First Year Competition

I am disappointed that I did not consider the element of compression amidst the plethora of tension exhibited in my model. I fell in love with the tiny slits I cut in the piece of Bristol and its reaction to the curves in the paper. I was also interested in tensions so I decided to create the curves through the tension. I faced a lot of difficulty in keeping the tensiles taut. Once mastered one side, the other side changed the dynamic of the first side if the string was pulled slighty too much. The model was overall unforgiving. Tieing of the string at the end was another challenge I faced. I tried different things such as knotting, using a different tensile, burning, a stopper, and glue. I think if I had had more than a week, I definitely could have figured out how to beautifully bring the three elements together. Moreover, I had a wonderful time working on the first year competition. I was clearly challenged and enjoyed working on it and learning from my mistakes. Also because it was a project, all the first years participated in, it was interesting to see everyone's work as well as discuss ideas and their design process with my colleagues.

*I apologize for the low quality photographs. I only had pictures of my model from my iPhone.

Screenprinting Thank you Cards

I really enjoyed designing my own thank you cards. I was able to consider that aspects of design I have learned through out the year as a student from Wednesday lectures, Bill Green's ID class, and just from working on projects in our studio. Being a design major has definitely given me the liberty and the interest in learning more about types of designs and the different mechanics of executing it. I thought I would take this opportunity to learn how to screenprint from Michelle. I have along ways to go before I think I could screen print anything more complex than this because the process initially was more intricate that I had expected. I really enjoyed learning how to screen print though. I will be pursuing it more in my future years for sure.

The Letter B

Although I don't find my letter B design complex or beautiful, I enjoyed the small side project the first year class did altogether. We were challenged to "construct with a pencil the upper case letter "B" in a serif font". The presentation was fascinating because with a simple prompt, every students' letter B was different or at the least constructed differently. I think this challenge encouraged us to investigate further into the history of fonts as well as graphic design. We were asked whether the alphabet was a "graphic element" or "a tool for communication". This approach brought up interesting discussions among students and faculties. For example, am I using the font the way it was intended by the designer or am I combining it with my own style; and how do I find form through structure. The construct of all our letters were intrigueing. Many of them revealed its construction through its drafting lines, almost like revealing its history which made our letters much more beautiful, I thought. Kathryn discussed the beauty of the curves in the letter B; however, I had decided to avoid it completely and focus on the rigid and repetitiveness.

Architecture Folly: the SKIN

Sarah and I had been focusing on skins for the three groups and once the final project was chosen, we focused completely on designing a skin for the pyramids along with Shayna and Shawn. After several trips to Lowe's and JoAnne fabrics and after many discussions about the material, we chose muslin. Since we were on budget, we had to consider the cost of the fabric and its durability in an outdoor environment. This process was long because we had never designed something that was going to actually be built. I learned the complexity of making design decisions because I found that there were so many things to be considered. It was quite overwhelming at first actually. Nevertheless, once we decided that muslin was our best option, we began to brainstorm how the fabric would connect to the wood. There were so many ideas that worked well for us in a smaller scale but at full model scale, they were much more difficult to execute than we had imagine. We experimented with using tensiles and grooves; we honestly loved the clean line the groove provided but that option was not feasible. However, we realized we could create that same line by attaching small pieces of wood. It was an interesting process for me because as the structures team developed the details of the pyramids, our design plans changed with it (probably a lot like the real world). When they built a mock up of one of the pyramids, I realized that a rectangular piece of wood would not allow the fabric to sit flush to the wood. So Shawn, Andrew, Thomas, and I worked on cutting the triangular prisms with the scrap pieces of 2x4s we had left. This was a very time consuming process because we had to constantly change the angle of the table saw blade and the pieces were small and thin. We did decide that because the wood pieces were on the inside, the pieces did not have to be aesthetically pleasing. Ideally, if we could have had uniform pieces that fit perfectly, that would have been wonderful; but this was a learning process. 

[Tensile v Groove]

[Tensile]

[Groove]

[Wood Piece]

[Angled Wood Piece]

Once we figured out the outer skin system we began to work on the second skin. This was a confusing and difficult process because I was unsure what the objective was. Was it creating a different experience? And what would that experience be? Or was it to simply cover up the insides? Or was it even something else? We practically had 18 opinions on. My vision was a skin that went along the inside walls of the pyramid. While Sarah was thinking more about a cloud like structure like Shawn's cloud from his architecture folly proposal.

[combined idea]

Throughout the design of the second skin, we had neglected to consider the full scale properties such as how the fabric would be effected at a much larger scale. Would it be too heavy? How would it be sewn? Could we find fabric large enough? Would it allow enough light through? All these questions really overwhelmed me because I had always been a more linear thinker, task after task. Moreover, this year in studio, I have been learning how design isn't a linear approach but an investigation of several elements. After hours of discussions and sketches with the team, we collaborated our sketches to create three fabric panels, curved by tensile elements.

After completion of the skin, I have learned so much about construction, design, and the entire process of production. For me this project taught me a lot about those three elements than creating a finished product. I definitely think we could have found an easier and more efficient way to attach the outter skin. Whether that was creating a frame with the skin attached beforehand or something else, because our way of attaching the fabric to the pyramid made it difficult to make the corners flush and aesthically pleasing. Our research of fabric could have also gone further. We had decided to wash the fabric so that it would not shrink when outdoors; however, that is exactly what we needed it to do when we experimented with one side. That one side shrunk just enough to be beautifully tight, creating a drum-like sound when tapped. Furthermore, before we had decided to use the sheer fabric we loved for the second skin, we had not considered the possibility of the fabric store not carrying enough. Many of these obstacles taught me something that I could improve my design process for my future projects.

*study models photographed by Thomas Bueche

Posterheroes Contest

My concept of the poster revolves around the fact that nature is our source of survival, it is what provides life, it is what allows us to live. The human heart symbolizes our human dependence on natural resources. I tied in our relationship with the tree through the transition from red to green veins. The roots of the tree symbolizes the complex intraconnection between the human race and nature. I think I struggled to find a balance between complex and complicated. Compared to other designs of past contestants and my studiomates, my design has much more detail; however, I felt comfortable with the simple concept so I went along with it. Moreover, my design reminds us the value of nature and the life we are able to sustain from it because many of us have forgotten the gifts of the Earth.

I designed this poster by drawing it on a tablet which is enjoyed very much. I loved learning how to use the tool and certainly improved my hand-eye cordination. 

Surface Area

Given 8x4x4 rectangular prism, we were asked to increase the surface area but 200%. As I sketched ideas, I realized I was interested the creating more surface area through the implied area from the negative space. I learned how you could add without adding phyical material. Previously I had had the mindset of creating more by adding more; however, experimenting and sketching models of ideas that expanded without the addition of more material led me to the concept of "subtraction by addition". So I started to cut and fold bristol, taking away the excess and maximizing the space.

                                                   [study models]

[final model]

In my final model, I decided to use triangles to maxmize the space and fold every other in opposite directions for negative and positive space. In theory, the cut and triangle pieces created triangular prisms. I found it difficult to equally space out the triangles with the right proportions within a 4x4x8 layout on bristol but after a lot of math, I figured it out. I left the rest of the bristol paper attached to the model because I felt that it provided balance for the condensed and complex structure.


[photo credits to Thomas Bueche]

Folly Structure and Skin-- Fay Jones

I studied the work of Fay Jones and was immediately drawn to the structures he designs that play with light in an exquisite and delicate manner, like the Thorncrown Chapel. The combination of light, shadow, and reflections create a staggering ambience. I especially appreciate how the three components juxtapose fragility and delicacy. I find that finding a balance between fragility and delicacy is difficult to execute beautifully, and Fay Jones exemplified the perfect composure between the two. Furthermore, Jones expressed light, a complex element, in an uncomplicated light: simple and repetitive. The beauty of his work inspired to me to explore finding a balance between complex and complicated. I first began modeling a folly with twisted repetition accomplished by altering size combined with the delicate pull from the tensile. However, I began to focus more on the delicate tensile and simplified the structure, giving me the opportunity to create a skin that played with light gently in unison to the rope. This led me to further my study of the skin for the folly. Amidst creating a skin for our very own studio’s architecture folly, I desired to learn how to use a tensile element like rope to become a skin through layering, weaving, or wrapping, yet refrain from becoming a complicated disaster. The pictures below illustrate the different patterns of overlapping rope to let in more or less light. I enjoyed as well as became frustrated with the sensitivity of the tensile. Moreover, I learned how the wood could overwhelm the thin rope because of the thickness of the wood and vice versa, so I found it important to explore a balance between the two different materials as well. 

Instrument

Composition

Chris provided a variety of widgets which we were assigned to draft two to four times in scale. After drafting  several views of 8-10 objects, we scanned them into Photoshop and compiled them to create a composition with our drawings. 

What I enjoyed about this project was learning to detach myself from trying to make something out of my drawings. In the beginning I kept arranging my drawings in accordance with the ridges like the insides of a clock. It was challenging but I learned to focus on the layering of the drawings, and what to and not to emphasize.

Maps from Cowgill to Mish Mish

Cardboard Study

Cardboard Study

I originally put a sheet of cardboard through the lasercamm to create a base for the hundreds of triangles I had cut out to create a surface of varying triangles; however, as soon as the lasercamm started to score through the cardboard, because the perforation the cardboard lifted or became completely unattached. I realized that this project was teaching me a lot about the characteristics of cardboard. So Chris encouraged me to further my cardboard study and continue to incorporate what I was learning about cardboard into a surface.

I learned that one cut in one direction made a tremendous difference. The varied cuts are illustrated in the pictures above.