A friend and I made these drawings. We worked on them together one line at a time seeing different things in them. I really like the simple line quality on them.
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Drawing club. We drew this together. We also did a couple of round table drawing sessions. It’s where each person contributes a line, any kind of line, straight, wavy, or curved until a vague picture formed then each of us picked on and reinterpreted the drawing. This is a great exercise when you don’t know what to draw.
Telephone Pictionary is always popular. “I found a garbage can full of pudding” evolved into “Hot Morning Coffee.” Here’s ones we made today. telepictionary
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The Volunteer Park signage teeters between impersonal and unwelcoming and unplanned (read: graffiti) but heartwarming. 
My team is inspired by the line between Art Deco and Art Nouveau, something modern, yet rustic. Here is a “swatch” page to help us see the range of the materials we are interested in working with.
Update: 1-28-13
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Past posters/postcard designs for the show New Assignment: make poster and companion postcard for Apparel Design Show, themed “Apex.”
Today, some people from the program at Seattle Central Community Collage Apparel Design came to tell us about who they are and what they do. They brought material, specs, technical drawings, a couple of mounted presentations, tools of the trade and pattern swatches. Along with the creative brief, they talked about how the focus of the program is on technical excellence so the graduates are “employable right out of the gate.”
The focus is commercially viable clothing. They gave us insight into what they do, explaining the importance of the pattern and technical drawings and spec packages, which are spreadsheets with the specifics of the garment. One woman commented, “This is what you’d send to China.” The importance of this technical, standardized communication is paramount because time costs money and if one little thing goes wrong, managers have to be brought in and production halted– or worse, it goes unnoticed and you have 1,500 mistakes.
That’s why they must measure. They are precise. Their tools reflect this need. They have rulers for the hipcurve, the armhole. They are specific to 1/32 of an inch. Pattern grading is some kind of mathematical formula performed to create different sizes. Their tools: zigzag scissors, awls, pinkwheels, with beautiful wooden handles or shiny steel. They take care and pride in their tools. Apparently, the best tools of this type come from Japan.
The theme is Apex, the highest point on a pattern. One of the women showed us using paper how to make a dart. A dart is cinched fabric creating a point. A 2D object becoming 3D. All of us graphic designers oooh-ed at this obscure magic. (Considering that we stare at 2D creations all day, it’s quite refreshing.)
The women presenting told us not to take the theme too literally, because sometimes the apex on a pattern (the highest point on a bust pattern) is the nipple. I think every industry has their little inside jokes but I am curious if that theme was chosen especially for the little nudge nudge wink wink to all of the pattern makers.
Though the focus is technical excellence, there is a design component to the program and it’s during this final line show that they can truly express their individuality. One of the women executed a bomber jacket, limited by the assignment parameters of it having to be a modern bomber jacket with zipper welt pockets and an inspiration from the 50s, she had created a beautiful design line with the plaid pattern. It is important to sew with consideration to the bias of the fabric. And it’s beautiful when a garment is constructed with conscious manipulation of the pattern.
An example of garment construction using the pattern to create an interesting composition. “The bias direction of a piece of woven fabric, usually referred to simply as “the bias”, is at 45 degrees to its warp and weft threads. Every piece of woven fabric has two biases, perpendicular to each other. Non-woven fabrics such as felt or interfacing do not have a bias.”
via Bias (textile) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The poster: the client recommends that we emphasize modern, clean and technical, but implying creation, manipulation, “touched by the hand.”
I’m very excited to see how apparel design can be translated into graphic design.
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Poster Before Redesign An assignment inspired by Guerrilla typography: idsgn (a design blog). This poster is a redesign from an existing poster that I found at a coffeeshop in the University District of Seattle. ([kat·pak].)
ct pak poster redesign I was inspired by Seymour Chwast who did a lot of drawings where he digitally colored them. I wanted to make a fun poster that echoed this idea of CT-PAK a group of artists redefining audio art.
Poster after realigning text. Yay dilatational grids! -
Today, after writing a creative brief, Tom asked the class to brainstorm and make thumbnails for our chosen corporate identities. After two hours, we had a critique. He looked at all of us and said that this is the stuff that we burn and forget about. He’s seen so many logos and he knows our future employers have seen so many logos. It’s going to be a few rounds of making logos and “burning them” before finding something strong and unique that will be able to stand the test of time.
word map for brighton logo 
word list for brighton logo 
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current state of wordpress blog Current state of wordpress blog
Today, I dove into wordpress. I thought it would be easy, but I realized that I didn’t know what I was doing fairly early on. Towards the end of my workday–why did I put this off until they day before it’s due?!– I found this beautiful window (see below) which is a portal into my stylesheet. I think it’s incredibly difficult and annoying to edit the files in dreamweaver and put them back with all of that php floating around in the code, so much prefer to do some hand-coding and get things done in the browser.
working in the browser in wordpress I’m going to consider redesigning my mood board and getting the brand right because I don’t really know where I’m running this site. I still feel like I am finding out where the strings are connected like WordPress is a tangled marionette and someone has asked me to make it dance in a week. I’ll probably make massive progress tomorrow after I figure out the branding for my company.
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drawing club posters Today’s attendance was less than usual. To boost numbers, we made drawing club posters. The assignment: draw something drawing itself.
