wpa poster

The Work Progress Administration (WPA) was the largest "New Deal" agency under president FDR. The original posters "..were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities." (source)

Our assignment was to modernize the WPA posters, focusing on present day issues. I chose to focus on the plastic vs. reusable bag issue, something I have been trying to be more conscious of lately. Last semester, I gave a persuasive speech on the topic for a communications class, and what I found out then has really stuck with me. According to Reusablebags.com, 1 million plastic bags are consumed per minute! Plastic bags that end up as litter harm and kill animals, don't biodegrade, and are of the "12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation." (source) By choosing reusable bags instead, we can make an impact.

I was inspired by the layout of this WPA poster, for it's minimal text and very large, bold graphic which communicates most of the point. I really enjoyed doing this assignment in Illustrator.

object persuasion

For this assignment, we were to create an persuasive Photoshop ad for the tables we designed in studio. We were to incorporate a "hero" shot of our models, a line drawing, some form of context, and informative text. I enjoyed this a lot, it is fun to play around with text and image placement.

urban pathway

For this assignment in 212, we were to find an image of an urban pathway, and use Illustrator to trace over it and make a vector. This was extremely tedious! But still relaxing, and I'm happy with the outcome.

scene of discourse

In 212 this week, we were to create a blend of images in Photoshop to convey 2 phrases we were given; mine were "dynamic movement" and "mysterious." This assignment was a lot of fun and stress relieving. All the photos in my composition were taken by me.

final 3dsmax renderings

These are my 5 final 3dsmax renderings. With this program, we imported our SketchUp models, reapplied materials, placed lighting, and adjusted views, and many, many settings. It was definitely a challenge to work out, but it was interesting to learn. I'm pretty happy with the results, but I think I like Podium better!

pattern perception

This half of the semester in 212, we are working with 2D graphic programs. Our first assignment was to take a picture of an "urban landscape" and create a pattern in photoshop, inspired by a traditional Victorian pattern. I chose a picture of 40bond in NYC, an apartment building.

This was really good practice with learning the basics of photoshop, it was fun to make.

process podium images

This week in Tina's class we have been working with Podium- a rendering plugin for Sketch up. These are some of my process images as I've been playing around with different lighting effects and views in my habitable wall model. Will post my final images soon.

sketch up: habitable wall walkthrough

sketch up junk

Today in Tina's class we learned about components in sketch up. Was messing around and thought these were neat.. Enjoy? :)

sketchup : habitable wall process

I am finally starting to get more comfortable with SketchUp. While I did run into a few problems from my last post (made the glass waaaaay too thick) it was easier starting over again since I was more familiar. For tomorrow, we were to generate 5 interior views of our space. I found this a little challenging, as my space turned out to be a lot smaller than I thought I'd designed. Below is a variety, though I'm not sure if I'm happy with them or not... I'll update more when my model is complete!

learning sketchup

A screenshot of my model in progress.. Our first assignment in 212 is to model our habitable wall projects from first year in SketchUp. I am pretty excited about finally learning it, and it is starting to come more easily to me. More updates soon!

a response to 'computing in architectural design'

It amazes me how far design related technology has come. The idea that anyone can imagine something, design something in their head, and then (once they've learned how) have the ability to translate it to a digital reality is remarkable.

Computers and technology advances have changed the architecture and design professions immensely, in some ways better than others. On the positive side, design programs like AutoCAD work with codes and standards easily, saving lots of time drawing each window, door, or wall if one was drawing by hand. The drawings can also be easily duplicated or edited on the computer, another major time saving device. On the negative side, there was a point when "the emphasis on the unique attributes of buildings was sacrificed for the sake of generality." While there have been some steps taken to overcome this factor, I sometimes feel that hand drawing and hand rendering and modeling is the best and more efficient way to express unique designs. Of course we cannot let computers completely generalize the structural world around us. Isn't the uniqueness and bettering "the now" and "the ordinary" a major issue in the design profession?

Designing and modeling something by hand is usually perceived two ways: better (because the designer is more skilled and dedicated "in real life") or worse (as computers are such a prominent part of the world today, it is almost a mandatory skill to be proficient in). Hand drawing and modeling allows designers to communicate directly from brain to client, eliminating any inability to create exactly what they have perceived through the computer. But as this may be due to the designer's incomprehension of computer aided design, and cannot solely be blamed on the actual program, I feel computer programs are overall beneficial the design today. On the other side, someone who cannot model something by hand may also be considered unskilled. It seems a good designer must be well rounded in both hand and computer aided design skills.

Technology developments today allow us to imagine and create things more advanced than we, or ancient architects, ever thought possible. The technology saves us time and energy, and allows us to see things we may not be able to see when not utilizing these tools. And as technology is always moving forward, the future of architecture and design will only get more in depth, precise, and better than we ever could think possible.

(assignment 1)