Almost there

THe semester is almost at an end. only about 4 weeks to go and i am going to be finished with my first year of college. it has gone by so fast. I think about how life was back when school started. everything was new and exciting. I loved it. Not to say that  idont still love it here in lawrence, its just the newness kinda wore off. So I am nearing the end of this chair project. I just need to finish sanding it and all will be complete. I am a little worried about what tom is going to say. he has continuously given me looks while walking past my chair like he is not a huge fan. Oh well, I feel like I am doing a pretty good job this being me first time actually working with wood. My goal is to finish sanding it today so I dont have to worry about it over this weekend. Wish me luck

chairs

So it is now april and we have finished our tree house project. In that time we have start3ed and finished a few projects. or a couple i guess it is. We made  acard boardchair that not only looked sweet but held my weight. I had problems with this because one of the stipulations was to not use glue. and well, i used glue on my first prototype. Since i did that i had to rip the old one apart and put a new one together in only two days. but i got it finished! THe next project we startted on was to make a chair using the common shop. the materials in this project were sheet metal and plywood. So far i am behind because of this weeks rotc stuff. i am about to head out and get some plywood from home depot because they were all out in the shop. :( so wih me luck that i can get this stupid thing finished

finished the tree

so we fnished our tree project, and I must say, I loved working on it. I have always been interested in drawing and depicting trees, adding in the place to chill was just an extra bonus. Here is the finial design poster

So our next project is going to be working on a "seat" a chair made of cardboard. Currently i am working on sketches to work toward this.

On a final note, I have decided to enter a scholarship opportunity for the think and make class. I have to get a couple of my works done in class over this semester ready to present. So i got a whole lot to do :p until next time

Finishing up

So i spent a total of eleven hours in the design studio working on my model and low and behold it falls apart a few days later. Not very cool. oh well i have moved onto bigger and better things. So I have begun working on a poster for the final representation. Its coming up soon and i feel that  i am right on track. Here is my poster as far as i have it right now. I am hoping to get Tom's feed back one more time before printing it out so i can get a final critique on it. 

Today we finished our "mindboards," basically a poster that showed what i have been doing this whole time. I spent a couple hours on it liast night and liked what i ended up with. I thinki may have spent to much time on it compared to the other people in my class. Oh well i want that A this semester. I felt i worked hard enough last semester to get the A, but i guess the quality of my work wasnt good enough for the A. So I am trying to figure out what the next step is going to be in this project. i am drew some flor plans last night that I actually liked a lot. But  I am worried about how I am going to further the design. MY concept is a bit, well out there compared to the other contemporary designs. Moat of the houses are just boxes in trees. I almos feel i bit off more than i can chew.  but after working on my project for over 11 hours today i am starting to really like the direction i have gone :) more later

so we have started drawing trees, and i am very excited. this is going to be very shourt because i have a pt test in the morning and need to make sure i get enough sleep. all i need to say is that i am excited, but nervous at the same time about this project. i am not all that great of a drawer, better than some, but not as good as most. So because of this i am worried about how i am going to be eventually representing this idea. ihave a couple intro sketches, and i am guessing we will just be expounding on each as we go. i guess its just trial and error fro here. uhg

TREES

I feel very inadiquit... Our way finding project was presented today. In my opinion we failed... by choosing a project that spanned over 5 mi it was very hard for us to get from point a to point b, let alone finding people that were willing to help out our cause. We were not able then to test out how ou rsignage worked. second we were all very busy, not taking design seriousl yyet. not a good plan. I plan that on my next project i am going to focus, and work hard on doing the very best i can. I think the new project is designing a tree house. ihave already begun to brain storm ideas for it in simple ways. For example walking through campus to class i have been looking around at the trees and the landscape as a whole. This has given me an idea of how a tree house would fit in. when i think of a tree house i often imagine an environmentally consious design that looks organic. sSince it is in a tree the actual design needs to replicate a tree, or at least blend into it. I am very excited to get away from this last project, it seems like we have been wasting our time on this, but that could jut be my uneducated opinion. regardless i am very excited to showcase my talents on this next project

Jump

The train is about to crash..... i have been riding along know and feeling that there is a collision on the way, just not sure when it was going to happen. I have a feeling the next couple of nights are going to be long. The train i speak of is the course work that i have taken on this semester. I have felt that eventually  I would not be able to keep up with it all, drop the plate. I have so much work to do... and i am so overwhelmed. Well we are coming to the end of the way finding project so hopefully i will have an easier time after doing it. So today tomorrow and the weekend will be spent in my room working non stop. I feel like i am about to take a plunge into ice cold water. I just need to take a big breath and jump.

broken.... :(

So my mac book is once again, broken. the track pad has given out. this is the second time its happend, and apple is starting to get on my nerves, how ever i still love my ipod. good job on that one apple. so I have been neglecting doing this blog, not ever been one to keep up with a journal. so it is going to be a challenge doing this. So we havent done very much toward our most recent project, way finding. Personally i think it has been a waste of my time. I know this sounds like a closed minded opinion, however i can back this up. First off, Richard, the quest prof "teaching" us how to way find is first and foremost trying to get us to not look through the eyes of the user, but rely only on the user. WE have done this! from the beginning we were taught how to interview the "users" on their opinions of an object or situation. for example when we did the project, design for 5 we were told first to talk to people about their opinions of our chosen object, what is good about it, what is bad about it, and what they would change. we went on to work to create designs that were helpful to the users. second he is wanting us to not focus on the solution, but on the problem. we have been taught the whole first semester the complete opposite. We watcha video in one of the first classes from IDEO about how the ideal design process is to come up with as many creative solutions as possible and from that begin to narrow the ideas into usable products. Frankly i feel that this simple task of creating a process of getting from point a to point b is to mediocre. It is bland and impedes my ability to think out of the box. there thats my two cents about it. done with blog 1 for the week.

The users

So today is our first day back from the two day snow break. I wish i was still in bed. my whole body aches from last nights work out and the design studio is not where i want to be. so today we really focused and were able to narrow our project to two different starting points. From the visitors center and the Union. WE figured that regardless of whether the user is a new students, guest speaker, or visiting high school student, they would all start at one of the information centers on campus. So from there we decided to each break off and take a part to study and copmpile. I was given the job of compiling the data onto the map, the routes taken and obstetrical they ran into. So, now i go into the world to start looking at the users. GO!

my way

Today was the begining of something very... interesting. we were givin a new assignment, and excited to begin the work .however when we were taken in to the large lecture room everyone's expectations were shattered. "IT'S WAY THINKING AND SIGNAGE." no one understood.... no one got what was going on. it took the prof in the back to calm down not only the confused students but also the guest who assumed that everyone in the room, except him self and his trusty assistant, were complete idiots when it came to design. We are not stupid. we may be still learning, but we are very bright individuals. my respect for you has been lost. I will do this assignment to the best of my abilities, and not to what ever outlandish standard you are wanting.