#task progress

Week 13 | Where We Are Now 

There was unbridled joy when I figured out a strip of code that could generate random flowers for me. However, again, followed by disappointment knowing it wouldn’t run on my actual garden sketch.

Right now, I’m just working on troubleshooting my code (as in the giant flower acting as the sun + the missing flower on Day 14), which becomes clear when I tell the console to print the variables I’m giving it. Also, I’m hoping that as I wrap up this week for presentation, that I can also add on the finishing touches such as hover functions etc that I would need in order for my garden data to fully communicate.

- Final Reflective Statement -

Entering this course, based on what the course would offer, some of my personal objectives were to learn how to work with materials, and to expand my general knowledge of design (the practice, the industry, history, etc). I certainly feel like I’m well more comfortable working with materials now than I first was when I entered the course, but I admit that there is still much ground to cover. However, I’ve learned many new things about design through Andy’s lectures.

It was fascinating to learn about early printing, post-modernism, and the Bauhaus “movement”. I also enjoyed the skills I picked up over the semester, like prototyping, planning, group-work, zine-making, and doing design research. The most inspiring were the concepts I’ve delved into, like design ethics and artist’s books.

I was mostly inspired by Andy & Karen throughout the course, and it was a great privilege to learn from them directly (so many lessons that couldn’t fit into less than 200 words.) Going forward, I plan on developing my zine and collaging skills, and exploring more of that intersection between art & design, which is essentially what the course has taught me so far.

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Since it’s our last piece of assessment, I just decided to have a little fun with it. Thank to the extra free time now, I went for doodling and illustrating my reflective statement, at least to decorate this Tumblr one last time.

The sincerest thank you to Andy & Karen for conducting such fun, engaging class activities and lectures, and for making me feel excited about becoming a creative in the real world.

“I Started As A Pastry Chef” - An interactive zine

I incorporated these simple, fun methods into my zine in the hopes of immersing the viewer even more into the “world” of my creative. With this, they’re not only gaining the information visually but can, in a way, “live” through it when they follow along.

(These GIFs are very sloppy but I can’t be bothered.)

Thus ends the long chain of zine-related posts I have for my Tumblr. This online reflective journal was fun to keep, mostly because I’ve always enjoyed blogging, but also because it’s cool to connect with other friends in the program through this platform as well.

“I Started As a Pastry Chef”

What it is: 

A 20-page A5 zine I made for the “Ask Me Anything” project.

Who it’s about: 

Jessica Candradi; fashion and portrait photographer currently based in Bali, Indonesia. She shoots editorials and ad campaigns for different brands & publications, and often creates and shares stunning images from her worldwide travels. In 2014, some of her work was featured in the Story of the Creative exhibition in NYC, and made it to Times Square.

When I finished it:

I finished the zine last Friday (May 25th 2018)

Where I found inspiration:

Visually, I extracted the essence of Jess’s photographs where she tends to play with warm tones, deep hues, and sometimes dramatic shadows. I made the whole aesthetic of the zine to float around these colours; brown, orange, yellow, red. I was also inspired with some of her photos that had a bit of a Wes Anderson-esque vibe, making life look very still.

Why I made it the way I made it:

Additionally, the thing we learned about this semester that I found fascinating was the concept of fluxkits. But I knew it’d be difficult to make one because a) It wouldn’t be possible for me to find enough items to place into the box, b) I don’t have the resources to assemble a box, c) nor do I even know how to craft a fluxkit in a way that tells a story. But I liked the idea of the viewer having something in their hand as they try to interpret and interact with a piece that has a message/meaning to what you’re trying to portray. So that translated to making a zine but not one that only had design and print, but one that was interactive and was coming to life, in a way. That’s why I added some elements such as the phone scroll, the puzzle, envelope, etc. To–as Andy recommended we do– transport the viewer to the creative’s world.

How I made it: 

Well–

Y’know, I kinda just–

Um–

Mushed different ideas and grabbed whatever material I had and stuck them together with sticky tape, hoping for the best. Basically.

(Spoken like a true ~*designer*~.)

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Zine Progress: I Finally Have a Decent Cover

I titled my zine “I started as a pastry chef”, with a tiny camera to imply that my chosen creative is a photographer. Who started as a pastry chef.

Very happy with this yellow paper I got from MAS so I used it for printing the cover separately from the rest of the zine. 

(More posts soon. Bear with me.)

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Mango Street Lab

“Photography tutorials that don’t waste your time.”

Rachel Gulotta & Daniel Inskeep are LA-based portrait and wedding photographers who run a YouTube channel and online community named Mango Street Lab. They provide photography forums, tutorials, and they are– well, life goals. I look up to their content and aspire to create astounding work like they do. They also create short films. Shot on iPhones.

You can see their channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5bp5_6h-ZxkBz6S_33ZUVg/featured?disable_polymer=1 

or check out their amazing work here:

Week 14 | Through Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Setting this up onto GitHub was so challenging and confusing, but here we are! Question I’m throwing out there: Does anyone know how to connect a Github Page into a custom domain that I already own?

I nearly successfully did it this morning but with all the DNS reconfigurations and CNAME additions it still didn’t work out - I eventually spent hours but to no avail.

Another bug that I’m facing (and a mighty annoying one) is that my song doesn’t always play. I seem to have to rely on page refreshes (but for an audience, this wouldn’t be ideal.) I’m also still working around how I can make this window-resizable so as not to make the sketch too large on some laptop displays.

Week 14 | Wrapping Things Up

Finally finishing up with the elements of my virtual garden!

Now I can focus on the presentation - which will be a long and nerve-wracking process in and of itself, but here’s to hoping I make it out intact.