green glasses

This is a quick piece of myself. Had fun painting with color and loose sketching. Have to mention that I love my glasses! I received them recently from Warby Parker, who I can not recommend enough. They run around $95 for a frames + lenses, and if that isn't enough they also donate a pair to someone in need. So amazing.

 

I also needed a new profile pic on facebook.

Betta love

A friend of mine started a new blog chronicling her betta fish family. She asked me to design a header image, and I went a little crazy and ended up creating a whole layout. It was lots of fun and I wanted to keep it cheerful and bright - to showcase the colorful fish.

I pulled out my tablet and sketched a betta for her custom logo. It was fun discovering a process to create the scales and it turned out really well. I sketched the banner and the text as well. My first idea was 'vintage nautical', but I realized that betta are tropical so I moved toward a more vibrant palette. This was a refreshing project, so thank you Roxy for the opportunity!

Visit her blog at bettabonkers.com

Bebal

Energized by my sister's success in her online art classes I'm motivated to dive back in to creating art. I believe design is art too, but it is a different kind of animal. Spreading my time creating around multiple mediums allows me to grow and be inspired in new ways, It's so easy to become stagnant and work yourself into a rut. Artist's block. So I'm challenging myself to keep working on new things and fostering a healthy process, whether it's for a job or myself.

 This piece might not look like much but it took around 6 hours. I restarted 3 times. I am discovering how to begin and sustain work. It was more about enjoying the act of painting and loosening up my mind than wanting to finish a specific idea.

This was my first sketch with my (new!) wacom tablet a few months ago. I have a lot to learn but it's enjoyable. Hopefully more sketches to come.

Peasant Lunch

Is there anything better than sausage, crackers, cheese, & an apple for lunch?

Open-face Smoked Trout Sandwich

A completely random craving happened when out walking last week. Smoked fish. Salmon is the obvious choice, but there is a local trout pond (Eat My Fish) that provides fresh smoked trout to the co-op. A simple sandwich was born: cream cheese, green onion, smoked trout, and crusty bread. Any loaf of hearty bread will work, I chose simple Italian Peasant bread.

Biomimicry

I'm in the process of developing an idea for a class assignment in Intro to Sustainable Design. Wendy Jedlicka is my professor who lives and breathes sustainability. She's enthusiastic and dedicated to making every student 'see the light', and understand why it is so important. A real understanding is the first step which branches out in any direction imaginable.

Anyway - back to the project. Over the semester everyone is designing (or redesigning) a product. We've been encouraged to keep it simple, since it's easy to get lost in too many details. Something little, like a pencil, is a very complex product that can be really involving to look at every part of it's life. Cradle-to-grave, or in our case, attempting cradle-to-cradle. Designing a product with sustainability in mind, rather than something to be thrown away after it's claimed usefulness is exhausted.

My project, suggested by Wendy, is looking at store-bought spices. The packaging is my main focus, but every step is important to consider. Different spices, for example may have to be packaged differently. Is it better to have a single package design, or multiple specific to different spices. Today I visited Hoffman Hills in search of inspiration from nature. How are things stored in nature? What are some examples of packages? These are photos I took:

 Pod formations clustered together on one stalk

 Little packets of seeds on a wheat stalk

 So much variety, dead but alive

Buds on a willow branch

 Yes! Exactly what I wanted to see, I was thinking about milk pods in my head as a starting point, and I found some!

 Already used, brittle but keeping it's shape..

I was leaving but had to stop an photograph these.

So much to think about. Bulk spices are a great thing in theory, but most people seem to prefer buying spices in containers. Maybe lots of small amounts in tiny biodegradable packages? One use spice? Maybe using a pod design for selling spice in, flexible but one use. Marketed as 'refills'. Then selling containers alongside, which is ideally a one-time purchase. Similar to glass. But then I begin to think about where spices come from. They are essentially dried plants or seeds. 

I also thought about labeling. In nature you don't see writing or labels anywhere. Everything is recognizable by visual features, textures, or color. It would be so appealing to create special containers for each spice, drawing inspiration from its origins - the plant is came from. Identifying purely without words.