I'm a Wanderer

You have all probably wondered about exactly what I am doing in school this semester since I never really put it out there. What is this girl doing? What are some of the things she is talking about? Does she even take classes anymore since I hear so much about her social life now?

To be honest, the many distractions have to be cut in half. I love it, don't get me wrong , but yes, it must (unfortunately) slow. I am in the beginning-ish of a full-time graduate status, but I have the least amount of classes that I have had since starting this program. I am taking Advanced Graphic Design with Donna Hughes, Animation with Greg Blew, two credits of Project Research, and an online Pathophysiology course that will be starting soon. I need to start working more on the Project Research more before it is too late, and I will be this upcoming week at least that is the plan. I want to graduate on-time (aka this May) which means I really have to get my thesis project moving. Ugh.

Otherwise, my favorite class is of course, Advanced Graphic Design. Donna is so good at what she does and during our individual discussion about our progress with our work she shows the insight and creativity she possesses. It is incredibly inspiring to get to know more about reasons behind colors, shapes, type, etc. I finally received my book 1000 Symbols: What Shapes Mean in Art and Myth, and I immersed myself in it right away. I have always been fascinated by any form of art, but more so I was interested in the meaning behind it, the personal history behind the individual who created the work. When you know those components, it is not just a pretty picture anymore, it is more relevant and I hold a much greater appreciation for the art. Masters like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo (my Classical favorites) have this deeper meaning in their work and I am just in awe on how they did it. Though I will mostly likely never be honored like these two, I strive to hold meaning behind my art. Though I may not have the ability to do this in much of my medical illustration, I can in my graphic design which is probably why I love it so much.

We are working on creating symbols for three different branches of medicine in the class presently. The kicker is that each symbol has to be distinguishable, but at the same time, all be cohesive as a group. When I looked at the syllabus, we had 4 different preliminary meeting where we had to be at certain points in the process, but not officially completed for an entire month. An entire month to dish out three basic symbols? That's a piece of cake. Well, when I started, I was shocked at how difficult it was. First you have to break them all down to the basics and then you have to make sure that they look similar enough at the same time. Quite a challenge, but I am finally at a place where it all just came together in what I wanted so it is well on its way. I just have pages of crude sketches and some Illustrator files that I have been working with at the time, but nothing finished. In a few weeks, I post like always.

What I have above are the symbols of the American Hobo that we talked about in class a day during a symbols and icons lecture. Never would I have thought about this but it makes complete sense for a roaming, free-spirit community, would have a way to communicate. Very easy to identify and able to be written with a simple piece of chalk or coal, these symbols did the job and kept many hobos out of trouble and able to survive in their lifestyle. I thought it was interesting and worth the share. I images have the meanings underneath them; take a look for yourself!

Photos courtesy of vinci.org. Hobo symbols.

Drink Your Brains Out

Drink your body's every dysfunction away with Neuro Drinks. What the company has to say:

Neuro is an innovative beverage company dedicated to developing the highest quality functional beverages available. Our products are designed specifically to improve your overall health and wellness and help you achieve your goals and ambitions.

Product innovation is led by a team of scientific and nutritional experts across the country. Each formula features a distinctive and truly breakthrough formulation bringing true innovation as well as style and sophistication to the functional beverage category.

Not only are there 7 different flavors with clever names to go with its purpose and a fantastic anatomically-based logo, but the package design is quite unique as well. The sleek shape, clean design, bold colors and clever names make me want to take a closer look at this product. This notewothy package design could be the reason why Neuro Drinks have been in the celebrity spotlight. With cameos in Funny or Die with Lindsay Lohan and Lady Gaga's Paparazzi music video (If you haven't seen this video, you should... very artsy) and taking strolls with Hayden Panettiere and many other famous faces, this drink has star factor. I would love to go out and buy some, but Neuro Drinks are presently being distributed only in California. However, their website gives everyone else the option of buying online with free shipping.


Talking about California, I am officially celebrating New Year's in California with my bestie. I bought my plane tickets so there is no turning back (not that I ever would). In undergrad, I would go and visit my best friend from high school about two times a year. According to those statistics, I am pretty overdue and I couldn't be more excited to get out of the chilly winter winds!

Photo courtesy of Drink Neuro Blog. Drink Neuro Blog Logo. and Product Placement Blog: www.e-basel.it/. Still from "Paparazzi" music video by Lady Gaga.

A Little Anatomical Design Gem

Perusing the web as a procrastination tool has become vital to my sanity. However, I find some great artwork and learn a few tips, pointers and inspiration on the way so it can't be all bad, right? While working on the Frank Armitage website (which will be up soon!), I took a little breather and found this piece of creative graphic design. Loic Sattler of [LSD]Lysergid, a Berlin-based art director, illustrator and rich media designer created this Cover design for the Big Up Magazine, March 2009, issue 3. Of course, I love the use of anatomy in this piece, but all of his work is just incredible. The contrast, the colors, the geometric shapes mixed with organics, and the creativity = love, love, LOVE! Check out the rest of his work here.

Photo courtesy of www.lysergid.com. Cover design for the Big Up magazine March 2009 issue 3. Loic Sattler. 2009.

My What Dirty Hands You Have!

Above is my final design for creating awareness to the public about the H1N1 virus (aka Swine Flu) for my Advanced Graphic Design class with Donna Hughes. Like usual, we were required to create three different concepts and choose one to refine. I didn't want to do the typical (dealing with pigs) so I played with the ways to prevent it. After a bit more research, I found out that the H1N1 flu virus symptoms are very much like the normal flu. This made the project a little more difficult to work with since I didn't want to do anything with porkers. I decided to work with a play on hand prints and the potential transfer and uptake of the virus through normal tasks with the poster fitting in the larger bus/El car advertising locations. This would give the viewer the potential to look and read the poster, so it could have more content on it than say a billboard.

My concept was pretty different from the final (the text wasn't fit into the hand), but the recommendations were exactly what I initially wanted to do with it (ran out of time for the concept crit). I was happy with the suggestions geared toward what I wanted to do in the first place and came up with the finished product. My favorite part of doing this was when I used the "envelope distort" tool with the grunge text to fit the content in the tell tale lines of the hand. The hand behind the skewed text in a flat light color indicating a clean hand with the dirty text as everything that one picks up (with the potential of picking up H1N1) during a day. The most disturbing dirty place that I found was using the remote (home and hotel). It makes sense, but it is one thing that I haven't thought about. Ewww. I disinfected my remote as soon as I found that little fact.

I'm happy with the end product. What do you think of it?

H1N1 Public Service Announcement - Dirty Hands. Lindsey Pionek. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. 2009.

What I have been doing for the past two weeks..

Sorry, I have been a busy girl, so here's what I have been doing since the beginning of Labor Day weekend.

• Saw the Harry Potter Exhibit (nerdy, but cool. I was selected to try on the Sorting Hat and I'm a Hufflepuff!)
• Went to a White Sox game against the Red Sox (White Sox won, and they were in the best seats I have ever been in. Right behind home base only 15 or so rows up!)
• Hung out with my cousins downtown and in Oak Park
• went to my first drag show
  
• Grilled out at my cousin's place
• Took a walk by the lake with my cousin's pup (look at photo below. Lucky after the walk.)
  
• Did some homework
• Finished my first assignment of the semester
• Worked my 20 hrs
• Spent two days working on a hard-copy of my portfolio
  
• Went to my cousin's house again to do laundry (5 weeks worth!)
• Remembered, and cried for, September 11th
• Went to Lincoln Park Art Festival with cousin to see one of her friend's band play
• Went out to eat with my cuz and her friend at Charlie's Ale House in Andersonville and saw an old man pass out and spew at the bar and taken out by an ambulance. (Ew. Plus it was only 8 pm)
• Attended a "Bachelorette" party all decked out
• Went to Hogs and Honeys for it
• Rode a mechanical bull
• Went to Wicker Park to continue the night with dancing
• Became much closer to a friend in my program
• Checked out Renegade Craft Fair
• Did/doing some homework (my head hurts)
• and presently watching the Bears-Packers game (GO PACK GO!) with a bet in tow drinking coffee, though I wish it was a beer.
  

So there you have it, now you are all caught up! Unfortunately, my social life will have to slow down now otherwise, nothing will get done. Boo... :D

Sexy Surrogates

These ads have been popping up all over Chicago in the form of billboards and bus stop posters for the upcoming movie Surrogates. Coming to the big screen September 25th, the films stars Bruce Willis, Rosamund Pike, and Radha Mitchell in a sci-fi thriller. I don't know if I will see the movie, but I think the ad campaign is impressive. Though I think it is a little odd that some look like Angelina Jolie and David Beckham (though they can be considered almost perfect), I love the metal and industrial vertebral columns working with the organic form of the human body. With the blonde, it is odd that the ribcage is not there (it isn't shown in the others either like it should be to be more anatomically accurate, but more obvious here). Nonetheless, the advertising delivers, but will the movie?

PS: I am unable to find the design firm the envisioned this campaign. If readers have any idea, comment me up!

Photos courtesy of movieviral.com. Ad campaign for Surrogates film. 2009.

Not an Ad, but Anatomical Design Nonetheless!

Searching the web tonight before bed looking for some inspiration, I tripped over this site and I couldn't help but be amused at the image and the explanation. I just had to post it.

Anatomical mens brief in black from new brand Australian Obviously - UK exclusive to DGU Fabric: Cotton Modal/Lycra mix

Anatomical design

Obviously's revolutionary design forms the basis for what makes our underwear so comfortable. All Obviously for Men underwear products have an anatomically designed pouch into which you place your package. The U shaped seam that forms the base of the pouch is designed to sit directly behind your bits, up against your body. This ensures a snug fit for all your bits and provides the separation necessary to eliminate all the discomfort of regular underwear and provide the benefits listed above.

Photo courtesy of posmena.blogspot.com. Obviously brand anatomical design mens underwear.

And Finally.... My Interactive!

Now for the end of my summer work. What I put in the most time and effort into this summer was my Flash class. To say the least, the class started out rocky. I was not understanding the logistics of basic functioning for some reason. Then to make things worse, we were learning action script on top of that. There is something with coding that I just cannot wrap my head around sometimes. When the semester was coming to a close, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to deliver a fully-functional interactive and then, a week before it was due, everything finally clicked. After that, I was able to enjoy creating the interactive.

Our assignment was to create a health-based interactive on the subject of our choice. As you can see from the image of the interactive, I chose the effects of obesity on health. This little interactive comes equipped with rollovers explaining the effects of obesity on numerous organ systems for different stages of obesity. Furthermore, I created a BMI calculator so you can see where you are with your weight as well. The calculator took up the most time but it was the most rewarding part to make in my eyes. I am happy with how the completed interactive turned out with the artwork and its functionality. I made myself crack up numerous times when creating the silhouettes. I started with the normal weight image and manually pushed and pulled vertices to make "him" carry more weight. Yes, I did have to search for references to make the "men" accurate and somehow I didn't get sick though I was pretty grossed out at times. All in a day's work of a medical artist I say. To play with my interactive, please click HERE.

"Obesity and Your Health" Interactive. Lindsey Pionek. Adobe Illustrator and Flash. 2009.