Pratt and Learning ‘Alot’..

It’s the beginning of a new semester here, a new 5 months in the city for me too. It’s a whole new lot of things.

I’d like to think things’ll just get better each semester, and they are. Pratt has definitely put me on course with wanting to create an absolutely wonderful career in design by making that oasis vision more feasible in terms of the skills and know-how. It’s also given me the chance to be around some amazing professionals in New York City and

learn quite a bit just from the -not exaggerating- pearls that come across. Graduate school is a whole new studio culture too, even though I miss the familiarity of a cozy undergrad studio with the rest of my studio mates (aka husbands and wives), grad school snatches you out of the kiddie pool and throws you in the deep end of the solitary designer workspace, where you reconnect with your brand new studio mates on the occasion of presentation on the most part.

Of course, if you’re friends you’d tend to hang out anyway. However, the studio culture of endlessly working around each other is near non existent.

A hefty reading list comes with any grad design program. As I’ve been making my way through the reading lists, ironically the book I’d mostly recommend was under ‘suggested’ reading for my past semester’s Vis Comm class. I’m picking this suggested reading over the other required reading for the class simply because every designer planning to make the switch from student to professional should read this.

Also, the most eye opening statement that is true in designing for today’s market (quote by my current Vis Comm II professor Graham Hanson):

“I always thought the most creative good design would be what it takes. But it’s not like that with markets. It’s all about efficacy. Look at Tropicana for example, they had to switch back to their old packaging since they stopped selling orange juice.”

May I add to that that aside from the somewhat generic use of Arial rounded MT bold.. I liked the new Tropicana package. The problem I believe was gearing away from such a traditional looking orange juice box and moving away from the homey feel. Modernizing isn’t always for the better, and even a traditional look can be good design.

That’s it for today’s design ramble.

In the name of Honor, Dignity, and Grace...

Not the most creative (or dignified) of entries. But i'm hoping some awesome day after 15 years of marriage to Mr.Perfect and living on our own private beach, i'll look back at this and laugh.

I know after my comeback proclamation you'd expected something half decent to follow, didn't you.... Ha. Fooled ya.

But no. Really. I'll be sane soon.

(Saner)

Comeback Desperado Style

It’s really no hidden matter that this post is super overdue.. Yes, this is my stand against this turning into another blog with unfinished business haunting the blogosphere. So you and me, reader, deserve a catchup.

(If you’ve just stumbled here and we’ve had no previous acquaintance, I guess we’ve no beef then. Hi, by the way.)

A few things about me, where I’ve been, where I’d like to go.. maybe...:

My blog-abandonment days were in my last semester doing my undergrad, so it’s been an interesting ride since then. With the ups and downs of whatever a young 23 year old can pretend is ‘life’ - loves, losses, the whole deal (twice, if I may)- came through the fired up scholar/designer that graduated, took a flight across the Atlantic to her new life in New York City, and pretty much hasn’t looked back since then.

.. Or at least I can pretend I was that sure of myself. Moving to a new city and getting upgraded to “Graduate Student” status is no joke my friends, but definitely worth the tears and electric-chainsaw-grabbing-wannabe moments.

I came over here with this holier than thou mission to finish up here and return as this unspoken ambassador for green design and eco-preneurship back to Dubai. Coming here, sustainability and environmental practices are pretty much jeered at as pretentious and overdone as Thesis (plural usage intended) in the grad student planet of academia. Fortunately, I have the excuse of being a foreigner from a country that takes a capitalist piss on the environment in most cases that I’m kind of eligible as the exception.

I’m definitely more open to new frontiers in my mission to actually make something of myself, like I kind of owe it to my childhood self in some obnoxiously egoistic way. Mainly as I grew up with the confidence that i’ll be such a hotshot and save the world. Maybe I will.. word is you start with saving a cheerleader somewhere.

"Age Before Beauty - Not?" - Part Freakin' Two

Once again, nullifying that little thing called ‘age’ (really, what’s the deal with it already?) is the fabulously talented painter Matt Godwin from Florida. This young and talented painter is definitely one to watch (seriously, check out what the world has to say about him, or make up your own mind), channeling subtle yet witty hidden social commentary through kook, and ending up with vibrant pieces unique with his own character styling and technique. Many artists look to their surroundings for inspiration, and there’s definitely a lot of that in Godwin’s work - he definitely has an interesting point of view in that ‘light surrealist’ kind of way - What do you think?

On a very weird side note, and this is very much my own opinion, I really see him kind of like a contemporary Lewis Caroll, but a painter instead of a writer. There’s actually a really long explanation for this seemingly strange notion ☺, but for now –and if you haven’t already- enjoy some of my favorite picks from his work (title are kind of a big deal here, so I've been a good blogger and actually paste/labeled the work for once):

"Meet the Meat: Introduction", 18" x 24", paint and ink on paper

"Would-be hero falls prey to distraction", 19" x 24", paint and ink on paper

"Hootenanny hipsters spread HPV like marmalade on a crumpet", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

"The Smokers Section 2", 23 x 35", paint and ink on panel

"The American Solution", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

"Uncle McNana's Rose-Tinted Monocle", 23 x 35", paint and ink on panel

"Wealthy breeder exacerbates human greed", 24 x 48", paint and ink on panel

**images via mattgodwin.net

On being an exhausted kettle..

It’s come to my attention that I’m not doing this blog thing too well. ☺ I really, really want to have decent, dependable, editorial schedule; yet somehow I always manage to keep this at the low end of my priorities list. So I’m sharing recent work I’ve spurred up yesterday morning in hope of getting on track here with something (which also has its perk in that I won’t owe any time to read about before blogging.)

Recently, our professor from my image-making class left town and gave us a cutesy type of exercise for our next project, due on his return the following Sunday. Basically, we literally drew from a box 3 nouns and 3 adjectives, and had to illustrate one combination.

Funny thing is, doing the exercise (I lucked out with “Exhausted Kettle”), I realized I had a lot in common with my noun+adjective… By the end I realized I’d pretty much bordered a self-portrait. (kidding of course.. the bags under my eyes are well at bay with my favorite Lush eye cream ☺ note: vegan and eco-friendly too.)

On a more serious note, I was pretty pleased I had got to finally add something to my cartoon illustration portfolio which I’ve recently decided I want to expand.

This Blog's First Industrial Design Post Is An Anti-Theft Lunch Bag... What Are *You* Thinking?

Sherwood Forlee is another scientist –turned-designer among apparently well camouflaged other closet-scientists out there (check this post on Ainley to see what I meant). He’s one of my favorite finds in industrial design, and has both his professional and independent work displayed at his website, skforlee.com

When I call out favorites it’s usually a combination of more than just talent and ‘good work’, there’s a dime a dozen of talented and hardworking designers out there, the ‘favorite’ factor also comes from character and being able to not compromise one’s true self creatively. On a an interesting topic, here’s a little on the designer quoted from his about part.

“Sherwood Forlee is a designer with no design or art education. Instead, he studied fluid dynamics and partial differential equations, and then barely managed to graduate. But graduate he did, and with a high-falutin' sounding title to boot: "Mechanical and Aerospace Engineer". Despite this, Sherwood calls himself a designer because it sounds hip and no one likes hanging around a nerd at a party.

Following graduation, Sherwood went to work as a product design engineer. After cutting his teeth at a few firms, Sherwood decided to see more of the world and set out on adventures that would lead him to Tokyo (where he was accosted by the yakuza for trying to sell homemade T-shirts on their territory), the Azores (where inclement weather stranded him for a few days without food in the wild), Zurich (where he was forced to climb a perilous mountain with two massive rental bikes atop his shoulders), and many other places. Today, Sherwood enjoys a more peaceful life in New York City working once again as a product designer.”

Also, this is the clever and humorous anti-theft lunchbag from his independent work. Forlee has a lot more impressive work you can check out, but this has gotten the most brownie points with peeps around me that I’ve shared his work with, so I’ve chosen it as the main pick from his work… Let’s just hope he never reads this. ☺
















































**photos via skforlee.com

It's been quite the week!

So it's been quite a while since I've updated (or had that good of an update either), next week is the last 'toughie' week I'll be enduring for a while as I’ll have a 2 week project due and a midterm. I’m blogging to say that I’ll hope you’ll stick around for new posts starting next Thursday. **Sneak peek: a fantastic young artist from Florida, my first ‘green living’ post on a cool find in Dubai, and a first post on some wacky industrial design that you can actually buy. ☺

Stay tuned, and here’s a jump for some Cool Hunting.

P.S: Anything special you'd like me to blog about? That can even be your own blog (related content obviously.. and pretty darn cool), or personal work (impressive still necessary).