Hand Tool Assignment

I've done 14 of the ink ones before getting down to the final copy. I'm posting this now before I see everybody else's finished product and hate my own. The focus is the tool, and the task is to render the work so as to understand the material and how the object is held/used. The first is in indigo blue verithin, and the other is in black fineliner.

enjoy!



*Thank you to my many friends who gave me the constant feedback and help I needed!

P.S. I think the indigo blue veritihin one's hand could be darker, but many people say its fine. And I think the black and white one, I could fix up a bit of the tool to show more "chrome" as well as fill in some missing lines for fingertips.

Introductory Exercise - Product Morphology

Left image will depict the "primitive /low-tech solution" and the final image will be of the final "modern /high-tech product"


I do realize it doesn't REALLY morph, and well it more like undergoes meiosis and then BAM, it's a fan! I've seen others do the same thing with much more success. Which means, I need to work harder!



I was thinking last night, after trying to shade my shapes with ink with no avail, and realized that the prof never said it had to be done in ink. Only the morphology exercise was to be done in ink.... So I re-did it in pencil. Better? I think I need to learn about the shadow..

Shading without a pencil

Not only have I realised that I do not know how to use any other medium other than a pencil. Here are my trials and tribulations. My first homework asignment, shapes in two point perspective. The lines are light, so you can only see the shapes, which are done in ink. It would be nice, he said, if they were shaded (to show depth). I'm at a loss. I don't know if it's just because it's late and I've been staring at this for a long time, but I think not. I need to fix my pyramid ..and cylinder, and figure out what to do with my sphere.. : (


1,2 shapes
3,4 learning to use a marker.




It's good to note that this homework asignment is not for marks. I think. But still....

Appreciation Dinner - Yearbook Souvenir [c. May2008]

OK, so it's been a super long while. I haven't touched anything artsy (other than my travel scrapbook, which doesn't count) for the most of summer. I know deep down, instead of studying math and physics, I should be honing my creativity skills, but hopefully I will be fine. These are the yearbook pages of the souvenir for Appreciation Dinner. I don't know why they are blue, but it should be a dark redish brown. For some reason, I was not able to design something out of the "FGS mold". But next time hopefully I would -something a bit more young, fresh and contemporary. I had a lot of help with my friends, so thank you to you! We split pages to work on because we were super short on time.
Well so here it is, I thought I had lost the files, so I never posted them. I found the TIFs but I am unsure about the psd files. However, at this moment I don't care too much!

Some feedback was simply that
a. I stupidly forgot to put a date on the book. So in the future when someone picks up the book, how will they know when/where this "yearbook" was from?
b. It didn't occur to me to put the FGS logo on it. Kind of like company logo, how could I forget?
c. The background colour is very dark, making the whole piece dark.
d. Some pages simply have awful layouts!

my aplogies for the poor quality, and the blueness. The original is ofcourse, in much better quality and colour, these JPGs don't do it justice. I'll fix it up...when I have time...later...but for now... try to enjoy!

COVER, BACK



ODD PAGES



EVEN PAGES


**A million Thank-Yous for Mike and Stan for staying up all night, and Mike for missing out on the dinner itself. And only half a million thank yous to Jack for teaching me heaps on photoshop, of which I have mostly forgotten. And everyone who helped me cut, bind, glue, and missed out on the great dinner!

Appreciation Dinner - MENU

I was asked to work on the menu and the souvenir (which was a yearbook) for this dinner. The menu didn't get approval only because it was too complicated for the amount of time we had left before the dinner, but I enjoyed the idea, so I'm going to share my home-made-falling-apart model with you.


The original idea is the one on the right but with the suggestion of a friend, the idea was tweaked to the one on the left. The concept is similar to a paper towel roll. It is a menu+program+thank yous rolled up around the neck of a table number stand, serving two functions(menu+table number if you haven't caught on). And to make things easier, the table number is just a topper that is put on separately so the menu+program+sponsors can be take off the pole and change/ convenient for last minute edits. But because I was a little worried that the menu+program+sponsors would end up being a really long sheet, and people would not want to roll back up the paper after unrolling it out, a friend of mine suggested I split it into three parts, and secure each part with velcro...unless I could figure out a way for the menu to be pulled out and have it spring back into its rolled up form. And that's what I did! (the former)

The final decision, was something much more simple: the menu+program+acknowledgements was printed on one single sheet and rolled up and tied nicely with a ribbon.

Carleton!!!

I made it in!! I received a conditional offer in my email last night. Except out of haste I could not remember my pin, and I failed my security question... so I got locked out. heehee. (I emailed them and they unlocked it for me this morning)

The conditional offer, according to what I've heard, is that I am only accepted for Term 1, depending on my grades. If I flunk Term1, I guess that means I'm screwed!

I really did not think I was going to make it into Carleton because I knew of a guy who had entered the same program as me and was accepted to both OCAD and Carleton like two weeks ago. Hooray!
Although I have been pro-Carleton hands-down the entire time, I am now in a slight decision-making pickle. I never thought I would have difficulties making a decision and it should always have been Carleton University without a doubt. But now, I see OCAD in a different light, and all this waiting for Carleton's response has had me mentally preparing myself for the big T.O.



From what I've gathered from me and the guy that was accepted to both schools, here's the dilemma to picking the best school for my education:

CARLETON UNIVERSITY
1. it's interdisciplinary
you need to take marketing and psychology on top of your project courses
Interdisciplinary is important, because I think it makes the program more well rounded if you can relate it to different aspects. It's like why many university's arts and science programs are so great. (1point!)

2. it's within their engineering program.
If you are designing a chair, a car, an airplane, or a salt and pepper shaker, i think it's important that you know and understand physics, and how the object functions , and be able to do measurements and calculations (math) to create something at its maximum potential. (hence, engineering and design) So they teach you the technical skills you need to know. (and howto use design programs) to me, i feel that OCAD is very concept based, they are concerned mostly with design, and less with structure and possibly even plausibility. It may look cool, but the object may not be realistically strucaurally sound when put to the test. perhaps form without so much the function? (i could be very wrong!) (1point!)

3. they have co-op
Carleton is the only school with an ID CO-OP program. Plus, you can go to France in third year!!! (although I don't know if their co-op program is good or not. For example, the engineering co-op program at mac apparently sucks. 90% of what's listed isn't even related to your program, of the 10% that is related, 8% requires that you are a graduate student, and then the last 2% are located in places that are just not convenient. So unless their co-op program is good, it makes no difference from OCAD not having co-op)OCAD doesn't have one, but you could get internships and etc. yourself. I have a friend at umbra who said that there is a design computer program that they don't teach you at OCAD, that you need to learn (not autocad) if you want to work outside (ie. umbra), so you are kind of underprepared. However, I think ocad has a bigger name, but Karim Rashid graduated from Carelton, so... yah. (tie!)

4. you get a B.I.D. in the end
which is recognized within the field of industrial design people.. lol But for some reason, I think OCAD only gives you a BDes with an industrial design specialization. (1point!)

- many big workshops + lots of resources
- lots of competitions to join
- Canada's oldest ID program
- Globe and Mail ratings are pretty good. but it is for the overall school, it may be good because of their journalism and not their ID.

Cons
- does not emphasize so much on how to think (it's university-based, meaning there's a standard that every student must follow. As long as you do this and that, here are your grades, okay next. It doesn't necessarily mean you'll learn anything though)
- some of the profs have poor ratings. There is a large possibility you will be teaching yourself everything.... or the lectures could be super boring
- not sure about national and international reputation for ID...
- according to some people, they're not very updated on the real world. The profs aren't all connected to the design industry. (because they've been in teaching for so long vs. in society)



ONTARIO COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

1. They teach you how to think on your own
(which is also very important; it doesn't matter if you know all the design programs in the world, if you can't create your own ideas, you're stuck either way. You could always build your technical skills later or whenever, but can you always learn how to think? In the real world, it's the ones with the ideas that lead the team. (1point!)

2. Prof ratings are good
apparently, there's very high ratings from both ratemyprofessor.com and myocad.com --> "you will definitely learn a lot". Also, the profs are in the industrial design field themselves while teaching, so you get to be updated on the real world and know what is required. However, that also may mean that they don't know how to teach... (0.5point!)

3. Everyone is either an artist or designer, and you are at THE Ontario college of art and DESIGN.
It has a long history of successful artists and designers and the school has a reputation..name that people know and recognize (not sure about internationally reputation but apparently south korea knows what OCAD is)(0.5point!)

4. Located in Toronto
It's the big city! Toronto has, comparably, the most design firms (I guess this replaces co-op) (1point!)

Cons
- does not teach you technical skills (design programs)
- Does not involve in competitions, which I think are a great way to learn. (In fact, during the other guy's interview, the industrial design prof told him that they discourage students from joining competitions!)
- doesn't have the latest technology (so that's probably why it is more concept based and less technical or practical)
- no co-op!
- not interdisciplinary!
- workshops are small for the amount of students who need the facilities
- studios aren't open 24/7
- courses seem to be very disorganized or too.."kao-kei" - you basically plan out your own courses (if you look at their course list, there's a lot to choose from like this or this or this or this x100000 and it just keeps going) On the other hand, you could say you have many options and "flexibility"
- Not sure how much guidance teachers actually provide to students, and empowerment "what you put in is what you get out" -- but would they guide us to make the most of it?
- don't really know how they will "teach you how to think"
- Globe and Mail school ratings are VERY poor for OCAD. It's pretty much at the bottom of every list. (for a reason?)


hmm. but I guess in this case Carleton still kind of wins? I will mull over it, make a decision over the next few weeks, and if it's Carleton then let's hope I don't flunk first term, or else to Japan I go!

cheers,
the fence sitter.

OCAD offer

I received a conditional ACCEPTANCE to OCAD arrived in my email two days ago. I made it, I made it! I haven't checked my e-mail for a week. So this is happy news. Even though I don't 100% want to go to OCAD, (let's not think about that part for now) I'm accepted!! I got in!! yeaahhh!!

:)

arrived

said and done. at 10am today.


I wont be touching art for the sake of my final exams and graduation (sounds just about right, no?) so if I get any replies from schools, I'll let you know. Other than that you're not going to see any new stuff being made between now and May!

LIFE vs CARMEN getting into Carleton ID

So I checked the UPS tracking system (for the 10th time). It was updated last at "23:43" todayand it didn't report any acknowledgement of arrival at Carleton University. It's supposed to have arrived at Carleton by noon today. It's due tomorow. (techinically today, its past midnight) So cross your fingers and toes people, that it flies there between now and tomorrow and they still take my portfolio in. Because as my friend put it, "It seems like life just doesn't want you to get your portfolio done" (or into Carleton)

Carleton University

For some reason, this portfolio is the most taxing one of all. It is also the best school of all. (I think) So it is not one I can give up easily on.
My first mistake lies in the overestimation of time. (as usual) It's currently 10am Friday, and the portfolio deadline is April first - Tuesday. I had to priority courier my digital portfolio by UPS just a few minutes ago. Lucky for me, it is arriving at Carleton on Monday at noon. It is, uncomfortably, a very close call . Any later and I'd be missing the deadline entirely.
My second mistake lies in my stupidity for not realizing that deadlines meant final dates, and so one could and should feel free to submit what they want any time before that specified date; unlike university assignments, which are always handed in the day they are due. I realized this when Carleton called me and they told me that they were ALREADY handing out acceptances up until the beginning of April-ish. So by handing in work by the last day, I become the runt of the litter.
So this week has been quite rough. I have been able to sleep in my bed only three times this week, and eat a full dinner two times this week. Staying up late working makes it feel like I have lived through two weeks instead of just one. Even though I stayed up every night this week working on my portfolio, I still managed to have to pull a full all nighter last night to get it completely finished.

But all in all, I have nothing really to comment. It is good to be rid of the portfolio from my hands. There were a few points this week in the middle of the night where I was ready to forfeit. Because I remmeber:
1. don't "mien chiang" it, if you get it, then go, remmeber that your priorities lie in graduation, first.
2. in order to get what you want, you have to work hard to earn it.
But where lies the invisible line where/when I should stop pushing myself to completion and focus on more proximal priorities? When can I gauge that something is just too much for me, and that the better option is to stop, instead of keep going? before it becomes detrimental? (Have I come full circle to my inital dilemma? re: ECIAD? heehee)

Nevertheless, I am tired, and a little worn. I have to thank so many people (like you) for their support and encouragment in my possibly silly endeavour. Enclosed is what I submitted.








+CV, Portfolio notes, Statement of Intent


If you took my photography poll. Thanks! I updated the site with the number of votes each photo received incase you were curious.

+ unusual tidbit! I got a laptop and an extra usb on Thursday (before holy week) and my computer died this Wednesday. Lucky for me, I kept all my portfolio work on the usb. (or else I would seriously forfeit) Strange timing isn't it? But so I currently have no access to my computer stuff. Which kind of really bites. because there's a LOT of stuff in there I want!

Photography

I know I haven't posted in like two weeks... or a month. My apologies, but I'll digress later.

I'm not an authentic photographer, but sometimes I try. My problem is that I lack a focus in the image. I never had time to take actual courses. I hastily went through photos on my photo drive and memory to select a few. Take a look, I think I'm going to submit two. .or none since photography isn't my cup of tea yet. Let me know which, because I am the Queen of indecisiveness.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23659860@N03/

enjoy, and thanks.

Post OCAD

I had my interview today.
This is how my day went...
9am I woke up, went to Kinkos and printed my work. I'm disappointed in kinko's and I'm debating if I ever want to go there again instead of Staples. Their printer toner was low in yellow ink so my pages came out streaky. I thought that doing printing outside should equal better/higher quality printing (and not just higher quality paper), but I feel like if I had a good home printer, I could have done it myself. Word files, however, come out nice and crispy. But I don't understand why it looks 80% better on my computer, and when it prints, it looks uncrisp... is it resolution?

1pm I went to the bus station to go to Union. Then I realized I forgot my sketchbook, so I had to go back home. The next bus came at 2:20, and my interview is at 2:25. I begged mom for the car and she gave in.

2:30 I'm at OCAD, and I look around, and practically everyone is asian. I go into my interview room, and everyone IS asain. I was totally intimidated because everyone brought their large portfolios and original works, and all I had was a black sketchbook and my freshly printed portfolio book on a large empty table.
I'm interviewed twice, and the first guy didn't seem too impressed with my work because it looked so sparse and I didn't tell him I was from university in a non-related program. I mentioned it afterwards though, and he seemed a bit more understanding. He asked me to explain everything in my portfolio as well.
The second guy, just flipped through my portfolio and sketchbook without asking me about my work. I mentioned the being a university student thing to him first, and he was pleased and said, "Oh, that's very good. That's really useful and important" And then he asked me why people like sweet things. (Maybe it was a test) Anyway, he went through my portfolio more than once, and then said that I should apply for advance placement. And I was like, don't I need foundation year? I'm not really skilled in the arts/drawing etc. and he said, "You don't need to know how to draw for industrial design!" So, I said ok well, if it's another interview, I may as well, since there is nothing to lose. The only setback is that I may not know terms and etc. in classes in second year if I don't do first year. Anyway, so in the confidential interview paper, he showed me, he put an X in the box for YES, I SUPPORT THIS PERSON'S ADMISSION INTO OCAD, and then put a note on the side saying that he supports me for advance placement, and to ask him about it if there are any inquiries!

I hope Carleton could be as happy as that.

5pm I told mom the details, and then she asked me, "Do you want to go to OCAD?" I simply shrugged. I don't know!

8pm I'm having dinner with a cute 90 year old lady and my friend SMS's me to tell me I spelt the word "orchid" wrong in my portfolio. ><

I know I'm not 100% finished yet, but I am 3/4 the way there. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! It really does keep my head above the water.

OCAD

So this is pretty much what I'm handing in. Because today is a public holiday everything is closed. I'm printing it tomorrow morning and then going to the interview! Since I am no longer "mien chiang" (to force/to push oneself/onething) this whole industrial-design-right-after-I-graduate-and-start-in-september-08, this should simply be just a great learning process. I'm going to take it easy! So hit the road jack!

>>EDIT

nonetheless, I think that...
1. I don't like the background colour anymore >> I've changed it. and I like it now that it's not the colour of tuna
2. I don't know if I should keep landscape photos as landscape, or keep it fitted into a portrait page
3. I was having difficulties with my fashion design page layout
4. My wash is the weakest piece in the portfolio, what did my friend see in it that I didn't?
5. I touched up the orchid sketch, but is it up to par?

perhaps I am my worst critic!
enjoy!