Examples of Student Work from Basic Design

Basic Design is the studio component of the Visual Design Inquiry Group (VDIG). Students in the class experiment with a variety of hands-on methods and materials, and express ideas visually through creative and challenging assignments. This course is the study of visual design through projects in linear dynamics, color, shape, texture, composition, and conceptual unity. Below are examples of work produced in the class.

Positive and Negative Space - Learning Objective

• Explore the relationship between positive and negative space.
• Create a figure/ground reversal.

Victtoria Hoffman, marker on paper

Line - Learning Objective

• Explore the relationship between line and shape.
• Create a sense of space and balance within the composition.

Jasmine Jackson, graphite on paper

Texture - Learning Objective

• Explore a variety of ways to create visual or tactile surface characteristics.
• Use texture to describe shapes or objects.
• Use texture to create mood.
  
  

Amanda Robinson, mixed media on paper

Craig Dudley, mixed media on paper

Cody Jackson, mixed media on paper

Value - Learning Objectives

• Use a full range of value, at least 10 different shades.
• Enlarge an image working from a grid.
  

Austen Samolchuk, charcoal on paper

Hali Burke, conte crayon and charcoal on paper

Cody Jackson, conte crayon and charcoal on paper

Complimentary Color Composition - Learning Objective

• Use a complimentary color pair along with black and white to establish focus.
• Create direction in a composition through the placement of color.

Katie Giffuni, paint on paper

Michael Stefano, paint on paper

Jackrabbit

This week we visited a design firm called Jack Rabbit. Creative Director and owner Dave Belyea showed us around the studio (set up with all the comforts of home). We met in the kitchen where we all sat around a large table and ate fresh-baked cookies. They talked about the studio’s history and how they have survived as a small business. 

Jack Rabbit designs for the Red Sox, Jordan’s furniture, Smirnoff, and created a whole catalog for Bauer. Dave emphasized always following up with contacts even if a company does’t offer you a position—as you never know when something might open up later.

At the end he handed out some very sleek metal business cards made from stamped aluminum. 

CONGRATULATIONS CRAIG FOR GETTING AN INTERNSHIP!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO

By: Austen and Mike

Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDs Awareness Posters

On Dec. 2 the VDIG visited MassArt to visit the exhibition “Graphic Intervention: 25 Years of International AIDs Awareness Posters 1985-2010.” The exhibition was curated by Elizabeth Resnick, Professor and Chair, Graphic Design at MassArt, and Javier Cortés, Partner and Creative Director of Korn Design Boston + NY.

The students were all asked to choose a poster that “spoke” to them, and engage the class in a dialogue about it.

Gropius House

Walter Gropius is the most influential 20^th century architect. Walter used much geometry in his work, and this is reflected in his proportions and aesthetic.  Walter’s unique designs for chairs and tables are still for sale after all of these years.

Over the course of his life he accomplished many architectural feats.  He created the Bauhaus School which celebrated artists and industrial manufacture.  From the Bauhaus he reformed the way different types of artists viewed each other’s works because many of them had similar methods to producing their work.  Upon his arrival in America, Helen Storrow provided him with land to build his house.  His work inspired architect and furniture designer Marcel Bruer, and they worked together to build the James Ford house.

Gropius designed many creative and functional aspects to his home.  He used curtains instead of doors to reduce the space of a door opening, conserving space in the small house.  In his bedroom he used mirrors and glass together to create the appearance of more space and in the living room all the chairs and tables were low to the floor to provide a different view of the room.  Throughout the house he used light bulbs with coating on the tip to reduce glare and he also used cork flooring.  His house had an overall black and white theme with some red which was a common color theme with the Bauhaus.  When building the house his daughter wanted to sleep under the stars and to have her own entrance.  He fulfilled her wishes by giving her a room on the top floor what can easily be accessed by a spiraling staircase that is in plain sight from their office.  The sleeping under the stars was achieved by giving their daughter a porch off of her room.

During his life, Gropius received works from other great artist which he displayed in his home.

Currently, the house is owned and operated by Historic New England and is used for tours and educational purposes.  Visitors need to wear booties so as to not scratch up the floor and preserve the house.  Some of the clothes and personal items still remain, and very few of the original items had to be replaced because the home was built to last.

More info. about the Gropius House and Historic New England

Michael Mohan: Filmmaker

On October 28, 2010 LA Filmmaker Michael Mohan visited the Visual Design Inquiry Group. He showed his work, and gave a lecture, and there was an informal Q + A afterward. Here are some highlights from the visit.

Michael talks about the music videos he's directed for Minus the Bear, Fitz and the Tantrums, and Hot Hot Heat.

Informal Q + A discussion with students. Michael talks about his experiences working with well-known stars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Robert Downey Junior, and Kanye West.

Advice to students on working with clients:

1. Earn people's trust.
2. Embrace limitations.

3. Being naive can be your biggest asset.

4. You never know.

5. No bad ideas, only bad listeners.

6. Prepare as much as you can, knowing you'll never be 100% prepared.

Stephanie Grey: Design for the Senses

On Oct. 21st Stephanie Grey gave a lecture and workshop called “Design for the Senses.” The workshop presented unique ways for the students to engage with the design process via the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell.

Stephanie invites the students to interact with her thesis document, a tactile experience as the book is built from varied materials.

Stephanie’s workshop involved blindfolding the students, and giving them each an object to decipher through one or two of the five senses.

deCordova Museum

Two Big Black Hearts, 1985,
bronze, by artist Jim Dine

The deCordova Museum, located in Lincoln, Massachusetts, is absolutely enchanting. It is the largest sculpture museum in New England, featuring an outdoor sculpture park with many site-specific works. The park contains mostly modern and contemporary works of art. Some of the pieces are meant to be interacted with, and use a variety of mediums—from stacks of newspapers to recycled metal products. Viewers are invited to come within close proximity of the works, creating a personal experience. All the sculptures prohibit walking, standing, or climbing, but you are able to touch them with your hands. The outdoor sculpture field occupies 35 acres of scenic land. A walk around the park is truly surreal. The deCordova provides an incredibly genius artistic presentation of its outdoor collection.

VDIG poses amongst OZYMANDIAS, 2009,  
wood, paint, steel, by artist Douglas Kornfeld

Inside the museum there was an exhibit titled “Rubbers” by artist Martha Friedman. The work is all rubber and focuses on tongues and organic objects. Another exhibit is Leonardo Drew’s “Existed.” This exhibit concentrates on creation, decay, and regeneration. The medium consists primarily of rusted objects. I now know I can always visit the deCordova for inspiration.

Students interact with The Musical Fence, 1980, by artist Paul Matisse

Posing with Male Baseball #1, 2009, bronze
and chrome, by artist Yoram Wolberger

Our Visit To Acme Bookbinding

Outside Acme Bookbinders in Charlestown, MA

HEY BLOGGERS!
This week the Visual Arts Colloquium class took a visit to Charlestown to visit Acme Bookbinding! Acme is one of the oldest and largest bookbinders in New England. They're also in Guinness Book Of World Records for binding the largest book—which is 5 feet tall and 80 inches wide. To hold this book together, they used screw posts. Our tour guide, Pete, was very humorous and we thank him for taking time out of his day to show us around.

Pete, our tour guide, shows the “largest book in the world” to the students. He explains the printing and binding process that went into crafting it.

We learned that Acme was formally known as J. G. Roberts, and was founded in 1821. Pete opened the tour with a story of how the president of Acme, Paul Parisi, quit his job and founded Acme on the same day his son John Parisi was born, which is how they remember the company's age. Acme is a family company, so his son John also works there too, as head of manufacturing. As Pete took us around Acme, we were able to see some new equipment used to bind books, as well as some older ones. It was cool—they use a lot of unique materials for their books, such as leather and goat skin (sorry to all the animal lovers). 

Acme Bookbinding provides edition binding, library binding, textbook rebinding and other products. They use glue and sewing to bind books together, and when the machines finish sewing, or the glue is dried, the books go through a machine with a double sided blade, that is placed at an angle and it cuts and trims the book to the desired size. It was pretty amazing to watch the machines work. One of the fancier machines was the Hp indigo press 5500. One of our classmates (HALI) sketched up a picture of it for us. Their projects can take up to one weekend to a couple of weeks. Their motto is "never turn anything down" which may be the reason why they are New England’s favorite! :)

First Class Trip: Dynagraf

Everyone say “Dynagraf!”

Greetings,

The Visual Design Inquiry Group went to a printing company their first class trip. We went to visit a very successful company known as Dynagraf Inc. Dynagraf has been around for many years and has won many awards. More recently was the Sappi Fine Paper North American Printer of the Year award. They were awarded $20,000 which they will use to update their equipment and put towards marketing.

The printing process starts with pre-press. Pre-press is mostly done on computers. In this step, designers and other like employees will look at the files and make any color adjustments or layout tweaking that may need to be done. This digital department makes sure everything is ready to go even before anything has started to print. When everything is ready to go, they will then proceed to print off about 100 copies and then do a check to make sure all the colors are accurate and everything is in order. A representative from the company who hired Dynagraf for their project will inspect the work and if they're satisfied they will give the okay to start mass printing. In the next step, there is 3 cylinders used to create the prints at 12,000 sheets per hour. A project will typically take a few weeks or a few months from start to finish. Dependning on the type of material used and how many copies are required.

It was a successful first class trip, Heather didn't get us all killed! We all received multiple gifts from the company and learned a lot about the printing process.

Visual Arts Colloquium kick-off!

Curry faculty Iris Kumar presents her recent work.

“Quiet Chill” by Prof. Laurie Alpert

The Visual Arts Colloquium class kicked off with demonstrations by Curry Fine and Applied Arts faculty Laurie Alpert, Iris Kumar, and Heather Shaw. Each faculty member presented their work to the class on Thursday, Sept. 2, 2010.

The students—called the Visual Design Inquiry Group (VDIG)—asked many great questions and engaged in a dialogue with the faculty about their methodologies and approaches to their personal and professional works.

The Visual Design Inquiry Group (VDIG) are first year students who have expressed an interest in Graphic Design and/or Visual Arts. The Visual Arts Colloquium class is designed to inspire and engage the students in the arts through class trips, visiting lecturers, and workshops.

Visual Design Inquiry Faculty:
Laurie Alpert: www.lauriealpert.com
Iris Kumar: irismorehousekumar.wordpress.com
Heather Shaw: www.heathershawdesign.com