ruminating on time

we are not stressed because we have no time, but rather, we have no time because we are stressed.

well put! this excerpt is from an article written by stefan klein. i've always been really interested in our perception of time and how it relates to our lives. this explains my interest in calendars, the slow movement and the effects of stress on our health...so i've decided to continue to explore time as a potential thesis topic.

i see time as something that holds enormous value because it is irreplaceable. how we use our time tells a lot about our philosophy on life. as our 52 million minutes of time pass, we try to accomplish more in an attempt to feel as productive as possible. we chase our own or other people's definition of "success" without checking in with ourselves and our quality of life along the way. what happens when we get where we think we want to be and realize we have everything we wished for except more time for the people and events that we missed out on? how do our perceptions of time differ from person to person or country to country? how can we develop a deeper connection to something that we are experts at wasting? is it possible to design something that encourages people to be more aware of how they use their time and how valuable it is?

MeBox

i just finished moving everything i own to the neighboring bedroom in our apartment. my new room is huge but has some drawbacks...like no closet. ouch. i don't have a lot of stuff but i still need to solve this problem creatively. i've found ways to hide things in every available nook and cranny. while browsing online for some storage solutions that don't scream pottery barn or ikea, i found the MeBox. it's casual and playful. their website has an interactive virtual box that allows you to create your own pattern before committing to a purchase.

sara remington

these two shots from sara remington's online portfolio caught my attention today. the variety of textures, her use of color and the shallow depth of field resulted in these beautiful images.

this is a perfect opportunity to mention a little about color theory and depth of field. the image on the left uses an analogous color scheme (colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel) and the image on the right uses a complementary color scheme (colors that sit across from each other on the color wheel). take a look at the color wheel below. selecting the perfect color palette is a real challenge but these general rules help artists narrow down the infinite number of combinations.
depth of field refers to the area of an image that is in focus. photographers use this technique to emphasize one area of the photo and de-emphasize the rest.

designed by me :: final project

i spent this semester studying the world water crisis for one of my design studio courses. each student picked a topic and learned about a dozen research methods so that we'd be prepared to work independently on our thesis projects beginning this summer. the final product was a fifty page book about our topic. here are some photos of my final piece. i intentionally stayed away from statistics (there is one shown above but i attempted to show it graphically) and images of people in developing countries because i feel that people are desensitized to this method of educating the public about an issue. i wanted to create a friendly and approachable book about this topic so that people would be encouraged to learn about it instead of feel they were being lectured or viewing the same old information. i had the book printed and bound and then covered boards and added them to the front and back.

special thanks to neeta for jumping in during the home stretch and helping me with content.

one year down, two to go.

whoa!

this image was created by maria camargo and spotted on swissmiss.

designed by me :: final book arts project

i'm exhausted but thrilled to be done with this project. it's a set of little books about my grandfather's life and is divided into two sections, europe and the united states. each book had a map representing each area on the cover. it opens up to handmade envelopes that are folded into an accordion. each envelope contains a card in the shape of a suitcase and tells a piece of the story.

365 calendar

what a clever way to combine a tear-off calendar with a font book.

the pentagram calendar

this year the 12 graphic design partners of pentagram nominated their favorite typefaces and one is represented each month. it can be found at veer.com

method packaging

method continues to create modern and fashionable packaging for their environmentally friendly products. this line is beautiful and was apparently inspired by the ocean.

oh no!

okay, so i had this great idea. as you know, i'm obsessed with calendars. earlier this year i came up with a concept for a calendar that involved using bulblewrap. each day would be one bubble and the numbers would be printed on the back. i created a prototype with some bubblewrap and a sharpie and it's on my bulletin board. it was supposed to be exactly like the one pictured here...by some designer that moves a bit faster than i do. oh well, nicely done.