March 15th, 2010, posted in art, baking time, crafts, photos, projects
I wanted to make a pie for pi day yesterday, but I had so much work to do, I didn’t think I could justify taking the time. But then I realized: if I put an ampersand on the pie, it TOTALLY qualifies as work! Because my Division III (thesis-esque) project is all about ampersands (the & symbol) and making ampersand related objects…
Behold, vegan four-berry (dare I say, JAMpersand?) pi:
This would probably be the right opportunity to reveal the ampersand cookie cutter I made recently:
The cookie cutter is only one of several Very Exciting Things I’ve been making in the Lemelson shop lately for my project; others include pillows, windchimes, a lamp, a sponge, & so forth, all in the form of the ampersand. More photos to trickle out soon as I finish things up!
December 7th, 2009, posted in general thoughts, photos
I present to you, a list of questions I’ve written throughout my notebook the past few months. I imposed a few of my questions on to some recent photos I’ve been playing around with, for purposes of visual exploration. The real question is: which of them will come to dominate my thesis? Who knows!
• When do fonts matter?
• Does it matter if the cafe sign down the street is in Papyrus?
• Does it matter if the Gaza protest poster or the abortion clinic handout are in Comic Sans?
• Who decides what is good design?
• What is good design?
• What is bad design?
• How is it possible to make a living designing for nonprofits and social causes?
• How have fonts been utilized in political and social movement throughout history?
• What is the price of free fonts?
• RSS feeds are a welcome tool to help navigate the proliferation of awesome things to read on the internet, but at what cost to the integral blog design? Are there any feed readers that preserve the integrity of a site’s design?
• Ralph Hexter’s State of the College presentation reminds me of IKEA, with it’s blue/yellow/white color scheme and use of Futura Bold – how would it have come across differently in Times New Roman? Or Helvetica? Or Curlz MT?
• Throughout human history, opinions have never been so easy to project as they are now, but how many people are really acting on them? Is commentary enough? How many people are really listening?
• Is graphic design art? Where is the line between graphic design and art? Who decides?
• How to teach to design to people who only have 5 fonts and Microsoft Word?
• How can I figure out what emotional and psychological effects posters have on people?
• Why is it important that things are well designed?
• When does an amateur become an expert? Where is the line drawn?
• What are the key tenets in the education of a graphic designer?
• When does a message become propaganda?
• When does increased awareness instigate behavioral change?
• What do I want people to think/react to when they see my designs?
• What does it mean for grassroots organizations now that being socially conscious is “hip”?
• What makes a font sustainable (historically, across mediums, across contexts, etc)?
• What is the emotional and psychological difference between UPPERCASE and lowercase letters?
• What would the world look like if all the big brands and corporations had to throw together their advertising last minute in Microsoft Word and all the graphic designers worked for small businesses and local nonprofits?
• What does it mean to be a designer in a community of non-designers?
• What is the role of a graphic designer in political and social movements?
• What is the process of turning citizens into designers?
• What does seeing fine print at the bottom of a poster do to your perception of it? (Adds legitimacy?)
• What is it with nonprofits and condensed gothic all-caps sans serifs lately? Seriously.
These are some of the questions I’m exploring. There are many more questions brewing. Do you have any answers for me? Or just more questions?
(As usual, you can click on the thumbnails to view the images larger.)
