Ithaa

5 feet below the sea sits an unforgettable experience. A restaurant called Ithaa was built in 2004, and opened in 2005 off of Conrad Maldives Rangali Island as a part of the Hilton Maldives Resort and Spa. It is built of mostly acrylic and is only expected to last 20 years, although it has already withstood a tsunami. With glass walls and a curved glass ceiling you are able to see 180 degrees of marine life in its natural habitat. Beauty comes at a price, and lunch at Ithaa will cost a minimum of $120 per person. Only 14 people can dine at Ithaa at a time and if there are no dinner reservations for the night the restaurant allows people to rent the room for the night. Building this structure was a worldwide event. It was designed in New Zealand by a company called M.J. Murphy Ltd, used materials from the United States, constructed in Singapore and then Shipped to the Maldives. Altogether this process came to a total of 5 million dollars and weighed 175 tonnes.

Beer Label Project From Beginning to End

The Project objective:
The objective is to create a new un-named beer that is smart, classy and has deep roots. The target audience is 25-50 year old, 70% male. They are the type of people that read national newspaper, watch 1.5 hours of T.V a day, subscribe to Sports Illustrated and Time and buy mid-upper class European cars.

At the beginning of the beer label project I had a hard time finding a name for a beer that wasn't already in use. My though process consisted of first making a flowchart of everything beer related. This included the beer making process, prohibition, what men like to do, where and when beer is drank, names for beer, words that stood for strength, class and courage. From that I came up with two names, Tabono, which is a symbol of paddles that stands for strength and Ansonia which is a type of clock, to go off of how most upper class men wear watches and how you lose track of time while drinking.
I also researched other beer labels that I took interest in. These are examples of some:

Both of these names didn't seem to suite beer as best as possible so I researched animals that stood for strength. From this I came up with the name "Wild Beast."
These are my roughs for the label:

 

Next I started to chose fonts and vector the cow skull which looked like this:

 

I chose colours that would give the feeling of an old Texas wanted poster. From here I was given the suggestion to try using the Texas flag colours. These were the two options, both give a very different feel:

 

I decided to go with the red white and blue and add a leather texture to the back. One of the biggest challenges was the printing. I wanted to use a shiny iridescent paper to simulate the idea of a Texas badge. The difficulty came from the paper making the label a few shades darker than I wanted it to be. After experimenting with a handful of different papers I found one that worked.

 

Greatest Strenght vs. Greatest Weakness

I believe that my greatest strength as a designer is my time management. so far, all throughout college I have been able to work at my part time job, approximately 25 hours a week, while maintaining decent grades. As well I have been able to keep strong ties to my family and friends. To add on top of that I have been able to keep my sanity by managing my time and allowing myself to go to bed at a reasonable time every night. In contrast I believe my greatest weakness is my knowledge of the Adobe Software programs. When entering this program I was told that no prior experience of the software was needed. Now looking back I wish I would have made myself familiar with Photoshop and Illustrator before college. Not being comfortable with the programs limits what I am capable of creating and adds time to how long it takes me to complete projects. To fix this problem and to benefit myself in the future i have purchased the Adobe, Classroom in a book, books to get myself more familiar with the programs.

 

Pictures From: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/120/9/6/Adobe_Photoshop_CS4_Logo_PSD_by_iampxr.png

http://lssacademy.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/stop-watch.jpg

My Summer Job

Not only is McDonald's going to be my summer job, but it is my job year round. Since October 2008 I have been working at McDonald's. When I started I was a cashier, then I become a Crew Trainer, showing new employees the ropes, next I become a Team Leader (manager in training) and now three and a half years later I am a manager. When I first started a lot of my high school friends worked there and it was just a part time job that made me some spending money. I took the job seriously and therefore was promoted multiple times. This, similar to the design industry shows how you start at the bottom of the food chain and little by little you work your way to the top. Secondly this is like the design industry because one of the first things you learn as a cashier is "the customer is always right." This could be translated to the client is always right. At the end of the day it's the customers that make the restaurant money and the clients that make the designer money. Next, working at McDonald's is like working in the design industry because it's all about communication. Almost every shift a customer has a complaint about the food, the store or an employee. As a manager it is my responsibility to make sure that at the end of the day the customer is satisfied. This means finding the problem, apologizing, finding a solution, making sure that it is prevented for the future and then wowing the customer. Lastly, my job is most like working  in the industry because of the people that I work with. There are roughly 110 people that are employed at my workplace, this means teens ages 15+. Some of these teenagers and I have conflicting personalities. Like in the design field, you don't get to chose who you are partnered with but are expected to work efficiently no matter what the case. Although it may seem like being a designer and a manager at McDonald's are worlds apart there are many more similarities than you would think.

Pictures from: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c5/McDonalds-Brentwood.jpg
http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/P1-AX445_mcinsu_G_20100929181848.jpg

Elements and Principles of Design of a Chair

"His furniture is based on forms and colours which describe motion, 

giving each piece a sense of force and movement tightly constrained by the strong shapes and materials."

 

Anthony Hartley is a designer from the UK that hand makes furniture that is fun fresh and innovative. He was attending post secondary when his sketches of his furniture creations came alive.

In his pieces you can clearly see the elements and principles of design. This particular chair uses bright playful colours to draw attention to it's self which makes it a feature piece in any room. The colours that Anthony uses are warm yellows, oranges, sea foam green, cream, natural wood colours, and periwinkle blue. One of the reasons this chair is so successful is its use of line. The straight lines of colour the curve around the structure creates interest and rhythm. This chair looks different from all different angles, looking at it straight on you can see all the stripes but when seen from the side you can see the structure of chair and a dominant colour. From the side view you can also see the contrast in the curves in the structure, the large curve in the arm rest balances the smaller curves at the base of the chair.

Small Town vs. Big City

How I feel about being a small town girl.

Growing up in KW, and going to elementary, high school and college in KW I feel like I haven't been exposed to as much design related places and people as I could have been if I had gone to a school in the city. Although going to school in town has helped me with living accommodations, expenses and maintaining a job I feel like it has limited me in other ways. There are only about 3 museums in KW and less resources compared to living in Toronto (or any other bigger city.) On the other hand I feel like people here are more open and willing to converse and share. ie. Smaller design firms here will email you back and make time to talk to you in person compared to big design firms that wont make the time. I feel like this is the friendly environment that I would prefer to work in.

Taking to a city girl.

 My friend Melanie Mescudi is in graphic design at Humber. I asked her a few question of how she feels to be living in a big city compared to a smaller city such as KW. I also asked her about her living accommodations, class sizes, transportation and resources and networking. Since she is originally from here she knows the atmosphere of both places.

Living in a big city is more fast pace then Waterloo was, you wait in line at every store but I like it because this is where I wanna be. Waterloo was crowded enough you could see the same person a few times a month, chances here if u mess up there is a high chance you'll see that person again. Living in a big city has let me make room exploration and a different aspect creative wise. I have a class of 32 and they are probably the best type of people we are different but the same, creative people. I love it. We can bounce each other ideas and we understand the jokes others may not. I live in a house with 15 other students that attend Humber at both campus. I use the TTC everyday and have a 20 min bus ride to school and on weekends if I wanna go downtown I take the subway or streetcar down. it's hard to get a job down here but I'm trying. T.O is expensive but its worth the stay I love my course and I enjoy the friends I have made down here. I admit I miss home sometimes but I think I could live here for a while.

Designer from Australia: Barrie Tucker

 Barrie Tucker

Coastal Cooler Package Design

Marine Village Masts

Barrie Tucker has been a member of the Design Institute of Australia since 1979. He is also a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale, Life Fellow, Design Institute of Australia, Australian Design Hall of Fame and Australian Graphic Design Association. It's hard to believe that Barrie started his career in design with little to no experience in the design field and no formal education in the subject. When he was a teenager he started his long journey at Reust Propaganda in Zurich where he learned on the job. He worked there for three years and grew as a designer while working on his illustration skills in his off time. From this Tucker became recognized as a prestigious illustrator and traveled back to Melbourne to open his own design studio. At his studio Barrie Tucker Design he was commissioned for big projects with big name companies. Some of these companies include the South Australian Theatre Company, The Times, Penguin Books, Sanctuary Cove and Hilton International Hotels. Barrie also has numerous exhibitions, lectures, has won over a handful of awards and has had multiple books published. He is highly recognized as a bottle designer and showcased below are a few of his works.

Etched bottle for Barrie Tucker Bottle Design

Bottle Design for Pinot Geigio