Pink Photography

Some nice potted Mums and some naturally hot pink leaves.
Talk about a successful day.
The bushes with pink leaves are all over the place in North York.

WARNING: the browser doesn't do the colour of these babies justice.

Sweet Photography

Remember the old cake project?
I found some of the original photos today and decided that some of them were too pretty not to post by themselves.

One is the rows upon rows of delicious little cakes from La Patisserie Cigogne, and the other is the delightful icing on a mango cupcake from the Cupcake Shoppe.

This is making me hungry all over again...

Communication Design 2 - Project 1

After a long summer of nothing I have four posters to put up.
For Communication Design 2 this year we were put in charge of picking a Canadian festival and designing a system of posters, tickets, and brochures to advertise it.
The poster project is the largest: we had to make 3 completely different versions (one literal, one abstract, and one symbolic) and then pick ONE of those 3 to carry on into the later parts of the project.

Sadly one of the posters I (and apparently a bunch of my other classmates) loved the most was outright shot down by my professor because of personal tastes. I'll post it anyway because I loved it and will mourn its passing.
(The fourth poster is the unfortunate reject)

I chose to use the trumpet player and continue the further designs for this class around him.
You'll see them soon!

Information Design 1 - Project 3

After a very long wait I finally realized I was missing some projects on here!

This is the final project from my Information Design course.
We were asked to spend at least two weeks (starting on our spring break) recording our consumption of something (or several things). Some people picked their consumption of water (taking showers, drinking water, washing hands, etc.), others picked food.
I on the other hand wanted to do something that would be fun at the same time, and since I had an entire week off when we started I picked my consumption of video games: specifically a game called Final Fantasy XII, which I had recently bought.

Homework is so much more fun when it involves video games.

The idea behind the final project was to pick an interesting section of the data we collected and create some sort of graphic to display this information - then tie it in with other aspects of our lives at the time/to other data.
Since I was looking at one week of my life, I included time spent on sleep, in class, homework, other games, and the specific video game.

It took forever to get the design to something I enjoyed.
Magic happened when I found the official game art (that multicolored ink drawing above the title). I used all the colors from that image for the rest of the design.

And no, I don't usually spend more time playing games than working...!
Just this particular week!

Typography 3 - Project 4

Project 4 came in two parts: a booklet (which was sadly exactly the same specifications as our last project, which really stank inspiration-wise) and a t-shirt with type content.
The book was made to remind us of everything we learned in the class, and the t-shirt was made to display something about type we loved.

My t-shirt was actually a last-minute, but fun thing to do.
I was more worried about the booklet because it was worth more but the shirt ended up being my favorite part.
If you remember Project 2 from this class (Alice in Wonderland made of two different types smashed together) you'll recognize what's going on here. It's the exact same idea.
Only this time I threw in a little "I used to be a science nerd" goodness with the green (oh allusions to photosynthesis, how wonderful you are)

Hero's Journey - Photoshoot

One of my classes this year is called "design thinking", where we've learned different tools for helping your brain get past all those annoying little road blocks, and also how the mind works.
Our big project for that class wasn't anything like the other classes I've taken - no printing things, or designing whatsoever. We had to go on a Hero's Journey.
It's basically something - anything - that puts you outside of your comfort zone in one way or another. Or something that's just generally hard for you to do. One of the girls, who's a real ham and always has something funny to say, went a week without cracking a joke. Another didn't talk for a week - she was only allowed to make incomprehensible noises.
These photos are from my Hero's Journey: I was the model in a photoshoot.

Mine was a mix of a bunch of things, now that I think about it.
Number one: as much as I'm an expert faker, I don't - in fact - like meeting new people all that much. I prefer to stick with the same old people I've known forever and leave it at that. To do this I had to meet Julien (who's actually a friend of Kat's) Worse still I had to email him without knowing a THING about his personality, or whether he'd think I was a nutcase.
Number two: I had to actually organize. If only you could see my room at this moment you'd understand.
Number three: I had to wear makeup and not look like I'd just rolled out of bed. I can barely tell blush from eyeshadow most days, and we all know I prefer grubby jeans to anything nice!
Number four: I had to keep from making stupid faces in the pictures. THAT was difficult. I make faces even when I don't realize it.

In the end Julien was a sweetheart (and VERY good with a camera), Claire came with me to keep me from being a nerd, I got to explore downtown Toronto, and I did not - PHEW! - look like a charity case.

(I'll tell you what, though: don't go wandering around the waterfront without a coat on in very early spring. It makes for cold fingers and noses)

Typography 3 - Project 3

Time to learn about a typeface.
ALMOST the same project as last term, where we learned about a typographer. Only this time we had to make what's called a "type specimen". Long story short: type designers use these to showcase their fonts, and how they can be used.

Eight glorious pages of GOUDY. Mmmmmmm. Goudy.

Sadly the project has had an adverse effect on my sanity, because I can no longer go ANYWHERE without seeing typefaces. They're everywhere. It's terrifying.