The second my studio class began a lot of things had to take a backseat to deadlines and designs, and this blog was the major casualty. Between a business and a family, school is a major addition, and a major time suck. The reality was that my blog had to take a serious backseat, and may have to again in the future.
But, for now I'll give you a sneak peek of what I was working on instead of blogging these past five months. In syllabus there is currently no way to get course equivalency for studio projects done in the past, which means that I have a lot of studio left to do.
Frustrating on some levels yes, but on others completely freeing. This was the first design studio where I wasn't worried and stressed. In fact it was the first studio that was really a lot of fun, and that is a big statement to make.
There were a total of five projects for the semester, each project building on the other. Rather than a heavy focus on architectural design, there was a focus on design and art in general.
Project 1 was a logo design, my concept was how to build a logo out of voids, nodes and paths of movement.
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| The initials were mandatory, as was the black and white. |
Project 2 was to create a 2D compilation of five pre-given elements; My concept was about transparencies, what happens when two elements overlap, and simple colour addition.
Project 3 was to build a 3D model based on the plan described in project 2; My concept was to look at extrusions based on a single focal point, forced perspective, void, volume and construction.
Project 4 was to take an image of a "space" and to abstract it in a drawing, the drawing then had to be abstracted again into a sculpture.
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| Le Corbusier Apartment in Marseilles, photo credit: myself |
The fifth and final project was to create a portfolio case that would hold the final product of each project, one through four. My final ended up being a mockup, as the final case will be constructed of laser cut and laser etched 18g steel. One major boundary of a non-traditional university set up is that you no longer have easy access to tools like laser cutters and digital printers, instead you have to rely on local resources, which sometimes won't always meet your school deadlines. C'est la vie.
My concept was to create a portfolio system that would allow my logo to create the overall form; everything held in one compartment; a system that would unfold and allow those viewing it to interact with the portfolio as well as with its contents.
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| Everything was held in by magnets, and could be moved as desired. The entire box was also held together in its closed form by a series of magnets. |
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| Each book showed the design process and was bound with a Japanese Stab Binding. |
