Monday, September 24, 2007

just when you think you're finished...




I thought I had finished my label project weeks ago, the only lingering thing was printing them out and finding the right bottles for dressing. Today, I spent an hour in the salad dressing, marinade, sauce aisle with jr picking and choosing between bottle shapes and the dressings that came in them. I obviously was trying to make this as cheap as possible and figured out that it was cheaper to buy the 3 bottles that I liked the shape of and then purchase 2 dressing in a different brand to fill the bottles with (luckily one was already a good match). It was actually much more complicated than that, but it is impossible to explain the extent of the salad dressing, bottle choosing extravaganza. The next feat was to transfer the right dressings into the right bottles and soak the labels off. The labels wouldn't budge, so my uncle, grandmother, and I sat on my deck scrubbing with sponges and exacto blades with windex, cider vinegar, nail polish remover and soft scrub. I'm sure they travelled all the way from Scotland to help me do this (hahaha) but, regardless it was very nice for them to help and I would have been there forever otherwise. After they were finally cleaned, I measured the new dimensions and completely redesigned them!! It actually worked out for the best because I think I got them to a better place than they were before (and I thought they were finished!). The bottles also gave me a new element to design, which I think it needed.

LESSON LEARNED: buy the bottles first and THEN design around it. (but maybe not entirely because then maybe I would have never redesigned them?)

Friday, September 21, 2007

Communication Arts

This past issue of Communication Arts is too relevant. Its the Sept/Oct Interavtice Annual and has an articles on second life and blogging. It has some postage stamps from Austrailia. Not to mention I am currently making my portfolio site and it's the interactive annual...

Thursday, September 20, 2007

second life


Today in web design we had a speaker, Debbie Jeffers, talk about second life...crazy shit. It is known as web 2.0, which consists of facebook, myspace, and flickr. Second Life is not a game, it is a virtual landscape built by its residents meant for socialization. Everyone in Second Life is a real person, it is not a computer. I could not believe the extent of Second Life, it is all so hard to get your head around. If you wanted to check out Second Life, you create a virtual version of yourself which is called an "avatar." Once you have created your avatar you are taken to Orientation Island to learn how to walk, communicate, fly, etc. (this is all from the talk, I haven't actually done this myself, so I apologize if it's not entirely correct).
In Second Life there is currency called Linden dollars and the exchange rate is $1 USD = 266 Linden Dollars. You can put in your own money in USD or you can do work in Second Life to earn Lindens. Debbie said that she uses her Linden to take classes, where she learns how to make things in Second Life (for example, shoes or textures). Only a little weird so far...but it gets better.
There are dangers that come along with using Second Life, your avatar can get raped or killed or mugged. So, now the issues are coming up in our judicial system, whether rape of an avatar can do emotional damage to someone and could that person get in trouble with the law (don't they have better things to worry about?). Also, when you are creating your avatar you can pick either male or female or even an animal, which just makes things even more complicated and disgusting. People also get married, which is actually two real people with avatars chosing to do this. You can find a priest and have a ceremony. So, then does that mean a husband is having an affair if he gets married in Second Life to another woman?
The list just goes on... there are movies made in Second Life with sets created and avatars starring as actors and actresses with extras, there art galleries to visit with paintings from real museums, U2 has played a concert, your avatar can go to dances or clubs on friday nights... SO CRAZY!
I'm sure my opinion of Second Life is pretty clear so far. I just feel like if you wanna go to a dance, go to a dance in real life and interact with people and not on a computer screen. If you want to see paintings or artwork go to a gallery and see the real thing, because a digital picture is never going to be the same as experiencing it. Other than the fact that I think its weird and slightly creepy, it is very impressive/scary how far technology has come. There are two reasons I can see Second Life being practical. One, for employees to meet at a conference instead of teleconferencing. Two, a form of advertising for a company that wants to buy their own island and create a new type of marketing.

FINALLY! (the stamp project)


This is a cool stamp series I found of all the states.

So, Rosie and I may have finally just cracked our current project. We've have been struggling all this week to figure out what it is to make this project work, but I'm glad we pushed through. To explain the project a little, we decided to promote our hometowns by encouraging the locals, neighboring areas to take advantage of all the great stuff going on in the city. Maybe not the typical things that everyone knows and has done 100 times. We wanted to give people a reason to just do something and get them out and doing things, whether it's with their family, or their friends, or their significant other, or just themselves. We thought stamps would be an interesting form to use as our promotion. We figure stamps are bought at your local post office and could be sold specifically in your town. So, I am from Baltimore County and Baltimore City is the city I would go to (approx. 20 min away) and for Rosie shes also approx. 20 min outside Boston. Then this is where we got stuck...

We couldn't think of a way to tie together the purpose of the stamps and what goes on them. Of course we knew of plenty of places to go, but what were they going to look like and why? We toyed with several ideas: type, funny sayings, double meanings, using 2 stamps, icons/symbols, line drawings, photographic, definitions... etc, etc. Then we realized that it was more than just telling people places to go for food, art, culture, or recreation. People actually need to be given a time to do these things, it is more about events going on, on specific dates that people might not know about. The stamp design is going to reflect an event that takes place and give the date. So, for the aesthetic we figured it would make sense for the stamps to be mini posters advertising these events (and in the booklet of stamps a list of all the events and dates with more info?). Rosie and I are thinking this project has more legs that we ever thought it would, but we are gonna tackle the stamps first and see what comes next. We are making sure we don't get ahead of ourselves... hahaha.

We also started wondering why advertising hasn't taken over the postage stamp market? I asked Ann (our ad teacher) if there was some government law or postal service rules on stamps, but she said anyone can design stamps these days and it will probably lead to such things.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Sailor Jerry


I was doing research for my Baltimore project and stumbled upon a Baltimore Tattoo Museum that I never knew about before. I read into it and they are a functioning tattoo parlor and have a huge exhibit of tattoos, including Sailor Jerry. Last year a small group of us went to Philly to visit Gyro Worldwide, the ones responsible for turning Sailor Jerry and his tattoos into a brand.
A little bit about the brand from Gyro's website>> "Norman "Sailor Jerry" Collins is a legend. He's the Elvis Presley of tattooing. And Sailor Jerry Ltd is a Super iconic American brand that has the potential to one day sit along side the likes of Jack Daniels, Harley Davidson and Levis.
And, the best part about it is, GYRO 100% owns the brand (in conjunction with the heirs of Sailor Jerry's estate). We started Sailor Jerry from scratch back in 1999 and have grown it into a multi-category lifestyle brand that makes everything from jeans, to jewelry, to glassware- we've even done some very successful licensing deals with Converse to make shoes and William Grant and Son's to make Sailor Jerry Rum."
After we visited Gyro, we all went to the Sailor Jerry store located below their studio. We took all the catalogs and cards laying around and browsed at all the clothing. There were definitely some pieces that I loved and wanted, but obviously being a college student couldn't afford. I don't feel like im edgy enough to rock Sailor Jerry, but I wish I was (I want to pull off the tiger dress... maybe there's hope?) I love the idea of what Gyro has made Sailor Jerry into, I think making a brand out of a guy's tattoos is such a cool concept. And, not only is it a clothing line it has developed into a brand of rum, it seems limitless.

Monday, September 17, 2007

My Baltimore


Last night Rosie and I brainstormed for project ideas and have decided to do a hometown pride slash tourism project (which I will explain later in another post). So, basically Rosie and I got super homesick and wanted to be home. Luckily, school is only an hour away from Baltimore and I am going home this weekend because my grandmother and uncle are visiting from Scotland. I would definitely love to have crabs one more time this year before it gets too cold, that might be wishful thinking though. I really want to go downtown at least to the harbor or fells point. Fells point festival is Oct. 6th and 7th, the same as Oak Knoll here in delaware, I would like to make it to both of them!

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Lorena Siminovich

I was searching through some of my bookmarks for my web class and came across Illustrator, Lorena Siminovich. I love her simplistic, colorful, playful collages. Here are some of my favorites...

Making patterns!

I was sitting in the studio on thursday and decided to teach myself how to make patterns in illustrator. Surprisingly, the help in illustrator was helpful. It turns out that making a pattern is pretty easy. Basically, you create your pattern and then drag it into the swatches so that it becomes a fill option. Then you make the shape that you want to be patterned and fill it with the pattern swatch you just created.
Here are a few that I was experimenting with...


Thursday, September 13, 2007

Dieing to own a home!

Today I've been really overwhelmed with wanting to move into my very own house, or more realistically, apartment after graduation. I want a place to decorate immediately. I think I have been trying to satisfy these urges to some extent by decorating my desk/wall in the senior studio (I guess that will have to do for now). I can't wait to pick furniture, color combinations, wall paper, art, knic knacs etc, etc, etc!


These lights were posted on sfgirlbybay's blog. I'm not exactly sure how they would fit in with the decor I have imagined my house would be, but maybe I could make it work! I have quite some time to figure this out...


...and I kinda really love this chair. (from Urban Outfitters)

You Tube- Braille Graffiti


Braille Graffiti, watch the movie on youtube.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

"do things you care about"

My moto for this year and the rest of my life.
Main inspiration from our talk in London with Peter Saville.
I wanna make this a poster...

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

2 JANE


Color by number pineapple wallpaper! Holy crap.


These glasses are cool too. Double-walled half-pint glasses keep beer, water, or juice cold and tea and other hot beverages warm. I want my half-pint from london in one of these bad boys.

First Crit


The 4 of us had our first critique of our label project yesterday, which I think went pretty well. It's nice having our small group. Everyone had good ideas... Laurel is doing salsa and has two kinds called "hot 'n horny" and "mild 'n modest." Rosie is doing ice cream with the flavors based on emotions/associations people have to eating ice cream, such as Rocky Road having something to do with breaking up with your boyfriend or Espresso Chip when you are studying during finals week. And Jessie is doing a combination of "PB" "&J" and played around with schmearing peanut butter and jelly onto her scanner.
I got feedback on mine as to which ones were working best, the most simple one of course. So, I reworked the colors a little and had to work on the series. For my labels, I was thinking that I would want to print them on an off-white/cream paper, but now I'm thinking (with Jessie's help) that a white, slightly textured paper would be good to go along with the fresh, light, clean feeling of the labels and the dressing.

On another note, I have two ideas of imagery I came across brainstorming that I wanna use. I like these antique frames that I want to use, maybe put stuff in for labels or maybe packaging. The other one is these vintage sewing patterns that I found on etsy.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

"Studio Stew"

"Studio Stew" is what Jessie, Laurel, Rosie and I decided to call ourselves... cheesy (i know), but we really just needed something to name our files. Someone had the idea to resort to Dr.Suess for inspiration and somewhere in "Oh, the places you'll go" there was the word stew and we all liked it. If it was practical, we would have probably taken all the words from the book as our name because it's so fitting. Basically, the 4 of us have stepped away from a single defined path in VC and have taken our senior years into our own hands (to make a long story short). We are all working on the same projects both individually and collaboratively for 3 credits and then pursuing our own interests and projects for another 3 credits as an independent study. VERY EXCITING!

Our first project we came up with for ourselves is called "In your fridge!", we are picking a food product you find in your fridge and redesigning labels. We figured working in 2D was the best idea for getting back into the swing of things since its the beginning of the semester.


This was the first thing I came up with, there are 2 others that go along with it. The inside of the lime would be cut out so that the dressing would show through. And, after the whole thing I realized that I misspelled the company, it's actually Fischer & Weiser... you know, only a minor detail.

Getting things started!

So, I've put off starting my blog for a week now because I couldn't think of a name for it (pretty typical). I decided it would be named "I like (something)", posing after my London blog that I named "I like fish and chips." There's so much that I have wanted to write about that it was pretty stupid putting it off because of a name...so, the new blog is I LIKE STEW!