state

The final project for Leslie Jensen-Inman’s Processes and Materials Class was to brand ourselves. This was probably the most challenging assignment. It is easy, when designing, to think of a million concepts for clients, but thinking up a concept to sell yourself? I immediately began thinking of my name and how I sign my artwork. S Tate. Over time people started seeing STATE. So I began to think about it and how I could incorporate that into selling my brand. STATE became my logo. My taglines are a stream of conscious thought-state of design, state of art, state of wonder, state of creativity…the possibilities seem endless. I researched typography of all styles but particularly of Swiss design. For design of my business card and note card, I used images of myself as a young child, playing at the amusement park, pouting, laughing…all the things children do. I wanted a personal touch to the materials and this seemed right. The color of the images make the cards visually appealing. I used my printmaking skills to carve a wood block with my logo and pressed all of my materials with the block. The way the ink lifts off the paper is something that you really can’t accomplish any other way. It took some time but was worth the effort to add that fine art feel. With the other materials I used a natural premium paper and have extremely tight typography which dominates most of my self branding. It is driven by type. While intimidating at first, I really have had a fun time exploring how I want to present myself in the graphic design world. It was challenging but I’ve received instant gratification.

The Process and Materials Class had the opportunity to work with AIGA on a project to promote registration and voting among professional graphic designers. The idea was to get the current AIGA members, and other members in the design community, to get out and register to vote and to actually VOTE! This was more challenging than some of the other projects because we are designers designing for designers. We provided a look and feel, and also posters and buttons, so that on the day of voting, AIGA members could wear the button to proclaim their voting. We worked mainly with AIGA president Lisa Blevins and Event Planner Grant Little. They were tough to please, but that provided a unique learning experience that we all will be able to apply to projects in the future. 

As part of the Take Root Project, we were able to visit Chattanooga State who graciously printed our materials for the project. The gentlemen working in the print room offered us a full tour and a step by step instruction of how to mix color, run it on the press, how to use the folding and binding machine after materials were done and we also learned how things differ slighty when using a facility that has certain types of equipment. It was also a rewarding experience to design something from the very beginning and be there to see it fresh off the press. It was a small operation with big personality. The guys were very knowledgable and helpful.

The City of Chattanooga Tree Commission and Leadership Chattanooga joined together earlier this year to begin a tree-planting project in an effort to affect the climate change within the city. By planting trees in the urban areas, it decreases the carbon footprint we make on the environment. Leadership Chattanooga and Leslie Jensen-Inman, professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, joined by the Professional Practices Graphic Design Class joined forces to create a name, logo, and look for this initiative. Our class named the initiative Take Root-Plant. Grow. Sustain. We began with logo design and followed all the way through by forming groups with the class to tackle the project. The three groups, Team Brochure, Team Identity, and Team Event were in charge of designing all print materials including two brochures, letterhead, envelopes, note cards, banners, and T-shirts. This project was long and tedious, but very rewarding. Not only are we getting “real world” experience in designing materials for such a large, new initiative, but we also, in a small way, are affecting the environment by putting our effort and whole heart into this project. It is a good feeling when your work goes beyond merely designing and really begins to affect your community and the city you live in. Hopefully with our dedicated efforts to this cause, this project will grow and be successful, and sustainable for all of us.

One of the nicest things about being in school is access. Access to see new and upcoming artists work and not only that, talking with them in the classroom; what a treat! Three visiting artists Mark Andreas, Ryan Wolfe, and [dNASAb] are some of the most creative and freshly innovative artists I’ve seen. I didn’t always love everything about their work but I loved everything. Andreas’ showing Transcendence is truly that. A little plastic box containing a single blade of grass, lots of plastic boxes, and their little blades of grass all across the gallery wall, and suddenly the grass begins to blow. It was like standing in a field as a child watching the wind come across it causing everything to tilt just a little. It was beautiful. Wolfe’s work is outdoor sculpture made of huge pieces of steel, every piece interacting and affecting another until something significant changes. One sculpture throws seed, the other burns fuel until it burns out and a cape falls to the ground. His pieces are different and interactive in the most simply complex way. And finally, [dNASAb] or Disney, who takes ipods and cell phones, takes them apart, reconstructs them with new media art and sound implemented with shiny little plastic objects. They each came to class to talk about their work and the most inspiration I received from each of them was to think outside the box. Opening your mind, observing your surroundings, and responding to all of it through creative thought.

The class was given the assignment to photograph based on a word pair. The word pair that was chosen for me was weak and strong. I immediately went to imagery that I had created that I knew drove home this idea. One image is a sharp image of nails, specifically used in a nail gun, gliding across the frame. The next image for weak, was that of the nails but completely out of focus, leaving a trail of the impression of what could be anything, but is mostly color gliding across the page. Sometimes weakness is not seeing clearly. We were then asked to take the images and explore the uses of grayscale, duo-tone, duo-tones with extreme curves, and halftones. This was very exciting because the door was wide open for imagery and it was also a growing experience in software application.

The class toured RMG, one of the leaders in printing in the Chattanooga area. They have the most impressive lithographic printer that can print up to 10 colors.
We toured everything from beginning to end. It was interesting to see aspects of the job from plate making to blanketing prints, special lighting that everyone uses for proof for ultimate consistency, the large printers at the second printing location, and the multitude of materials that could be printed on. One printer can print onto a door, or any flat surface up to 2″ thick. The printing at this company is large scale and big name. From the design desk to the packaging and shipping of materials, it seems RMG does it all, and for big names such as Publix, Home Depot, Macy’s, and that just names a few I saw while in the facility. It was very exciting to see printing on this scale. I would love to visit again.

The class went to tour the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Frank Anthony gave a very thorough tour highlighting some of the features of the building from back in the day then leading us up through their newer, larger, color press. From lithographic printing to today’s flexography, I now have a better understanding the print world of the newspaper. It is an exciting, fast pace environment with quick turn around. The most exciting part for me was to see the paper being printed while there, and then reading it mere hours later. 

Janis Hashe, freelance writer and Richard Beeland, public relations director for the mayor, visited our class last week and spoke about their experiences in public relations. They each have different back grounds so we learned many ways to approach PR. They gave us vital information about how to complete a press pack, including what it’s purpose is, what it needs to contain, and how to disperse. Until this class I had not even considered this type of packaging or design that needed to be considered when publicizing an event. Richard discussed how to get a quote from the mayor or how to get the mayor to attend an event. Janis’ discussed how to make relations with editor and writers to get the story available in print form with magazines, radio, etc. It was very informative and it was new information for me to consider. I am thankful I had this opportunity.

The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Strategy and Design is a brilliant, compact, easy-to-read book. Author Marty Neumeier uses real world brands to help designers know what works and doesn’t work in the world of trademark design. He gives five disciplines of branding and the models for managing brand collaboration. He also gives a helpful seven criteria for choosing a good name for a brand. While most of the information speaks to branding a company, it is presented in such a way that can be applied to other aspects of design. The author also includes easy to read graphs and lists that are a quick reference to successful design solutions. This book is a perfect example of one to keep handy….you will want to refer to it again and again.