Stacerzzzzz: Running Off to the Circus

Welp.

It’s official. I completed my first quarter at the Creative Circus.

What does that even mean?

Well it means:

Enduring over 700 hours of graphic design homework.

Tracing sheet after sheet of serif and san serifs because good is never good enough.

Cursing at the computer screen repeatedly because illustrator won’t behave.

Scraping paint, superglue, and who knows what off of my skin, hair and clothes.

Practicing handstands enough times to put a hole in the wall.

Letting my creative juices spew across page after page of my sketchbook using everything from popcorn kernels, to coffee grounds to good ol’ water colors.

They say in your first quarter you learn what a fine art student learns in their first year at undergrad. While I must say that during the process I had no idea what I was learning (and I still don’t in many respects), I have learned and grown so much in the last three months. I no longer decorate. I design.

On the first day of class we had the legendary Sylvia, known for wearing bright colors and being as sweet as pie. Well, outside the classroom that is. In class she is the harshest critic, in an attempt to make us be the best we can be. It appeared to me that everyone else had an edge on me in regards to experience and if they didn’t, they at least had a break from school to refresh. I didn’t.

I went from working two jobs and school to driving across the country to immediately just start school again. No break. I was scared. I’ve never failed anything before* and didn’t know if I could do this.

For context here was our homework for one class week 1:

We were first assigned an ancient civilization and an animal.

Enter Nasca and the Llama.

Field trips to both Emory University for old fashioned library research and the Booth Museum
100 members of Nasca design alphabet
100 facts on civ
100 facts on animal
100 pictures of animal
100 drawn thumbnails using animal and alphabet that tell a story
33 rough thumbnails
11 6x9 tighter roughs
7 12x18 finals

5 non-civ editorial icons based on animal

Well. I did all that. And then I just kept doing all that was thrown at me. And you know what? Not only did I pass but I flourished thanks to all my past experience with time management and efficiency. The days of working full-time, going to school and other constant commitments prepared me seamlessly. Despite my lack of previous experience with art and design, I was still able to dig deep and create.

Here’s a bit of what I did this quarter…

*I did fail my written driving test the first time. Yeah, I know. I was surprised too and felt like an idiot. Got 100% the second attempt!

Graphic Design

Cria Curaca Boca. This poster is made of cut paper. I assembled it in three days. 3 days. 3!
The photo is poor quality, but it is supposed to be for the opening of a new section in Disneyland "Ripen"ing June 29th, 2015.... I think someone's awesome mother was born that day. Who knows?

Stamps in the style of Herbert Matter. We had to make 3 different stamps that added to a bigger composition. It was tricky.

I drew so many freaking llamas this quarter.

Bags. We had to create bags for a theme park, I chose Disneyland, that can be reused by a child to make their lives better. I chose to make a small and medium bag, and then my third bag was a product instead.

My product was a mosquito net. Sylvia's hands down favorite among all my work.

Medium bag. So this bag's reuse is basically a map for children to make geoglyphs in their backyard just like the Nasca did. The handles have bells on them and are used as swirl sticks for the kids to dance around with along the lines. Shake it and make it, y'all.

Hand-dyed and hand-sewn. This bag is my fave. It's reuse is as a mat for a child to sit on as they go down slides. Remember burning your bum on hot metal slides as a kid? Ugh, the worst! Not gonna happen when you have this baby to sit on!