April is here; design days begin. It’s a milestone and a stepping stone.
I’ve been walking through the school a little slower. I have less than 20 days left as a student there. There are so many details that I haven’t noticed before. There’s rogue graffiti, layers of flyers and messages from the past. I try to remember what it was like in first year. The place is quiet right now but there’s an intensity to it. It’s the evidence of the last bit of focused study. The place has personality and it feels alive. But it’s an old and tired beast ready for a break before everything begins again.
Just before class ended on Tuesday Chris, Dylan, Maria, Sara and myself were talking about high school and art classes and where we'd be instead of where we are now if we hadn't come to ACAD. We’re an odd bunch of people brought together by the building. We all have different motivations and reasons and aspirations. I think I'll remember that conversation I had with them fondly. It was like Breakfast Club in real life.
Photography
It’s been nice going out and making photographs for the final photography project. It’s grey and cold out there but you can tell it’s getting warmer. The sun wakes up before I do and when it does snow it melts quicker.
Magazine
The magazine is just about finished. Chris and I have only have minor typographic and layout adjustments to make before we send it to the printer. It was a large project and it seemed near impossible when we were starting out but we put the hours in and we’ll finish on time with no late nights attached.
Illustration
Mike Kerr had us work on icons in our sketchbook for illustration class. I came up with a fictional U-Pick farm to be my client. I thought the icons might be useful for a wayfinding system or a map of the fields. I settled with six types of fruit and set up a grid to make the icons on. They ended up being geometric and it was a good challenge getting several similar shaped fruits to look unique (for example, making sure a cherry didn’t look like an apple). We get time in the afternoon to work on our portfolio so I was drawing up some logos for myself. I put together a fun little sketchbook page of the failed ideas.
Branding
The sushi characters are finished now. They’ve been quite the endeavour but the effort paid off. A good friend of mine in illustration, Nick Johnson, helped me out with their body language and personality. I thought about it for a bit and it reminded me of typography. Someone who doesn’t really know about the structure and details beneath some well set type can still tell it apart from poorly set type. This felt like the exact same thing except with body language and personality. I could tell something was wrong with my characters but I had no idea where to begin with them. Professional help was needed.
This shows the progression of the character design. You can see when Nick came in to help out at the end.
Bonus
Now that the semester is getting crammed I'm running less frequently. I’ll start back up once April is finished but for now this piece from an article by the New York Times has me excited for Spring.
“Runners who have served as pacesetters for him have told me with amazement how, when he was midrace at Lake Tahoe, Jornet didn't run with his head down in focused misery but instead brushed the hairgrass and corn lily that grew along the trail with his fingertips and brought the smell to his nose, as if he were feeding off the scenery.”
What a way to run.