personas

"...sees how the internet sees you."

there's this stereotype that many architects "wanna-be" graphic designers and especially book designers. i totally fit this stereotype. however, it's for good reason that we're wanna-bes. we all have to graphically design our own work--from boards and presentation books to construction documents and resumes/portfolios. we do learn basic principles, formally, to some extent in school. it's also probably because a lot of what we do is taking massive amounts of information, data, and requirements and producing a tangible building, space, or thing from the analysis of all of that. a lot of the design process is problem-solving and/or problem-defining anyway. i've always had an interest in information design and graphics and considered it as a career path before taking the ones i have, so i still look out for good examples to bookmark. this one was all over some graphic design blogs last week, so i'm late, but i know most of you that read this aren't designerds and thought you might have fun playing with this clean, colorful experiment.

go to the personas [online] installation (it is also on display IRL at MIT). type in your name. see how the internet sees "you." or the many yous, since there may be many others out there named similarly. be sure to watch the screen as data is mined and graphicized. it's fun watching the colors change, the overall graph being built, and say, "beep beep boop boop" out loud while it's doing it. OK, maybe not the last one if you're not as strange as i am.


the final portrait of dapotato [click to enlarge any of these screenshots].
obviously incorrect as i rarely watch movies these days,
and if i do, i'm not really associated with them on the internet.


"characterizing da_potato..."


final da_potato
at least da_potato is more diversely represented on the internet that dapotato?


"characterizing [insert my maiden name here]"
it turns out my maiden name is a commonly used phrase in dutch.
that's what most google searches bring up, anyway.


still beep beep boop boop beep-ing my maiden name.


final for [my maiden name]


final for [my married name].
i guess the married me is way more social.
or other same-nameds are more social than me as there isn't a ton out there on the real me by my married name yet.

yep, the internets [sic] is definitely fallible. but so much fun! especially when in color.

[via swissmiss]

trace

i love trace. AKA flimsy (in the midwest/south). AKA tracing paper in rolls. for most of my design work, i work out ideas on trace. my thoughts just come out more quickly and fluidly on trace. probably because the sheet is never ending, the medium is relatively cheap and un-precious, and because i was trained to sketch on it in college and during my former job.

i also appreciate nice wood. get your mind out of the gutter.

so i want this:


from here, which has lots of cute things. minus the freaky hand soaps.

[via notcot. image also from notcot.]

random is one of my [many] middle names

i lied. no portraits yet. i have random stuff from today to post. and i did sort of do the next to the last assignment on my own, so i'll post some of those as they're not bad.

ok, so randomness for today...

1. i wish i had thought of this:

scanwiches!
HA!

2. i borrowed a co-worker's magazine at the school job today. it's actually really interesting--famous, creative people interviewing other famous, creative people. or sometimes journalists interviewing the famous, creative people.

random quotes i noted from the june/july 2009 issue of interview. sorry, no MLA- or APA-style citations as i didn't note volume number, page numbers, and all that jazz. some of them are bordering on cliché, but they were still inspiring to me today. too bad i'm still sitting on my butt surfting the internets this fine summer evening.

ann demeulemeester on starting her first line:

It's never been easy...I just thought, If I want to do something, let's do it. I had a lot of patience and went step-by-step...

...I believe that if you have something to say, then you just have to do it. Good work finds its way in whatever time you're in. If you want to start, then start, and don't find a million excuses not to. It's always a difficult time. When was it easy?

she and her interviewer, her musician-model muse dude jamie del moon, also spoke of the le corbusier house in antwerp that a seller pretty much gave to her and her husband when they were broke because of a dream. wtf? where's my free Modern masterpiece house?

after reading an interview of the screenwriters and watching the trailer, i want to see away we go. jim krasinski! plus the story sounds so sweet, and the background behind why and how the screenwriters wrote it (a married couple, while she was pregnant and they were locked in) is pretty sweet, too.



vendela vida, one of the writers:

With plays, they start at the last possible moment, and that's what I love about them. You just start with someone who walks into the room--something happens.

this is how i want my photos to look. like i caught someone or something at the last possible moment before it all changes or disappears.

stella mccartney:

I think it took me a little while to be true to myself as a designer, and in some ways I'm trying to do that. I have to choose things that come naturally to me. Whenever I challenge something too much or try too hard, it never quite works out.

so reassuring to "hear" someone this successful talk about what i'm struggling with and trying to discover at this life stage...and probably for the rest of my life.

another movie:
i want to see herb & dorothy. it's a megumi sasaki documentary on a postal clerk and librarian who collected art in their small 1-bedroom apartment. in 1992, when the works had appreciated to millions of dollars' worth, they donated it all to the national gallery of art in DC. "you don't have to be a rockefeller to collect art." nope, you just need to live modestly otherwise, not have kids, and have be greedy/have a passion for it.


it's playing at the landmark nuart this weekend. too bad my weekend is full. :(

that is all.

at last

on the last day of photo class, i arrived a bit early with food in hand. more on that later.

i had read about and studied the building our class was in in another class (wtf kinda clause was that?), so i took some time to explore a bit. oh, and i brought my dSLR to class like the good nerd i am. however, i forgot to charge the battery. FAIL. so these are all off the iphone. it takes surprisingly good photos with lots of natural light.


the letterpress printing facility.


so many characters! [har har]






told you.
a lot.
i want.
not that i know how to use.
whatevs.
i learn.


pretty prints.
way back thurr.


love how the green on the glass
put a spot of green on the opposite wall.

then i went up top...

hmph.


not much to see down there anyway.






random antennae-ed dog


scary plants.


same stuff [foiltec] used for the exterior of the beijing water cube.
inflatable! plastic! bubbly!


in this application, when the "pillow's" layers are inflated with air between them, the graphics allow sun into the studio spaces below. when the layers are deflated, the opaque parts of the graphic overlap, thus blocking light to the spaces below.






graphics by bruce mau.
i wish i designed books and such, too.


from inside.
yep, inflated and letting light in.

happy belated 4th!

should've framed it so you see more sky about flagpole.
oh well.





the end.

wait, i said i'd talk about food.

oh! so the food! the first week, we realized none of us had a chance to eat between work and class. there was a small snack cart that had decent sandwiches, but we decided we need to bring better dinner from then on. my momma always said, "if you're hungry, you can't think! you'll be dumb!" don't worry, mom, we listened.

week 2 lee's sandwiches - banh mi + vietnamese iced coffee
week 3 europane bakery - sandwiches (yay for my clutch sandwich filling/bread pairings...too bad i don't remember), macarons, lemon bar, lemonade
week 4 julienne [what real housewives of san marino do when they get bored] - sun-dried tomato pesto and basil pesto terrine, cheese-delivery system (crackers for the terrine), chicken tarragon salad sandwich, roasted leg of lamb with caramelized onions on pain rustique roll sandwich, cumin/cilantro/feta roasted carrots, and double chocolate espresso cookies from the gourmet market/to go area
week 5 whole foods + beard papa's - takeout sushi, blood orange sparkling wanna-be french lemonade (whole foods generic brand), eclair-style cream puffs. this time, amber brought enough puffs for the whole class, causing teacher to utter something x-rated. oh dear.
week 6 the hat - pastrami + roast beef sandwiches, orange bang, iced tea, too many fries
week 7 cook's tortas - bacalao torta, aguas frescas

high-brow, low-brow, lots of sandwiches up in there, delicious, and affordable dinners when shared three ways! our classmates and instructor were impressed with the range. but really, when did everyone else eat? class was from 7-10 PM! oh, and no photos despite all of us having our dSLRs on hand. what? we were famished!

last assignment to be posted soon. because i was bad and didn't do my homework for the next to the last assignment. so you just get the last assignment.

designerd

LOVE these typeface shirts.

i'm a helvetica or futura girl myself.
(of the choices given).

i used to be somewhat of an avant garde girl, but that phrase has some sticky connotations when you're mired in the world of architecture academia, so i am avoiding it for now.

[via swissmiss]

so in the photography world, it seems bokeh is, like, totally en vogue (neeeever gonna get it never gonna get it...) right now. but what do i know about the photography world? i'm just speaking from my expertise as an obsessive surfer of the internets and reader of blogs.

i first heard the term when my old studiomate hamster based the concept of one of her studio projects on hiroshi sugimoto's work and his (and the japaneses') concept of and love for bokeh. he has a series of architectural photographs that study monumentality (the ability of these famous works to maintain their recognizability).

ugh. so beautiful.
[from his online portfolio]

here are a few of my own attempts for last week's photo class homework assignment. granted, my lens isn't ideal for producing beautiful bokeh, but i tried.

shutter speed: 1.3
aperture: f22

shutter speed: 1/20
aperture: f3.5
[for both, i focued on that little bubble on the edge of the green votive]
handy for hiding the fugs background.

shutter speed: 1.6
aperture: f22

shutter speed: 1/30
aperture: f3.5
[notice the blurry text on the envelope
and in the "reception" part of the invite.]

oh, and here's a great blog post that explains well and shows what this funky term means.

lastly, the kobe and lebron puppets are so cute, er well-designed. i heart them more than their human counterparts.

watch them here.
dang widescreen embedded videos are too wide for my blog layout.

unique los angeles

yay for crafty, designy, creative folk!
yay for local folk!
yay for an event that bring a bunch together so i can buy from them direct instead of off the internets and with stuff on sale/samples available!
yayayayayaya!

whew, that was tiring.

summary of thoughts:
really, it was cool. maybe a little too LA in some ways, but i love LA. i mean, i've been to craft fairs while traveling in other parts of the US or smallish ones in the 'burbs. none of those had a good DJ who spun biggie, tupac, and some less gangsta stuff for the non-rappy in the crowd. none had real meal food, and the food+drink was definitely not by tiara cafe, malo, or intelligentsia. and none had so much pink--like pink velvet ropes and pink parking validation stamps. and none had the sheer amount of vendors, selection, and quality. but then again these have evolved quite a bit since i last went to one ages ago.

tiara cafe

malo

pretty pincushions at the malo table


intelligentsia

yeah, i said pink velvet ropes.

stuff i bought:

lots of stuff from justJENN's booth (all photos are from her site or blog).

a couple of these.
one for a birthday boy i was seeing later that night.
not available on her site yet.

for red,
because she likes making these types of lists and posting them
near her desk.

cute cupcake tags.

from another booth, i bought this card, but i wanted to buy all of them. all of them. so random. so cute. so loving of the internets [sic]. so me.

if you like potatoes, bears that eat meatballs and sushi (hm, i think i live with one of those), cheese, ramen, wine, dive bars, internet research, pessimistic but cute+random creatures that have unibrows, and/or color on the front of/inside/and on the back of your cards, you should check them out. i really liked the cheese one, too.

cute packaging.

five dolla t-shirt! so soft, so stretchy, so comfy, so bargain (it was a sample). normal price isn't as potato-friendly. but really, their shirts are really soft, comfy, and have cute graphics.

other random photos. because i'm random, and this is my blog:

they used this wallcovering that i tried to sell many a client on
on the columns of the lobby of the california market center.
it's yarn, photographed, blown up. fuzzy wuzzy up close.

old LA in foreground.
new LA [live] in background.


yup, nice views from the 13th floor.
this building has a 13th floor. hnh.


cute meat!


nice succulents.


old books + scrap paper
made into new journals.


i like this non-heathered
cool, medium gray.
i need a zip-up hoodie.
didn't buy it, though.
not really a fan of riots.


kidneys! "when urine love."
get it? ha!


cute organ plushies.


cute charm necklaces
from a cute but slightly too girly/vintagey store
for my taste.


liked these posters.


so would do the large eggs and large toast posters in my kitchen.
if our walls weren't made of lead or something else
that won't allow us to hang anything.


ha! too late.
too bad so sad.


i wanted the t-shirt in the background.
yes, it has poo on it.
the fat rabbit farm shirts were cute, too.


artist's tape in fun colors.
you can buy some from me
if you visit me at my "campus" job.
i go through a couple rolls a semester.
yikes. lots of tape.

whew. tired. lots of walking. too many booths. lots of cute kids stuff, eco-friendly stuff, and jewelry.