Fall

Hello everyone, I know have been away for quite some time now (almost 2 weeks!) but now I am back in action ready to get excited for Halloween this weekend. Thankfully, these past two weeks have been nothing more than simple work weeks where in most of my classes we are just using the time to work on projects such as our final form project and other various design projects. We now are getting into the full swing of "Twine" in our program and for those of you who don't know what it is, Twine is a big/little system where 4th and 5th years pair up with 2nd and 3rd years to work on collaborative projects outside of the classes and help each other with class work. It really is a great way to get to know others in our field and get help from our peers. The main thing I am excited about however is the fact that soon we get to choose our classes for next year. As of right now I am in:
Principles of Form
Principles of Industrial Design
Technical Graphics
Survey of Film History
Serigraphy (Screen Printing)
For next semester however I want to try and get more into some skill classes that will teach me useful techniques for industrial design. I know one of my classes is a second part to the form class and there is also two more I.D. studios (one being computer processes such as photoshop, indesign and solid works). However there are two other classes that I would like to take outside of those three studios which are Biology and functional sculpture. Also, I still want to take classes in the fields of psychology and other art forms.
Even in my 5 years I do not think there will be enough time to take all the classes I want to take. well either way I cant wait to get into learning new things and I'm excited to see what the rest of the semester plus what next semester has to bring.

Lessons

The previous week has been incredibly hectic for me, and it is so close to being over. For the most part, it's been crazy because I went away for the weekend and haven't been around to do any of my homework. On top of that, life has been becoming more and more difficult as time passes on. But somehow, I still am happier than ever because of all the brilliant little lessons I have been learning from faculty, friends and even people I do not know. I just want to share a few of these to hopefully help others see the positive sides of things as well.

First off, the best thing you can do is to stop thinking only for the benefit of yourself. What I mean is that even though we are all different and special in our own way, it is definitely notable that if we only work to make ourselves happy what good does that do for our community. Part of life is helping others, and if we don't do this, we can not survive as a species. Secondly, nothing is ever bad enough for you to quit or give up. As hard as things get, you must push through it because to be honest, you can do it. I've noticed that most people have little faith in themselves and their work when really others around them put those same people up on a pedestal. We are not alone and there is always someone else out there who knows how you feel.

These are just a few of the many things that have helped me feel better and hopefully for those of you having difficulties, it will do the same.

Class Work

The Images i posted are a selected choice of my work from this year ( none of these are final products, this is just classwork) the last two images are however different, they are my own personal photoshop play that i enjoy and wanted to post!

hope you enjoy!

Sketches

So, the other day a couple other I.D. students and myself came to an amazing realization. We found out that in our Technical Graphics class we can be drawing objects we want instead of boring office supplies that for some reason we have been sticking to. It all started when i brought my homework drawing of my snowboard goggles in and Ben (the form and drawing professor) told me to work on goggles more if it is what interested me. Since then all i have been drawing has been bindings, boots, goggles and other snowboard accessories. I feel like all of us can draw whatever our interests are in the outside world. And to top that off if we get good at designing the things we love, we could easily get out into the job market and land a job designing those exact things.
In our form class I am having just as much positive feelings. Our first major project is due on the nineteenth and it has been so much fun to work on all the different variations of my form in the wood shop. Speaking of the wood shop, we are finally getting things settled in there, and besides a few problems with some of the machines everything has been doing wonderful.
i pretty much have come to the conclusion that i love my major and all of the things we will do in it. Even once we get to the more advanced psychology and research classes i feel like i will still love it. I do believe that this major was made for me and i was made for this major and i would totally suggest it to anyone who loves art and engineering because it is the complete mix!
By the way: if you are in industrial design, love design or even want to try it out, i suggest getting a wacom tablet because i just got mine and it is probably the best tool i will ever have bought. for those of you who don't know the tablet is a way of drawing directly into a computer program which enables you so much more control over your drawings. for those interested look up the name Wacom Intuos 4

Money

So my new problem of the week has become money. Basically i just found out this past weekend that i have a lot less money than i thought. What is even worse than that is how much i am going to need. First of all i am going to need to come up with $400-$600 for the down payment for my house next year. This payment alone is more money than i currently have of my own. Secondly, i just ordered a Wacom tablet (which is a pen tablet on which you can draw directly onto a computer program like Photoshop) and I will need to give my parents $200 for half of it. Finally, our professors decided that we should go and get a designer's kit from the commercial art supply store which will run me another $130. To put it simply, i am going to need to come up with close to a thousand dollars just to get the things that i am really going to need.
However, there is good news. i am pretty much in love with my major and i am completely pumped to go to each class every single day. i just wish that i could have all day to focus on the 3 I.D. classes that really excite me. So I hope everyone else is staying warm and having a good time and i will talk to everyone next week!