Jim Rogers

Might Explode!

...I T ought My H

ead

Introduction to Design- St. Norbert College

Fall of 2014

What I really mean by that is... Throughout this semester I learned a lot about Art, Design. and myself. Prior to this course, I had only taken one small art class in my freshman year of high school. This year I decided to major in Graphic Design, and at some times it became overwhelming. I was learning and working on so many projects at the same time, that at some points my head was spinning and I was so close to giving up. “I thought my head might explode” is what you could say. I am so happy that I didn’t quit because so many positive things came out of this experience. I now have a greater appreciation for all the time and effort that goes into creating art and designs, I met a lot of other friendly artists, as well as skills in art that will last me a lifetime. Through much stuggling and late nights, I also have a much better understanding of programs like Photoshop and InDesign that I am grateful for and will be extremely useful in the future.

...I Tought My Head Might Explode!

Dot/Line _____________________________ pg. 1-4

Expressive Text ________________________ pg. 5-8

Object Iterations_______________________ pg. 9-13

Collaborative Children’s Book_____________pg 14-17

by Jim Rogers

Dot/Line:The Objectives: • To make quality iterations using grey and black circles or rectangles• To try all different types of hand made interations.• To question how small geometric shapes can influence an iterations

meaning.• To make tons of interations in order find out which excells.• To demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of Gestalt, foreground and

background• To practice near perfection.

How I did: Through this project I have a greater understanding of Gestalt. It is a style with abstract shapes only using black and white. It plays on the audience making sense of the work as a whole, and choosing where the foreground and background are. At first I thought abstraction was easy. Just put some ambiguous figures that look like something, and you’re done. But it’s not that easy at all. You must sketch and fine tune many iterations, as well as get others’ opinions on what feeling a picture evokes - because what might scream a certain word for you, the artist, may not apply to the audience.

I enjoyed making thumbnails because it was different than normal school work and I was able to refine my ideas. Many of my thumbnails have features which are included in my final work.

1

It was difficult to express some words without illustrating them because we typically want to look at things and understand them immediately. I kept wanting to create a gate or wall that was openning for the word “Freedom” or make tank looking objects for “Terror.”

I did enjoy the challenge that abstraction gave to me. It pushed me to use my imagination and create the most simplistic looking objects to evoke complex feelings and emotions.

2

Dot/Line was one of the more difficult and frustrating projects of this year. No matter how careful I was, there was always the possibility of cutting a piece wrong, gluing it in the wrong spot, or dripping glue on a final. I found it pretty difficult to make a “well-crafted object”. I have never been an arts and crafts sort of guy, and I have never had much patience for my work in general. But I did enjoy how this project pushed me to be more creative and careful.

Dot/Line Finals:

Scarcity Terror

The most difficult of my iterations to make because of its many features.

3

Looking down the road, I could definitely see this exercise helping me to create a logo or poster made to evoke a response from an audience.

Freedom

Stability

This was my favorite interation because it was my most succesful, used minimal shapes, and took the least amount of time.

4

Expressive Text:The Objectives: • To try all different types of hand made

interations.• To question how small changes in type

can influence an iteration’s meaning.• To make tons of interations in order find

out which will excell.• To display an appropriate

understanding of Gestalt, foreground and background

• To practice near perfection.

How I did: I learned that normal digital lettering is very boring taken at face value, however its purpose is for precise jobs, unlike this project which required imagination like no other. Hand lettering attempts to express a feeling or idea while still clearly making a legible word. This process can be very time consuming, but it is also creative, fun, and very rewarding.

5

Hand lettering can be a difficult task, especially as you get into larger iterations. I would not want to go much larger than myself, as that would take very steady hands. But, I would be up for the challenge.

After I chose my word, Dash, I began making numerous interation in many different forms. I started in pencil, but soon went into markers, spray paint, wire, and eventually started using ink. I became obsessed a little and kept making interation after iteration as you can see from the picture on the right.

By the end of this project I was dreaming in “Dash”

6

A picture taken from the sidewalk outside the Bush Art Center. I used mud and dirt I gathered from various places, formed it into a footstep, drew in the letters with chaulk, and placed random leaves around. Sometimes I had to wait for the perfect sunlight to hit or wait until the clouds moved.

I held a wire that spelled Dash, spray painted it black, and removed it to make the airbrushed effect.

Expressive Text Finals:

7

A different view of the first iteration.

One of my favorite iterations. I loved using ink and through all of my trials I finally found one that was perfect for me. Holding one ink soaked brush sideways, and steadily lessening the pressure until I barely pressed on the page.

8

Object Iterations:The Objectives: • To try all different types of

mediums for iterations.• To break threw my barrier and

challenge myself to create original and unique interations.

• To make tons of interations with the intension to discover more.

• To understand the advantages and disadvantages of cliché.

Continuous Line

How I did: I chose an Amblypygi as my object because I saw one in the wild and thought it was amazing. I soon learned that it was a tough thing to illustrate without being very intricate, and I almost went crazy trying to do everything I could think of. The contiuous line interations and collage were both my least favorite mediums. I never thought that my continuous lines were good enough, and the collages took forever to make. But whenever I finished a collage, I liked them and it was very rewarding.

9

My favorite mode of object iteration was the master artists. I chose the artist Janet Fish because I like her style of reflecting light and having things be transparent and shiny. I also chose Louis Borgeouis because she has made creepy sculptures of spiders and I thought it was very appropriate to imitate.

edited in photoshopLouis Borgeuois Iteration

Geometric Iterations

Typographic

Janet Fish Iteration

The most diffiult in terms of creating outstanding interation, was definately typographic collage. It was a real challenge to make pure words into an animal.

10

Made entirely of cards, I loved the card design on the head.

My favorite because it was my first collage. I tried to get weird by using human body parts to make up almost the entire Amblypygi.

I tried to find the grossest pictures in my available magazine.

Collage

11

I had never used photoshop until this point in my life. At first it was very challenging, almost impossible to understand what I was doing. I wanted to punch the monitor sometimes. Now I am more well versed in the program, and grateful for all of the pointers I have learned through the process. But I swear if I see “no pixels are selected “ one more damn time I’m gonna....

12

Collaborative Children’s Book:The Objectives: • To learn how to communicate

professionally with a partner• Create inspired and connectable

works of art that tell your partner’s story based on the text and author’s direction

• Use a typeset that works with the topic

• Print a finished project

How I did: I came into this project having high hopes for a fun and imaginative children’s book. But when I was given the text, I realized that was never going to happen. So, I stuck it out and said I would do it anyway. I thought our partners would be helping us out through the majority of the process, so I was surpriesd when I was not given any direction at all. I began to make thumbnails for this children’s book on my own, and didn’t look back. The most Challenging aspects of this project was the actual illustrating of every page - hand drawn with pencil & colored pencil, or done completely in Photoshop - along with how to plan to make an illustrated children’s book. The first just took me lots and lots of time and effort. The second just gave me frustration and headaches, because there was so many directions this book could go.

13

Various Stages of development

14

One of my favorite scenes, being developed. I liked this one in particular because it is in motion with joey on the verge of hitting Izabella.

Grass samples for the football scene.

I enjoyed creating this one because I was tired one night and didn’t want to draw any more faces, so I drew up to the neck and cut the parents off - BECAUSE I COULD!

- a hectic, yet enjoyable experience.

15

16

This book was produced in the fall of 2014 at St. Norbert College, in De Pere, WI. It is Typeset in Minion Pro and Myriad Pro and was digitally printed by the college print center. All illustrations were produced by Jim Rogers.