the time-traveling loveseat is a project I started when I realized my loveseat travels time. not into the past, only into the near future where early afternoons become late nights in the blink of an eye. this blog was started to use that time travel in a more productive way, with an emphasis on learning and practicing new, everyday design.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Branding & Identity

My roommate Brianna went to school for massage therapy, and has been graduated since May. She's expressed how she wants to have business cards and a website, so I thought I could help her out. Like most of my designs, I start out with basic sketches. I did these a long, long time ago, and I finally showed them to Bri. With her approval, I started to digitalize them.




I can't decide which I like best, or what colors might work. I love the W that I created, but it has to work for Bri. I like having the feedback of a client. 


Once we lock down a design, I'll be posting further with business cards and (fingers crossed) a website! Ahh, design. So satisfying.


Friday, November 11, 2011

Silly Photoshop-age

Let me preface this post by declaring how difficult it is to get anything done on the computer with a cat on your lap. I apologize in advance for any spelling errors. Luckily, Huey did not join me until the end of my work on this wonderful Friday night.

I found this great jpg on ffffound a long while ago, that showed all the United States Presidents, but only the outline of their haircut. This was quite hilarious, especially some of the earliest presidents. I had an idea long. long ago to photoshop my roommates faces into those haircuts in an attempt to put some more art on our walls. Well, I finally did just that tonight. While the roommates have not yet seen these (neither have the few extra friends I added), but I intend on printing and framing them for our house. Yes, they are silly, but also so fun.






Have a great weekend, and happy 11.11.11 !!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Building a Design Portfolio

Ahh, it's nice to get back to digital design work. In attempts to build a design portfolio, I've jumped on a new idea, to rebrand the Twin Cities. I live to believe that everyone deserves good design, whether they can afford it or not. This idea was sparked by Nicole Meyer, who's doing a "Branding 10,000 Lakes" project, where each day she designs one logo per Minnesota lake. Neat, right?

I'm doing something similar, but for the small businesses in the Cities. My first is the City Coin laundromats scattered around Minneapolis. I wish I understood why I am so drawn to it (I shot the lackluster building for a photography class), but there's just something about them! So they are my guinea pig of this idea. I don't think I'll be able to do one each day, but one a week would be ideal. It builds on my knowledge of the Adobe Suites, and is a fun challenge.






We'll see where this project takes me (my ambitions are out of control). If you have a love for a local place that could use a little design work, I could use suggestions!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Polaroids

So last year for Christmas, I asked for an instant camera. They still make them today, some that produce photos as small as a credit card. But ask my dad, who collects old cameras, well he had a few old Polaroid cameras of his own in his collection. He gave me this gem, a Super Shooter Plus.


Luckily, Fuji Film still makes film for this beast. I wanted to use up my B&W film to make way for more color film for fall. I decided to use the film to take pictures on my 5.5 mile bike ride to campus. Thank goodness for the beautiful October weather we had!








Thursday, October 20, 2011

T-Shirt Contest

This year for the first time Freedom By Design, the student organization I'm a part of, is having t-shirts. This is very exciting, since we've never had them before. The submissions are being taken until November 3, but I want no other competition, since the two winning designs get them for free! Here is my submission. The color is still up in the air, any other suggestions?

Beginning Knitting

Several Christmases ago I asked for knitting stuff. Probably because I love learning and making new things and knitting sounded like fun. Well, I never learned. Never taught myself. Got lazy. Pick an excuse. Either way, I have all these yarns sitting around and haven't done anything with them! Then I found out about this killer place called Sewtropolis, that offers classes on sewing, knitting, crafting, and crocheting. This is my kinda place. I signed up for a Beginning Knitting class (sacrificing a Friday night), and BAM. Learned to knit.

Our project covered the very basics, but now I have the motivation to continue with it. We worked with an awesome super bulky yarn, and made a Cowl/Neckwarmer.


My yarn ran out before the cowl got long enough, but no worries, I've already hit up Joann's for more yarn. I found some awesome purpley-gray yarn from Martha Stewart's collection, and I am so so excited to make a scarf and hat for this winter season. I hope this class will push me to learn new techniques so I can start getting more "wild" with knitting. Woo!


Hopefully I can start pumping these out fast enough to get some Christmas presents under my belt! We will see..

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Watercolor for Henry

This last Thursday I also got some watercolor in. I recently bought a watercolor techniques book in hopes that it will encourage me to paint more often and more professionally, so to speak. I really just love the way it looks and love feeling accomplished.

Today I broke out my watercolors for my nephew Henry. He was born just over a month ago on September 12, 2011 and it is my first time being an auntie! I am so very proud, he's a great addition to our family.


My sister has unfortunately moved back up to Morris, which is quite a hike from the cities, but I wanted to paint something cute for his bedroom. I was perusing through all sorts of animal pictures, and have been stuck on giraffes. I found a really cute photo of a mom and baby giraffe nuzzling, and started that one. I then did a more cartoon-y watercolor that is whimsical and cute. I'm not sure which one I'll give her, maybe both. I have to finish the realistic one first. Either way, I very much enjoyed painting! I need to push myself to do this more often. It's such a fun and relaxing thing to do.


One of Many Upcoming Postings

So I realize the last time I posted was back in June, but this isn't to say that I haven't been doing design work. It just means I've gotten lazy with posting. While you should fully expect one large "things I did this summer" post, I'm going to post about the projects I completed just this last week (there were several).

Thursdays are my day off. I have two part-time jobs, one M-W and the other F-Sun. Thursdays are for me. Thursdays are for design. This Thursday, I was finally fed up with not having anywhere to put my earrings. I generally toss them in one of my candles so that my naughty cat won't bat them around and lose them. What I really needed was an earring holder, to keep them all in one place.

I located a picture frame in my house, and using some lace and hot glue gun, voila! Beautiful, functional, awesome earring holder.







It's not perfect, but it does exactly what I need it to do. I'm very pleased with my crafty-ness today. Stay tuned for more projects!

Friday, June 17, 2011

How I Love to Draw.

Sometimes my passions get away from me. I forget how much I love things like drawing and writing. Last Monday I picked up a pencil and paper and started drawing. Not quick rough sketching, but really drawing. And I adored it. Here is what I came up with. I will likely add color, as I have been drawing on watercolor paper. 




The first two really came from nowhere. The last one is a neat pattern/logo I saw on my sandals. At first, I disliked the asymmetrical form of it, but then I came to love it. In the middle would be the shoe company name, but instead I put one of my favorite songs/sayings to live by.

Sorry the quality isn't fabulous, I hope to photograph them better next time. Until next time, I intend on drawing much, much more.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Nighttime Digital Work

I know I said earlier that I was going to be spending most of my summer doing hand-drawn, -sewn, -painted, -shot things. But I did manage to sprinkle this little gem in today as well. In July, I will be headed to South Dakota for 2 weeks to participate in RAW Dakota 2011. RAW, standing for Real Architecture Workshop, is a program based in Minneapolis that finds clients and projects that are quick and very hands on for its participants. They allow anyone to apply, and architecture students are generally the ones interested. They travel to the destination, and for 2 weeks do a complete design-build with the client, the outcome being a lookout tower in a very picturesque landscape. I'm thrilled to be given this opportunity, and I look forward to the real experience it's going to give me. For this design, I followed a tutorial on a little badge for the workshop this summer. It's fun to do some digital work again :)

Completing My Last Post

I'm pleased to say that this whole "post more" is turning out nicely so far. It feels awfully good to finish a project, even if it's not perfectly finished. I sometimes (or always) find it difficult to decide when I'm done with something, probably because of that perfectionist gene in me. So from now on, anything I "finish" whether perfect or not, is good practice. Case in point today. I had a blast drawing last week, and I had a blast painting today. Maybe I'll sneak into next semester's watercolor class to get a better handle on watercolor painting, but for now, I'm enjoying trying things out. So here it is. :)


So like I said, this is good practice for me. I'm excited to keep doing more stuff like this during the summer. Adios!
 

Friday, June 3, 2011

And We're Back!


Someone recently told me that the key to having a blog is being sure to post regularly. Well let's be honest, school does a great job of getting in the way. But being the overly ambitious person I am, and the fact that I hate giving things up, I am back to finish what I started. On a new smartphone no less. Now bare with me, this is all brand new and weird, writing blogs on my bus ride home from work. But I am determined.

So quick catch-up, I've recently graduated and am digging my heels in to avoid the real world. But I am thankful for all the things I learned this past semester and am excited about all the projects I plan to learn from, including my digital design work. But for the summer, I plan on trading in my TTL for a shady patch of grass or views of downtown while sitting my bum on the beach.

Thus, my new summer mission is this: draw, paint, sew, and snap photos. I work M-W at the U, then have Thursday and Friday days off. Thursday will be my sew/photo adventure days, depending on the weather. And Friday will be my draw and painting days. So here is my first Friday drawing!! It is largely unfinished and I plan on adding some watercolor but I'm excited about my new summer project. There may be some digital stuff sprinkled in, but for now this is the most realistic way I can stick with this blog to the end!

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Monday, April 11, 2011

As We Enter Mid-April

I'm finding that with just a month til graduation, a little prioritizing is in order. I know in my last post I attempted to rise out of my hiatus, but my to-do list is putting me back in that spot. Once May 14 arrives, I will be proud to get back to my extra-curricular designs.

I did, however create something new for today's post. This is quite extracurricular, but it will be my last for a small amount of time. Just some vector graphics to get in the spirit of summertime and wearing floppy hats, of course.

Monday, April 4, 2011

hmpf. what month is it again?

Oh yeah, April. Where did you come from, April? My blog has seemed to time travel without a post, faster than my TTL does on a regular afternoon. Perhaps it's the fact that I haven't spent a lot of time on this couch, or perhaps because school has encompassed my life, either way my hiatus must come to an end.

While school is quite a doozy in my last semester, I am thrilled about the things I'm learning. In one class - Revit. In another - Rhino. And in the third - 3DS Max. Not much time for extracurricular design, especially with all my extracurricular activities. The Freedom By Design Art Auction is this weekend, and we are so thrilled to have a great abundance of local art. I will be documenting the auction well for those unable to make it. AIAS is also a bit crazy with elections being held this week. I am so thrilled for all these things, but a bit un-thrilled about my lack of posting!

Today is strange. It was beautiful and sunny, but quite windy here in the cities. I'm not sure if it was the fabulous job my iPod did on shuffle today, or the brisk wind pushing me on my walk home, but something special ran through me this afternoon. I arrived home and have been working on homework since. Homework due tomorrow, Wednesday, and even Thursday. I'm impressed.

So since I've been so productive, I shall show you a rendering I did for a Lee class. Nothing extraordinary, but a post nonetheless! I promise I'll get better, TTL, I will.

Model Rendered with Lights in Kerkythea. Perhaps a good gallery space?
 Original Model in Sketchup using the Equation Array plugin.

Now what? Watching the Final Championship game I guess?! Tootles!

Monday, February 21, 2011

big time success on the TTL today.

hey, hey.. third post today! granted that the first was supposed to be posted weeks ago, I've made some great strides on the TTL on this blustery winter day (in every area but my homework). I'm sort of showing two projects for this post, seeing as this first one was completed last weekend. It's a cat tower I designed and built with my papa. If I were to buy something the same size, it would have cost over $100 at the very least! We used some leftover carpet from my parent's bedroom that was just redone, and some wood that my dad had lying around, so it ended up being FREE! Here's my sketch & the final photo of my happy kitty (even if he's undeserving).



My next design is just a tutorial I followed making a background image using a pattern and my name. Pretty simple but also fun, especially putting in different textures. Will definitely do that more often...


Okay now seriously... time for homework. Adios!

snowstorm = summer dreamin'

welp, yet another snowstorm here in Minnesota. I'm thinkin' we've gotten around 13" and counting.. so here I am on the TTL, just tutorial-ing away! I will probably post at least one more today if I'm lucky! Here is a quick tutorial I learned on doing light leaks in photoshop, in hopes that summer will come sooner. These are just beginning ones, fooling around with it. But hey, I learned something new right? Success. Woot for snowdays!

Corey & I at a wedding - Summer 2009
Corey & I at my cabin - Summer 2010
Definitely summer dreamin' ... looking forward to more weddings and cabin weekends this summer. :)

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