Design Concepts This handmade conceptual book showcases five graphic interpretations of the Greek deity Eros. Details at the end…
	Now, for the juicy production notes…

I quote my teacher: “the first step in the creative process is to Accept the Situation.”
To this end, nearly all of assignments in Design Concepts involve an element of chance, the outcomes of which are non-negotiable. At the same time, I believe God works out all things, even “chance” things, for good.

I wasn’t thrilled with the theme of Greek deities to begin with, but when I drew Eros out of a hat, I really despaired! Developing an exposé on the pagan god of sexuality is not high on my list of ambitions.

I asked the Holy Spirit what to do, and very quickly received a peace about it. God has truth to communicate on any and every subject, so this particular prompt, too, was totally redeemable.

Step 1: Research.
Wikipedia gave me some very nice leads. I also read The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis, who is not afraid of mythology and actually uses it quite powerfully to communicate Biblical truth. It turns out that the interpretations of Eros through history are plural and multifaceted, which was extremely helpful for…

Step 2: Ideate.
Yes, this means to brainstorm and to keep a record of the ideas in quick sketches. Just to make things interesting, we were required to come up with ONE HUNDRED different ways to represent our deity! That meant 20 each of the five different types:

Pictographic: literal. The deity is personified in logo-like simplicity.
Ideographic: non-literal. The essence of the deity is symbolized in a graphic of logo-like simplicity.
Photographic: a sketch suggesting a possible photographic composition.
Illustrative: the deity communicated in any of the endless illustrative styles that exist.
Typographic: the deity’s name is expressively incorporated into the piece.

It took me almost two weeks, but I did draw one hundred sketches of Eros.  I won’t bore you by showing them (they’re not all are G-rated, either!). I was relieved to have met the requirement, but not much closer to knowing what exactly my book was going to communicate about Eros!

A beautifully logical operation got me moving forward again. I identified five prominent themes among my sketches: attraction, obsession, predatory lust, oneness, and procreation. I sorted the sketches by type and theme, and by process of elimination hit upon my final five, in which each type and each theme was represented once. Perfect.

Step 3: Mood board.
Sound a little spooky? It is, at least in the sense that there are very few rules regarding it. It is an object (board… or otherwise) that encapsulates the feeling the final piece will have. Here is mine:

Let me interpret. I decided that my five themes didn’t work together in any kind of narrative sequence; they were more like snapshots of a mysterious force. This is where the mood of scientific research came in. Who is Eros? We can’t pin him down, but here are some of the things he has a hand in.

I already knew I wanted to use the genuine old paper that I have on hand, so the dated look of the piece was dictated partially by that. I knew, however, that my ideogram in particular was going to look rather modern, so I decided to fuse two periods: the self-importance of the Victorian age combined with the irreverence of Post-Modernity. Incidentally, these are two societies that have some of the strangest views on sexuality. It is only natural that they would need to mount an investigation into the matter!

Step 4: Digital Layout
I worked my five sketched ideas into final comps and determined their order and layout using Indesign.

Step 5: Assembling
To keep up the aged look, I printed each of my designs onto the old paper. I used the inkjet printer I have at home, because I doubt if the printing office at school would have sent those thin and brittle A4s through their professional laser printers. The downside of inkjet prints is that they don’t have the juicy saturation of laser prints. The principle color of my spreads was black, but it came out greyish. There was no impact!

I started thinking of ways to fix this. A second pass through the printer would not have lined up correctly. I mused about some kind of coating agent. Hairspray came to mind first, but I couldn’t find any. Then I decided to try vegetable oil. I painted it onto my black areas, and the result was fantastic! This is not an easy medium, though. I found that the oil spread astonishing distances over several hours. On some pages, the end effect was really good. On others, I had to fight it desperately. In fact, I still can’t predict exactly what the oil will do by tomorrow, when I turn the book in.

The vegetable oil added the textural interest that the book needed. It also gave a layer of meaning that I never planned on, but can easily justify – it’s sensuous, earthy… maybe even a little unclean.

I bought the metallic marbled paper for the covers at a local art store, which was fun. I had nothing in mind, but I knew it was the right paper when I saw it – a little bit cosmic, enigmatic, and worked with my color scheme.

The gold paint was the last of all these after thoughts. It represents the opposite of the oil – divine, refined, glorious… Eros contains a lot of contradictions within himself!

That’s the story. And after all that, I realize I’ve said almost nothing about the content of the book… It’s for you to interpret and explore. I hope you find that the voice of truth speaks through it!

This post is about the ad campaign I just created for a product that, once again, I didn’t have the luxury of choosing:
Equal® sweetener.

How to come up with crazy ideas for ad campaigns:
Get something that will present you with a series of totally random images (for instance, a newspaper or an image search engine). Even if there seems to be no connection with your product, create one. Some of the most brilliant ads are just off the wall like that! Quickly make note of or sketch your ideas as they come.

At some point, however, strategy must inform creativity. Research the product, company, and market, answering questions like the following:

“Why does our client need to advertise?” 
“Who are we going to connect with, and what do we know about them?”
“What is the single, most effective message?”

That’s about all I’m going to say now, because real ads don’t get the luxury of  disclaimers and explanations from the people who make them. I’ll take my chances and see if these ads hold their own.

STEP ONE
Stare helplessly as your teacher hands you a random household object.
(In the real world, this is the equivalent to having clients – you get what you get!)

In my case, it was an ice cream scoop (I don’t even like ice cream).

STEP TWO
Come up with an exhaustive list of words related to that object.

kids sugar ice cream chocolate vanilla cold freezer metal heat melt shiny  distort reflect grip hold ease ball rubber party evening summer truck vendor job round dessert clown birthday puke cake sticky sweet colors flavors 52 Baskin Robbins sprinkles kids’ meal DQ soft serve gelato cherry on top milk fun childlike sundae how many scoops? strawberry rocky road hot water celebration sugar high gaining weight cone waffle whipped cream dairy buckets tubs strong resistant smile serve mouth lick crystals festive joy happiness handy useful junk food sickness obesity sugary messy

STEP THREE
Organize and relate these words to each other on a continuum that ranges from objects, to symbols, to concepts. Most concrete to least concrete.

STEP FOUR – The Matrix
Extract essential words, separate the visual from descriptive words and list.

Choose the six best of each and form a table, like this:

STEP FIVE:
Choose the six most promising combinations, and start sketching!

Below are sketches of fun utensil, sticky utensil, sugary scoop, sweet server, unhealthy scoop, and handy server.

As you go, narrow down the ideas that are working, and develop them.

OPTIONAL STEP:
Get people to critique your rough ideas. They will see things you never thought of, guaranteed!

STEP SIX:
Choose your best idea(s), and finalize them.

Here is my finished pictogram (literal representation of object):

And here is my finished ideogram (object represents a concept, in this case obesity):

Class | Design Concepts
Challenge | Design Your Own Birth Announcement

With this project, I wanted to express in an hand-held format the eternal significance of my natural birth. This is how the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always seen me, in the fullness of my unique calling. This is a “tunnel card,” which can only be properly viewed when actually held up to your eye. I try to give you an impression of the interior scene with the camera, but it’s limited.

Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has
blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ. For
he chose us in him before the creation
of the world to be holy and blameless in
his sight! In love he predestined us to
be adopted as his sons through Jesus
Christ, in accordance with his pleasure
and will— to the praise of his glorious
grace, which he has freely given us in the
One he loves. In him we have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
in accordance with the riches of God’s
grace that he lavished on us with all
wisdom and understanding. And he made
known to us the mystery of his will
according to his good pleasure, which
he purposed in Christ, to be put into
effect when the times will have reached
their fulfillment—to bring all things
in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ.

Ephesians 1: 3-10

Hello everybody,
I am two weeks into my Spring quarter! My new classes are Anthropology, Design History, Design Concepts, and Web Scripting.

In case you’re wondering, Design Concepts is a class about the creative process, where we practice coming up with more and better design ideas. Our first assignment was to choose an organic object and illustrate it nine different ways (by hand!), exploring different media and techniques.

I decided to celebrate and study spring via plum blossoms. The process was challenging, because I’m not very confident in traditional media! The results were exciting, though. To make it simpler, I did each illustration directly from a photo reference. Here they are, in order of completion. The true dimensions are 4″x4″. And as always, you can click for a larger version.

#1: Fountain pen and effaceur

Of the nine, this is the only zoomed-out view I chose to do. I wanted to capture the intricate texture of blossoming branches. An effaceur is a small felt tip marker whose fluid is made to erase standard fountain pen ink. So to begin with, I tried drawing contours with the effaceur, then brushing over the area with watered-down ink. It bled too much, so I reapplied detail using both the effaceur and the fountain pen.

#2: 4H-6B Pencil

The letters and numbers refer to grades of pencil lead. Hard H pencils produce finer, fainter lines, whereas B pencil lead is soft and dark. The everyday pencils we come into contact with are HB, which strikes a happy medium. Anyway, I used differing grades to create the shades. My goal was to make the blossoms look as if they were glowing, an decision I made after photoshopping my reference photo to high contrast.

#3: Found Paper Collage

This one got a little smushed in teacher transit, but the tracing-paper tendrils originally fanned out uninhibited from the page! The white and red petals are made from French boulangerie bread bags, and the stems are made from a Japanese book about… I have no idea what.
I cheated and used Illustrator to build my collage in vector shapes, the outlines of which I then printed and traced. That way, I didn’t waste any time messing up!

#4: Acrylic

I think this was the first time I touched my acrylic paints since Color Theory class ended. I realized with pleasure that I hadn’t lost my skills! Oh my goodness, I hate drawing clumped petals though. Is is not intuitive to me at all. Those of you who draw roses off the cuff, I salut you!

#5: Foutain pen contour line

A contour line drawing shows only the edges of things, without any shading. This one was pretty straightforward. Actually, all nine started out as contour line drawings, because I got the basic shapes down before deciding on the medium. With all that practice, I’ve become much better at looking at something and reproducing it accurately.

#6: Colored STABILO pens

I wanted a more abstract look for these unopened buds, so I gave them some interesting texture and color treatment. They remind me a little of the drawings in Shel Silverstein’s books…

#7: Childlike marker and white-out pen

I basically let loose on this one, after drawing a few blossoms as I felt a child would do it (circles and sticks).

#8: Colored pencil

This was unquestionably where I broke the most new ground. I never choose to use colored pencils, nor have I ever done anything so neo-impressionist before. It’s somewhat Van Gogh inspired, but I bet my method differed from his: in order to figure out what colors to use, I added colored noise to my photo reference and studied the pixels in each area! I figured out that similar value was the key to a smooth appearance, even if adjacent hues are wildly different. So, I reordered my 48 colored pencils in order of light to dark instead of rainbow order. Rather tricky. Then, I was able to quickly grab 4 or 5 pencils from the same value range and go at it. All the little controlled strokes took forever.

#9: Marker logo

We were required to make one of our illustrations more stylized, leaning towards the logo end of the spectrum. This one I saved for last because I knew it would require the least time to complete. Whew!