My sketch (same disclaimer/apology as for assignment 1.3):
Friday, April 25, 2014
Homework Assignment 1.4 - Design For You
For my gap, I've chosen to design a convincingly medieval-looking ergonomic backpack for carrying a day's worth of water & eating utensils.
My sketch (same disclaimer/apology as for assignment 1.3):
The initial prototype build (front, side and back views):
My sketch (same disclaimer/apology as for assignment 1.3):
Homework Assignment 1.3 - Visual Expression 1: The Basics
My sketch of a chair:
Crafted using the majestic MS Paint... I'm rather rushed today, and won't be able to do anything on the weekend, so I chose the medium with the best speed:quality ratio, rather than straight-up quality... I shall atone by doing proper renderings as the course moves forward.
Crafted using the majestic MS Paint... I'm rather rushed today, and won't be able to do anything on the weekend, so I chose the medium with the best speed:quality ratio, rather than straight-up quality... I shall atone by doing proper renderings as the course moves forward.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Homework Assignment 1.2 - Find the Gap
Product gaps that I have experienced, gap I've chosen for my product choice bolded & italicized:
- An authentic-looking early period corset (~16th century) that is flexible enough so safely fence in.
- A quick and easy way to clear (and unclear) an exercise space the in living room.
- A convincingly medieval-looking ergonomic backpack for carrying a day's worth of water & eating utensils.
- A better way to keep track of business income & expenses.
- A way to add a second level to my pet rabbits' enclosure.
- A system to store supplies for my hobbies that makes it easy for me to pack & bring them to events away from the house.
- A method for making lightweight, affordable, self-lit signage to bring to events.
- A more space-efficient way to store sewing supplies and patterns.
- A collapsible wooden garment rack for vending at events.
- A convenient shelving system for my pantry.
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Homework Assignment 1.1 - Good Design
My example of an awesome household artifact: the Kitchen Aid pasta roller/cutter attachment (image sourced from www.luxuryhousingtrends.com via Google Image search).
This nearly magical device takes the previously tedious hours-long process of rolling and cutting a batch of homemade pasta and turns it into a handful of minutes, where you pretty much just feed the dough through a few times and watch it come out as noodles at the end. It gives the ability to make healthy, homemade pasta - flavor tailored to perfectly match complement my sauce - without sacrificing my whole day.
This nearly magical device takes the previously tedious hours-long process of rolling and cutting a batch of homemade pasta and turns it into a handful of minutes, where you pretty much just feed the dough through a few times and watch it come out as noodles at the end. It gives the ability to make healthy, homemade pasta - flavor tailored to perfectly match complement my sauce - without sacrificing my whole day.
And now time to complicate things...
I've been a very bad blogger lately... really, in general I haven't gotten much done lately. Between a bit of post-first-vending-gig funk (mostly consisting of not knowing which project to work on next, and thereby working on nothing, followed by guilt for not doing anything), and a just horrible stomach bug to start off April, there just hasn't been much to post about.
That's changing soon, however! I decided I missed being a student, and that I really need some more design training to really make this "having a design business" thing work, so using the magic of the internet (specifically, Coursera) I've signed up for a University of Pennsylvania class called Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. One of the course components is creating a website or blog to chronicle the design project you've picked for the the course, and you're allowed to use a preexisting site if you have one... which, since chronicling my projects is sort of the whole point of this blog, works perfectly. The first couple weeks of posts will probably be a little strange, because they're very foundational blips of design process and also will be horribly out of context for you (some posts I may unpack a little, but a lot of the assignments have word limits, so if I want to go in-depth I'll need a second post), and I'll have to do a couple of weird layout/organization things to the blog for the 8-week duration of the course.
So, yeah, brace yourself to be a bit confused, but I should have regular (like, multiple times per week) posts with some cool pictures coming... pretty much now. I'm hoping to turn the Adventurer's Day Pack I posted about on Tumbr a while back into my project, although I'm waiting for the course staff to get back to me on that, since I have about a week's head start (in terms of course structure, at least). There are a couple other possibilities, like a LARP-safe 16th century style corset (although that may be a bit more time-consuming than ideal for an 8-week course), or maybe some sort of organizer for LARP/sewing/everything stuff.
Oh! I did this weeks ago, but forgot to put up the link here... my Etsy shop is stocked! With pretty pictures and everything!
That's changing soon, however! I decided I missed being a student, and that I really need some more design training to really make this "having a design business" thing work, so using the magic of the internet (specifically, Coursera) I've signed up for a University of Pennsylvania class called Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society. One of the course components is creating a website or blog to chronicle the design project you've picked for the the course, and you're allowed to use a preexisting site if you have one... which, since chronicling my projects is sort of the whole point of this blog, works perfectly. The first couple weeks of posts will probably be a little strange, because they're very foundational blips of design process and also will be horribly out of context for you (some posts I may unpack a little, but a lot of the assignments have word limits, so if I want to go in-depth I'll need a second post), and I'll have to do a couple of weird layout/organization things to the blog for the 8-week duration of the course.
So, yeah, brace yourself to be a bit confused, but I should have regular (like, multiple times per week) posts with some cool pictures coming... pretty much now. I'm hoping to turn the Adventurer's Day Pack I posted about on Tumbr a while back into my project, although I'm waiting for the course staff to get back to me on that, since I have about a week's head start (in terms of course structure, at least). There are a couple other possibilities, like a LARP-safe 16th century style corset (although that may be a bit more time-consuming than ideal for an 8-week course), or maybe some sort of organizer for LARP/sewing/everything stuff.
Oh! I did this weeks ago, but forgot to put up the link here... my Etsy shop is stocked! With pretty pictures and everything!
Friday, February 28, 2014
First of Many Finish Lines
Well, as you might guess from my previous post, I've been a little busy for the last month or so...
The LARP event I did makeup for & vended at was last weekend, and it was a lot of fun, although I didn't get to go out and enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, since my minion/fiancee got press ganged into helping with food & beverage service... He had a fantastic time, and has volunteered to keep working the tavern at future events, so I guess I need a new minion (I suppose I'll keep him for the fiancee job, though ;) ).
Makeup went on quite well, especially when you take into account that larpers are even more difficult to herd than actors... Sadly, though, our Medusa backed out, and the only people we could get to volunteer as a replacement were men with beards... plus, we were running low on time (see above re: difficulty of herding larpers), so we scrapped that design, covered the faces of the beardy menfolk, and let the snake hat do the talking. Which sucks, because the design I had come up with would have been awesome - I was going to do basically two "layers," the first of which was white marble, and then over the marble look I had patches of green-on-green (OD over grass) scales... if my phone's SD card survived its swimming lesson on Wednesday (yeah, that happened - it spent a couple days in a bag of rice, and the phone will start up, but it's... not right anymore), I'll post pictures of the test-application I did on myself.
Anyways, that simplified my job down to an assembly line of Drow and one well-preserved undead guy. Plus, I had minions to help, the chief of whom had an airbrush. So all my dark elves looked very pretty, and I was able to make my one undead dude look rather subtly gruesome... although I really should have put the spot where his skin was sloughing off on his cheekbone rather than his forehead, 'cause it got covered up by his hood....
As for the vendor booth, I managed to build enough stuff over the month and a half to keep my booth from looking too empty, although it was still pretty sparse. I had a selection of belt pouches, a few hoods, shirts sized small through XL (one of each size, plus a couple "factory seconds" as it were), a couple pairs of leg wraps, and a couple of dice bags up for sale, and I also made a display of some of my personal garb as examples of custom work. Pictures of the booth are up on my Facebook page.
Sales weren't exactly great... I sold one belt pouch, and am following up on one custom job I may have picked up at the event (a replica of the very first pattern I ever designed seven years ago, which I suppose is a good omen). I'm trying hard not to be too discouraged... objectively, not only was it was my first show, but it wasn't the most sale-friendly environment - the light was really dim (because Underdark), and the "market" was positioned so that it didn't have any non-shopper through-traffic, which since this was a LARP event and not a trade show or other shopping-related event means I don't think any of the impulse-buy-only crowd actually even SAW the stuff I was selling. Realistically, giving out a half-dozen business cards and doing any business at all under those conditions is a pretty great start, but I can't pretend I'm not bummed. (And please don't interpret this as a comment on the event organizers - they ran a damn fine event, the very first at this venue, no less - it's just that "friendly retail environment" and "Drow city" are nearly mutually exclusive, and generating sales isn't a major priority for making a good LARP.)
Oh, well. Onward and upward, and all that... at least I have a bunch of stuff to list on my Etsy store now! Watch this space for a link once it's up and running. :) And I learned a lot, so when I do this again I'll have a much better idea of how to create a good vending experience. Like, it was really cold down there, so I bet I could have made some bank if I had a bunch of wooly cloaks for sale. :P
The LARP event I did makeup for & vended at was last weekend, and it was a lot of fun, although I didn't get to go out and enjoy it as much as I'd hoped, since my minion/fiancee got press ganged into helping with food & beverage service... He had a fantastic time, and has volunteered to keep working the tavern at future events, so I guess I need a new minion (I suppose I'll keep him for the fiancee job, though ;) ).
Makeup went on quite well, especially when you take into account that larpers are even more difficult to herd than actors... Sadly, though, our Medusa backed out, and the only people we could get to volunteer as a replacement were men with beards... plus, we were running low on time (see above re: difficulty of herding larpers), so we scrapped that design, covered the faces of the beardy menfolk, and let the snake hat do the talking. Which sucks, because the design I had come up with would have been awesome - I was going to do basically two "layers," the first of which was white marble, and then over the marble look I had patches of green-on-green (OD over grass) scales... if my phone's SD card survived its swimming lesson on Wednesday (yeah, that happened - it spent a couple days in a bag of rice, and the phone will start up, but it's... not right anymore), I'll post pictures of the test-application I did on myself.
Anyways, that simplified my job down to an assembly line of Drow and one well-preserved undead guy. Plus, I had minions to help, the chief of whom had an airbrush. So all my dark elves looked very pretty, and I was able to make my one undead dude look rather subtly gruesome... although I really should have put the spot where his skin was sloughing off on his cheekbone rather than his forehead, 'cause it got covered up by his hood....
As for the vendor booth, I managed to build enough stuff over the month and a half to keep my booth from looking too empty, although it was still pretty sparse. I had a selection of belt pouches, a few hoods, shirts sized small through XL (one of each size, plus a couple "factory seconds" as it were), a couple pairs of leg wraps, and a couple of dice bags up for sale, and I also made a display of some of my personal garb as examples of custom work. Pictures of the booth are up on my Facebook page.
Sales weren't exactly great... I sold one belt pouch, and am following up on one custom job I may have picked up at the event (a replica of the very first pattern I ever designed seven years ago, which I suppose is a good omen). I'm trying hard not to be too discouraged... objectively, not only was it was my first show, but it wasn't the most sale-friendly environment - the light was really dim (because Underdark), and the "market" was positioned so that it didn't have any non-shopper through-traffic, which since this was a LARP event and not a trade show or other shopping-related event means I don't think any of the impulse-buy-only crowd actually even SAW the stuff I was selling. Realistically, giving out a half-dozen business cards and doing any business at all under those conditions is a pretty great start, but I can't pretend I'm not bummed. (And please don't interpret this as a comment on the event organizers - they ran a damn fine event, the very first at this venue, no less - it's just that "friendly retail environment" and "Drow city" are nearly mutually exclusive, and generating sales isn't a major priority for making a good LARP.)
Oh, well. Onward and upward, and all that... at least I have a bunch of stuff to list on my Etsy store now! Watch this space for a link once it's up and running. :) And I learned a lot, so when I do this again I'll have a much better idea of how to create a good vending experience. Like, it was really cold down there, so I bet I could have made some bank if I had a bunch of wooly cloaks for sale. :P
Monday, January 13, 2014
When it rains, it pours...
So, dear readers, I had a plan. I thought it was a good plan.
My plan was to putter throughout January. You know - work steadily, but at a very leisurely pace, and on a whole bunch of things at once. I would make a company logo (which I'm partway through - take a look at my profile picture!), get plates on my car so I can actually drive it, finish getting all my social media profiles networked & polished, file for a sales tax ID & trade name, and perform an epic clean on the house (so when I start treating sewing/design/blogging as a job, it's easy to maintain a relatively slob-free standard of living).
Last week (I want to say Tuesday), a friend contacted me about the premiere event of his new LARP venue towards the end of February, and would I like to design the makeup for the NPCs? Oh, and how about setting up a booth to sell your garb and stuff?
...So much for my plan. Because, of course, I said yes (well, officially the booth is still at a "maybe"). Why wouldn't I? Talk about starting things off with a bang!
I could maybe follow through with my plan if I was JUST doing makeup, but that would probably be pushing it. And the booth? I don't have any inventory. So I'm also embarking on a marathon of building pouches, bags, shirts, chemises, and hoods. Big stuff will have to wait - maybe I'll find time to do some sort of posterboard with pictures of some of my commissioned pieces (wood grain contact paper and a fauxtoshop "oil painting" filter should be enough that it won't look totally out of place in a medieval fantasy game), or perhaps I could ask some past clients to let me display the pieces I've done for them...
I'm all sorts of excited, albeit a bit overwhelmed. But I can do this. It's really not that different from the stacks of projects I did in college. If I can calm down and focus on one task at a time, decisively choosing only one or two tasks per day, it may not even be hard. Keyword being "if."
More likely, I will accidentally multitask, scramble away at everything at the last minute like Wile E. Coyote running on air, and just barely slide in under the action-movie-automated-door of a deadline as a manic, slightly narcoleptic, disheveled homunculous, but with all my projects complete. Like I usually do.
Oh, and I picked up another gambeson commission yesterday. ::headdesk::
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to stop internet-shopping for makeup supplies, and start sewing some stuff. Tally-ho!
My plan was to putter throughout January. You know - work steadily, but at a very leisurely pace, and on a whole bunch of things at once. I would make a company logo (which I'm partway through - take a look at my profile picture!), get plates on my car so I can actually drive it, finish getting all my social media profiles networked & polished, file for a sales tax ID & trade name, and perform an epic clean on the house (so when I start treating sewing/design/blogging as a job, it's easy to maintain a relatively slob-free standard of living).
Last week (I want to say Tuesday), a friend contacted me about the premiere event of his new LARP venue towards the end of February, and would I like to design the makeup for the NPCs? Oh, and how about setting up a booth to sell your garb and stuff?
...So much for my plan. Because, of course, I said yes (well, officially the booth is still at a "maybe"). Why wouldn't I? Talk about starting things off with a bang!
I could maybe follow through with my plan if I was JUST doing makeup, but that would probably be pushing it. And the booth? I don't have any inventory. So I'm also embarking on a marathon of building pouches, bags, shirts, chemises, and hoods. Big stuff will have to wait - maybe I'll find time to do some sort of posterboard with pictures of some of my commissioned pieces (wood grain contact paper and a fauxtoshop "oil painting" filter should be enough that it won't look totally out of place in a medieval fantasy game), or perhaps I could ask some past clients to let me display the pieces I've done for them...
I'm all sorts of excited, albeit a bit overwhelmed. But I can do this. It's really not that different from the stacks of projects I did in college. If I can calm down and focus on one task at a time, decisively choosing only one or two tasks per day, it may not even be hard. Keyword being "if."
More likely, I will accidentally multitask, scramble away at everything at the last minute like Wile E. Coyote running on air, and just barely slide in under the action-movie-automated-door of a deadline as a manic, slightly narcoleptic, disheveled homunculous, but with all my projects complete. Like I usually do.
Oh, and I picked up another gambeson commission yesterday. ::headdesk::
Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for me to stop internet-shopping for makeup supplies, and start sewing some stuff. Tally-ho!
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