned, leaving a plastic-like coating on my hands. However, the polyurethane did its job in making my vessel shine nicely.

Here is my box in the process of being finished:

Vessel: Statement of Purpose

My vessel functions as a tray with different sections for items that I utilize on a daily occurrence. Its purpose is to neatly organize my three items of my wallet, flash drive and keys to ensure that I know where they are at all times. When looking at the design, I focused more on the interior and the space surrounding each section to make sure it was proportional individually and as a whole. The exterior is a basic rectangular shape that is ideally meant to be placed inside of a top dresser drawer drawer or on a night stand/end table.

Vessel: Orthographic

After completion of my initial prototypes, I had to go back to the drawing board...literally. It was here where, with the help of Tom, I started to come up with some alterations and variations to my design. It was also where I started my orthographic drawings to lay it out visually.