I’m going to be exploring the possibilities of genetic engineering, bending and twisting the science to allow for a world in which technology has reached a point where we have precise control over the human genome to the point where we can manufacture human beings from scratch for very specific tasks.

In addition, this technology would come with the ability to alter specific traits (hair color, eye color, etc.) of existing humans through ingestion of a pill or something similar.

I’m currently working on an identity design for the fictional company spearheading the research and commercial production of human beings, as well a creating a future/alternate world in which this could happen and these products could become a viable part of society.

I need to figure out what the moral compass of this fictional America is, how the criminal element would come into play with this technology, regulation of the technology, and possible abuses of the technology.

I’ll post more as information is finalized.

You can click the images below for a larger version.

Students will be able to sign up for space and/or a table to sell, share, and make art. There will also be readings and possibly musical performances. In addition, we’re trying to encourage local artists, faculty, and other professional artists to attend and share their work alongside the students.

In the next few weeks I will be working on posters, mailers, and name plates, and a program for the event, and will post that work here as I finish it.

Also, I have an idea for Senior Project. It’s a little foggy right now for me to describe, bit it involves branding, marketing, book making, and genetic engineering. It’s gonna be fun.

The last three years have not prepared me for the prospect of creating what is essentially art for arts sake that falls under the heading of “design” on command. They have prepared me, instead, to take other peoples specific, restrictive, and sometimes ridiculous demands and create something great.

I can draw, paint, write, or photograph something for my own pleasure. I can do those things for the sake of doing them, and for the sake of creating. That’s easy. That involves sitting in my room, unfolding the easel and opening drawers full of paint, paper, pastels, wire, and that one container full of dead bees. That’s easy to get started. I have lots of ideas for art. Design is another matter.

The problem with this class is that it is one that is not taught like a design course. It’s taught like a fine arts course. Photographers may venture into the commercial realm, but theirs is a discipline rooted in fine art. Design may take technical aspects from fine art, but it’s purpose is completely commercial, and therein lies the problem with Senior Project, graphic design, and the all important gallery show.

When graphic design is put up in a show, it’s almost always work that the designer has created for a client, or to promote themselves. It is almost never something created just for the sake of creation.

I can create art for myself. And some of it may even be created in ways similar to design projects, but I would not call them graphic design, because their similarity is only on the technical level. My artistic roots are drawing and painting. I got into college with a portfolio full of acrylic paintings and pastel drawings. There was not one single bit of anything you could call graphic design in the entire thing. I can create work suitable for a senior show, but it would not be graphic design.

Here, I need to be careful, because I don’t wish to offend, but I have yet to see a senior show at Chester put on by a graphic designer that I was impressed by. Calendars and movie posters, and type exercises. It was all nice to look at yes, and it showed good technical prowess, but every single one of them has been lacking in concept and communication. None of them had any restrictions on them, like a real-world project would. They were all too easy.

I want to escape from that for my own project, but I don’t think I can. I don’t think the format of the class allows for it, because it is aimed at the fine arts by being so open-ended. I could come up with an idea and set my own restrictions, of course, but they wouldn’t really be limiting if I came up with them, because anything I came up with would be too easy to get around.

The bottom line here is that I want to do something that will make people stop and go “holy fuck.” I think.

I think the problem might be that I don’t know what I want from this.

I’m also getting a good bit of stuff done in Interactive Design, though it is proving difficult as he essentally wants us to design a portfolio which - obviously - I already have with a fairly new desig I’m quite happy with. However, you can see the work I’ve done for that here. That page has links to all the sites I’ve done for this class so far and I’ll continue to add to it as the semester progresses. I think it’ll be a nice little collection of web work when it’s done.

For the current assignment he wants three separate designs mocked up. I think the next one I want to bring hand-drawn elements into it. Maybe some actual collaging that will be scanned. We’ll see.

Also been working on some Identity Design for Professional Practices. Here’s some samples of the project so far, which is for a made up xtreme sports training facility. Got a logo and stationary so far. Linked the images out for size and such:

business card

envelope

letterhead

Here’s some work-in-progress shots of mine. It’s a little pixel art peice, 100×100px, featuring Famine, a locust I thought up after a fire and some floods in my dorm building sophomore year.

The storyline for the animation will be simple. A little copy telling you about Famine, interspirsed with animated pixel art depicting  abird deciding Famine would make a good little snack, and then the bird getting eaten by the most badass locust ever. Thus far, I have the backgrounds close to done and the text all written up.

I feel the need to go into a lengthy rant about everything that’s wrong with my school’s book-buying system, and then everything else that’s wrong with Chester College, but I think I’ll refrain. Suffice to say the book-buying system makes it hard to buy your books used online or from other students because they tell you what books you need two days before school starts and, now, don’t even give you enough information to find the right book elsewhere.

I have a three-rings binder, notebooks, Evernote, a nice wire-mesh organizer for notebooks, folders, and other important stuff, a billion pens, reference books, andall kinds of nifty stuff storage to make my desk awesome.

Flickr set of my workspace, because I’m bored.

Will this grand organizational scheme for academic success last beyond the first few weeks of school? Probably not, but I can dream.

And now I’m off to read all about Kohls company policies, since I start job training later today. Fun fun.

Senior Project - Open ended studio course spanning both semesters of my senior year. The course culminates in a gallery show at the end of the second semester. I have no idea what my project is going to consist of. None at all.

Interactive Design HTML, CSS, etc. Mostly based in Dreamweaver, I’m told. I’m going to drive myself batty in this course, since I’ve got the basics down pretty well. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get a more refined skill set out of it rather than it just being a run-down of HTML.

Computer Animation A misleading title, I think. This course teaches the basics of flash. I know next to nothing about flash, so it’s going to be a pretty intense course, luckily the teacher for it is really good.

Professional Practices I’m worried about this one. The woman who was supposed to be teaching it left and I’ve had bad luck the last three years with new hires at Chester. I have no idea how many actual design projects will come out of this class.

I’m also taking Contemporary Art Histoy, but there’s no art projects in that (it’s purely a lecture course) so it’s not really relevent here.

I’m also going to be trying to do some packaging design projects in my spare time, a friend is taking it (it wouldn’t fit in my schedule) but I’m going to try and get the assignments from her to get more practice. I quite enjoy packaging design and I’d like to be able to do more of it.