Portrait's hidden story

In an article by William Meyers in the Wallstreet Journal is the hidden story of a ten-year old girl who once posed for simple portrait taken by Walker Evans.  Evans took the picture in 1936 when he was in Alabama working for a new magazine profession.  The picture is only a headshot forcing the emphasis to reflect our eyes on her face.  Evan’s simplifies the portrait by only allowing his audience to concentrate on her face and features.  Meyers describes Evans way of narrowing in on the small details of the portrait.  If one is to look closely they will see the rust stained from the nails on the back of the fence.  Perhaps the family could be poor and not able to afford a wealthy life?  Her straw hat is also symbolic for it is in the shape of an angel’s halo representing some type of innocence.  Her features on her face are what tell her story, an emotionless girl with neither a smile nor a frown.  In a book by Agee’s he describes that “part of our seeing her is trying to figure out what she sees, what is going on behind those eyes, greedy to understand the world”.  In the end, the once young innocent girl is revealed some forty years later.  She was married at fifteen, divorced once, had multiple children, worked as a nurse or a teacher, and tragically committed suicide in 1971.  When one reflects back on the portrait they would have never guessed her life would have turned out the way it did.  A picture paints a thousand words, but her tragic life was not foreseen in her young ten-year old portrait.           

 Information found from:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303467004575574162690573540.html?mod=WSJ_ArtsEnt_LifestyleArtEnt_4

Analysis of my Coffee Thermos

I wake up every morning for my nine o’clock class and head straight to the kitchen where my to go coffee mug is waiting for me to fill it up.  This to go thermos, only ten inches high with an easy removable lid allows instant storage for my hot coffee.  This innovative object is clear of problems and is easy to operate.  All I do is open the lid, pour my coffee in, and screw the lid on tight.  The design is aesthetic with a soft pink background and hints chrome on the top and bottom.  Its appearance was one of the reasons I chose the thermos.  In the middle of the mug is a graphic (illustration) of UCD with chrome swirls surrounding it.  The thermos’s proportion, size measured against other elements, is essential for it must hold a reasonable amount of coffee when I’m in a hurry.  The thermos must be larger than a cup, but smaller than a pitcher.  I’m subjective (reflecting to a personal bias) to the thermos, for my favorite color is pink and I believe that the multi-dimensional design of the lid and handle provide a solid purpose in keeping my coffee warm and from not spilling.  Its form is functional and the concept of easy accessible on the go coffee is affective.  The content, an aesthetic thermos, interacts with the form to ultimately create a well-balanced concept and solution for busy coffee drinkers.   

How Form and Content Interact in Objectified

In the movie Objectified, everyday objects are given a closer look inside their creation and purpose.  Hidden behind these specific objects are essential narratives, which ultimately design a useful tool for all of humankind.  All of the designers interviewed had one common goal in mind, and that was to improve everyday items for consumers without them really thinking about steps the object underwent.  They wanted the consumers to only pick up the object and for it to be simple to use, without any struggle.  Together both Form and Content created the final object.  According to Lauer and Pentak in their book Design Basics, form “when referring to objects, is it the shape and structure of a thing”(Lauer and Pentak 289).  They also define content as “an idea conveyed through the artwork that implies the subject matter, story or information the artist communicates to the viewer”(281).  The interaction between form and content are essential to create a product for their consumers. The three phases of modern design give light into the specific roles both form and content use.  First is the formal relationship of an object (traditionally accepted).  Second is the symbolism of content, which help give form to the designer.  For example this could be from little rituals such as, coffee makers, forks, or knifes.  Last is the design-contextualized sense of technology, and the relationship between human and object.  The form represents function, which is essential when creating an object with easy accessibility.  Jonathan Ive from Apple says he develops form for people, he wants his consumers to feel like his design of the computer is inevitable.  His consumers must feel that there is no other possible way, in which this product good be designed.  Good design is aesthetic, innovative, honest, unobtrusive, consistent, in detail, environmental, and has as little design as possible.  In the end both form and content work together to create an easy accessible product, which requires few issues for the consumer.  

Athletic Clothes and Fashion

The American society’s need for sports recreation casts a whole new light into the eyes of the athletic clothes representing the athletes and their causes for performing.  This is evident in various sports that are sponsored by companies such as adidas, under armor, and Nike.  All of these essential companies must use their creative design imaginations in order to created an outfit appropriate for all types of athletics, from swimming to field hockey.  I never realized all of the effort the companies had to put in, in order to design works of wearable, breathable, and flexible clothing until I entered play in collegiate athletics.  Just as fashion designers come out with the latest season’s trends, so do the athletic companies.  They incorporate the season’s latest colors and newest invented fabrics in order to create a product designed especially for athletes.  For example, the UC Davis Field Hockey team is sponsored by adidas who must make sure they satisfy every need the team desires.  For hot climate weather in California, breathable fabrics are a necessity.  It takes time and effort for one to design a fabric for such conditions.  The fashion of athletics is really seen when teams have themed games such as, breast cancer awareness, where the designer’s main focus must incorporate pink.  The pink must not be overwhelming, yet must convey the message and awareness of the breast cancer.  UC Davis sported this attire and I noticed the affect it had on the team as a whole.  The attention to detail in the uniforms not only represented a united whole, but a professional, athletic, and caring group of individuals who used athletic clothes to convey an important message.     

Compare and Contrast

Comparing and Contrasting artwork allows for an audience or artist to critique his or her own pieces or others.  The ability to compare and contrast gives people the chance to focus on the details of certain pieces in which makes them different or vary from others.  Contrast as described by David Lauer in his book, Design Basics, can be achieved through various different of colors especially when trying to create an emphasis.  Color plays an important role when trying to achieve contrast from other objects in the painting or other paintings.  It can be an emphasis and attract the key details to the appointed audience.  The main task for the contrast is to catch the attention of the audience.  This is often seen through the brightness of color change in an art piece.  Emphasis on the contrast is what draws the attention of the reader.  This is often essential, for the emphasis needs to capture the main theme or concept of the desired artwork in order to narrow down the audience’s attention.  The comparison of artwork is also key for the artists message to be conveyed to his or her audience.  It’s important for the artist to distinguish what he or she means and to capture this comparison can help define what the details of the artist’s message. 
There is a certain process that help define one's comparison and contrast, this is seen through the looking process.  The looking process does not one to overlook the thinking aspect of the artist's work.  This constitutes for the audience to look beyond the physical and concentrate more on the mental aspect.  These may arise certain questions and create a conversation piece.
Information found form Design Basics by David A.  Lauer and Stephen Pentak.

Design as Conversation

Mark Zuckerberg, the famous facebook creator, was just given the honor of having a forty-eight-page comic book biography written about him by Bluewater Productions.  In his comic book his life is portrayed as a light- hearted simple character that has made millions and set the tone for global communication.

            Scott McCloud, the author of Understanding Comics the invisible art, breaks-down the misunderstood theories that many people have about comic books.  He focuses on two main goals: how comics work and what are comics.  McCloud explains that comics are a true art and that they do convey a message to their audience through pictures and word capsules.  He wants his readers to zero in on the fact of the complexity yet simplicity that goes into the making of comics.  With limited mediums, only ink and white paper, creators must go beyond their materials and use their creativity to create a conversation piece between the reader and comic.  McCloud goes in depth defining complex visual techniques such as juxtaposed, various narratives, panels etc, in order to inform the reader of the secrets that decode such amazing arts.

            Using McCloud’s terms one is able to decode the secrets behind the new Zuckerberg Facebook Comic.  In the opening panel of the Zuckerberg comic, the picture fills the entire page with various word bubble surrounding the edges.  At the top of the page there are necessary word capsules that go in depth about his life, which are unable to all be conveyed in just one image.  At the bottom right hand of the page, there is a capsule describing the current scene of Zuckerberg being faced with death.  Both sets of capsules are equally important in order to convey the entire conversation between reader and artist.  McCloud defines this as “inter-dependent, where words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (155).  This is probably one of the most crucial points of the Facebook comic, for this is a biography, which has limited picture space and a lot of critical details.  Time is another key element in the conversation of comics.  This is seen at the top of the second page of the Facebook comic the stretched panel indicates Zuckerberg’s time of reflection.  This is not the only way in which time can be expressed, panels can be added, deleted, lengthened or shortened all to tell time.  In the end, the comic is able to come full circle with the given details of information and accurate time panels.  Thanks to McCloud, the art of comics as conversations may be conveyed simply to their audience such as the Zuckerberg Facebook Comic Book.   

Information found from USA TODAY.  Bluewater productions designed the Comic.

Midwest style vs West Coast style

Growing up in the heart of the Midwest, Oklahoma to be exact, I became very aware of the style change from moving from the Midwest to the West Coast.  The big leap from Oklahoma to California presented an entirely new sense of fashion.  The main difference between the Midwest and West Coast would have to be the seasons.  Back home, one dresses for the full affects of fall, winter, spring, and summer.  This means there is a large gap between when to wear sweaters and boots, and when to wear swimsuits and flip-flops.  However, in the West Coast a sweater could be the cover up for a swimsuit.  This is all due because of the dramatic climate changes.  Chilly mornings on the West Coast warm up to warm enjoyable days on the beach.  This is large difference for the people of the Midwest, they dress in the morning and stay in the same outfit all day.  There is not much of a change of clothes or style in the day, compared to the West Coast where layering is essential on a long day out.  Also, for the West Coast there is a sense of relaxation or a “comfortable” look.  People are able to express this through their different styles of the “beach bum” look.  However, folks in the Midwest also have a sense of being put together, meaning there is a specific time for casual wear and a specific time for classy wear.  If we want to sport the “grunge” look, we wear our Nike shorts and t-shirt or sweat suits.  The “grunge” or casual look for the Californian’s are Vans, skinny jeans, and some rock t-shirt.  Back home we classify that as an “emo” or different look, but here people fully embrace it as an everyday casual outfit.  This relates to my everyday life and the specific details that go into design in society.  For me, my society at home has its own look, a southern charm.  The question I had to answer when I came to the West Coast was would I fully embody my southern charm and cowboy boots or would I confide to the societal fashion norms of California?  I of course like to carry my sense of the south with me in California, hoping to bring a little sense Midwest fashion.   

Creativity from without

Creativity from without is an example of an artist who searches/finds inspiration not deep within his soul.  Artists tend to seek inspiration from deep within, drawing from past experiences, ideas, and various emotions/moods.  This requires an artist to use the materials they have on hand, like raw materials, scraps, and nature.  They inspiration once found within, is now one found in the moment and expressed instantly.

            For many artists this is abstract and appears meaningless.  An artist prides itself on his or her creation from within.  Their creations are symbols for the moods they possess and the emotions they want to share with the world.  Andrew Goldsworthy, an artist famous for using his “in the moment” materials, draws upon nature and it’s hidden meanings for inspiration from without.  Goldsworthy is not able to alter his materials, for they are premade and unchangeable.  Goldsworthy rather uses his materials and designs nature filled masterpieces inspired by the moment in which he found his materials.  I believe artists like him pride themselves on their ability to design on the clock, in the moment, and receive no pressure from the outside world.  Pressure doesn’t exist because no one has an expectation for what his design may be they only know his materials 

Stone Soup

On Tuesday, our design group was assigned to create something out of nothing.  This is further detail means, we took scraps/trash materials that did not have any correlation and designed a model.  At first we had trouble narrowing down our ideas to one central one, but we ended up focusing on and creating two abstract people.  Our inspiration began from looking through different magazines and the various models within.  Originally we wanted to create a mountain with snow and began storming ideas with snowboarders and such.  We began by taking yellow cellophane wrap and stuffing it with crumpled pieces of magazine papers.  As we were molding and shaping the “mountain” we began to tie off the ends, thus accidently creating the formation of a person.  Our intention was to not originally have a person, but our mountain gave life to a human shape.  From there we used nature to create arms on one of the people.  We found long branches and broke them into two parts, giving the illusion of arms.   On this particular person we focused on the body portion, rather than the face.  We found a picture of a man’s chest and stomach and pasted it onto the torso of the cellophane person.  For the second person, we focused on the face.  The face was constructed from a red gift bag and various magazine cutouts of models.  The people resembled an abstract form of people, but completely encompassed the creativity and individuality of each group member.  At the very end we propped the two models against a building wall and gave three-dimensional affect by adding boxes to create a barrier between them. This project inspired by Stone Soup truly gave life to an endless imagination of creativity within our group.  The willingness to work with one another allowed for ideas to be bounced off from one to another, creating the appearance of more refined details in our final display.  The open-mindedness allowed for positive change throughout our project.  For example, the tying of the ends of the original “mountain” gave us an entirely different design path, which we embodied fully.

Generational Repeats of Fashion Design in Society

     Design appears to not have a time reference.  There is a never-ending circle of design.  Ideas bounce off from creator to creator, changing ever so slightly as to appear new.  These new concepts are seen as trends in the fashion world.  Trends come and go, but are primarily based from pre-existing fashion styles.  For example, the famous Ray bans Wayfarer sunglasses burst into the fashion limelight around the 1950s-1960s.  However, their sales and popularity heavily declined in the 1970s.  They made a slight turnaround during the 1980s following famous movies such as the Risky Brothers.  Finally, after almost fifty years of in and out wayfarer popularity, they made a remarkable comeback during the mid to late 2000s.  This is an example of the never-ending circle of trends.  With the help of celebrities and famous icons, trends mark their place in society.  The specific icons, celebrities, of society pave way for the trendiness of various generations. 

     Although the sunglasses first appeared in the 1950s, people of the current era see them as a new style, where as people of the 1950s era views it as a generational fashion comeback.  This indicates that to different generations, newness and trendiness can possibly resemble entirely two different concepts.  Trends are deeply dependent on past generational fashion and ideas.  They come and go as the hierarchies of celebrities reintroduce them into society.  Thus there is no pin pointed time for design in society.  The round figure design follows connects new and old time together as one, in hopes that people of all era’s may share a common piece of ancient society.          

Detailed Information found at: www.peepers.com (the headquarters of designer sunglasses)

What is Design?

     Design is a multifaceted word encompassing all of the world’s hidden beauty.  The world has all of the components to create design.  These components consist of imaginative and creative human beings.  Design is the building blocks to sometimes a complete, or incomplete masterpiece.  Careful steps are taken in order to create an artful expression, design. These steps are like a recipe for cookies.  In order to make cookies there are proper well thought out ingredients, which translate into the proper steps.  Thus the end result becomes a creation of skillful, well thought out creative steps.  Just like baking a cookie, there are always risks that may arise when nearing the end result/baked good.  Similarly, The end product of design is not always certain or set in stone.  For example, there may have been too many eggs in the cookies or one may have burned them in the oven, thus causing an end product not always expected or to one’s perfection.  The end result of design is not always going to be what one has expected.  However, that is the beauty of design, it allows risks and imaginations to flow in order to create their idea or interpretation of a masterpiece.  Our society in all aspects applies to the ideas and concepts of design.  Design, whether it’s for art, structure, or science has a specific purpose.  There is always an idea for an end result in sight for design.  The process of finding or creating that end begins with the steps or ingredients.  For most people their passion and drive to succeed allows for positive outcomes of design.  

My Grandmother's 1957 Sears Sewing Machine

     Reflecting back on my early childhood, one design item gave me the building blocks and creative steps necessary for a whole new world of imagination; my grandmother’s 1957 Sear’s sewing machine.  She kept her sewing machine in a back part of her house in a room crammed with ribbons, fabric, needles, and thread.  It easily could be said that this was a room designed for anyone with a creative imagination for fashion.  Once you opened the door there was a large table and in the middle was her sewing machine.  It was at least a few decades old, and by the looks of it you could sense my grandmother’s hard work making my mother’s clothes, her doll accessories, and everyone’s need for endless alterations.  The machine was the beginning building blocks for necessary items in my grandmother’s life.  With the machine she also made my family’s baby blankets and school costumes. I began to notice the impact the machine had on everyone in my family.

     The machine always gave me a sense of creativity, knowing that there were endless possibilities one could create from such a simple yet complex object.  I was always interested in arts and crafts, but her sewing machine represented a larger aspect of creativity.  The art of choosing a pattern, fabric, and thread then combining them to make necessary complete items, spoke loudly to me.  It wasn’t until the third grade when I inherited my grandmother’s sewing machine.  It was tucked against the wall of my garage, where I spent countless hours expressing my love for sewing.  Once I began using the machine, I became extremely comforted by the bobbing and weaving sound (when the needle and thread are being woven into the fabric), which I had always heard from my grandmother.  It became almost a background song, which in some odd way flooded more creativity into my designs.  Without this monumental object, I wouldn’t have been able to expand my creativity into the whole world of design and fashion.