Carissa AtriantyTerm 02 / Spring 13Leonard Konopelski

// Comm Design 2

Drawing drawn byDennis Dang

Communication Design 2 is a class designed for mostly second termer Graphic Design students in Art Center College of Design. This class is a continuity of Com-munication Design 1 previously taken in the last term.

We learned basically subjects similar to Communication 1 class, which is basically producing print-ed items, mostly posters or ad-vertisements while also utilizing

our conceptual thinking instead of regular common literal thinking that people often use when they create printed media.

Taught by Leonard Konopel-ski, this class was unexpectedly fun than what I thought it would be. In the morning, Leonard would provide us with materials shown through slideshows. At first, I honestly felt like the materials were completely random and even

I had a hard time in connecting the relationship between the s, but don’t get me wrong, I changed my perception in the latter period of the course. The random materials that Leonard prepares apparently provides as an inspiration for our current or next projects.

Aside from on-campus activ-ity, a highlight of the class would be a field trip to Sci-Arc, where we were expected to capture the

visual elements of one of the most notable architecture schools in US. That elements we saw would later be translated into printed media, in this case, a poster.

Communication Design 2 has been a journey of finding your-self in the intricacy of conceptual thinking. I did learn a lot from this class.

// Intro

// April the Fool

Who doesn’t know April Fools? It’s the day everyone has been waiting or maybe has not been waiting for! Some of you guys who consider yourself as world-class prankster might celebrate this day. However, some of you who are rather timid and sensitive objects of a prank might condemn this day.

But there’s always something we can look forward to this day, for example, we must be looking forward to see if any notable per-son pull a good prank and go fa-mous, like Ashton Kutcher in his show Punk’d (although that show doesn’t air only on April Fool’s day).

Recently, almost a lot of Goo-gle users must admit that they just did something stupid on April 1. You might say that I’m one of those...well, yeah, people. Google announced that they launched a Beta program that allows people to smell through the computer. Basically people would get to use their sense of smelling to identify anything they desired to smile.

It took me quite a while to fig-ure out that this whole Beta pro-gram thing is nothing by a clev-erly-made April Fool’s joke by one of the top growing companies in US, Google.com. If you are good at

pulling pranks at people and are planning for a bigger demograhics to be your victims, you might want to consider opening a company such as Google and successfully trick millions.

Another trick that got me lately was the casting announcement for Christian Grey, a well-known char-acter from the novel Fifty Shades of Grey, which was reportedly go-ing to make its way to the giant screen. The news has it that Ryan Gosling would play the charac-ter. The sound of me gasping “Oh my God” in front of the computer broke the silent afternoon, not un-

til my housemates remind me that it was April 1, and that I shouldn’t completely believe in everything I saw and I heard on that day.

Anyway, enough of my blabber today. I was just intending to break the ice before we move on to the process of April da Fool poster.

CONGRATULATIONS!You just got Punk’d

POSTER INSPIRATIONS

I honestly had a hard time in coming up with a good idea for the poster, and I think most of my classmates also experience the same thing. We were torn whether we should make a poster about a fake event or make a fake adver-tisements intended to be displayed

for public, or we should depict the pranks in the poster. But then, I decided to look up to mostly post-ers or pictures that are fake or just part of a hoax.

Sketches

One of my earliest ideas is to portray an advertisement of Tiffany and Co, showing a girl who was excited when her boy-friend kneels before her and is about to open - what she would expect - an engagement ring.

Oh well, the illustration approach became my choice because i always wanted to illustrate something for an advertisement.

However, Leonard pushes

me to look for something that is more conceptual and less literal.

First Alternative

The Damned Proposal

I know, I know, who is not panic when Facebook - yes, that website that becomes the sole reason why you get distracted in a lecture class - is closed? Every-one right? Literally everyone who’s an avid visitor of Facebook.

Honestly, I’d freak out too if this happens.

Second Alternative

Concept 1Read again

My idea was based on one of the sketches that I did, which is about a girl who reads a fake love letter with hidden APRIL FOOLS letter highlighted in it (poor girl, I know). Leonard sug-

gested that I write a letter that looks very convincing (it has to look like a real love letter). I went to Paper Source and purchased dec-orated letter papers. Then, I experimented with two

different kinds of writing: script writing and messy handwriting. With the help of Leonard, I ended up choosing the script one.

Photographs

Photographs

Final

Since i’m not really that excited with the first con-cept, I came up with a new idea. Leonard said that he liked my first concept, but I just wanted to experiment with more concepts.

So, in my second con-cept, I gathered ideas from the hoax about new ani-mal hybrid which featured grosteque looking animals that almost don’t make sense if you look at them

(like fake sea creatures to the infamous fish with hu-man face). Then I decided to create my own hybrid crea-ture through this poster.

Concept 2Hybrid? Yeah right

// Gun Control

The devastating news about the Sandy Hook students getting shot was truly horrifying. No one can ever think of what kind of per-son is heartless enough to do this. Gun control has been quite an is-sue today in US. I don’t normally follow updates such as TV news or even newspaper, but I do know what’s going on on internet. Gun control has been quite a debate, whether people should pro with it or go against it. The debate be-tween two groups are still heating up today.

Some people who are pro in using gun believe that using guns

can prevent us from any forms of physical threat. For example, if someone walks down a dark alley and ends up getting ambushed by a group of robbers, the victim might pose a thread to the rob-bers if he happens to have a gun.

On the other hand, people who have guns are feared to have misused their freedom to use the weapon in their hand and they can do what they like with it. Armed people are of course, more feared and more invincible. Another crucial issue that’s been going on with allowing people to have guns is, because we never know

how stable or unstable the gun owner’s mind might be. There are already several news about men-tally unstable guys shooting what-ever they see and they believe in.

The shooting in Aurora, Col-orado, is an example of shooting which involves a seemingly delu-sional man who thinks of himself as a the villain in the movie Bat-man, who fires up inside the thre-atre during one of the premiere nights of The Dark Knight Rises. and injures several people.

DON’T MOVEor I’ll shoot you

POSTER INSPIRATIONS

Leonard once mentioned that even though the main subject of the poster is about gun, the con-cept should be stronger if we set aside the element of gun itself, and instead, we could come up with symbols and metaphors of gun and the whole gun control is-sue.

Sketches

The mock-ups that I do have sim-ilar theme from one another, and it is about children being the sole target of shooting, which brings the irony. I think this concept can really reflect what is going on these days, and especially re-flecting what could be the most dangerous effect of misusing gun

Mock-ups

References to be usedon the poster

So, the last and final idea for my gun control poster is, to make a poster which features a Chucky-like female doll that got shot in the forehead. The magazine page needs to be tidied up a little bit.

Various Ideations

The last two approaches that eliminate the dark frame around is much MUCH better.

Final Product The final product is an extension of the last two approaches I sub-mitted. Leonard suggested that making the doll face with a gun-shot wound in her head, however, it looks much stronger and that Leonard mentioned that this com-position is like describing what it’s like in the mind of the chil-dren who are victims of gunshot throughout the time.

Context

// SCI-ARC

SCI-Arc is a center of innova-tion and one of the nation’s few independent architecture schools, offering undergraduate and grad-uate programs. We are dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future.

Located in a quarter-mile long former freight depot in the art-ist’s district in the heart of Los Angeles, SCI-Arc is distinguished by the vibrant atmosphere of its studios, providing students with a uniquely inspiring environment in which to study Architecture. An integral part of the emerging cul-tural hub of a city with a tradition

of architectural experimentation, the school is devoted to finding radically new responses to the real needs and aspirations of to-day’s world.

We offer students a unique experience as they pursue un-dergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate degrees. Our ap-proximately 500 students and 80 faculty members—most of whom are practicing architects—work together in a fluid, nonhierarchi-cal manner to re-think assump-tions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture.

The professional degrees awarded by SCI-Arc—the B.Arch degree and M.Arch degree offered through the M.Arch1 and M.Arch2 programs—are accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and by the Western Association of Schools and Col-leges (WASC).

The 2013 America’s Best Ar-chitecture Schools survey from DesignIntelligence ranks SCI-Arc as #1 graduate and undergradu-ate architecture program in the Western US, with national rank-ings placing it at #2 undergrad-uate and #6 graduate program

overall. Based on the architecture skills assessment survey, SCI-Arc is ranked #1 in computer appli-cations, construction methods & materials, and cross-disciplinary teamwork, #2 in design, #3 in analysis & planning, and #4 in re-search & theory, and sustainable design practices & principles.

Exploring Architecture

SCI-ARC poster needs to have something to do with dimension, grids, and all those architectural elements. In our field trip, we got to see and take loads of picture of various architectural forms and patterns. We didn’t have to include the pictures of our visit

as the background or part of the poster.

We can also construct our own perception of architect, such as making vectors of lines to por-tray the architectural grids.

Poster Inspirations

Mock-ups

I have to say though, I thought the process of making a poster about architecture will be easy, since I already have in mind what to create. I’ve always wanted to draw vector lines for a poster, and architecture poster sounds just right for vector lines, since they can be interpreted as architectur-al grid.

So I submitted about 6 differ-

ent concepts. Okay, one is actually similar to one another, just adding color. Here are some of Leon-ard’s responses to my concept attempts:

Attempt #1Leonard: “Too flat”Me: *puts on a sad face”

Attempt #2Leonard: “Too flat”

Me: *sigh*

Every week, I always fixed SCI ARC poster and excitingly went to class, expecting Leonard might give me a go on the poster, but no. None of the 6 attempts of SCI ARC poster nailed it, no matter how fun I was making it. Leonard always reminds me that in making a post-er about architecture, we need to consider the dimension or space.

Since I don’t want to waste any more time experimenting, I took his advice seriously and tried to execute what he wanted to see in my poster.

960 E 3rd St Los Angeles,

CA 90013(213) 613-2200

Southern California Institute of Architecture

SCIARC

Attempts

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960 E 3RD STREET

LOS ANGELES, CA 90013

(213) 613-2200

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INSTITUTE OF

ARCHITECTURE

Attempts

Finally, the moment of truth. After going through 6 attempts, I decided to come up with this. Di-mension? Check. Space? Check. I produced overall two variations. The first one has lines in it and I personally believe that lines add

dynamic to a composition. The other one - second one - is much quieter and calmer with barely any lines.

// 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics

The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olym-pics, will be celebrated from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi,[2] Russia, with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya Polyana. Ninety-eight events in fifteen winter sports will be held. Both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are being organized by the Sochi Organizing Committee (SOC).

Sochi was selected as the host city on 4 July 2007 during the 119th IOC Session in Guatemala City,[3] defeating bids from Salz-

burg, Austria; and Pyeongchang, South Korea. The Sochi Olympics are the first Winter Olympics (and first Olympics altogether) for the Russian Federation, as the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow were in the Soviet Union.

Construction in preparation for the Games involves the building of new venues; and modernizing the telecommunications, power, and transport infrastructure of the area. This will include the con-struction of a new Olympic Park by the Black Sea coast in the Imere-tin Valley, with venues clustered around a central area. The venues

in Krasnaya Polyana will also be new.

The Sochi Olympic Park will be built by the Black Sea coast in the Imeretin Valley.[11][12] All the venues are new. The venues will be clustered around a central water basin on which the Medals Plaza will be built. This will pro-vide a great compactness of the concept with the Olympic Stadi-um and all indoor venues of the Olympics gathered within walking distance.

Along with 2008 Russian pres-idential election, on 2 March 2008

there was an unofficial referen-dum held in Sochi to elect the mascot for the 2014 Winter Olym-pics. 270,000 voters along with their ballots received a coupon with four mascot candidates: Ded Moroz, a snowflake, a polar bear and a dolphin.

приветWhich means Hello in Russian

After doing a quick research on previous Olympic posters, ap-parently most of them tend to only feature the sports, rather than the culture of the country that hosts the Olympics. Then I decided that I would combine the elements of sports in Olympics with some in-

teresting Russian cultures. The ideas can be seen through the sketches. The pictures above are sort of my quick research of what I could possibly put into the poster.

Poster Inspirations

Sketches

Poster SeriesFinal Product

Since I’m having too much fun with this par-ticular project, I decid-ed to expand what was originally just one poster into a poster series.

SOCHI WINTER OLYMPICS 2014