Design Fundamentals 1 and The Way Things Look

In the interest of making my first term wrap-up complete, I thought I should mention the other two courses I took last semester. Sadly I have very little of my work for these classes in digital format, hopefully a brief description will do.

Design Fundamentals 1 was divided into two distinct parts over the semester (Art Center calls semesters ‘terms’). The first half was a basic typography course in which we hand-drew letterforms, learned to space them correctly and created logotypes. Initially our assignments were to refine over several weeks hand-drawn versions of our name in Caslon, Futura and script. We also learned about the history of typography and worked on improving our architectural handwriting. Our final project was an open-ended assignment to create a logotype for an application of our choice.

I decided to design a cover for one of my favorite books, Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. First published in 1889, it’s one the funniest books ever written. It retraces the journey of three men (to say nothing of the dog) traveling across the river Thames. The humorous anecdotes are generally an exemplification of Murphy’s law.

After a few rough layouts, here is a scan of my final (hand-drawn) book cover.

The second part of Design Fundamentals 1 was a color theory course in which we mostly worked with gray values, learning how variegated they can be across different media and painting our own grayscale.

Finally, we ended the term with a half-semester long class titled The Way Things Look. Our professor (who writes Design Investigations), took us through 20th century design describing the history of different movements such as Modernism, Art Deco, Streamline, Post-Modernism, etc. I found it fascinating and obviously an important addition to our culture as fledgling industrial designers.

Study Models

This should wrap up the big posts from first term. Study Models was probably our most time-consuming class of the semester because it represented so many hours in the shop. The models that came out of it were quite impressive however. I’m skipping some of the more tedious work such as sketches, research and orthographics to show you the final results.

We kicked off the term just like Viscom 1 with boxes! This was a rather grueling exercise due to the strict expectations for craftsmanship. The basic cube had to be exactly 6 inches tall, no gaps, no pencil marks, no eraser marks, etc. The results aren’t particularly impressive but it got us working with foamcore and taught some valuable X-Acto knife techniques!

Our second project involved more foamcore and was mostly an exercise in creating interlocking shapes. This set us up perfectly for the following project, creating a quarter-scale car interior from foamcore. Using thick paper we added surface detail to complete the study.

Our next project was rather laborious, but again an excellent exercise in training our eye. We each chose a hand-held product to replicate, in my case an old Black & Decker iron. The first part of the project was creating orthographic views of the iron, measuring all its contours with a caliper so that the model could be as accurate as possible.

The model was built from various materials. Dense polyurethane foam for the handle and buttons, lighter polyurethane foam for the body and MDF for the base.

Lighter polyurethane foam can be a fickle material to work with. I accidentally carved the back portion too far and had to painstakingly rebuild the edge with spackle.

The last few weeks of class were dedicated to our final project, a companion to the Viscom 1 final: building our tracked vehicle. It was a long an arduous process which I’m condensing to just a few pictures.

We were allowed to use “found objects” as part of the model so I created the wheels by assembling all kinds of plumbing. The main body was sculpted out of polyurethane foam and the tracks themselves were made of foamcore.

It took a few hours just to carve out all the tracks.

In the last few weeks of the semester we were truly pummeled with work. Finishing everything in due time was a real challenge – especially when you add to poster boards and process books to the final models.

Our final presentation included a bit of Photoshop work to place the model in an environment. Credit goes to Bud Kuenzli for the amazing aurora borealis picture which works in the background below.

As a bonus, here I am looking rather exhausted as I make my final presentation (courtesy of my fellow classmate Peggy). Hopefully you can properly appreciate the size (and weight!!) of the model.

Design Process 1: Space

Here’s more of my work from first term at Art Center. These were the results of Design Process 1: Space an environmental design class.

We started the term by becoming familiar with a fun (and free!) piece of software from Google which they call SketchUp. It’s easy to learn and you’re quickly able to sketch out architectural forms. The first assignment was to get us familiar with different organization schemes. Keep in mind it was my first time using the program!

For each of our presentations during the term, we prepared poster boards showing our concepts. Here’s a larger version.

Our second project was to redesign the facade of a store of our choice. I chose the Bird Pick tea shop in Pasadena. We first presented a research board explaining the brand (large version).

The second part was actually building a model and explaining the concept which you can see in this second board (large version). The model was built from plywood and acrylic which I laser cut and engraved to create the rock garden patterns.

The next project was about enclosed spaces and how they can convey different emotions. We were asked to chose a song as inspiration for our concept. I decided to pick the amazing Curtis Mayfield song, “Move on Up”. My concept took inspiration from the song both politically and emotionally. I started by building a SketchUp model for reference, which also served as a storyboard and then built the model from cardboard and paper.

The last few weeks of class revolved around a project set in The Grove mall in Los Angeles. We started by creating a 20 by 30 inch storyboard of the nearby Farmer’s Market, to explain the feeling of moving through this space (large version).

The rest of the project was a redesign of the Taschen store. As we had previously done, we started by researching the place and the brand. (large version).

Because it was an “intervention” rather than a complete redesign, the general structure and footprint of the building stayed the same. We recreated the building and surroundings in SketchUp and then designed three different schemes (large version).

Here are some closeups from some of the SketchUp renders.

The professor liked the first two ideas so I decided to combine them for my final proposal which was also presented as a 30 by 20 inch board, alongside the model.

The quarter-inch scale model was created from pieces cut out on the laser cutter. This was the last part of the last project in a crazy week of finals. I was glad to be done!

The Way Things Work

Chugging along with first term stuff. Here are a few samples from the book I made for The Way Things Work. It’s a fairly self-explanatory class, our assignments were to research how different technologies work and explain our findings with sketches and words.

The other part of the class was to research a product in depth and explain how it functions. I bought a Kodamatic instant camera from a second-hand store (3 bucks!) and dismantled it. Lots of fun. Here are some pages from the book.

3D Fundamentals 1

Another post in my recap of term 1 at Art Center. These are the results of 3D Fundamentals 1. The class was geared towards learning the tools in workshop and getting practice using them. A bunch of projects are missing and there isn’t much process in these pictures, but they’re still worth a look.

We started the term with some simple exercises to learn how to use the bandsaw, sanders and drill press. Our first big project was building a “tool tote” from MDF. The cuts were made on the table saw and I engraved my name on the laser cutter. The rest was just a matter of gluing, clamping and finishing with spray lacquer.

A quick side project was making a cast of our hand. The mold was made from alginate, often used in special effects. The cast is made from plaster.

Throughout the term we worked on building this mirror model. The shape was sculpted from dense polyurethane foam (peach foam as they call it here) and was then sanded and coated then primer before finishing with automobile paint. The shape was placed on a mirror to create the illusion of a symmetric form. Mine was inspired by manta rays.

We worked on the lathe as well, making a bowl, a spindle and a foam shape.

Our last project was a return to the table saw, this time working with birch plywood to make a briefcase. Again, the laser cutter was used to add a personal touch.