PORTFOLIO REVIEWS

Earlier this month I contacted two designers I know in the Chicago area and asked if they would be willing to review both my emailable PDF portfolio and my web portfolio. I picked people who were local to my area because I am planning to live there for the forseeable future and because I have fairly easy access to both of them! Jacki Unger is the former owner (now retired) of Sign-A-Rama, and was my boss last summer when I interned there. Janice Bridges is actually the aunt of one of my former classmates, who has worked at firms in several different cities and is currently working on-and-off as a freelance designer in Chicago. They both saw the portfolios in unfinished states and essentially said the same kinds of things: my website needed a bit of editing for content, but I had a good range of work to show.

ACTIVITY NOTES ON EXHIBITION SUBMISSION

Type of Activity: Entry to juried exhibition

Points Available: 15

Date: Submitted May 2, 2013

Location: Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Art Center in Maryland

Presenters: The juror is Andrew Wodzianski, Professor of Art, College of Southern Maryland

Title: Humor Me!

Entry: I happened upon this call for entries several weeks ago as my BFA exhibition was wrapping up, and it seemed like a great opportunity to try and show some of my pieces on a national level. Although most of my work this year has included humor to varying extents, I decided to submit my two "hybrid" pieces (i.e. those that combined printmaking and graphic design) because they relate strongly to my own experiences and best reflect my varied interests. The show is all about humor and bringing joy to the viewer, and it is open to all forms of media, from sculpture to print to graphic design work.

Assessment: My submissions will be assessed by the show juror. Along with the application (photographed below--I was surprised they required a mailed form!), I submitted a CD with photographs of the two pieces for the juror to judge. I will not know if my work has been selected or denied until August 15th, so I have a while to wait on this one!

Conclusion: This was my first entry to a juried show outside of Drake's annual exhibition, and my first submission on a national level. As an appreciator of good humor myself, I think it is a wonderful exhibition theme and a good reminder that we needn't take art and design so seriously all the time! I am confident in the pieces that I submitted and I feel that they have a decent chance of getting into the show. If one or both of them do, I will definitely have to plan a trip out to Maryland to see them at the Annmarie Center.

Documentation:

ACTIVITY NOTES ON BFA THESIS EXHIBITION

Type of Activity: Senior BFA Thesis Exhibition

Points Available: 200 points

Date: April 12-28, 2013

Location: Anderson Gallery, Fine Arts Center, Drake University

Presenters: Cecily Pincsak, Meanz Chan, Hannah Pink, Aron Johnston

Title: Proximity

Entry: This exhibition is the culmination of months of preparation by my three classmates and I, and a representation of our current work as senior Art & Design students at Drake. While our pieces are all independently created and in line with our individual areas of interest, the show itself was completely collaborative and would not have been a success without everyone's dedication, work ethic, enthusiasm, and good humor. The four of us were responsible for every aspect of planning and executing the exhibition, from contacting local media outlets to purchasing the food for the reception. We developed an identity system for the show (pictured below) and designed a cohesive set of collateral materials including mailers, posters, wall vinyl, t-shirts, and gallery guides. My group worked very hard to curate a balanced, engaging, and diverse exhibition featuring pieces from across the spectrum of Fine Art and Graphic Design. Along with the content, we put a great deal of consideration (and time!) into the show's physical design and installation, and were meticulous in every aspects of our preparations to host a successful opening reception and two-week run.

Assessment: Our exhibition has not been "officially" assessed at present, although we are in the process of scheduling a review discussion between the four of us and A&D faculty members. I will update this entry with information from this review once it has taken place. My group is keeping an eye on the media outlets we sent press releases to as well, to see if any reviews of the show are published in the near future. If we find any, I will update this entry to include those as well.

Conclusion: This was absolutely one of the most challenging, intimidating, and rewarding experiences of my life. Putting together this collaborative show has helped me grow in ways I could never have anticipated--but, fittingly, one of the biggest surprises for me was realizing the enormous role design played in the process. From the beginning, I was openly skeptical that design would come into play very much during what was clearly an art show... I love the idea of hybridizing the two, but I didn't see my design pieces working well with my print pieces in any context (and especially not with the drawing and painting pieces of my group members). I assumed that the BFA exhibition was meant to showcase our normally-secondary studio work--after all, why would we be getting a BFA and a studio minor if there was no chance to celebrate or focus on those pieces as well?

Of course, this was not the case. First off, there were the obvious design projects that needed to happen: I was primarily responsible for designing our show's logo and identity system (with input from my groupmates), and developing both the mailer and the gallery guide took far more thought and work than I'd anticipated. Having never designed a functional postcard before, I was in frequent contact with Drake's post office to make sure that our card's layout met all the postal regulations for mailing; any real-world experience is extremely valuable to me, and I am sure this knowledge will come in handy in the future. I worked closely with Christian Printers to produce our mailers and gallery guides, and I felt like I developed a good relationship with them as a client during the several weeks I was in contact with them. We students hear how important it is to build lasting relationships with printers and other service vendors, and I think a project like this was the perfect way to start that process.

Developing the exhibition itself was a feat of careful design! We had to consider proportion, balance, grids, and layout just as thoughtfully in the gallery space as we would have in an InDesign document. We placed our large, "feature" pieces first, and then filled the spaces between them with a deliberate mix of media and subject matter. We did not want any area of the gallery to feel heavy or cramped compared to the others, but we wanted enough range and variation to keep the entire space engaging and visually appealing. It may not have been "graphic design" in the traditional sense, but I feel that we used most of design's basic principles to create a communicative, interesting, and accessible space for everyone to enjoy (whether they are art-educated or not!).

Finally, contrary to my expectations, I feel was able to successfully incorporate some of my strongest design pieces with my studio work. While considering my overall "thesis," I was able to draw connections between the two areas of work beyond the more obvious visual links (i.e. the use of text in my prints). I also developed two "hybrid" pieces that were equal parts graphic design and printmaking, to further bridge the gap I perceived. I take pride in both my design work and my print pieces, and I am glad I was able to create a balance between the two and showcase a well-rounded body of my recent work at Drake. The exhibition is a strong representation of me as an artist and a designer and I would not change a single thing about it.

Documentation: Here are some process photos and shots of the exhibition. Of course, it really needs to be experienced in person for the full effect!

IDENTITY SYSTEM PROGRESS

For my stationary system (and identity system as a whole), I wanted to incorporate my interests in both design and printmaking so that I can use it when applying for a wider range of jobs... and hopefully to create something a little different and eye-catching too! The circular "C" logo is a woodcut image that I printed in two parts, scanned, colorized, and layered digitally. I don't think I'm completely satisfied with the system yet, but it's gone through so many changes in the past few weeks that I need to just post it here officially and maybe leave it for a week or two to marinate a little.

Edit: The white borders around the pieces were added by the blog! All my stationary has a bleed for the texture. Also, the funkiness with the line texture is a result of the PNG files--the printed texture should be even and regular.

Business card back. Not sure about this one yet, but I do like featuring the logo at a larger size.

Business card front.

Cover letter (and template for any other pages needed). No, there's no real text in there yet (I'm sorry!), but as I start to get organized and begin applying to places, I'll have an actual letter to put in soon.

 Letter-sized envelope exterior.

 Resume.

 Thank-you envelope exterior.

Thank-you card (unfolded) exterior.



















Thank-you card (unfolded) interior. For the thank-yous I switched up the system a little bit and used the textured bar on the side instead of along the top. This was how I initially wanted to use it on everything, but the letter-sized papers seem to work a lot better with it across the top. I like to think of the textured bar as being versatile and movable, and I think this vertical bar will make another appearance in my leave-behind.

PROTOTYPING!

This is my working idea for my portfolio leave-behind... I wanted to create objects that were clearly hand-constructed (as opposed to having a pre-made object personalized through an outside vendor) because physical construction is one of my favorite parts of the design process and I think leaving something that work and care has gone into will (hopefully) make an impact. That being said, I needed to come up with something that was reasonably quick and easy to make multiples of, and that wouldn't require any expensive materials (I figure those can come into play once I've had a job for a while!).

I made it all out of scrap newsprint, so it's obviously really flimsy here, but I plan to find a heavier stock for the box. It needs to be something that will hold ink well, and that will allow crisply-folded edges with minimal "fuzzy" damage to the ink when pressed (see  magazine cover in the background for a bad example of fuzziness!)

You open the box, and --voila!-- there's something interactive inside. That tab is not particularly attractive on the edge there, so I may try something more in the middle of the square. This paper will be sturdy, but probably a little thinner than the box paper.

I need to work out the proper measurements for a good, even fit inside the box... this was mostly eyeballed.

Pull on the tab to reveal the box's secrets.

Look at that! An accordion book! This book will include my contact information, images of my portfolio pieces, blank "texture pages" to break up the works, and probably a few short blurbs from my designer's statement (which I NEED to work on...). The length of the book will be determined later, but it's so simple and versatile that it can really be any length I need

So that's the basic gist of it for now. I think the square is a little too large at the moment, and I may try to figure out how to make the box a little shorter (right now there is a lot of empty space inside, when the booklet is folded down). I think the idea is interesting, though, and it's very representative of me and my interest in physical craft... hopefully I'll turn it into something that will be unique, easy to make, and will leave a good impression with potential employers.

SECOND CANDIDATE Q&A

Type of activity: Guest speaker

Points available: 5 points

Date: February 28, 2013

Location: FAC 304, Drake University

Presenter: Laura [last name withheld]

Entry: After Laura's presentation there were a few minutes for faculty members to ask her some questions related to her work and experiences, but then they all left so that she and the students could talk more informally. There were a lot more questions asked during this session than there were for the first candidate (although I think that was partly snow concerns-related!), and Laura probably asked us more questions than we had for her. She is unfamiliar with the Des Moines area, so she wanted to hear about the atmosphere and opportunities here from a student's perspective. She also asked us a lot about Drake's design facilities--whether we have personal studio spaces, what the printing situation is like (groans all around, here), and how much we interact with students from unrelated departments. Hopefully we were able to give her a quick glimpse of campus life here (such as explaining the Relays, which she had never heard of) and made her feel like she would be a welcome addition to the department faculty.

Assessment: Again, this session was documented on the provided survey.

Conclusion: Laura was very relaxed and comfortable interacting with the students, and seemed very enthusiastic about the atmosphere at Drake--having been to a liberal arts college herself, she seems to really connect with this type of education and the structure of our department here. She came prepared to ask us all about Des Moines and our experiences here, and was genuinely interested in our lives as students and as developing designers. She answered all of our questions fully and thoughtfully. Overall I think she is a solid candidate for the position here, and has a fresh and lively perspective to bring to the department.

Documentation: See previous entry.

SECOND CANDIDATE PRESENTATION

Type of activity: Guest speaker

Points available: 5 points

Date: February 28, 2013

Location: FAC 304, Drake University

Presenter: Laura [last name withheld]

Entry: This presentation was, like the first, an opportunity for the department faculty and students to meet and learn a little about Laura, the second candidate for the open design instructor position. She was given the same request to structure her presentation around the transition from undergrad to The Real World, and she used her own experiences and development as a narrative to impart some general wisdom and advice. Laura described her evolution from painter to designer, and finally to Art Director and instructor; she presented examples of her work from each of these stages, and some outside/experimental works as well. She was even brave enough to show us some very early pieces she did for the Chicago Tribune, which included slightly overzealous use of the "bevel/emboss" tools.

Assessment: As with the first presentation, students were provided with a short survey to complete after attending one or more of the related sessions for this candidate.

Conclusion: I thought that Laura had a number of very strong qualities, both as a designer and as a potential teacher at Drake. She is deeply engaged in her own work and clearly draws inspiration from a range of different experiences and encounters. Her interest in combining design with other disciplines (such as performance art and viewer interaction) and her appreciation for collaborative projects could bring a lot to the design department here--I have been involved in a couple of very enjoyable collaborative design projects, but only in the classes I took with Hilary. I didn't think her presentation skills were quite as polished as the first candidate's, but that could simply be a matter of their respective amounts of teaching experience. She clearly communicated her love of being a mentor and a guide for students, and seems very enthusiastic about Drake and the design department here.

Documentation: Here are some notes and my in-progress survey for this candidate.