Visiting Artists

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.

Word Pair Project

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.

RMG

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 Brand Gap Review

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.