IMNOHERO: 2010

Vote PG

I am in no means political but through a friend I was lucky to meet P.G. Sittenfeld and get to know him over lunch. I was inspired by P.G. and wanted to do some work for his campaign. Towards the end of our lunch we were talking about tshirts and buttons. So I decided to get my laptop out there in Bruegger's and let P.G. see a different direction.

7 buttons were drawn up the next day and the following week I sent this page to P.G. where he then picked the 2 below to use in the future. P.G. is currently working on his first post and the final image here is the title of his series.

JL Custom Works

I've been helping my sister and her husband on their website. Jeff and Jeanna Linenkugel are both very talented and I'm so glad I could be a part of everything they've done in the last few months.

I've been photographing their work and cleaning up for their site. I hope to get their site more advanced than what it is. But the work speaks for itself, its beautiful.

Visit JLCustomWorks

ID STUDIO FINAL

DESCOM FINAL

Architect Desk Review

I've been working on the Architect desk a bit more recently, so I decided to post it here for review and any comments. Everything is a redesign after the surveys and feedback I received.

What is missing from the image: filing, drawers, maybe a reference wall or shelf, the keyboard and mouse tray, the hotkeys on both sides of the Cintiq and all of its user interface. Underneath the desk's metal frame will be screw in levels for those uneven floors.

The chair I'm reference is the Aeron Work Stool.

The computer is a flat layout beneath the Cintiq screen. The metal wrap is the case for the unit which is supported by the frame underneath. Also, the desk is symmetrical, so the shelving will be on both sides.

Tea House

After a lot of brainstorming today with and without the group I wanted to begin sketching what I picture this design to be. Obviously from the renders below I'm not taking the industrial designers route.

Comments yo!

Not just a tea project

So for this current project I'm going to focus on the design of the entire environment surrounding the tea ceremony. The New Way of Tea is a design exhibition directed at bringing the tea ceremony into the current world.

For example, With extensive use of a modern material (Plexiglas), artist Jae Eun Choi devised a tearoom with a visually continuous interior and exterior. This gravity-defying design embodies the image of water in a constant flow. The walls are arranged at asymmetrical angles to convey forms of eddying water. In the midst of this imaginary movement, a water-filled vase sits quietly in the center of the tearoom. Representing the ever-reciprocal movement between yin and yang, Choi’s tearoom evokes Lao-tzu’s image of a vase filled with water:

Treat the fullest vase as empty, and it will not run dry in use.
- Lao-tzu, The Book of Change

The New Way of Tea | Design Brief

The New Way of Tea | About

The Japanese way of tea (chanoyu), known in the West as the tea ceremony, is based on the simple act of enjoying a bowl of tea, accompanied by an appreciation of nature and the four seasons. Chanoyu aspires to celebrate the commonalities existing between different aesthetics and to search for a universal transcendental experience through participation in the ritual of tea. The New Way of Tea brings this quest into the twenty-first century by juxtaposing tearooms and tea utensils created by contemporary Japanese architects, artists, and designers with those from other Asian cultures and the West who have been likewise inspired by the aesthetic and philosophy of chanoyu.

Focus | Design a Tearoom and tea utensils that follow these criteria

-Must be in sync with The New Way of Tea in following the philosophy of chanoyu

-Follows Masakazu Izumi’s guidelines for principles, process, and continuity

-Uses at least one of the four principles of chanoyu as the starting point to gain the sphere of all four principles.

-Brings modern design into a traditional ceremony. Culture is the reference, not the design.

-The design needs to be simple, nothing extraneous.

-Supply various themes, upon critique, follow the chosen theme

Take into consideration

-Tea pots are only part of the design; the holistic tearoom environment is the design.

-A tearoom does not stand by itself. It is defined by the environment and is inseparable from the myriad of meanings embodied within various elements that surround it.

What I'm reading. February 16, 2010

I have been reading some older comics and some ImagineFX magazines recently. Also, my dad brings home Healthcare Packaging for me and I go straight to the New Materials section, there is usually one gem in there that relates to product design.

I'm currently reading Spawn / Batman from Image Comics and simultaneously reading Batman / Spawn War Devil from DC. Pretty cool to see these 2 together. The art from 94 was so colorful and the KRAK! KRAK! CHOK! SKRAKK TUNCH KRAKK! 's are hilarious

On the back burner | various freelance books

February sketches - portfolio

I wanted to give my portfolio something different by adding a few pages of recent sketches and recent work. These were all done in the month of February, and I intend on updating my blog with a page per week of renders / sketches. A bit like sketch-a-day. But more my style and not everyday.

my inspirations

This post has been on my mind.

I want to share the stuff that inspires me. I read ImagineFX, I love the work, the tutorials, and the interviews. The most recent I have is January's issue that is filled with robots and has an interview with Dan Scott, who is on my top ten list of Magic the Gathering artists. (spoiler to a future post)

Artgerm's cover for my favorite ImagineFX

Check it out if you're interested in learning some new Photoshop techniques or have a love for the industry.

I also have a routine for design blogs, of course notcot is my favorite. Actually I'm not going to hyperlink all of them as I mention them. Here is the list in order of awesome.

the best - http://www.notcot.org/

http://www.behance.net/

http://coroflot.com/

http://www.core77.com/blog/cartoons/default.asp

this guy is good too - http://www.michaelroller.com/

http://thegreenergrass.org/

http://www.flylyf.com/

http://www.sketch-a-day.com/ / http://www.idsketching.com/

for creative videos (not youtube like) http://vimeo.com/

and sometimes http://www.yankodesign.com/

then the various blogs

http://lifehacker.com/

http://gizmodo.com/

http://kotaku.com/

recent work

In DesComm we've been been doing some renderings that I enjoy, but there is something missing for me. There is only a page or two in this that I like.

I like the sketch page, its just a simple way to show ideation.

Not done in a way to show the metamorphosis. Seems more like the key goes back into the fob.

This looks ok, but I dont seem to like it.

This page on the other hand is my favorite. I like the layout, and the shadows read really well. I enjoy looking at this in thumbnail view.

This last page, which is the opening page in my portfolio, is what I pictured in my head the whole time. I love the idea of someone walking to their vehicle and a glow appears from their hand and the vehicle's emotive lights. In a nerdy way, the vehicle is a tamed dragon and when you approach it he acknowledges you and welcomes you. Of course he also breathes fire at everyone else. Just look at the Mazda with the blue eyes. That looks beastly.

Comments and critiques are welcome.

a different direction

Alright, I know not many of my friends have shared their blogs so I intend on posting this to my facebook and to ask them for their blogs. The recommended writing is something I struggle with. I obviously focus on visualization skills, so why is it I haven't been posting. That will change now.

First off, I just realized how annoyed I am with yanko design, not the site but the stuff posted there. Everything follows Core's "Amazing Product" post