Friday, September 30, 2011

Nothing In Particular

I just wanted to take this time to blog about something random, something unrelated to everything, yet it still ties in everything. Lately, studio and other classes has consume the majority of my time, which that's how it should be. If I'm not either working on one assignment, I have many others to partake upon. These blog post are getting quite easy, though, maybe through the repetitive action every week to post up a few. I'm hardly at my apartment much besides the weekend. I used to have time to play some soccer here and there, but with the schedule, it has been a bit difficult. Although, I did managed to play one time this past week. I'm no longer breathing so hard and quick to burn but like in the beginning of the semester. Trying to at least participate in soccer once a week will help me feel better, and allow me to build up my endurance and stamina slowly. I don't mean a quick 30 minute session every time we play either. I'm talking about 2 hours to 3 hours of play every single time. Usually I have a hard time with the first game but as it goes on, I get more energy for some reason. So this will take care of my workout sessions that I no longer have time to do as well.

So, pretty much it looks like it's just going to be Studio & Soccer here on out, until the weather gets too cold to be outside playing that intensely.

I.O.B Progression

The progression of the I.O.B. group has gone in the right direction, I believe. We posted up posted notes on the board to organized our ideas out. After this exercise we set out to make models and pin up, and explore more ideas/concepts with Brailles and textures. Overall, this week has been a success in terms of our progression.



One of the models I made was this wood piece right here. In the beginning, I wanted to place holes into a piece of wood for the Braille lettering and see where that could lead me to. I found an old piece of wood in the wood trash bin and started to drill the holes according to the marks I made on it. I picked out the smallest holes just so that it'll fit on this test board. But after spending some time on it, an idea of placing bamboo sticks through the holes at varies heights came about so I set out to do just that. Smoothing the end product made the wood new again. The little cut wasn't an easy task to cut out with the machines in the woodshop, however. I also chose to do something like this since I knew everyone else would be working with papers and similar materials, therefore I wanted to do something different to add to the group's presentations. I also made another piece, and the texture on that piece is really quite something.

Speech Analysis

To be honest, I believe my speech could have been a bit better organized. I had this pre-set organization going on in my head, and it seemed like the right flow to go at it, but once it was over, and Patrick told me what could have been better, I realized the flow didn't match up as good as I had thought. Although, the layout of the presentation was a great way to illustrated m point and lead into the next setting, I just went about it the wrong way by skipping around.

As for the speaking goes, I can speak in public when I know it's not a given point in time, but when there is one, all these pressure builds up. It's gradually getting better though, and if I practice a bit more I know I can remain calm throughout the whole presentation to do a good job.

The information that the speaking intensive gave was a bit helpful, but since it was given only with a day in advance of the presentation, not everything was taken into consideration when I was presenting. I didn't have time to go back there as well.

The next one will be much more clearer and organized, since I already have some experience with this first one and the nervousness shouldn't be too much anymore. I will also spend a bit more time practicing prior to the actual date so that I will know what and how to address all of my relative information to the audience.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Inferno

Tonight, my crew & I are hosting an event @ Inferno downtown Greensboro. Inferno is one of the hottest clubs in Greensboro, and we have the privileged to own the place for the night. Usually we host special events like these over @ Greene Street, but we're switching it up and making things more interesting this time around. We get to invite all our friends out for a good time, party, dance, and actually make money as well. Making new connections around town, as well as developing human relationships is a bonus to these events. I enjoy it, but sometimes during the working hours into the night, I have to work more than I can party. But hey, this is for the people that comes out, and if they're having a good time, I'm having a good time. Usually our events are somewhere between 350-600+ people. I know, that's quite a good number of audience. We're becoming quite well known in the club industry, and soon we'll be on contract to host monthly promotions! Now it's time to go get some errands done and get ready for tonight. :D

P.S., I wanted to write this before I go out tonight, in the event that I am too unstable tomorrow morning to write about the actual event itself. Ya knowwww what I'm sayyyyingg?

Color Studies

This week, we got our color studies back from last week.






I just wanted to blog about this because, whenever we do something with colors, I enjoy it very much. I believe I have a good sense of colors, what goes with what, and what could be used to highlight certain areas, or even to bring out certain hues in another color. I got an A for this assignment in History class so the work I put into it was well worth it. I just enjoy colors overall, and I think more people should embrace colors more often. They are too shy, or don't want that kind of attention drawn to them, but I find it, the more colorful you are, the happier everything else seems to be as well! :)

Photoshop'ing!

The image I choose to recreate is of the following:

I took this on my X10 Android phone. The scenery was very pleasant that day, and the view was just amazing.

The next two photos I found on google, (link to direct sites at the bottom). I'm very interested in the club scene, since I do promotional events for them, so I opt to go this route.




The final product:


The first photo I chose was a daytime photo, the perfect weather condition for site seeing. As I incorporate my style and nightlife into the photo, I chose to make it seem like one of DC's hottest club, with the rays of lighting coming out from the open window in the building, and casting a magnificent glow onto the water. It's like one of those rave parties with neon lights all around. Good DC by day, gone bad by night ;)

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Powerpoint Presentation


I visited 2 museums; The National Gallery of Art that was divided into two section, the West Building & the East Wing. The other museum was the National Museum of African Art.

The layout of my power-point presentation not only depicts the circulation order of my visit, with the West Building first, leading to the East Wing, and finally to the National Museum of African Art, but it also captures what I found most fascinating in the spaces, or the actual space itself.

In the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, the Rotunda structure stood out in my mind the most, with its replica dome. The space it capture in there seems to extend far into the space of the building. When I moved towards the East Wing, the grand scale of the area was magnificent. The space itself was breath taking. I especially enjoyed the openness of the space, along with it's play of color pieces that darts your eyes from one area to the next. But a certain circulation pattern also form up this huge space: The many stairway levels of the space, the actual levels themselves, and the hidden spaces/room that each levels branch off from. The last place was the African Art Museum, where I found the Bololo art piece to be most intriguing. The organic space occupied the space of the exhibition in a way that just completely stood out from the rest as you first enter into the room.

Overall, I quite enjoy my visit to all the Museums in D.C.

Below are links to the photos of the power-point:

http://www.dcbestbets.com/National_Gallery_of_Art.jpg

http://www.maletphoto.com/Art/Art/IMG1969-1/1195499130_DC9Z5-L.jpg

http://www.raphaelsk.com/wp-content/uploads/East-Wing.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevharb/4183169680/sizes/z/in/photostream/

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/e/e5/20081024111326!National_Museum_of_African_Art_DC_2007_003.jpg

http://www.tbd.com/blogs/tbd-arts/2011/02/the-national-museum-of-african-art-launches-africa-underground-series-8703.html

New Ideas





These are some of the office reception desk I found interesting, that I might convert into my own space. Links below leads to the actual page I found them at.

http://www.pevarnik.com/Recdesks.html

http://www.officechairsdesks.net/reception-desks/

http://www.lamercanti.com/static/landing/img-landing/italian_reception_desk.jpg

http://www.browercreek.com/photos/laserglass-reception-desk.jpg

Perspectives


Office Space, 20' X 20'.

Friday, September 9, 2011

YES! I.O.B Project

Yes! I got the project that I wanted to work on most this semester, which was the Industrial of the Blinds. This place is just full of inspirations and will definitely motivate me to come up with something meaningful for them. When I heard my name called out during the group selections, I wouldn't help but say "yes" out loud after knowing I was in the project I wanted to be in. There are some great people in my group as well, and I believed we'll have an amazing time all working together in this fantastic project.

We assigned a group leader, which was Katie, and listed other things we needed to address. I feel comfortable talking and communicating in this group, and I believe there has to be a certain comfort level in order to do well with group settings. I'm just happy I get to do a meaningful design first this semester before anything else, so that my motivation doesn't disappear halfway through the semester! =)

Group Work

Spending Wednesday of this past week in a small group of 3's, we discussed the main ideas and components of the three sites we have encountered thus far. We talked about the materials, and what needed to be created for the WAM Cabinet, as well as how to get it more noticeable. Then we moved onto the Greensboro Historical Museum and listed things we didn't like it about/changing certain things up. How the sense of flow in that building was lacking, and hard to figure where to begin first. The last thing we discussed was the Industrial of the Blind, my favorite one. We were giving suggestions on how the lobby space should be and that it should create a story within the lobby and outside area so that audience would know before even going deep into the building.

Below is an image I took from my phone of our 18x24" discussion for Wednesday.


After our small discussions in group, we had to visualize it and transport it onto a bigger sheet against the wall to present. It was actually fun, seeing everyone working together in groups and doing the same thing. It was like a contest or something. I'm also glad to see that everyone pretty much had the same ideas and concerns for each place. It was a good way to strengthen group work from the start. I enjoyed it.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

HEADER

The beginning of the semester, we were asked to make a header for another student in our class. We got together with the other person and wrote down some general ideas and concept of what appeals to the both of us. My general understanding of my client was that she was interested in dream catcher, and a few colors like, purple, white, & gray. So with these combinations, I set out to make a dream catcher and incorporated these colors within it. The following image below is the finishing product. This was my first time making a dream catcher, and I'll indeed will try my hands at this again.



GHM Exhibit Visit

Down Home -

Revisiting the Greensboro Historical Museum, I actually venture through all the exhibits this time around. As soon as you enter into the museum, a small exhibition is towards your left, the Traveling Exhibition entitled "Down Home". This was an attribute it seems towards Jewish life in NC; a brief history of how they came about and started to settle here in this town. "As a minority, growing up in Greensboro was special to these people," Randall Kaplan stated,” since this town was built by all sorts of leaders in many different ways." The very first known date was back in 1832, and since then, has become more self aware through many activities and grew as not only a community in Greensboro, but also a community as a culture. The museum has set up a small timeline on the back wall to showcase this movement, along with other displays and panel boards to allow audience to get a small glimpse into their perspectives. Since this was in the main lobby area, natural lighting help to make the area brighter, compared to other parts of the museum. The overall space seemed to be condensing, and felt small as I walked around it. But I believe this was just a small token to the museum, therefore it wasn't a major significant of what the museum was about, and so the space was probably appropriate at the time. But, in my opinions, why was this exhibition separated from the rest of the other exhibitions? Why did the museum want us to see this first when entering? It seem to just be placed there, a small unit instead of a whole like the other exhibits. Only will know once I ask them that later the next time I come back.


Period Rooms & Pottery Display -

I made my way towards the staircase after visiting the Down Home section, and entered the real exhibition site of the museum. The first one was the Pottery room. As soon as you enter, a display case of glass holds hundreds of pottery items on both side, as well as one right in front of your line of vision. I wonder if this was intentional to block out the view beyond that point for the audience to make them travel around in order to see the next area. This room, I thought, was a contribution towards the pottery life, as the timeline stated, since 1915, with a woman name Juliana Busbee. Later on becoming know as the Jugtown where she resided, and made many pottery during her times. The area seems to be darkening, only with the display lights visible within the glass case of the object, and some dim overhead lights where the circulation of the room took place. There were many materials within these cases, as well as the different types of color on each pottery, signifying that color and style gradually played an important role in the end product. The simple design grew more popular and so Juliana and her partner added more form. Even though you could read the text to tell you, the lighting in the space made it a bit difficult. I wonder if the use of better lighting would have made a bad impact on the pottery display that they opted for a dimmer version. The layout of the pottery display, I know was set up according to the timeline, but within those times, I wonder if the orientations of display was randomly adjusted or had a specific meaning to them.


Gate City Exhibition -

As you leave the Pottery room, you either can make your way towards the main Voice exhibition room to your left, or the Gate City exhibition up the stairs. As the end of the Voice exhibition, it would lead me back to the Museum shop, I went up the staircase to the Gate City instead. It was like entering into a Western movie at the entrance, with old town design boards up top. They wanted to recreate a view that best capture those major buildings during their times. It was probably projected this way because perhaps this was how the city of Greensboro looked like back then. A, couple of benches surrounding a tree in the middle of the main room, signifying a park area, divided the path of travel into two sections to make a circular pathway if you were to view from the top. It also blocked the other entrance-way site directly across from it. It was also a bit dark in this space as well, with an exception to the General Greene area, which had an abundant of light in the back corner. Each of the building had an open entrance leading into the separate space to showcase each of their individual exhibits. Some of the available sites there were the Lina Porter's Schoolhouse, Richardson & Fariss Druggists, Piedmont Hotel, Crystal Theater, & the General Greene. These were probably the most important aspects during developing times as the town was growing. I found the druggist building to be most fascinating, with all of the drugs stored up in a glass case, showing how the pharmacist aspect used to be like.


Voice Exhibition -


Making my way towards the entrance of the Voice exhibition, this one was already different from all the other ones. In the other ones, you could see all or most of the exhibition as soon as you enter the room, but with this one, it was simply too big of a space to view all at one glimpse. The navigation of this room was probably thought of through the study of how much info this space actually needed. You were lead in in one direction, and you knew exactly where to go. There weren't other spaces that separated from the path itself that you would have had to choose from to continue on. Within this singular pathway space, information filled up the walls from early Greensboro history and made its way towards the present day. A big timeline piece, if you will, showed many interesting artifacts and diagrams of what early life was about. The first section filled with noises of outdoors, deep in a forest echoed the room. Early materials of stone head were shown on the display along with other weapons used in those times, gradually increasing to more advance weaponry. A wagon was also displayed, a form of transportation used then. The actual description I would have used to describe the circulation of the space would have been similar to a maze, but with only one sense of direction. Lighting in all area was sufficient and you could easily read text from the panels of display off of the wall or on the glass board them. As you enter another doorway of the space, a different time zone evolved, and new information filled the walls. This repeated itself about four or so times, transitioning from early times to present date. Venturing deep into the "maze" I ended up at the present daytime, which I discover my neighborhood, Adams Farm, was actually built by a guy name John H. Adams. I believe the museum had a purpose to set it up the way they did, because they wanted to "voice" out to use about the history that once existed, and how at the end of path of the Voice exhibition, time, economy, landscape, and the people had changed everything. It was a way for us to realize and to treasure our history of Greensboro to make an impact and to probably restore or hold on to the last bits that is left.

[Sketches]



Museum Shop -

I don't necessary think this space helps aid in the understanding of the museum, as much as I believe it is where it is to induce a purchase from visitors after exiting from the Voice exhibition because you have no other way to exit off to. And even before that, it is accessible in the pottery room, which ruins the whole perspective and the close-off of each exhibitions they had done. I think it's really there just like any other gift shop to help raise funds for the museum to continue to preserve it's history and artifacts. It was kind of cram inside as well, with so little available walkway since display items are right along the center line.

POSTER

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

PROJECT/SKILL ASSESSMENT

I feel that the best project that I can contribute to the most is the one involving the Industries of the Blind. I chose this one for many reasons.

+ I'm more inspired & motivated to work with this one.

+ This is one reason why I got into the design field: to help others achieve a better life through design, and I feel that these people have a better story to tell to the outside world and I would love to be a part of that story/history.

+ I'm touched by the workers there, it gives me great pleasure to be able to do something for them.

+ I feel the type of work involved with this one is also closely related to what I want to do in the future.


These are some of the reasons why I would want to pick this project over the other ones. As for the skills I see that I can bring forth to help my group, there are a few that I believe will really help in this type of project.

+ I'm patient & listen in to others. This will not only come in handy when there are many different options but after they are done, I can tied everything everyone says, and then give suggestions to join ideas together.

+ Even though I tend to let others express their ideas more often, I'm not afraid to speak up if I sense something doesn't go with a certain flow, or give my opinions then and take charge if necessary.

+ I can be a great follower, but during those difficult times I can also be a leader if needed.

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Industries of the Blind, GSO

THIS. PLACE. WAS. AMAZING.

Absolutely an eye opener for people that have no idea what this building is all about, and the type of people involved with the company. In the beginning this place was kept as a secret from society, but now, they want to expose themselves a bit more so that other people can see what this building is all about, and I couldn't be more excited to get involved in this project.

Below are some photos of what an awesome place this really is, although I didn't get any of the garden area yet, but I will post those up later.

Photos -


Oh, Look, its our professor, Patrick.






This last image alone says so many things about the workers in this company. I will let you interpret this image as I begin to tell you my experience thoroughly of how I remember it to be like.

I have always wondered what this Industries of the Blind building was all about. I would pull up to the red light on Lee St. and there it is, to my right side. I've passed it so many times before but never gave it much thought or divulged into what it had in store. But I never took the time to find out, and I believe many other folks like myself has also been wondering about this but also not taking the time to explore.

This is why we must elaborate the exterior of the building to reflect what is going on within the building. My story begin walking up the hill where usually I would drive instead, and as I was a few minutes late from the rest of the crowd, I didn't have the time to take in the surrounding much of the outside but I noticed the entrance way could used some work, something to make it more pleasing before even entering. Once inside, there was a reception desk to my right, one of the workers buzzed me in. A locked door only accessible behind the reception desk unlocked and another worker aid me into the elevator to the second floor. I noticed the stairway to the left and a little garden underneath it. "Hmm, that's pretty interesting," I had thought to myself as I enter the elevator. I'm sure the other students took the stairs and had a different experience leading up to the conference room.

Once inside the conference room, which was a bit roomier and user friendly, I sat and listened in to the talk. Hearing the story of how the majority of the workers in this very building was either legally blind, or have some other sort of disability, and yet they still function normally just like how you and I would if we were in a workplace. But these people were extraordinary; they were doing things we usually do without any difficulty, and actually even at a much better pace and efficiency, even though they were at a disadvantage with their eyesight. Made me realized that we depend too much on our vision and we were the ones who were actually at a disadvantaged. Navigating through the working zone, you couldn't help but be in 'awe' and 'ooo' at what and how these people are doing. The whole tour was actually quite intensive, occupying a large portions of the building that I had no idea was actually this huge. After the tour was over, I never felt more motivated to do something in my entire life. This is it, my design calling, why I chose design in the first place: to help clients & users come together and be able to enjoy their surrounding environment, and to provide a sense of functionally that best cope with their needs.

Sometimes, all we need is someone to believe in us and show us the way. I believe that that is what this company is all about.

Greensboro Historical Museum

Narrative - Pulling up to a curb on a street, Hailey & I parked at one of the meters across the street from the Greensboro Public Library. From there, we crossed the big street, carefully looking both sides for oncoming traffics first of course, and headed towards the Greensboro Historical Museum. Walking along the sidewalk, bushes of trees to our left and busy downtown scenarios to our right, we made our way closer. The distance wasn't far at all from where we had park. As we approach the front of the entrance, we had to turn left, walking down a slight drop. The outside was bricked, with a bench to the side of the entrance door, and a building before turning left in front of me, with grand window schemes. It was a fairly large building, letting us know we were at the right destination. Making our way inside, the double doors led us inside a small entrance way where the sensor counts the numbers of entries per day. First impression of the inside was relatively different from the outside. The colors were more abundant, but, it didn't seem to flow well together like the natural colors from outside. The banner up top from the high ceilings against the curve walls gave it a bit more life from the dull green. Noticing an info area to my left, and a small office desk in front, supposedly for guest to sign in, and a spiral staircase leading up to the different floors of the museum.

Photos -







Plan View/ Second Floor photo -






Final Diagram -

WAM

Narrative - The streets were quiet, with minimum noise from cars as they drove on Tate St. & Spring Garden where I was walking. It was a pleasant site, the streets of UNC-G, and it's surroundings. A tower figure with high beams supporting a room was also at the corner, a part of the Weather Spoon Art Museum. Since it was still early in the day, there were not that many students about. Approaching the building there was the concrete stairs leading up to the entrance. The colors were dark compared to the other appearance with its high beam columns. To the side on the bottom steps, there were bikes where I suppose employees and other students parked to enter into the museum. A bit to the right of the bike rack, there were a were a couple of students occupying the benches built along the walkway. My eyes went straight to one of them and I recognized it was one of my friend, sitting on the bench reading a book. She was waiting for her class to start. I focused my attention again to the building and proceed to talk up the stairs. It had two levels, after climbing up the first few steps it leveled out and starts back up again. In front of me were the glass doors, opening them you enter into a small area with another set of doors to open. After opening the second pair of doors, I was inside the designated place. There was a big door in front of me across the room, (later on finding out it lead to the basement for storage of supplies) and a stairway to my right. I did not walk up the stairs to the second floor but I knew what it holds since I've been inside the WAM building a few things before. The main lobby to my left were spacious, echoing sounds down the end of the hallway that divides into other rooms. Even though the sun was out and gave enough sunlight anywhere else, I felt the place to still be a bit dark, mysterious in a way. Only certain parts of the lobby reflected lights, and I believe that this was done purposefully. For what reasons, I'm not sure. I believe, however, if the room had more abundance of light, it would have felt more lively, a place where people would get together and feel the energy of the artwork before even seeing them.


Some Sketch -




Photos -







Final Diagram -

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Concept

My concept for this drawing assignment is "strawberry". To think outside of the box, I thought of fresh scent, dot structures, curving lines, spots, contrasting colors, oval shapes, and some other ideas.

Now, how would I begin to even put all of these ideas into one big concept that can tie back with the original one without being too original? Well, this is where experimental drawing comes in, and kind of follow a flow of things, a mixture of these ideas put forth, to maybe come up with something not even listed or expected. Here goes nothing.