oh the weather outside is...

Mmm friday mornings!! What could i love more than sleeping in after a long night of snowboarding? That is one of the best things about Syracuse and college in general, having the choice of when your classes are.  Thankfully as you may know, i do not have any classes at all on friday so i get to have an extra-long weekend.  Last night i went snowboarding with a friend out of a last minute decision because we were bored.  It was incredible and the weather outside was wonderful, blue skies (yes Syracuse does occasionally have these) and no wind at all.  Unfortunately today is different, it's grey and dull and not too pleasant.  Besides the weather, i have absolutely nothing to complain about.  i love my classes this semester, they are so helpful and interesting.  As for projects right now there are a few things.  I am currently working on pages for my professional portfolio (through indesign, photoshop and illustrator). This is a cool project because it is fun and helpful at the same time.  (a quick tip for you guys out there interested in any design field... get adobe cs4 creative suite and play around with it!!! the best way to learn these programs is to jump into it yourself!).  Besides that i am working on a vacuum...no i am not designing one, but i bought one from the salvation army and now i took it apart and have to create a 3d exploded view to show all of the parts, then research everything about it.  It doesn't sound enticing, but oh man it is so cool to see all the motors fans and other various parts.  Okay, well as i mentioned before if you are ever interested in my work or have questions for me please feel free to look me up on facebook!!!  my name is jason ketcham and my email is jrketcha@syr.edu

Here is a page that will be included in my portfolio.  It features the stiff wood form that i created last semester in Principles of Form class

Spring

Hey guys, so I'm back in action at the school and unfortunately the weather isn't being nice to us.  Its windy, snowy and very cold.  The good news is that this semester is so much better than the last already.  these classes I am in are super cool and I feel like I'm going to have a ton of fun this spring.  I have made my schedule much easier than last semesters and now I have no friday classes!!!!
the class I am taking are:
Principles of Form II  - study of forms
Principles of ID II - theories and ideas
Visualization And Representation - learning indesign and photoshop
Environmental Issues - talks about sustainability and "green" design
History of Illustration - ... self explainatory

Hopefully I don't have any hard times like that semester so wish me luck!!!

Fin

Lucky me, my classes and finals are all over!!! i am proud to say that i done much better in this semester than i had recently believed. i just want to say that you really shouldnt stress yourself out when you feel bad about your work because chances are that you are doing much better than you believe. as christmas has grown closer i have been worried about what to ask for, all up untill today. i decided that i need to step up my game in my program and become one of the best. so for christmas i ended up asking for books and supplies all related to my field! if you really love something, you should put your efforts and love all into that one thing.
so my final thoughts about this semester are the following. i have learned that i can do anything i want and all i have to do is step up my game. i have come out of this semester with some awesome work and some awesome friends. i have an amazing girlfriend and everything seems to be wonderful for this christmas break! good luck to everyone and i hope you all have a wonderful break!

Form Project

Recently in principles of form class we have been working on our final projects. These projects were simply outlined as being a hand tool that we completely make ourselves. I am coming near the end of this project and even though I have a ton of work to do the experience has been amazing. I've used plasma cutters, steel grinders, polishing stones and many things that real craftsmen in the real world would use. After a lot of work already it is incredible to see how the pieces of work have transformed. What once was a solid block of wood or a bar of steel has become an elegantly shaped form and a gleaming sliver of metal. Although I will not give out the details of what my tool is I will say that it has been interesting work. Using spring steel and red oak I have composed some pretty interesting forms that I would not have felt I could do earlier. I hope that it will all turn out okay and clearly I have a lot of work to do in the next couple weeks! Wish me luck!

Break

So, as i walked down the lonely road from Dellplain to Crouse i couldn't help but feel distraught at how little people were around. Seeing as how i live in Syracuse i decided not to go stay home for the week because i can just drive home if i need to see anyone and for thanksgiving. I woke up, dropped my girlfriend off in the morning and came to work. besides the lack of human activity it is a beautiful day and i am going to be doing work on some projects and clean my room so hopefully it should be a productive day. I know i should be taking an actual break and do nothing but lounge around and wait for thanksgiving dinner but i feel that if i get a lot of work done now, the upcoming end of the semester will be a lot easier. i am kind of scared for the end, just because i always hate worrying about what grades will be, and also how sad it is going to be to be gone for a full month this time. But, there is still time before that so i wont worry until we get back to school on Monday!

Wrapping it up

so now there is literally around 30 days until winter vacation and legitimately i am so pumped. not only is this a time for holidays and festivities, but we are coming down to the end of the school year and we thankfully get to do our final projects. i have been working on one of them for a couple weeks but due to its content i probably shouldn't post what it is ;) its a big secret of mine. in my screen printing class as well we are wrapping it up and already starting the final project in which each student will get a piece of work from every other student, which means we need to make nearly 30 perfect prints. i am so happy that i only have one final and the rest are all just projects, it really makes things a lot better because that way i have a lot of time to focus on that one big test. the one thing i am worried about however is the second year review. this is when all of the industrial design professors take a look at all of the work we have done throughout the year and evaluate us! sounds exciting right? well anyways I'm going to get back to work so i can do a really good job on all of my projects.