Dedicated to everyone I go to school with. Especially Peter, who shared his nerds today.

The Cheese Monkeys.

As some of you know, I have the world's best sister. I'm open to discussion for anyone that thinks their sister is cooler than my sister, but I'm pretty biased, so you probably won't get anywhere. She and her husband have a cute and fierce blog. Why cute and fierce? Liv recently posted about puppies, and Oz is a hardcore base jumper. and you should DEFINITELY stop by.

Once again, as I've been doing my whole life, I'm going to copy my older sister.
I now welcome you to Brianna's book club!



The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd. I was told by my professor that we absolutely should read it if we decided to study art in college. And now I'm telling you that you probably should read it regardless of if you studied art in college. The book is divided into two semesters: Drawing 101, and Intro to Graphic Design, with a brief interlude for winter break. The protagonist in this story goes vaguely nameless, but just like Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club, we give him the name Happy, although his name isn't Happy at all, just as Fight Club's protagonist assumes the name Joe. Happy's experiences at "State University" are mostly comical, mixed with occasional hard-hitting clash.

And lastly, Chip Kidd is a ground-breaking book designer, so you might want to read it for the book itself (sorry kindle users). The wide margins make a quick read even quicker, and as my friend Jackson pointed out, he uses two different fonts for each semester (transitional and modern if anyone was wondering). At the very least, if my recommendation has fallen on deaf ears, find the paperback version the next time you're in the book store. The optical illusion on the edge is sure to astound and amaze.

This is entry number 1. I guarantee you the next entry will be much less light-hearted.

Winter Quarter, brought to you by...

coffee.

Looopy in the Lab

For my design production class, we have to create a color test in Indesign and Illustrator. The idea is that we'd have this file to take to any printer any where in the world to test out a variety of different things, like banding on gradients, built blacks, transparency options on native layout art and photoshop art, and on and on down the list. The above crayon box is something I made for it, to test colors in both Illustrator and Photoshop and see how they compare. Blogging during finals week, who'da thunk it?!

Jewelbot, Round two

Finito! It's actually been done for quite some time, but in that time school and work have been a tidal wave of demand. The design changed quite a bit from the beginning.



These dimensions were too big, both for my room and the amount of jewelery it would organize. So, after trimming down almost every single copper tube (which didn't take that long still) this is what I ended up with:



And this concludes the creation of the jewelbot. Although he still needs a name...

Jewelbot, round one

Hello all! Long time no blog. I've decided to expand my horizons, and start posting more than watercolors. Lately, my life has been a flurry of artistic activity, between being a junior in the Graphic Design depart at Western Washington University, working at a stamp store, and using what little spare time I have to have FUN! Some of those funtivities include calligraphy, making books, and the constant reinvention of my room. Since I'm always learning and making mistakes, I thought I'd take that very next step. Sharing.

The current project is a jewelery stand. Robot. A jewelbot if you will. I got the initial inspiration from Mark Mantano's book, The Big Ass Book of Crafts. The project I adapted was for a candelabra made out of copper pipes and glass bowls, but I just built upward to create a new organizational friend.

The second place I went for inspiratation: Hardware Sales, a locally owned and operated hardware store a stone's throw away from where I work (read: lunch break fun). I could talk about the 30,000 square feet of hardware bliss, shelves stocked with supplies, and a new surprise every corner you turn. But what really makes hardware sales so great is the staff. Every time you enter a new section, you'll probably get asked within seconds if you need help. And I did! Several different people helped me gather all the things I would need to build this little fella'.

Thanks to the fine folks at Hardware Sales! In this post over at an open [sketch]book, they recognize that "excellent work should be noted, valued, and appreciated." I couldn't agree more. When people take a genuine interest in helping, it makes all the difference in what could be a very daunting project. Instead, I just want to go back, armed with pictures of my finished robot and ideas for a new project! And I know if I hit any snags, I have somewhere to turn. Places like Hardware Sales make Bellingham a great place to learn and create.

Production time:

Time to turn all these pieces into a whole robot. So what I learned how to do: cut copper pipes! With a really simple pipe cutter, I fit the piece snuggly against the blade, and twirled it around, tightening with each rotation. It usually only took two or three full turns.

Here's the cut pipe. Easy-peasy. The rest was just connecting the pieces, easier-peasier.

The assembled bot was much bigger than I anticipated, so I'll probably shorten the torso, and possibly the legs. So I'll get to glueing it all with E-6000 soon, but right now I need to get back to designing book covers (Ah, the bane and the bliss of my program). In the meantime, this lil' guy needs a name! I know I've got at least a few readers, he needs a name! And if anyone reads this wants help on a pipe project of their own, I've got a cutter and advice you can borrow.

2011 space odyssey