Day 2 of Seattle Adventures

Day two was really the day of adventures thanks to our directionally challenged group in our car. We started the day by getting lost on our way to Chown Hardwear in Bellevue. Once we found our way though we realized it was definitely worth it. The store was FULL of bathroom and kitchen fixtures and appliances, from faucets and sinks to toilets with bidets to drawer handles shaped like people. We were given a walk through of bathroom fixtures to help us with our upcoming bathroom project. I found some awesome ideas for it, as well as a few things I wanted for myself, like this tub.

We moved on next to Pental, a granite and marble showroom. This proved to be a lot more interesting than I expected because I'm currently taking a Geology class. I didn't think it would pertain to design all that much until I visited here. Everything she explained to us about their rock slabs were things I had learned in class! Actually seeing the huge slabs in person was really cool. They looked so much better than the small little samples we have in our materials room. I fell in love with a conglomerate granite called Jurassic Green.

Our next stop was 3 Form Lighting. I can't even begin to explain how much this show room inspired me. I found all of their work so intriguing. It was intricate yet simplistic. And the feel of the work space was so casual. I could tell it was an environment that encouraged imagination, especially thanks to the giant rainbow table they worked on. 3 Form is probably my favorite stop on the trip and I'm really interested in looking into a possible summer internship. 




The final stop of the day was the Daltile showroom. We got a brief overview of the company and were then let loose to roam the samples. Our bathroom project will be entered into a competition Daltile puts on so this was an important stop. We must use Daltile tiles in our bathroom, so we had to find what samples we were interested in using. I found some really neat river rock pebbles that were sliced to be flat that work perfectly with my concept.

Day two was long but very hands on so it was a fun day. I learned SO much about some of the main materials we use in designing. Being able to explore the show rooms and samples was a great way to give us experience with the materials.

Day 1 of Seattle Adventures

Our studio class was given the awesome opportunity take a field trip to Seattle for 4 days touring showrooms and even doing a job shadow.
The first day there we toured the Seattle Design Center. I had no idea what to expect because I had never heard of it. But once we got there I was in awe. Basically the design center is a giant mall for Interior Designers. There show rooms after show rooms with everything from custom furniture, rugs, to paint and fabric samples. I was overwhelmed with excitement and probably could have spent all day there.
We started at Trammell Gange. There you could find any customizable piece of furniture you could think of. Say you like the arms of one couch but the legs of another, and wanted to use a different fabric all together. No sweat! I was amazed.
We also toured a rug show room where some of the rugs were as much $28,000! And a wall coverings show room that had some really interesting materials like a velvety fabric for the wall.
The final show room we visited was Robert Allen. They were really welcoming with cookies, lemonade, and gift bags. They explained their fabric selection which was HUGE. I'm pretty sure you could find absolutely anything there. Sherwin Williams, the paint company, is a part of their show room as well so we also talked with their rep. She gave us our first paint wheels and gave us some important tips to remember when choosing paints.

Overall it was a long, but eye opening day. We learned so much about the materials and products available to just designers. My excitement throughout the day proved how much I love interior design. (And the garbage bags of samples a select few of us scored for hanging around after our class left may have helped too!)

Habitat For Humanity

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to work on a Habitat for Humanity house in Uniontown, a small town about half an hour south of Pullman. I've always heard of Habit for Humanity but never knew how or where to get involved, so I was quite excited when it was part of our curriculum for our Materials class.
Once we got to the site we were assigned different jobs and mine was insulation. I was really interested in it at first because we recently had our insulation redone on my house and I was curious about the process. But I quickly learned why the guys who did ours wore head to toe protection. Within 5-10 minutes my arms were itching like crazy, and they're starting to now just thinking about it. In addition to the itching it started getting stuck in my contacts. So my tip for you, DON'T WEAR CONTACTS IF YOU'RE WORKING ON INSULATION. Luckily I had contact solution with me so I got them all cleaned out and moved on to our next project.
Our next task was to clean out the rooms and screw down the floors. They were only held down with nails and lots of them were not along the cross beams. We went through and found the ones that weren't and added screws for extra strength. Easy right? Well, not as much for a group of girls with limited drill experience. We got our drilling lesson, but it took quite a few tries, and one bleeding finger, to really get the hang of it. But once we did we flew through it and finished early.
The experience was great because we got to work hands on with materials we had learned about in class. I am so glad I got the opportunity to work with Habitat for Humanity and I really hope and can work with them again in the future!

Wheelchair Adventure

One of the most interesting, and challenging, assignments we've had this year was our wheelchair assign. We were assigned a list of things to do, and we had to do all of them while in a wheelchair. At first I thought it would be a piece of cake, but it definitely wasn't. The first task already proved a challenge since I didn't know where the elevator was to get to the lower floor, and once I found it I had trouble turning myself around inside it.
Everyday tasks like opening doors and getting from one building to the next were much, much harder. If a door didn't have wheelchair accessibility, like the Architecture Library, I had to maneuver around it pulling the door while trying to simultaneously moving the wheelchair out of the way. Not an easy task.

 
And I learned how much I take my legs for advantage when we had to make our way from Daggy to Carpenter Hall. My usual path was way to steep to safely roll down so we went on a bit of an adventure to find an alternative route. The path we found was manageable at first, but about halfway there the sidewalk had be torn out and replaced with gravel! I had no choice but to use my legs to scoot myself along. If I hadn't have had use of my legs I would have been stuck.

This assignment proved a lot more worthwhile than I first expected. I learned how much harder everyday tasks become simply by being confined to a wheelchair. I have so much appreciation for people who must deal with this everyday now.

Sc Bench

For this project we made a poster showing the progress work of the bench we designed in our studio class. We took pictures and scanned sketches and models of different stages in the making of the bench.I showed my steps from my found object, a metal piece, to a concept model, to different benches. When working on the poster it was challenging picking which models and sketches were the most important in my steps since I had about 8 models and tons of sketches. After I picked the best ones however, it was really fun for me to recall why I made the bench that why, and how it led to what became my final bench. Making it into the poster really showed my progress work in a way I hadn't looked at before.

Thought Map Sketch

For this sketch we started with one word, mine being colorful, and we made a thought process map. We had to write down the first word that popped into our head from the previous word. "Rainbows" and "My Comforter" are my two beginning thoughts, and "Smoothies" and "Creativity" are where I ended. We also drew simple sketches to go along with the words. Once I finished it was really neat looking at where my thoughts ended up.

Napkin Sketch

For this sketch we drew on a napkin using a pen. We had to draw a perspective sketch of our room as well as a plan drawing of our room. I liked the idea of this sketch. Sometimes we'll be put in situations where we need to grab something real quick to jot down ideas, such as a napkin.

Figure Sketches

For this sketch we created figure drawing a few different ways. I've learned how to sketch figures using the method to the left, so that way was easier for me. It's easier for me to picture each piece of a person in order to make it proportional.

Figure Tracing Sketch

For this sketch we chose a picture of a figure and traced it. It was a bit difficult seeing through the paper but overall the sketch turned out well. I was helping tracing it using minimal lines because it helped me realize how little details you need to show a figure. This idea is helpful for drafting and showing human dimensions.

Fruit Cross Section Sketch

This is one of my favorite sketches. We had to take some fruits with interesting cross-sections and sketch them, using color if we wanted to. I felt I did a pretty good job sketching the shapes of the fruit and bringing out the cross-sections as well. I had a lot of fun adding color and I think it definitely enhanced my sketch.

Room Corner Sketch

For this sketch we had to find an interesting corner in a room and sketch it using shading techniques and perspective views as well. It was difficult sketching it at first because it has a two point perspective, but after I got a hang of it, it became much easier. I would have liked to spend more time on it so I could have straighter lines to make it look cleaner.

Black Paper Sketch

This sketch was really fun. The first time I turned it in I was asked to add more color and contrast to it because I only used white, yellow, and blue. The second time around I added purple, orange, and green. I showed contrast in lighting using contrasting colors. Overall, it was very interesting stepping out of my comfort zone of using exact colors, to create an interesting composition.

Eraser Sketch

For this sketch I shaded the whole page and used an eraser to create the image. I was sketching a potted plant. I used some shading in the dark negative space to show changes in lighting.It was difficult doing this sketch though, because we created it in a way opposite to what we are used to.

Ink Sketch of Room Corner

For this sketch we did two types of ink sketching. The one on the left has a high contrast because I made any darker areas a solid black instead of shading. The right is done using shading, but because I used ink I used line proximity to show shading.

Resume

For this project we were instructed to design a resume using InDesign. I've done a few resumes before but have always used the templates in Microsoft Word, so they looked liked everyone else's. This project allowed me to use the logo we created as well as create a unique design. This was especially helpful because I am currently applying for a job that requires skill with InDesign. Because my resume is an example of my work with the program they can already see some of my skills. I already feel as though I have a leg up to my competition, just because my resume is original.

Logo

This logo represents my initials. I used a shared stroke for the foot of the T and the back of the B. I wanted to used bold shapes and colors that made a statement. I also wanted my design to be simplistic.

Point, Line, Plane, Cube Progression

This project was also about progression throughout a project. We started with nine words like stable, centered, and dynamic and had to use a single dot in a square to represent each word. From there we took four lines and interacted them to represent the words. We had to choose two to continue with for the project. These were my two, tension and unstable.

We took these two and built them into 3D models. We played with the shapes and sizes of each line. These are my final two models.

The next step was to combine the two models into one model. I took elements from each and incorporated them into one idea.

The curving shape I used is from the radiation in my tension model. I used the intersection from my unstable model and mixed it with the shapes from my tension model.

From there we had to cut a form from the middle of the model. I took a cylindrical shape and gratiated the sides so it went from smaller to larger.

Next we changed the proportion of one piece and added color.

I made the rectangular piece on the left taller. In return this made the trapezoid shapes fall into the background and become not as noticeable. Because of this I added color to these two shapes to help them stand out. I chose red-orange and blue-green because they are complimentary colors and one is warm and one is cool. I chose to put the red-orange on the broken piece because it helped it stand out even more. If I had made the solid one red-orange it would have been overwhelming.

The final step was very difficult. We made a serial plane out of the form we had been creating. This was the first shape I created.

After I put it together I felt like the pointy shape didn't represent my form very well. It felt like too much of a shift between shapes, so I decided to make the shapes more rectangular. This is the final model viewed from both sides.

After analyzing the shape I realized I couldn't incorporate the cylinder that I cut out, because the tops of each plane would be floating, which is impossible. I decided to just take the idea of it, so I cut a sphere shape from the side.

We put all models together on one board to show the progression from each step.

Wall Project

This was a project that focused on progression through a project. We started with a cube and had to put shapes inside. The next step was to create more of a form and work to get the shape outside of the cube which is was the triangular shape with pyramids projecting from it is. From that point we had to repeat the shape in a 3x4 wall. My triangular shape would not fit together well, so I replaced the triangle with a square. This also allowed the shape to be more asymmetrical. Once I had the right shape I put them together, adjusting the rotation of the shape to create a more interesting wall to look at.

This is a close up look at the final wall shape viewed from the front.

This is a close up of the wall viewed from the side.

Serial Planes

These were the first project we did in ID 102, our studio class. We made serial planes which are a series of planes that create a volumetric form.

Chair Sketch

Drawing this chair from multiple angles was interesting. It tested my knowledge of each perspective. After drawing each I know which perspectives I need to get a better understanding of. I do like the first chair. The proportions were very accurate and it was a good start in understanding the shape of the chair.

Key Sketch

This was a difficult sketch for me. I had a hard time getting the proportions correct and had to start over a few times. Drawing the outline of the whole image was hard for me to grasp, I'm used to taking each piece separately. After a few tries I eventually got it pretty accurate. Looking back at it I do wish I had worked to make the keys more 3D.

Fruit Sketch

This sketch uses crosshatching techniques to show the shading of the fruits. Although I've worked with this technique before it's not a strong skill of mine and I'm still working to improve it.

Textile Pattern

When looking up symbols for my main heritages: German, Polish, French, and English I found that England and France both had very elegant national symbols that helped generate this design. The symbols used are the Fleur-de-lis from France, the St. George Cross and red rose from England, and the motto’s from both countries. Red, white, and blue represent their national flags and are used as the main colors for the textile. England’s national flower, the red rose, is repeated to create the St. George Cross, which is a red equilateral cross made into a flag to recognize soldiers in battle. The Fleur-de-lis is a symbolic representation of the lily and represents French royalty. The symbol is repeated in the four corners of the textile and the mottos are arched across the top left and bottom right symbols. The French motto is “Liberte, egalite, fraternite” which translates to “Liberty equality, fraternity.” The English motto is “Dieu et Mon Droit” which translates to “God and my Right.” Overall the textile combines the French and English symbols into a symmetrical, elegant textile design.
Because of the previous work I had done in Photoshop (geometric pattern) creating this pattern was a much easier task. I enjoyed mixing all the elements together into a design that represented my heritage.

Geometric Pattern

This project introduced me to the world of Photoshop. Learning how to do I what I wanted with each pattern proved quite difficult and frustrating at times. Because I had multiple difficulties along the way the final product did not live up to my expectations. However I have learned tips and shortcuts to help me past these problems in the future.