New Year, New Resolution

Ok, ok, so I realize that it is April, and almost the end of April at that, but I wanted to write an update on my New Year's resolution for 2012.  I am hoping that I will make some kind of goal for my self each year to grow my online business (if you have checked it out yet, click here).  This year I made it my goal to work on my street cred.  That is, I wanted to work on making my shop more visible in the local area, to have a physical location, not just a virtual one.  While at this point I am not willing to take the jump to opening up my own storefront, I was willing to open up in someone else's shop.  So, I researched a couple galleries in the area, found one I liked and set up an interview.  And....I GOT IN!

So, I am set up to having a gallery show for the entire month of June 2012.  I'm super excited and definitely nervous.  I am one that usually thinks of all the possible ways I could fail and often talk myself out of doing things because of this.  But not this time, there is no turning back :)  My show will include 12-15 pieces of original artwork that will include a lot of the designs that I made for my 2012 calendar (the designs can be seen here).

I wanted to write a post mostly to practice what I am going to say at my opening night for the gallery show.  Hopefully practice will help me hone in on what I want to present, and how I want to present it.

So...here goes.

Eh-hem

So one thing that I have discovered in my schooling and professional design career is that design is very often about finding a beautiful solution to a problem. While I was in school, my professors would invent these design problems and then help us to find our way of coming up with the solution...or creating our own design process.  A design process can be very complicated or very simple.  For this exhibit, I took it upon myself to come up with a problem and find a solution.  My problem or challenge was to create a different line pattern using simple shapes, curves and lines for each day of one month.  I wanted the patterns to be unique, not common, not immediately apparent what basic shapes I was using to build upon.  So for each day I started out with a basic pattern, then manipulated it, either by stretching, shifting, squishing, or stacking, to come up with a unique pattern.  The result was some rather complicated digital line drawings, that were amazingly intricate.

So, I set up a challenge or problem for myself and at the end of the month I had 31 different solutions.  This is where I find the function of the project to stop, and the application of color was where the form came in.  By applying color, it somewhat simplifies the pattern, making some shapes obvious, while obscuring others.  And with color, the complicated line drawing, turns into something entirely other or different.  This I think, it also where and individuals design aesthetic can be applied, using the different color combinations. I happen to be a fan of bright colors at the moment.  But these could easily change to something more fancy than fun just by applying different shades.