I'm just an Urban Girl, Living in an Urban World [for a summer]

My 2009 Summer Studio; Urban Studio [My Sisters House]. We collectively built a 4500 square foot home for pregnant teenage mothers.  Below is the journal I kept while taking the studio, thus performing manual labor each day on site. This was a very different studio for me to take on as a design student, but the information learned and experience gained was well worth the hard days. Enjoy!

How would we function without products?

“Design is a plan for arranging elements in such a way as best to accomplish a particular purpose” —Charles Eames

Fall semester 2008, product design studio final. This was a futuristic customer who had very little to store, and wanted a modern/angular storage unit. This model I built to scale, and photographed for final critiques.

This was the mid-term project in my Fall 2008 product design studio. We designed and executed the creation of LED light fixtures. The light fixture had to poses qualities of an animal, and I chose the sea creature; jellyfish. Above is my final board for critiques' with photographs of the final product along with sketch models showing process work. The final product was a fully functioning LED light fixture.

Group Work...

Getting our foot in the door with display design in our retail design class. This was a quick sketch in my sketchbook of an idea I had with re-using old paint cans.

paint dripping down would be re-used material...

The Re-use group collaborated on window displays using found objects such as old chain link fencing and solo cups, to create eye catching displays. These are two images of the found materials we began brainstorming with.

Getting back to basics

Beignet always goes for the face when showing love!

ZOOM, ZOOM!

[while the characters from Cars may go fast, making the two blankets for my nephews did not!]

This little piggy went to... Aunt Elise's!

I think I noticed every colorful plant on my walk...

nature at its best...

This weekend I did a lot of different things, each offering different aspects of inspiration. I played with my puppy, I got a little crafty, made memories with my niece, took a walk, went shopping, and finally just daydreamed. All of these things had nothing to do with each other, but when I sat down and thought about it they all were things that made me feel comfortable. After each situation you experience, whether it may be shopping, or just simple every day occurrences, you note how you feel in that situation. This made me think of our assignment and how we as designers can get people to create a buzz about the Salvation Army Select. If we are thoughtful in our design and make shoppers feel comfortable, they will be more inclined to share this experience with their friends and neighbors. While people enjoy memorable things, they also appreciate comfort in their experience. So this inspired me to take the approach in design the same way you think of that old ratty t-shirt you just can’t bear to throw away, comfortable. So, lets reinvent the wheel of comfort; turn ordinary into extraordinary.

Marketing Exercise [t-shirt group]

Salvation Army Select is a new retail branch for the Salvation Army, with a high end boutique environment. The t-shirt group worked in areas of design, to highlight the different ways to either sell higher end products made from recycled t-shirts or to simply use t-shirts as attention catchers. We dabbled in the areas of t-shirt jewelry, cedar ball dresser drawer stuffers, bleached t-shirt designs, and chair covers. The exploration of what you can do with t-shirts was a lot of fun and took being green to a whole new level. The jewelry could be made from old shirts that they can't sell due to holes or other wear and tear. These items could be sold in the store, along with re-designed t-shirts. The bleached shirt is only one way to improve an old t-shirt. We need donations of gently used items, please bring your contributions to the Salvation Army Select, in the Lake Jeanette Station Shopping Center, off North Elm Street, Greensboro, NC. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me through e-mail for details! Please, Please, Please help, its for a good cause!

Turning Ordinary to Extraordinary

This was a fun, easy, and green project. I took old t-shirts I had laying around, and turned them into jewelry. This project took easily five minutes per piece, give or take a few minutes with my creative twist's.

A Select Store: Salvation Army Select [Marketing Ideas]

The Salvation Army

Doing the most good.

Helping Americans increase quality of life and rebuild after disaster.

Community fellowship

-   Kroc Centers

-   Youth Camps

-   Recreation

Rebuilding Lives:

-   Disaster Relief

-   Prisoner Rehabilitation

-   Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation

-   Fight Human Trafficking

Comfort and Support

-   Christmas Charity

-   Elderly Services

-   Community Cares Ministries

Soap

Hanger & Hanger Tag

Chair Cover

Scent bag/ Cedar bag

- Small made out of old t-shirts

Tie-dye shirt pins, key chains, etc.

Seed pack with seeds and info designed package

"Fresh Store, Fresh Start!"

 

Tick Tick Tock... Time Piece Project

Is it Friday yet?

This short week isn't turning out to be so short after all. I feel overwhelmed with my to-do list and I haven't even written it out. Hurry up and wait, the story of my week! I have hurried to get everything done because I feel behind, but to my amazement I have been finishing on time if not early. Now off to write my to-do list and hurry to class... scatter brain day!

Aqua Vitae + Socks & Stockings [Materials Board]

Levels of Comfort is the store composed from the concept aqua vitae and the products socks and stockings. The idea behind the scene of the store as well as its levels in storage and sock length came from the inspirational city Venice, Italy.  I chose to use this place for inspiration in the design of my store, because aqua vitae is latin for water of life and in Venice, life revolves around water and the levels in which it rises and falls. This is related to socks and stockings, not only in the literal sense of different levels of socks; but also in the sense of warmth and dryness that comes from these socks in the different levels of use.  The color choices were subdued so that the bright colors of the socks took center stage in the custom acrylic bins. The material choices were inspired by an image of Venice, in which you get a taste of the materials that make up the city. This board was difficult to construct, because we had to create the design from the materials we chose. When what we normally do is create the design and then the materials board.