Blackburn Graphic Design

AR219 Coursework: Digital Self Portrait

2011-04-08T19:11:00.000-07:00

Students in AR219 just finished transforming themselves in Photoshop.

Joe Malin

Marla Courtney

Kelsie Moroney

AR219 Coursework: The Queequeg assignment

2011-03-16T16:40:00.000-07:00

In AR219, our 2nd assignment of the semester involved reading a chapter from Melville's Moby Dick and creating an illustration for the character Queequeg based on the the description from the chapter. The illustration was then placed into a 2 page layout in InDesign. These are a few of the illustrations:

Alison Corey

Joe Malin

Nick Wagner

AR219 Coursework: Spring 2011

2011-02-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

For our first assignment in Graphic Design AR219, students created a set of abstractions ranging from simple to complex. Each abstraction created was based on film stills from Le Voyage dans la Lune by Melies (1902) that the students selected.

Scott Walker

Joe Malin

Alison Corey

Graphic Design Coursework: AR219 Fall 2010

2010-12-01T10:05:00.000-08:00

AR219 recently completed their third project which consisted of designing a poster for a performance of Henryk Gorecki's 3rd Symphony. Here are a few samples:

Megan Adamski

Traci Kamp

Kallie Kahl

Graphic Design Coursework AR319/AR419

2010-11-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

Advanced Graphic Design and Senior Graphic Design recently completed a Flat Pack Toy project based on characters from classic literature. Here are a few samples:

Lennie and Curley from Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men

- Katie Taylor

Buck and Sol-leks from London's Call of the Wild

- Halli Ohl

The Doctor and his creation from Shelley's Frankenstein

- Maddie Johnson

Graphic Design Coursework: Fall 2010

2010-10-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

The AR219 beginning graphic design course just completed an exercise in using grids as an impetus for abstract design. Here are some samples:

Ashley Deibert

Megan Adamski

Kallie Kahl

Graphic Design Coursework: Spring 2010

2010-06-24T09:37:00.001-07:00

Some selections from Graphic Design Sections: AR219, AR319 and AR419 from Spring 2010.

Gorecki 3rd Symphony Poster, Caitlyn Beaird

Gorecki 3rd Symphony Poster, Cassie Holshauser

Gorecki 3rd Symphony Poster, Ruthie Jean Kahl

Portrait of Beethoven, Jenna Heidel

Self Portrait, Trent Fred

Self Portrait, Erin Crowe

Coursework: Graphic Design AR219

2010-02-06T19:41:00.001-08:00

Graphic Design AR219 recently completed Assignment 1 which consisted of watching and using a screenshot from Méliès' Voyage Dans La Lune (1902) to create an abstract design. There were three stages to the project:

simple black and white abstraction
more complex black, white and gray abstraction
complex abstraction in grayscale plus one color

Posted here are examples of the 3rd stage in the process:

Ruthie Kahl

Cassie Holshauser

Logan Daily

Video and Animations

2009-12-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here is two videos on youtube. One is a PSA from archive.org on how to cross the street. I did small changes to it in the beginning areas, but I completely changed the ending.

The other is a design was made in After Effects, and I created my website's name falling into water plus a headless man suit falling into water.

Enjoy.

Course Work AR219

2009-11-25T08:31:00.001-08:00

For Project 3 in beginning Graphic Design, AR219, we listened to Henryk Gorecki's Symphony Number 3. It is also known as the Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. Students reacted to the music with the following stipulation:

project size was 12"x12"
a photograph had to be used
no images from the internet could be utilized

Rebecca Salisbury

Abby Schultz

DeVon Sims

Course work AR219: Textures

2009-11-12T19:20:00.001-08:00

What could be better than an afternoon spent creating textures in Photoshop? Here are a few selections from AR219:

Abby Schultz

Amanda Johnston

DeVon Sims

Heather King

Lauren Freeze

Jenn Sahr

Jess Countryman

Rebecca Salisbury

Vinny Watson

Nosferatu Live

2009-11-07T10:07:00.000-08:00

I thought this is interesting. In St. Louis at Off Broadway (venue), there is going to be a live performance by The Rats and People Motion Picture Orchestra of their original score to accompany the movie, Nosferatu. The showing is Saturday,
November 28th and tickets are $8. The graphic design classes along with the 2D design class had a project revolving around Nosferatu, so this may be of interest to anyone who was interested. Off Broadway is a nice venue. It is not a huge place, but has a nice stage and dance/crowd area. They also have a bar area and areas to sit. Here is a link to Off Broadway. Scroll down to see the information on the Nosferatu showing, and there is also links to buy tickets there. I think there may be an additional charge of $3 for people under 21. I'm not 100% sure if the movie is shown while they are playing, and I will edit this or comment on it as soon as I find out.

The Graphic Design Playlist

2009-10-21T15:19:00.000-07:00

All levels of graphic design (AR219, AR319 and AR419) are starting a new project that involves music and reacting to that music with design. Today as a warm-up for the main project, we listened to 10 songs. During the listening, students reacted with images, text and color using Adobe Illustrator to each song.

We listened to:
Piano Trio in B flat Major, Op.97 "Archduke", I. by Beethoven
Medery by Casino Versus Japan
Neuköln by David Bowie
Night Life In Twin Peaks by Angelo Badalamenti
In the mist: II. by Janacek
Utrenja (Ewangelia) by Penderecki
Morning from the Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg
Abandoned Ship Bells by Mum
Symphony No. 3, Movement II by Philip Glass
Movements of a Visionary by Tangerine Dream

Some details from reactions:

Rebecca Salisbury's reaction to Philip Glass

Jess Countryman's reaction to Penderecki

Amanda Johnston's reaction to Bowie

Vinny Watson's reaction to Casino vs. Japan

DeVon Sims' reaction to Beethoven

~ MORE TO FOLLOW ~

Current Project Ideas

2009-10-21T14:51:00.000-07:00

I am currently working on an animation project. At the moment I am thinking it will be a video going along with the song, "Old Main Drag" by The Pogues. I think the song is a very sad story that could be represented well in an animation. Another song in the running to be represented in this animation would be "Anywhere I Lay my Head" by Tom Waits. It also has around the same vibe (and both made in 1985... good year for sad songs?) which would work well with this animation. The song choice is up in the air. Go ahead and comment your opinion on them if you want. I may listen to your ideas. I may also ignore them, so give me some good reasons on your choice.

And now to the meat and potatoes. The actual style of animation and graphics I plan on using involves lots of ... scribbles. I don't know if I like that word being used for it. Its a sort of calculated chaos. The characters and scenery will be all done in this style (I think) for possibly the entirety of the song, or just during parts. The "scribbles" are quickly drawn on the computer (or possibly scanned in, but for possible effect reasons I may use, computer would be better suited for it). While they are quick, they are planned around the shape of the object. They go around the contours of the face for example giving it a little more depth. Each character and other element will have many of these drawings associated with it and will be animated together which will be an interesting effect (I know explained that badly, there will be a video of what I described for you).

The effect creation process was a very long... non-tedious process. It was long because that scribble style has become one of my fortes with design. I have used the style in multiple projects and find ways for it to work (or also recognize when it won't work). I enjoy the effect because it really goes against the clean, shiny trend that you see a lot in graphic design currently (not that clean, shiny is bad). It is not going to be a commercial for Esurance commercial with crispy, clean characters, but it will possibly use some of their techniques of 2d characters in 3d worlds.

Anyhow, I'll try to keep the world up to date on this project as I continue to work on it. Here's a video of the effect in motion. It is not done in as high quality as the final project but it is a good taste. It also shows the idea I mentioned. The original image will possibly come in at various times in the animation.

St. Louis Field Trip

2009-10-14T09:22:00.000-07:00

On Friday, October 9, the advanced Graphic Design classes and the Non-Western Art History class combined forces to visit two important locations in St. Louis; The Saint Louis Art Museum and The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum. For the Graphic Design classes, the goal was to see and write about the current exhibit called Metabolic City up through 1/4/2010. The Non-Western Art History students found and wrote about specific pieces in the Non-Western collections at SLAM that they found personally compelling.

Saint Louis Art Museum

Ja'Rivia Harmon (sitting) and Jasmin Page (walking in reflection)
in the main hall of SLAM

Statue of St. Louis in front of SLAM

Close-up of a bronze arrow vase from China at SLAM

Instant City

2009-10-14T00:10:00.000-07:00

The Mildred Lane Kemper Museum has an exhibit on the Metobolic City . It was a collaboration of artists with ideas for cities that were not necessarily practical or possible. I'm a little unsure on their exact purpose. It could have been art for art's sake. It could have been a statement. I mostly think the purpose was to get the viewer to just think about possibilities.

The artwork that grabbed my attention was this instant city set of images. They were done in a blueprint style, but it did not stay with the blueprint style all the way through. The set of images depicted a blimp flying over a city and adding a ton of things to the city including huge public theatres and places of learning. A lot of the items seemed to leave with the blimp when the blimp left the image, but some things changed the city for good.

One of the most interesting aesthetic idea in the images was having the blueprint style but straying away for certain things. For example, the people were not built to scale and were large. My favorite example of going away from the blue prints was small images in movie screans. I would assume it was just done by pasting the images in.

The whole exhibit was nice. It involved quite a few different styles of art and even a few movies to watch.

Metabolic City

2009-10-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

My fellow classmates and I visited Metabolic City during our Friday field trip to St. Louis. The art work that caught me eye was the Electric Tomato by Warren Chalk and David Greene. There is a woman balancing on one foot and using her arms and and right leg to balance. She is wearing a red dress and tights with yellow shoes. To the left of the woman there is a tomato with dotted lines coming out of the stem and attach themselves to the woman on her right ankle, right shoulder, left wrist, and right underneath her rib cage on her left side. "The electric tomato" was written on one of the dotted lines that connected to the girl. To me it seemed as if Chalk and Greene's work was trying to show how much humans rely and maneuver their life around technology.
My first impression of this exhibit was that it was very structured. Most of the Exhibit was diagrams of architure It reminded me of how structured the world had come. Metabolic as a biology term describes the evolution of organisms through generations. The structures changed from time to time with the need and want of the culture. Many of the structures were proposals for a greener and more efficient way to create buildings and to stop people from using large amounts of the earth's natural resources.

Course Work: AR319/AR419 Project 1

2009-10-02T14:28:00.001-07:00

Nosferatu rears his ugly head again in the advanced graphic design classes. AR319 and AR419 produced poster ideas for the 1922 film that span an interesting range of emotional content and aesthetic influence.

Trent Fred

Becky Roedl

Justin Nejmanowski

Course Work: AR219 Project 1

2009-09-25T20:00:00.001-07:00

Graphic Design AR219 recently completed their first project. It involved taking a screenshot from the 1922 silent movie Nosferatu and transforming it into a high contrast composition. As part of the parameters of the assignment, only black and white were allowed, no grays.

Ashley Miller

Lauren Freeze

Heather King

Alumni Update: Rodney Gordon

2009-09-12T11:30:00.001-07:00

Rodney Gordon graduated with a BA in Fine Arts in 2007. In addition to a full roster of departmental courses, Rodney completed all of the graphic design courses; AR219, AR319 and AR419. Soon afterward he joined the Landshire corporation in St. Louis as a graphic designer. His work can be seen on billboards and trucks around the region as well as the wrappers on sandwiches in nearly every gas station across our great land. In addition to his daily job, Rodney has maintained an active interest in contemporary design and continues to work on his own projects. He writes, "I have a passion for design and art that borders on the obsessive side, if it's art and digital I want to be a part. After receiving my degree in fine arts I quickly jumped into a design position with Landshire Inc. By day I design point of sale materials, adverts, signage, in-store installations and the occasional packaging/labels. By night I freelance whenever possible, illustrate and write. I love the work because it never ends, you cannot be too knowledgable because this field is constantly changing and the best part is that changes are made by the artist working in the field. That means its a never ending journey and your work can always be better."

Rodney has started an informational graphic design website here: http://phaonaut.com/ as well as a site to showcase his work here: http://www.rodneygordon.net/

Graphic Design Alumni Update: Jana Hagen

2009-09-11T18:57:00.000-07:00

Jana Hagen (BA '08, Communications) completed AR219, AR319 and AR419. She now holds the position of Service Coordinator at IlliniTech here in Carlinville. In addition to administrative duties she has designed the company's brochure as well as various ads for newspapers, sales sheets, wedding announcements, a t-shirt design and a letterhead. She's been working a lot with Photoshop recently on her own and moving in a photographic direction.

Arthur Danto to present at UIS 9/23

2009-09-11T09:25:00.001-07:00

Arthur Danto, whose work is currently viewable at the UIS Visual Arts Gallery, will be speaking at UIS in the Brookens Auditorium on 9/23. Danto is an important art critic and philospher. His art work, however, has remained largely unseen which makes this event very special.

Here's a transcript of a radio interview with Danto from 2006 in which he talks about issues raised in his essay, The End of Art.

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Album Art

2009-09-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Mitchy Bwoy is the artist who designed Ziggy Marley's album cover. Mitchy's graphic art is appealing to me because of all the layers and transparency he uses. This autographed CD is an example of his work. Mitchy started with a photograph and then tweaked it just like Profesor Newsom taught us in the intro class.

Free competition; Potential Chicago Exhibition DEADLINE 9/15

2009-09-06T08:46:00.001-07:00

“ ' Derivatives' is an exhibition to be physically based in Chicago, concerning notions of interconnectedness and influence at this moment. Utilizing websites like Chicago Artists Resource and other on-line resources, resident artists of Project 465 in Chicago are making a no fee open call to entry for all creators regardless of medium or discipline."
- FROM CHICAGOARTISTSRESOURCE.ORG

The Spanish Department Needs a Poster

2009-09-03T12:04:00.001-07:00

This could be an excellent Portfolio Piece:
The Spanish Department will once again host Noche Latina (a festival celebrating the Hispanic Heritage month). We would like to have a poster contest!

The information that we would like to have on the poster is as follows:

Noche Latina 2009
Date: September 19, 2009
Time: 5:30-8:00 P.M.
Place: Bothwell Auditorium
Price: 12 and younger=free; non Blackburn students over 12=$5; faculty, staff, and community=$7 or $10/couple

If you have any questions please contact Callie Cummings.

¡ENTER THIS! Undergraduate Art Competition

2009-09-02T08:36:00.001-07:00

*NATIONAL CALL FOR ENTRIES*
Peoria, Illinois
Deadline: October 30, 2009
Posted: 8/11/09
	Exhibit Dates:	January 4 - 29, 2010
	Title:	What's Next: Undergraduate Juried Exhibition
	Sponsor:	Bradley University
	Venue:	Bradley University Galleries
	Awards:	Three top place awards totaling over $1000
	Juror:	Richard Holland, Bad at Sports art review podcast
	Eligibility:	All artists must be enrolled in an undergraduate art program at the time of entry, and all artwork submitted must have been completed within the last two years. All forms of creative expression are encouraged.
	Fees:	$25 for up to three entries, and $5 per each additional entry
	Commission:	Bradley University Galleries retains 35% of all sales
	Send SASE to:	Bradley University Galleries, 1501 W Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL 61625
	E-mail:	Elizabeth Kauffman, Gallery Director
	Phone:	(309) 677-2989
	Website:	http://slane.bradley.edu/bug
	Prospectus:	http://slane.bradley.edu/bug/?page_id=631

Nosferatu

2009-09-02T08:23:00.000-07:00

I was asked to make a poster from the silent film Nosferatu. I first looked at images of posters from the 1920's on the internet. This website claimed to have only vintage posters, no fakes. There are simple posters that are effective. The simple but effective posters have a scene from the movie and the name, pretty basic. I want to go in a more involved direction with my poster and use my own illustrations. I began a black and white sketch of a face to get an idea. The bottom image is what I have so far. I also found an interesting illustration by Alberto Cerriteño A. on the internet that has influenced my direction.

Nosferatu Ideas/Research

2009-09-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

When watching the movie I pinpointed many sections of the movie that I wanted to incorporate into my Movie Poster for Nosferatu. Through research I looked and found a lot of images of a Nosferatu movie poster through google images. I also looked at some other posters and one poster in particular caught my eye. It was by Clerice Freres for Waltz Ebloussement. It was at first very simple, but once I took a more detailed look I found that there was a lot more to see. There were swirls and among the hues of one color and tiny details. I also looked up a piece of artwork by Wassily Kandinky. I found that the Blue Rider was a particular work of art that I was fond of. The colors seemed to pop out at me while I tried to decifer the image. Through this research I decided to model my own poster. I want a simple picture, but with detail that will insure another look. The picture that is uploaded is a scene of a husband and wife at a table, I admit it is a little crude. The husband and wife in this scene are sitting at the table. One of them is slumped down in the chair while the other is almost in the same position with a shadow behind it. This is supposed to portray the feeling the wife felt the night that the vampire sucked her husband's blood, impending doom. It shows the danger the husband had unwittingly put his wife, himself, and his neighbors in. It also shows the feast that would be avalible for the vampire if he suceeds in his mission.

Nosferatu poster planning

2009-09-02T08:06:00.000-07:00

I have researched Nosferatu by first watching the movie. The movie had some bold scenes that would be good for a poster. Nosferatu is a silent film, so some of the text gave me some good ideas. I then researched online on some general websites like wikipedia and IMDB. They had most of the general information on the movie which led me to a movie called "Shadow of the Vampire". That movie is about the actor, Max Schreck who played Nosferatu in the movie. According to the movie Max really thought he was a vampire and scared the cast and crew because he was never out of character. "Shadow of the Vampire" was released in 2000, so I felt like this was the big connection to current times that could be used to promote the old silent film, "Nosferatu".

In the middle of all the research I had been looking at scenes in the movie and trying to think of ways to do a poster. I quickly sketched down ideas as I got them. Some of the ideas I may still use and some of them I have discarded. Right now I think I am going with the approach of connecting Nosferatu with Shadow of the Vampire. The fact that the movie and the actor was interesting enough to make a movie in 2000 should give the viewer some interest in the original movie. I have not quite figured out how I will connect the two movies in the poster, but I have some ideas.

I have also considered contrasting Nosferatu with the current Twilight movies that have become very popular. While the Twilight movies are popular, there is also a backlash from it by many people. Maybe advertise this movie as a movie that defined vampires best.

Most of my thought process has been over the conceptual ideas, but aesthetics has also been in mind the whole time.

We will see how this turns out soon.

Graphic Design Alumni Update: Ebonie Sutton

2009-09-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Ebonie Sutton (BA '09) majored in Communications. Her emphasis was the graphic communications track. She was in AR219, AR319 and AR419 and is now working at First to the Finish here in Carlinville as a graphic designer. As for what she does at her job, she writes, "Right now we are putting together our track & field catalog for 2010... and a couple of slim jims (small version of big catalog) for wrestling and some other sports... also working on promotional emails to vendors and updating banners for the websites... but mostly the past few weeks I've been working on the screen printing designs for team sports jerseys t-shirts etc... busy busy busy!!!"

Archive.org

2009-08-30T15:14:00.001-07:00

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

All three Graphic Design classes are developing projects based on viewing the early 1920s German Expressionist film Nosferatu. Nosferatu along with a great deal more films no longer under copyright restrictions can be found at archive.org.

Archive.org, otherwise known as The Internet Archive is a treasure trove of information. Of particular interest is The Wayback Machine which allows you to look at archived snapshots of websites.

The Moving Images collection is vast and includes silent movies, cartoons and weird old health education movies that used to be shown in public schools.

If your interest lies with motion, animation or video this is an important bookmark for your web browser.

Art Department Alumni Update: Philip Troutwine

2009-08-30T14:42:00.001-07:00

Philip Troutwine (BA '06) completed all of the graphic design courses; AR219, AR319 and AR419. He began working as an in-house designer at GPX in St. Louis almost immediately after graduating. GPX recently changed their name to DPI. Philip was asked to create their new logo. His new logo can be seen prominently on the front of DPI's building as well as on their website and assorted collateral materials. He has returned to Blackburn to speak to graphic design classes about professional life after graduation. Philip recently completed work on his new website.

Online Resources

2009-08-28T07:37:00.001-07:00

Some resources:
AR219 online book wiki + files you will need to complete exercises:
http://digital-foundations.net/

Digital Foundation Authors:
xtine burroughs -
http://www.missconceptions.net/
michael mandiberg -
http://www.mandiberg.com/

Foundation for Critical Thinking:
http://www.criticalthinking.org/

Apple (they make computers):
http://www.apple.com

Adobe (they make software):
http://www.adobe.com

Online versions of magazines:
http://www.howdesign.com
http://www.commarts.com
http://www.printmag.com
http://www.gdusa.com

Design History
http://www.designboom.com

Just plain interesting:
http://www.ubuweb.com

Diigo is a social bookmarking website and tool. I highly recommend it. It allows you to keep all your bookmarks in one place, annotate them and read the annotations of others. There are many groups you can join on Diigo. I started one for Blackburn art classes:
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/bburndesign

This is another one that I did not start but moderate:
http://groups.diigo.com/groups/aigeneral

Isfahan

2009-08-28T04:23:00.001-07:00

This is a link to a spectacular animation that illustrates the modular and complex nature behind the construction of a mosque in Isfahan, Iran. It starts with a very basic design and then progresses into a transparent structure and ultimately - to the building itself. Islamic design and architecture is based on mathematics and geometric forms.

The Isfahan Cultural Heritage Organization.

A Flickr set of Isfahan photos.