First posts are always intimidating. Though I have many hopes and dreams for this blog, it is difficult to decide exactly where to start. I thought this would be fitting...
I've been going through my old hard drive and I came across these pieces from design school.
I will always remember this project as being one of my favorites. Our instructor gave us complete freedom with this and while sometimes it can be daunting not having any guidelines, the way this one was set up allowed for effective exploration.
Here is how the project began:
1. We were to bring in any random objects we wanted. Popsicle sticks, tacks, erasers, post-its, tape, paint, bottle caps, cork screws, zip ties, cotton balls, etc.. basically anything physical and small enough to hold in your hand.
2. With these objects, we had to make another object by using what we brought . The end result didn't have to look or be any specific thing, we just had to simply create.
3. When we felt we were finished creating this physical object, we were to explore it in as many ways as possible. Taking photos of it from every angle, turning it upside down, drawing a blind contour of it, scanning it, painting it, trying to find an existing object that relates to it, or finding things or ideas that it could represent.
4. We can now explore further into these images, words and ideas that we've come up with and turn them into something typographic, visual, or communicative in any way.
This can be taken as far as one wants to, but the idea is that it almost becomes a visual and physical mindmap, taking one non-specific thing and turning it into all sorts of exploration.
In the one that I did, my object turned out looking like some kind of telescope or kaleidoscope and from there I branched out to the ideas of observation, discovery, that eureka moment, technology, outer space, etc.
As our final product we had to compile all of our pages of explorations and then create a kind of artist's book, which could mean whatever we needed it to mean to further our exploration. Here are a couple pages from the book I made:
My intentions for this blog are similar to the ones I had for this project. An effective way to document and explore and to make connections.