The Life of an Industrial Design Student

2004-01-20T18:21:00.000-05:00

...school resumed today.

here we all are in the main studio which i might add is amazingly clean and beautiful.
it was nice to be back and everyone seems ready for another go at the grind.
our first project is to design a clock in a specfic style assigned, i will scan the the project sheet in on thursday.
cheers...

2003-11-06T23:07:00.000-05:00

...enough of the slacking, i solemly swear that i will update this reguraly and will start with an update right now.
so where we last left off...
the projects in industrial design school have become harder and harder as the semester has progressed....
when i last wrote in i was working on the cardboard chair project. I went through about 6 scale models built in 1/4 scale (quarter scale) to develop a general structural form that could be styled later. After building scale models for a while i reached a point where i couldn't go any further in development without realizing the form in real size. I then recived couragated cardboard in 8 foot by 4 foot sheet and cut out my design. I then tested the chair until structural failure at about 180 pounds. I then made design adjustments and rebult but the resulting stucture was rushed due to time constraints. The chair then held 230 pounds but still revealed some design concerns that i had not yet considered. I rebuilt again and the chair held to 290 pounds and i was able to make final refinements and build the final. now many schools do the cardboard chair project, however, ccad is othe only school that makes requirments on the amount of area of the cardboard that can contact the ground, and makes the student create a scale cadd drawing in Graphite (cadd program) in addition we also make an instuction booklet so that another student can assemble the chair and then test the chair for load bearing ability. anyway the final chair fourth genneration full scale was great held 300 pounds and was nicely styled (photos are to come).
after the chair project we have embarked on the on redesigning a hand tool i have chosen the sanding block/ sand paper holder. The first part of the project was to do a detailed task analysi of the tool including every movement involveed the use of the tool. we then had to develope tow analysis boards that document the proper use of the tool from reference and experience and measure the ergonomic use of the tool and the individuel (me) versus the 95% percentile of the population. We then also did a physical model of the use of the tools motion with wire to discribe in detail the right and left hands paths that are color coded to match the task analysis.
Thats where we are right now, working on blue foam sketch models to illustrate forms. we will eventually make our finals out of high density yellow foam and then cast them in RTV (room temprature vulcanizing) rubber and make resin versions for finals in model tech.
thats about it for now, more later...

2003-10-21T19:22:00.000-05:00

...well school has been not driving me crazy but has been taking up every single waking moment. i simply must take more time every day to blog and record my process... it's been ten days since i blogged a new record this year. i have lots to tell about and will start tomorrow with tales of the chair project...

2003-10-10T06:43:00.000-05:00

...where we last left off was in the crazy shuffle known as the weekend and at the moment i am right back at the same place. the chair project is going well and during the first week of testing my newer version chair that is le corbusier inspired lasted through the entire class up to the 230lb + weight limit. I also just received an assignment in model tech to design the housing for a zip drive. I am thinking a theme drive perhaps desjil or art nouveau or whatever i gotta do research since i don't use zips. the only idea i have at this point is to make as little of the zip as possible recess in to the housing as not to increase the amount of dust and dirt that has potential contact with the platter thus limiting the life of the disk...

2003-10-03T08:47:00.000-05:00

...well yesterday was the race to build a full size version of my scale model chair.

that leaves me with only having to figure out a back for the chair this weekend but all the work i don't have in studio for the chair is transfered to model tech. class on the toothbrush model that is due next thurs...

2003-10-01T05:56:00.000-05:00

...so here is what i consider to be the final prototype for the cardboard chair project. not only is this design strong, but i have so much material left over from the sheet that i was thinking of making an ottoman just for kicks and bragging rights. hopefully on thursday i will move to cardboard and test a full sized model.

by the way it's also my birthday, too bad i have three classes today and the last one till 9:45pm...

2003-09-27T18:15:00.000-05:00

...thought i would post a few pictures. the first is of the my final on the card reader from a few weeks ago that i just managed to get back and the second is of the 1/4 scale chair i built holding 35 pounds on first attempt. other than that just spending the weekend doing homework night and day...

2003-09-25T15:01:00.000-05:00

...here are the requirements for the new studio project we are working on i will post pictures later of the 1/4 scale model i built out of chip board earlier that held 35 pounds...

2003-09-23T17:40:00.000-05:00

...i have decided to post the research project i did this summer. below is the letter i wrote to CCAD students and staff discribing the my method of data collection and then excel database of information.

August 26, 2003

Faculty, Staff, and Students of CCAD industrial design

Hello Everyone,
As a part of my commitment to the improvement of the academic environment at CCAD, and in wake of the discussion about computers in ID with last year’s sophomore class, I have embarked on a small research project over the summer.
The aim of this project was to develop a sense of the role that computers play in ID and define what platform and programs design professionals are using. For this project I contacted by over 60 industrial design firms by phone. Of the 60 firms I called I was able to have lengthy conversations with 26. I spoke with designers, technicians, art directors, studio managers, and firm owners. These firms range in size from 1 employee in Michigan to multi-national strategic business units of hundreds in California. I encountered a cacophony of goods spanning house wares, satellites, consumer electronics, soft goods and model building.
The interviews covered the industrial design market as a whole but focused on technology as stated previously. My standard question pool consisted of company name, state of operation, contact name, platform, and 2 / 3D programs commonly used. These questions frequently spurred other conversations giving me the ability to probe educational background, work experience, and economic environmental influences. From these interviews I have learned a great deal and would be happy to share my findings with anyone interested.
The table on the reverse side is an index of the firm information I have collected. I hope it to be of use in future consideration of 3D modeling curriculum.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
ezra

2003-09-22T15:34:00.000-05:00

You're Most Like The Season Autumn ...

You're warm, and the most approachable. You have
that gentle prescence about you. People can
relate to you, and find you easy company.
However it's likely you've been hurt in the
past and it has left you scarred so things can
become rather chilly with you at times. Being
the third Season in, you're mature, trustworthy
and loyal to your friends but prone to
depression and negative thinking.

Well done... You're the shy and sensitive season :)

?? Which Season Are You ??
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-09-20T15:35:00.000-05:00

...so much to post now that i have the files on the computer and the time to write. to start with i should tell you all that on top of being a student i volunteer teach at a vocational high school in the city that is dedicated to he arts. I basically hang out with a class and along the way teach interesting stuff about color, composition, and creative process. This seams to work well because i'm not as old as a real teacher and the kids think i'm hip and listen to me. so first off i thought i would post a photo of my new class...

for their first assignment i paired them up into random groups and gave each group a hand out from Rodger vonOechs "a whack on the side of the head" They are to read the hand out and plan a presentation 3-5 min about what was in their chapter and also make a "helpful hints" page for everyone in the class as a recap and future reference. so they have had a week to plan and the presentations will be on tuesday. i will get some photos from that and post them next week also....
next i want to post a picture of how messy my kitchen/work area was when i was in the thick of the insane hat project.

i know this isn't that bad but the photo is after i spent 10 minutes cleaning up and getting rid of scraps....
when i was building the prototype for the hat project that can be seen above i got a really bad migrain from the hot glue fumes which where not disapating fast enough even with windows open ect... so what a did was make the invention below by taking measurements off my window and constructing a box with hot glue and foamcore. basically what this is used for is to store th glue gun when i need to leave it on but want it to vent outside. the gun sits inside the box and the difference of air pressure from outside to inside holds the door (hanging down) shut. when i need it i pop the door open grab it, use it and throw it back in minimizing exposure to fumes. so here is a picture of the glue box...

the following photos are pictures of my final insane hat project and a shot outside when we where passing the ball from one hat to the next.
the project went well as stated and my evelator project worked both times around. The ball enters via the teacup and travels past the cards and goes in the rabbit hole. from there it then goes through the madd hatters top hat and down a ramp and into the queens castle where it actuates the elevator and travels up allmost 30 inches. it then wraps around the castle as it falls out a hole at the top... a quick shot around a terrace and down to the exit point.

other than that i have been doing homework all weekend mainly structural drawing and drafting...

2003-09-18T14:52:00.000-05:00

...well the insane hat / pass the ball project is over. I got an A- and am ok with that. i learned sooo much about how to run a project. I learned to pick a single concept and explore it in depth in a quality manner. Next test it for results and adjust accordingly. Then incorparate the the results into the final. I did so much expiramentation in the development phase I thought i was going nuts. In ID there is not much room for hack and slash which is how i started the project. i just threw it together and thought i would figure out how to connect parts later... WRONG one must consider if things are even possible later if they will be connected in a different manner later. Luckily it all worked out, all said the total for this project comes to.
45 hours work
3 4'*8' sheets foam core
2 packages hot glue sticks
2 rolls of tape
2 migraines (Literally imitrex saved me)
2 pushed near insanity
1 rental of alice in wonderland from blockbuster
there will be photos on later and news of what i got on the card reader project after i go to model tech tonight...

2003-09-16T22:55:00.000-05:00

...more of the same but at least i love what i'm doing...even if they are excercises to see if you can think under pressure and preform. Only a few more days of this untill the crazy hat project is due. i can't wait till tomorrow when i'm done so i can post photos. I'm really scattered and definatley feel for the folks who can't time manage. this is when i'm at my best in the throng, obsessed and overflowing with life...

2003-09-16T06:53:00.000-05:00

...what a crazy weekend i spent 20 hours on one project alone and then spent all yesterday doing the rest of my homework. talk about being in the thick of it. i will write more later with details...

2003-09-11T16:22:00.000-05:00

...well where we last left off. tonight i turn in the card reader project and have been working on another project for studio class. this project is to build a hat out of hot glue, foamcore and masking tape that can transport a racketball 45.75 inches, and acomplish one one a set of specific tasks such as launch a projectile, make a noise, travel up an elevator, acutuate a whirle-gig or proform a loop de loop. i was assigned a elevator. the hat must also have a recognizable theme. I chose alice in wonderland. here is a photo of the prototype i built today literally to just make a model that works without any aestic.

also i wanted to post a photo of tom williamson from advanced structural drawing. here he is explaining the function of drawing in industrial design. he is my favorite teacher...

2003-09-07T16:58:00.000-05:00

... after the discussion of about our foam models in tech. class on thursday night we received our next assignment. Everyone was given a piece of hard board with two notches cut out of the end of it. this is to be our card and our assignment due next week is to make a "card reader." the criteria for the reader is that we must be able to insert the card into the reader and the reader must hold the card while it is shaken/ turned upside down. the structure must now have any part of the mechanisms on the exterior and should well constructed and water tight. the reader should be able to hold the card for at least ten seconds and have an eject lever/ button. Most of the kids at school where kind of freaked out about only having a week to complete it. i was itching to get started but needed to do my other homework so i kept it in the back of my mind for about it for two days while i did my non id assignments. then last night the strangest thing happened...in my sleep i started thinking about my homework and consciously building models. after what seamed to be a little while i had a working model and woke up. it was about four am and i woke my wife up and told her that i had just finished my studio homework. she said good and went back to sleep. Later in the morning around nine i got up and went to loews hardware to get a piece of sheet metal since i could find no substitute in my vast stacks of art supplies. i then proceeded to build the model from my dream studio work session and completed an excellent working project in under one hour.
here are a couple of pictures of the project before it was finished. i will post another tomorrow when the batteries for my camera are charged...

2003-09-05T06:03:00.000-05:00

...it's only the second week of school and i feel like i've learned a lot allready. I came to model tech. class with a sketch book full of ideas. on paper every idea seams like a good one, things are quite different when it comes to making solid models.

this is what our class came up with after 2 hours of sketching in blue foam. our first model project was to design a toothbrush.
other than that the week went well. Alex and I got an A on our ten minute presentation about limiting creativity through specialization in the work place and drafting by hand is tedious...

2003-09-01T13:44:00.000-05:00

...I first encountered Roger von Oech's " A Whack on the Side of the Head" in 1998 when i was 19. i was online looking up isbn numbers for a set of rare books by an american author Carlton Wagner. Wagner, an esoteric designer turned maven of color psychology with emphasis of it's use in industrial design had been intriguing me for sometime. He had poured over the treatises of Itten and Birren and scribed two easily digestible text's and a color swatch work set in english. Both of the texts and the set of color swatches had gone out of print. The few i managed to pin down where closely guarded by the college repositories i had phoned as far away as Ohio University. As a last stitch effort i went to the computer and contacted Cody's Books, the United States largest reseller and locator of used books based in San Francisco. i must have waited on hold for 20 minutes while the Cody's staff searched the stacks and their data base. During this time i schlepped around on line looking for creative and architecture book location services. As i scrutinized the results that WebCrawler (it was 1998) brought back, a link titled "Creative Whack Pack, become more creative" caught my eye. Become more creative i thought, huh... this is sounds interesting. i selected the link and the catalyst that caused my personality to coalesce began.
More than anything else "AWotSotH" furnished elements that developed my personality and served as an actualizer. It showed me that there where other people like me that where enamored with the happenings of the world and that they get paid to investigate and create things. "AWotsotH" changed me from being a passive observer and information collector to an active urban investigator and recorder. i remember thinking after reading "AWotSotH" the first time "this is my tribe" and feeling i finally had a clear cut idea of what i wanted to do. Suddenly all the capricious junk that i had committed to memory like the wavelengths in nanometers of the primary colors and the history of caissons became incredibly valuable rather than encumbering.
Tthe other useful aspect of "AWotSotH" is von Oechs ability to speak openly about creative process. The book breaks the immense subject of creativity into bite sized chapters in popular culture language that is easy to understand. There is no pretentiousness and von Oech succeeds in making you feel excited about adventuring though everyday. Until reading this book i had, had the exact opposite experience in art. Growing up in the "Art World" i was familiar with the creative communities apprehension to discuss process. This is not to say that everyone is that way within the community but there is a propensity to keep things secret and not discuss ideas. "AWotSotH" broke me out of this world and said lets talk about what you think. i didn't know where people came up with so many ideas, and assumed it was mostly creative intuition. After reading "AWotSotH" I ascertained the information i had in my head where ideas in raw form and that i could use my creativity to interpret and apply them. Thus began my love affair with industrial design....

2003-08-30T17:13:00.000-05:00

...i spent the entire day driving around getting supplies and figuring
out how to keep organized this year. i'm pick up my new camera
tomorrow. i will have better picture quality and be able to
host video files from critique, lecture ect... i am to iffy about
carrying around my Nikon D1x, so i'm going with a cheapo 3.2
cannon powershot 300. it's a catagory killer in performance and
price so we will see how that goes...

2003-08-29T11:33:00.000-05:00

... everyone files in for the first studio class.

Mr. Kier mid sentance gleefully explaining the criteria + syllabus
for ID studio II.

Kier is way to excited to be talking about class i bet he is
laughing because he knows we have no idea about
how much work we have ahead of us...

2003-08-28T06:54:00.000-05:00

...here is the first official photo from industrial design school.

thank the gods for no more foundation studies!
at least not as many as last year.
this is CADD class and much to everyones dismay we have
5 weeks of drafting by hand before we learn graphite 6.4.
so we spent an hour lettering, i blasted though due to
previous experience. later today i have my first studio class
and model tech...

2003-08-27T13:22:00.000-05:00

...I kept really busy over this summer. i took two classes, one in marketing and one
in Lit. intro to film. i also tested for my brown belt in aikido and took it on myself to learn Rhino.
I wanted to do this for several reasons. One, i have a surplus of sketches in my sketch
books and wanted to be able to export them to a different media and get a feel about how
they might really look. I also wanted to learn a cad program with less architectural relevance
and more product focus than the Form Z they teach at our school. below are some jpegs
of from two projects i played with this summer. both are by no means done. the first is
some purely exploratory sinage development that i did for my aikido dojo when i knew
about 5 rhino comands. the second is a calculator i sketched years ago and thought it
would be an easy item.

2.tif

2003-08-26T07:15:00.000-05:00

...what a break it has been since i last wrote. almost five months, the school year and summer
are over and school resumes tomorrow, so i thought i would continue my blog and this time
be able to document an entire year of school. i got a new digital camera and will be able to
take pictures of all my projects and get them on the web. thats about it i have some stuff to
do to get ready for class...

2003-06-25T14:31:00.000-05:00

...this has been the longest pause i have taken in writting here since i started this blog. so much has happend, my father got surgry done on the knee that he hurt a few weeks back, we hosted our first seminar at the dojo which went well i think, i spent a good part of the weekend at my fathers house taking care of him and making sure he got his meds at the right times and helping him up the stairs ect. i also got lots of home work done this weekend on friday here and sat. at my dads, i'm still not in the clear by far, but definatly on track if i keep going through this heap. several more design ideas lately, as i have said before it feels good to be thinking as a designer again...

2003-04-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

...spring break means two things for art student, 1 everyone gets a haircut
, 2 everyone gets new shoes. all is well in school ...

2003-04-01T20:09:00.000-05:00

...what a day, not only did i win the student body election for industrial
design, but we also looked at the apartment next door and it rocks,
they will let us get a dog...

2003-03-31T21:24:00.000-05:00

...enough allready, it took five tries just to access this page to add to my
blog. i guess pyra is working on their servers or somthing. Anyway i
spent the evening mounting 6 of th e7 projects over break and know i'm
tired and have a head ache from the spray fix and rubber cement...

2003-03-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

...well now that my spring break is over i guess i should continue
writting in this here blog. since i don't have class on fridays my
spring break was a total of 10 days. of those 10 days i did homework
for a majority of the day 6 days. so i feel i got a good amount done.
i still have to mount all the projects i did so that should take an
entire evening. i will prolly do that tomorrow night. on a side note, the bust
of ianna turned out great and now i have to figure out how to resolve all
my pieces for glass so they are presentable...

2003-03-21T19:34:00.000-05:00

...today was the beginning of spring break and i basically went to
acupuncture, did home work in the morning, drawing in the after noon
and relaxed the early eve. away till i picked up ianna...

2003-03-19T21:38:00.000-05:00

...another wednesday of four classes i'm exausted, i got all a's on my animal
essence project i also got the life sized bust of ianna in the kiln with glass on
it and started the kiln. i will be there tomorrow during the "event" when the
kiln reaches it's highest temp as to moniter the level the glass melts over
the form. shower now...

2003-03-16T20:09:00.000-05:00

...even nicer today than yesterday, wish i could say i did anything related to school...

2003-03-15T23:07:00.000-05:00

...first nice day of the year. we did a bunch of things out side, we went
to the park of roses, drove around doing errands while listen to coltrane
and davis really loud, we repotted our house plants, we weeded the
back yard for a couple of hours, and we germinated some seedlings
to plant in a few weeks...

2003-03-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

...well here is my final for the animal essence project in 3-D.

i think it turned out well and it's to bad even with a nice digital the details don't appear better.
just another side note, i was thinking broadly about art school and came to think that
the sole purpose of art school is really to get you comfortable with being adaptable in using
different media. you are learning how to be composed in dealing with new situations and materials
while developing a personal system of builing rapport with materials. this is only one part of
execution process of making art though. the developmentle parts of understanding , investigating
and creating concepts is a whole other realm that i don;t have time to go into now...

2003-03-13T22:11:00.000-05:00

...finished the rendering of the first step my color project, it's one of my best drawings to date. tomorrow i will paint the second version of it modeled in warm tones, then i will put together all the pieces of the frame box for the animal essence beetles i have posted a few entries down. in the morning i have my second acupunture session...

2003-03-12T22:29:00.000-05:00

...no class today, but i went to school anyway to a seminar about how to eat at business lunches and interviews,
they served free lunch so it was informative and tasty. i got the composition picked out xeroxed and about
halfway done in pencil for color concept. it looks great so far. this weekend i will do a painted version of it,
finish my 3-D since i have all the materials for it, and work on my painting for oil class as well as start my
hands studys for drawing that i will get source materials for tomorrow from the artist files at the library, and
last but not least start typing the business plan for biz class. to me this sounds like a light load...

2003-03-11T20:02:00.000-05:00

...i still don't have a composition for color class, that is my mission. i must have one and a rendered version of it by tomorrow...

2003-03-10T21:31:00.000-05:00

...another kickass day however i have slowed down a bit compaired to this weekends pace of work. i just need to recover a bit more from this weekend and then tomorrow and wednesday i will keep going. tomorrow i will take a my mold i made of ianna and cover the inside with petroleum jelly then lightly blowtorch it so it will melt into the pores of the morld and get rid of finger prints and then i will fill it with plaster to make a positive of it. i will then take that positive and put a sheet of glass over it and put it in the kiln. viola i will have a glass ianna. i think i will do five of them and each sequential one will be bore formed than the next...

2003-03-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

...today i learned to program kilns, finalized my 3-d animal essence project, did a nice hand study in drawing and got allmost no where with my color concept homework so i need to go and plan what to do...

2003-03-04T21:16:00.000-05:00

...so a few weeks ago i made an apointment with an acupuncturist and i went today for the consultation. it was great the acupunturist is not only a MD but certified by allmost every organiztion in both China and the U.S and the state of ohio. so i have some herbs to take twice a day and will go back next tues. and fri. for treatments. the herbs make me feel funny but that is ok as long as they do their job...

2003-03-03T20:34:00.000-05:00

...finally here are some quasi recent projects. two paintings from oil class a few beattle ideas from 3-D for the animal essence project and the last project from 3-D last semester...
the first painting of this semester

the second painting of this semester

scarabs for 3-d

and last of all fragmentation project

i still have much more to post however that takes a bit of time and time is a premium right now. enjoy...

2003-03-02T18:15:00.000-05:00

...well the ankle is all but recovered, and now i can walk unassisted. got lots of home work done yesterday and today which i will shoot for posting...

2003-03-01T00:08:00.000-05:00

...well in an act of universal irony i had a great day. i got the caligraphy framed the saotome sensei ( the head of all aikido schools worldwide) did for our 10th aniversary. sensei took me to lunch, i got some homework done and a concept planned in my head. i did a good deal of gesture skectching. i went to aikido, and rolled my ankle. i have never had an athletic injury like this. my ankle went out but it looks like it might not be that severe, but i still can't walk without using a jo as a walking stick, which i find ironic.* time for bed i'll advise my current condition in the morning...

*a jo being a short staff used in martial arts.

2003-02-27T18:43:00.000-05:00

...everyone at school was in agreement, the headhunters at the design job seminar were full of crap. that is good to know. 2-D was good we drew pictures of trees and plants for the start of the essence project for over an hour. this worked nicely since drawing is now my big focus. i have a good load of homework for the weekend but still plan to have left over time to draw essences and work on rhino at least an hour each. ianna and i are going to the ccad talent show here shortly...

2003-02-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

...the four classes went by with ease today, i got a b on my color home work, drawing was good. i am becoming more confident in life drawing. ms. polzin teaches another drawing class mondays that i am going to start attending also for kicks. drawing drawing drawing is my new focus, anyone can learn computer programs. i will keep learning rhino because it is important, but drawing shows that you think and how. my glass project is becoming sucessfull, i took the cast ear i made from the molds yesterday and pressed them into clay and made a mold of that. i then took glass and cut out peices of colour and put them on a sheet of glasss that i will fuse together in a puddle tomorrow. when that cools i will then take my piece of glass and put it over the slump mold and have the color patches melt over the ears in the plaster mold. i will then have a piece of glass that i fused together with color in it melted over forms i made in clay but transfered to plaster as to endure high temp. 3-d went ok today but i have work to do on it tomorrow to feel like i'm really on track with the animal essence project. so i will go and clean up the indian dinner ianna cooked, i love her...

2003-02-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

...good day, made molds for glass casting, painting was great and i finished my most successful painting to date. ianna and i went to the how to get a design job seminar at school with some honcho headhunters leading a panel discussion about the field right now. there was some great advice about portfolios and interviewing but other than that there was a lot of crap also. it looks like access to the jobs in the market has changed and a lot of people can't figure out where the jobs are, including headhunters. must go prepare for the all day class extravaganza tomorrow...

2003-02-24T12:27:00.000-05:00

...week has started in fine fashion. our model for drawing didn't show up today so we got free time after drawing gestures for about 20 minutes. things are going to be fine, dispite my weekend freakout and time crunch. progress is being made. i kinda feel bad about not finishing my skelton project for drawing but part of me truly does not care. our drawing teacher is the only teacher who assigns homework (because she is new and the department watches over pretty closely for the first year or two) and with all the other stuff to do it's not at the top of the list. i have sources and must work on the animal essence project tonight. i am fairly excited about this project, it will be challenging. what else...i finished 'stranger in a strange land" by robert heinlein and it was amazing, i found his comentary so dense that i will have to re-read it at least one more time to fully understand all his analogys of religion, politics, special interest groups, and social norms. for anyone who wants to read it beware that the begining is slow but past that it's great. so to replace that book i went to half priced books yesterday and got dickens "great expectations". class is about to start...

2003-02-23T23:29:00.000-05:00

...got lots of homework done today, enough that everything should get done this week. i like my 2-D homework, but i have hated my color homework from the moment i didn't get going on it right. i tried to maintain a positive additude all the way through it but you can see that my heart is not in it. certain aspects of it are nice but i blatently did not follow the rules. oh well can't win them all. something triggered in the last week and i started putting too much presure on myself. so i'm a bit stressed and tired. could just be combined pressure of everything in my life because as much as school is time consuming being creative is easy. i just feel a little down after being on a streak for 6 weeks and then going back to normal. i feel like additude is everything and i should be able to maintain that winning additude if i want to. i just need to dive into my new books and make time for more rhino. i think i shall go to bed now...

2003-02-22T15:40:00.000-05:00

...where to begin. i have a serious backlog of homework at the moment, dad slipping and hurting his knee thew a kink in things, however maybe it just forced me to slow down enough to get things done in a more quality manner. you could say it is a message brought to me by the universe saying slow down don't rush through things just becasue you have a lot to do. indeed lately slow and mellow have been key to my achivements personal and artistic. some things are just not my forte, i am a product designer and while skills translate over from foundation classes i can't be perfect at everything still i can't help but feel like somthing is still holding me back from taking that last step to producing really great projects in a couple of my classes. art is decision making, thinking, analyzing, and execution. it's the next step where things will really explode in expression, i just must keep at it. i shouldn't even be tearing myself up i'm a second semester freshman art student, i am but an egg as michael valantine smith would say. i am in school with kids that went through high school with an emphasis in art great art teachers and years more training. the fact that i have no extensive background training and have a's and b's and am better than at least half makes me feel great. besides i have ambition, desire and drive. ambition is the ability to visiualize where you want to go. desire is the hunger for what you want. and drive is the GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH to go through anything it takes to get what you want...

2003-02-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

...crazy day dad slipped and dislocated knee. "all bets are off"...

2003-02-19T22:11:00.000-05:00

...i think my blog is malfunctioning, but can't be certain yet. incase it is, normal wednesday crazyness, 4 classes, too tired to recant now. will debrief tomorrow...

2003-02-18T20:15:00.000-05:00

...another kick ass day at ccad, spirits seem low amoungst everyone at school. beats the hell out of me, maybe it's the weather or maybe folks are starting to snap. not me, got caught up on reading for business class and did a great rework of a painting that was starting to be not so sucessfull but now rocks. my glass slump molds came out great and then business class was cancelled and i got to go home early. i got a number of compliments on my painting final i took to class to show progress on, so that makes me happy, if other people think my work is good too...

2003-02-17T11:31:00.000-05:00

...here is my first 3-d model on the computer, from just a few hours of learning rhino.

amazing, or so i think. computer still defragmenting and school was cancelled because we got about 18 inches of snow in the last two days and everyone is snowed in their houses waiting for the roads to get cleared. we tried to go to the movies yesterday. we backed the car out got stuck, and spent 45 minutes getting the car back in the garage, basically only moved 15 feet. more rhino and didg playing today, prolly finish another book so that will leave me looking for new ones to read (i seam to only be able to handle reading three at a time). i think i will hunt up a copy of a tom wolfe book called "the painted word" for one and i'm going to read either becket or wilde for the other...

2003-02-16T19:56:00.000-05:00

...computer defragmenting will write tomorrow...

2003-02-15T21:52:00.000-05:00

...pictures of me.

lots of snow last night. 6 inches, more on the way tonight. i tell you this because people from ohio allways talk about the weather. i got 2-d finished, color concept 3/4 done and preliminary sketch and value layer of my final for oil painting done (just the figure). i found my old sketch books and hauled them out so i can build the projects in them in rhino. i'm excited to have this rendering program, now i can make things when i have these crazy ideations rather then sketch them and forget about them or never sketch them at all. lots of time to work through the rhino tutorials tomorrow (only 345 pages for the basics) i can't wait. hopefully get to school tomorrow to see how my glass slump turned out. i would also like to build some foamcore models of clocks just for kicks. busy day tomorrow...

2003-02-14T22:02:00.000-05:00

...got some homework done today just one assignment though, 2-d design . i and will do another tomorrow. i learned the basics of rhino 3-d design program today and generally cleaned the house, did laundry and played didg. felt nice to take it easy after last weeks homework sprint, it was just the first one of the semester but it was pretty intense. picked up ianna at 5:15 after talking to jeremy and then went to aikido. i kicked some ass at aikido and kept going the whole time dispite the fast pace of the class. i feel like my aikido is starting to develop to the next level. i have been thinking about starting my own art compound but i still must incubate it for a while. it's snowing quite a bit right now. we should have 6 inches by morning...

2003-02-13T21:02:00.000-05:00

...homework is pretty moderate this weekend, so i think i will try to get my homework done early and have all sunday to make foam core clock mock ups just for fun. i want to put some more photos here of my recent work this weekend. i finished one of the three books i'm reading. it was a tom wolfe book called "from bauhaus to our haus" and it was bloody brilliant. it should be required by all freshman students at ccad. it explains the art compound (fauvist, cubist, futurist,ect.) and their interactions with one another. it explains the evolution of these compounds and their transition to america and how they created modern architecture and art as a result of their experience here. the most rewarding part of this book is that it not only shows the compounds relaionships to one another but to modern day life.

relationships between compounds.
how those relationships effected the evolution of art and architecture
and shows that evolution from before the bauhuas to now

need to write more durring the day. progress is being made at the price of process...

2003-02-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

...things are good today, got two a's unexpectetly. also smashed my didg playing record, as near as i can aproximate must have played about 6 and a half minutes. had two good ideas today, it feels good to be thinking in design again...

2003-02-11T16:46:00.000-05:00

...my life is torn apart everyday between challege, frustration, and excitement. each of these feelings is thrust in my face and down my throat to be devoured by every cell of my body. i used to think that it was too much sometimes, but know i am part of the process. every morning when i wake up it begins, and it is a battle. how much challenge can i take before i get frustrated, how much frustration can i handle before i am worn out and then how thin can i be worn before i quit. at the other end of things is excitement from acomplishment. not just from getting things done, that does nothing for me know, but from nailing a project or really being able to express yourself as you envisioned in your mind. i wish i had time to revel in personal excitement , but the instant after i complete a project there is another to relplace it and i am allways pressed to go further than the last project that i did well. there is no rest...

2003-02-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

...i will soon have the pictures of my 3-d project posted. i wish i had more process pictures but i only have photos of the completed base and then the finished project. i would like to get a lame digital camera by the end of the semester so i can take photos all the time and immediately post them. oh yeah i have a new plan for my education . i figure if i keep up studying at this pace i will be allmost compleatly done come senior year. i will only have one class to take durring that time. so rather than take classes full time i will only have to pay for one maybe two classes which saves me tons of money...

2003-02-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

...sunday = all day homework blitz...

2003-02-07T23:05:00.000-05:00

...what a day. everything is clicking. i finished up 3-D, i only have one more major project this weekend. i went to lunch with my friend aaron who now lives in kentucky and is visiting. then we met with the gallery owners at 5 and presented our stuff for the show. they liked the work from all the artist including iannas photographes which i think are amazing. so the show is on for may 3rd. to bad i will be mostly acting as the laison since as i'm not a fine artist and can't get access to the glass shop this semester to make some pieces. aikido was great tonight. alos i get to bitch for one moment, i called th british embassy today to find out about all sorts of work questions for when we get over there when i graduate. after having gone through a bunch of bull to get iannas green card, the situation has left me with a bit of a bad taste. there i am on the phone, talking to real british people, with real bristish accents. i come to find out that for the similar process that they call applying for settlement takes only 5 bussiness days. that is amazing, but that is what you get when you have statesmen running a country rather than lawyers. i think we all know what lawyers are after...

2003-02-06T18:15:00.000-05:00

...yesterday was crazy dispite my 4th class being cancelled. i did a TON of homework yesterday and today, but even so things just seam to be falling in place with my abilities improving. this makes me wonder how much of tallent is natural vs. aquired. (insert large debate about genetics ect...) anyway glad that that is cleared up and we all know the truth about hard work. i need to go do more work now...

2003-02-04T16:07:00.000-05:00

...ahhh today the weather turns cold again, but i don't mind. embracing the cold is the only way to love it.
i went to the study abroad meeting at school yesterday. i think i will go to japan or scotland the first half of junior year. i know both places have exelent placement for industrial design. i would go the second half of next year except that i have a advanced stuctural drawing class and a CAD class that are a litltle to important to miss. i can't help but have the desire to travel all the time and spring is coming which is the time of year that i have wanderlust the most. i just want to see new things and being in columbus intensifys that desire since we are surounded with nothing terribly exciting. oh yeah i set up a meeting with the gallery owners and talked to all the artist that i have lined up for our show in june. this friday at 5pm we will present our work and get feedback from them and hopfully an awnser....

2003-02-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

...went to talk to the dean of foundation studies today about my ideas for drawing class for freshmen. i think i will keep going with this idea and keep talking to other administration. i also got invited to join the student advisory board and take part in evaluation of the campus and school programs. so that is a step in the right direction, i just have to work the system and get things moving slowly...

2003-02-02T20:31:00.000-05:00

...went to see naqoyqatsi. paints a colorful picture of humans, bad and good.
hmm...

2003-02-01T18:18:00.000-05:00

...the space shuttle exploded this morning, so i skipped aikido and we made chicken soup from scratch. other than that morbid news things are "clicking" and i did a great line drawing today for 2-D design.
everything is working...

here is a link to some interesting info about the columbia shuttle

click here

2003-01-31T12:37:00.000-05:00

...learning to draw is hard because you must learn to listen with you eyes, and their voice is very soft...
this is what i have learned this year at school so far this year and suddenly was able to verbalize it yesterday.

ianna took the above pictures of me on a set one day at the photo studio so i thought i would post them since i have allways liked them.
today is friday which is stay at home and do homework all day, day. so i though i would take a small study break and write.
in other good news i yesterday i learned as a first year industrial designer in the work place i can expect to make between $35-40,000.
i was only expecting to make around $ 25,000 so this is good news since i will have copious loans...

2003-01-30T20:43:00.000-05:00

...lately i have been finding inspiration in painting class. you know that moment where everything seams perfect. it's allways at unexpected times and can not be created. i took my camera to class to capture "the moment" when it happened here is the photo i got.
just mr. jewel lecturing...

2003-01-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

...so i have an come up with a new method of teaching first year drawing here at school. i would start the year by teaching the plutonic solid shapes for the first few weeks. the students would be responsible for knowing how to draw each shape from all perspectives, sides, and angles of forshortening. the students would also be taught drills that would be practiced everyday before class for the remainder fo the year. these drills would include drawing straight lines, thickness, value, attitude, and drawing elipses from the shoulder. all drawing would be done standing. the out of class work would focus on still life and shading techniques, it advantagous to divide the class this way because drawing figues requires a model thus would be a better use of class time. next a week would be spent on each major area of the body (feet,legs,pelvis,torso,arms,hands,and neck +head). during this time the students would be taught the bone structure of each area as well as the muscle structure and would extensivly work on drawing that part correctly as the composition of solid shapes and draw from all angles. once the entire body had been covered the the class would move on to full sized skeltons and wood manniquins. an excercise would be added at this time where the instructor would draw four circles on a piece of paper and the student would have to draw a human form in what ever position that may be to anatomically fit correctly. at this point the class would move on to live models and the out of class work of shading would merge with the in class figure work. i would also like to entertain the idea of the still life lab. this would be an area such as a floor of b and e that would be open all the time with many podiums set up with still lives by the faculty. this would ensure proper compsition, lighting and out of class access to work worth drawing. homework could range from having certain amount of drawings done per semester to having groups organize with an advisor to help set up or maintain the lab. this is what i have so far. ps i heard that two freshmen died last year at school form ODing on chroma...thanks to mrs. marshal for that tidbit.

2003-01-28T21:51:00.000-05:00

...i just lost the post i wrote so i don't feel like typing it over again guess i'll write tomorrow.

2003-01-27T18:09:00.000-05:00

hello all.....
this is the first post of A Day in the life of a CCAD Student. i don't know how this works but i will figure it out. i don't really have time for this since i NEED to go home and do my 3 D homework... here is a photograph of my wife ianna and i being silly in a mirror.

what else....i went to the sculpture lab today and saw my friend erin, she gave me a drawer for the chest of drawers that i'm slowly building in the basement. also i decided that no no matter how much the violent femmes are one hit wonders their first album is really good. i think i like so much because i was exposed to it at an early age. from the time i was about 9 to 12 my mother would take use on weekend visits to see her cousin matt (female) in cinncinatti. i would hang out with my older cousin derrick who was 17 and his friends in the basement where his room was, they played all kinds of music that 9 year olds don't really listen to. the two bands i really learned to like from derrick where the violent femmes and janes addiction. about the time "violent femmes 3" came out ( god awful album made after the lead singer got in a car accident and had a near death experience....this caused the band to revamp their look and sound thus making the band flounder there after) their first album gained popularity.
thats all for now....