Sep 16

Reflecting On the 7 in 7

I loved the 7 in 7 project. I have never been forced to work so quickly before and I have never been so prolific. One of the most challenging portions of this project was defining the constraints in the beginning. It was difficult to decide what my focus would be and to commit to an idea that would carry me through the week. Like constraints are supposed to do, once established, they pushed me creatively. I won’t pretend like fully formed ideas popped into my head every day, there were certainly mad scrambling brainstorm sessions, but all in all, my adherence to theme and commitment to exploring new media propelled my work. [The Five Obstructions is a wonderful documentary film that explores this process.]

Another challenge was deciding when a project was finished. Since I don’t usually work in one day (and with other homework to boot), I had to redefine what a finished project looks like. All in all, I am pleased with my finished pieces. I went through tons of iterations where things worked and things didn’t, but I had fun the entire time (well, almost). One thing I really love and I’ve missed in my work as a graphic designer is working with my hands. This gave me that opportunity.

I’ve really enjoyed exploring my theme of the inherent darkness of fairy tales. Each piece works with a different fairy tale and shows the darker themes we gloss over and even fail to notice in the tales we tell children. It’s quite amazing to realize that no story ends at the Disney-ified version.

Sep 16

7 in 7 – Day 7 – Negative Space

The final piece in my series represents Sleeping Beauty. The syringe corresponds to the needle on which she pricks herself. I wanted to use negative space for my final piece to symbolize that the stories we hear as children (and tell children, in turn) are not as they seem in the forefront. Sometimes, we need to delve a little deeper (actually, in most cases, it really is right there bubbling at the surface for those who notice) and refocus our eyes to see what’s really there. I used blow pens on paper for this piece.

Sleeping BeautySleeping Beauty 2

Sep 16

Reading Response – Mashup.

Before I read those articles about mashup. I thought mashup is a new concept to me. But after those readings brought me to a very wider definition of mashup, I realized I have a lots of experience of mashup based on my design education and also mashup is very where in our daily life.

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SUV(Sport Utility Vehicle) comes from commercial and military vehicles such as the World War 2 Jeep and Land Rover, it was mainly produced for rural buyers and their off-road capabilities. But why in today, SUV has come one of most poplar vehicles in the big cites, from east to west, Beijing to San Francisco? The answer is SUV is every successful mashups to command all the advantages fro big family car and lower the disadvantage of traditional heavy Jeeps. By intruding mashups to the vehicles design,almost all the new car brands have combined more than two elements between SUV, traditional small family car and even sports car. So, our car in today is more adaptable to more than two different road condition.

Mashups not only combines elements, objects, idea to make new innovations and concepts for us, but also make a big profits in the market.

The movie” The Avenger” from Marvel combined five super heroes in one movie and at the same time it combined all the supports from all of those heroes’ fans. The Avenger movie make a great example that how mashups can make a bigger profits.

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Sep 16

7 in 7 – Day 6 – Scratchboard

Today’s project explores the mental instability and challenges in Beauty and the Beast. I wanted a medium that would convey something about the experience in a mental ward (as I see it). This is my version of a scratchboard etching. I used crayon on paper for the first layer, painted it with India ink, and scratched out my image of the Beast trapped in a straight jacket.

Beast

Beast 2

Sep 15

7 in 7 – Day 5 – Stop Motion

Today, I made a tiny, adorable stop motion of a pretty gruesome scene in Grimm’s Cinderella. One of the stepsisters cut off her toes to fit into the glass slipper. Here’s the low-res version.

Sep 15

7 in 7 – Day 4 – Gingerbread

Today’s project is a gingerbread oven depicting Hansel and Gretel in the witch’s oven. I used graham crackers, frosting, lots of candy, and fondant. I think preserving the traditional jolly gingerbread theme enhances the gruesome representation of this story.

Hansel and GretelHansel and Gretel 3 Hansel and Gretel 2

Sep 13

Reading response for Mashup

Before I read those three passages I didn’t know anything about mashup. And I’m kind of interested in the concept of the Mashup,

By its definition, mashup is a kind of creative combination or mixing of content from different sources . That’s really imaginative. The passage<<Mashups: The new breed of Web app>>, which give me some inspiration of this concept. I am a traveler addicts who love to spend most of the spare time in traveling everywhere. If we could combine all the data of a certain destination of our journey with the map service, like the data of the weather, entertainment information, that could make a journey to a totally strange country much easier.

But I’m also thinking about  the mode of the interchange of information opening. The API provider like google and amazon, they may make a contract and build a new standard of information sharing. We are now sort of get a point where we need to find out the boundary of the information but not only focus on the business value that mashup can create for us.

Sep 13

7 in 7 – Day 3 – Photoshop

Today’s project explores the creepiness of the Pied Piper. I’ve depicted all the children he’s kidnapped on Warhol-esque milk cartons for a modern spin of this To Catch A Predator story. I used Photoshop for this project.

For bonus creepiness: the children in these photographs are my actual nieces and nephews.piedpiper

Sep 13

Mashup found in nature

Just saw this article about an insect with gears between its legs that allow it to jump really fast

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http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/the-first-gear-discovered-in-nature-15916433?click=pm_latest

Sep 13

7 in 7 – Day 2 – Line Drawing

The second project in this series is a line drawing of a wolf howling at the moon. It represents the villain of Little Red Riding Hood. I used micron pens on paper. No lines cross in this piece. The border is painted with acrylic, for the iconic color of this fairy tale. I burnt the edges primarily because I like fire. The secondary reason is to preserve the romance of old artifacts.

Line 1 Line 2